what is it with me and winter…..
April 9, 2009 
Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE winter. I adore the feeling of cold, crisp air on my skin. The sharp tingling on snow blowing into my face as I scurry into work. The way the fields look in their white blanket. The snowman in the garden.
I even like the short days, as it makes curling up in front of the fire so attractive. But somehow, so many things seem harder to do during the cold, dark months.
Somehow, blogging seems to have been one of these things. It is with some horror that I see that it has been months and months since I last blogged. I will blame the winter, because you feel you should blame something…
So much has happened in that time. ‘T’other’ has started to write sentences without complaining. ‘Which’ has started to ask what words mean rather than simply blundering on without having a clue. The husbeast has done such a good job of teaching them, they are now happy to explore the wonderful word of learning. All in all, life is good.
And we are going home – only for a visit, but home!!!! So much of our life here is wonderful, but some things seem to only work at home. I look forward to being back in a society when kids are expected to be kids, not quiet demure model citizens. In a group of people where my friends have messier houses than I do. In social circles where I don’t have to watch my tongue to ensure I remain internationally correct. And I will still keep up with my internet friends, cos they are there wherever you are.
life is good.
end of the holidays
This week was a formal holiday for the boys. They had been getting a bit tired and disinterested over the last few weeks, and it was half-term for the French kids, so it seemed like a good time to have one. We were waiting for some new books from Australia as well, so it seemed like a good plan. The books arrived yesterday, and were fell on with glee. Sudden demands for ’school today, please’ were made, and back up the stairs they went.
Next week, we have the inspector coming to see the boys and work out if we are doing the right thing. First time for us, so we will have to see how it goes.
I have spun the merino-silk I bought at Spycker last time, and should have enough to knit a little necklet from the Victorian Lace Today book. It was great fun to spin, and I would like to get some more soon. I think I would like to try some straight silk as well, and ply it with something else fine. It was a pleasant change from straight wool, and feel wondrously soft. I would love to buy some new yarn, but I am holding out until closer to Christmas. I will be back to the wool for the Harry Potter cloak this weekend (unless I get the dog hair to work on). Also trying to do Christmas presents, cos the time is getting closer. See how we go this weekend……
Sun on autumn leaves
This week has been a real move into autumn. We had a fire last weekend, and I wish we had lit one last night – I wasn’t wearing socks, and my feet were freezing as I sat on the couch, despite the afghan covering me. I cuddled DH’s empty tea cup for a while for the wonderful warm feeling, and eventually they warmed up. Unfortunately, they didn’t get warm enough to spur me off the couch and round to the spinning wheel. So I sat, and knitted, and finished the black wool I has spun up for the Harry Potter cloak - and now it is gone. I have to spin more tonight, then wash it and dry it before I can knit more. Why do I have the feeling that this will be a very long project…..
But today, the sun is out. The trees in the car park have mostly lost their leaves, but the leaves that remain are every shade of yellow and orange, from bright glowing gold shining in the sun, to crispy dark brown ready to blow away with the next strong wind. Walking from the car, I resist the urge to kick through piles of leaves, then laugh at myself and do it anyway. After all, at 7.30 in the morning, in the dark, who would see? And why would I care if they did, really - surely most people know I’m not a ‘real’ grown up, just a big kid making it up as I go along.
Still, autumn is in full swing, and winter is on its way. Already, I wear the windcheater with the snowmen on, in hope of inspiring the weather to get even colder. The boys need gloves and jackets when playing outside in the evening, and when daylight savings ends this weekend, playing outside after dinner may need to end as well. Soon we will need firewood, and a fire every day rather than occasionally as a treat. And the Harry Potter cloak will be essential winter warmth rather than a whimsical project started because I could. So tonight, I will leave my socks on, and sit and spin some more, so that I can keep on going and add to its inches.
home again, home again, jiggity jig
We survived! The whole team made it through a weeklong meeting without screaming at each other once. And every day I had the opportunity to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner, and had at least 4 hours sleep. This breaks all kinds of rules for meetings. My usual run is a good breakfast, a couple of biscuits for lunch, if I’m lucky a chocolate bar for dinner, and between 2 and 3 hours sleep. The only meals I missed this time were because I was puking. The only bad thing about the week was the gastro-lurgi that went through the whole team. Unpleasant, but probably part of Africa.
The really, really good bit, though, was the Saturday after the meeting. My flight was in the middle of the night, so for once I took the opportunity to go and see some interesting things. I can now chalk up the experiences of hand-feeding giraffes, petting baby elephants, and being pushed out of the way by an enthusiastic, playful elephant intent on grabbing something behind me. The elephant orphanage was amazing – the care they have to take with these babies is amazing. And the concept of bottle feeding human-based baby formula but at about 6 litres per feed is really scary. We used to be horrified about how much we spent on formula for our monsters – these babies go through 18 litres of formula a day!!!!! Twenty four hour individual care as well for the babies, it is a huge commitment.
