Time to Play

One of the more negative things I've felt about the Thai schooling system, is that there is not enough focus on sports. Its really academic: focus on languages, maths, and science. There's only one "physical education" class a week at Jonty's school - in my book this is not enough for a very active and physcial Grade 1 boy.

As a result, we have really encouraged Jonty to focus on his taekwondo as good exercise, an outlet, a release, a good way of learning self-control, discipline, and - of course - techiniques for defending his sisters in, say, 10 years time! I also try to get him outside, in play areas, or to the pool, as often as I can.

Well, cool season has officially started. Early mornings are pretty chilly - so chilly that we need to wear jumpers (or at least long-sleeved T-shirts) and socks to keep warm; and when I take the girls to kindergarten at 08h30 its only about 21 degrees C.

Cool season has not only brought out the winter woolies, its also brought out a new dimension in school life: SPORTS. Every day the kids now do sports from after lunch till 15h30 when school ends.

The downside of this is that its wreaking havoc with Jonty's homeschooling sessions, but I am delighted to see that Jonty is, for the first time since starting school, being introduced to football, badmington, volley-ball, athletics and other competitive sports. Even Emily comes home from school asking me to please feed them more veggies as she needs to get strong so she can win all her races.

Yet again, a reminder to self: things here are not worse, they're just different. In fact, its smart. Its usually way too hot to be doing strenuous sport outdoors, but now that the season allows for it, the school system is making hay while the sun shines.

Or should I say, playing sports, while the sun doesn't shine quite so brightly!

No place to hide

I collected Jonty's report card today. He did well, what a genius! Right up there in the top the class, not the very top, but close enough. How do I know where he came? Its simple - on the report card they indicate where he came in the class.

I thought that I could keep this information from him - the boy doesn't really need to know - until I walked out the classroom. Stuck up on the door of the class is, get this, a copy of the students' results ordered from highest to lowest. When Jonty arrives at school tomorrow, that will be the first thing he sees. So now I have a few hours to prepare him for the fact that (1) he's not number 1, and - more importantly - (2) how to deal with the fact that the results are posted there for all and sundry to read.

I am relieved that my son is up near the top, but I just feel terrible, awful, horrible for those kids at the bottom. And in a society where "face" is everything, I wonder how a kid recovers from being rock bottom...

And remember, they're only six or seven years old.

Over breakfast tomorrow morning, before he heads off to school, I'll be working on trying to help Jonty understand how those kids at the bottom feel and try to encourage a bit of empathy and compassion for them in his heart.

BTW, guess what Jonty's highest mark was for? No, not English, that was second highest. It was Maths. Must have an awesome Maths & English teacher. Ha ha.

Emily and I were up bright and early at 05h45, off to the Beauty Parlour. It was Emily’s big day – leading her school’s parade in town, and the head teacher had insisted that Emily’s hair, clothing, make-up, etc be done by professionals. She’d seen my attempts at a previous event and decided to take drastic action!

We arrived at the beauty parlour – and I felt as if I’d walked into a movie or something, so unreal was the experience. Five transvestites, or “ladyboys” , in various stages of undress, were prancing around getting a group of (teenage) girls ready for the same parade. There was giggling, and gushing, and dancing, and …

I sat quietly in a corner trying to be as unobtrusive as possible. This is NOT a world I am used to, not a place I am comfortable being in.

The head teacher thought these transvestites were quite adorable, and oh so well-mannered. They referred to themselves as “dichan” and ended their sentences with “jiaw” which is lovely and polite.

I was not happy, I admit, at the amount of attention these women/men were lavishing Emily. I don’t think they had anything other than good intentions, but I was still uncomfortable. Fortunately there were a lot of girls to be made-up, so we were out of there in less than 45 minutes.

We raced across town to the parade. All the schools put something up front that distinguished their school – one school has a swimming pool (the only one in town with one) so they had a few kids kitted out with goggles and swim-suits. Another school has a focus on the environment this year – their parade leader wore a magnificent ballgown made from plastic bags. Awesome.

But a couple of schools had their transvestites out front, leading their schools parade. “Transvestites” is not quite the right word for these people. The Thai term for them is “kathoey” which is defined as “an effeminate gay male” or “a male to female transgender person”. Many Thai surgeons specialize in male-to-female sex reassignment surgery.

Kathoeys are often very beautiful – elegant and graceful, with smooth skin. Some believe this may be part of the reason they are so open. They are very much accepted in Thai society.

It struck me that Thai children grow up encountering kathoeys as a normal part of their daily lives – they work in schools, at the beauty parlour, at Big C (and, yes, thousands are in the sex industry), they lead their schools’ parades. Basically, it’s the norm and its acceptable. TV programmes feature them – not to be laughed at but as a matter of course.

I realize it’s a very complex issue, and I cannot do it much justice in this short article, and I sincerely hope that this does not come across as critical or judgmental. Nevertheless I have to say that my heart ached for these young boy/girls in the parade last Saturday. AND for all the children watching them and thinking it was normal, beautiful, lovely, acceptable to have kathoeys leading their school parade.

Emily asked me all about the kathoeys at the beauty parlour. She knew something was not quite right, but couldn’t understand what it was. I tried to explain, as best I could, to an innocent 5-year old. And in the end, Emily said “I know what they are Mom, they are Phuu Mai Ruu” which translated means “people who don’t know”. Indeed, they don’t. They don’t know who they are, they don’t know the God who created them, they don’t know the Truth.

Please pray for the children of Thailand!

A tip: tired moms are not good teachers

Okay, so here's the thing. Home schooling does not work if you (as the mom and homeschool teacher) are not well organised, well prepared, and don't have a good routine. But even if you are all these things, but are tired, it can be a disaster.

We've had a bit of a hiatus with our annual conference and then the cousins' visit. Now I find I am struggling to get back into the swing of things. Jonty has been out of the routine for 3 weeks, and not used to doing it anymore, and we have to relearn all our good habits. That's what last week was about.

By Friday last week (a week of trying to settle back into old routines and rhythms) I was fairly organised, had done the lesson prep, etc, and Jonty was ready for the lesson, but even as we started, I realised I was way too tired to do it. The words were swimming around the page, and I could feel my patience was, well, kind of lowish. So I averted disaster and cancelled the lesson and put Jonty and myself to bed.

