First, a semantics disclaimer: the word "homeschooling" for me does not say
anything about our "homeschooling style", just that our children don't attend
traditional school, public or private! We're fairly relaxed, which translates to
wildy disorganized in the eyes of the highly structured, yet far too structured
in the eyes of the true "free-learners." I can live with that. :-) Anyway, as I
was saying...
Last week, with the whole family in the car, and for no particular reason, I
asked my oldest daughter (Marie, 11 years and 9 months old) if she likes being
homeschooled. She said, "Umm...yeah, I guess so." I asked why, and she said
because she hates getting up early. (She went to public school for six months in
third grade, nearly four years ago, and yes, she hated getting up every single
school day of those six months.) I asked if she would want to go to school if
she could start at, say, at 10:00, and she said maybe. Then I told her that
it's really okay to say what she thinks, that I wasn't trying to get her to
answer what she might think I would like to hear, but that I really wanted to
know. So she went on to say that at school she really liked art class and misses
that, and she enjoyed recess and playing with the other children, and the rest
was okay except for P.E. We talked about it a little longer and she admitted she
likes math at home better (that surprised me--at the time, she seemed quite
happy with the ridiculously easy busywork, not bothered in the slightest by not
being challenged), and she likes all the reading we do, and she likes having
lots of time to read on her own. It came down to that if she could do
"flexi-schooling", which I recently read about in a book called "Free-range
Education", she would probably like that very much, but that if that's not an
option, homeschooling is better than going to school, although kind of in a
"lesser of two evils" type of way. Not very encouaraging, really, but a good
chat.
Then I turned to my 10-year-old son, Jacob, and asked him the same question.
From him came the enthusiastic, "YES!! Of course!" I asked why, and he said,
"Because I can get up when I want to and read what I want to and learn what I
want to and however I want to and wherever I want to and I can think what I want
to and say what I want to and nobody teases me and I can play with the friends I
want to play with and do the things I want to do." I purposely didn't put any
punctuation in there, because he definitely didn't use any while speaking! We
talked a bit more, but there wasn't much more to say. From my point of view, he
totally "gets" why we're homeschooling. (He attended first grade for six months,
at the same time Marie was in third grade.)
Just to finish off, I asked my nearly-seven-year-old son, Lukas, if he likes
being homeschooled, and the little ham said, "Yes, because I get to spend more
time with my mother." As a friend of mine wrote on her blog about her son a few
weeks ago, he would probably make a great politician, but we have higher hopes
for him. I did talk a bit more with Lukas, but as he's never been to school, he
doesn't have anything to compare it to, and it boiled down to the fact that he's
quite happy with his life.
Then Katie (will be four next month) said, "Mommy, you didn't ask me!" so I
said, "Okay, Katie, do you like being homeschooled?" She put on her silly little
"I'm-pretending-to-be-shy-because-so-many-people-think-that's-cute" face and
said, "Yes." I dutifully continued with, "Why do you like it?" and she said,
"Because I get to do math!" When Lukas finished Earlybird 2B several months ago,
Katie took over his book, constantly asking me to do it with her. I finally got
her her own book, Earlybird 1A, a few weeks ago, which was a bit silly, because
she finished half of the book in about three sittings. Whatever.
Just to be silly, I then turned to Helen, nine months old, and said, "So,
Helen, do you want to be homeschooled, too?" and Marie responded extremely
emphatically, "Yes, definitely!" I was rather surprised, after her own rather
wishy-washy response, and asked why she was so sure that Helen would like being
homeschooled. Marie's response, "Because Helen has strong opinions." Very
interesting. I asked then if one can't have strong opinions at school, and Marie
got kind of quiet again and finally said, "Well, yes, but you can't do anything
about them. You're sort of supposed to think the same things the other kids
think, and like the same things and have the same things, and you're not really
supposed to like math or like the teachers or anything like that." I asked her
if she didn't have any strong opinions herself, and she said she does now, and
wouldn't let people change them anyway, but that would be one reason she
wouldn't want to go to school ALL the time, because it would be too exhausting
keeping her own opinions.
Insightful, I thought, and rather more encouraging than the first
conversation with Marie! Overall, my children like homeschooling. :-)
Monday, June 15, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
April 29, 2009: Accidents etc.
Just a quick list of what we've had since arriving in Cyprus January 14th
this year:
January 15th--I broke a filling, had it replaced. Now I know a dentist who speaks very little English.
A week later--Jörn had a crown come off, had it glued back on. He went to a different dentist, who speaks very good English.
