My Many Roles

As a homeschooling missionary mom, I fill many roles in my children's lives.
TEACHER- I sometimes feel like this role is defining my relationship with my children. After all, I spend so much time during the day as their teacher. Katrina even calls me "Mrs. DeLaughter"or "Teacher"during school, I guess it is her way to distinguish between me being her mom and her teacher. When she was younger, she used to cry, "You can't be my mom AND my teacher!" I would calmy reply, "Yes, I can. And, yes, I am." I think that we are getting better at figuring out our roles in this homeschooling journey.

SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER- Since we attend church at Moshono Christian Church which is entirely in Swahili, and there is no Children's church or Sunday School, we have Sunday school at home before we leave for church. I know that all parents are the spiritual teachers of their children. Not everyone teaches their children their Sunday school lesson every week. Sometimes I print out coloring pages and teach a Bible lesson, sometimes I teach about nature and God's creation and make a lesson out of that. I actually feel the children get most of their Spiritual eduation during the week. Before school, we practive memory verses, read a Bible story and do a devotional.

GIRL SCOUT LEADER- Katrina and Heather are "PEGS" Girl Scouts, which is Postal Express Girl Scouts. In other words, long distance Girl Scouts. I'm not an offical Girl Scout Leader, but I am helping them each reach their goals and earn their badges. We do Girl Scouts on Saturday. Each girl does it seperately, as I feel they need this time to have seperate interests and activities.

SWIMMING TEACHER- While on furlough last time, we put the girls into swimming lessons which they loved. We haven't been able to do that here, so I have become their swimming teacher. When we go to a pool, I find myself giving diving instructions to Katrina or helping Heather swim underwater.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST, MOTHER- At times it can be confusing and perplexing how this role is different from any of the others. I'm still me, and I'm spending time with my kids all day, helping or teaching them. So, why at the end of the day do they say, "Spend time with me, mommy?" Haven't we just spent all day together?! Yes, and no. "Teacher" Mom has been explaining how to subtract fractions or a phonics rule. But, there is more to being a mom than that. The kids need me to be just a mom to them sometimes. I try my best every day to spend time with each child by themselves. Even if it means turning on Elmo for Jonathan and letting one of the girls play a computer game for awhile. Because after all, who wants to just see their mom in school?

Long Time, No Blog

I haven't been blogging in almost a month. We are all setttled into our new house in Moshono, and are loving the house. Our cat, Romeo, ran off for the first week but found his way home finally. The girls were happy to see him again. School picked up again after a week's break for the move, and we are going full speed. From now until the end of Sept, we will even be having school on Saturdays to make up for lost time. We'll finish 2nd grade/ Pre-K the last week of Sept, and start with 3rd grade/Kindergarten on Oct. 4th. Our "summer vacation" was a month off while the Eastview Group was here in July.

School is going MUCH better with Katrina, for those who are wondering. She has been more cooperative and responsive in school, and has even been reading books, and writing outside of school-time, a good sign I think. We decided to take a break from Audiblox (the reversal program) until 3rd grade, because it took so much mental effort for her that she was exhausted by the time school started.

Thanks to my parents, Katrina and Heather are joining Girl Scouts this fall! I am so excited; I loved being a part of Girl Scouts. I was excited to find out that my Girl Scout Council offers Postal Express Girl Scouts or, PEGS for short, which is Girl Scouting long distance! That is the perfect solution for missionaries over seas! So, I will be their "troop leader" unoffically, holding troop meetings and helping them earn badges. I think its going to be alot of fun.

On another note, we have another team coming in Sept from Rochester Christian Church, lead by our mission director for ACM, David Upchurch. He is bringing 3 lady nurses who will do some health teaching here for a little over a week. We are excited to be having guests again!

Well, I had alot of catching up to do!!

P.S. The picture above of the kids-- they are wearing new clothes from Kevin and Carla Short... thanks guys!

Doing better...

Bless, Billy! He had a wonderful idea for school and for the past two days, school has been MUCH nicer. He thought that each subject should have a definate time limit, and that when that time came, I should move on the the next subject instead of just continuing on indefinatly. School had been going on to 3 or 4pm, and Katrina's behaviour and attitude digressed during the course of the day. I was excited at the thought of finishing school by 1pm everyday, regardless of whether Katrina was "on-task" that day or not. So, I decided to give it a try.
We wanted to help motivate Katrina, so when we told her our new plan, we added that she could earn 5 minutes of time on her video game for each subject that she DID finish within the time allowed (30 minutes per subject). That put the pressure on her, and off of me to speed up the pace of school.
And it worked!! Praise God, it worked. She now is eager and excited to complete each subject and keeps asking, "How much time do I have left to finish Math/Writing/Reading/etc.?" I am amazed at how much she has been able to get on task.
She still gets distracted, but seems to be trying to get herself back on task alot more.
Thank you, Jesus!

School daze...

Ever since I have returned home to Arusha and my family Feb 15th, Katrina and I have been butting heads about homeschooling. We took a week off when I first got back, mostly because I was on jet lag. Then, we started school again, and I was shocked at how oppositional she had suddenly become. Seriously, she would sit and scream at me, or pout in the corner, or outright refuse to do anything regardless of the punishment. Yikes! So, in March, we took a much needed family vacation for 2 weeks to Dar to reconnect as a family, after I had been gone for a month.

We returned home to "life as usual", including school, and things have been doing better. She seems to swing between having good days and bad days, but the good days are starting to out-number the bad days. Praise God!

Even before all of these Behavior Issues, while I was back in the States, I was looking at material for some concerns I've had with Katrina's learning ability. (Not sure I'm saying it right??)... but I had some thoughts that she might be struggling with dyslexia or something similar (she often reads words backwards, and flips letters, etc.), as well as ADD or ADHD. Now, adding the behavioral issues on top of those two, makes school REALLY interesting. Not to mention we have a toddler that is very distracting, and Heather who doesn't mean to distract by her playing and singing, but does. Katrina is behind in phonics and reading (almost a grade level behind), but is doing really well in Math, go figure.

We are a little behind schedule with school, since we have taken so many breaks, but we will finish this school year in Sept, and will go right into 3rd grade. Please, everyone, if you could be praying for Katrina for her co-operation, concentration, and ability to learn and reading skills to improve. We are doing better, but we could still use the prayer!

PS. Heather is in K-4, and is starting to learn to read, and she loves it!