homeschooling | Wide Awake Family

The Last Bell: Ukrainian School

Posted on May 31, 2014 by kimnjed

SCHOOL’S OUT!!!!!

Praise the Lord. I honestly don’t know who’s happier, the parents or the kids. 🙂 I am VERY VERY VERY happy. I feel like our whole family just graduated from first class. Addy and Ezra’s transition in to Ukrainian public school has been very much a whole family endeavor, and we are all happy and relieved that summer break has arrived.

The last day of school in Ukraine is traditionally called “Last Bell”. All school lessons in Ukraine, every day, begin and end with the bell. So, the first day of school is called “First Bell”, and the last day every year is the “Last Bell”. It’s a very important day in Ukraine! There is ceremony and tradition and celebrating. I like it very much.

Yesterday was Last Bell at Addy and Ezra’s school and it was such a cool experience! I love how much we are learning about Ukrainian culture by having our kids in school. It’s a whole new world.

Normally the program is outside, but it rained yesterday, so everyone gathered in the gym. The first four classes (primary school) had their program together. Everyone lined the edges of the gym, each class in a line with their teacher, and then parents behind them. Our kids’ school is fairly small, so we could all fit.

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It started with a flag ceremony and the singing of the National Anthem, then the Director said a few words. An older man spoke also, but I have no idea who he was or what he was saying. Ha! After he spoke a bunch of kids ran up and gave him flowers, so he must have been someone special. 🙂

Notice the sea of big white bows? We call them “puffs”. It’s a cultural thing for special occasions. 🙂

Then the Director handed out special awards of achievement to a few children from each class. After a few minutes of that, our kids’ teacher turned around to me to ask me if I had a camera. I said yes, I did, and she motioned to me like I should be ready. Then she said “Addy, Ezra- microphone”. Oh! Huh?? I promptly pulled my camera back out and waited for whatever was next. The Assistant Director got up and started speaking. I heard her say the word for “Americans” and my ears perked up. She called Addy and Ez up and gave them a special award for diligence and achievement for their work in learning Ukrainian language! It was so special. Then she leaned down and was talking to Addy. I realized that she wanted Addy and Ezra to recite their poems in Ukrainian for the assembly! Poor Addy didn’t understand what they wanted her to do, so her teacher went up and helped her understand. They both said their poems for everyone and did awesome! We were so proud of them!!! Their teacher was positively beaming, she was so proud. It was very sweet. It feels like their whole school is cheering on their little Americans. Haha! We need all the cheering we can get!

After the awards were done, an older class got up and did a cool dance to celebrate summer break, there was more flag ceremony and the National Anthem was played again. I’m totally not kidding when I say I’m pretty sure my kids have heard the Ukrainian National Anthem more times than they’ve ever heard the Star Spangled Banner- and we haven’t even lived here 7 months! When Seth hears the beginning of the song he says “Слава Україні!” (Glory to Ukraine!) Ha! After the anthem, the program was finished! The kids got to go to the cafeteria for a snack and then all the parents took a ginormous amount of pictures. Their teacher also gave each child a diploma for finishing first class.

Addy and her friend, Masha

First Class 1-б

Flowers for teacher

Then we were free!!!! We practically floated home we were all so happy. We celebrated by taking the kids to the movie theater. It was our first time in a movie theater here and we had fun. We saw Rio 2, in Ukrainian of course. 🙂

Now we have three months to decide what to do about school next year for Addy, Ezra, and Havalah. For Addy and Ezra we have a couple options, one being continuing on in their current school. Kids here stay with the same children all the way till graduation, and they keep their same teacher for the first four years, so that would be a nice, familiar place to return to in the fall. We’ll see. We need to pray and figure out what God’s best school plan is for this next year. I don’t even want to think about it right now. The homeschooler in me is just SO HAPPY to have all my children at home. Sigh…bliss.

What do with Hava next year is another mystery. Children don’t start “official” school here until they are 6 or 7- usually closer to 7. Before that, most children attend дитячий садок “sadik”. It’s like daycare/preschool/kindergarten. They do learn the kindergarten fundamentals there, and if your child doesn’t attend sadik they really won’t be ready for first class. So, in order for first class to be easier on Havalah when she turns 6 or 7, it really does make sense to put her in a sadik, at least part time. Parents can choose how often they send their kids, so it’s not mandatory that she go…we just feel like it would benefit Havalah to get more time each week for language acquisition, since she is pretty much always just home with us, hearing English. BUT- I really, really don’t want her all alone in a class where she doesn’t understand anyone. She’s so tiny! AND, I really want her to learn to read and write in English first.

