Ni hao!  I'ts been a long time since I've written.  I'm hoping (fingers crossed) to be a bit more consistent about that.  However with American Thanksgiving coming up not to mention Christmas, my husband's birthday, my daughter's birthday, my son-in-law's birthday all coming within just over the next two months, well....I make no promises.

I began with my blog with a Chinese greeting.  This is the language I'm trying to learn.  I'm sure most people know that this is a very, very challenging language to learn. 

We've lived in China for more than 2 years and to this point most of the Chinese I've learned has simply come from daily life.  Much  like a toddler who is simply immersed in the language of his family.  I've gained some vocabulary even if my pronunciation isn't always all that!

Now that my oldest daughter has graduated, my second daughter needs next to no supervision and I essentially have only one child I really have to focus on I've decided it's time to go to the next level in my Chinese study.

As I try to balance my day I find that this effort has an impact on our life of learning.  My children get to see me showing diligence (most of the time) as I spend time making myself flashcards, writing out conversations and checking the grammar and listening to audio lessons.  They see when I do well and when I have to push myself when I don't feel like it.  This is good, modelling the delight and discipline of learning.

I also have regained empathy for their struggles with difficult subjects.  As most of you know we have a very free flowing style of schooling, although this year it has been a bit more structured for ds.  This way of learning has been great for us.  But I know there are times when it seems to be more discipline and not much delight.  This has been good for us all.  My children get to see first hand that it's not "do as I say not as I do" but we walk out the convictions and philosophies we've talked about.

Homeschooling has also been a help to my studies.  After years of preparing Unit Studies, teaching my children to write goals, and pull a learning opportunity from an unexpected moment, I am well trained  to design a course of study that will help me gain the fluency I desire.

In the meantime, well, I was able to go to the stationary store today and buy some big sheets of white paper using only Chinese.  It may not sound like much, but it is progress!

doulos

For all you wonderful friends who check back in from time to time and wondered if perhaps I lost my battle with cancer, no I'm here, alive and kicking.  It did take over my life for a while as you can imagine.  But we are now back home in China, although in a new city and are happily getting back to life as "normal".

But that is not the topic of this entry.  Anyone who has read this blog before knows how UNtextbooky I tend to be in my approach.  I'm not ANTI textbook, we still use them on occasion, but as I may have said before "the book is my servant not my master".  But I DID kind of go text booky as we got started this year.  The reason was all the transition we were in.  Last  year (during my chemo and radiation) I didn't homeschool at all.  My very good friend runs a small one room school house and the kids went there.  As we prepared to move back to China we were on the road a lot and weren't able to do the projects and studes and so on that we normally do.  To be very honest, it was just easier to hand a book to ds (13yo) and say "please do this page". 

I was kind of concerned about the shape of things, I wasn't sure if this was good? bad? What?  Well, now that we are settled in and finding our routine I can see I needn't have worried.  We just can't get very far in any book without getting sidetracked by something interesting.  We brought a science and history text book back with us (at ds's insistence) and he has been reading one or both of them almost everyday and doing the questions at the end of the chapter.  The writing was at MY insistence because we are concentrating on good writing this year.  Well, first we hit a section in the science book about the different systems of the body, PAUSE......now we are designing a lapbook around that topic.  Lots of fun.  THEN he found a section in the history book that mentioned some of the Caesars PAUSE.....up goes a homemade wall chart to write a timeline of the different rulers of Rome and the time they lived.  There's also talk of a salt dough map of Rome during the time period of his choice (as yet to be determined) more fun.

So much for getting a certain chapter done or a certain book finished by this tme or that.  There are just too many way cool things to discover and make and do.  I guess this goes back to the book being the servant.  Here it has served as a springboard to launch us into something all its own rather than corral us and keep us from the adventure of true learning..

So don't be afraid, go ahead.....get sidetracked!

doulos

It's been a very long time since I've writen, I believe my last one was way back in March.  At that time we were preparing to leave China for a summer visit to friends and family in the US.  With all that going on I didn't take the time to write.

Since we returned at the end of May much has changed in our lives.  Just weeks after we returned I was diagnosed with cancer.  This was, to say the least, a suprise to us.  Our original return to China was planned for mid-September, but our plans are taking a bit of a detour now.

Just yesterday I had surgery (explains why I have time to sit in front of the computer today!:) and had a lump and some lymph nodes removed.  Next month some time I start chemo therapy.

