Home-school & Home-life

Snails were a bad choice. But thankfully Alex’s hives improved, and we were able to rest from a crazy few days in Paris, once we were back in Spain. We decided to settle back into our apartment in Alicante the next week to get some family routines established and get homeschool started.

During this last week, we’ve signed up for an athletic club where we can play paddle, tennis and work out as a family. It has a soccer field and a soccer school that Mateo can join, an outdoor swimming pool, and tennis clinics for all ages. We tried a new tennis instructor, Pablo who the kids say they “can’t understand because he speaks way too fast,” but they enjoyed his jokes and his fun teaching style. We also found a Spanish teacher for the kids – Senora Patricia, who will be coming to our apartment to teach the kids grammer and converse with the kids twice a week, hopefully motivating them to get more confident in their Spanish.  The kids say Spanish people have very different words for things and their accent sounds like a lisp – its kind of true. The kids started homeschool which will consist of an online academy for writing, reading and math curriculums to help them stay on track with sixth and eighth grade and Alex and I will be teaching them the other subjects– like history/geography, science and bible. We established some daily routines as a family like reading a devotional in the morning and quiet time journaling before we start our day. The kids started a typing course which is 30 minutes a day-  which we hope will result in more blog posts 😊  We found a local Christian church we can attend on Sundays on the weekends we are in Alicante.  We even tried an online grocery delivery service from a local market and accidently ordered “piel de sapo” which means “skin of a toad” a type of Spanish melon which was a hit with the kids. We decided to rent a car for the three months we are here and picked it up in a coastal town an hour away. It’s a tiny little black Peugot and our family has named it “el poroto negro” – “the little black bean.” Unfortunately, it was vandalized just a few days later, when we found it keyed after playing paddle. Very sad!

We also celebrated Alex’s birthday this week by taking a scuba diving class in Playa San Juan. Lia and Mateo felt nervous but did amazingly well.  They completed two dives and went as deep as 30 feet. They both agreed that getting certified here in Spain would be a good idea so they can dive on our future trip in The Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. After scuba diving we rented the biggest SUP paddle board we’ve ever seen! All of us fit comfortably but we couldn’t all stand up and paddle at the same time without someone falling in the water. Maybe we need more practice because synchronized paddling is not our sport! Alex has been working on planning our next trip, which will be Berlin, Germany this weekend. We’re excited to explore a new culture and new foods!

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Lessons from our world-schooling adventures:

              In the excitement and novelty of the last few weeks, we honestly haven’t had much time to reflect on how its’ going. But after being prompted and encouraged by my mom, we wanted to take a moment to write about some of our humble learnings from our world-schooling adventures.   Life seems to have slowed down. Without the rush of the mornings and afternoon extracurriculars our days feel longer. Part of the reason for this is that they LITERALLY are longer on this side of the world. I just had Mateo research what time the sun sets in Alicante and it is around 9:30pm. Most Spaniards take a siesta between 2:30-5:30pm every day which means even the markets close during these times. And restaurants don’t open for dinner until 8pm.

Specifically for our family, slower days mean we are eating most meals at the table together.  Without the rush of school in the mornings the kids have had more time to sit and chat at the table, we have had more time to prep meals together, and chores have become more of a shared responsibility.   Homeschooling has taken on different forms and is not just limited to school subjects. In the last few weeks, the kids have learned some life skills like how to fold clothes correctly, how to address a letter and write an address on a postcard, how to read and write roman numerals, how to search for a recipe and setup a shopping list and budget for the market trip, how to scuba dive safely, how to navigate European airports, how to set a table correctly, how to order their own food in Spanish, and how to play paddle. Small questions have led to bigger research opportunities like Lia’s love for marine biology. She will be starting a science research project on what it means to be a marine biologist as this is something she has aspired to be.  With more time under our belts, we have the luxury of time to allow simple questions to lead to learning opportunities.  We are taking time to read books out loud as a family (which is something we haven’t had time for before). We read A Long Walk to Water and are currently reading Hatchett. Number the Stars and Diary of Anne Frank are also on the list. We have found a new sense of peace since our days don’t revolve around our schedules. And not surprisingly with less hurrying has come less yelling, less frustration and less stress for all.

I would be amiss if I didn't mention the hardships about the last few weeks. We have had to put in stricter technology rules for our family that we can adhere to. We have to remind ourselves what day it is every morning since our days are blending together. Weekdays feel like weekends, and weekends feel like weekdays. We have to be intentional about starting our days before 10am and going to bed before midnight. We are eating out more than we would like and miss the ease of cooking in our own home. Less friends around also means more time for sibling fights and arguments.  We miss our friends, famiy and dogs dearly! And just when we feel we are getting good at adjusting to our new normal and settling in, we start to prepare to pack and leave to another country.

So….we are working through the kinks but all in all we have found joy in the learning and peace in the present. We will be back soon to tell you more about our time in Berlin. Stay tuned!

xo The Stav 4