From homeschooling to tarantulas

Yesterday was the most uneventful day yet. We schooled, and then Jackie became so engrossed in her book after lunch that she decided we had to stay home until she finished it. I'm a sucker for a bookworm in today's media-obsessed culture so I readily indulged her wish. Willo did some remarkably accurate imitations of Taino art, I blogged and researched curriculum ideas, and then when she triumphantly closed the book for the last time, with the bittersweet announcement that she had finished the book, "now what will I read???" we headed out to the grocery store. In the morning the kids had declared that they were in charge of dinner that night. For some reason, this seemed like a fabulous idea to me, whereas a similar announcement back home would not have been as exciting. After all, Jackie's not home from school till 4pm, and then it's a rush of homework, diva lessons (acting/singing), dealing with Penny the Puppy, etc. Here, on the other hand, the afternoon & evening is a vast, empty space of time to be filled with all sorts of adventures, explorations, and yes, occasional fights. Having them come up with a menu, then negotiate the cramped, crammed grocery shop here, while learning how over-priced the goods are, plus have them involved in the food preparation, all of which will mean Willo will be more apt to try something even though it's not breaded and dipped in ketchup, was a very appealing activity. I told Jackie she had $15 to spend and Willo, the dessert chef, had $5. While I was trying in vain to reach some hair conditioner that was way beyond my reach, they came to find me. Jackie had selected 2 yellow peppers, 2 orange peppers, and a bottle of orange juice. We calculated that at that point the tally was a whopping $14. I asked her how she planned to buy chicken with $1 left? So she returned everything but the yellow peppers. She had decided to make us Chicken Rico, which was the main item on the menu at the restaurant she plans to open in our house. According to her, it is marinated in soy sauce and cooked on the bar-b-que, and served with grilled peppers and sliced tomatoes, and green salad. Willo insisted we have some roasted potatoes, and his dessert was to be chocolate chip cookie sandwiches, with a peanut butter filling. Anyway, we left with everything we needed, and it was a great lesson at the grocery store as the kids were more conscious of how challenging it is in Vieques to buy food. There was no lettuce to be found, everything is over-priced, and it's a struggle to get through the cramped aisles with a shopping cart. I always used to assume that Caribbean islands had an abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables, but it turns out that everything is imported here, so we are at the mercy of the latest cargo ship, and having a captive audience, shopkeepers charge what they will. I suppose the good part of all that is we know that we aren't eating or drinking anything contaminated by Navy stupidity - even the tap water comes from Fajardo, on the Big Island.

The kids and I went to work on prepping the food, which means that they scrubbed all the vegetables, I cut them, they put them in the ziploc bag to marinate in olive oil, salt & pepper, and some chopped garlic, they went off to play and I looked at the block of frozen chicken breasts (the only place to buy fresh fish & poultry is from the gourmet store in town, Buen Provecho) and then stuck them in the sink to defrost. Jackie had prepared its ziploc with soy, garlic, and chopped ginger (which I'd found at the farmers market last Wednesday).

The kids were out in the pool when suddenly Willo screams "MAMI! A TARANTULA!" Now when I'd heard a similar scream during our visit last March, I said "that's nice" and went back to reading my magazine. Finally, after Jackie had screamed "TARANTULA!" several times, I'd uttered an exasperated sigh and put down my Shape magazine to go and give them a lecture about "The boy who cried wolf." Except it turned out they had indeed discovered a tarantula hanging onto the pool edge. So this time, when they yelled "tarantula" I immediately sauntered out there with my camera and we admired how big & hairy it was and I took a few pictures. Then I returned to my curriculum research. A few minutes later I heard another scream and looked up and 3 horses were drinking from the pool, much to the kids' amazement (they were still swimming). Juana, hearing the commotion, sprang off her yoga mat on the couch and dashed outside to defend the children from any dangers, effectively scaring off our 3 thirsty visitors.

I went back to curriculum research. Up to this point, most of school has involved workbooks and worksheets from online. My supplies were very limited since we were still waiting for several boxes I'd shipped, so we didn't even have markers, glue sticks, books, construction paper, etc. William was flying through a kindergarten workbook I'd brought for reading & writing, and the online worksheets Bill printed up for me, for math, were apparently completely unchallenging for him. Jackie had been really enjoying her Brain Quest workbook, the Advantage software app, and the writing assignment Bill came up with for her, an ongoing project. We have some of her school's Trailblazers stuff (math) so she's been keeping that up. But to be honest, this just didn't do it for me. I found myself checking out the Core Knowledge curriculum again, and saw that the kindergarten module has a whole section on Conquistadores. My plan had been to integrate the lessons they must learn in math, language arts, science, social studies, with the wealth of historical & environmental lessons to be had in Vieques. Core Knowledge is a sequential curriculum, which means that in kindergarten you are learning concepts that are then built upon sequentially each subsequent grade. A Core Knowledge kindergartner doesn't just learn about Christopher Columbus and the Niña, Pinta & Santa Maria; he learns about the purpose of exploration, the differences of past & present, vocabulary such as "nutmeg" "hammock" "papaya" "voyage," geography (Europe, Asia, Indian Ocean), cultural differences... A far cry from writing "s s s s s s S S S S S" over and over across several pages (his standard homework back home).

Just before we were about to sit down to the kids' delicious dinner, there was a knock on the door. Sandra (the Front Desk manager, who is positively fabulous, adores our kids, and in a few days is actually going to have them help her organize their new office) had come by with the rest of our boxes!!! It was like Christmas as we unpacked puzzles, board games (Life, Kids on Stage), my frisbee, spices and knives from our kitchen back home, my tripod, the wall charts I'd found on clearance at Border books, excellent for schooling, Willo's telescope and the solar system kit I'd also found on clearance at Border's, Gummy Vites, sketching paper, construction paper, glue, glue sticks, crayons, markers, watercolors, Enid Blyton books... Homeschooling had just taken on a whole new dimension!

Happily, we sat down at the table the kids had set, with candles and all, and ate the Chicken Rico which actually was delicious. Willo's simple dessert was absolutely scrumptious too. The kids had decided that they were in charge of dinner every Monday - no objections from me!