2014_01_21 Tuesday

I'm beginning to believe that demon possession really is a thing. Elise woke up this morning fine, actually, but she certainly spiraled downhill at break-neck speed. She flipped out because I had her wear an orange cord dress. Then, she freaked over breakfast (Dora yogurt, banana, and milk?!). She was just mean throughout. Dave and I both had her sitting and thinking no less than 4 times in 30 mins. What the whaaat?! We all talked about choosing to be in a good/bad mood. And, when we walked out the door, I helped her decide to leave 'the nasties' inside our house. That didn't work for very long. Nannies and moms were shocked at school to see her completely fall apart. ah, well, it can only get better, right?

One huge perk of being here is that I get all the snow days from up north! Gov't is closed, so I don't have to work today (although I did for most of the day)!!

From Elise's school:

Sawubona! Hello from the Zulu nation in South Africa! We traveled to the country of South Africa today. The plan was to paint an acacia tree for art. The kids looked at several pictures of Acacia trees to choose how they would like to paint their pictures. They chose to paint an acacia tree in the sunset. I asked why they thought the acacia tree looked black instead of green in the sunset. X correctly guessed that the tree didn't have enough sunlight on it to see the colors. X very gently dabbed his paintbrush in black paint to paint the leaves on his tree.  X agreed that's how the tress should look and all of the other kids quickly followed suit. 

We watched a short clip of Isaiah Chevrier. He is an amazing djembe player from West Africa that is only 10 years old! He has been playing since he was 3. The kids were very inspired so we had our own African drum circle. The kids took turns with the djembe. We worked on rhythms. Elise liked clapping the rhythm to keep the other kids on beat. X realized that if you gently tap the djembe, it doesn't make a sound. X showed him how to tap it hard so the sound would be loud. 

We began working with the letter P today. X identified that our lunch, Pasta, stars with the letter P! Ms. X joined us for our Spanish lessons today. X helped her teach the class the parts of a house in Spanish.