May 13 2008
Hola from Andalusia, Spain!
Hello!
My name is Peppa and I am very excited to be joining all the Teddy Bears around the world! I belong to a little girl named Mozart who is traveling around the world, so I am seeing lots of fun places.
She turned 7 this past fall when she was in Austria. Guess where she found me? In Vienna, Austria at the oldest zoo in the world! Mozart loves Panda bears and there was a new baby panda at the zoo which she really liked. You can see pictures here. She could not take that baby home with her, but when she saw me in the gift shop, it was love at first sight!
I will share more about our travels to many countries later, but right now we are in Spain, so let me tell you about our life here. Do you see the RV in my picture? That is our home in the spring, summer and fall! When it starts getting to cold and rainy in Europe late in the fall, we head to the deep southern part of Spain called Andalusia because it is one of the sunniest, warmest, happiest places on earth.
We live in a village house in a tiny white village located between Malaga and Granada. This is Mozart’s second winter here, so she knows all the kids. She is bilingual in Spanish and English. She homeschools in English all year long, but when she is in Spain she goes to the local school where the teachers do not speak any English. Most of the other kids only speak Spanish, but a few are from other countries, so speak other languages, including a few from the UK who speak English.
Other wise the children learn most of the same things that you do. They like to play and jump rope at recess. They like to take field trips. They like to learn about everything and have fun. Here is a picture of Mozart’s class.
Mozart plays the violin and the piano after school. She practices the violin before school and walks to the other side of the village with her mom or dad on Thursdays for her lesson. On Tuesdays she takes a piano lesson from her teacher who lives far away in Chicago. He teaches her over the computer with skype. Mozart also uses her laptop to see and talk to her Grandma and friends in California via webcam free calls. Here is a video of Mozart playing her violin in many of the countries she has visited:
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Andalusia is famous for a very ancient dance called flamenco. Mozart loves flamenco and she gets to wear high heels and a fancy dress. She does flamenco lessons on Monday and Wednesday and also walks to her lessons for that with one of her parents. This is a video of her doing flamenco at a performance last year.
Andalusia is also famous for it’s festivals. There are many exciting festivals and Mozart and I love them. Here are two videos showing the two different festivals. The first one is
2 Responses to “Hola from Andalusia, Spain!”
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Hi Peppa
I am Eddy, I live in Devon in the UK. Its great to have a new friend. What is it like to belong to someone that is home schooled? I have told all the children in my class and they think that it would be like a big holiday but I have told them you still have to do all the lessons the same as they do ? could you tell me what it is like so that I can share your experiences with them? My class are looking at all of the places where my friends live and vistit and would love to hear about your experiences.
thank you so much
beary hugs
from Eddy.
Hi Eddy!
Thank you for the warm welcome!
Did you ever go on a field trip? Much of our homeschool life is like a field trip almost every day and Mozart and her family love learning through adventures! There are as many different ways to home educate as there are people doing it. We have friends in the UK who home educate or homeschool, but I think it is more popular in America.
It is, I suppose, a little like a holiday everyday for Mozart, but she does have to do her lessons every day. There is only one student and two teachers ( her parents) and she learns quickly, so much can be done in a short time. Many homeschoolers are done with their lessons in two hours and free to have many hours to do self directed learning, play, reading and exploring.
She usually does a little formal schooling every day all year long. She always does math and music ( violin and piano practice) just like she always brushes her teeth. She loves math and she does the same curriculum that they use in Singapore schools. She is working on their 4th grade book. Her dad loves math too, so he facilitates her learning in that area. Sometimes she does it on boats, on trains, often outside or in her tent, or on a beach. We believe in living math too, so like to find math problems to solve in our lives. We like to play music quiz games too like when we are driving or math fact contests.
Mozart also loves to read in both Spanish and English, but she reads more in English. She loved books even as a baby and started to read very early. We have more books on our journey than anything else and she always has a book in her hands it seems. She likes to cuddle with me and read, even when she is having a snack. She likes both fiction and non fiction books. We do miss English libraries and book shops as we use to use them so much at home.
Reading is part of her homeschooling, but she thinks it is just fun. She loves the Lemony Snicket “Series of Unfortunate Events” books , “Harriet the Spy” and anything by Roald Dahl. She loves historical fiction too or entertaining books like the horrible history series or Greek myths. We all love to discuss books and read aloud together.
Mozart keeps a journal and writes in it every day.She loves to make books too. She also spends time on her laptop for e-book libraries, Scratch, Geography, Science, typing and various subjects for fun or research. We also have lots educational software and dvd’s ( PBS, Discovery channel, BBC etc) that we use from time to time for fun school. We have lots of different homeschool books and supplies that we use from time to time because we love to learn. We try to study before we go to a place and then learn all that we can while there, often buying more books, visiting museums, experiencing cultural events.
We use the Core Knowledge series as a basic guideline to insure that we are not missing anything. This year we are working on the Fourth grade one and Mozart likes to read these for fun. We read and discuss “Story of the World” as one of our nightly books before bed.
We also have lots of time for creative, self directed play as we think that is important part of a young child’s learning. We bring legos, art supplies and books, snap circuit and lots of games with us as we roam. She has two small cases of very small toys like polly pockets and playmobiles for imaginary play. She likes to create little villages for fun. We have a small motorhome, so we pack up many toys and books and leave them in Spain for when we return. I am lucky to be the only big soft toy that gets to travel!
Mozart loves to homeschool and the whole family loves to learn together! Hope that helps a little and feel free to ask any questions!
Big beary hugs!
Peppa