A World without walls
everyday life while homeschooling overseas
Continuing with our preschool journey through phonics for Peter, we did the letter 'O' this week. I couldn't think of a whole lot of treats with the letter 'O' (we're out of oatmeal, so no oatmeal cookies or anything). So, we walked on up to the local donut place in the circle by our house and got donuts, because they LOOK like 'O's!! Then, to wash it all down and keep with the letter, we got Orange Juice. Doesn't he look happy? This post was brought to you by the Jordanian Donuts Factory and the H Mart in the Abdoun Circle. Oh, and the letter 'O'.
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Well, here we go! Our first confined water dive in our scuba certification class! And I thought it was appropriate to put in this picture that shows that, yes, Josh is officially taller than me. Crazy, eh? Isn't he only 11? Yes. Yes, he is. Our first dive was pretty amazing! I have to admit that I was super nervous before we started. I did study, and I have all the logistics in my head, but it's never cemented in until you do it! :) But it was like second nature--and the COOLEST THING EVER to just swim around the bottom of a 3 meter deep pool and pretend I was a barracuda while singing that song from Bedknobs and Broomsticks..."It's lovely bobbing along; bobbing along on the bottom of the beautiful briny sea!" Ha! One of the interesting things that I've realized about scuba is that I can't chat with people while I'm looking at this super cool stuff in the water--so I'll be talking to myself. Huh. This will be interesting! Easter Weekend gave us an opportunity to have some time away from work and school (doesn't happen often for us!), so we took advantage and decided to go camping! We went down to Dana Nature Reserve, which is just south of the Dead Sea. It was so amazing! We reserved a couple of tents ahead of time at their campground, we packed a backpack each, and then drove down--about 3 hours--to the reserve (and I can tell you--I don't know how ANYONE gets around this country without a GPS!!! I don't think we ever would have found the place! Good grief it was crazy!). We listened to Ben Hur the whole way down and it was so interesting! It's been a long time since I've seen that show, and the radio drama we listened to was excellent and brought so much of the story to light! When we got to the camp, we parked our car at the 'Tower', and we had to take a shuttle down to the campground area. They don't let you drive down to the campsite, nor can you bring your own tent. They have just over 20 big white canvas tents set up, so it's first come, first served. We arrived, we dropped our stuff off in our tents, and went over to the big main tent for our dinner. Luckily, we had some leftovers and some veggies for me to eat, because we decided that this would be a good time to try out our MREs and use our 72 hours kits (they're a little old...it was time...) The kids ate spaghetti and meatballs, potato/cheese/bacon soup, and beef stew. They had cookies and pound cake for dessert and drank 400 gallons of fruit punch and milkshakes (yes, I typed 400). It was pretty funny to see everyone eating out of pouches. The camp was totally full, but all the people were very friendly and we had a lovely time chatting with all sorts of people from all over the world! We talked with some students visiting from the US (they were living in Israel, but came over for a visit), people from Belgium, French, Switzerland, London, Lebanon... Everyone was so friendly and really seemed to be enjoying a respite from 'civilization'. There was no electricity nor lights nearby, so one of the main reasons we went down there, aside from the need to get out of the city and have a nice weekend, was to see the stars! We were in the chapter on stars, galaxies and constellations in our astronomy studies, so this gave us a great opportunity to show the kids what the stars REALLY look like! They were dully impressed. :) When I noticed the stars were starting to come out, we all ran over and found a 'star watching rock' (yes, we've been reading the Wrinkle in Time series), and we all laid down and watched the stars come out! Amazing! We lay up there and sang Primary songs and talked about how amazing the universe is and how grateful we are to God for the world we live in and the beauties that surround us. :) The kids went to bed around 9:30. Who am I kidding? I think I fell asleep first! Ha! The boys all slept in one tent, and Claire and I shared another. Claire told me stories until I fell asleep! Isn't that funny? I must be getting old. I woke up around midnight to some SERIOUS snoring. I thought, "Wow. I had no idea that Claire snores!" But, no, it was someone in the tent next door! Ha! I went outside to find the loo, and was so astounded by the QUIET and the beauty of the night. It was so peaceful and lovely. The next morning, the boys all woke up at 4am. Love camping. I tried to ignore them (they woke up Claire who came over to see if I was awake and I pretended I wasn't), so they all left and went exploring and had the time of their lives! Devin and I finally got up at 6, and the free breakfast wasn't available until 8:30. Doh! So, off we went on all sorts of hikes and explorations! We had a GREAT time--especially because it was SOOOOO windy, so it wasn't too hot. The view was astounding, and we really enjoyed hiking about and running around the open land. (one of the pictures wouldn't let me caption it--it's the one of our little camp as seen from our 'star watching rock'--a very cozy picture!) After breakfast, we went on one more hike. We went on the cave hike! It was a bit far--especially considering that we had been up and hiking for hours already--but it was fun. We found some cool caves to explore, Claire fell a few times, we got lots of 'stickers' in our socks and shoes, and Peter ate cookies. Random, I know. We walked back to the camp, gathered up our backpacks. and headed over to the shuttle to take us back to our car. Such a fun ride! Ha! On our way home, we stopped off at IKEA since we hadn't been there yet. We ate dinner there. Unfortunately, it made Josh SERIOUSLY sick, so that wasn't so nice. Oh well. We made it home and it was good to be home. I suppose. It was probably one of the most relaxing camping trips I've ever had. I would go back in a heartbeat! For our Peter Preschool time, we've been doing a letter of the week. We spend a little time each day doing things that start with that letter. This week, our letter was 'N'. We made 'nests' (coconut macaroons). I put Robin Eggs in a jar and had the kids guess how many were in the jar (hooray for math...), then we divvied them out and the kids put them into their little nests! Ta-da! Best preschool ever! :) Then, of course, I taught them the finer points of Robin Eggs: This message brought to you by Easter and the letter 'N'.
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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
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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...
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