October Update

Well, I am not blogging nearly as frequently as I hoped but life has been busy. LB plays soccer and their game schedule has been intense the past few weeks. Also, I was in a bad sleep cycle for a while so whenever I had a free moment I was resting. I've been feeling better the past few days so that is good news. I am so grateful LB has been able to play soccer amidst this pandemic because it has made life feel normal and is such a great outlet for him. They practice twice a week and have games so he gets to see his teammates several times a week. The coaches have done a great job keeping everyone safe and all the parents on our team wear masks on the sidelines. Plus they are outside so that helps. They have their end of season tournament next weekend and I know LB will be sad to see the season come to a close. 

Homeschool continues to go well. Of course he has days where he is more motivated than others but we truck through our list each day and there is very little complaining from him. LB has started a blog called, My Homeschool Life. I have him blog every Tuesday so that he is posting once a week. The country of the week continues to set the tone for other subject areas. The past few weeks we have done Germany, United States, and Italy. Given the current political climate, I wasn't feeling super motivated to do the United States but then I got the idea to focus on the Statue of Liberty and immigration. My attitude immediately improved. On the Scholastic website I found these great stories written by young immigrants. I also had a bit of a lightbulb moment that week. I initially thought that LB would read the stories directly from the Scholastic website. However, when I introduced the first one he really pushed back and didn't want to read it. We were close to lunchtime so to avoid a meltdown I suggested we pause and eat lunch. While he was eating I tried to think about why all of a sudden he was pushing back on reading. It has always been his least favorite subject but I had asked him to read other things the previous weeks and he did it without much encouragement. I then realized everything I had asked him to read, besides his book, I had printed. So I copied the first young immigrant story to a Word document, printed it and then re-introduced it after lunch. Boom. He read it. I think there is something about reading from the computer that is a struggle for him. As he is reading he likes to use a pencil to underline as he goes along. I can't remember which teacher had him start doing that but it really helps him stay focused and not re-read a line or accidentally skip a line. He can't use that tracking tool on a computer. Ever since that day a few weeks ago I am always sure to print the assignment. No wonder virtual learning was so hard for him! I'm glad to have this information about him so I can properly advocate for his needs when he does return to school. I also think this is why he prefers graphic novels. He doesn't have to track so many words on a page but the sentences are contained to their own word bubbles. Makes sense!

We also continue to use the website, Flocabulary. It's great because they rap the lessons and a big push of the website is to improve vocabulary. LB loves music so it's very engaging for him. They have topics on all subject areas and they had a great one on the Statue of Liberty that we used during United States week. All his vocabulary words were words like freedom, liberty, democracy, monument, represent, etc. I also found a cute how to draw explanation of the Statue of Liberty. I had him include some of what he deemed the most interesting facts on the drawing. I try to always include some sort of art project each week. Last week when we did Italy I found a fun idea on a teacher blog of doing a parody of the Mona Lisa. So we studied a bit about Leonardo da Vinci and then I showed him the Mona Lisa. I printed just her face and then showed him ideas of other parodies (and had to explain a parody) like a Mona Lisa rockstar and a Mona Lisa soccer player. He got right to work and decided to make a Mona Lisa that was cheering for Joe Biden for President and he gave her a mask. She's a 2020 Mona Lisa. Here is his Mona Lisa and Lady Liberty.

I think it works well for him that we follow a similar pattern and have websites that we use each week. It works well for me too because it helps with the planning process. Happy October!

September Update

We have officially completed three weeks of homeschooling. Overall, it is going really well. I am grateful I just have three days a week to plan for because the planning is definitely a bit more time consuming than I originally thought. The other good news is that LB is really enjoying the community school he is attending two days a week. They have had great weather and the kids spend ALL DAY outside. It is truly amazing what the staff has done to make outside school a possibility. 

I want to document a few of my favorite memories from the first few weeks.

