This will take a while so if you would like to check my previous entries. Click here!

    Here is what she wrote:

“Although we have only girls so far, they also need to be trained to have proper manners! We had purchased this set alone, then were able to purchase it again as part of a large package deal, so we are pleased to offer our extra copy to one of our blog-readers! Thanks to Jim Erskine from Little Homeschool Library for allowing us to offer this extra copy as a prize! This e-book package set is available as an instant download for $14.95 through the above links.”

The contest runs until today so don’t waste any time now and click that link . Make sure you read the rules first.

    Have fun!

Nope, this isn’t some colorful starfish from an exotic nature study =). Neither it is a drawing of an image in broken kaleidoscope. It is a Latin Constellation mind map Vibrant Bea has made when trying to make Latin exercises a more colorful and livelier deal. And it works! One of the fun things we have discovered and probably our best find when we went book-hunting at the Colombo Annual Book Fair last year. It is called Mind Maps for Kids (Rev up for Revision) by Tony Buzan.

This book introduces Mind Mapping as a great tool for learning, primarily, for revision. A Mind Map is a diagram used to help the 2 hemispheres of the brain remember, think, plan, organize and sort information. It is a diagram which makes use of color and pictures while retaining information from previously learned subject matter. Revision for that matter, is the most common use for it. In our homeschool where creativity oozes in some parts, we realized that we can use it in dozens of ways. It makes scheduling, organizing the desks, oral narration, outlining, creative writing, field trip planning, nature study, journalling, unit studies, lapbook designing, story telling, … and so on, fun with a different twist.

It is a very handy tool for a learning family… I highly recommend it.

The following was written in 1999 by a British journalist stationed in the Philippines. His observations are so hilarious!!!

Matter of Taste
By Matthew Sutherland
 
I have now been in this country for over six years, and consider myself in most respects well assimilated.  However, there is one key step on the road to full assimilation, which I have yet to take, and that’s to eat BALUT.
 
The day any of you sees me eating balut, please call immigration and ask them to issue me a Filipino passport. Because at that point there will be no turning back.  

BALUT, for those still blissfully ignorant non-Pinoys out there, is a fertilized duck egg.  It is commonly sold with salt in a piece of newspaper, much like English fish and chips, by street vendors usually after dark, presumably so you can’t see how gross it is.   The embryo in the egg comes in varying stages of development, but basically it is not considered macho to eat one without fully discernable feathers, beak, and claws.  Some say these crunchy bits are the best.

Others prefer just to drink the so-called ’soup’, the vile, pungent liquid that surrounds the aforementioned feathery fetus…excuse me. I have to go and throw up now.   I’ll be back in a minute.
 
Food dominates the life of the Filipino. People here just love to eat. They eat at least eight times a day. These eight official meals are called, in order: breakfast, snacks, lunch, merienda, merienda ceyna, dinner, bedtime snacks and no-one-saw-me- take-that- cookie-from- the-fridge-so-it- doesn’t-count. The short gaps in between these mealtimes are spent eating Sky Flakes from the open packet that sits on every desktop.

You’re never far from food in the Philippines . If you doubt this, next time you’re driving home from work, try this game. See how long you can drive without seeing food and I don’t mean a distant restaurant, or a picture of food. I mean a man on the sidewalk frying fish balls, or a man walking through the traffic selling nuts or candy. I bet it’s less than one minute.
 
Here are some other things I’ve noticed about food in the Philippines :
 
Firstly, a meal is not a meal without rice - even breakfast. In the UK,  I could go a whole year without eating rice.  Second, it’s impossible to drink without eating. A bottle of San Miguel just isn’t the same without gambas or beef tapa. Third, no one ventures more than two paces from their house without baon (food in small container) and a container of something cold to drink. You might as well ask a Filipino to leave home without his pants on. And lastly, where I come from, you eat with a knife and fork. Here, you eat with a spoon and fork. You try eating rice swimming in fish sauce with a knife.
 
