Fluffy New Pencil Case

At the end of last year we were browsing around our compound's bookstore and Eleanor fell in love with a cute little, pink, fluffy, pencil case.  Oh, how she wanted that pencil case!  Part of her yearning for the pencil case came from the book "Eat Your Peas!" by Kes Gray.  Eleanor was denied the pencil case and told to ask for it for her birthday or Christmas.  She was not upset at all and danced out of the store exclaiming how she would get the pencil case at her next birthday.

 

 

In this book a mother tries in vain to get her daughter to eat her peas.  She offers her all sorts of outrageous things such as a zoo, candy factories and the like.  In the end, she meekly adds to the enormous list a new fluffy, pink, pencil case.

 

Well, here in KAUST, the students are not required to bring school supplies but Marcella's teacher did request two items: a flash drive and a pencil case!  It was too hard for us parents to deny Eleanor the pencil case this time, so, when we took Marcella to get hers, we got Eleanor one too.  We also got this great pencil sharpener that I love!  Our electric sharpeners just do not last and this one is a nice hand krank with metal parts.  I love it and it works great.

The story does not end here.  The next day Eben and Eleanor are playig upstairs and Eben comes running down with a broken pencil for me to sharpen.  I gladly do this and think no more of it other than how nice it is that the twins are playng so sweetly together (they actually do this a lot).  Later I go upstairs and my, oh my, our walls have what Eleanor later said were new "creations!" 

We hang our kids' art work up all over the house on mini clotheslines made from yarn and small clothespins.  Eben and Eleanor were making more art for the lines.  Casey and I were so shocked but did not scold or get upset because the twins were so innocent in their work.  We talked with them about how we write only on paper and went through a lsit of what is good to write on and what is not.  The twins are cleaning up their creations, although it will take us about a week because we only manage to do a little bit each day. 

They even created a nice lower case e!  Eben said he wants to clean that one!

 

First Day of School

Here are our cute girls ready to begin a new school year.  Marcella is starting third grade and Theresa first. 

Theresa is actually being homeschooled this year.  Homeschooling is the direction we will be heading upon our return to Texas in a year or two so we decided to go ahead and begin that journey now rather than with all four at one time.  It is a great fit for our family and Theresa has expressed an interest in it and so far is enjoying herself. 

Marcella stayed within the KAUST school system and was actually placed with most of the same children as last year.  We were so happy for this because her peers are all motivated learners and help Marcella challenge herself.