Settling into a routine

October 24 

Today marks the start of our first ‘official’ week and our first ‘official’ home school session. The kids have each drawn up elaborate school schedules that don't always coordinate. That said, everyone seems willing to compromise and re-negotiate the schedule. Everyone began with some writing before breakfast. Both kids are writing blogs to share with their classmates  When you add in journal-keeping and reflective writing, they have plenty of writing to do! Next, they tackled math assignments. James is working on switching fractions to decimals and vice versa, and simplifying fractions, while Claire is learning about area and perimeter. 

After a solid hour, it was time for PE. Mondays are Claire's day to be in charge of PE. We walked to a nearby park where she put us through paces of hopscotch, wall walking, climbing on the climber, then playing catch. If you missed the ball, you had to do 10 squats before you got another turn. We spent about 30 minutes in the park, then headed off on an exploratory run/walk. We saw some interesting street art and some new areas a few blocks from our apartment. 

As we've walked our neighborhood, we've noticed an old church with some Spanish signs posted on it. We decided to stop today to see what it was all about. The signs told us that it was the Capilla de Nuestra Señora de Lourdes.

(Scroll down the site to see some pictures of the lovely interior). After reading about the church, its history, renovation, and fund-drive (in Spanish), we found that the door was open so we went in. We spent a bit of time quietly looking at the lovely stained glass windows. We all agreed that it was a peaceful, quiet place to which we'll likely return.

After lunch we continued with home-school. Social studies was next on the agenda and we decided to start our learning about the history of Puerto Rico by going back to the start. We spent time today and will spend more time this week learning about the Taíno, the indigenous people of Puerto Rico. We found a great video to get us started. This topic is clearly of interest to the kids with them wanting to race ahead. Love it when learning is such fun!

We took an afternoon excursion walk to pick up a few necessities (another swim mask and a functioning can opener) and ended with time in another park. Now it's back to the apartment to make dinner. We're expanding our palates with breadfruit tonight! More about that tomorrow:-)