Whoa Cowboy 31 Years!

That is impressive! 31 freakin' years! I can so relate to the quote about finishing life and brushing off the dirt and saying, "wow that was a wild ride!" Not that we are finished, but maybe about half way there. We can only hope to keep kicking and having fun for another 31 years.

Don't get me wrong it is not always a bed of roses. We have gone through jobs, no jobs, awful jobs, almost slavery government jobs, schooling, business together, kids being alcoholics, drug addicts, inmates, run aways, just plain onry, deportation, homeschooling, unschooling, public schooling, charter schooling, University studies, working midnights, working evenings, six pregnancies, one adoption, five grandkids and just a whole lot more of challenges yet to come for sure.

I do have to say with every challenge there have been at least five great things that have happened. Not bad for 31 years. I guess we have accomplished a lot, not only as a couple but as people. Here is to 31 more years, love you mi amor!

Sabatical

Taking a little break from blogging here. Just adjusting sails and trying to get grounded. Baby has finally made the decision to "quit" school and I am beyond thrilled. I was wondering when she would finally come to this decision. I really wanted it to be her own.

We work hard to encourage her to make decisions and do what she wants to do. The problem is she has her attachment disorder and we have a hard time convincing her it is o.k. to do what she wants. She is always so worried about what everyone else wants.

There has been some real growth this month as she has started crying. It really just took finding something she was passionate about. That would be the computer. That girl loves playing on the computer. She will play all day. When we tell her time to shut down she will cry.

You have to understand she loves cartoons also. I mean really loves t.v. But she has never cried when we tell her to shut it off. She also loves to play with her friends, but never cries when we tell her time to go. I am not sure if it was computer or if we are really breaking through here. Hopefully really breaking through.

When she announced she "quit" school she did it in a funny way. We were sitting on the couch and she whispered that she quit school. Almost as if she did not know if that was the word she was searching for. We all looked at her and smiled, then she said it louder. Finally she shouted and her sister high fived her! She was all smiles at that point.

On another adventure for sure.

Library Day

Today was library day. We had some extra time so headed over to the library for a couple of hours to hang out with B&B. The kids can hang out over there for hours and hours, just playing and making a huge mess.

It is pretty cool because they converted an old railroad car into the children's center. It is full of toys and a little kitchen, and books and puzzles. The kids have fun and enjoy the variety of toys available.

Seeing how much fun baby had made me rethink the whole first grade thing. Also the school called today looking for baby and wondering why she did not start school two days ago with the rest of the class.

I was all prepared to home school with her, but then we found out her two friends are moving to Hondurus in a couple of months and who the heck is going to be her play group? That is the extent of her play group and I am worried about her having someone to play with. I am again at wonderment at the home schoolers with one child. How in the heck do they keep the kid from going stark raving mad?

Maybe they are not so old and boring as us?

TO HOMESCHOOL OR NOT TO

I have been tossing around the idea of homeschooling the baby next year. She went to pre-kinder this year and has learned her Spanish very well. She can pretty much communicate with anyone who talks to her and even says her prayers in Spanish now. That was the goal with sending her. Now that she understands what they are saying I feel compelled to take her out of school.

Part of it is I have taught all six of my other children to be patriotic. I love America and have taught and worked hard to instill this patriotism in all of my children. When I watched her the other day pledging allegiance to the Costa Rican flag I realized this is not what I wanted for her.

I have also been working with her on reading and she is getting a little confused. I feel strongly that she needs to learn to read in English before moving on to Spanish. I also want her to take Mandarin lessons and we don't have time with her schedule right now. I want her to take dance classes and swimming lessons, again no time with her school schedule what it is right now.

The draw back was that she is the baby and therefore has no one to play with during the day when her niece is in school. I guess we will just have to keep her so busy with school work, which she really loves by the way, that she does not miss her friends.

I have not told her that we are considering keeping her home next year and am not sure how she will feel about it, but we will wait until school is over for this year in Dec. Pre-kinder is fun and I want her to enjoy dancing and playing and coloring all she can before she actually has to start working on learning to read. That is said tongue in cheek, because she begs me for reading lessons everyday. This will be fun!

MORE ON SWINE FLU

I have one very disappointed daughter! Today the salud here in Costa Rica decided to extend the two week vacation another week. The reason? Trying to stop the spread of Swine Flu! Even though the sixth person just died, and no kids have died, nor have any healthy people.

