WebMama's Homeschool Blog

NaNoWriMo

2009-11-05T18:40:00.006+01:00

November is NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month.

The idea of NaNoWriMo, which has become international, BTW, is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in just one month. Start to finish. Now, if you think that's an incredibly short time to write a novel, you're right - and that's the fun of it. It's just crazy to try and write a novel in a month, and yet thousands and thousands of people do it every year during NaNoWriMo.

I've been a NaNo participant before (and never done too well, because I'm terrible at switching off my nagging interior editor, but so far I'm doing quite well this year. At only 5 days in, I've already written over 10,000 words, so I'm getting more confident that I'll actually be able to make it this year.

I'm not the only one in my family that has been hit by the NaNo-virus. Both Lizzy and Fran are afflicted too. Since Fran is still very young and has very little writing experience, she joined NaNo's Young Writer's Program, and set herself the task of writing at least 7000 words this month. I'm not too sure that she'll actually make it, as I haven't seen her writing much over the last two days, but we'll see.

Lizzy is 16, and although she would still be allowed to join the Young Writer's Program and determine her own goal, she decided to just join NaNo again and write a full length novel. She participated before, and didn't make it then, but like me she's ahead of schedule right now, and she's got a great plot to work with. Also, she's got lots more writing experience than two years ago, when she first joined NaNo.

The only one in the house who isn't "Doing NaNo" is my husband. Poor him, he'll have a hard time coping with the antics of his Writer Family.

Twitter

2009-11-02T21:51:00.003+01:00

Just a tiny little blog post to let the world know that I just joined twitter.

If you consider yourself one of my friends and you're on twitter, please let me know so we can stay in touch with other.

First Judo Competition

2009-11-01T21:22:00.005+01:00

Today, Fran played her very first Judo Competition. That took quite some preparation, of course, and there was one little problem. Fran takes after her Mum: she's a lightweight. And by that we mean A Real Lightweight. In fact, she weighs so little, she couldn't compete against judoka's her own age, since even the smallest and slimmest her age were much taller and weighed much more than she. So she got to compete against judoka's that were all younger than her - and even there she was in the lowest weight division (under 25 kg/55 pounds).

So there she was waiting for her turn, with one of her coaches sitting right next to her providing her with a last bit of good advice before the match started.

A first Judo competition is quite an experience, as you don't really know what to expect. And if you're afraid to hurt your opponent, you lose your match, which can be rather distressing. And it gets even more distressing if you lose your next match as well.

But thank goodness for Big Sisters, who take you in their arms to comfort and encourage you. Big Sisters are obviously very important to Young Judoka's, and there's nothing wrong with saying that out loud.

Big Sister has always been a star at making Fran laugh again when she is down, and she did it again this time. She also gave her some good advice.

And so it was, that after all matches had been played, Fran stood on the podium, smiling.

She got back home tonight carrying a beautiful trophy. She still won fourth prize.

And Dad went to buy us chips for supper.

Sweet Sixteen

2009-10-30T14:23:00.003+01:00

Today is Lizzy's birthday. She's sixteen now.

Her birthday present was a complete makeover of her room. Since you don't do a complete makeover in just one or two days - at least we don't - we've been at it for months already.

All our efforts were well worth it. Lizzy's room has become the dream room she wanted. It will be quiet downstairs, though, now that she has her computer up in her own room.

Autumn Break

2009-10-28T13:14:00.002+01:00

This week the schools in our region are closed. Autumn break. We never have vacation. After all, learning is our way of life, and you don't take days off from life, do you?

Alas, the sportsclub and school of arts are closed this week

Poor Fran won't be going to judo training, and this makes her rather grumpy. Thankfully, she'll be playing her first real judo competition next Sunday, and she's really looking forward to that.

Also because of the autumn break, there won't be any drawing lessons for Lizzy, and no drama class. She's not too happy about that, but fortunately her best friend is staying with her for a couple of days now, and that more than makes up for it.

photo by Lana Hogenstijn

Sukkot 5770

2009-10-04T14:10:00.007+02:00

Sukkot started last Friday. Since I've only just come home from hospital, we haven't got a Sukkah. Well, to be honest, we never really had one, but most years we managed to have something very remotely resembling one. Not this year.

However, since Lizzy's had to take over from me during my hospital stay, she gained quite some experience at all sorts of household chores, including cooking. She helped me prepare a most delicious Sukkot Supper.

