Traveling with these Gifts abroad!

Well, here we are in the Gastronomical Delight of France, that IS Lyon. It is such a pleasure to be here. Such a wonderful opportunity, we are so glad to embark upon! I highly recommend traveling with your children whenever an opportunity presents itself, Carpe diem! We have with us no electronical toys to amuse them, other than their laptops for school, and old fashioned CD players to listen to their music... (we are still so uncool as to not have ipods..... oh well) Yet still, their is little grumbling, little irritation, little but anything but enthusiasm and eagerness to embrace this beautiful experience! This is a view of Vieux Lyon (Old Lyon) as looking across the Saone River!

Things one learns when visiting other cultures! In America we have traveled a bit... We learned in some places in the south, you can buy boiled peanuts at stands; we learned some places in Chicago sell Hotdogs at street vendors; we've been to places that sell, gyros, popcorn, and here in Lyon France the THING that is all the rage, is CREPES!!!!!!!!!! yes! Buy a crepe and YOU choose your filling, sugar, or jam... razzberry, blackcurrant, pear, apple, apricot, who KNOWS what else... and it is quite fun just to stand on the street and watch one of these men make their crepes... rather mesmerizing... It took a few days for us to feel brave enough with our French, but we finally had one each, and OOO la la! Delicious! A MUST have if you ever come to Lyon! The kids were amazed at how he did it, how fast he did it, and how wonderful the flavor... a new flavor each time perhaps for one, and the same EVERY time for the other? I do not care, they are so happy, and it was only $2 Euro each

Here are some photos of a Medevil festival that was held this past weekend in Lyon, they put on quite a production, and it was not just held in this square but through out the whole of Vieux Lyon, there were many political proceedings, people being tried, fake executions, gypsies, artisians, things to buy, and many many people dressed up acting their part... It seemed as if nearly the whole town were in on playing some part or another! The children really absorbed so much! They were so excited to see things that they had only read about in their books ALIVE in the very place they had read about!

Here is one of the Renissance dances! I am amazed at how many connections are being made in the minds of my children, the sights the smells, the colors, the music, the sounds of the French language and the many other languages being spoken about them; the feel of the cobblestone beneath their feet.. all connecting with the countless books, history and literature read over months and months, turning into years and years...... all coming together in these moments.... I am so thankful!

Some fancy men with flags doing some fancy French thing... It is a shame my French is not better! But perhaps it WILL be! All the same, were learned much, and were glued to the proceedings!

Here is a view from the Roman Ruins of the Basilique Notre Dame de Fourviere. It was actually built in the late 19th century... disappointing I know...

Here is a photo of the time we went to the open air market! So much to see so much to learn! This really gave the children a different idea of food, where it comes from, and different ways it is bought and sold. The Walmart way of life is but ONE way, and as much as we try to tell this to our children, there is nothing like bringing them to a culture that simply LIVES differently than we do.

Here are the photos of the Roman Ruins. Here I let them explore.... I followed behind, but NOT all together too closely, keeping my REI whistle around my neck, incase I felt as though they or I were lost. Here all their reading, and re reading of David Macaulay's books and various others, really kicked into HIGH gear, as the children began telling me what they had found, what certain things were, why things were laid out the way they were... It was like the flood gates of their minds had opened and the words could not pour out as fast as the thoughts.... We will definately be coming here again and again, picnicing, walking, till they can be here and talk in complete rational sentences ... breathing between words....

Funny that later this past weekend my husband had some collegues from work come and stay with our family in the city. They wanted to see the ruins, it was raining in a bit of a downpour by the time we got there, and some of us decided not to go up and explore, but to stay down below and enjoy the view from a somewhat sheltered spot. The two older of my children however, volunteered to take the one American gentleman who was so interested in history up for a guided tour.. I don't think he expected QUITE that guided a tour... He couldn't believe all the things the children showed him, the tunnels, the secret spots, the chambers, the inner rooms, nooks and spots he simply would NEVER have seen. He hasn't STOPPED talking about the tour they gave, and thinks they'd make grand tour guides... :)

Fear NOT traveling with your gifts, they JUST might amaze you, even IF you have to make a routine out of your day ... (I DO), even if they have health issues (YOU SHOULD just see the medicines we had to bring, the dr note too !) It might not be as impossible as it seems... perhaps ... worthy of prayer and consideration anyway...

For us, these trips have become a way of life... always a bed of roses, thorns and all!

home "schooling" abroad.....

Vie va La France!!!!!!!

We are preparing to leave our wonderful home, our comfortable haven, our hectic all to busy "American" lives, for the great big wide world out there. Our lives as of now, are busy with much packing, cleaning and preparing, for life abroad....
and not just any life...
no
life in France....
and not just life in France,
not just 1/4 a year in France,
but
home educating 3 crazy fantastic kids, with a quench to see, to experience, to read and to discover everything there is to learn. How exciting and maddening is this? VERY!!!

