Pre-Semester Mommy Dates

The final week before the new local school semester we took the week off of Home School. I let them play, play, play. AND I did something I had not done before. I took them each (except Gabrielle) on individual Mommy dates. Sure, I have taken the kids out alone before plenty of times. But this was intentional together, lets talk, laugh, play and eat your choice of snacks.

For each kid I tried to ask heart probing questions and played the 'I ask a question then you ask' game. (which really only worked for Sophia).

What do like most about being in our family? And least?
If you could change one thing about mommy? about yourself?
What are you looking forward to about Chinese school? Not looking forward to?

I got some really great answers to these and helped me speak encouraging words into them, express sorrow over some of my tendencies, and just laugh and play.

Of late Tobin and Sophia have been quite at odds. Sophia admitted some things about Tobin that made her mad. He being a tattletale was one. When it was her turn to ask the question this round she said:
"Was Uncle Herschel a tattletale when you were little?"
I laughed so hard at this, and answered: "No, Sophia, he wasn't. You know who was the tattle tale? I was! I was the 'baby' the littlest, I am sure I tattled and acted a bit just like Tobin did..." This was also an opportunity for me to tell her more of what life was like for me growing up. She and I went and explored  a few new shops, ate the local dessert, her choice, Paoluda (coconut, milk, bread, gelatin).


Bella decided on a grocery store snack. It happened to be a hot day, so I got an ice cream cone from KFC and we enjoyed the AC. Bella chose sprite, and  pickled spicy tofu strips. No, I am not kidding. GROSS. She loves them, all of our kids do. Pickled. Spicy. Tofu strips. Take a look:

Tobin and I had a great time too, and he did admit to his 'angry-ness' as something he wish he could change. Among other things I told him how much we loved him and we would help him and ask Jesus to help us all have better self-control (because at four years old and at 38 years old, I struggle with it too, son). But evenso, I reminded, in all our ugliness, Jesus loves on and takes our shame and guilt away. 

I hope to do this every 8-9 weeks or so. My interaction with the kids is mostly instruction in school, and some play, but this time was precious and needed! David had already been taking them one per weekend on daddy dates, but mommy needed it too!

Their first week of Chinese school already commenced last week, and this week we start FULL schedule, all subjects HS and half day Chinese school! Pray for us.

Getting into Chinese Elementary School

Just last year at this time Sophia was being registered for Chinese first grade. This is an altogether different ball game than Chinese Kindergarten. Chinese Kindergarten is optional and expensive. Elementary school is free and 'public' and to get 'anywhere in life' you have to go to school. The pressure starts at six years old for this culture. And since they only have one child (though this is changing some), they put their all into that child, he/she is the parents' future!

Last year we were in the States and we knew it would be hard to get Soph in. We tried talking to the principle before we left, three months before sign up. He barely acknowledged our existence. He was new then and was instilling lots of new rules. The main one, handed down from the powers that be: NO more bribing. In fact many of those 'powers that be' instilled the death penalty for those found filled with such corruption. 

We, of course were not going to bribe, but explain our situation and ask his advice on what to do. We didn't even get that hearing. We had to wait until the time of registration like everyone else. We got together all the documents and had two local friends and our American friend helping out.  At that time the line for 'people holding documents from outside this town' started a day early. Our friends paid someone to camp out for us and wait in line. Sophia was number 21 and they only had 20 spots, but because some people missed their role call in the night, Sophia became number 17 and got in! But those who didn't were angry and JS said: "it was almost like a riot!"

This year, deciding that Bella would not do the extra year of Kindergarten (we missed the sign up and didn't want to fight for it) we knew we would have to go through the same thing for her that our friends did for us the year prior.  And we knew the lines would start even earlier. David went down 3 days early and sure enough a few people were lingering. A list was forming somewhat but nothing formal. The guards were telling people not to worry, so people went home. But we knew better and so did a few others. David warned one couple that put their name down not to go home. This lady was SO thankful to David later because sure enough they would have lost their spot.

And so the camp out started. One parent kind of took charge and he was perfect for the job, very diplomatic, kind, and trying to help everyone. Even when people got quite angry at him, he kept his cool. Put your name on the list, we will call names every two hours all through the night! David took the first evening, we paid a friend to stay the two nights. David took the first morning and I took the rest of that day. David took the morning shift when sign up would begin. 

I know this may seem utterly ridiculous, and I won't go into all of our reasons for working so hard to get her in, but for us it was worth it and Bella was praying hard for this opportunity, she REALLY wants to go to school. And honestly, being with these other parents out there talking for hours, worrying together, re-checking our documents, talking about our kids, etc. it was a valuable time of connecting with the community and feeling 'just like one of them'. This was not unlike my dancing with Bella and her kindergarten class. I didn't love all the practice and the time commitment but in the end I was always glad we participated and made some really good friends.

