Gram was with us here in Africa for more than 2 1/2 months. During that time, she and Ian were busy around the clock with projects and studies of all kinds. Here is a short list of the projects they did:House for Lizard, a small plastic toy lizard that, sadly, disapeared from our lives even before his house was completed. We plan on getting a new lizard, but Ian says he is only available at Zuzu's cafe near the zoo in Madison. (This is where Lizard the First came from.)
Carnivores of Kruger, a hand-drawn and -colored book of some of the carnivores of Kruger National Park. This was a many-week project that resulted in a high quality product.
Lemur's book. Gram and Ian took Lemur, an important new addition to Ian's stuffed animal collection that Dad brought from Madagascar, all around Chitengo Camp, taking his photo in many places and with many people in Chitengo. Then, they cropped and edited the photos on Gram's computer, organized them into the right order, and wrote text to accompany each photo and tell the story of Lemur. Katie is still working to turn the photos and text into a Powerpoint presentation or maybe even a book.
Paperdolls. Lemur was lonely, so Gram and Ian made paperdolls of Lemora and Semur, Lemur's brother and sister. These paperdolls also have a collection of very interesting and lovely clothing, including ice skating outfits and bathing suits.
Cuisinaire Rods. These are wooden rods of different lengths that help kids learn basic arithmatic skills in a visual way.
Tangrams. These are plastic geometric shapes that you can use to make almost any other shape with!
Phonics. Almost every day, Gram and Ian worked on their phonics book, and Ian learned to recognize many different words, including "and," "the," "he," "she," and "said". They also made up lists of rhyming words that have the same root spelling, like hat, cat, bat, pat, and mat and book, look, hook, and nook. Rhyming words are very fun.
They did MANY more projects than this, but that gives you some flavor of their activities. What fun!
