Day 138: Friendships for Life

We had a little get-together with some of our friends today. Those are friends that have become like family to us. They are our network, our support system, our lifeline. We can count on those friends, and they can count on us.

Here is a picture of Coqui with his friend Zoodle. They have known each other since Zoodle's birth. It is a special friendship that we hope will last for a long time. It was raining the entire time, but those kids didn't care - they played for hours in the mud. The boys created a boys club with Coqui as the leader. They built a circle of huge rocks, that was their clubhouse.

Stuff like this makes life worth it. Friendships and bonds. We are so thankful for all of our friends that have come out to be with us. Great conversations and tons of fun. We love all of you.

Day 136: Friends are the whipped cream of life

This week, both big kids are participated in a local VBS (vacation bible school). They are having a blast while Munchkin and I are spending some quality time together - which we haven't had much, ever.
They are in different age groups, but they are with their friends, and they love it. Once it is over, it will be a bittersweet goodbye, for a while at least.

Day 135: Girl Time

Today's homeschool adventure consisted of dressing up with friends during a playdate. I love how the girls have their own friends. Peanut and her friend know each other since birth - they are only weeks apart. I love their silly giggles and their loud girly screams. Making these memories is so precious.

Day 112: Blessed With Great Friends

These are most of the kids from our small group. We had a gathering tonight with a little celebration for Memorial Day (and for just the fun of it). The kids could play and eat and run around. I love this group so much. All but three of them, know each other since birth. How awesome that they can grow up together. They care for each other and they fight like siblings. The learn next to each other, and grow. Like friends are suppose to. They are all special and unique.

Of course, the adults are all friends, too. We learn together, we pray together, we share life together. This is our 'security blanket' when rough times come and we need practical and spiritual help. We are so blessed with great friends, and the kids are equally blessed with their friends.

Day 109: Robin Hood Play

A local homeschool group had put together a play and we heard about it. It was Robin Hood. So Coqui decided to wear an outfit for the play, he even made his own hat (that got left behind at home, so don't remind him!) and an arrow pouch. We all got dressed up and went to see these young artists. They did a phenomenal. One could see some rising stars.

After the show, the kids went to collect autographs and the girls even got some flowers from one of the actresses. What a sweet memory we will have forever. And we will have to study this topic now.... I can see it in the near distance, Coqui will want to read the book.

Day 103: Robots on the playground

The kids got to build these robots today. They are built completely out of recycled materials. We cut, we glued, we taped. It took over an hour in a very warm room, but the kids had a blast. I love seeing all their different characters mirrored in these creations. Coqui's robot is realistic, and Peanut's is a fashion queen. Super cute.

Afterwards, we went to the playground to let the robots play.... All eight of them had fun in the sun.

Day 102: The Aquarium

This afternoon, we went to the local aquarium. The kids had a blast learning about, touching, and feeding the animals. We got to feed an iguana, sharks, birds, and stingrays. Now the stingrays were the absolute favorite. I even dared putting my hand in the water - it feels a bit slimy but not as much as one would think. Now it does feel kind of satin like, just with water. Super soft. And they are just so cute.

The birds were the second favorite, I think. They spent a lot of time in the cage, feeding and holding these little creatures. Munchkin was so proud of being able to hold them and loved feeding them, but she did not like when they landed on her head. To me, that is just too creepy. I did not get in, of course! But I am glad to see that my kids did not inherit my phobia about these flying things.

Day 101: The Life of a Snail

Last week, we went to the park with our friends where they found this cute little snail. Apparently, they took it home and had it there for a week. Today, they brought it back and my kids enjoyed learning about snails. We watched this little guy eat grass, swallowing it with his body - because snails have thousand of teeth all along their body, something I sure did not learn in school. It was interesting to watch the kids 'care' for this little guy.

Day 96: Blessings from Friends

This morning, I spoke at our Women's ministry meeting. I am not a born public speaker, but God had put this one theme on my heart that I wanted to share with my ladies at church. So I needed to overcome that fear of speaking in front of a group for the sake of a message that needed to be heard. My teaching was on Intentional Friendships. God wants us to be in relationships with the people around us. We need to learn to trust and rely on friends, as they can enrich our lives so tremendously. Friends can broaden our horizon, they can give us love, respect, and acceptance, but they also can lend us a helping hand when we are in need of practical help. Most of all, they can counsel us as only those iron-sharpens-iron-friends can do, in speaking the truth with love and grace, so that we can grow in our faith. Our diverse friends compliment us, as God created us all as individuals, so we need to embrace our differences. It was a good speech and I think I made a few ladies think.

