Geography--In the Middle of Life

We moved into our new house just over a week ago. 

We didn't have internet service for a full week.

We spend nearly half our time up at the old house finishing up the work that is needed to make a small house that used to hold a large family look good to the general public.  The other half of our time is spent driving to and from the old house . . . and sleeping.  And no one is getting enough sleep these days. 

Soon, soon, we'll be able to find a rhythm to a life desirable.

Right now we're in survival mode.

Internet service was installed a few days ago.  Then we found out our computer is NOT wi-fi compatible.   So we ran errands and found the part that would allow our computer to pick up the signal that is now filling our house.

Then we hooked it up.

Daddy did it.

And when Daddy plays on the computer you can bet there are either sports updates or maps on the screen.  On this first day of internet access there were maps.  A6, H4, and I2 (he had a birthday in recent weeks) climbed onto Daddy's lap and said, "Show me the Great Wall of China."

Daddy obliged.  But first he took them to see the Eiffel Tower.  Then they found the Leaning Tower of Pisa.  They looked at deserts, oceans, islands, and cities.  They talked and looked and listened and learned for well over an hour.

We haven't had "school" in our house for weeks.  I ache to remedy that situation, and I can see a light at the end of this survival mode tunnel.  While I work and wait my heart fills with gratitude that learning doesn't only take place in formal lessons.  In fact, I think the very best learning happens when someone asks a question and someone else helps find an answer.

What a blessing is a Daddy who loves maps!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anne's Day in the Life: 17, 16, 12, 10, 9, 8, 8, 7, 5, & 5

Image
This is my crew last summer--the day we said goodbye to Pixie as she headed off to college. I actually have all 12 of my children home right now. Rose Red is nearly 20, graduated from our homeschool a year and a half ago, lives at home, and is working as a server at Applebee's as she tries to understand what it means to be an adult. Pixie is newly 18, graduated from our homeschool almost a year ago, is a dance major at BYUI, and is spending her off-track semester working full-time in the 1-year-old room at a daycare. These two still are part of our family days, and their schedules directly impact the rest of us, but I am no longer responsible for their day-to-day educational needs. The remaining 10 are still under my educational supervision.  Among these 10 children we are schooling while we cope with anxiety, depression, FASD, ADHD, DMDD, ODD, ASD, PTSD, and Intellectual Disability. Here is a February Wednesday in our lives. 5:04 am :  Sir Walter Scott's a...
Read more

A Week, Briefly (Summer is not over)

Image
Last August I was not ready for school to start, but I did it anyway because I thought I should. And in September I had mental health crisis of the most serious kind. This August I am not ready for school to start. And I'm honoring that. However, I am ready to document brief moments of the beautiful learning that my kids engage in when I'm not running school. This week Rose Red is in Florida at a surfing camp.  She's with a sweet friend.  I could not be happier for her to have this experience away from home, at the beach, out-of-doors, physically active, and just plain cool. As far as I'm concerned, this is a quarter of a credit of P.E. The rest of us are at home.  My teens are reveling in their last days of bizarre teen sleeping schedules before early morning seminary begins next week. Pixie has been working on memorizing the dances she's choreographed for our dance team.  She'll be teaching the 10-12 year olds and dancing with the 12-17 year o...
Read more

I Had a Birthday

Image
 I am now 52 years old. My children are ages 9, 9, 11, 12, 12, 13, 14, 17, 20, 21, 22, 24. I have been homeschooling for over 20 years. Prior to that, I was a public school teacher (middle school English, K-3 special ed, and K-12 substitute). I find myself feeling very reflective about self, family, home, spiritual growth, marriage, goals, wishes, dreams, etc. Rather than try to put my mental ramblings into reasonable, readable sentences, I'll say this:  It's been a wild ride, and I'm grateful for the life I've lived thus far. I feel very aware of how few homeschooling years remain to me. Oh!  How I want to make them count! This week I did a rather good job at making memories with my children. The teens and I continued The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin and our American Literature text.  The best moment of the week was reading The Declaration of Independence from beginning to end.  I cried. (Just a little) The kids (I read it aloud while the younger kids w...
Read more