My oldest dd, 18, is finished with school and is getting ready to get settled on her own.  My second dd, 16, is going to be attendeing a "one room school house" set up, I did this for her sake as well as my own.  With chemo I just didn't know how I'd do and she is really looking forward to the new situation.  It is a good common ground for both of us, giving her more interaction and structure and giving me the knowledge that my philosophies and convictions about the way we school will be respected and honored.

I still plan to homeschool my youngest, ds, 12 we will just play that by ear and see how it goes.  But in the midst of all this I'm learning so much about the goodness of God and finding grace to deal with it all.

Blessings

doulos

Ok, so we live in China.  This is not news to anyone who has read this blog.  So what does my son want to learn?  Spanish! 

This is kind of funny, but not really new.  EJ has really taken to learning Chinese, not only learning mandarin but the local dialect as well.  She started just by making friends and hanging out with Chinese friends.  She did very well, just doing this, but she went up a step and set up classes for herself with a Chinese teacher and works quite diligently at it.

Along comes ED, does she want to learn Chinese?  Oh no, for her it's Italian.  Which she studied for a while with a friend and some language software we were able to pick up.

For S it's Spanish.  Not too long ago, I was gently trying to encourage him to work on Chinese.  Pointing out the many benefits of actually being able to speak the language of the country you live in.  I finished up my discourse with "Wouldn't it be  cool to learn another language?"  His response:  "Well, Spanish is another language." 

Ok, uncle, I give.  Chinese is tough enough to learn when you WANT to.  I don't see much chance if you aren't even interested.  Actually I still haven't quite given up, he's only 11, there may come a time when he feels differently.  And I still sneak in things, like talking to him in Chinese (what little I've managed to pick up) and helping him figure out what I"m saying.

But for now it's the Spanish-English dictionary, online spanish lessons, printable calender with spanish words. 

I guess the whole point of this is for me to learn to think outside the box.  Do it differently, I never know where this will lead but I'm looking forward to finding out.

doulos

First of all let me say, I'm not all that crazy about the movie.  My husband and kids love it, but it is just not my kind of show.  However, I did pick up one thing.

When I first began homeschooling I was scared to death of not doing a good job.  I mean, these were my kids and I wanted to make sure I really did the best for them.  Since homeschooling was a brand new thing for me I went to the only homeschooler I knew and said "Tell me how to do this".  Normally, I tend to have clear opinions and ideas of my own, but here I was very unsure of myself.  So (because these were the people I learned from) I was very structured in the beginning.  Workbooks, desks, clock, chalkboard.  That's all I knew and all I was being told by the people I was looking to. 

After a while I began to read other books and articles.  They talked about a more natural lifestyle of learning.  I found a few friends who learned with their kids in this way, it looked fascinating, appealing, wonderful.  And it was. 

My structured friends were worried that I was being "deceived" by doing my portfolio differently (state requirement) reflected the more relaxed way.  When I thought of doing Unit Studies they said "go ahead, get it out of your system"

As we continued our homeschooling journey we became more and more relaxed.  I read lots of books on unschooling.  Picked peoples brains, branched out, tried new things.  Again, a very good thing.

But there are those in the unschooling camp who are every bit as extreme as the ultra structured.  One says "you must have just the right curriculum" the other says "you must NEVER use a worksheet".  One says ALWAYS the other says NEVER.  Two examples too extreme. 

So the pendelum swung the other way for a while.  All workbooks and suggestions I made were anathema.  It must always and forever be child initiated.

Now I've found MY place, not anyone else's.  I've learned that I can find what fits us, mixing elements and resources.  Do I sometimes nudge my kids to do things now?  Yes, but not to the point of frustration or tears.  Just getting them to try or taste something new.  S may start out not wanting to do some math with me and then we finish with "maybe I'll become a mathematician".  Do I scrap my plans if they find something they want read or pursue or make?  Yes, I do that too.  I'm learning that I don't have to have the approval of either side to be doing just what's right for my family.  The more I tried to force a philosophy or idea of someone else the more stress we had. The more I flow with what's fitting us, the more peace.

So now we use workbooks or not, writing assignments or not, movies or not.  According to what helps us best.

So, what did I learn from Napolean Dynomite? 

"hey, Napolean, what are you going to do today?"

