I just got off a Skype call with our penpal class in Iowa. We had a nice conversation. It was 5:00 p.m. here in Bahrain, and 9:00 a.m. in Iowa.

If we were to Skype when my kids are in school, our Iowa friends would have to get up during the night because we go to school between 11:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Iowa time. (Of course, in Bahrain it’s 7:00 am to 2:00 pm when we go to school.) It’s just not very convenient for our classes to talk in live time, but we’re having fun figuring out other ways to communicate, including snail mail.

Students asked me some interesting questions I didn’t know all the answers to, but I’m finding out the answers for them! I love to learn new things!

1. Does the Gulf have sharks?

My husband was right, there are sharks here. Here’s an article about sharks in the Gulf, written in 2011. It tells us there aren’t any Great White sharks in the Gulf. (That’s good news.) But there are at least 29 different kinds of sharks here. Here’s a video of sharks off the coast of Qatar, which is not far from Bahrain.

2. How big is Bahrain?

I said Bahrain would fit into Sioux County two times, but I was wrong. I figured it out again, and it would fit in two and a half times! It would look something like this:

 

3. How old is Bahrain?

As I said, it is very old. Like biblical times old. We aren’t far from the fertile crescent. Have you studied that yet in K-1? Anyway, a lot of history started there, so we are really old. Here’s a picture of a little copper bird that was found in Bahrain around 2300 BC.

This fort is old. It has many layers of forts. The oldest layer also dates to 2300 B.C.

 

Well, Kindergarteners and first graders! It was great talking to you today!

May you be ingenious, innovative, and always learning and making, just like Ali did in our story!

God bless you!