Tuesday, April 14, 2009

still waiting

And the continuing paperwork saga drags on and on and on...

It looks like we will NOT be getting our Travel Approval this week. We're on week three of waiting for it. I just found out last night that our i800 didn't even get to the US Embassy in China until last week. For some reason, it took two weeks to get to get there. This is one of the new steps in the i800 process and it is going to end up adding several weeks to our wait. Our i800 has to be approved or looked at or stamped or have something officially done to it in Guangzhou BEFORE it gets sent to Beijing to the CCAA. So, all in all, this is probably a 3 week (maybe more) extra wait added to our already excruciatingly long wait to get to China. So, no China news for at least another week.

As for plans that I actually have control of...

I have finally decided on what curriculum we're going to use for school next year. I haven't made any significant changes to the curriculum for the last few years but next year we're doing a few new things. I'm excited. The kids are excited. Well, they're excited THINKING about the new stuff. We'll see how it all works out in August when they actually have to do the work. So, for all my homeschool friends who love "talking curriculum", here are my plans...etched in black pen on a red wide-ruled student notebook from Target (about as official as it gets around this house):

Kara and Anna (5th/6th grade):
Math U See
Rod & Staff English
IEW Student Intensive Writing
Reading Detective CD-Rom
Apologia science
Mystery of History
Latina Christiana II
Spelling Workout
Studying God's Word (Christian Liberty Press)
Rosetta Stone-Chinese
lots and lots of "real" books from the library


Nathan (1st grade):
Math U See
Explode the Code
Easy Grammar
A Reason for Handwriting
Spelling Workout
Mystery of History
Studying God's Word
Rosetta Stone-Chinese
and a bunch of books from the library

Caleb (adorably cute 4 year old):
toys, crayons, music, tons of books and lots of hugs!

Me:
a nice long bath all by myself (with the door locked!) at the end of the day so I can survive 180 days of it

Ahh, it does feel good to have a plan. And I'm not waiting on anyone to approve it.

3 comments:

Andrea said...

AW MAN!!!
This I800 thing is really starting to get to me!

You choices are great.

We have used all. Including the chinese.LOVE IT, BTW.

My kids did not dig Math U See..I have no idea why.
I thought it was cool.
We are doing SonLife next year.
Can you imagine purchasing curric. for 5 kiddos!

THAT is where ALL our money goes!

;)

xoxo,
A

Tisra said...

Hooray to you for fine tuning your plans. I am especially excited to see others adding an adopted child and doing the homeschool thing. We should be bringing Dorothy home this summer, and I take a hesitant sigh every time I think of what this will entail- bonding with the new member, and schooling the older kids. I will have to tell Eric about the long bath idea!

Tisra
adopting Dorothy from India
http://www.bdhq.net
http://lifetrain.blogspot.com

Jolene Powell said...

I am so sorry this is dragging out this long. I think LOA is no longer near the end, but rather the beginning of the end! Ugh! And wow for the homeschool curriculum! I applaud you!