Your homeschool is a unique entity, shaped by the particular individuals in your family and the specific backgrounds that only you have! Today on Home School Heartbeat, HSLDA President Mike Smith visits with a mom whose homeschooling experience is truly an international affair!
Mike Smith:
As we continue to focus this week on homeschooling in international households, our guest today is May Plews. May, welcome to the program!
May Plews:
Thank you!
Mike:
Now May, yours is really a multi-cultural household! Your husband, John, is Canadian, you were born and raised in Lebanon, and you’re homeschooling right now in Northern Virginia! How has homeschooling enabled you to give your children a sense of cultural heritage?
May:
Well, there are some things that would have been much harder for us to do if we weren’t homeschooling. This year, for example, even though we moved to Virginia, we decided to continue working on Canadian studies. So we did Canadian history and geography. We’re still using Canadian spelling and grammar—it’s a bit different from American spelling, so we focus on the Canadian stuff. And the kids are still studying French as their second language.
And last year, to bring in some Middle Eastern studies, we did a whole unit on that. It was great, because I was able to add my own experience. And they really got into it! They were always interrupting to ask questions. But it’s during Bible time that I can bring in a lot of the extra information from my Lebanese background, too.
Mike:
May, that’s fabulous! Thanks for sharing this glimpse into your homeschool with our listeners today! And until next time, I’m Mike Smith.