Advent crafts with my boys

Today we visited the German Christmas market, walked around town a bit with the boys, and then spent the evening preparing for advent by putting candles out, making Christmas wreaths and crafts. My legs are swollen, but I feel good. Better. It was a good day.

We made this wreath for our window facing the playground.

This is our front door.

Braided hearts. I love these!

Got our candles set up for 1st Advent tomorrow.

Abraham did really well and only needed a little help finishing his stuffed heart.

August mastering the Blanket Stitch.

William was the most industrious, creating two hearts and a teddy bear.

The blues

Today was a hard day. Since my last prenantal appointment I had to up my blood pressure medication, and it’s bringing me down – as in, it makes me feel down. It’s a common side effect, apparently, but a feeling I am not very familiar with, frankly, and as a very practical, down to earth, no need to ponder/better to take action – kind of person, I’m not sure how to handle it, because it’s interfering with the way I usually handle things.

I usually bounce out of bed in the morning and take care of whatever needs done – no matter how challenging physically or mentally; I’m full of energy and determination. I’m organized, plan well, and keep control. Hardships or bumps in the road, cranky or sick kids, mean people – nothing gets to me, and I usually have the endurance of a marathon runner!

Now, I wake up and stare at the ceiling, thinking about all the things that need to be done, and wishing I could go back to sleep. It’s very disturbing. I go through my day feeling slightly lethargic, and today when the boys strayed from their school work, something that would usually send me off immediately chasing them down and getting them right back on track, I didn’t get up, but actually welcomed the silence around me.

This is one of the busiest times of the year, and I can’t afford – time wise, inspiration wise, and energy wise – to be feeling like this. I’ve spent the evening trying to come up with ideas to help me back on my feet: lists, snacks, outdoor exercise, etc. but I sure could use some ideas from you, dear reader, as well. 

So, please, what do you do to inspire yourself? Where do get your boost from when you need one?

Our general curriculum idea

The most common question I am asked regarding home schooling is, “Which curriculum do you follow?” and most of the time, the person asking assumes I am following a specific program. We don’t. We use the general structure of the classical education, but everything else, we’ve patched together or have made up ourselves. I say “we” because although I am in charge of most every day teaching (which is why I sometimes use “I”), our children’s curriculum is something my husband and I have worked out together.

Based on the classical approach to education, the focus of our first four years – the grammar stage - is facts and memorization. The subjects we study are English, Math, History + Geography, Science, Music + Art, and starting in third grade, Latin, and fourth grade, French. It’s all quite basic; the goal is to build a strong foundation in English and Math, and add as many facts as possible, as well as curiosity.

The next four years make up the logic stage, where the student learns to ask and answer questions about the facts: Why? How? etc. The subjects studied during this stage are English, Math, History + Geography + Religion + Social studies, including some philosophy, Science, Music + Art, Logic, Latin and French, adding German and/or Spanish after a couple of years. Why so many languages, you ask? Studies show, that if you start learning a language before the age of twelve, your chance of learning this language well, including the acquisition of a perfect pronunciation, is much bigger. I am living evidence. Also, they are learning these languages because I know them, my husband doesn’t, and we both feel I have a clear advantage. So we are passing on that advantage to our boys.

During the last four years of the primary education – the rhetoric stage - the student learns to articulate arguments in an elegant and convincing manner, defend ideas and engage in critical thinking. Since we haven’t got here yet, I don’t have an exact plan on what to focus on or include yet, but I assume that in addition to our regular studies and progress (with the addition of certain subjects, such as Greek), we’ll have to at least spend some time preparing for AP exams and the SAT.

Every year over the four year cycle we follow a theme:

1. Prehistoric and Ancient

2. Medieval

3. Early Modern

4 Modern

This year is a medieval year. Most of our subjects relate - as far as possible - in one way or another to the central theme of the year. This approach is best described in The Well Trained Mind. Our only exception is science: since last year we rotate the four science subjects – biology, geology + astronomy, chemistry, physics - in yearly cycles. More on why and how we do this when I discuss our science curriculum.

Sounds fun, right?

