FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

Today marked the first day of school n the McClain household. It was a great day! The kids all three talked about how much fun today was and little it felt like "school." I love hearing that! :) I love that they have fed that insatiable urge to learn that God gives us and at the same time, weren't forced into a one-size fits all learning box. We are going a different route this year, more along the road of what is called "unschooling." Before you sadly shake your head and confirm in your mind, that "Yes, Brooke has finally gone off her rocker...life on the mission field has truly made her lose it!" let me give you the reassurance that for our family, unschooling does NOT mean that all three are running wildly around the house, doing whatever they want, whenever they want and without any attention from us what-so-ever. Much to the contrary, actually. My goal is to spend as much one-on-one time with them as physically possible. Throughout the day, I am right there with them, wherever they are, listening and observing as they take in the beautiful, wonderful and endlessly interesting things that God created and gave to us to enjoy.

So what will we be learning this year? What are our goals? You may be asking...

The Bible will be our main source of learning and each day we will refer to it several times a day.

Each child will be learning and ultimately able to near perfectly recite 6 poems and hymns, a parable and a psalm.

Audrey wants to learn to read- this is her goal, not mine, but it is my goal to see that she achieves this. Isabelle would like to read a chapter book- again, it is my desire to see her achieve it. Ethan is thinking about his goal for the number of books he would like to read for the year... :)

We'll be working with all three kids in learning to describe the boundaries of their home, a nearby lake, river or body of water as well as learning how to use a compass and how it relates to their home, where the sun rises and sets and the way the wind blows. We'll be spending a lot of time outside, admiring God's Creation and learning about it in great detail. We will be studying it with the help of some different great literature books as well ass gathering our own collections to research and study (like leaves, plants, bugs, flower collections, etc). We will also be learning at least 6 tropical birds by song, color and shape.

We have a few field trips in mind to visit a local bakery and see how bread and pastries are made, possibly our veterinarian's office and a nearby optometrist's office. All of these days would not only be great learning days, but get us in to the community as well as be wonderful days to practice, refine and keep our Spanish sharp. We'll be traveling some and using these opportunities to learn about Costa Rica and the land around us. The trees, what they offer, and how they are used.

At the same time, we'll be diving into some books that I have never even attempted to read like Shakespeare, Pilgrim's Progress, and some other classic literature that I am so totally excited to read! We'll be "studying" as well through US History, but all from a relaxed literature based way of looking into things. We will practice copywork daily as a means of learning language arts.

We have a standard math curriculum to use and will not vary from it. This will be the only subject in which structure is a must.

We'll be reading poetry from Walter De La Mare, James Whitcombe Riley, William Blake and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to name a few.

Audrey will be learning as many Nursery Rhymes as possible along with Aesop's Fables and as many more called as she likes. But Audrey also will be learning from the benefit of play. She will be exercising her mind and I'll be there with her as she freely asks all that her little mind can think up. For three days, she as been asking about her black heart and exactly how Jesus is able to clean it and make it white. She has asked me some absolutely fundamental questions about faith, salvation, Christ and the relationship each one of us has with him. She knows that each of us have asked Jesus to clean our hearts, that having done that we never have to do that again, we have absolute certainty that we will be in heaven with Jesus forever because of that decision. She also understands that I cannot ask Jesus to clean her heart, she has to do that herself. She has listened and processed all of these things. What I admire most is that she has taken this time to process each of our conversations and then come back with more questions. But has not just accepted it as fact that because we have all done it, she should too. Please continue to pray for our sweet, crazy little girl as the Spirit of God continues to move her to a place of repentance.

I found a FREE online curriculum Ambleside Online and have adapted their schedules to the ages of my kids and to our their interests and we'll be covering a lot of the literature in their lists this year. The great thing about it is that almost all of the books are available to read online or can be downloaded for free and so I have spent many days gathering all I needed and downloading and bookmarking what we'll be using.

Some time ago, I had ordered Moody Science Institutes DVD series and we used the firs one today and LOVED it! They are each about a half and hour long and cover a particular subject. The kids were intrigued from the get go and the great thing is you can pause and stop to answer questions anytime you want. They are evangelistic in nature, which is a bonus and I realized today that they are in both Spanish and English- How Great is out God? I hope to figure out a way to use them in future ministry.

I am kicking myself for not ordering a DVD/CD History set while we were in the states that I had thought about using. Seeing how much the kids enjoyed these DVD's today and the great questions they had made me think I should have spent to the money...Oh well, there is always next year :)

But, I went to a bookstore near our home last week and spent some time (quite a bit of time) going through their English section- which was quite nice, actually. They just happened (quite well planned, I choose to believe) to be having a huge sale and had two long tables full of books that were clearanced- and the kind of clearance I like to see! I found many of the literature classics I was looking for and a few extras as well! I looked through the children's section and couldn't afford the entire stack I had pulled out, but was ale to get quite a nice selection of things I hadn't had the time or foresight to get while in the states. So, that really made my day and we now have quite a library going. In fact, I had to store some of the chapter books in a tote for now that are for a few years down the road because I needed that space! What a nice problem to have! :)


I believe it is my calling first and foremost to foster my relationship with my Jesus, then be a helpmate to my husband and nurture my relationship with him, then train my children in the way of the Lord. If they learn nothing else but to walk in His ways, then I will have done well in the eyes of the Lord. Just like in the mind of Audrey, she is thinking and processing this faith that her family has, I pray that each day, all three of my children will test everything, crave learning, and make well educated, godly decisions for themselves, not just to follow the crowd or even because they've seen us make them. I pray that they will learn for themselves how to make godly choices based on what they know to be true from guarding God's word in their hearts.

Well I just wanted to give a little insight into our homeschooling days. Please pray that our year will go well, spiritual seeds will be sown, godly character will be grown, and a love of learning about God's majestic Creation will be fostered each day.