• Nov. 5, 2009 - Island Retreat, October 31 - November 2
Hellooooo, out there! We have had a hard time recovering from this last retreat on the island. Byron lost his helper fellow just prior to the retreat with no time to find another, not to mention the WHERE to find another part! So it was the boys and me to help. We can do a lot of the tasks involved in running a retreat, but it's hard work! We took Tuesday off from most school activities getting by with a little handwriting and language. Yesterday was Math Test day for all which doesn't take too long and we were able to squeeze in most of our regular work. Today we'll have a full schedule with even a little extra so we can all go to the big city tomorrow for the arrival of our short term guy from the States.
Dalton accomplished his archery class with the campers this weekend. All of them did fair and most were able to at least hit the banana leave bale. One or two actually hit the target paper! Only a few shot arrows far and away. It was a great success with many participants.
Have a great weekend! 
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• Oct. 26, 2009 - It's Raining!
 Typical NE Cowboys
They wear leather to protect them from all the cactus and thorns in the semi-arid Caatinga.
This morning when the boys got up they all proclaimed that surely no one could do school work on such a cloudy, rainy day. We had to turn on the lights in our house this morning it was so dark. Usually by 6:00 am it's so light outside that we just open our wooden louvered windows and don't need any artificial lighting. I played it cool and suggested they take a few extra minutes to play after breakfast while I did the morning dishes. Then we casually and slowly moved into our normal activities. I did let up and allowed everyone to skip NC History today and we spent the time doing a little review of our Lyrical Life Science lessons thus far completed and got started on our newest song - Ungulates! That's hoofed mammals for all you non-scienctifical types.
And everyone was happy, well, content. It was a nice quiet day for the most part, and cool, thanks to the rain! Our week will be a little short as we have a retreat on the island this weekend. The boys will be helping with some of the activities on the island: pellet gun, archery, watching over the kayaks, supervising the zip-line, etc. Some light school work we'll take along for the downtimes like reading our NC History textbooks and our handwriting copywork books. In spite of our late start with our arrival from furlough in late August, we aren't too far off schedule. We'll be using most of December and doing more work in January than usual, but I feel confident that the boys will be fine.
Be back sometime next week with some pics of the retreat and reports on any fish caught!
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• Oct. 23, 2009 - Why We Do the Things We Do
Last week's note was about the whining and complaining of homeschooled boys. Mothers who homeschool never get a break from all that moaning. Made me consider this week, why do we bother? I could send my boys to school here in the little town where we live. It would all be in Portuguese, but that might be good. So why do we homeschool?
Here's my list:
1. Better future opportunities. Without a good English base, our boys would have a harder time going to college in the States at some point if they so chose.
2. Better education. The schools here start late, teacher's strike often, the quality of learning is poor, the "social" education is totally negative.
3. Better world view. We can teach our boys with a Christian world view, emphasizing creation and missions.
4. Better work ethic. We are able to include our boys in our work since our schedule is flexible.
5. Better time spent. Our school day is much more condensed then a regular day in a "real" school classroom. There's no need for roll call, lunch count, assemblies, or the multitude of Brazilian holidays!
6. Better love. We can show our children a better way to love their own, by teaching them with our own life sharing their presence and our hearts on a daily basis.
Yes, it's not always easy. It requires a patience that often eludes me. Sometimes I get tired of it. But I'm going to keep on and do my very best asking the Lord God to bless my efforts to teach my children well.
Pictured below (if you read this on Facebook you can't see the pictures, by the way) are my fav pics from our wild trip to DC just before we came back to Brazil. We had to run, literally, to Washington and then run all around Washington to resolve the situation that ensued with the airline and my permanent Brazilian visa status. As we left my parents' home heading north we quickly wondered why we had not considered leaving the boys somewhere, anywhere. They were fussy, fighting, hungry, tired, bathroomy (new adjective). Why, why, why! The whole situation was not good and their mood wasn't helping. We had this crazy notion that we could see lots of neat things in DC that the boys had never gotten to see. And we did, we got to go to the Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian. Our time was limited, but it was good. We all survived the crazy trip and will enjoy it more when we get to see Night at the Museum 2 when it comes our here in Brazil. The point is we made it. It was frustrating, patience racking, and downright miserable at times. But, there were a few of those sparkling, shining, Aha! moments that somehow tipped the scales in favor of good. I guess homeschooling is sometimes like that trip. I am learning to push the horrid over and get on with the good as much as possible!
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• Oct. 17, 2009 - Moaning and Groaning
The Moans:
Oh, Mama!
Why do we have to do this?
Now?
This will take forever!
Argh, I can't do THAT!
This is taking forever!
Why do people have to go to school anyway?
When can children stop going to school?
The Groaning Answers:
Oh, Son!
Because!
Right now!
It might, better get with it!
Oh yes you can and will!
I already answered that one once!
Because!
When they want to get an 8 - 5 job that pays money!
This week was a week of moaning, or so it seemed! First it was, Do we really have to fill in this map with the 100 counties of North Carolina and then color each one a different color. Then it was, The map is toooo little and the county names won't fit. But everyone did it and each little county has a name and a color! Imagine that!
Sometimes the best laid plans of mothers and curricula "Gang aft agley." Or if you prefer, "Often go awry." What's a teacher who is the mother, too, to do!  Crying is nice, but doesn't usually change much when it comes to dealing with boys. Sometimes it is effective.  Screaming isn't very good, especially when you have close neighbors who already wonder why in the world your children don't GO to school.  Seems patience and persistence is the key. About the counties, I did enlarge the map, Twice! But then when the mumbling continued, I said - Git it done! (GIT is for emphasis, by the way, when studying North Carolina History).
At least there is No Math Friday to keep us moving to the end of each week. Having no math one day a week gives us one day to have fast school work and one day to catch up on other things, if need be. It's great and the boys are really enjoying it. So Mama's not such a Wicked Witch on Fridays! Hmmm... for one day a week they like their teacher. They better love their mother everyday!
Later, ya'll!
(That's a translation for "Tchau, tchau")
 What boys would rather do besides school work! |
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• Oct. 16, 2009 - Links for Thanksgiving
Hi there! I'm cleaning out my bookmarked web pages today and found these. I'm not taking the time to make them all into clickable links. Sorry. But these are some good pages. It has been awhile since I've looked at any of these so if you find an unlinkable link let me know! Just cut and paste into your browser window!
http://holidays.mrdonn.org/thanksgiving.html
http://printables.scholastic.com/printables/search/?query=thanksgiving
http://www.amug.org/~jbpratt/education/sstudies/us/thanks.html
http://www.bry-backmanor.org/actpag68.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/birds/label/turkey/index.shtml
http://www.homeschooled-kids.com/bookthanks.html
http://www.plimoth.org/kids/coloring.php
http://www.plimoth.org/kids/homeworkHelp/pilgrims.php
Tchau, Tchau!
Michele
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What's the weather like in Sobradinho?
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