Philosophy of education

We started out our home schooling journey by reading about several approaches to homeschooling, including works by Charlotte Mason and Susan Wise Bauer’s The Well Trained Mind. We developed our initial curriculum, inspired by the university education we received at the Catholic University of Leuven as well as the best parts of our pre-college education received in the US and Sweden respectively, based on the classical approach to education. Our education is language based, interdisciplinary and systematic, with an emphasis on character and on great books; the study of classical subjects, such as history, grammar, logic, Latin, Greek, mathematics and science.

We believe that this specific approach to education will enable our children to study and become most anything they desire. We believe that the outcome of their classical education will be a solid knowledge base and an effective tool for learning, research and expression. We also hope that it enables them to become responsible and sensible citizens.

Sounds good, right? To me, as a homeschooling parent, it is important to have a philosophy worked out, for inspiration, of sorts, or perspective, so that when I realize that the toddler has rolled out an entire pack of toilet paper rolls in the hallway while I was trying to teach my second grader the phonetic sound ae without success, and it turns out the fourth grader spent the entire hour hidden away with a video game somewhere instead of doing his math, I know why I’m torturing myself I choose to home school.

Wild Turkey 101 in Beirut

In the past, my husband (and I) would buy a couple of nice, if possible rare, bourbons to enjoy throughout the holiday season every year. We’d not only drink the bourbon but use it to make candy and other delicacies. After moving to the Middle East where bourbon can be rare, our tradition has depended on availability, and even here in Lebanon where alcohol is readily available, it can be tricky to find real bourbon, let alone a nicer bottle.

Last week we looked through the stores where we usually shop, to no avail, but remembered on our way home that Score Market sometimes has Jim Beam and on occasion even Maker’s Mark. On our way there, we passed by that relatively new liquor store on the same street, and peeked inside. Imagine our surprise when lo and behold, tucked away in a corner we found a bottle of Wild Turkey 101 – in our opinion, the most superior bourbon in its price range. We reacted like typical western expats in the Middle East: my husband grabbed the bottle immediately, clutching it – even though nobody else was looking to buy it (we were the only customers in the store!) - while I looked behind the other bottles to see if there was another one, following our expat instinct and rule, “if you find something you like, stock up! You never know if there ever will be more of the same product.” We looked at the shop holder and asked if he had any more of the same bottle, and he, a little surprised by our excitement, told us no, but that he could get more. We then looked at the price, and it was probably the cheapest Wild Turkey 101 we had ever seen. How lucky! We paid for the bottle and promised to come back for more.

And since everyone had such a great time at our Thanksgiving dinner and the bottle nearly vanished, it will be sooner than we thought. I’m hoping we can save some so that I can have a taste of it - sometime next year.

Of course, if you live in Beirut and you are looking for a bottle of Wild Turkey 101, then I made everything up in this blog post. There is no Wild Turkey 101 anywhere.

Thanksgiving dinner in Lebanon, v. 2012

Here we go; our Thanksgiving dinner menu, including drinks:

Pre-dinner drinks: Freshly homemade Margaritas, with a virgin alternative for those in a family way

• Peanut soup (Yes, he’s fun like that, my husband; he likes to cook and try new, odd-sounding foods)

Drinks, main course: Peppoli Chianto Classico 2010 for the adults, 7Up for the kids, and water for the pregnant lady

• Roast turkey with bread stuffing and gravy
• Creamy mashed potatoes
• Sweet potato orange casserole
• Succotash
• Derby day asparagus
• Martha Stewart’s Roasted pears and red onion
• Ocean Spray Cranberry sauce (Oh yes, if you lived in a place where finding a can of Ocean Spray tucked away on a shelf is an instant tears-of-joy inducer, you would too!)
• Two types of corn bread (one Halal and one pork infused version)
• Chicken pot pie
• A fresh salad (Yes, we did. And get this: mainly because the kids wanted it. Go figure.)

