Adventures in Homeschooling (Part 1: Chameleons)

I have always said that I wouldn't choose to homeschool if I didn't have to, and that remains true.  But there are so many things I appreciate about homeschooling, and I am so thankful to have the privilege of teaching our boys at home and all the blessings that come with it.

One of the greatest blessings of homeschooling is being able to stop everything whenever something cooler comes along.

A couple weeks ago, something cooler definitely came along.

One of the gardeners in the compound knew that we were on the lookout for chameleons and hadn't found one yet.  Well, he found one in the midst of his gardening duties and brought this beauty to us.  It was the biggest chameleon we'd ever seen!

We did not have chameleons this big at Tenwek and it was the source of much joy for our household!  The boys named it Jade, which is one of the better names they've ever come up with for a creature :)

Because of all the excitement, we completely abandoned our work at the table and decided to build the chameleon a terrarium, stat.  I pulled out one of our many empty bins so the kids could make a habitat for our new friend.  Oh, and of course we ran to tell our friends/neighbors so they could join us in the fun!

Can you see Jade in there?

As soon as the terrarium was complete, talk turned to what to feed her.  I sent the kids on a mission to find crickets and grasshoppers, which they dutifully did.  (If these kids had a superpower, it'd be finding and catching bugs...honestly, they are really good at that!)  And then Caleb had the idea of feeding their pet mantis to the chameleon.  He'd caught the praying mantis a couple days prior but it wasn't eating much and wasn't looking good and I had planned to release it...until the chameleon came along and the kids wanted to see what would happen if the mantis was thrown to the lions, as it were.

Since it seemed obvious that Jade was hungry, the kids immediately took off again to find more bugs for her.  In the midst of searching, one of the girls found another chameleon!  It had black spots all over, which we'd never seen in a chameleon before.  It was smaller and had a slightly different shape than Jade.  My friend Lauren started looking up chameleon species, and we determined that the second chameleon was a flap-necked chameleon, as opposed to a Jackson's chameleon (which was Jade's species).  Lots of fun learning was happening!

Of course we added the second chameleon (aptly named Black Spot by the children) to the terrarium.  And then Lauren and I decided to have a picnic lunch and chameleon story time as we observed our new reptilian friends.  It was so much fun!

Can you spy both chameleons?  They're both in there somewhere...

As we watched them, we started noticing that Black Spot would get a bit aggressive and stick out her throat pouch when angry.  The throat pouch had beautiful red stripes on it and would only come out whenever Jade got too close, or a kid tried to grab her.  Can't say I blame her for being a bit tense with seven little people excitedly jumping around!

And then Black Spot got really angry.  Jade, the curious sort, kept testing her boundaries with Black Spot and invaded her personal space a number of times.  I happened to be filming during the first antagonistic encounter between the two.  Black Spot was cranky!

We kept the chameleons for the rest of the afternoon, then released them in the evening.  In the morning we could still find Black Spot hiding in the bushes, right where we'd left her.  It was quite a day of homeschool.  Science class: check!

AND THEN!  A week later, the kids were playing in the yard across from our house, and someone noticed a chameleon digging in the dirt.

It was Black Spot!!!  And a chameleon digging in the dirt can only mean one thing: she was digging a burrow to lay her eggs.  It's true!  She was pregnant and bulging at the sides and digging digging digging, slowly slowly slowly, down deep to lay those eggs.  (And no wonder she was so cranky before!  Lauren and I completely sympathized with the poor lady who just wanted her space when she was in the last days of pregnancy).

It was fascinating!  We were all excited to watch the process.  But we were also concerned.  Her location was out in the open, in plain sight of cats and birds and other predators.  We were worried about Black Spot herself, but also worried about the baby chameleons whenever they would hatch and come out and potentially get gobbled up by any number of things.  

So...we dug them up.

I know it sounds a bit ridiculous, but that's what we did.  Besides, this event became another science class and we wanted to know how deep down she'd dug and how many eggs she laid.  Turns out she dug way deeper than we thought and laid 26 eggs!