First off packing for readers isn't easy.... especially now with weight restrictions on the airlines. I confess we are SERIOUS readers.
Readers of Math,
(as previously mentioned, not only do we DO math, we READ it as well!)
Readers of History
Readers of Literature
Readers for leisure
Readers to research
Readers of our Faith
Readers
pretty Charlotte Mason style readers....
Readers with ferocious appetites.........
So we got ALEKS on our computers to help out a bit...
and
Rosetta Stone to help with German and French!
Spelling, and the wonderful world of http://www.amblesideonline.com/ to help with MUCH of our literary needs....but
readers still read books,
and books we have a plenty, many many books, and put together they weigh a bit... tricky very very tricky... what to bring, what to leave behind.... to be.. or not to be with a particular book............

but it will work out in the end. What i find MOST interesting however, is how MANY folks offer advise to you, when they discover you are traveling on an extended trip, or out of the country... However the sheer volume of opinions on an EXTENDED trip ABROAD, is simply staggering.... yet very little of it helpful... because I have not "bumped" into many people who have traveled on extended trips.... or been out of the country for more than a couple weeks, or who have done either while home educating, eclectic, gifted kids.... yes, I have met some.... who have met one or more of those criteria, and their counsel, I CHERISH!!!!!!!!!!! Another blessing is, that we have done many extended trips for 2 or more months away... and experience... is quite helpful... Don't get me wrong, there is MUCH for me to learn, much that I do not know, and I long for good advise, but some, is simply funny.... some advice given to me, does not take into account who my children are..... and that is something as a mother I must always consider... always.

For example there is the all to frequent..."perhaps you should stop schooling while you are away...." I would heartily agree for a trip of 3 weeks or less; but that would not constitute an extended trip abroad. THAT is a vacation. :) Do people really do this? For 3 months? Do they imagine children coming home from a 3 month "vacation" sometime in July and suddenly desiring to stay indoors to do pre-algebra, history, and some Shakespeare? Mine will want to come home and HAVE a mini vacation, time with friends at the beach, in the pool, at their grandparents house, time to ride their bikes, skateboard with friends, time to just breath, before the crisp autumn air hits their faces....... which in our neck of the woods will come sooner than imagined.... no, taking that amount of time off, would mean summer in doors, chained to a desk.... NOT a healthy place for lively, sunshine loving explorers like mine!

I wondered also at this suggestion..., would you stop eating because it is extended trip.... I think perhaps this is simply a difference with gifted children... books, knowledge, math, computers, it is food for them...Do some children desire a complete BREAK from thinking, learning and discovery? Mine seem to do it all even in their imaginations, even climbing a tree! They often seem like starving children; have a great piece of literature at your disposal to toss their way when the hunger grows, there is a meal for them, some "comfort food" to bring safety and security, we will need that overseas...some semblance of the idea that... "we are still us, even if WE are in this strange NEW place with different food, different dress, different music, and different words and sounds."

Sure, we will be delving into French culture, eating French cuisine, seeing all the French museums, going to the parks, and all the many historical places; we hope to make many French friends, and learn to speak their language, understand their plights, and come away really knowing something about the people of France; the heritage, the history, the heart of this ancient land. Yet in the midst of that, there need be some normalcy, something comforting, from their own home, and "school"; something that is safe, familiar, recognizable, to come to each day, or even every other day...I hardly plan on being the strict teacher demanding eight hours of lessons each and every day...

What I hope to offer my blessings, the MENU so to speak.... :)
Math (living and virtual via www.aleks.com and Life of Fred http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/index2.html)
Literature & History (some books & www.amblesideonline.com )
Geography (BEING in France, having Maps & www.amblesideonline.com has some great resources !)
Art/Music (Being IN France, The Teaching Co.'s Great Courses http://www.teach12.com/ )
Writing (I have each of the older children doing daily journals of our "family adventure" on their own "safe" blogs, )

With no intention of doing EVERY subject every day, I think this "Menu" is a good one, a very feast, with all the basic "academic food groups", for ferocious yet finicky eaters..... add in some Culture, literally LIVING History, (some history in the making) along with getting to see Roman Amphitheaters, Gothic Churches, going to places we have only READ about, walking in buildings from Before the time of Christ our Lord... Museums, fabulous food, a new language and culture; frankly, this shall be the TRIP of a lifetime, an Academic Adventure of a magnificent magnitude, and many memories in the making.....

but with just 8 days to go, till we are "leaving on a jet plane", I best get back to packing! :)
Hope you stop by for our Academic Adventures as we continue to live gifted................

Life of Fred

There are a few of you out there who know me outside, in the sun, in the wind, in the fresh air; who know the color of my hair, the gate of my walk, the sound of my voice, and know what my blog readers will learn right now.... I have a math addiction, along with my children....

