With your parent’s or adult partner’s permission, talk with someone who grew up in a different country than you did. Find out what it was like and how it is different from your experience.
Learn 10 words that are in a different language than your own.
Play two games that originated in another country or culture.
Academics Pin

Earn the Language and Culture belt loop, and complete seven of the following requirements:

Earn the BSA Interpreter Strip.
Write the numbers 1-10 in Chinese or another number system other than the one we normally use (we use the Arabic system).
Visit an embassy, consulate, or chargé d’affaires for another country.
Make a display of stamps or postcards of another country. Explain the importance or symbolism of the things depicted to that country’s culture.
Learn 30 words in a language other than your own. Practice saying these words with your den or an adult family member.
Learn a song in another country’s language. Sing the song for your den or an adult family member, and then tell what the words mean.
Say five words in American Sign Language. One of these words could be your first name.
Visit a restaurant that specializes in recipes from another country.
Watch a TV show or movie in a foreign language. Tell how easy or difficult it was to understand what was happening.
With your parent’s or adult partner’s permission, interview an interpreter. Find out what his or her job is like.
Make a list of 30 things around your home that were made in another country.
Read a book or story about an immigrant to the United States.

We’ll be meeting for about an hour and each week will read a storybook then do a storychart (character, setting, plot, theme) and an activity then a snack (fruits or veggies since we’re doing close to dinner and have various allergy needs) and a few minutes of play time before everyone heads home. I’m really excited!

We have 12 kids (we’re not counting the one that will sleep through co-op once she arrives) including 3 two year olds and the other 9 kids are almost nine years down through almost four years.

September Plans:
And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street – I decided to use the activities from the Cub Scout geography belt loop:

Draw a map of your neighborhood. Show natural and manmade features. Include a key or legend of map symbols.

Learn about the physical geography of your community. Identify the major landforms within 100 miles. Discuss with an adult what you learned.

Use a world globe or map to locate the continents, the oceans, the equator, and the northern and southern hemispheres. Learn how longitude and latitude lines are used to locate a site.

Green Eggs & Ham – discuss our tongue and salty, sweet, bitter, sour. Use various foods to let the kids taste test.

Alice the Fairy – make crowns/tiaras.

Fox in Socks – I’ll make socks out of cardstock or cardboard and hole punch some for the younger kids but have the older kids cut out & hole punch it themselves. We’ll wrap a little piece of tape around the end of yarn and have the kids sew the socks (Who sews Sue’s socks?)

I wanted to do activities that would engage all of the kids but obviously some are aimed more at older some weeks, younger kids other weeks. We’ll see how it goes.

We are starting our Story of the World book one again this year with activity guide and when Christopher saw me pull it out he exclaimed, “I love that!” That’s a good sign. But we’re actually starting formally next week and doing things a bit out of order. Christopher’s currently fascinated by all things related to Greek mythology so we’re skipping ahead to those chapters and doing a unit study. I checked out a ton of books from the library (fiction, non-fiction, picture, chapter, craft, etc) and he’s looking up Greece in all of our atlases and kids’ geography books like Circling the Globe. We’ll do some map work and current social studies (and ask my sister for some input since she lived in Greece for 18 months on her mission to Athens) and embrace his passion. (This is all prompted by his racing through the Percy Jackson book series – he’s in book four now. I started reading it to him and got through two chapters, one a night, before he gave up on his poky mother’s pace and walked off to finish the book himself. And then books two and three…)

Though I remember very little from my mythology studies so I’m having to scramble to keep up with him! He’s drawn a family tree of the goddesses and gods and characters from the book and is enthralled. I love it!

I think this will be wonderful! Christopher had a year of one day a week in home preschool that his best friend’s mom ran and that was when we had Bennett newly home from the hospital and were in lockdown for RSV. It gave him some structured social and academic time with friends when we couldn’t get out of the house much. Moira had a year of one day a week in school preschool that was run by two speech therapists and was focused on her articulation skills but with the added element of social development of her speech – and she loved it. I thought Bennett would enjoy and benefit from something similar but had no clue how we could possibly manage that and then this fell into our laps!

