On to Second Grade...

The past few months have been crazy for us in terms of travel.  It is nice to be back in Mpanda now and healthy (a nice change, which you might appreciate if you followed our recent adventures, Wounds, part 1 and Wounds, part 2!).

The main thing I've been doing lately is preparing for homeschool.  We finished first grade with Micaiah (My Father's World) in May, and then Ally did a month of supplemental teaching with her-- sort of an extended Vacation Bible School.  You can read more about her trip on her blog or email me for a copy of her newsletter.

I also had months of records to catch up on!  We use HomeSchool Tracker Plus to log our lesson plans and hours.  Since we're from Missouri, we follow MO laws, which require 1000 hours of documented school hours (a certain portion must be in "core subjects").  HSTP is a great program, and I am indebted to a good friend in the US for her patient teaching as I learned the program!

I am nearly caught up on all of that and so we're planning for the new year!  This means changing out my bookshelves and boxing up my first grade stuff.  I've gone through the teacher's guides for the first week and prepared most of my lessons-- it's always tricky at the beginning of the school year when I'm not sure how long different subjects will take!  So we'll have to figure out some of that as we go along.

We also decided that the schoolroom needed a makeover.  It was functional but not pretty, so we spent some time envisioning how to best use the small space and moving things around accordingly.  I also got the idea from two different friends (one here in Mpanda and one in Langley, BC) to paint a chalkboard onto my wall.  It was a bit of an undertaking, but it has quickly become a great asset that is both functional/helpful and decorative!  I also discovered that on our awkward internal window (that has bars on it...), the screen is metal and strong enough to hold magnets!  So I spent some time gluing old magnets on the back of clothespins, pictures, and mini-whiteboards. 

I was hoping to post a few pictures of our schoolroom, but that will have to wait.  I'm too frustrated after sitting here for almost two hours now trying to upload them!  Our internet has been worse than ever lately!

Micaiah and I are both excited about starting second grade.  Hopefully we'll be able to post some pictures soon!

-JLR