Random Update

Nothing too exciting going on here, but I have some random little things to write about. Last week was Hakim's birthday (and his sister Kinda who was in kindergarten) I doubt they were born the same day so I don't think their mom knows their official birthday. I've been lucky in not needing to deal with the birthday extravagence that happens here. I think I would've lost it if I had to do this with each kid. Hakim's mom invited all the pre-k 4 to stay late which was confusing because I had to dismiss them and then they could go back to the party. The party was during the school lunch time and they brought TONS of food for everyone. They also had some sweet goody bags. I'm so used to a birthday simply being bring in a snack for the class, sing a song and be done with it that I really can't adjust to the craziness of brithdays here, and the idea of loosing any class time over it.

The kids and Hakim's mom around the cake

This was Hakim's sister's (Kinda) cake. Took a picture just because it's Tangled and I know all you Chi O suitehearts (ehem Roxie) will appreciate it.

Hakim blowing out his candles.

The other big piece of news is that Azabache, who is a black dog that lives on campus, had puppies! Azabache lives on campus and is friendly but won't let anyone touch her. The puppies are really cute and I've gotten to cuddle them quite a bit since they are right next to my house.

Puppies! There is one more black one but he wasn't in the pile when I took this picture.

Finally, I just want to show off what we're doing in preschool. The kids writing is getting really good for the most part. I have 6 out of 8 able to sound out and spell simple C-V-C words which is a good start for going into kindergarten. I'd like to note that all of this kids are ESL too so we struggle with just speaking in English let along writing it. We've also started learning about the sun, moon and planets. We did an awesome fingerpainting sun craft today. It was kind of messy, but the kids loved it and they came out really cute.



Michelle - Mi hos has flawrs and a apltre (My house has flowers and an apple tree) All I did to help them was say the words extra slow. They knew all the letter sounds and chose them on their own.

Marian - The flawrs r prite (The flowers are pretty)

Carol - Mi has n a sun (My house and a sun)

Marcel - A cat nd mi haos (A cat and my house) I was pretty impressed on his sounding out of house.

Luis finger painting his sun.

Once the sun was fingerpainted we put it on black paper and used Q-tips to put the rays

Hakim and his sun

Marcel and his sun. The final step was to add gold star stickers so it looked like space.

Overall, things are going pretty well. It is very hectic here right now though being the end of the year. I come home now in less than four weeks which is pretty crazy! The official coming home date is June 16th, so everyone get ready!