School has definitely been easier on Addy, because she already has such a great grasp on English reading and writing. Ezra, on the other hand, doesn’t read or write in English super well, and now after 4 months of Ukrainian school and no English school he is on about the same level with both languages when it comes to reading and writing. (Of course he has almost zero comprehension of Ukrainian reading) I know this is normal and he will catch up, it’s just nice with Addy to know I don’t need to worry about building her English language skills- we can just work on Ukrainian. Ez needs help with both. Hence me wanting Hava to learn English skills WELL first.

Oh my, all this bilingual stuff makes my brain hurt. I wish there was a manual for all this. 🙂 Ah well, one day at a time. The important thing is that they are learning and they are growing. We have our whole lives to learn. I don’t want to be in a rush on their behalf. At this point we are leaning toward putting Havalah in a sadik two mornings a week, and doing home school kindergarten the other three days.

Addy, Ez, and their super teacher

Havalah has a little kid “teacher crush” 🙂

So far we’ve been really happy with our experience in Ukrainian public school. Our kids’ teacher is so kind to them and she truly cares about their success. Addy and Ezra feel comfortable at school and the kids are nice to them. Never in a million years would I have imagined I would be a mom and my kids would be in a national school in a foreign country. I mean, as long as I dreamed of being a missionary you’d think I would have thought this one through, but nope. I guess I probably always thought they’d be homeschooled, or go to an international, English speaking school or something. What an interesting road we travel. For all it’s ups and downs and uncertainties I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

THREE CHEERS FOR SUMMER BREAK!

A Little Slice of Heaven

Posted on September 17, 2013 by kimnjed

Yesterday was perfection. Yesterday was one of those days where you look around and wonder how in the world you got to where you are and try really, really hard to take in every single moment so you can treasure it forever.

Yesterday we, and the couple who are hosting us spent the day waaaaaay out in the boonies of Idaho at Tri and Nancy Robinson’s ranch, Timber Butte. Tri was the founding pastor of Boise Vineyard back in 1989, and he had Nancy are ranchers extraordinaire. Tri is also the founder of I-61 ministries, a part of Vineyard Missions.

Homemade ice cream!

“The ministry of i-61 is a highway to do the ministry of Isaiah 61, fulfilling this commission to care for the broken, the oppressed, the captive and the extreme poor under the promised anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is an organized effort to train and send authentic disciples to those Jesus referred to as ‘the least of these’.”

Addy could have stayed in that little spot all day!

When I met Tri at the Vineyard Conference in Anaheim I quickly saw that I-61 is where Wide Awake International and the Johnson family fit within the Vineyard Missions family. These are our peeps. Tri and Nancy are all about justice, mercy, compassion, and going to the forgotten. Not only that, but they were homeschooling in California back in the day when some people didn’t even think it was legal, and started a homeschool co-op to try to help other parents, raised their kids an hour out of town with no electricity, packed their kids out on horses and homeschooled in tents. Oh man, I think I found my heroes. 🙂

We spent the day with great people, eating great food, and having great conversation. Not to mention my kids thought they’d died and gone to heaven. Thank you Tri, Nancy, Rand, Lori, Gary, and Lynette for such a perfect and special day! We will never forget our time together.

The Guest House

I big boy! I feed the sheep!

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Rainy Day Coziness

Posted on June 25, 2013 by kimnjed

Rain, rain don’t go away…

I’m a true Oregonian at heart. I love me some rain. It’s nearly the end of June and it’s been pouring down rain for days. YESSSSSSS.

You see, the sun hates me, and I’m not terribly fond of him either. I don’t tan, I burn and burn and burn some more. After a bout of melanoma during my pregnancy with Addy I felt I could finally admit my true feelings about the sun. While everyone else in Oregon gets all giddy about sunshine, I feel a tad of resentful. Soaking up the sun is not my kind of fun. Hence my love for Oregon. It rains here A LOT. It’s gray and cloudy A LOT. That suits me just fine. When the sun comes out and everyone else gets all giddy, I feel so much pressure to “soak it in”…when I’d much rather play inside where I don’t have to be on the constant lookout for shade. Coziness is my friend: rain pouring, windows open, coffee brewing, classical music playing…yes please. Glaring sun, squinty eyes, burning skin…no gracias.

