Editing and writing

We are still en route to our final destination. In the meantime, this momma is busy editing pictures (tons) and writing the experiences of the last 4 months.

Subscribe to my feed for the updates and pictures of my beautiful country: they will be posted here: www.iasked4wonder.blogspot.com

On learning a new language

Ethan playing in our neighborhood, "El Alamo"

Claire relaxing in a Hamaca while staying at Hotel Santa Leticia, Apaneca, El Salvador.

I know my children will thank me one day for bringing them to my beloved country, El Salvador, be immersed in the culture in order to learn Spanish and everything about their mother's heritage.

They just don't know it yet.

All these years I have expanded their horizons and created thousands of new neurons paths in their brains by speaking Spanish at home from the very beginning. So far I have had two reluctant students and one fascinated by the idea of being a polyglot.

One night 4 girls came to our house, they introduced themselves... in English! my girls were delighted!!!! New friends! They all attend a bilingual school and were in their summer break, just like we were! They follow the American School system. A majority of children in El Salvador attend bilingual schools. Public government schools do not offer bilingual education.

Immediately, one of my reluctant children was convinced! No more arguing with Mom about the importance of learning a second (or third language)!

It has been a month since we started this adventure, they have overcome their shyness and are able to order their meal at a restaurant and have stopped complaining when Friday night movie is in Spanish

Hasta pronto!

Deja Vu

July 31, 2009

We are back again in El Salvador, this time for an extended visit. As if traveling with three children under 9 is not stressful enough, I added our small toy Poodle to the equation! She flew with us in cabin and yelped every time I put her down, or whenever she felt I was abandoning her with one of the children.
Here we go again!

Technology

-Mom!!!
-Yes, Ethan.
-Come, I need to show you something!

I find Ethan standing next to the printer holding a piece of paper:

- Look, Momma, I know how to make copies. Daddy showed me yesterday!
- Ok! (Yes, I have to add some exclamation marks to my sentences, the kids is sooo excited, I have to show the same enthusiasm, right?)

He places the paper facing down (wow, he actually knows what he's doing), then, he actually presses the right button!!! ( not SCAN, OK, but COPY) The kid doesn't even read.  "So smart" I say to myself.

The printer takes a few seconds before ejecting the copy. We are both standing side by side looking at it. Ethan looks at me and says:

See Mom, is thinking!

Knock, Knock

Ethan has been learning a lot of knock, knock jokes from his sisters. He tells me one morning:

-"Momma, I have a knock, knock joke". Say, "knock, knock"

- Isn't the other way around? I think to myself, but I go along and say: "knock, knock"

Why did the chicken cross the road?!!!!

(Follow by giggles and laughter, from Ethan, of course)

Hurt no living thing

The kids and I are in the car, we are listening to the radio, the Dj is interviewing first graders and asking questions about love and the meaning of Valentine's Day. We laugh at their answers.

I ask the kids the same question. Grace answers first:

Mom, when I grow up I'm going to live with you and Dad, plus

3 fish

1 hamster

a rabbit

2 dogs

and 1 bird!

and judging by these pictures..... I believe her!

Nickname

I'm in the kitchen one morning, Ethan comes in running:

"Momma! The man fixing our garage door knows my nickname!!"

What's your nickname? I ask him.

Grace chimes in: "Mom, his nickname is Buddy!"

Yes Mom, when I walked outside he looked at me and said: Hi Buddy!

Theater

Claire plays a Lady in Waiting in the musical "Once Upon a Mattress"

A page from Claire's journal. (Used with permission from the author)

I'm in a daze. I'm dreaming that I'm on Broadway singing.

-"You know that's barbecue sauce, right?" says Brice.

I wake up.

"Oh! Yes, that's why I picked it.

-"Finallly someone who likes it" Brice adds.

I close my eyes and picture me as the star of the show, people cheering for me as I made my final bow.

Friends

Ethan says one Sunday after church:

"I got married today Mom!

"To whom E?"

