Super Foggy Day

an early morning walk in the damp silence of fog

lovely at first, totally alone

and then eerie

I run to the lights of home, glad for noise putting fog at a distance.

Selling the Sabbatical Idea - or How-to-Choose-Your-Words-Carefully

When Jon and I first started chewing over the idea of taking a sabbatical, we thought it sounded lovely.  As some of the details started falling into place, we became giddy with delight. (yep.  giddy with delight.  my husband.  can you picture it?)  We loved the idea of dropping all of our commitments, packing up the van and running away to explore a totally new place.  Adventure!

We quickly realized that taking a sabbatical was probably not going to bring delight to our children.  They loved all of their friends and commitments.  They felt no need to run away.  The idea of a new place was vague and unappealing.  Torture!

For several weeks, Jon and I kept the sabbatical idea to ourselves.  We thought through the details.  Where might we live?  What might it look like to homeschool?  Who would stay in our house?  While it was still too early for us to answer many of the big questions, we found ourselves answering the small ones.  What cool things are there to do in the Annapolis area?  With some evening searches on the internet, we were able to make a list of local, affordable events or experiences we were willing to offer to our children.

We talked to my sisters who live in Florida.  Since our sabbatical would place us only a two-day drive from their area, we wondered if we could plan on a Christmas reunion in Florida!   When they happily agreed, we knew we had our bait.  Christmas in Florida.  With cousins.  On the beach!   

We also brainstormed what our children might miss the most while we were gone.  We knew our oldest daughter would miss the fifth grade field trip to the Seattle Aquarium.  It was pretty simple to get a hold of a brochure to the Aquarium in Baltimore.  There were a lot of photos of dolphins.  That would help.  :)  

And so, when we presented the idea to the children, we were able to provide a few concrete details and a few things for them to grasp onto and anticipate.  We presented the idea slowly, but not wimpily and not as if we were pleading with them to accept this idea.  It wasn't a 'please say yes, I'll give you....'   We merely gave them some specific, pleasant things to look forward to.  And we gave them all these details one by one, as the ramifications of the news sunk in, and as the questions came to their minds.  We didn't ask them for their approval.  We shared the idea and let them know that this was happening.

We gave them space to mourn.  They cried.  We seldom responded to their protests with, "Yes, but think about how great it'll be to..."  We usually just said, "You're right.  This is going to be really difficult in a lot of ways."

The conversation lasted over many days.  The mourning came at random times.  We were once at a neat event and someone said, "This was great!  See you here next year!" and I saw my child's face suddenly go from delight to distraught because he remembered we won't be around next year.  I remember one Sunday when an upcoming fun event was announced in church and over a thirty second period, each of our children clued in that we would be missing the event.  You could see and feel their bodies sigh...one, two, three of them.  Devastated.  A few shoulders shook while they cried quietly there in church.

But I wanted to write this out so you would know that the kids came around.  Children are very, very, resilient!  Please don't not go because your children are resisting the idea.  If we ever took a vote, all three of them would have voted to not go.  But in the end, knowing that we were going, they rose to the occasion.  We had lots of laughter, and many great adventures.  It was an incredible experience for our family! 

Reflecting on a Year of Homeschooling

When anyone asks me what I thought about our homeschooling experience, these are my first thoughts:

1.  Oh, the JOY of preparing our own schedules!!!  I love the freedom to have late nights or late mornings or long days or short weeks.  There is a much more relaxed feeling when we don't have to watch the clock or do activities and assignments according to someone else's schedule.  The ebb and flow of school completely matches the ebb and flow of our family.

2.  Homeschooling requires a hefty dose of discipline - more than I was expecting.  It takes effort to have math assignments planned out and marked.  It takes foresight to have field trips thought out and library books in hand at the right time.  It takes strength to start school when the garden is calling your name.  Yes, there is a freedom to change our schedule.  When grandparents are in town, we're able to spend lots of time with them, saving our schoolwork for another, uneventful day.  But, truth be told, there's often an event of some kind, even if it's just the call of a sunny day or the desire to clean out the basement.  There always could be an excuse to not do our school work, and it sure took discipline to make sure we did do our work.  I had to say no to lots of potential distractions.

3.  One homeschooling perk that comes quickly to mind might sound a little silly.  But I love having control over my children's nutrition.  In our previous, traditional school, there were many treats - candies as a reward, cupcakes for so-and-so's birthday, bake sales.  It was frustrating to prepare a special dessert at home one evening, only to find that the kids had eaten sugar cookies and donuts already that day.   With homeschooling, I enjoyed being (pretty much) the only one feeding my children.  I could make desserts special, and the rest nutritious!  I also liked having hot meals for lunch (like leftovers or soup) and not having to pack lunches in the morning.

