Showing posts with label School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label School. Show all posts

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Week One

Hi it's me


The week has been well . . . so far . . .


Linnea is doing well, she loves her teacher; she says that Ms. Rachel plans fun activities and gives out candy. Linnea's doing good with friends, too. She has one from last year and already has one  friend she made already. She also has one boy who's annoying her.



Dad has been working a lot and is getting home late and leaving early. He has high expectations for me and I think I've been fulfilling them.












Mom so far is doing great with meeting her students and doing her usual routine. Mom, Linnea and I like seeing each other in the hallways, now that we're all in elementary.


I am doing good with my studies and specials. I like my P.E. and music classes so far I am doing good with Ms. Forman. I don't have much homework, yet. I've built all the Lego sets already
and I like them allot. I also got a new skateboard and I love it!  

           

                                                                                                       
                                                                                                       
                                                                                                           



Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Halloween in Colombia

Have you seen the ghost of John?
Long white bones with skin all gone.
Ooohhh ooohhh oohh oohh.
Wouldn't it be chilly with no skin on?

We've been hearing this song now for the last few days from Dempsey who learned it at school.  It's a beautiful song but after hearing it 229 times, its level of creepiness rapidly increases.  

Halloween is surprisingly a big thing here in Bogota.  Last weekend, both in our neighborhood and in Simon Bolivar Park, there were people dressed in costume already.  There is a chain store that typically sells home goods throughout the year called Cachivaches.  But around the beginning of September, the costumes, wigs, vampire teeth and witch hats fill the store and most of your Halloween desires can be met there.  We were able to make our own costumes by getting some stuff from Cachivaches (witch's wig and hat, bat teeth, a top hat),  on the street (a cheap umbrella that was then cut for the bat wings),    "Smoking Ramiro's" (where Eric rented a tuxedo shirt, brightly colored vest and bib to look like President Snow from the Hunger Games) and the school drama department costume room.  We also randomly bought Linnea's witch dress at a seamstress shop in San Gil that was selling lots of costumes when we were visiting there a couple of weeks ago.

Here are some of our highlights for halloween, starting last Saturday night at our building Halloween Party and at school today.

 2 ninjas and a witch

 The pumpkin line-up



 President Snow, Ninja, Witch and Bat


 Another 5th grate teacher and I representing the dark creatures of the fauna world.


Dempsey in the primary and elementary parade, where about 800 students filed through the hallway.

The parade also passed through Middle School where we saw Eric playing science professor.  He was dropping bubbles filled with smoke down onto the parade.

Linnea with her classmates: Gypsy, Wonder Woman and Bat Girl.









Sunday, May 6, 2012

Give My Regards to Broadway

This year, we had 75% of our family in the school musical.  We'll see if we can talk Dempsey into doing it next year.  From kindergarten to 12th grade, our tribute to Broadway was a whole school affair.  The show ran for 3 nights, and each night was better than the one preceding it.  

Pre-show pep-talk with the whole cast.

 Linnea in "Hard Knock Life" from Annie.  She has already committed to be in next year's musical.



 Us adults were  country folk from Annie Get your Gun.
We sang "Doin' What Comes Naturally".



A cat getting made up for "Mr. Mestoffelees".




Sunday, October 9, 2011

School Days

Primary playground where Linnea spends her recess...







 Elementary court

 Middle School



We can even recycle our batteries here!

Around the school



View From Jennie's classroom

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Look Out Marcel Marceau!



Dempsey's class had a mime-off to depict Shel Silverstein's poem "One Inch Tall".



One Inch Tall

If you were only one inch tall, you'd ride a worm to school.
The teardrop of a crying ant would be your swimming pool.
A crumb of cake would be a feast
And last you seven days at least,
A flea would be a frightening beast
If you were one inch tall.

If you were only one inch tall, you'd walk beneath the door,
And it would take about a month to get down to the store.
A bit of fluff would be your bed,
You'd swing upon a spider's thread,
And wear a thimble on your head
If you were one inch tall.

You'd surf across the kitchen sink upon a stick of gum.
You couldn't hug your mama, you'd just have to hug her thumb.
You'd run from people's feet in fright,
To move a pen would take all night,
(This poem took fourteen years to write--
'Cause I'm just one inch tall).





Shel Silverstein

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

YAY Linnea!


Sunday, April 24, 2011

Guacamaya Language School, Copan Ruinas

  We spent our Semana Santa in Copan Ruinas, near the ancient Mayan ruins of Copan.  We all went to brush up on our Spanish at Guacamaya Spanish School.  We stayed with a local family and attended classes each morning from 8 to noon.  After, we would meander through the streets of Copan Ruinas, visit the swimming hole at Macaw Mountain, or the ruins.  Completely relaxing, entertaining and... educational! The adults of this family can attest to the pleasure of improving our Spanish with a one-on-one tutor.  The kids spent the morning with their teachers practicing their Spanish in a more playful way with games and physical activities.


Linnea and her teacher, Emma

Dempsey and Sarah


                         Field trip...        
 
             Pretty door on the way to school.     

Linnea in front of our house before school one day.

Stay tuned for more pictures of las alfombras de viernes santa, horseback riding, and the ruins.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Yeah, So we've been a little busy lately and the priority of the blog has fallen down on the totem pole.  So here's the Reader's Digest version of our last few weeks:


Linnea staging a store in her bedroom. 
 She repositioned the bookshelf and strategically staged the items for sale.

                                                      



Our new home... we had to move... the story is not really worth telling unless we're talking in person.