This week's focus will be on getting the groove back, and ... getting more sleep!

A day off - or not?

Big dilemma: Cousins and aunty going off to do Flight of the Gibbons today. They wanted Jonty to go with them. Jonty would have loved to have gone and I would have loved for him to have gone, but I was not feeling 100% happy about it - (1) another day off school and (2) not doing it with him.

After much deliberation, Nick and I decided that we would not let him go. When I told him this morning he was, like, okay, fine, what's for breakfast? I asked him if he wasn't upset...??? Surely he would be! But no, he really was fine and even admitted that he was feeling quite anxious about going "alone" (i.e. without mom and dad).

So today he went off to school while his favourite cousins went to Chiang Mai, and he went without whining and complaining.

Again I tell myself: School can't be THAT bad! Something good must be going on there.

Catching a Wobbly

Today Jonty's homework involved selecting 2 plants in the garden and then comparing them in terms of roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruit, using his magnifying glass to examine them closely. He had to write brief descriptions under each heading.

Easy? Well, ye-es, but ... it's all in Thai.

When he opened up his book to show me the chart he had to fill out I caught a wobbly. The thing is that I know NOTHING about botanical terminology in Thai. I know the basic words like "fruit", "roots", "flower", etc, and know enough to read the instructions, which is why I could actually work out what he needed to do, but how to describe all these things using the right terminology...?

How was I going to help my son with his homework?

I mean what IS a "hardy perennial" in Thai? What is a "compound" leaf, a "simple" one? How do they describe an "ovate" leaf? Glossy? Waxy? And types of bark: ring bark, corky, smooth bark, peeling bark? Do they even have all these words?

I don't know if I can do this. I can help him in English, but can I help him in Thai? I felt ever so slightly incompetent and inadequate. But while I was having a quiet little panic attack, and googling translations of "angiosperms", Jonty was calmly completing his homework:

Plant 1 (he'd chose a jasmine bush):
ROOTS: small
FLOWER: small, white
FRUIT: none
LEAVES: small, green
STEM: not strong

Plant 2 (coconut tree - magnifying glass of great benefit when looking for coconut trees, please note!)
ROOTS: long
FLOWER: long
FRUIT: coconut
LEAVES: big
STEM: strong, straight, long

CONCLUSION: Plants are not all the same.

(All of this written in perfect Thai of course)

Okay then. I can handle Grade 1, even if it is all in Thai because my Thai is at least this level - I actually knew all those words! And I'll just have to learn along with him. Or he can teach me.

P.S. Google Translate rendered พืชชั้นสูง for Angiosperms.

I don't want to go to school...

I hate school. I have no friends. School's boring. I don't want to go to school today....

Heard this before?

So have I.

And so have mothers living in every country in the world. But somehow when you're living cross-culturally and sending your children to a school that - in the back of your mind - you ARE wondering about, this can become a crisis.

Jonty was a bit negative going off to school this morning. He thought it might be better if he perhaps stayed at home - he had a stye in his eye, and thought he might be feverish, and besides, he loves being with me SO much.

Later when I discussed it with my sister she said some days she has exactly the same thing with her little girl, and her daughter loves school, has plenty of friends, and attends a brilliant school.

So: reminder to self:

All over the world there are perfectly happy and well-adjusted children teling their moms that they don't want to go to school today. And its okay. Wel, unless we are looking for reasons to keep our kids out of school, or justification for giving up on Thai schooling...

'I don't want to go to school' means the kids are just having a bad day...tomorrow will be better!

Principles To Ponder...

At our annual OMF Thailand conference, I - together with two other moms - talked about principles that helped us cope with having our kids in Thai schools. These were mine:

TRUST - Trust God (he loves our kids more than we do) and PRAY. He is with, he guides us, he cares intimately about us and our children.

RESPECT - Remember that we are living in THAILAND, not South Africa, and things are done differently - not necessary worse, but different; remember to appreciate what is good about Thai schools and be appreciative of what they do do well. Because there IS a lot they do do well. Be respectful even when we don't agree or like what they are doing. Be respectful enough to follow their systems as much as possible, to not belittle their school by making them feel as if their system is inferior or substandard.

BE INVOLVED - (1) at the school: Integrate as much as possible at
the school - connect with the teachers and be very respectful of them (especially in front of our children), offer help, go on field trips, attend sports
days, presentations, etc; (2) in the children's overall education:
this means taking a very active part making sure the gaps are filled, doing homeschooling, taking them to extra murals, doing exercise with them, helping with homework, etc. Heh heh, lots of "etc" in this blog; (3) in the kids' progress - I talk to Jonty, Em and Nina after school DAILY and debrief - ask how they are and watch the body language - discuss their progress with the teachers weekly (or more if necessary)

PERSEVERE - there are days I want to give up, and days I cry when I send this one little blond farang boy off to big school in the sea of dark haired kids. Be confident, even when I don't feel it (never let the kids see when I'm wavering). And help the KIDS persevere too. Which leads to the final point:

ENCOURAGE AND PRAISE - let the kids know how well they are doing. Let them know what positive attributes they're developing. Focus on their strengths, encourage them in their weaknesses. Celebrate the victories: school reports, gold medals, trophies. Jonty came third in a handwriting competition and I did a scrapbook page for him - he was so delighted (and realised that he does not have to come first for me to be proud!). Some may think I over do it, but I AM proud of them. What they're doing is jolly hard - I'm not sure I could do it!!!

Selecting a School (whenyoudon'thaveacluewhatyou'redoing)

When we looked for a kindergarten, we were looking for a school that focussed on preschoolers – not just a tag onto a bigger school. We wanted small intimate classes with loads of personal attention because we realised our children need the extra personal assistance if they were to cope. That's simply due to the language issue.

Beyond that, we were looking for a pre-school which would be flexible and understanding of our unique situation and - in particular - our religious beliefs because the children are not yet old enough to understand the significance of what they might get involved in and make a stand for themselves. Although having said that Jonty certainly did make a stand even when in kindergarten.

Nick and I went to look at about 7 kindergartens before chosing the one we did, and have been happy with it. Benjamat Kindergarten has been good for the Bekker clan. All three kids have had very positive experiences there. They are as happy as little tadpoles in a stream, as piggies in mud, as mozzies on Nick's forehead. You get the picture.

