Beach Day at School

We're in the middle of Beach Day at our new homeschool, which I hope to make a weekly event. You may think I blog an awful lot about the beach and/or ocean, and it's true that we are here quite often. But that's largely because it is the main place to go here for any kind of variety/entertainment/refreshment. The Indian Ocean has become our park, Children's Museum, Conner Prairie, Zoo, Eiteljorg, canal, White River and everyplace else that we enjoyed in Indianapolis. And really, who wouldn't like to have school with tide coming in twenty yards away? I am so excited about how well this is going!

Ruby and I came prepared with a couple of school books (The Tale of Three Trees and The First Christians) and worksheets, some observation activities and our Bible, which is bin one each day at home.

However, our day has been hijacked by a tiny, one inch long gecko lizard that somehow landed on my backpack, which was sitting upright between our lounge chairs near the beach. This little guy, named Echo by Ruby, has spent the last 45 minutes shedding his skin inches from our noses.

Beginning with his tiny toes (which Ruby reminded me are covered with thousands of tiny hairs), he used the zipper seam of the bag to slough off his leg skin, then rubbed his nose against the zipper until it looked like he had on a Lone Ranger mask. Seriously, this little lizard has performance in its future...it just keeps staying on the backpack while we watch it.

Ruby is faithfully noting each event:

"He has four toes on each foot!"

"It is EATING IT'S SKIN!!!"

"Do you think that lizard will go to heaven when it dies?"

"How many fish will those men catch today?"

"Why did God make crows? Just to steal our food?"

"I'm going to catch that crow and get my food back!"

"Is that boat sinking?"

After a short break with the mask on, Echo continued pulling off the rest of his old skin, pausing several times to eat loose skin around his legs, and to just plain rest. For a lizard smaller than a child's finger, this is hard work!

I wish I had my camera here with its macro lens to take photos of all this action. It's been a perfect school day for us, with fishing boats showing up just at the right time in The Three Trees when they build the boat from the second tree, the gecko providing a great observation opportunity, and Ruby and I having great talks about all of it.

The last of the old, dull tail skin is being eaten by Echo, and he's now looking quite fresh and dark brown. We're back to rhyming words, reading books, counting ants and stones and sorting shells, and describing the beauty around us as the tide rolls away. And I'm very thankful for this time with my daughter and that we jumped into homeschooling with both feet.

First Day of School!

After a bit of a rough start, our first day of homeschooling was fabulous.


It seems that Ruby, despite our numerous talks about the mechanics of schooling at home, thought there would be more students present in our home today. And she was fine, right up to my, "Let's get going, Ruby!" to begin the day. The meltdown was intense but short, and I was thankful that the first box of the day held directions to read Proverbs 3 and had a worksheet/discussion sheet we enjoyed going through.

Ruby loves reading the Bible, and to assert her free will in the matter, she insisted on reading through the entire Old Testament, up to Proverbs, before we could begin. Thankfully, it was a children's Bible, but it still took us about 90 minutes to get to Proverbs, as we read each story and she asked questions. But really, who's going to tell their child, "No, honey, you can't read any more Bible today."

One funny detail: Ruby and Henry have been wearing "laser zappers" on their forearms this weekend, and Ruby made mysterious drawings on hers each time she completed a task today.

We talked Proverbs, practiced handwriting, reviewed math, started a lapbook about fruit of the Spirit, read to each other about the Greeks, and really enjoyed spending time together. We have two weeks until we begin the Tapestry of Grace curriculum; we're starting in unit three of Year Two (pre-colonial America), which should tie in nicely with our scheduled trip back to the States in the middle of the school year. Our survey of history from creation through the Renaissance has been cruising right along, and we should arrive in Jamestown right on time. :)

Several people have asked about curriculum; these are guidelines for the year:

Tapestry of Grace - History, Geography, Art, Literature
Legends & Leagues - Love their map-building exercises!
Apologia Zoology 1 Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day - Science
We are also doing quite a bit of Ocean-themed science this year - one good thing about living here!
A Reason For Handwriting
ReadyWriter (we need a LOT of handwriting help at the moment!)
Calculadder - Math review/mastery of tables
Math-U-See - Math building
Drawing With Children - Ruby loves to draw and wants to learn more about art
Draw Write Now - Did I mention we need handwriting practice? :) With great drawing lessons built in.

