Joy School & Spanish School

Once a week this summer Jozie, Haven, and I have been holding "school." It's been really great for us. The first half of our school is Joy School, which is something Richard and Linda Eyre provide lesson plans to on http://valuesparenting.org. I've been intrigued by their idea of joy school for a while now, because rather than being focused on colors and numbers (which Haven practically already knows just from being a second child and so she doesn't really need that), it's focused on aspects of our lives that bring us joy, and on teaching what joy is and the value of joy. Some topics that are covered are the joy or our bodies, the joy of the earth, and the joy of friendships. For the last couple weeks we've been talking about respect, about the Golden Rule, and about friendship.

The second half of our school time is "Spanish School." Jozie and Haven have gotten into the habit of replying to Chad and I very, very seldom in Spanish, even if we're talking in Spanish. So, we're trying to push them more to speak in Spanish. Of course the original problem is mostly my fault because I haven't been as great at being consistent in Spanish conversation here, but I think I'm improving. Anyway, for the second half of school we have Spanish necklaces we wear and when we're wearing them we're only supposed to talk in Spanish. I also have "fichas" that I give out, which are little heart pieces that the girls add up for prizes at the end of each school session. Each time they speak in Spanish they get a ficha (this is stolen from what they do over at McKee spanish preschool. It really works pretty well in motivating them to speak in Spanish. We just went to the dollar store and picked some prizes and then we have prizes that are worth 15 fichas and ones that are worth 25.

I feel really grateful to get to spend an afternoon a week deliberately teaching my kids and doing planned home activities with them. I think they've benefited a lot from the personal attention, especially Jozie. When we first came home from Spain our relationship was kind of iffy but after we started doing this school it seems to have really picked right back up again. I also love being forced to look up new vocabulary in Spanish based on the activities we're doing that day. It's been great for me to learn a couple words each time and use them over and over while we do our activity.

These cookies got double the butter - trying to learn new Spanish vocab and cook with little kids at the same time is a bit over my head I guess. :)

These were left over mashed potatoes - is it gross that I let Jozie eat them too?