A Bunch of Burts

Here is Ema in her new glasses!
At first I thought she would only want them for reading and schoolwork, but she has been wearing them nearly all the time. I guess she really did need them, huh?

Doesn’t she look lovely, and eeek, older?

The glasses store was great and helpful and even made them in an hour for us. We were expecting to have to come back in a week.

In other kid news, Zachary has his big swim meet this Friday. We are very excited! He is swimming in four events this time, and his coach told me last week how impressed she is with his improvement this year.
I will be taking pictures, so keep watching.

Leah is doing well at volleyball. Last week her squad was given their first full game to play together. Leah, as an 8th grader is one of the younger, more inexperienced players, and is on the second squad. For their first full game, it took them a while to get going, but then ended up winning after a tight competition. 27 to 25. It was a very exciting game!

Not THE game but one she did get some playing time in.

We are still trying to find the schedule for homeschooling that works best for us, all your wisdom and experience would be welcome if you want to share it! We are moving our Thai days from Tuesdays and Thursdays to Mondays and Fridays. That gives us three days in a row of solid homeschooling without having to change up our schedule. Right now, it is every other day that we are changing and that does not seem to be working well. One of these days we will hit on the best arrangement.

A fun Thai study day for all of us, making lunch! Want to join us? We are having Phad Siyu (stir fried wide noodles with pork and dark soy sauce), and Yam Woon Sen (a spicy rice noodle salad). There is plenty for all of us. and contrary to Zach’s silly face, Phad Siyu is one of his favorites.

Thanks for stopping in and visiting with us!
Tina

While we are still living in Chiang Mai, we had hoped to allow the kids to participate in the PE program at Grace International.

Who was I kidding? As if I thought I could schedule in time to run the three kids to school and back 2-3 days a week for each of thier different PE classes all at different time and on different days.

So what to do? Hooray for afterschool sports!

Last year Zach participated in swim team and did such a great job that I was shocked that he did not want to do it again. Thankfully, with the support of the principal, (wink, wink) it was unanimously decided that he must swim. Zach at home all day with no mid-day soccer game at recess and twice weekly PE class to burn off some of his energy is not a recipe for homeschooling success. I am pleased to report that between swim team and basketball, we are keeping him sufficiently worn out.

Even Ema joined the basketball team this year, and Greg is able to be their coach. Go Cavaliers!

Leah tried out for volleyball again this year, and we were so pleased when she made the team. There were many more girls interested in playing this year, a good many of them older than her. She practiced over the summer with a friend, (thanks Jane!) and made a good showing at try-outs. She has her first game this Thursday.

We are so thankful the kids all have the chance to be part of these teams. It is making the transition out of school and eventually out of Chiang Mai easier. Just one of the many things we have been thanking God for!

After a summer-long hiatus from WFMW, I am soooo glad to see that my re-entry is a backwards edition. My current state of mind is What Does Not Work for Me. (Can you tell we began our homeschool adventure last week? ) I have a whole list of things that are currently NOT working.

I may be breaking/tweaking the rules a bit, but I have two bits I would love some bloggy advice for.

First one is easy. I have been looking for a good, a really good oatmeal raisin cookie recipe. The ones I have are not it.
In fact, I recently tossed a good portion of my recipe box and currently have no recipe for oatmeal raisin cookies at all.
Bring on the recipes, I am ready to mix up some cookies!

Second one, not so straight forward.
We are now in our second week of homeschooling. This will be the first year we are truly homeschooling. (Not to say we have not done something that could be called homeschooling, but previous years were sort of like those “Magic Eye” pictures. Squint your eyes and look cross-eyed long enough and any picture will appear, even adequately educated children.)
So even though sending kids to school really does work for me, it is not where we are right now. Since the kids are now too old to let any school years slide by, we need some help.

I am looking for some really good paper organizational ideas. How do you keep track of the work each child does and how to prep it a week in advance for them to access without me having to hand them each sheet of paper each day.
What do you decide to keep and what do you toss? How long do you keep it?

Also, what are some ways you motivate your kids to do more than ‘just enough’. Motivation that does not involve candy or trips to places that do not exist in Thailand, like a dollar store.
(kids are 8th, 6th, and 5th grades)

How about filler activities, when one has to wait while I am working with the other, perhaps for as long as 30 minutes?

Glad to be back and eager to check out what you are asking. Thanks to Shannon for hosting WFMW each week, see you there.