One really nice thing about Filipino food culture is that people always ask you to SHARE their food. In my office, if you catch anyone attacking their baon, they will always go, “Sir! KAIN TAYO!” (”Let’s eat!”). This confused me, until I realized that they didn’t actually expect me to sit down and startmunching on their boneless bangus. In fact, the polite response is something like, “No thanks, I just ate.” But the principle is sound -if you have food on your plate, you are expected to share it, however hungry you are, with those who may be even hungrier. I think that’s great!  In fact, this is frequently even taken one step further. Many Filipinos use “Have you eaten yet?” (”KUMAIN KA NA?”) as a general greeting, irrespective of time of day or location.
 
Some foreigners think Filipino food is fairly dull compared to other Asian cuisines. Actually lots of it is very good: Spicy dishes like Bicol Express (strange, a dish named after a train); anything cooked with coconut milk; anything KINILAW; and anything ADOBO.  And it’s hard to beat the sheer wanton, cholesterolic frenzy of a good old-fashioned LECHON de leche (roast pig) feast.  Dig a pit, light a fire, add 50 pounds of animal fat on a stick,  and cook until crisp. Mmm, mmm… you can actually feel your arteries constricting with each successive mouthful.
 
I also share one key Pinoy trait —a sweet tooth. I am thus the only foreigner I know who does not complain about sweet bread, sweet burgers, sweet spaghetti, sweet banana ketchup, and so on. I am a man who likes to put jam on his pizza.  Try it!  
 
It’s the weird food you want to avoid.  In addition to duck fetus in the half-shell, items to avoid in the Philippines include pig’s blood soup (DINUGUAN); bull’s testicle soup, the strangely-named “SOUP NUMBER FIVE” (I dread to think what numbers one through four are); and the ubiquitous, stinky shrimp paste, BAGOONG, and it’s equally stinky sister, PATIS. Filipinos are so addicted to these latter items that they will even risk arrest or deportation trying to smuggle them into countries like Australia and the USA , which wisely ban the importation of items you can smell from more than 100 paces.
 
Then there’s the small matter of the purple ice cream. I have never been able to get my brain around eating purple food; the ubiquitous UBE leaves me cold.

Repeating names was another novelty to me, having never before encountered people with names like Len-Len, Let-Let, Mai-Mai, or Ning-Ning. The secretary I inherited on my arrival had an unusual one: Leck-Leck. Such names are then frequently further refined by using the “squared” symbol, as in Len2 or Mai2. This had me very confused for a while.
 
Then there is the trend for parents to stick to a theme when naming their children. This can be as simple as making them all begin with the same letter, as in Jun, Jimmy, Janice, and Joy .
 
More imaginative parents shoot for more sophisticated forms of assonance or rhyme, as in Biboy, Boboy, Buboy, Baboy (notice the names get worse the more kids there are-best to be born early or you could end up being a Baboy).
 
Even better, parents can create whole families of, say, desserts (Apple Pie, Cherry Pie, Honey Pie) or flowers (Rose, Daffodil, Tulip). The main advantage of such combinations is that they look great painted across your trunk if you’re a cab driver. That’s another thing I’d never seen before coming to Manila — taxis with the driver’s kids’ names on the trunk.
 
Another whole eye-opening field for the foreign visitor is the phenomenon of the “composite” name. This includes names like Jejomar (for Jesus, Joseph and Mary), and the remarkable Luzviminda (for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao , believe it or not). That’s a bit like me being called something like “Engscowani”  (for England , Scotland , Wales and Northern Ireland).  Between you and me, I’m glad I’m not.
 
And how could I forget to mention the fabulous concept of the randomly inserted letter ‘h’. Quite what this device is supposed to achieve, I have not yet figured out, but I think it is designed to give a touch of class to an otherwise only averagely weird name. It results in creations like Jhun, Lhenn, Ghemma, and Jhimmy. Or how about Jhun-Jhun (Jhun2)?
 
How boring to come from a country like the UK full of people with names like John Smith.

How wonderful to come from a country where imagination and exoticism rule the world of names. 
 
Where else in the world could that really be true?
 
Where else in the world could the head of the Church really be called Cardinal Sin?  
 
Where else but the Philippines !
 
Note: Philippines has a senator named Joker, and it is his legal
name.

String hopper is a great alternative to plain rice. It is served with Seeni Sambol, meat curry dishes. But we love it with dhal.

