The World is our Campus and this is our Classroom

Whew!!  What a ride, our first year in Bahrain is wrapping up next week and barring a nervous breakdown we'll have completed ALL our lessons, whoop whoop!!  Almost once a week I get asked what we do all day (with an expression that says, "you must be out of your mind").    Here it is a very compacted nutshell...they get up around 7 am and do their school work first (math, reading lessons, spelling) while I work out:)! We meet in the classroom after they have breakfast and take care of their responsibilities around 9:30 am.  We do prayer, pledge, and whatever 'power' we are on for the month.  Each month we choose a Power which I have songs and books that teach about such characteristics as Integrity, Positive Attitude, Creativity, etc, and it has a 'hero' for each one. For example Benjamin Franklin represented the Power of Industry, we also choose a scripture hero/prophet to study; they rock it in Sunday School these days;)!   Then we move onto scripture study.  We stopped studying the Old Testament at Christmas time to study the life of Christ from Christmas to Easter and started back up again last month in hopes of completing the OT by the time we leave for Israel in 12 days!!  Then we do social studies, history, break for recess (lately the pool;) and lunch. We meet up again to do language arts aka writing which we've used a program that teaches writing skills using the classics (my favorite thing this year)! Anyway, science is usually an event since it is hard to fit it in and art is hard to squeeze in too but it somehow gets done with a whole lot of playing in between.  As soon as we let out for the day I only see them in flashes of changing to go swimming with friends, video games with friends, tag with friends or grabbing a snack (with friends;).  It has been a great year.  My oldest will head back to school next year with a renewed love of learning (and better writing skills) while the younger two will continue on with homeschool and the youngest starts Joy School with a great group of friends.  We of course, will all continue traveling the world together. 
I attended college at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where they had a motto of "The World is our Campus." We've adopted that as our school motto as well and  I plan to share the world with you in future postings but for right now we hope you'll settle for seeing our classroom....

Our 3 year old's corner
where she spends most of her
time "reading" her books.

World of Wonder School (WOW School)
"The World is so full of a Number of things I'm sure we should all be as Happy as Kings." R. L. Stevenson

The huge windows serve
as great "chalkboards".

My table.

A touch of whimsy.

My "catch all" place which gives
the illusion that I'm organized.

Remembe this place, one day it'll
be in the Smithsonian.  Okay,
maybe not but great things
are happening here!

Food for Thought

      I'm sitting here writing you from my comfy chair here in Bahrain but more important than where I'm sitting is what I'm sitting in, my favorite jeans that four months ago I couldn't pull up past my thighs!  When I moved to Bahrain I couldn't wait to start eating at all the restaurants I'd loved and missed from when we lived here before so I spent the first few months eating my way through Bahrain.  I actually did notice I was gaining weight but it didn't really bother me all that much.  That is until I became really sick in mid February.  Oh boy, I hadn't been that sick EVER!  Which was a problem since I couldn't afford to take sick leave.  I was it for my children, teacher and mother.  My husband, seeing my plight, took a couple days to help teach and take care of the students:)  but I had to get better.  Each one of our kids started to get sick as well and two of our children were down with it in a bad way.  I wasn't much good to either of them in my state and felt terrible to see them so sick.  I ended up conducting a few classes from bed that month and it was on one of those dark days I decided health isn't about weight it is about being able to do life the way it was meant to be done; with my whole heart and mind and I can't unless I'm healthy and help it along.

     I knew I had a book in one of my many unpacked book boxes that I had bought eight years prior when I had first wanted to start our family on a healthy path.  I dug it up and got to reading.  The book "30 Days to a Healthier Family" by Peggy Hughes lays out a plan that is wonderful for getting the entire family on board to a healthier lifestyle.   My first stop was to the copy store down the street where I had them (from the book) copy and laminate a food pyramid to place on the fridge door along with some little cards that had snack suggestions to put along side of the pyramid.  Then with her brilliant program she has the family have a weekly meeting in which we have an activity, talk about our progress, learn a new healthy habit lesson, and set goals for the upcoming week.  I copied off all the worksheets for each of the family members to participate with for the entire 30 days because I know myself well enough now that if I don't plan all at once something will come up and throw that the whole thing off and I had to be committed.

