You Light Up the Sky

What happened on Sunday: After taking over 200 pictures, I got these shots.

 

The lightning flashed all around our little apartment.  Thunder shook the building and set off car alarms.  Amanda and I pull chairs up to the window and watched the rain fall sideways.  I was so thankful I was not alone.  I'll admit it.  I was scared.

Amanda said something that hit home.  She said the thunder and lightning didn't scare her.  It reminded her how BIG God is.  It made me think of this song by The Afters.

Light light light up the sky 
You light up the sky to show me You are with me 
I I I can't deny 
No I can't deny that You are right here with me 
You've opened my eyes 
So I can see You all around me 
Light light light up the sky 
You light up the sky to show me 
That You are with me 

Even when I feel alone here in the DR, I know that I have a HUGE God who is watching over me.  Protecting me.  Guiding me.  Loving me.  And how amazing is that.

Con mucho amor.

Weeks 5-7

What we've been doing:  I've been meaning to post for awhile now.  We are just wrapping up week #10.  Although teaching is so overwhelming at times, things seem to be going well.  We have read seven books as a class so far.  Next week we will finish up books #8 and #9.  Each day I have a read aloud book, and the boys also have a book they are reading independently.  The more books the boys read, the better they will get at reading, writing, and spelling.  We finished a plant unit in Science, and now we are moving on to the systems of the body.  In Social Studies we are learning about ancient Asia, mainly focusing on China and India.  Within the next few weeks we are learning about Rome.  

Here are some pictures from weeks 5-7.  The boys created a video where they proposed what would happen if the characters from two books we read met.  It was set in ancient Egypt.  It also contained a fight scene or two.  Below is a picture of Andrew doing some sort of Egyptian dance. 

We had an afternoon of PE where the boys and I got to swim.  There were a few competitions, like who could jump in the funniest, and who could find the penny at the bottom of the pool the fastest. 

The boys did a This I Believe project.  They wrote about an event and what it taught them in their lives.  Their papers and poems are posted to this kid blog account if you would like to read what they've wrote.  Below are pictures of This I Believe statements from the boys and I.

Hopefully I'll get better about posting more frequently.  PS. See you in 58 days mom and dad.

Con mucho amor.

Learning about Plants

What we've been doing: We just finished up our plant unit.  I had the boys create a landscaping project.  They were to design their own backyard and list characteristics about the plants.  We got to Skyped with Uncle Tony who shared about his love and knowledge of plants.  I would love to have guest speakers come talk to the boys, but it would be a little challenging to fly people all the way to the DR.  It was wonderful for the boys to see a connection between what we learn in class and real life.  Uncle Tony did an awesome job telling them to find a job that they love.  He explained that he originally wanted to go into accounting, but then realized that was too boring.  Uncle Tony told the boys a job wouldn't seem like as much work if they really enjoyed doing it every day.  THANK YOU Uncle Tony for taking the time out of your day to talk to us.

We also had our first field trip in connection to the landscaping project.  We went to the nursery.  The boys had to interview several workers.  They also had to identify the plants they were going to put in their backyards.  They pointed out the different leaf types, leaf arrangements.  They figured out if they were compound or simple leaves.  They applied all the knowledge from class into a project.

We left with a class plant named Steve and we stopped by the ice cream store on our way back to class. 

Here are some pictures of two of their final projects. 

Teaching is always full of adventures.

Con mucho amor.

Dot Day

What we've been doing: September 15th marks an important day in education.  It is International Dot Day!  This incredible day is all about how you will make your mark on the world.  Here's how we celebrated at The Reyes Academy.

We started in the morning by reading The Dot.  The boys munched on m&ms while I read it to them.  Next, we used free discussion questions I found online and talked about the theme of the book, Vashti's character traits, and how we can each impact someone else's life.  Then, I had the boys write their own story about a person named Dot who impacted the world.  They couldn't use an i or j in the story.

I had the boys translate the book into Spanish so we could read it with everyone in the house.  In the afternoon we had a DOT PARTY.  Everyone in the house including the maids and the handyman came with our class and the rest of the family to read/listen to the story in Spanish.  I created a powerpoint that had examples of different dots that people made, then we all created our own.  We ate cheese balls, peach Os, and cookies.  For lunch we had meatballs.  Everything in the shape of a circle.  :)

It was such a fun day exploring themes of creativity, inspiration and how people can make their mark on the world.

Con mucho amor.