Thursday, August 31, 2006








Hello everybody!
We are finally back from our summer vacation in the Czech Republic, Europe. Before we left I had no time to post a "goodbye" message since I'd known that I wouldn't have an access to the internet there. And now I have a lot of catching up to do around the house and organizing our fall schedule. So I'll just post a few new photos from our trip, and all the details will be a bit later!

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Camping trip.

We went camping this holiday weekend for the first time in five years, basically since Ivana was born.

We used to camp with Mirek at least a couple of times every year. Whenever there was a long weekend, or just we felt like getting away for a day or two, we'd hop into our very tiny Ford Festiva with two doors and a plastic seat in the back (we used to fill the tank up for $8!), grab the map and pick a destination almost at random. Those times! There was minimum planning involved, we were so spontaneous and full of adventurous spirit. We travelled this way all the way to Maine, to Arcadia National Park and a bit more north to the great wildness almost by the canadian border. We drove to the Florida Keys twice and camped for a week first time on the Gulf coast and the other time in John Pennekemp State Park on the ocean side. And we took shorter trips like to Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, North and South Carolina, Massachusetts, New York State, attempted to visit the Great Lakes area but had a car accident after which our car had to be totaled.

So we have missed going to explore new places, sleeping in the tent, and cooking our meals on the fire. And we have waited out for our girls to be old enough (so we thought) to try the great outdoor adventures again. This time we decide not to go too far, so that the car ride is more or less bearable for the kids and chose The Adirondack National Park in upstate NY. The trip took quite a bit of investment since our tent could no longer accomodate four people, the girls wanted flash lights, we needed another two sleeping bags and our cooking equipment was nowhere to be found.

Choosing the campsite we had to make sure there was a playground for the girls, river or lake nearby for them to swim and play, easy hiking and biking trails and grocery store nearby. See, it's never the same with the kids! I'm no saying that it's worse, it's just more challenging as it requires a lot of planning ahead and making sure they are having a good time! It's not about us anymore!

Anyway, we had a fantastic time! It felt so liberating to be in the woods for a few days again (we went for 4 days). All that fresh air and beautiful mountain scenery around us was so relaxing and calming! We went biking, hiking, playing and swimming in the Loon lake, boating and fishing, we took scenic train ride along the Upper Hudson River.

All the activities were on the smaller scale, of course, but we did them anyway. And it proved us yet one more time that we don't have to wait for our kids to grow older to start finally having fun with them, as some of our friends think, but rather do it now and enjoy every moment! We sure will be doing more camping from now on!

PS: Sadly, we don't have even one single photo from our trip, since both of our cameras let us down with running out of batteries. Ah!

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Dance recital.


So, Ivana has had her very first dance recital. The girls did such a wonderful job on the stage! Theye were the smallest group and got a lot of applause from the audience. I got a bit emotional since my little daughter dancing reminded me of the time when I was on the stage myself and how much I loved it.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Thoughts about our local library.


The thing is that I've had a few problems with the staff at our local library before. I've been going to the library since Ivana was probably 6 months old. First it was a place to hang out on a rainy day and keep myself sane by talking to people and getting a few books for myself. Then slowly I started reading books for Ivana there. In the beginning the reading sessions didn't last for too long, but overtime she'd get interested in the pictures and stories and take one book after another with the excitement of an explorer.

So the rules posted on the front doors of our library have been bugging me for quite some time! I understand "no food or drink" policy, but how do you explain a 1 year old that she can't drink right that moment, that we have to stop reading the book and go outside for her to take a sip? Once I had to change her diaper in the front lobby in the secluded nook (the bathrooms are upstairs and you need to ask for the key), and it was not a pooped diaper, just soggy. I packed it into the plastic bag and tied the not tightly, as I always did at home or anywhere we went. So there was a security guard by the entrance door and he asked me to take the diaper out from the garbage bin. What? I thought he was kidding me! I told him to take a close look at what had been in the bin, all the leftovers of hotdogs, burgers decomposing in the heat of the mid summer. You can already imagine the odor, that diaper was probably the most sterile thing there ever! We started to argue and he threatened to complain to the chief librarian and make sure I was no longer allowed into the building. What?

Then there was a bicycle incident. This time there was no sign that bicycles were not allowed into the library, as with the "no diapers in the garbage" sign. Well, it was a toddler's bicycle that I was afraid to leave outside, and we brought it with us upstairs and left standing in the corner by the elevator. There was the whole commotion and investigation whom this bicycle belonged to, and after the same guard found out it was ours, he just took it downstairs and left it on the street. We had to leave the library to make sure we still have that bicycle.

I didn't give up going to the library anyway. I refused to be intimidated and stood up for myself every time there was a problem. And lately I've been coming there with pretty long lists. Every time I hear about a book on homeschooling I'd write it down and then request it at the library. I started with John Gatto, John Holt ( I had all 7 books written by him on my list!), Charlotte Mason, Ruth Beechick, Christopher Klicka, etc, etc, etc. Every time it would take forever for them to try to locate the book for me, searching in the entire state library loan program. I was able to get only a few books (to be precise 3), and whatever they did not have I bought on Amazon.

That day when I had a list with 7 of John Holt's books, the librarian asked me if I was doing a PhD. in Homeschooling! Was she serious, was she sarcastic or just curious, I could not really tell, but I liked that idea a lot and happily said: "YES! As a matter of fact, that's exactly what I'm doing!"

Today I have asked to try to help me to locate books by Ruth Beechick, "The three R's". And a young librarian, probably freshly graduated from college, searched for the books for me, and once again said that the New Jersey library system did not seem to have these books. There were similar books by different author, but it sounded that they were instruction manuals for the teachers in the classrooms, which obviously I did not need. So he volunteered to check them on Amazon to make sure I had the right author. I knew I did, but he wanted to double check anyway. In a minute or so he confirmed the author I had told him and them looked at me with a strange look and said: "But they are only $12 on Amazon! Why don't you buy them!"
What! I was just shocked to hear that! I didn't want to start explaining myself that I'd purchased so many books already because the library did not have what I wanted. Simply, I sadly agreed that's what I would have to do anyway.

Now this sign makes me angry: "No students in the library during school hours. Per Board of Education". I understand that it has nothing to do with the library making up rules, but come on! Would you rather let a kid be in a library and maybe read a book or flip through the magazines, maybe really learn something and be safe, than to have him wander on the streets getting into trouble?! It just doesn't make sense to me... It doesn't make sense at all!!!

Sunday, May 28, 2006

A lesson in biology.


On Saturday morning Mirek went fishing. It always amazes me how he can after working so hard for the whole week and waking up so early every day for work, can still wake up even earlier (at 4 am) on a Saturday and go fishing!

