Friday, February 3, 2012

Coffee House Poetry Reading

This is our first year of home-schooling.  We are learning as we go:  I am learning how to home-school, hopefully the boys are actually learning the stuff they are supposed to know for their grades!  Ha!  Here is a Language Arts project that Seth did:

This year he studied about poetry.  His final project for the unit was to have a Coffee House Poetry Reading Event.  He asked Aunt Bo to make chocolate cake.  He made invitations, signs, programs...the works!

Here is his poetry display.

He arranged the living-room to seat all the people he invited and recruited Aaron and Joel to help with the program. 

All of the poetry that Seth read were his original works.  Here is one of his poems:

"Alien Baseball"

Now Mike was going home from school
And found a UFO.
So he called them over to play some ball
When he saw his friend Moe.

And Moe brought Joe and Mary Lou
To play some ball with him,
Then who came over across the street?
I'll be, it's Nate and Jim!

And he brought Tim and so it seemed,
It really, really seemed,
That 4 on 4 would be the best,
Fairest baseball team.

They played for hours on the field:
Nine innings before they ate.
And back home, Mom and Dad wondered,
"Why's school going so late?"

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Project Peace: Frisbee Friends

A few blocks from our house is a "basketball court."  I type that in quotes because, well, it's mostly just a slab of cement with broken basketball hoops lying down on the sidelines and makeshift soccer goals in their place.  It is just outside the neighborhood mosque.  As part of our "Peace Project," we decided to take the frisbee to the "basketball court" and see if we could find any kids.
And we did!  At first they were shy and only watched.  But what kid can resist a frisbee?  So they eventually joined.



When we were done, we said good-bye to them and walked home.  They followed at a distance so they could see where we lived!  Turns out, they live in the kampung (village neighborhood) right next to our neighborhood.  Sometimes they come by our house now and call out for the boys to come play!

Monday, January 30, 2012

English Anyone?

Last week the kids helped teach English at a local school.  They had a lot of fun!
Here's the group of English teachers!

I observed Seth's class, which was first grade.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to take pictures of the other two boys.  Here is what Seth's class did...

Introducing themselves to the kids.

Look at this little cutie!

Seth helps a little boy make his "spider" for "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."

This cute boy seems to have lost his spider.

Writing lyrics on the whiteboard.

Playing a game of "Memory"

"Bye!  Thanks for coming!"
Our boys enjoyed the kids and the kids definitely enjoyed getting to meet some "real" English speakers!  

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Puzzling Pictures: Prosperous New Year!

Last Monday was Chinese New Year.  Even McDonalds got in on the action!

Thursday, January 26, 2012

A Clammy Story

One day, there was a homeschool mom and her crew of students who decided to start "Peace Project." They lived in a neighborhood called "Peace" and decided to pray for the neighborhood and meet as many people as they could.  They also decided to stop every street vendor to learn who they were and what they sold.  First to come by was the vegetable seller.  So the Kelley Crew bought tomatoes, oranges and a bag of...clams.  

How do you cook clams?  The vegetable seller said, "Oh that's easy!"


Just boil some water...

With a little salt...

Wash the clams (she didn't mention how dirty they were)...

Put them in the boiling water...

for ten minutes...

And there you have it...

A cooked clam!

With a little ketchup mixed with sambal (hot sauce)...

They taste...

Eddy wants some...

because they taste...

well, they taste...
Well, yes, they do taste.  But mostly we just covered them in ketchup, so I can't really vouch for how they tasted.   But we did get to know the vegetable seller!

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Sunday, January 1, 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012!

HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone!  Last night we joined with friends to welcome the New Year.  We ate goodies, visited, played charades and enjoyed fireworks.




Then we went home and enjoyed watching the neighborhood fireworks from our own second floor terrace.  Just after midnight we lit sparklers.  I don't know if we enjoyed the sparklers or taking pictures of the sparklers more!  Here are a few: