The Fun Part of Homeschooling

One of my projects over the past few weeks has been to assemble everything I'll need to teach two boys at two different levels for at least two years with no public library, no homeschool co-operative, and no Amazon.com (since shipping overseas + customs fees = not an option). Now that I think about it, the whole thing sounds like a reality show challenge or a middle school math teaser. Remember the one about the cannibals and the missionaries getting across the river?

I've spent hours reading and researching and talking to other mom/teachers. I've spent at least that long browsing Amazon and various homeschooling websites searching for just the right curriculum and books. I've scoured the local Good Will and other resale shops for deals. It's amazing what one can find for re-sale in a place where homeschooling is popular. These are good fields for gleaning! Finally I took the plunge and ordered the last of what I think we'll need.

It's been like Christmas around here with boxes arriving from FedEx and UPS. They usually come in the mornings while Caleb is at kindergarten, so Nathan has been helping me open packages and inspect everything. One morning he paged through a book about the Greeks and Romans and insisted that we make him a Roman helmet out of paper towel rolls and red felt. (It didn't happen.) When the math and science materials came, he laid on the floor for an hour or more building guns and swords out of the gram/centimeter cubes.

It's been great entertainment. Now the trick will be to make the schooling part actually happen.

Waking Up

Spring is in full bloom here. The boys decapitated our tulips during an Easter egg hunt and brought me most of the daffodils in limp and fading fistfuls. Our beds are bare, but I'm enjoying the splashes of color in other people's yards. Maybe someday I will have a tulips of my own...with a fence around them...a high one.

With all of nature waking up and stretching toward the sunshine, it seemed as good a time as any to bring this blog out of dormancy. We are nearing the end of our sojourn in Wheaton. In just two weeks Daniel will defend his dissertation. Assuming all goes well, he will graduate in May and we will head back to Vietnam in July.

The boys are already marking our move to Vietnam in the same way that most of us mark the new year. Nathan has several resolutions. He insists that once we get back to Vietnam he won't play rough anymore and he won't demand sweet drinks. However, until we make the move both vices are in fair play.

I hope that in the coming weeks and months this blog will once again be a place for us to share our lives with you, our family and friends. We look forward to sharing snapshots of our journey "off the beaten path." Thanks for reading along.