Fishing is Mirek's hobby that he kind of gave up since the girls were born. When we were childless and worry free, he had introduced me to fishing. I could have never imagined that it's so much fun and so relaxing. We used to go fishing together to one of the lakes in upstate New York, we went fishing in the Delaware river catching perch and carp, and even went twice on a boat for the deep sea fishing. Once in NJ, on a boat "Norma K." that departs from Point Pleasant beach, and the other time when we were vacationing on Florida Keys. The first time I so enjoyed the thrill of feeling the fish fighting you, and was fortunate to pull a couple of blue fish aboard. But in Florida I was too sea sick to enjoy even the beautiful scenery. Oh, well.. at least Mirek had a fantastic time! But the next day I again felt adventurous and we went for a night fishing in the lagoon in John Pennekamp camp site. We used alive shrimps as a bait and we had a nonstop action. I was catching the same fish over and over again (we were releasing them back into the water), and then I had to stop because that fish already had a ripped mouth, but was still hungry for the shrimps. I guess it was a very smart fish as it knew that it was safe to go after the shrimp because it would be let go back into the water!

On Saturday morning Ivana woke up asking me where her Tata was. And when I told her he went fishing she was very upset that he didn't take her. She has her own fishing rod and loves to go fishing with Mirek on a boat on the lake in the Poconos.

So, yesterday she was anxiously awaiting for him to come back home to tell him not to exclude her from the fun activity next time. But when Mirek came back with a couple of bass fish and got busy filleting them, she was not that upset anymore. She got so excited to see how Tata would clean the fish and of course wanted to help! Well, what do you tell her? Even for some adults it feels gross to touch a fish, but not for our little girl. She was the most excited about the chance to see and touch the organs that we had been reading about in the books on human anatomy.

Well, I got some looks from our downstairs neighbor when our soon to be 5 yo was running towards them to greet her friend, a 4 yo old boy, and boasting with pure enthusiasm, "Look, I got bloody hands! Do you want to touch the fish?" No, he did not want to...

So, I guess we've had today what they call "hands on" learning approach.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

Strawberries do grow in the city!

This morning we had our first harvest of strawberries. It wasn't much, just a handful, as we have only 6 bushes. But they were so delicious, so sweet, and the gentle aroma reminded me of my childhood. The girls were so eager to taste them, so we didn't wait for the strawberries to get really ripe. And also I was afraid that the birds would be the first ones to snap them once they are red. It's not that we don't want to share, but there is a huge mulberry tree, right in the backyard, covered with almost ripe mulberries! Go help yourselves, birdies!

Saturday, May 20, 2006

Please, meet our "conemen".


Lately, all Ivana wants to do are the "projects"! Her favorite book now is "365 Things to Make and Do" by Vivienne Bolton that I've bought in "Michael's". The projects that are gathered in this book are very simple and easy to do for a girl who is almost 5. She does need my help, occasionally, but most of the time she takes the initiative and gets busy with doing whatever she feels like doing.

Of course, Leona is right there to bother her and wants to do the same thing as her big sister. So I have to stop whatever I was doing (like tiding up, putting the laundry away, etc) and get to help Leona. I felt that I've been telling them to wait with the projets, that was not the right time for mommy at the moment quite often. And then I've decided to review my priorities and change my attitude. I do spend a lot of time with them every day playing, reading, going to the park, doing different projects. But sometimes I did not let them play with the clay or playdough because I did not feel like cleaning the mess afterwards, or I would forbid them to cut the construction paper into million little pieces because we'd just vacuumed, or did not let them paint because once again I was in no mood to deal with the cleaning part. Some days are better, some are worse, especially taking into consideration that I have to go to work from 7 to 10 pm, teaching ESL my Brazilian students. So every day I have to make sure I have saved a tiny bit of energy for the evening, and some days I simply have to kick myself out of the door to go to work, that how exhausted I feel.

Anyway, I'm doing much better (or so I think) with giving the girls more freedom to do what they feel like doing. I simply have changed my approach to dealing with cleaning up after, I try to prevent the mess as much as I can. If they want to paint or play with the clay, I cover the table with a big black plastic bag and ask them to wear their craft aprons. It does not look too aesthetic, but saves me time cleaning up. If they want to use the scissors, I ask them to do it in the kitchen, and after they are done they sweep the floor. Easy as that! Why did I not think of it before? They are so eager to help to clean, that I even let Ivana wash the dishes when they are not greasy, and she knows not to wash the knives.

"The conemen" were from our heads, not the book. We had some cones that we had collected in one of the local parks. We had a couple of caps put aside from the milk cartons and beer (!), some yarn for the hair, colored paper, glue gun and ,of course, the wiggly eyes. "The conemen" are Ivana, Leona, Mommy and Tata (that's how they call Daddy in Czech).

The girls had so much fun playing with them and the house we've made before, that cooking dinner was a pleasure. The time I spend with our kids, the smiles I get to see on their cute little faces, the laughs I hear while they are playing with something that a while ago was just a bunch of "stuff", the pure joy of watching them while I'm doing my chores, all these experiences are simply irreplaceable! Every day when I come home from work I kiss our little angels and look forward to spending another day of our lives together.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Ivana is reading!

Ivana will read this page to you, no problem!
This page was the beginning of Ivana's journey to learn to read...

Today was the time for celebration! We have finished the book that I've been using to teach Ivana to read in Russian. All 95 pages! I didn't expect this to happen this soon! She can read!

I've been teaching her to identify the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet since she was very little. By the age 3 she could remember all 33 of them and was eager to tell them over and over again, so proud of herself. I started with demonstrating her the "sound" that the letter makes first, rather then the "name" of the letter. When she was comfortable with the visual part of recognising the letters, we had moved on to the recognising them by the ear. All the trips to the park, stores, bank and post office had been spent playing the games like "What's the first/last sound of the word", "Finish the word", "Tell me the word that starts with this or that sound", etc. There had to be a lot of effort from my part to teach Ivana to read in Russian since there was not too much exposure to the language in the every day life, except in the house and with a few Russian speaking friends and kids.

Then I decided to start sitting down with her for 20 minutes every day with this one book, that is very logically, step by step leads the child to start reading on his own. We started with reading the singles letters, moved to syllables, then to 3 letter words, one syllable words, 2-3 syllable words, combinations of words, short sentences, longer sentences, short stories, and finally to 40-50 word stories. We would first repeat the page that we'd read the day before, and then read a new page. And before we knew it, we were approaching the final pages of the book, and Ivana had acquired the most wonderful and useful skill in life, reading!

