Duggars: "Camping" and "Learning"

by Amy K. Bredemeyer

The family is back at it with their unique ways of doing things again. The first episode of the week had some of the kids sleeping in a tent in the backyard... which is "camping" to them. Complete with hot dogs and marshmallows, though! The second episode was a conglomeration of some of the ways the kids learn... undoubtedly thrown together because of the constant complaints the internet has about the lack of education these children have. Take that as you will, but here's what happened...

19 Kids and Counting "Duggar Campout" (S08E03): [the "big thing" for this episode was showing what time of day was what temperature... thrilling, I know.] We open at 9:30 in the morning, and some of the kids are filling a tub for swimming since it's 102 degrees out. On another area of the property, Jedidiah, 12, shares that he's been working on a bunch of short films. [Spray painting in an enclosed area? And they're not even all 10 years old? Not a big fan.] The littlest kids have to stay inside because of the heat. At 12:30pm it's 105 degrees, and some of the older kids are helping out inside as well. [when did Joy get glasses?] Joseph and Jim Bob start setting up the tent around 5pm, when it's 99 degrees out. [tired of the temperature updates yet??] The family has hot dogs and chicken on the grill, plus watermelon and roasted marshmallows/s'mores. The older kids opted to sleep in the house with the air conditioning rather than the tent, but Josiah, Jedidiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, and Jennifer planned to sleep in the tent with JimBob. James, Justin, and Jedidiah came inside early and slept on the sofas, tho. At 8am the next day, it was 84 degrees.

Meanwhile, over at Josh & Anna's, Josh isn't home so Joy is over, helping. [which indicates that this really isn't a "meanwhile" but rather a "let's show some of the next generation." Also not a big fan of Mackynzie being up on the counter, but I guess Joy was right there... plus, a) where was Josh? and b) we've seen Joy over there before... so was all that taped at the same time or is Joy over there often?] Mackynzie likes to pretend to nurse her dolls. [haha!] She uses a nursing pillow and a blanket just like Anna, too!

19 Kids and Counting "Schoolhouse Duggars" (S08E04): First, what they're learning at home.... a bunch of the kids do some workbooks. Michelle currently has to work on teaching 10 of the kids, which takes 5-8 hours a day. [okay, so not much has changed at home...] Some of the older kids are working on post-high school programs and skills, like Jill and Jessa are working on a psychology course. They mention that it's difficult to study for several hours at a time at their house. [probably pretty true! we know John-David is working in his company, but what's Jana doing these days?] The family puts notecards and papers around the house with the names of things in Spanish, like la cocina for kitchen.

Speaking of Spanish, it's a pretty new addition to Duggar learning. (Jill really loves Spanish so she's kinda pushing that.) Each week, the older kids (Jedidiah, Jeremiah, and Jason are just starting) go to a friend's house to get a lesson. Then, they go to a Mexican restaurant and order in Spanish. The family has about 20 hours of lessons by that point. [what was with Jill's necklace?]

Then, there's the destination learning. The family heads to Big Sandy for the annual 4-day ATI conference. AlertCadet is training to become an AlertMan later in life. The program has boys climb rappelling walls, go on hikes, learn some survival skills, etc. It's kinda like Boy Scouts, really. Jill helps teach the 4-7 year-olds. [I guess it was a pretty boring year? We generally get a lot more footage from this annual trip.] The other place we see is an elementary school in Harrison, Arkansas, where they attend an "International Day." There are different rooms featuring different countries, like Mexico (where they make tortillas) and China (where they learn to use chopsticks and Frank the cameraman teaches everyone how to say "My name is..." in Mandarin). [meh. no need to re-see this one anytime soon!]