Never a dull moment! Never!

Its been a few days since I last blogged. The days just seem to flow into each other, and there truly is never a dull moment! They’re filled with living, learning and football for the most part. Its only lunch time and we’ve had a very different day already.

Everyone woke up a little later than usual this morning after our very late night last night. (We went to homegroup last night and only got home around 9.30pm. I was so glad the younger children had an afternoon nap otherwise they would never had managed to stay up that late!) Dieter made a yummy pot of oats for breakfast which we all enjoyed with some local honey we’ve managed to find at a bargain price. Dieter went across the road to Jimmy, a retired psychologist-cum-family friend, for an hour or so while the rest of us made up the beds and got ourselves ready for the day.

We are thrilled that we’ve completed all the lessons for our 5A portion of Singapore Math! Ryan and Jed have to complete 2 large reviews within the next few days and we will be ready to start 5B. This means we’re also well on target to completing an extra 6-months worth of math in this academic work, despite the break we were forced to take while we packed up to leave Cyprus and the holiday we had in Dubai on our way here. I don’t think I can fully describe the fulfillment and sense of achievement every time we complete something we set our minds to!

While Ryan and Jed began to work on the first of the math reviews, Ethan and I spent some time together doing his maths for the day. He’s just finished a basic introduction to subtraction and I am so very proud of the systematic way he does his activities! Except for pieces that need to be coloured in and are done quite roughly, his work is very neat and I only really noticed that this morning. He also did a basic review and I’m really chuffed to see him working more and more independently, requiring my help less frequently. And he aced that review, by the way!

Ethan very quickly busied himself with some Lego once he’d completed his math so Aimee and I were able to have some one-on-one time. I cut out a string of girls that I’d made on a long piece of paper and we began to personalise them. She had great fun making buttons on the dresses and drawing eyes, a nose and mouth on each girl. Some of these things were new to her and her lips/smiles looked more like frowns, but she had tons of fun doing it all. I cut some dresses/skirts out of magazine advertisements and she pasted them onto the girls – she LOVES the glue!

Our activities were halted quite abruptly when Dieter returned home and suggested it might a good time to go into town as we’d planned to do today. Our first stop was at the local hospital, where Dieter picked up his new batch of medication. Then we stopped at the library and spent quite a while browsing through the books, shjoe there are TONS to choose from! When we eventually did leave the library this morning it was with a very heavy bag of books – as usual. All the children had great fun choosing books for themselves and its so encouraging seeing them choosing such good reading material. Ryan’s just finished reading a great book and I think it has been a bit a ‘growth spurt’ for him. In the past he’s purposely chosen the easier, thinner, novels and adventure stories – he enjoyed this one so much I know he’ll be making sure he finds more stimulating and challenging books from now on.

Our last stop was at the wool shop. Ryan and Jed are both constantly crocheting and have almost exhausted their wool supplies. They found some good bargains in the ‘off-cuts’ box and bought a nice variety of colours to add to the blankets they’re both working on. For the first time in months I too bought some wool and have 2 projects on my agenda now too. It took me a while to find something I thought was suitable, and I’m excited to get crocheting again today. (It was a hard to choice whether to blog or crochet first! LOL!)

One of the ladies at the wool shop pulled Dieter aside and told him that it is so refreshing to come across children who use words like ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and who talk to people with respect. She said it is a rare thing these days to find children being as polite and respectful as she found our children to be. She was amazed to see Ryan and Jed choosing their own wool (and paying for it from their own money!) and she loved the bag Jed had on his shoulder. She couldn’t believe it when he told her he’d crocheted it himself! On close inspection of his bag she decided it that he has done a brilliant job making his own bag and said that many other ladies with many, many years of crocheting experience would be envious of his achievement. Our children were the center of attention for that brief moment and it was humbling as their mother to stand by and see them honoured for their behaviour, attitude and achievements.