What happens to little boys’ feet when they are finally well enough to play outside again!

As an adjunct faculty member, a “special instructor”, I sometimes teach pre-service teachers at BYU-Hawaii how to teach science to children. BYU-H is a culturally diverse campus with students from many different countries. I like to use this linguistic diversity to help students learn how to teach second language learners. At the end of the semester, I have each student present a five minute explanation of a science concept, in their native language (or a second language, if they are native English speakers who have fluency in a second language). At least half of the presentations end up being in a language other than English. Students quickly learn how difficult it is to understand topics when you don’t understand the language of instruction, and I hope that this gives them empathy for their future second language learners. Each year a few students shine in this assignment, despite the language barrier, and I believe the students learn more about how to reach second language learners from their classmates’ successful presentations than they ever could from a lecture on teaching second language learners.

This year, before we heard any English presentations, we had a Spanish presentation on kinetic and potential energy, a presentation on temperature and molecular movement in a Fijian version of “pig latin” (it was introduced as pidgin, but it wasn’t an actual pidgin language), a Tagalog presentation on the reflectivity of light, and a lesson in Tongan about the reason for different temperatures during the day and the night. It was enjoyable and eye-opening.

We pass a cattle ranch on our way to the library (yes two trips in one week). This cow was kind enough pose for a portrait.

Here is S sleeping off the last of the stomach bug.

S was still in the midst of the stomach flu and I wasn’t really thinking photography this day. However, I did make a stop at the library and used my phone in place of a copy machine to take this picture. Thanks to my mother, we have a subscription to the Children’s Friend, a magazine produced by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This year, the Friend has been highlighting a child living in a different country each month. I’ve been trying to teach S a little more about these countries and I wanted a list of which countries were covered in this particular series. I’ve learned a lot about Zimbabwe and the Philippines this month!

Technically, I took this photo on the morning of April 8th, but given the circumstances, evidenced by the subject matter, I’m counting it. S was laid low for at least 48 hours with a nasty stomach bug.

H has turned 18 months. We decided to celebrate 1/2 birthdays in our family when S was born so close to Christmas. It is a small family affair with cake and a couple of presents. H thought it was a great idea.

S is eager to learn his numbers and has been practicing in this workbook that we got him for that purpose.

On the evening of April 4th, I came home from a shopping expedition to find this waiting for me in the fridge, courtesy of H and S. They saved me some.

Several years ago, I got the idea to make a sock doll version of our family for S to play with. I started with the baby that I was expecting at the time. Unfortunately, our daughter died shortly after birth and I never did finish the sock doll family. Still, I keep this doll around because it reminds me of our angel and on the night of April 3rd, she was the most photogenic object in sight.