For primary school our criteria changed a little. One thing stayed the same though: Jonty remains at a disadvantage language-wise (his Thai is good, but there’s lots he cannot express and instructions he cannot follow). We did not want him to be in a class of 45 PLUS children where he’d get lost. I was looking for a smaller, more intimate school where kids would get personal attention. That was quite an ask let me tell you!

I did not expect as much in terms of flexibility as I realise there is an education system in place, and I know that in my home country we do not do whatever foreigners expect us to do and make exceptions for them. My thinking here was to go with their system as much as possible. We flex to THEM.

As socialisation is still one of our key reasons for sending Jonty to school, we did not want him cooped up in a class all day long - we were looking for a school that allowed time for breaks.

And then there was the issue of convenience: I planned to pop in during the day to do homeschool lessons, it needed to be fairly close to where we live.

I asked advice from all my local friends, especially teachers. I really appreciated their advice and input (even if I did not follow it).

We looked at 4 primary schools which had been highly recommended by friends (some schools we’d already rejected as we’d seen them when investigating kindergartens). We chose a school that we thought was the best one, but I had a sense of unease about it – a number of niggles, I just had no sense of peace. Even though we had the application forms all completed, I felt it was not right. Eventually I felt that God was telling me “look at one more”… Nick and I went back to one of the original schools we'd looked at as a kindergarten (and had rejected) and I sensed this was the right one for Jonty at this time.

By the way, religion was not actually a consideration for primary school – we live in Thailand, a Buddhist country, so I expect schools to be Buddhist. Jonty knows what he believes, he asks intelligent and insightful spiritual questions, he can stand up for himself, and can express what he wants to do (or not do). However, as it turns out, the school we chose is a Catholic school and while there may be some different practises and beliefs, the fundamentals are the same i.e. Jesus Christ is our Lord and Saviour.

And that's how we selected our schools.... not to say we did not make mistakes with Jonty. Having him in 6 schools in less than 6 years is NOT ideal, but I don't think too much permanent damage was done.

Mind the Gaps

I've mentioned that our job is to fill the gaps. Thai children are being educated for success in Thai society. We want our children to thrive in Thai society, but we also need them to survive in South African society... We cannot expect the school to help us with that, and we don't.

Emily and Nina are in kindergarten - kindergartens here need to have the child reading and writing by the time they enter P. 1. This is essential as most primary school classes have over 40, even over 50, kids and if the kids cannot read and write the teacher's job becomes almost impossible. Kindergartens which do not achieve this goal lose status and may even "go out of business". Even Montessori kindergartens veer off track so that they can teach kids to read and write early on.

When the focus is "academic" like this, clearly creative work and play is NOT. This is the main gap in kindergarten: creativity, play, sports. I spend time with the girls doing creative work, role play, and free play in their afternoons.

In primary school there is more. English as a first language is a major gap as they teach it as a second language. Another big one is problem solving. Creativity, sports and exercise are far less than in our home country, we think because its too darn hot here! We fill these gaps by following the WES (Worldwide Education Services) curriculum. English is the main focus - and there is quite a bit of creativity in this course, its lovely! The maths is centered around problem solving, so while Jonty learns 5 plus 9 is 14 at school, at home he learns how to apply that in every day life.

Another issue is that we do need to give far more emotional support to our children than we would if they were at school in SA. Emotional first aid and daily debriefing is necessary. Another important consideration is Home Assignment – we need to be preparing the children NOW to cope in SA schools, and while on HA we need to be preparing them to fit back into Thai schools. This means that while in Thailand we’ll homeschool (Jonty is following the WES curriculum, he has almost finished Y1 and moving to Y2 in about September), Em and Nina will follow the same pattern. When we go on HA we will buy the Thai books for their relevant years and try – as far as possible – to keep them on track.

The Others

Up till now this blog has been about Jonty's home-schooling journey. Now I am making it about all three children, and their wider education, not just home schooling.

So here's a bit of background about my precious poppets:

Jonty is 6 and has attended Anubaan Suan Angun in Chiang Mai, been in a Thai Homeschool co-op in Chiang Mai, Thabile Nursery School in South Africa, an international school in Lampang, Benjamaat kindergarten, and is now in Arunothai school. 6 schools and he’s only 6!

Poor kid you might think. But no, he "graduated" 4th in his kindergarten class despite the disruptions and language disadvantage, and is doing very well at his new primary school. He actually enjoys school. Although his Thai was his weakest mark, he did win a gold medal in a Thai public speaking last year. His pre-school teacher advised me that his Thai was more than good enough to cope in a mainstream Thai primary school.

Nina (3) and Emily (4, almost 5) are in a small private kindergarten: Benjamaat Kindergarten. It is a separate kindergarten i.e. not attached to a primary school. Emily started there in Triam Anubaan (what I earlier referred to as Grade 0000 or something) and is now in Anubaan 2 (Grade 00).

Nina used to go to the nursery twice a week, but has now started Triam Anubaan where Emily began her Thai education. They go to school from 8h30 to 15h00 on Mon, Wed and Fri, and till 11h30 on Tues and Wed. On their half days I do some activities at home – English, free play, and creative crafts. I guess this is ‘homeschooling’, but it seems a bit extreme to me to call it that for such little children! Really, I'm just being Mom.

Jonty, Emily and Nina are all outgoing and sociable and they craved friendships with peers. We’d heard that children just “pick up” languages, but had seen no evidence of this and were concerned that if the kids did not speak Thai they would be disadvantaged socially.

So, our 2 main INITIAL reasons for sending our children to Thai school were (1) for socialisation and (2) to learn Thai.

Now that we’ve been in the system for a few years we realise that there are untold benefits – such as being more normal to our Thai friends (my life is far more similar to theirs now, they understand some my challenges and I understand more of theirs), being accepted and included in community events, and many contacts we’ve made through the parents and grandparents. It’s a very natural way to be part of society. Our children are also developing a very deep understanding of Thai culture and we’re learning from them.

We do realise though, that there ARE gaps in the Thai education system IF we want our children to cope in other western education systems at some point - which we do, seeing as we have to take Home Assignment every 4 years!