My concern was Kit’s work schedule (but the time slot is manageable and he says we can do it) and the price. We’re paying for two individual therapy sessions a week but those PLUS an additional two hours a week of group therapy? Ouch, but much to my surprise and delight the group fee includes the individual fee and it’s less – LESS!!!! – than the individual therapy is alone! It’s speech based preschool 2x a week with his own designated therapist for the same price as individual therapy?? And 1.5 hours each day which I think is just about right for his attention span (since this is a more intensive, therapy focused program vs. preschool with free playtime and such.) Could it be more perfect??

I feel really, really grateful. I think this will be wonderful for Bennett

Jacob 4:3 says:

Now in this thing we do rejoice; and we labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents.

Tomorrow we head to the science museum for Kit’s birthday. Saturday is our “NOT back to school” picnic with friends, Monday afternoon we’ll be at the lake with friends for Emy’s birthday and swimming and that evening we’ll be having our special Family Home Evening and blessings for the new school year. Wednesday, September 1st, we’ll have our first day of school kick off though Emy and Joseph will both be at their well checks that morning.

I remember our first year of homeschooling that when everyone else went to school I had this strange sense of playing hooky. As if someone would see me with a school age child and accuse me of ditching and corrupting my child. (Hmm, is that a high school confession?) But I realize that homeschooling is so very common around here that no one even bats an eye. We’ve not ever been questioned about why our kids weren’t in school during school hours, in fact we’ve only gotten comments occasionally about, “OH, you kids must be homeschoolers!” When we run into other kids at the library or store during the day we smile because we know they are probably homeschoolers, too. (Or DITCHING!)

I’m thankful for a community that has been so supportive of and filled with homeschoolers.

I’m not being entirely sarcastic but she’s turning four and the older three all taught themselves to read at four (except for weirdo Ben was reading at 3) and have I helped her have the skills to teach herself to read? Because I don’t know how to teach a child to read! I better figure something out and get serious about the SWR program because what if E doesn’t want to learn to read on her own, I have to encourage her.

Momentary panic. I’m feeling better now. I realize she’s 3 years old and just because some of my oddballs were doing something by a certain age doesn’t mean they all want/need/will do the same thing. Breathing, relaxing, calming down from that momentary insanity.

Anyhoo, the kids have been playing really well together despite it all and I’m finding them off in their bedrooms or sunroom doing all sorts of projects and imaginary play and games. I love it, I don’t want to interrupt (because they don’t always play well together!) but I also want to have them get their book work done. It’s been a daily struggle for me to wonder, “Do I stop them and have them come do their lesson? or do I acknowledge playing well with their siblings and this creative learning is a more important lesson and let the book work go?”

I’m leaning towards the latter mostly. Having five little ones so close in age is fantastic but it can also be challenging for the kids with so many different relationships and dynamics going on – learning to cooperate and play well together and communicate are crucial life skills and I’m telling myself that the grammar and math stuff? We’ve got time, those lessons can wait. But if they are learning to be kind and imaginative and loving with their siblings then I need to remember that’s far more important.

(How much of this is me really feeling this way and how much is pregnancy induced laziness about book work? I don’t know, but I do really feel letting them play is more important than long division or memorizing the four types of sentences.)

When you homeschool it’s just you and your spouse. Therapists if you bring them in, though you’re covering the daily therapy. Specialized teachers if you hire them for music or art. But you are doing it ALL – picking a curriculum, setting goals for and with your child, planning lessons not just for one age group but for each of your children, attending seminars and classes to learn more about learning styles and teaching methods, doing the daily teaching, clean up, counseling, crowd control, damage control, feeding, encouraging, disciplining. You are doing it ALL. No wonder burn out is such a real concern.

BUT, you also know your children in a way that no one else does and you, unlike anyone else, are promised inspiration and guidance and wisdom beyond your own if we prayerfully seek it. All parents desperately need this but when you are taking on the additional challenge of educating your child at home then I think it becomes even more crucial. We can have that inspiration in making these decisions, big and little, as we try to fill so many roles. I find great comfort in that!!