A Day Late....

Today baby started reading lessons at her school. I am frustrated because I really wanted to have her reading well in English before she began her Spanish reading. I guess it will just slow things down a bit, but at least she will have it down. She is getting very apprehensive about her teacher having to leave to have her baby. We will see how that goes.

Teeny actually worked for money today. We have been cracking down on her to work for her money instead of just asking and expecting it. She actually scrubbed all the tile floors in the house, which would be all the floors. She has also completed her time being demo dog for our massage student. She worked this afternoon doing reports on all the conference talks. Of course that was a bribe. Fill in all the reports of the talks from conference and get a new cell phone battery.

She has really enjoyed having our student here. They get along well and she gets to speak in English, I think sometimes she misses that.

Last night she received a real wake-up call, so to speak. Her and her fellow "band" members were sitting on the curb up the street. A black car with no plates drove by slowly and scoped them out. The car turned around when one of the other kids answered his cell phone, dumb move. All the others yelled at him and they all took off running when the car turned around to come back.

The kids all hid at the end of our street waiting for the car to leave. They did not leave, just parked and waited. In the meantime teeny has all the cell phones crammed into her boots, like they would not look there. The kids waited awhile and finally decided to make a run for our house. Right as Hannah reached in to unlock the gate the car came whipping by, they took off when they saw her come in the gate.

Her friends sprinted for the park and scrambled over the fence to hide out and wait until the guys got tired of waiting and left. After talking to the neighbor he said the police were looking for a black car but that it had not been out before midnight before and this was nine.

I have always said we would stay in Costa Rica as long as we felt it was safe to do so. When my 22 yr old got robbed at gun point for his cell phone in San Jose we could rationalize. It was after midnight, he was alone and talking on his cell phone downtown San Jose after drinking too much! This one I just can't quite ignore or blame on the kids.

Got some thinking to do for sure. In Central America they shoot kids for cell phones. A neighbor kid who was just right around the corner from us got shot in the chest and killed for his cell phone. He was 19 years old! Today my daughter wrote me from Hondurus that a 13 year old girl had been stabbed to death on the bus for her cell phone. As the economy gets worse the crime rate is spiraling. Like I said we have some thinking to do for sure.

Still on the Fence

Unfortunately for baby this week is "exams". Again unfortunately for baby I am still "undecided" about what to do with her in regards to school. Everything in me screams to take her out. Everything, and everyone outside of me screams to keep her in. The argument being an old one for us-what about her socialization? You would think after thirty years of homeschooling I would have an answer for this, and more confidence that it does not count for anything.

I have decided to interview each of my children who have in fact been un/homeschooled and share that with everyone. They all have very different views as well as memories of their school days. I was surprised in talking to them that they actually have very positive things to say about schooling, and no regrets. O.k. maybe some regrets, but mostly on their parts for things they did not pursue.

In the meantime I will continue to dress baby everyday in her silly uniform and march her off to her good catholic school where she will learn to conform and fit in. Augghhhhh it is killing me! As you can see it won't last long. She is one of the most creative children I have had and I cannot let them stifle that out of her. They are already all about coloring in the lines and using many different colors, and make sure you put torsos on your people etc.

Today she made up her own art. She found that when she sharpens her colored pencils, which is quite often, the shavings make a really pretty flower. She has about sharpened her colored pencils down to nothing making flowers for a collage she is working on. I will post a picture of her flower art when she gets it done.

On the teen end of things we have been doing lots of talking and gentle leading to encourage some kind of learning to take place during the day. She likes to blame it on the fact that many days she has to demo dog for us with our massage student. I am trying to figure out how to fit laying on a massage table, listening to your headphones into a learning corner and having trouble. I have been having her do more cooking, which at least gets her thinking in a math oriented manner at some point during the day.