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.

Ethan Used My Camera Without Permission: Take 2

I could tell it was him cause of this shot. That's his belly button.




These made me smile when I saw them, though.


What a cute little head.

Televisión

This is how we've spent a small chunk of our time here. We usually make them watch it in Spanish. Then pretty consistently Ethan will, in an attempt to show us that he's already learned a lot of Spanish, will say to us "Can we watch it in Inglés?" He's very persistent. He'll ask several times. Gotta admire that. ? Well, maybe not.

Personally I've loved watching Disney movies in Spanish - we've seen Toy Story 2, Monsters Inc, Los Incredibles (that one's really fun), and Mulan (Corey said during that one "Now this is really a multi cultural experience! - A Spanish translation of an American culturally slanted Chinese tale.") Other than the movies, I'd rather leave it off with all the weekday shows. If it was something they already knew then in English that might help them learn it in Spanish. That's the M o v i e Mouth idea that Corey's been working on, and it's gonna be great.

Is That Chloe?

At the restaurant there was another couple there who arrived at the same time we did. As they were admiring the kids that kept coming out of our two cars... "Cuantos hay? Seis?" ...our kids were admiring their very cute little 3 month old black lab.


Had more fur and larger ears than Chloe and it was a boy, but still it made them happy to think they were seeing her. Abi and Wes were petting him and tried to feed him rocks while we waited for our food. Silly kids.

Pretty Abi

These pictures are from Thursday when we were at the fish house waiting for lunch before going to Playa Conchal.


All the other kids were being noisy, Abi was just sitting there looking around, waiting quietly, being a patient little golden haired angel. I took some pictures to capture her sweetness and I think these do her justice.


And I still love her Tinkerbell haircut.

"Hey Abi! Say Cheese!"


"Cheese!"

Refrescos Naturales

Enjoying some special fruit drinks at the Little House of Fish in Brasilito.

Joe trying the Star fruit drink. Kinda tasted like hairspray, but was sweet. Weird description, I know

Tamarindo - it is a kind of root, interesting flavor.

Ethan with the coconut water. Couldn't taste the coconut that well I thought. Speaking of coconut, I miss the coconut popsicles at Costco that they sell in the fluorescent pink box with a little island lady wearing a hula skirt. If you go to Costco, buy them in my place and eat them all, they are yummy, palitos de coco! I miss you!

Hyrum with the "cas" drink. Don't know what that is.

Pina - Pineapple

Cas again - ok, I just googled it - Cas is a drink made from a type of guava called the cas guava.

Lily drank almost all the pineapple drink. Ethan complained it was no fair and told us to stop her. How could we deny those little cheeks nourishment?

Playa Conchal - Shell Beach

Abi with a piece of blue plastic, here she is proudly displaying her birthday cake she just made, Happy Birthday!

Lily with a chunk of wet wood that she had a lot of fun playing with.

The power went out this morning and so Corey had to leave and find somewhere with internet so he could do his conference call for work. When he came back, he told us there was some construction going on and that the power would be out until 2. No power at home provided means he can't work, so looked like an ideal time to go to the beach!

While he was gone, Corey scouted out how to get to Playa Conchal, or Shell Beach, which a secluded beach that you need 4 wheel drive to get to, cause there is a little river. We parked in Brasilito at a restaurant where we ate lunch first cause it was starting to rain, then we started to walk the short distance to Playa Conchal. Playa Conchal is actually part of a nature reserve area and an exclusive resort - Paradise Resort - that we could use our timeshare at, except there is an all inclusive fee for each person each day, which puts it out of our budget... but we still took a tour on the way and that was fun - we got a ride in their little concierge tour truck. Kids thought it was fun. Anyway -

So first the resort tour, then lunch at La Casita Del Pescado where we tried all different kind of Costa Rican specialty drinks and ate french fries and hamburgers, then walking to the shell beach. A truck full of teenage boys offered us a ride, which the kids were excited to accept. They got to sit in the back of a truck while it was driving!

