Ballet Recital

R's first ballet recital was today. She danced beautifully and I am really proud of her.

Her teacher is a wonderful Japanese woman who is married to a French chef. After the recital, he served a meal for the parents. I had foie gras for the first time. It was delicious but I'm kind of glad I didn't know what was in it before I ate it.

Remainders (12/10)

Why is X Used when it Replaces Christ in Christmas? by R. C. Sproul. (Hint. It's not to blot Jesus from the holiday.)

Is Christmas Worth Defending? Bethany Keeley-Jonker writes, "The more I think about Christmas traditions, the more I discover a strange amalgam of silly (but fun) cultural traditions, Christian symbolism, and unbridled consumerism. . . ."

Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts by Jerry Bridges is free in the kindle version for a while. You don't need the kindle; just download kindle software to your mac, pc, or just about any other device. I downloaded the book and am looking forward to reading it. I really liked his The Crisis of Caring.

A Wikileaks Society Tim Challies muses, "My fear is that the Wikileaks mentality may just seep out into all of society so we become a society that delights in exposing one another, in which we are all seeking to bring to light not just what we’ve done, but the motives behind what we’ve done."

Children Around the World Celebrate Christmas is a book we have been enjoying at the preschool.

Daddy Breakfast: Egyptian One-Eyes

Egyptian One-Eyes (photo by Scott D. Feldstein)

I recently posted on facebook that R and I had made Egyptian One-Eyes for breakfast. Some people asked what they were or how to make them, so I thought I'd share here.

Egyptian One-Eyes have been a weekend breakfast tradition in my family as long as I can remember. They're usually made on Daddy breakfast day because they are simple yet fun. In researching this post, I found that they are called, among many other names*, "egg in the basket," which is more politically correct but a lot less fun. Without further ado, the recipe for Egyptian One-Eyes:

Ingredients

• 1 egg
• 1 slice of bread
• butter
• salt
• pepper

Directions

1. Cut a round hole through the center of the bread. (I usually use the lid from a spice container).
2. Butter both sides of the bread and both sides of the "hole."
3. Put the buttered bread and hole in a buttered frying pan on medium heat.
4. Crack the egg into the hole in the bread.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Turn the bread-egg combination over when the egg white in the hole has turned from clear to white. (Don't forget to turn over the hole too!)
7. When egg is cooked, remove the One-Eye and hole from the frying pan.
8. Serve and enjoy!

(Low cholesterol version: Leave out the egg, butter, salt, and pepper. Just cut a hole in a piece of bread and eat it. Toasting is optional.)

Other names for the Egyptian One-Eye are  "egg in a basket," "egg in a blanket," "egg in a window," "egg in a frame," "egg in a bed," "toad in the hole," "Rocky Mountain toast," square egg," Popeye" or a "one-eyed Egyptian sandwich," "spit in the eye," "Tiger's eye,"camel's eye," "midnight sun," "peekaboo eggs,"and "one-eyed jacks." These names and more are in the Wikipedia article, "Fried Egg."

New Hope School Expanding

You may know that I'm the director of New Hope International Preschool in Tokyo, a school that has been around for about five years. We've always dreamed of expanding into older grades. Recently we have been pursuing that dream. Now it looks likes we will be opening our school to elementary school children as early as next fall.

We have been planning behind the scenes for over a year. In October we held our first public meeting. The turnout was big, and there was more interest and support than we had thought. Since then, we've been working hard, choosing curriculum, visiting other schools, seeking advice, and talking to potential teachers and students' families.

New Hope International School will be unique: Christian, unit-based, multiage, and bilingual (more English than Japanese). I look forward to working with children and their families from preschool right through the school years.

If you want to learn more or are interested in helping out, please leave a comment on this blog post or contact us through the New Hope Preschool website. We appreciate your prayers, ideas, and any other support you can offer!

New Grammar Text - Easy Grammar

T finished with four years' worth of First Language Lessons for the Well-Trained Mindand we started a new grammar curriculum with him called Easy Grammar. So far, we like it. Other than a few differences in terminology, the transition has been smooth.  It's fairly rigorous without being overwhelming. Unlike First Language Lessons, Easy Grammar isn't scripted for the teacher. That makes it easier for T to do on his own so we can spend our together time on subjects that need more input from me.

We've only been using Easy Grammar for a couple weeks now, so I can't say too much about it from experience. If my impressions change as we continue to use the curriculum, I'll come back and update this post. For a comparison of Easy Grammar and First Language Lessons from someone who has used them both more than I have, see "Easy Grammar Vs. First Language Lessons" at the wonderfully named blog, "Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

I Love My Church!

Today was another beautiful Sunday in Tokyo and my family and I enjoyed ourselves at New Hope Narimasu, our local church. This season between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a great time to list up the top 10 reasons I am thankful for my church.

