Preschool and homeschool

Every week Nic gets together with Halen Leavitt for a little preschool. This is her with one of her preschool projects. These are the best kind of projects because you can eat them afterward. I have a picture of Halen but I don't have permission to post his picture on our un-private blog but you'll have to trust me when I tell you he's adorable. Last week we held most of preschool in the room where we keep the spring-horse. Halen didn't want to get off the horse so we brought preschool to him and it was perfect. He and Nic were attentive and not running all over the house. All preschools should have ponies for the children.

This is my first foray into preschool. Petey had a preschool for about two weeks one summer but it was taught by a couple of the Young Women from our ward. For this preschool, I teach once a week for two weeks in a row, then Halen's mom teaches for two weeks, and we keep switching back and forth. The best part is having a little playmate for Nic since T is still just a bit too young for them to really enjoy playing together.

So now that I've had like 3 months of preschool, I've decided I'm ready for bigger and better things. It's looking like next year when we're in Egypt I (and a tutor or two) will be homeschooling the kids. I know! Yikes! I AM crazy! This will either be the best thing we've done or the worst. Time will tell.

All I know is that we haven't been happy with the school in Kuwait or here in Jordan and it seems that Egypt offers the same kinds of things. There is still one option known as CAC or also known as the "Embassy School" meaning it's where most of the American ex-pats attend. Most are associated in someway with the government or the embassy so their tuition is paid for. Todd's company does pay some tuition.

In Kuwait it was enough to cover 4 kids' tuition at the "Embassy School." Here in Jordan it would've only covered about half of 5 kids' tuition but we weren't happy with the Kuwait school so we thought we'd try something different anyway. And we're still not happy. This year we'll have 6 school age kids. Tuition at CAC for 6 kids would be just over $90,000. Whew! Whose idea was this to have so many kids?! Like I said, Todd's company pays some tuition but certainly not $90,000. So we've decided to take the tuition money and get a great homeschool curriculum with a tutor or two and voila! Educated children! Or maybe not.

Everyone but Petey thinks homeschool will be great. Our kids were friends with a family in UT that homeschooled their kids (shout out to the Eubanks!) so our kids saw the benefits of homeschool. Petey is at the social age and isn't so sure that homeschool will be the best option. She wants us to cough up the expensive education for her and homeschool the rest of the kids. We're keeping that option open for now but it is closing quickly. We've assured them that we will involved them in community programs whether they want to or not. It'll be a different experience but I've convinced myself I can do anything for a few months so we'll give this a try. It couldn't be any worse than the last couple of years, right?