Homework Happiness

It looks the same as our house back home!!

Artwork everywhere! Even Yannik's is up there along with the girls on the upper right and bottom, and Kenny's middle left which he drew on the airplane here and Matt's middle right. Hmmm...Joshie doesn't have anything up there, we'll have to remedy that!

And someday I will so miss having an empty fridge door :-)

Today is a school day even though it is a Saturday! The kids in Mrs. Weber's and Ms. Lloyd's class were wondering where the kids do school...well guys, all over and where ever they want!! You are seeing it here! Sometimes it is at the kitchen table, sometimes sprawled out on the couch, sometimes...hmmm....should I say it....shhhhh....don't tell anyone...they even read on the potty!!! We have books and writing journals all over the place and it is FUN to do our work this way. BUT...when we don't get something done during the week, we try and make it up on the weekend. It is not such a big deal since we are way off schedule anyway and don't really pay attention to if it is a weekend or a week day.

When you are doing your work at home, or at least our temporary home, you have to be very responsible and not play around, but work hard when it is time to work. You all know Kenny and Joshua, and they are hard working students (so is Matt!) so it is not a problem and they actually like doing this. Our schedule here is really not our own, so if the adoption coordinator tells us we need to go to the notary, we go whenever she picks us up. If she says that today we are visiting the girls at 3:00 PM and tomorrow at 10:00 AM, then that is what we do and we don't argue about it. So it is important to do our school work whenever we have time to fit it in, since we don't always know in the morning what is going to happen that day!

Like I promised on Skype last night, I will try and get some pictures of a school here and post it so you can see it. They are not all that different from YOUR school! They have indoor gyms, they have classrooms like your but they mostly have chalkboards and not the white boards you are used to. Their buildings are very, very old...a LOT older than Olathe Elementary is! The kids all go to school 6 days a week, even on Saturday. Hey, since our boys are doing school today they fit right in AND they are Kazakh and Kyrgyz!

Ms. Lloyd...Kenny asked where you were last night since he didn't see you anywhere on the video! He didn't forget you!

Even I have homework, as I am trying to get as much of my lay ministry classwork done as is possible this far away from home without the texts with me. I am missing the first class of our new semester tomorrow and am bummed about that, as I love the classes and the interaction with the students and teacher. Thankfully I have been given permission to miss one class, which when you only have 3 per semester is a lot to ask!

Learning is the best, isn't it? Can anything compare to the desire to...just...finish...this...next...page...puuuhllleezzee???

Matthew has been a great big brother and has read out loud to the boys, as well as helped them sound out words when they are reading that they can not yet figure out.

They are doing more writing as well, and had already posted a little more on their blogs and I will be adding their writing today to it when I have a moment to get it posted. We also brought along a small laminated 8x11 map of the world and have pulled that out several times as we have had a discussion about something or as we have read a book and wanted to look up the setting. I love having things like maps and dictionaries handy (the one thing we forgot and use a lot!) for the kids. We pull our globe out at home at least a couple of times a week, and if it weren't for the fact that I want to feel like my dining room is actually still a dining room, I would make it my permanent wall decor. Heck, I am sure it probably will end up being there eventually anyway!! Maybe a classy, artsy one :-)

So we are having a relaxing day at home...or at least home-away-from-home...doing what we enjoy best...learning!