String hoppers recipe:

string hopper mold string hopper wattie,

small circle trays

roasted red rice flour, there are ready to cook packets sol in grocery stores

METHOD: 1. Mix together two cups roasted fine rice flour and 1 tsp table salt. 2. Boil 4 cups of water and gradually add to the flour mixture. 3. Mix until the dough does not stick to the bowl, or has the right consistency. Cooked string hoppers are light, fluffy & dry to the touch. If the dough is too sticky, it will be difficult to squeeze fine strings through the mold.

4. Fill the mold with dough and squeeze the fine strings in circular motion on the watties.

5. In a boiler, pile the watties on top of each other and steam until done, which usually takes only 2-5 minutes.

One cup of rice flour usually makes 6-7 small string hoppers.

Make the dough in small quantities at a time.

Dhal Curry recipe: 

1 cup lentils

1 onion, chopped fine

1/2 tsp saffron (turmeric powder)

Dhal Curry recipe:

1 cup lentils

1 onion, chopped fine

1/2 tsp saffron (turmeric powder)

2 cloves garlic

2 red dried chili

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 sprig curry leaves

1/2 cup coconut milk

METHOD:

1. Soak lentils in water for an hour. Wash and drain until water is clear

2. In a pan, boil water and lentils in medium heat.

3. Add 1/4 tsp saffron. Boil until the lentils open up.

4. Add coconut milk and salt. Turn off heat and set aside.

5. Heat oil in a pan. Saute curry leaf, onion and garlic.

6. Add the remaining saffron, mustard seeds and dried chili. Cook until onions are golden brown.

7. Combine this to the pan with lentils and bring to boil.

8. Serve with the string hoppers.

Now, the Sri Lanka way of enjoying this lovely meal is with a bare hand. Try it!

Here is our Joy, the lady who cooks and teaches us how to make lovely Sri Lankan dishes.

Today, it is different. Here is a story which  is a great boost to us Pinoys.  Read about Reinabelle Reyes - Filipina wins Science Award for Black Holes. Here is another published a week back. It is about  Baldomero “Toto” M. Olivera - professor of biology at University of Utah in the United States and the Harvard Foundation’s 2007 Scientist of the Year. Mabuhay kayo!

It is not about homeschooling alright but as a Filipino, these news really made me feel…

Proudly Pinoy.

Anyway, as I know, homeschooling later was introduced (or perhaps adapted) from the foreign missionaries (mostly evangelicals from the US) who came with their children. They taught their kids at home. Filipinos, as we are, are very good in adopting new ideas have embraced this and made it work in our context.

We know that Filipino families are not immuned from the same problems that plague our educational system and the society as a whole. The present state of our school system is such in a slump that parents were driven to decide and take matters in their hands - that is, to educate their children at home and play a major part in molding their future. To me and my husband, and some parents that we know, homeschool is not just an alternative. We homeschool because we primarily believe it is our God-given role to teach and train our children. We love our children so much that we are acting in the best of their interests.

I am so thrilled to say that this is a growing community not only in Metro Manila but in several other provinces as well. Our family resided in Laguna, 2 hours down South of Metro Manila, for several years and had been in touch with families who were homeschooling since 2001, even earlier. We had started a support group and some activities. Sadly, some families, including ours, have relocated some place else so these initiatives somehow faded.

Our annual visits back home have given us a chance to meet a few families who continue to homeschool.  I have been exchanging email lately with Ms. Vicki Arioder of The Learning Place, a primary and secondary private school within the University of the Philippines - Los Banos campus where my husband and I attended college. And the great news I am so excited about is that they have a homeschool department. We are elated. Years back, it did not cross our minds that these new growth spurt in the homeschooling field will become possible.

Yesterday, I got an email from the local email group. A new blog is being started for this support group based in Quezon City (Metro Manila). Immediately, I realized the importance of adding new links on my righthand bar - a separate table or box just for Philippine Homeschool.

So, if you want to check it out.. Click the tag Homeschool_Philippines on the del.icio.us cloud (right-hand bar)

I am hopeful it will grow as we go along.. so if you have a blog or website and you are homeschooling in the Philippines, do drop me a line.

Homeschooling  is not only thriving in the Philippines … it is alive!

So, I am currently on the look out for cliparts, minibooks, articles, other sites on this topic. I am pretty sure this would hols my children’s interest for a long time and I hope it will make a lasting inpression on them.

