Teaching Life Skills

can be a challenge when a child keeps adding to her name. This summer she started adding the "y" and "boy" to her brother's name. He didn't really like that so I said "start calling her 'sis'. So she started calling herself "Miss K sis". Then the other week she decided she really had some royal blood that she must have just discovered so she added "princess" to her name. So if you asked her, "what is your name?" she would respond "Miss K Sis Princess". I guess that was not enough because now she added "Abigail" to the name. "Miss K Sis Princess Abigail" Then she heard my maiden name and added that. Oh my will we be able to get her to say her name as it appears on her birth certificate? That is one of the goals for the year. She can say her last name but doesn't use that.

 

Remaking a dress

Remember this dress. She is a girl and that dress was often a pick. I allowed her to wear it to church the Sunday we were sharing and it got ripped. I figured that would happen because she plays and crawls. I didn't know what I would do with the dress but then I had an idea. I would turn it into a pillow.

Now I just need to get her bedroom decorated or at least the quilt done for her bed.

Hello my name is Beth,

and I am addicted to fabric - pretty fabric, colorful fabric, printed fabric, woven fabric, plaid fabric, striped fabric, matching fabric, fat quarters, charm packs. I found a fabric giveaway http://mmmcrafts.blogspot.com/2009/06/basic-messenger-bag.html maybe I will get some more fabric.

Have you even won a giveaway? I won a book once from my least favorite author. I laughed when I found out what book I won. My husband laughed when I told him what book I won. Maybe this giveaway will change everything.

Fire Safety

Fire safety is a topic that is on every evaluator's list of things to make sure that you have taught during the school year. Last year I found some things online and we used that to talk about fire safety and also then had something to put in our portfolio. We had been talking about fire safety but I didn't have anything to include in the portfolio to make it easy to see that we cover the topic of fire safety.

Then I went to vote and our polling station is at the fire house and the firefighters decided it would be a community awareness event regarding fire safety so they put all kinds of brochures out for people. I snatched two of each and we came home and had a good discussion on fire safety. One of the brochures was a fire safety quiz. We took the quiz and our home and our family is safe regarding fire safety.

The kids earned their fire hats as a reward for learning about fire safety.

What do you use to teach fire safety?

Trip Wrap-up

Before we left on the trip we made a list of things that we wanted to do. It had been 18 months since the kids and I had been there. Daddy had made a quick trip last year. Daddy had a conference and we got to tag along. He said it was the best one that they have had.

Our list seemed to have lots of restaurants. The kids and I ate at Pret A Manger. It is a fast food but freshly made. I think it ends the myth that English people cannot cook. The avocado, basil, tomato, pine nut wrap is my favorite. I was not mean and called my husband while I was eating it to tell him how good it was. I bought him one to enjoy. It is both our favorites.

We ate at our favorite Turkish restaurant. They opened a new one that was closer to our hotel and had more seating. It reminded us of our trip to Istanbul.

Another thing on our list was shopping. When we lived there and would come home, a big thing to do was shopping. Sometimes I would buy things here even though I knew I could get it there but it was easier. I bought a few things there because of that same reason. I went to the fabric district and found some ribbon and accessories.

I went to the market partly for the memory and also because I wanted to get some rice bowls. We had broken a few at home plus we were able to use them for cereal while we were there. At 50 cents each it was a good deal.

I also went to the Jade Market twice.  It was fun shopping and I got some Christmas gifts.

We also shopped where we were staying.

We went up to the Peak. We rode the bus up and then came down on the tram.  By the time we finished eating it was dark and we didn't have much time for pictures.

I think that about wraps up our trip. Now we are home getting adjusted to the time and getting rid of the Hong Kong Crude/cold that we all seemed to get. We are back in the routine.

 

Transportation

One of the things about Hong Kong is the transportation system. The first year that we lived there we relied on public transportation and I would say that we got where we wanted to go without too much problems.

There are buses. Both double decker and light buses or as they are often called mini-buses. The mini-buses hold 16 people and have no room for standing so you always have a seat but they might fill up and you have to wait for the next one.

The MTR (subway) is another way to get around the city. While we lived there the KCR merged with the MTR. The KCR was the train that went to China. We lived near one of the KCR stations.

The Star Ferry has been crossing Victoria Harbour since 1898 or so. It is the cheapest way to get across the harbour. Miss K went through a phase where she didn't like boats but thankfully did much better this trip.

There are also taxis. As we were landing Miss K said something about the taxis being green and she was right. Where we lived the taxis were green. In the city the taxis are red. I was amazed that she remembered that or maybe she was paying attention to the welcome video that explained that.

Then on the island there are trams which are also known as "ding dings" because they have a bell that rings whenever they stop so they go around making a "ding ding" sound. We rode the trams just for the fun of riding the trams. It is a cheap way to get around, about 27 cents per ride.

I think we used all those modes of transportation during our stay as well as the Peak Tram and of course our own feet and Miss K did ride the stroller some.