Dedicated To Astrid

A few months back my boys and I went to visit my family in Switzerland. My mom moved since I last visited her 7 years back, and amongst meeting all my family and friends I had the pleasure of meeting all her so very welcoming neighbors. Next to her on the same floor lived Astrid. We'd chat in the hallway whenever we cross paths or I'd help her hang up her laundry in the basement due to her progressing parkinson disease. I've been blessed to have had a few very meaningful conversation with her. The last time we saw her, me and the boys went to thank her for the gifts she bought for my boys, how kind she was. We travelled across the world, back home when my mom after a few weeks called me and asked wether I had a picture of Astrid which I didn't. She then informed me that Astrid went missing. My mom was told, she was on the way to the grocery store which is a 5 min. walk down the street and never returned. After about a day, the police got involved, then the criminal police etc. but until the present day Astrid is still missing, almost 5 months now.

I've been thinking about her ever since and I've spent countless moments, pondering about what in the world happened to her and how she can just disappear in thin air!! And then I just pray to Allah that she is safe, wherever she might be! We are so busy and our lives are so hectic that it's easy to forget the ones we don't see or hear on a regular basis. This is why I took the time to write about a special elderly woman that I was blessed to have met and pray for every time she crosses my mind. 

If you have read this far please do the same and say a prayer for her.

                             Myriam

Curriculums Are "just" Tools

Math is one of the Subjects that took us a while to find a match. It had to be something hands on, with not too long lessons, easy to grasp that included practice. After Houghton Mifflin and Right Start Math we happily settled with Saxon Math which we really REALLY like A LOT. Last week due to some miscommunications I still haven't received my long awaited Saxon Math 3 Worksheets instead I was willing to try the Saxon Intermediate, which was the only one available. I decided to give it a try and already got a grumble from L'Drago the same morning. I assured him that it was very similar to Saxon and (probably even more so) tried to convince myself that this is going to work, we just needed to show patience... 

Here I am today, three mornings later still getting angry just looking at the Math Curriculum and decided to kick it to the curb. It took me over a year to find the right Curriculum that works for L'Drago and yes I welcome change in our homeschool journey but I do not like change when the later worked perfectly fine and math was as easy as 1, 2 & 3. Just looking at the regular Saxon Math makes me happy (weird I agree) but I cannot wait to get back to happy L'Drago, happy Me and our regular happy Math Lessons. I love change but so I do a routine that works smoothly!!

Myriam

Changes in "Me-World"

I'm not exactly having an eating disorder but at times I feel it borders on one. Specially when my brain tells me to eat when my stomach's clearly full. I did make a big change when I joined Weight Watchers 2+ years back and lost 43 lbs/ 20+kg's. I was able to maintain it until my dear husband started buying all kinds of Julian Pie's and that's how it all went down hill!! okay, okay...  I got into a baking frenzy this past winter and that didn't help either. So 10 days ago I decided to get back on track and after hopping on the scale, realizing that I gained a good 10 pounds/ 5kg's I decided to do something rather earlier than later and signed back up on Weightwatchers.com. So far I've lost 5 pounds/ 3kg's. 10 days ago was also my first exercise day after a very VERY long time and I held it up ever since, riding my exercise bike 30min/day.

I'm forcing myself to exercise to stay healthy, much more than to loose weight. I wish there were more of a variety I could exercise but due to a hip birth defect options are unfortunately very limited. I'm not complaining though, there's much more to be thankful for than there is to complain about *smile* 

I'm a lot of things, but I am not a very disciplined person and I do did not like to exercise!! Since I started exercising though I've felt several changes in my daily life, the best of all by now is being in a better mood, my moods are much more balanced and just an overall better feeling of accomplishment about myself and for that I tap myself on the shoulders, YAY !!

Here my 10 past days in a nutshell and now my daily prayer to Allah is to keep up the good work and for HIM to grant me the discipline it takes to keep on exercising on a daily basis!!

Myriam

How to get "Outside my Box" !!

image from www.web2teachingtools.com

I am admitting that I can't seem to "be" creative !! I'd love to be more of an exciting teacher but I am somehow still stuck in this annoying "pencil in hand an sitting on the chair" method of doing school and right now it's very frustrating!! and so I'm once again brainstorming of how to make teaching more exciting and less school'ish and still be satisfied with myself at the end of the day that, yes we've learned and accomplished something!! Writing this comes over as very stupid to myself because I love Arts/ Crafts, being creative etc. and I do tons of stuff for myself but when it comes to educational creativity for my boys my brain somehow freezes.. I'm thinking maybe I should go cold turkey and ban all books for a week except maybe handwriting and learn to have fun with my boys, educational fun, well understood.. I feel as if something has to unlock in my brain for me to be able to loosen up and I'm still waiting for that event to take place. I can't possibly be the only one having had that issue.. anyone? 