" I married Abby and Stacy"

"Ethan, you can only marry one girl"

"Ok, I married Abby"

Ethan and Abby met at church when they were still in diapers and have been friends ever since...

Wishes

"Momma,
do you wish sometimes you were a camel so you didn't have to drink water all the time?"

Ethan ~ 4 1/2 years old.

Mom & Dad

Grace, wearing her Praire dress, which she wore almost every day until it fit her no more.

Momma?

Are you and Dad related?

On Learning

It is easy to give a quick nod to lifelong learning, more difficult to consider what it really means, for the idea that people should study for about 12 years and then start living is more deeply seated in our culture than many people realize. Lifelong learning is more than an occasional adult education course. It is the expectation that someone will know more at age 40 than she did at age 30, the realization that it is never too late to begin learning another language, the belief that there are important new insights just over the horizon, no matter how old you are. But it is easy to forget these things, and a great deal of pressure on a homeschooler results from the perhaps unintentional assumption that everything a child will need to know during his life must be mastered in his first 18 years.

-Larry and Susan Kaseman, in "Taking Charge Through Homeschooling"

Super Hero

Ethan and I are talking, he says:

- Mom, I'm a Super-Hero, you know?
-Really?
-Yes, I'm just trying really hard not to shoot laser things with my eyes

Brownie Points

It's Christmas time!

The children are on their best behavior.

Ethan has been very good everytime I ask him to do something, especially when it's something he doesn't want to do:

"Yes, Mom, right away" he answers.

Then, he smiles at me and asks:

"How many brownie points was that?"

Habits

I am cuddling with Grace one afternoon; I ask her as I tickle her nose: " Why are you so grumpy today?"

She laughs...

I tell her that lately she has been just a little grumpier than usual.

"Why Grace?"

" Mom, all kids have habits"

What I want for Christmas

Hey kids, on Saturday there is a "Breakfast with Santa" at our neighborhood park. Would you like to go?

- "No Mom, we're too old for that" the girls answered.

- Ethan chimes in: Mom, that's not Saint Nicholas, is just somebody pretending to be Santa Clause.

Ethan doesn't want to go without his sisters, they convinced him is for little ones and is ok for him to go.

" Mom", he says, this is what I'm going to tell him:

"I know you're not Santa Clause, but I want a real remote control helicopter what* shoots real cords"

* Ethan really means "that"

flower girl

"...why is there no word for this but joy?"
Victor Hugo

new friend

"I made a new friend at church today, mom " says Ethan, and then he proceeds to tell me all the details of their conversation.
The conversation included naming all the costumes a four year old boy would have liked to wear for the "Fall Festival" but wasn't allowed to because "mom thought it was too scary". Also mentioned in this conversation was every super-hero known to all, and some that I still need to "google" in order to verify their authenticy.

"She is really nice and we played a lot", he added.

"I'm so proud of you Ethan", "It's good to make new friends". By the way, " What's your new friend's name? I asked.

I don't know.

Reading Aloud

I am reading two books to the kids:



Five little peppers and how they grew. I usually read it during the day.

The Phantom Tollbooth. Nighttime reading.
(Update: By popular request, I have agreed to read this book during the day while we all curl up in the couch)

days of the week

While Ethan and I play outside I ask him if he knows the days of the week. (I'm about to have a short lesson with my new Pre-K student)


- Yes Momma, Sunday and tomorrow!

- Sunday is one of the days of the week, but not tomorrow, I say. Let's sing a song together, repeat after me:

- Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdaaaaay, Friday, Saturday.

- But Mom, when do I get to say "Tomorrow"?

Reminiscence

Today I am here, reminiscing as I go through my pictures.

"Her mind seemed wholly taken up with reminiscences of past gaiety" (Charlotte Brontë).

Travel

Momma, What is "pan frances"? Claire, carrying pan frances (French bread). It is a tradition among Salvadorean families to buy freshly baked bread everyday. A lady and her daughter will bring a big basket with different varieties to choose from. Claire enjoyed this daily routine, a few steps, and there she is, right outside the neighborhood!