I loved that I had a special guest, too. It made it more meaningful. And I felt supported by her. Thank you for being there. Forgiveness is a great healer and I love that I was able to learn to forgive and to be forgiven. God is so good. And I am excited for the future.
And the kids didn't mind going to church either, as they got to play with their friends. Here is Munchkin having fun instead of crying (going to church is not her favorite thing of the week).

Day 83: The Joy of Giving

Today, we learned about the joy of giving. Coqui had long outgrown these train toys and for a while, I had hoped one of his sisters would start liking them. But nope, they are girls and just not that much into trains. So we decided to make a little friend very happy. He loves trains just as much as Coqui used to - and I kind of miss those days - so he will ecstatic once he sees them tomorrow.

Day 66: Playground after PE class

We went to our PE class today, which the kids and their friends still enjoy thoroughly. This is an activity they are looking forward to every week.
But apparently, they did not have enough exercise today, so they asked to go to the playground with their friends. I love that we can be so flexible. So we ended up on an adventure playground which was perfect for the big kids. But my Munchkin missed the slides and swings, she was a bit disappointed. She entertained herself with climbing those 'poles' up and down, but after a while it was boring and she became clingy. The big kids on the other hand had a blast playing in spider webs, climbing through hoops and tunnels, and hang from all kind of bars.

Day 54: Birthday Fun

Today, we did not do any formal school work at all, but.... we socialized! We were invited to a Minecraft birthday party filled with games and activities like coloring, cookie decorating, and pin the tail. Coqui had to use his social skills when running into an argument. Peanut learned to be more independent as Mami had to constantly run after Munchkin. The little one was a bit overwhelmed by that many kids and all of them were older than her. So she stayed real close to me where I encouraged her to get involved in the activities. We had tons of fun though.

At home, they just played - and it was that kind of awesome play where I knew I had to stay out of. It was sibling time and they were at it for over two hours. It is so good to let them be kids.

Lapbook about Health

We have been working on their health lapbooks for two weeks, one week before Columbus and then the week after. It was a lot of work and so the books are quiet big.

This time, we met at a playground, presented the lapbooks in the beautiful sunshine and let the kids play afterwards.

So the lapbook was so big because we wanted to cover a few things that are part of our curriculum and a bit of stuff that Beth wanted to cover. So on the front page you can see ALL the things we talked about, which included: posture, nutrition, exercise, sleep, right thoughts, hygiene, and kindness.

Making the lapbook was fun even though it was alot of work, but it was hands-on and practical and the kids really understood the things we discussed because they are doing them themselves. We had alot of fun with the posture and exercising because we practiced those in the house, counting how many times Coqui or Mami could jump on either leg without falling, etc....

I was looking forward to talk about nutrition as my son had decided a while ago that he doesn't like a lot of food anymore, especially vegetables. So it was good to talk about the food pyramid, or like the plate they are doing now. Beth came up with these two characters, Healthy Herold and Unhealthy Uzziah. SO he had to draw a plate with 'good' food for the boy who makes 'good' choices. And then a plate with the unhealthy choices for the other boy. He had way too much fun with the latter. We even talked about how it makes us feel when we make healthy choices and when we don't make those.

We also did some experiments for this, like counting the glasses of water he drinks per day - which is usually way too little but with this he was motivated to drink more - which has lasted until now.

He also really wanted to trace the different systems of the human body. So we got some tracing paper and a book from the library and went to work. I traced four bodies, you know, only the outer lines of a boy, and he then had to draw (aka copy from the picture) the different systems into the bodies. He did such a good job with that. In the picture, you can see the circulatory system.

Hygiene was one of those things that was good for him to hear. I think boys tend to care a little less how they look or smell or appear to others. It is important for them to know that they don't need to be just handsome but that cleanliness is important to feel good about themselves.

 So we talked about washing hands, and HOW. How to wash their bodies - less dirty to progressively more dirty areas. We talked about their teeth, how to brush them and the role of a dentist. Then we talked about germs - which was a cool topic for the kids. There was quite some laughing going on while working on the worksheets and at the presentation. I guess, for kids, this is funny and fascinating at the same time.


The last thing was talking about clean rooms, folding clothes, and other ways, HOW kids can HELP to live in a clean environment, like their home, the garden, and their community.