We constantly monitor what those gaps are and do our duty in filling them. We see this as our responsibility rather than a weakness in the school. Our thinking has changed in that we are doing local schooling and supplementing with homeschool, rather than homeschooling and supplementing with local school. Our children are as integrated as much as possible and compete on a fairly even footing with their peers.

Hard? Yes, but enormous blessings in this too.

Choices choices choices

We use Thai school for our children's eduction. I don’t for one moment claim that Thai schools are the best option for every missionary family in Thailand, but our family has used them and have had fairly good experience, otherwise we would not continue to use them.

This is our choice. Doesn't make it right or wrong. Makes it ours!

None of us can be sure that we are right – in fact I think we need to let go of the idea that we can be sure that we know what is right for our children in every circumstance. What’s right for one family is not right for the next. What’s right for the first child in a family may not be right for the second. What’s right for this year, may not be right for next year. What’s right for this term, may not be right for next term.

So what are the choices?

We have 4 basic options in terms of schooling our children : local day schools, international schools, boarding school, homeschooling, and then all sorts of various combinations of those. All of these are good. One option will be better for one child one time, and another option will work another time. There is NOT only one way to educate a child.

I admit that before we had kids we were not thinking of local schools (or boarding school). We always thought we’d homeschool. My view was the local schools were inferior that we’d be doing our children a disservice by sending them to local Thai schools. One of the books I read before coming out, a good book that many new missionaries read, it bluntly stated: “One option that is seldom suitable is national school.” It is “not recommended”, the “standards – even if high - don’t match the home country”, “the children will absorb the cultural values of the host country” and it makes reentry difficult. Sounded terrible. And listening to some colleagues talk about their experiences, it sounded WORSE. No, I would not subject my beloved children to that!

Then reality strikes...

For little ones boarding school is not really an option, so that leaves us with homeschooling. But for homeschooling to work, the mother must be able to teach and see this as her calling, the child must relate well to mother in a student-teacher setting, there must be playmates from one own’s culture, and the possibility of joint activities with other kids (according to the experts these kids should be from the same culture, but I would have settled for ANY kids!). While the first three criteria were present, we felt that we were sadly lacking in the last two.

And so we changed our thinking and sent our kids to Thai school. Things have changed.

The book that I quoted from was written over 15 years ago. Things have changed. We are living in a far more global world and we have incredible resources that can support us in whatever decision we make.

So, for now, Jonty is in P. 1 (sort of equivalent to Year 1, Grade 1), Emily is in Anubaan 2 at a Kindergarten which is Grade 00, and Nina is in Preparation for Anubaan which would be Grade 0000 if there were such a thing.

I don't know if we've made the right choice or the best choice, but what I do know is that God loves these children and no matter what we do, he holds them in his hands and is with them every moment of their lives. Despite us!

Term 3, Week 3

We've got a good routine going now. We do HS Monday to Friday from about 16h30 to 17h30. It gives Jonty an hour or so to relax after school and even though its "school" its also one-on-one time with me which is kind of precious when there are other kids in the house always trying to get my attention. Although certain parties ie. NINA and EMILY (not to mention names) do tend to interrupt us DESPITE the Dad in the house and strict instructions not to. Its frusrating because we can do our lessons in about 40 minutes if we are uninterrupted. But try telling that to a 3 year old (or an almost 43 year old)...

Anyway, we are staying on track very nicely with Maths and English. I am planning to do Humanities as a project during the Thai school holidays.

Sometimes I can see that Jonty is pretty tired, and I try to keep those days shorter. I still feel sorry for him - so little time to just be a boy.

Term 3

Well, term 2 is all over. Assessments all done, Jonty is doing well, and our tutor is giving amazing assistance and advice. She's a star. Like Jonty.

Now we're onto Term 3 with Maths and Science. As Thai school has started, we've had to find a new routine. Jonty gets home from school at 15h30, so I give him an hour to play and unwind, then I do about 45 minutes from 16h30 - 17h15. I manage to do an English and a Maths lesson in that time. The poor kid has supper at 17h30 then off to taekwondo at 17h50... evenings are such a rush.
B
U
T
even though I feel sorry for him, I also know that he enjoys it. He's enjoying the maths (especially the games) and enjoying the English - cos he's good at it. He asks for MORE! I am managing to stay much calmer and as a result we're both enjoying it more. When he concentrates and focusses, he's brilliant. When he does not, I want to toss him and all the school work out the window.

Anyway, its just a temporary set-up because next week we are going to discuss doing his HS during school hours - I'd go in and teach there during his English class. This will free up his afternoons and I am really hoping the school/teachers will be open to it. He's had almost month to settle and things are going well. I think the time has come.

That's it for now.

Week 8

Done (well, for English and Maths anyway - Humanities can wait..).
Reports sent off.
On Track.

Week 7 over

Well, its been a good week. Jonty has done all his Maths and English for week 7. Next week we can do Week 8 which is another assessment week. I am still a bit behind with Humanities, but ... honestly ... not too worried. We can catch up some time.

I still get irritated when Jonty does not think. Do all home school parents experience this? Or am I just an old battle-axe???

I am getting wiser, I think, at what we do and what we select not to do. Looking forward to getting feedback again at the end of next week.

Jonty is reading a Roald Dahl book now, which is laugh-out-loud funny. So good for him!

What's up?

No blogging for a while because... well, there's been no home-schooling.

Yesterday I did a whole week of English lessons - in 1 hour, and the day before I did 3 Maths lessons (also one hour). Officially this should have taken 8 hours. Ha ha.

I think the trick to getting this all done is skimming through it all, then zoning in on areas which are problematic. All the lessons from this past week (Week 6) were non-problematic so we COULD go fast.

Jonty is reading like an absolute star. He is fully into Enid Blyton now.

English - week 2, lesson 2

Jonty wrote a poem - based on one from his book, but other than the format, its all his own. He typed it up and decorated with some pictures we downloaded from the internet.

I want a hamster

I want a hamster.
Any sort of hamster.
A big hamster,
A fat hamster,
A funny hamster,
A sunny hamster,
a nice hamster
a wise hamster,
a quick hamster
a thick hamster
but I WANT A HAMSTER!

by Jonathan James Bekker

Maths - week 3, lesson 3

It should have been a fun lesson today as I am on something of a Mini Holiday this week with all my classes being cancelled, so this morning I had ample time to prepare a wonderful lesson.