Middle of March--Lukas cut his thumb with a pocketknife, we opted not to bother with stiches, but he'll have a nice scar.
Later the same day--Jacob ran through a (closed) sliding glass door, one big cut on his knee, two more smaller ones on his leg, we opted not to bother with stiches, but he'll have a nice scar.
End of March--Jacob had an ear infection, now we know an English-speaking GP.
A week later--Katie had a fever and ear pain for two days, on Katie's second day of fever, Helen screamed for two hours, then had a fever in the night. Katie was fine, Helen had an ear infection, now we know an English-speaking pediatrician.
Two weeks ago--someone kicked a soccer ball into the side of our car, denting the front fender so that the driver's door wouldn't open. A neighbor straightened it, we haven't done anything else about it.
A week and a half ago--I let chapped lips get out of control and had a hugely swollen and infected lip that spread to lymph nodes, but it got better after about four days. The pharmacist is getting to know us quite well.
Last week--Jacob dropped something in the bathroom sink and it (the sink/washbasin) broke. It was replaced yesterday. Now we know a nice English-speaking plumber.
Last night--Katie was running down the hall and tripped and fell. She has a swollen gum, a loose tooth, and a fat lip.
This afternoon--Lukas was climbing up the side of the veranda and he and the concrete slab on top of the brick planters that make up the walls of the veranda crashed to the concrete ground. Now we know where the hospital is and Lukas has had his first x-ray, but his ankle is thankfully only sprained, not broken. I'm supposed to keep a six-year-old boy still and with his foot up for five days.
Cost so far: 10 Euro deductible (excess) for Jörn's dentist, 50 Euros for replacing the sliding door, and that only because we forgot to ask for a receipt, we were so shocked at it being done within two hours.
German health insurance and liability insurance rock!
January 15th--I broke a filling, had it replaced. Now I know a dentist who speaks very little English.
A week later--Jörn had a crown come off, had it glued back on. He went to a different dentist, who speaks very good English.
Middle of March--Lukas cut his thumb with a pocketknife, we opted not to bother with stiches, but he'll have a nice scar.
Later the same day--Jacob ran through a (closed) sliding glass door, one big cut on his knee, two more smaller ones on his leg, we opted not to bother with stiches, but he'll have a nice scar.
End of March--Jacob had an ear infection, now we know an English-speaking GP.
A week later--Katie had a fever and ear pain for two days, on Katie's second day of fever, Helen screamed for two hours, then had a fever in the night. Katie was fine, Helen had an ear infection, now we know an English-speaking pediatrician.
Two weeks ago--someone kicked a soccer ball into the side of our car, denting the front fender so that the driver's door wouldn't open. A neighbor straightened it, we haven't done anything else about it.
A week and a half ago--I let chapped lips get out of control and had a hugely swollen and infected lip that spread to lymph nodes, but it got better after about four days. The pharmacist is getting to know us quite well.
Last week--Jacob dropped something in the bathroom sink and it (the sink/washbasin) broke. It was replaced yesterday. Now we know a nice English-speaking plumber.
Last night--Katie was running down the hall and tripped and fell. She has a swollen gum, a loose tooth, and a fat lip.
This afternoon--Lukas was climbing up the side of the veranda and he and the concrete slab on top of the brick planters that make up the walls of the veranda crashed to the concrete ground. Now we know where the hospital is and Lukas has had his first x-ray, but his ankle is thankfully only sprained, not broken. I'm supposed to keep a six-year-old boy still and with his foot up for five days.
Cost so far: 10 Euro deductible (excess) for Jörn's dentist, 50 Euros for replacing the sliding door, and that only because we forgot to ask for a receipt, we were so shocked at it being done within two hours.
German health insurance and liability insurance rock!
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
April 21, 2009: Katie's speckled frog and a cockroach
Katie came to me very excited this morning, because she had found a toy frog
and wants to take it to playgroup next week for a reverse-counting song we sing
about frogs: "Five Little Speckled Frogs."
Five little speckled frogs sat on a speckled log,
Eating some most delicious grubs, yum yum!
One jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool,
So there were four green speckled frogs. Hum hum.
So she played with the frog for awhile, singing some version or another of this song, but then decided the frog needed speckles, as it was only plain green. After a long family discussion about the frog's ownership, it was determined that it was Jacob's frog, but he never denies his little sister anything he can grant her, so he carefully speckled the frog with a permanent marker. Delighted, Katie continued to play and sing, and this was her latest version of the song, fitting the melody perfectly, with the text as near as I can remember it:
One little speckled frog sat on a lilypad
Eating some yummy yummy bugs, yum yum!
