We managed!

This is the crafting gone bad the other day :) We tried again yesterday, put some classical music on and sat down. I made a few fishes so the kids could see what I meant and Luana immediately wanted to draw some herself. Both kids glued the green felt on for weeds and other plants. Lucas then lost interest and went off to play football. Luana wanted to make fish out of felt too and she did a fine job cutting and glueing all by herself. We were going to glue some sand on the bottom of the paper but it was raining outside and all the sand was wet. We can add that later on though.

Some more pictures from our walk

Laundry hanging on the fence. The white container is a part of an old washig machine and works now as a bin hanging from the fence.

The bridge we went to see. A horse with its owner returning home after a working day.

A pretty flower we found on the ground.

Sister and brother.

Green Hour challenge 3

Yesterday in the evening we took another nature walk. This time I took the kids to see the Mororó river from another small bridge nearby.
First we went up the hill...

Then passed between two supermarkets...

And we got to the river. This is where the river comes from...

And this is where it goes to.

Unfortunately lots of rubbish and really dirty water. (My husband actually asked me if we'd touched the water and was relieved when I told him we hadn't, so that's how dirty it is). The kids were appalled at the amount of rubbish.

When we started our walk I asked the kids to be silent and just to listen and observe. Especially Luana took it very seriously and told her little brother several times to stay silent :) Once we got to the river I asked them what they had seen and heard so far. When we got home we talked about it again. On our way back we also got a nice idea of recycling plastic bottles into fun garden decorations. I'll share that as soon as I get one made!

The kids weren't in the mood for a notebook page but we'll do that later on. I think I'll print some of these pictures for our notebook as well.

I took a look at the following Green Hour tasks and I already decided that we'll focus on the river. There's no real information about the Mororó river as it's tiny but it runs into Jaru river which is much bigger and runs through our city. We'll be able to take a look at the animals (there are even crocodiles in the river, obviously far from the cities but still), the plants and the people living by the rivers so I think it'll be a lot of fun. I'm hoping my brother-in-law could take us on a boat ride on river Jaru a bit later when the rains stop. That'd be a real adventure for the kids.

We also spotted a potential picnic place a little further down the river Mororó. Yesterday it was too muddy to get there but we'll go back another day to take a better look. There's a serious lack of parks and places where kids could just play and run around. We're really missing that from Finland. But t his little spot we found could be really nice once it's not raining so much (almost daily at the moment).

Crafting melt down

Dawn just posted about felting gone sour with her kids. Today was my turn :) I had planned some crafting to go with our green hour challenge and the river theme. We were supposed to create an underwater scenery complete with some real sand on the bottom of the paper, some felt weeds and silvery fish.

The kids were really keen to start. I actually had suggested we'd do some English first but they insisted on the crafting so I agreed. It went bad right from the beginning. I gave them some pens and washed foil lids where I asked them to draw some fishes I could then help them to cut out. Lucas refused to draw to start with and Luana had a melt down when she wasn't able to colour the fish. I explained her it was ok just to draw the shape of the fish as I'd cut it for her but she insisted she wanted to colour. After a lot of explaining and reasoning and increasing whining I told them it clearly wasn't going to work so we'd better do the crafting at some other point. I told them crafting was supposed to be pleasant and we were supposed to have fun doing it and as we clearly weren't we might just as well stop.

I'm not sure what really went wrong. The activity was easy, planned and prepared. Maybe it was the material I gave them. Go figure. I'll try it again tomorrow and maybe I'll cut a few fishes ready so they can see what I'm after.

Good days

We've had such good news in the last couple of days. It seems so many things are coming together and even the small details are taken care of.

On Monday I got to know that my permanent visa has finally come through. I left my application at the local police station on Dec 15th 2006 (yes, that is 2006) so it took them well over a year to decide about my visa. Now I can open a bank account (or use my husband's account), get my Brazilian ID and all other documents and most importantly I finally get to apply for jobs!

