Psst . . . your personality is showing

Our kids are currently hard at work drawing pictures of Native American housing, and the difference in their personalities couldn't be more clear. Ethan is busy replicating a Cahokian temple with his ruler, measuring the pictures and then drawing it carefully. Megan is drawing teepee after teepee so that she can continue decorating them in creative ways. It's fun to see their personalities come out in their work!

It's that time again

Being away from the States this time of year makes it hard to feel like I should be starting up school again. There are no constant reminders in the stores to buy back to school supplies, though there was one "back to school" sale wall at Carrefour yesterday. It included things like a 10 pack of chopsticks for 2 kuai, two microfiber cloths for 15 kuai, and garbage bags for 1 kuai. What do Chinese kids do at school?

The only thing driving me to start up again basically is the calendar. We will be traveling back to the States again this year for a few months, and I know the chances of us maintaining school time while we are there are slight, I thought we should get an early start so we don't have to do "year round school" come next summer.

We are schooling in a new location this year - new country, new apartment, new school room. This one has a rounded wall of windows that looks out over our little plot of backyard and across to a beautiful park. It's really quite a lovely view! We've filled our room with bookshelves, a table that folds flat on both sides, a tall IKEA desk, and two oversized bean bag chairs. Oh, and a hamster. I think she's going to go in Megan's room though because she's not contributing. After only two days she is the pint size equivalent of the ADD kid in the class - run on the wheel, chew on the bars, climb up the side of the cage, fall down, repeat. A bit distracting.

We're back to using Sonlight this year for history. We'll see how it goes, because so far it doesn't take much time at all. That leaves room for creativity in adding other projects and reading which is fun. We're going to supplement with the Homeschool in the Woods Colonial Life lapbook so there's a start.

In a few weeks our co-op will start and I'm very excited! We haven't been part of a regular, structured co-op before. Since I'm new I don't have to teach - just assist - but I'm already thinking ahead to what I will teach in the spring. I think we're off to a good start!