3 things…

1. I went through laparoscopic cholecystectomy on this date. It is a routine surgery, and quite common, where my gall bladder was extracted. Despite the effort to have the stones flushed by natural means, I eventually consented to go through this because it could get worse and the biopsy afterwards have shown that I had chronic inflammation and mucus and fibrosis had already formed inside the bladder. Other than that, it is a negative result and that itself is enough to make me feel better in spite of the stitches and pain I experienced for over a week.

2. God provides. A missionary family were there to take my children for 2 days while I stayed in the hospital.  God listens. Brethren here and at home in the Philippines prayed for me. God heals and restores. I was a bit worn out physically, emotionally and spiritually after that but God’s grace is sufficient.

3.  Above all, I thank God for all His goodness through this experience.  He is has taught me to totally depend in Him alone. I thank the brethren too for their concern, prayers and love extended.

I was sore and in a sad state for a few days afterwards. But during a dinner with some Plan friends a week after, I learned that 4 of the 5 ladies who were there that night (me included) had their gall bladders taken out at one time or another. I realized that there is nothing to mope about. Self-Pity is such a sore company, she should be left ton her own.. so, i left her on a corner on our way home that night.

A lot of accolades have lavishly showered this zoo and all has sufficed. To us, the  Singapore Zoo is definitely the most awesome zoo we have visited. We didn’t feel one bit sorry for these animals… a too common feeling my kids and I get and usually share when we visit other zoos. Vibrant Bea came to a point when she didn’t want to see any zoo, a reason why we have been postponing the many times we visited Singapore. My husband persisted in convincing her that this, she would surely enjoy.

True! Here in Singapore Zoo, the story is a lot different…I mean,a whole lot.. Well, we were a bit spent after the whole day’s walk although we have replenished energy and esteem in a jungle cafe. We avoided a ride on the tram (and save afew dollars for that =) ). Of course, we didn’t want to miss any exhibit and show so it is really worth all the walking, sun and humidity =) . But the animals are all living in contentment , basking in it literally, in spite of the “containment”, because of the zoo’s unique design, ample space with natural barriers.

We SURELY, UTTERLY, DEFINITELY wish to come again.

Yes, we were in cloud 9 when we visited the Singapore Philatelic Museum . My children and I are avid postal stuff collectors. Our growing collection includes used and mint stamps, postcards, first day covers, sets, souvenir /complete sheets, stamp packs, mini-packs and maximum cards worldwide. We have slowed down a bit lately as it takes up a lot of time just organizing them in stock books.

Philately is a great tool in learning history, culture, geography, great people, flora, fauna, science discoveries, sports, arts, music and just about any subject of any country under the sun.

I started collecting as a child of 9 and my children caught the fever while they were growing up in their early years. They have their own albums and postcard packs. Though we don’t have the special stuff most big collectors have, we consider ours a simple treasure we wish to hand down to our next generation. Perhaps… a great addition to a our own family time capsule. And with the email and digital technology taking over the snail mail and culture of handwritten letters, might this be one of the future antiquities that we will leave to the children many years from now? Possibly. And if the postal system gets obsolete, maybe, our small collection might have worth after all.

This is our first trip to a philatelic museum. Although we have been frequenting the philatelic section of the postal offices in Colombo and the Philippines, this one has left us simply amazed… it is just fantastic!

Catch the fever!

1] For the children, the most interesting birds were in the cold area - where the penguins are. We spent a long time inside the penguin house. We enjoyed watching them taking turns dipping in a wide pool of water and the glass window also gives as a glimpse of what takes underwater. The cold temperature also gave us some rest from the warm and humid air outside.

The amazing thing was while we were watching these flightless birds, one took a dive and just went near us as if tapping the window glass and saying hello. We were thrilled!! Here is a picture of this guy (oops not sure thought of its real gender) - that we would like to know how to tell. Anyway, so here is the cute fellow =) The photo isn’t that nice because the place was a bit dark.

2] The macaws - so colorful and pretty noisy screechers! But the kids love the ones in the cages because they can talk! These ones perched on branches are really very beautiful, for us at least. Stephie didn’t think so… zzzzzzz!

