Happy First Day of School!

credit www.maryrvogt.com

The other day I sat with three other moms at the lunch table. One mother who sat across from me lamented how long it took her clothes dryer to dry her laundry.

"I think the heating element is broken," she said. "It takes 90 minutes to dry one load!"

"That's nothing," I replied. "Mine takes an hour and a half!"

Awkward pause.

The mom beside me said, "I'm so glad you aren't homeschooling your kids anymore!"

No kidding. It's a wonder they pass their math classes at all. Obviously get their math skills from their dad, not their mom.

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Hats Off!

Hats off to homeschooling moms! Mostly because the hat will be knocked off anyway. Things can get wild and crazy in a homeschool room. In the past few years, I added homeschooling to my repertoire of school experiences. Whether as a student, parent, or teacher, I have experienced: private Christian school, public school, and homeschool in the United States as well as international, Christian, boarding, and homeschool in several foreign countries. Each situation carries a unique set of challenges and benefits.

Not very far into my first year of homeschooling our kids, I realized that homeschooling is not for the faint of heart or for anyone low on energy. My image of homeschooling moms has never been negative, but it certainly jumped up a few notches once I started doing it myself. I kept thinking, “And all this time I had no idea what all they had to do!” Sure, we get done earlier in the day, but when we are done...I am DONE, you know what I mean? My brain is toast by two o’clock in the afternoon! Emails? Forget it. Dinner? Did we already order pizza for dinner this week? We did? Phooey.

Last year we did homeschool and dorm school (different kids did different things obviously). This semester all the kiddos are homeschooling. Next semester it will be Christian school abroad. See what I mean? We really like to mix it up in our family! Ha!

To all the families starting up a new year of school...HAVE A GREAT ONE!

A Day in the Life...

Last week my sister had the very clever idea of blogging a typical day in her life. I think she's planning to do it once a month, I hope so, because I thought it was great fun to read!  So here is a day in my life.  But I'm not sure if it's typical or not.  Do I have a typical day?  But here's how yesterday went anyway...

We had a LATE NIGHT the night before so we didn't get to bed until midnight.  That is NOT typical as I usually turn into a pumpkin at 10pm.  So I didn't set the alarm and we all slept in.  Upon waking up, and this IS typical, my first thing to do is get my large Starbucks mug of coffee...Aaaaaah!  And then it's time in prayer and the Word.  This month I am reading the whole New Testament, so it's a LOT of reading each morning.  I enjoy getting to see the BIG picture as I read many chapters each day.

 We are having to redo our master bathroom b/c of foundation trouble.  The day before some men came in and hammered out the tub and cement cabinets.  It made the whole master bedroom smell like fumes and ashes.  Weird.  And no way I could sleep in there, so I slept on the roll-away bed in Aaron's room!  At least there was an extra bed :)

Once the boys woke up, somewhere around 8, breakfast was chocolate cereal.  Nothing very healthy, but it's easy.  Then we set up school on the dining room table.  No way we could have school in our designated room because it is next to the master bedroom:  too many fumes or dust or something.  It was hard to breathe.  Our dining room table looked like a command center of some sort with all our computers!










Lunch is at noon and is usually simple, sandwiches or leftovers.  After lunch there was a big storm.  Lots of rain. Nice and refreshing!

 Then it's time to bake cookies.  Today it was oatmeal cookies.  They taste different than American ones because I used Palm Sugar in place of brown sugar.  They taste like granola bars.  Yummy.

 Here's our empty school room.  Too hard to breathe in there...

 In the early afternoon, Kris returns from a trip.  Yea!  Nice to have our family back together again!

 Out to eat for dinner.  One of our favorite restaurants is Solaria.  It sells a little of everything.  Our family usually orders a variety: chicken cordon bleu, chicken teriyaki, fried rice, soup, noodles...

Then back home to relax in the evening.  We decided to try sleeping in our bedroom since the dust has settled. This is the view of our bathroom that I woke up to this morning.  Don't think I'll be taking a shower in there anytime soon!  So there you go, a day in our lives.  Not super exciting or anything, but it is what it is.  And now you know! :)

8th Grade Science Lab

We are deep into home schooling.   It is so cool to have an extra "side" kitchen that serves as a pantry and also as our Science Lab.

Aaron is getting the test tubes ready for his experiment.

It's super fun to have all this REAL Science stuff, like test tubes and beakers and one of those cool alcohol heater thingies.

Acids and bases.  This was so cool!

Oh yea, and droppers, those are cool too.

The reporting part is not near as fun, but a necessary part of the Science Labs.  Get to work, Aaron!

Planty Projects

Joel gets a CLOSE look at some plants!

Our postage stamp back yard is just big enough for some good plant specimens!

Finding treasures...

