The Sun, (or is it Son?)

This week Emi learned about the Sun.

So she learned everything from the letter "S", to light, and shadows and more.

We made a sundial:

Made raisins:

Well, we tried to... I think it's too humid here!

Fun with Paint:

A visit to a "real” sundial:

But the most important part was this week's Bible verse:

"Jesus is the Light of the World."

イエスさま は 世 の 光 です

Big Change in Japan

August 30th was Election Day here in Japan. While foreigners are not permitted to vote, we have been interested in this election. They had predicted that the ruling party, the DPJ (the Democratic Party of Japan), would be ousted from power. This is significant because they have held power in Japan for almost 55 uninteruppted years.

Record high unemployment (5.7%) and a stagnant economy made people consider a change.

Well the prediction turned out to be correct, as the LDP (The Liberal Democratic Party) now has about 75% representation. They will undoubtedly select their party's leader Yukio Hatoyama to be the next Prime Minister.

Mr. Hatoyama is reportedly a Christian, so we will be praying that he will be led by God as he takes the reins of Japan.

Natural Beauty

Since Emi has been learning about Creation, we decided to go see some of it.

We are so blessed that Okinawa has such beautiful spots to see God's creation:

Southeast Botanical Gardens

This was supposed to be "Sunset at Manzamo (Elephant Rock)", but the clouds did not cooperate...

The "Mini-mini zoo"

First Day of Homeschool

Today was the first day of homeschool for Emi.

So why did we all get up before the sun did?


Well, because we wanted to catch the sunrise. The curriculum starts off learning about Creation. Since the "Light" and "Darkness" were the first day, we thought a visual aid might be helpful.


Okay, so the industrial plant takes a little away from the view...

Afterwards, Debe got down to a more traditional teaching style.


Looks like it will be a lot of fun as both Debe and Emi love to learn!

Patty heads back to Florida

It was so great to spend time with Patty. However, she must go back to Florida.


We will miss you (especially the girls). We will be praying for you!

OCHEA

We recently became involved with "OCHEA" -- Okinawa Christian Home Educators Association.

Emi is not due to start Kindergarten until next year, however we felt we would start now as she really loves to learn. Plus, if she goes to Japanese school she could use a head start in English.

Whether she goes to Japanese school or not, she will still be homeschooled in English, so we wanted to meet some other homeschoolers.

They had a BBQ at Torii Beach. It was a beautiful day!

Fun with Auntie Patty

The girls are really enjoying doing things with their Auntie Patty.

They had tea:


Did sparklers:


Played BLOKUS:


Went to Shuri Castle:


And had some friends & family over for a visit: