This will be a record of our homeschooling! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:30:00 -0500 Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:30:00 -0500 We are 29 days away from the packing of our air cargo shipment.  We are 38 days away from the packing of our sea cargo shipment and storage packing.  We are about 42 days away from our trip to England! Our heads are beginning to spin.  We had some furniture delivered yesterday, from three different companies.  Each company returns this week to take away an item or to bring a new item or to pick up an item we don't want.  But at least all of that will be over soon.     http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/347137/ Sun, 24 Jun 2007 19:30:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/347137/ Today we have begun to learn a bit more about England.  We will continue to learn about America also but have discontinued our Core 4 Sonlight work. We began reading Kings & Thing by H.E. Marshall, A Light Hearted Romp Through British History.  It is very good, we read the first three chapters. We began reading James Heriott's Trasury for Children.  We read Moses the Kitten. Aaron did a pencil tracing of the United Kingdom and told us about the land and sea formations.  Aaron and Marlo will do lessons in The Complete Book of Presidents and States.  They will also do math lessons. Matthew and Elijah both did one or two handwriting lessons in the Handwriting Without Tears books (yellow).  They will also do math lessons.  I am going to have them practice their reading today also. The baby played in the basement.  She was a little fussy, wanting to be able to draw and get into things.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/340825/ Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:59:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/340825/ House #3 is the WINNER! We knew it almost immediately...well it isn't even the #3 I mentioned yesterday, it was a dud of a house with a community center which included indoor swimming and tennis and maybe golf...but the house just was not right. Not even tempting! That was good. Anyway, the agent who had that house had another one she told our relo agent about and wanted us to see it. It only came into the system yesterday and the owner who lives next door to it was considering selling it this time instead of renting again! He decided to show it to us! Wow. Wow! We knew instantly. I had such a headache this morning as we began our hunt! I was feeling depressed and "under the gun" so to speak. D was also. In fact he had decided already, unbeknownst to me, that if I felt I had to pass on the decision and look to him to decide alone, he would step forward and do so, but would allow me room to make the decision as long as I was comfortable and chose to...God I love him. So, the house!: It is out in the country so I will eventually likely have to learn to drive but at least not in the busy city! YEAH! We have a two car garage so one can be parked in the garage and one in the drive. We will still have ample storage in the garage, as well as in the rafters of the garage. It is a good safe garage with a window for natural lighting even. The flyer calls it a spacious detached chalet style house. It is really a 6 br home with 2 1/2 baths. There is a large and secluded garden to the rear and a small one to the front. The entrance hall is wide and will allow for movement of furniture as necessary. There is an office to the left of the entry with a non-working but original fireplace and a small bay. We may use this as a library with lots of bookshelves and as a place to anchor a computer or two. It has a nice rich brown carpet with a lighter design in it. To the right of the entry and next to the stairs which go straight up are two bedrooms. The first is square but with extra room for the door to open. Simple but nice. The second one is a little wider than deep and has a bay with a door that enters the side garden and nice windows. I see Aaron in the first and maybe Marlo or Marlo and Gilly in the second with the door. The second one has frosted glass inlets in it. Beyond the stairs on the left of the hall is a closet beneath the stairs with minimal storage. After it, on the left there are frosted glass French doors which open into a LARGE Family Room. LARGE even by American standards! It has a lovely calming light blue carpet. There is a fireplace of brick which has the feel of stone, simply because the bricks are of a brownish color as stones would be, it is a working wood burning fireplace. To the left of the fireplace are book shelves built into the wall. There are several windows. The draperies were made for the room and blend nicely with the muted floral wallpaper in the entry hall. At the farthest point in the FR are French doors which go out to a sidewalk along the house's edge. Along the right side, or back of the room is a sliding door, big, which goes out to a medium-large patio where the current residents have a basketball goal and where we will likely place ours too. Heading back toward the entry of the FR there is a double French doorway into a LARGE DR with light wood floors which has large sliding doors opening to the left onto the medium patio and out the back of the room onto a LARGE patio that has steps leading to the medium patio. We will likely bring our 10 seat countryish dining table to this house since there is room for it and it will blend with the style. We expected to find a home that was either more contemporary or more tradtional-British in feel so didn't expect our large dining table to work. There is an exit from the DR to the hall to the right, the main entry hall. At the very end of the hall from the front door is a decent size laundry, by English standards....it has the washer and dryer and cabinets under and above and a toilet too! Back in the hall across from the DR is the kitchen. It surprisingly has room for a kitchen table and has decent cabinetry and an oven with a broiler and a cook-top (hob). There is a full size dishwasher. I'm back finally, and the kids are all home.  I have to say that I was surprised at some of the comments...really I think we both wanted the ecclectic-feeling house, the one that came across as sounding dark.  I believe I tried not to make all of you fall for it as much as we had, I tried to be objective.  Even after the second tour of it we were both more drawn to it and it's Euro-feel than to the new construction.  The relo agent was happy to have some American's to tour and help who wanted English quaintness and notAmerica-reproduced across the "pond".   Let's finish the property tour!  I'll take you upstairs now...  There is a large mirror in the downstairs hall which stays with the house and a French mirror that is above the stairway which stays, they are lovely.   At the top of the stairs to the right is a lovely bathroom with tub, seperate shower, sink and toilet, with a large window that opens out and it is mostly tiled in a nice white tile with red artwork on them.  The kids can take our burgundy bath towels even.  There is a large "airing cupboard" which they typically use for linens that may still be a bit damp, as it houses the water heater and gets hot in there.  At the end of the hall are two matching bedrooms.  They each have a lovely window which looks out on the back "garden".  There is room for maybe two twin beds in one of the rooms and the other would be just slightly smaller and hold a twin or a double a bit easier than two twins.  They both have a small-medium closet for storage and clothes hanging.  I see the boys sharing one of these.  Or they could seperate but I don't feel E will want to.  The baby could take the other room but currently Marlo wants to keep here sharing a room with her. There are two small closets in the hall that can be used for haning Aaron's hanging clothing since his room wouldn't have a closet...or they could be use for snow pants for ski trips and there is eaves sotrage for things like the Christmas tree.  Having this home, we now know we will bring our tree and ornaments since we will have room for them to be displayed at Christmas.  There is another bedroom which we will likely use for a dedicated toy/game room.  It is 22' deep with slanted ceiling from both sides.  It has a tiney balcony that really isn't usable but is cute from the outside.  It has a big window for good ventilation.  It has two storage closets for hanging or stacking of things.  I believe it will be good for game storage.  We will likely put the game system and the Thomas-traing table and a toy box in that room!  Then is our room which can be called a master bedroom, though many houses didn't have a room worthy of that nomenclature.  It has lovely mirrored closets the width of the room.  It has two nice windows looking out on the front garden.  It has its own bath even.  Toilet, double sink and shower with a nice window for ventilation.  Now the "garden".  It's really huge!  MUCH bigger than any of the other ones, even the house near Hampton Court I think.  It has a huge Lebanon Cedar tree in the yard from which there is a tire swign hanging and I bet I could hang at least 3 more!  We even have permission to build a tree house in it!  There are two patios.  One will hold Aaron's basketball goal, the other runs that width of the house and has a 4' awning over it for shade and rain protection.  There is a nice size playouse on the patio even.  The land goes way back and the owner is even going to extend it about 20' for us as some previous tenants didn't want it to go back so far.  He is just going to move the fencing as it is just metal fencing at the back of the property.  Most of the sides of the property is protected by hedges, trees and rhododendrons.  There is a gazebo-type unit in the yard that came from an old church; it has wisteria all over it!  There is wisteria on the garage roof too.  There is an acer outside the kitchen window, it looks like a bushy Chinese Maple and will blaze orange in the fall but is currently a beautiful deep red.  There is a big rosemary plant and all kinds of plantings.  There are:  apple, pear, prune and peach trees for our enjoyment!   The garage is detached but has two single car entries to it.  We plan to use half of it for a car and the other half for storage of things like extra non-perishable storage and long-term storage, it even has rafters for storage.  There is also a medium size extra fridge in the garage for us to store wine or additional milk or produce.  The whole property is such a surprise and delight to us.  We can't wait for the kids to see it!  They are very excited.  Now the school.  We were both pleasantly surprised by our meeting there.  DH thought they wouldn't meet our needs as home schoolers, and felt they wouldnt' want to mess with us.  We found them seeming eager to assist us and our children!  Not over-eager as if they felt their school was better than home schooling, they were not condescending.  The admissions representative told us that this school, of the three which are afiliated in the area, has a different focus.  First it is a little more artsy.  Second...get this...it is an international bacheloreat school and has a special international curriculum to mee the special needs of children who are internationals and "citizens of the world."  How cool is that!  Just like Sonlight, in theory!  I felt God brought us to Sonlight so that the older kids can have this opportunity!  She then  took us on a tour of the "campus".  The main buildling for the junior high students is a good size and has most of the core classes.  They move to other buildings for the more elective classes.  They encourage the kids to participate in several different sports since the schoole has fewer students than a typical American school.  They want them to diversify and try new things!  The art studio was packed full of stuff but had so many terrific projects hanging that I could see Marlo getting quite excited about it.  We felt Aaron would take right to the sports opportunities!  The school has a French chef on staff!  The kids have all kinds of healthy choices available for lunches or can bring their lunch from home.  You know I am completely sold-out on home schooling...but this school got me excited!  I want Aaron and Marlo to have the opportunity to go there for a while.  We will evaluate after 6 months and allow them to continue but hope they will come back to home schooling.  It will give them a taste of what else life has to offer and it will give me a "break".  I am looking forward to "only" having the boys and Gillian to educate for 6 months and feel we can cover a lot of final steps to reading mastery!  Then after 6 months we can bring A&M home if that's what we all decide, and start up with cores 1 and 6 which I haven't yet done with anyone.  I am really excited about all of it.  We feel the school opprotunity will give Aaron and Marlo a great foundation to living in England and a source for beginning new friendships, with children who are native to a different country.  About 20% of the school is British children whose parents wanted something different for them or they have traveled internationally with job moves and know they will move again, and so wanted to remain in an international school setting.  There are only 600 students from K-12 and they are from 43 countries!  I feel Matt would thrive in this school too but I am not really ready to stop home schooling him yet, even temporarily.  So we are very happy with the developments of last week.  It would have been nice if we'd found the house sooner and had time to open a bank account and to travel into London from the train station nearest to the house but that didn't happen.  We are greatly relieved to have the house secured for our rent for out time in England. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/339000/ Wed, 6 Jun 2007 15:34:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/339000/ Popping in for a few minutes... We have probably decided that our two oldest, Aaron and Marlo should have the opportunity to go to the private school here. The company will pay for it. It is a delightful place. Really. It is beautiful. It is campus-like but small and friendly. This particular campus only has 600 students from K-12...much smaller than most. There are three campuses for this particular school, all running K-12. This one is the more "artsy" of the three, which makes it perfect for Marlo...the size and cozyness make it perfect for both Aaron and Marlo. It does limit our house hunt though. We feel that God brought us to Sonlight so that Aaron and Marlo will meld perfectly into this school, as this campus is the only one with an "international" curriculum, not your standard American faire. We are very pleased with that, perhaps moreso than most enrollees even. It feels like a good fit. All that, and then I have to admit that at dinner I finally broke down in tears at my loss of those two chlidren, even temporarily. We realize they may choose to continue with the school after the 6 months we are going to tell them they should do. We feel it would be best for their growth and maturity for them to step out and try out the school. We found out, also, that they will be allowed to sign on for just a 6 month period without any greater commitment, which makes D and me happy. It will allow us and the kids to evaluate whether it would be best to continue with that school or to come back to hsing. It will also allow me to concentrate on Matthew and Elijah and Gillian for a while. I placed Aaron and Marlo into Core 1 at ages 7 and 8 together. I would love to do the same with Matt and E. That gives me at least 6 months