Which brings me to the point of this post (yes it has one!). Pouring down rain calls for a good book. Here’s what I’ve got goin’ on around here.

For the Kids:

All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor.

When I was in 3rd grade my Uncle Steve was my teacher. He was my most favorite teacher EVER. Now he’s on the executive board for Wide Awake International. Awww, full circle! Yay! Anyway, often we would have free reading time at school, and every time I would choose this book. I read it over and over. I loved every detail about it. It’s about five daughters in a Jewish family growing up in New York City at the turn of the century. Oh my, the food descriptions, the sisterly fun (I only have brothers), the pinafores and bows in the hair. It’s a great book. I forgot about it for years, but just recently remembered it and googled every detail I could think of in order to find it again. We checked it out from the library and have renewed it three times so far. It’s a great read-aloud for boys and girls alike.

All-off-a-Kind Family is just as good now as it was when I was 9. LOVE.

For the Home School:

Educating the Wholehearted Child by Clay and Sally Clarkson.

Years ago when we were on the verge of homeschooling, but just couldn’t bring ourselves to commit to doing it (never thought we would, afraid as all get out), this book was the clincher. I owned the old edition, then got the new edition for Christmas, managed to lose the new edition in our move, and just scored a $.50 copy of the old edition at a used curriculum sale a couple weeks ago.

I love to reread this book every so often to help remind myself of why we home school and what is important to us in our parenting. As someone who never thought she would home school, but knows God has asked it of us, this book is incredibly encouraging and practical. Much of what our home school looks like I learned from this book. I love the emphasis on discipling our children. That’s what this parenting thing is all about right? If you are on the brink, considering home school, but unsure, I urge you to give this book a go. It’s amazeballs.

*Name drop alert: Jed and I got to meet Clay and Sally Clarkson and even visit them in their home when we were in Colorado in March. Holy celebrity sighting Batman! Sooooooo cool. Anywayssss…

For Wide Awake International:

The Boy Who Was Raised as a Dog by Bruce Perry, M.D., Ph.D. and Maia Szalavitz.

I just started this book, so I can’t give it a full recommendation yet, but I’m fairly certain it’s amazing. 🙂 Jed has been a fan of Dr. Perry’s work for a long time. It informs all the work he does at the organization where he currently works. Yesterday Jed was blessed to attend a conference by Dr. Perry with his coworkers and was blown away. Perry is the leading expert on stress, trauma and brain development. In this book Dr. Perry explains what happens to the brain when children are exposed to extreme stress (ie institutionalization, unmet needs, abuse, neglect) and his methods of therapy. He basically throws all we know about brain development on it’s head (no pun intended…but hahahaha). Pretty cool stuff. We are just taking it all in, asking God to guide us, direct us, and give us wisdom in bringing this knowledge into Ukraine.

For Fun:

The Wilder Life, My Adventure in the Lost World of Little House on the Prairie by Wendy McClure.

Okay, ready for some vulnerability here? I’m about to geek out on you. I LOVE this book. It’s about the author’s love of all things Laura Ingalls Wilder and Little House on the Prairie. OMG. I am so there. She had me at Little House. I have been a Laura Ingalls fan for as long as I can remember. I just may, or may not have every.single.episode of Little House on the Prairie (or LHOP..hehe) on DVD. I just might know every.single.detail about each episode. I can tell you what Pa said to so and so about the plow, how Albert overcame his addictions (really, Michael Landon?), who burned down the blind school, and which candy was Nellie’s favorite at the mercantile. I’m an LHOP nerd and I don’t care who knows it!

So, the author became mildly obsessed with LHOP and then took it to the next level. She visited all the homestead sites, churned her own butter and made her own maple syrup/snow candy. Then she wrote about her experiences. In other words, she fully geeked out so that I could vicariously live through her. The book is hilarious and informative. It’s made me laugh out loud more than once. Poor Jed.

The only beef I have with this book is that the author is sort of a purist and pretty much doesn’t care for the TV series. WHAT?????? She thinks true LHOP fans should be lovers of the books, not the show. Well, I gotta admit, the books bore me to death (are homeschooling parents aloud to admit that?). I love me some Michael Landon, and he’s the only Pa I can imagine. Yes, I realize the show isn’t true to the books, but I love it all the same. It represents my childhood. When Carrie stumbles down the hill in the opening sequence I feel like I’m home.