Examining roots...

Weed experiment.  This is SUPPOSED to show that a plant cannot grow without light.

SO, we put one plant in the sun and one in a box.  And what happens?  The one with sunlight WILTS and the plant in the dark box GROWS!  Oh brother.

Coffee House Poetry Reading

This is our first year of home-schooling.  We are learning as we go:  I am learning how to home-school, hopefully the boys are actually learning the stuff they are supposed to know for their grades!  Ha!  Here is a Language Arts project that Seth did:

This year he studied about poetry.  His final project for the unit was to have a Coffee House Poetry Reading Event.  He asked Aunt Bo to make chocolate cake.  He made invitations, signs, programs...the works!

Here is his poetry display.

He arranged the living-room to seat all the people he invited and recruited Aaron and Joel to help with the program. 

All of the poetry that Seth read were his original works.  Here is one of his poems:

"Alien Baseball"

Now Mike was going home from school

And found a UFO.

So he called them over to play some ball

When he saw his friend Moe.

And Moe brought Joe and Mary Lou

To play some ball with him,

Then who came over across the street?

I'll be, it's Nate and Jim!

And he brought Tim and so it seemed,

It really, really seemed,

That 4 on 4 would be the best,

Fairest baseball team.

They played for hours on the field:

Nine innings before they ate.

And back home, Mom and Dad wondered,

"Why's school going so late?"

English Anyone?

Last week the kids helped teach English at a local school.  They had a lot of fun!

Here's the group of English teachers!

I observed Seth's class, which was first grade.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to take pictures of the other two boys.  Here is what Seth's class did...

Introducing themselves to the kids.

Look at this little cutie!

Seth helps a little boy make his "spider" for "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."

This cute boy seems to have lost his spider.

Writing lyrics on the whiteboard.

Playing a game of "Memory"

"Bye!  Thanks for coming!"

Our boys enjoyed the kids and the kids definitely enjoyed getting to meet some "real" English speakers!  

A Clammy Story

One day, there was a homeschool mom and her crew of students who decided to start "Peace Project." They lived in a neighborhood called "Peace" and decided to pray for the neighborhood and meet as many people as they could.  They also decided to stop every street vendor to learn who they were and what they sold.  First to come by was the vegetable seller.  So the Kelley Crew bought tomatoes, oranges and a bag of...clams.  

How do you cook clams?  The vegetable seller said, "Oh that's easy!"

Just boil some water...

With a little salt...

Wash the clams (she didn't mention how dirty they were)...

Put them in the boiling water...

for ten minutes...

And there you have it...

A cooked clam!

With a little ketchup mixed with sambal (hot sauce)...

They taste...

Eddy wants some...

because they taste...

well, they taste...

Well, yes, they do taste.  But mostly we just covered them in ketchup, so I can't really vouch for how they tasted.   But we did get to know the vegetable seller!

Congratulations! You just won...a...ummm...

This is my first time to homeschool and I am learning all kinds of things.  I wonder if the boys are learning anything?  I feel like I should have been required to at least have a semester of student teaching before being entrusted with the education of the kids.  But apparently it is a sink or swim sort of thing.  I think it would be wise for me to invest in some scuba gear.

I want the boys to memorize Scripture.  So they get a verse a week.  They can quote their verses once a day to me, and when they have done so correctly five times they get a small prize.  When they have filled in a chart of 4 verses quoted five times each, they get a bigger prize.  They have been looking forward to the bigger prize.  I've been focused on keeping the small prize bag filled with interesting things.  I've done pretty good on that, and was even prepared to add new things when the prizes became a bit "old hat."  But I forgot about the big prize.

Hmmmm, I had afew ideas but nothing solid.  Seth proudly quoted a verse to me this morning and I handed him his sticker and pulled out the prize bag.  

"I get a BIG prize too, Mom!"

"Of course you do!  Yea for Seth!" (hide panic in my voice with a big high five)

"What is it?"

"What is what?"

"The BIG prize?  What is it?"

and thus began the Kelley Homeschool Teacher's longest stall yet...

"Congratulations!  You just won....a..."

The other two boys are lined up behind Seth, ready to hear the BIG prize because they each only have a couple of more verses to quote before THEY also win the much coveted but somehow elusive BIG prize.

"Mom?"

"Yes?"

"What did I win?"

"Well, see, it is time to start class now so I will give you the BIG prize later."

"But what IS it?"
"Well, I can't tell you until you get it."

and so on and so forth throughout the day.  But I never seemed to have time to rummage through my stash of things that might be deemed BIG prize, nor could I settle on what I thought would be a good alternative.  Ice cream?  By the time afternoon rolled around, it seemed anti-climactic to say...

