December '09

Our cows arrived in December. The girls named them "Buttercup" and "Lottie Moo!" They are sweet cows and hopefully will provide much milk next year!
Even Judah enjoys getting to know the cows. He is relly good to go and pick clover to give them for a snack. In case you didn't know, cows LOVE clover. But be careful, too much makes 'em sick.
The mornings and evenings in December are quite cold. Often freezing. This year our pipes froze many nights. Here is Manon keeping warm with her coat on over the top of her footsie jammies.
Manon and I got to accompany Monty on a village trip. I typically don't get to go just because of space in the truck or I feel I am needed at home but with Hannah and Chelsea I thought it would be a good opportunity to get out. In the village they dressed us up. Manon kept asking why the village trip had turned into a dress-up game.
Ezra is good at making messes (as you can see in the picture below) but he is also diligent to clean up. I have not had a little one so detailed about cleaning up and putting things back in the proper place as he has been at one year old. His name means "help has come from the Lord" and that is just what he is.

Here are the kids working on some Christmas goodies - or shall I say working on eating the Christmas goodies before getting them in the oven.
Even though the mornings are so cold the afternoons are nice and sunny. Here is Henna showing off her Tennis skills at the final sports clinic before saying good bye to Miss Hannah.
Manon and Miss Hannah are demonstrating Volley Ball. You can also see the great basketball court Monty built this fall (this is what the front loader was for). This area used to be uneven and muddy. Now it is so great for everyone in the community to have a place to play in the evenings. He made it a full basketball court but also painted lines for volley ball and badminton. We are thankful for the Christmas gifts from our friends at Chinese Grace that we used to help fund this.
Christmas '09

Here is a sweet picture of thankful Henna! She is so fun to watch open presents because she delights in everything (even if it's socks that "mommy" got her).
Judah showing off some clothes for his build-a-bear.
Tired kiddo's after a busy holiday season. In the winter we have all 4 children sleep in the same room so we can heat it nice and warm for them. Usually the three older ones pile in bed together too because they find that keeps them warmer too!
Miss Chelsea's birthday was the day after Christmas and the day before the girls departed. It was a good way to say good-bye properly.
Here I am getting back into the groove of doing school by myself. During the day Manon and Henna kept saying, "but this is not how Miss Chels does it." I kept reminding them that I am not Miss Chels but I AM their mommy.

Many people ask how I manage to home school with 4 little ones. So I have included the photo below to show you. . .
This is Wei Laoshi having Chinese class with Ezra and Judah. As you can see it does not seem to appear like a typical class room. On this day they were learning the terms for weaponry and how to use it. Judah can have an entire conversation with you in Chinese about his cross bow! I have encouraged Wei Laoshi to keep it fun and just talk, talk, talk and the boys will learn. They play, walk around the farm, talk about what they see, and seem to learn so much.

Our school day typically looks like this:

8:00-8:30 Breakfast, Bible story and scripture memory (with Daddy)

8:30-9:00 Calendar time - review counting (easy counting for Judah and for Manon she is learning to count by 7's to 70 - great for multiplication)

9:00-10:00 Judah and Ezra have Chinese class while Manon and Henna and I do language lesson, "Draw Write Now" (google it), "window on the world", poetry, and Henna's math.

10:00-11:00 Judah and Ezra have a snack and outside play time; Henna has Chinese class and Manon and I work on writing with ease, spelling and math.

11:00-12:00 Judah and Ezra have "room time." This is when they listen to a book on CD and play with toys in their room. Manon has Chinese class and Henna and I work on reading lesson and writing with ease.

12:00-12:30 Preschool work with Judah while Ezra sets the table for lunch (just kidding - checking to see if you are really interested in all of these details! :-) Manon and Henna finish up what is left of their school work.

12:30 Lunch time! After lunch I read a chapter-book with the children. Right now we are reading "Farmer Boy" by Laura Ingles Wilder. They all have to lay down while listening and Ezra always falls asleep quickly.

After this (around 1:30), they take a rest time (which is when they listen to "History Stories") and then when Ez wakes up (around 3:30), it is time for chores and outside play time.

Dinner at 6:00, bath at 7:00 and to bed at 8:00!

We do history and science on Fridays and only do the other subjects Monday through Thursday.

Manon has decided that is extremely important for our family's development that every night between "bath" and "bed" time, we have something "special" for that night of the week. It goes something like, Mondays-"game night", Tuesdays-"special dessert/devotion night", Wednesdays - "Pr/singing/fellowship night with local staff", Thursdays - "Read aloud night" (this is when each child picks a book, sits in a chair in front of everyone else and reads the book aloud; they feel so "BIG" when they do this!), Friday - "Kids' Club!" (this is when they get to do something special with any of the children that happen to be on the farm at the time; usually their friends Amanda, Hope, and Spencer).

There you have it. Now, any one of you can do it too! (smirk).