to a year before starting them in Core 1. When I do start them in Core 1 then, I may have A&M returning home to do Core 6, as planned, with them doing 1. So, enrolling them feels God-led. It really does. But it is a big step for us. The advantages will be great. It is a school that will be looked upon with great favor when it shows up on their college apps someday, even if only for 6 months. The school offers them choices of an elective also. They will study French or Spanish and they may choose subjects such as: art, drama, IT, etc. They can participate in sports as well...soccer, rugby, cricket, golf, basketball, you name it. I feel that Marlo will take right to it. Aaron will have to get his feet wet but will then enjoy it also, I think. Golf will be right up his alley. So our home choice will likely be more limited. The one Iraved about on my blog is probably too far. They could be bused from there but we may find it would be a very long bus ride and wouldn't want to push them too greatly with all the changes hitting them right now... Being nearer to the school...there is a home that is about $600 out of our budget that we could suck-up and accept...but whichever home we buy, we need a lot of furnishings for. We can do the safe, very American thing to do and go for the new construction maybe a mile or two from the school...it is right at our budgeted amount which the company provides. It is a lovely home. Not much green space. There is a home we get to see tomorrow which is in a gated community and which will have on-site: tennis, pool, etc. That will make it nice for me and the children who remain at home...so that we don't feel we have to leave the neighborhood for fun or for friendship (hopefully)...but the house will probably be much smaller so we are not sure that will work. Please pray that we will feel at peace with what we choose. We really must submit a contract tomorrow to let a home for when we arrive. Our time is running short. I feel okay but very, very emotionally drained right now. David and I are on the same page, which I thank God for. Ang http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/338509/ Tue, 5 Jun 2007 13:54:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/338509/   So, finally some news from us.   Now, to tell you about the houses.  The first two on Friday were just absolute duds.  D.U.D.S.   Saturday we went to downtown Cobham by taxi and toured a grocery store and bought some peanut butter and same "digestive", uh, that would be crackers and cookies to us.   Later a friend of D's from BP (forkmer Napervillian), Mark, picked us up and took us to:  a Tesco's (similar to Super Target), Marks and Spencers (dept store feel, with produce and such.)  He also took us around several towns and to see a leisure center at which a couple of his daughters swim.  It was lots of fun.  Everything was a blur from town to town though.  After being dropped off at the hotel we decided to walk back into Cobham, about two miles...ended up at the Old Bear.  Had fish and chips in the back garden.  They even brough a baby chair (high chair) out for Miss GillyGillyShortbread (her new nickname for her new favorite cookie/digestive!) On the way home from the pub we stopped in at a wine shop and bought a bottle of shiraz and a bottle opener.  Walked back to the hotel, about 1 1/2 miles.   Sunday morning we got a taxi to a local church, a non-denominational, international church in Hersham/Walton at a local British public school.  It was nice.  Lots of kids of all ages and a new female children's pastor.  Interim pastor, after the former pastor of 12 years left...they've had over 225 applicants!  There are between 100 and 200 families in the church depending on how many are in the country at the time.  I have an online friend who uses curriculum, Jane, who attends there, so we met them at the church that morning.  After church they loaded us into their van with their family (daughters ages 19 and 15 and son 12) and took us to Pizza Express for a nice Italian lunch.   We took a taxi back to the hotel.  Sunday evening, after an unsuccessful nap we were picked up by David's friend Mark.  He took us to their home in Esher.  We had a lovely evening.  Their daughters are 18, 12 and 9.  The 12 and 18 yr olds begged to keep Gilly while we two couples went to dinner at the Prince of Wales pub, a local favorite.  We had a great dinner.  D had beef wellington and I had pork schnitzel with pineapple sambal, a little spicy.  I had apple pie with custard for dessert, which we split and really enjoyed.  When we arrived at the pub, at the entrance, Mark and Anita and we ran into friends of theirs, Jan and Rusty and their teenaged sons Matt and Alexander, so we had dinner with them!   Monday morning it was REAL house hunting!   I will attempt to attach our very anal house-hunt-rating guide!  Right now we are leaning toward a home with 6 bedrooms, 3 full and 1/2 bath and a phenom back yard from which we could easily walk to a train station!  74 Hurst Rd East Molesey   Today we saw about 8 houses I guess.  Tomorrow we see about 5 or 6 more and we have a short appointment at a local private school, ACS Egham.  We hope to narrow our search down to a final home for which we can make an offer.  