Dessert drink: Wild Turkey 101 (found by chance in a store near Jeanne D'Arc - I will tell you more about this in a later post)

• Pumpkin pie with freshly whipped cream
• Dark chocolate fudge cake

Busy Thanksgiving eve

Yup, you guessed it; I got sucked into another work project. It took a little extra time to finalize the files that were due beginning of this week, but now that is done, and I don’t have another impending deadline until the middle of next week, which means I can spend some time catching up on the house and enjoy Thanksgiving weekend. We are having friends over for dinner tomorrow, and the preparation began already this morning, with Courtney making chicken broth. We still have to get a couple of last minute ingredients for our complete feast, and will go past the grocery after my prenatal check-up today. Then we will come home and cook pies, make stuffing and a couple of other sides that can be prepared in advance. Oh, and I also have choir rehearsal, which I probably need to prepare for a bit. In the meantime, the boys are studying their lessons, and Abraham sat down to watch the Tales of Beatrix Potter ballet from 1971.

Dead dryer :(

When we arrived in Lebanon in the fall of 2010, we went down to Corniche El Mazraa and bought a Campomatic dryer in one of the appliance stores there. Earlier last year, the drum seal started coming out, and since this summer, clothes will occasionally come out of the dryer with black marks on them, after getting stuck. A sign that it is time to replace the drum seal! I managed to contact Campomatic earlier this fall, and they provided me with a phone number for their service department, however then we had to watch our spendings, and I have had to hold off on calling them. This weekend, sadly, our dryer got tired of waiting for a new seal and died completely. It’s an electrical problem; possible, easy and cheap to fix, I hope. I cannot do the home schooling, work, the rest of the house work, and manage all my other obligations without a dryer. It has only been three days, and I can tell you this is a fact. Several people have told me that they do just fine without a dryer – even wonder why I need a dryer, since we live in such a warm climate - and I’m sure not everyone needs a dryer, but with three boys, a fourth on the way, full time school and lots of work, it’s just not for me: too many clothes and not enough time!

Is there something like this that you will not live without? (Apart from all the obvious things of course!)

Just regular boring old home schooling

There are so many amazing homeschooling blogs out there, written by parents who seem to have time and energy to do it all; every day there’s an exciting craft, activity, field trip, or project, all documented in a well written post with amazing pictures. I feel both inspired by these blogs and inadequate, isolated and mediocre. We do extraordinary school-related things sometimes but most of the time we just get through our regular every day work. I almost never take pictures of anything because every time I get the camera out, it turns out the boys have taken the batteries to use in their Wii remotes (Santa is SO giving them rechargeable batteries with a charger this Christmas!), and really, most of my blog posts are written in a tired, sorry state and almost barely make sense half of the time.

Still, I hope you are able once in a while to pick up on my passion and enthusiasm for home schooling. It’s definitely there; I love teaching my children and learning alongside them, and although special activities, crafts, trips and projects are fun and great for a change of pace at times, I find the everyday scholarship awe-inspiring.

To celebrate our ordinary, day to day school work, I am going to dedicate a blog post each to our standard subjects over the next couple of weeks. What subjects do we study? Why? What do we want to get out of our studies? How much time do we spend on each subject? What materials do we use? How are the lessons structured? How do we assess the results?

Before I can start though, I should describe to you our educational philosophy, our approach to learning and scholarship, our academic ambitions and motivations [for our children] and our general curriculum. Make sure to check back soon for a post on all that!

Speaking of gender equality...

End of the work week round-up

Guess what I’ve been busying myself with? That’s right; lots of work. And then the regular school work of course, house work (except for laundry, which I’ve successfully ignored all week, resulting in everyone looking a little… odd, at the store today), the 3-year old, social commitments, and everything else that usually takes up my days. I tried to focus extra on every boy one day each this week, and although I’m not sure it will always work, it was a good strategic move, well needed at this time. August got a good shove in English and Latin, as did William actually, and Abraham, who often is left to work or play by himself while I work with the older boys (and then acts accordingly, that is, he turns into an attention-seeking, mischievous, stubborn out-of-tune-with-mama nightmare preschooler), got an entire day filled with exciting activities and special, stimulating time with mama. This last day was in fact the best invested hours I’ve spent in a long time. He turned into a little angel, and tonight’s bedtime was a breeze.