Just a thought on a friday night.. 

Myriam

Our new fancy Pets

Since about a month now we have fresh eggs on an daily basis, yesss we have chicken :-) which if you'd asked me a few years back I would've never thought of it as possible.. but it seems like today it's not such a far fetched thing anymore, you know, to have back yard chickens. They are such interesting animals !! We literally sit outside, all five of us and watch "the chickflick" !! 

Here a few pictures of the Chicken Coop in the Make:

May I introduce to you:

• Olive
• Roxy
• Reds
• Goldy (better pictures will follow, I know this is not the best but it's all I have right now)

From the beginning we've had 1 egg a day which increased to 2-3 eggs a day :-) The boys are thrilled and love watching them. They've been raised by children and are very used to people which is again perfect for us. I needn't say that following to us having chicken is a Lapbook about Chickens which is in the make as you're reading this post so.. stay tuned :-)

Myriam

The Past 3 Months

It's been such a long time since I last sat down and worked on my blog. I've thought so many times that: I should write about this and that but.. never actually got to type it up. What we've been doing? Night Fury (4) is very eager to learn on a daily basis. He picks things up very quickly and gets bored easily so he's challenging but that's ok, I'll get there, I am trying to have lessons prepared that keep him challenged and hands on, so he gets to enjoy our learing time together... He is doing excellent with reading (we're on lesson 86 in how to teaching your child how to read in 100 easy lessons) and he simultaneously reads #1 library books. His handwriting is also going great, we will be finishing the Zaner Bloser Working book this week. Oh and yes handwriting is one of his favorite subjects !!

Patriotism vs. Loyality

Yesterday while taking my boys on a field trip to the Museum of Art, a woman passed me saying: You're in the wrong country, go back to where you came from.. Immediately I turned around saying: And my husband is in the Military I have EVERY right to be here just as much as you do !!
She was the kind of person that would mumble stuff and just keep walking, so I leave it up to you to decide on what kind of person she was. 

I did not see this coming and was so angry, hurt and couldn't really get rid of my frustration right then and there, since I didn't want to cause a scene, especially with my boys there.. WOMAN, WE'RE ON A FIELD TRIP HERE !!!

I am the kind of person that can't just "forget" so I think it over and over (very unhealthy I know)... and tried to analyze why, what the woman said hurt me so much. Yes I'm fully covered and I know some don't like us muslims so much.. being in the states I kind of expect this (even though it happens very seldom) and am okay with it, honestly I can relate to a certain extend. One of the reasons I like living here though is because the people are so easy going, at least the ones I come in contact with. Anyway what made me furious is that I am in this country because my husband is serving HER country and I get the feeling that she LOVES her military.. well guess what we're part of it !! and just because I cover my face and don't walk around half naked doesn't make me feel less lonely and stressed out when my husband is deployed for 7 month in a row. It is a HUGE sacrifice and I'm sure every military wife/kids can relate to that and having someone tell me that I don't belong here or that I should go back .. dang..

A man passed by when I swung back around and said, don't worry about it there are some people they are ignorant. I met him later in the same museum and approached him, to thank him for his uplifting words and he continued saying that some people that haven't travelled about just don't know better. That I was a strong woman and have to stand up for myself.. may Allah bless him and YES I AM !!

Myriam

Some Thoughts about Homeschooling

ISTUDYING

Yesterday I read this blogpost from Renee over at Fimby.tougas.net and it struck me. One reason why I'm having a hard time figuring out which way I'd like to go with the boy's homeschool is because I never thought about what I want them to gain from it. Yes I want them to learn "stuff" favorably "LOTS of stuff, no EVERYTHING !! Also being Muslims we strive to do everyday things in life the islamic way, but which direction would I like to pull all of us through the process? After reflecting for quiet some time I came up with

• right now at this point I want them to love studying/ learning
• to learn how to study/ research etc. on their own and loving it !
• of course I want them to use their knowledge in life to become open minded, positive God fearing people that use their knowledge in a way that pleases Allah/ God (which is not really "simply" a 3rd point since pleasing Allah/ God is our ultimate goal in life.)
• I could probably add that I want them to be aware and care for the world we're living in and so I came up with our next science theme, which will be another post.