4.  Before we began this year, I wondered a lot about how my relationship with each child would change when we started doing school together.  I mean, things must feel different when you're simplifying fractions, right?  I am surprised to note that nothing changed.  It's the same.  We learn science together the same way we bake together and the same way we grocery shop together.  We interact the same whether I'm explaining long division or scrubbing someone's hair with shampoo.

5.  When I asked my children how they feel about homeschooling,  their first comments were about how nice it was to be able to move around.  They liked having the freedom to do school work standing up, or cross-legged on the couch, or to get up and go to the bathroom or get a drink at any time.  They also referred to the pleasure of being out and about on field trips a lot.  (Although they didn't say it, I think that being outside regularly, and out in nature regularly is a part of this, too.)  They also loved the ability to learn at their own speed.  When a math assignment made sense, they could dive in - no need to wait for the teacher to finish explaining it to everyone.  When it didn't make sense, the explanation could last as long as needed.  Aidan was allowed to read at his turbo speed (for the most part) and Marijka was allowed to spend an extra hour writing a story when great plot development was imminent. 

6.  I love watching my children learn!

7.  It's just so fun to read books together.  With homeschooling, we had plenty of time to do so!  We studied 'Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates' with our Netherlands unit and we read George Muller's biography in our study of England.  We all got into the Septimus Heap series; we enjoyed the characters from 'Around the World in 80 Days'; my voice cracked during 'Old Yeller'.  I love sitting together on the couch and I love the characters we all know in common and the jokes we share from each story.
     

I've been asked by many people if we'll continue homeschooling, since we had such an enjoyable year of it.  And the answer is no.  It was great!  But we're back on the west coast, near a wonderful community we feel we're meant to be a part of.  I believe that my children's education is enriched by the chorus of beautiful adults who are in their lives through our Christian school.  (And yes, this sort of rich community can be found while homeschooling, too.)  I'd be open to doing a homeschooling adventure again some time, though!  What a joy it's been! 

World Geography: Trail Guides and Hillyer, and how they work together

Our homeschooling schedule included three main parts: a morning routine, a time of world geography, and our afternoon studies.  There's a bit more about that here.  Since it took a bit of time to coordinate our geography plans, I thought I'd share it with anyone interested.

Studying geography was a great focus for us to do together.  There are so many resources out there!  We used two main books as our spine, our foundation.  The first, called Trail Guide to World Geography is made by a company called Geography Matters.  (Yes, geography does matter!)  It's a practical guide that takes you around the world with daily questions and mapping assignments.  Our second main resource is an old book by V. M. Hillyer.  Hillyer wrote his book in 1929 - my copy is an updated version from 1951.  This dear man has a great conversational voice as he describes to his readers the places he has seen in his travels.

So these two resources together gave us a rich combination of the gathering of facts, the creating of maps and delightful anecdotes and stories.  The countries we studied came alive!

For us, a typical week began with our reading from Hillyer.  He whetted our appetite to learn more.  We would sit together on the couch and open the book.  But reading from 1951 Hillyer is not like most read-alouds.  Several times in each chapter, one of us would say, "That's cool!  Let's look up a picture" or "Really?  Is that still true today?".  We always read this book with the laptop nearby, and my children took turns looking up things we were wondering.  It was fascinating, disjointed and a load of fun.

Sometimes, Hillyer's opinions about other cultures is offensive.  He's a voice from the past, sharing a viewpoint held by many at that time.  I approached these comments with a simple, "I didn't agree with that sentence.  Any ideas on why?" or "Mr. Hillyer is telling us how people used to see the world.  That's a pretty narrow way to think, wouldn't you agree?"  We entered into some great discussions; as we read further, we usually just skipped over it with a simple comment.

On Tuesdays, we would usually do the questions from 'Trail Guide To World Geography'.  The questions are given at three different levels, so my three children each took a different level.  The questions are designed to be done a few each day, but we liked doing all the questions on one day (it felt like a scavenger hunt, with atlases strewed across the table as we all searched for facts).  We did the mapping assignments separately, often on Wednesdays.

