Homeschooling

We are in our fifth week of homeschooling now...

and I have already learned a few things.

Number 1
Josh loves homeschool.

He does not love every minute of every day especially those moments with his head on the table crying, but overall he is having fun. He refers to topics we are learning at other times of the day, and in other places. I love love LOVE that. He has had fun with the "enrichment activities" that I found (i.e. crafts, websites, movies, etc.). I love that too. He loves having school in his pajamas...maybe a little too much :)

Number 2
I am learning where Josh is academically.

I had to tweak math and language arts after the first week.
Even though I purchased an appropriate level math curriculum that I liked, it isn't working for him. We still need to change something to make it more fun. I'm working on it. He likes math and I don't want to snuff out that light! I also got a very funny math supplement that is story-based and shows how math has real-life applications. He thinks it is funny, and loves doing his Life of Fred math book. He brings it to me and shows me the pictures and laughs telling me about Fred's story.

I exchanged the language arts after a week and a half for a more appropriate level for his reading and writing. More challenging = better :) and so far so good!

Number 3
I love homeschool.

I love that we can adjust what Josh is learning right away to best suit his learning level and style. Homeschool is flexible like that.
I love that I am there to know everything he is learning so that I can "get" his references and jokes, and I can reinforce what he is learning when we are not doing school.
I love doing school activities with David and Sammy too. They participated in and had fun with our nutrition study. They are both doing reading lessons with me (using "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons"). I am especially working with David on doing independent work after he is given instructions. And there is always speech homework in our world :).
I love looking for supplemental activities that I am willing to attempt are fun and appropriate.
I love that we have so much time together. We are getting closer in our relationship. Josh is more relaxed and is enjoying himself and his family. He is nicer to his brothers (at least most of the time lol).
I love that this homeschool lifestyle is growing me as a person, a wife, and a mother.

Number 4
I love having God at school with us.

OK that should be number 1. We read the bible at breakfast. We talk about God throughout the day. It is awesome.


A wise experienced-in-the-ways-of-homeschooling friend told me that homeschooling is more relaxed and less stressful than sending your kid off to public school. So far, and I was surprised, this is true.

God bless the experienced homeschooling friends with whom I spoke about this lifestyle change. Your advice and tips and encouragement helped me ease into my new role. And I do love my new "job".

(((hugs))),
chris

Teach us to make the most of our time,

so that we may grow in wisdom.

      ~Psalm 90:12

First Days of School

Josh started on July 22
He is embracing the whole pajama-wearing homeschool thing
He even came to school the other day in his underwear... um... not ok dude

David started KINDERGARTEN last Thursday
I can't believe he is so big!

Sammy started preschool this past Monday
with the same most amazing teachers that D and S had for the past two years

All three of our boys took a few days to adjust, and are now happy to be where they are.

I would rather not be doing the school drop-off and pickup thing anymore, but at least this year I am only dropping off at one school and picking up at one school! Last year sucked ~ two hours a day in the car just driving children to and from school. This year = much better :)

Praise God for his direction ~ things work so well in our lives when we just shut up, step out of the way, and listen :)

(((hugs))),
chris

Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me. He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.
              ~ Psalm 103:2-3

Happy 2 Year Homecoming Day!!!

Here we are two years later:

Two years ago on August 11, 2011, we arrived home with our two munchkins.

It has been a wonderful,

              crazy,

                     roller-coaster ride...

and God has had his fingerprint on every single stinkin' detail of our lives

   in our hearts,

       in our children,

and in the people around us

for the last two years.

We are so very very blessed, and we always feel loved.

That big hug, unconditional, unending kind of love.

Life is still hard some days

(really, really hard some days)

but we feel like we came through the tunnel

where the darkness was all around and the walls were closing in

and are back out in the light.

And you know the light, His light, takes away the darkness.

So we praise and thank God for using our broken family.
Lord, please continue to use us ~ to you be the glory!

