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................