Homeschool

Corey doing dice multiplication with the kids - they are getting

really good and they think it's a game (it's learning and it's fun!)

I went into the public school here a week ago and asked if our kids could attend til December. They said no because of the date - their school years starts in February and ends in December, so they are finishing things up and our kids can't come, they can start in February though. That's not going to work, but that's okay. I told my kids (Joe, Mel, and Ethan) they were lucky cause they got off the hook. We were feeling excited to throw them in and let them learn to sink or swim.

Talking to the principal/director, I didn't want to press hard for them to attend, so I just said okay and left (after he finished explaining to me 4 times why they couldn't attend). The next day Shirley said I should have asked if they could just attend as "oyentes" or listeners only, meaning they'd just attend without having tests. Like auditing a college class I guess. I didn't want to go back and talk with the director guy, but I told Corey he could and he might have better luck. I didn't feel like he and I connected well, and Corey has a gift of connecting with everyone. So if we do that or not, we'll see. As for now, it's been a lot of fun to live a simpler life and have the slow pace of kids experiencing a vacuum of activities at home and not having anywhere that we have to go to.

...Except to the store 4 times a week. I've already been twice this week. And I will be posting later the differences between the catered to tourists store and the local's store. Until yesterday I had only gone to the local store, "MegaSuper", which was the only store I knew the location of cause Shirley took me there. Yesterday I went to "Auto Mercado" and what a difference! No wonder I was feeling depressed! Auto Mercado was like a little America store! Even had Magic Erasers, Blue Diamond Honey Roasted Almonds, and Kashi Heart to Heart. If only I can find Protein Powder, then I'd really be back in the States. Until then, I shall now only be shopping at Auto Mercado, unless I need cilantro, which they didn't have. I guess they don't think tourists are interested in that local necessity. I shall be blogging on "The Tale of Two Tiendas" later after I take pictures. I guess I'll have to go back to MegaSuper for pictures. That's okay. And it's not that bad of a store, just made me feel like a local and feel homesick for Costco. Now with Auto Mercado I think I might survive, so that's exciting to me!

Ok, so back to homeschooling, here's what we've been doing daily for the past two weeks:

1) Clean in the morning - We try to clean up before Shirley comes so she doesn't feel overwhelmed or that we're totally helpless without her. Then it's the 3 Rs - Reading, wRiting, and a'Rithmatic
2) Reading
3) Writing - Handwriting and/or journal writing. This week the kids are mostly choosing journal writing and telling the story of our adventure in Costa Rica.

Hyrum writing in his journal.

4) Math - usually the dice game, but sometimes worksheets.
5) Spanish - haven't really gotten down a total system here.... Right now we're working on some of the Primary songs and the Articles of faith. Corey also played a game with the older kids during Conference where they listened to it in Spanish and wrote down any word they understood and got points for each word, redeemable for treats.

So it's going well and has been fun. I started reading Narnia to the kids this week, my voice is getting a little sore from talking so much, but it's a fun story. We're starting at the beginning, so we're reading the Magician's Nephew right now. Joe's reading it on his own too and it almost done with it, but still listens in during the family reading.


Fun story, sadly I've never read it before. I'm glad to have this slower paced life and that I'm finally making time to do things that have been on my to do list for a long time. Reading to my kids! It's happening and it's great.

One last note - Abi is cute cause she gets in on the homework too. She sits with a pen or pink crayon and colors and scribbles, she's started drawing really cute circle faces too. I'll take pictures of those later, I love it when the kids reach this age of drawing circle faces, it's so fun.

Abi all tuckered out after drawing herself to sleep.

She's doing the same thing Wesley did at this age - he didn't color with crayons, just with a pen or pencil, and just colored everything in. Abi still has lots of work to do as you can see in her book above. Lots of lines to fill in. One time as Ethan was pounding on the table saying "I can't do it!" about his multiplication, Abi started to imitate him very sincerely as she slapped the table with her hand and cried "I tah dooYee!" and then would hold her head in frustration and look at her coloring. It made us all smile.