Glimmers

This has been an extremely difficult season of homeschooling for the kids and me. It's been difficult to be away from our fellow homeschooling friends and the support we found at co-op and support group. It's been challenging to balance caring for two little ones with a high school work load, not to mention finding a balance between traditional school work and 'study abroad' elements. I've been frustrated with wanting to learn as much as we can about this region during this precious period of time, but feeling like I have to come up with all the plans from scratch. I'm not doing a very good job by any means. Even just today, I was at my wits' end, strongly considering putting the kids in public school when we return to the States.

Despite all our frustrations and challenges, almost every day, I catch a glimmer of excitement or joy that helps motivate me to keep on -- or at least not despair that this whole venture's been a complete mistake. Sometimes the glimmer is of something the kids are learning. Sometimes it's a relationship. Other times, a discovery. In the past week, it's been all of the above.

Ethan came to me one morning this week, thrilled with a pattern he'd begun noticing while trying to go to sleep the previous night. He'd been thinking about the number 7 and how to write multiples of 7 in base 3. He'd noticed that every time he wrote a 7 multiple in base 3, the resulting number (when viewed in base 10) was also a multiple of 7. For example, 7 itself is written "21" in base 3 and 21 is a multiple of 7. The number 14 is written as "112" and 112 is a multiple of 7. He spent hours that morning continuing to compute and show that the pattern didn't stop. Needless to say, I let that be his 'math time' for homeschooling that day. Later, Josiah also came to me, having noticed that this pattern worked with multiples of any number n as long as the base you changed it to was 10-n.

This was a huge bright spot for me -- much more than a glimmer! I love that my kids not only can work with numbers and understand math, but that they have time and freedom to think creatively about numbers and explore patterns.

Another more-than-glimmer is seeing Naomi's increasing passion for learning Arabic. At various points of time in the past, I've had the kids dabble in Arabic, first with Rosetta Stone and then with c.d.'s from the library. But it wasn't until moving here 4 months ago that I said, "Keep up with Spanish, yes, but please also pick either Hebrew or Arabic to work on in addition." They all picked Arabic and began using Mango online to work on oral Levantine Arabic. About two months ago, Naomi's interest in written Arabic was piqued. She found a book on how to write the letters in their various positions, and has been working on her own on it for hours and hours. When we went on a recent road trip, she delighted in interpreting the Arabic writing she'd see -- and I would delight in her delight!

She's also inspired Josiah to take up written Arabic and he's finding a similar excitement in spotting letters he knows. The other day he and I were in Bethlehem together, where the cars have Palestinian license plates (instead of Israeli). He pointed out to me that under the English letter "P" (for Palestine) on each plate, there was the Arabic letter that makes the /f/ sound. He knew this was because the Arabic word for Palestine is Filastin.

Maybe my kids would have learned more Arabic had they been put in a private school this year. But I'm not sure they would have had the same joy in learning. And if they'd been in school, we'd have missed out on my third glimmer -- relationship.

All three big kids have gained tremendous ability in relating to little kids, given the time they spend with Selah and Miriam. They now have babysitting skills they never had before, and can face tough situations that used to make them gag. But the sweetest aspect of their spending time with their younger sisters is the relationships they have and the joy they bring each other. When Ethan plays with Miriam by tossing balls into a laundry basket, doing "ring around the rosie" or "duck, duck, goose," or playing hide-and-seek, and I hear Miriam's exuberant giggles, my heart overflows. When Josiah holds Selah for only a couple minutes and she completely relaxes and falls asleep against his chest, I treasure the sight. When Naomi ramps up the music and dances around with Miriam and Selah, bringing smiles to all their faces, I smile too.

These are the moments that make homeschooling worthwhile. The minutes of laughter and delight, the sweet hugs and energetic play, the knowledge that even though there's a huge gap in the ages of my kids, they know each other and will have memories of the time they spent together.

I don't know if I'll continue to teach next year. I don't know if I'll homeschool Miriam and Selah when they get to be school age. But for now, even on the days like today, when tears were shed and harsh words were spoken and I completely felt like giving up, it's good to remember the beautiful precious glimmers of joy. They give us light for the journey.