I’m back home with the family now, which is great. Still more work to do, but it feels a little less frenetic than the lead up to the meeting – having deadlines measures in days feels much better than deadlines measured in minutes.
off again
After almost a year of planning, many sleepless nights, hundreds of pages of documents and not a few arguments, we are almost ready for our meeting. I have less than two days before I am on the plane to Nairobi, and after that it is in the hands, not of the gods, but of the governments (and I think that is far more scary). Hours and hours of ‘what-ifs’ will have their answers over the next ten days or so, and we will see what comes.
Still, every cloud has a silver lining. Mine, for this effort, is that it gave me a cast-iron excuse to avoid my university reunion. If I was still in Australia, I would have to go, no excuses. Even from France, I would probably feel some obligation to go, were it not less than 5 days after I get back from a trip to Africa. But now, it is easy to avoid.
Why do I want to avoid this so much? Is it because I have changed so much since University, or because I fear they have changed so little? The fact that one of the main features of the place they have chosen to stay is that you can play golf there gives me just a hint of what these people may be like now – which isn’t quite where we are…..I guess it is also a worry that the people whose company I did enjoy may have changed in ways that I don’t like. Will the mad D&D playing, wine drinking young women be staid, serious and career oriented? How will their lives have turned out – I heard that one of them ran away and joined the circus which is, well, cool. Are they all more cool than I am (not that they ever weren’t). Anyway, now I can sit back in my French haven, and catch up on people in safety and isolation by reading their bios. And maybe, I’ll write the odd email to rebuild some bridges.
twenty years is a long time, and the last time I saw any of them has to be more than ten years ago (and she didn’t know where anyone was). It is a big bridge to build!
I have always turned around and cut the strings behind me as I left a place, and, for now, I don’t feel like reknotting these particular ones. So I’ll rejoice in the frenzy of the next ten days, and then in the peace of the return, and avoid the stress of renewing connections for now.
almost legal!
For anyone who has dealt with French bureaucracy, the feeling of being ‘almost legal’ should be a familiar one. Today, we received an ‘attestation’ from the inspector of education to certify that our children are registered for home schooling. It came with a wonderful, friendly welcome letter (sarcasm filter fully on), that we must inform the Mairie (town hall) and M. le Maire (the mayor) about our decision (penalty for non-compliance – fine of about €1500). We can expect the mayor to enquiry into our motives for homeschooling, the children’s health and the ’state of our family’. We should also expect that the inspector will verify the instruction the children will receive at some point in the next year. If it isn’t good enough, we get one chance to do it better or the boys must go to school – penalty for non-compliance 6 months jail and a bigger fine. If we don’t give them any instruction at all, it is 2 years jail and a HUGE fine. No wonder the French are timid about homeschooling!!!
Fortunately nothing about this is a surprise to us – we have agonised about when to register, how to verify instruction, how to track progress and what we will do if we can’t jump through the hoops well enough for about the last 6 months. Still, I can see how someone coming from a more relaxed climate would be totally intimidated. And the thought of doing it all in French has me in a bit of a spin…….I’m not sure whether to encourage the boys to be on their best behaviour and show just how well they can do everything – or to be absolute off-the-wall, worst after-school behaviour ever, just to convince them how much they don’t want them in their school system. And after all, what will happen will happen, we will survive and, if necessary, move to plan B, or plan C, or plan D.
And whatever happens, we can see the improvement already – in attitude, in concentration and in performance – so we have the internal knowledge that yes, this is the right thing for us at this time. And at a home-school picnic recently, I didn’t once have to apologise for their behaviour, feel like I should apologise for their behaviour, or explain the range of diagnosis behind their behaviour – they were just kids among kids……
Four weeks later…
Four weeks of homeschooling under our belts! We are so happy with how it is going – there are good days and bad days, days when the youngest needed to go to bed for 20 minutes before he could think, days when the eldest whinged and moaned and complained about how hard his work is. But overall, they are regaining an excitement about learning and things are making sense.
The youngest has finally worked out what this phonics stuff is for, and is sounding out words rather than guessing wildly from context. He is reading the short passages in the book, and his writing is improving dramatically with the practicing they make part of the fun. The eldest is learning that it is ok to ‘just know’ the answer to a maths problem – but you have to be able to set it out so other people can work it out. He is also finally getting the hang of spelling, and how words have a logical structure – and we are starting to be able to work out what he meant to write. They are both really keen to start the history unit, so it is going on holidays with us.