Rural Honduran shower on the "roadside"



One of Dempsey's Lego creations



We call this the "Secret Garden".  It's a great little pathway through a xeriscape garden at school between pre-school and the elementary school.  It's not necessarily hidden, but it's "secret" because no one uses it.  In it we find lantana, peanut grass, succulents and enough winged flying-things to keep a bug zapper happy for an evening.  It's also a nice place to walk before school to avoid the speeding Range Rovers and Prados that are exiting the school after drop-off.   This picture was taken on our way to Family Day. 



 Family Day snacks with Laurel.



Our new view from our new home...  it's even more spectacular at night. 



Thursday, May 20, 2010

Deluge

We were treated today with an authentic tropical downpour.  I had my camera at school to take a couple of pictures, "Hold on, kids, I have to take a picture of this CRAZY rainstorm!"  The rain was so loud that I couldn't hear my students speaking.

This was the view from my classroom

This is just outside my classroom after the rain.  There were rivers flowing down walkways, 
flooded grassy areas and a lot of kids gawking at the beautiful storm.



When we got home, the power was out because of powerful lightening and a loud clap of thunder.  We took the opportunity to start celebrating Eric's birthday early and we had a happy hour/lounge time with the Roberts, followed by chicken and vegetable soup with matzah balls.  YUM!



Sunday, March 21, 2010

Empty Bowls - Part 2 and a New King Bed

We went to the Empty Bowls fundraiser last Thursday night.  We purchased 2 masterpieces made by young, budding artists.  The green bowl is Dempsey's and the yellow and blue is Linnea's.  The Annie's pasta is only thrown in there because we were so excited to see it at the store the other day that we bought a bunch of boxes.


Here is another picture from the night...





There was a bit of a bed fiasco last weekend...Eric went across the city to El Hatillo to get a king size bed from some Americans who are moving back to the states.  He made arrangements with some guys from the school to use a truck to haul the bed back down the mountain and to our house.  About 20 minutes into the excursion, the truck broke down.  Phone calls were made, a mechanic was summoned, I was on call in case I needed to use our car to go pick him up from this aborted bed mission.  After they all waited three hours the mechanic was unable to fix the truck.  It turns out the truck was in pretty bad shape; low oil, no water, electrical problems etc....  It was decided that a school bus would be sent to pick them all up! Best part of it was that the school bus also went to pick up our new bed!  Beds do not exactly fit in the door of a school bus, but somehow they got it in and twenty minutes later...

Up comes the school bus and our new bed pops out of the emergency exit, good as new... well almost good as new.  Total time it takes to buy a new (used) bed here... just over 6 hours!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Empty Bowls - Part 1


Tomorrow after school, there will be an auction to raise money for Day Care centers in Nueva Suyapa, a colonia on our side of the city.  Each student in the school, from elementary to high school, made and glazed a ceramic bowl that will be sold for 100 lempiras (about $5).  The price of the bowl also includes a delicious scoop of tortilla soup.  So, we know where we will be eating dinner tomorrow night!  Most likely, a majority of the students bowls will be bought by students' parents.  We will certainly be looking for L and D's to buy.  Also, artists and artsy people around the city made bowls that will be auctioned off for a lot more money.  All the proceeds go to providing nutritious food for the kids of the day care centers, who would normally eat lesser of a meal.


A teacher/reporter at our school made this news piece to show who will benefit from the money raised from Empty Bowls.  She works in the elementary and her husband is the middle school art teacher.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWBASicRYYo

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Trash Collector

      Today at the morning pledge for elementary, the principal made an announcement that some younger students had been seen picking up popsicle sticks and plastic spoons out by the Big Toy.  (Big Toy: think over sized play structure).  She wanted to commend these students for taking pride in their school and taking action when they see that some trash needs to be picked up.  Who were those kids picking up trash?  You guessed it... Dempsey and his friend Gabriel.

      You see, a lot of people in this country, and Central America for that matter, treat the world like it's their trash can.  Our school is a bit of an oasis from this trashy problem, but not entirely.  There are still plastic water bottles, napkins, food wrappers and more found here and there.

      I guess you can take the kid out of California, but you can't take California out of the kid.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Quick Post

Today Linnea asked if she could wash the dishes in the sink.  She started sudsing up the dishes and she said "I'm washing dishes, just like our maid!"  Aaaaaahh, the perks of living in Central America.
Linnea at last week's pinata.  This one was for her friend, Diego.  Today, we went to another one for Hernan.  She loves pinatas.

 

Dempsey's futbol team finished in primer lugar.  Their final game was on Friday, they beat the Lions 7-1.  He has been wearing his medal all weekend.  He is already talking about signing up for Eagle League Basketball which starts in January. 


Last Friday, Dempsey was honored for his integrity.  Each teacher in the elemetary selected one child from class to be honored for one of the three values we have focused on since the beginning of the year; pride, integrity and loyalty.



Last week, we had a six day work week.  We had to work on Saturday to make up for all the days we have missed since school started (h1n1 and Mel Zelaya).  It was a long and tiring week, with 3 of Dempsey's futbol games after school, progress reports due, first quarter grades had to be entered into the new online grading system and writing assessments had to be scored and turned in on Friday.  We are glad to have only a 3 day week ahead of us.  Our plan is to go to Selva Negra in Nicaragua.  Check out www.selvanegra.com


The elections are next Sunday, November 29.  So far, things in the city have been calm and quiet.  We were planning on being gone the whole 4 day weekend and returning to Tegucigalpa on Sunday, but we have been warned that traffic getting into the city and all throughout the city will be messy because of all the people voting, so we decided to not take any chances and return on Saturday.  Keep your fingers crossed that things go smoothly on election day and this country will begin to mend the damage that has been done over the last few months and years.