I had some pictures with numbered sections. I'd present a problem (most subtraction) and then he had to colour in the answer. He was supposed to come out with a pig in the end. It started well, but degenerated quickly as Jonty decided to switch his brain off. He has a tendency to do that - even laughs about it, telling me to put him into gear. Unfortunately his gear today was "reverse".

The worst was thinking that 8 - 4 is 8. And worse still, he thought this because apparently because I (me!) told him so. I may have told him that 8 is 4 more than 4... but still. Funny how he always has to blame someone. Wonder where he gets that from...?

Fortunately there was some written work which seemed to jump start his brain and so he was fully functional for a couple of games afterwards. We did a fun puzzle and other than muddling plus and minus signs he did well. I think I might create a few more versions of that one.

I had a cow version of the pig game and even though it was not scheduled I did that too, and he did just fine. I still think its just the mental arithmetic that freaks him out. I hope so, because if that is the case then with practise he'll get it. And all I need to do is persevere.

He ended off the lesson bellowing for his English class please.

Week 3 - English Lesson 1

We did some spelling. He's good. Just like his mom ...

We read quite a few rhyming books and poems. Afterwards he picked out rhyming words and then made up more of his own.

These were his best:

dad sad mad
fish dish Trish (it was the first time he'd ever written my name and his reaction was quite sweet)
love dove shuv
away bay hay may
flap tap map lap

He really enjoyed this and tomorrow he gets to make up his own rhyme and he's excited about that. Even though we're a day behind schedule I am not too worried as he so enjoys his English classes and gets through the work so quickly. Actually this evening I COULD have spent less time reading and moved onto lesson 2 and finished it, but instead I just let him read and explore the poems and rhymes. I think he really appreciates and enjoys poetry and who am I to rush him when he's only just discovering the joys!

Week 3 - Maths 1 & 2

Wow - the lessons go so smoothly when I am prepared and know what I'm doing and have the jellytots on hand.

Today's 2 lessons went very well. Jonty was on form, we got the work done and he understood most of it quickly and easily.

We worked on factors adding up to 6 and 7. Went well.

We did story sums (subtraction) and he was quick to pick up what was being asked, write it out in the correct way and answer it correctly too.

We played subtraction board games which he liked .. mainly because he won - ha ha. Seriously, it is a fun way to do arithmetic - using the numbers on the 2 dice, he had to work out "the difference" so it helped cement that concept as well as his mental subtraction skills. He likes games. He likes winning. He likes jellytots.

So - on form, on target, on track. Yippee.

Week 2 - Humanities

This lesson went WAY better than last week. We covered quite a lot of ground as we did most of what I'd left out last week AND this weeks two lessons.

We talked about belonging, belonging to a family, to a group, to a religion. Jonty has plenty of life experience to draw on in terms of groups he belongs to: OMF, taekwondo, JMC and Benjamaat Kindergarten.

In terms of family we caught up a bit with what we'd missed last week. Had a great time looking at photos. Comparing photos of Nick as a little boy with Jonty - pointing out differences and similarities. Also for "Dad". We put the photos into family groups - the Norvals, the Volkers, the Moggees, the Baxters, etc. He was very sure of who was who and who belonged where.

I also got a whole lot of photos of him from birth till recent (last photo was taken 2 weeks ago) and he had to put them in order. He loved that. He then also talked about development and how he's changed over the six years. He says the major changes are that he can talk and do maths and doesn't have to be carried around or wear a nappy anymore.

Then he made a kind of scrapbook, sticking in photos and writing a line or two about the family members in the photos. He did about 5 or 6 pages, but plans to do more over the next weeks. He's going to do this when he has the time and inclination. Its his project.

The discussions about religion were interesting. Obviously he has a good knowledge of Buddhism, but we looked at pictures of other religious groups - a Jewish synagogue, a Muslim mosque, a Hindu temple... he was very interested in it all. I think he thought there was just Buddhism and Christianity.

He totally disagreed with the story we read as part of the lesson which said that you join the church when you get baptised. He informed me that he'll be baptised when he fully understands what that means, and he is still not sure, however, he loves Jesus and has "chosen" Jesus so he IS part of the church.

I asked him what "church" means - what do people do for church? - he says its when we get together, chat, sing some songs, and have a braai. I liked that!!!

The idea of infant baptism struck him as nothing short of ridiculous. A baby cannot possibly know what they are doing! "What's the point?" he asked.

He thinks he might get baptised when we are on Home Assignment.

We had made a flag from the previous lesson so we did not make badges, but he is keen to make a family badge so we might still do that as a craft.

Maths, Week 2, Lesson 5

He is starting to get the hang of the vocab. He gets the key ideas of each lesson. Its the details I worry about.

He counts in 2's just fine. Knows the difference between odds and evens. I found the lesson plan for Day 4 and 5 a bit confusing. The WES course says the text in the OMZ lesson plan book is confusing, but their explanation was not much clearer.

Jonty enjoyed making number patterns. I was not exactly sure what they were so kind of made up what I thought they were!!! I looked through term 1 to see if I missed something, but a quick flip-through yielded nothing - I must e-mail Moira.

He needs to consolidate his "facts to 7". Jonts enjoyed the game, but I did simplify it to build his confidence. I think we'll play the game again - he loved it and it was good practise.

We also used a pack of cards I have for addition practise - up to 7. I actually think he FINALLY grasped that if, for example, 3 + 4 = 7, then 7 - 4 must be 3. I THINK it clicked.

We'll see.

Not a bad week. Yes, some frustration on my part, but he's doing just fine.

I didn't do the Copymaster 3 as it was not in the file, but now see it should be in the Lesson Plan book. I also did not do homework copymaster 12. which was not in the file, but probably also in thte same book. Sadly only read the "additional taeching points" after the lesson and discovered that little gem. But luckily that can be done later as its an extension activity.

English 3, 4, 5, Maths 3, 4

All's well. Could not blog yesterday and most of today because of computer/internet difficulties, but everything is sorted out. Jonty is on track with all his work and enjoying it all.