It jumped into the pond to go-o swimming,
And wa-as very, very dead. Oh no!
Her explanation was that as it landed on its back (she'd of course tossed it up in the air to land in the "pond"), it was dead like the cockroach we found in the shower this morning. Which reminded us that we'd found a dead cockoach in the shower this morning and hadn't done anything about it, so went to look at it to think some more about it, and discovered that it WASN'T dead, after all!! It was on its back, but wiggling its legs. We put a yogurt pot over it while we decide what to do next. Yuck.
Five little speckled frogs sat on a speckled log,
Eating some most delicious grubs, yum yum!
One jumped into the pool where it was nice and cool,
So there were four green speckled frogs. Hum hum.
So she played with the frog for awhile, singing some version or another of this song, but then decided the frog needed speckles, as it was only plain green. After a long family discussion about the frog's ownership, it was determined that it was Jacob's frog, but he never denies his little sister anything he can grant her, so he carefully speckled the frog with a permanent marker. Delighted, Katie continued to play and sing, and this was her latest version of the song, fitting the melody perfectly, with the text as near as I can remember it:
One little speckled frog sat on a lilypad
Eating some yummy yummy bugs, yum yum!
It jumped into the pond to go-o swimming,
And wa-as very, very dead. Oh no!
Her explanation was that as it landed on its back (she'd of course tossed it up in the air to land in the "pond"), it was dead like the cockroach we found in the shower this morning. Which reminded us that we'd found a dead cockoach in the shower this morning and hadn't done anything about it, so went to look at it to think some more about it, and discovered that it WASN'T dead, after all!! It was on its back, but wiggling its legs. We put a yogurt pot over it while we decide what to do next. Yuck.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
April 12, 2009: Snail slalom
I've been wanting to write a blog post with this title for a week! Several
times since we moved into this house, I've managed to wake up and GET up before
Katie did, and have gone for a walk down by the salt lake. Last week when I did
that, there were snails EVERYWHERE. Not wanting to step on them (in all honesty,
not so much because of caring about snails, but because of not wanting yucky
squished snail on my sandals...), I spent most of the time watching carefully
where I was walking, which involved a lot of back-and-forth, or slow motion
swerving. Snail slalom. Almost all of the snails were crossing the path from
south to north, except for in one short section where they were crossing north
to south. Very weird.
I went for another walk the day before yesterday and played snail slalom again, but there weren't quite as many, so I got to enjoy the scenery a bit more. I also discovered that we're pretty much right in the middle of the four-kilometer-long path--it took me 21 minutes to walk to one end of it, and 23 minutes to walk to the other end. Since it's about half a kilometer down to the path, that's a five-kilometer walk if I go to one end only and back home. Not very far, but a first step towards my goal of running a marathon before I'm 58. I take Helen with me in the sling, so I can't jog even if I could jog, which I can't.
I went for another walk the day before yesterday and played snail slalom again, but there weren't quite as many, so I got to enjoy the scenery a bit more. I also discovered that we're pretty much right in the middle of the four-kilometer-long path--it took me 21 minutes to walk to one end of it, and 23 minutes to walk to the other end. Since it's about half a kilometer down to the path, that's a five-kilometer walk if I go to one end only and back home. Not very far, but a first step towards my goal of running a marathon before I'm 58. I take Helen with me in the sling, so I can't jog even if I could jog, which I can't.
April 12, 2009: sunrise and Son-rise
When I played snail slalom the day before yesterday, I didn't wear socks with
my sandals and got blisters on both big toes and on one heel. I feel like such a
wimp. I would have liked to go down to the salt lake this morning to watch the
sunrise, but I pretended that the fact that my favorite sling is in the laundry
was the reason I didn't, not my limping.
So...this morning I actually set the alarm, for 4:55, and went up on the roof, instead. The sunrise is officially around 6:30 a.m., but it's light long before that, and the part I like best is watching it get light. I got Helen back to sleep and left her in bed with Papa and went up at 5:15, just in time. Because of the lights from the airport, the streetlamps, and the brightness of the moon, I'm not sure if there was any light from the sun or not yet--east didn't really look any different from any other direction. By 5:30, it was definitely dawning, and the streetlights went off at about 5:45. Despite the telephone lines and the buildings and the lack of mountains, I enjoyed it very much.
