So, what's a co-op anyway?

       When we decided we were definitely going to homeschool here in Nairobi, our next concern became how to plug into the homeschooling network here in Nairobi.  Searching on the Internet for information about homeschooling in Nairobi yielded little results in the way of finding a homeschooling community.  Mostly we found information about tutors who could come to your home to tutor/teach your children.

       There was one predominant name that I kept seeing online.  Mary Muriuki's name was in one article after another on issues dealing with homeschooling in Kenya.  I knew she would be the person to reach out to for information regarding a network of families who were homeschooling in Nairobi.  Try as I might, I could not find an email address, or Facebook page for her anywhere.  It wasn't until we arrived in Kenya that my husband got a hold of her number and called her.  From there things moved quickly.  My husband spoke with several families who were homeschooling that very day!

        We found out about a co-op group that was having their first meeting of the term on that Wednesday and another that met on other days during the week.  We chose the co-op meeting on Wednesday's because of it's location.  That Wednesday we went to the co-op.  The kids loved it, we loved it, and we have been there ever since.   The co-op itself does not have a Facebook page or website, but there is now a Facebook page for homeschooling families in Nairobi.

       So....what is a co-op you ask.  A homeschool co-op is a group of homeschooling families that in cooperation come together to provide social and educational activities for their kids.  In our case we meet weekly.  However a coop can meet twice per week, every two weeks, or even once per month.     During this term the older children had a drama class, for which they prepared and performed a play, a Kenyan history class, a gym class, and a bible study class (optional).  While the kindergartners and preschoolers have art, story time and gym.  The classes may change a bit for next term.

      There are many benefits of taking part in a co-op.  First the children get to meet with other children regularly and in this way they are able to develop friendships.  We parents also are able to socialize and develop friendships as well.  Secondly, resources are pooled, so the cost is relatively low when considering the cost that these classes and activities would cost per individual family.  Another benefit is having your child be taught by another adult other than yourself.  Although we tailor our teaching styles to our children's needs, a major benefit of homeschooling, sometimes they may find someone else who teaches perfectly to their learning style, no tailoring needed!

      Co op is currently finished for the term, but we will resume in January.  The children have really enjoyed the coop experience and are looking forward to starting again in the new year!

Scene from the Christmas play

Another Scene (the children painted the backdrop and made some of the props)

                                   
                                   

Gym class for the middle grades led by Ambassadors Sports

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Infinity Street

       I want to start this post by profusely thanking the teachers at Cardinal Montessori School (CMS) in Woodbridge, Virginia for the wonderful academic foundation they've given to my children.  A special shout out goes to my son's preschool teacher Mrs. Patoka.  I cannot thank her enough because she has made this new endeavour of mine super EASY!!!!  I cannot explain the gratitude I feel when I start a new topic and my five year old already has a solid grasp of what it is I'm presenting to him.

        He is already an enthusiastic reader.  He picks out books on his own to go and read.  He is usually able to sound out unfamiliar words with ease.  I can remember during one of our first parent teacher conferences being told that the students learn the letters as sounds not by their names.  So the letter B is learned as Bah, not B.  I was a bit confused, because of course that's not the way I learned the letters, but now, I totally get it.  Learning the letter sounds first has made reading come so naturally.  Of course we still do a lot of reading and phonics practice, but his foundation is solid.

       Montessori math is also wonderful.  I love all of the manipulatives.  However,  if I had to start from ground zero, I may have been a bit overwhelmed.   This is especially because I have the other two children to attend to.  I am so grateful that he can look at the brown beads and just know there are eight beads.   And he can see the  thousand cube and know there are a thousand.  I am thankful that he knows units are green, tens are blue, hundreds are red, etc.  This just scratches the surface of the ground he covered while there at CMS. This covered ground has made our choice of sticking with Montessori the best decision we could have made for him.  So again, a big thanks to CMS for this.

       Although I am not following a Montessori curriculum for my older two, I have kept a few things from the Montessori classroom that they do on some Fridays.  Also, my older two, especially my middle child, are always so eager to do the Montessori jobs that I've created or have for my son. They are also full of suggestions and have really helped me to understand some of the materials.