Weird actually that after finally finding out what might have stopped me from feeling more comfortable in my skin as a homeschooling mom and mentor all I come up with are three things.. ( my boys are only 7, 5 and 3 years old)

But somehow I feel better just having found a missing puzzle piece for myself. Maybe later the 3 pointers will become 4 or 5.. and still I think, the most important that will make them thrive the most might still just be because they love to learn !!! I'm in my early 30ties and I love the fact that I still love to study.

Myriam

The Whale Lapbook

For our Whale Lapbook I got everyone involved this time, L-Drago 7, Night Fury 4 and Dyno 3. Everyone did a fantastic job and as always we all, including me learnt a bunch *smile*


Our Resources were:

• our local Library 
• homeschoolshare.com for all the Lapbook pockets
• education.com for the pre K. Twin Whale activity and coloring pages.

also from education.com is the Whale Coin Toss Game


Books we read:
The Life Cycle of a Whale
Gray Whales
Blue Whales 
Whales (I believe the green Whale Quiz is from that book as well)
Winter Whale
The Whale Scientists
Baby Whales Drink Milk
Humphrey The Lost Whale

Our Weekly Wrap Up June #3, one day at a time..

My first week of summer holidays was all about "what if Leap Creature forgets what he learned" and I was hardly able to calm down and enjoy the holidays.. the second week was much better and well, I've been doing a bit more of what I want to or was looking forward to doing. I've had some orders for islamic men's shirts which I was able to finish. I got a thobe (traditional Arab clothing for men) done for Leap Creature. I made new pillow cases, Pajama Outfits, all with left over material which I'm so desperately trying to finish up and even found an old scarf to make little sleeping bags for beanie babies "little howler, lizzy and tiger". I have so much material and so many plans on what to do with all of it, all that was missing was the time to just sit and do it.

The boys started swimming classes this week and other than that we try to take them out several times of the week. There isn't much structure in our days these days but honestly I'm taking one day at a time and no structure and no planning is exactly what I need right now. 

Myriam

Slowly but surely back to School

We "unofficialy" started our slow first days around Thursday last week. Officially the Charter School that we're connected with starts at the end of the month but I didn't want to wait that long. It was less of when they would be ready but more when I would be ready. So I bravely ordered books from our local library for our first chosen science theme, the whales, and thought whenever these are ready for pick up, I will start. The books came and with a deep breath I heard myself say: Boys lets start our first lap book about whales (wondering about what the response might be), as I heard three YAAYYYY's and 6 stomping little feet storming into the study room.

Mentor vs.Teacher

I just had quiet a productive evening, sewing pajamas for my three boys while listening to a lecture on Homeschool.com about the Thomas Jefferson Education. In general I don't like following anything in life just one particular way, except Islam, for God is whom I live to obey and worship as a muslim, but other than that Im very careful in just trusting what people "think" is the "best way" to do just anything. Listening to this talk though, felt like this is what I've been trying to achieve all along, I just didn't have a name for it.. or didn't quiet know how to get there..

Homesteading Arts Festival

Today we went to the Homesteading Arts Festival at the City Farmers Nursery. It was so refreshing, inspiring and we all had a wonderful and so peaceful afternoon. Here take a look: 
(I'm absolutely aware that some of the pictures are totally blur but I had no idea what to expect and of course didn't bring my camera.. so all the pictures were taken from my cell phone..)

Our Weekly Wrap Up May #5

How was our week or more like my past two weeks? ahh lets see.. 
Thursday the week before, considering it was our last week of school we were all so lazy and not really in the studying mood, we did study some though. Most of it was repetition through the learning Odyssey. I gathered all of Leap Creatures School books, tools, games etc. to return to our Resource Center to be able to check out new ones for the upcoming 2nd Grade and my officially signed up Kindergardener Cheetah Racer *big grin* !! The day after on friday we drove up to Long Beach to the "California Great Homeschool Convention" here my blogpost. It was so fantastic that I was all fired up for the whole past week and still am. And since 
about Monday (first official Summer holiday) my boys are wining most of the day that THEY'RE BOOORED and it's only been like a weekend of no schooling and they're already getting on my nerves HAH.. who would've thought. So more or less what have "I" been doing? Figuring out what to do with them for the rest of our summer !! I will make this post very short from here on because I haven't quiet figured it out *grin again*.. I think after I've had my share of "I'm bored's" we'll start studying again summer or no summer !! 


