Kids have been enjoying baseball and T ball in town 2 days a week. Phillip has been playing catcher and really likes it.
Claire is all legs and personality.
Anna kills it.
Lynn is coaching which he really enjoys.
Claire recently gave a report on the ills of smoking. The school assembly listened including many parents. Lynn and I were amazed at her boldness.
Andrew is packing up his bag at the end of a day at school. In New Zealand years they are in year 2. Anna is actually in year 3 Math. They will come back to finish up a few weeks of Kindergarten in May and then on to 1st grade next year. Their reading is coming along nicely. I greatly enjoy curling up each night and listening to them.
The schools here have a pool and swim lessons everyday. A lot of the education happens outside.
I had a great time with Claire on a class field trip to Reotahi for snorkeling, hiking, and beach combing.
The school classroom outside under the tent on the field trip was a great place to learn.
With clip boards in hand the students scavenged around to record things they found on how man has impacted the environment as well as items with certain qualities in nature.
I took this photo of Claire's group while we were on the nature walk through the preserve. Claire is on the right end in bluejean shorts.
The highlight for most kids was snorkeling through the marine reserve. I think we listed 20 or so species of marine life we saw during the excursion. Pictured left to right is Hannah, Cora, and Claire.
Claire's group preparing to take off. They practiced snorkeling in the pool prior to this field trip. Next week they go for an overnight camp at a larger marine reserve. Schools here are very hands on in their approach to education. All subjects school wide revolove around a unit theme which for this 6 weeks is "marine life".
On the cultural side we celebrated Chinese New Year when we were in Wellington with Rus. It's the year of the Ox and below is a red gas producing variety in the New Years parade as well as the tradtional Chinese dragon.
On a brighter note, a few weeks back we participated in a Maori youth camp with a Christian ministry to at risk teens. Miguel was the devotion leader and we helped out with break out groups to discuss what he shared. It was very interesting to get to know these kids and their culture a little. At the end of the retreat we got up to say Thank you for letting us participate. It was so funny because in the Maori culture we are expected to sing them a song. We hadn't prepared anything! After trying in vain to come up with something we commonly knew the Abascals and I muddled off key through Blessed be Your Name with great embarrassment! The Maori kids then got up and did an AWESOME haka.
Kids have been enjoying baseball and T ball in town 2 days a week. Phillip has been playing catcher and really likes it.
Claire is all legs and personality.
Anna kills it.
Lynn is coaching which he really enjoys.
Claire recently gave a report on the ills of smoking. The school assembly listened including many parents. Lynn and I were amazed at her boldness.
Andrew is packing up his bag at the end of a day at school. In New Zealand years they are in year 2. Anna is actually in year 3 Math. They will come back to finish up a few weeks of Kindergarten in May and then on to 1st grade next year. Their reading is coming along nicely. I greatly enjoy curling up each night and listening to them.
The schools here have a pool and swim lessons everyday. A lot of the education happens outside.
I had a great time with Claire on a class field trip to Reotahi for snorkeling, hiking, and beach combing.
The school classroom outside under the tent on the field trip was a great place to learn.
With clip boards in hand the students scavenged around to record things they found on how man has impacted the environment as well as items with certain qualities in nature.
I took this photo of Claire's group while we were on the nature walk through the preserve. Claire is on the right end in bluejean shorts.
The highlight for most kids was snorkeling through the marine reserve. I think we listed 20 or so species of marine life we saw during the excursion. Pictured left to right is Hannah, Cora, and Claire.
Claire's group preparing to take off. They practiced snorkeling in the pool prior to this field trip. Next week they go for an overnight camp at a larger marine reserve. Schools here are very hands on in their approach to education. All subjects school wide revolove around a unit theme which for this 6 weeks is "marine life".
These smiling faces of Chinese children living in New Zealand are sweet. Unfortunately there is racial tension here. Many people feel Chinese buying fishing rights in New Zealand as well as their world wide economic spread is a threat. Last week I was riding back from a rural hospital with an Asian colleague when a car harrassed us. Two 10 to 12 yo boys and their Dad sped around us shouting Asian slurs, slanting their eyes, and flipping us off through several red lights. The end result was a police call and a trip to the station for my coworker to file a complaint. I felt so bad for him and it was a horrible experience for me to witness racism.
1 comment:
Hey Nichols!
It's Macie! I miss you all like crazy and i can't wait to see you! These pictures are fantastic!
I love you all bunches!
Love,
Macie
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