Elections From Afar

One of our privileges as Americans is being able to participate in US elections, even from afar.  While the absentee ballot is notoriously not counted during the actual election (unless it is a very close race), it is still our privilege and responsibility as American citizens to have a voice and a vote in our home country.

Have you ever wondered what it is like to participate in a presidential election from the other side of the world?  Well, it is not without its challenges, that's for sure!  There are the obvious practicalities of receiving our absentee ballots in time and/or when to send our replacement ballots if (let's face it *when*) those ballots don't arrive.  We want to wait as long as we can to send them in so we know the most about each candidate and can make informed decisions.  But we also are working with a less-than-reliable mail system where things *might* arrive in 3-4 weeks... Then there's the issue of who to vote for.  Finding the best information and trustworthy sources on the web can be difficult to say the least.  Let's just say we've learned a lot about bias... 

But it can also be a welcomed relief.  We are not constantly inundated with manipulative advertising and campaign ads.  We can read platforms in their entirety and not be swayed by emotions or by what everyone else around us is thinking.  If that sounds more like a down-side than an up-side, be comforted by the fact that technology still enables us to be connected and we hear our fair share of both fact and opinion via the internet, especially facebook. 

But. We. Can. Turn. It. Off. 

I feel sorry for those of you who can't escape it!  Because let's face it, at the end of the day, some things are more important than politics.  Especially when politics incite the kind of anger, hatred, mudslinging, and division that make you stop loving your neighbor.

-JLR
ps.. I do not endorse or affirm any one party or candidate.  I do have my leanings, but unless you've actually taken the time to have an intelligent conversation with me, you may not be able to discern where I stand on ALL issues or which issues are most important to me.  But one that should be obvious... I live in a different country... so how the US relates and interacts with the world is more pragmatic for me than for most US citizens!

Back to School Excitement

I'm going to come right out and say how much I loved school.  It may sound strange to some of you, but I think there might be a few of you out there who were the same.  You might be a back-to-school nerd (like me) if...

...you perused the circulars from various discount stores (Target, Walmart, etc.) for weeks in July and August looking for the best sales and coolest gear.
...you found any excuse to walk past (and pick up a few goodies) at the local discount stores (Target, Walmart, etc.) and couldn't pass up a deal where notebooks, notebook paper, glue, scissors, pens/pencils, or crayons were an exceptionally low price.
...the aforementioned section of Target, Walmart, etc. made you feel at peace and was actually a "fun" place to go spend some time.
...you were excited about meeting your teacher at the classic ice cream social.
...you were excited when the bus company put out its routes.
...you "practiced" getting up early for school and figured out how early you'd need to get up to get everything done and still make it to the bus on time.
...you had a "first day of school outfit" with new shoes (white keds that were never white for long...), and your best clothes.
...you packed your lunch the night before.
...you couldn't wait to see where your desk would be and where you'd keep all of your school supplies.
...you always got a bit nervous when the teacher took attendance-- wondering if he/she would say your name right.  (and being overjoyed if they did!)
...you color-coded your binders/notebooks/folders by subject... red was always math for some reason and blue was almost always for science.  The others varied each year based on what subjects I was taking and what was on sale at the local discount stores (Target, Walmart, etc.)

Does this sound like you?  It was definitely me.  And while living in Tanzania has curbed my living-at-Target-during-back-to-school-sales appetite, I don't know that that's an entirely bad thing.  I was still really excited when Tim brought home two bags filled with binders, dividers, folders, paper, and chalk.  Not quite the same, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.  :)

-JLR

The School Room

Our school room (schoolroom, school-room??) is a small, two-doored internal room with an awkward screened window facing the hallway.  I'm guessing it's one of those situations where it was originally an external wall (the window has bars on it!!), but at some point an addition was made onto the house, making it... quirky.

Since it's small (two twin-sized beds might fit next to each other in the small space..), we have turned it into a school room.  It's perfect for that function!  It gives us some space to work and unpack all our crafts and books without creating a disaster-zone in the main part of the house.

We moved into this house last October and were part-way through the school-year already.  So the room was functional for first grade, but not pretty.  One of my goals for this summer was to turn it into "The Schoolroom."  I really think it worked, too!

And now for all those pictures I've been trying to post...

The Front of the Room.  I turned the awkward metal-screen-and-barred-window into a magnet board.  I glued magnets to the back of pictures, clothespins, and mini-whiteboards to create a place to hang things in the front of the room.  The front of the room also holds all our books, supplies, craft materials, and chart-paper (on the back of the door).

The Back of the Room.  We moved our repurposed-world-map-shower-curtain to the back wall.  It also has a chair for me (you can't see it well from this angle), a table for my teacher's guides and materials, the printer, etc.  You can also see part of the timeline (at the top) that starts at creation at the front of the room and goes all the way around to the chalkboard.  Micaiah and I both really enjoy seeing it (thanks My Father's World first grade!!), so we are keeping it up! 

Micaiah's books/materials.  Well, for the first day anyway.  Second grade is going to be a big leap from first grade, where she had fewer hours and fewer subjects.  We are starting the first year of the 5 year cycle by My Father's World, and it's called Exploring Countries and Cultures.  Sounds like fun, doesn't it?!  We're also starting handwriting and spelling this year as well as consistently/daily doing fine arts (music or art) and science.

The Chalkboard!  It was supposed to be a half-wall board, but due to dripping below my "line," we turned it into a full-length board.  We love it, and it is quickly becoming the focal point of the room!  

A close-up of part of the board.... see that little note from Micaiah?  If you can't read it, the part below "welcome to second grade" says "I'm exited" from Micaiah. :)  .... we'll be working on spelling this year (excited, not exited)... but it sure has been fun to leave each other little notes as we gear up for second grade!

I hope you enjoyed the tour of the schoolroom!  

-JLR

The Chalkboard

This took me an hour and 45 minutes to load... it's likely the only one I'll have up here for some time!  But at least you can (hopefully) see part of our fun and exciting new chalkboard!  Our gardener started painting it last week.  I finished it because the drips were well outside the lines I had drawn, so instead of a board from waist up, we have a full-length, almost full-wall chalkboard!  It's bigger than I envisioned, but it's really grown on me.

Tim's family sent some beautiful wall stickers that we ended up using to decorate our chalkboard.  Laura came over and helped us arrange them and decorate our board.  Now it has a "garden scene" accented by some big butterfly wall stickers (that we got at conference) and chalk accents.  It's really cute and perfectly fits into our schoolroom! 

Of course, we expect our chalkboard to be functional, too, and I've already posted Micaiah's first spelling list for the year.  :)

-JLR

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