*On the first day of school, I told him we would be using Khan Academy for a few weeks to review some 4th grade math. He protested and said he didn't need a review. I reminded him that we hadn't done much math all summer so it would be a good idea to review and usually that is what they do at school too. He paused for a minute and then said with a straight face, "You will be hearing from my lawyer." Where does he get this stuff? It's the first day of homeschool and I am already getting sued. It's never dull around here. Thankfully, he pulled back on the lawsuit and was fine with tackling the review units. I am also really glad we did that because he was mostly cruising along and then last week when we got to a long division unit he froze. He was a pro at long division last year but clearly those summer months do create some dust because he needed to be reminded of the steps. Once he got a few problems under his belt he was all set!

*I mentioned in a previous post that each week we are studying a new country. He is picking the countries ahead of time and he is choosing them based on his favorite soccer players. The second week we did Argentina in honor of Leo Messi. One of things I have done is print out maps of all the continents and as he we start a country he colors it in on the map. I handed him the map for South American and he gave me a strange look like I was doing something wrong. He looked at the map and then looked at me in total amazement. He said, "I never knew Argentina was in South America. I always thought it was in Europe. I can't believe Messi had to travel across the ocean to play soccer." Last year he read a biography on Messi so I was glad to see him drawing from information he knew from the book. It was fun to see his shock in learning the correct continent. Here is a picture of his Argentina page. He drew a picture of Messi on the back along with a few facts about him.

*Speaking of the country project, I was really proud of how I was able to work it into several other subjects this past week. We did Brazil (soccer player - Pele). As I was reading some articles about Brazil to get ready for the week, I got the idea to have him learn more about tropical rainforests. Thankfully, one of my favorite websites, Flocabulary, had a lesson on the rainforests. I love Flocabulary. It uses rap to improve vocabulary and teach content knowledge about a variety of subjects, like rainforests. So I was able to use their vocabulary words for the week and we used rainforest words for his weekly spelling list as well. Ezra enjoys watching the rap and he doesn't mind playing the games and doing the quiz because there is still music playing and the beat changes when you get a certain number of questions right. He learned words like ecosystem, species and deforestation. We also played Brazil bingo this week which was fun. The cards had items like soccer, the flag, the sun, carnival, toucans, monkeys, etc. I'm hoping I can do something similar as we move through other countries.

*I really love our routine of walking the dog in the morning before we start school. It is nice to move our bodies a bit and get some fresh air before we start school. I hope we can continue it even when it gets cold. The other day we were walking and saw several deer, which isn't unusual as we see them in our neighborhood pretty frequently, but we saw a buck, which is unusual! LB was super excited. That same morning we were walking behind his old school and saw a huge bird. Initially we thought it was a hawk but now think it was a falcon. There were two of them actually and they seemed to be fighting with the crows. It was quite the event. LB gets excited about seeing new birds and these were huge. We watched them for a long time. I was grateful that we could just take that time to watch the birds. We didn't have to rush anywhere. We could just be. What a gift. Speaking of gifts. If this could happen on November 3rd I wouldn't ask for anything ever again. One of our neighbors has this awesome sign in their yard. We smile every time we walk by. VOTE.

Service Project

As I was planning our first week of homeschool, I decided I wanted to close out the week with a service project. I wanted to do something that was very hands-on, as I know that is LB's favorite, and is always what makes the biggest impact. If you are local then I highly recommend checking out the nonprofit, Seeds of Caring. It was founded by a mom I know who is a social worker. As she started having kids she noticed that there were very few volunteer opportunities for younger kids. Most of the service activities she found were for kids ages 12 or older. That is where she came up with the idea for Seeds of Caring. Pre-Covid they offered in person volunteer opportunities for young kids and they have been really creative in continuing the projects so families can still learn, participate and serve while at home. The goal is to introduce kids to issues related to social justice and to provide a tangible way for them to be caring members of our community. For the month of September you could register to make snack bags for the homeless. So that is what we did! The bags are distributed to another nonprofit, Faith Mission, and they work directly with folks in our city experiencing homelessness.