"Whatever I feel like, GOSH!!"

doulos

We had an interesting experience this week.  ED was eating a bowl of yoghurt.  She had added some Wheat Germ to it for more flavor.    As she was sitting there contentedly eating she started reading the label on the jar of wheat germ. Iin a minute she looked up and asked, "How is vitamin E and folic acid good for us?".  Apparently, wheat germ contains a lot of those nutrients. 

ED got out one volume of a 3-volume set of  reference books we have (since I couldn't answer her question)  and looked up the section on health and nutrition.  Soon she was reading to me what this vitamin and that vitamin does.  Telling me which foods were rich in those particular vitamins.  There was a section on the affects of excess amounts of  specific vitamins.  Then it was on to how many calories were in various food.  How many calories different activities burned.  How long you'd have to walk to burn certatin foods.

By this time we had expanded, we had pulled out the Vegetarian cookbook and were finding out what benefits each fruit and vegetable contained.  Then the 2 books on herbs I had came out and we were looking those up as well.

Now EJ and been sucked in.  She and ED were huddled together leafing through cookbooks, which was good for you, which was not?  What can we make?

From this EJ decided to make a homemade coconut jello that she had found a recipe for.  The whole thing just snowballed, it was awesome. 

I'm glad I didn't know the answer to ED's question.  I would have answered it and it would have probably been over.  But because I didn't it took on a life of it's own and we ALL learned much more than the benefits of Vitamin E and folic acid. 

All from the back of a jar. 

doulos

Get this, S, my 11 year old boy, who wants to grow up to be a Marine is reading Shakespeare.  On his own.  Because he wants to. Go figure.  I happen to have only two paperbacks of Shakespearean plays.  I have the ubiquitous (aren't you impressed ) Romeo and Juliet and Othello.  He decided this past weekend he wanted to learn about Shakespeare and picked up Romeo and Juliet to read (lots of good fighting scenes).  This seemed to pique ED's interest and she's been reading it on and off as well.  It's inspiring me to pick up Othello which I haven't read yet. 

Now I know the language is tough to wade through and to be honest I don't know if he'll actually read it all the way through but I'm delighted that this was born out of his own interest.  We tried to watch a DVD of Romeo and Juliet today but the DVD was scuffed and it wouldn't work.  I'm going to see if I can scare up another copy.

Maybe this interest has surfaced because when S was about 3 or 4 we watched the movie Much Ado About Nothing.  The girls and I loved this movie and we still enjoy it today when we watch it.  The thing I remember about watching it back then was how he'd pick up a line and repeat it over and over.  He'd say (quoting) at the top of his lungs "YOU ARE AN A**".  I know that sounds bad but in old English that just meant "donkey" or "foolish".  Even children's books out of England like The Chronicles of Narnia and Wind of the Willows contain that word.  But hey, we didn't live in England so we managed to get him to stop saying that particular line. 

I'm glad that S doesn't know that Shakespeare isn't "cool" or that it's "too hard" or it's "boring".  Sometimes I get those panic attacks of "are we doing enough" but today I think we're doing ok.

doulos

Hi everyone, yes I'm still alive although a bit embarrassed that I have neglected my blog for so long.  I have this funny guilt thing.,   I put something off, then I feel bad because I've neglected it and instead of dealing with it, I feel so bad that I avoid it more, neglecting it longer, which makes me feel worse, which makes me avoid to MORE, which makes me feel WORSE.  Absurd cycle.  So I plunked myself down and decided TODAY I would break the cycle.  Aren't you proud of me?

Updates, I've been reading everyone's comments on my last post, thanks guys it's nice to hear from others who are in the same boat or like what I have to say or feel like I've go an answer for them.  Don't know if I've got a true answer, but you can be sure I've got an opinion!!!!  And it takes very little coaxing to get me to SHARE IT!!

My husband and I just had our 20th anniversary!Ok, just kidding it's not like that!!!  More like MOST of the time.

This entry isn't going to be much about our learning, oh well.  Anyway, we had planned to go away for our anniversary, just a little overnight trip to a town not far away but really neat.  But weather, sickness and circumstances conspired against us.  We are still going just maybe next week or something. 

So, at first I was a little disappointed.  I mean 20 years is a pretty cool thing, don't you think?  We wound up have a fairly ordinary day.  The exception being that I managed to pull off roast beef and scalloped potatoes for supper (in China that takes some planning!) and chocolate cake. 