Filled peppers and courgettes, bulgur, Fausia's potatoes, cucumber and tomato salad, rucola salad, garlic dressing, Lizzy's avocado dip. Bete'Avon!

I posted some more pictures of Lizzy's Sukkot Cooking lab on our Home Ed Picture Blog.

Chag Sameach!

Graduation

2009-08-05T21:59:00.007+02:00

Less than one year ago, Lizzy took her first Natural Eyesight Improvement course with Thomas Quackenbush at the Natural Vision Center in Malden.

Her eyesight improved greatly over the past months; she went from -4.5 and -4.75 to -3 for both eyes in less than a year's time. We were very impressed with those results.

In fact we were so impressed and so enthusiastic, that Lizzy decided to become a Natural Eyesight Teacher herself.

Last month, Lizzy attended Thomas's Teacher Training Program, and today she graduated. She brought home a beautiful certificate, signed by no one less than Thomas Quackenbush himself.

At age 15, Lizzy is the youngest Bates teacher Thomas ever trained, and probably the youngest worldwide, at the moment. Need I still tell you how very proud I am of my daughter?

Judo Exam

2009-07-21T11:40:00.002+02:00

Fran took her first judo exam last Sunday!

Needless to say we're all very proud of her.

New Pictures

2009-05-31T16:11:00.003+02:00

It's been a long time. I've been busy getting my book ready for publication, so I didn't really have much time for updating my blogs. But I tried to make up for that now, and posted some pictures of what we've been up to lately.

You'll find them on my Home-Ed Picture Blog.

The picture below (not posted to my picture blog) is a naughty example of Fran's love for word-play.

Sometimes I really wish we had not taught her how to read and write...

Baruch Dayan Emet

2009-05-21T15:48:00.003+02:00

We first met five years ago. She came to me for help and advice. More than that, she needed me to listen to her story, to all that she’d been through. What could I do but listen? Listen with not just my ears, but with my heart.

She was special to me. Very special. Last night, she died and I am overwhelmed with a strange kind of grief. We were not even friends, not in the common sense of the word, anyway. Yet, I experience her death as a great personal loss.

Ha'el natan verak ha'El yikach
What can I say?

Fifth Day of Pesach - Pizza!

2009-04-13T12:18:00.002+02:00

We just had the most delicious Matzah Pizza for lunch.

I love Pesach!
But only after all the cleaning and kashering has been done.

The Prince of Egypt

2009-04-12T16:28:00.000+02:00

Bought the day before Pesach, so we could watch the video during the Pesach week: "The Prince of Egypt" on DVD.

We loved it.
Beautiful!

Get Down With Moses

2009-04-11T23:42:00.002+02:00

Today I want to share this great Pesach Clip with you: Get Down with Moses, by Brandon Harris Walker. We love it; this guy is so funny! But not just funny, the message is clear - and very accessible to our young people.

New Pesach Recipes

2009-04-11T23:15:00.004+02:00

I just posted a whole bunch of Pesach Recipes to my Vegan Blog.

Chag kasher ve'same'ach!

Pesach Sameach!

2009-04-10T18:53:00.003+02:00

Whereas most people in the western world celebrate Easter this weekend, we are celebrating Pesach for a whole week. Last Wednesday night was the first night of Pesach.

During our Seder on Erev Pesach, we read from the Haggadah and tell our children about how our G-d rescued our people from the slavery and oppression in Egypt.

After half a day of cleaning and kashering (yes, I take a very relaxed approach to Pesach cleaning), and half a day of cooking, we enjoyed a wonderful festive meal as a family.

We laid the table with a new table cloth, and our special Pesachdik china (sorry, the picture isn't the best in the world...), and after we lit the candles for Pesach, we gathered around the table for our Seder.

Fran put everything we needed on the Seder plate. The bitter herbs, charoset, shankbone (well... actually a (grilled) chicken bone that we keep for that purpose as we don't eat meat, and the chicken bone was easier to get by), the egg, spring vegetables, and a small bowl filled with salty water.

Of course we had matzah too.

Our main course was the traditional - traditional for us, anyway - Matzah Lasagna. No picture of that, I'm afraid - it was too yummie!

Pesach Shopping

2009-04-05T17:39:00.004+02:00

Today we finally went Pesach Shopping at "our" kosher deli in Amsterdam. It took us about one hour to get there, ten minutes to buy the things we needed and then of course another hour to drive back home. That's why we don't go there more often than once or twice a year, but some things you just can't buy anywhere else. Not where we live.

