Another struggle with jet lag today, but we made it out of the apartment by 3pm—a full hour earlier than yesterday. Small victory.
We visited a town about 15 miles out of Vilnius called Trakai. Trakai is a pretty town situated along several natural lakes in the area. Its main attraction is a castle built on an island in one of the lakes. Although it has had many renovations over the centuries, the first construction on the castle started way back in the 1300’s. Makes everything post-European invasion in the Americas seem quite young by comparison. It is several centuries newer than Mayan structures like Chichen Itza and a century or so older than the Incas’ Machu Picchu (thanks Wikipedia!). We toured the castle, walked around the town, ate some delicious pizza, and let Nolan spend some time wading among the lily pads in the lake hoping to catch something. He came up empty-handed.
By the way, Nolan lives to catch things. He’ll try to catch anything, but frogs, snakes, and lizards are the most highly prized. You can see some of his catches on his intsagram account, NolansCatchoftheDay.
Home schooling continues to be a struggle. I don’t want to be a teacher who singles out struggling students so I’ll keep things anonymous, but one of our first-grade pupils is having a pretty tough time. Attempts to write out the letters of the alphabet falls flat at “H”. The lesson goes something like this:
“What letter comes after G?”
“Um….um…..um….. a-b-c-d-e-f-g……um….um….a-b-c-d-e-f-g…..um…a-b-c-d-e-f-g-gummy-bears-are-chasing-me.”
“That’s not a letter. What letter comes next after G?”
“Um…Um…a-b-c-d-e-f-g-gummy-bears-are-chasing-me.”
Apparently this rhyme he learned from a friend in pre-school (*cough*Caleb*cough*) has left the entire alphabet after the letter “G” a complete mystery. It only took us 90 minutes to get through writing each letter of the alphabet today. I think “gummy-bears-are-chasing-me” is going to be a hurdle again tomorrow.
But, thank goodness kids are resilient. After each parent in turn had compeletely run out of patience twice, he was back to smiles as soon as the lesson was over.
Here are a few photos from today.
I’m loving this!!!
Hi Jess and Ashley! Vickie told me your family is on a European journey! Good for you 🙂 I’m excited for your family to experience more life outside the USA. I ran into a few families doing the same thing during my European trips. Have fun and enjoy the diversity of peoples, cultures and foods! EAT MORE and make sure Ashley does too .. its part of the journey! LOVE YOU 2 and the little ones .. hugs and kisses to everyone!
Thanks, Sina! It’s been fun so far. The kids seem to be having a good time as anytime out of our homeschool sessions. We haven’t been snacking much which means they’re hungry at mealtimes and more willing to try unfamiliar foods.
Thanks Sina! We made salsa the other day and thought of you. Wish we had your salsa here
But what a cute 1st grader!
Do any of the letters after G really matter anyway?
I’m glad we get to follow along on your journey through this blog!
It’s really quite catchy, and I can sympathize with Nolan, as I am also having hard time saying ‘h’ instead of ‘gummy bears are chasing me!’