Chinglish--Christian Bilingual homeschooling in Taiwan

I had a goal of writing at least every other week. Well, that is out the door!! I just looked a my blog and it has been a month!!! sorry to my 3 readers out there (I don’t know if my dad reads it anymore either!!)

Well, homeschool front has been kinda bad. First, hubby took the kids for almost a week to another city to pick up my mother in law, so that week was shot. My mother in law was here a week while hubby was in China on a mission trip, so while I was at the office, the kids did pretty much whatever they wanted! Then a week to take mother in law back. It is not a weeks trip, but a 5hour one way trip. They don’t always see family there, so they stayed a few extra days.
So getting them back on track this week is hard.
DS1…..my 6th grader….I have determined that he will not like anything there is about homeschooling……..he is good at playing I’ll do it later and helping out, then he doesn’t do it. Of course we are dealing with the ” I am too cool for this, I know more than you do” attitude……….

DS2 is doing great!!! he is actually ahead and I may have to supplement math later on. He is doing really well….reading, I think he is catching up on it. Maybe it is only with me listening does he have problems? I don’t know because he was reading the directions out loud the other day and only needed help on one word….YET we read simple stuff and he stumbles and fumbles!!

DS3 is just going with the flow……I am so exhausted by the time I get to him that he just doesnt’ have stuff…….he is only 1st grade and we normally only do math and reading……I need to get them all Chinese books to catch up on Chinese, but the rest ds3 is doing ok…..

DD1……we got a wooden number puzzle the other day only to suprise me that as soon as we opened it….she put it all back together correct……..I have a feeling she will be interesting teaching along the way.

DS1 I am going to recruit to help me put together puppets for our Christmas program at church. Maybe that will make him happy:-)

There are days where I wonder if homeschooling is right or wrong……there are days where I say “Lord I am tired, I feel they aren’t learning anything, just loofing around…..am I hurting my children?” But then I do see students at school, and see my kids are not really behind, and I can’t imagine my kids in school……

we have had SOS set up for going on two weeks now……DS2 has been so happy to get it done. He is actually almost done the WHOLE first chapter for Math…..LA, we are working on, but he is doing fine. There are a number of times I just verbally ask and type if for him. But ds2 struggles with reading and phonics…..but he can read big long words….go figure……I am trying to figure out things for him. He is not up to a 3rd grade reading level, and I wonder if just developing late………but yet, I know I need to find what clicks for him….any ideas for him?
DS1 is scared of quizzes and tests!! he was not happy when I sat down and told him that he has to get caught up and that means more than one lesson a day. I am thinking of making him spend a certain amount of time on work and not necessarily just getting so many lessons done. He is pretty much up to grade level, just not wanting to do it……..L.A.Z.Y
DS3 is almost halfway through 100EZ Lessons. Last night I put the words on cards and he read through them. Only needed help with two. Then I showed him the story he needed to read and he freaked!! Yet he read it pretty well. He honestly just doesn’t get the time from me he needs. By the time I get through the stuff with the older two, dealing with our 2yr old in between, ds3 gets jipped…..seriously…….adding on migraines and exhaustion lately from work (it is an emotional job!!)………I am ready to drop by 8pm………

they are learning, they are doing fine……my kids are happy and healthy and I don’t have to have them up and ready and at school by 7:30am and don’t have to pick them up at 4:30pm and then deal with homework:-)…….that is great!!!

Oh, they hopefully should start Chinese soon!!! they speak it and read it, but just need to have Chinese lessons so they are doing well and IN CASE (not that I am preparing them) they might have to need to go to Chinese school here…..though I cringe at that thought!!!

though we never REALLY ended. We more or less did work in between life’s situations, roll with the punches, I guess you could say.

Taiwan’s schools officially begin tomorrow, August 30th, so I have a full week all lined out. Though we are still finishing up our last years school work. We have new stuff coming mid-September, so they better hurry and finish:-). I am trying to through some Chinese stuff in, but really, my struggle is with Daddy not wanting to do it. He is for homeschooling, don’t get me wrong, but seems he is half my battle. I give homework and tell him what they need to do. All he has to do is make sure they sit and do it. What they do all day while I am gone, I am not sure. Kinda scary I think. Please pray that daddy jumps in and helps.