It may not look like much, but this lot cost me - well, quite a bit of money. Of course, with 12 big bottles of Kiddush Wine, you can't expect anything else, can you? And they should last me a year or so.

Now for the Pesach cleaning. I'm so not looking forward to that.

New Homeschooler Speech

2009-04-02T20:05:00.007+02:00

The other day one of the ladies of one of my email groups posted her New Homeschooler Speech to the list. It's brilliant, so I asked for her permission to post it to my blog.

If you did nothing, your kids would thrive. Remember to breathe. You can’t mess up any more than public schools mess up these days. You will not ruin your child. Your child will not fall behind. You could do nothing and your kids would thrive. Oh wait, I said that already. You could do ABSOLUTELY nothing and let your kids explore in life and they would THRIVE!
So, that being said, let go of the worry and fear and follow your heart and follow your kids’ hearts. Imagine if we all learned how to do just that!
Also, make yourself a list of the things you want your kids to know by the time they graduate school. What are the most important lessons you want them to have? Core values? Core skills? Then let how you proceed follow that list. These are the absolute must haves like
know how to feed themselves or
understand how to learn or
be able to handle their own finances or
walk away knowing that they can do anything their heart desires or
know how to make a good lasagne.
Just the top 5 or 10 things that are important to you.
Then, it doesn’t matter which curriculum you use or don’t use, whether they do to public school, or don’t go to public school, whether this homeschool group is right or that homeschool program is right, just stick to the goals.
Let your core beliefs and goals inform all that you do and know that you can turn on a dime and try something else if what you are doing is not working.

By Lisa Gottfried.

Happy Homeschooling!

Earth Hour 2009

2009-03-31T10:03:00.002+02:00

Last Saturday, from 8.30-9.30 PM was Earth Hour.
Almost a billion people in 3,937 cities and towns, across 88 countries, turned off their lights for one hour, making Earth Hour 2009 the biggest environmental demonstration in history!

We too participated, turned off our lights and went for a stroll in the neighbourhood. Unfortunately, not many people around where we live knew of Earth Hour yet, so the lights weren't turned off in many households. We ourselves only heard of it pretty last minute too, and decided to jump in and vote earth.

I decided to make a mini Earth Hour Movie in the Sims2.

But why bother turning off your lights for one hour? Does it really make a difference? And isn't Global Warming just a myth?

I believe in people taking up their own responisbilities, and doing the right thing, regardless of whether or not it makes a huge global difference. I'm not sure about Global Warming. Yes, I see the climate changes, but I also know that climate changes are part of our planet's history. But to me, Earth Hour is about more than Global Warming alone. It's about taking stand against Light Pollution, and the mindless use - or abuse - of the Earth's resources.

I believe the Creator gave us this world to inhabit and care for, not to destroy it with our greed. I want our children and grandchildren to inherit a better world, and I believe it's never too late to start making a difference.

Sh'ma Israel - Sarit Hadad

2009-03-29T11:23:00.010+02:00

Just something I want to share today.

sh'ma elokai (kshe halev boche)	Hear Israel (When the heart cries)
ksheh halev bocheh rak elokim shome'a hake'ev ole mitokh haneshama adam nofel lifnei shehu shoke'a bitfila ktana chotekh et hadmama	When the heart cries only G-d hears The pain rises out of the soul A man falls down before he goes under With a little prayer he cuts the silence
Shma Israel elokai ata hakol yakhol Natata li et chayay natata li hakol	Hear Israel, my G-d, You are the Almighty You gave me life, You gave me everything
Be'enai dim'a halev bokhe besheket Ukhshe halev shotek haneshama zo'eket	A tear in my eyes - the heart cries silently When the heart is quiet, the soul screams
Shma Israel elokai akhshav ani levad Chazek oti elokai aseh shelo efchad	Hear Israel, my G-d, now that I am alone Make me strong, my G-d, And make me not afraid
Hake'ev gadol ve'ein le'an livro'ach Ase sheyigamer ki lo notar bi ko'ach	The pain is so deep, and there's nowhere I can run Make it stop, for I can't take it anymore
Kshe halev bokhe, hazman omed milekhet Ha'adam ro'eh et kol chayav pitom El halo noda hu lo rotze lalekhet Le'elokav kore al saf tehom	When the heart cries, Time stands still All of a sudden, man sees his entire life He doesn't want to enter the unknown He cries to his G-d right before the great fall

Lyrics: Yossi Gispan/Arlet Tzfadia
Music: Shmuel Elbaz
Singer: Sarit Hadad

This song was written in 2000, after the brutal lynching of two reserve soldiers in Ramalla

Tika

2009-03-26T00:08:00.002+01:00

Last week (Tuesday, March 17) our three-year old cat Tika died.

