The Quales

An email from CQ, from last night:

“Hi honey,

I`m sorry to have been out of touch all day. Since we left Tokyo this morning it has been one thing after another. We arrived and then saw Ojichama for just a few minutes (he was resting) then Yoshinori took us to have lunch with the Richmond delegation. Then about one hour after that we went to meet the Mayor, then we were invited to a blessing on the inside of the Oi Shrine, which was my first time inside of the shrine. I think it was a very special experience for Miles. We also ran into Tamiko, who was preparing for the Obi festival with her friends. Then we went straight to the birthday / 50th anniversary ceremony and party. Poor Miles was so tired that he fell asleep before it was his turn to play violin for Ojiichama (Luckily, he played for quite a while for Ojiichama earlier in the day)! They found a small couch, and he slept through the entire reception!

Miles is doing fine, but I think tomorrow, we will definitely slow down a bit. In the morning there is a Tea Ceremony followed by a Judo and Karate show. That, I think, will be the only “official” things we will do tomorrow. Otherwise he has been great, and all of the people can`t stop talking about how handsome he is! Also, with his hair, everyone says he looks like a samurai, which I think he likes. I got a great picture with him grimacing in front of a group of teenage girls dressed in Obi festival coats.

We both miss you, and tomorrow morning before we go, maybe I will give you a call. I only have internet access through Ojiichama`s computer (no wifi).

I hope that everything went well at the doctors and that you are all doing well. I am really tired now, so I think I will go to sleep. Please give Teo and Niko a big hug and kiss from me. I miss you guys and love you very much!

Love,
me”

Read by big brother Teo .

This is how Niko fell asleep this afternoon.

It’s only Wednesday but that means half our week is already over, and I can say that today we hit a good groove with home schooling.

CQ took Teo to school, so Miles, Niko and I had the entire morning free. After breakfast of fresh strawberries and bagels with homemade blackberry jam (YUM), Miles read two books. He read The Very Hungry Caterpillar (which was bittersweet since it was a book I read to him many times when he was Niko’s age) and a Grade 3 book on sharks. Then, we worked on an entire chapter of math, on bonds, adding and subtracting. We made our own flashcards and played a game adding to the number 10 in different ways. Miles really enjoyed the flashcard game, which I’ll have to remember to incorporate more. Having fun will make learning easier, I think.

Then, we did some crayon drawing. We are practicing a certain way of drawing, and starting with only the primary colors. Notice the misspellings in his lesson book. I am purposely not correcting them because I want him to get used to sounding out words. His reading level is pretty advanced, reading at least Grade Level 3 now and I feel that the more he reads, the more he’ll get used to spelling words correctly and sounding them out better. Plus, it’s pretty cute to see how he is spelling words!

After drawing, I read him a book on honeybees. A bee will make one ounce of honey in its entire lifetime. Amazing how the worker bee just works and works til it dies of exhaustion. Worker bees are all female, and all they do is work; they make the hives, they feed the babies, they feed the Queen, they clean the hive, they protect the hive (and if they sting, they die); they do not have their own babies. And in the end, after traveling to and fro thousands of times to collect nectar, they die of exhaustion, literally. In contrast, Drones are all males, and all they do is mate with the Queen (and of course, eat). Then, they die. They do not protect, they do not help clean, they do nothing but mate and then die. Maybe they are both selfless but it seems to me the Worker bees got the short end of the stick.

Miles still has not asked me how bees mate.

Then, we spent some time learning how to weave on his mini loom. His idea is to weave a rainbow piece and give it to Baba as a birthday present. Baba has a really big loom and Miles wants to surprise her with something he’ll create.

After weaving, we did some gardening and gathered eggs from the hens, had soup and bread for lunch, and then left the house for the first time all day to get Teo. Now, Miles is in chess class.

All in all, a really fun and productive day!