Homeschooling as a missionary mom...

So, I thought I would give you a look into our homechooling day. This is my first time homeschooling and I really have no idea what to excpect or sometimes even what to do for that matter (Lord, please allow my children to learn despite my weaknesses). We've been officially "doing" school for a week now. So, we start the day with the Bible lesson. This varies from day to day and week to week, but generally there is a scripture to memorize each week and then a passage from a great text we are using. We are actually going to be looking and studying different people groups and countries and the prominent religions of the world throughout the year. Ethan and I have had some great discussions already and we've only looked at Buddhism and Animism (there are many different forms of this but it is basically the belief of evil spirits and the need to make peace with them). I am so proud (boasting in the mightyness of our God!) that Ethan was able to give me a solid defense of the differences of Christianity and these two religions. It made my heart swell! We have begun preparing our world map with pictures of all "our missionaries" from all over the world now that we pray for. Then we make an easy transition to geography. I love the emphasis on geography in this curriculum, which is so totally ironic because I remember hating geography in school. We are studying maps and globes and their differences, and have moved into studying the different parts of a map like latitude, longitude, the compass rose, etc. And the kids also make geography notecards to learn the terms we are using. We have science every day, and the kids make a notebook page for every lesson. They are going to be priceless to me in the future I know it! We are going to need to rent a storage space if we homeschool all the way into high school..that is for sure. The kids really caught on to the idea of notebooking- capturing their thoughts on the lesson by drawing a picture and/or capturing them with words. We have silent reading where they each read for about 15 minutes each day and we try to read together at some point during the day- I have to work on this because it is totally my fault that we have not done this well. I hope that by Friday or Monday we will have started Math. We also have different activities that allow them to work on their handwriting and English compostition skills, although I have chosen to not use a formal English curriculum, but am relying more on dictation and verbally retelling the story at this level and a few other tecniques that I researched.

So, maybe you are reading this and have homeschooled before...maybe you have never homeschooled and like me have wondered or are wondering "Just how does that work?" Well, I think that if we lived a normal life, our daily schedule would be fairly similar from day to day. I think that because our lives are becoming so intricately intertwined with ministry, our daily schedule is just not so normal...We have committments within the ministry, different schedules for every day of the week and our "Saturday" or day off is actually Thursday. So, Monday we start school around 11:00 am and work into the afternoon and even after we get into the ministry area. Tuesdays is about the same. Wednesdays we start at 8:00 and I leave for La Carpio around 10:30. Matt takes over then and takes the kids on their weekly nature walk. This is a part of the curriculum I LOVE as well! The go outside and spend time looking at the world God has given us to live in. They find something unique in nature that they want to journal about and they either draw a picture of it paint it paste it in their notebook- somehow capture the piece of nature. Then we try to research and find out what it is and as much information as we can about it...Also, Matt has plans to take the kids through the discipleship book we use in the ministry as well. Thursdays, we are going to try to keep free from school if possible, but we may do some catch up on these days. Fridays are a normal day of 8:00 - 12:00. We will try to do art projects on Fridays as well.

The kicker is that both last week and this week already, there are pulls from the ministry that get us away from our routine. Last Tuesday for example...and then today turned into almost the same kind of thing- we were home for about 2 hours in the middle of the day today, which part of the time was used to eat lunch and the other to do some of our lessons. Then, we left agian and did not get home until about 7:00. This is bound to happen again and again...My question for those who've had HS experiencing (or even if you just have advice...) How can I make this work? I am going to have to really get them to focus tomorrow and the rest of the week. The crazy part is that I am completely not stressed about it because I have peace that God will take care of all these days like this for me and somehow they'll all three come out bright intelligent young people...at least that is my prayer!!!! Could you join me in my prayers about this...

So, today I did at least get a glimpse of hope that it may be working...I was talking with Isabelle on the way to Tejarcillos and she was asking me how to spell something and I asked her to sound it out. I was helping her with a sound and I said the sound of and 's' to illustrate the double 's' in the word and Audrey said "S" as plain as if she has always known that that sound went with that letter!

Today we were talking about the Towere of Babel and how God mixed all the people up and made all the languages. The first part of that passage (Genesis 11:1-9) of scripture talks about the "plain" of Shinar. After reading the passage I had Isabelle retell the story in her own words to Ethan and I. She starts out like this: "Well, first there was one language and then the plane landed and they started to build the city." I was really perplexed. Where in the world did she get that a plane had landed anywhere-especially since we were reading Genesis! I mean maybe if we were in the New testamnet and you know, she thought Jesus lived in more modern times or something...but...I was confused. So I asked her where the "plane" was in the story. Ethan said "Mom it said that they found the "plain" and settled there." So, that was a good lesson on words that sound alike but are spelled differently. And a cute one at that!

BY THE WAY!!! We need your PICTURES!!! Can you send us your pictures? We are trying to post as many of you as we can on our Wrold map so we can remember you in prayer each day! Please email us a recent picture and include your whole family if you can!!! That would be great!!!!