And that book was ALL we have been working with! There were no fridge magnets, Leap Frog materials, CD roms or flash cards. On the other hand, there were countless hours of reading (a lot of times the same book over and over again, especially when she was a toddler), playing speaking Russian, singing songs in Russian.

It is extremely important to me that our girls know my and my husband's cultures. Know what kind of childhood we had, meet and have the relationships with the family members that are overseas. I truly hope that one day they will thank me for passing on to them the knowledge of another language, for the ability to enjoy countless masterpieces in literature written in the original language, for being able to have a conversation with the grandparents and cousins, for making it a bit easier to feel like the citizens of the world and really know and appreciate other cultures.

Ivana learned her ABCs long time ago, and ever since she got the concept of the sounds that letters represent, she has been trying to read in English. She notices all the signs around her and stops to try to read them. I help her out a bit, since there are some letters that are written the same in both alphabets , but sound differently. She is reading all the brands of the cars, names of the streets, signs in the stores, titles of the books we sit down to read.

It just proves one more time that you don't have to have all those over 200 skills that the "educational professionals" are teaching kids in preschool and kindergarten. For some years, a Board of Education reading expert, Bernard Gallegos, has been putting together a package of the reading skills children need to learn in elementary school. At one point, Gallegos' list topped 500 elements. It has since been reduced to 273 over grades 1 through 8. I think Mr. Gallego was simply wasting his time!

Monday, May 08, 2006

A wonderful weekend.

The "birthday girl" got a kite as one of her gifts, and on Sunday we went to the Liberty State Park to try it. While Mirek was assembling it with Ivana's help, Leona took time to blow the dandelions.
It was such a gorgeous day! As we were walking on the boardwalk, we saw this huge ship living the harbour.
The girls were running around chasing the kite and then taking turns holding it in the sky.
I got to try as well! I've never had a kite when I was little, so I was so thrilled to play with it!

Sunday, May 07, 2006

Happy 2nd Birthday!

On Saturday Leona turned 2 yo! Happy Birthday to our little treasure! I always bake all the cakes, and from a scratch. But on Saturday it was very hot that there was no way I was going to turn the oven on. We haven't put the ACs in the windows yet, and because we live on the second floor it gets extremly hot in our apartment, that's why we had voted for the ice-cream cake. The girls were so excited and couldn't wait to have a piece.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Our very young artist.

I was chilling out, enjoying the sun and the singing birds while putting the laundry on the line this morning, when Ivana started calling me. And that's what I saw when I walked into the living room...Thank goodness the markers were washable! I just had to snap a picture!

Sunday, April 30, 2006

"Thumbelina"

Do you know the story Hans Christian Anderson wrote 200 years ago? "Thumbelina" was one of my favorite stories written by him when I was a little girl, at least the Russian translation from the original language. As far as I remember the plot, there was a kind old woman who could not have children but wanted so badly. So she planted a flower and prayed, and a tiny girl was born inside of this flower and because she was no bigger than an inch a lady named her Thumbelina (translating from Russian it would sound more like "Inchelina"). And I remember what nice little things the lady had made for Thumbelina. She lived on a window sill , slept in a bed from a nut shell and covered herself with a leaf, she had a swing made from a ring on a string, and a paper boat she could use to go across the bowl filled with water that looked more like a lake for tiny Thumbelina.

So when I got a flyer from Paper Mill Playhouse, which is a nice sized theatre in Millburn, NJ, I was absolutely excited to see "Thumbelina" among other shows for kids this spring. That's what it said about the show:

April 29,30
THUMBELINA Bits'N Pieces Puppet Theatre
Recommended for ages 3 to 8

Hans Christian Anderson celebrates his 200th birthday this year and what better way to celebrate than with the story of his beloved Thumbelina. Born inside the smallest of flowers, she grows into a tiny girl who makes friends with the animals in her garden and proves that anyone can find happiness if you have faith and believe in what your heart tells you to be true. Performed by live actors and giant puppets, one portraying Hans Christian Anderson himself, this fully-staged musical brings to life the magical wonderment of children's fantasy and reinforces the core values long told and emphasized by one of the world's great storytellers.

I got the tickets the same day and was looking forward to having a family theatre outing. I used to perform on stage on an amateur level while in high school and university and enjoy immensly going to the theatre. We woke up earlier this Saturday, had a quick breakfast, got dressed and left the house for the show. I wore a skirt, some make up and high heels, the girls looked so cute in their spring outfits, and I just love to see my hubby wear nice clothes rather than his everyday contractor jeans and Tshirts.

It was a beautiful day and we did not rush to get inside but spent a couple of minutes looking at the giant gold fish in the pond by the theatre. We had found our seats in the mezzanine, the lights went off and the curtains opened. I was on the cloud nine!..

But unfortunately not for too long. As the show continued my eyebrows rose more and more up, and I thought I was going to walk with them almost up on my hairline for the rest of my life. I don't know if I manage to find the words to describe the emotions I had experienced during that hour of the show, my disappointment, the bitterness and even anger. But I'm still in shock of how this kind of production was allowed to be called a "fully-staged musical".

When the curtains opened there were some kind of giant flowers in the middle of a black mess! There were no back curtains, so you could see deep into the stage the things that were distractive and you wouldn't want to see. The floor was NOT clean, there were papers and some other garbage lying around, so even we, sitting in the mezzanine, could see it. The music started and then this hideous puppet that was portraying Hans Christian Anderson himself appeared on the stage and began singing in this scratchy kind of voice about the imagination. So the audience was supposed to exercise their brains and imagine a beautiful garden, with birds singing and flowers blooming, and the bees buzzing. This song was already making me tired and I was trying really, really hard to imagine ...but couldn't. All I could see was a black hole, a couple of flowers in the middle made out of scrap materials and mess around them. Then another giant puppet appeared on the stage, and this time it was a bad Witch. She was jumping around the stage like a mad cow, turning her heard 360 degrees and swinging her arms like there was a swirl of bees or flies she was trying to get rid of. At this point Mirek had expressed his concern about Leona having nightmares later since her beautiful eyes were bigger than big and she seemed to be a bit tense. The witch was singing some kind of song again (there was NO singing actually, but a recording playing) that I can't recall the lyrics of and she started "magically" transforming one of the flowers into a girl. So finally the tiny girl (she did look tiny next to those giant puppets!) was born from the flower and I just gasped... The way she was dressed, her make up, her bright pink messy wig... she looked like a ... clown! The only thing missing was that red nose! The music stopped (my ears had some rest at last!) and she spoke. She introduced herself as princess Thumbelina ( why was she a princess I could not comprehend) and educated the audience what a "thumble" was and what you could use it for. Then her and the witch sang a song, and all I remember was "Thumbelina", "Thumbelina", "Thumbelina"....la-la-la...la-la-la...