"And NOW, what you have ALL been waiting for!!!!  SETH has, for his hard work, earned himself....a scoop of...well...ice cream."

Oh dear, I needed to decide quickly before the anticipation made ANY gift at ALL seem trivial.  But, of course, the day continued to get away from me.  And then we decided to surprise the boys with a trip to the movie theater.  The movie was great and when it was over we went out for dinner at Mr. Pancake (which, incidentally has a small section of the menu dedicated to pancakes while the other 80% of it has things like shrimp alfredo, fried rice, crispy chicken steak, noodles etc). 

Seth asks, "So what is the BIG prize?"

I tried to pass the movie off as the big prize but that definitely did not work.  OK, gotta make a decision, this is ridiculous.  On the way home Kris leans over and asks me quietly if I know what the prize is.  Well, I have an idea...sort of... When we get home I tell the boys to get ready for bed and I rush to my desk to finally decide on a BIG prize.  I rummage around and find these great coupons and immediately fill one in for an amount from iTunes.    By then Seth is ready for bed and is brushing his teeth (in the TV room because that is where our only sink is...what?...your only sink isn't in the TV room?  Really?  Weird.)  Aaron and Joel are robots fighting each other (can you guess what we watched at the theater?)  I try to make a grand presentation for Seth who turns to receive his coupon just as flying robot pieces (ie a sofa pillow) comes flying off of one of the robots and splats against Seth's hand holding the toothbrush.  I thankfully save the toothbrush, and the remotes that get whacked off the coffee table.  The presentation is less than desirable, the amount I have written on his coupon is also less than desirable, but is all I can do at the moment.  After working weeks to get his prize, then waiting all day with anticipation, Seth looks at his coupon.  He reads it.  I watch.  A moment of silence.  Then he smiles and says, "I can use this to buy the rest of the season I wanted!"  Big grin!  I LOVE MY KIDS!  They are so gracious and thankful for even the smallest things.  They make me feel like a million bucks even when I feel like the amount on that coupon!  :)  

Lesson learned, when you offer a BIG prize, know what it is before it's time to give it.  

Now What?

Kris and I are finished with language study!  Woohoo!  Well, "official" language study that is.  My language study buddies accuse me of spending my time eating bon bons and watching Indonesian soap operas all day now.  Thanks guys.  In addition to those gripping "sinetron" episodes, we are also getting ready for our big move.  Did you see the countdown over there on the right side of the page? Yup, the countdown is on.

This week Kris is attending a training so he is gone all week.  He is on a steep learning curve, but is loving it.  I am the sole captain of the ship this week which, I have discovered, is much easier now that the kids are older.  My only problem so far is keeping enough food around to fill up three boys' bellies.  Don't they ever tire of eating?  Today I am going to the grocery store to load up.

So this week while Kris is gone, I have dedicated my time to preparing for homeschooling next year.  Nope, folks, I have never homeschooled before.  Well, I did homeschool A while we were in the States for 7 months, but that was it.  This time I will be diving in with all three boys at once.  Grades 7, 5 and 3.  I am a research junkie, so I cannot be accused of not researching the topic enough.  In fact, several years ago I thought we'd be moving to the middle of the desert (that's a long story for any of you who don't know our history) and that I would be homeschooling.  I did TONS of research back then.  So I am not starting at square one in the information department.  At any rate, here's what I've done to get myself prepared:

1.  HOURS of research online, asking friends, perusing catalogs and lots of prayer for wisdom.
2.  Hours of changing my mind on curriculum and going back to #1 again.
3.  Finally choosing a curriculum (well, several) and ordering ALOT of material.
4.  Asking my parents to bring all that "ALOT"ness from #3 when they came last month (thanks Mom and Dad!)
5.  Receiving the material, getting all giddy with excitement, stamping the books with my handy dandy new "homeschool material" stamp, then repacking alot of it into boxes to be shipped to our new home in a few months.
6.  Figuring out how I am going to organize myself once school gets started.  That included a general "plan of action" and I even made my own Excel spreadsheet that calculates the grades for all subjects by 6 week periods and then puts the final grade on a seperate "report card" sheet.  I know, I'm a nerd.
7.  I think I am ready.  You know why I did all of this so early?  Well, our schedule is insanely crazy between now and August and I wasn't sure I'd have time for preparation before it is time for school to start.  I like to be prepared.  Now I am.

The other things we need to do in the next couple of months is to get our paperwork in order (visa to stay here), pack up our belongings (and weed through all the stuff we've collected since we moved here last year), and find a house to move into in July.  I suspect Kris will be spending much of his time studying and getting up to speed on what he needs to know for his new assignment.  He is excited about it, so this is definitely not "drudgery" for him.

So that's it in a nutshell.  That's what we are doing when we aren't eating bon bons and watching soaps! :)