Summer is here!!!!!!!

What's the best way to keep cool in hot summer?
SWIMMING! Last Saturday, the outdoor swimming pool close to our house opened, so on Sunday after church we went swimming!
I could try Zosia's snorkeling equipment. (Thank you, Zozo) I hope that we will be going to the swimming pool very often this summer.

Playing after swimming

 

On Monday morning we went to the zoo. It was very hot, so most animals were hiding or sleeping.We did see some monkeys, penguins, bears, red pandas, hippos, rhinos and the two famous pandas.
Here are some photos my sis took:(Tanks,Zozo:))

Penguins

Red pandas (very cute)

Sleeping panda

3 days in Pingtung 屏東

We were away for 3 days last week. We left on Thursday morning and came back on Saturday night. On Thursday we drove straight to Pingtung city 屏東市 where we met with somebody. We went for dinner with another homeschooling family.
For the night we stayed at a Pingtung University 屏東大學 guest house. This university has a huge campus! And it's very easy to get lost. On Friday we went to the LiuDui Hakka Culture Park to play in sand and water. It was very hot so playing in water was the best thing to do.

I loved playing in the fountains!

 

 

 

Construction ahead!

That was not all for the day.
Later we drove a very narrow mountain road, which was broken in few places, to Dashe 大社村 aborigine village.

We had to turn back and take a teeny tiny temporary road.

Will it come down or not? My Mom was really scared.

Everybody from that village was evacuated after the Aug 8th, 2009 八八水災 floods. Since then only 4 families came back. We met two of the families. They have 5 kids, 3 of them are homeschooled, just like me. We had lots of fun walking around the abandoned village  with them and playing together. On Saturday we even worked with them in the field!

Take a look at the photos my Mom and Zozo took:

My new friends!

We made special dumplings out of the millet they grow.

Next morning we rode in their Ferrari ;-) to the filed.

 

There I made fire to boil water for lunch.

 

Had to turn over the weeds so they would dry..

And later burn them to fertilize the soil.

Short film my sis made

Yesterday my sister, Zosia posted a short film we made last month. Click below to watch it:

Children's Day and lots of other things!

I don't know where I should start, there are so many things I want to write about ...

Last week I was busy with school work and also some fun activities.

Here I am writing my English homework.

I am making a motorized bug.

The bug is ready. I added a cover for it.

Here you can see how the bug goes:

Do you know that June 1st in many countries is the Children's Day? In Taiwan Chindren's Day is on April 4th and in Poland on June 1st, so we should have two celebrations, right? Wrong. My Mom always celebrates the Polish Kid's Day, not the Taiwanese. And she is right, because this year for example the Taiwanese Kid's Day and the Tomb Sweeping Day were just one day apart - not fun.
This year we had a really special Children's Day. We had a great picnic with other Polish-Taiwanese families. My best friends were there too. I had lots of fun riding bicycle and playing with water guns (it was 35C!).

 I also got some presents from my Mom! Here they are:

I also got the Crazee Jumpin' Beans. I didn't really know how to play with them, so I had to go on YouTube and watch some videos. After watching the videos I got an idea to make a super-duper-jumpin'-beans-track.

This is my whole set of 36+1 neon jumpin' beans. Cool, right?

If  you want to see how my track works click on the video below:

Ju Percussion Group and playing with Ben and John

For the past few months my parents were organizing a workshop for other parents who want to homeschool their kids. At the beginning I didn't think it would be fun to go for those workshops, because I wouldn't know any of the kids, but ... it turned out that there were two boys about my age coming every time. And ... they live on the same mountain as we do，just on the other side.
Every time we meet we play Monopoly, Monopoly Deal, Uno, cards etc. One time they came over to our house - you can read about it here. In summer I will be going to a basketball camp with them. And maybe their dad can teach me how to play squash.

Yesterday we went to the National Theater 國家戲劇院 to see a performance by Ju Percussion Group 朱宗慶打擊樂團 Mulan 木蘭. I didn't like the signing part, which was hurting my ears, it was sang like the Peking Opera 京劇. Horrible! But the music was really really cool. I liked the fighting with bamboo sticks the best. You can watch a short clip below.

Taipei 台北 - Tainan 台南 - Taichung 台中

This was a very busy week!

On Monday we drove to Tainan to meet with some friends.

On Tuesday we had 2nd Tuesday homeschooling outing with families from Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingdong. We went to the National Museum of Taiwan Literature 國立台灣文學館 in Tainan. Many, many families came, but there were only tiny kids who made a lot of noise.

The inside of the museum. Cool, isn't it?

In the evening we had dinner with other homeschooling families in Taichung. It was boring. In the museum I have already read all the books I had brought with me so at the restaurant I didn't know what to do.

Wednesday and Thursday we've spent in Taipei - learning at home. I also had music and art classes.

And very early on Friday morning we left for Tainan again ... This time it was only a day trip. We went to the beach!

Today, Sunday, was a special day for Zosia - it was her Confirmation. The Mass was in a different church (not the one we usually go to) and it was in Chinese. It was a very long Mass.

Can you find Zosia and Mama? (©Jaś)

 

Fulong Beach Sand Sculptures

Last Tuesday we went to Fulong Beach!

When we were leaving the house we noticed our Inu was very, very sad. So we decided to take her with us. Our dog is afraid of almost everything and doesn't like car rides, so we never take her anywhere. But this time she looked sooooo sad that we decided to take her for a ride.
While we were at Fulong Beach it rained a bit,  just a little drizzle so we didn't mind (and the sculptures didn't mind either :-) ).
Although we went there in the middle od the week, it was difficult to find a parking space and Dad had to go around a few times to find one. I can not imagine how busy it is during the weekend.

View from the bridge,

Psy (Do you know it means 'dogs' in Polish?)

Inu scared of the water and waves.