The homeschooling (and Spanish school) journey

I have a much greater appreciation for Claire and Caleb’s school and teachers after homeschooling the kids here in Costa Rica.  I have only a small sample of little learners, but they are at opposite ends of the learning-style spectrum:  one likes to impress with what she knows (yes, my first-born), while the other is not at all concerned about convincing me that he’s learned anything (even though I know he has) and often suffers from what I call the “floppy fish syndrome” during school.  It must take an unimaginable amount of patience and creativity to deal with a whole classroom of learning styles and temperaments!

The month of January and early February was a homeschooling marathon for me, since it was Costa Rican summer holidays and the local school was closed.  Since the kids started attending the local escuela in February, my homeschooling efforts have been sporadic to fill in the gaps when we’ve been travelling or the school has been closed—and there have been many of those days!  This week I’m homeschooling during Costa Rican spring break.   

I’ve found playing the role of teacher to my kids both enjoyable and challenging, and have been surprised how my feelings toward this role could change minute by minute during a school morning.  Some enjoyable moments have included Caleb independently reading his “popcorn words” (the 40 most commonly used English words), unanimous laughing at Caleb’s drawings in his journal (how does one draw a yak?!), and Claire’s pride after completing one of her PowerPoint presentations or another home-reading sheet.  

I love how homeschooling is so portable.  You can teach a Kindergartner to read and print pretty much anywhere as long as you have paper and pencil, and you can load enough chapter books for a grade 3’er onto an eReader to last a lifetime.  Here are some photos showing the different places we’ve homeschooled in the last few months:  

Our hotel room in San Jose, where we stayed for several days upon arriving in Costa Rica.

Homeschooling at our cabin. One of the best things I brought was a little chalkboard for Caleb to practice printing, although in this photo he's not using it for printing.

Homeschooling on our deck in Panama.

Trying to do school on our hotel's deck, while travelling with the students from the research station.

We homeschooled in a classroom at our of our stops while travelling with the students.  That worked much better!

I also really appreciate that we could take any one of our travelling experiences and turn it into a learning opportunity.  What’s more applicable than researching Olive Ridley turtles on the internet after having the incredible experience of watching one lay her eggs in the sand and return to the Pacific ocean?!  A perfect chance to take a stoked sense of wonder and turn it into knowledge.

One of my primary challenges has been to maintain Caleb’s focus and motivate him.  Homeschooling him has taken extra creativity and energy, since there are only so many learning games I can conjure up, or special activities and treats I can promise him as rewards.  It’s not like Tim Horton’s is around the corner.  Besides the occasional pop or extra cookie for good effort during homeschooling, he’s learned to read words by playing hopping/elastic-shooting/throwing/word-stomping games.  He’s also been motivated with tickle fests and extra wrestling time with Daddy.  When these fun games and motivators are dangled in front of Caleb, he can do it.  Sure, I’ll jump through these hoops, but I’m sure happy I can hand over the reigns to his teacher in May!

Having the kids attend the local Spanish school has been an interesting experience for our family.  The challenge of getting them out the door to walk to school by 6:45am aside, the kids have taken the experience in stride.  We are proud of them.  And it’s been interesting to watch them adjust, in their own ways, to not really knowing what’s going on a lot of the time at school.  Caleb is physical; there’s no awkward moment or misunderstanding that can’t be solved with a playful punch, leading to chasing and laughter between boys.  He likes Spanish school because they “just play all the time”.  (We switched him to the Kindergarten class early on—a much better fit). For Claire, who’s naturally linguistic, it’s been more of a challenge because of her innate desire to understand what’s expected of her and be able to communicate clearly.  She obediently writes copious lines of Spanish text from the chalkboard into her notebook, but says that there are long time gaps between tasks.  So she’s been producing imaginative and detailed drawings of her doll’s bedroom and new wardrobe, with many items labeled in Spanish.  She’s also been keeping a record, on her own accord, of new Spanish words she’s learned so that she can quiz Vern and I to see how much we know.  Humbling. 

Escuela la Lidia

Claire, hamming it up before english class.  The other kids look rather perplexed by her behaviour.

I have no doubt the kids have learned a lot while living here in Costa Rica, even if not much of it has come in the form of traditional learning in a school classroom.  But if you ask Caleb if he likes homeschooling, he’ll say “mas o menos” (“more or less” in Spanish). 

P.S. In the spirit of school, I have a quiz for you.  Can you name the food that I am peeling in this photo for our supper?  Email me the correct answer and you can win a bag of Costa Rican coffee!  (John and Heidi, you are exempt from this contest, since you saw this food on my counter when you were visiting).

Caleb took this photo of me preparing supper one afternoon.