One of the most challenging things about bringing home toddlers and preschoolers is that every second of your time seems to have been suddenly sucked into a black hole. Toddlers and preschoolers are energetic, inquisitive, and mobile. They make things happen. And woe to you if you're not watching them while they're making things happen. To stay safe, they need to play within the hearing and sight of the parents. The challenge is to keep an eye on kids and still find time to fold the laundry and fill the dishwasher. If the kids DVD's at your house are getting worn out, you may be ready to try an idea adapted from Montessori preschools.

“Play stations” are independent... more

Someone commented on my recent school post questioning how I could recommend keeping school-aged kids out of school during their first months homes. I thought this was an important question. Sometimes brevity can confuse, so here's my long answer.

First of all, I am in no way suggesting you bring the kid home and then do nothing with him. If I were a public-schooling mom opting to keep my newly arrived kids home for a semester, I would simply tell officials that I am homeschooling. Not all 'school' has to consist of workbooks... more

As an experienced homeschooling mom, I've written posts and given advice privately to families wondering how to begin school with newly arrived children. I dispensed the majority of the advice ... ahem... before I'd actually adopted older kids. It turns out my ideas were partly right and partly wrong.

My instinct that it would be best to start slowly was definitely right. But I didn't have a true grasp of just how slowly to go. My idea of slow was not nearly slow enough for our new girls.

I began homeschooling a month after they arrived. I felt that I was beginning with fairly... more

An issue that adoptive families often face when their children begin school is the dreaded family tree project. Typically a school will send home a request for family information so that each child can construct his or her own genealogy, or family tree.

When a child has been adopted domestically and knows or has contact with some of his birth family, many families choose to add the known birth family into the family tree, right along with the adoptive parents. Many parents of internationally adopted children, however, know nothing about the child's... more

Families with adopted children sometimes find that their children's classmates are uninformed about adoption. Unfortunately many young children will manifest that lack of information by asking the adopted children awkward questions or making unkind comments.

Families can handle this in a couple ways. We can coach our kids to think ahead and have an answer planned and ready when a friend asks a question such as, "Is that your real mom?" Some families also opt to go into their children's classrooms near the start of each school year to do a brief adoption talk, helping kids learn a little more about adoptive families.

If you opt to talk to your child's class, here are some... more

Since we are a homeschooling family, the decision to homeschool our newest children was a fairly simple one. We are open to considering other options for our girls if they became necessary for some reason. But my experience with homeschooling has me convinced that homeschooling offers many benefits to newly arrived children. Some of the biggest benefits include the tutoring style of teaching, and the ability to personalize curriculum to the children's needs.

We've made it through our first week of homeschooling, and so far things are going pretty well. There are the usual pangs from various children... more

I first heard about a reading program called Read Naturally from a friend who brought home eight year old twins from about two years ago. After working hard with them at home and at school for at least year and feeling frustrated because they still struggled to read well, she discovered this program, and immediately wished she’d tried it sooner. The program is designed especially with ELL (English language learning) kids in mind. Since the girls we’re waiting for are close to the age of hers, I was interested to check out this reading program to see if it might also benefit my new arrivals from Ethiopia.

I received several different... more

A few weeks ago I bought two Amharic/English books for our new girls. The first is Silly Mammo - a retelling of a traditional Ethiopian folk tale written by Yohannes Gebregeorgis and illustrated by Bogale Belachew. The second is The Lion's Tail, a story by Jane Kurtz, which has been translated into Amharic by Yohannes Gebregeorgis.

I was pleased to learn this week that EthiopiaReads.org has some new books for sale!

The Fig Tree by Genet... more

(part one here)

The second mom to weigh in on the topic of school and the language barrier is Darla Knutzen. Darla is a school teacher and the mother of a son who arrived home from Ethiopia a few years ago. She, like Chris, mentions that stress that children experience when they first come home.

"One thing I remember was how overwhelmed he was those first few weeks at school. He certainly needed "down time" during the day. For this reason we did ESL 'pullout' (as opposed the... more

This week I will be doing some posts about helping new children navigate the public school system. Since I am a homeschooling mom, I have asked some public-schooling moms I trust to share some of their wisdom with you, especially in regards to the language barrier.

I want to start by explaining a few terms that these moms will be using.

ESL= 'English as a Second Language' - a program that most public schools have to help children learn English. ELL= English Language Learner

Title One= a federally funded program to provide extra assistance to students... more