“The peculiar value of geography lies in its fitness to nourish the mind with ideas, and to furnish the imagination with pictures.... The child gets his rudimentary notions of geography...in those long hours out of door.... He gets his first notions of a map from a rude sketch...or with a stick in the sand or gravel. ...Let him be at home in any single region; let him see, with the mind’s eye, the people at their work and at their play, the flowers and fruits in their seasons, the beasts, each in its habitat; and let him see all sympatheticall, that is, let him follow the adventures of a traveler; and he knows more, is better furnished with ideas, than if he had learnt all the names on all the maps" Charlotte Mason

Momma, what's a Lagoon?
Playing at the "Laguna Verde", the Green Lagoon located inside the crater of the volcano that holds the same name. This is what we learned while running, picking flowers and rocks:

Volcaninc origin, 5650 feet over sea level, aproximately 1300 square feet, and 15 ft. of depth in the center.

Life at home away from home

Ethan at the beach having too much fun!

Ethan-ism:

Momma, we can't go back home.

Why not, E?

Well, if go back home they're (referring to all the cousins, friends, aunts) going to feel AWFUL. That's why Momma; we have to stay here!!

I don't blame him !!!!

Oh, the places you'll go!

The children and I are traveling. We are visiting El Salvador, my homeland. I have packed passports, mosquito repellent, sunscreen, and a big supply of children´s medicine to arise the suspicion of any salvadorean Customs offcial.
Off we go.

Thank you

The children are about to have lunch. Grace gets her own fork and cup. Ethan is already sitting at the table:

- Grace you didn't get me a fork?
- No!
-Grace (I said), the nice thing to do is to get a fork for everybody. Please get a fork for your brother and sister.

She hands Ethan a kiddi fork.

- Grace!!!! I don't like this fork!!!!
-

Ethan ( I said) when someone does something nice for you like get you a fork, you say thank you!

-Thank you Grace.... but, no thank you.

Question

"How can God be in your heart and in heaven at the same time?"

Questions

We are leaving church one night, and as I buckle Ethan's seat belt, he looks out the window and asks:

-Momma, is God going to stay here all night?

Philosophy of Education

A child is born a person with the spiritual requirements and capabilities of a person.
Knowledge "nourishes" the mind as food nourishes the body.
A child requires knowledge as much as he requires food.

(Photo~ Botany activity: opening seeds)

He is furnished with the desire for Knowledge, i.e., curiosity; he requires that in most cases Knowledge be communicated to him in literary form.

(Photo~ Playing with child African Piano)

The natural provision for the appropiation and assimilation of Knowledge is adequate and no stimulus is required; but some moral control is necessary to secure the act of attention;
a child receives this in the certainty that he will be required to recount what he has read.

(Photo~ Practicing Linking Verbs)
(Photo~ Field Trip to Museum of Natural History Children have a right to the best we possess; therefore their lesson books should be, as far as possible our best books.

They weary of talk, and questions bore them, so that they should be allowed to use their books for themselves; they will ask for such help as they wish for.

They require a great variety of knowledge- about religion, the humanities, science, art; therefore, they should have a wide curriculum....."

From Volume 6 " A Philosophy of Education" Charlotte Mason.

Ethan sees the girls wrapping presents for Father's day and asks if he can help. We give him some paper and tape.

-Mom, do you think I can get a little present for me?

- Why?

- So I can open one like Daddy?

- Are you a Father?

~silence~

-Ethan, (I said) we are giving these presents to your daddy because tomorrow is Father's day.

-Daddy is a father????

Bug

Claire and Grace are looking at a dead bug in our living room. They are trying to decide who is going to put it in the trash.
Claire says she doesn't want to do it:

-Mom!!! This bug is as big as Ethan's palm!!!!

Ethan and I are still having breakfast, he turns around and says:

-Hey, I don't have a palm!!!........ what's a palm, mom?

Proverb

- How was Art Camp Grace?
- I'm glad Art camp is over!
- Come on Grace, tell me, what did you do?
- We made pictures and we each had to come up with a proverb. This is what I wrote:

"Take a step forward and relax"