Tomorrow we are to see home that sounds interesting, in Virginia Waters.  I will give information for that later.   Tonight we went to Jane and Leo's home.  They had a friend visiting whom they had met in Quattar. (sp?)  She home schools their 8 yr old son.  They are on their way to work with the embassy in Albania!   We had a lovely dinner and talked about our house hunt and enjoyed visiting again.   We are now back at the Cobham Hilton and eating dessert and readying for bed.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/338085/ Mon, 4 Jun 2007 17:10:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/338085/ Had to post here, a praise...my brother called tonight and we've talked for about two hours I bet. He is a new Christian...all my efforts of planting have been watered and God has brought him to the faith recently. We talked about our move and the exposure we will provide to our kids of an international worldview, etc. We talked about the possibilities of old earth vs. new earth, creationism and all the possibilities that go along with it...we discussed how God puts blinders on us for some seasons and then throws us into the "mix" of life with a life preserver at other times. Wow. It was a GREAT conversation. He was finally admitting so much to me about how he really understands that CHRIST is THE big picture...the ONE thing that makes a difference from being a person that has it 99% right and one that has it 100% right. What a night for this conversation. It is so heartening to me. David and I took him and my littler brother with us to church many times while we were dating... It's been a prayer of mine for most of my life...to see him and his family come to Christ. And he told me that HE was talking to our brother and even one of our BIL's at the party we had Friday night, after we had left, about wishing they would attend his church sometime and see if it didn't help things to add up for them. They both ascented that they have been looking for the right place and right time and just might go with him some morrning! WHAT a conversation! I could go through the rest of the week and not get another thing checked off my to-do list and nothing could bring me down. It made me really think on why we are doing things like making this move. It is really for the greater good. The greater good of exposing our kids to real life today, and to history, and to God's unending GRACE. Oh, how I've prayed for my brother's salvation! Oh how I've prayed! Can you tell how happy I am?!!! Rejoice with me! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/328569/ Mon, 14 May 2007 22:56:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/328569/ David is still in England for a business meeting. My friend Sarah was due to deliver a baby soon.  We had two starts last week but no baby arrived.  We spent about thirty hours at the hospital in those visits.  Finally yesterday their little "munchkin" arrived. Megan Kara is 9# 9 oz!  Their biggest baby.  Sarah had a bad tear but both are healthy and happy.  I am so blessed to have been able to be present and assist Sarah during the birth.  She was there in that capacity for Gillian's birth last year. And...regarding David's application for a job in England:  wWe weren't supposed to hear back until today.  David called me yesterday and gave me the big news!  He was offered the job!  We are both extremely excited.  I have to keep this under my hat until he is home and we can tell the kids together.  Then we have to make plans to travel to visit our families so that we can tell them in person. There will be many, many changes coming in the next few months...oh, we have no idea the timing for all of this...David and I anticipate it will be after summer which I think will make for a great transition.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/319962/ Thu, 26 Apr 2007 13:34:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/319962/ I miss him already. I spoke to him by phone during his limo drive to the airport and again just before his plane took off.  He will call when he lands.  That will be around 5pm our time.  This evening will be crazy for us...Matt has swimming at the Y at 4:00, E has one of his final speech therapy sessions from 5-6 m and Aaron has soccer from 6-7:30 and I will have traffic to deal with.  A couple weeks ago I promised E we would get food from Subway after one of his sessions.  I may leave him in the session alone with his therapist and pick up some sandwiches for us to eat during Aaron's practice.  He likes his therapist, Heather, and it is right next door.  If I don't do that I will have to leave Aaron at practice and run get some food.  Subway sounds easier, I'm glad I thought of it. Aaron and David are doing some lawn patching in our backyard.  It is Aaron's responsibility this week to keep the area watered.  He is doing that now. We have two guinea pigs and their accessories to give away.  I wish I knew someone who would enjoy having them.  We've loved our piggies over the last 3 years or so but are tiring of them I guess.    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/318421/ Mon, 23 Apr 2007 10:31:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/AversFamilyHomeSchool/318421/