Expedition Earth: China

The boys and I have been doing Erica's (@ Confessions of a Homeschooler) Expedition Earth curriculum. The curriculum is only $15, but you will need quite a few geography resources to go along with it. It's still a great deal and a great curriculum!

Each of the boys got their own passport for the journey around the world:

Our first country is China:

We'll be reading The Story About Ping tomorrow to go along with our China study (we also read it as part of our Five in a Row curriculum):

Today we made Chinese lanterns:

And you know with 2 boys around they wouldn't stay upright for long:

Since they are only 5 and 3, we're just learning some basic facts about China (we didn't get into the fact that people can speak Mandarin and Cantonese):

We'll be finishing China this week and moving on...probably to Thailand since we'll be visiting there in real life in a few weeks. Fun, fun!

The Lion King - Singapore

We took the boys on Sunday afternoon to see The Lion King musical. Justin and I saw it in NYC on our honeymoon, so it was neat to experience it with our kids (the music here was a little different though the story line remained the same and most of the "famous" songs).

My three boys:

Levi:

Levi insisted I take a picture of his shoes:

It was at the Marina Bay Sands Theatre, which is a great venue:

The boys outside the theatre with their plush Zazoo and Simba:

Levi with his Simba:

We had a good time, but it was a little long for the boys. They seemed to be hungry all day yesterday, so that made them pretty restless during the show even though we had eaten just before. We still enjoyed it, though!

Republic of Singapore Air Force

Today we went to the RSAF Open House with our homeschool group (and a bunch of other school groups). We had a great time; the boys LOVED it! Here we are after clearing security at the entrance to the exhibits.

Levi inside an F-15 fighter jet.

Caleb on Daddy's shoulders for the air show:

Mommy and Levi at the air show...yes, it was HOT!

Chinook helicopter carrying a vehicle:

Boys inside a Chinook helicopter:

Boys standing outside the Chinook helicopter (happy as clams...see?):

Caleb shooting a basket inside the kids carnival section. It was air-conditioned, and there were hardly any people in there. It was fabulous!!

Bugs Bunny bouncy castle:

More bouncing and climbing:

This Open House was really well done! I highly recommend it for anyone who wants to go this weekend...it's open to the public Friday and Saturday!

Song for my Sons

Song For My Sons by Sara Groves

This is a song for my sons for when they understand it
You know how life is full you know we couldn't plan it
your dad and I prayed for strength and understanding
for things we couldn't see or comprehend

This is a song from my heart a small refrain to hold you
for times when we're apart and I cannot console you
I can't say your life will always go like it should
but I can say that God is always good

and when the cold wind blows like I know it will
and when you feel alone like I know you will
and when the cold wind blows like we know it will

Don't let your love grow
Don't let your love grow
Don't let your love grow cold

This is a song for my sons for when they understand it
You know how life is full you know we couldn't plan it
your dad and I prayed for strength and understanding
for things we couldn't see or comprehend

This is a song for you, to carry in your pocket
take all our love with you in all the paths you walk in
Be honest with yourself and don't forget to pray
and read your Bible everyday

and when the cold wind blows like I know it will
and when you feel alone like I know you will
and when the cold wind blows like I know it will

Don't let your love grow
Don't let your love grow
Don't let your love grow cold

This is a song for my sons for when they understand it
You know how life is full you know we couldn't plan it
your dad and I prayed for your strength and understanding
for things you cannot see or comprehend

How Can He Be This Old?

Levi has now lived over half of his life in Singapore. I was looking through some old pictures and cannot believe how much he's changed. He'll be 4 in a few months! How can that be? (And, yes, this is my 3rd post today. Don't panic. Read through them slowly because you just never know when I'll feel like blogging again!)


My two boys (Levi is about 7 months here and Caleb is 2 1/2)

Levi right after we arrived in Singapore 22 months old...such a sweet face (and still in a high chair)!

Another picture from our first couple of months here (at Dunkin Donuts-not all it's cracked up to be).

Levi now. So big!

Clothing Optional

My boys are always trying to run around in just their underwear or less. Definitely a boy thing. This particular day I was telling them to "at least put your underwear on, please!" so they did what any normal human being would do...took the pillow cases off their pillows and used them as "underwear."

I will say that it's been crazy hot here lately, so I can't really blame them.

Caleb trying to make his "angry" face and punch the camera while laughing:

I can tell you this was not Levi's idea. As my Dad would say, "Monkey see, monkey do."

They're crazy, but I love 'em.

Homeschool-Writing and Other Things

We've been working on handwriting in school. We are not even to the lowercase letters in Caleb's book, but we've been working on writing his name with just the "C" in uppercase. He's doing pretty well.

After that last picture I said, "Can you put your shirt back on so I can take a picture?" They are always trying to run around in their underwear! Boys.

Levi is working on his name as well. I had to make little dots for the "e," but he's doing great. It helps that they both have short names! Notice this day they are wearing the same pajamas. We often do school in our pajamas. I figure it's less laundry, right? :-)

Levi working on Mighty Minds, a shape design activity.

If you look closely, you'll see Caleb is not doing what he's supposed to. He doesn't like it when he has to do something more than once (repetition), so he usually rebels. If I know he's grasped the concept, I usually don't make him do all of it.

People have been asking a lot how homeschool is going. It's going pretty well for our first year and for having a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old with me at all times. It's not easy, but it's definitely what's right for us right now. I've been struggling with Caleb and his reading. Reading comes easily for him, but he hates doing it. He can read simple readers (Level One and Two of Bob Books), but it is a struggle to get him to do it. We're taking a break from that for a while. Since he's only 5, there's no need to push him and I don't want him to have negative feelings toward reading. We try to sneak it in when we can, and we have a reward chart for him where he gets to pick out a toy once he reads 25 books or does a combination of reading lessons with me and actually reading books. We'll see how it goes. We have some friends who are starting to homeschool here and in Texas, so it's always good to have others along on this journey with us.