An ordinary day.  At the end of my "ordinary day" I took a look.  On my ordinary day S and I snuggled up and just read for a while.  He's reading "The Key to the Indian " to me and I'm reading "Black Ships Before Troy" and "Surviving the Applewhites" to him.  The girls focused on the things they are studying. EJ on GED prep book.  ED on Charlamagne research, she's finding him quite interesting.

When I baked the chocolate cake and took it out of the pan it cracked.  But then my oldest complimented me on how calmly I took it.  We have a mutual friend who would have cracked herself if it had been her cake! 

Really not an unusal day.  But my kids get along, I get along with them (MOST of the time), my husband I get along.  On our ordinary day we all were together and happy even when spending time on our various interests.  That those things in my life are ordinary and NOT unusual, makes it really, really special.

doulos

My oldest daughter just turned 18 . Ok, so I'm one of those nostalgic, emotional moms. I'll spare you the rememberances of her as a newborn.

 We took a day trip to a town about an hour away called Yang Shua.  It has great western restraunts and really cool shops.  If the weather would have been a bit warmer we would have rented bikes.  Maybe we'll take another trip in a couple of months when the weather is more accomodating.

EJ got an email from Nana today wishing her a happy birthday.  She also told her that if she chose to go to a Jr. College near her, she'd help her get a car!  That was pretty exciting.  We spent much of the afternoon looking through the catalog for the school, I was drooling over courses *I* would take if I could.

As we were talking she started voicing some fears and concerns.  "I don't know if I want to do this" (Fine, you don't have to) "What if I fail" "I'm not very disciplined" etc, etc.  This kind of bothered me.  One thing I'd really like to instill in my kids is a good sense of confidence.  That they can take on these challenges.  Of course I said all the encouraging Mom things

She talked about all the choices she had.  How complicated it is when there are so many interests to choose from.  We talked about how great it was to HAVE so many choices.  I talked about the fact that she doesn't have to decide for her whole life RIGHT NOW.  That the things that I really would love to take classes in now, I wouldn't have even been interested in when I was 18.  We learn and change and grow.

As I voiced my concerns over feeling unsure of herself she said something that really helped me.  Paraphrased she said, "I'm sure a lot of people worry about failing when they go off and begin a new phase".  And I said, "you're right".  Don't we all feel this way from time to time?  This really put things in perspective for me.  I'm so busy trying to equip them for every contingency that sometimes I forget that she is going to feel the things that I and everyone else has felt and struggled with at one time or another.  That too is a part of this growing up thing. 

Time to let her fly

doulos

I apologize for my lack of entries lately.  Holidays have kept us busy and at the same time we've been going through a lot of personal stress lately.

BUT that's not what I wanted to talk about.  Just this morning I was standing in the kitchen.  My 11yo ds walked in and said, "You know, the Brian books* we've been reading together?  I noticed that they are written in third person limited."

And he went on to explain how he knew that.  Now if you had asked ME what third person limited was, I would have known it had to do with point of view, but I would have had to look it up to know exactly what that particular pov was.  Did I teach him this?  No.  Our great literature/English/writing curriculum?  No.  He learned this from watching a 5 min. video on BrainPop (www.brainpop.com) along with countless other facts as well.  Why did that stick in his mind so he could recognize it when he saw it?  I have no idea. 

Some homeschoolers might feel embarrassed that their kids knew something they didn't.  That they feel they should know more or should be teaching them more.  But this pleases me beyond words. 

If I were to sum up my educational goals for my kids in one sentence it would sound something like this:

I want my children to know how to find out anything they want to know. 

So in keeping with that we've learned to use videos, libraries, atlases, knowledgable people, observation, internet and numerous other things and experiences to meet that goal. Many times I've seen my kids grab a dictionary or atlas off the shelf just to look something up they were curious about.  I love that.

Now I'm happy say that there are lots of things that my kids teach ME.  Things they know that I didn't.  Or things I just didn't know they did know like the fact that S knew who Jackie Robinsion was and why he was important as well as many other things.  

People worry about children having "gaps" in their education.  Well, gaps are unavoidable no matter WHAT method of eduction you use.  But if you can keep your children's interests alive and help to learn to find out anything they want or need to know then you have equipped them for life. 

doulos

*the Brian books I'm referring to are the series by Gary Paulsen:  Hatchet, Brian's Winter, The River, Brian's Return, and Brian's Hunt.  They are great "boy books".  My girls liked them too though.

