Jabberwocky

For those of you who had Miss Taylor for English at BRCS, and maybe for some of you who didn't, this poem may hold fond memories.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

"And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!"
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

Daniel, Helen and I read it together for the first time a couple of days ago. It delights my heart now as the grow through the house attacking the Jabberwock and speaking of the Jubjub birds...

1st Grade and Pre K in our house

I thought there might be one or two people who would like to see what we are doing this year for school. Really, I feel like I am in my element with homeschool. I absolutely love it. Every part of it, nearly. I love to read books about homeschooling, look through catalogues from homeschool companies, and plan every aspect of our curriculum.

We are using the Well Trained Mind approach ( a classical education meaning you teach the student how to learn) and meshing it with Sonlight books. We are now completing are 6th week and I can't believe how fast it is flying by. I think we are all having fun, but I am sure I am having the most fun!

Daniel is technically PreK and we are really stressing the basics, ABC's, counting, fine motor skills for writing. This kid could color and draw all day and loves any and all super heroes. Buckling down for school is really not his idea of a good time, but he is plugging away at it. We don't push him too hard yet. He joins Helen for Bible time and then does a little pencil excercise to help him get ready to write, works on his counting or ABC's, and then I try to read to him a bit.

Now that Helen is in 1st grade, I feel like to she is finally in school for "real." She has Bible time with Daniel. We are working through Leading Little Ones to Christ. It's a great basic theology for early elementary. While I read the lesson, they listen and draw in their Bible notebooks. Then it is on to handwriting practice which is the verse that she is memorizing at the time. Currently she is finishing up Psalm 1.

Then we switch gears to reading time. She has a book that she reads alone, then I question her on comprehension. Then I read aloud to her. Right now we are reading Homer Price. Such a cute story. She also a very short basic grammar lesson and spelling work.

Next is history. We are taking a very fun journey through the ancients this year. Like so many others I have talked to, I didn't really enjoy history when I was in school. Now, it is my favorite subject to study with Helen. We have spent the last six weeks learning about Ancient Egypt--pyramids, mummies, pharoahs and more. We have built our own pyramid with sand blocks, written on clay tablets using cunieform writing, and made clay seals like they had in ancient times. Helen is building a history notebook full of narrations from what she has learned, coloring pages, maps and her own artwork. She is also working on a time line book.

In science this year we are introducing animals, the human body, and plants. Just like history, we are making a science notebook of all the things we are learning and the experiments we do.

For math I am using Rightstart and really enjoying it. It is a hands on program that helps the student really understand numbers not just memorize facts.

On top of all of the this, Helen and Daniel have begun Thai school in the mornings. We are seeing improvement in their ability to understand and speak Thai. Helen is even writing Thai now.

More on Abi

Pun put up the last post for me, which I am very grateful for, otherwise you wouldn't be seeing any pictures until now. I am still figuring out what our new "normal" looks like with 4 instead of 3. All you who have larger families, I can hear you smirking! :) Anyway, as with all our births, Abi decided to come late. She was our earliest birth, though, at just 6 days late! She was also my easiest and shortest labor. In fact, my friend who helped us with her birth began to call people in for her birth when I thought I still had a few hours to go. She was born 15 minutes later. And she was our smallest baby. She is such a sweet, petite little thing. The first night she only squeaked like a kitten when she woke to eat!



Our Sweet Abi...

Truly, we have all fallen head over heals for Abi. She is so easy to care for and so much fun to hold and kiss. All 3 of her brothers and sister are in love with her and fight for turns to hold her.

Helen, Daniel, and Sam

Abi and Helen share the same due date (Aug 20) so we were wondering if they would share their birthday as well. That didn't quite happen, so 4 days after Abi was born we celebrated Helen's 6th birthday with lots of friends and family.

Helen, Daniel, Sam, and Abi on Helen's birthday.

Today Helen started 1st grade and Daniel Preschool. It was a bit crazy as I am trying to figure out a new curriculum in combination with Sonlight. I think it will be a great year once I get the logistics down.

Throw in a visit from Grandma and Grandpa from Utah, some extra outings to the Crocodile Farm and Elephant Island with them and we are keeping busy.

We are now 11 weeks into Helen's kindergarten year. Wow! We are having a great time. Even before we moved to Thailand I longed to home school. Now, it is nearly a necessity. I do think that I might be just a bit more excited about it all than Helen. Daniel hangs out with us for as long as his interest lasts. He's only 3 1/2 so some days that's not long at all.


Here is a typical day for us:

* Bible story, one hymn (we usually spend about 3 weeks working on the first verse of a well known hymn), and Bible verse for the week

* Read Alouds: this usually includes a Mother Goose poem and a fable or another short story

* Either a Science or a Social Studies read aloud. We are currently reading from a Berenstein Bears Science book, and an Usborne book about different kinds of jobs people do

* An early learning worksheet

* And occasionally, a fun hands on project/game

This lasts anywhere from 30-90 minutes, depending on the interest level.


After lunch when Sam and Daniel take naps Helen and I work on:

*Handwriting

*Math

*Thai

*Spelling

*Reading

*Art

*Memorizing Poetry


Though it looks like a lot, we don't usually spend more than 10-15 minutes on any one thing and we certainly don't tackle everything everyday! Our afternoon session is about an hour.

We are using Sonlight and though at first I had other plans for home school, this has turned out to be a great fit for us now. It is a literature based history program, meaning that history is the base of the curriculum with lots of period literature added in. For the most part "living books" (books written by one author who is knowledgeable and writes from his love/interest on the subject) are used instead of textbooks. Also, it does a great job with world cultures and missions. It is a curriculum well known for its excellent choice in books. If you love to read to your children, the Sonlight catalog is a great resource for finding books worth reading.