     Here is how it went:  I woke up early on the first day and popped in a workout video and started exercising as everyone gradually made their way out of bed and each and everyone of the family members came and sat on the couch behind me and asked what I was doing.  I realized that I had never really exercised in front of them and it was a new phenomenon.  I would work out at the gym before but they were in the gym's day care and didn't actually see me exercise.  They stayed there watching for almost the entire 40 minutes.  In the evening we had our family meeting and I introduced our new program with a game, always a crowd pleaser.  I taped on the floor each of the food groups and chose a different family member for each food group.  They each had 2 minutes to run to the kitchen (right next to our family room) and grab as many items as possible to put in 'their' food group.  The child with the most items in their food group won the prize.  They had so much fun but I was surprised that as much as they had studied the food groups at school and talking about it at home in the past that I was having to tell them what other foods they could put in their group when I assumed they knew already.  It was such a great activity to get them excited about eating healthier and KNOWING what foods to choose from!  Afterwards we had them test their flexibility by measuring how far they could stretch, how many push ups they could do, and so on.  We let them know that we would be testing them again at the end of our family challenge to see if they improved.  It was important to not put all the focus on either eating or exercising but understand the two go hand in hand. 

     I kept a food calendar (from the book) in the pantry and had the kids fill it in as we went along.  It wasn't the most successful part of the program since it is hard to keep track but after a while we just started a pattern to keep it easy instead of having to write everything we eat down.  For example, Thursday is always wheat pancakes with applesauce and Tuesday is always our chicken and veggies night.  The family program also has you  introduce a new food each week and gives fun recipes to help you along the way.  As I exercised six days a week the kids started their own workout schedules without any coaxing from me or my husband; it was awesome!  The meetings were all layed out so I just followed along and passed out the worksheets as it was called for.  The worksheets vary from simple, "Circle the foods that grow on a vine", to, "On a scale of 1 to 10 questions".  The work on educating was pretty much done for us we just needed to implement which honestly is more than half the battle when changing your lifestyle. 

     10 weeks later we can say, "We are getting there!"  Today the whole family was swimming in the pool having a great time and I was contrasting it to where we were back in February and I can't help but think this is the way life was meant to be done.

With Love,

Nonnie

Be My Valentine!

Okay, enough about me let's talk about you! What is your favorite holiday? I'm going to take a wild guess and say if you're a mom you love St. Valentine's Day since it really is 'The Guiltless Holiday'. You just give love, lots of it, and you get to eat loads of heart shaped candy without filling any stockings, buying a lists of gifts, or mailing out Christmas cards (unless you are of the brilliant bunch who don't send Christmas cards and opt for the less hectic season of Valentine cards instead). I remember not being particularily fond of this day pre married life. I never had a boyfriend or even a date on this holiday, and I even remember watching "Pillow Talk", a Rock Hudson and Doris Day movie with my mom and dad one Valentine's evening while in high school and when it was over my parents kindly dismissed me to my room...I know pathetic.