She was scheduled to do her Costa Rica dance next week at the theme park. Like I said she is one very disappointed girl. Plus the fact that her teacher was on vacation the week before the two week vacation, that makes a month of one very bored girl.

I guess I could schedule a dentist appointment to break up things for her a little bit! Maybe just a picnic at the park. Her dad is teaching her to play chess, and that is adding a little excitement for her.

When the older kids were young and we were homeschooling Rick started a chess club for homeschoolers. One of our boys really took off and actually entered some contests. He was watching his little sister playing chess this morning and asked if we thought she would be good because she was Asian. I reminded him he is not Asian and he was a pretty darn good little chess player.

The problem is just getting her to stop giggling and pay attention to dad teaching her.

ANOTHER FIRST

My grand daughter finally talked her parents into letting her get a school uniform, of course that also meant she got to go to school! She started matricula today. Her mother said she was sooo scared she would not even let go of her leg. I know how she is though and am sure she was having a blast before the day was over. You can certainly see the mischief in her little sweet eyes! Just don't turn your back too long.
So just when I thought I had things pretty well figured out I got another shocker today. My hubby went to attend my daughters what I read as parent teacher conference, and lo and behold it was not to be. I did not understand the note and what it actually said was that she would be getting special attention after school on Mondays for half an hour.
When I was young that was called "special ed" and I am very much having a problem with that. I tell myself just calm down she does not speak Spanish and they are working with her. I just have problems with my child being singled out, with six others by the way for special attention.
This is why I always end up homeschooling. I refuse to let my kids be labled and now I have a decision to make. Am I willing to spend at least two hours a day working with my daughter, who is very smart and needs lots of challenges, or will I keep her in school? This is going to be a tough choice.
My hubby has always been for school. We seldom argue, ha ha ha, but when we do it is usually about this topic. Now he is the one throwing a fit about his daughter being in special class. We will see what he decides about it.

CAUTION: UNSCHOOLING RESULTS IN THINKING CHILDREN

Have you ever heard the expression "be careful what you ask for?" When we chose to unschool we actually made the decision to teach our children to think and decide what they were interested in and felt was important to them. Right now Hannah my 15 year old is at a jewelry making class in downtown Heredia with her friend. She will be starting massage school on Monday. She has also decided to attend the beauty school in town when she finishes massage school.

In order to as she puts it "not look retarded" she works on math and language every day. She does enjoy the math and endures the language. She has never been a big reader like my other children were and still are, but she does a lot of reading on the computer.

When we were homeschooling our older children I was pretty uptight about them getting the three R's and making sure they were up to par with their peers. That was futile as well as silly. They all went to high school and college way ahead, no thanks to all my worries and nagging.

I have also seen this with my son-in-law. He completed the sixth grade living in Hondurus and went on to a tech school to learn how to make shoes. When he was 17 he walked to the U.S. and worked and lived there for five years. He worked as a roofer, cook, sheet rocker, painter, and repairman. He was deported four months after he and my daughter were married and has become a woodworker. He makes beautiful woodwork and loves to read.

About six months ago he decided to return to school and finish high school. They started him by having him go back to seventh grade and memorize his times tables. That took about one day. All the stuff we spend years trying to teach our kids he has learned in about six months.

After watching this I have decided no more worrying for me. They will learn when they are ready and in the meantime they have room in their heads for thinking about things and learning to try and make sense of the world as it is. I think that is more than most people even attempt to do these days.

TEENAGERS

My daughter is 14, it is very painful to be that age I do believe and remember. She has been doing swim workouts every day and doing very well with that. Now the trick is to teach her to incorporate her school work into her day. I have tried to convince her that she can do more than one project a day.

I guess study habits are something that are learned and developed. My son in law is trying to finish up some school and having trouble with the whole study habit idea. His wife also is taking internet classes and dealing with once again, study habits.

With our students at our massage school we try to keep up with them so that they do not fall behind. The ones who do the best? The ones with good study habits.

Good study habits really are nothing more than not procastinating! It is important to keep up with the info as you receive it and learn the important points before moving on to a new concept. With our internet massage classes we try and make sure with reviews as well as tests that our students are caught up and learning the material.

I have always been the "over achiever" in class and tried to be one step ahead. It did make it easier to actually graduate and finish classes and projects that I start. I recently completed an online course for Ayurvedic medicine. I had it done the first two weeks and it took the online instructor six months to complete all the checking and feedback, frustration!