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My Autobiography Wrap Up!
A while ago I started writing an autobiography. I split my autobiography into 6 different parts and started posting them on our blog. In my autobiography, I wrote things about my life and my special memories. I decided (well actually Mom decided) to write a wrap up post to go over everything I have written about and share it with you!
My first post autobiography post was about My Sister. 5 years ago, we went to China to adopt my sister Tallulah. Click the link to go check it out!
My next post was about My Cousin. My cousin Avery is one of my favorite people in the whole wide world to hang out with so I had to write a post about it. Go ahead and click the link!
The next post is about My Adventures. This one, like that previous one, is about Avery but it is also about my grandparents and a trip we went on together! This one one of the best trips I have ever been on, so make sure you click the link!
I then wrote about My Passion. I have been dancing for as long as a can remember and dance is a big part of my life. Click the link to read about my dancing journey!
As you probably know I live in Thailand. But I only moved here about 1.5 years ago and Thailand wasn’t always home. To read about the places I call My Home click the link.
Lastly, I wrote about A Day In My Life. I thought you guys might like to know what it like being a 13 year old, homeschooled, missionary in Thailand. Click the link!
I hope this autobiography gave you a little peak into my life.
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Conversations with the Keim Kids
During the last school year, we (the Keim kids) set up a YouTube channel. Our friends in Atkinson Nebraska sent us pictures and asked us questions about our life in Thailand. We made videos to answer their questions, but instead of just making videos for them we decided to put all the videos we made on YouTube so everybody can see them. Josiah, Selah, and I did all the work so that we could learn about it and have fun with it.
These are all the videos we made so far if you want to see them:
Episode #1
Episode #2
Episode #3
Episode #4
Episode #5
Episode #6
Episode #7
Episode#8
Episode#9
Okay I got to go now, so see you next time!
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A Day In My Life
My Autobiography Part 6
Here is what a day in the life looks like as a homeschooled missionary in Thailand.
I love to wake up early, so I set my alarm for six thirty every weekday. Waking up early makes me feel more productive, that is why I like it. After I wake up, I take a shower and finish getting myself ready, so I start getting Tallulah up. Tallulah and I share a room and so I’m in charge of getting her up and dressed every morning. She hates getting out of bed, but I try my best.
Recently, I started gymnastics classes, so every morning I try to either stretch or workout. I said I “try” because sometimes I am really sore from gymnastics or I’m just too lazy. Then I go downstairs and eat breakfast. I try to eat healthy, so my breakfast is usually something like eggs, a smoothie, or sometimes a bagel.
After I eat breakfast, I do some morning chores. In the morning, my chores are cleaning up the house, and either sweeping, filling ice trays or doing the dishes (The week I have dish duty is, by far, the WORST). Then I’m ready to start school.
We start school at eight thirty. We start our day with math and language arts each morning. Then we do typing or online learning, some of the online classes I am working on right now include computer programing and physics. At 11:00 we stop our individual work and do “together school.” Some days we do chemistry and some days we read a book together. Lately, we have been reading “The Return of the White Book” which is about the first missionaries in Myanmar and Siam (Thailand). We also do Bible flashcards and riddles.
We do school about until twelve for our lunch break. For lunch we pretty much have the same options every day: smoothie bowls, leftovers, sandwiches, or anything else we find in the fridge. We just get to pick what we want to have each day. When lunch is over, we all go to our rooms and do an hour of “quiet time”. This means we spend an hour reading or doing homework. When finish quiet time we do a bit more school. For me that is either practicing dance, practicing gymnastics, or making a YouTube video for our channel Our Paradoxology.
And then finally we have free time. At about 4:00 we do our chores again, but this time we also grab our laundry that has been hanging outside to dry. At about that time Dad comes home from work, and we eat dinner. We pick up from our meal and then we either watch a show or play video games. Then at 8:30 we get ready for bed and by 9:00 we go to bed.
That is what my life looks like on a night when everybody is home, but that actually doesn’t happen very often. On Mondays, we have Thai classes and they are very far away so we spend a lot of time driving. Some days I have gymnastics, some days we go out to ZOE for worship or prayer, and some days we go swimming or out to eat somewhere. I used to have dance classes some nights and pretty soon I am going to start going to a Bible study one night each week.
So that’s a day in my life. It isn’t that exciting, but it works for me.
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The Potter’s House
A couple weeks ago we had a pottery class. First, we had to find the place and we did. There weren’t any parking spots so we had to pretty much just park on the side of the road. We were so close to the wall that we couldn’t even open the door.
