As I wrote in part one, I believe that homeschooling can be a great option for older adopted children, particularly when they come from an orphanage environment in another country. I think it deserves real consideration when parents begin to contemplate what their child’s education will be like once they arrive in their new home.

My very favorite reason for homeschooling our new 8 year old daughter is that it has given her the chance to do myriad things as part of “school” that she wouldn’t have been able to in public school. Since internationally adopted children often miss a great many “firsts” that are the norm for most children, keeping them home, at least in the beginning, gives the family the chance to provide all sorts of “firsts.” Here are just a few of Lulu’s. :) (My apologies that the descriptions don't line up with the photos. No matter what I try, I can't make it work).

We learned right away that Lulu loves beads. Since her fine motor skills were lacking, beading (and any activities like it) became an integral part of her school experience. In this photo she is wearing a headband and bracelet she made, and is working on "barrel bead art."



Shortly after the kids came home from Haiti, we had an early snow storm. It was warm enough that the snow melted within about an hour of falling, but because Lulu wasn't in a classroom, she was able to run outside (in her brother's borrowed coat) and experience her VERY FIRST SNOW!



In the beginning, when I sensed Lulu was getting overwhelmed with school or with anything else, we often took a break and did something else for a while - definitely not something she'd have the luxury of doing in a classroom! On this day, we danced to Wyclef Jean in the dining room and blew off a little steam and got the wiggles out.



One morning, a friend dropped off a big bucket of apples her family had picked from their apple trees. We switched school gears for the morning and made caramel apples. I don't think Lulu had ever cooked anything in her life, but she was definitely happy to try!



On this day, we got our schoolwork done quickly and decided to go on an impromptu field trip to the river. It was the first time Lulu had ever seen a river that wasn't full of garbage, and she loved throwing pebbles into the water, inspecting plants, insects and rocks, and chasing her siblings around. Nobody wanted to leave!



In this photo, Lulu and her brothers decided to put together a mechanical car. The instructions contain only pictures, no words, so it was a great activity for a kid who didn't speak much English and couldn't read.



Here's Lulu making her first snowflake for Family Home Evening. She'd never made one before, and it took her a while to figure out that if she cut them the wrong way, they fell apart. After she got the hang of it, she made several, including a purple one. We hung everyone's snowflakes in the schoolroom.



On this day, the kids worked on a variety of art projects. Lulu made a creature out of a small bottle fitted with pipe cleaner limbs, googly eyes, and filled with layers of colore sand.



On this morning, we got up early and went to McDonald's for breakfast. "School" included lessons on gravity, cooperation and pretending, all learned within the maze of tubes and slides in the play land.



On this day, Lulu decorated Christmas cookies for the first time ever.



Now THIS they did not have in Haiti! ;) Zoe taught Lulu how to iceskate, and they went at every opportunity over the winter.



How's this for PE? Bowling, during school hours! Lulu loves to bowl and is pretty darn good at it now, considering how little she's done it in her young life!



Lulu loved the piano from day one and finally gets to start piano lessons next month. She can't wait! She's starting judo/juijitsu as well.



Here's Lulu petting a deer at a petting zoo.



The lack of bikes at the orphanage didn't stop Lulu from learning how to ride in one day (with a little help from her older brother!)



Most of these things we might have been able to cram into the short hours after public school let out. Maybe. But the other kids probably wouldn't have been around as much because of their own homework and extracurricular activities, and we might have been so tired and busy that it would have been easy to skip some of these things. I can't imagine having done our first months with our new children any other way. :)

Stay tuned for part three - How to homeschool!