*okay, I’m done nerding out now. Feel free to think less of me, just don’t bash Melissa Gilbert or I might never forgive you. 😉

Enough about me, what about you? Got any good books to recommend? Lay ’em on me!

Readying the Troops

Posted on March 12, 2013 by kimnjed

Preparing to move overseas is quite the task. It’s such a big task that we really have no idea how to tackle it. Day by day, we just do the next thing that is in front of us- praying that when moving day comes along we’ll be as ready as can be. I’m not necessarily talking about packing and all that (although I have no idea what I’m doing in that area either), more about preparing our hearts and minds for how our lives are going to change.

When we very first started this process some very wise missionaries told us to do whatever we could to prepare our hearts and lives while we are still here in the US. “Get your marriage right, work on those selfish areas in your heart, help prepare your kids’ hearts”. Basically we were encouraged to do whatever we can do NOW while we are in a familiar situation and we have a great church and tons of friends and family around who love us. Because although we will still have loads of rough edges to smooth off when we get to Ukraine, it’s in our best interest to allow the Lord to do some of the smoothing ahead of time. Lord knows things will get a lot rougher in some areas once we get there! Ha!

Lately I’ve been thinking more about how to prepare our kids for this major life change. I want to be intentional about preparations with them, because otherwise I know it simply won’t happen. I know myself. 🙂 Like back in February when we first spoke at a church to share the vision, we were on our way to the church and I finally thought to look back at the kids and ask them if they understood what we were doing that day. Addy understood, but Havalah and Ezra were unsure (Seth was just along for the snacks- as usual). It was in that moment that I realized that although they are absorbing a lot just by living in the same house and hearing conversations, we must intentionally talk with them all through this process so their little hearts aren’t left behind.

Here are some things we have started doing to help our kiddos along this journey. I’m writing them down partially to keep myself accountable, and partially to encourage other parents to be intentional with your kiddos. We can’t assume our kids will learn what we want them to know about faith and their walk with Jesus by osmosis. We have to have intentional conversations. I am sure a work in progress in this area, so I don’t claim to be an expert of any kind! But, you never know who needs to be reminded of that truth. So here ya go!

Language Study
I started including Addy, Ezra, and Havalah in my language study. Duh. That should have been a no-brainer, but I honestly was waiting to find the perfect “kid” language curriculum for them. Instead I finally realized that I started at square one and they can just join me where I’m at! Some knowledge of the language is better than none at all. We study Monday-Friday for maybe 25 minutes or so, and then I let them go play while I do a bit more. THEY LOVE IT. They are such smarties too! Addy has an awesome memory and Ezra has a great ear for the language. It’s funny the words that stick out to them. I’m not sure how helpful it will be to know “cockroach” and “frog” in Russian, but they’ve got those ones down perfectly! 🙂

We use Transparent Russian for our language study. We bought it many months ago and chose Russian over Ukrainian because the part of the country we ultimately would love to end up in is mostly Russian-speaking, and our tutor we had hired was a native Russian speaker. Now I wonder if we made the right decision, but ah well. I think either one is a great start. The complete program isn’t available in Ukrainian anyway, so it is what it is. 🙂

Transparent has grammar study, audio helps, and an awesome vocab-building tool called “Byki”. Byki is the only part I use with the kids. We study our computer flashcards and play little games with the words we’ve learned. They are seeing the words, hearing the words, and saying the words. It seems like the language study has given them more ownership in this process and I love that more than anything.

Sharing
We’ve been lining up speaking engagements at different churches and small groups and have been wondering how to involve our kids more in that process. Yesterday we had a great answer to prayer in that area! The kids and I were invited to share about Ukraine at chapel for a local Christian school where my mom is a teacher. It is missions week for the school, so every day they are learning about different countries and the work being done there. We opened up the week by sharing about Ukraine. Addy and Ez helped me prepare the lesson and even shared part of it with the kids! I was so very proud of them!!!

Ezra and Havalah…ha!

Addy talked about where Ukraine is located, what kind of foods are popular there, what the homes are like, and showed pictures of the capital and important monuments.

Ezra talked about language learning, showed a picture of the Cyrillic alphabet and talked about the sound differences and shared some words he’s learned.

Havalah had planned to show her nesting doll, but got nervous…I pretty much knew that would happen! Ha! I could see how proud they were to share about Ukraine and it made my heart glad. I think this was a big leap toward them taking ownership of this mission. We were very thankful for the opportunity to share with other children!