We lasted the whole week – 7 days exactly – on the $140-shopping we did last week. It’s wasn’t impossible, albeit a bit time consuming and arduous, since making the kind of food from scratch that you end up cooking when money is short, takes time and produces a lot of dishes (as does trying to brush out my hair without conditioner, ha ha).

Today we went to Spinneys armed with our new bank cards, and bought food for a couple of weeks, plus all those things we were holding back on last time; cereal, bread (despite this fact: the problem with making your own bread for a while, is that you realize how much tastier fresh home baked bread is than store bought) hot dogs, sandwich meat, condiments, foil, nuts, coconuts (yes, my boys not only look a little odd sometimes, but also have some peculiar favorite foods), conditioner (yes!), fabric softener, tortillas, sea food, etc.

We’re armed for a good weekend filled with some work, rest, exercise, and fun.

Baby's strong kicks

I can't quite remember when I felt my boys' kicks for the first time, but I do remember that - just like this time - they start out as light flutters, that have me wondering, "Might those be baby kicks?" Eventually, the feeling is so distinct and so frequent, that the baby's kicks are a natural part of my day. I don't remember the kicks getting very hard until the third trimester, however this baby has quite a jab that, even this early, makes me stop occasionally and think, "Whoa! Another little strong boy." It's comforting and pleasant, and I can't wait for when the boys start being able to feel their brother move as well!

Gender equality

I grew up in emancipated Scandinavia. My mom was a 1960’s and 1970’s typical feminist, who went to women’s camps, and spent a lot of time and effort revolting against the male biased norms of our society. My dad and mom shared all house work equally, and there were years when he did more because my mom was involved in politics and spent several nights every week in long meetings. It’s thanks to people like her, that my brother today enjoys a long, paid paternity leave for example while his wife works, and that I can enjoy so many funny parenting blogs in Swedish, written by stay at home dads.

My husband comes from a more traditional home and society, the rural mid-west, and over the years I would say we have met somewhere in the middle. In theory we are on the same page, and obviously there’s a lot more to gender equality than housework, but I still think that practical application is important. My husband doesn’t run the household with me, but he (mostly) does his share when prompted, and he steps up when necessary. Obviously, compared to a lot of men here in the Middle East, he is a house wife saint personified.

How will our boys turn out? In general, they help out with housework more than I even remember my younger brother did when he was their age. They treat any female with respect and despite the common media culture, express a firm view on the relationship between the genders that I am proud of. I'm thinking there's hope.

Although there’s always room for improvement. All three boys for example, have at separate intervals explained to me that there are two types of toys/games/books/movies: there are toys/games/books/movies for BOYS, and then there are toys/games/books/movies for BOYS AND GIRLS, such as My Little Pony, Dora, and dolls.

Like I said, still a bit of work left there, but I’m hopeful.

Sometimes you speed up without noticing

I finished my present work this afternoon. Early - the delivery is not due until tomorrow afternoon, or as the people I work with call it, Tomorrow EOB (= End Of Business). There was no indication I wouldn’t need every minute of my time, however I’ve been very focused and suddenly, there it was; finished. This meant I could spend the rest of today recuperating, taking care of the house, check my planner, and prepare for the rest of the week.

Yesterday morning when we discussed our plans for the week, I told the boys that I would have to rely on them working independently Monday through Wednesday (which is enough work for them but not exceptionally challenging), but now I can surprise them tomorrow morning with the launch of an extensive Viking project, involving essays, presentations, map work, crafts and a lot of reading. 

They’ll never know what hit them!

Fifteen years of happiness

Fifteen years ago yesterday, I put a ring on a young man’s finger, and received a ring in return. This beautiful, amazing man and I promised to love each other until death do us part. Only God was our witness. We stood there trembling from cold on a deserted, freezing, windy beach in Oostende at sunset, made a toast to our eternal happiness (a 1986 Margaux, served way too cold) and proceeded to a small, cozy, fireplace equipped restaurant that served dark beer, fresh paté and warm wine.

We were officially married later in a courthouse halfway across the world (after we managed to save up money for tickets), but this day – 11-11-97 – is the day that is etched into our rings, hearts and minds forever, as the day we said, "I do."