Bat Galim Garden

We started working every wednesday in the community garden in Bat Galim.

I was amazed to find out that the municipality actually buys all the tools, the soil and the seeds. The municipality also pays a person to work there a couple of days a week and supports the garden with everything that is needed. People working in the garden are young people who are concerned about the ecological and social condition of the country as well as educational system.

The Bat Galim neighborhood is a poor Jewish neighborhood in Haifa. The violence and crime statisticsis are very high and it is very nice to see young people making a garden together with the children and adults from the neighborhood.

For more info on the community garden in Bat Galim visit community garden Bat Galim Facebook

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Baba Olya's house when mommy is studying

Here are some pictures baba Olya made when kids were there

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Eshel Talking

I made some movies of Eshel talking ... enjoy!

 

We have been discussing all sorts of questions in classes and I want to start posting here too ... so here we go...

Our time (historical time) is much different from all that was known to man. We live in the age of what is called post-modernity. In this strange world of many truths, of no right answers (or rather all right answers), of respect for all and of meaninglessness (nothing will trully make a difference) how are we to live? Who are we? Is there an "I"? Can we help children face the reality? What is education? All these questions need to be answered or at least considered.

This week we have been talking about the all inclusiveness of our new post-modern culture and the ... absurdaty of it. Most people today will agree that we need to value and respect other cultures... many will say that we have no right to dictate to other cultures our way of life (most are what my professor calls new antisemites - viewing the white (Judeo-Christian) culture as an opressor), but just a few weeks ago in Gaza around 400 nine year old girls were married.... how are we to respond if at all? If one says that it is their culture, their life, their problem, one is running away from responsibility.
If I would form more clearly my philosophy of life, I would freely defend my philosophy of education... but so far it seems that I'm stuck in the modern world with its criteria and its questions that are outdated for today ...

Studies

I have come to a point in life where I have to choose - (isn't it every minute of every day we have to make decisions that will effect our life and the life of our cvhildren? every time I make a choice of acting a certain way, or not responding to a question, or feeling angry at someone... or any choice at all our life is effected deeply... but now I'm talking about the "big" decisions, the kind of decisions that most clearly form our future)to choose whether or not we are going to continue in our path at home or we should choose a school for our children and if so, what kind of school would it be? Would it be OK in a mainstream (regular) Israeli school? Maybe we should consider sending them to an alternative school (whatever that might mean...)?
Or maybe I should ask a slightly different question - why should the decision be mine? or ours as parents?
To understand all of the questions and to make sure I am asking those questions I decided to go and study a little. I am studying "the research of alternative education" in Haifa University. I am hoping to ask myself and others (professors and students) the fundamental questions of education and I am hoping to find my path by answering those qwuestions for myself. I suppose that most of the questions and the answers will depend on my belief system and so I am hoping to form one (or to articulate the one I already have, but can't see clearly).
My wish is to post some of the questions here in my blog and to have a discussion (all comments are welcome!)

logical reasoning

Buggies come from wind .... baba Olya said that, I don't have any buggies, because I don't feel any wind. (a little puzzled... I'm wiping her nose)

Zoo Doings

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Fiddler on the Roof

"They are so happy, they don't know how miserable they are"

I wish I could say this about myself all the time!

Nahal El Al

It has been over a week already and I still haven't written anything.... A hard week, I must say, with lots going on... so I'll just show you the smilebox.

Slideshow made with Smilebox

Michelle - foxes

Don't worry, baba, there are no foxes outside... just rats!

Eshel

I have been thinking about writing some of Eshel's words down for quite some time now - the time has come!

Ulya- daddy (don't ask me how he became Ulya - I don't know!?)
ba - ball
bah - fall, fell
bla - I don't like it / it's not tasty
mama
dzin - drink
Bati bat' - Mati ( and everything that belongs to Mati)
Agh (long with Hebrew H in the end) - truck / tractor
bike (you guessed it!) - Eshel loves bikes! it's the first word that comes out of his mouth when he wakes up and the last one too - he probably dreams about them too. The only books he listens to are about bikes and if you ask Eshel where his dad is, he'll tell you "bike" - riding a bike

aw-aw - dog and really any animal (except horses and the like)
kan'kan' - horse, giraffe, zebra
am am - to eat
ha-ha (like heavy breathing)-water - nif I don't understand he makes a sipping sound
sss - shoes, snake
uuuu-train, airplain
nyam-nyam - to nurse
by - by

I'll be adding some more, can't think of any now

Michelle - bloody

"Flyes are not scary, they like only sweet things... I'm not sweet, I'm bloody!"