OK, time for a rant!  Perhaps you might like to read the article yourself:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10372148/

In a nutshell a kid who is completely bilingual was speaking Spanish to his friend in the hallway at school and BOOM he's suspended for a day and a half!  The principal said "This isn't the first time we've asked them not to speak spanish at school".

  What is up with this!?!?  You know, most people who live outside the US tend to speak more than one language.  We think English is the one and only.  Most people I know these days (because I live in Asia)  know at least 2 languages or more.  This is a BLESSING.  A GOOD thing.  Something ADMIRABLE!

One of the many blessings I find in unschooling is that we are free to mingle with people from all countries, cultures, languages and lifestyles and learn from them and gain from that intereaction, not locked away from the real world.  What a wonderful thing that is!  THIS school is one more reason on my extremely LOOOOONG list of why the school system is NOT for us. 

Instead of drawing on people with special talent or knowledge and using them to enhance the learning of the teachers and student we PUNISH them for knowing something we don't.   ARRRRGGGHHH!!!!

This is probably one of the most incoherent blogs I've written but I'm just so angry and apalled at this that it's hard to string my thoughts together.  "Breathe in, Breathe out, breathe in, breathe out"

I should thank this woman actually.    People still harp on the old "what about socialization" issue from time to time.  I think anytime from now on someone brings this up to me I will bring out this article.  Because what is this school (and many others like it) doing?  Is is gaining from the richness of it's students?  Is it seeing the beautiful stained glass window of different people and places their heritage and history?  NO!  It's just trying to homogenize the world.  Let's all look the same, talk the same, fall in line like a bunch of factory models or clones.

No thanks,    I'll take the rich tapestry of life that the world around me offers, let my kids explore it and experience it, and leave that bland monochrome world to the schools.

You know I'd apologize for ranting like this, but honestly.  I think what makes a person angry says a lot about them.  In this case.  I'm not sorry.

doulos

Sometimes, since we are not school-at-homers, I can get up and not have a clue what we are going to do.  This is not always true.  Sometimes we are in the midst of this project or that book or this movie or this event and I know pretty much what to expect out of the day.  But there are other days when I don't know where it will go. 

I confess, I still sometimes think in schoolish ways.  I want a plan!  I'll make a mental plan and subtly try to bring it to bear on my kids.  That almost never works.  At least not peacably.  How very often I miss the opportunities with them because, without realizing it, I want to dismiss something they are interested in because it doesn't mesh with what I was thinking.

I"m learning to pray and ask the Lord to lead our learning that day.  I say learning because although I've known and seen the benefits of this for a long time, I have to be reminded often to say "Lord, I don't have a clue today.  What should we do?  YOU lead us".  Invariably I have start thinking "maybe we could do this or that".  And invariably things will open up that day in ways I could never have expected or imagined.  Conversations that lead us around the world and through history and science because it "just came up".  A phone call or an invitation that gives an unexpected opportunity.  A movie or a book that grabs our interest and takes us in all kinds of great directions. 

I'm also learning to keep my eyes and ears open for those things they come up with.  "Let's make Christmas cookies!"  Although my mind says "too early! not today!"  I'm training my mouth to say. OK!  "Can you help me start a cross stitch project?"  Mind says, "she won't probably won't finish it"  Mouth is learning to say, "sure, help me get the stuff out". 

So, as in all our unschooling.  I'm doing the most learning.  Learning to watch, pray, and listen.  Listen to the Lord and His leading.  Listen to my children.  Believing that God CAN and does speak to me through my children.  Believing that the interests that my children have are God-given and should be encouraged even if different than what I had originally had in mind.  I think I'm catching on.

doulos

Confession, I talk a lot.  Seriously, I do.  I used to work for a radio station as a dj.  People I knew used to ask me HOW I could talk on air.  I would always reply, "Talking isn't the problem for me, but getting me to shut up, that's a problem!"

But talking is how I process things.  I find so many things interesting and as I read and hear and see and learn I verbalize it.  Now, I'm not an endless blabbermouth.  At least I hope not.  But it's no suprise in our unschooling lifestyle that a lot of our learning very naturally comes through conversations.  Things that just pop up in talking have led to the most interesting coversations.  I used to feel (looooong ago) that if we hadn't covered it in a text book or on a feild trip that we hadn't really covered it.  Thankfully I don't believe that anymore. 

