Zoo Fun!

Things in the classroom are going well, although things are a bit different now.  My one assistant has left my classroom for a practicum she needs to complete for her education, so she will be gone until sometime in March.  I have been blessed with another new assistant to fill her place until she returns.  It is definitely a challenge though, because she does not understand what I am saying at all.  It’s like starting all over again and learning how to express what I need to say and have her do in a creative enough way for her to understand.  So it is a bit stressful, but I am very thankful to still have my other assistant Sonia in my room still.  And as for Sonia, she is expecting a baby!  She will be leaving my classroom sometime towards the end of the year too because her baby is due in June sometime.  I pray that I will be able to meet her third child before I leave Honduras.  I keep reflecting on how much my relationship with my assistants has grown since the beginning of the year.  It definitely took time to develop, but I truly appreciate my assistants and can easily call them friends.  We have fun together in our classroom, and I give thanks to God for them often!

Our decorations are in the process of being changed again, and this time it is for Valentine’s Day, yay!  I definitely have enjoyed making these decorations, I really love this holiday!  Our music teacher left before Christmas break to continue on with his education in Costa Rica, so we haven’t had music in my class since being back.  I feel as though music is important for young kids, so I have brought my guitar back into my classroom and we have been enjoying it.  They really enjoy “The Wheels on the Bus.”  I might be the only one singing the right words, but at least they enjoy doing the hand motions!

We continue to learn new verses for our morning devotion time.  So far we have been memorizing these verses: Genesis 1:1, Psalm 18:30, 1 John 3:23, Psalm 18:30, John 1:3, Psalm 23:1, Genesis 26:24, and James 1:17.  We say them every morning, and I used to not say the last word in the verse and they would remember it on their own.  They have gotten so good at saying these verses! Some of them know most of them all (with a few made up words because they can’t say the real English word, it’s super cute).  But it’s definitely been a joy seeing them remember these verses!

This weekend some of us went to Lago de Yajoa again, but this time we went to go see the zoo.  One of the high school classes gets to go on a fieldtrip later in the year to the zoo, so we went to check it out before hand.  It was a blast!  The zoo was a Christian zoo—how cool!! They had worship music playing throughout the whole zoo and the staff was very friendly!  It was awesome.  The zoo was very hands on, clean, and there were a ton of animals!  I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Now for a fun story.  So I started doing this “dinosaur” act a few years ago to my friends and younger brother.  He always hated when I did it to him, but he laughed every single time.  So naturally, I have continued to do it J.  I recently showed my roommates the dinosaur, and they loved it as well.  Well, it just so happens we got to the zoo and saw three huge fake dinosaur statutes in the park.  I JUST HAD TO GET A VIDEO being baby dinosaur.   Kind of weird, I know, but I hope you get laugh!

Pranksters

 

 

This past week of school has been really good.  There are definitely still challenges everyday, but God has given me such peace about all these frustrations.  We are continuing to work on the letters I and J and the number 7 in my classroom.  Last week was filled with activities involving Igloos, Inchworms, Insects, Jello Jigglers, of Jets, playing Jacks, races putting our Jackets on and off, and more.  My kids just melt my hearts everyday.  I love watching them learn and discover new things.  They bless me everyday, and I do my best not to take it for granted.  Some days I have less patience, and I feel like I do not love on them enough, so it continues to be a learning process.  I do my best daily though, and continue to ask for God to grant me with the patience, love, encouragement, and more that I need from Him daily. 

Saturday a few of us girls went to Santa Rosa for the day.  We ate at a restaurant we really like there called Zots.  It's a lot like an Applebee's.  I enjoyed a huge salad and I also tried Mondongo Soup (cows intestines or stomach  lining). It's a big delicacy here, and it wouldnt be my first soup choice to eat, but at least I can say that I tried it.  

Saturday night Kiley and I found ourselves home alone.  I provided some entertainment for Kiley for a bit, including putting my computer on my shoulder like a boom box and singing and dancing to "Will You Be There" by Michael Jackson.  It's one of my favorites.  I had been thinking in my head of some pranks we could pull on Jen and Jaime when they got home, when Kiley said we should do pranks on them.  Great minds think alike.  We drew a picture of a huge cockroach to put in their food cupboards--we have at least one large cockroach somewhere in our house each day.  So this was just the perfect thing to do.  We drew it extra big, and very realistic, and were cracking up the whole time, waiting for them to find it.  We were sitting in the kitchen when they got home with the video camera ready.  I about lost it a number of times, and almost gave it away.  Right before they opened the cupboard we had our keyboard playing the song, La Cucaracha.  Just watch the video for yourself, and I hope you get a good laugh too!  We also taped things down to the tables with clear tape so they couldn't be picked up when needed, and we hung an open umbrella from the door that hit them when they walked in.  Easy and somewhat dumb pranks give the best laughs, especially to me!  

This morning we went to the house church and I helped Kristi with the children.  It was such a humbling morning.  There were 6 children, ranging from Kindergarten to 4th grade.  They live on the mountain where the house church is, and they are not wealthy like most of the students at our school.  They have very little, but they are always smiling and playing.  The oldest boy was the only one who could read or write--the others didn't even know the letters in their names.  Kristi gave those who memorized last weeks verse (Genesis 1:1) a piece of Trident Splash gum.  It was so humbling watching them debate whether or not to eat it now, and then once it was in their mouths, whether or not to bite down on it.  Once they did, they tried hard to keep their giggles and smiles inside them, but they didn't succeed.  They were all smiles, as was I.  We started to make part of our book for creation--we will continue to make it next week.  After we finished our reading and craft, we went outside to play with the kids.  It was just a morning of pure JOY with those kids.  I went up on a hill with them all, and it was just a beautiful view.  We excitedly rolled tires down the hill, slid down the hill on a wood platform as a sled, and then went to a tree further away on the hill and hung on to branches and swung all around.  This was my kind of morning with some of God's beautiful children :)

 This view NEVER gets old!

Gracias a Dios para Gracias :) 

 

It's good to be back!

It's great to be back in Gracias.  All week I have been reminded of how happy I truly am here.  I am continuously filled with JOY here.  The first week back has been really great.  I can't explain how excited I was Monday morning to see my little one's!  They had huge smiles on their faces, and I was hugged upon right away.  It was wonderful.  Monday was a great day--the kids were excited about being back and they behaved so well.  We definitely enjoyed being together again!  We started off the week reviewing, and I discovered my students remembered almost all of their letters and numbers that we have learned so far.  So great to see!  I feel so refreshed as a teacher and I am fully ready to continue having a beautiful year in the Nursery.  

We began learning about the letter "I" later in the week, and we have been having a lot of fun learning together.  Enjoy the pictures and videos of us making insects out of sticks, looking for insects outside, and making and playing our maraca instruments!

Videos: 
Singing our goodbye song and playing our maraca instruments!
Outside looking for insects-chasing a butterfly!

Looking for Insects!

Looking for Insects!

Blissfully Belizean

Safe back in Gracias!