Homeschooling Days

I read homeschool blogs/sites (rather obsessively) so that makes me want to blog about it.  Plus I'm a little nostalgic (that's not the right word but my vocabulary has gone to pot since I started learning another language) because we're praying about starting the kids in school in March (which is when the Peruvian school year begins).  I love love love homeschooling so it's a struggle for me to let that go for a season but we really want the kids to feel at home here and school is our best option to help them learn the culture and gain fluency with Spanish.  Sometimes I read other blogs and envision a superwoman on the other side.  Have none of those illusions here - I truly do love it but there are those moments when I kick everyone out the door with a granola bar and a soccer ball.  There are days when Daddy comes home and everyone's filling out minibooks for our lapbook, drinking tea and listening to classical music (that actually happened once) and then there are days that are just so stinking loud!  Last Friday Mark came in to books scattered everywhere, crying baby, whiny attitudes (mine included) - I told him that Reide and I had had enough - dinner was on the stove and if he had any other questions he would have to figure it out for himself because I was going to be in our room with the door closed and the fan on for the next 45 minutes.  But such is the life of homeschooling and really the life of most any mom unless you really are superwoman.  I wouldn't trade these days and don't want to forget them so here I journal:

This is our "first day of school" picture which my sister will be proud of me for actually taking.  Abe's not really starting PreK but everybody needed a sign:)  This year was a little crazy since we had just moved here and each day held lots of "adventures."  I didn't know what day we would start until the night before we actually started.  Of course Hannah had her outfit picked out at least a week in advance:)  I wanted to have a fun breakfast but that didn't happen.  Mark and I are tutoring 3 mornings a week so mornings are pretty busy - family worship at 6:15, then (Reide and) I tutor at 6:50 while he feeds/dresses/brushes teeth.  He starts class at 7:40 and I start school with whoever is the most ready while prodding along those who are still making beds/putting laundry away/getting sunscreen.  Hopefully I'm on my 2nd cup of coffee by now:)

Language arts takes up the vast majority of our day since it encompasses several subjects and everyone is pretty much on different levels.  We use First Language Lessons, Writing With Ease, and The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading all from The Well Trained Mind.  These all follow a Charlotte Mason approach - short lessons with lots of narration, dictation and copywork plus some poetry memorization.

Here's Hannah taking a break from spelling (in the background) to play with Reide and Frasier.  Did we mention we got a dog?  Here he is and he's pretty much awesome.  A 10 year old lab who's totally chill with the kids, never comes inside, barks at strangers but never inappropriately - really the perfect dog.  We inherited him from a family who was leaving and couldn't take him.

We use this for manuscript and these (free!) for cursive.  For fun we add in wikki stix and some catchy youtube tunes that my sister-in-law found to reinforce letter sounds.  The picture to the right is of the kids singing along to those.  I couldn't get them to link but you can search for Letter A Song on youtube and it should be the first one although I hesitate to recommend anything on youtube because you never quite know what will pop up on your screen - so annoying!

Twice a week we throw in science.  Right now we're lapbooking our way through Apologia Astronomy.  I haven't taken pictures of the actual lapbook yet but here's Eli's mnemonic for the planets (almost makes sense!)  And a picture of the kids using balloons and paperclips to map out the relative distances between the planets.  Below is Eli setting fires with a magnifying glass after we learned about the sun - turned out to be hours of entertainment!

The other three days of the week we spend that time on history, mostly following Sonlight.  This is probably my favorite subject, I think a gene inherited from my dad:)  We're into medieval history now.

Praise the Lord for providing an awesome Spanish tutor so that the kids don't have to rely on me for that:)  Elvira (below) comes 3 times a week and we can really tell a difference in their confidence levels now.  We've also been learning worship songs in Spanish during family worship - sweet to hear the kids singing those throughout the day.  

We've slacked a little on formal geography lately but the kids tend to do it spontaneously when we read about a new country thanks to our awesome wall map.  And I do love Geography Songs because now the 2 oldest really can tell you how many countries are in the Middle East and sing all the countries and capitals of Scandinavia (although we did have to convince Eli that it is Helsinki, Finland and not Stinky, Finland).  

