In my life this week. . .
This has been one of those weeks. Andy was traveling. The outlet for the refrigerator broke. The washing machine overflowed. One day they were doing work on the electricity in our neighborhood and so we had no power all day. Wow, that was a lot of things for one week. But honestly, other than the one grumpy day, we had a great week.
In our homeschool this week. . .
Even with all of the disruptions, we have persevered and got a lot accomplished. We finally found a Chinese teacher. He started this week and I think that it is going to work out. He teaches Tori individually for an hour and then Josh and Becca together for an hour. This works out as J and B are more on the same level. T is going to be learning characters and she is quite excited about it. In fact after her teacher left, she asked if she could practice writing. Um.... clearly you know the answer to that question!
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| Working on homework |
Helpful homeschooling tips to share. . .
While I new to this journey, already I am seeing that you really need to let your homeschool adapt to your life, not the other way around. This was a week with all kinds of disruptions and unplanned events, but we let our school flow around those disruptions. No power... no problem.
My favorite thing this week. . .
Our math (Saxon) has money that you can use as teaching aides. Because we live abroad, our children are not as familiar with American money. So that we would be able to use the money multiple times, I cut them out and laminated them (love my laminator!). Since then we have only used the money a couple of times but mostly it has been sitting in a bag in our math manipulative bin. The kids asked if they could use the money because they wanted to set up a store upstairs. Each child has a store set up on the floor beside their desk with tags depicting how much things cost.They have been buying and selling like crazy, all the while using the American money. I love when learning happens and they don't even know it.
What's working/not working for us. . .
History is finally starting to work for us. We are listening to Story of the World and then the older two are compiling a fact sheet on each country that we study. They are adding various things that they each find interesting and that they believe are worth remembering. I am so relieved to find a structure for our history.
I have great hopes for Chinese. I have a plan to maximize the time and ways for the kids to practice even without the teacher being here. Now the only test is to see those plans to fruition. But this week was a great start.
Places we're going and people we're seeing. . .
Tuesday night we received a note stating that due to some work going on in our neighborhood, we would have no power from 8:30AM- 4:30PM the following day. It has gotten cold enough that while schooling would be possible with no heat, we decided to get out of the house and break the day up. And in the meantime, find someplace a bit warmer. We worked until about 10 and then headed up to Starbucks. The kids and I had talked about which of the work they needed to accomplish that day would be the easiest to cart with them. They all agreed that the math books would be a pain to lug around, so we finished up our math before we left. At Starbucks, we set up camp. T and I wrote a journal entry from the point of view of an everyday object. She chose a spatula. I think that I will never be able to predict what is going to come out that wonderful brain of hers!
We spent the rest of our morning at Starbucks, then ate lunch at a Thai restaurant, and picked a few things at the grocery store. We were all humored because as we did all of this we ran into SO MANY people that we knew. At every stop along the way, there was at least one familiar face. When we got home shortly after 1, our power was still off. But to our surprise, the power was turned back on a little before 2.
Friday our homeschool coop got together for a potluck and some holiday crafting. Thank you, Christine, for opening up your home! While there, B got talking to one of her good friends and they were hoping to spend the night together. This came as a surprise to both me and the other mom, but we rolled with it. While B does not have even a toothbrush, I am sure that she is having a great time with Beth.
I'm cooking. . .
BUCKEYES! Hooray for holiday food! B invited some friends over to teach them to make buckeyes. The girls had never even heard of them, but were excited to learn. There were girls from Australia, the Netherlands, and Denmark. We love sharing some of our traditions. As well as learning the traditions of other countries -- especially if it involves food!
I'm thankful. . .
For the amazing support system we have here. A friend had a scary situation yesterday and asked us to pray. I sent texts out to all my ladies. Thankfully, the situation was resolved. But all yesterday evening and today, both the friend and I have been receiving texts to make sure she is ok. I think there is something special about the bond that happens among expats. We don't have family here (or even on remotely the same time zone). We each arrive not knowing anyone. We all struggle with the same issues (getting around, shopping, language/cultural stuff, ...). I know that I could not make it here with our friends who support and love us.
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