Overall, it was two intense weeks, but I think the kids got alot out of it. Which is what we are going for with these lapbooks.

All Three Kids with their Front Page

Coqui's, Chickie's, and Zoodle's Nutritional Plates

And their GERMS...

Columbus, Columbus, sailed across the sea....

..... And found a very special land
That belongs to you and me.

Columbus,Columbus,we celebrate your day,
In fourteen hundred and ninety-two
When you sailed our way.

(you have to sing this to the tune of "sailing, sailing"!)

Well, on a certain Monday a few weeks ago (yes, I am very behind with my blog posts!), we celebrated a special day in honor of a special man. So we took the opportunity to get some history lesson into our curriculum. Our themed week was all about Christopher Columbus.

We went to the library but couldn't find many (or any) books on him - either they didn't have any or they were all gone by the time we got there. So we had to do without a major story. But the internet is a wonderful place for resources, we did without it.

On Friday, we got together and the kids had to present their lapbooks to each other. It is always such a 'battle' to fight who presents first.... Coqui got to go first.....

I am always surprised how much Coqui retains in his little brain. He still has trouble reading some of the stuff, but he is getting better at it. And most of all, we have fun doing it.

All About Me Lapbook

Better late than never, right? So today, I want to show you what we were working on all of last week. It was a lapbook that got all of Coqui's attention - he had so much fun in making a book ALL ABOUT HIM(self)!
It's the perfect timing with it being the beginning of the year. And of course, we as parents get a bunch of keepsakes with this book, like their hand prints and finger prints, pictures, and funny things they say at this age.

Enjoy the pictures.

The cover of the book. When I took the picture, it was not done - but you get the idea.

Open the cover and Coqui is greeting you with a picture of himself, his birthday cake, his hand outlines, and a puppet that he dressed in real fabric. The little flaps reveal things about him like hair and eye color, his age and birthday, his finger prints, and other personal things.

When you open the top part, it talks about where we live, how our house looks like, and such. And on the bottom, we outlined his profile and what he wants to be when he grows up. In case you can't read it, he wants to be a police officer.

When the last flap is opened, the middle reveals all about his family with a family portrait and a picture of his siblings. We worked on a time line as well, from birth all the way up to now, with all his birthdays, his siblings birth, when he first rode a bike, when he started school, and so on....
The bottom part has the following cute things on it, including an interview with him, done by me. It was very interesting to learn that Daddy has a very fascinating job, and that Mommy is doing only 'boring stuff like cleaning and cooking, doing laundry and school' - thanks Buddy!

So here, the kids were asked to say what they would buy for each dollar amount. I was impressed that Coqui really knows the value of money. He was pretty good with his suggestions. In case, it's hard to unscramble his spelling, he buys candy with $1, legos with $5, a new DS game with $20, and he'll go on a flight with $100. I thought, these were very good things to save up HIS money for....

Next, he was asked to name three things that he thought people should know about him..... when he was done, the right side says it all: Star Wars, Star Wars, Star Wars.... I guess he is a real fan!?! It's a phase and I am praying that it is over soon, because I do NOT want any more new lego star wars sets in my house...

And the last one is so typical for my buy: his heart belongs to GOD! Yeah.

This took us four days to complete, and then we went over to our friends house to present our books to each other. My best friend Beth is homeschooling this year, so we decided to do some themed weeks at the same time. This week was one of them. Presenting their books to us and each other practices public speaking at an early age, and also it makes it more fun.

Chickie presenting her science lesson about her human body.

Coqui presenting his book......

You wonder where Peanut was all this week? Well, she didn't want to participate..... I AM looking forward to making one with her next year, or the year after. The only thing she did was letting me trace her hands and feet....

Stranger danger or how my 2 year old attracks odd looks on ME

So last week, we did a field trip to the zoo. We did it before, almost a year ago, with the same friends, you can be reminded about it here. It was the first beautiful day after a very long and rainy weekend. And after a weekend of sickness. My little girl was all feverish on Saturday and still a little bit on Sunday, but miraculously, on Monday, she seemed cured. So of to the zoo we went.

Peanut holding the food for the petting zoo

Quack, quack, I am a duck!

Same order as last year, just side-flipped - too funny!

And in case you were wondering, I went to the zoo with ALL my children - yes, Munchkin came, too. Thank you, Beth, for this wonderful trip, AND the ice cream afterwards!