He likes maths when we play games, especially games with the dice, especially games that he wins.

Ask him what is 10 more than 6 and he sighs and groans. Roll the dice and ask him what's ten more than the number he's rolled (6) and he's keen and eager to shout out "16". Yippee.

I won't report on the details of the last 5 lessons, but I had to laugh at his story about his jobs and how he feels about them:

"My job's"

I open and closs the gate. I do not like it.
I get water at supper time. I don't mind doing it.
I have to tidy my drawer. I have to tidy my unduwer. I love it!

LOVE the spelling of "unduwer"

Otherwise, no problems, all according to the schedule. And the last two days have been good in terms of me being pretty cool, calm and collected - if I do say so myself! i do also think that his maths IS improving i.e. he is thinking a bit more and using that brilliant brain of his.

Maths - lesson 4 & 5

Now that a few hours have passed I am somewhat less frustrated and thought I'd better journal today's double lesson properly.

We did some number rhymes - he enjoyed the "10 fat sausages" one and we did this in 1's and in 2's and then a mixture of 1's and 2's which was challenging for him, but fun. He used his number line.

I introduced the 100 square. He counted in tens from various different numbers - up and down. Mostly got it right.

He did the worksheet, and when he checked his work he picked up his 3 mistakes on his own (on one worm had muddled backwards and forwards, on one he had forgotten to count in 10's, and then he'd became dyslexic on one muddling 42 and 24) and corrected them himself. I then made some rattlesnakes and he did another 4 along the same lines, and got them all 100% correct.

We had an interesting discussion about being "perfect". Because he IS such a perfectionist, I actually try to encourage him to try things out, and make mistakes, and even if its not perfect its ok, because no-one is perfect. But actually, when it comes to maths you can, and should, be perfect. Or not? Jonty believes NOT. I am now trying to change that perception!!!

We played a game with jelly tots when he could ask ME questions based on the 100-square. If I got it wrong he ate a jelly tot. If I got it right, I got the jelly tot. He liked the "power" of handing them out and telling me when I was wrong... (makes a change!).

We played odd and even snap - he won. surprise surprise....

We did a bit more work, using the multi-link cubes, figuring out odds and evens. I think he has a good grasp of it, even if he does call it "odd" and "evil". We ended off with some dice games which worked well. Good for practising addition and consolidating all we'd done on odds and evens, plus he won more jelly tots.

Hooray for Jellytot maths!!!

English - week 2, lesson 2

English today was different. Oh, it started with the usual - reading the book, then a game unscrambling sentences which was easy for him and going over his sight words, which he already knows well. But then... we had to make signs. Jonty decided what signs were needed in and around the house:

For his room: (1) Please be quiet (for when Nina is sleeping) and (2) No Entry (aimed, I think at Kids Club kids and Lukas!)
For his special box of treasures: "Do not touch"
For the gate where he often hurts his fingers with the latch : "Be careful"
For the shoe rack: "Please put shoes here"
For the bathroom where Nick was tiling: " Please do not touch the tiles!" - this one he typed on the computer and printed it out very professionally - he enjoyed that a lot.

He also made signs for the cupboards so that P'Noi would know whose drawers were whose: Jonty, Emily and Nina. He did those in Thai and in English - as he pointed out P'Noi can't read English.

He made all the signs on nice big pieces of paper and used lots of bright colours. Getting him to write big was a bit of a challenge, but getting him to use capitals was nigh impossible. I am going to have to work on pointing out that signs normally have big capital letters to draw attention. He did not get that concept at all. I was pleased to see him use an exclamation mark.

He enjoyed it a lot and felt very important going around and sticking up his signs everywhere.

Its the longest lesson we've done yet - mainly because he was a perfectionist about his signs. He wrote all the wording out in his workbook, then chose colours and coloured pens. Then he wrote out the signs onto his coloured paper, but if they were not absolutely perfect, he crumpled them up and started again.

I have a feeling we have not seen the last of his signs.

End of week 1 Maths

Today I finished up Week 1's Maths lessons. Frustraaaaaaaaaation. I was not not not designed to be a maths teacher.

Jonty, count in 10's from 10 to 100.
10, 20, 30 ... all the way to ... 100

Jonty, count in tens from 6.
6, 16, 26, etc...

Jonty, count backwards in tens from 55
55, 45, 35

The boy's a genius. he's got this concept so quickly. The first time we've done it and he's brilliant - he's referring to his chart, but that's fine, he's allowed to and I am glad he's figured out how to use it.

Jonty, count backwards in tens from 26
25, 24, 23...

Jonty, what's 2 10's more than 10?
12

Jonty, what's 2 minus 1?
0 - he says, after working it out on his fingers!!!!!!

aaaaaagh.

What can I do?

I am just not a maths teacher.

Science

Today Jonty had his first science class...with the best science teacher we can afford...moi! I was pretty nervous about it initially. I mean, really, science is an important subject and whilst I am very comfortable teaching adults English and facilitating workshops for adults...school science! Man that's daunting! Anyway, after lunch, with much fanfare and excitement, we broke out the science curriculum. Week 1 - "Ourselves". For the next hour and a half Jonty and I labelled body parts, drew pictures, discussed the differences between animals and non-animals, the commonalities of animals and generally had a fun time. We even managed a game of "snap" which tied in with the theme, as well as "Simon Says" and a song. It really was a good time together and for me, it felt very meaningful. It was a good time of bonding and it felt very good as a parent to spend focused, intentional time with my child, doing something that was fun for both of us and yet part of his education too. We had some serious discussion and we had some silly talk and we laughed. I don't think I ever had this much fun learning science at school. I hope my son's experience was a good one and I hope that the rest of the syllabus will be in the same vein - hanging together, having fun whilst gaining vital knowledge in the process. I really feel (at this stage) that it is a rare privilege to be part of my son's education.

Humanities, Maths

It is fairly important to be prepared when being a home school teacher. I had read through the lesson plans for Humanities - in fact I'd read through the whole first 4 weeks, but I had not actually PREPARED. After a very unsatisfactory start to the lesson yesterday I called it a day with Jonty and did not complete the lesson. I just stopped the class and sent him to watch TV. I realised that he lost out because I had not done my homework. Not fair. And he was disappointed too. The lesson was about families, and he was enjoying it. So today, while waiting for Em to do her ballet, I re-read the lesson plans, and made copious notes of what I needed to do and how I needed to prepare. I am confident things will go better next week.