Me, Abi and Lily inside the car, Wes and Ethan among the 10 people in the back.

We arrived at Playa Conchal and were amazed that it really was a beach made of shells - tons and tons of broken shells. No sand, just shells! This beach is hogging all the shells! It was really cool, and you sink into shells when you walk more than you do walking on sand, we learned, so it was harder to walk and doesn't feel good on your feet. Mel was a little disappointed that she couldn't build a sand castle, she had even brought a leaf from home to be her flag. Oh well. We pretended it was a beach of small diamond and had fun rolling around in it for about 10 minutes when it started to rain. We all ran up the beach for cover under a tarp that the beach patrol guy was hanging out under. He said that there is an ocean current that brings all the shells to this beach. And the steep beach and rocks cause the ocean to break them all up, creating the beach we were beholding. Pretty neat.

The rain didn't last too long, and we headed out again and had a fun fun time digging, burying, hanging out in the tide pools, and playing Shell Man

Joe as Shell Man

Ethan trying to get covered in shells so he can be an even better Shell Man.


Wesley really impressed the big boys with this move that made him able to get lots of shells on his face, making him now a true contender for the Shell Man title.

The waves were fast and aggressive and the beach was pretty steep, so there wasn't a lot of shore for the waves to die out on and they'd come crashing up and then quickly retreat. There were some rocks on the north end of the beach that provided some protection, that was where we were hanging out the whole time.

Joe and Mel in the safe waters of the tide pool.

Mel started the burying by working on Abi, she looked so cute lying there patiently letting herself be covered.

Highlight - Corey burying all the kids -

Lily got out before the final touches were finished.

Playa Conchal receives 4 out of 5 stars for being really cool for the kids and for not being dirty for the parents - little shells are a lot easier to brush off than sand. Our overall experiences today only gives 4 stars for the rain and the slight extra effort required in getting to the beach.

Pigs on the Farm

Yesterday when we took Shirley home, there were lots of little pigs running around. Ethan wanted to see them, but they are too quick and ran away. But over in the covered garage was a pen of 5 brand spanking new little squealers. Ethan petted them, and wanted to go back today. He told the other kids about it too, so this morning we had one over the seat belt capacity level in the car and Mel, Ethan, Hyrum, and Lily came with me to pick up Shirley. There were 7 more pigs in the litter, total of 12 piglets. Ethan and Mel each held the pigs.

Hyrum didn't want to, that's okay. He was calm. Photographed with the piglets from a distance.

I think the big pig and her grunting sounds freaked him out the most, it freaked me out too...

Lily was making her own new sounds as she talked to the piglets, it made us all laugh. Lily petting a pig.



Twelve baby pigs - that's a big litter. They also have chickens, cows, a horse and foal, a dog with 3 puppies (I thought they looked super skinny, :( poor little things)


Wes and Abi did very well waiting for their turn to see the pigs when we took Shirley home at 2:00. Here they are:




Joe didn't want to hold one, but consented to pet one so I could have a complete set of kid Pig pictures.


I'm glad I'm not a big pig. She was huge, big fat head and chin with little itty bitty eyes. Not attractive at all, just like a big living hot dog. Seems like they were created to provide meat. The babies were cute, but not cuddly at all. Mostly I thought they were funny to look at, silly little things.



So these babies are all born yesterday, but there are a bunch of other little squealing litters running around their farm, (some hiding under a truck) and another pig twice as big as this mother that is going to deliver soon. They grow them and sell some for money and keep some for meat. "Son tontos" Shirley said as we drove down her street and they just kept walking right toward us, not worried to get out of the way of the car. Silly piggies. She said her daughter Michelle doesn't have toys or time to play with toys cause there is so much to do with the animals. All my kids wish they lived there. Would you ever like to live on a farm? Part of it seem charming to me, I'm sure reality would teach me there's a lot more to it than charm, if we ever did live on a farm.