I'll give you an example of how this goes on in our house.  About 2 days ago EJ was sitting in the living room reading and ED and I were planning a family event for the day after Thanksgiving while sitting in the same room.  As we were planning decorations and things we wanted to make somehow the conversation got around to some event in history (don't remember which one) and I said it's really cool to talk to people like Grandpa (born in 1908) because he is a first hand witness to so many things in the last almost 100 years.  How 50 years from now people will want to know what WE remember of things like 9/11 and we started talking about what specific things stood out to us from that day.  Now in the course of this rather lengthy, but very interesting conversation we talked about:  Japanese Military and militaristic culture before the end of WW2, the Cold War, Pearl Harbor, atomic weapons, Hiroshima and Nagasaki, past and current policy toward atomic weapons, MAD (mutual assured destruction), the current debate on CIA torture in the news, cultural and linquistic misunderstandings, and many other things I can't even remember.  It was a lively conversation everyone voicing their opinion, asking questions, very enjoyable.  Now we don't do this ALL the time but it's not all that unusual either.  It doesn't hurt that I love history and have read a lot and watch a lot of history movies and documentaries.  The kids often watch these with me.

And lest you think I'm just pouring out lectures to them all the time, many times it's EJ, ED, or S sharing something fascinating with me that I had not known before.  S, at 11, can tell me in detail about the 4-stroke engine and many other topics as well.  I often find myself saying, "where did you learn that?"

I love that about them.  That they know things I don't.  Because it shows me that they have become independent learners.  That though we often do things together and I share things I know, much of what they learn is on their own.  No hand holding, no spoon feeding, just natural free form learning.

doulos

p.s. don't think ALL my days look like this

Sometime I'll write about a day that really stunk

I want to write in my blog but really don't know what to write about, so I thought I'd just list some of my favorite books in no particular order for this one.

• Pride and Prejudice (currently rereading this one)
• Lord of the Rings Trilogy--I've read this repeatedly.  I was given the set as a Christmas present when I was fifteen and fell in love with them.  I sometimes read the series through and as soon as I finished them began again.  I couldn't wait till my kids were old enough for me to read them aloud to them
• C.S. Lewis--anything by him is good, but I have to read most of his books when I'm rested because I really have to think about what he has to say.  Even his children's books are pretty profound.
• The Blue Castle-written by the author of Anne of Green Gables--just a romance novel but wonderfully done
• Anne of Green Gables--I loved reading this.  Didn't discover it until I was reading books aloud to my then elementary age girls, but really loved it.
• The Potter's Kitchen by Rachel Isadora about how it's the family (not the place) that makes a home
• Only the Best by Meguido Zola--great picture book about a father's search for a gift for his first child
• Black, Red, and White trilogy by Ted Dekker--awesome imagery
• John Holt books, almost any of them
• Walden by Henry David Thoreau--actually I'm only just reading this but I like what I've read so far
• O.Henry short stories

I also like books I would call fluff--thrillers, clean romance novels, Star Trek books, hey I like candy too, not just the good stuff.

One thing I've learned, though, from reading really good authors is that it sometimes spoils me for poor writing.  I don't mind that.  I just finished reading "The Blue Castle" again and am rereading Pride and Prejudice.  At the same time I've got this little short romance book that was given to me as my "bathroom book" that I'm trying to get through.  The difficulty is after reading GOOD authors' writings this one is almost naseating.  But it's not fair, I guess to have, I guy on kazoo following a performance of Mozart, is it?

This is by no means a comprehensive list.  I love to read, I don't have as much time at this stage in my life as I have in the past, but I manage to do some.  There will be books that will come to mind that I will be suprised I didn't add to the list.

Maybe in subsequent blogs I'll do favorite lists for my kids.  Until then.

doulos

I really do like writing on my blog.  I do.  But sometimes life just takes over.  I saw a sign once that said, "I try to take my days one at a time, but lately they've been ganging up on me!" 

Anyway, we are still here living and learning together. 

S is on a bit of a history kick lately.  He goes back and forth between saying Math is his favorite and History.  Some friends of ours just returned from America where they toured Washington D. C.  They brought back some history videos that, interestingly enough, were on topics we have been reading about lately.  S and I sit down together just about every day or so and read an interesting history book or historical fiction.  We were reading some things on early American History and they brought back "The Founding Fathers" and "Presidents".  So we have been having a history movie fest the last couple of weeks.

