Summer Homeschool

We're slowly getting into the homeschool mode. Our goal is to making learning fun, real life and effective for who God has made Cedric to be. We didn't realize what an answer to prayer La Calera would be to us. From the first day we started working on farm projects with the Amaia who is also 7 years old and together they've loved basing their learning around doing fun things on the land.

Here is a sample:

Learning how to make cheese. A local man has been super helpful in teaching us not only how to grow food, but how to process it!

 Preparing the land.

 Planting seeds.

 On our friends' farm they raise bunnies for food (they're from Spain and it is a common protein there!). Not pictured are the chickens, rooster, geese and sheep.

 We moved our big dog, Papaya, with us and two little puppies also joined the family. Chocolate is the black one and belongs to Cedric. Cookie is the other and belongs to Amaia, but lives with us!

 Cedric and Amaia. Neighbors, homeschool buddies and fast becoming best friends.

An unfortunate farm experience involved this 2 inch lovely caterpillar. Turns out if it brushes against your skin it causes a huge welt, rash and stings like crazy. Cedric had one crawling on his shirt that managed to touch his skin in 3 different places. Mama freaked out but was relieved to find out it wasn't deadly!

New Chapter in La Calera

Our new little house in La Calera, lots of green area, two bedrooms and an open living/dining/kitchen space. Out the back we're attempting to get a vege garden started.

We are a 15 minute walk from the town which is nestled in a valley surrounded by mountains. La Calera is higher than Bogota (2,718m or 8,917ft) and when the sun is not out the average temperature would be in the 8 - 13C range (50-60 F).

We enjoy the local farmers' market on Saturday morning.

And Saturday fellowship/Bible studies in the evening.

Our Bogota friends have enjoyed the day trip to visit us and escape the pollution and commotion of the city.

And we join our Bogota church on Sundays to fellowship, encourage and learn together. Here are a few snapshots from last Sunday. (Middle woman below is our neighbor and coworker in La Calera.)

And our camp picture from last month.

New school year, New church & New Opportunities!

A picture sampling of our current every-day-life:

First day of Kindergarten!

Fruit foraged from our neighborhood.

Dog school, with their teacher!

Opportunity to minister and visit friends in Tunja.

Goofiness in Tunja.

Garden growing. So many spiritual truths to be learned.

New friends to share life, ministry and study of God's word together.

Picnic and games with our new church.

Family day at friend's birthday party in local amusement park.

Yes, those are real flamingos in background.

Thankful he's not on the road yet!

Love spending time with other MK friends!

2016 Drawing to a Close

Uncle Ron, Auntie Susan and Grandpa came to visit us in November.

We really enjoying living on the border of town and being able to hike out occasionally into the wetlands.

Last week at the ECA Christmas program.

Our landlady and neighbor, Toyita, is Cedric's "adopted" Colombian abuelita. She came to watch him sing!

 Cedric's class at ECA had a ministry morning where they went to a nearby retirement home to sing and color for the elderly folk. I was able to be one of the chaperones and enjoyed spending the morning with his classmates.

There's a new photographer in the family. The following photos are all snapshots from Cedric's perspective!

 (I think we look like farmers!)

 (What the perfect Christmas cookie looks like!)

 (He's lying on the front porch facing the gate.)

We're getting into the Christmas spirit over here... missing family terribly but enjoying being home for the holidays!

New Zealand

The main reason for our visit to New Zealand was to spend time with Angela's family. We were given a week of all 15 of us together at a beach house on the Coromandel peninsula. Beautiful! (Click on any image to see a larger version.)

 Cedric got to know his cousins properly. Eva is 2 years older and Tolkien 2 years younger - they were the best ones to play with but he loves them all! (Age range is 8 mos to 14 yrs.)

We enjoyed a few walks exploring the Tauranga area where Angela's parents and sister live.

The three of us also took two side trips to visit friends and churches that have supported and are interested in God's work in Colombia (cities of Gisborne and Wellington).

 

My mother had her 70th birthday on January 3rd. Since we were all together we put on a party to celebrate her milestone. It was fun to celebrate with her and see lots of other relatives.