Another excellent news was that my husband just got a "proper" job! He did an exam for the State transportation department (or something like that..., DETRAN in Portuguese) already quite some time ago. He came first in the exam but they didn't need anyone to work in our town at that time. Yesterday he was finally called to start working one month from now. We're so excited as this job has a lot of advantages to it. The days aren't that long so he'll still be able to work with computers in the evenings, the pay is reasonable, we'll get a good health insurance for the whole family and he's a state civil servant meaning he can't get fired (unless he commits some heinous crime of course) :)

Just to top it off hubby's brother's wife came to clean our house today and we received a big box of food from hubby's younger sister. I wonder what's next :)

We're still unsure about our planned holidays in Finland. I'd love to travel with the kids to stay there for a few months during the Northern hemisphere summer. It's just soooo expensive we're not sure if we'll be able to go now. But I'm confident that things will work out. If we can't travel now we'll get there some time later on. For now I'm just enjoying this day!

Brazilian music

One the our kids' cousins Rodrigo plays the viola really well and you can see him and my father-in-law play some sertanejo music in here.

Green Hour challenge 2

We did the challenge number 2 slightly modified. We didn't go for a walk but stayed at home and chose three different spots outside the house where we'd listen to sounds. We started off in the back yard where we heard a fly, some music and the sounds of a car and a motorbike. From Luana's window we could hear the river and a car. In the front yard we heard a man talking, a bird singing and again some cars and motorbikes.

The kids were really calm and concentrated (except for Lucas who lost his interest towards the end). This was something different and new and it went down really well. Afterwards we wrote down the sounds we'd heard and the kids drew some of the things. I then cut them up and glued them on the notebook page. Luana drew a car (on the right) and a motorbike (on the left). I think that's the cutes motorbike I've ever seen. As soon as they start making that model I'll get one for myself! :)

I think we'll do another challenge this week in order to catch up a little. We still haven't finished working on the river theme so there's something for this week, too.

We worked a little on colours in English, too. Luana has lerned "pink" at school (they have 30 mins of English once a week just for fun) and today she remembered "yellow" and "blue" as well. I printed them a rainbow colouring sheet from British Council's site. They have tons of things for teaching English and I'll go back with more time to explore the site.

Easter desert

This was our desert yesterday. I had baked a kulitsa and made a pasha according to the Russian orthodox tradition. Kulitsa is a sweet bread similar to panettoni eaten in some countries during Christmas time. Pasha is a sweet desert made with quark, whipped cream, dried fruits, raisins, ground almond, sugar, eggs and butter. Basically the ingredients are mixed and the mixture is left in a wooden container in the fridge over night. The cyrillic letters XB appear on both kulitsa and pasha (you can't really see them in the picture) and they mean "Christ is risen".

Easter Sunday

This morning we had a special Easter Sunday School for the kids below 9 years of age. We expected around 100 kids but almost 150 turned up! We had to improvise a little with the gift bags as there were only 100 of them but in the end everything turned out nice and I think all the kids were happy. There was cake, pop corn, the little surprise bags with sweets, lots of singing and of course the Easter message.

These pictures are from the old church where youth evenings and bigger children's events usually take place. There's a lot bigger new church right next to this one.



And this is how the gift bags looked like. Someone had actually taken the trouble of sewing bags from yellow bunny fabric and then glueing the legs and the head of the rabbit. And there were 100 of them! (The material of the head and the legs is called EVA in Portuguese or softis in Finnish, I have no idea what it's called in English...)


I hope everyone has had a wonderful Easter time!

Easter eggs

I haven't found our Easter decorations so we had to make some new ones. I bet the missing ones pop up right after Easter when we won't need them for another year and then mysteriously disappear again just before next Easter. Oh well.

We painted some cardboard strips with watercolours. The ones on the top are mine, the middle ones are Luana's and the ones on the bottom are Lucas'.
After they had dried I folded them in the middle and cut egg shapes out of them. We then glued the cut pieces together so both sides are painted.

Luana and Lucas also did some face painting as I was preparing dinner (and wasn't aware of them messing about with the watercolours...). You can check out their art in my Finnish blog.