ED has found a lady teaching some art with various mediums.  She just completed one picture and brought it home today.  It uses an unusual medium of brightly colored paper pulp that dries in a textured finish. I tried my hand at it but found it a bit tedious in the method of applying the material.  But when it comes to art she seems to have infinite patience (just not when it comes to S  ) She's moved on to some jewelry making and is learning to tie the various knots she needs for the projects she's working on.   I also took out a painting of hers recently and had it framed.  It's a very bright abstract and looks awesome.  I'm so proud.

EJ has been doing her independant studies of Consumer Math and preping for the GED she plans to take when we go to the US next year.  In between times she's been working away at a cross stitch project that is just about finished.  I'm going to have it framed and hang it in my kitchen. 

Both girls have been working on their writing on and off and I've been encouraging S to do the same.  I try to keep it low-key and painless, though.

There I feel better now!  I'll try to be more consistent!

doulos

For some reason this year seems to be the year of writing in our house.  EJ and ED have both decided that they want to improve their writing and be able to express themselves well.  I have been feeling the same urge myself, so I joined a writers' email discussion group and I've been working on ideas and stories (a little) more these days.  I think this modelling will benefit all of us.  We've always heard that to raise a reader you need to BE a reader, I think the same can be true of almost any passion.  True, just because a parent writes a book (or music or paints a picture, or.....) doesn't mean the child will.  I also trust that my children will do things that I have never done. 

Still, I think it is good to for our children to see us going after something, even if a bit apprehensively.  And I think it will make them feel more at home with the idea of writing or painting or whatever.  Maybe all we are modelling is curiousity and courage.

Just pondering.

doulos

ED has decided that when we go home next summer for a visit she's going to take the GED so she can graduate at 16.  So she is studying away at the GED book we bought a few months ago.  Today she reached a section on Social Studies.  Now, I only just glanced at that part, but mostly what I saw were charts and graphs and things of that nature.  She looked at me and said, "I HATE Social Studies!"

I said, "No, you don't".  I pointed out to her that she LOVES geography.  And she really does.  This is the girl who wrote down the name of every country in the world and its square mileage and put them in order from smallest to largest.  I reminded her how much she loves learning about the people of different countries.  She's learned a lot about China just because we live here, of course.  But she's also been fascinated by Italy and the people and ways of that country.  She has studied the Italian language and, of course, Chinese as well.  These are ALL things she has done because she wanted to, because they interested her.  And these are all things related to what the text books call Social Studies. 

I said that all that had happened (as so often does) was that the writers of the book had taken a very interesting subject and turned into something as dry as dust.  That she shouldn't confuse the dust with the real, living, breathing thing.  I also mentioned that this was ONE reason I had never wanted her to go to school. 

As it happens, today we were invited by our neighbors downstairs to come and make joudsa together.  Joudsa is a veggie and meat filled dumpling that you eat with soy sauce and hot pepper.  So the lady of the house made up a big batch of the filling and put it on the table.  She had bought the pastry for them at the market, just small circles of thinly rolled dough.  We scooped up pinches of the filling with chopsticks and put it in the center of the circle.  Then we wet our finger in a bowl of water and dampened the edge of the dough and then folded them over and pinched the edges.  They come out looking something like a half moon with scalloped edges.  It was a lot of fun making a very traditional and delicious Chinese dish.  As we sat side by side working on this I had a thought.  I looked over at ED and said, "THIS is Social Studies". 

I thought I saw a light go on

doulos

The last two days have been moving days.  Clearing out of the old place and working on the new.  We're still no where near finished with the new place but almost all the last minute things at the old place are done.

I just happened to notice what everyone did first in the new place.  As soon as ED had a minute to spare, she found the guitar and started playing.  But mostly she and EJ spent their time and energy working on their rooms, getting them all arranged and organized and decorated.  I saw S this morrning sitting in his room, in which he didn't even have the bed set up yet, assembling his telescope.

Dh worked first on his office, the first time he's been able to have one of his own and say "my" desk.  He's very happy

The first thing I did (well we didn't really have anything to unpack at the time ) was arrange where my plants would go. 

Interesting to see what everyone finds most important.  I'm also going to watch and see what everyone does last.  For me it will probably be getting all my books arranged.  Other things are more pressing, getting the kitchen organized, laundry going, and so on.  But unpacking the books is like saving the best for last.  I wonder if the others will have a "best for last" kind of thing as well?

doulos