Won’t skip the chance of taking a photo near them…

3] The lories are just adorable. There is nothing like inviting them for lunch and they are such willing guests. But watch out for those strong sharp beaks. They hurt when they peck you for not sharing the whole lot!

And here is Zeph with more lories…

So these are our top three on the list of bests… on the next blog, the 4th and so on..

The children were so excited. We have been going through Singapore several times but we never go around that much. So now, they are really happy to see Sentosa Island for the first time.

The Merlion is the city’s symbol. It has the head of a lion and the body of a fish. At the background is the bigger version of the original statue by the marina.

And here are verakyle about to take off to get an aerial view of the city.

I took the pix.

And this is what we saw

The Underwater World has a big tank of living creatures from the sea..

With live giant crabs…and otherwise

Night came, called it a day… it was wonderful.

The kids and I are reading buddies. Either one reads to the other at different times of the day. Or I read aloud to each one of them or both three! Here are my two girls. Our baby saw Vera reading a book on the floor, so she pulled one herself off the shelf and lay down beside her to imitate her. Such mentoring! Anyway, we enjoy reading soooo much… oh, dont we all, HSers?

By the way, it is my father’s birthday today… THE LORD BLESS YOU, TATAY!!!

After a year of picking up a few words and phrases in Sinhala, we came across this interactive CD-ROM that teaches the language. Sinhala is one of the three official languages but the most widely spoken in the island. About 70% of the speak it. The other official languages are Tamil and English

“Isn’t it rather late?” You might ask. Well, we have been trying to learn it in bits and pieces. Many of the locals speak good English. That was awfully convenient  so it killed the sense of urgency to learn. With this teaching tool, we hope the interest will spark anew.

I look forward to meeting with them again and perhaps our children will have some playtime together. =)

My kids took it in a stride. They have gained as much friends as they have back home. But they do miss their friends and cousins in the Philippines. They also miss the frequent trips to the second hand bookstores as we don’t have them here. They miss their bikes because we don’t have that space for that anymore. We are renting the second floor of a 2 storey house. They miss their pets but they always look forward to visiting and seeing them in our next trip back home. They enjoy curd and treacle and all the Sri Lankan sweets. They love the trips to the countryside and see the wildlife. They love it here.

My son Zeph once overheard when someone asked Paul,”How long are you going to stay here?”

“Three years,” he replied.
Zeph groaned in utter dismay, “THREE YEARS?! I thought we will stay for 10 years!” and Vera agreed .

So, I guess that gives you an idea of how much they dig Sri Lanka.

We just heard the news today of the bombing that killed 8 in Colombo this morning. Things like this are not unheard of to our family, even to our kids. Back home in the Philippines, we were celebrating Rizal Day on Dec. 30, 2000 when a blast killed 22 in a lightrail train carrying the holiday crowd. People were busy preparing for the New Year’s Eve which is a festive event to Filipinos.

Too much blood is shed just to pay for the price of “PEACE”. And children are usually the innocent victims of these tragic events.

Just recently. we were saddened but relieved when the family of my husband’s colleague whom we sometimes have fellowship with in church have to relocate out of the country. They are Sri Lankans. My children used to play with their youngest son. But because of serious threats from rebel groups, they have sought political asylum elsewhere.

Please pray for the nation of Sri Lanka as Sinhalese and Tamil try to settle ethnic conflicts in the peace talks.

Please pray for my country, the Philippines, which is also racked by war for decades in the countryside.

It is amazing how the director-playwright have woven the story of the Pericles, a Shakespeare tale, in a unique Sri Lankan setting. Combined with graceful dances and colorful costumes, this play has presented a delightful yet inspiring message of survival, love and hope to young and old in many tsunami stricken camps. There was even a part were a real big elephant with the king of Kandy straddled on its back. This was the biggest treat for my kids as they love elephants so much! Tsk! Tsk! Steph slept through that part though… oh well, she has lots of chances to see more pachyderms anyhow.

You won’t believe this BUT it was performed in three languages. Yes, indeed, all three! In Sinhala, Tamil and English. It was impressive. We appreciate it that they included English since there was a considerable number of foreigners who watched It wasn’t a problem at all for anyone who are still struggling with their Sinhala or Tamil - that includes me. For Vera and Zeph, the Children of the Sea is simply great! A written narration from each would make it even more perfect.. or maybe a blog?

