HOME SWEET HOME PART II

Last night was an exciting night for the Jacobsens and the most of the class who went through Gateway training in Texas with us. The last big contingent arrived on board. Now we only have one coming in September, one in October and then two coming when we reach Togo next February. So, we did what all friends do, we held a reunion this evening. Even though it has been a short time, it was still great to get together again. Its good to be among friends. We also got to watch a video they made of our class going through training. I guess it will be used as publicity showing the quality of the safety training for shipboad life we went through.

As I promised last blog, we would look more at what life is like on board ship. Tonight I though it would be fun to look at the school.

Probably the question we were asked most when people found out we were going to live aboard ship was "What about school for Alisia and Joshua?" or "Are you going to home school?" Well tonight the answer. They have a full fledged school that is in the process of receiving it accreditation. I believe they have 12 teachers and even a principal. (That made me feel good, that way the kids can get sent to the "office" when they need it.) The classes range from pre-school all the way to grade 12. All the required classes are taught along with a good selection of electives. I was duly impressed when I found out what the school was and what it offered.

There is a large portion of deck six that has been designated as the Academy. The picture to starboard (right)is a picture of one of Alisia's class rooms. It is being suitably modeled by who else but Alisia. Below is Joshua sitting dutifully at his desk. I hope he does the same during the school day. The four desks you see are for ALL of Joshua's 5 grade classmates. There is another portion of the room that is for the Fourth grade. They do run 2 grades to one teacher. But that is the same as with a lot of rural schools in the United States.

The next two pictures of of typical classrooms. The first one is the big class room. It is a combination of a computer lab (the students start at a very young age learning computer, I was in high school before they even let me touch a typewriter, that is a computer without power.) science lab, auditorium, and everything else room. The next picture is of the second grade classroom. It looks like any other second grade classroom only smaller.

I think it is wonderful the uniqueness of going to school on board ship. One of the outside play areas, deck 7, has a net going from the deck up to the next deck so balls, etc won't go over the side. Deck 7 also has swings. On deck 8, the top deck, they have an above deck swimming pool, a jungle gym set up, pedal cars and no dirt (a mixed blessing). Of course, living 30 seconds from school makes it nice, don't have to drive or walk the kids to school, and they can come home and shower after PE, yes they have a PE instructor also, a good one, the kids get a real workout. One thing we don't have is sports teams, cheerleaders, etc. Again a mixed blessing.

Today we had one of our required fire drills. How many fire drills do your kids have at school where they have to go to the pier, meet their folks, go to the muster station with 400 other adults and kids and wait for the Captain to pass the word to secure the fire drill before you go back on board.

Although there are a lot of differences between a land based and shipboard schools, there are also similarities After all, students are students and teachers are teachers. We are completely satisfied with the quality of education our kids are receiving. And they have the added benefit in learning in a culture of different cultures. The students are from all over the world. (one teacher asked in what continent each one was born.) The outside community is different than anything they are used to. They can not help but learn the importance of accepting another culture and a different way of doing things. I guess you can say we are a community of wonderfully different people and our children are and will continue to be blessed because of it.

Again the blog became longer than anticipated. So, may the Lord bless you all.