Then we entered the shop. We were early so we just waited until the class started. First, we got a tour of the shop and we got to see the kiln. I didn’t know what a kiln was, but I know now it’s like a big oven.
Then it was time to make and paint a mug. We got a chunk of clay to shape into a mug. Mine was a little bit different, but I still liked it. It was green and it had a snail on it.
If your mug was dry and cracking, you just get a sponge and wipe it and the cracks would get filled in. While we worked outside, the big kids worked inside. Josiah made a mug that looked like it was dripping and Selah’s wasn’t a mug it was a cup with a lid.
Next, we painted the mugs and the cup. Then we had to wait for three weeks to get them back. Sadly, Selah’s cup got smooshed during that time.
I thought the pottery class was going to be like you put a little piece of clay on a spinning wheel and mold it. Even though it was different than I thought it be, I still enjoyed it.
Well, I guess this is it.
Signing off, JPK
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Grace enough for this mom, too.
It is easy and fun to post pictures of our accomplishments when we are “ahead of the curve.” Like in 2019, when we dug in and worked hard to finish all of our homeschool goals in April before leaving for China to meet our Tallulah. Or 2020, when COVID shut downs left our homeschool days virtually unscathed. Or 2021 and 2022, when Selah set us a family goal to be done with school before her May birthday and we willingly complied with her request. It was an easy goal, we were on track to do so anyway.
It is now 2023. It is November. And we only just finished up the coursework that we’ve typically wrapped up in April or May. That is 6 months behind schedule for us, so it seems strange to take a picture…let alone post it for anyone to see. But in the spirit of #keepingitreal, here it is:
In a discussion I had about homeschool curriculum recently, it occurred to me that I have experience teaching all grades PreK-8. I’ve used the same Language Arts curriculum all along the way for every one of my kids (including various editions of the coursework as they were updated along the way). I suppose that means I’m your girl if you are looking for “mom who has experience homeschooling her kids using The Good and the Beautiful Curriculum.” Granted, that is a pretty specific niche of the world to claim expertise in, but I have found that I do indeed have plenty of advice to share as a part of a Facebook group or two.
Something I like about the homeschooling Facebook groups I am a part of is that people are genuinely asking for advice and help. When someone posts a question about the fourth grade concept they are struggling to understand themselves so that they can help their struggling child, others jump in within seconds offering exhaustive explanations, even posting pictures with steps written out or correct answers highlighted. There are always others who chime in with words of encouragement or at least a little huggy heart emoji, and rarely do you see any condescension or accusation. It is such a beautiful community of mothers who are taking responsibility for every aspect of their children’s education.
I am not on Facebook often enough (or in the right time zone) to be a part of most of those conversations, but I have chimed in several times when someone is asking for thoughts about the schedule they have put together for their day or sharing the list of curriculum they are about to purchase and the big question: “Does this cover everything?” I often have relevant input to offer regarding their specific schedule or curriculum selections, but most of my comments also include something along the lines of: “…but that is a lot, so be sure to give yourself plenty of grace if you can’t get it all accomplished each day!” Sure there are some who might seem not to be doing not quite enough regarding their kids academic development. However, what I see far more often is get-it-done, do-it-all homeschool moms like myself who pile too much on the plate and are in danger of forgetting to leave time for conversation, creativity, and the breaks that are sometimes needed for emotional processing when things just feel hard. It is easy to forget the WHY of homeschooling when we get caught up in the HOW.
I chime in when moms ask what do to at the end of the school year: “We aren’t done with level 1, can we just move on to level 2 so my daughter isn’t behind a grade level?” My advice is always DON’T SKIP it! There is so much good stuff at the end of each academic year: like wrapping up word lists, conducting final comparative assessments, the bigger creative writing assignments, and the sense of accomplishment they feel when finally getting through the “Personal Reader” that seemed so thick when they first cracked it open. I might say, “Sure you have the option to wrap it up early if you are just really burned out…but please don’t do it just for the sake of perception regarding grade level!”
I’ve also been known to comment on questions like: “My son is in second grade but reads at a 5th grade level, can we skip ahead a few levels to be sure she is challenged?” My advice, based on plenty of experience, is again DON’T SKIP! There are so many age-appropriate things to learn through the educational process besides just reading more advanced books. We’ve always just chosen more advanced literature for the personal reading time of our school day and taken confident baby steps when the concepts came easily.
