My Psalm

MS:
I wrote a psalm, did you know that? Well, now that I think of it, you may already have guessed that I wrote a psalm since the title of my post is "My Psalm," but, then again, you might not have.

The reason why I wrote my psalm is because in my "Gotta Have God: Cool Devotions for Boys" book it said I had to write a psalm. My mother liked my psalm so much that she asked me to post it, so that is why I am writing this blog post.

Anyway, here is my psalm. I hope you enjoy it!

Messiah, Messiah, oh wondrous Lord,
The wonders you do are great to behold,
Your voice is so sweet, as sweet as your heart,
Which always is so kind, as the people shout:
Messiah, Messiah, oh wondrous Lord!

Well, I hope you liked my psalm. Goodbye, and tell me if you liked my psalm later (optional).

Baby bird

MS:
Remember my post that I wrote about the bird on our window sill? And do you remember that I said I would write more when the eggs hatched? They did, so that is how this blog post got its name.

Remember that in one of the last post's pictures that there were two eggs? Well, there where, but not all of the chicks lived. One of the chicks died, because it was not big enough (boo hoo!). So now there is only one chick in the nest.

We are sure learning a lot about science about birds close up, so it is good that the bird decided to make it's nest here. Well, that is all I have to say, so, good bye!

Christmas Shopping

I have finally finished my Christmas shopping (hurrah, hurrah!). Have you finished yours yet?

Well, anyway, I am here for a blog post, not to ask questions, so I might as well get on with it!

Anyway, since Christmas is all about giving, not receiving, our parents thought that instead of guzzling treats and playing with toys without even saying thanks, whenever a child became seven, each christmas, they buy a present for each of their siblings.

(Believe me, when you have got two brothers, a sister, and you are limited to five dollars or more, for a present thats a lot of money to spend!)

But even though I have to work hard to earn enough money to get them a nice present, it is still fun to pick out a present for them and then see how happy they are when they get my present.

Well, I have done what I was here for, so bye, ho,ho,ho again, and merry Christmas!

Christmas decorating

MS:
In case you do not know it is almost Christmas,it is, so we have started our Christmas decorating (see picture and title), and so far we (our family) have decorated the big adults tree, the smaller kids tree, some red chili pepper lights, and a wreath of lights. Here is all we have done to decorate things: we have put the lights, ornaments and bow on the tree, we have hung the lights up, and we have put the lights, ornaments, and bow on the kids tree. We have also put the presents from the family under the big adults tree (it is the only one that is big enough to put all the presents under).We also have special Christmas traditions such as opening one Christmas present per kid a week until Christmas Eve, which is when we open the last present, also we like to listen to Christmas music and drink hot chocolate while we do our Christmas decorating. Well bye, see you later,Ho Ho Ho and Merry Christmas!

Thankful Tree

MS:
As you remember from my last post, we (our family and friends) were going to make a Thankful Tree (see picture).

Wondering what a Thankful Tree is? Well, I will tell you what it is. The Thankful Tree trunk is made out of brown construction paper. Our guests traced their hands on red, orange, yellow, and green construction paper. Then, they wrote or drew, or both, what they were thankful for on it. And then they sticky-tacked it onto the Thankful Tree, and, tada! There is your thankful hand! The thankful hands were supposed to be like leaves for the Thankful Tree.

As I said in my last post, Happy Thanksgiving! Bye, see you in the next blog post!

I am thankful for...

MS:
I am thankful for friends, family, plenty of food, plenty of money. I am thankful for lots of things, especially friends and family. I am lucky to have lots of friends, black and white, and two brothers, a sister and a good mother and father.

I am typing this post because it is almost Thanksgiving (you probably knew that already, though), and our mom or mommy has assigned us three bigger children to type, or tell mommy what to type for the younger ones, a post on what we are thankful for. Happy Thanksgiving!

