What the Kids are Doing

Here's Ava in her Swahili lesson with Mwalimu Lucia. She doesn't look like she's paying attention, but she's actually looking around for different colored objects and giving the name in Swahili. Her friend from Canada (Edmonton, so their big thing in common is that they lived near the 2 biggest malls in N. America) is Lucas, in the orange vest next to her. Just to give you an idea of the composition of the school--starting on Ava's left, D's family is from Israel, Lucas' dad is from Canada and his mother is from the Congo, A's mom is from New Zealand and his dad is Dutch, L's family is from Australia, and C. is Chinese, adopted by an American mom lastly hailing from Canda. Not pictured are 4 other children, who are Dutch, Indian and two new boys who are either New Zealand, Australian, or British.

The school, as I've mentioned, is very big on hands-on learning and focusing on the process as well as the product. Last week Noah had his first science fair. They had been studying solids, liquids, and gases, and had to design an experiment and display on something they had learned or wondered about. Noah's question was "Do some liquids trap more gas than others?" He poured water, oil, and soda into a bucket and measured how much gas (air bubbles) was trapped. It is very difficult to get him to change his mind or look at something from a different point of view once he's got an idea of how things should be in his mind. We encouraged him to bring his project in so that other kids could do the pouring, too. No. We wanted to take pictures of him doing the experiment at home. No. He very much wanted to do his poster at school, with no help. It was hard for me not to insist or demand otherwise (it's the mom/teacher in me) but I held back. After all, it was his project and should reflect his efforts, right? I mean, isn't that mantra we all chant to ourselves while we're interfering in our kids' work? (hee hee hee)

Here's Noah, realizing for himself that bringing in his experiment and having photos would have been a good idea--this is after he saw most of the other kids having those things. He was a bit disappointed (and frustrated because he wanted to go around and see everyone else's work instead of staying at his station) but he recovered and did a very nice job. I think that the experience will give him something to think about the next time he has to make a display. Part of their grade is a self-evaluation and he told us that he liked his idea but would do more "exciting" things next time, like having something for the kids who visited his station to do or see.

Don't lie on this one...anyone who has kids has had days when they look at their supposed offspring and wonder, "Whose kid is that? Certainly not mine!" Sometimes you can put it off to your spouse's gene pool, but other times you just gotta wonder.

And then there are those times where you may have actually found the "other family". Case in point...

This is Lui and Toren. They hail from Scotland and this picture does not do real justice to just how much they and Cameron look alike. Especially Lui, next to Cameron. It's not just the hair, either. Skin color, eyes, freckles, the Lego/Star Wars/book obsession--it's a package deal!