Finding his own friends

W is lucky to have J as his sister. Ever since W was a baby, J was super great at making W laugh and is to this day. Now that we homeschool, he is even more use to have J around most of the time. J usually comes up with the ideas for creative play and most of the time, W happily plays along. So it is not surprising, when we are out or at the playground, that he usually follows J around and a lot of of his "friends" are girls.

But recently, ever since he turned 6 in January, I have noticed that W has became increasingly independent esp. in the social arena. Instead of always playing with J, he has been to find his own friends at the playground and has been quite the leader, esp. to boys younger than he is. :)


A little magnate to the younger children. He is pretty good at making them laugh and quite the talker.


One last picture...another one of his friend. Time to go because it is lunch time and mommy is hungry.

scenes from the children's garden

'dragon carrots' - it's orange inside, just like a normal carrot. We saved it for our pet hamster, and he love it. It was fascinating to see him nibble.

No idea what this is, but apparently the bees were loving it. I even touched a bee very lightly. They were concentrating and working hard.


J pulling out a zucchini with a staff's help- the leaves are very prickly; J loved eating Napa leaves- she ate a whole big piece. Fluffy loved it too. He stuffed it all inside his pouch. It was really neat to watch.

Purple basil. Smells just as good as regular basil.

enjoying some beautiful flowers.


sharing our day with friends.


Close look at sunflower. Now we experienced first hand what Mortimer's First garden by Karma Wilson (the kids really like this book) shared with us in the book -the miracle of how one seeds turns into hundreds of seeds. We like to eat sunflower seeds in our house, esp. the this specific kind that is roasted and salted - coconut flavor.

frolicking on the beach with friends

Who knew kids could be so interested in the Symphony Orchestra? Not. But, boy were they excited to go to tonight's event. J remembers going there last year. It is a little bit of drive for us but I guess the kids remember having a good time and just can't pass up the opportunity to see their friends. The kids did have lots of fun with sand and even though they were not suppose to be in the water, they still found a way to be in it and have a lot of fun. I loved watching them play!


Water fight - so much fun to watch.



Prime being patient with a wee one and making his own sand structure.

J dug a deep tunnel and got lots of other kids to join her.

The actual concert. It was after all great music! Thanks to Target for sponsoring the event.

playdate and 100 days of homeschooling

J didn't do much cooking today but she did watch me cook rice and will be taking over that duty for the most part later in the week. For the most part of the morning, we were busy cleaning our house in anticipation for our friends to come over.

Recently, the kids have had quite a few play dates. The reason is they started to request play dates with their own specific friends. Luckily, they like each others friends. So today, we had Prime's friend over. It worked out nicely. Prime played with D and J played with Issac. J even wants to invite the boys to her birthday party. :)



Today is also our 100 day of homeschooling. So like they did in J's school, the kids both did a little project.

J had no trouble, but it was difficult for Prime as he doesn't fully comprehend the meaning of 100. Yet, he wanted to do the project. In the end, however, I think he made some strides and this is good preparation for next year.

J's from sticks to trees to various fruits

Prime's 100 dots

They also did help me put together their wheelbarrow and is having a ball creative play with it AND the 2 boxes which the wheelbarrow came in plus their toys.

1st week of vacation (theme: play)

Let the fun begin! Today, we kick off our first week of vacation. J says the theme for this week is "play".

The day started with "science"... talking about how the balloon is loosing its air, and is coming down and down, and finally, it just lands on the floor right before our eyes. J drew the face on the pink balloon days ago.

Then we explored fractions using cuisinaire rods since we read a bible story related to tithing 10%. Later, I showed them the Geo boards I brought in Florida and that was a big hit with the kids.

For lunch, J made scrambled egg all by herself. She cracked the eggs, whip the eggs, poured into the frying pan, turned on the fire, put in oil, stir-fried the egg and even scooped the egg out into a bowl all by herself.

The kids also had a play date with their friends in the afternoon. We even shared a dinner together. It was a very full and fun day.

Having fun with the descending balloon.

J is working on the Geo Boards

Prime ties the rubber bands around his finger

J's pattern on the Geo board

Having fun with friends.

H's bday party

We almost couldn't make to H's bday party due J's dance recital practice. Once J's numbers were done, we left and still found enough to make the drive to H's party. The kids had a great time. H is so cute.

This is the birthday girl!

This is B. (H's cousin)

There is Z! Look at that hit!

This is Prime, ready to swing.

This is J who cracked up the pinata.
This is baby S. Isn't she cute? She love watching the older kids hitting the pinata.

Prime and Z loved to play together. J and H had a good time with the dress-up. Everyone was in good cheer.