New Year

New school year has started and many homeschoolers/unschoolers are gone...
Michelle is a little confused by this but we are continuing our journey and so far it is going well.

ABC and other curriculum thoughts

By the age of five children are expected to know the ABC to recognize names of colors and to be able to write their name. My daughter is considered slow because she can not do any of these. The teacher was concerned about her English and now they are working hard to catch up with the others otherwise Michelle will be moved to another group (with 2-3 year old). Oh, did I tell you that this is going on in CAMP - summer Camp!!!

My anger and inability to understand this kind of knowing was definitely showing today when the "teacher" was telling me about the "problems".... What can I say???

I am certain that this information has almost no value - I mean, by the time we grow up we all know our colors and how to write them.... on the second thought I am so glad that we do NOT know the names of all the colors - isn't there an infinity of possibilities of shades and mixes??? About the alphabet - I believe that knowing your alphabet in order has no meaning in today's life - before internet it was important as one had to know how to find words in the dictionary, but today's dictionaries are on-line and you do not need to know the alphabet.... At least I can go around not knowing Hebrew alphabet and I'm fine (I do study in Hebrew).... writing, reading and being able to sing the alphabet song has nothing in common (at least for me!). As for the writing and reading part - I do believe that in our culture one needs to read (not at 5!!!) but I do think that this ability is so vital in our society (yes,yes, white, Western blah blah...etc) that my children will want to read (just not at 5!)... No rush - in the end you can not tell who started reading at four and who at ten.... by the way - those that start early often are pushed and lose the love of reading, the love of experiencing the world of the narration....

Oh, I could go on and on about this....

Why am I so angry?! I knew that I was sending my kids to a totally different environment...what's my problem? - I am tired!!! Tired of being so unsure of my thoughts and my beliefs and always wanting to try out the "regular", "normal" life... Well, Julie, you got it!

Michelle is Five

Create a scrapbook design

I am deciding to come back!!!!!

Yes, I have decided this a couple of times ago but I'll try to stick to it this time.

Spontaneous trips

Spontaneous trips are the best for my family… I am not quite sure why: because we are not expecting anything and everything seems just perfect, or we are brave enough to risk loosing our day on nothing, or we are just happy to do something together and it seems that anything we do is just perfect… in any case, we learned (with time, mind you) not to plan…. Sit in a car and start going….

The day was rainy and we had nothing in mind (well, maybe to see some rain and flowers and clouds)…. We saw lots of clouds, we named some of them, the flowers were plentiful, but out of reach… we could only look at them while passing but they made a gorgeous background. In two hours we were playing with…snow!

Michelly's song

Michelly started to sing songs that she makes up when she sings. I am always trying to catch it on camera, but am always too late... I wrote one down:

Eshel, you are my baby
So crawl with me
To the island of the room,
Sing with me this song!

One of the funniest days are the ones when we dress up... we dance and play and laugh

Walking around the house in my old high hill shoes:
“I am such a magnificent lady!”

parenting

I know a few types of parents:

- parents that are not very interested in their children's lives... no, not bad parents, just too absorbed in their own lives, too forgetful .... they believe that if something is done on the national/world level it must be right and who are they, anyway, to decide?!

- parents who are very much concerned about their children's future ... they want the best of all world for their children (in  the future) and they know how to grab their dream ... never mind the fact that the children are seldom interested, that the future is ...just the future, that most of the dreams are their dreams... dreamt in their childhood and never realized.... these parents push and push .... and sometimes in the end they need to pull (and pull hard... and then, there is no more talk about dreams...)

- parents who let their children be... not out of any thought or belief... it's just much easier this way. I heard that a lot of these children grow up to be very angry at their parents.. I wonder if these parents just never believe in them ... never let them strife for anything... I wonder...

- there are parents that are ... different... I can't put them all together in one paragraph, but when I meet them - I know..... I want to learn from them... their children grow up to be happy, loving, interested ... their eyes shine and their smiles make you warm.... I want to know how that is possible...

Trip to the Check Post

Boaz is one of the best teachers I know.. he makes all the kids feel important, helpful and happy. Everytime I see him with the kids I think that if I'd have a school, he would definitely work in it! We are so lucky we met him in the zoo...without him, the trips to the zoo wouldn't be so nice and kids wouldn't see third of what we see there...
This time Boaz took us to a new place - two big puddles where most of Israel's amphibians dwell...

Shomrey Ha Gan

This year Michelle is going to shomrey hagan (garden keepers). They walk in the woods, look at different insects, footprints and play a lot. In the end there is always a fire, food and songs. Dalia is the "teacher" and all the kids love her!
While Michelle is with Dalia, Eshel and I go on our own hike...

 Eshel is ready to go...

 I love flowers, this year there was not enough rain and so the flowers are very rare... I hope soon we'll see all those colors.

 Ants - Eshel can spend LOTS of time looking at ants

 Wild boars were here at night... After the fire on Carmel the boars are concentrated in green areas and there is almost no food for them....

 Sheep were here too

I am 29

It was my b-day ... a long time ago and now I want to write about it.
Remember how when you're a kid, your birthday is a very special day... I mean, you wait for this day the whole year and then it comes... so bright, happy,glorious.
It is still a happy day, just not so special anymore. We went to Rosh HaNikra and this is what we saw...

Grottos with beautifully blue sea ... so calm and yet so powerful. 

And yet again I have lost the perspective and stopped writing. So why write the blog?
It gives me an opportunity to see how I develop and to reflect on some of the things I do. It gives me memories that I cherish ... when I write I also remember. We read the blog with the kids and it's like reliving the moments anew....
But when it comes to writing... I always find more important thing to do at night when the kids go to sleep... like read, study, clean ..etc. I'll try to write for maybe 1/2 an hour and then do the rest... (it's not that I get enough sleep anyway if I don't write!)