Unfortunately she is still in the hospital but we have been promised that she will be released Wednesday. Only one more day - we can do it!! She does have a bit of a cold but nothing serious - no fever or anything. She just is slightly conjested and coughs mildly. She doesn't seem to feel too bad and has been a very sport about being in the hospital. I would be freaking out but I guess she is used to it.
It has not been fun but it has also not been all bad. The positives are ~ we get to show love to her by visiting daily and bringing special, healthy treats (fruit, yogurt, sausage, juice, some candy, vitamins). This has meant so much to her. At the beginning she begged for these things and then I think she started to realize that she doesn't have to beg - that we love her and WANT to give her good things. Today she began to give us her daily requests :) and then stopped and just smiled. I could just see her thinking,"Of course you will bring these things and I don't even have to ask." We usually brought her things that she asked for as well as a little something extra and it clearly has spoken lots of love to her. She has been very cuddly and huggy and tells us how much she loves us everytime we see her. We take picture flashcards (made by Trend) and learn english words. She has learned a lot and is building her confidence. We also just point at items and learn the names (watch, door, window, hair, purse, desk, chair, etc). Today when we arrived she was sitting on her bed doing math problems from her textbook even though it was not assigned. She just liked it!! And I actually got to see what kind of math she was doing.
Oh, and a clear answer to prayer that I forgot to post about last week. One day we were sitting in the girls bedroom at the internot, playing Uno. Katya all the sudden asks about school in America and explains that she is so worried that she will not understand anything and that she is scared. She and Nastya were also very concerned about being put into separate classes.
Well, we have been praying about how to tell her that she will be homeschooled in America and expected some initial resistance to this announcement... We had prepared our speech to have through the translator- complete with a list of pros for why it was good and how fun it would be. When the girls were in Texas this summer, Katya kept saying that she wanted to go to American school so bad, and she wanted to be in any kind of social situations. We are certain that this is the right thing for the girls to be homeschooled this year to have time to bond with us, to learn English, to build confidence, to learn what it means to be in a family, to be sheltered until they are better able to make wise decisions in difficult social situations. It made the decision even easier that we are not in a great school district and the only private schools nearby would not be equipped to meet the specific needs of language and other things that they will need. So being confident in this decision we were concerned about how to present it to the girls.
So it was great that all the sudden, with no warning, we had this open door to discuss the homeschool plan. We looked at her and Nastya, and Zach told her that I would be her teacher at home and that he would teach sometimes too. They both smiled. I told her that I would help her learn English and that she would also learn on the computer (she like Rosetta Stone this summer and made great progress). She was amazed and kept saying, "Momma, teacher?!?" All with a big smile on her face. So, the cat is out of the bag with a good first response. All I can say is, "Thank you Lord"! I thought this was going to be a much harder issue. She may feel differently at times when Allee is doing neat stuff at school but this is a great start.
Now if I can just figure out exactly how I am going to teach two girls who don't understand 90% of what I am saying... I have lots of ideas (great ones from some of you blog friends!) but just need to put it together... Any ideas from any of you who have homeschooled older internationally-adopted children are welcome! I specifically would love ideas for how you got started the first few weeks - like what type of schedule you had and what you did other than math and english...
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4 comments:
Karina didn't like the idea at all when her dad told her in Ukraine. She even told our facilitator about it. He then told me that it is hard to do all the subjects. At first, I was a little upset and said 'I've been homeschooling for 20 years' Then later I realized, she's only in 5th klasse (that's their grades) I can handle fifth grade. lol
After her first day of homeschool, she told her dad that homeschool is so much better than the internat:)
Math will be easy. The numbers are the same. It's just figuring out how to help them understand the terms. We tried phonics, but you have to know the English name of the pictures to know the sounds.
Doing math and learning English is mostly all you can do at first. We did do lots of social activities with our homeschool group, like nature walks etc.
June
Steff, get them started on the phonograms. I really believe that will help. It seems like with a picture books and phonograms, Rosetta Stone they would be able to not only learn English but also learn to read it faster. Just a thought.