The kids had so much fun. Watching four kids running around from animal to animal was such a delight. They loved the lions and tigers, the monkeys, and of course, the petting zoo. Even Peanut was 'trying' to feed the animals - may I remind you, that last year, she was so scared, she wouldn't come out of the stroller for three entire hours! So this was BIG progress! Until.....

....at some point, Peanut changed her mind in liking the zoo. She stopped short, started to cry extremely loud, stomped her foot and demanded that I carried her. Well, if you are a mom, like me, you know that you can't let this go - at least not under those conditions. So I stopped where I was and told her to come over, so I could put her in her stroller. That didn't go over so well, so she screamed louder - attracting attention from other visitors. A long time ago, I told myself, that those eyes from strangers, that have no idea what is going on, will NOT scare me nor intimidate me! I have to do what I have to do as a mom - teaching my children the correct behavior - in public or at home.

So I kept encouraging her to come over, as did my friend, and Peanut's friends - to no avail. Eventually, people came by and saw that crying little girl - they probably thought she was lost - and I had to calm them down and tell them that she is just stubborn and needs to learn that she is not the queen of this family! They gave me dirty looks, but oh well.... After a while, her friends could convince her to come along, and she came running to us, Beth and me. So we could keep walking. A few feet further, she started screaming again. And I got even more worried looks from strangers, until one lady addressed me and said: "Her shoes are on the wrong way, I think she is hurting." Really? How about she is just a two year old, trying to figure ME out!?! Or rather how can she get what she wants from me? So I told that 'kind' lady that my daughter likes to dress herself, including her shoes, and that she puts those shoes on opposite ON PURPOSE! I was reassured by Beth that her son used to do the same thing.

Now, what gets me mad is those well-meant comments. Why would you say something when you have no idea what is going on? If I would spank her and went beyond spanking, meaning beating, her in public, I would understand if I got dirty looks and concerns. But this is a crying child - did I mentioned that she is stubborn? - and she is in no danger at all. Just being herself, screaming and trying to get her way! Back off!

Sorry for getting so defensive, but I believe that raising my children is my responsibility. I have close friends that will give me advice if (and when) I do things wrong, or they think I should reconsider my tactics. But then, they do it out of love for me and my children, and usually, they have the full picture of why we acted this way. A stranger has no such right.

[Now, I am sure when there was an emergency, then I would be more than glad if a stranger would save her life. But I hope if that would ever happen, I'll be right there for her, myself.]

What do you do when you get 'those looks'?

Photo-on-Saturday

It was an Angry Bird birthday party. And the kids had a blast. Coqui wore his angry bird shirt. As well as the birthday boy and his little sister. I had never seen a pink angry bird shirt.... now I got to go look for one.

Photo-On-Saturday

We were over our friend's house today and Beth read the kids a story:

Amazing how focused they all are. As you can see, it was the story of Cinderella, and even the boys were interested. Only my little Peanut couldn't sit still enough:

German Tradition of 'Schultuete'

If you follow this blog, you know that my oldest one started Kindergarten earlier this week.

Well, when a German child enters school, we kind of make a real big deal out of it. Parents and even grandparents gather to see the child embarking on the journey of a decade (or much more) of school. The child is presented a big cardboard cone, decorated and filled with lots of treats from candy to more practical things like rulers and such, needed in school.

Oh yeah, American children are missing out!!!

Apparently, the German tradition of the Schultuete goes back to the 1817 to the Eastern town of Jena. It spread quickly - I wonder why? - and was adapted by big cities as well as small villages. In the early days, the cone was filled with treats like apples and oranges and small candy pieces. Now, the only thing that has changed over the years is that less and less sweet things are found in the cone, and more useful things are given to the kids.

So I knew I wanted Coqui to get one as well. It took me a while to find a place in America that sells those wonderful things. (Yes, I could have made one myself, but I wanted to buy the very first one for him.) I did find a place and ordered quickly, but it seemed forever for them to get here....


Finally, they arrived Wednesday and I could fill them. I say them, because I ordered two, one for Coqui and one for his best friend who also started school this Monday. So today we finally headed over to our very close friends' house, after school. We arrived shortly before they pulled into the driveway, and when the kids saw each other, I presented them their first Schultuete - to celebrate their growing up.

Happy First Day of School, Chickie and Coqui!

And here is a picture from my first day of school, back in 1981.