Ruby has also decided she wants to learn Spanish, so we are putting together a curriculum for her. Seriously, I wanted to teach her French, or at least Kiswahili since we live in East Africa. But she insists that Spanish is the only language she is interested in. So Spanish she shall learn! And so shall I!

We certainly aren't going to do each of these daily. Between swim lessons, play time, music of some sort (still working that out), service learning and living, I think we're going to be as busy as we want to be. Armed with the state standards and a slew of great ideas, it looks like a grand year from where I sit.

Happy Friend Day!

One positive side to living in Dar is that every day is like summer. As long as you love summer weather, you're gonna do great here.

Henry and Ruby spent one such recent day with dear friends Sarah and Meshack, hanging in this great Mexican hammock in the banda, and generally having lots of giggly fun. It was SabaSaba, or seven seven in kiswahili - a national holiday where local trade is celebrated with a big trade show downtown.

To sweeten the mix further, we added more dear friends, Hannah and Zac, with their precious daughter Zara, and we all went to a local hotel so the kids could splash in the pool (it DOES feel like summer, even if it is really the middle of winter here).

Seriously, I mean precious!

Len was able to join us for part of the day and the kids took full advantage of this by sitting on him as often as possible. It helps that he works across the street and can wear his swim trunks and rashguard to work, instead of his previous uniform of a suit and tie.

 The hotel we were at brought in a small inflatable climber/slide and also had a plastic slide there...this is big news for Mbezi Beach where we live! Kind of like Camby, IN installing a roller coaster.

SO thankful for a special day with friends! It's been a heavy kind of summer (will write more on that when it's processed a little better) and we need days like these to laugh and unwind a little!

Ruby's Heart

Yes, another bug post. We found this gorgeous, but mortally damaged, moth in the back yard, and spent some time studying it. Its wings did contain every color of the rainbow, and some I've never seen before.

The tips of its wings never expanded and stiffened properly, so it couldn't fly. But Ruby spent over an hour watching over it, shielding it from the wind and hungry birds. I love that little girl's huge heart.

After going in to find a suitable container to keep it in, we returned to find it was gone...Ruby prayed for it and seemed to handle losing it well. There will be many, many more creatures to love and protect in her future, I'm sure.

Bugs Are Really Swell

They don't grow 'em like this in Indiana, folks.

Bugs may seem like a lame blog topic to you, but if you have young children and live in insect-dominated area, you probably spend a fair amount of time checking out their discoveries, or investigating what "Hey! Look at this thing!" means when your son shouts it from outside. Someone once said that bugs will someday rule the world. They obviously haven't visited our yard.

The camera couldn't pay enough respect to this line of ants so thick they were carving a valley across the hard ground. They are carrying several dead-ish bugs along with them:

One day, there were about 20 of these moths playing around our yard:

This guy was in the throes of death when we found him. Which is the only reason I got this close for a photo.

The kids love dragonflies...they are abundant here in all colors of the rainbow. Ruby's favorites are the purple and pink ones, and Henry likes the blue ones. Seriously creative creation here!

Lizards are common and welcome in our house - they eat mosquitoes and other pests. We see them on the walls every day, but this patriarch is noticeably huge compared to most. Live long and prosper!

For about a week, I found several large spiders around the house. Not as large as the mothership, but large enough that the kids felt proud to have trapped them. And yes, Mom, we released them unharmed into the wild.

This praying mantis was praying its last Hail Mary one morning before we took Len to work. When we returned home later after running a few errands, the ants had taken over. This was about an hour before they carried off its head. Before dark, the entire body was gutted. Pretty efficient and another very cool science lesson.