We are working on the home study paperwork. I need to see what is left to do. We went to look at some more land today. We'll see...
As you know, we began home schooling our girls while in Russia. No, I'm NOT super mom, but since we found some great BASIC workbooks at Mardel's (I think you have those in your state/region???) we took a small stash of them with us to introduce to the girls. We took basic English alphabet workbooks--connect the letters in order, seek & find pictures, etc., math workbooks ("fun" math with coloring pages/features), and basic English words with pictures, etc. As I said, VERY BASIC. So basic that you might wonder if it would 'insult' your child!!! But, our 12 1/2 and 9 yr. old girls took right to them. AND, they were so simple that they built their confidence right a way!
"Explode the Code" worked very well for us. Look at the "pre-Code" series that is geared to pre-first grade. Again, most likely below their level, but a great tool to build their confidence.
Of course, math is 'universal'. But, I STILL don't understand how our then 12 1/2 yr. old did long division--clearly different from "American" division! :-)
There are loads of great websites out there where you can simply print worksheets. That's what we did for math for about the first 3 - 6 months. After that, we did "Math-U-See" because of the video feature. We decided that it would be best to involve as many senses as possible during the early days to help them grasp the subjects.
"Five in a Row" reading curriculum was a great place to start with out girls! It meant that mom would be reading to them--out loud--and they'd get to enjoy simple books with some very interesting illustrations. Believe it or not, our girls were familiar with some of the stories, but in Russian! :-)
I'd recommend lots of 'nature walks' in the back yard and/or the neighborhood. A nature journal would be a great thing for them to start since it requires drawing! I took our girls on a little picnic and we sat and drew flowers, bugs, etc. while we enjoyed some snacks and sunshine.
Get in volved in a local home school support group (some churches welcome home schoolers even thought you don't attend their church). The support groups normally have regular "park days", field trips, physical ed. classes, art classes, etc.
Consider enrolling your girls in a semester of gymnastics/tumbling, or dance (some community centers or YMCA's have basic intro. classes).
I could go on and on, but I need to get to bed. But in closing let me remind you that ROUTINE is your friend! They need it--crave it--and you need it. They will need to know even the smallest details such as brushing teeth after breakfast, make their bed before breakfast, etc. (and any other 'family rules' you may take for granted).
You can work up a schedule using both Russian/Ukrainian and English words, or make an art project of it and past pictures (cut out from magazines) in a certain order or next to the time showing some one brushing their teeth or a pic. of a toothbrush, etc. You get the idea.
Be sure to schedule at least one hour of 'down time' for the girls in the afternoon. Whether that is in the mid-afternoon or late afternoon--what ever works for YOUR family. But the will need this opportunity to read or play quietly in their room (leave the door open!!!!) as they learn to rest their body while exercising their mind.
I can elaborate more on any/all of this. But I must get to bed! You continue to be in our prayers!!!
Me again! Please forgive me, I'm NOT trying to take over your blog!!!
But I wanted to be sure I mentioned something we did with our girls from almost 'day one' that I think has been instrumental in shaping and establishing their understanding and thinking.
We translated (online) the Children's shorter catechism and worked through it daily (one topic per week) in both languages until they were more familiar with English.
If you're not familiar with the children's catechism you can find it online just about anywhere. The first question is "Who made you?" and the answer is "God made me." We found that just this first question provided a HUGE jump in our girls' thinking--launching them toward a Christian worldview.
The catechism goes on to discuss more about God, who Christ is, what sin is, etc. It really is quite comprehensive and straight forward.
We noticed that the Biblical truths our girls learned through learning the catechism gave them a foundation for understanding what was important to our family, how we were/are governed by God's rule/plan, and how we can joyfully submit to such a loving and faithful God. It also helps lay a foundation for their understanding of the life they've lived so far--how God is in total control of our life, but we still suffer because of sin (ours and that of others against us).
Okay, I'll stop for now! Continued Blessings!!
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