What other (AWANA teachers) say about J and Prime

Tonight we went to AWANA awards ceremony. It is also the final night of AWANA meetings until fall.

Before giving out the certificate and awards, Prime's teacher chose to describe each of the cubbies with a characteristics from the fruit of the spirit. For Prime, the teacher used self-control. She also said Prime have a lot of knowledge and that Sparks will enjoy having him next year. She said more than that but this is what I remembered.

J's teacher said J was one of those children who remembered a whole bunch of sections at once and she is done with the first Sparks book. There was also little more than that but this is what I remembered about J.

Next year, the AWANA's meeting location is changing and it will be a little further for us. But the children will have a gymnasium to play sports so that is a plus. Anyway, good way to end a good AWANA year.

finding J's note ( and a suprise on the back)

J often works on little project herself and then lays them around, sometimes in her room, and sometimes where ever she worked on them. Sometimes, something will catch my eyes and I find them. :) I do enjoy finding her projects. They are like little sweet surprises to me. Today, I found this:

This was on the back.

Here is the colored drawing.
The cat idea was from a little art pad she have.

Tepee and fort fun

We made a little tepee today. I got the idea from Frugal FamilyFun blog.

Hello!

It's like sleeping in a tent.

We also made a little fort using tables/chairs.
Here, J is coming out of her "fort".

Fun with beeswax

We had fun with beeswax today. Below are scenes from the activity.

Making a sword for his "guy". See the care that goes into it?

It takes a lot of concentration, apparently.

The one with the 2 acorn is his. The acorn is shield and hat.
I made the robin and the "giant" to fight with Prime's "guy". :)


He is super happy with his creation.

J's creation: a do-do bird, made with feathers, pine cone and beeswax

J has always wanted to write with her feathers, so today she wrote it with paint. We haven't had a chance to use Chinese ink yet. Save that for another day.

She is making up her own language: "Hebew". She says she wrote the "Hebew" password and the rule.

Adventure in the park

We were suppose to meet some our friends in the park, but since it was little rainy, they decided to stay home. Though it was wet, I don't think it hindered us at all. :) I am glad she planed this, otherwise we might not have gone out and definitely not to this particular park. The best part was after playing on the play structure, we went to take a little walk along the creek and the crooked path.

Up they run, with a lot of enthusiasm to the top of the hill.

At the top! Can you see them? They are there!

Running down. Oops, Prime fell but he got up and finished up. I didn't realized he fell pretty hard until just now. (daddy had a good laugh at this one when he saw the super zoomed in picture of Prime in the shape of "O" with legs flipped back and touching his head.

I found a 4 leaf clover.

J looking for hers.

First try - sitting on a log on top of the creek. Prime was scared.

Yet he wanted to try again. This time, he is more comfortable and even managed a smile.

J and Prime having fun with a gift from nature.

Books Prime and J are reading

Prime is still loving his Franklin books.

1. Franklin's music lesson
2. Franklin and the Duckling
3. Franklin's Surprise
4. Franklin the Detective
5. Franklin Stays Up

He also borrowed,
1. Bunnies and Their Hobbies by Nancy Carlson (He learned the word "hobby")
2. Aunt Eater Loves a Mystery by Doug Cushman

Both the kid really liked
1. Comet's Nine Lives by Jan Brett
2. Rapunzel by Jacob and Wilhem Grimm
* J has been enjoying some of the Grimm's fairy tales. She likes the fairytale book with pictures.
3. The Seven Silly Eaters by Mary Ann Hoberman


J's favorite books are still from Classic Starts. She is currently reading "Heidi".

She got more Grimm's fairy tales yesterday after liking Rapunzel but didn't like them any of them except : Fairy Tales of the Brothers GRIMM adapted by David Wenzel, Douglas Wheeler (Little Snow White; The Three Sluggards and The Shoemaker & the Elves) by Brothers Grimm * She really liked this one*

* I also borrowed for them to try,
1. Fables by Arnold Lobel (The Caldecott Metal). I don't think they are ready for most of them. They certainly didn't understand the "lesson" in these stories and even though I found quite a few of the ones funny, the kids didn't really understand the few I thought was funny nor did they think it was funny.