Seeds of Caring provided the at-home activity kit, which included a list of suggested snack ideas, caring cards for kids to color, reflection questions to pose to the kids while they are coloring and packing the bags, and suggestions of books to read or videos to watch. We invited our neighborhood friend, BA, to participate with us because I knew LB would have more fun that way. I put out the quart sized bags and the four snacks out on the table like an assembly line and the kids put them together. I asked them questions like, "What do you think would be the hardest part of being homeless?" BA said, "It would be really hard not to go to the grocery store whenever you want." LB said, "It would be hard to be hungry." After they assembled the kits, they spent some time on the caring cards. When we finished the cards we added them to the snack bags. BA spent A LOT of time on her first card. She said, "I am putting a lot of love and caring into mine." It was very sweet. I was proud of the effort they put into their cards.

Earlier this week, LB and I were out running errands and he saw someone standing on the side of the road holding a sign and asking for help. Unfortunately, we see this quite often in our city. LB really wanted to do something and I reminded him that we did help by making snack bags for Faith Mission. That wasn't good enough for him because he wanted to help that person. When we got home he went into the pantry and started filling a snack bag with some pre-packaged snacks we had at the house. He said he wanted to keep some in our car so when we are out we can help. I love that this project provided him with the opportunity to feel like he could take action himself. Thank you, Seeds of Caring, for making our Friday fun AND meaningful.

First Day!

Yesterday, we started homeschool! LB was quite eager so we started around 8:30am. I suspect that will get pushed back closer to 9am most days but that is the great thing about homeschooling - flexibility! I gave him a tour of the school cart and he was most excited about the new slime, colored pens, and the mini whiteboard. We started with our agreements for homeschool. I try to use that word instead of rules because I think it gives him a sense of ownership. I wrote down three agreements that were important to me and asked him if he wanted to add any. In the moment he couldn't think of anything so we both signed our names to the three agreements. He insisted we sign in cursive so I obliged. I told him we can add more as we go if needed. Then I showed him our notebook where I will list the activities for the day. This is something we did in the spring so he knows the goal is that we want to be done with everything by 3pm and he can choose the order. In the spring, we usually finished the majority of the list by lunch time and he liked to save his independent reading time for the afternoon. We ended up following that exact pattern on the first day. We did the intro lesson in the Big Life Journal, started practicing our weekly spelling words, and we planned out our country project. During the shutdown, we started a 50 States Project. He used drawing pad paper and put the name of the state at the top along with the capital, he drew the shape of the state, wrote the population, drew the flag or flower, drew the state bird and usually included something about a sports team in each state. It was truly so impressive. By the end of May, he had completed all 50 States. Over the summer, we talked about exploring countries and he wanted to explore the country based on his favorite soccer players. I found a template on a homeschooling blog and showed it to him. I gave him the option of doing a similar format as the 50 States Project or using this template. He picked the template and then decided he would draw the soccer player on the back of the page. I also printed these great maps from the website, Settera. One of my goals for this project is for him to find and identify each country on the map. He picked Portugal as his first country because he loves the soccer player, Ronaldo. He already had the flag memorized. Here is the template we are using. He will finish it up tomorrow.

I also found a recommendation for this National Geographic Kids World Atlas. That is where he found a lot of the details on the template. It is very easy to use and has great visuals. I had flashbacks of my mom (a retired librarian) getting excited about looking things up, using the table of the contents, and finding the answer. I remember rolling my eyes. I walked LB through the same process today. 

I am excited that we have a plan for this project and I think once we get a few countries under our belt he will be able to complete this somewhat independently. I am not much of a cook but for some of the countries I am hoping we can explore food too. I also had him pick our country for next week so I can start planning. Next up will be Argentina - Leo Messi!

