We are in our motorhome and touring now, but in the winter we are in a small village in Andalusia, Spain. There are only 2200 people in our small ancient village. It is called a white village and the houses are built on a hill and look like sugar cubes!

We can walk to everything in our village and do not use our motorhome much in the winter. It is fun because we know everybody in the village and say “Hola” and “Buenas Dias” to everyone as we go about our day. We sometimes see Mozart’s teacher or the principal or the owners of the stores we go to doing their chores too.

We are also just five minutes drive from a beautiful sea, but it is not the Atlantic. It is the Mediterranean sea. They say there use to be pirates in the coves and caves near the beach. There is an old castle on top of our village and the Jews, Muslims and Christians lived here together peacefully for 800 years. It was a very sophisticated society here when most of Europe was still in the dark ages.

It is very warm in the winter in our village and there is little rain all year long. We are told that it is very, very hot in the summer, but we have never been as we do not like it when it gets too hot. The winter is more like spring weather and the sky is almost always very blue and the sun almost always shines.

The houses are built very different than the ones in California. They have no insulation and it can get cold inside at night sometimes, so we wear sweaters and slippers inside. Often it is cooler inside than it is outside. This is a good thing in the summer, but not as good in the winter.

It is a very beautiful village so we get lots of tourists from around the world. They often have shorts on and resort clothes on even in the winter, but people who live here dress differently with sweaters and jackets. The tourists come from cold climates, so it seems warm to them, but the natives are use to very hot weather, so it seems like winter to them. The contrast makes me laugh!

Our little village is surrounded by farms, rolling hills and huge mountains. In the winter the tops of some of the mountains get snow on them and we can ski just one hour away. If we wanted we could snow ski in the morning and then drive to the nearby beach and swim in the afternoon!

All sports and horseback riding are very popular here. The local school has a huge gymnasium where they play basketball and football ( soccer). There are two big parks in this village, one with a skateboard section, a big soccer field and a community center. Mozart takes her flamenco classes at the community center.

We always here horses and donkeys clomping by our windows and we like the sound. We live right by the “campo” or countryside so hear the roosters every morning and bleating goats too. Most of the streets are too narrow for cars, so the kids play a lot in the streets too…sometimes a spontaneous game of football.

There are lots of festivals in Spain as it is a very important part of the culture and everybody in the village participates which makes it lots of fun. We really love the festivals and have some cool videos but I have not figured out how to upload them yet. Bulls, horses, donkeys, flamenco, fireworks and dressing up is almost always a part of it and everyone likes to participate from the oldest to the youngest.

Our village is on a hill, so one can see the sea from almost everywhere. There are lots of fruit trees, especially citrus and avocado trees. Almost every body has a pool at their house or in their complex.

Everything closes down in Spain from about 2 o’clock until they reopen again at 5 or 6pm. The church square is the center of the life of the village and the church bells can be heard from everywhere. There are the remains of an old castle at the top of our village and lots of good hiking trails all around. The streets are cobble stone and all the houses are white. The narrow streets make more shade which is a relief in the summer heat. In the summer people rest during the heat of the day and all year they have their big meal at 2pm.

At sunset many people like to walk around the village and chat with friends. The children often stay up very late in Spain and are welcomed everywhere. Many parents pick up their kids from school on motorbikes if they live in the campo, which is not something one sees in America.

Hope that helps!

Big beary hugs!
Peppa

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

That sure looks like a fun party!! Happy, happy belated birthday to Ella!

We are in Marbella now at a nice beach and heading towards Portugal. I will write more soon!

We don’t get much snow here in Bideford but when it snowed 2 years ago it was BAD (the roads were blocked and traffic can to a stand still but it only lasted for a few hours. It does however get very cold in the winter and sports are dependent upon the weather. Football, rugby, netball and rowing are popular and the school that I am at has a very good gym where our gymnasts train very hard but it is always fun and I have been to training and have been lucky enough to go away to competitions with some of the Gymnasts.

We look forward to hearing from you
love from
EDDY x

In Jacksonville it really never snows. I think someone told me once, that there were a few snowflakes coming down over 10 years ago, but I have never seen snow in Jacksonville yet. Since it does not get very cold here, we can do lots of activities outside ALL year long. Soccer (what you call football), horseback riding, baseball, American football, swimming, and running for example. Some sports, we actually like to do it inside, because it can get TOO hot in the summer to be jumping around outside.

Another favorite thing to do for a lot of the children living in Jacksonville is to go with their families to visit Disney World in Orlando, Florida. Since we only have to drive for about 2 hours to get there, we like to have fun at the many Theme Parks. Some of the older children even get to take end of the year field trips to go to Sea World or Universal Studios.

I hope you know a little bit more now about what we do for fun here in Northern Florida/USA.

Looking forward to hearing what you are doing? Do you have snow in the winter? I have seen snow once before when I traveled to New York. I LOVE snow.

beary kisses
from Jose

I am Peppa and I am in Andalusia, Spain right now. I really liked all your pictures. My person’s name is Mozart and she liked to fish too! She first learned to fish on a boat in Turkey this summer, but she did not catch fish as big as yours. Wow!

Guess where else they have more cranes that you ever thought possible? Spain! That is where I am now and we have never seen so many cranes as they are everywhere in this country.