This is "the weekly wrap up" link-up from Kris over at the weird unsocialized homeschoolers, would you like to share your week?

Myriam

our Curriculum Choices

The Summer surely is approaching fast and I'm so excited to proudly announce that my little cheetah racer is officially signed up for kindergarten for the following Semester !! He is learning how to read for quiet some time now and anyway with our home schooled Leap Creature in 1st grade it's almost silly saying that my Kindergardener  "starts" classes this fall. But anyway it's official and I'm SO excited. We picked up school material for both of the boys and then the big scrambling will start about putting lesson plans together etc. Can't wait !!


Also do I have no idea about how to teach two boys since one alone is already very time consuming but.. all I know is.. that I'm excited. We always pick our school materials before the summer holidays so the funny thing is, right when it's time to actually wind down and go into relaxing mode, I see all the new school material for the next school year and feel like: How can we just not study now having all the new exciting books etc. !! haha.. well we all do need a break but I doubt that it'll really last more than about a month.

Great Homeschool Convention California

I received an email from one of Leap Creature's school friends kind mom about the California Homeschool Convention and I thought to myself that I'd really like to go but my husband would never agree to drive all the way to Long Beach for a day, with the kids and the traffic etc. and his first answer sure enough was: LONG BEACH? on MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND?! and I went on saying yes, yes I know I know.. just thought I'd share that there is a great convention up there this weekend.. 

Still on Planet Earth

I feel like I've been on some other planet for the last month or longer.. Definitely not on blogger.com !! What have I been doing? I love to sew, so I caught up with some orders I had. I decided to finally, after years pick up on drawing again. It's been over 8 or so years !!! Yes, we,ve been homeschooling too haha.. But more a bit finishing, rounding up what we've started. Doing small day by day lessons and last but not least we're currently enjoying my stepdad's visit. Last time I saw him my Leapcreature was almost one and now he's 7.. You do the math.. To make a long story short I believe I did a couple of things that make me happy to be able to keep doing what I have to on a daily basis. Don't get me wrong I'm very happy, just trying to have "me" not going under amongst the homeschooling, housework, teaching, disciplining etc etc mom!! Get the picture? Knew you would. Some people ask me how do you find time to do all these things next to everything you have to do?! Well I am absolutely selfish enough to make time for me being ME!!

Myriam

 ps: the absolutely stunning picture was taken by my uncle, you can find more of his work over at http://www.africawild.com/

Our Weekly Wrap Up April #1 "Back to School"

Our week of Spring Break was fabulous, loved it. And so was our first week of school. As I am writing Our Weekly WrapUps I realize that most of the time I'm leaving a positive feedback.. *smile* which is great because about 6 months ago I soo wanted to throw in the towel !! Our Highlight this Week was Monday, yep that's right Monday! Early morning I decided we'd start with a Field Trip to La Jolla in search of Tide Pools, our new Theme. It was a great first day and Leap Creature was asking me if we could always start our first monday after holidays with a Field Trip. I hope I can fulfill my promise but I said that: why not. I think the first monday is always a bit slow, might as well enjoy it to the fullest. Other than that we reviewed numbers up to 9000 (left) and even added some of these very big numbers. (right)

For Language Arts Leap Creature read Magic Treehouse books, took Quizzes at the Book adventure webpage. We started spelling Checks and continued his Cursive Practice which he's doing a real fantastic job with. On friday he was again looking forward for his school day for he saw his friends again, so I'll say it again, GREAT WEEK !!

Wishing all a great Weekend,

Myriam 

Tide Pool Field Trip

It is Monday morning and we started off with a Field Trip to La Jolla Beach in search of some Tide Pools for our new Science Theme. I couldn't have thought of a better way to start school after our fantastic week of Spring Break. Of course the attention span was minimal. (can you blame them?) We did get to a look at quiet a few Tide Pools though and they're magic with all their little creatures.

Science Festival & Spring Break

The science Festival last Saturday was great, we all saw a lot, held, felt and walked a lot. The weather was perfect we couldn't have asked for anything more. Of course we went to see the Art Project "Volcano a-Go-Go" Leap Creature was working on together with all of their Art Teacher's Students. The boys collected solar beads, held snakes, lizards, raced cars and took pictures with a humongous Sid the Science Kid *smile*. At the end of the day after dinner Leap Creature realized we didn't do any school today and states: Mommy we didn't even learn nothing today! I reassured him that even though it might didn't feel like it that he learned TONS today!!