So we have been busy getting stuff done around here (as I mentioned a few posts ago). We aren't as far along as we had hoped we would be but it's coming along. I keep telling myself, it's coming along. Just today, I nice gentleman with a very tall ladder came and painted our stairway. Done. That was a task neither Pun or I was looking forward to. Tomorrow someone else will come help Pun put up all (I hope!) of our curtains. A huge job drilling a hundred holes into solid concrete. The addition is all but done, a few little things need to be fixed, but we have already moved boxes in. We have done a little work out side, but have big dreams for it and little time. Pun keeps telling me it will happen. Or he will change his encouragement tactics and say, "someday we won't even be here!" with a smile, of course. Wherever we are at in this process of making a house our home, I am so thankful to be here in my home. I truly love it!

As I have mentioned before, I don't get out much, at least not on my own. It's just to difficult to commute, especially with 3 little ones. The other day, it was time for a yearly visit with the immigration office. To do this as efficiently as possible, we asked Pun's parents if they could watch Helen and Daniel while we took Sam with us. We left our house and drove to Pun's work where parked the car and walked to a nearby bus stop, caught a bus which we rode for 45 min, got off and immediately hopped into a taxi for another 5 min ride to the immigration office. After we finished (well, not really, because I have to go again on Monday!) we caught a song-taow--a pickup truck with two rows of seats in the back and rode it to a shopping area where we could catch the subway back up to meet one of Pun's co-workers, who, after they finished their business, drove us back to Pun's office. Does it tire you just think of it? I was wiped out! So I don't go out often. About the only form of transportation we missed was this one:


We don't have TV connection, which I like except when the Olympics were on... But I was beginning to feel in the dark about all that is going on. Maybe you have heard, but if you haven't, Thailand is struggling once again politically. It's been heating up and I was completely unaware until one morning as Pun was leaving earlier than usual he told me in a nonchalant tone that the government might be dissolved that day so traffic could be bad. I had no idea. Like I said, I am pretty isolated here. Apparently it has been rather ugly in the areas where they protest, but it seems to stay right there. We live quite a safe distance from these hot spots. But we appreciate your prayers for peace, discernment and understanding here.

In light of my ignorance about Thai politics and for that matter US politics as well, I have gone a bit crazy with my RSS feed. Do you know about these? I love watching blogs but spent too much time going to each sight to check to see if they had written anything new. I had no idea that I could be informed when they did. Now my Google Reader tells me when there are new posts. (If you would like to set this up for yourself, my friend Brian has an excellent tutorial. If I can do it you can, too!) Then I saw that I could add all the top stories from the Bangkok Post, Fox news, and other interesting news sites. I even added the word of the day to help increase my vocabulary! Now, I am in the know... Of course, I rarely have time to actually read the articles, but if I do, they are there! I love the internet.

Lets see, what else is new...oh yes! We started home school. And I love it! I was a little worried. I have only thought of and prepared for this since Helen was born. It would be a shame if I didn't like it. But we are having a great time. Daniel is joining in and doing quite well. And Sam is even cooperating for us, at least for now. I will post more later about what we are doing.

One other thing, about my last post, my mom asked me if I was having a bad day then. I don't think it was really a bad day so much as I was catching myself not being thankful for right where I was, even if it was less than what I would wish for. I was thinking about what I didn't have, or how I wish the kids would behave, or...you know what I mean. Making the mental shift to embrace what God has allowed in my life right now to transform me right where I am and bring Him glory in that moment, and be grateful for it, this is my hope.

And my hope for you as well. Miss you all.

Bathroom Science

I love Pun…he is so cool! Today, in the midst of trying to get a hundred things done, he came in the house with another exotic find. A frog with unusual markings (apparently, they are all over our yard, hiding under bushes). This is not the first time he has done this. Actually, just before he brought the frog in, he found a lizard tail freshly dropped from its body. If you don’t know this already, when a lizard loses it’s tail, the tail continues to flop around for a few minutes. The kids were walking around with a wiggly tail. Pun is always bringing “nature” inside. So, back to the frog. I actually didn’t even notice it at first. I sent him outside to get a chair. He came in with the chair and Sam in one hand the frog tucked into his other.

Of course, I ran to get the camera and while I did, he threw the frog into … the shower! I love to look at critters up close, as long as I can be sure they won’t jump on me! So I carefully opened the shower door and the little thing began to pose for the camera. I shot several pictures of him as we all watched him walk right up the wall. Amazing…

Useful Stuff

I read blogs by mothers of preschoolers and homeschoolers. Often they post about toys or educational items that they find useful. I like this because I want to know what others are using and what they think works well. Maybe you (who have little ones) would like to know what my little ones like.

Magformers.




Oh Boy. We bought these while we were in the states and they were an instant hit with Helen and especially Daniel, with me, with everyone who saw them. They just scream for you to pick them up and play with them. I wanted to get some sort of magnetic construction toy for our kids, but the ones I saw at the department stores were just not made for preschoolers. These, though, are much larger and perfect for little hands to handle. We bought the set with squares and triangles only, but they also make hexagons and octagons. Inside each one is 3 to 4 powerful round magnets (so they won't repel). You place them close to each other and they snap together on there own. They come in several sets including a new one that has wheels. If you know us, you know that we are a frugal family. These are not cheap, but in our opinion, worth it. My kids play with them everyday. I have to tell you...so much fun.