Little Getaway- Pattaya

One major bonus to working in an international school is you get an October break.  It always come right at the time where you are starting to fizzle out and need a re-charge.  We decided to stay close and re-visit one of our new favorite places to vacation.  I never thought I would ever say this, but we went back to Pattaya.  This time we took our neighbors and their three boys and ended up having a great time. Here is my last blog post about the first time we visited Atlantis and all the deals I found.   Here are the photos from our trip:

On our way...How many can you fit in a van?  10 would be the correct answer!

Atlantis Condo

Dinner & Freetime

Big Buddha Hill

Ferry & Koh Larn

What are we reading?

If you read to your children, I highly recommend The Reading Promise by Alice Ozma.  I could not put it down.  It will make you realize that every single book you have read to your kids has a purpose.  

100 Book Challenge: #54

We started The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden and we are all really enjoying it.  We have not read too many books where the characters are animals, so this was a nice change.  This list has introduced us to so many books that we would have never read or even heard of.  I am so happy we started this challenge nearly two years ago.  

                                                 

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap-Up:

 

What to do when your children embarrass you?

I think I am just in a mood, but being a parent is the most frustrating, exhausting, & time-consuming job I have ever had.  Today was one of those days that I was so embarrassed by my kids.  The kind of situation that gets your family labeled as "that family."  The kind of situation that probably won't get us invited back again.

What's really frustrating is that I work so hard to teach my boys manners and how to behave when we are out in public, but there are times it just feels like a battle I will never win.  They are really good kids, but three boys just tend to get out of control at times.  I know they are only 10, 8 & 5, but I do hold them to high standards when it comes to manners and I expect them to know how to behave.

In this current situation, I took the boys back to the house to apologize and they will be paying for what they broke, but I still feel like a potential friendship has been ruined.   It's embarrassing, disappointing and I feel defeated.  When my boys are in the wrong, I always have them write letters to apologize or own up to what they did wrong.  I know my boys well enough to know when they are not telling the whole truth and I expect them to own up to what they have done wrong.  I am not a parent who looks past mistakes the boys make and brush them off or think my child wasn't in the wrong.  I am actually on the other end of the spectrum and usually jump to the side that they probably did do something.  I know this isn't fair to them.

What do you do when your child embarrasses you in front of others?  Not the kind of embarrassment where they say something they shouldn't, the kind of embarrassment that reflects on your parenting skills?  The kind of embarrassment that gets you labeled.  Today is just a day where parenting is frustrating, exhausting, and time-consuming.  I know tomorrow will bring a day where parenting is the most wonderful experience of my life, but I have to get through this frustrating day first.

**  I did want to mention, as this sounds like a super depressing post, the boys know that I am very proud of them for apologizing to the parent and using their own money to pay for what was broken. I'm just disappointed in the situation.

Week in Review: Week 11, October 12-18, 2015

Virtue

We are working on being helpful this week.  I am trying to get the boys to see when tasks need to be completed without me having to ask them.  If you see a wrapper, pick it up.  If there are dishes on the table, put them away without me having to nag to get it done.  So, this will probably be our virtue for a few weeks until I feel like we have enough practice. 

Tea on Tuesday


More awesome poems for our tea time.  I loved the one about the layers of a rain forest.  I will have to post it, because it was perfect for little ones to understand, but ended with a deep thought.

Tropical Rainforest Poem

Dark and damp,
On forest floor,
Fungi grows,

Wait, there’s more!
Bugs and bugs,
Of every kind,
I'll go on,
If you don’t mind…
Jaguars, and amphibians,

The forest floor,
Where it begins...
Next level up?
The understory,
There’s a huge inventory,
Birds, and bats, and butterflies,

Bananas, tarsiers, meet our eyes,
Capuchin monkeys, boas, skinks,
The chocolate used in chocolate drinks!
Next level up?
You will see,
Is the great green canopy,
Not a place for cans of peas,

Just the tops of tall, green trees!
Two-toed sloths, and maybe three,
Move so slow, you’ll agree,
Epiphytes!
Orangutans!
The colored beaks,
Of cool toucans,
And all those wise old, graceful trees,
Produce the oxygen,
Which we breathe...
Emergent layer?
Tops it all!
Sit up there,
You'll see it all,
The amazing forest,
Stuns and awes,
But people cut it,
With chainsaws...

We hope it doesn’t all get wrecked,
It’s a place we must protect!

100 Book Challenge #53

We are almost through with The Penderwicks, and I am so sad for it to be coming to an end.  I am really relieved that this is a series because I want to know more about this family.  They are such well-rounded characters and you truly feel like you are making friends while reading about them. Greyson wants to read the whole series and I thought this might be a great way to spend some one on one time with him and read it together.

                                                       

Geography

We traveled to Louisiana this week and stopped for Mardi Gras in New Orleans.  We learned about the holiday and why the festival is celebrated.  And we finished off with an amazing meal of fried chicken, Louisiana pasta, garlic bread and New Orleans Beignets.  It was delicious!

Autumn Theme

Instead of working on a new FIAR book this week, Britton and I learned about Autumn.  Since Britton has lived in Thailand most of his life, he really does not have a very good concept of what Autumn looks like.  We read books about Autumn and Fall leaves.  His favorite was Leaf Man and we ended up making our own leaf man.  It's so much fun to see how long children can play without toys. He loved doing this activity.  

Science


Greyson and Lincoln are having a wonderful time working through their chemistry lessons.  This week, they had to run chemical and physical tests on three different powders to decide what they were.

One afternoon this week Britton and Lincoln pulled the science kit down and mixed liquids for at least two hours.  They were playing so well together that I just couldn't interrupt them.  At the same time, Greyson was teaching himself to play Beethoven's Fur Elise on the piano.  It was a nice homeschooling afternoon.

FIAR- Albert (Greyson & Lincoln)

We have come to our last week of working through Albert and I am sad this book is finished.  We have had so many fun lessons and learned so much just by reading a picture book.  If you are trying to figure out a curriculum, I highly recommend FIAR. It has been my very favorite thing we have used so far.

The boys learned about cardinals.

They tried making their own birds nest and realized it is much harder than you would think.

Greyson made a hanging nest.

Co-op

New classes in co-op this week. Knot tying.

Music

Outdoor play

Engineering

Halloween

Our luminaries all lit up.

Broom parking at our house.

Art

Greyson and Lincoln have been learning about Van Gogh and they painted some sunflowers to go along with his famous paintings.

Special Moments


Beautiful Orchid in my yard.

We found Ben at the International Food Fair at RIS.

Now we are ready for October Break!  Off to the beach.


Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler's Weekly Wrap-Up