The Second Week of School!

Hello Everyone,
We have had some requests about pictures of our kids at school so here they are!!!!!!!



This is my morning class. Most of them are 3 and some of them will be turning 4 this fall. I have three Chinese, two Korean, and the rest are Khmer ( Cambodian). Can you tell who is who?


This is my afternoon class. Four of my morning students stay all day. It is such a long day for them and one of them still cries when he doesn't get to go home with all the other students. There are 6 students from P-k4 class that stay all day and join with us the second half of the day. You can tell that they learn so much english and school behavior in one year because the afternoon class is a breeze compared to the morning class.

So far school is going great. I'm still figuring out the best way to plan for my day. I'm trying to figure out how many activities I need to plan for based on their attention spans and the resources we have avaible. None of my kids speak english in the morning class. I am finding how difficult it really is to plan projects and activites that will be meaningful and exciting to them, but also on their level so that they understand what I'm saying. I find it hard to balance the need to provide time for them to explore and learn on their own, but also provide enough time for them to be hearing new english vocabulary. Anyway, pre-k3 has its challenges, but the kids hugs and the end of they day make it all worth it.



Welcome to Mr. Walker;s 5th Grade Class. Gideon has a blast with them. Gideon is still getting used to the change from middle school to elementary school, but I know he is doing a fantastic job. When we are in the lunch room eating I've heard numerous teachers give him high praise of his students attitudes in their specials classes, his classroom set up, and the overall job is doing. They are all really impressed. I think he is worrying a lot about this year because he is new to teaching 5th graders, but I don't think he has anything to worry about. A couple of his students have stopped by the pre-k3 classroom to meet me and introduce themselves so that has been fun! Gideon always comes home with stories about his students that shock him. The shock is that they are so motivated to be in school and do school work. He is used to teaching at a public school where it was like pulling teeth getting homework turned in for all the kids and here kids are asking why they didn't have homework the first week of school. Also one kid prayed during morning devotion that he was thankful the weekend was over. What? Who are these kids? Here are a couple other photos of his kids!





As for life outside of school well we seem to be spending a lot of time preparing for the school week right now even on saturdays. I think it will get better though. Gideon just started his masters program online this last wednesday so that keeps him busy in the evenings. In a couple of weeks I will start doing 3rd 4th and 5th grade soccer on thursdays after school for an hour. I'm really excited for that. Last night we went out to dinner and on the way home it was raining. We didn't think we would ever get cold in Cambodia, but we were proved wrong last night! We are still looking for a church. The past couple sunday we have had things that have kept us from going to church. Last sunday we made an appointment in the morning to get Gideon's bicycle fixed (yes we just bought it a 3 weeks ago and it hd already broke) thinking we had plenty of time to do that and then head to church well. Something that we thought we take an hour ended up taking three. So hopefully we will get to church tomorrow and find one that we enjoy.

Thank you for all of your prayers. Please continue to pray for us as we continue to adjust to our new schedules and routines of life. Please pray that we will be patient with one another. This last week we have come home extremely exhausted from our school routine and have been a little short with one another. Please pray as we continue to build relationships with our landlords. Pray that they see God in us!

We love you all and miss you!

Kristy and Gideon