The funniest part of the first day was when I told him I wanted to use Khan Academy to do some review of 4th grade math. His 3rd grade teacher used that website so he is familiar with it. LB said, "Mom, I really don't think I need that. I am good at math." I explained that we hadn't done much formal math over the summer and that I thought it was a good idea. His response was, "You'll be hearing from my lawyer." I have no idea where he hears this stuff! Thankfully, he obliged and breezed through the two review lessons. He saved his independent reading for the afternoon and chose to read in the hallway to the dog. 

We did it! We survived the first day! It felt good to check the first day off my list. Onward!

Getting Organized

When it became obvious that this school year was going to involve some level of learning at home, I knew I needed a new system for staying organized with school stuff. We found that working at the kitchen table was really the best place to spread out and be able to work together but we also like to eat at our kitchen table (imagine that!) so it was a constant shuffling of where to put things. LB is also not a kid that likes to be alone so a desk in his room wasn't going to work either. D suggested we use a cart that we can store all the stuff we need and then at the end of the school day wheel it back into the study. When it comes to organizing, D is usually right on the money. He found one at Target, assembled it, and I love it! I picked out a couple other little bins and storage containers and I think I have it ready to go for the first day.

The top shelf has all of our notebooks, folders, Big Life Journal, and writing utensils. The little Rise & Thrive pouch has a few essential oil rollerballs, fidgets, notecards, erasers and a glue stick. I also have a clipboard and a white board. The second shelf has his chrome book. At the moment, the third shelf has scrap paper and a bin with a few books, stickers, a dictionary and more fidgets. My plan is to roll out the cart in the morning and then ask LB to roll it back in the afternoon. He will have the responsibility of charging his chrome book each night. I feel like that is a good habit to implement. We have a separate organizer for all his creative stuff like markers, colored pencils, how to draw books, stickers, etc. So we can always pull things from those bins as well. It's strange the amount of joy I am getting from this little cart but it's the simple things, right?

Blogging Again - 2020 Made Me Do it

Wow! 2020 has been quite the year. It seems that the insanity of 2020 has compelled me to log back into blogger after a 6 year hiatus. LB (our 10 year old son) and I will be embarking on a new adventure this school year - Homeschooling! I wanted to find a fun way to document this time together so I'm hoping I can find the energy to blog fairly regularly. 

LB attended our small and sweet neighborhood school from Kindergarten to 4th grade and he had wonderful teachers, made great friends, and it was truly a soft spot to land when he was five years old and adjusting to full time school. However, our district (the largest in the state) is starting the school year virtually and may or may not eventually go hybrid. The district made the right decision to be virtual, given our COVID numbers mid-summer, but we had a hard time envisioning LB being on the computer for long stretches of the day. He is active, likes hands-on activities, and is a social kid. We are incredibly privileged to be able to make this decision. I am grateful we had choices, as I know many do not. These are crazy hard times. I tossed and turned many nights wondering how we should proceed with this school year. There were some days when I experienced anxiety that I hadn't felt since somewhere in the midst of our adoption process. However, once we made the decision and I started to really envision what we could do and how we could spend our days, I started to get really excited. LB is also going to be able to attend a two day program at a school nearby that offers outdoor education for homeschoolers. As an only child, this opportunity to socialize with other kids is crucial for him.  So he and I will homeschool together three days a week and he will go to this new school two days a week (assuming COVID numbers don't spike). I have mentally prepared myself that we might be full time homeschooling in the event of school being closed. Thankfully, his soccer team has been practicing all summer and was recently cleared to start playing games. Being able to see friends and do the thing he loves most has been such an emotional boost for LB. We feel like his team has implemented good safety procedures and since the kids are outdoors we feel comfortable with letting him play. LB also started tennis lessons about a month or so ago and has enjoyed doing that with a few friends. 

We are officially starting our homeschool year on Wednesday, September 9th and he will start his two-day program on September 17th. It will be a fairly low-key first week, as he has a playdate and meet the teacher with his new school and his annual well-visit with his pediatrician scheduled. My plan is close out the week on Friday with an at-home service project through an organization I love called, Seeds of Caring. I am sure I will blog more about them at a later date.