It was incredible.  Lauren got online and found out how to take care of chameleon eggs.  Apparently plenty of people have done this before, and in the name of science and homeschooling we decided to try it too.  We split the batch of eggs in half so we could keep some and the Webbers could keep some.  And in case some don't survive, maybe the other half will.  At any rate, it's an ongoing science experiment.  Chameleon eggs don't hatch for 4-7 months, however, which is a significantly longer incubation period than we expected, so we'll have to wait quite awhile to see what happens.

Like I said, one of the greatest blessings of homeschooling is being able to stop everything whenever something cooler comes along.  And we've had some amazingly cool things come along.  And the kids have learned a ton, had so much fun, talked about it for days, and will always remember this.

A Boy Turns 7

I've been a mother for seven years!  Caleb was born less than a week before my first Mother's Day and I am remembering that day today, when I became a mother and when my world changed forever.  And how some Mother's Days are wonderful (like that first one with a walk along Lake Superior on a beautiful spring day) and some are less spectacular (like this one with a puking kid for hours on end and a husband who's on-call at the hospital), but that each Mother's Day reminds me of the fact that I am blessed beyond measure with these precious sons of mine.

Let me backtrack to Caleb's birthday this week.  Because it was just so fun and he was just so happy and my heart was just so full!

Caleb does not like a lot of attention, so we chose to keep his birthday low-key, especially given the fact that we're still in transition and getting to know our new community.  So we opted to invite just a couple families over for birthday cake and call it good.  He was very pleased with that decision and had a wonderful time!

First, Caleb decided that he wanted a Jurassic World birthday.  Which mostly meant that he wanted a cake decorated with dinosaurs on it.  I aim to please when it comes to birthday cakes (and birthdays in general...I really love birthdays!), so I spent time the day before coming up with a plan for the cake.  Caleb was pretty excited with the results :)

But I'm getting ahead of myself!  The cake wasn't decorated until the afternoon.  The very first thing that happened on Caleb's birthday was me waking up to the birthday boy crawling into bed to snuggle with his mama and saying, "I'm seven years old today!"  Talk about melting a mama's heart!

We let him open a few presents in the morning.  My twin sis had sent a package and it arrived the day before - perfect timing!  We never know how long it will take for a package to arrive in Kenya, but this one came right on time and Caleb was stoked.  It was the first package we've received at Chogoria and it was full of birthday fun!  He was particularly pumped about a new stuffed animal: a tarantula :)

Next on the docket was a dinosaur story time.  I pulled out all our dinosaur books and we invited our new friends/neighbors over for dinosaur fruit snacks and stories.  It was so fun!

And can I just say that these friends have been SUCH a blessing to us?  They have helped us get settled in so many ways, and their kids have become fast friends with our kids, and we are making plans to help help each other homeschool, and we are just so so thankful for them!

Dinosaur water coloring, dinosaur movie...it was just an all-around dinosaur day.

The birthday boy was just so happy the whole day.  And Kai and Asa were happy too.  I don't think we had one issue the entire day.  Birthday Magic was at work!

And then the cake.  I think this photo says it all.

Yep, he was a happy boy, which made me a happy Mama.  When I snuggled with him at bedtime and asked what he liked about the day, Caleb said, "I liked all of it!"  Success :)

Caleb is a remarkable kid.  He's kind and thoughtful and encouraging.  He is the first to notice when I'm upset and often stops everything to come and rub my back and say that he's sorry I'm sad.  Caleb is creative.  He loves to draw pictures and tell stories.  He is insanely smart, in huge part because of his incredible memory.  He remembers a lot of stuff.  Like, a lot.  I can't begin to count the number of times people have told us how smart he is, especially with his knowledge of animals.  He wants to be a naturalist when he grows up, and I hope he really does because his passion for animals combined with his knowledge and desire to take care of God's creation all make the perfect blend for becoming something like a naturalist.  More than anything, Caleb loves the Lord.  He loves to learn about Jesus and wants to know more about the Bible all the time.  In the past few months he's gained a comfortability with praying out loud in front of other people, which is huge because of his insecurities with people paying close attention to him.  God is continually working to grow this boy in courage and bravery and we are so proud of where he's come and where he's going.