This morning I did 2 maths lessons, even though its Sunday, because I am still trying to catch up. I think that by the end of this week he should be on par with his maths. He's doing well - when he thinks, that is. He does not really like to think. He likes to know the answers, memorise them, and the sprout them.

He counted well in 2's (starting with 0 or with 1, and in fact starting with any number). he counts backwards easily, and can count backwards - a little slower - in 2's. He is very comfortable counting up and down in 10's. He is also very quick to figure out which number is bigger than which, and also to order numbers correctly e.g. given a sequence like 38, 12, 7, 56, etc. he will have them sorted in seconds.

He enjoys written work a lot - must be because that's what he's used to from his Thai school. You can see him visibly relax when we move from mental work to written work! He works very quickly and confidently.

He's really getting the hang of the new vocab too! he was even coming up with different ways to say "2 plus 3" or whatever.

He pretty much breezed through his 2 lessons - took about an hour to do both (with numerous interruptions from the E and the N factors).

And here endeth my day. Good night. Sleep tight.

English 4 & 5, Maths 1

Jonty had a bad night last night with terrible earache and woke up this morning with a raging fever. So weak he could not even walk. So I did not send him to school, but rather to the doctor. He now has a vast array of medications, poor kid.

But it was, ironically, a really good homeschooling day!

Once the medication kicked in we had our first proper maths lesson ever. Lesson 1, week 1, Term 2. It was so much fun. Jonty had a ball. And because it was not "assessment" or "test" or "check-up" I did not feel worried or stressed when he asked what words meant. We got through everything and I don't think he even realised he'd had a lesson.

I have made "Monster Maths" scary posters for all the different ways of expressing "plus", "minus" and "equals". Jonty did not think they were very scary but he liked them and referred to them.

Then we did an English lesson which was great. He takes great pride in his work.

I was not planning to do anymore teaching today, but because he'd slept so much during the day today - feeling so grim, poor boy - at 7pm bedtime, he could not sleep. So he begged me to do another English lesson. We thus completed the week's English programme! Great news as tomorrow we can catch up with the Maths a bit.

He had read his book five times already, now he had a "creative writing" exercise to tell the story from the perspective of one of the characters in the book. Initially he thought it would be fun to tell it from Floppy's point of view, but later settled on Chip as a simpler option. Here it is:

STORy to tell (by Chip)
I went to a New house. I looked at quite a lot of room's. kipper pulled the wallpaper. I liked the house. I liked the Big Bedroom. there was a treehouse. the house was a grate house. I hope we moov into the house. the end.

Apparently spelling and handwriting are not too important, the idea is to get him to express his own ideas and gain confidence in writing. He does write confidently - he likes me to sit with him and checks spelling with me from time to time, but mostly he's correct. I love the apostrophe in "room's".

He could not spell out "there" phonetically, so I helped him with that word. He looked up "house" and "wallpaper" in the book. He spelled out "grate" and "moov" phonetically - and I was very proud of myself for just sitting by and not correcting him. Takes soooo much effort.

When he'd finished he wanted me to read it to him, then he read it. He was so pleased with himself.

Then he went to bed as it was 8pm and way past his bedtime.

I hope his infection clears up soon because he's really in pain, but man, he does his work well when he's sick.

English 3, Maths still under review

"Mom, what work have you got for me today?" Oh, what precious words to hear!!!

Today Jonty had to catch up with his English. He'd not been able to do any writing because his books had not arrived yet, but praise God now they have arrived. So he did his first bit of written work. He enjoys writing and he's good at it. He did some spelling and handwriting, and then I dictated some sentences and he filled in the gap words. he did well. He spelled "went" as "wend" but I think that's just because he has a blocked nose at the moment. He read it a few times and spelled it out phonetically yet insisted that it was right. Must be the nose.

Then we did lesson 3. We re-looked at his book, he was not happy, he wanted to move onto the next one. I explained that we do this book for the whole week. He accepted that... Today he had to re-read the story with feeling. He gave it stick!!! It was not just a big room it was a beeeeeeeeeg room. Kipper did not just look up the chimney, he looked uuuuuuuup the chimney - neck extended way up. So sweet. He did really well.

we worked on the CH sound which, thanks to about a year of speech therapy, was a breeze. Blessings come in unexpected ways.

Then onto maths -

I did some check up tests for Jonty. I had some concerns afterwards. I was feeling a little bit unsure, should I start at Term 1 rather, could I really begin on Term 2 when Jonty was asking basic questions about vocab??? And how could I teach the new concepts well?

But now this is where the beauty of having a tutor to contact is so evident. I e-mailed Moira, our angel in the UK, and she was such a help. Moira answered within the hour!

Jonty is normal. All kids, even kids in the UK, struggle with the this vocab... and based on what he did do and did answer, in the test we can confidently proceed with Term 2 as the concepts do get consolidated. Moira offered some tips and games for teaching the new concepts and new ways of thinking... she suggested 2 websites for additional resources. WOW! This is an awesome way to homeschool!

Tomorrow we start Lesson 1, Term 2.

We're doing English and Maths from Monday to Friday. Humanities on Saturdays, and Science on Sundays. I am hoping that Humanities and Science will be more like doing a project on the weekend than "school". From what I have seen of the lessons I am quite confident that it will work out that way. The lessons are really interesting, relevant and fun.

I use the word "fun" a lot, don't I!??

Good!

Not just homeschooling

Don't think for a minute that my boy is only learning from him home-schooling mom! Or no siree! Yesterday he comes home with a certificate of proficiency in Buddhism.

There is an organisation - some connection with UNESCO too - based in Bangkok running a project to increase Thai people's knowledge about Buddhism. Jonty not only passed their test, he got full marks for it.

The teachers made me laugh because they know we're Christians so they asked how I would feel if they were to award Jonty this particular certificate i.e. on the off chance, if, perhaps, he were to write the test.... you know, just suppose...

I asked a few questions and was comfortable with their answers (clearly it was intellectual knowledge only) so I said it was fine - whereupon they sheepishly presented him with the certificate and his prize, which one teacher was hiding behind her back!!!

