The 2023-2024 school year came to an end May 31st, and just in time for the Japanese Festival! We had a special focus on geography this year, so I was thrilled when I heard about this festival taking place the Saturday after school let out for the “summer”. I took Andrew, Anna, and Asher, and they had fun writing in Japanese with a special brush, dressing up, seeing and learning about another culture, and getting their face painted.
Now that our “summer” break has started, our days are a little more laid back. Each school aged kid has several task to complete in a day, but they have no time constraints. We are doing a fun reading bingo, with prizes when they read five books in a row from the bingo “card”. We still have ministry things, stuff to do for SITAG, and currently there is a team from the village, so kids to play with!
We took a family vacation (more like a stay-cation) at the beginning of June. Josh took much needed vacation time, and we spent each morning at the pool at a nearby hotel, and the afternoons at home where Asiel could nap, and we could all play games together. Something we tried this time around was to hire someone to cook and clean up from cooking! So I got a vacation too! Woot woot!
A friend of ours actually managed to get us a free family pass to this hotel! What a sweet gift from Honiara Hotel! We felt very blessed by their generosity, and the pool was such a wonderful place to relax as a family.
In other news, the ERC (Education Resource Room) is finished! Praise the Lord! 🎉 A large donation came in a few months or so ago, and after the white ant damage had been repaired in one of the houses, the maintenance crew got to fixing up the ERC up real nice! With the oversight of the ERC manager (for lack of a better word), the ERC has become quite a nice little spot to read and play. It’s actually two rooms, one room for younger kids, and a back room with all the homeschooling materials. I am so excited to get to plan home school for this up coming year in a fully remodeled ERC! I start planning next week, and will have someone coming to baby sit Asiel in the mornings, and Andrew will babysit her in the afternoons, after she wakes up from her nap. Your prayers would be most appreciated, specifically that I would not come up against distractions, I would plan realistically (instead of over planning, or cramming too much into a school year), and that the kids would manage well without me for a full week.
And that’s the update for June!