Green Hour notebook

The princess has got a cold and she stayed at home today instead of going to school in the morning. As she's not really that poorly (ie no temperature) we've been busy doing lots of things and it's only 9 am! She helped me to wash the dishes, then I painted her nails and we did something for the Green Hour notebook. I know the pictures are pants but I hope you can get an idea of what we did...
First I explained how the seeds fall on the ground and start growing. I asked her what the plants need in order to grow and after some discussion she drew a sun and some rain clouds.

And then after some time a tree grows! This is the same paper. In the first picture the tree is folded and the seeds and the small plant are drawn on the back of the folded tree. This was done quite quickly which was good since she doesn't really seem to have a lot of concentration today :) We'll work on the river theme later on.

We'll make some muffins a bit later on and I let Luana start her own kitchen notebook. She's very keen to help out in the kitchen and they've started to learn the numbers at school. So I thought we could put together her own recipes. She can draw and practice the numbers and I write the actual recipes as we make them together.

Green Hour walk

Yesterday we went for our Green Hour walk and I didn't take my camera. What was I ever thinking? This afternoon was sunny and nice so we did the walk again, now with the camera. This time one of the kids' friends came along.

This is the bridge over the Mororó river behind our block.

This is where the river comes from...

... and this is where it goes.

A few houses near the river are built to resist the occational flooding.

The kids walking home.

Green Hour challenge 1

I had planned to do our Green Hour "task" today but Lucas fell asleep really late after lunch and just didn't wake up. Luana and I worked on primary colours in English and she also had a colouring task from school. When Lucas finally woke up I was already preparing dinner (a little earlier today as I had classes in the evening). When the food was ready I checked the time and realised we could manage a stroll around the block with the kids before I had to go so off we went.

Around the block doesn't really seem like very much nature but as this is a small town in the Amazon basin we have all sorts of things around our block :) The kids were most interested in collecting different kinds of leaves and taking a look at the Mororó river that runs close by.

As we got home we talked about our walk over dinner. I thought the thing they both would mention were the cute puppies we saw but Luana said she liked the different leaves best. She was also interested in the river. We discussed the river for a while and agreed that we'll find a little more about it this week. I think I'll also work with trees somehow. It's a bit hard for us to identify the leaves they collected as we don't have any kind of handbook of the fauna over here. I think we'll talk more about trees in general on the lines of fruit-seed-tree, something suited for a four-year-old.

Easter decoration

We read about Jesus entering Jerusalem for Passover and talked about the people receiving Him. We then decorated some branches with feathers. Traditionally today in Finland kids go around dressed up as witches ringing people's doorbells. They say a small rhyme about spring and exchange a decorated branch for some sweets. As we're really not into any witch stuff (plus I can't imagine how our neighbours reacted if I dressed the kids as witches and had them go from door to door with colourful branches...) we just made these thinking about the arrival of Jesus and the happiness of the people.

We used pieces of pipe cleaners to secure the feathers. I'm planning to re-use the feathers (and probably the pipe cleaner pieces, too) after Easter. We don't get either of them over here so I have to make them last a long time... :)

Green Hour challenge

I found this great challenge through Poppy and Mei days and we're definitely going to participate! Out nature notebook has been on hold for a LONG time and I'm so glad to have sometone help me out with that.

Today there'll be some Easter related crafting but we'll get started with the Green Hour this week. I'm so excited about it!

Upside down service

Yesterday I went to the youth meeting at church. Usually I stay at home and my husband sometimes goes depending on whether he plays the percussion or not. Yesterday was however a very special meeting and my mother-in-law gracefully offered to stay with the kids so that we both could go.

The service was called "Upside down" and everyone was asked to wear their clothes turned upside down. The inside of the church had been turned around so that people were facing the door instead of the back wall. We started the service by wishinig each other a good night and a blessed weekend as if we were already leaving church. There was some very good praise and worship and a few testimonies from ex-trafficers and drug users whose lives God has turned upside down.

The sermon was on Daniel 1. The pastor highlighted the fact that Daniel was taken away from his country, his people and his customs. Yet he was able to continue serving God and keeping his integrity in the middle of the pressure from other customs and a different way of life. God has turned our lives upside down, too and we should keep that in mind in our daily lives. It is possible for a christian to lead a life that pleases God and still be a part of the community outside the church.

