one of those days

Our homeschooling has been going along so well. I am enjoying the time with each of the kids. I love to be a part of what they are learning. Really, I have been amazed at just how well we have settled into our routine. But today was one of those days. Not with all of the kids, but Becca and I just clashed all day long. She has disagreed with most of the things that I said. And after a while, I got frustrated with her and was impatient in both my words and attitude. [sigh]

I know that it didn't help that we had several workmen in our house fixing various things. I think the noise and distraction were getting to us both. She was even getting frustrated with her siblings. Finally, we just called an end to the day. I told her, "B, I love you but for some reason right now we are not working well together. Can we just start again tomorrow?"

I have no regrets of the decision to homeschool. But this is the first day that I wanted to go to a quiet room and be alone. The kids are now playing upstairs together (and getting along) while I am sorting myself out. I am glad that I can teach her not only how to handle life when it is easy, but also what to do when you say things you regret.

And most of all, I am thankful that tomorrow is a new day.

thanksgiving & homeschool weekly wrap-up

Last week as most of the United States had a holiday, we continued on with life and [mostly] kept to our routines. We schooled normally Monday through Wednesday. Thursday we had some friends coming over in the evening, and another homeschooling family came to help cook. The kids and I compromised and they each did a special writing assignment in the morning.

I found this great pack of writing prompts from TeachersPayTeachers centered on Thanksgiving. Each of the kids chose a different prompt.

Tori:

She was worried that she could not fit her story in just 3 squares, but my creative girlie solved this by drawing a fourth square on the back.

She wrote:

First I will make a turkey out of paper.

Next I will go outside and catch a turkey.

Then I am going to hide the turkey in my bed.

Last I am going to put the paper turkey outside.

I particularly enjoyed the fact that she is going to hide the turkey in her bed. Becca was trying to explain that turkeys are really big and it might not fit. After a few minutes, I told B that she was missing the point of this whole exercise, which was to be creative. It does not matter if the turkey will not fit in real life, let your sister have some creative license. 

Josh:

His words (in case you can't read them):

First, fly back to America and catch a turkey.

Then fly back to China with it.

(Get your parent's permission)

Next, make a bed for it and provide food.

Make a leash so you can take it for walks.

Last, you have got a new pet!

Don't you love that he wrote that you need to get your parent's permission to make the trip, but not to get the pet in the first place?

Becca:

Her words (and for this assignment we didn't stress about grammar):

First, climb up a tree while holding the sticks,

then when your up, ballance the sticks into a pyrimid

shape and tie them together.

Next, spread the teepee skirt around the sticks,

this is difficult so it might take a few tries.

Last, move the teepee carefully away from the tree on a flat surface.

This was a fun break from the normal day. I think I will check back to see what kind of fun writing or other projects I can find for Christmas!

While we were hard at work at home, Andy worked a full day and that evening we enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner (with both turkey and pork). Then on Friday, we went to Andy's work to have a 差不多 (cha bu duo - meaning approximately) Thanksgiving. But since turkey is hard to find and expensive to buy, they served chicken for the cafeteria lunch. But somehow my boy didn't seem to mind. . .

He is such a carnivore! I particularly like how he is picking up that big chicken leg with his chopsticks.

There was going to be a company outing, but due to the rainy weather, they decided to cancel. We went home, made our first batch of Christmas cookies, and got ready to decorate our tree. But more to come on that in another post..... Finally, on Saturday night we had another get-together (yet another turkey) with friends. We are so blessed by our friends here.

I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving holiday. Even though ours was a bit unorthodox, we had a great week.

homeschool mother's journal: [september.14.2012]

In my life this week. . .

We got the additional papers that we needed for our USCIS approval and should be logged-in sometime this next month (which in adoption-speak means that we will soon be matched with a little boy). What a LONG process this has been.

We have also been glad to have Andy back. He travels back to Taiwan again at the beginning of October. But I am thankful that most of the time, it is normally just once a month that he is gone.

In our homeschool this week. . .

We finished up our first unit of science. We are all really enjoying the Apologia: Swimming Creatures of the 5th Day. I think my favorite was when T (my 6-year-old) described a photo with: The pretty blue fish is nektonic. Until we started this unit, I had no idea what nektonic means (a creature that swims is nektonic). I am learning to balance the time between history and science. In theory, we alternate days between the two subjects. But I find that if we start digging in one of the subjects, the next day the kids are still eager to continue, and then we neglect the other subject. How do you all handle this? I am going to experiment a little more and hopefully we will find the right balance.

Places we're going and people we're seeing. . .

For us, we have found that we really need to be home and have the concentrated time of schooling Tuesday-Thursday. I might go to the grocery store and take 1, 2, or all of the kiddos with me. But for the most part, we are homebound these days. Mondays we work at home in the mornings and then are starting a writing class next week on that afternoon and both girls have Girl Scouts a bit later on. Then on Fridays, we finish early and meet up with friends. But since all of these activities happen on the other side of the city, when we venture forth each of the kids packs a bag for our subway adventure.

