Meandering Around the World

So where are we now? Definitely more informed as too the medical side – we have gotten all the ho hum vaccinations that are covered by health insurance and in January will get the ones that are only available from the Travel Health Clinic – Yellow Fever, Japanese Encephalitis and Typhoid; still on the fence about rabies.

We are also farther along on the home schooling side – we have talked to the head of the math dept at the school the kids go to now and to the one at the school the kids will go to when we come back and found out that the kids are basically a year ahead of the new school’s curriculum. I had expected this since they are switching from a private school to a public one. This means we have to decide whether we treat our year of travel as a review year, just making sure they don’t lose what they have already learnt or, on the other hand keep pushing them so they will be still be ahead and go into an accelerated math class when we come back. It doesn’t help that one school uses one curriculum (Prentice Hall) and the other a completely different one (Everyday Math). But all the traveling families I’ve spoken to recommend Singapore math since it is so portable, easy to teach and apparently, pretty fun.
I’m actually leaning towards doing a review year with Singapore math, adding online math games, some enrichment and just make sure they really, really have a secure base without stressing over teaching algebra, etc. What a gift to have them already ahead so they can relax and enjoy the trip. If they whiz though standard 3nd grade & 7th grade math then we can go ahead to the next but no pressure.