Productive day

I have no pictures today and considering the kids didn't get up until 10am and Prime had few incidents of nosebleeds, we had a really productive day.

We did quite a bit of cleaning this morning. I rally the kids and we got it presentable together in a decent amount of time. I feel calm returning when the house is in order.

We also did our normal stuff: reading of bible stories and bible. J is making improvements on retelling the stories. Prime has been listening to fairy tales and has been enjoying them. The two favorite currently is Rumpelstitskin and Puss in the Boots. He always manage to find humor in the stories and giggles so much.

J practiced her math. But today I'm happy to say that she actually wanted to do it, again and again. The sand timer must plays a role as the motivating factor. We used double dominoes and she have to do subtraction and put the same answers in the same pile. Finally, she finished before the sand ran out. :)

For lunch, Prime learned to make scramble eggs as that is one his favorite dish.

In the afternoon, J surprised me today by doing a TON (approx: 1 hour) of dance all by herself. I borrowed a dance music CD from the library and she did free dance. She keep saying she was hot, hot but when the next song came on, she was up and dancing again. She uses some of the moves her teacher taught her but also put a lot of her own spin on to it. I felt she was really expressing herself through the music and interpreting what she felt the music was saying to her so it was very nice to see that.

We also tried a Chinese language course called "After School Chinese", borrowed from the library today. It works well for what I'm looking for. Right off the bat, the kids learned to introduce themselves in Chinese- what their names are, how old they are this year, and what they like to do. It has a very realistic clip of what actually happens in Chinese classroom, like when the teacher comes, students would be asked to stand up to greet the teacher and then sit down. only when the teacher gives permission. Also, the kids how to introduce others (like your mom to your classmates/friends and vice versa) when they are in a non-classroom setting. The kids liked it very much, esp Prime. I can see he really wanted to learn and absorb the info. It came as no surprise that J wanted to be the teacher and have Prime and I be the students. :)

Later, we even managed to make it to the splash park and the kids had fun there too.

Building the Right way (Matthew 7)

This morning, we read the story Jesus told about building on a solid foundation. There were 2 men, one build his house on solid ground while the other built his house on dried-up bed of a stream because it looked pretty. When winter came, the 2nd house collapsed because of the roaring torrent while the 1st house stayed intact because the rock that lay beneath held it form.

Jesus tells his disciples, "Be wise. Build your lives on the teaching I have given you. If you obey what I have said you will be like the wise builder who build on rock foundation. Nothing that can can happen will shake you. You will stand firm."

"But if you take no notice of what I say and live your lives your own way doing as you think best, you will be like teh stupid builder. He did not other to find a sage foundation and his fine house fell in ruins. Your life will go to pieces when trouble and difficulties come, if it has no solid foundation. Build your lives wisely by obeying my teaching and doing as I say." (This is copied from The Children's Bible in 365 stories)

After we read that story, J wanted to act it out and see if it is true. So Prime and her did just that.

J dug a ditch in the sand, signifying the house that is build in the dried up bed of stream and with no solid foundation.

J building her house in the sand.

I had Prime build his house on a brick to signify a "solid foundation".

After J was done, I poured water over J's house. Indeed, it fell apart.

I did the same thing with Prime's house. Indeed, it stood intact. :)

staying home and having fun

Today, the kids stayed home. They did not want to go out even though it is pretty warm but very wet/slushy due to some rain and melting of the snow. I think they are having too much fun with each other at home. Well, they won't stay home all day since we have a Christmas Eve get together with some of our friends tonight.

Anyway, we continue our reading from "The blessing of the Lord". This time the story is about God testing Abraham's faith and how Abraham proved faithful. After we read it, to make it fun, we acted it out. With Isaac tied up on the altar, and Abraham about to pierce the knife into Isaac, the angel of God said, "Abraham, Abraham, do not lay a hand on this boy. Do not hurt him in anyway. For now I know you fear God. You have not withheld your son, your only son." J did a splendid job acting this little scene out. She pretended to be the angel of God and W boy pretended to be Isaac and I pretended to be Abraham.

W also learned how to fold a big blanket today. He tried to do it himself but it did not turn out "good". The only problem was it was not smooth and he was very displeased. I was on the message chair so I gave him instruction verbally and very soon his folding was perfect. The main thing was matching the corner and always standing on the short side of the blanket and match up the corners. Once he got it, he went to fold 2 more blankets by himself and was very pleased that he was able to do it just right.

J has also been teaching W a little bit out of her own initiative. Pretending to be teacher is the one thing J love to do. She drew lines and tells W to write the letters. Then she tells W which ones he did a great job. Just like the way I use to do with her. LOL

They also did a lot of free play, wrapped few presents, opened few presents and just spend most of the day "laughing all the way".

Here is pictures of J from this morning. See how mischievous she is? :)

The Blessing of the Lord

This is the book J/W are currently reading along with dozens of others. Anyway, "The blessing of the Lord- stories from the old and new testaments" is retold by Gary D. Schmidt and illustrated by Dennis Nolan.

Today we read the story of "Hagar, The Egyptian Maidservant" from Hagar's perspective. In case you don't know,this is a story from the old testament. Hagar is the maidservant of Sarah who is married to Abraham. Sarah, not believing God's provision that she will have a miracle baby when she was over 100years old, marries Hagar to her husband, Abraham.

Hagar bore a son named Ishmael for Abraham and taunts Sarah. Angered, Sarah ousts Hagar and her son but they comes back to Sarah and Abraham under God's instruction but later was again albeit permanently ousted by Sarah and Abraham. Believing she and her son will die in the desert, God saves Hagar and Ishmael and tells Hagar He will let Ishmael have many descendants and will make his descendants into a great nation.


This is J's rendition of the story and this is W boy's.
This is picture of W on an earlier day when he was cold. We took a picture since everyone thought he looked like Mary with the blanket around his head. :-)