A Good Day

Sunday, May 14

We pretty much stayed in today. The kids had a lot of work to do in their “office”. They are enjoying having their own little space. Garrett gave them a couple of oranges peeled and they wanted to keep the peeling to play with. They decided they needed some glasses and squeezed the oranges into juice then froze the juice and made popsicles. Sasha has a great love for my I-pod and sometimes puts it in its case and listens to it in his “office”. This morning he was listening to Darlene Zschech’s song, “You are Holy”, and was out there by himself singing, “Hallelujah, Hallelujah …. Holy, Holy”, in his Russian monotone. It was so AWESOME!!! I wish I could have a recording of it. I just love his little voice when he reads. He is reading very well.

We have started reading English children’s books that are here in the apartment. The English books they use for Russian children does not teach sentences like we talk. They way stuff like “How many rabbits have that boy?” So since we are working with the kids English while the teacher is preparing for an exam I decided he should read books that talk more American. They are not exactly excited about it but we only do it for 30-45 minutes. Anything we do is better than nothing. Today Sasha read “If you give a mouse a cookie”. He liked it. Those are good books. Dahlia has several and even I enjoy them. After he read the book he said, “Mama, I want a mouse.” Let me think…

Stella is working on small words. She knows her alphabet and numbers which is good. We are considering tutoring options for this summer when we get back. We miss you all. Thank you for all the emails. They are a lifeline for us here.