1. God-honoring praise and worship. We have a wonderful worship team that consistently leads us in worship. The focus is always on God, and even when we sing songs I've been singing for years, the worship leaders somehow make them new again.
2. Practical, biblical sermons. Shintaro Watanabe, our lead pastor, and the other New Hope pastors preach challenging sermons that are simple, applicable, and faithful to scripture.
3. Friends. Many of my friends at church are people I wouldn't have made friends with except at church. At first, I didn't have much in common with them except our mutual faith, but getting to know them has been a great pleasure.
4. Friends for my kids. My children's best friends are their church friends. Our church isn't all that big--50-70 people in attendance each week--but we have a LOT of kids. (And more all the time; five babies were born to church members this year.)
5. Many new Christians. I've been a Christian for most of my life, so I take certain things for granted and tend to fall into predicable churchy patterns of thought, speech and action. The constant influx of new Christians in our church is refreshing and challenges me to think about what I do and why.
6. The location. 10-minute walk or 5-minute bike ride. We still arrive late sometimes.
7. Bilingual. This is important to us as a family with two languages.
8. International. I think there are always at least five nations represented. A taste of heaven where every tribe and tongue will be gathered before God's throne.
9. Teens. Amazing kids that love Jesus, serve cheerfully, and are great role models for my kids.
10. Pot-lucks. New Hopers go all out with food.

A book by the senior pastor of New Hope Oahu, our church's grandmother church.

Pray Daily for Your Children - A 31 Day Prayer Calendar

I've been wanting to pray more regularly and purposefully for my children.  Recently I came across a list of "31 Ways to Pray for Your Children" by Bob Hostetler. I'm going to use the list to pray for my children every day.

Here are the first five days' entries:

1. salvation "Lord, let salvation spring up within my children, that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory" (Isaiah 45:8, 2 Timothy 2:10).
2. growth in grace "I pray that they may 'grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ'" (2 Peter 3:18).
3. love "Grant, Lord, that my children may learn to 'live a life of love,' through the Spirit who dwells in them" (Ephesians 5:2, Galatians 5:22).
4. honesty and integrity "May integrity and honesty be their virtue and their protection" (Psalm 25:21, NLT).
5. self-control "Father, help my children not to be like many others around them, but let them be 'alert and self-controlled' in all they do" (1 Thessalonians 5:6)

Mr. Hostetler said to feel free to duplicate or improve on his prayer list. I can't improve on it, but I did duplicate it as a calendar in the iCal format. You can view it in your browser with this link. You can add this calendar to any calendar software that supports the iCal format (most do) with this link. I'm having my calendar send me an email every day with that day's pray topic so I remember to pray for my children.

And here is a daily agenda view. It should refresh automatically.



Please let me know in the comments if you find this helpful or if you need help getting the data in a format you can use.

Looking for a Bible reading plan? Here is how I am reading God's word this year.

Math Help Online

The web is full of great resources for supplementing our children's regular math curriculum. For example, one of my kids was struggling a bit with place value. Japanese is different from English in that there are words for ones, tens, hundreds, thousands, AND ten-thousands. Then it goes to ten ten-thousands (10,0000), a hundred ten-thousands (100,0000), a thousand ten-thousands (1000,0000), then another word for a hundred million (1,0000,0000), and so on. Add to that the fact that yen are two orders of magnitude different from dollars in value, and you've got guaranteed place value confusion for kids growing up bilingual (and their parents)!

All that to say why we needed extra math help, and how we found some wonderful math resources online. Sal Khan has hundreds of excellent, concise math video lessons, all for free at the Khan Academy. He begins with 1+1=2 and goes right through linear algebra. He has even branched out and done some videos on science, history, finance, and test prep. Here is his first place value video and links to his others. (Click the video to start it. Click it again to see it in a larger size on youtube.)

• Place value 2
• Place value 3
• Decimal place value
• Decimal place value 2

I'm all for teaching math through fun games like UNO, but sometimes you've just got to crank through a worksheet or two to solidify mastery. Softschools.com has help for several subjects including free math worksheets to cover subjects from pre-K through middle school. I like that you can set the minimum and maximum number of digits. Here are the ones I used for place value.

• Place value worksheet
• Numeral to number word worksheet

These are just two of the many, many resources out there. Please share your favorites in the comments.

Jewish Feasts and Crafts

In our first nine weeks of homeschooling this year, the kids learned about ancient Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilizations. They also studied the Pentateuch (first five books of the Bible) and learned about creation, the calling of the Patriarchs and the Exodus. They learned about the Israelites' wanderings in the wilderness and the institution of the Law through Moses (including fun and meaning-filled feasts). Here are some pictures from the unit.

R's cereal-box ziggurat (the corn meal was meant to be mixed into the paint to add texture. She forgot, then sprinkled it over the top like snow).

A shelter for the Feast of Booths.

A shofar for the Feast of Trumpets.

The kids made a display about Rosh Hoshanah and Yom Kippur.

Breaking unleavened bread (made by T and R) at our Passover feast.

Broken bread at Passover.

T made challah, a bread that is eaten at Sabbath and feasts other than Passover.

Nerima Ward Agricultural Festival

Last month, we went to Hikarigaoka, our favorite park, and the agricultural festival for Nerima Ward was going on. It's kind of like a county fair in the US, but without the carnival aspect. Enjoy this slice of Japan.

Fall in beautiful Hikarigaoka Park.

Prize vegetables on display

Perfect box of onions

Tokyo's Nerima Ward is known for dried daikon radishes.

Boat made from vegetables

Detail of vegetable boat

Fishing for fruit

 The idea of this game was for people to see how much CO2 was prevented from being released by buying locally grown produce.

Holding a chick at the petting zoo

Marmot at the petting zoo

No agricultural festival would be complete without an Ampanman show!