Some people also shared that they had felt embarrassed having to leave their houses with their clothes the wrong way but as they got to church they had felt more at ease as everyone else was dressed like that, too. And that's true in our lives every day. We often feel embarrassed or awkward for not wanting to participate in some of the things of the world but when we get together with brothers and sister in Christ we feel at ease because they're "awkward" in the same way we are :) Hence the importance of unity among believers.

This morning I taught Sunday School again. We looked at why Jesus was going to Jerusalem and I told them about the Jewish Passover traditions that are observed even today. It seemed to be all very new to them and the kids were interested and participated well in everything. I have a nice crafting in mind for next Sunday and I'll share it in time so that anyone interested can do it on Sunday, too.

Lunch at grandma's

This morning we walked with the kids to their grandparents' house and they spent the whole morning playing with their cousin (on grandma's lap). We were invited to stay for a yummy lunch and after that we walked back home.

My mother-in-law gave me this beautiful tea towel that she's decorated. She makes and sells these as a kind of a hobby.

Bugs

We made these cute bugs out of an egg carton and some pipe cleaners. They were easy to make although I made the holes for the legs with a big needle and then let the kids insert the pipe cleaners. The kids then drew the eyes and the mouth.

This is how they looked from the inside. We should have come up with a way to secure the legs somehow as they were quite wobbly this way. We'll make improvements next time. The idea for these is from somewhere on the internet, I wish I remembered the site. It had however no pictures, just instructions and I think it said something about securing the legs. I just can't remember what it was... :)

Planning for Easter

This is how peaceful and quiet it is at home right now. The kids are sleeping and I'm surfing and finding all sorts of nice ideas for Easter both for homeschool and for Sunday School. I want to talk about both Passover and Easter with the kids. In Sunday School I will take two separate Sundays in order to cover both issues. Here at home I have lot more time so we'll talk about both during several days and will hopefully do a lot of related crafting too.

I'm thinking about preparing a Resurrection basket to Sunday School in order to go through all the events of Easter with the kids. The idea is from here. There are also some good printable activities I found in here. I'll just have to modify them slightly and write the things in Portuguese instead of English.

So I'm well excited with all the good resources and all the preparation. Today we'll look at the primary colours in English with the kids and I'll still have to prepare something for their notebooks before they wake up.

Craft fair pictures - finally!

Inside our church on Saturday.

Some of the things of the craft fair. My little things sold all except for one heart!

And finally some of the yummy things that were also sold. Apart from the cakes and deserts there was also proper food, hot dogs and fruit salad.

Lovely day

We enjoyed another lovely Sunday. In the morning we went to church. Hubby and I both taught Sunday School (I've got the 7-9 year-old kids and he's got the teenagers). The kids were in their own class which they enjoyed as per usual.

After church hubby visited his parents and came home with a brilliant idea of going swimming in the afternoon. So he quickly bought some supplies and got us a taxi. We picked up his cousin and her two daughters and off we went. Needless to say the kids just loved it. It was really hard to get them out of the water even for eating.

Afternoon was well spent and the kids were really tired as we got home. Hubby decided to stay with them and put them to bed early and I went to church by myself. I came back a short while ago by bike and it just started to rain. What a timing!

I've been trying to upload some pictures from the craft fair but I keep getting a "server error" message. Hopefully it works tomorrow!

Craft fair

Today we celebrated women's day at church and the service was led by women. I had been asked to join in and play the keyboard. I was quite nervous but it went ok.

After the service there was a craft fair (it's called feira de talentos, talent fair in Portuguese)where people donated things to be sold and the money went to the women's union of the church. I also made a few things and at least a few of them were sold byt the time we left! :) I'll post a few pictures from the fair tomorrow with more time. Now I really have to finish preparing Sunday School and then get some sleep!

I made these finger puppets (not sure if they're called that in English...) out of felt.

And these hearts out of felt, too. The pink one is white on the other side and the brown and the green ones are pink on the other side.

These are little bags for mobile phones. My mum made these already last year when she was visiting. I have more of them and I've been meaning to sell them for a good while. I took a few of them to the fair just to see if people were interested in them...