(((hugs))),
chris

See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland.
                      Isaiah 43:19

You, Lord, keep my lamp burning;
    my God turns my darkness into light.
                      Psalm 18:28

Food Issues

For children who live in institutional settings, their reality is that there are very few adults and many children. (Picture 30-40 toddlers and two adults.) These institutionalized children do not receive the attention they NEED to develop into physically, socially and emotionally healthy children. These institutions also have limited financial resources, and so often ~ and it is so hard to imagine ~ these children are not fed an adequate amount. Day after day. Like for years. Babies might receive two or three bottles a day, propped on a pillow, for example. This is not uncommon. It is heartbreaking.

common orphanage sleeping room

And even though our kid was in a really "good" orphanage as far as those things go, we have a child with food issues. We believe he knew hunger.

Not our fatty-McFatfat American wah-wah-wah-I'm-HUNGRY-Ineedanotherfastfoodhamburger hungry.

36 chairs to feed these 2 year old children in one little room and one nanny to supervise

More like a painful am-I-ever-going-to-see-food-again desperation hungry. Day in and day out. Maybe other children fought him and took his food away. I suspect that sometimes. He eats really slooooooowly and he can be kind of passive so the other kids would have had the opportunity. I know him now, and I know what his eyes look like when he is hungry. And I think back to the pictures we have of him when he lived at the orphanage and I see those hungry eyes.

All the unknowns. Trying to figure out the puzzle pieces to heal our kids.

Perhaps his food issues are all a need for control in his little world. Because he had absolutely positively zero control (and zero value for that matter) before we met him.

I am sad because I have not been helping our son with his food issues very well. I have my own food issues, and this is a tough one for me. Me, the Mama, I have not been doing a good job with our son in this area. Would our bonding have gone much better had I been a good Mama around the food issues? Probably. So I feel pretty crummy about this.

But I can't go back...

So we go forward and are going to make some changes around our house, and we are praying that it creates a better healing home for our munchkins.

Healthy food will be available. All the time. This is what you read and hear about in Attachment 101, and we haven't done a great job of it. We have tried and WE the adults have gotten discouraged when meals are not eaten because they have snacked too much. The always-available-food may not be the most desirable, but it will be something they like. For example, if we always have yogurt available (definitely a most desirable food in our house - in fact we have to limit the number of yogurts each of them eats a day), our munchkins would choose yogurt all day long and never eat anything else :)

So we choose Cheerios. In a little baggie if anyone needs a snack between snack & mealtime, and with milk if someone doesn't like the meal. A friend used to let her kids make their own peanut butter & jelly sandwiches if they didn't like a meal which is a totally awesome idea, but our kids don't like PB&Js. Cheerios with milk = carbs+protein+fiber+low sugar. And not something they will prefer before anything else. I think it might work. Jas and I feel hopeful that this may decrease the stress issues that center around food in our house.

And create a more loving, healing home for all of us.

the boys with Baba after his half-marathon

(((hugs))),
chris

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
                         Matthew 25:40

I Got a Job!

I got a job!

(insert jump and click heels together here)

I officially start in August. It is a teaching job, and I am actually looking forward to being a teacher again!

After I left my teaching job long, long, long ago, I was asked many times if I would ever go back to teaching. I remember over and over again saying that I loved teaching the kids, and if teaching was more about the kids and less about paperwork and politics then yes I would go back. But since it's not... then NAH I'm not going to teach again.

So here I am really excited to be a teacher again! Because this time it will be all about the kids...



OUR KIDS!

Direct your children onto the right path,

and when they are older, they will not leave it.

Proverbs 22:6

We decided to commit to homeschooling for a year. We will give it a year and see if it works for Josh and if it works for our family. We are looking forward to the flexibility. Our daily schedule can adjust to what works for Josh, and what we need for our lessons. We are looking forward to being able to have God in our classroom. And we are looking forward to being the ones who teach our kids.

I was going to add paragraphs of reasons why we are homeschooling, but it sounded so much like defending our choice that I deleted it... In our real life I have gotten some weird reactions when casually mentioning homeschooling to people. Strange looks. Long awkward silent pauses. Odd and intrusive questions.

The questions are always about the socializing issue.

