Gutierrez This Week!!

God's hands hold the earth's waters by Big Boy age 9

Hello from Ecuador!! 

Our boys finished their first unit of homeschool last week.  We are using some fantastic material, which we would like to share with you.  A Child's Geography by Ann Voskamp is a great book that lays out the basics of the earth.  Last week we were studying the earth's oceans and the boys drew pictures of God holding the earth's oceans in their hands with the chalkboard program on their tablets.

God's hands hold the earth's waters by Big Boy age 7

 We have been using a downloadable Math book called "Ray's Practical Mathmatics".  So far it has been a good review and helped them to be able to write big numbers well.  They also enjoyed studying roman numerals.

We finished a Language Arts unit on the "Boxcar Children" using "Learning Language through Literature: The Orange Book".  They really enjoyed this especially hearing the book for the 2nd time outloud.

Explorer lap books

In Social Studies we are studying North American history.  We finished our unit about New World Explorers.  We read quite a few books out loud and the one they liked the best was "Captain John Smith".  They made lapbooks to keep their work in, a timeline and quite a few crafts.  The ideas came from "Explorers" from Homeschool in the Woods, a CD full of resources and projects. 

Baby girl has been very busy as well.  She loves to be outside and below is a picture of her having some water time outside on a warm day as well as learning to make her little car go.

Explorer time line

On the school administration front, Robin had a really good trainer come from Quito and present some new curriculum for math and the preschool level.  The man has had a Christian school for about 20 years and began making curriculum about 5 years ago.  This was very exciting because his curriculum is getting full approval from the Ecuadorian government, while still incorporating Biblical values.  There are many details at the beginning of the year in school administration and Robin finds himself in meeting after meeting problem solving and helping to start the school year off well.  Our 6 English teachers will be starting an afterschool enrichment program 2 afternoons a week beginning next week.  It is great to have such a hard working staff who cares about the kids so much!!  

In 10 weeks time we will be in the US.  We are looking forward to the trip!!  Thanks for stopping by!!

Incan artifact made by big boy age 7

Afternoon water play!!

Learning to make the car go...

Learning Together!!

Our boys finished their 4th week of homeschool here in Macas, Ecuador.  Robin bought them desks and last week was their first week to use them.  Next week I will post some of the projects they have been making.  It is the first time that they have their entire school day in English and their spelling and writing is improving. The boys' schedule looks something like this: (depending on baby girl's naptime and wake up time)

Our 7 year old in his homeschool uniform!!

7:30 Breakfast
8:00 Bible and Character Training
8:30 Math
9:00 Science
9:30 Handwriting and Greek/Latin Roots
10:00 Break Time and Snack
10:30 Reading Comprehension and Grammar
11:00 Spelling
11:30 Social Studies
12:00 Hands on Projects (arts and crafts mostly related to Social Studies)

12:30-2:30 Break for lunch prep, lunch and down time
2:30 Read Aloud and Silent Reading
3:00 Geography
3:30 Done for the day, chores and outside time
 

Our 9 year old cleans our front walkway as a chore

On Monday the 2nd was the inaguration of the new school year at Emmanuel Christian School.  It is the first time that the boys and I did not attend.  Robin and I have been talking about what our roles are right now with a baby and two boys homeschooling.  I would love to be more involved at the school, but I am learning that I have limits.  Our baby girl is now 9 months old but she still usually gets up twice at night.  God is good and I trust that the 5 English teachers that have come from the US this year are getting along fine without my micromanagement!!

Robin inaugurated the school year with a few children less than last year:  about 300 from 3 year olds to high school seniors.  We think this might be due to inflation here making it difficult for families to pay the tuition.  This is stressful for him and he ended up cutting a few staff positions as a result.  We do have a donor program so let us know if you are interested in helping a child attend our school: it is $50 for a half scholarship and $90 for a complete scholarship.  Some donors give another $30 per month to cover additional fees.
 
I am reading a book called Margin by Richard Swenson.   So far I have learned that I need to take more breaks and not allow myself to get to the end of my emotional energy.  I recommend this book.  It was recommended to me about 2 years ago, but I didn't have time to read it at that time due to my lack of margin!!

Robin went to a great leadership training back in April.  One of the men has a great website on leadership that Robin would like to recommend it.  Lead On!! is the name of the website.

We are planning a trip to the US in 11 weeks!!  There is a link on the right if you want to give toward our trip--we are still a little short on our funds for airfare.  We hope to see a lot of you there.  Thanks for stopping by.

Looking forward to seeing grandma soon!!