Halloween 2010

My friend Joanna, and I organized a Halloween party for our kids and their friends. Since Joanna's place has a bigger space then our house we decided to have it at her house, plus her room mates gave us a big hand. They played games. At a lot of yummy snacks, and screamed a lot. It was fun, fun, fun. The game that had them talking was the mummy game were we divided the kids in two teams. Object of the Game: The first team to wrap their mummy wins! What you need: Toilet Papers. The kids also went trick or treat. We gave the neighbors the candies, and explained to them what to do. More pictures are coming soon.

Read a book give a book , "I Knew You Could"

I Knew You Could!

By Craig Dorfman Is a remarkable book.

From "I think I can" to "I knew I could," The Little Engine That Could helps kids of all ages realize that anything is possible if you just put your mind to it!

My kids and I read it together for free, and we love it. You too can find awesome books to read with your children for free. Every time you read a book, a book is donated to the needy children. Join our group African Languages, read a book, and make a difference.

Storymoja Hay Festival updates

The Storymoja festival is a life time experience. I met business owners, writers, cartoonist, illustrators, economist, film makers and the list goes on. Tomorrow I'm looking forward to meeting the Tinga Tinga team. The Tinga Tinga is a creative and wonderful film for children inspired by the African Tales. Its a blessing to be around people doing work that one loves.

Storymoja Hay Festival 2010

The Storymoja Hay Festival is hear again!

Come and support Yambeka Children Media at the Hay Festival! Our books will be available. This is a fun festival for parents and children. Aunts, uncles, brothers, mothers, grandparents, sisters, mothers, cousins all welcome!!!!!

Storymoja

The British Council will facilitate the attendance of 2,000 children from across Kenya to attend the Festival free of charge.

• 20% of all tickets will be made available free to students to attend the events at the Festival.

• A reading marathon will be launched at the Festival.

• Education links will be developed with Room to Read, KOEE, Book Aid International and Oxfam.

• A series of workshops will be made available to students for masterclasses with leading writers, storytellers, journalists and performers. There will also be further post-festival mentoring and manuscript development workshops.

• In 2009 the first internship from Kenya to Hay was initiated with a three-month placement for an existing Storymoja employee to join the Hay Festival team. The second employee participated in the placement in 2010, and the 15-year-old winner of the storytelling competition also attended the 2010 Hay Festival.

• Storytelling Competition winners from 40 schools/universities will work with leading mentors to hone their performances. The 2010 competition is sponsored by the US Embassy.

• The 2010 Storymoja Hay Festival poetry competition winners will be announced, and will have a chance to showcase their work at the Festival.

• The 2010 Storymoja/Generation Kenya photo stories project will exhibit and showcase winning entries at the Festival.

• A careers workshop based on the Storymoja Careers Encyclopaedia (in development) will be offered as a key event for high school students.

• Marine awareness and the need for conservation will be taught through a daily ‘under sea’ party, featuring skits from Matatu from Watamu, sing-alongs, etc. The set will be created by children themselves through facilitated art and craft activities.

• Parenting talks will be delivered by child psychologists and education experts, covering topics such as getting help for your children with learning difficulties, or supporting gifted children.

To learn more visit: Storymoja

Two years old Diddy singing Okadhila

Visiting Watamu, Kenya

A couple weeks ago, my family and I took a well deserved holiday to Watamu a beach resort on the Indian Ocean of Kenya. The nearest big town is Malindi. We took a 10 hours bus drive from Nairobi to Watamu. The children sang their favorite songs, and kept asking when we were going to reach Watamu. I have to give it to them, they were really good in the bus most of the time. Having a lot of snacks also helped. When we arrived in Watamu, it was raining, but not enough rain to make you too wet. We crossed the road, to find temporary shelter while waiting for our ride. Within 10 minutes, we were greeted by a friendly, lady who is one of the board members for the Local Ocean Trust-Watamu Turtle Watch. Carefully we drove to:Local Ocean Trust-Watamu Turtle Watch were we called home during the time we spent in Watamu. The Local Ocean Trust-Watamu Turtle Watching aim is to conserve Kenyan marine resources.

Their work consists of: hands-on conservation, research, education, campaigning and community development.

We stayed in a beautiful home with a big open space, the children could run around out side the house while we're in the house preparing breakfast, or lunch unlike in Nairobi (we live in an apartment compound , and the open space is parking lot). We took a tour of the house, then we went to watch the turtles, and met few of the employees, and guests, and watched the turtles. The following day the first thing the kids asked for was to go and watch the turtles. We then went to the beach which was about 7 minutes walk from the house. The beach has beautiful white sand. We also visited a beautiful Mida Creek where you can swim and collect beautiful sea shells.

The weather was beautiful, not too hot or too cold. Enjoy the pictures coming soon.

Tips about teaching children a second language

For the past months, I've been trying to find better ways to teach my children Oshiwambo. This is what I came up with: Flash cards, teach them a lot of songs in your language, create a routine, go for a walk twice a week, and every time you go for a walk teach them two new words, and use them in a sentence over and over until they sink in. You might not see the result right away, but if you continue for over a month, I'm sure you will start to see the difference. I really enjoy hearing the children singing the songs in my language such as: Okadhila ila huka, Anonane... or when they remind me to teach them their new words. But most of all are the flash cards, they will pick them up and tell me the names of the objects, and the words. I'm busy working on this flash cards which will be accompanied with puzzles, and many other educational, and fun activities. Last but not least, do push, or force the kids. Just have fun, and when they are tired, you can move on to something else.