The play also appeared at the Edinburg International Festival.

Rose ringed parakeets building their nest in a hollow tree trunk

 We saw this thin flock of local herons. We also enjoyed watching some storks.

The visitor’s center also boasts of high watching towers where you can view marsh lands and lush bird areas from miles away. We have seen lots of various birds and a snake, too. The park rangers told us that the flocks get thicker during migration which starts as early as August. We are too early but we can always come back.

It is our first time to visit Hambantota, a bustling town with a small fishing port. It is known to be the home of Leonard Woolf, husband of the known writer Virginia Woolf. Along the road we observed salt pans and marsh land areas where birds are attracted and stay over the autumn and winter seasons.

This place wasn’t spared either by the tsunami. We have have seen a lot of the tents cities along the way and it grieved our hearts. It is much like seeing a cloud with a silver lining when we reached this place. The sunset was glorious. We vowed to ourselves that it will not be our first time to visit. We will be coming back I am sure.

It seems that they don’t mind being captured in photos. They enjoy the attention. Vibrant Bea and Fuzzy Zephyr still find it even more thrilling to use their binoculars… they are just about 2-3 meters away from our veranda!

So lately we have been trying to familiarize ourselves with bird names, colors and birdcalls. It is quite interesting.. and entertaining too! The Dymnamic Duo has just started learning how to use the microphone with the pc. So, we recorded the neighbor’s call! I hope to embed that here if I can figure out how. And with excitement, Dd and Ds drew the neighbors’ portrait in their nature journal.

We have become stalkers of Mr. and Mrs. Kingfisher! 

Steph with Tita Michaela

This is late posting. We just got the pictures….the dinner party wasn’t held until the 5th of March for some reasons. Read more from The Playpen.

We decided to go walk to the site. It was not too far. The beach was dark. A quick flash of light welcomed us to a small hut where men from the fishing village nearby stay up late to wait for the turtles to come. On shifts, they scout the area by twos and signal messages using dimmed flashlights. In a short while, we were joined by two German volunteers. They gave a briefing.

The guidelines were as follows:

1. Wear dark clothing only as light clothing may be seen by the turtles and disturb them. Yes, we did this.
2. Still or video cameras are not allowed. Tsk! Tsk! We brought ours .. they allowed us to use without the flash…next to impossible though. I have yet to see the result.
3. Torch/flashlight should not be used on the beach. Oooops. We did when we were trying to find our way to the hut.
4. Don’t go to the beach without the project workers/officers.

Turtles come up the beach where they were born and lay their own eggs. Amazing how they can find this same strip of beach where they first reached the waters and swim. Imagine just one in a thousand makes it to adulthood! They said if we get “lucky” we could sight some hatchlings or an adult female on the beach to lay eggs.

We got a signal from the beachfront. A turtle was coming up slowly and deliberately up the beach. Yet we have to wait for some time so as not to scare it away. Meanwhile, hatchlings (olive ridley)were sighted from a nearby nest. We were called to see such a rare sight. It was hard to suppress our oohs and aahs when saw their cute heads bobbing out of the sand. Vera and Zeph were shown how to handle and lead the hatchlings to the water using the flashlight. They follow moonlight and feel the vibration of the waves. These lead them to their first lap of gentle sea waves. We saw a lot of small tracks disappearing to the Indian Ocean. Many have already left.

Half an hour later, they told us that we can now approach mother turtle since it has now settled itself and started laying her eggs in the hole. A few meters away, a green turtle was laying her eggs. It was HUGE! Almost a meter in length and width, it could weigh about more than 250 lbs. We watched them work on her. They got egg samples to weigh and measure and put back in the hole. They let us handle some of the eggs. Then, they measured the turtle’s length and width, tagged the flippers and took a small piece from them for DNA testing. She seemed unfazed by all the fuss we humans were making around her. After laying the last eggs, she started covering the hole with sand using her flippers. The kids were screaming as sand flew to the air and sprinkling on their shirts and faces. Well, it was alright as the creature couldn’t hear.

