We already knew this...we just wanted to be sure that you knew this.
This past year was...well...interesting as far as homeschooling went. I had a great curriculum put together, but for many months, it was scattered all over the place...some of it with us here in Germany and some of it packed away on a large container making it's slow but steady journey across the Atlantic on a huge ship. In July of last year, when our year began, we had no idea what was in store for us. Hey, we're homeschoolers...we take this in stride. We can handle anything.
When Steven got home from Heidelberg on November 5th after being gone for three months, the idea of all of us making the move back to Germany was a very real thing. Our plan to take two weeks off to just be with Steven turned into a lot longer than that when the wheels of his transfer began turning. We spent two weeks preparing what we could just in case the move was a go, then, on the Saturday before Thanksgiving, the boys packed up and took off in the Camaro, Joe Dog's breath hot and stinky on their necks as they set off for a cross country trek back home to Colorado.
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| Joey had no idea just how long this ride was going to be. |
The following Monday, Maya and I took a 5:20 am flight out of Raleigh to meet Steven and Scott later that afternoon at DIA in Denver.
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| Happy to be on the ground and in Colorado |
We spent ten days in Colorado with our families and throughout that time, Steven sat at Dad's kitchen table with his laptop and our cell phone trying to get paperwork filled out, emailed and chasing all of those pesky little ducks that just didn't want to get into a nice, orderly row.
Our two week long November break stretched out and encompassed the entire month...
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| Maya and Scott chilling with Buddy and Joey before the real work started... |
...but it was only a break from school. Our relocation had us so incredibly busy...it wasn't really a break at all. Before we all got on a plane and headed back to North Carolina, Steven had spent hours online and on the phone...and nearly got all of those stubborn ducks wrangled.
As for me...I made my own fair share of telephone calls, finding a maid service to help me really clean the house, a carpet cleaner and someone to clear up all the fall leaves I hadn't had time to rake myself. I began making lists of all the things we'd need to sell and the things we'd need to throw away or take to the thrift store. I knew, too, that I would be rearranging our class load, trying to reorganize once we were settled, but at the time, I had no way of knowing just how long it would take to get settled. Our adventure had only begun.
On December 3, Steven flew from North Carolina to Frankfurt. He did a lot in the next three weeks such as buy our BMW, find us a house to live in, get acquainted with some of the people he would soon work with and begin to sort through all of the millions of things we'd need to take care of to become residents of a new country. (That list turned out to be a lengthy one.) Meanwhile, the kids and I kept insanely busy with cleaning out the attic...
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| no small feat, I can assure you |
...and going through every room one by one, carting bags full of old clothes, poky artificial Christmas tree limbs, toys, computer equipment and books down three flights of stairs and that crazy, steep driveway either to the curb or to the trunk of the Audi.
We made so many trips to the thrift store that once when we arrived, the guy looked at us and said, "You again?"
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| We found FOUR Big Red Cars. We kept two of them. The Wiggles were a very big deal. |
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| Maya and her babies. She kept all of these little guys. |
For the first two weeks of December, the kids organized, packed, cleaned and hauled with me...but we didn't have one single day of school. We had so much to do and didn't know when all the pieces would fall together, allowing us to get on a plane and reunite with Steven. There's a lot of bridges to cross, red tape to cut through and other stuff that needs to fit just so before a relocation of this magnitude can happen. I had just about everything for school stacked up and ready to make the trip. The only things missing from these stacks were what I could stuff into my already overloaded backpack. It wasn't a lot.
By about the 15th of December, the movers had still not been scheduled and Steven and I decided that we weren't willing to be apart for Christmas. I bought tickets for the three of us to leave Raleigh on a 6:00 flight, Tuesday, December 20th. We said goodbye to North Carolina and landed in London's Heathrow airport the following morning at about 7 am.
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| Heathrow - HUGE and very, very cool |
It wasn't until the second week of January that the movers were scheduled. I headed back to North Carolina on a solo flight, leaving on Monday, January 9th and arriving back in Raleigh late that same night. For the next four days, I did a bunch of frenzied selling of things that were left on Craigslist, packed and sent four boxes of things to our box here on Ramstein, finished up on the painting, cleaning and laundry, met with the carpet cleaner, the maid and agent who was to take over the house...It was a jam packed four days. I also hung out with three guys who packed up everything we hadn't either sold or gotten rid of and watched them tuck it all away into a big, blue box.
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| It didn't seem so big when I realized everything we owned fit inside of it |
I landed in Frankfurt on Saturday. By the following Monday, we were back at school.
We were using a borrowed table and not in our classroom yet. (We had one table and sat in the dining room.) We used the curriculum I was able to bring with me and supplemented that with lesson plans I printed off the web and we were back at it. All in all, we'd missed about ten weeks of school and had a lot to make up for.
Our container arrived on February 7th, and our house was filled with tons and tons of boxes. Fortunately, everything was labeled, and all of our school things went directly into our class room.
We moved the table down and sorted through boxes. It was all a jumble and took several weeks to get everything unpacked and manageable. Truth be told, it wasn't until about April sometime that I felt organized again. The kids never skipped a beat. They worked hard for me and we made up those weeks we missed. They're awesome.
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| Learning takes it out of you |
They picked up where we'd left off way back at the end of October...and jumped into learning German as well.
On June 10th, we began our yearly testing. We use the P.A.S.S. test sold by Hewitt Homeschooling. P.A.S.S. stands for Personalized Achievement Summary System and fulfills the requirements that North Carolina demands for state reporting. This is the second year we've used this test. I administer it, (which means I make sure they have sharpened pencils, the correct answer sheet and remind them occasionally throughout to make sure they're darkening their circles enough) then I send it all back to have the tests machine graded. I play by the rules. I don't read the questions or their answers. It kills me. It's really hard. I'm used to answering their questions...finding solutions alongside them. Not helping them is a tough gig for me, but the whole point is to see how well they know their stuff...on their own. This is important.
We took three days for testing this year...and on Thursday, June 12th, the tests were back in the mail, our school year was finished and we celebrated by having dinner at Chili's. Yay!
So, how did they do?
They rocked!
Here's a run down of the test results:
Mylee
Reading - 93%
Language - 99%
Mathematics - 92%
Total score: 95%
Scott
Reading - 99%
Language - 99%
Mathematics - 84%
Total score: 94%
These scores were even higher than last year...and Steven and I are very, very proud of them. Maya was very nervous about her math scores. Seventh grade was packed with algebra and geometry and she's got a bit of math anxiety. Fortunately for her, I know exactly what that feels like so we take a lot of extra time on the subject. Apparently she had nothing to worry about. She's proud of her scores just like she should be. Scott didn't seem surprised at all by his results. He knows he's awesome. We tell him that all the time.
So, this year, (our ninth!) has started off a bit differently. I'm so organized right now, I don't know quite what to do with myself. I love it. We have already been in school since July 1st, and our first scheduled two week break begins on September 15th.
There's every chance that our schedule could get shaken up again come the end of the year...but we're okay with that. We'd love nothing more than to have some calm and steady waters for the next several years, but the experiences and opportunities we have been given by making the choices we've made are worth an awful lot to us. We'll deal with the waves should it come to that. Heck...we all know how to swim.
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