Beach day at Rhonda

We had a fun and relaxing beach day today; we even planted a flag on the beach! Thanks Rhonda doing beach day at your beach spot. We loved your story and the kids act with it!

Storie telling corner

The storytelling is so funny now ... Penny and me kneeling down carefully the belly all round. Ekko helped us and the audience was laughing. Oh I love and cherish these moments!!!!!!

We planted some more flowers in our story telling corner and some herbs.

We had a few dancer left at night, fun!

Garden day

I'm so happy we finally got back and have our garden days again. It was fun to have the kids listening to the stories again and see them enjoy digging in the earth and planting some flowers for our story corner!
Welcome too to our new garden day members Dairin and Gabriel; Claudia, Filip and Paul!!!!!
Happy birthday Max (3) and Sarah (5)!

Beach day at Rhonda

We are very happy that Rhonda wants to take over the beach days! It was so much fun! Thanks Rhonda!
Thank you Eriko for the pictures you send me. I put some on our blog.

Cultural fun continued....

One of these days someone is going to have to show me how to upload more than four pictures at one time ;). Enjoy :)

Garden cultural fun

Esther's sessions were so much fun for those of us who were still on island and able to join in. First things first though......the kids have devised this game they call "rescue" and someone goes down the slide and calls out "help, help" and then the people at the top throw down the rope and pull them up. It is so funny and they do it over and over and over again.

We had a variety of activities shared by parents and children from different learning experiences throughout their lives. Hula dancing, chamorro stick dancing, drumming and a creative movement activity.

Pursuit of Wisdom

Sorry there have been no pictures from previous weeks.....both times I had a camera with no memory card in it :(
This week we have another wonderful session planned by Esther. here are Esther's words to describe the session.....

For the course "The Pursuit of Wisdom" I am to organize a project reflecting on personal journey and self-knowledge, understanding the human condition, pursuit of life long learning, and the cultivation of meaning and purpose.

I felt like this was so fitting of garden day and how so many people in the community gather every week. I thought it would be great fun for everyone to come together and celebrate what makes us unique (our roots) and our connection to each other.

So anyone (parents or kids) who would like to share either dance and movement, song, story, or other cultural experience from your native country or from life experience would be wonderful. (Chloe has already agreed to perform and teach stick dancing that she learned from her culture teacher!!)

We look forward to seeing you all on Tuesday..same time, usual place :)

Garden Day this week at Tom and Else's in Ipan. Start time 430pm with finishign up around 630pm. Vegetarian pot luck meal.

See you there
Penny

So....about those mosquitoes

I have been doing some searching around to see what else we can do about the mosquitoes. It has been raining now and the biting has begun in earnest. What I thought is that we could all share and build up a list of remedies and repellants that we have tried, trusted and most of all are safe for us and our children.
*wearing light, loose, long sleeved clothing and pants. To avoid being bitten in the first place......apparently mosquitoes are more attracted to darker clothes so try lighter coloured clothing.
*each week we can burn the citronella torches and the candles
*use the bug zapper and turn on the fans as people are arriving to "make wind" to discourage the mosquitoes from landing on us.
*I have heard that pure vanilla extract on pulse points is able to repel mosquitoes
*and it could be worth a shot.......I'll make a big pot of garlic soup for next week :)

See you all then...details about Esther's sessions on the 23rd and 30th of June to come :)
Cheers
Penny

What's going on during the Summer

Hello gardeners, critter hunters, and beach goers. Garden Day was still a great affair despite many of our regular families being off-island. Thank-you for all the work amongst the sweet potatoes...they love the space now the weeds are gone.

We have some exciting activities planned for the 23rd of June and the 30th of June. We are finalising the arrangements .....but I can give you a sneak preview...Esther will be leading some holistic health sessions on these dates as part of her studies program. Thank-you Esther !

Last week we had the story of the flame tree and we will continue with this story for a couple of weeks...as each time the kids hear the story they enjoy it all the more....I love how little kids teach us the value of repitition. We look forward to seeing everyone in the garden this Tuesday. Usual vegie pot luck, kick off time 430pm with finish up around 630pm.

Love and light Penny.

P.S. A couple of people have asked about patterns for homemade toys and puppets. I personally recommend
'Toymaking with children' Freya Jaffke
'The Children's Year' Stephanie Cooper, Christine Fynes-Clinton, Marije Rowling.

Amy's and Aaron's rooster

This time we had a gnome out of the garden leading us to fun places. We got to talk about the native trees, the little chickens andddddddddd Amy and Aaron’s rooster! They raised a rooster from baby, so sweet. And he loves Amy!!! Thanks for bringing him.

Thanks too for the weeding. We got so much don. The tomato’s and eggplant look wonderful! Else

Thanks Ginger for taking pictures!!!!!