Talking about Homework (at the schools). (audio)
Today we went to Hannah’s and Nathanael’s schools to talk to the “powers that be” about homework. Listen to find out what happened…
Today we went to Hannah’s and Nathanael’s schools to talk to the “powers that be” about homework. Listen to find out what happened…
I’ve been promising to write more about Hannah and Nathanael’s homework, so you can get a little glimpse of our … umm … challenge…
Here’s the basic idea. Hannah and Nathanael get home from school, and at least Nathanael usually has a short rest (he gets home first). Then we have comida, our mid-day meal usually around 3pm. After that? Homework.
After homework, bed.
That’s right, it often goes right into the evening, and even then it doesn’t always get all done.
So what kinds of homework do they get? Well, there is some variety, though a favourite involves cutting and pasting, or copying.
Take for example Hannah’s spelling assignments. She had a list of 10 words (in Spanish, of course, but words like: guitar, seagull, shawl, ravine…). Then she had to find the word in a magazine or newspaper, and cut out the article.
One day Hannah came home with these instructions: Make and bring a mermaid puppet for tomorrow.
Really? Out of what? How big? What for? Apparently everyone else knew what was expected… but we’re not as experienced as the general public in making mermaid puppets.
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Nathanael will come home with homework for 3-4 subjects, a couple of pages each subject. What kind of homework do they give a 4 year old? Well, favourites are cutting and pasting, and writing. Write an entire page of "H". Cut and paste pictures of solids, liquids, and gases. Write your full name 7 times. As I write this he’s outlining his first and second name with plasticine (one of the more interesting assignments – but it’s taking a long time – he was bored after "h").
As I mentioned with the mermaid thing, we don’t always understand what’s expected. All right, almost every day we don’t understand something or other. Apparently after a year and a half of Spanish homework, we still have lots to learn. Thankfully, we have friends and neighbours who help us … frequently … over and over … such as Mayra Fry – thanks, Mayra!
Last week Hannah came home with ingredients she needed for an elective she takes once a week. They were ingredients we didn’t recognize, and as it turns out we had to buy them at a type of shop we didn’t know existed! Of course, all on top of the regular homework and due the next day.
We’re not the only ones frustrated with the amount of homework – our neighbours (many of whom have kids too) feel the same way. And often they don’t know what the teachers are asking for either! But of course we have an extra challenge not being from "around here". Plus, Hannah is doing a couple of courses in English – when is she supposed to do that? And “playing”? I think they did that a little over the holidays, that should do for a few months, right?
Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be a complaining post. The frustration certainly goes up and down. But we are looking for new ways to try to handle what is really not working right now. And I know some of you have been curious about exactly what kind of challenge the homework is here.
Hopefully that helps you understand a bit more the nature of our Nemesis.
For a couple posts from the previous school year regarding homework, check out Kids at school and vine sheets and Doing our kids’ homework
I know you’ve been going through extreme withdrawal after my almost-daily posting in December and early January! I didn’t mean to go cold turkey there, but we’ve been busy with some projects and I haven’t had much time to post.
There are two major things we’ve been busy with, aside from the general business of life. First, I’ve been working on something for CAM – a website, which Lord willing I can tell you about in a few days. We’re just working through a few more things before we launch it. Today I met with Bryan Smith from Querétaro and Rod Fry from Ixtapaluca, and we talked with Scott Yinging on the phone, and got together some great ideas for the site.
Also, we’re trying to get our plans together for the year ahead. I got together with Rod earlier this week, and the men of our church met together Thursday night, and the women of the church have also been meeting and planning.
Lord willing we’ll get together with the Frys, and also some other cohorts here in Mexico, in the days and weeks ahead for even more planning.
As you might imagine, we’re ready to get past all this planning and into more action! But it’s helpful to look at the year ahead, and we would appreciate your prayers as we make decisions for the next few months.
This planning involves not only some of our week to week goals, but decisions like – what we’ll do after our orientation year ends (this summer), decisions regarding Hannah and Nathanael’s school next year (and adjustments to what we’re doing this year), and how we’ll work together with a team of people in this part of Mexico.
Other than that – the busy-ness of life! Which has been no small thing in itself. We continue to struggle with our kids’ homework schedule – I would like to write more of an explanation about that later, but we would appreciate your prayers.
But some good news – we got an armoire kind of furniture thingme for Hannah’s room! That will be a big help, since she has no closet or dresser. So our quest to have a "fully" set up house continues. Next? Get something so we don’t have to sleep on a mattress on the floor (as you may recall, our box spring didn’t fit up the stairs), and some curtains (although thanks to Grandpa Winger we now have an actual blind on one of our windows! (He also fixed another leak – thanks!)).
Our church worship music band is also getting back into the swing of things, meeting for some sharing and prayer on Saturdays, and to practise of course. Prayer meeting was great this week. Yes, lots going on…. which reminds me…. I’m tired…. gotta go….
This is a video of our trip up to the Paséo de Cortés, where Hannah and Nathanael went fishing (among many other things). Also, you can see a close-up of the peak of Popocatépetl, with real-live volcano smoke. 😉
Hannah and Nathanael decided on their own to put on a Christmas play for us. The play was performed in our house here in Ixtapaluca. I thought you might enjoy getting in on the premier. 🙂
I understand some of you have had some trouble viewing our videos, so I’m going to try a few videos through YouTube. Hopefully it will mean a little better video quality, and something a little easier to view for some of you. Let me know what you think!
Note: I had some trouble uploading this video, so I’m posting it a little late, but dating it back to when it was made.
After getting some advice from our friends the Poulettes, we decided to go down to the Mexico City Zocalo for a little winter fun.
The highlight of the day was supposed to be ice skating, but there was an 8 hour wait. So much for that!
However, Nathanael got the chance to go tubing in the snow. And Hannah and Nathanael both built snowmen (little ones – you’ll see). We also got to visit the market and the Sanbourns restaurant at the house of tiles, so we had fun.
Having missed the skating at the zocalo, we decided to try out our skating rink here in Ixtapaluca today. As far as we know, this was Hannah and Nathanael’s first time on skates! It was fun, but I think we all used a lot of muscles that we don’t use all that often. 😉
So here’s some video and pictures – first downtown Mexico City, then here in Ixtapaluca. Grandpa and Grandma Winger were along, but only Grandpa went skating this time…