Also, we are taking care of the projects and crafts for Thanksgiving with our friends. Since one thing we are going to make is a "We are thankful for..." tree, Mommy thought we should all make a blog post called "I am thankful for..." We are also making a pie after Thanksgiving.

Again, Happy Thanksgiving!

JW:
I am thankful for Thanksgiving, because I really like it, and it gives me some really good ideas. Also, I am thankful for macaroni and cheese and macaroni and cheese and hotdogs, reading (it's one of my hobbies), family (because they protect me and help me), home, America, stuffed animals and toys.

MA:
I am thankful for good friends, my family, my dolly toys, good books that I love to read with Mommy, my mommy and my daddy, DeeDah & GranJack and Ina & Boba. Love, MA

Why do we learn about...math?

We learn about math, because it helps you count and find out how much you have or if you have enough to buy something that you want. Also, if somone asks you a math problem (say 12 times 1), you will want to be able to answer them, right? If you cannot answer them, they will think you are not well educated, so it is best to know, right? So now you know math helps you with money and education. Math is good, don't you agree?

birds nest

MS:
We found, when we looked outside a window in the play area, that a bird had made a nest on our window sill and had layed some eggs there (see pictures that I have posted).

We have been checking on the bird and eggs ever since, and I think they are almost ready to hatch (I do not know for sure, but they have been here for a while, so it is a possibility).

It is very convenient we happened to be reading about baby birds hatching for read-alouds in our science book, so we read about baby birds hatching a few days before we found the eggs.

We will keep watching the nest and post more pictures when the eggs hatch.

Evaporation

MS:
Evaporation is when the sun heats the water and it turns into an invisible gas called water vapor that floats into the air and becomes a cloud. When the cloud gets too full the water vapor falls as rain into lakes, rivers, streams, oceans, etc., and the process starts all over again. This is called evaporation.

We did an experiment to show this (see pictures). We put bowls in drafty places, sunny places, and shady places. The result was that the one in the sunny place evaporated the fastest, the drafty one the next fastest, and the shady one the slowest.

Condensation

MS:
Condensation is when invisible water vapor becomes liquid. This happens when water vapor cools enough to change from a liquid to a gas. We did an experiment to show it (see picture). We put some ice inside a jar and when the ice melted there were water droplets on the outside of the jar. Daddy (or ML as adults would call him) explained that when the ice melted it caused the water vapor outside the jar to cool and become a liquid. This is called condensation.

Why do we learn about...science?

MS:
We learn about science because it's good to observe the effects of nature, such as the effects of water, magnetism, electricity, plants, air, etc.

It also helps young children discover the world around them, and it's a great time to have with your family to discover the world around you together (if you do experiments, that is).

Why do we learn about...history?

MS:
We learn about history because it's important to follow the examples people from the past set, it's important to learn from their mistakes and, above all, it's important for a complete education. And also, although we are not often faced with the same choices of people from the past, we're sometimes faced with similar choices, so it's best to be ready, don't you agree?

Why do we learn about...Arabic?

Why do we learn about...Taekwondo?

MS:

It's good to step out and learn something new, practice the language of your country and be among people who don't speak your language. (I know this because I'm taking Taekwondo in an Arabic school with an Arabic teacher and Arabic kids.)

It's also good streching and leg exercise, which is good for you because it strengthens all your muscles, especially the leg ones.

Why do we learn about...Arabic?

C:
Based on a conversation we had recently regarding the importance of working diligently and why we're studying what we're studying, I'm assigning MS several short blogs with the topic of "Why do we learn about...?"

This is to get him used to the mechanics of blogging and because I thought he has some pretty insightful things to say about the subject (or subjects, as the case may be).

MS:
We learn about Arabic, because it's good to learn different languages, and you might want to learn the language of your country (we live in the Middle East). It's also good to practice the language of your country (especially when you're surrounded by people speaking a different language).

C:
I realized I forgot to explain about MS's Arabic learning situation.

