Third Year Reflections: Part 2 Changing Children

Creative works abound from fun times at the school table.

A second reason I (Becky) haven’t written as much in our second year here is because of our children’s changing ages, stages and needs. It goes without saying that our kids are 2 years older and much different in many ways than when we first arrived. Although many of you have a nifty prayer card with a picture of our family on it from when Micah was 3 and Rachel was maybe 4 months old, they are not frozen in time. Now, Rachel is 3 and Micah is 5.

After two years of preschool homeschooling, I’m teaching Micah much more rigorously as he entered Kindergarten this year. Rachel is proudly in preschool now as well. It’s pretty crazy balancing their different learning levels, attention spans and need for attention. Some days it’s super fun, whereas other days are downright miserable, but all in all, I’m delighted in homeschooling and attempt to rise to the challenge daily.

Phonics “pizza delivery” game.

Many ask me how homeschooling goes with a preschooler and Kindergartener. It is challenging when one wants to learn and the other just wants to play, but with the help of Pinterest (I never thought I’d say such a thing), I’ve found some activities that help engage and teach both kids on each level at the same time. The pizza delivery game was a hit! We delivered pizzas in “The Village of An”, “At”, and “Og”… with road names in each village ending in those letters (Can, Cat, Cog…). It reviewed numbers, reading, directions, and even phone etiquette!

After reading a story, recreating it with Duplos is a
favorite activity!

I try, with varying success, to engage the kids in everyday chores. One day, while helping take fresh beans out of their shells, Micah was inspired to plant all the beans with roots already coming out. Because I had let the bag of beans sit out a few extra days, we found plenty to plant!!!

Planting beans with the help of a Duplo tractor scraper…
hey, why not!?!?

After a couple of weeks in yogurt tubs,
these bean plants graduated to the garden!

Like a little boy in America may aspire to set up shop with a lemonade stand, he plans to sell loads of beans to make money to help feed the family. (note: it’s nice to be more distant from commercialism, he’s trying to help our family have more money for food rather than buying a toy!). It’s times like these that I absolutely love homeschooling in Malawi!!!! He has recently expanded his yogurt tub nursery to include watermelons, peppers and sunflowers…we’ll see if they’re as successful as the bean plants. Meanwhile, the water has been out all week and watering anything is a challenge…but we have managed!

I am reminded how nice it was to have planning periods (when I taught in public school), not to mention lunch period to myself or with other teachers, but I have appreciated precious times with my children that I will treasure for a long time. Our excessively inquisitive 5-year-old makes connections between biblical stories/truths and any other subject or storyline we happen to be investigating. This provides natural teachable moments and immediate application of what he is learning. It is honestly incredible to watch him process the world as he knows it while discovering new things and fitting them together.

Daddy rereads a few chapters of their favorite book
for the second or third time!