Having celebrated the Son-Rise by myself on the roof, I came back downstairs at about 6:15, in a much better mood than I'd been in yesterday, ready to continue celebrating the Resurrection with my family. I made Easter bread, using Greek yogurt instead of Quark, guessing at the amount of baking powder because my recipe said "a packet of baking powder", adding a lot more flour than the recipe said to get the right consistancy, and leaving it in the oven for about twice as long as the recipe said, and it still turned out fine! While it was in the oven I put eggs on to boil and went outside to take down laundry and completely forgot about the eggs. 10 of the 12 were cracked, but I dyed all of them anyway, and set the table with a miniature chocolate egg on each plate. Everyone liked the bread and the eggs and the children were glad that we had a treat after all, after we'd cancelled the egg-dying yesterday due to the enormous gap between parental expectations and children's behavior.
After breakfast the children even made butterflies and eggs with coffee filters, paper towels, and the left-over egg dye. I felt very domestic and organized. That does happen, once every couple of years or so, but it wears off quickly.
At 10:00 we went to the worship service of a church we've sort of kind of decided that we might mostly go to semi-regularly, and then afterwards went to a multi-lingual house church for lunch and fellowship (and learning Greek!), and didn't get home until nearly 6:00 p.m. And now it's 8:00 and I'd actually like to be getting the children ready for bed, but we didn't eat lunch until nearly 3:00 and haven't even had dinner yet, and now a friend is here playing Ligretto with the children, so I'm at the computer. I'm not sure what we're doing next Sunday, which is when the Greek Orthodox celebrate Easter.
Okay, the friend is going to continue playing Ligretto with the children, and Jörn (and Helen) and I are going to walk to the bakery ALL BY OURSELVES and buy bread! Yay!
So...this morning I actually set the alarm, for 4:55, and went up on the roof, instead. The sunrise is officially around 6:30 a.m., but it's light long before that, and the part I like best is watching it get light. I got Helen back to sleep and left her in bed with Papa and went up at 5:15, just in time. Because of the lights from the airport, the streetlamps, and the brightness of the moon, I'm not sure if there was any light from the sun or not yet--east didn't really look any different from any other direction. By 5:30, it was definitely dawning, and the streetlights went off at about 5:45. Despite the telephone lines and the buildings and the lack of mountains, I enjoyed it very much.
Having celebrated the Son-Rise by myself on the roof, I came back downstairs at about 6:15, in a much better mood than I'd been in yesterday, ready to continue celebrating the Resurrection with my family. I made Easter bread, using Greek yogurt instead of Quark, guessing at the amount of baking powder because my recipe said "a packet of baking powder", adding a lot more flour than the recipe said to get the right consistancy, and leaving it in the oven for about twice as long as the recipe said, and it still turned out fine! While it was in the oven I put eggs on to boil and went outside to take down laundry and completely forgot about the eggs. 10 of the 12 were cracked, but I dyed all of them anyway, and set the table with a miniature chocolate egg on each plate. Everyone liked the bread and the eggs and the children were glad that we had a treat after all, after we'd cancelled the egg-dying yesterday due to the enormous gap between parental expectations and children's behavior.
After breakfast the children even made butterflies and eggs with coffee filters, paper towels, and the left-over egg dye. I felt very domestic and organized. That does happen, once every couple of years or so, but it wears off quickly.
At 10:00 we went to the worship service of a church we've sort of kind of decided that we might mostly go to semi-regularly, and then afterwards went to a multi-lingual house church for lunch and fellowship (and learning Greek!), and didn't get home until nearly 6:00 p.m. And now it's 8:00 and I'd actually like to be getting the children ready for bed, but we didn't eat lunch until nearly 3:00 and haven't even had dinner yet, and now a friend is here playing Ligretto with the children, so I'm at the computer. I'm not sure what we're doing next Sunday, which is when the Greek Orthodox celebrate Easter.
Okay, the friend is going to continue playing Ligretto with the children, and Jörn (and Helen) and I are going to walk to the bakery ALL BY OURSELVES and buy bread! Yay!
Sunday, March 8, 2009
March 8, 2009--Quick update
First of all, for Ute: schön, dass Du mich gefunden hast! Ich denke immer, ich sollte mal auf Deutsch schreiben, aber komme nie dazu…
Second: this is going to be really short, because I’m supposed to be home in 21 minutes and am not finished with what I have to do here, yet
So for the quick update: "here" is the wonderful guest flat (apartment to my compatriots) we had asked to stay in for two or three weeks and actually stayed in for SIX AND A HALF WEEKS! It was wonderful and we’re very grateful–thank you, thank you, Sue and Richard! And the reason I’m "here" at the moment is because we don’t have telephone/internet in our house yet, so I’m checking e-mail, etc. (Too much etc.–I’m sorry I’m so behind on answering e-mails, but I DO always answer eventually, you know I do, A and M!)