       Today, my son and I were on the rug working on a job.   My middle child comes over to suggest that I should present Infinity Street and the Simple family to my son.  The Simple family, I wondered.  I'd never heard of the Simple family, but it became obvious my daughter would tell me all about them.  She went on to tell a detailed story of the Simple family which consisted of a child called Unit, a mother called Ten and a Father called Hundred.  They were the sole family living in a yellow house on Infinity St.  Everyday they received mail from the mailman who knew them so well, he called them by their first names.  Infinity St. was so nice, that other families began to hear about it and wanted to move in.  So they began to build their own yellow houses and the Simple family got neighbors.

       The first neighbors to move in were the Thousand family.  They had a kid they called Thousand, a mom called Ten Thousand, and a dad called Hundred Thousand.  They decided to separate their house from the Simple family house with a mailbox (comma).  Next to move in were the Million family.  They also had a child.   They called their child Million, the mom was called Ten Million, and you guessed it, the dad was Hundred Million.  Again, they separated their house from the Thousand's with a mailbox.  My daughter went on with her story as the Billions, Trillions, then the Quadrillions, Quintillions, and Sextillions moved in.  She then explained that the street was so long that family after family moved in and it goes on forever.

       I was so impressed by this fun way of showing place value and number families, I immediately went online to search for a way to present this.    Sure enough I found numerous websites with their own versions of the story and even a YouTube video.  Here is what I decided to do.....

       First I gathered the necessary colored construction paper (yellow, green , blue, red, and black).  Felt or foam would work nicely as well, but this is all I had available.

      I drew out eight simple yellow house shapes, each slightly larger than the other.  Then I cut them out.  There is no reason why they couldn't all be of the same size.  But I liked the visual aspect of the number values getting larger and larger.

       I then measured out bars for each family member  (green, blue , and red) each family member and each set also getting gradually larger.  Again, these could be made to be the same size.

     Next, I made the mailbox commas and wrote the family names on them, starting with the Thousand family.  Since I didn't have foam or felt, I had to laminate everything for durability.  My son is five and a half, and from what I've read this should be presented to 6-7 yr. olds.  However, I think I will present it to him up to the Millions family and then gauge his understanding and interest and go from there.  More families will move in as his understanding and interest builds.

With a bit of help from his sister, he correctly read nine hundred sixty-six million, nine hundred eighty-six thousand, nine hundred seventy-five. 

He really enjoyed the story of Infinity Street and we will enjoy reading numbers to the Millions family for now.  Neighbors are waiting to move in when the time comes.

Our First Halloween in Kenya

       My kids LOVE Halloween.  I mean what kid doesn't love costumes and candy?   Halloween is one of the few nights in the year that I allow them to freely eat candy.  On Halloween night, after trick -or- treating the kids come home and pick out 5-6 pieces of candy and have at it.
      Monday was our first Halloween away from the US.  In the US, Halloween is a big deal.  Even people with no children make sure they have a supply of candy when their neighbors' children come knocking on their doors for trick-or-treating.  It is always so fun to see all the children in their cute costumes.  Even though we are away from home, I wanted the kids to have as much fun as they usually do for Halloween.  A friend recommended a Halloween function at a popular mall here in Nairobi called Village Market.  The function cost Ksh 500 ($5.00) per child and adults paid the same.  The flyer promised a great time and trick- or- treating.  So, on Saturday evening we loaded the kids up in the car all dressed up in there Halloween costumes and headed for Village Market.
      When we arrived, there were so many children all dressed up running about the mall.  We were so excited!  We went up to the roof parking area where the event was being held.  Once there, we found that there were about five or six jumping castles and some hay bale seating.  The kids seemed excited so we paid the fee and entered.  After ten minutes the kids were sweaty and tired of bouncing, but there wasn't much more to do.  They had a DJ that was playing uncensored music (the B word was heard more than once).  The MC began to announce all the things they had for sale: cotton candy, ice-cream, popcorn, face painting, and get this, Halloween candy!  I couldn't believe they wanted us to pay for Halloween candy on Halloween at a Halloween party that we'd just paid to enter!   They announced a costume contest and a pinata was soon to follow.   I took one look at the tiny pinata and then another at the large crowd of children and opted to head for the food court for dinner instead.  There, we enjoyed fresh air and a nice dinner.  I was a little confused and felt the whole point of Halloween for the kids was lost upon the organizers of the party, but I left that evening looking forward to another event we'd been invited to.
       On Monday we attended a Halloween party that we'd been invited to by one of the co op families.  The party was at their Church.  There was a pot-luck dinner, and then trick -or -treating.  The church building was perfect because there were many doors to which the children could come and knock and say trick- or- treat.  Each family who attended  had a parent stand behind a door to greet the trick -or- treaters and hand out candy.  It was perfect!  The kids enjoyed trick or treating with their friends.  The kids left happy and I was satisfied that they had a good time.

