Rwanda

We just started a unit on Rwanda this week.  First step is to find it on the globe.  It's tiny! 

Each strip of paper has a fact about Rwandan kids.  My kids are categorizing them according to similarities and differences.  I wanted them to see that kids are kids wherever they live, even though there are differences.

We bought yarn made by Rwandan widows and learned to knit a hat. 

 I don't do gender stereotypes.  My boy likes knitting too. He's secure in his manhood.  He does enjoy listening to hard rock while he knits.  :)

 Finished it!

 Upon close inspection, you'll find definite errors, but they did pretty well for their first time.

Best buds

Despite all the bickering, they really do love each other.  The fact that he spelled everything right makes me almost as happy as the sentiment.

Random mischief

 Trying to do Bible study this morning, and Shadow came along and took a BITE out of Noah's Bible!  Noah said, "He must really be hungry for the word of God!"

 

If you get an undecipherable email from me, this probably explains why.

See that yellow smudge by his cute little black nose?  He was helping Sarah paint. 

Noah's math book drying in the sun.  It was completely soaked when Shiloh knocked over a glass of water on it.

I wrote myself a note with directions on it.  Then Shiloh found it and treated it like prey.  Don't think I'll ever find where I was supposed to go with those directions. 

Homemade gym set

This is the gymastics set that Sarah wants for her American Girl doll.  It was $85 earlier in the year, but now it is backordered until March of next year, and it's going for $200 or more on ebay.  The thought of paying that much for tiny doll toys makes me a little queasy.

So I spent about ten bucks and many, many hours and made a set that the doll can actually use. I bought a glue gun for this project, and I must admit I love that thing!  Why did it take me over 40 years to figure out how cool glue guns are?!  Of course I burn my fingers every time I use it, but it's worth it.

Sarah's loft

I painted it the colors that Sarah chose.

Guess who helped paint and got it on the carpet?

She likes it!

Life

I was playing the game of Life with Noah.

I noticed that he and his wife were in a separate car from their children.  I asked him if they were having  a date night.  He said, "No, I just don't like having all those kids in the backseat when we go somewhere."  That made me laugh.  Then he said, "Well, it's not that they're annoying or anything.  They just keep falling out, and then I have to waste time stopping to pick them up and put them back in..." 

Laundry limitations

Folding laundry is one of those tasks I put off, for some reason.  Yesterday, after the clothes had been sitting in the dryer all day, I finally dumped them onto the floor in a high traffic area, hoping that:
a) I would be so inconvenienced by having to step over them constantly that I would annoy myself into folding them, or
b) someone else would notice them and fold them.

Neither of those happened, and when I woke up this morning, there was the pile, looking at me.  It wasn't even a pile anymore, because it had been scattered by people walking through it.  I decided I would do it after I finished flash cards with the kids, while they were happily, quietly, diligently working on their lesson (do you hear the sarcasm?).  Finished with the interactive part of the lesson, I turned to tackle the pile.  But there were two kittens asleep on it!  Obviously, you don't disturb sleeping kittens, so the pile wins again.