However, I've taken the reins on this holiday and made it one of my very favorites, here is how. First, I let the kids decorate. I am pretty uptight about decorating and like to make everything as close to a photoshoot for Real Simple magazine as I possibly can but on this holiday I let the little cupids around here take the Valentine's box of decorations and run with it. This year's highlite, they filled up a vase with red hot candies and dumped half a container of red glitter around it and called it a 'center piece'. Second, Benny the Love Bug comes to visit the month of Feburary. He is a stuffed Valentine's Bug who is soft and cuddly. Like all critters he needs nourishment but this guy doesn't feed on food he feeds on Love. If you find Benny on your bed you've just been hit by the Love Bug and that means someone has secretly done a kind act for you and you must now be in charge of feeding Benny by doing a kind act for someone else. Unlike our fish, Sharky, Benny can be fed more than once a day;)! Third, everyone in the house knows that although we do alot of fun things as a family this day is really about mom and dad;). Yes, I jumped on the band wagon a few years ago and started doing the 14 Days of Valentine's for my Sweetheart. It has exploded on every blog and website so if you're looking for fun ideas and print outs you're in luck! I found mine on Pinterest. What makes it unique however is making it fun and personal!! The children love asking what day I'm on or what gift(s) I'm giving that day. And finally, the morning of Valentine's Day we lay out hearts (we use the same ones each year) leading the little Kings on a path that ends in our bedroom. We have a little treat for them from Brian and I. We enjoy a nice breakfast of heart shaped Peppermint Scones, red hot candy cider, and berries. Ahhh, and that my friends is why I LOVE Valentine's Day.

If you'd like the recipe for Peppermint Scones, or the cider, or even want to offer me some fun ideas of your own please don't hesitate to let me know!! Happy Lovin'!

With Love,

Nonnie

I have two maids on Saturdays

At the risk of having you read this post in your "Don't Hate me Because I'm Beautiful" Panteen commercial voice let me explain. I live in the Middle East, Bahrain to be exact, and it is a common practice to have a full-time or part-time maid. Our maid, *The Miracle Worker, charges 1/10 of what one charges in the US, if she lived with us and worked full-time it is more likely she would charge even less. She only cleans our house because she is part time but most housemaids take care of the children as well. We lived here before and LOVED our housemaid, *Sri Lankan Sunshine, as if she were our own family but we can only have her come one day on the weekends to stay in our maid quarters because she is currently working for a French family who, and I don't blame them one bit, do not want to part with her. So there you have it. Why then would I share this with you, as you reach for your toilet scrubber to hit me through the computer? Well, it is my introduction to those of you who would like an insider's view into the life of an expat. You should know that I grew up mainly in the same house and in the same town and didn't awaken the gypsy that lives inside of me until I was off to college and knew I wanted to not just travel the world I wanted to live, eat, and breathe it.

There are always give and takes, pros and cons, in every choice one makes and choosing to live in a foreign country is one of those major choices. I gave up living close to my family and friends, missing special occasions and holidays with them, shopping at Target, WalMart, and Costco, less them 120 degree weather in September and October, and going to a waterpark in a bathing suit because I feel practically naked wearing anything less then a body suit here. However, I'm enjoying the MANY different cultures and people from all over the world who live and work here. I love the food, the sites, the unexpected adventures that turn up in the most unlikely places. Yes, I love having the extra perks as well that have made life easier but it wouldn't be worth it without all of these things that make living in a foreign country one of my best choices so far!

Last week a man behind me in the grocery store told me his wife and children were flying in at the end of the month to join him in Bahrain and he asked how I liked it. I went on and on about how much I loved living in Bahrain and then I stopped suddenly in the midst of my list of great things about Bahrain and said, "Oh, but I should tell you that I've felt this way about every place I've ever lived." In a nutshell, I believe you don't have to live in a foreign country to have an adventure, learn, or have great experiences. Find out what makes your hometown great and fun and interesting and go out and Live, Eat, and Breathe it in!!

With Love,

Nonnie


*names have been changed because I like to change people's names:)

How on God's green earth did I become a homeschool mom?