Then there was a Cupid. He was running around Thumbelina and giggling in a most stupid way I've ever heard. I was getting so angry already that I heard myself saying "stupid Cupid" out loud and wasn't embarrased a bit. The show had gotten on my nerves. So, the Cupid gave Thumbelina a stuffed heart and sang another song, this time about listening to your heart and following it to find your happiness. Then there was a giant Frog that demanded Thumbelina's kiss so it could turn into a prince. So Thumbelina grinned and made faces showing her disgust, but kissed the frog anyway. The magic did not occur and the frog was gone for good. After another rather long and boring song a different puppet entered the stage, and it was Winter. It was a scary puppet and was making poor flowers fade, and Thumbelina freeze, all that accompanied by a played back song (hey... they said it was a musical!) about how vicious the Winter was.

As the show was progressing I couldn't wait for it to be over, so that we could go outside and look at the fish in the pond again and enjoy the beautiful weather and each other instead of sitting there and listening to those twisted messages and worrying about our girls absorbing all that nonsense.

Then there was a giant Bird that for some reason spoke with a Scottish accent, a Mole that DID NOT look like a mole even a bit, but more like a rat with an extremely long tail. Again the same song about the imagination, as if Thumbelina was going into the tunnel dug out by the mole (I did not have to imagine that! The whole stage was a HOLE!) with spider webs all over the place. I've never heard of the spider making a web underground, but at that point it did not matter any more. The show was based on lies, and it was getting worse and worse. And I just got tired trying to figure everything out.

Thumbelina was saved from the Winter by the mole and was appointed to be a maid of honor at the wedding. Guess who married whom! You'll never guess! The Mole and the lady Spider had gotten married! I was already feeling much better since I knew that the show was going to end soon and Mirek was making me laugh with his sarcastic remarks.

All right...Thumbelina finally met her prince (after kissing that stuffed heart she'd got from the Cupid numerous times), they got married and lived happily ever after. Hurray!... I was already getting up to leave but Thumbelina still had something else to tell us! This time she had taken ALL the magic away form the show, completely crushed ALL the imagination that the kids were supposed to use during the performance. Thumbelina started a marketing campaign! She said that she was a play writer and the puppet designer for the Bits'N Pieces Theatre. That they are from Tampa, FL and have travelled around the world (I'm curious to know what she meant by that!). And then she began giving a detailed description of what the puppets were made from (bits and peices of 2x4s and other scrap material), a metal stick was brought on stage and a puppet Bird stopped moving and a man appeared from under it. Again Thumbelina reminded the audience what a "thumble" was and what you could use it for, made sure that the kids remembered the names of the four seasons that supposedly we had travelled through during the show (another lie!) and reminded to spread the word about another performance on Sunday.

Ye, right! How dare they call it a theatre! And I've been thinking about it! First, when we were leaving the theatre it struck me that I was the ONLY one wearing a skirt (forget my heals!). The majority of mommies and grannies wore casual jeans, I'd say looking no different than any other day. The show started at 10 am, it cost $10 per person. I get it, it was not a Broadway performance, but anyway... Why to settle for "ah, good enough" kind of attitude? Why not to make an extra effort and make it a little more special, not ordinary.

And that was the whole attitude of the Bits'N Peices Puppet Theatre, I think! "Ah, it's good enough for the kids, what do they know? We'd through some "educational" material into the show and parents will think it's beneficial for their kids. Anyway, they cannot possibly have high expectations. What do they want for $10?"The magic of marketing! As long as you do a good job doing it, you can sell anything!

I guess, we'll go to the library and try to find the story written by Hans Christian Anderson. Anyway, moles do not marry spiders, spiders do not make webs underground, and winter is a beautiful season! If I had a rotten egg I'd have thrown it into Thumbelina. A rotten performance deserves a rotten egg!

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Cooking crayons!


It seemed to me that I was buying crayons every week. The cover paper would get peeled off and they'd end up broken into a million pieces. And for some reason I've never witnessed the process but became aware of the results. And since the girls love to draw I had to get another box, and another, and another. Then I decided to buy the other type, "The twistables". If I had that kind of crayons to draw with when I was a kid, I'd cherish them, take extremely good care of them, maybe not even use them TOO much so that they last longer. But my girls seem not to get the idea of taking care of things just yet. "The twistables" were twisted to the extend that there were no more twisting!

Then I decided to try markers. First I made a mistake by overlooking a "washable" versus "non washable" part. That was bad and hilarious at the same time! Ivana drew polka dots all over her legs and announced that she had chicken pox. And Leona was fascinated with the dark colors and painted her hands and arms black and said that she was a zebra. Then I went and got the "washable" kind. And now half of them do not write because they forget to put the caps back on and I sometimes don't remember to check the box.

For a while I was giving them only regular pens or pencils, but the colors are not the same and the interest to draw and experiment with shapes and colors was easily lost. I decided to let them use the water and acrylic paints, but they can only use them on the kitchen table and when I am around. So no freedom to paint whenever they felt like, not good again.

Finally, I've stumbled upon this great idea of how to reuse the broken crayons and thought it was an exciting project to do with the girls. I had all the help I needed to peel the paper off, they were actually racing who was going to peel more caryons! I cut them into small pieces and the we separeted them according to the colors, warm and cold. Ivana and Leona had a blast arranging the crayon bits into the cookie tins and they were very curious to see them baking in the oven. At 150F for 15-20 minutes and we had our homemade crayons! We waited for them to cool and had so much fun trying to color using them.

Now since we've been spending a lot of time outside, the girls started experimenting with the sidewalk chalk. Just using the dry chalk is only a small fraction of all the things possible to do with it! Have you tried to draw with a wet chalk, fo example? The colors are so much brighter! Or how about trying dipping the chalk into the bubble solution and then drawing with it? Have you tried mixing the wet chalk with the wet dirt and see what color you can come up with? Then making a "mini pool" of all the chalk you once had, some dirt, water, bubble solution and ... get ready!... put your hands into the (what's the more appropriate word here?) "muddy mess" of an unidentifiable, murky color and make hand prints all over the sidewalk!

They've been busy for quite some time and I got to finish reading "Learning all the time" by John Holt. Learning all the time, indeed!

Sunday, April 23, 2006

"Misty", "Dusty", and "Shadow".


Our kids love horses! Every time we go to the Poconos for the weekend it has become a tradition to stop by at the stables and say hello to their favorite horses "Misty", "Dusty", and "Shadow". The girls always think about bringing their "friends" treats, like apples and carrots.