We noticed this weekend that we are spending more leisure time with them, rather than less. I had anticipated that they would do more of the vanishing into their bedrooms or anywhere we weren’t when they were being taught at home – but instead, they seek us out. They invite us to participate with what they are doing, and want to do things independently around where we are. On Sunday, I was sewing pyjamas, DH was organising things on his computer – both boys chose to come and color and cut out in the room with us. We talked about anything, everything and nothing. Later we watched Spiderwick Chronicles together, and read some more of the books. I find myself feeling jealous of the time they have during the week, and looking forward to the time we have on the weekend, much more than when they were tired, stressed and grumpy from school.
Next week we disappear into rural France – a week of naturism, of swimming and playing with the boys, of visiting castles and a zoo, of playing poker and knitting and spinning. Hopefully I will catch up on some of what has been left by the wayside during some hectic weeks at work, and maybe I will sleep through the night (at least once!)
Deschooling, homeschooling, unschooling…..
Over the weekend, DH and I talked about how we needed to get the ’school’ area ready for the boys – and while I took them to the lake on Sunday afternoon, he organised a table up there. Yesterday, the boys dashed up there first thing in the morning to start getting it ready (by putting away books, toys, DVDs and other things that drifted around up there.
This morning, the youngest was on at DH from first thing ‘can’t we have school today, please, please?’ Well, with a request like that, what can you do! So, once he was awake up they went. I had the phone report (as I sat at my desk trying to review quite boring reports). All seemed to go swimmingly. The big boy actually did some spelling, even writing out spelling words – brought in by the lure of the brand new book of lined paper as much as anything else, I’m sure. The littl’un tried some of his maths, then had a wonderful time with his new social studies book, and actually managed to sit and work for about 40 minutes (something of a record for Mr Itchy Feet). I know as soon as I get through the door, I’ll be dragged up to the school room to see all that they have done – and I can’t wait.
Oh, and given that it is almost 30 degrees, and the school room is under the roof, they are going out to buy a fan this afternoon…….sweat boxes may be popular for some production industries, but probably not preferred in an educational institution.
Sunny Friday
Summer has come back – I brought the sun with me from Tanzania through Nairobi and up to Geneva. The tomatoes are ripening on the vines, and should be good to eat soon. We need to think of something to do with sage – lots and lots of sage – before it takes over the path.
Our bird’s nest in the light outside the front door has two baby birds in it! DH saw (and heard) them there this morning, peeping away. He was going to try to get a photo of them, and I’ll put it on Flickr if it works (maybe even get a photo on the blog – that would be daring). I am really pleased, because I was worried I had scared mum away some time ago – she was quite peeved with me for leaving for work while she was out and about. I left some nesting materials out for her, so maybe that appeased her a bit.
The dyeing we did when my sister visited has worked well – even the green looks ok (although not as nice as the purple). DH is getting some socks from this lot, and the boys should get some from the next. I have to start spinning the big boys wool for his vest. He has decided colour might be ok after all, and wants a red and orange vest. I might need to borrow his sunglasses to spin it – but we won’t lose him!
Maybe if I get into more of a habit of this blogging thing it will get easier. At least I will try to post something each time I’m on mission – a very wandering blog it will be…….
Bon weekend!
It’s July, it must be Nairobi…..
So, two months again. Just as well no one is relying on this blog to keep up to date with us. So, school is over, de-schooling has begun. Many people think we are mad, some people think we are very, very sane. The boys are up and down and random – sometimes it feels like the best decision we have ever taken, sometimes it just feels really scary.
They have got around to ‘labelling’ the big one this year – they have decided he has PDD-NOS. This is a careful diagnosis for Switzerland, who have some odd rules about the level of care needed if they decided that he had either Aspergers or autism. I think he would have to be registered as being under a psychiatrist’s care permanently, which is a pretty big commitment. The little one has been unlabelled – not quite dyslexic, not quite ADHD – but still not reading, writing, able to concentrate or sit still. His schooling will probably be done in 5 minute blocks while DH slowly goes mad.
So, Nairobi? Yep, stopped here for a day on my way back from Tanzania (it makes sense, really), and got a stack of work done at HQ. Things may actually happen over this year – good, bad or indifferent, but may happen. The place is slowly changing for the better I think. Scary to think I know more people in the building in Nairobi than in the building in Geneva. I would love to get job here sometime, although uprooting the family would be a challenge.
Knitting still happens, although the embroidery is also calling my name. Swapping around seems like a good idea. The lace curtains are about one third done, both teachers got lace shawls for the end of the year, some christmas presents are done – we will get there, I’m sure.
Well, the internet connection will die soon, and I’m going out to dinner, so this best be it for the moment. Hopefully less than two months until next time, but I am making no commitment.