It goes way back. I used to love math... I was in "advanced math" classes as a child... tested well (beyond well) or so I am told ... by my mother... in mathematics.... and then disaster. It really only takes one bad year, one train wreck of a teacher, one awful curriculum, one bureaucrat, put it all together and you really will turn a gifted kid on their heads....
It was college before I liked math again.... It wasn't until I was homeschooling my kids before I found my LOVE for math again....
and so
I am a little Math crazed...

it is ok, because, It is THEY who are the driving force. It is their hunger that feeds me, and is awakening in me a desire to play at numbers. Solve the problems, challenge myself a little.

It was perhaps my own awful experience that drove me to never rely too much on any one curriculum. To never be apathetic when it came to the universal language of mathematics, music on paper, science made sense, theory proven fact.... never allow apathy.... and so, I have about 5 curriculum's in my home....

And many "Living Math Books". What is a "living Math Book".... I suppose, though I confess I have NOT actually done the proper research to be "certain"; that it was probably inspired by the Biblical times, even the Greeks and the way they taught, and most likely rekindled by the Charlotte Mason approach to education. In a nutshell, the concept of bringing to the child a story, so "alive" so delightful, inspiring, that it ignites learning, ignites a desire to learn more. Living Math books take the math concepts and put them into stories, that bring the math alive, help them to know what the radius is, the diameter and circumference, NOT because they memorized it, NOT because they did 100 problems reinforcing the "concept" but because they read a story that was so wonderful, perhaps so funny, that they simply KNOW what is what, and will know forever.

I have many such books lining my math shelves, and we read them, and enjoy them. I was always sort of sad at the thought that NOW that my children are becoming so advanced in their math, while still so young, would no longer have the opportunity to learn advanced mathematics in this way. It seemed to me that their minds learned these early concepts so well, the books brought SO very much to the table of their minds, linking concepts, bridging gaps, it seemed a shame that their would be no such blessing with pre-algebra, algebra, advanced algebra, geometry, trigonometry, calculus, etc.... so sad....

Then I discovered........... THE LIFE OF FRED by Stanley Schmitt http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/index2.html
Oh the delights of my mind!!!!!!!!! I researched, I read reviews, I read sample pages, I could BARELY believe my eyes............. I bought the whole set!
Fractions
Decimals
Algebra
Advanced Algebra
Geometry
Trigonometry
Calculus
Statistics
and YES there are books to go along with the books for additional problems.........
It is wonderful!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wonderful wonderful

as you read along a day in the life of Fred, mathematical problems arise, which you (the student) need to solve.... Fred is in the first book just 5 1/2 years old, and a professor at a University. He is a really gifted but adorable little boy! Each book appears to be 1 day in the life of Fred. By the last book, if I think I understand it correctly, Fred will be 6 years old.

While my children could have started farther along, I really wanted them to "meet" Fred at the beginning. So we began with fractions. A rather fun review! But what I was NOT prepared for was just HOW much is covered in the LIFE OF FRED that is not covered in the other materials we use.... again just PROVING to me that no curriculum has it ALL :) They still were able to get through 1/2 the book in just 3 sittings, so I am comfortable that it IS a review, but they are not bored, and can NOT wait for the next time with FRED!

Really, it is rather funny... "mom, when can we read Fred"..... "mom, is it almost time for Fred?"
... "oh MOM, please ONE, just ONE more chapter, PLEEEAAASE!!!!!!!!"
who am I to say no to children so desperate for more .... math! :)

What do we do, well, we snuggle on the couch, they each get pencils, and notebooks, and I read, but they read along. When we get to a part that says "your turn to play", they start doing the problems and when those problems done (all done in story format, or in correlation with the story), they tell me the answers and I tell them if it is right or wrong, if wrong....just try again!
Every few chapters is a "bridge", which MUST be crossed before they can continue.... The author has allowed 5 opportunities to cross the bridge, which is about 10 challenging problems. The review is worked into the process beautifully!

Mr. Schmitt the author mentions in his book, that if your child finishes successfully all of these books, they ought to test into their Jr year of college.... (all the books not counting statistics)!

For those of you worried about ALEKS.... :) We ARE using Aleks as our core curriculum, and shall continue to as we move to Europe to live for the next few months. Fred is my supplement... And may become my core eventually. I just needed "something" that was ALIVE, so math didn't become sterile for them, or for me........... Aleks is great!

ONE negative comment with Aleks....... if you the parent find yourself in a situation where your child is ill, for a week or more, and you come back to Aleks, and your child needs to take an assessment (a TEST), you do not have the privilege of postponing it so that they might spend time reviewing, remembering, or re looking at work previously learned, to study...... if they do poorly, they will just be put back several levels, which for a 2E kids who has frequent bouts with illness can be VERY emotionally trying. There is NOT a lot of grace with Aleks. So have them take good notes in a book, or help them to take good notes for review....One must be the energizer bunny, and just keep going and going and going.......... Something to consider :)