Ivana has been going up on a horse for a while already and she has no fear of being high, petting the horse or feeding it from her hand. Leona watched Ivana and did not want to be left out. She bravely sat on the horse and went for a ride!

Only one child is allowed on a horse at a time, and the guide is walking the horse up the stream and back, while Mirek is walking right next to our young riders. I think Leona might have set a record of the youngest rider ever, at least maybe in the Pocono stables (she'll soon be 2 yo). Kids in Mongolia will bit that record off, by no means!

It's 10$ for both of them each time we come, and we've been coming quite often. And I even thought to inquire about the possibility to volunteer, to help them take care of the stables, feed the horses or whatever job might need to be done. We decided it would be great for the girls to learn what it means to have the responsibility of taking care of an animal.

And I had asked this past weekend, of course meaning not right now since both of them are kind of little, but in a year or two they'll be able to handle some age appropriate tasks. I was a bit stunned and disappointed when I heard a firm, "NO, thanks. We've got plenty of hands around here." Do they get so many inquiries about volunteering, or maybe our family didn't look capable of handling the task of helping around the stables? The guy was rude and very unpleasant!

I don't want to go there anymore, just to make a point. But I know we'll go anyway, because the girls will be heartbroken.

Friday, April 21, 2006

A will to live!

Today while walking to the park Ivana was picking whatever flowers and grass growing wildly on the sides of the road to make me a bouquet. There was not too much of a variety, but she was still enjoying herself and wanted to make sure that I put it in the water as soon as we come home. And then she had spotted these dandelions. She commented on how these flowers had managed to grow in such a place, with no soil, probably hardly ever water, and no sun at all since it was a shady side of the street with tall buildings completely preventing any rays of sun to get to these little guys. Such a strong will to live!

Ivana was so amazed and bewildered that a decision not to pick them was made almost instantly. She also said, "Mommy, lets bring them some water next time! OK?!". And I promised.

Monday, April 17, 2006

This girl is not afraid of anything!

Yep...that's right! She is holding a snake! It's a garden snake and we found it on the road (it had been run over) when going for a walk in the Poconos. Ivana was so excited to touch it and then, with our permission, to pick it up. Well, at that point she was not going to let it go and carried the dead snake all the way to the house. "Mommy, can I take the snake home? It's going to be my pet!"..."Hmmm, I don't think so!!!", "OK, then I'll just pretend I'm Jeff Corwin and I caught a snake!"

Our daughter is an animal lover and "Animal Planet" is her favorite channel. It's so funny to watch both of them play "Venom ER", when the snake bites Leona and Ivana is Dr. Bush and comes to the rescue. Maybe she'd become a vet!

Thursday, April 13, 2006

Saving money on gym membership.


As the warm days are finally here we spend a lot of time outside these days. And I feel that I've been getting slowly back in shape after a long winter and a lot of baking with the kids.

I wish someone would come up with a formula how to calculate the calories used by pushing a double stroller with two almost 20 lbs. toddlers, having a full backet with the groceries and even some of the bags hanging on the sides of the stroller (I'd estimate in average another 20 lbs), then Ivana holding on to and on the way back leaning on the stroller beacause she is tired of all that walking. And then some five or more trips up and down the steps to bring the groceries.

Some days we have so many places to stop by. Like yesterday, for example. We left home at 10:45 am. Firts went to the postal center to buy stamps, then headed to the bank, after to the pet store to buy food for our fish, then to the Polish Deli to buy so much loved ginger cookies, stopped by to buy shoes for Leona, to the library (was still closed), went to the park for an hour and a half, again to the library, finally bought some groceries on the way back and headed home at 2pm.

I was so impressed with how much we'd accomplished while Ivana being on her bicycle. That was quite an exercise! So, I guess as long as we live in the city I won't have to go the gym, ever.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Immigration reform


Today I'm hosting an article written by my dear husband. He is very concerned and these thoughts are his 2 cents on this topic.


Much has been discussed lately about the need to deal with illegal immigration in this country. We heard the proposal of guest worker visa program. We heard about the proposals to make entering USA illegally a felony. Some politicians even wanted to make criminals out of anyone who lends a helping hand to fellow human being who is here illegally.

As I drive through my neighborhood everyday on my way to work, I am able to pinpoint with 90% accuracy those of my neighbors who live here illegally. Be it from their faces, license plates from other states with more relaxed DMV regulations or simply by hanging around certain places. I see them everywhere, not only where I live. As a contractor I spend a lot of time where the urban sprawl is happening, and where one can see them building our subdivisions, landscaping them and maintaining them.

No one today disputes that they do the kinds of work that very few Americans are willing to do. When I came to the US ten years ago, it was still quite usual to see a high school drop out, or person with CHJ (can’t hold a job) syndrome run around with a grass cutter. But as the subdivisions multiplied and grew larger, simple rules of supply and demand created a big vacuum that sucked in all willing to trek through the countries that stood between them and our southern border to become the part of the great economical machine called the USA.

Knowing some of these people personally, I listened to the details of their gruel some trips from as far as Peru and Ecuador. For some it took 4 months to reach the US under the harshest conditions imaginable. These trips are especially risky to women, who are in many cases raped by the guides or even locked up in whore houses in Mexico.

But if they did reach the US, whole new world opened up to them. They quickly found their place in American society (on the bottom) and after they spent their first year working hard to pay their trafficking fee, they were already accustomed to the reality of their new life.

Most people either borrow the money to pay the traffickers from family or friends or have to pay the traffickers from their paychecks once they start working here.

Imagine coming to a country, not knowing the language, not being able to work legally and having to pay a $15,000 debt. You’d take any job under any conditions.

As the 90’s brought a lot more of spending money into the pockets of Americans, they started to look for ways to spend it, and spend it they did. There is hardly any farmland left in New Jersey that wasn’t developed. In ground swimming pools that one could see only in shows like “Dallas” are nothing uncommon. When the money is for grabs, both parents go to work and babysitters and housekeepers are in high demand.

People in towns sold their homes and moved to the subdivisions for quieter life. The people who made equity on the 3000 sq. ft homes, moved to 4000 sq. ft. homes, those who had equity built up on the 4000 sq. ft. homes moved to the 5000 + sq. ft. homes. As this madness continued and houses sprouted like mushrooms after rain, our new lowest class kept on building, cutting grass, cooking, picking and packing our food and so on.

Many Americans ended up in houses they would’ve never dreamed of, while those who build them sleep on mattresses without bed frames, five people in a room.

Our immigration system is broken, but not where the politicians claim it to be. There clearly was and is demand for carpenters, landscapers, housekeepers and so on, but we don’t seem to admit it. It seems to me, that certain business groups want the immigrants to stay illegal, because the more desperate you are the cheaper you are willing to work.

