Square Peg, Round Hole. Ouch.

Last fall a dear friend of mine, out of the blue, offered to teach me Korean. I hesitated, knowing that it would be difficult in my hectic life to find time to study and if I did make time to stretch myself mentally, would I want to dedicate it to learning Korean? After some thought and with the encouragement of my husband, I decided it would be fun to spend time with my friend no matter what we were doing, so I took her up on her offer and found a babysitter for Friday mornings so that she could tutor me in Korean. What happened has been remarkable to me. She became my private Korean tutor in so much more than the Korean language. During our sessions together I have discovered the enchanting side of traditional Korean arts and culture. This side of Korea is very easy for me to love. I also discovered that the Korean language is insanely difficult for me to learn. I am confused and dumbfounded during many of our language lessons.
There are other things about Korean culture that make absolutely no sense to me: traffic patterns, children wearing snow pants to school instead of turning on the heat, and starting school in the spring (March 2) instead of the fall, just to mention a few.
Knowing how difficult this culture clash may be on our children attending Korean public school, we have formulated a “Plan B”. Plan B is home schooling them, if plan A fails. Ugg. I am one of those people who said, “I would never home school" (somehow I forgot Kim’s Rule #1 in How to Survive Life: Never Say Never.) We also decided that no matter what, I would need to home school them in a few of the subjects so that they will not get behind in the American curriculum. This winter they have been home with me for over eight weeks. Much of this time has been dedicated to figuring out how we are going to “home school”.
After eight weeks, I am asking myself, “How am I going to do this?” I am trying to decide if our school will be named "The School of Blood, Sweat and Tears" or "The School of Hard Knocks".

It hasn't been all bad.
Good things about this month:
1. Reading “Little Town on the Prairie” with Anna. Circling words that we don’t know and looking them up. Making sentences with the words.
2. Teaching Susan Grace how to make bread, how to plan dinners for a week, and how to cook chicken fajitas.
3. Diving into personal progress with Gracie and watching her do some really great things.
4. Reading “Bud, Not Buddy” and “Children of the Dustbowl” with Miriam and discussing the Great Depression and the value of work.
5. Reading “The House of the Scorpion” with Susan Grace and discussing what makes us human.
6. Playing chess with James.
7. Playing odd and even number games with James.
8. Hearing James read the scriptures out loud for the first time.
9. Delivering 130 Valentine cookies to the children’s friends at their old school.
10. Studying things with the children that I value and find interesting.
11. Doing things with the children that I have wanted to do but never have time to do when they have a busy school schedule.
But, it hasn't been easy. Hard things about this month:
1. Someone’s been sick since the children got out of school. Daniel’s been very sick twice.
2. Never having any time to myself. I wonder how crazy I am going to be from sustaining this pace.
3. Finding a schedule and curriculum that make me feel like my children are learning and moving, not just sitting around playing the Wii all day while I tend a sick baby.
4. Losing my "alone" time with Margaret and teaching her the alphabet.
5. Losing my "quiet time" when Daniel takes a nap.

I never thought in a million years I would home school my children. Many days, I sit there and think, “What has brought me to this?” Wow, I’m such a square peg in a round hole…