Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
When Worlds Collide
My perfect homeschooling world has once again been T-boned by reality. In this case it's the hastily arranged, last minute decision to allow my youngest daughter, Elle, currently the only one I am teaching and the only one not bound by an institutional school schedule, to travel back to the States with her dad for a couple months.
I heard the gasps, just barely, over my own hyperventilating. Shocking isn't it?
Besides missing her like crazy and worrying about her health and safety every single minute, her education gives me pause for concern. Is this trip going to screw up my carefully developed government approved lesson plans? Of course. Is anyone else going to be as attentive to teaching her as I am? Of course not.
I am nothing but flexible.
I would like to pack a couple of her books, mostly just math and grammar, but as she will be on the go with her dad traveling from job site to job site, from east coast to west, and visiting relatives all over South Florida, they'd most likely be misplaced. We tried something similar with Sarabelle years ago when Grice and Elle were at the very exclusive and very cozy west coast charter school and I was working for our broker buddy. Sarabelle spent a couple months traveling back and forth from coast to coast with her dad. Not many of her assignments got done. And, yes, books vanished. In the end, it didn't hurt her, and what she did learn was practical. I'm comforting myself (or fooling myself, take your pick) with the idea that the entire trip will be a learning experience. Elle will get the same opportunity her sisters had at various times to apprentice her at father work. She will learn all about permitting and government red tape, schmoozing clients, juggling finances and real estate transactions, and the physical act of building, which is loaded with math and science.
Our bookshelves at home are overloaded with stories she's finally capable of understanding and enjoying on her own. She'll have the opportunity her sisters had, to browse through our collection of well-loved children's stories and read to her heart's content. It won't be any burden to insist she always have something to read with her for those long rides between places.
She has missed out on the constant presence of and bonding with extended family that Sarabelle and Grice had, and with Jorge's office in the hub of his family's business, Elle will get to spend time with her beloved aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandma. Imagine the joy of a well-stocked closet of office supplies, the thrill and responsibility of answering the phones, the excitement of pushing the buzzer to let the mailman in!
More than one-fourth of her life has been lived in Australia. Jorge wants to ensure she has some strong memories of where she came from. And not only those associated with the madness and mayhem of Christmas.
It will definitely be an education. Just another stop on our Odyssean learning adventure.
I heard the gasps, just barely, over my own hyperventilating. Shocking isn't it?
Besides missing her like crazy and worrying about her health and safety every single minute, her education gives me pause for concern. Is this trip going to screw up my carefully developed government approved lesson plans? Of course. Is anyone else going to be as attentive to teaching her as I am? Of course not.
I am nothing but flexible.
I would like to pack a couple of her books, mostly just math and grammar, but as she will be on the go with her dad traveling from job site to job site, from east coast to west, and visiting relatives all over South Florida, they'd most likely be misplaced. We tried something similar with Sarabelle years ago when Grice and Elle were at the very exclusive and very cozy west coast charter school and I was working for our broker buddy. Sarabelle spent a couple months traveling back and forth from coast to coast with her dad. Not many of her assignments got done. And, yes, books vanished. In the end, it didn't hurt her, and what she did learn was practical. I'm comforting myself (or fooling myself, take your pick) with the idea that the entire trip will be a learning experience. Elle will get the same opportunity her sisters had at various times to apprentice her at father work. She will learn all about permitting and government red tape, schmoozing clients, juggling finances and real estate transactions, and the physical act of building, which is loaded with math and science.
Our bookshelves at home are overloaded with stories she's finally capable of understanding and enjoying on her own. She'll have the opportunity her sisters had, to browse through our collection of well-loved children's stories and read to her heart's content. It won't be any burden to insist she always have something to read with her for those long rides between places.
She has missed out on the constant presence of and bonding with extended family that Sarabelle and Grice had, and with Jorge's office in the hub of his family's business, Elle will get to spend time with her beloved aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandma. Imagine the joy of a well-stocked closet of office supplies, the thrill and responsibility of answering the phones, the excitement of pushing the buzzer to let the mailman in!
More than one-fourth of her life has been lived in Australia. Jorge wants to ensure she has some strong memories of where she came from. And not only those associated with the madness and mayhem of Christmas.
It will definitely be an education. Just another stop on our Odyssean learning adventure.
The Cone of Uncertainty
It's hanging over my head. Sort of looks like a dunce cap, doesn't it?
Tropical Storm Fay: You can actually see this cone graphically projected continuously on any South Florida news station and it's raining on our parade, threatening Jorge's travel plans. Will it develop into a full-blown hurricane? Will it follow its current projected path? Will it flatten our unsellable but fully insured house? Could we be so lucky?
Rental House: The owner of the rental house I left a deposit on is now considering putting it on the market for sale instead. Needs a week to think about it. There is another house available immediately, an older crummier house on a barren lot in a lesser neighborhood, and though I'm no fan of new development, cookie cutter houses, they are the same price so I'd prefer the sterile, contemporary, landscaped one. Will she decide in our favor? How much longer will our current landlord put up with us?
Elle: This uncertainty more approaches dread. Jorge is planning to fly her back with him when he returns to the States for a couple months. I might have lost my mind. I certainly will when she is gone. But, fair enough, he misses the girls terribly and Elle is the only one not stuck to a school schedule. What about her studies? What will I do without her? What will she do without me> Will it be 24 hour TV, Toontown, and takeout? Will she even want to come back?
If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.
-- Lewis Carroll
Tropical Storm Fay: You can actually see this cone graphically projected continuously on any South Florida news station and it's raining on our parade, threatening Jorge's travel plans. Will it develop into a full-blown hurricane? Will it follow its current projected path? Will it flatten our unsellable but fully insured house? Could we be so lucky?
Rental House: The owner of the rental house I left a deposit on is now considering putting it on the market for sale instead. Needs a week to think about it. There is another house available immediately, an older crummier house on a barren lot in a lesser neighborhood, and though I'm no fan of new development, cookie cutter houses, they are the same price so I'd prefer the sterile, contemporary, landscaped one. Will she decide in our favor? How much longer will our current landlord put up with us?
Elle: This uncertainty more approaches dread. Jorge is planning to fly her back with him when he returns to the States for a couple months. I might have lost my mind. I certainly will when she is gone. But, fair enough, he misses the girls terribly and Elle is the only one not stuck to a school schedule. What about her studies? What will I do without her? What will she do without me> Will it be 24 hour TV, Toontown, and takeout? Will she even want to come back?
If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.
-- Lewis Carroll
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