This was review week to catch up on missing pages, and review stories and verses that we’ve learned. For the rest of our “official” school time we celebrated Fall with lots of apple activities. Here are some of our favorites:
- Making apple smiles (Ours were very simple, but here are better Toothy Apple Smile directions from Hubbard’s Cupboard)
I know that on the schedule for this week was the story of the centurion’s servant in Luke 7, as I thought that it might be a good way to explain authority and respect. Well, we tried that on Monday, complete with little green army men to act out the story. By the end of the day, I could see that they weren’t really understanding and were only consumed by the army men’s tiny guns, so our new respectful story illustration is....Moses and the Burning Bush! This one was much easier to capture. When God began to speak to Moses through the burning bush, he didn’t stop and think about whether or not to remove the shoes...he threw them off and hid his face too!!
My children love this story, and acting it out is a favorite activity at our home. Although Levi's sugar cane staff disappeared to the trash last month, it lasted for over a year's worth of playing Moses. This week's production was about 10 minutes long, but I had to include a short clip of Pharaoh Levi coaching Moses Mamita in her lines.
We also talked about practical ways to be respectful, including using manners and being polite. Each day we focused on a different scenario; meeting someone for the first time, answering the phone, answering the door, table manners, and using please, thank you, and excuse me. It was fun to role play in English and Spanish and talk about cultural differences, like greeting someone with a handshake in the U.S. versus kissing on the cheek here in Panama.
My highlight of the week was our cooking day. Not only were elephant ears super fun to make, but we decided to practice our table manners while eating them. We put a candle on the table to set the atmosphere, then went to answer the door as the children pretended to enter our fancy restaurant. They really got into it, copying my accent and all with Levi calling me “Sir Cook.” Halfway through the meal, Josh staring at the candle in the middle of the table yelled “Look! It’s the burning bush!” hehe
As for the recipe, I decided to take a risk and try a new recipe found on the back of the Coach’s Oats, a new oatmeal they are carrying at PriceSmart. We were all pleasantly surprised even with substituting whole wheat flour. So much so, that I had to make another batch for lunch to share with Papito. We decided go with the new recipe since elephants are herbivores, adding oats and wheat “grass” to the recipe. I was just going to make elephant ears (pancakes with a honey e)... but got inspired by memories of my sister's chocolate chip pancake creativity, and we ended up with Ellie Elephant holding a blueberry in her trunk for a second course.
I got a little carried away researching Ellie, and was pleasantly surprised that Ari was a walking elephant encyclopedia too! We had lots of fun walking like elephants, swinging our trunks, and hiding the babies in the middle of the mommy circle when the big lion came to attack. We learned that they have a big sweet tooth, preferring things like mango, coconut, pineapple, plums, berries, and at the zoo...pumpkins and watermelon!
I won’t retype all my findings, but check out these sites for more interesting elephant facts and youtube for some videos of elephants eating too.
For our Friday edition of Jungle School, we had an elephant art project planned. However, the children were playing so well together that we made the day’s project “to go.” Jungle Mamas, check the slideshow at the top to see the shapes needed and how our elephants turned out.
We’ve been talking about being respectful, attentive, and obedient, and Levi could verbally define, role play, and give his own examples of each one. However, when the heat was on...it all went out the window! Let’s just say that Papito and I were both realizing the need for some more intense consequences in order to keep the peace.
Last Friday, I had an idea. I had a little talk with Levi explaining why we’re learning about these traits, and how important they are to learn when you are young vs. when you are older with BIGGER consequences. We talked about what being disrespectful to your parents, sister, and friends looked like, then we went to our favorite whiteboard (the fridge) and I drew a circle. I asked him what his favorite toy was. “My armor.” (Cardboard and duct tape brillance from the artistic husband...post on that soon) So, non-artistic Mamita drew her very best armor in the circle, then crossed it out. Next I wrote an equals sign and his name. Lesson being, no more armor if your lose all your letters.
I explained that he wasn’t going to get lots of chances or warnings, just the four letters on the fridge. I knew I could not make it a battleground... no yelling, no stomping to the fridge to erase, no threatening, no show, no emotion...just consequences for disobeying or disrespecting. I was surprised at how his standards were much higher than mine! “Mamita, before I stopped myself and had self-control I growled at Sissy, so you need to erase a letter.” He went the whole week, and finally, yesterday, the inevitable happened. All four letters gone by 4 p.m.
There was some drama in the bedroom about a toy and Sissy, and I said “Levi, come here please.” In the anger of the moment he yelled “No!” Big mistake. Huge! hehe So, I left the room without saying a word, erased the last letter, walked back in and said, “Let’s try that again. Levi, come here please.” He walked over, and we solved the drama. Then with no mama drama, no guilt trip, and no explanation needed, I walked over and picked up his armor bag and took it into the office. He didn’t ask questions at all, at the moment, and I knew he had no idea of the truth depth of his chosen consequences.
We spent the next couple of hours keeping busy in our preparations for company coming over. I knew that we was going to want to play with his armor when company arrived, as he and Tia had a great time with it the last time she was over. He was busy preparing a pretend fancy dinner for her though, and it wasn’t until about 9:30, way past bedtime when he came up to ask where his armor bag was. I reminded him he lost all his letters, and it was put away for the day. Wow, let the howls begin!! The tears were flying out horizontally, and after dropping to the floor in anguish a few times, he began to tell me how he really felt. “You are the BADDEST MAMITA ever in the whole world! I wish I didn’t have a mamita so there could be NO rules and NO consequences! I just want there to be NO MORE CONSEQUENCES. AAAHHHHH!!!!!” I told him I understood how angry and upset he was, but I would be a bad mamita if I didn’t have those consequences. Then he ran and laid down on his bed, and fell asleep.
He was still upset this morning, but calm enough for us to talk it over. I had rubbed in discussed the lesson enough and he was starting to get fired up again, so I told him to follow me as I ran to the kitchen. I took the cleaner and got all of yesterday’s green marker residue and smears off the fridge. I explained about how God’ mercies are new every morning, and when we ask for forgiveness he wipes everything clean and gives us a fresh start. I neatly redrew our equation, and on with the day we went. Guess what. Not one letter erased today! Woooohooooo!!!!