Anyway, I say all of that simply to tell you that I decided to heed my own advice this year, and we didn’t skip a thing when we got colossally behind. We plugged away when we could, let life derail us when it insisted, and then plugged away again. I know that if it were some other homeschool mama living my life, I would have told her to relax and take the breaks needed for all the “life” that is happening. I might have said to her, “Give yourself some grace for the time being and jump back in when you find some semblance of normal that allows it (even if it is only a few days at a time).” And so, this time, I gave myself that grace as well. And I continue to do so daily.
We needed an extra 6 months, but I am glad we did not skip anything and I am also glad we took the time. We are all grateful to finally be moving on, though, too! Jeremiah shared one of his final writing assignments from Level 3 the other day, which you can read here. As a part of her Level 6 requirements, Selah practiced all kinds of prewriting strategies in order to create a series of autobiographical sketches then compile them into an autobiography. Part 1 is available here now and she plans to post the rest in pieces as she is able to add photos and re-format her writing for the blog.
Josiah actually finished his 8th grade curriculum before we moved to Thailand which is why he is not in the photo above. He has been working on high school language arts for the past several months, and I’ve asked him to share a recent “Insights Essay” he wrote on the blog as well. Potato chips and animal humor are more his M.O., but his talent is multi-faceted and deep. I pray his short essay will bless your heart as it did mine (I’ll try to remember to link it here when he publishes it). I do hope Tallulah will be included in our next photo as well: she is working hard on her letter sounds and may soon be ready for an adapted approach to this classical curriculum.
Homeschooling is not always easy: it involves so much input with very little recognition. But there are also days when these kids bless my socks off with the people they are becoming, the work they are producing, and ways they are thinking. I have the best seat in the house from which to watch it all unfold…but I am happy to give you all a glimpse as well 🙂
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Mixed Media Art Project
I am homeschooled. During homeschool we learn all of the things you would learn at public school: Math, Reading, Language Arts, Typing, etc. Recently we did an art project as well. We made self-portraits that are all different and unique according to the person. Mom took pictures of us and we used them to make a simple outline of our face. And Tallulah did a really good job drawing her hair! Then we went in with watercolor to finish our faces and think I took the longest because I really wanted to get the right shade for my skin.
Creating the Background
Each day for a week we did a different part of the picture using different media like markers, prismacolor pencils, pastels, crayons, string, foil, glue, and plaster. The first thing that you look at when you look these is the our face but the background is actually really cool! We drew lines going out from our head and filled each section in with things like our names, our birthdays, our favorite bible verse, abstract lines, and something we like. Each one is very specific to that person which makes them all so different and unique!
SelahMae
We all wrote our names on our pictures. I wrote SelahMae instead of Selah because Mae is my middle name and I like it when people call me by both names together! The next section has curvy lines. My mom asked us if we were walking on a sidewalk how would we walk to describe our personality: I chose curvy lines.
Next we chose a favorite Bible verse. I chose Psalm 149:3, “Let them Praise his name with dancing.” This verse fits me because dancing is one of my favorite things in the whole world. It almost seems like this verse was written just for me. I don’t really know why I chose flowers for my background; it just felt right. (Also clogging shoes are too hard to draw, lol. 555.)
Tallulah
I think Tallulah did a great job. She wrote her name and her birthday herself. Mom wrote her Bible verse which is Psalm 139:13-16. For her line section, she drew all of her made up letters which I guess is perfect for her. In her last sections, she worked really hard to trace circles and made a Captain America shield because Captain America is her absolute best friend!
Jeremiah
Jeremiah wrote his name nice and big. He wrote his Bible verse and made some 3D lines which I think look so cool. Since his birthday is in July, he made some fireworks.
Josiah
And last but not least: Josiah. Josiah wrote his name in a really cool way. Also, for his lines he just made them nice and straight which totally fits him. His Bible verse is Collossians 4:18. He wrote his birthday in such a creative way because it looks like a code. He also cut out a piece of sheet music and glued it to his picture since he is really good at piano. I like the detail that he splattered paint to make freckles on his face. I think his is really awesome!
Finishing Touches
We made all of our shirts our favorite colors so mine is teal, Tallulah’s is purple, Jeremiah’s is green, and Josiah’s is this yellow orange color. Well actually Josiah’s favorite color is black but that is not on the color wheel so he picked this orange-yellow color. It had to be on the color wheel because all of our Bible verses are our complementary colors so mine is orange, Jeremiah’s is red, Tallulah’s is yellow, and Josiah’s is blue.
After the background was done, we added some finishing touches like adding texture to our shirts with plaster, glue, string, and toilet paper tubes. We also added string to our hair and foil somewhere on our picture. Can you find where we put the foil? COMMENT BELOW where you think we each put it! (Hint: we each put them in different places.)