First bump in road...

We had our first breakdown today over going to the United States. Scheduled on our itinerary was a trip to a children’s museum, but Bryon was sick with a headache so we couldn’t go. I decided to do some schooling so that when we do go, we won’t have to also do school that day.

That news went over like a lead balloon. Most of all the girls didn’t want to do the spelling test. First we made a list of some fun things that we wanted to do, and I must say that the girls were very creative in their ideas. Then came the dreaded SPELLING TEST. We have a “test” every day, which consists of 25 words. They attempt to spell them, I write them, they correct them. Not really a test according to my standards.

Two words into the test, Eli commented that I probably didn’t have a test in school when I was young, and I said, yes, but it also included having to know the meaning, that we only had one once a week, but that if I wrote the words wrongly, I didn’t get a chance to correct them afterwards.

All torrents of salty water broke loose!! Despair, hysterics, calling on daddy to accompany them through rough times. Dread of going to school in the US, not wanting to leave their friends, not wanting to be the new kids again, stand in front of the class to be introduced, not wanting to make new friends again, and definitely not wanting US spelling tests, then dread of all schooling how hard it would be, learning new stuff, not having experience (why do you thing we’re doing this now?), and ultimately wanting to be home schooled. Nothing I could say or do could calm the fears and dread of the future in the moment.

Twenty minutes later we finally get to the third word. (sigh) It was a long school day.

But afterwards Eli and I headed to the local school supply store and purchased goma eva, which has a name in English but the word has failed me. Let’s just describe it as foamy paper. Wonderful stuff for crafts! We spent the afternoon making masks and finger puppets, and have planned to spend more time doing creative activities, as the days ahead might be filled with rough, salty waters. Waves of them.