She suffered from chronic renal failure, refused to eat, vomited when we tried to force-feed her, and in the end we had no choice but to ask the vet to "put her to sleep".

Tika's brother Shimi has also been suffering from kidney failure for quite a while already, most likely caused by an infectious disease he must have suffered very early on in his life - probably as a kitten. But congenital causes can also not be excluded. Or (most likely) a combination of the two.

Last Friday we went to the vet with Shimi for his check-up.

After Shimi's check-up, Marleen, the vet, performed a post mortem (necropsy) on Tika - and Lizzy and I were allowed to witness it and take pictures.

After the necropsy, Lizzy was allowed to take Tika's kidneys back home with her - in two glass jars in a formaldehyde solution for conservation.

Yoga

2009-02-22T10:37:00.000+01:00

Fran has to do some exercises for physiotherapy every day, and to help her stay motivated, Lizzy and I do them too.

Every morning, we change our living room into a little gym (it takes only five minutes) and do Fran's physiotherapy exercises first and some yoga after. To make it all more enjoyable, we listen to some nice, calming music on CD.

Change of Plans

2009-02-21T23:51:00.005+01:00

It's been a while, and I know having been busy isn't an excuse - even though it's true.

Things have changed around here. Plans have changed. And that's one of the nice things about home education of course, you can change plans and turn your whole life upside down when needed. Immediately. Or almost immediately.

Lizzy had made up her mind re. her future. She's an excellent artist, and one of her Art teachers told her she'd certainly be good enough to go to the Academy of arts, but still advised her against it. The problem is, a lot of new artist end up having to find other ways to earn their keep, as art simply doesn't pay. Well, it's not as black and white as I'm saying, but still... it's a hard life.

So Lizzy decided she wants to go to the School of Journalism. She loves writing and is really good at it, so this seems like an excellent idea. But she'll need a (Dutch) diploma to be sure of being admitted - and high marks as well. So we've been looking into this and figured out what subjects she'd need to study for her exams. She decided on Dutch, English, French and German, already, and is still deliberating over which other four subjects she'll choose. She'd be ready to take her exams for Dutch and English now already (but sadly we were one week late in registering for those exams, so she'll have to wait for a whole year), and has started learning German now. It's a 12-week course, but she's making very good progress and intends to finish this course in 6 weeks, instead of 12. After that, she'll start learning French.

Since Lizzy is learning German, it only makes sense that Fran takes the same course too. She really enjoys it, and it's a huge boost to her self-esteem to find out that she can for once take the same course as her big sister and do just as well as her. I'm pretty sure she'll want to do French as well as soon as Lizzy is ready to start on her French course.

And, talking about languages - I got myself a real job as an ESL-teacher with Bilingual Kids. Well, only two hours a week, but still. I even get paid it. And the best part is, I get to take both Lizzy and Fran with me. Lizzy as my assistant and ESL-teacher-in-training, and Fran just as one of the pupils. Fran gets to meet and new children her own age, and Lizzy will almost certainly be offered a contract as an ESL-teacher within one or two years.

Fran is getting better and better at reading, although writing (spelling) is still difficult for her, but she's making progress there as well. And hey, let's be honest, she's trying to master not one or two, but three languages, so we really should cut her some slack. She reads all three languages (Dutch, English and German) almost as well as can be expected of a child her age. I'm confident her writing will follow suit.

As for "extra-curricular" activities - but what are those for a unschooling family anyway? - Fran's got her computer course on Wednesday afternoons, and some sort of assertiveness training after that. On Fridays she's got physiotherapy to help her achieve proper alignment of her feet, which are pointing inwards now.

Comptine d'n autre été

2009-01-29T23:22:00.002+01:00

Today I made a video of Lizzy playing the piano. Sadly, I've only got my digital camera, so the audio and video quality aren't great, but still...

Kaddish

2009-01-28T15:17:00.003+01:00

Today is the sixth Yahrzeit of my daughter Sarah, z'l.
I wrote a little poem in her memory.

Fifth Night of Chanukkah - Merry Christmas

2008-12-25T14:23:00.003+01:00

A very happy Christmas to those who celebrate it.

As for us, we'll be celebrating the fifth night of Chanukkah tonight. Below are some pictures of yesterday's Chanukkah Dinner.