Here is how Josh was "socialized" in second grade: cuss words, including how to spell those cuss words, drunk truck driver game, "what is 'gay'?", sitdownandbequiet, sitdownandbequiet, sitdownandbequiet- the class can't sitdownandbequiet so norecessforyou!, and the "importance" of material things just to name a few. How can 35 hours a week in a minimally adult supervised environment be good for socializing our 8 year old son? I am so grateful that he comes to me to ask about these things he was exposed to ~ like some cuss words he didn't understand, and drunk driving, and what "gay" means. I was able to teach him these things that he was unfortunately exposed to. Praise God for the fact that we still have that open communication. We don't want to lose that.

And that's one of the great mysteries of this past year... if the class can't be quiet and sit, or be still and quiet and wait in line, then recess is taken away. HOW IN THE WORLD CAN TAKING RECESS AWAY FROM A RESTLESS CHILD BE HELPFUL FOR THEM??? That child or those children need recess even more! Ugh. Anyhoo I digress...

And there I go sounding like I am defending our choice.

So back to... we are so excited to give this a try! We will homeschool Josh this year and keep the munchkins at their current school for preschool and half-day kindergarten. I am planning to do some afternoon schooling activities with David and Sammy too, and maybe involve them in some things Josh is learning when appropriate. We know it won't be easy, and we will have "those days" when we all question our choice to homeschool. We will try to keep our eyes on the long view and all the benefits. I have been reading a lot about homeschooling and I like that homeschool is really "family school" and it is a lifestyle.

Count us in! We are all so excited!

(((hugs))),
chris

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

                        Galatians 2:20

Our Biggest Bundle of Joy

Joshua.
Joshy.
Josh.

The fruit of my loins.

Josh still loves snuggles.

He is supersmart and loves learning. He is "into" Harry Potter right now.

I often find him reading his various science fact books for fun.

He is still superaddicted to Legos. And spinning things like Beyblades.

He thinks making finger rabbit ears behind someone's head is really funny. Every time.

He loves his brothers.

He makes up jokes. Then has to explain them as he rolls around laughing about them.

He likes playing baseball and basketball. Please noone tell him about football...

He knows we are not going anywhere. That we are his forever.

Josh,

It has been so much fun watching you grow.

Like a front row seat to the greatest show on earth.

I love you tons and billions and trillions and googleplex.

Love,

Mom

xoxoxoxo

Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.

~ Psalm 23:6

Our Middlest Bundle of Joy

David.

Ah, David.

He has to be our most complicated kid. Which makes sense since he has the most complicated history.

David has come a long way. When I look of pictures of him when he lived at the orphanage... I can't believe it's the same kid.

I see this on other blogs I follow too. The hollowed-out orphan look of despair that turns into the smile of a child who has found peace in their new home. God's story of redemption. God using our broken families to do His work.

Here, I'll show you what I mean:

David has amazing strategies to compensate for the areas in which he struggles.
In fact, he fooled us for a year and a half.
We now know he may have a pretty severe learning disability, and we are working with him to help him either overcome it or adjust to it.
Amazing, isn't it? How a little kid can have such huge coping strategies to help him survive?

He's a pretty cool kid.

He loves his brothers and his friends and his teachers.

He will do anything his big brother tells him to do. :(

He loves animals.

He is super athletic.

He is overwhelmed and fearful in large groups or when it's too loud.

He loves his 3000 stuffed animals. These are very comforting to him.

He needs reassurance. He needs to be reminded that we are forever.

He loves to snuggle.

He is a great helper.

He is a lovey.

David,
We love you soooo much
   that we would go to the ends of the earth for you.
Yes, I promise. We are here totally forever.
Love,
Mama
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo


Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning,
     for I am trusting you.
  Show me where to walk,
     for I give myself to you.

Psalm 143:8

Our Littlest Bundle of Joy

Sammy.

Yes, his jammie pants are on his head :-)

He's our 32 pound firecracker.

He is loud. And silly. And smart.

He loves fiercely.

He wants what he wants when he wants it.

He needs lots of reassurance. He needs reminders that we are forever.

He likes to tell funny stories and sing funny songs. Loud, of course.

He feels strongly. About everything.

And all these traits have served him well, and will in the future.

Sammy,
You add such a spark to our family.
We love you and we adore you.
Yes, like a THOUSAND.
Love,
Mama
xoxoxoxo


Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other.
                         ~ Romans 12:10