Mati

We have a new member in our family - Mati.... I am helping my friend to take care of her baby and to all it seems that he is part of the family. Eshel likes to run with him (and hug, of course), Michelle is taking care of two little brothers now and I have an opportunity to try what it's like to have three kids.
Most of the days are good (I just need to make sure we're outside most of the time) but there were a couple of very hard days (I even thought of dropping the idea, but somehow we managed, so far)

We like to end our day at the beach

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Zoo in Kiryat Motzkin

I have no idea why I still don't have a membership to this place! The trip was wonderful (except that one little monkey bit Mati ...). Pictures are here

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Spirit

Watching a video of one of Raffi's concerts. The song "you gotta sing when the spirit says sing" is playing ... Michelle looks at me and says: "He is the spirit, mom"

This year at home

I thought of making this page for all the practical ideas we have about homeschooling/unscholing with the resources that we already have at home.

Space: This summer I am doing summer camp at AIS. Most of you know that I believe in unscholing and child-led education so there was no reason for me to start "teaching" in camp (and I don't). We have a gymnastics studio for the camp and so it is very empty. About 30 square meters of open air conditioned space that I needed to make fun and inviting for children aged 1.5 to 9 year olds.... I am very proud to say that I managed to make just this - an inviting and fun place to be in ... parents tell me that kids enjoy it and I see the ease with which children solve the problems in that room and the light in their eyes when they are busy (playing, reading, making ..etc) I love it! So what did I do? (something that I thought we could do at my house when we are inviting friends over):

1. Huge sheets of paper glued to the floor with road drawn on them. Next to them is a basket of blocks, a basket of crayons and all sorts of cars. Some children enjoy driving the cars, some decide to draw their houses and fields and people and others want to construct bridges and skyscrapers ... I see children of all ages at this place and they all come without me inviting them orally. All I need to do is sit and draw or drive a car...

2. I made a very simple "house" play area and divided it from the rest of the room with benches (could be done at home with chairs easily). This is by far the most popular play area (especially for older children -6-9). We have a simple kitchen (stacked benches one on top of the other and taped paper on top with "stove" drawn on it. We have a little set of plastic dishes, a couple of broken cell phones, all sorts of scraps of cloth and one bean bag.... So easy to make and kids spend at least two-three hours playing there (amazing!)

(just look at them, they are so happy doing "nothing" in their house!)



3. Next to the mirror we set the dress up basket. a big basket with different cloths, bags, hats (no real costumes). this is especially fun for girls. They play princesses and put stuffed animals to sleep.

4. Doll corner. A bed, plastic bathtub, potty, dolls, animals, clothes for dolls. Girls (3-6) love this corner. They spend a lot of time there.

5. Castle/houses made of paper (some schol project that was left behind, but any little construction will work fine). Next to it is a box of all the miniatures I have collected. Scraps of cloth, pieces of wood, shells, pebbles, little toys ... This corner is used when I'm making up stories and telling them - the kids help me (of course)

6.Board games - (Yaniv, the guy I work with, is good at that.... he takes out a game and kids come to play with him) on the carpet.

7. Reading corner - a bean bag and books (some are on the shelf and some are on stands)

Activities:

When we see that kids are becoming a little violent and want "action" we take them outside to run and scream and jump and ride scooters. Some games are planned (they work worst of all) but most of the games are made up by kids and they enjoy them a lot (inspite of the age differences .. no one is forced to play, but usually everyone does)

Food in camp is a process - we order catering, so we recieve a box of rice/potatos etc, a box of meat and a salad. Every child has his plate, a fork/spoon and a cup. We do have time for food, but we adjust to the hunger. Before we eat, we do sports, so that the kids will be hungry and they are... We eat and then we all clean up. Children are responsible for their plates and cups (some need help, of course), we clean the tables and the floor. - maybee it would be a good idea to have this sort of thing when we are going outside (one family will be responsible for all the food or two families - one for the snack in the morning (we have it around 9 - 9:30) and one for lunch (we have around 12:30 - 13:00) we have another little snack after pool (around 14:30) and that's usually fruits and left-over sandwiches.