Prayer and Discussion
Ever since we first learned about the need in Ukraine we have included the kids in prayer for the people of Ukraine.

Our sweetie, Heath. Still waiting! Hint hint

And Hanson, where is your Mommy?

And Porter, we love you sweet baby boy. Praying every day!!

There have been seasons when we have been more faithful in that than others, but over all it’s been a constant in our family prayers. The kids have certain orphans they pray for super faithfully, and most of those children have been, or are being adopted!

My sweet Aiden has a family!

Our love Sasha has a family!

SAMUEL!!!!! Has a family!!

That has been a great faith-builder for them! Now I’m seeing we need to start expanding our prayer time with them to include the caregivers, other believers in Ukraine, and the people we’re going to meet and grow to love there. I want to start praying with them that God will provide them with friends they can love and enjoy life with. Addy and Ez are particularly nervous that they “won’t have any friends”. I know it’s not God’s heart for them- so it’s time to start praying and believing that He will provide friends.

Sometimes I get nervous and think “What are we doing? Are we ruining our kids’ lives by taking them away from friends and family??” But then I think back to all the words God has spoken to our family along this process. This move is something He has called our whole family to- not just Jed and me. Life in Ukraine is something He is preparing for our whole family. When our loving Father created Adelina, Ezra, Havalah, and Seth He knew what life He was creating them for. He knows how this will grow them and make them into the men and women He has designed them to be. When I was pregnant with Addy a word was spoken that “This baby will be a bridge to people who don’t know Jesus”. I am so excited to watch God fulfill that through Addy. I can’t wait to watch each of our kids blossom and come even more alive as we walk into the destiny God has created for every.single.one. of us.

My Kids are Posers

Posted on September 5, 2012 by kimnjed

This morning we started back to school. We were supposed to start yesterday, but then our friends invited us to an amusement park, so obviously we pushed our school plans out a day.

Livin’ up that last day of summer!

Today, as I fought back the lingering nausea of the Tilt-A-Whirl and the lingering effects of Seth on little-to-no-nap, school officially resumed.

YAY!

Highlights of the first day…

1. Cookies for breakfast. Yep. It’s true. But, in my defense, they have the word “healthy” in the title. That’s got to qualify them as a breakfast food!…right?

2. Desks to the rescue. We just sold our dining room table. Uhhh where are we going to do school? Nice. I guess I should have thought of that last week. Luckily I remembered we had 4 little school desks in our garage that my aunt had given us. I had planned on selling them since they won’t really fit in our carry-ons, but I guess I’ll keep 2 of them around just for good measure. Sweet!

3. Latte delivery. My mom and dad love to occasionally surprise the kids with hot chocolate on school mornings. Today it was Grams with Starbucks delivered to my door. Cue Hallelujah Chorus. Thanks Grams!

4. Ezra rocks at math. How is it that Ezra seems to have improved at math over the summer with no practice? He is definitely his father’s son. Math is my nemesis; always has been, always will be.

5. Addy the tutor. Addy insisted Havalah should start preschool this year, so we picked up a little preschool workbook at Target for Hava to “study”. Addy could.not.wait. to help Havalah with her book. It was hilarious!

Addy: “Havalah, if you don’t like the way I teach you, just tell me and I’ll teach you differently. Just make sure you don’t scream at me.”

6. Seth the destroyer. Seth took a 3 hour nap after thoroughly destroying the house while my attention was diverted to the big kids. I’m choosing to think positive and call that a highlight. 🙂

7. My kids are posers. We walked to the park after lunch and I told the kids I wanted to take a couple pictures of their first day of school. OMG. Hands on hips, heads tilted. I’ve never seen my children like this. It was as if they were channeling Olan Mills. Immediately the poses broke out. Unbelievable.

Here’s the proof:

Look at the foot back on the tree! The hands! HA!

The hips! The bowed legs! The constipated smile? Hilarious.

Again with the foot on the tree! Pointed toe. Seriously!

This one just kills me. We never ever get smiles like this for pictures from our Seth. LOVE.

8. The biggest highlight of my day was seeing my kids excited to learn. Havalah and Seth were so proud of their scribbles. “This one’s for you Mommy.” Seth put his on the fridge all by himself! The Bigs and I snuggled on the couch and read while the Babies napped. I was deliberately with my children. Sigh. It’s great to be back in session.

Aren’t they beautiful? 🙂