DS1: he is finishing up 5th grade LA SOS and will have the WHOLE 6th grade curriculum coming up as soon as he finishes 5th grade….I have worksheets in Math to keep his brain occupied (hopefully it will keep his mouth shut as well….)……nonacademically, we have been dealing with teen hormones or something. I am seriously considering St. John’s Wort for this bag of Dr.Jekyll/Mr.Hyde hormone mess….my little man turns 12 on 9/10….he is almost at tall as his daddy, his shoe size is bigger!!!LOL!! he is a great helper, but man can he go overboard….I think it is the oldest child syndrome as well…he is like a little daddy all the time!!!

DS2: I have more work for him as he is finishing up 2nd grade, ok, halfway there……but we are going to make it!! plus his math. I will put him directly into Math 3 when it gets here, but work on the LA to keep it at level. He gets easily overwhelmed….non academically…..8 yr old love to tattle tale I guess….seriously annoying. Any suggestions? I try to tell him how to handle it the next time, and we are fixing the whiney voice but just repeating what he says each time he is whiney…..never a dull moment

DS3: he is in first grade and currently on track:-)……he does close to one page of math and “oh..I am ….sooooooo…..tired.” Ok son….you are just startin’, so get over it!! I am keeping his schedule low as normal Taiwanese schools 1st and 2nd only go half day anyway, so he is just doing LA (reading is in here!), Math ,Chinese and science with ds2…..non academically, he is busy annoying the fire out of his brothers…I think he needs glasses, but dh seems to not want to accept it…..oh, got a hermit crab at the beach…..he is taking good care of it so far…..hoping he does well.

DD, the 1 and only!! just being a two year old!! she can recognize and say (in English nontheless!!) about 5 colors, count (in Chinese) 1-10 with only missing the number 6..LOL!! steals the pencils and crayons and the boys books to be “in school”…..so, this will be intersting

The middle two will probably (depending on daddy) taking some art or that type of class. They don’t want to take classes together, take that back….ds2 does not want to take class with ds3, but ds3 wants class with ds2….hmmmmm……..we’ll see….

This is how my month has been….how about you?

dh goes away for almost two weeks starting Sunday night……he has ministry work in China in two different places….I wish his family would come and help, but they feel we live too far away I guess…….I have to get our unwed mother’s ministry a movin’, keep track of kids schooling (we are behind really) and house……makes me tired just thinking of it………

DS1 is not keeping up, yet I am not keeping up on him…..so can’t blame him too much:-). I have orderd the full 6th grade SOS curriculum, so something is gonna have to change!!

DS2 is halfway through 2nd grade to be honest……he CAN do it, but I see him not really sure of himself……I am trying to find ways to meet him halfway so he stays interested in work….

DS3 we still do thinks here and there with him, he is going into first grade, but thinks that he only does work when I am in the midst of doing something with someone else…..blah…..but he is actually doing quite well.

DD the only and only is only 2yr old but starting to tattle tale already and is quite verbal!! should be interesting as she gets older…

that is is for us…………..will try to keep up with things more here:-)

I haven’t been here forever it seems, and wowzooers!! I saw the new look…now gotta figure out how to use this all….maybe this new look will be good and keep me on track in the homeschooling community. Seems like I get discouraged and at ttime don’t want to visit any homeschooling boards or such cause everyone else seems to have everything under control (at least it seems that way)……well, maybe I am the only one would ever consider posting what ACTUALLY happens with 3 boys and girl!!!

We are so behind it seems in homeschooling, so much has happened over the past 2 months or so. A mission team, my agency director come, move our baby home, our family moves, youth camp, dh goes to China and back TWICE (still has to go in August), adoptions (not us but USA families), unwed moms…..well…you get the picture……………DH and I haven’t told the kids but we are planning a 3 day vacation towards the end of August or beginning of September…..just to get this kids out of town and have FUN…….

I need to remember not to stress myself for the “being behind”……my kids are around me, seeing dh and I as we work on ministry things and we try to get them invovled………if they were in school,I’d see them less probably! But in some cases, I have seen that my ds2 for example, he was not ready for math and still struggles with reading, going into 3rd grade. We just left the math and slowly plugged through reading…..reading is getting better (he does well with the LifePacs)…..I really think WAITING on math, when we started it up, he was then ready…..he breezed through the first 5 lessons or so with a “oh, I know…” and then explain to me what he was doing.

Anyway, I really think I just need to stop being childish and just post more on here……………..well….it is Saturday and we have chores today to make our house spotless….for 30min it seems, but at least it will be spotless for 30 min!LOL!

Glad to be back