Carved pumpkins and watermelon!  You really learn to be ingenuitive.

Enjoying their candy

(BOGO) Buy One Get One Free

     

We all love sales right?  Well, I know I do.  I remember falling into the traps of such places like Gymboree with there Gymbucks where if you buy more now, you'll save more later was the mantra.  I can still hear the cashier "Miss., your only $0.75 away from earning $75 in Gymbucks.  Are you sure you don't need these lovely socks here that are $5.00, but are the cheapest thing in the store that could actually be of use to you?" blink, blink, smile......

         I even became the queen of using Cartwheel during the last holiday season.  I mean come on, they had awesome deals at Target during the days that lead up to Christmas.  And yes, I have been known to get up in the wee hours on Black Friday to catch a deal.  I must say, I never made it to full coupon lady status, but hey, like I said, who doesn't like a sale right?

        I rarely see sale signs while shopping here in Nairobi.  So you can imagine how thrilled I was to see a Buy One Get One sign on an item that I've already been buying weekly.  I eagerly picked up four of the family sized packs of the kid's Weetabix Wheetos Cereal.  I practically skipped to the register relishing in my latest deal.  My husband awaited me there at the register wide eyed at the contents of our cart.  I just continued with a shrug and said, "What, they're BOGO?"  Knowing that this just might be too good to be true, I made sure I alerted the cashier that the cereal should be BOGO.  She nodded in agreement and said,  "It will be taken off at the end."  I noticed that each double box rung up about 200Ksh less than the normal price of 650Ksh and at the end, nothing more was taken off.    Wait a minute, did I miss something?  That's not BOGO.  BOGO would have made the price of each Family pack 325Ksh, not 450Ksh.  The store manager spent five minutes trying to convince me that it was indeed BOGO.  In the end, we agreed that the sale was more like buy two get one, and that it was a case of false advertisement.  I still left with the four packs of reduced price cereal, no longer skipping, but still happy to have gotten a sale.

        Lesson learned, in Nairobi BOGO may often times mean something very different than buying one, and then getting another for free.

The kid's new favorite cereal.  Now usually I'm not one for allowing sugary breakfast cereals, but I tasted this one and it's really not all that sweet.  It has just a hint of a chocolate taste (sigh...we Americans and our love affair with sugar).   They also have Weetabix Bran Flakes in a family pack as well and the kids enjoy those too.

Co- op field trip

Today some of the children of our co-op visited Amani Primary School in Riruta.  The school is a part of the Precious Blood Family of Schools.  Amani Primary School was started in 1987 with the goal of helping the poor children in Kawangware slum, a slum of Nairobi.  It started with a meal program and then expanded to offer Bible studies, English, Kiswahili and mathematics. Some of the children attending Amani Primary School are street children and orphans.  The school's vision is to see these young people develop into productive members of society. 

  

       The school's choir performed a few moving performances for us, then our kids performed a portion of the play they are preparing in their co-op drama class.  They topped it all off with a friendly game of football (soccer).  Fun was had by all!  It was a wonderful opportunity for our children to see how fortunate they are, but also to see the drive and determination in these children who are less fortunate materially, than they.

       To give us a better understanding of where these children are coming from, one of the nuns shared an experience she had with one of the students.  She recalled a student who would come to the school with BO (body odor).  She went on to say, the smell was such that she felt she had to talk with the child about proper hygiene.  The child explained to her that he knew how to wash himself, but in fact could not, because he did not have access to water.  That really made me think.

Amani Primary School Choir

One of the songs the Amani Choir sung was a song I remembered singing for Spelman College Glee Club many years ago.  I happily sung along.  The choir did an absolutely fantastic job!

Preparing for the performance

Performing a scene from their play

The children played soccer after the performances

After-game handshake

School Room Set Up

  There were two rooms in the house that I decided to buckle down and really get in order.  The first room I mentioned previously was the kitchen.  The next was the schoolroom.  During our home search, the one must have was an area for homeschooling.  We knew we would be spending most of the day in this space and so we wanted it to be a bright and spacious area.  We were fortunate to have found many homes in Nairobi that accommodated this necessity.  Many of the villas have two living room areas and therefor one could always be used as a schoolroom.  Here is a look at ours 95% set up.