A World without walls
everyday life while homeschooling overseas
A plant experiment we're doing Another lovely day…although, today did start off a little ‘off’. It was very cloudy and VERY windy this morning. The wind stayed all day, but the clouds went away by mid-morning. We had a lovely morning learning about the Persians, then we headed off to the Israel Museum. This museum is leaps and bounds better than the Bible Lands museum! First off, it’s HUGE!! They had a special exhibit on King Herod’s Herodium that was super cool and had ALL the kids (including Peter!!!!) entranced!!! It was pretty awesome! Then we spent another hour wandering around the archaeology wing of the museum and looking at all the cool stuff on display there. Peter just liked wandering around and going up and down the stairs…and looking for skeletons! We went to the ‘youth wing’, but the regular exhibit had ended yesterday! The kids were really disappointed. Then, the guard guy said if we stuck around for another 20 minutes or so, they were going to open up a new exhibit. Well, we saw some little art computers off to the side and worked on those for awhile, then about 5 minutes before the exhibit was supposed to open, about 10 LARGE school groups of teenagers showed up at the building. No way was I going to try to maneuver us through that mess! So, we left and went to the Dead Sea Scrolls building, which was also super cool! We walked through a cave/tunnel to get to where they store the scrolls. That was really neat. Josh kept saying how cool it was to see the ACTUAL Dead Sea Scrolls, and I agreed! Peter just liked walking up and down the stone steps and walking around in circles. J Then we walked around the sculpture gardens a bit. That’s always hard to do, since the sculptures are rather strange and meaningless to kids (and, let’s face it, most adults) unless they can climb on it, and these all said, “Do Not Touch”. So, that was a short walk. Besides, it was super windy. We spent 3 hours there with hardly a complaint. That makes it a winner in my book! One of the hard things about these really nice museums is that they don’t allow cameras. I suppose that’s ok, since I had forgotten it today, anyway, but it’s still sad that I couldn’t get pictures of the kids marveling at the different exhibits. I just love watching them learn! They’re just soaking things up! We were reading this morning about the Persians. There are some great stories! We read about King Cyrus conquering Babylon and Croesus (both really hilarious stories—if you don’t know them, you should look them up) and Claire pipes up and says, “For some reason, I just really like history!” Me, too, Claire…me, too. Another fun thing about having the kids here, they help me do all the housework! It’s SO much easier to give everyone a toilet to clean and a sink to wash—in 15 minutes the bathrooms are livable again and I was able to do the dishes at the same time. Gotta love the benefits. Of course, after they help me, they're always rewarded...so we went to the park by our house and played!
0 Comments
In front of the Bible Lands Museum Today, we enjoyed some hands-on learning about the difference between fruits and veggies. It was fun to talk about what a fruit is and what a veggie is. We made up a little chart and dissected our fruits and veggies to decide whether they really were fruits/veggies! Andrew was so surprised to learn that cucumbers, tomatoes, pumpkins and squash are all fruits! And that carrots and potatoes are really roots! Good times. It made for a nice snack, too. After our fruits and veggies, we read some books and some history (finished up the Assyrians today) and decided to go to The Bible Lands Museum. It was definitely interesting! We roamed around and saw a lot of the history of this place, and it was SO FUN to see the kids be so excited to see ancient names that they recognized (Canaanites, Babylonians, Mesopotamians, Phoenicians, Egyptians). We got free audio tour thingys (looked like walkie talkies) and the kids really loved punching in the numbers and hearing the person tell all about what they were seeing. My favorite was seeing a model palace for a king of Assyria that we had read about just this morning! And seeing a Papyrus painting of Cleopatra, along with mosaics, mummies, engravings, coins, sarcophagi, and scale models of palaces and cities (Jerusalem, Babylon, Giza). The kids really enjoyed themselves for a good hour. That’s pretty good for a museum! And I was so proud of the way they were so interested in everything and behaved themselves very well. (They acted much better than the school-group kids that kept passing through.) After our sojourn to the Bible Lands, we came home, ate lunch, and watched a Plant documentary (David Attenborough can’t be beat for his super awesome documentaries!), and went off to play at a park. So nice. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. So, the kids played for a bit: they climbed a fence and used some modern art as a 'slide'... Then we all played tag and enjoyed the lovely weather. The sky is just so blue, and there’s a cool breeze… you just can’t beat it! We’ve gotten into the habit of eating out on our big balcony. So nice. Honestly—there’s just nothing better than eating dinner while you look over a view of the city! Checking out the parts of the flower April 2, 2013 Today, we had our ‘kick-off’ for our Plant Unit. We opened a bunch of plant experiment boxes. They include everything you need: seeds, containers, greenhouses, etc…but NO DIRT! I guess it’s sort of hard to include dirt in an experiment, but still. They could have said that on the box. So, we’re going to be on the lookout for dirt. We talked about the parts of the plant and parts of the flower. Then, I gave the kids their backpacks with their nature journals and magnifying glasses, and we went off to find the Botanical Gardens! It took a little while to find it, since the main entrance where the gps told me to go was closed. There was this cute little parking attendant man nearby who spoke not a single word of English, and shrugged a lot both the times we came by to ask. Ha! Luckily, as we were sitting and wondering where to go next, some people walked by our car, and Claire poked her head out and asked them if they spoke English and knew how to get to the Botanical Gardens. They did and they did. So, we found the place: We had to go to a gas station, drive through it, around the back, over a dirt road, down a big hill, into a big deserted parking lot—and Voila! There is was! So, we got to enjoy the Botanical Gardens! It was a really nice place. We walked through the Europe section and enjoyed the lake. We walked through the South Africa section and looked at the mud hut and went through the grass maze. We started walking through the North America section, then saw that the park ‘train’ was running, so we went to grab a ride. The ‘train’ was a fun little ‘trackless’ car thing trussed up as a train that took you all over the park. So, we saw the Australian, Mediterranean and SW Asia sections from the comfort of the train. Then, after our fun little train ride, we sat down to relax and write in the nature journals. The kids found a sprinkler and ran through it until they were soaked (and the guy came and turned off the sprinklers…doh!), then we left. We went home, ate some food, then left again so we could go play at a park. We really had no idea what time Devin would be getting home, so it’s important to take as much time outside as possible! I know I was borderline psychotic for bringing my crockpot through that border crossing, but I can tell you that we have used it the whole 2 days we’ve been here, and it’s going to be our lifesaver! Devin and I realized that we’re getting pretty low on food, so we took a date night opportunity and went to a local store to find some food. So fun! I really love going to local places, vs going to places that are in a foreign country that caters to expats. The food and the prices are always SO much better at the local places, and you learn lots of things about the people. We had a good time and got lots of super yummy food (like artichokes and melons and even, get this: PECANS!) and enjoyed a little time together. That’s my favorite part about being with Devin during his TDY here: I’m not going it alone. Yes, it’s difficult to transfer our daily activities and life to a new place for a short term stay, but it’s worth it for the experience and for time together… So here’s to togetherness!