Crafting again!

Was it just yesterday that I was whining about not having any crafting ideas or energy? Well, things are back to normal on the crafting front :) Dawn reminded me of this site and it's great. I had already subscribed to their newsletter but I haven't received anything from them for a good while... Anyway the site is good and already gave me several new ideas.

Yesterday I made myself do some crafting with the kids and this is what we (they) came up with:

They are Easter eggs (in case someone is wondering...) made out of felt. I cut the shapes and the kids glued. The ones on the top are Luana's and Lucas made the one below. He didn't have the concentration to do both sides but I'm so happy with the one he made! I'll sew the two sides together, fill them just a little and put a string for hanging them.

It was funny how I had to tell myself to be quiet as the kids went on decorating the eggs. In my opinion you paint (or decorate) Easter eggs horizontally but as we've never painted Easter eggs with the kids they didn't have any fixed ideas as to how to decorate them. I think they came out so cheerful and pretty!

Easter is on its way

I got reminded of Easter as I read Dawn's blog. My homeschool plan said the theme for the day was to be the sun. With my head empty of any nice ideas about the sun I opted for a few Easter cards. Who knows I might even make it to the post office in time!

First we sat down and looked at what happened during Easter according to the Bible (that's the kids' Bible under the cards). Luana was really interested in everything and she was able to tell me some of the things like when the women went to the tomb just to find it empty. I taught the kids an Easter song from my childhood and then it was finally time to GLUE!!!

I used little painted wooden egg halves as well as pre-cut felt shapes that we simply glued on the cards. This was very simple but the kids liked doing it. It obviously wasn't enough for my little crafting maniacs as they spent the rest of the afternoon asking me "which crafting are we going to do next?".

I have to admit I've been feeling really lazy about homeschooling (or -kindergartening) lately. It's like I don't have any nice crafting ideas right now and even if I come up with something I'm too tired or the kids are too cranky and I don't feel like doing any crafting with them. Maybe I should browse some websites for inspiration...

Us

I was supposed to post a pictures of me and my kids already some time last week but I didn't get it done. These were taken on Saturday.

Daddy's art

Lucas is poorly again. This time I reckon he's just got a common cold with temperature and runny nose. The temperature rose on Sunday afternoon and I stayed at home with him as daddy and Luana went to church. He hasn't been to school yesterday nor today. I'm hoping there won't be any more temperature this evening...

Today after we had been grocery shopping daddy came home (he has very irregular schedule as he works for himself) and took Lucas to his office next door. They apparently had some boys' stuff to do and they couldn't tell me what it was. When they came back they just mumbled something about modern art and still wouldn't tell me what they had done. It was only now that the art work had dried that I got to see it. It's made on an old tea towel using left over ink from ink cartridges as well as some left overs of normal house paint. That's all I know about it but I think it's cute (and I'm so proud of my Brazilian hubby who actually cares about recycling!).

Sunday afternoon at home

We spent a lovely Sunday afternoon in the front yard playing with the kids and the dogs (for doggie pictures check my other blog)
Daddy and Lucas.

Lucas climbing a tree with a little help from daddy.

Luana also climbed.

Luana, Lucas and me infront of our house.

Fab Saturday

I wasn't supposed to post during weekends but today was just so nice that I wanted to post something right away :)



In the morning I did some laundry and the kids helped. They washed some of the dolls' clothes as I washed our clothes. They then proceeded to doing the dishes with their plastic plates, saucepans, cups etc. Before lunch they had a splash around in their paddling pool and were very happy about that.

In the afternoon we went to see daddy play football with members of the extended family. I think it's such a nice way for them to get together every week (even if they regularly argue over football...).

This is the team that lost 7-2 but they don't seem too bothered about it :)

They played at one of the local schools. It was weird and also nice to be at a school when there was no one else around. The kids in the school's little garden.

We walked home in the most beautiful early evening sunshine. The streets were empty and the kids could just run back and forth.

It was such a good day. We didn't do anything big but the day was full of wonderful little moments. When we got home I told the kids how much I'd enjoyed the day with them and how proud they had made me with the way they behaved the whole day.