Arts & Crafts - I always have supplies ready ... when I see that we need some quiet time I take them out - a couple of possibilities. Some children choose to join me and some choose to go and play. With older children we decided to make a little doll theatre from a box. The others choose to help decorate or they are beading or drawing. I like that it became a continuing project (for three days already). In the end of the camp I am hoping to show them a story about themselves in camp. - I think this the difficult part, maybe I could have a little bag of supplies with me, but the problem is that I already have so many bags with me ... maybe we could divide things up between families. Two families bring the food, one family brings the supplies for sport games/ science experiments/ other and one family brings arts and crafts stuff.

None of the activities are really planned but we do have a vague idea of what we think will be fun to do that day, so far every day was fun and (I would say) productive.

Games - when playing games with the ball it really helps if we have a plan. The games should be really easy to play but funny. If I decide that girls can dance I bring a box of little scarves and music and everytrhing else just happends. Hoola hoops are also one of the favorites and "class" game is used by all a lot. I showed the older kids all sort of ball games that I used to play when I was little. I think the key is to keep the games really simple.

Families at home in Haifa

We are hoping to build a community of families living at home with their children (homescholed/unschooled/not in kindergarten). If you feel like you want to belong, please visit us on facebook (and find out what's going on this week) at  http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=138384382870843. Thanks

Ahziv - rest

Ahziv was such a wonderful experience. It was like hakuna matata in real life. No where to run, nothing to do, nothing on your mind ... just the sea, the family and good friends.

Playing in the bucket

 What? Sleeping? Can I jump on them?!

 

Michelle and Eshel fell in love with Zvika

Every morning somebody would make a huge fruit salad for breakfast (do you notice Ronit working all the time? Thanks, the salads were wonderful)

A house for a day... We wanted to stay for longer

Raz? Uk?! (Eshel's word for stuck)

What a fun weekend! Thanks to everyone for such relaxing time.

Work

I've been working this past week ...

I just wanted to say THANK YOU to all you moms!

When I didn't work, people would tell me that I'm living in my own little world and nothing outside this world interests me ... well, guess what?! People who are working are also living in their little worlds only their worlds are filled with other things  - other people and not their families...

Thank you for bringing up people who care, people who know how to talk and how to listen, people who are great and loving and interesting!

If you want to know what I'm doing at work ... here it goes

Sasha's b-day

Sasha's birthday this year was very quiet and very good. We spent it alone in Acco - it was wonderful, very special day. What I loved about our trip that it was very relaxed and fun and happy (to tell you the truth it seems like a lot of our "family days" are not relaxed because the expectations are to high and we (parents) want too much from the kids - this day was different... we didn't want anything, it just happened!)

We were walking around Acco, enjoying the scenery - the blue sea full of jellyfish...

 

and then Michelle and Eshel spotted this...

The carriage was very old but they had fun pretending that they are prince and princess going to a ball

We decided to have a ride on a little boat - that was so much fun! There were waves and Sasha said that he feels like in "Titanic" movie

And look at Acco - it's fantastic!

afterwards we went on the carriage (I regret that! Sorry...) - Michelle really wanted to go.
The whole way I asked the man how well he took care of the horse because ... oh, poor horsie!!!
We agreed never to do this again...

Happy Birthday DADDY!!!

Zoo

On our last visit to the zoo we met Eyran (one of the zoo keepers - he is in charge of all the snakes and the lizards) and he let us touch one of his snakes...

I didn't even have the courage to touch it... maybe next time... or not..

Michelle is four

Wanted to post the pictures from Michelle's party:

Our birthday girl! (she is so grown, ... a little princes, we are so happy to be her parents (even though sometimes it is not easy))

Opening presents - excitement in the air

The cake - she told me exactly what she wanted - all those candies!

The cake turned out good

at least Michelle loved it (and isn't it the most important thing on one's b-day?!)

Little Yuval (welcome!)

Didi (you are huge now!)

Lili (how could I not take a picture? She is lovely!)

Reading together...

Thank you all for coming and spending the time with us! Michelle loved the party (and all the presents, of course!)

Eilat

As some of you may know, Sasha started to work for Fattal Hotels and so he had to go to Eilat, we went along and spent almost a week at Eilat in one of the fatal hotels.

