Joel and I have discovered some fun weekly activity groups!
On Wednesday mornings, Joel and I go along to a singing group for preschoolers, called, "Bible Singing Class" where the children sing along to a set of songs with fun actions, instruments and picture card cues. This Wednesday routine has been good for us. On the days when Joel feels compliant (not a consistent trait of a 3 year old!!) he sings along heartily and bashes his instrument with enthusiasm! Since April, I have helped to lead the singing on a rota basis and it's been good fun singing with the little ones and their mums or nannies!
On Thursday mornings, Joel joins other little ones for a gymnastics class, with energetic and fun teachers:
Twice a week, Esther and Ben have recently started piano lessons with teacher Cara from America, who was trained as a concert pianist and is a great teacher to get Esther and Ben started on beginning piano skills:
Additionally, Nairobi boats a wealth of second-hand sales! This means that I have been able to stock up on several Home-School resources for Juba :-) Boxes of books and puzzles are beginning to stack up in the corner, next to the second-hand school desk which I also purchased at a bargain rate!
The boys tried out one of the puzzles this morning:
At school, Esther has made a mini stage debut, taking part in her school assembly play of "Handa's Surprise" in the school theatre:
Both Ben and Esther have also had been to some wonderful birthday parties, with horses to ride and with swimming pools gracing their hosts' gardens and with amazing dressing up themes! A rather different world from dusty Dodoma, where children seemed satisfied with our more homely kids' parties! Happily, I found this "Transformers" dressing up suit at a garage sale, ready for one of the themed parties Ben went to:
It has been great to have these opportunities in this thriving metropolis of Nairobi. I was overwhelmed by Nairobi when we first got here. I felt confused and uncomfortable with the culture shock we experienced after tranquil Dodoma. Five months later, I can step back and see many advantages from our time here. I hope we will look back from Juba and feel like we made the best of the fun opportunities Nairobi gave us for this season!
Great blog. Remember what was said to me when we moved from Maghull and I was worried about you three, that God doesn't just call the man, but his wife and children too? It's often only when we look back that we can see God's hand and purpose in our lives. You are so good at making the best of your situations I'm sure Esther, Ben and Joel will have many happy memories. Lots love mum and dad xxxx
ReplyDeleteGuess which "boy" seem to be enjoying the puzzle the most ? !
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ReplyDeleteSounds like you (Liz) and Joel have some fun activities planned each week. Great to hear that Esther and Ben have started to learn to play the piano ... I would like to be able to play the piano now and it seems that if I had leant when I was younger I would be able to play now. However, I know I still could learn .... it's on the list :)
ReplyDeleteBtw ... my deleted my first comment as had left out the word play in "leant to play the piano" so was trying to correct that and did not realise it would keep the post there and add a note that it was removed ... so basically the second post is the same as the first just with the correction. Just mentioning this in case you wondered what the first post was and why it was removed :)
ReplyDeleteWhat a lot of opportunities you've had and made the most of. It's great to see the children finding their own interests and talents. Lots of fun times by the look of things... Thanks for sharing. X
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