And yes, our things arrived on Thursday (yay!) and nothing was broken (yay! again and a huge thank you to Neema and Judy, who packed most of the dishes!), but we didn’t actually move ourselves in until yesterday. I still haven’t figured out how to put photos on here (yes, you can tell me what to click, and it should be obvious, but when I’ve tried, it hasn’t worked), but I’ll get photos onto Facebook at least. Eventually. Don’t hold your breath.
But we’re in our house and are very happy!
Second: this is going to be really short, because I’m supposed to be home in 21 minutes and am not finished with what I have to do here, yet
So for the quick update: "here" is the wonderful guest flat (apartment to my compatriots) we had asked to stay in for two or three weeks and actually stayed in for SIX AND A HALF WEEKS! It was wonderful and we’re very grateful–thank you, thank you, Sue and Richard! And the reason I’m "here" at the moment is because we don’t have telephone/internet in our house yet, so I’m checking e-mail, etc. (Too much etc.–I’m sorry I’m so behind on answering e-mails, but I DO always answer eventually, you know I do, A and M!)
And yes, our things arrived on Thursday (yay!) and nothing was broken (yay! again and a huge thank you to Neema and Judy, who packed most of the dishes!), but we didn’t actually move ourselves in until yesterday. I still haven’t figured out how to put photos on here (yes, you can tell me what to click, and it should be obvious, but when I’ve tried, it hasn’t worked), but I’ll get photos onto Facebook at least. Eventually. Don’t hold your breath.
But we’re in our house and are very happy!
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
March 4, 2009: Progress and a octo-plus
Language progress: I went to Greek-speaking playgroup again today, with a few
more Greek-speakers this week! I was thrilled to pieces when I confused a new
person because I said "Kalimera" (good morning) well enough that she thought I
actually speak Greek, but then I had NO clue whatsoever what she next said to
me. :-)
Moving progress: our crates arrived in Limassol last Friday and we were able to sign the customs papers here in Larnaca, and today they finally called to say that they're actually going to deliver our stuff to us TOMORROW! They'll call tomorrow to say what time. It's good that we're flexible. :-)
And a Katie-funny: as usual, she was in our bed far too early this morning, around 6:20, talking and singing and I-don't-know-what, as I was still trying to sleep. At 7:15 I got up and went to the bathroom. As I walked back into the bedroom, Katie was climbing out of bed and saying to my husband, "I'm going to Mommy." She had her back sort of to me, so I dashed around the bed and under the blanket on my husband's side--he saw me coming and held the blanket up, then pulled it over my head quickly. I don't know HOW Katie missed seeing me, but she did, and went out of the room. She came back, leaned on me (through the blanket) to talk to Papa, asking where Mommy is. I managed not to giggle out loud, but was shaking holding the laughter in. She said, "What's that?!" and pulled the blanket back and saw me. Then she said, "Oh, Mommy! There you are! I thought it was a octo-plus!"
Maybe you had to be there, but Jörn, Lukas (who had joined the bed while I was out of the room), and I all just totally lost it, and since Helen loves it when people laugh, she also laughed hysterically. It was a nice start to the day, although I'm still not entirely sure if I ought to be insulted that my daughter thought I was "a octo-plus."
Moving progress: our crates arrived in Limassol last Friday and we were able to sign the customs papers here in Larnaca, and today they finally called to say that they're actually going to deliver our stuff to us TOMORROW! They'll call tomorrow to say what time. It's good that we're flexible. :-)
And a Katie-funny: as usual, she was in our bed far too early this morning, around 6:20, talking and singing and I-don't-know-what, as I was still trying to sleep. At 7:15 I got up and went to the bathroom. As I walked back into the bedroom, Katie was climbing out of bed and saying to my husband, "I'm going to Mommy." She had her back sort of to me, so I dashed around the bed and under the blanket on my husband's side--he saw me coming and held the blanket up, then pulled it over my head quickly. I don't know HOW Katie missed seeing me, but she did, and went out of the room. She came back, leaned on me (through the blanket) to talk to Papa, asking where Mommy is. I managed not to giggle out loud, but was shaking holding the laughter in. She said, "What's that?!" and pulled the blanket back and saw me. Then she said, "Oh, Mommy! There you are! I thought it was a octo-plus!"
Maybe you had to be there, but Jörn, Lukas (who had joined the bed while I was out of the room), and I all just totally lost it, and since Helen loves it when people laugh, she also laughed hysterically. It was a nice start to the day, although I'm still not entirely sure if I ought to be insulted that my daughter thought I was "a octo-plus."
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