August, 2010

As part of Miriam's My Father's World curriculum, we filled in a number
chart from 1-100. Now I only did the chart with her on days we did
actual writing work and not always then so we just a few weeks ago got
to 99. I waited until after our vacation to do day 100 and have our
celebration. We did a lot of counting 1-100. Miriam also practiced
counting by 5's and 10's to 100. Miriam made a sticker chart of 100
insect stickers. We read Miss Bindergarten celebrates 100 days of
Kindergarten. And we make a 100 pieces snack by counting out 10 pieces
of different snacks to reach 100. I tried to get them to run up and
down the driveway 100 times, but they were onto me. :)

Miriam working on her 100 stickers chart

Working on the 100 pieces snack.

 Miriam's finished product.

Miriam after coloring the picture of a little girl kicking told the following story:

The girl is going to tell the kangaroo that the king is trying to kill
the baby kangaroo in her pouch. Then the kangaroo will kick the king
out of the pouch into his castle. ("Or you can call it his kingdom",
she added.) And he will go, "OH, AHH, OWAH!!!" And the girl will be
happy!

(can you tell this was "K" week?)

The girls both enjoyed the beach but in different ways. Miriam loves
the water. She spend a lot of time out in it with her inner tube and
with the toy truck. She just loved jumping in the waves. But she also found
a little time to dig in the sand.

Katie seemed to be more comfortable with her feet on dry sand....
unless she could get Momma to hold her out in the water! Really it was
all about being right by Momma! She did have fun making friends, and
loved to yell when she saw the dolphins swimming by. We saw them
everyday (usually a large pod of 6-8 individuals).

Evan really loved the beach. He enjoyed splashing in the waves. And he
really enjoyed digging in the sand. Once he was out playing in the surf
when a big wave got him in the face. He was disoriented and stepped
deeper out and want under again. Uncle Dave was right there with him
and grabbed him, but he did swallow some salt water. He didn't cry and
in a minute went right back out to playing in the surf. Momma was so
proud of him!!

While we were at the beach the kids got to fly their first kite. It was a Buzz Lightyear kite and they really enjoyed it!

We were so blessed to spend a week at Edisto Beach in South Carolina this last week. It was the kids first time seeing the ocean. They loved it! We were able to go with Aunt Kristin and Uncle Dave as well as Grandpa George and some other friends which made for a very nice vacation.
We went to the beach everyday and most days stayed most of the day.

Seeing the ocean for the first time.

Hanging out at the beach with Dave and cousin Jonathan.

Me and my baby girl.

Miriam

Katie loving the beach!

Evan digging in the sand.

Miriam

The end of a long day on the beach.

I've been busy turning these,

Into this! Yeah, we really need this much jelly! Seriously!

Well, school is back in session. Or at least Summer school is! We
stated back the second week of July and will continue until the weather
cools off sometime in Sept.

We just finish the P-Penguin unit of My Father's World A-Z Kindergarten
curriculum we've been using. It was a fun unit. The kids really love
learning about penguins. Miriam absolutely loved the movie "March of
the Penguins". We were able to stream it off Netflix and it was her
rest time movie of choice for most of the week. We read lots of fun
books to learn more about penguins as well.

Snack time was extra fun on day 1... we had p-p-pretzels and fresh from the tree p-p-peaches!

We did some p-p-painting later in the week... it was suppose to be of a
penguin like Momma's example, but the kids did their own thing!!

I also tried something different on day 3 for the number page. The
directions have the child randomly draw a number from the number cup,
write it, and then draw that many of some item in the box. Well, since
we now have numbers in the teens, Miriam doesn't like to draw that many
ice cream cones or cakes (or whatever the thing of the week is). So I
decided to just let her pick out that many stickers and place them in
the box. It worked very well and she loved it!

The other new thing I am now trying is to keep Katie and Evan more
occupied. I downloaded coloring pages and other worksheets from this
site and them work on these while I helped Miriam. It has worked out
very well, and I will keep doing it!

I am also very proud of Evan this week. He finally has shown an
interest in learning to write and worked very hard on his name. He has
a ways to go yet, but for a kid that 2 weeks ago could not even make an
E... well, he has really started to get it!

We have reached a new milestone with Miss Katie. She has now lived with us longer than anywhere else in her life.

Xu Qian Wen, orphan, February 2009.

Miss Kathleen Emma Xinxin, beloved daughter and sister, today.

So what have I been up to lately?  Well, picking these from our tree.

Making this with them.

And doing this with them. We love peaches. :)

Miss Lisa is growing well and fitting right into the family! Miriam sure loves her kitten!