Before I delve into homeschool stuff, I do want to document a project that I finally finished. During the shutdown, my neighbor emailed me a fun COVID-19 time capsule project that had all sorts of activities for LB. He filled out an All About Me page, wrote a letter to himself about quarantine, drew pictures of our house and activities we were doing to keep busy, etc. It gave me the idea to create an actual time capsule. So I collected some of the school projects we did in the spring, the artwork we had on the front door, a mask, and a few other things and put them all in a plastic bin. I also created a photo book on Shutterfly with all my favorite pictures from March - May that depicted how we kept busy. The photo book arrived today so the box is now complete.

Well, wish us luck! I am excited to share about our successes and challenges along the way. I feel like I learned a lot about how LB learns over the spring shutdown and I am planning on giving him a healthy dose of agency in projects we tackle and how we go about tackling them. I also hope this blog here holds me accountable and keeps me on my toes. We can do hard things!

Training for Tomorrow

When I returned from Ethiopia, I wrote a post, Fridays in Ethiopia, about our experience visiting three orphanages. It was an incredibly difficult day but it's been memories of that day and the faces of the children we met that have partly been the impetus and inspiration for the volunteer work I am doing for Studio Samuel, a non-profit started by my friend and fellow adoptive mom Tamara Horton. There are nights when I am in bed and I can't fall asleep and my mind wanders to Ethiopia. I think of the kids we met and their living conditions. I think of the older girls getting ready to age out of the orphanage with no support system or skills and that sadly many of them will end up as prostitutes. I tear up as I think of them and the heart ache can be unbearable. But that heart ache is not enough. My tears are not sufficient. 

Of course, my mind also wanders to LB's family. What are they doing? Do they have enough food? The loss that they sustained is enough to bring you to your knees. My love for LB and his Ethiopian family is the other big piece driving me to work past my tears. There have been countless times when I have gone over the details of his story and what led to his arrival at an orphanage in Southern Ethiopia. I know his story is not unique in Ethiopia. So what could have been done to prevent it? Was there a way to keep more children with their families? I couldn't shake these thoughts. The underlying answer always went back to women and mothers. Better education for women. Less child brides. Access to pre-natal care and birth control. I read statistics and quotes like:

The number one cause of death for girls 15-19 is childbirth. - World Health Organization

Educated mothers are more than twice as likely to send their children to school. - UNICEF

and

"When you educate a girl you educate a nation." - UNICEF

"If we are going to see real development in the world, then our best investment is women." - Desmond Tutu

I also felt strongly that I didn't want to be part of something that felt like a handout. The Ethiopian people are smart, capable and proud and I think all of us who have been there see that they are on the rise. It's amazing what one can do with education, resources and opportunity. In 2012, Tamara launched Studio Samuel with the mission of providing life skills to vulnerable young women with the mantra Empowerment Without Pity. I knew I had found my place. I was so excited when Tamara asked me to join the board. Studio Samuel has accomplished a lot but we have more we want to do.

Our newest program, Training for Tomorrow, is quite the endeavor but we are committed and believe it will make a huge difference. 

Training for Tomorrow is a  two year sponsorship program that will provide 40 young girls with:

Occupational Training

Life Skills Training

Healthcare Courses

Counseling & Mentoring

Karate Classes

We have partnered with Children's Heaven, an organization on the ground in Addis Ababa that provides programs for vulnerable young girls. Most of them have lost one or both of parents to AIDS. 

The sponsorship fee is $30/month. That is less than $10/week and about a $1/day. 

You will receive a photo of the girl you are sponsoring along with her name, age and her goals. You will continue to receive updates on her progress and will have the opportunity to exchange letters. You will be making a difference in the life of a girl. And if all the data and research is true then you are impacting a family and a community as well. This project is so important!

Will you join me?

You can sign up now to sponsor one of these precious girls. Thank you so much, friends!