I had to spend the day at church, helping out with a funeral, and Jeff had a staff meeting – which was luckily happening in our dining room. Still, we had no one to homeschool the boys. Ezra wanted to come to the church to “help bring in the body.” I declined his offer and resorted to the fallback of absent teachers everywhere: worksheets! I left the boys a stack of worksheets and instructions that they shouldn’t bother Daddy. They... Read more
Ezra has been crying about going to sleep nearly every night for weeks. He’s afraid there is going to be a fire and he’ll sleep through the alarm. Nothing we do or say or pray seems to comfort him. Tonight, as the boys went to bed, Ezra started to get upset again. I left the room quickly, thinking that my presence may be adding to the hysteria he whips himself into. He and Zach were both in the bottom bunk... Read more
Today is New Year’s Eve. And Ground Hog’s Day, but that’s beside the point. In the Chinese calendar, tomorrow is the first day of the new year. So tonight, to celebrate the holiday and as the culmination of our semester-long study of China, we invited a few friends and graduate students from China for dinner. We ate whole fish (a symbol of plenty), homemade dumplings, new year’s “cakes” (made of rice and red beans), and lots of other yummy food.... Read more
Writing a blog is a great opportunity to learn more about yourself. Here are some questions, I can now answer: How often would I check a website to see if people really like me? Would I prefer that my kids’ behavior be angelic or blog-worthy? Do I think blog entries are actually better when I download clip art from Google images? But the question that I can now answer best is, “What kind of person do I attract?” How can... Read more
Our two weeks in Costa Rica comes to end this afternoon. We head back to the states (where we get to spend the night in the Syracuse airport!), and life as usual resumes. If I had known in the fall that we were going overseas, I might have added this to our list of objectives: Experience the world as a navigatable and hospitable place. Understand that the glory of God is expressed in unique ways in different places and with... Read more
I ïnvented¨a new game today. Of course, it´s so obvious that I´m sure others came up with it before me. And my memory is so bad that someone may have shown me this very game last week. But for now, I take full credit for Math War. Math War is very similar to traditional War, where two players split a deck of cards and play until one player takes all of the other player´s card. On each turn, both players... Read more
We needed a down day. I´ve learned over the years that extended travel with kids needs to be broken up with down hours each day and down days every week or so. We were up really late last night at the Saprissa game. (I decided that if I were going to write a guidebook for Costa Rica, my numero uno suggestion would be to take in a professional soccer game.) I thought the boys were going to pee their pants they were... Read more
This morning, we saw coffee plants, learned how they are grown, saw the roasting and packaging factory, and learnd a bit about the history of one of God´s great gifts to the world. It´s cool to go to a coffee farm. It´s even more cool to go to the farm with your au pair´s father, who picked coffee cherries (it was cool to learn that term) for three years, beginning when he was fifteen. Whose grandfather built his home on the... Read more
Signs, signs, everywhere there´s signs ¨Bleeping¨up the scenery, blowin´my mind Do this, don´t do that, can´t you read the signs? (My apologies to the Five Man Electrical Band or Tesla fans, but this is a PG site and I didn´t think the F-word was a good fit. My apologies also to the Grammar Geeks, but I didn´t write the song.) As for my answer to the question posed in the chorus, the answer would be no. No I can´t read... Read more
I think the boys have inherited my love of loving things. If at all possible, all three of us ooh and aah at whatever we can: beautiful scenery, great athletic moves, funny jokes, and new experiences of any kind. We also tend to exaggerate how wonderful things are. Jeff does not share this trait with us, taking things more in stride. I guess it’s good that someone does, but I’m glad it’s not the boys. Like last week, while standing... Read more
The Homeschool Chronicles
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