Our School Room 2014

Well, I'm finally getting some pictures of our school room up. 

We've had a team from IHOP here worshipping and praying with us. It's been a busy, but very rewarding five days! 

Okay, so I'm standing at the door that enters the school room from the living room.

There are actually two doors that you can enter. There's another one on the right.

This door enters from Clinton's office/church office

I'm still using the calendar from Sparkle Box and we really love it. It's super easy to use and with the velcro you can use it over and over again each year.

My little shelf is from Ikea. It was super cheap. I think around $5. I love it.

Cayden loves to have new books displayed every week. He loves for me to read to him. This week we're reading about colors.

It's super hard for me to get him to do any school at all, but he still likes to read.  So I try to encourage it as much as possible.

Here's my sweet boy who loves to learn and loves to read! He has trouble keeping quiet and still but if I reward him with something sweet I can usually keep him on track.

I didn't realize how disorganized this looked until i saw the picture of it. lol

So this picture is really funny. If you remember, I told you that Cayden stopped being interested in his   Animal ABC's when we got to Jj Jellyfish.

He wanted to make sure I understood that he was DONE with this so he scribbled all over the card.... :(
I thought we were having so much fun?!?

This is a good view from the other door. You can see our windows. I thank God for these windows! It really keeps things nice and fresh. Having the sun shine in is so nice.

You'll notice the air con right above the window. This is our saving grace! There would be NO way we could survive in the heat without it. It's so hot that we have to run the air and the fan in order to stay cool. The coolest the air will get in the hot season is 78 F. But we're not complaining!!

You can also see the drawer caddy right behind Joseph. This system changed the way we homeschool. I was always forgetting to do some of his school. I know, it may sound weird but I get distracted very easily... i may have a bit of ADD.

And at the end of the day, I would be like, "OH, NO! we forgot to do......"

Having 10 drawer metal rolling cart with the numbers that we simply move over when the work is complete helps me stay on track. Even if we take a break in the day, I can always come right back and know what else needs to be done. GENIUS!

I also have 2 of the Ikea  Trofast Storage Systems. I loove them! You can do so much with them. I used to have them labeled but the labels fell off and I haven't made new ones.

I store my phonics cards, calendar time cards, different manipulatives,  puzzles, spare folders, card stock, art supplies and more in these drawers! They're wonderful!!

If you don't have any you must purchase them as soon as possible. I promise you your life will never be the same!

I didn't get a picture of behind my black chair, but it's the white board and my craft table. I'll try to get one next time.

I hope you enjoyed a tour of our International School room all the way in Thailand.

I bet it looks similar to yours.

Love you!
Amber

Last Week of Organized Tot School

 I have no idea what causes a tot who's moving right along week after week with school to all the sudden decide, "I'm not doing it anymore." 

That's what happened with Cayden. He's 3 years and 5 months in these photos. 

I mean, I was having SO.MUCH.FUN!! 

On this Jj Jellyfish lesson we even went to the Aquarium! I had the scavenger hunt print outs and all! I was INTO.IT. 

I love the planning, the gathering, and the teaching. I love it. I was so sad! To be honest I tried to force the Kk Kola on him but he wasn't having it. I think it was the same thing lesson after lesson that bored him. He likes change and different stuff so maybe I'll try to incorporate some different things into each lesson. I'm not really that creative which is the problem, but thank God for Pintrest. Right?!

He's recently been asking to do Tot School again. Although, he's not a tot anymore... he's a preschooler. (3yrs. 11mo). How did my baby get to be a Preschooler???

He's definitely a kinetic learner! HE lOVES sensory play!! I mean loves it! And he loves books. 

We were doing the Animal ABC's by Carrisa at 1plus1plus1

She's amazing! And her printables are so cute. She has TONS of ideas on there! 

Has your tot decided he doesn't want to do school anymore?

If so what was your strategy to get him going again?

I'd love to hear from you!

Laying Low

Because Joseph's adoption isn't finished yet, we feel that we need to lay low on the "google" search radar. Not that we're doing anything wrong but we feel we just need to keep quiet and wait on the Lord.

So you won't find me on Facebook or the FI website. As on outlet to communicate I'll probably be writing on my blog much more often. I MUST communicate!! :)
So if you're signed up to receive my blog via email or otherwise then you can stay in contact with me. Please feel free to leave a comment or write me an email.

Here's a few pictures of what's been happening here. All of these pictures are from January. Enjoy!

These first two pictures are of Nitcha. We did an impromptu photography session. She's so super cute!! She's having a girl and they've named her Bella Rose (Bella means God is my vow). Needless to say, we're SO excited that we're about to be grandparents.

Also on January 1st, we lifted up the baby bed and got it ready for Chandler. At this point he's still sleeping with us. Not because we haven't tried to get over into the boys room...but he's not having any of it. He likes his spot right between Mamma and Daddy. But at least we got a good picture of him in his bed right.

Cayden on the other hand, we SUPER excited to be sleeping in a big boy bed!!!! He's been in the baby bed longer than any of the other boys...33 months. He also decided that he didn't need to be rocked anymore, which is kind of sad. I'm not too sure how I feel about that. I was certain we'd be going to his house once he's in collage and "putting him to bed" ;)

Since the first day until today he's had no problems, except he plays like  little monkey and we have to go into their room five times a night to get them settled down. #lateinlifebabies

On January 26th, we went to a Thai wedding. Thai weddings are so much fun. You get to get dressed up and eat good food and see people you haven't seen in a long time. This was a really BIG wedding. There were over 1000 people at the reception. Dr Krassani's son got married. Dr. Krassanai is a very important man in our city. There were lots of "important" people there! There are 10 chairs to a table so our family got an entire table all to our selves. 

We had a work day at church. We are putting on a kitchen in the back of the building and tearing down a wall in one of the rooms. Before work ensued Chase was goofing off showing his muscles..... he's been working out for several months now and wanted Bang to take pictures. He's such a ham.

Cayden and a Thai friend playing in the cement bucket. It was SUPER hot and I had to get him cooled off. They stayed in that bucket for two hours.

Cayden not happy that he has to get off the motorcycle

Me washing vegetables Thai style

These next photos cap off January. 

I started doing sensory bins with Cayden and HE LOVES THEM. I've never seen this child sit so long in his life!!! Today we played with "snow" I mixed 8 cups flour with 1cup cooking oil. It was surprisingly not sticky. I put all kinds of things in there for him to measure,  make cupcakes, cut things.

At this point he's really tired and ready for a nap. Look at those eyes.

Joe joined in after his school was done. 

Joseph had just as much fun as Cayden. Blast!

Look at that dirty little face. So precious

I hope you've enjoyed a tour of our January! I have a few more pictures to add that I've taken with my phone. 

Love,

Amber