We were told that the road to Eilat is not easy - and it was not. It was long and kids took turns sleeping, so we were left entertaining at least one of them the whole road... it was hard. I took a notebook computer for our way - to show a movie, but Michelle was not interested, all she wanted were books. Five hours of books - it was hard.

When we got to the hotel we realized we were not the only people on vocation in Eilat, in fact it seemed like the whole Israel was there, taking a break, relaxing ... it meant crowds of people on the streets at night, packed pool in the hotel (all hotels in Eilat are full... can you imagine? and that's with everybody complaining about our financial situation... ), not enough tours on the glass bottom boat.

It took me about two days to relax - I was always stressed, stressed about the cleaning (it is a hotel and a huge one, no one cares how well the rooms are cleaned or what's going on in the kitchen - it all has to look good and clean and nice, but it is like everything commercial - nice on the outside and kinda rotten on the inside. In a house that has Bed and Breakfast I would feel much more relieved (although maybe it is just an illusion)because it seems to me that the work is more personal and when you have five rooms to look over and not 700 you pay attention to all the little details.

Never mind all this silly talk - all I really wanted to say is that Eilat is not my type of vacation (wasn't it nice that we got it for free?!).

The first day I and the kids went to the marine park - the underwater observatory. The sea is just gorgeous!!! I have never seen anything like this before.
I think I could spend the whole day at the observatory, but kids were tired and hot and so around four we went back to the hotel - to the pool.

I should write about heat. It is hot in Israel. In Haifa I find the heat bearable. It is hot (about 30-35 degrees Celsius), it is humid, but there is wind... the movement of air makes the whole difference. In Rehovot the heat is the same and it is very humid, but there is no wind.. the air is stable and I feel like I'm suffocating. In Eilat it's different. In the sea I didn't feel hot at all, but the minute you move away, you find yourself on a frying pan. The sun burns your skin and the air is like fire.

I am not a very enthusiastic user of sun block, but there I felt like without it I would literally burn... so we were all soaked in sun block and covered with clothes at all times.

Day 1 - The  underwater observatory:

It is an amazing place and I think it is well worth the money. We went there in the morning (about nine) and came back at four (only because kids were exhausted) - I was actually told that the ticket is good for three consecutive days so I could of went back, but there were other things I wanted to do.

We saw sharks and it was a major attraction for the kids. We watched how a diver fed the sharks while explaining to the audience what he is doing and why.

In the same tank with the sharks are the stingrays. They usually hide in the sand on the bottom of the tank or they "fly" about.

After the sharks we decided that we needed some air conditioning and so we went to the actual observatory.

What is so cool about this place is that you see the actual sea and the fish are free to come and go - what an amazing variety of fish! I could stand there for a long time and watch them swim about with all those colors and shapes...
but we went to

eat ice cream (of course).

Outside there are different tanks with huge turtles, different fish, even animals from the Amazon ...

We took some classy tourist pictures (the kids insisted on that!)

We ate lunch there (I had to let go of the food issue...I eventually did)

And after lunch - dinner it was too much for us - all of the sudden too hot and  too tired.... so I took the kids and we ran - to the pool (to cool down!)

Day 2 - Trip on the boat:

At the observatory I promised the kids to take them on the boat and so we  went the next day. Five hours in the sea with a tiny pool on one of the decks - it was wonderful....
The kids splashed in the pool and I enjoyed the breeze. I was even lucky to go swimming from the boat. Eshel fell asleep and I gave Michelle the camera and jumped in the water - what a blast!

 Just starting the journey - no one's happy...

splashing with new friends

I did it!

a wonderful day!!!

Day 3 - Dolphin Reef:

This was the best day of all - I completely relaxed and finally stopped minding all the people around me. I didn't care how many ice creams we ate or what we ate (I think Michelle didn't eat much except for ice creams, but I realized that I am just too stressed about it - it doesn't help anyone ... )

This place is magical... The dolphins swimming, the sea, ... the ice cream...

You can visit the place's web site - they have a nice story about each dolphin ... a passionate place (everywhere I go nowadays I wonder what I would do if I were to live there ... I would definitely come here at least once a week)

We went back and forth - to the beach to swim and back to watch the dolphins - it was a lot of fun!

The road home was hard - it was dark and we both felt like we needed some rest - we came to my parent's house and spend some time with them.... and then home sweet home! (finally, my rice with salads and lots of fruit!!!)