Lessons from Homeschooling

We've struggled this year with exactly how to "run" our home school. When we left Canada, I had a vision of all these wonderful projects that we could do together. The kids would be engaged and interested, pushing the learning agenda themselves, sometimes working so late that I would have to demand they put their school work away and go to bed. As usual, though, reality is different from the vision.

Even regular school can be boring at times -- heck, regular school is probably boring a lot of the time for many kids. But at least there you can hang out with your friends and maybe even get into a little trouble once in a while. The lack of interesting things to do is more than made up for by the lack of interesting people to be with. In many cases, the actual work is secondary. Contrast that with home schooling; there's you, the work, and your mother, also known as "the teacher". If you're lucky, "the teacher" has figured out a way to combine the courses so you can work with your brother or sister, who you are currently mad at because he/she has just ___________ your _____________ . (fill in the blanks with your own pet peeve)

We've run the gamut from almost no structure -- when Mark and I would leave the hotel room in search of an apartment and say to the kids on the way out, "Work on your math!" -- to a fairly strict schedule that has the kids finished by 2 p.m. each school day (theoretically).

Amidst all the traveling that we did between September and November, we managed to sneak in a bit of school work. We made it a point to not take any school books with us when we traveled. By the middle of November, however, we began to realize that we needed a bit more regular structure. We started by trying to let the kids schedule their own time. I would lay out 20 one-hour assignments that the kids needed to do each week, and they would organize their schedules to get them done. As time went on, however, we had to lay out more and more "rules", mostly around the use of our two laptop computers:

1. School work and the adults' work gets priority for the computers.
2. The computers can only be used for school work between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.
3. Adults get computer time during the even-numbered hours; kids get the odd-numbered hours.
4. If work isn't completed by Saturday night, school starts Sunday morning at 9 a.m. and continues without breaks (except for a 10-minute break in every hour) until the work is done.
5. And so on...

Far from allowing the kids more freedom, it actually ended up imposing more restrictions on all of us. Looking back, I see that I was decidedly optimistic but crazy to think that it would work.

Eventually we got down to the nitty-gritty: how much work needs to be completed by the end of the year, and how much time we have left to do it. The kids scheduled their 20 one-hour blocks of work (between the hours of 9 .m. and 2 p.m.) in a way that suited them.

Some (ok, most!) days we don't get started by 9 a.m. Then we work after 2 p.m. The goal is to get finished early enough in the afternoon that we have time to go out and explore the city, or do other fun things.

What is interesting to me is the process that we have been through. That order and structure was imposed on them was actually the kids' choice. However, it suits me, too. It has been much better to have a set schedule so that the kids know they will be finished at a certain time each day.

We have had our good days -- like the bridge building project that both the kids took on -- when the home schooling approaches my vision, but it has been a lot of hard work for all of us. We are trying to ensure that the kids achieve the learning outcomes for their grades and have the necessary skills to do well in their next school year. It is an experience that we'll never forget. Through home schooling the kids have produced a blog, painted beautiful watercolours, learned goal-setting and developed some amazing computer skills, among many other things.

As wonderful an opportunity as a year of home schooling can be, I think we'll all breathe a sigh of relief when things are back to normal next year and the kids head off to a "real" school.

How's the winter going for you? write us: christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

See our pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t/

See the kids' beautiful watercolours and read some of their writing: http://www.viewegkids.blogspot.com/

Musée Alsacien and Musée Historique

Last Sunday (free museum day in France) we made it to two museums; or Mark and I did, as we allowed the kids to "escape" after the first one. The Alsatian Museum is contained within three adjoining historic houses along the Ill River in Strasbourg, and the artifacts are spread throughout many rooms. Mark and I were lagging behind, snapping pics and really delving into the history of Alsace, when Meghan said to me, "You know, I'm interested in this to a point." Her point being, of course, that we were taking far too long and had moved far past her point of interest. After that, the kids went ahead of us and had fun exploring the museum on their own as we all followed the arrows through the maze of rooms.

After leaving the Alsatian Museum, Mark and I decided to take a brief look at the nearby Musée Historique, which details the history of the city of Strasbourg. We thought it would be just a quick visit, mostly because I was hungry (it was lunch time), and partly because we had sent the kids home ahead of us. Two hours later, having rushed through the last two hundred years of history, and ravenous (well, me anyway!), we stumbled out into the crisp winter afternoon sunlight. I was very impressed with the museum and felt that we couldn't just rush through it. Not only was the admission free that day, but we were also given free (English!) audio guides and a place to safely lock our coats during the visit, little perks that encouraged us to stay longer than we had intended. True to French form, though, getting in wasn't totally straightforward: after receiving our free entrance tickets, we were each handed a token which had to be deposited in a turnstyle around the corner to allow us into the museum. Why let one system suffice when two or more can be created to do the same thing? : )

On the way home we bought petit pain chocolat, beignets choco (like jelly doughnuts, but stuffed with chocolate creme), rum and raisin macaroons, and bretzel salé, the salted dough pretzels that are popular here. Although starving, I managed to keep it down to one bretzel salé, which I happily munched as we walked home in the sun.