Josh's bag always has either his Kindle or the book he is currently reading.

What's working/ not working for us. . .

While our Science is working for us, I am still figuring out history. This is the one subject where we don't have specific curriculum. We are listening to Story of the World and doing some of the activity pages. I am also assigning some extra work for Josh and Becca to learn more about people or things related to SOTW. But while we are doing some interesting things, I am still feeling my way.

I'm cooking. . .

SOUP!

With the weather turning just a little bit cooler (by cooler I mean that our high is only in the low 80s and at night we might even cool off to the low 70s), I have been in the mood for soup. This week I have made black bean soup with homemade salsa, red beans and rice, and chicken tortilla soup. I am craving pumpkin soup as well as potato leek soup, so I am sure that those will make it on our menu sometime soon.

I'm thankful. . .

that our kids are enjoying the transition to homeschooling. I wondered how our older two who spent years in the international school would do as we made the change. There are some bumps in our days, but overall they are enjoying our time. I just love seeing them light up and get excited about what we are learning. They are confirming to me that we made the right choice in bringing them home.

I'm praying for. . .

each of our children (including the one we are in the process of adding to our family) to know and serve God. For them to have a deep love of learning.

Hope that you each had a wonderful week!

homeschooling

In so many ways, I am not a planner. There are piles all over our house. I know they drive Andy crazy. But babe, as the years progress while it is true the number of piles in our house has decreased, I don't think they will ever go away. Sorry dear. But then in other areas, I am crazy-organized. Andy calls it selective organization. Homeschool is fortunately one of those organized areas. When I was imagining how things would go as we returned to China, I wanted a week or so to recover from jet lag, unpack, and just organize my space. A trip to IKEA needed to happen. So I thought, we would get back and then start the 3rd of September. But do you know what I didn't count on?

That the kids would want to start early.

Truly, they all began talking about it after we had been back only a few days. And Becca in particular started lobbying to start sometime last week. I made a deal with them that if they helped me get organized then we would start on Wednesday. Then I was shocked by how willing they were to help. Who are these children!? Because my children generally will find just about anything else to do rather than help me organize. Can you believe the draw of starting school was such an incentive?

We started on Wednesday with just math and literacy (aka language arts). Each day we have added a little bit so that our schedule is starting to look like it normally might. And of course I am already thinking of the ways I want to change things. But they are subtle things that won't really change the big picture, and hopefully will just make things run smoother.

Things I am liking.....

How engaged each of the kids are. I feel like I can see the knowledge and joy of learning just soak into them. While I am sure that some of the newness of this will lose a bit of its luster, I hope that we can keep the passion for learning going.

Reading to T. Before starting, I researched how things would look homeschooling more than one child at various levels. And a friend suggested something that she does: having older children read aloud to a younger sib. I must say that it is an all-around win. The older child gets some "easy" reading. Tori gets read several books a day. They enjoy time together. I have time to work one-on-one with someone. Don't you love when things work like that?

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Challenges

Leaving the house. We didn't leave the neighborhood today. And come to think of it, we didn't yesterday either. I am still figuring out how looks to fit in my grocery shopping and other things in with our schooling time. While I know that we are here and diligently working each morning, our afternoons are going to offer a bit more flux. Unfortunately, because our fridge is tiny, I really need to shop every 2-3 days. I have hopes to turn these trips into outings and have B and J planning some meals, but right now I just want to establish the core things first.

T wants a playmate. This one is going to be my challenge all year long. As a first grader, she just doesn't have as much work that she needs to accomplish as the older two. Being the extreme social creature that she is, if she isn't working she wants at least one other person to not be working as well. Unfortunately, there are no other homeschooling families in our neighborhood. So far, Becca and Josh have told T to stop bothering them several times each day. Still pondering the best way to keep her active and yet away from the other 2!

Curriculum. Let me first say, that overall that we are really enjoying our curriculum. But I had a moment of panic when I started working with B on her math. Because for several days in a row, she was complaining how easy it was. Even J, who is not as strong in math, said that it was fairly easy.  I kept thinking, I lugged these huge books all the way here and now they are not the right the level!? AGH! But after further investigation, things later in the book will pose more of a challenge. But overall, curriculum is a challenge living on the other side of the world. I can't just change my mind. Or decide that I want to add something. Unless I can find it in pdf format, what we have is what we will use until we go back to the US. 

But just 5 days in, and things are going really well. We have some exciting things on the horizon. Several exciting trips. Girl scouts and boy scouts will start. We will be participating in a writing class with several other families. I love that I can just see that this is where our family and kids are supposed to be. ♥