Daddy is HOME!!!

internet safety for kids roadschooling

We are so excited to have The Chief home! It seems like he has been gone forever, even though his trip only lasted 6 weeks. We never quite get a good home routine down with him in and out so often without large periods of time at home but we try our hardest. We only have 16 more months to go being attached to a forward deployed Navy ship so we are literally counting down the time :)

We will be roadschooling this month! We have lots of sights to see while we have some family in town visiting us here in Japan! Kamakura, Enoshima Island, Hakone, Tokyo- just a few of the places for my kids to research and learn about as we explore our beautiful host country.We will also be focusing a little on internet safety before the school year starts. All of my kids spend time on the internet and I feel it is our responsibility as parents to teach them the hazards of the internet and how to avoid them.

5 Year Itch

This last week Squidward and the Princess attended summer camp at a local Japanese International school. They loved it! They loved getting up in the morning, riding the bus, eating special lunches, spending the day in organized fun and learning and coming home to a scheduled evening. They asked to go for real school. I cannot afford to send both to the international school at a price tag of $1120 a month in tuition costs but we are considering the DOD school on base.

I do not like to direction that US public schools are going but DOD schools are a league of their own, usually scoring better and having having a larger budget to provide services to their students. I have to be honest that I am getting a little burnt out with homeschooling and neither the kids and I are having fun like we did before. I have also been a little unhappy being out of work and really wish to reenter the workforce to help our family financially. We have also had some issues finding a great elementary homeschool curriculum that was complete and I certainly do not want to be doing a disservice to my children. We love a lot of the online options we have, especially learning  games offered like fill in the blank, but I just don't feel like any of our hearts are in it anymore.

We are five, going on six years of homeschooling and I wonder if we are in a slump or if it really is time for my family to consider something else.

Summer Camp

It is time for summer camp in our family's house! Zombie Boy has gone to summer camp the past few years in Washington State while we were stationed in Canada. He really enjoyed it but it was just a normal where the kids did normal summer camp stuff. This year he had the amazing experience of attending Camp Woodward  BMX Action sports camp. He LOVED it! He saved all of his money from his paper route and ought a BMX bike all by himself too. The staff was very accommodating and helpful with the fact that he was coming from overseas rather than nearby like many of the children.

Zombie also made the trek from Tokyo to Pennsylvania on his own too. I trusted that he would do ok and he did! It was a little difficult getting him on the flight in Tokyo due to so much being lost in translation but it all worked out. That was the most stressful part for everyone!

Each day Zombie had instruction in BMX bike riding and learned quite a few tricks and beginner skills. His favourte thing was being able to do stunts in the foam pit so that he wouldn't get hurt. He said the food was good, the activities were fun and he loved getting to watch the many BMX pros come out and provide shows and instruction to the kids. He also went paintballing, horse back riding, swimming, and many other fun activities.  Zombie wants to go back next year and is already saving him money to do so! I am hoping the camp will publish the pictures of his week soon so that I can share some of the BMX tricks that he learned.

Squidward and The Princess are in summer camp this week. They are attending Hayama International School- many Military kids attend this school during the normal school year and they speak English. They also LOVE it and we are looking into the possibility of sending them there for school- it is very expensive for our budget so I am not sure if we can pull it off. I also do not think that they have a full elementary school and would hate to send one kid and not the other. Each day they do fun activities like water play, go to the beach, arts and crafts and the week they are attending they are learning about firemen and policeman. Each morning the little Japanese school bus picks them up here on base and takes them to school. They even eat traditional bento box for lunch. I honestly think they like the bus and lunch the best! Both are doing well being away from home. Neither have ever been in day care and only Aidan spent a part of a semester in kindergarten. Mia has never stepped foot in any type of school and both are doing wonderful!!!!

Momma has done well these two weeks as well. I have kept myself busy without kids (such a weird feeling) by running errands, volunteering at the shelter and starting to focus on some homeschool stuff for next year.  I am designing writing lesson plans for the kids' journals and looking into curriculum that will provide creative writing help.