For two years now, his study has consisted of listening/being in the environment (well, that part's been most of his life) and using Rosetta Stone Arabic 1. Beginning this fall, RS seems to have really been sinking in. This year, he's also been doing more in the neighborhood, like running to the dookan (corner store) for little (and big) things I need (this has been a huge help to Daddy who has had to make a lot fewer stops on his way home from work). He talks to the kids playing outside along the way and converses a little with the storekeeper.

About a month ago, we had the opportunity for me to begin studying with an experienced Arabic teacher who has been traveling to our city to work with ML's co-workers on language learning. Some of those co-workers are in the States for a while, and she was needing to pick up extra students to make her trip here worthwhile. I had known this but thought coming to our house would be more than she was willing to do (I have no one to watch the kids while I go to the Center, nor do I really want to add 1/2 an hour getting there and back to any of my already busy days on top of lesson time). It turns out, she was willing to come to our house before leaving town.

I also assumed that, since she'd always worked with adults, she wouldn't want to tutor an elementary student. Wrong there, too. She knew our kids from having been around them a bit here and there and was willing to try tutoring MS.

After some false starts with scheduling, we've settled on one 45 min. lesson for each of us at our house on Tuesdays. Usually, ZL sleeps late enough for me to get my lesson in first while he's down. Then, on Saturday, MS goes for a 1 hour lesson at the Center. This splits the traveling responsibilities, and ML is home to take him to the Center on Saturdays. Occasionally, we use Saturdays for family days in Conan, so we'll either cancel MS's lesson or switch with the person who's lesson is earlier (R) and leave afterwards. Unfortunately, none of the days MS has Taekwondo are options for a lesson, otherwise he'd take Arabic at the Center that day and stay over for Taekwondo. Oh well.

Although all along we'd been working on the assumption that, by our children living in a language-rich environment, they would be equipped to learn the language faster and with better pronunciation once we decided it was the right time, I'll admit there have been times when I've faltered, worrying that we were depriving them by not sending them to school and immersing them.

MS's progress in just the few lessons he's had so far has done a lot to quell those worries. His pronunciation is excellent, and it is obvious that he is drawing on a foundation of knowledge of the language that he didn't even know he had by the speed with which he's picking up new vocabulary and language concepts. Thank you, Lord.

School Days, School Days...

I have been searching for a while for a sustainable way for the kids to report their learning from science experiments.

I made them these great notebooks with a blank space at the top of each page and a lined writing area at the bottom (thanks to StartWrite and cheap comb binding). And MS was faithful to take pictures during the experiments. Problem: I struggle just
getting to science experiments (last year, I delegated to one of our shared nannies; this year, ML is doing Science Saturdays each month with the kids; everybody say, "Yay, Daddy."). Downloading the pictures, getting copies printed out for each kids' notebook, cutting and pasting them, and writing about all of the experiments was not happening.

Plus, then what do we do with all of the notebooks we accumulate? I'm always thinking in terms of international mobility, especially having done emergency evacuations three times, and that means we save only a few pages from each subject each year for a folder. All that work for saving only a few pages? No, thank you.

So, this morning (our first Science Saturday for this year; a friend had done some other experiments with them a few weeks ago) I had an epiphany: a science blog! Then, I realized, why limit it to science? Why not have a place where they can report on and share about all of their school experiences? Field trips, cooking experiences, creative writing products, etc.

We've already transitioned to dictated or typed creative writing for the boys, so this is just the next logical step.

MS has been quick to pick up on all of the computer skills we've taught him, and I don't think blogging will be a steep learning curve, so I'm going to work with him this afternoon and turn it mostly over to him. I will assign each child a font (and hopefully figure out how to indicate that in the sidebar). MS can type his own entries, and I will let JW and MA (and ZL, down the road) dictate their entries/perspectives to me. I anticipate it being an excellent authentic writing outlet, because I'm sure grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins will provide a willing audience.

We'll give it a few weeks and see how it goes. School of the future, here we come.