Many people have asked me how Josh is doing on the trip, so I will happily take some time to talk about him and how he has adapted, enjoyed and changed on our travels.
Although this trip was something that Todd and I wanted to do, we sincerely hoped Josh would also enjoy it and consider it a "once in a lifetime" trip. There were a ton of child-related considerations in the planning process. First, and probably most important, school. How would we pull him out of school? How would he learn? What would happen when we got back?
Much earlier this year (when Josh was still in kindergarten), I met with his principal to let her know of our plans and our tentative dates. She said it sounded like a great opportunity and I said I'd let her know when we started making more firm plans. We have some friends who home-school their children, and they gave us some information to start us on the right foot. Lucky for us, starting a "home school" in North Carolina is a minimally-regulated process. In July, once we knew our travel dates for certain, we submitted an application to the NC Division of Non-Public Education, informing them that we intended to open our own "home school." We gave it a name ("Durham Home School") and gave them a list of instructors (Todd and I). As proof that we were qualified to teach him, they requested scanned copies of our high school diplomas. And less than a week later, our home school was approved to begin operating on September 1st.
As soon as we had our confirmation about the home school, we met again with Josh's principal. Many of you know that Josh's elementary school (Easley) is a magnet school, meaning that his space was obtained through an application and lottery process. We (mistakenly) assumed that, since this trip would be so educational, Easley would hold his spot. Of course it was nothing personal, his principal assured me that she would love to have him, but she explained that once he was gone for 30 consecutive days, the school system would automatically de-enroll him. (At that point, if we didn't have some kind of documentation, we might risk having someone come after us with truancy concerns.) The principal gave me contact information for the Office of Student Assignment with a recommendation that I contact them with a proactive transfer request. I did that right away, providing lots of information about the many educational opportunities we had planned during our trip, as well as our home school plans. The principal told me that the Office of Student Assignment would probably deny my request at first but that we could appeal to the Superintendant and, if necessary, the school board. I got a quick and kind (but still noncommittal) email reply from the Office of Student Assignment that they would process the transfer request in November and they would let me know after that time. So, we kept our fingers crossed and figured we would cross that bridge if/when we came to it. We just heard back from them this week and Josh's transfer back into Easley has been approved!
We got outlines of the curriculum from Josh's teacher and she told us that the class was going to track Josh's travels on a map in the classroom. They had a special day for him on his last day (dance party, cupcakes and everyone wore his favorite color).
While we have been traveling, Josh does some kind of formal reading, writing, or math/science/language arts instruction every weekday. We watch YouTube videos on science (sun, moon and stars), he does lots of lessons using a great app called IXL. As home school teachers, Todd and I each got a month to try it out, so, although it would be worth paying for the unlimited subscription, it's been free so far! He loves it, as they say "it makes learning fun!" We have also found excellent ways to squeeze in learning as we go, such adding up costs, converting Thai bhat, rupees or Euros to US dollars, or figuring out the time in different time zones, for example. For a while we were making it conversational, but he quickly caught on to us and now will often say something like "You don't have to make everything a lesson, Mom/Dad." Guilty! He is a very advanced reader, so he reads everything everywhere we go and....asks questions about it all. When we do get on wifi, we spend lots of time googling many of the questions he has asked so we can all learn together. He has learned some words in foreign languages and has learned all about many of the unique and interesting animals and sea life in the places we've been. He has learned about government (democracies, monarchies, prime ministers, and plenty about the US presidential election), law enforcement, we have talked about work and careers, religion, college, we've talked about medicines, drugs, poverty, death and crime and prison and we have talked about sex. Yep, we had "the talk."