We really enjoyed both of the museums and have plans to go back to the Musée Historique, either with guests or on our own. Perhaps it's good that my stomach ruled the afternoon, because at least part of the museum will be fresh for us.

Contact us: christinateskey @ yahoo.ca or mvieweg @ gmail.com

Lots more pics at Flickr pictures

Freiburg for Riverdance

We made another trip last week, this time to Freiburg, Germany, and it felt good to be back on the road. We really enjoy train travel, and we haven't really done any since we returned from Italy. (And no, the 11-minute trip to Kehl to buy the train tickets doesn't count!)

When we booked the tickets, we asked about a Bahn card, which entitles you to discounts on all of your German train tickets. We're still not sure if they're only available to German citizens or anyone with a European address. The ticket man, who has come to know our story fairly well, asked if we had a Strasbourg address when we told him where we are living. We were able to get the card, but we think it might be due to the special relationship that Strasbourg has with Germany, Strasbourg being so close the border.

The train trip was short and fairly uneventful. It was the first time that we have used second-class tickets, although not the first time we've been in a second class car, as some trains only have second class. It was not necessarily our choice to travel first class at the beginning of the trip (but it's kinda nice!); however, our Eurail passes could only be purchased for first class. It didn't make much of a difference to us financially when we purchased the Eurail passes last June, as both Mark and I were still working. However, now that we're relying on our savings to buy our tickets, we can only justify first class if it's not much more expensive than second. Most European trains are fairly comfortable, so it doesn't really make sense to splurge for first class, especially on the short runs.

We did splurge, however, on the hotel, and I was in for a surprise when we got there. I discovered that I don't really like expensive, sanitized, western-style hotels anymore. The environment in the room is very sterile, and you don't get any sense of the culture. Sitting in that hotel in Freiburg, Germany, I could have been in any city in Canada or the US, except for the fact that I couldn't understand the TV channels (ok , so I could understand BBC World News!) Prior to this we have rented private furnished apartments, and even though I have often resented hoofing it through an unknown city looking for the apartment after a long train ride, the exercise really does give you an idea of the layout and culture of the place. Contrast that to our arrival in Freiburg , where we got off the train, looked out at the city and spotted our hotel, which was a two-minute walk from the train station. By the time we got to the hotel room, I felt disoriented. Luckily Mark and Cameron took off back to the train station, where they located a transit map, figured out how to get to the arena for the concert that night, and bought us tram/train tickets.

The Riverdance performance was pretty amazing. We've seen it on DVD before, so the element of surprise was gone, but it is absolutely awesome to hear the Irish step dancing in person. The arena just thunders with the impeccably timed sound of the many performing feet. I have a thing for loud rhythmic sounds, so the Celtic drumming also gives me a thrill (must be the Irish in me). At the end of the concert, we missed the train by about 10 minutes, and rather than waiting in the cold and dark station for the next one (about 45 minutes), we took a cab back to the hotel. It's lucky that we have Mark's German to fall back on - and lucky that he remembered the phone number to call - as I'm not sure we would have managed that one in English!

Mark and I got up early the next morning and left the kids in the hotel so that we could go out and explore the city centre. Freiburg has an amazing cathedral, one to rival Strasbourg's. Mark read that you have to climb 328 steps to reach the platform - surprisingly, almost the exact number of steps to Strasbourg's cathedral platform. We chose not to climb it but to save that little trek to do with kids some other time (by this time we'd already decided that we would come back). Another interesting feature of Freiburg is the gutters filled with running water. Legend has it that if you accidentally step into a gutter you will marry someone from Freiburg. Since I'm already married and the kids are far too young to wait around in Europe for marriage, we kept everyone well away from them! (This was not hard since the kids were lollygagging back at the hotel).

The trams are also amazing, another feature that Freiburg has in common with Strasbourg. They are narrower than Strasbourg's, and have a funkier look. Most are painted wild colours (no two the same). In order to ride the train to the concert the evening before, we had purchased 24-hour tickets, so after we gathered up the kids and checked out of the hotel, we hopped the tram and did a complete circuit of the city on two different tram lines. Admittedly, once you get out of the city centre, the view becomes a little more modern, plain and less interesting, but it was still fun to watch the city go by and relax at the same time.

After doing a bit of shopping in the underground boutiques at the train station (Meghan is still struggling to find things on which to spend her Christmas money), we hopped the train back to Strasbourg. Although brief, we all enjoyed it and are looking forward to our return later in the spring.

Contact us: mvieweg @ gmail.com or christinateskey @ yahoo.ca

See the pics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/christina-t

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