Homeschool conference day two

Yes we did arrive in Addis on Monday afternoon after a 12 hour drive and managed to settle into the guesthouse before we fell into bed.  Tuesday was the first day of school at Bingham Academy for Kalia, Joel and Ariana.  As downcountry (bush) homeschooling families, we are encouraged to come to Addis for the first week of the mission run school.  After that, whenever we are in the city, we are able to choose to put our children into the mission school.  The main benefit of this is that our children can connect with other missionary children (from many different mission organizations) and have opportunity to participate in extra events like field days.  It also gives our children something to do while Rolf and I have business and purchasing to do. 

The downside is that our children may not feel comfortable coming into a very formal classroom setting with classmates who may or may not remember them.  In the future, we will let our children decide if they want to attend classes or not. 

This time though, our children are attending classes since I am at Bingham for a homeschool conference until tomorrow.  Next week, we will let them choose.   We needed to come to Addis to purchase supplies for Gesses and for our personal needs as well as return for our ID cards, so coming for the first week of school was an added benefit.

Unfortunately, we have had full schedules since arriving in the city so my plans to connect with family and friends through blogging or skyping have been put on hold.    Hopefully next week will be a bit more flexible.

The homeschool conference has already been a very helpful and encouraging experience.    We have had devotionals by other homeschooling moms, sessions with the art teacher, music teacher, and a reading specialist who have given us ideas and resources.  The only downside is that the children and I have to leave the guesthouse at 7:45am for 8:20am start of school.   We are car pooling with another downcountry family which saves Rolf an hour of driving.  (I haven’t renewed my license yet and I am not keen on driving that route with a car load of children anyways!)

Ariana decided today that she did not want to return to Kindergarten because it is too long.  (Starts at 8:20 and goes until 12:30 and yesterday she had her backpack on and she was ready to go at tea time/first recess.)    So, Rolf had Ariana and Nadia in tow today as he made purchases around the city. Sonia was with me and she did well considering how confined we were in the homeschool resource room with 12 other parents.

Kalia and Joel finish school at 3:30 and then have a 45 min drive back to the guesthouse but today they came home with me at 1:30pm (we are taking advantage of their status as homeschoolers) so they could have some downtime.  We are all in need of some rest at the moment!

I have LOTS of pictures to upload and LOTS of blog entries in my mind so I am hoping to write lots more in the coming days.