Year round, hundreds of turtles come up the beach to do their nightly ritual of preparing for next generation. Five species known are loggerhead, leatherback, olive ridley, green and hawksbill. Thanks to the Turtle Conservation Project as these nests are being protected from poachers and predators. TCP has trained people who used to gather and sell the eggs to become guides and protectors. They run community education programs about turtle conservation and mangrove rehabilitation and other environmental issues.

Vera and Zeph have seen the TV program on turtle conservation in Turtle Island near the south of the Philippines but this is their first time to see actual hatchlings and nesting. With eager minds, they are more aware of their role even as children in taking care of God’s creatures. This week we plan to do a unit study on the turtle’s life and habitat.

Past midnight, we were ready to go home and yet we still have one obstacle left - how to get out of the sand trap. With help from villagers and the TCP people, we were able to get out in an hour. Yet the whole time, Stephie was warm and cozy in my arms and fast asleep.

Colombo is teeming with wildlife! You can find wild monkeys even in the parks. But the most wonderful sight to see, and glorious sounds to hear in early mornings are the variety of birds perched in a mango tree near our back veranda. Here, we see flycatchers, bee eaters, kingfishers, the common myna and magpie robins calling out to their kind. Of course, the noisy cawing Mr Black (a crow)gets the attention all the time as it perches on our window sill asking for crumbs. Mr Munchkin’s tribe (squirrels) visits twice a day and vies for equal attention.

We decided to observe and study the birds more on detail. So we picked up this book “Birds of Sri Lanka” (for children) and have a wonderful time since June studying what we see just from the back veranda and too, from the parks we have visited. From the parks we have observed fish eagles, cormorants, herons. egrets, peacocks/hens and Sri Lanka’s national bird, the wild fowl (cock). Sri Lanka is a paradise for bird watchers! We also have seen elephants and buffaloes in the wild. The children are having the thrill of their life. To them, seeing these beasts in the wild is a dream come true.Until recently, they have been dreaming of becoming naturalists on TV!

Arriving at our destination, we were greeted by a man playing a nose flute. He was on top of a hut on stilts. The Culture Club, a resort that sits by a lake they call Wewa. Wewas are ancient tanks built centuries ago to store water and irrigate the farmlands during dry season. They were built by ancestors during the old kingdoms. It is hard to explain at this time… but Paul picked up a book entitled ” The Springs of Sinhala Civilization” by Anuradha Seneiratna. I hope to learn how these tanks came to be.

Cart drawn by bullocks.

Vibrant Bea and Fuzzy beside the wewa near Culture Club in Dambulla

Cricket, the favorite sport of Sri Lankans

Under the fruit bats, trampling over guano. Yikes! Watch out for droppings!

There is an avenue of royal palms planted in 1950 reminiscent of UP in Los Banos along the road from administration building to Humanities - in a much bigger scale.

Picture above shows a giant Javan fig tree which covers 1600 square meters.See those poles underneath? They have to put the poles to support most branches to keep them from drooping. Amazing!

This garden covers 60 hectares. It is a perfect place for picnic and bird watching! Next time, we will bring a good pair of binoculars and a bird guide book.

These are domesticated elephants which were abandoned by their former owners. Baby elephants who lost their mothers in the jungle are also adopted by the herd. The big elephant above seems to have adopted a wee one inspite of her amputated right front foot. This elephant was abandoned because of a severe infection which cost a front leg.

These animals have become so dependent on human beings that they can no longer be reintroduced in the wild.

A mahout doing the daily routine of giving the beasts a wash.

Oh, we could have spent more time here as they were also feeding the calves in a shelter a few minutes walk away! The kiddos brought some sketching materials but we have yet to travel 3 hours more to our next destination…

Link to Elephant Orphanage

We are homeschoolers from the Philippines. we have 3 blessings: Vibrant Bea, 8; Fuzzy Bear, our gentle zephyr, 7; and our new bundle of love and ragamuffin, Ruffin, 2 months old. Well, of course, you already know that these are not their real names but pet names that we have given them for the purpose of this blog.

We have just relocated here in Sri Lanka and brought along eager minds and hearts to learn and take on a new challenge and adventure… a foreign land and a different culture. Here at home and out there is our classroom and laboratory with God’s Word as our manual. Our children’s hearts is our fertile soil and we pray for a good harvest in this mission field.

It will be a long haul for us… 3 years. Let us see what happens.