Then of course there are the lessons of life: how to get along, how to fix lunch, how to refocus on Jesus when we're struggling, how to wash the dishes, how to make up games (Hide the Apples is the latest - kind of like Capture the Flag but more fun because Hannah gets to practice chopping fruit and Abe gets to eat), how to be patient, how to convince Mom that the game you want to play on the iPod is educational.

And of course Reide just hangs out and soaks it all in:)

A few other resources that we like (I've run out of time to link them all so happy googling/amazoning):

Dance Mat Typing (website)
SpellingCity (website)
Starfall (website)
Fit Deck Superman cards
Pairs in Pears (game)
The Scrambled States of America (game)
Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series
Artistic Pursuits
The Story of the Orchestra
Then Sings My Soul
WDAV 89.9 (online classical station)
Tangrams
Math U See manipulative blocks
Rocket Math (iPod app)
Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia
Homeschool In The Woods timeline figures
True Tales and Story of the World audio cds
The Llama Who Had No Pajama
A Child's Introduction to Poetry

And oh so many more!!!  I did update pictures so click on the slideshow on the right if you want to see (you have to scroll throught the old pictures first)!

By now many of you have received our latest newsletter about all the drama going on here (if not and you would like to be on our newsletter list, let me know!).  The biggest thing that has happened was a major gas explosion in our house.  Mark did a good job summarizing it in the newsletter but I'll give you my take.  Pretty much everything we have here is gas - water tanks, heater (not central because they don't have that here, just one to heat a room), dryer, and of course the stove/oven.   So about a week and a half ago I put some potatoes in the oven to roast and then headed into the den to read to the kiddos.  We're not exactly sure what happened but we think that the oven was lit (most stoves here you have to do that manually) but that when I closed the oven door, the light went out.  Now in the States (I've learned) there's a safety mechanism for that - no heat = no gas.  But here (I've learned), not so much.  So Reide and I retuned about 15 minutes later to check the potatoes.  I was kneeling down in front of the stove and flipped the light on.  Next thing I knew I was 8ft back and facing the other way (still with Reide in my arms thankfully).  The explosion was strong - strong enough to knock locks off the upstairs windows - and glass was everywhere.  Writing this now it almost seems like a surreal experience.  We praise the Lord for His incredible protection.  All the other children were outside with Mark stacking firewood.  It scared them to see Mama and Reide but we had a sweet time rejoicing in God's goodness and treasuring each other as we sat outside waiting for the gas to clear.  Every now and then Abe still looks at my chin (as it got pretty busted up by something) and says, "Mama, I'm sorry you got hurted."  We praise the Lord again that Reide came away virtually unscathed minus a little singed hair.  My chin and mouth got pretty banged up so our prayer request now is that it will heal well and specifically that I won't have to have a root canal - doesn't sound fun for any reason but would be especially bad news because I would likely have to fly somewhere else to have it done.  Again, the Lord has been more than gracious to us so we trust Him with whatever comes to be.

And now for the emotional side of things:  I kept waiting that first night to have feelings of wanting to go home or questioning our decision to be here but they never came.  If anything this whole experience has increased our faith and has confirmed our call to be in Cusco.  This is not to say that this time has been carefree and easy.  Particularly at night for some reason I have struggled intensely with feelings of guilt (Did I do something wrong?  Why did I have Reide with me???) and the oh-so-famous what-ifs - What if I had waited longer to check on the food?  What if I had sent Hannah in the kitchen to check?  What if a burner on the stove had been on - the list could go on and on:(  But God is giving me victory and peace over this and I'm sleeping much better now.  Why does God allow such trials?  I don't pretend to understand all of His ways but I do know that we are never safer than when we are with our Father even if "bad" (in our limited perspective) things do happen.  I don't know who all reads this blog (other than grandparents who I have probably freaked out now) but I pray that you will know God in deeper and sweeter ways in the midst of whatever your trials are, whether it is real physical or emotional struggles or even just the desperate attempts to be content in the midst of changing diapers and getting dinner on the table.  










Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!”
                                                                                                              Revelation 5:13