June Journal

The month of June kept us busy with online learning for the girls until the last day on June 24th and we finished our 14th week of online learning. The mask requirement in Doha was lifted for exercising and things have slowly started to open up more for us but we've stayed cautious about going anywhere with the girls (and children haven't been allowed at the places that have opened yet anyways). We also celebrated Madi's birthday and Father's Day this month!

The girls finished their year of Awana with a virtual closing ceremony. They all finished their books (Cubbies Honeycomb and Sparks 2 Wingrunner). Olivia received a certificate for being joyful and saying more than five verses in a single night. Evelyn received a certificate for being friendly and saying more than five verses in a single night. Madison received a certificate for loving heart and doing her full book review in a single night (that's over 35 verses!). We are so proud of these girls!!

We opened the game Jenga and had some intense family game nights as the girls learned how to play. Lots of laughter all around!

1. Before the mask requirement was lifted and the girls had to have one outside. 
2. Zoey in her castle bed made by Madi.
3. Date night salmon and rice. 😋 
4. Teacher gifts from the girls! It was the first time we've used our cutter to put vinyl on ceramic. 
5. Pajama party!
6. Impromptu catch up session with one of my besties.
7. I made puff pastry for the first time and added pesto, chicken, and mozzarella. It was delicious, but also very rich!
8. The first of a (too long) list of goodbyes happening this summer. Thankful I got to see her before she took off. 
9. As the summer heat has worsened, we've continued with indoor exercise and the girls' favorite is Cosmic Kids yoga by far. 

We celebrated Madison's 7th birthday this month and the girls were surprised by some sweet friends from our church LifeGroup with a box of Lucky Charms. We used to be able to buy them in Doha and they've been gone for months and they ordered some from the States just for them! So sweet! 😍 

1. Once again, Zoey the tolerant cat. 
2. CeCe enjoying the box from our QDC (the one alcohol store in all of Qatar) run for supplies. 😂 
3. Pizza on the grill! Unfortunately the pizza stone broke this past week and then ironically a neighbor who is moving gave us a pizza stone and some pizza flour. Talk about saving us!
4. Apple bread!
5. Picnic outside with the neighbors. It was hot. But they had been begging for days so we caved. 
6. Madi started online ballet classes after receiving a pair of hand me down shoes and she's addicted.
7. A friend organized a birthday drive by for another friend and it was nice to catch up with others. 
8. And of course since it was semi-close to the one drive thru Starbucks in Doha we had to swing by for a coffee ☕️ 
9. We bought a new sofa and I am loving the new living room! At least from this angle (the other sofa is still sitting around the corner in the middle of the way - ha!)

Zoey in slow motion 😆

Earlier this week I woke to a bang sound in our bedroom. it was a knife falling on the tile floor as Madi tried to set down this tray on Jason's work computer. Both Jason and I were in bed still asleep. Madi woke up (who knows what time...) and made a cookbook and then omelettes for both of us (check those labels). So this is what age 7 brings?! Breakfast in bed, hahaha. 

We ended the month with the sweetest tea party for the girls. The boys planned the event, set the menu, made the food, and invited the girls and one stuffed guest for a proper tea. They had so much fun!

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Homeschool Chronicles: Weeks 11-14

The last day of school for the girls was on June 24th, it was definitely a mix of sadness and a bit of relief. We have enjoyed some aspects of the online learning, but others have been challenging and the girls are already missing seeing their friends and teachers regularly. 

We will still do some fun learning this summer with activities from the girls' previous lessons and also working in some typing lessons and other col stuff, but this week we are taking a much-needed break to rest and relax. 

As the girls returned from the week-long Eid break, the twins continued in their art unit. They had to choose either a still life or landscape and make a final art piece. Over the course of a couple days the girl's sketched their chosen piece and then painted it. Evelyn choose to setup a still life of her own with toys and Olivia asked for the Doha skyline so we looked through pictures and she selected the one she wanted. They also did a self-portrait drawing as well. 

The girls also started touching on weight and did some experiments with which is heavier. They also worked on patterns and talked about symmetry. They looked for symmetry in the house, on faces, and made their own symmetry artwork. They also learned about double drawing and had to make a tutorial for their class on tracing their hand and turning it into something else (Evelyn chose a flower, Olivia chose a starfish.)

 

 

Another neat activity that we did was to make skin color paints using spices and then decide which we felt matched our own skin and make a drawing. We have spoken with the girls before about melanin (the pigment in our body that determines our skin color) and this was another great way to have the discussion of skin color and celebrating how everyone is different. We also made salt fossils and painted them and Evelyn spent a couple weeks making a pearlier bead cross as part of her passion project time. 

Madison started a new unit for the last few weeks of school called "How We Express Ourselves". They focused on learning terms like "character, trait, setting, plot, and problem/solution". They looked at stories and identified characters and then worked over the weeks to create characters, construct a setting, develop a storyline, and then record their story for the class. Madison loved it and you'll see there were quite a few videos for her work that unit!

Madi titled her story "Princess and the Bear". She created a setting out of magazines, acted out the story, folded a paper into a book with 8 pages and wrote down her story before reading it to her class. 😊 

 

 

 

They also reviewed skip counting and then did an introduction to multiplication. 

In Madi's Performing Arts class they've been practicing being a newscaster and conducting interviews. Then they worked on picking news stories and putting together a Good News Segment. Madi decided what she wanted to discuss, recorded herself doing each clip, and then helped me to edit the video. Enjoy Madison's Good News Report! 😊 

 

It's been a long last term over the past 14 weeks of online learning and we are thankful for the summer break and relaxed schedule for awhile. You can click on the links to see what we covered in Weeks 1-5 and Weeks 6-10 of online learning. 

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Last Day of School!

We were thankful to have our school go to the end of June for classes as they helped to keep us busy and give us a routine. The girls have done really will with the online learning and will miss seeing their teachers and friends in the conferences. 

We took pictures on the first day of school and last so we could see how much the girls have grown. It's a fun tradition we started with Madison back in 2014 when she first started daycare! 

The last week of school was very relaxed and on their final calls, Olivia an Evelyn's classes had dance parties and celebrated summer birthdays. Madison's class had a picnic. 

It was definitely a different end to the school year with online learning and most likely we will have a combination of online and in-person learning come September, which I am looking forward to since it styles after the type of schooling we'd have chosen if we were in the US. 

Here's the side-by-side comparison pics from their first day last August to their last day. 😊 

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Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day for Jason was a bit overshadowed by school and work on Sunday (the first day of our work week). However, we did celebrate the amazing father these girls are blessed to call Daddy. 😊 

The girls each choose a picture to color for Jason and I asked them the questions to answer. Some of their answers are priceless 😆 

Here are some of my favorite pics of this amazing guy with each of his girls and a short video of more favorites. 

Happy Father's Day Jason!

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Madi is SEVEN!

Madi has been excited to turn SEVEN since the beginning of June (so we all got a daily countdown!) to her birthday on the 20th.

                                         

She requested a rainbow cake and her and her sisters helped make the layers and decorate the outside. I surprised her with sprinkles on the inside and was thrilled the layers actually turned out (it was my first rainbow cake!)

We knew Madi wouldn't get to have a party given the current COVID-19 restrictions in Qatar so we reached out to family and friends across the world to send her birthday messages. We put the clips together into one video that she loved watching that morning before she opened her gifts. 

It was a simple and sweet birthday for our big girl and we loved it. 😊 

Happy 7th Birthday Madison! We love you!!

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