School and an 80s childhood

Through the next week, we settled into a daily routine. Tom left to go work on the EMR system at the hospital early every morning and I spent the day doing school with the kids. 

During our time in New Zealand we were moving around every few days and so “doing school” looked a lot like museum visits/cultural tours (aka, science, history, social studies), journaling (language arts) and doing workbooks in our downtime (math). While in Papua New Guinea, I knew we would be in one place for a month, so it would be a good time to get back to some of the formal study we had set aside.

What I didn’t expect was that my kids would be invited to participate in some aspects of the missionary kids’ school. 

Every day at 10 am, we joined the students for morning recess.

Then at 12:15 we joined for lunch recess, and then at 2 pm Jimmy, Sammy and Lucy joined the various specials classes.

Lucy and Sammy joined the specials for Elementary School (1st - 6th grade)

They had the following:

Monday - Bible Quizzing (such a very Nazarene thing to do!) 

Tuesday - Fiber Arts (this month they learned how to knit!)

Wednesday - Author/Illustrator

Thursday - Art

Friday - PE (this month was track and field)

Jimmy was at the High School (7th - 12th grade, though this class only had up to 10th graders)

Monday - Papua New Guinea studies, followed by Bible Quizzing 

Tuesday - Engineering (they were using power tools and building a bridge)

Wednesday - Intro to TV Production 

Thursday - study hall

Friday - PE 

So that class on TV Production is one that I was teaching. Before we came, they asked if I could teach a special at the school. They suggested that since I have a background working in television that the kids would love it if I could talk about my time with Discovery and Nat Geo. I said I could give it a try. I’m not the most natural in front of the classroom, but I came prepared to to say "yes" to anything they asked me to do. And since these were some really fun and engaging kids, it turned out to be easier than expected.

Even though I worked for over a decade in television, I have never really taught anyone formally. And in this class I only had four weeks, so I needed to keep it simple.

I spent some time on background production terms, good shot composition, planning essentials and finally, I had them film a movie trailer using ipads and iMovie. I think they enjoyed it. 

Currently, the MK elementary and high school has four full-time teachers and all specials are taught by different parents. This is the first year the school is fully staffed. Last year they didn’t have any teachers, so the parents (many who have other full-time jobs at the station) would take turns teaching. 

If any of my teacher friends would like to shake things up in your life, then you should consider coming to serve at this school for a few years. They need at least one more teacher for next year. It’s an amazing place and I would be happy to tell you more. 

Here is a video they use to explore more about the school.

After school is over for the day, all the kids rest or do homework until 4 pm and then it’s like we went back in time to my own childhood in the mid-1980s. 

The kids roam from yard to house to field to yard again. They play with all ages and with whoever is available. They create games and forts and fairy houses and mini-civilizations. They find bugs and reptiles and try to make pets of them with cardboard boxes and plastic containers. They climb trees and duel each other with exotic plants. They also do some dangerous things that we only hear about later when they come back home covered in dirt and sweat and panting with the thrill of adventure. 

Walter teaching my kids about local spiders.

And, when it’s dark, everyone finds their way home hungry and a little more sun-kissed than the day before. 

I’m so glad my kids get to experience this. I’m so glad I feel safe enough here to let them.