 We did see some angry parents who didn't understand the methodology of what was going on, it all still seemed unfair to them. There were rumors that the school registered some 'danweis' (companies or hospitals where people work) separately and filled up spots for those with 'local' registration. By 8 p.m. the night before the actual sign-up, I was still on duty. The school posted the number of slots remaining:

This is the listing for all schools in our town. 35 slots for the school we were at. We were number 17, we were feeling good. But horrible. There were 110 people in our line! Do the math and figure out how many people were angry. The parent in charge tried to tell the group earlier that they should try to line up at different schools. No one listened to him. 

By the next morning, the actual sign-up day, Police had arrived. The asst principle came out and tried to talk to all the folks. They slowly let the 35 people in to sign up, one man got hauled off in hand-cuffs. The 35 who signed up, David included, were reluctant to leave and face the angry parents. But things settled down and finally it was all done. Bella could not have been happier!

 

We prayed a ton about this whole situation, and it seems the local school situation for our children is always on the forefront of our minds and ignites pleas to God for wisdom, protection, and grace. We really have seen Him answer very specific prayers thus far in this process with Bella and are thankful.

The year of the ant, the mosquito, and the rat

It is actually still the year of the sheep here in China...
But in our house I cannot remember a year with more ants. Ants upon ants. All over our floor, sneaking through the poor quality tile. In and out of everywhere. I found one mound near my cookbooks, another had bored a hole in a wooden marble game we have. Even in the bathroom they roam.

However, maybe mosquitoes are worse. We told the TCC team months before their coming, "in our house and even outside we don't have a lot of mosquitoes." Boy were we wrong. Our kids get bit now almost every time they go outside. This is the first year we have really used repellent here.

Ants and mosquitoes, an expected outcome of living in the subtropics....but the rats?
A year ago now, cats would leave dead rats on our back doorstep. And I don't like cats but I thanked them kindly, because I despise rats. Who doesn't?

This year we have heard them nightly outside our homeschool room window, cheeping cheeping away.

Then. Then.  I can barely bring my fingers to type the words....

Our helper discovered a rat in the kids' bathroom toilet. Not dead. Yes, alive and well. I did not have the heart to look. I called the super hero. And he had nothing to work with. I thought he would get it out and kill it. But the rat went back to where it came from...DOWN the toilet. David flushed a few times for good measure, and stuck a long wire down the toilet to make sure it wasn't stuck. We really are convinced that this was a sewer rat that came up possibly from all the rain. Perhaps all the infestation of pests is from this year's weather. We saw no evidence of this rat being in the bathroom or anywhere else....

Then... our friends' helper, preparing their house for their return from the States, called David a bit frantic. Two rats had made a home in their bathroom, chewed through the water hose and everything else...I won't detail what went on to kill those guys. I wasn't there. I went in for the clean-up....well,  let's be honest, I went in to hand the cleaning supplies to the one cleaning up. Gross. I did bring her gloves, for which she was very thankful.

All three of these aforementioned creatures were not mere mice, the were big 'ole rats, Templeton-size rats. David said if I had seen the one in our house I would never sit on a toilet again....yes, yes, I am sure. I still hesitate.

I asked aloud to everyone, "Do we need to get a cat?" Tobin promptly said: "NO, cats are sassy" (we had recently watched the movie 'The Incredible Journey'). Bella also disagreed because 'Daddy is allergic'. I thought I should just start feeding the mangy cats I see on my runs around the neighborhood, they seem always on the prowl...

This post is just a little venting, I know it could be way worse, and I am getting wimpy in my old age. Just think, eight years ago when we needed to move apartments, we tried desperately to find housing in nearby villages. I imagine if we had done the village life thing I could be laughing about the ONE rat in my toilet. Perspective, I know I need it. 

Either way, thoroughly disgusted here in Asia!

'Me on the Map' and other stuff

 Tobin used the "Draw Write Now" book to draw this. If you have kids and don't have these books, go buy them and thank me later. (I thank GM and her daughter for telling me about them) (now, if only I could get him writing some letters....all in due time)

Tobin shows David his 'Me on the Map' project

 I had seen this project all over pinterest and really thought it would benefit our kids. This did take some mommy prep and help. I had to find a few maps to fit or get them downsized, and I wrote all the titles at the bottom, while they filled in the top. The upper three: city, street, home, were creative pictures drawn by the kids as they tried to draw what they thought of when the thought of each thing. Some of these were quite funny.

Sophia, our home: a swing set out in front

 Sophia, our street: A new bread store that we love just opened and she drew it.

 Sophia, our city: Mountains, a pig, a peacock, a minority person, and stalks of something, or flowers, this really is a great picture of what you find here.

Bella, our home: This is Sophia's loft bed and Bella below, which isn't quite accurate, but was original.

Bella, our street: she too, drew the name of the new bakery on our street.

Bella, our town: This is her water buffalo, she also used 'Draw Write Now' to help her draw this.  And this is also very true of what you find here!

Tobin, our home: He drew his bed and then the dots going up to his dream. I drew his stick figure and asked if he wanted me to add in Gabrielle yelling at him from her bed, he was delighted. The dreaming of helicopters was his idea, so Sophia helped draw a tiny helicopter in there.

Tobin, our street: jets, and more helicopters, he drew part of this one, but I finished it. We do still have helicopters flying really low quite a bit, so this was also accurate.