2. Thorton Burgess Animal Stories (

trusting my instinct / chore board

When I was at the Florida H.S. conference, I bought J and Prime each a whiteboard and markers and erasers. It has been a huge hit! Whenever they have a chance, this is what they come back to. Prime is always writing, whether it's his ABC or whatnot and J tends to draw/write. So I think I need to follow my instinct more along with just observing J/Prime to know what their needs are.

The chore board is also going really well at the moment. More than anything, it acts as a reminder for the them as they want to do a good job, but they need help to remember what they need to do. They are turning out to be little savers - J is saving for play dates and Prime is saving for weekend video. :)

puppy love (prime)

I am not sure if that is really the correct term to use, but Prime told us yesterday his favorite girl is this girl in his small group at church. This is the first time he initiated to tell us about his "most favorite" girl. Reportedly, she likes him too. :)

He told her about the robin egg I found and she showed him the acorns in her pocket. This is what he remembers most.

Prime also gave a pretty good description of the girl after daddy prompted him with questions of what she looks like. No names, nor other info is known about this girl. It's the innocence of it all that is really touching. One heart connecting to another heart...puppy love. :)

Making 'zhongzi' with grandma/ face painting

J made "zhongzi" which is sticky rice with meat/nuts wrapped in bamboo leaves, with grandma.

First you take 2 leaves and make a cone shape, then you pack it with rice, meat, nut mix and close it up. You will need to add reinforcement on the side. This one is wrapped up.

Next you tie it around the bamboo leaves securely.

It took couple tries, but J is getting the hang of it.

The final product. Yum! Thank you, grandma. J and Prime also made noodles with grandma. Prime's noodle were the short and stubby ones. :)

Having fun with face painting - gift from K. J also painted her nails all by herself as a result of the another present received from K.

Is that a pose, J?

And there is my Prime. Oops, caught him with his eyes closed.

Along the crooked trails

At the start of trail; taking note of the variety of plant we saw. What a pretty flower.

Stopping by at the 'tot lot' for some fun; getting back on the trail.

More nature discoveries. Doesn't the last picture look like a butterfly?


Prime is hot and after some hesitation, took off his shirt. ;-) What kind of bug is that? We found them on top of each other, than because of my flash, they scattered. *need to turn off flash*
Red wing black birds. It's wing is beautiful when it opens up.

Then we got lost and what we thought was a short cut, turned out wrong, and we end up with a good 3 hour hike. I think we walked 8 miles, hubby think 6 miles. At one point, I wasn't sure if I can walk out of the forest since I was tired already. Grandma was getting concerned that the sun was going to set and we will be bitten by mosquitoes. But finally, we found our way out by following the horse trail for a while and later getting back on track. Thank goodness!

J and Prime shares my jacket walked this way for a long time. :)

Sticky rice (J) and rice bowl (Prime)

Sharing lot of love!

Inspirations from K and HS convention

I have been away to see my dear friend K and to attend the my 1st homeschooling convention. It was exhausting but I did come away with some what I hope to be good finds for the kids.

For starters, I decided to try Handwriting w/o tears for Prime and J. I also brought a chore system that I'm hoping will help J/Prime develop some good habits. Next week is a short trial week. After that, we will officially start and develop a reward system. I talked to the kids a little bit about what kind of reward they would like. J's response was "play" - she means extra play time. Prime's response was "Chuckie Cheese". :) I also brought few other things, like book recommendations, writing and water coloring paper, whiteboard and whiteboard markers, etc.

But the most important thing I learned from this trip after staying at my dear friend K's house was I need to be more organized esp. with regard to all the homeschooling material. The first thing I'm doing is taking my previous home office back and storing all my homeschooling stuff there. :) This will give all the homeschooling material a central home. Hubby said he is being "evicted" and got to moving his stuff out right away. Something along similar line is the advice K's hubby D told me about: everything needs to have a proper place. Before buying anything, think about where to put it. I hope I will remember it for a long time. So my first order is to organize my homeschooling material. Then the craft supplies (drawers), and then the kids' toys.

I also realized to be organized, you do need to spend the $ to buy the necessary baskets, containers, shelves, etc. This will also be a good homeschool lesson for the kids, that everything need to have its proper place. And label, label, label!

So big thanks goes to K and D for inspiring me to be organized and for their wonderful hospitality. Your house was beautiful!! I might also eat more avocados now and juice carrots. ;)

Now share a few pictures from Florida:


Everything labeled and organized - this is my inspiration. A little tour around the town.


S, G, and J. 3 distinct personalities but all super cute.