Week 2 - Monday

I never really look forward to Mondays, but now I no longer have to dread them.  One of the many perks about homeschooling Ciara, is now I only have to worry about 3 lunches in the morning!  I hated making 4 lunches every morning, especially because each one of my children usually wanted something different (not that they got what they wanted).  Ciara was the worst though, she is extremely picky about her food: taste, texture, temperature etc... Everything has to be just the right way.  Now that she is home, we plan lunch together so that we both eat a balanced meal.  This, in and of itself, makes a huge difference in her productivity and overall well-being.

I figured that the boys would start complaining about going to school, since Ciara got to stay home.  But, none of them said anything during the first week.  This morning on the way to school, Cole (grade 1) finally complained "Why does Ciara get to stay home?  I want to stay home too!" I told Cole that Ciara needs to be homeschooled right now, but he does not.  Because of everything that we went through with Ciara last year, the boys understand that she has different needs.  I am pretty sure that Cole likes school anyways.  He is very social, and thrives on attention from others.  So school meets his needs better than homeschooling right now.

After Ciara did her rhythmic writing, we finished the math unit on factors and multiples.  I like how I can take time during a lesson to review a concept that she needs to work on. One of the reasons Ciara struggled so much in math at school was because she has a very poor working memory.  When she learns a new concept, quite often it is forgotten by the next day, unless it is reenforced again.  In school, you have to move on to the next concept even if you didn't quite get the concept before.  The teachers have so much to cover, in so little time.

After math, Arantxa came for her Spanish lesson.  I am still amazed at how much Ciara says when she is in her Spanish class.  Arantxa is doing a great job.  She has planned out Ciara's classes all the way until the end of December.  In each class they cover a different topic, do reading, writing, have conversations, and play a game or other activity.

During our lunch period we had our second sewing class.  Today, Ciara sewed a small pillow on the sewing machine.  We are working up towards making a plush two-headed dragon.

In science, we finished the unit on the classification of living things.  It was kind of a dry unit, but I wanted to follow the Link on Learning curriculum somewhat.  Fortunately, we don't have to dwell on these subjects too much.

We had a gym period and Ciara decided that we should go out and roller-blade.  Another benefit of homeschooling is that we can go out when all the other kids are still in school.  The skate park, which is usually packed with kids, was completely empty, so Ciara got to skate at her own pace and try some tricks that she would have never have tried if there were other kids there.

Last period was library, so I let her pick out some online books to read.  Today, she used Tumblebooks, but sometimes she goes on Reading Eggs or gets books from our bookshelf.   I'm looking forward to when the new school library will be open so that we can check out what they have.

Day 3

We are getting into the grove of things now.  Ciara and I always start our first period as soon as the boys go off to school at 9am.  We do rhythmic writing which is an important component of educational therapy.  It consists of drawing motifs on a chalkboard while saying outloud what you are doing. It helps to stimulate the brain, increase hand-eye coordination, directionality, handwriting skills and memory.

We always do math during the second period.  We are following the grade 6 curriculum from the Link on Learning website, but we do a lot of explaining on the chalkboard.  The chalkboard is a great tool.  We use it for every subject and the boys enjoy drawing on it in their spare time.  There is something fun about drawing or writing on a chalkboard.  I don't know why it appeals to the kids so much.  Maybe because all kids like to draw on walls.

After Spanish class, I promised Ciara that we would do a cooking period.  We had a bunch of over-ripe bananas, so we went on the Internet and found a recipe for banana cake.  Following a recipe is a great way to review fractions, so it was a cooking/math class.  It was a really good cake so if you are interested, here is the link to the recipe: http://truebluebaking.com/2013/05/16/best-ever-banana-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/

Here is a picture of Ciara with her piece of banana cake getting ready to do Discovery over Skype with Verina.

I had a few distractions today.  The kitchen sink started leaking so we had to turn off the water for the whole house until we could get it fixed.  Also, while we were doing our work, Bob kept calling me from work because we are in the process of renewing our residency visas.  It took over 6 months to get our visas to live in Spain, a lot longer than we expected.  Our visas expire in November, so we have to start the renewal process now.  The problem is that for the kids to get their visas, we need to prove that they are registered in school here in Spain.  As I mentioned before, the Spanish government does not recognize homeschooling as an alternative to formal schooling.  So we really don't know what to do.  I have sent out a few e-mails asking around to see if anyone else has dealt with this issue before.  So far we have no solution. 

I honestly didn't think that we would have this problem.  I mean why would the Spanish government care if a Canadian citizen went to school here or was homeschooled?  I hope that we can resolve this issue without having to seek legal advice.   

Day 2

I didn't think that I would be blogging every day, but I have to admit that it's kind of addicting.  I haven't kept a journal for several years, and I kind of feel bad about it, so this blogging kind of fill that void.

I can't believe how fast the time goes between the time when the boys leave for school and when they come home.  I think that we are doing pretty good sticking to our schedule, but there is always that nagging feeling like I should be doing more.  The problem is I love reading information online especially from other homeschool blogs and it's kind of overwhelming.  It's great seeing what other families are doing, but I have to remember that I can't incorporate everyone's good ideas into my own homeschool all at once.  It will take some time before I really feel organized.

Today, Ciara had her first educational therapy session (Discovery) over Skype.  It was a 45 minute session with Verina Goobie, who lives in Brampton, Ontario, Canada.  She worked with Ciara for the first year after she was diagnosed with a learning disability.  Then we moved to Barcelona and I would have liked to have continued with the Discovery sessions, but with the 6 hour time difference and Ciara's school schedule, it was just impossible to find the time.  Now that Ciara is being homeschooled, we could make the time.

Verina and I were both pleasantly surprised with the Skype Discovery session.  The connection was pretty clear and Ciara remembered a lot of things from when she did Discovery over a year ago back in Canada.  I even think that it was easier for her to focus because she had to look at her teacher through the computer screen and did not get distracted by anything else around her.  The wonder's of technology!