I am so proud to be his Mama, and so humbled that I get to nurture him and disciple him and watch him become more wholeheartedly in love with the Lord every day.

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

I love you with a fierce love.

To the Coast and Beyond

Get ready for a photo dump.

We've been in Kenya for over a month now and it's been full and fun and frustrating.  So much has happened that it feels like several months have gone by instead of just one.  I wrote more about our transition to Chogoria Hospital on our mission blog but now I want to post a bunch of photos just for fun.

One week after we arrived in this country, we headed to the Kenyan coast for our annual field retreat.  The timing was perfect since we could see everyone in WGM Kenya all at once.  And we decided to take an extra day on the front end of the retreat so our family could relax.  We hadn't taken a day off in ages because, well, transition is what it is and it consumes a lot of time and energy.

So we took a day off a week after we got here, which might seem silly, but which was much needed for our souls.  We just happened to be at the Kenyan coast to do enjoy it.

The Kenyan coast is beautiful and exotic...and hot.  And humid.  And sticky.  It is at sea level very near the equator, so ya get what ya ask for.  At any rate, we were able to use our day off to go on a glass-bottom boat tour and snorkel near a reef.  It was a wonderful adventure and not a single kid had a single meltdown.  Now that constitutes a successful day off together!

So here's the photo dump of our time at the coast.  Lots of fun was had and lots of sweat was sweated!

Ghost crabs bury themselves in the sand during the day and come out at night.  We spent an evening exploring the beach at night and finding tons of crabs.  The boys were elated to catch some and no one got pinched this year!

This hermit crab was crawling right outside our room one afternoon.  What a great discovery!

Asa's first camel ride!  Who says the beach is just for swimming and sand castles?

We used to take so many pictures together...and we took tons of selfies before selfies were cool.

This boy!  I cannot tell you how much he makes us laugh!

These photos are from our glass-bottom boat tour.  As soon as the boat took off, the loudspeaker started blaring "Country Roads" by John Denver!  I kid you not!  The Indian Ocean + John Denver quickly became one of my new happy places :)

Lots of sea creatures were to be found:

sea spider

sea urchin

pregnant star fish

starfish

there was a plethora of starfish

snorkeling with Daddy

listening to a conch shell

The House of Horn

So it was a good week and a great start to our reentry into Kenya.  Afterwards we headed up to Tenwek for a few days to see friends and say hellos and goodbyes all over again.  It was so good and a huge help for us as we transition from one hospital to another.  After visiting Tenwek, we headed to Nairobi to shop for furniture and other supplies for our new house in Chogoria.  Then, finally, we officially moved to Chogoria.  

And we are still trying to get settled.  The settling-in process takes a long time, not only because it just does, but because it's not easy to get what you need once you realize you need it.  Bins and shelving for organizing closet space?  Requires a 4-hour drive into Nairobi to find that stuff.  Bookshelves for all those books you brought over?  Requires hiring a local carpenter to build them and waiting a few weeks before they're ready.  Getting simple spices you forgot to buy while you were in Nairobi, like garlic powder and parsley?  Requires an hour drive to a store that's big enough to have stuff like that.  Getting your new washing machine hooked up in a house that was never built to accommodate a washing machine?  Requires a plumber to come and drill a hole through a wall to add piping and connect tubing to the current water supply and drainage system.

So it's a long process, this settling-in business.  But we're getting there, bit by bit.  

And by golly, even when the power goes out again and again (which has happened way more than we'd care for, if we're being honest), our new all-gas stove/oven is still usable which means I can still bake "transition cookies" to help with all the transitioning and settling in and the emotions that come with it!