Teaching

I have the opportunity to teach some Elementary Education students at the school Todd is a student at.  I have been teaching them through games, interactive worksheets and stories from the Bible. 

This week we had a review day of the first three parts of the stories I have taught them.  I thought it would be fun for them to draw out each part and then use their picture to help them retell the story to their partner.  I was really impressed with their drawings and I could see their comprehension of the stories.  They did a great job of retelling all of the stories using their pictures.  At the beginning of class I usually have them play a game to get them comfortable and talking.  We played my hand made version of Headbanz and they loved it.   

Basketball and Heat

The kids have been playing basketball a lot out side lately.  We don't have a basketball court in our complex so we take our indoor/outdoor basketball goal out side so the kids can play.  There are a group of kids who are home schooled in our city that get together once a week to play some kind of sport.  Todd has been leading it up this semester so they've played a lot of baseball and got in basketball this week.

October 15th to April 15th we have heat that is run by the government.  It usually starts getting cold in September and it can snow in May.  We had been having really nice weather in the upper 60"s lately but the day our heat was turned off it snowed!  I think it is warmer outside some times than inside.  Since our apartment is made from concrete it keeps the cold in.  This time of year the kids break out their winter pjs because they need them now more than ever.   However, the benefit of this is that during the summer we don't need many fans.  We only have a small fan for our bedroom.  I open the windows and we get enough air flow to keep the house cool.  None of the apartments in our city have air conditioners!

We took the kids to see the Jungle Book last Saturday.  It was fun to see a movie together in the theaters.  It was in English but had Chinese subtitles.  We treated the kids to Pizza Hut after the movie and on the way we found Capri Suns.  Our options just get better and better here.  Everything is double the price in America so these special treats we have to limit.  On the way home from Pizza Hut it snowed!  We had been having really nice Spring weather up until that day.  The day it snowed happened to be the day our government run heat was turned off.  We've been wearing winter pjs and under blankets in the house.  We really don't want to pull out our space heaters because they take up so much electricity but I think after a whole week of cold we are almost desperate enough to do it.  Ironically we've had nice weather since the snow but it isn't enough to warm up our concrete apartment.  It is warmer outside than inside!  

Baseball Season

One big thing that we don't have the opportunity to participate in is sports.  As our house gladly welcomed the beginning of the baseball season there was some sadness too since our kids can't play on a team.  Some of you may not know but we usually try to plan our times in America around Baseball season so the kids can play on teams.  It is hard that they only get to be a part of a team once every 3-4 years.

So for now they will watch the Rangers on T.V., play with Todd when they can, and play with some other home school kids in our city once a week as Todd is leading up a sports time each week.   

2016 March

In March we hit our 100th day of school.  It snowed/rained for a whole week and we hit a record for the most snow for our area.  The clothing store H&M opened.  Todd and I celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary. We celebrated Jesus' Resurrection the few weeks leading up to Easter.  We had friends come and visit us and Todd was able to get out of the city a few times and the art co op the kids participate in started up again.

2016 January and February

We welcomed the New Year, we opened our Christmas/New Year presents and the kids got a Xbox Kinect and The Force Awakens opened in Asia and we got to see it in the movie theater. The kids, and our friends have enjoyed the Kinect Star Wars games.  Burger King opened at the end of January and we found Dairy Queen had opened too.  We hosted a Super Bowl party with lots of friends.  The Chinese New year started the same day as the Super Bowl.  For 15 days we heard fireworks making it feel like a war zone.  The kids got their own care package full of goodies and we plugged away at home school.  For Valentine's day we ate at Burger King and got Oreo Blizzards at Dairy Queen.  

2015 December

We spent the Advent season celebrating the birth of Jesus.  We did the Jesse tree again this year long with a devotional explaining the reasons why Jesus born and the kids picked a people group to pray for for the month.  On Christmas we had a birthday party of Jesus.  This year the kids were each different characters in the birth of Jesus story.  We learned a name of God each day of advent and they had their scavenger hunt around the house to find Jesus answering questions from all of their learning through the month.  

We went to a couple of Christmas parties, one a friend had and the other we had for the students I have been helping learn English.  We were able to sing songs in their heart language and Todd was able to share the story of Jesus' birth in their language. 

We also went to an English performance of some students we had met at one of the parties.  It was a good month of celebrating Jesus.

2015 November

We came back home to snow, we celebrated Ev's birthday again, and we said good bye to our partner.

We hosted Thanksgiving and had a full house.