For example, a contractor who uses undocumented migrants will be able to put a lower bid on framing a house then one whose workers are American or legal migrants. That in turn saves money to the builder.

We need to remember when passing any new immigration laws that these people are part of our community, and they create a lot of wealth for very little compensation. They are filling in positions which we’ve created and for which there are no other candidates. We can’t look at them with clear conscience as subhuman, as people undeserving the basic rights and still use their cheap services.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Take time to stop and smell the flowers.

Ivana is already fascinated with nature. She has to stop in front of each flower, look at the awakening buds, and count all the trees that are blooming. This morning the birds were singing so loudly that she just stood by the tree in the backyard and listened. "Mommy, the birds are happy that spring is here! They are singing so beautifully! Or maybe they are saying thank you for all the food they've got from me in the winter."

Saturday, April 08, 2006

How I "killed" a few birds with one stone.

Potty training early works! As I have successfully potty trained both our kids before 18 months old, I can assure you that it does!

When Ivana was a newborn I was reading all those parenting magazines where they give you all the advice you need as an unexperienced parent. I read a lot and found some article to be very helpful, but some were a total waste of my time. And the articles about potty training were especially disturbing to me. I was not experienced about that issue back then yet, but felt that whatever they were writing about this topic was rediculous! Statements like "...don't worry, your kid will let you know when he/she is ready...", "...have you seen an adult wearing a diaper, they'll learn sooner or later...", "...use 50 cents coupons to cut the cost of diapers...", "...sit on the toilet yourself while your toddler is next to you and sing a song together...", "...put some food coloring in the toilet to encourage your 4 yo go to the toilet rather then pants...", "...put a couple of cheerios into the toilet bowl if you are teaching a boy to use the toilet, he'll have fun shooting the cheerios...", and so on...

So when Ivana was 6 months old (that's right!) I started to put her on the potty. It was obvious when she was "doing her duty" as she would stop doing whatever she was doing, her eyes would start bulging out and her face would turn red. I completely disregarded all that advice about "waiting till they are ready" and started putting her on the potty that early. So first I taught her to do the "big thing" into the potty and then later started teaching her to pee there as well, which was a bit more of a challenge. I stopped using the diapers at home long before she was one and let her wear underwear. Yes, it was messy at times, but surely it paid off. I observed her, payed attention to how much water she drank and learned how often she goes and was putting her on the potty before the "flood" had occured. This way we spent hours and hours of reading! We had a stach of books by the potty and were reading one book after another. Both of our daughters did not mind and enjoyed every minute of it, as we were actually having so much fun with our books. Both of them started talking very early and have a special bond with books. Maybe it's not a 100% beacause of early potty training, but surely it helped since we had spent these two activities as one a lot of times.

Teaching them to go on the potty early has so many advantages. Doing that I've "killed" quite a few birds with one stone! Countless hours of reading, less mess to clean, less diaper rash outbreaks (practically none in our case!), a lot of money saved, less plastic pollution dumped into our planet, no need to drag a diaper bag everywhere you go, a real pleasure to put you child on your neck and not feeling a subtle moisture, etc.

Are there any disadvantages? Well, sure there are. Try to tell anybody that you are putting your 6 mo on the potty and see their reaction! You see "a child abuse" kind of reaction! Can't dress the baby into the cute overalls, but rather twopiece outfits (time to undress is cruitial!). Have to pull over on the curb of the highway or pray that she doesn't need to go while we are in the tunnel. Know where the bathrooms are in every supermarket or other stores you go. Carry an extra outfit with you, just in case. Putting your child on the potty in the middle of the night. Nor being able to buy the smallest underwear in the US stores, but ask realtives in Europe to send them over.

I'd rather go for the disadvantages, but won't have to deal with explaining the 3-4 yo that potty doesn't bite and there is no reason to fear it. Won't have to get frustrated over inventing new tricks that will work for my 4 yo who already knows what firefighters are for but refused to go on the potty.

Why was it possible for the previous generations and now we easily get comfortable and then have to deal with the concequences. Let it be only a tiny drop in saving the planet, but it's what I have done and so can you.

Monday, April 03, 2006

Easter egg hunt in the Poconos.


I was happy to have an opportunity to host an Ester Party for our homeschooling friends! When I announced it on the group list, I was not sure if any family would be willing to come since it's pretty far and on a Sunday. But it turned out that quite a few families RSVPed and last Sunday we had an Easter get together in the Poconos.

The whole Saturday we were busy getting ready, cooking, stuffing over a hundred plastic eggs with goodies, working on some decorations to bring the spirit of the spring into the house. On Saturday morning as we were leaving for the Poconos Mirek had to take so many trips up and down the staircase, running with all that bags with groceries, our clothes and other stuff, that our dear land lady thought we were moving out! It's just every time we go there, I'm afraid I won't have this, or I won't have that, that's why we end up taking half of the house with us and it turns I did not need it or had it in the house. But since I was hosting a party and had to do much cooking, I could not take any chances on missing even one thing.

Ivana was so excited about having so many of her friends coming over and the egg hunt was a total mystery for her, since it was the first time we'd done it. How many times she had asked, "Mommy, but how am I supposed to hunt an egg?"

The fun part in preparation for the party was to make edible nests that were gonna be the center piece for the table and the dessert for the kids. They were so easy to make and all the kids could not wait to munch on them. If you want to try to make them here's what you'll need:

Shredded breakfasr cereal (I used Kellog's Frosted Mini-Wheats)
One bar of melted chocolate (any kind)

What to do: crumble the cereal by hand into a bowl, add melted chocolate and mix well together. Line a muffin pan with a foil and place a spoonful of the mixture into each space. Press down into a nest shape and leave the shapes to harden in a fridge for an hour or so. When the nests are hard, take them out from the muffin pan, arrange on the plate and add a few chocolate covered raisins, nuts and/or jelly beans (for some spring colors).

In the morning on Sunday the sun was out and I felt like taking a short walk. I went out and collected a few branches, some dried grass and other plants. Then put them into a vase and Ivana helped me to hang the paper eggs which we had decorated earlier. And then I got a phone call from one of the moms that was coming, "Do you know about the time change? It's not 10, but 11 am!.." I didn't, and my heart went to my stomach! There was still so much to do and people were gonna start coming any minute. Aaaaaaaaa!!!!!!!!!

After all, we had a wonderful day!

Saturday, April 01, 2006

All that sun!