The other days might include a travel DVD from the library, a cooking session, an art project, the writing of a country report, a visit to a restaurant or ethnic grocery store, or maybe a get-together with a friend who was from or had traveled to the country we were studying.  Sometimes we would plan a hypothetical visit to the country.  (I thought the book (100 Countries, 5,000 Ideas: Where to Go, When to Go, What to See, What to Do by National Geographic looked great for this!  Never did get a chance to buy it, though.)  We also had a stack of fiction and non-fiction books from the library and some days we just lounged around the living room and read.

(We bought from Geography Matters their cookbook and their art book.  For the record, I found both books to be nice, but not necessary.  The library has many books on these topics.  I found the recipes and the art projects were sometimes on the basic side - I would have preferred more authentic ingredients and art projects, even if it meant getting a few extra supplies.  But if purchasing books is not a big deal for you, I'd go for it.  It's nice to have it on hand.  If you want to get only one of the books, I'd pick the art book.  We did use it a lot.)


The Trail Guide to World Geography lined up quite well with Hillyer's book.  Here's how it looked for our family.  Our 38 weeks of school are listed on the left.  We followed the weekly plans of the Trail Guide for the most part, but extended several lesson.  We had to jump around in Hillyer's book, but the chapters are often separate entities anyway.

Hope this is helpful for you!  Happy traveling!

MY WEEK	TRAIL GUIDE TO WORLD GEOGRAPHY	HILLYER’s GEOGRAPHY OF THE WORLD
1	Introduction: The World	Introduction and Chapter 1
2	Introduction: The World	Chapters 2, 3, 4
3	North America	Chapters 5-8
4	North America	Chapters 9-12
5	North America	Chapters 13-16 (westward expansion)
6	North America	Chapter 17, 18 (Canada, Mexico)
7	Central America	Chapter 19, 20
8	South America	Chapter 21
9	South America	Chapters 22, 23
10-11	Northern Europe	Chapters 24-26 (England) Chapter 27 (Wales, Scotland, Ireland) Chapter 38 (Germany) Chapter 39 (Denmark) Chapters 40-42 (Norway, Sweden)
12	(my own focus on the Netherlands -‘Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates’ study [in 'Trail Guides'] -geography of our ancestors -tied in to the Dutch Christmas celebrations in early December	Chapter 30 (Belgium, Holland)
13-14	Netherlands continued
15	Eastern Europe (“Week 11”, pg 51)	Chapter 45 (Finland, Austria, Poland, Hungary)
16	Eastern Europe (“Week 12, pg 53) (The table of contents calls this “Central Europe”, but the actual assignment is Eastern.)
17-18	Southern Europe (“Week 13”, pg. 55)	Chapters 28-29 (France) Chapters 31-32 (Spain) Chapter 33 (Switzerland) Chapter 34-37 (Italy) Chapter 46 (Greece)
19	Northern Africa (“Week 14”, pg. 57)	Chapters 64, 65 (Egypt, Morocco)
20	Western Africa (“Week 15”, pg. 59)	Chapter 66 (Niger, Liberia)
21	Central Africa (“Week 16”, pg. 61)	Chapter 67 (Africa overview, animals, etc.)
22	Southern Africa (“Week 17”, pg. 63)	Chapter 68 (South Africa)
23	Review (“Week 18”, pg. 65)
24	Asia: Middle East (“Week 19”, pg. 67)	Chapter 47-51 (Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Dead Sea) Chapters 52-54 (Iraq, Persia, Iran)
25	Middle East continued, on my own
26	Middle East continued, on my own
27	Central Asia (“Week 20”, pg. 69)	Chapter 61 (Siberia)
28	South Asia (“Week 21”, pg. 71)	Chapters 55-56 (India) Chapter 57 (Burma/Myanmar, Thailand)
29-30	Asia: Russia, Far East (“Week 22”, pg. 73)	Chapters 43-44 (Russia) Chapter 58 (Tibet) Chapters 59-60 (China) Chapter 62-63 (Japan)
31	Southeast Asia (“Week 23”, pg. 75)
32	Australia (“Week 24” pg. 77)	Chapter 69
33	Australia, Oceania (“Week 25”, pg. 79)	Chapter 70 (Pacific Islands)
34	Antarctica (“Week 26”, pg. 81)
35	Review (“Week 27”, pg. 83)	Chapter 71 (Coming Home)
36	Unit Study: pp. 85-106 ‘Around the World in 80 Days’
37	Unit Study: pp. 85-106 ‘Around the World in 80 Days’
38	Unit Study: pp. 85-106 ‘Around the World in 80 Days’