For our city he had me draw a pig and a small bird, and I don't have a picture.

Coker School Celebration Pictures

The Welcome dance was choreographed by Sophia and put together well, it was not too long and involved Tobin looking exactly like the local minority.

At the end of the celebration and awards we opened the school room for Daddy. I had set up various things they had done (most fun projects of the last two weeks). The kids took the time to show Daddy their work.

Sophia did a 'Robert Fulton' Literary study as part of English Grammar

and Bella is in the middle of a 'Little House' one, all from 'The Phonics Road.'

It involves a lot of writing and copy work, for Sophia all in cursive.

Bella explains her 'Me on the Map' Project, which I will highlight in the next post.

Coker School Celebration: details

Intro Quote: "where did we get this amazing ability to picture things our eyes cannot see? To find out we need to turn to the greatest story of all. There we read that, once upon a time, God imagined our world. And then He made it so. He pictured people like you and me and He breathed life into us. he wanted to share the joy of making things and seeing that they are good. So He planted a tiny seed of His creativity in our hearts..."   Faerie Gold, intro p. 8

Prov. 24: 3-4: "by wisdom a house is built and through understanding it is established; through knowledge its rooms are filled with rare and beautiful treasures"

After listening about the lives of various poets, their styles, and some of their famous poems, Sophia made up a poem one night. The next day when she retold it best she could I was completely surprised at all the fun devices she used to capture the mood. It was a bit spooky and fun (we had just listened to The Raven). When she tried to recite it again for me to write down she lost some of it in her mind. So the original was better, but this one was still great, and for the intro of our celebration, I used her poem as an example of a God-given creative mind at work. She had no idea I was going to do that. I may post it later.

The first set of poems the kids really got into and, just as they had practiced, put some of them into song. Tobin very cutely at the end of his added drama elements. We do have this all on video, not sure if I will post any. Bella, usually the shier one, did spectacular in capturing the essence of her poem, and Sophia, she added a little pop/rock starish twang to hers, it was about cats after all.


For the memory work time, I had David in the audience choose something to ask me and then I would ask all the kids separately their chosen subject. David asked me about the Split of The Roman Empire (one I knew, whew!). Most impressive here was Bella's recitation of the first 12 elements of the periodic table, by number element and mass. She always loved this chant during CC review and chose it right away when I said they could do anything they wanted. I just wasn't convinced she knew it, but she proved me wrong and helped me learn it better.

We changed clothes towards the end, for our last two acts. Bella had a funny poem, Tobin a very fun super hero original dance that ended with a forward roll and punching the book shelf. Sophia wrote a story about desperately wanting to see snow. And me? I dressed up like a witch and recited a scene from Macbeth (double double toil and trouble), I had a big pot and spoon and acted out all the grossness I was throwing in my brew. The kids knew I was doing this poem for weeks but got so into it as I did it and even squealed in grossness a few times.

The girls each played the piano and then I gave out awards!
Good reading: Tobin...he has worked so hard and done so well!
Great work: Math: Bella, she has wowed me with her progress
Hard worker: Sophia, she has been up every morning starting her independent work before breakfast (Life of Fred math, supplemental, Chinese reading, Bible reading, English reading)

We had a blast doing this and will probably do this every 9 weeks or so.

Mid Summer Coker School Celebration

A month ago I announced that we were going to do a presentation/performance for daddy of various things we had learned and poems to recite. The kids were giddy with excitement. They do impromptu performances all of the time, but this one would involve my planning, dressing up and an actual order of events. They each chose a poem, and as the first few weeks of prep went by I changed things up a bit. I wanted each child to have 3-4 things to do. Classical Conversations is big on learning how to present information before an audience. We have not implemented that yet, but this was a great start. Even Tobin would participate and we helped him learn his short poem. The other clincher was that I was EMCEE and participating, I had my own poems to recite or memory work to solidify. Added on at the last minute were piano pieces since they just started learning. And I told them we would have a stage!

Here was the order of events:

1. Introduction: Faerie Gold quote,  Prayer,  Prov 24:3, read Poem Shadows at Night by Sophia
2. Students welcome audience with Minority dance
3. Performances 1 :Poetry
1. Tobin : Way Down South by anonymous
2. Bella : The Goops by Gelett Burgess
3. Sophia: Cats by Eleanor Farjeon
4. Mom: Little Drops of Water by Mrs. J. A. Carney
4. Performances 2: CC mem work
1. Mom: history sentence: Dad or student asks me
2. Sophia: Preamble to the U.S. Constitution +N European countries
3. Bella: First 12 elements of Periodic Table by number, element and mass + Pilgrims
4. Tobin: The States of Matter+ Two forms of energy

****5 min change clothes

5. Performances 3: Original story/dance/poetry
1. Bella: Hannah and the Banana
2. Tobin: superhero dance
3. Sophia: original story/poem
4. Mom: Eye of Newt, Shakespeare's Macbeth (Act 4, scene 1)
6. Performances 4: Piano
1. Bella
1. Sophia D:
7. Awards.
8. Open house invitation