If you stood me in a line-up of moms you would be hard pressed to pick me out as the one who homeschools. Exhibit A: My Report Card. Not exactly stellar. I never once brought home a report card in my adolescent years that made me think, "Wow, I can't keep all this brain power to myself I must past it on to the next generation." Exhibit B: I'm Vain. I'm not one to throw on a baseball cap, no make-up, hair undone, ready for any adventure that happened my way, which was my previous perception of a homeschool mom. Every day before I start teaching I get ready. I mean really ready, pencil skirt and pearls ready. Don't get me wrong I do have casual days as well, but not many. Exhibit C: I own a book entitled "How to Live with Kids and Enjoy It", and I've read it. Twice. Finally, one you might not think pertinent to making the case against me but trust me when homeschooling I've learned it is a biggy. Exhibit E: I am not laid back, at all. So much so that I'm not comfortable in a Lazy Boy chair :).
Yet somehow here I am. The greatest part about homeschooling my children is that I get to work out the very things that I thought didn't qualify me to do so. I'm learning a great deal, not only through the lesson books but through the life lessons that I'm racking up. It is like parenting on steroids. I'm learning that it is okay to let your hair down every once in a while and "unstring the bow". Sometimes I feel like Bear Grylls and am using survival tactics as I go along but I'm doing it and they are too, after all it can't be easy on them to be taught by the most unlikely of homeschooling moms.

365 Days of Nature and Discovery: Learning About Our World One Lunch Discussion at a Time

I love sitting down and having lunch with my children. We always have great discussions about making healthy eating choices as well as all the fun things we have planned for the day or week. This year I made a goal to try to read one page during lunch from the book 365 Days of Nature and Discovery: Things to Do and Learn for the Whole Family by Jane Reynolds, Phil Gates, and Gaden Robinson. My youngest sister gave this book to the boys a few years back and it's been sitting unopened on the shelf until now--what a waste! This little hardcover book has been a wonderful addition to our lunchtime discussions.

Amazon describes the book as follows:

This is a book to be shared between parent and child; it is an encyclopedia, a calendar, an activity book, a Pandora's box of nature, and provides the key to knowing more about the countryside and environment around oneself. Through the colour illustrations and the informative text, the reader can discover why flamingos are pink, how owls see in the dark, where rain comes from and why

porcupines have prickly spines. The book is systematically cross-referenced, and has over 2000 illustrations.

The book is small, but is huge on information. I love that I am reading nonfiction to my children each day.  And I really love that they always ask if I can just read one more page--even though they know we only read one. If one of my children finish their lunch earlier than the others they often draw about what we have just read as we continue our discussion. Even I have learned a number of things.

Did you know that most sharks are ovoviviparous? I didn't! (You can go HERE to find out what it means) My 6-year-old found it fascinating that I had never heard nor read that word before. It opened up a whole new discussion on how we are always learning--even at the super-duper old age of 36.

You can order used copies of this book for as low as $5 on Amazon--and that includes shipping! In my opinion, that's $5 well spent. Make a goal, pull out a nonfiction book, and open up your table to wonderful discussions about the world around you.

Finding Your Parenting Power

I read an article not too long ago entitled 'Finding your Parenting Power' and it got me thinking. I really believe every mom and dad has been blessed with powers that are unique to raising the child(ren) that come into their home. I'm always impressed by those individuals who seem to have discovered their power and are using it to the best of their ability to empower their child(ren) and those in their circle of influence. I've also noticed that in today's parenting arena there is a lot of 'power' comparing which ends up just distracting that parent from the mission at hand. There are so many blogs out in the blogosphere (my husband said this is an outdated word and will expose me for the novice I am;) right now and I must admit sometimes I turn off my computer thinking, yep, I stink at this mom stuff cuz there is no way I could ever do or accomplish what that mom is doing. When that happens everyone suffers and powers we do have go unused. It'd be like Superman not rescuing a train load of citizens headed for a cliff because he doesn't have spiderweb making abilities like Spiderman so what's the point! I find when I wallow in my weaknesses I hit my kryptonite moments and am no good to anyone, but when I am inspired well, make way!! I decided to accept my friend Brooke's invitation to "guest blog" since I believe her blog will reach out and inspire those who read it to find their parenting power and be a force for their families!

I'm still working on honing my Powers and thought what better place to do just that than the Middle East:). My husband and I moved our four little Kings and set up shop on the small island in the Persian Gulf, Bahrain. As if moving to the Middle East wasn't crazy enough, I decided to home school as well. My number one goal is to have a GREAT ADVENTURE, so if for no other reason than that stay tuned....