As many of you know, Josh is a very social kid. He talks a lot about his friends back home and gets a smile on his face when I show him pics of his friends on Facebook. We had hoped he would have playmates throughout our travels, but we've met very few other children his age. There was one day in Koh Chang where he met some boys his age and he was so excited. It broke my heart when we found out they were leaving the next day... But, he is very adaptable and we have enjoyed the quality time together. Josh is creative and kind, and has made friends with his stuffed animals and he has had lots of imaginary friends. He has also occupied himself by drawing (a lot), a minimum of screen time each day and doing independent play like making his own restaurant in the corner of the hotel room. We've done tons of swimming and exploring in addition to endless and various sightseeing.
Josh sleeps well almost every night, which is not new. But, knowing we were going to be in close quarters for 3.5 months, we had hoped he would be able to sleep while we were still up and vice versa. We almost always have him asleep by 9:00 and we usually stay up for a bit afterwards. If he wakes up earlier than either of us, we seem to do a decent job of switching that around. Everyone is well rested. At home, we usually try to get out for a date night every week or two, so we have been definitely missing that while on this trip. There are definitely times where we all get on each other's nerves and when Todd and I could use a break from parenting or teaching for a while. We help each other out as best we can, but I am sure that Todd and I will welcome having more adult time (as Josh will welcome more kid time) after we return home. We will all appreciate having more space!!
According to an earlier post, you know we have all changed our hygiene routines a bit, I no longer make Josh shower every night. He does have to shower when he is really dirty, when his hair smells or when he has bug repellent on his skin. He's decided he wanted to grow his hair out, so he hasn't had a trim since we left. It's getting pretty shaggy and looks like it's starting to fall in his eyes a little. We've learned to live out of a bag and I think Josh is getting much better at corralling his things and being responsible for his trash, etc. We have all had to take anti-malarial pills and Todd and I are lucky that ours are tolerable. Josh has to take a different one, though, because of his age, and it's awful. Not only is it disgustingly bitter, but he only take 3/4 of a tablet so we dissolve it in something and then he drinks it, chases it with water and then wipes the residue from his lips. When he first started taking them, we tried crushing it in jelly, dissolving it in juice, sticking it in a hotdog, but nothing made it better. He used to have to get a big hug before taking it and it was taking about 30-45 minutes to coax and build him up to it. Well, they are still awful, but we've found a way to make it work and he just gets it done, every. Single. Day. What a Champ!! Like every kid (person?), he has his share of bad days and meltdowns, but we are getting better at dealing with them. We've had quite a few spontaneous discussions about what a "bad day" for us entails vs a "bad day" for some other people in this world. And we all know that not getting a special drink or having to shut down his game are "small things" compared to kids his age not owning a pair of shoes or not going to school because they have to be on the streets begging for food or money.
Josh has a great sense of adventure and has grown tremendously as a person on this trip. I was watching him the other day as we made the transfer from the beach into the long tail boat we were taking off the island. He took off his flip flops, walked into the water towards the boat, grabbed onto the old ladder, tossed his shoes inside and climbed up with his bag on his back. He is so independent and capable. I am so proud and I love seeing it happen. He and I went on a little adventure walk the other day and had the best conversations. At one point he said to me, "You know Mom, this trip is even better than I imagined it would be." Yes, sweetie, it is...❤️
Pics from Koh Jum
Pics from Krabi Town, Ao Nang and Railay Beach
In case anyone is curious, I made an album with pics of some of the places we've stayed along the way. Most of our accommodations have been from Airbnb, but hotels in Thailand are very affordable. I really like "guesthouses" and we've also stayed in some hostels and bungalows. Here is a
link to those photos.
We are now in Phuket and fly out To Sydney, Australia tomorrow evening. We are all so excited about a new place and this next leg of the journey!
We camped in Port Arthur the first night on Tasmania, at a campground / "holiday park" on White Sand beach. The sand was indeed very white. And the water clear and cold. There were a bunch of these crescent-shaped jelly things on the sand, I assumed they were jelly fish or pieces of jelly fish. But they are actually the egg sac for the Conical Sand Snail. Crazy! The campground had bathrooms, water / electrical hookups and wifi included!
