My husband Geoff just came back from China. Not the part of China we're familiar with, but the very western extreme. The part you never hear about. His destination for eight days was Urumqi.
Here at home we love studying about the world; geography was my personal favorite subject in grade school. But Urumqi? My geography-loving child and I thought it must be a remote village in western China. Geoff corrected us, "Yes, you could call it remote but it isn't a village at all. It's a city with over two million inhabitants." Two million inhabitants and we never heard about it.
Geoff travels often. A few years ago, I gave up disliking his trips. For one, my dislike didn't keep him home any more often. Also, my change of attitude coincided with the increased abilities of the older children to help around the house. This was even further crystallized when the oldest started driving and could help with errands.
So now, when my dear husband goes away, the fun begins. The youngest, a first grader, assesses the distance first. She loves it best when Daddy's travels take him far away because, as she puts it, "When he goes far he brings souvenirs." (She's right. The children have been sporting pretty new jade bracelets of late.)
The whole concept of the family meal is transformed when he leaves town. With no husband arriving home for dinner, I get very flexible with meal times and meal contents. Truthfully, mothers are busier when husbands are gone. Depleted of my usual help with grocery shopping and picking up children from ballet, I have less time available for homemade meals. So an occasional pizza out will be inserted into the schedule to the children's delight. I also look forward to some — heaven forbid — frozen, semi-prepared meals. (Bertolli frozen meals being my favorite one-step-great-tasting option.) Frozen burritos appear in the freezer and maybe even pop, provided it's not Lent. We may drop everything to make cookies or smoothies. Popcorn is popped almost every night.
The older boys rise up to being "men of the house" and take care of locking up and other responsibilities, such as adjusting heat/AC and turning off computers. Bedtime? We still pray together, and begin by invoking the patron saints of travelers. The youngest children are invited into Mom's bed — it's amazing that I even fit in a bed covered with all those children. We sing and pray some more, while falling asleep in each other's arms.
How does all this pertain to homeschooling? It brings joy. It's fun! And, in our book, joy is the number one ingredient to homeschooling. I could never homeschool without it. Joyless children would drive me to the registration office of the nearest school.
In the realm of academics, my husband's travels can easily turn into geography units. During this last trip, our entire family learned enough geography to cover a whole academic quarter. Urumqi is in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Province and we quickly learned different ways to get there. We compared Geoff's route to those of his colleagues. They chose opposite ways of travel and didn't cover a single continent or ocean in common to arrive at their destination. We read about Urumqi and its trump tourist attraction, Heavenly Lake, nestled in the mountains some 60 miles away. In our research on the Internet, we were amazed and surprised by the fact that Urumqi is the city farthest on the planet from any ocean.
Daily email exchanges with Geoff comprised the bulk of our discoveries. For example, the Chinese don't eat breakfast. I mean, they eat breakfast but it is not breakfast food as we think of it. Not a slice of toast, no coffee, and don't even think of waffles or pancakes. We were all disgusted at the thought of poor Daddy eating cold noodles and vegetables for breakfast, with no coffee. Ugh. News of other idiosyncrasies of their culture arrived periodically, as well as news of his work with the other scientists. Family and friends joined in the fun, asking for news and finding more tidbits.
To welcome Geoff back, our 8-year old drew a card with a map of China, which caused the crowning discussion and a flurry of map searching. She drew Mount Everest and the Alps on the western edge of China. The Alps was an easy mistake – but do you know off the top of your head where Mount Everest is located? Well, maybe you should wait until your husband has a business trip to Nepal!
