The past few weeks have been doozies. From the election to the pandemic to the big changes coming our way as a family, my head has been spinning with information and sometimes fear. The Hindu holiday of Diwali came at just the right time. Why would a Christian family celebrate Diwali, you might ask? Well, we are intimately tied to India through our adoption and our homeschool seeks out opportunities to learn about other cultures and customs all the time. We Americanized it inadvertently, of course, with our attire and my lack of Indian food and the whole Hindu integration, but we had fun and the kids learned a lot, I think.

What is Diwali? Well, it first caught my eye when I noticed that in preparation for the holiday, the whole entire house gets cleaned by its inhabitants! We celebrated with a family-wide cleaning spree which always calms me. I tidied up the upstairs while the kids tackled the monumental mess downstairs. The purpose of the first day of cleaning is to have mental clarity and peace to celebrate the five days of Diwali.

It's customary for shopping to be done for the holiday, too. We did purchase new clothes. In our case, we wore our India Adoption Fundraiser tees that recently arrived on our doorstep.

On the second day, many people decorate their homes with rangoli. Colorful designs are made at the entryways of homes with colored powders and flowers and light. Well wishes are made to friends and family and sweet treats are had by all.

The third day is marked with family gatherings, food, prayers, and fireworks.

On the fourth day, gifts and well wishes are given to friends and relatives.

On the final day, siblings visit one another and exchange gifts.

From my understanding and application, Diwali is about embracing light and goodness over darkness. What a great notion to teach my children. I think perhaps God is showing me something through all of this waiting. As I imagine what it must be like to be in India right now celebrating with more lights and colors than I've ever seen, I can imagine that the government there needs a break, too. It reminds me to relax and continue waiting patiently with this adoption. I want to celebrate the children I have here and the one God is orchestrating to join our family one day. The blending of lives is humbling, incredibly humbling...and it's our pleasure to be free to learn about the country where our future family member resides.

Happy Diwali to you and yours.

Raksha Bandhan

Monday, August 3rd, is Raksha Bandhan! It's an Indian holiday for siblings- a day to promise to love and protect each other always. I didn't announce it here, but we hope to adopt from India and have started the long, difficult process. While we wait on our child, we are learning as much as we can about the culture and introducing traditions into our home school and family. This was our first year celebrating this holiday, also referred to as Rakhi. It was perfect for our own morning time rhythms here. 

Traditionally, the girl children present the boy children with a bracelet known as a "rakhi" and the boys give the girl children a gift and sweets called "chum chum" to celebrate.

 I was able to get my hands on some genuine Indian rakhis for my kids to exchange, but I also thought it would be fun to make our own, too. The kids had fun making the bracelets and chose close friends and cousins to give them to. Our chum chum of the day were pumpkin muffins because I wasn't prepared to present Indian food that early in the morning! Perhaps one day.

 The spirit behind this holiday is to promise to show love and support to one another always. What a beautiful sentiment. I think we've found a new tradition in Raksha Bandhan! Below I'll list some resources we used in teaching the children about this special holiday:

Thread of Love

Mira Celebrates Raksha Bandhan

(Note: Please be careful when buying rahkis from certain Indian companies. Some seek to make a joke or mockery of adoption, furthering the damaging stigma. Look for companies who are in support of families no matter how they're pieced together!)

 I used a legitimate one and this was the note on the packaging:

 Find one that supports girls! Little girls...what precious gifts from God.

Happy Raksha Bandhan!

Ancient Egypt Study

There have been days that I've thought, "I can't believe it's only August" with much hysteria displayed all over my face. Other days are blissfully simple yet productive, meaningful and slow. All is well tonight as Down Home Schoolhouse shuts down for the evening for nighttime Peter Rabbit stories. When the house becomes surprisingly quiet, I'm able to reflect on some of the little moments or words uttered that I don't want to forget.

The history curriculum I'm following is assuredly too advanced for them, but I love it. I thoughtfully chose it because I know how much my husband (and his family) enjoy studying history and I wanted to breed the same appreciation in our kids. This will be a program that I will be able to use for years if we continue to homeschool. Even if we do not, it came with a history game that is actually quite difficult on the high school level. Jordan and I play it and we struggle. It's hard, but it's fun, too. Because it can be daunting to sit a preschooler, kindergartner, and a grade one child down at a table with a two year old running circles around it, I try to make it fun for them in some way. Keep their hands busy with coordinating coloring sheets. Crafts. Dramatic read aloud. Anything to allow them to listen to what I'm talking about that day.

Lately, our efforts have been focused on Ancient Egypt. We've studied pyramids, pondered what we might do if we suddenly woke up back then, had an Egyptian themed feast, decoded hieroglyphics and learned to write our names with ancient pictures, and talked about the Nile River. 

In our back yard, we have an area of gravel (unfortunately) and the kids love to play in it. They used to pile up their dump trucks with rocks and dirt and ram them into each other as boys do. Now, it stays pretty leveled out so imagine my surprise when I look out the window and see that Kinley had dug out intricately placed ditches and was then filling them with water, making a muddy mess. I leaned my head out the door with, I'm sure, a look of annoyance as he proudly said, "Look, Mom! I made irrigation ditches just like the Egyptians made around the pyramids!"

I bit my tongue because my whole goal with this was to let the children play, to learn through experience. I didn't want some textbook answer for everything. I loved the real life application and the reminder of the role childhood creativity has when they're not plopped in front of an iPad all day. It has been good.

Just today, we discussed The Great Pyramid of Giza. We took a look at the layout of it all and Abel grinned and said, "Ma, when I die will you bury me in the underground chamber? That's cool." Fights then broke out over where the other kids would be buried. Kinley ended up with the king's chamber and Saylor rightly got the queen's chamber while Merit said, "I'll just be with Jesus." Me, too, pal. Me, too.

We also made Egyptian Armbands which they loved!

Up next is mummies. They're gonna love that, too!