Our girls have stopped napping during the day at a very early age (before turning 2 yo). They are too busy exploring the world and don't want to miss out on anything. At first I missed that hour of them napping, when I could do whatever I wanted. But then it turned out that in the evening they are ready to go to bed much earlier and fall asleep the moment their little heads are on the pillows.

But today a miracle happened! All that runnig outside on the sun, and both of them fell asleep on the sofa while I was reading a book to them. I was ready to drop dead next to them, but grabbed "Learning All the Time", by J. Holt instead. An hour flew by like a minute.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Plant a "tree".

Today Ivana was attempting to plant last year's broccoli bush! As the weather was so gorgeous she was asking me when we were going to start planting in our garden.

When Iwas growing up we had a garden. And it was a garden that our family of five really relied on for veggeis and fruits. We labored all spring turning over the dirt and planting, all summer watering, most of the fall harvesting and making preserves. The garden was not for leisure, it was a chore that we had to do. We had about a quarter of an acre which was on a rather steep slope. And watering in the summer wasn't with a garden hose, but with a bucket! There was a stream nearby that usually dried up by the end of the summer, but before it did, it caused me and my brother and sister a lot of trips up the hill with two full buckets of water. At the end of the summer we used to collect rain water into the barrels that my Dad had got from work. Harvesting was usually fun, as we got to eat fresh strawberries, gooseberries, raspberries, red and black currents, tomatos, plumps and apples. That was the time to enjoy them, since those yummy things would no longer be available at home, but mostly left for making preserves only! We had spent hours and hours in nauseously hot kitchen helping Mom to cook homemade jam, pickle all sorts of veggies, make saurkraut, etc. If by the end of September we had plenty of preserves, a couple of sacks of potatoes from our garden, a sack of sugar, a sack of rice and flour, we were gonna have a good winter. Garden was a chore. And I hated it! I hated it, hated it, hated it! My arms were hurting after watering, my back was hurting after weeding, I was simply tired making all those jars. I loved winters!

And now one of my dreams is to have a garden!Not as a chore, but for leisure. Our landlady has let us use a tiny patch of land for gardening. So it's been a couple of years that we've been planting tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, zuccinies, and my two absolutely favorite herbs, basil and parsley.

So Ivana remembered us planting the garden last year and is looking forward to this season. And we have a hard to believe story to share!

Usually we'd buy ready plants at the end of May, but last spring I decided to have some fun with Ivana and start from seeds! We had collected enough empty egg cartons and other plastic containers to use for this purpose. It was a bit messy but a really fun to do project. We arranged our "babies" on the open porch on our second floor. Ivana would water them and check every day if they had sprouted. And then a couple of days later I noticed that someone was digging in the dirt. I kind of thought it was Ivana, somehow sneaked out without me noticing. Very unlikely, but whatever. Who else? I fixed the dirt, and again next time I noticed that someone was digging in the containers, dirt all over the porch and in some cases the seeds were missing. As I knew for sure this time that it could not be possibly our daughter, I started suspecting an animal. A cat? Sometimes we had a cat stop by and rip our garbage bag if I happened to leave it on the porch overnight. A squarrel? We have plenty of them in the park, but never seen any near our house. Some kind of bird? I would've heard the banning noise against the windows if it was trying to escape. It was a mystery! We were gone for the weekend and came back to a complete chaos! There was nowhere to step! Dirt all over the porch, ripped plastic containers, no sign of any seeds left, and what's more... plenty of funny smelling surprises in Mirek's working boots! It was one very smart animal having a lot of fun!

We were bewildered!We kind of had a suspecion of the animal capable of doing that sort of mess...But in the city? You've got to be kidding! Until one evening Mirek saw him coming up the stairs probably hoping to find some more seeds to dig and some other fun to have. It was a racoon of a huge size! Mirek had scared him away, emptied up the porch and brought a trap. We've never seen him again. Aren't they smart? I guess he went back into that sewer he'd come from.

So today Ivana was asking me if the racoon was going to come for a visit this year. I hope not!

Washing dishes and thinking...

Lately Ivana has been drawing our "future" house, and her "future" dog, and her "future" cat, and her "future" room that she is going to share with Leona. On a couple of pictures there were only three people. I asked her who they were. She replied that one of them was her, of course, then Leona and Daddy. So I wondered where I was and that's when she said, "You are washing dishes, Mommy!" Ha-ha-ha... Am I really washing the dishes too much lately? Or has it always been that way? Well, I love washing dishes! It's relaxing for me! That's the time when I tend to think about the things that bug me and come up with solutions. That's my time to meditate. That's simply my time. Even when I used to work as a babysitter, there was a dishwasher in the house. In two years I'd used it only once. After the Thanksgiving party where 40 people attended. Other than that, every dish was scrubbed by my hands! Other women have the pedicure and manicure done, and I have the dishes and thinking done!

So, again I was using the chore to think about my confusion with finding a homeschooling groove. And then it happened. I got it! As TheThinking Mother and my other blog buddies have mentioned that there is too much out there, that some curricula or method might work for other families, but not ours, that one has to try and see what works best. I got it! It was too much!
And it's not that I'm incapable to make a choice, I just get overwhelmed by the process of choosing! I can not stand going to the mall. All that crowds of people make me feel dizzy. I don't like to shop in big stores and go through a mountain of racks with tons of clothes. It makes me dizzy. One day my girlfriend was complaining about being overweight. She said, "I'm so fat! There is so much food around me! You know how it is, growing up with all the food around you to try!" Duh...well... hmm... Actually, I don't! There were times we had to stand in line to get bread and milk when I was growing up!

So maybe getting overstimulated with the abundance is my disability lingering from my early childhood! "Less is more" is my motto. Less toys for kids stimulate their imagination and creativity, less food on your plate keeps your waist line thinner, less watching TV gives you more time to spend with your husband in the evening, and so on. But I guess all that is now available for homeschooling and about homeschooling is a good thing! Probably those families that had started this wonderful journey two or so decades ago would tell me, "I wish we had your problems! Be grateful for everything that there is out there. We were the pioneers and look how far we've gone!" I am grateful!

When one day we get to own a house I don't want to have a dishwasher...Or, maybe I can use it just after the holiday dinners?


Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Getting ready for Easter!


I don't think I have a "herding problem", but sometimes I put the things away hoping to use them up later. So just in case, I was putting aside the empty toilet paper rolls without having any particular idea of what to do with them. And as I was just about to discard them all, since they were taking up too much so needed space, I came across one project that required just that! And what's more, it was for Easter! A wreath!

It took us two days working on the project and we had so much fun doing it. First the girls painted the rolls with the acrylic paint. We decided to stick with the pastel colors for the spring motif. There was no way Leona could be left out from doing that activity, I took a deep breath and set her up by the table. Only later I found out that acrylic paint in NOT washable, so that turtleneck was completely ruined. And of course her hands were all in paint, her face, her hair.