Some Israeli Shequels for you to see I think it’s funny that our first day here is April Fool’s day. I actually forgot about it until dinner when the kids asked what day it was and we realized it was the first. Then they did silly jokes (“What’s that on your shoulder?” “There’s a monkey in that tree over there!”) over dinner. We ate some lovely lentil soup that I had put in the crockpot. We ate it out on our big balcony that overlooks the city. Absolutely lovely. So. It was quite nice to arrive on a holiday weekend, really. Yes, all the stores and shops are closed, but Devin managed to get out last night before sunset (on the advice of our upstairs neighbor) and grab some food that should last us until we can do some real grocery shopping. The streets are so quiet and everyone is dressed in their Sunday best! (It’s the last day of Passover, in case you were wondering about the holiday.) I was happy to have Devin home all day again. He was gone so much this past month, and he never had any weekends, so it’s been a nice break for all of us! Today we spent the morning lazing about and playing. By 10am we left to go back to the border crossing to see if we could find our lost items/bags. It’s lucky it’s only about ½ hour away! We got there, and Devin went in to find our things. He found most of our loose stuff (pots and plates and some of Claire’s stuff…that kid!! She brought EVERY little tiny purse that she owns! What do I do about that?!?!?), but there was no sign of Josh’s carryon bag. The kid is devastated. With good reason, too. In that bag was all of his favorite books (Choose Your Own Adventure, Bunnicula series, Flat Stanley series, Time Warp Trio…), his reading light that he got for his birthday, ALL of our toothpaste and toothbrushes (so sweet that he gathered those together for everyone), his camera (ouch), his scriptures and hymnbook (ouch), his pinewood derby car AND his trophy that he won from the Pinewood Derby on Friday (ouch, again), his lapel pin collection, our UNO Attack game and Phase 10… Anyway, listing it doesn’t make it feel any better. Poor kid. The WORST part is, though, that when we were getting the bags, that was the only one I picked up, and unzipped just to check and make sure it was ours. I KNOW we had it with our stuff. The only thing I can think of is that it didn’t get put onto our cart. So, either we left it curbside and someone took it, or someone saw it and thought it was theirs and took it, or…well, I Have no idea. So, so sad. We don’t get ‘reimbursed’ for lost items when going through the border crossing. *sigh* After our long search, we went to a big park here called Sacher (or Saker, as the GPS likes to call it) Park. So amazing! Jerusalem wins with the coolest parks! It is a huge park with LOTS of green space. The children’s area (slides, etc) was SO awesome! The slides are super tall and the kids just loved climbing on them! Even Devin joined in on the teeter totter! (I did, too, and I had Josh and Andrew on the other side of me, and they kept me up in the air! Silly boys!) We found an exercise park area, too, and all the kids joined in on the rowers and presses and stuff. They had such a ball! Then Peter went on the Merry-Go-Round too many times and threw up, so we had to call it a night. Ha! We came home, the kids ate ice cream, then bath time, dinner time, movie time, bed time… Today was my idea of a day off.
And tomorrow, we start not only a new unit, but a whole new experience exploring the Holy Land! :) |
Who Am I?
As a Stay At Home Mom of 4 wonderful children, I have the amazing opportunity not only to home school them, but to do so in many different places! I am married to the most amazingly wonderful (and handsome) man in the whole world! Together, we seek out, every day, that Joy in the Journey that makes life exciting! Archives
November 2020
Categories
All
My Favorites
Emily's books
by Dan Brown
I like that the plot twists and turns a lot...and it makes you think. However, I don't appreciate Dan Brown's endings in his books. I find the endings incongruent with the rest of his stories--why make it a romance for the last chapter...
by Shannon Hale
I loved this book. I'm a sucker for fairy tales/fantasy. This was so well written! I can't wait to read all the rest of her books!
by Shannon Hale
I'm reading this one again. I liked it the first time I read it. I'm still liking it for the second time around. I like all of Shannon Hales' books.
**Still lots of fun the second time around! I do like this book for a comfortable...
|