• 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. 10, 2009 - Archery, NC History, Music
This week in review...
First we started our NC History Scrapbook project. Of course, this had to coincide with a lack of Internet access for two days. Bum, bum, bum, bum! Our work revolves around a Squidoo Lens I made with links and a checklist for the boys to use. So back to the starting block went I. We did some other activities, skipped one day, had two sick boys on another day and tried to make up for it when the net came back. It wasn't the incredible start for which I had hoped, but there's always next week and I'm in no big hurry.
Dalton finally got a "hay" bale and started refining his archery technique this week with his new bow. The bale is actually made out of banana leaves. The idea came from a missionary uncle in a nearby town who helped rig up a device to attach a Whisker biscuit to the bow. Thanks, Certain Uncle! It works and Dalton spends a little time each day target shooting. He also spends a good part of the time looking for lost arrows. Papa helped solve that with a little neon orange spray paint! The boys sprayed a little orange and a little white on to the shaft of each black arrow!
This week was the D-Week to start music practice every day. D is on the clarinet, W has a Guiii-tar, and G is on the recorder until his keyboard arrives with the fellow from Virginia who is supposed to be coming to visit us sometime this term, actually sometime this fall! G is working his way through the songs in our Lyrical Life Science book and doing very well. W has been working with a CD and a book for sometime and is getting closer to a public performance. D discovered that his book has a CD, too, and if you use it, you can really make progress! Imagine that! And so, he is, making progress that is! Me, all the noise, I mean music can be a little overwhelming, but I haven't popped in my purple earplugs yet. I have banned crazy noises for no good reason and practicing in the kitchen.
Here's a few odd pictures from this week! See ya!
Thought for the week:
If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire, then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. ~Robert Fulghum |
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• Oct. 3, 2009 - NC History Scrapbook Plans
Monday we start NC History! Oh boy! Each week since we've been back from furlough we have added something else. This week is history and music. Each boy has an instrument and will have a practice time every afternoon.
I have made a Squidoo Lens for the boys to follow in their North Carolina studies. They will be making a scrapbook of pages about geography, history, important people and much more. We'll be using a lot of Internet resources for our work. I have them all organized on the Lens so the boys don't have to do any unnecessary searching.
I'll let you know how it goes! Hey, the boys caught a small green snake this past week and kept it for about two days. They caught insects to feed it. They put it in our old aquarium for which we haven't gotten any new fish since our return. Interestingly enough it go away. They found it again and kept it for three more days. It escaped a second time! I hope it's learned its lesson!
Here's a link to my Lens so you can check it out!
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What's the weather like in Sobradinho?
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