While Waiting

Ben has been in Abu Dhabi since late February and is enjoyin his teaching position. Talia, Elias and I are here until Elias's paperwork goes through a several step process. We are excited that we got placed in Abu Dhabi, the city instead of out in one of the more isolated places. This way, we will be walking distance from almost everything! With public transportation and walking, we won't need a car. The teachers with families are usually placed in an apartment by the beach. In most countries, I don't think I'd like that because of the scantily clad people, but I consider the beach a benefit in an Islamic country. ;)

While waiting on the paperwork to go through we've been enjoying the mild weather, since 100+ degrees will be ready to meet us by the time we get there, playing outside, homeschooling and baking. It seems we've had sets of different kinds of waiting. Waiting to find out where we would go next; waiting for the baby to be born; waiting for Ben's ticket to come so he could get started, and now waiting for our paperwork so that we can then wait on our tickets and get over there too. Something that I find helps me stay sane as a mother is finding ways to establish an easily transportable routine- something that doesn't require a lot of stuff, since most of it is either packed, sold or stored.

Babies have their own routines of eat, play, sleep, repeat; but Talia and I have been really getting into the reading lately. While she has known the sounds of the letters in the alphabet for a while, putting them together to create a word just wasn't clicking for her. Until now! I'm really excited about how smoothly she's been reading words lately. She also enjoys working with numbers, so we incorporate that into a lot of our play. While the spring weather is here, doing school outside has been incredible. Very soon, this won't be an option, so we'll soak it up while we can before we go create a new routine.

How do you stay sane with several sets of impermanent circumstances?

Hauling Books by Plane or by Donkey

Packing everything to move across the ocean can be intimidating with weight and baggage restrictions, but the part I've been trying to figure out the most is the homeschooling supplies. It's hard to know which manipulatives are worth their weight in luggage to take and which ones are better to leave.
And books. Books are particularly heavy and particularly necessary for any type of curriculum. I'm carrying them via plane. This man, Luis Soriano, believes in the necessity of reading enough to create a way to bring books to the isolated communities in Columbia. He has a round trip of eight hours on his "Biblioburro," or donkey library just bringing books so children can do research for homework or have a chance to read. He made my worries about getting enough books where we are going seem very small.



I want my children to love to read, I know how much easier it is to learn if you have good reading skills. I've seen what the lack of those skills can do to students. I also know that even if we can't take much of a physical library, we have many Kindle and online resources and, as Luis showed with educating kids to read- when there's a will, there's a way.


"Luis Soriano who started the Biblioburro initiative, also opened La Gloria's first library thanks in part to donations received from Ayoka's film viewers.
For more information: www.ayokaproductions.org"

"Bee-Bim Bop!" Beginning Reading Outloud with Homeschooling

Sometimes when I'm tired and reading out loud to Talia is sounding like more than I can handle, we like the stories that are read out loud online. One of our favorite places is found at PBS Kids Stories. Since this website wasn't available in Guatemala, this is one of the advantages of being back in the States for a bit, especially since pregnancy and being tired seem to go hand-in-hand!

An online story Talia has preferred since she was 1 year old, and still enjoys, is called "Bee-Bim Bop" and tells the story of a young Korean girl trying to help her mother make a dish called Bee-Bim Bop for supper. It's very simple and the rhyme and music make it fun. I think she also appreciates watching other little girls helping their mamas in the kitchen like she likes to do.

Something, then, that was really neat, was to see (spelled differently) Bi Bim Bop at a local restaurant lunch special menu. My mom remembered the name of the book and took this photo when she saw it on the menu.

It sounds delicious and is something we both want to try! If not at the restaurant, maybe with a good recipe.

Have you ever made Bi Bim Bop? I'd love for you to share your recipe and help this story come alive even more for Talia!

Getting Ready for Homeschooling Abroad

Talia has been doing really well recognizing letters and knowing which sounds go with them, including some blends, for a while now. Since I am homeschooling this year, part of my challenge has been figuring out which of the millions of options will work best for me in a place outside of the States and where shipping is not really worth it. Suitcases are already limited with space on the trips home, so that's not the greatest, or only option I would like to have.

Part of this problem we solve by using Starfall's online supplementary curriculum. Some of the reading challenges will be solved by using the online accessible Reading A-Z program and other online stories. However, though my daughter likes working on the computer, it's not really something I want her stuck to all of the time. Learning is so much more than a brain thing. Especially at her age, the whole body helps her learn!

Something she's really enjoyed is an "Alphabet Fun Sticker Book" by School Zone. It has helped reinforce all of the letters and their sounds, and taken it to the next step of recognizing which sounds words begin with. (Plus, she loves getting the stickers neatly in their boxes.) After working with this slowly over a few days, she came up to me and started talking about all of the words she could think of that started with the "ssss" sound, even though we hadn't studied the "S" in the book yet. She knew that "S" made that sound and came up with: snake, sock, sun and several other words that also started with "S." I was excited that she was making that connection with oral language and not just with the written letters in front of her. She can take the sounds of a word and spell it with the refrigerator letter magnets, but hasn't quite gotten that in reverse yet putting all of the sounds of a written word back together to quite be completely reading yet. But soon!

With reading, I have a plan and an idea of how to work with her at home, at least for this coming year. With math, I felt a little helpless. Talia knows how to count to 29 consistently, and if I tell her what comes after the following _9's, she can continue to 100. She has made the connection between each hand having 5 fingers and says "Look, mommy, two 5's make 10!" or "I have 2 bananas and there's 1 over there, that makes 3!" So I think addition will be a natural next step for her. I just have to get over my own phobia of numbers. I found several workbooks in the States for math that I think will help with that. I have ideas for manipulatives as well. Advice from people who've done this before, though, is always welcome!

Part of homeschooling is knowing your child and where they are in different areas and focusing on how to get them to the next level, no matter how nontraditional or unschool-like that approach might, or is able to be. Surely at first it is always a bit apprehensive to think of what will be needed before you have experience, but hopefully this will improve when I gain that experience.

Do you have any ideas for math or reading that worked for you starting out? How about homeschooling abroad? Or just sorting through the many, many homeschooling options without going broke or crazy? I'd love to hear other parents' thoughts who've gone down this road before.