And so his knowledge grows.

Maths - A starting point.

Oh boy.

It was decided that Jonty would start Term 2 of Grade 1 as he's already covered quite a bit of maths in his Thai kindergarten. Today I discovered that "covered the material" is not the same as "mastered the material" ...

Sadly this was a reminder of the shortfalls in the Thai education system. For one - problem solving does not seem to feature. The WES maths curriculum that we're using DOES.

Because we are skipping Term 1 I decided to do some of the workshets and assessments provided... just to check if he really DOES have the concepts.

Jonty is a bright boy. Ask him what's 2 plus 2 and he'll laugh at you for asking such an easy question - he'll answer immediately and ask for another sum. Ask him this - which is what I did this afternoon - "if hot dogs cost 2 baht each and I buy 2 hot dogs, how much will I need to pay?"

5

2

3, 10, 1...

Aaaagh!

Never mind, we drew hot dogs, put price tags on them and he got that one easily enough. But then I asked the follow up question - "if you pay the owner 5 baht for those hot dogs, how much change will you get?"

Hits forehead, bangs head on desk, squints eyes, mutters to himself "think think think"!

Okay, time out. Take a Marie biscuit and milk break. During the break ask him casually 'what's 5 minus 4?' ... does not even pause: "1".

He can also easily subtract 3 from 5, but don't ask him "how many more is 5 than 3". Its a different way of thinking, and actually having to figure out what the problem is before he can solve it. The problem is not being neatly presented to him.

Well, I am sure we'll get there, and even in the short time we spent today I could see progress. But not without a degree of frustration on my part which I regret to say I did not hide very well.

There is work to do before we get into term 2, that's for sure! We had a good talk though, about the difference between Thai school and this work, and although Jonty still thinks we're making a monumental mistake wanting to home-school him, he's surprisingly enthusiastic about it.

Another problem is with the terminology. We've also only used "plus" and "minus" or "take away" at home. The new syllabus uses words and phrases like "add", "what's the total", "the difference" and "subtract". He's learning a whole new language.

I think I need to make some wall charts with all the different terms to help him remember.

On a more positive note, we played "shop shop" which was fun and he paid correctly and intelligently most of the time, although I could have easily swindled him when it came to giving him change! But at least that was fun.

I also played a game to see if he really knows the value of numbers, and he does.

He enjoyed a colouring in exercise where he had to match the numbers to the plants and then colour them in the colour indicated on the "seed" packet.

All in all it took about 35 minutes, including the cookie break which was probably the most productive time.

English: Lessons 1 & 2

Lesson 1.

I did not have the workbook, so things MAY have been different if I'd had it. As it was the lesson took about 10 minutes...

My job was to introduce the book and the characters: "House for Sale" with Biff, Chip, Floppy, Mum, Dad, and Kipper all featuring. The book was really appropriate - we've just moved house and our "new" house was also in a state of disrepair like the one in the book ... yet we all liked it.

Jonty liked the house. Mum liked it too. Emily liked the house. Nina liked the house. Everyone liked the house. Domino and Daisy liked it too.

Then Jonty read the book. Perfectly. Fluently. Then he wanted wanted to read books 2 through to 6. And then the extra stories provided too. Then our 10 minutes were up. No, no, no, I exaggerate, he actually read all the other stories while I was off with Emily doing ballet and music (Emily does it, not me!).

Lesson 2:

He read the book again. Very confident. Lots of expression. Good pauses at the full stops. Good reader!

Then he made had to draw and write up an advertisement for a house. The boy does not know what an advertisement is!!!!!!! why is that? probably because (1) we don't really have magazines and newspapers lying around and (2) what advertising he does see in terms of fliers, billboards, etc, he probably has not realised are adverts. So, before anything else I had to explain what they are. I found one of Nick's Runners' World magazines and we looked at some adverts for running shoes, arnica, etc.. then looked at Time and Newsweek and found adverts for Rolex and laptops.

Then the lights when on.

"Oh", says my little boy, "So an advert is when people lie to you to get you to buy something!"

That figured out, he created a wonderful advert for an imaginary house which had 3 basements, a beatufiul garden and was painted green and yellow. Going for 60 baht! what a salesman. He was nervous about writing it up, said he'd rather draw and talk about it, but once he got going he enjoyed the task tremendously.

Nina then tore up his work, so he had to re-do it which he did with a great deal of enthusiasm. This time, though, the house was going for 600 baht. Inflation you know...

he needed help with some words e.g. garden and basement, but he sounded them out and got them. He spelled out 'beautiful' perfectly, but then lost his confidence when he came to writing it and asked me to help.

He is a bit confused about the different scripts. At school he writes the "Thai" way, but has noticed that the script is different. He kind of mixes them at the moment. I am trying to be relaxed about that, but I do freak out a bit when he forms his o's the wrong way round, and writes his i's upwards not downwards. I know that's how they get taught at school, but its going to make it difficult to write cursive one day.

Anyway, we played some word games for reinforcement, but it was actually just for fun as he knew the words and did not really need the reinforcement. But it was fun, and that's always good.

he's so excited about it and so keen. Lovely student. My very best one.

The Start

It was hard to know when to start. The academic year runs from May to March in Thailand. It runs from January to December in South Africa and something like August to July in England. And we are South Africans, living in Thailand, following a British homeschool curriclum. Confusion.

I made the decision to follow the South African year as closely as possible because, when we go home Jonty will need to fit into that system, so it makes the most sense. But a January start was out of the question as we moved our centre and our home in January and amidst the rubble and chaos of our move/renovations, I did not think it was possible to start the programme. And I was right!

Another obstacle: some materials came from a kind colleague in Central Thailand who loaned us books to help save costs (quite a considerable savings, I might add). Some materials and resources came from England. Some from Singapore. And some needed to be bought in Lampang itself. Collecting and organising all these materials, and keeping track of it all was a mission in itself!

At this stage we have a lot of the resources, but by no means all. But its almost mid-February and time to start if we want to be finished by November 2010.

Its all so new to me and I am sure I'm asking our tutor lots of silly questions. I know that I'll get into it, but for now its all just strange.

So, here goes....