While they were working on the rolls, I took care of the frame for our wreath. I took a wire hanger and bent it into a circle. As the advantage of using the acrylic paint is that it's fast drying, we managed to arrange the rolls on the frame the same day. I cut an opening and slid the rolls into the wire and then taped them all at once from the back. Next day we were working on coloring easter eggs printouts. For some reason Leona was choosing dark colors, like black and deep blue, so her colored eggs didn't make it to the wreath this time. But Ivana did a splendid job picking brighter and more uplifting colors and then decorating some of them with stickers.

Now the wreath is proudly displayed on our door, and it makes me smile every time I see it.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Do they call them "footprints"?


This weekend we went to the Poconos again. I find it so refreshing and calming to be there, that 90 minutes drive does not bother me at all! The girls are excited to go to our country house, and I know the way so well that can probably get there with my eyes shut. And we've even been playing with the idea of moving there permanently. There are two things that are holding us back, two major ones I'd say: Mirek's job and homeschooling.

As Mirek works for himself, it should not be such a big problem. But to establish clientele it took him five years working hard in NJ, so he doesn't want to let it go down the drain. And as I've learned that PA is one of the five states that are so- called "Red Flag States" for homeschooling, it holds me back. As for the other part of the convenience of having everything at your fingertips, I guess you just get used to driving everywhere instead of walking.

We were at the lake beach and Ivana was teaching Leona how to spot and recognize the footprints. There were footprints of deer, geese, wild turkeys, dogs and humans. Then she asked me, "Mommy, why are these called footprints? Deer don't have feet, they have hoofs, dogs have paws, and only people have feet." It got me thinking. Why a "parkway" is called a "parkway", and a "driveway" a "driveway"? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? And why "American Football" is called "football" when the players are carrying the ball in their hands, and European football is called "soccer", when all the players are doing is actually kicking the ball with their feet? Life is full of absurd things, and our responsibility is to teach our kids how to coexist with them.

I guess from now we'll be calling deer fotprints "tracks". Or maybe that's what they are actually called...

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Daddy's girls.

Last couple of weeks Mirek has been working long hours and coming home pretty late. Two previous Sundays he had to work as well. Ivana and Leona missed him a lot, and yesterday evening didn't want to let go off him. I thought they looked so sweet together and took a picture.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Where do I start?

There was so much to read on the Carnival of Homeschooling , that I had troubles processing all that information and ideas. I had to take breaks and go wash dishes, or put the toys away, or put the laundry on the line outside. Then I'd come back and read more. And again I needed some time to digest all I'd read. I've never had problems falling asleep, and the last two nights I just couldn't close my eyes. Everything was so mixed up in my head that I felt like I was drugged up!

Now I feel that things in my head are settling down slowly and I feel...empty. Wasn't it supposed to be the other way around? I was ready to get more encouraged, enthusiastic and inspired. But I feel empty, lost, overwhelmed, scared, doubtful...

I've checked so many homeschooling blogs and read up on how other families do it. And I started to compare... We've never bought any software or video games to teach Ivana shapes, colors, letters and numbers. She knows them anyway just by me reading books and spending time with her. We picked up once a book in the library "I can count 100 bunnies, and so can you" (don't remember the author), kept it for a months and she learnt to count to 100 and recognize the numbers everywhere we go. One of our favourite games is "A license plate game". When we go to the park, store, library, bank we stop by every car, and Ivana tells me the numbers. Then I showed her how to say 3 digit numbers, and she was so excited to pass the 100 border. A couple of times we saw a car with 4 digits, and with sincere curiosity she asked me how to say those.

We've never used any flash cards or posters for the wall with letters or numbers. And I have only one book to teach her to read in Russian. It's a specially designed book for that purpose, though, but it's our only resource to learn to read. And she is thriving! Every day we sit down on a sofa for 20 minutes (Leona right next to us, trying to imitate Ivana) and practice. Ivana has been doing so great lately, that she doesn't want to stop. She easily reads 3-4 syllable words, full sentences and short stories. And Russian alphabet is not Latin, but Cyrillic, so think of another 33 letters to memorize for that little brain.

The other day we were doing our own clay beads. In the morning we rolled the clay into different shapes, then I put them into the oven to bake to harden. After lunch we started decorating them, painting different colors with acrylic paint. Leona fell asleep right next to us, put her cute little head on the table and dosed off. And Ivana was so concentrated coloring her beads, that she didn't ask any questions for about 20 minutes. So we were both busy doing our stuff, and occasionally she'd whisper a comment on my design and ask for my opinion on hers. It was just priceless! I felt so comfortable doing that simple activity with my daughter. At that moment she was my best friend. That kind of friend that you are comfortable with being silent, when you don't have to search for another topic to keep the conversation going and feel awkward in silence.

I have not picked any curriculum or looked at any. I have not thought about the plan for the next year. I have not identified myself with any homeschooling method. I have not signed her up for any homeschooling workshops. I have not found any Homeschooling Convention to attend. I feel that I've done a lot preparing myself for homeschooling our kids, but not enough. Unwillingly I have planted a seed of doubt in myself. I feel empty, lost, overwhelmed, scared, doubtfu... I will not let that seed sprout! No way!

Good news from Ethiopia!

Last summer we started sponsoring two children from Ethiopia through the Christian Children's Fund. Since adopting a child is not feasible for us right now, and we always wanted to make a difference in other less furtunate kid's life, we thought that would be a good alternative.

It didn't take us long to chose the children. All the children referred to that program qualify, as their parents earn less then $400 a year. So it didn't really matter to us, we decided to pick a girl and a boy.

The boy's name is Sisay Degifa, and he lives with his farther and mother in the capital, Adis Ababa. So he is a city kiddo! He is 7 years old and goes to the first grade.

The girl's name is Sheyte Abdela, and she lives with her family in a very rural countryside. She is 10 years old and helps her parents a lot with the chores.

So, a couple of days ago we received letters with the news and updates about "our" children. Both of them are doing fine and enjoying there winter school break. Not too much enjoyment for Sheyte since she helps to take care of the household.

It's amazing how much $24 a month can do! The child has clothes to wear, food to eat, health coverage, and is allowed to attend a school. How ironic! We are not sending our kids to school, but very happy for Sheyte and Sisay to have that opportunity, because this is their only chance to learn. Their parents have too much to worry about just to survive, in most cases are illiterate themselves.

And for Christmas we decided to send an extra money gift to both families. So that what the latest letters were about. The families were expressing their warmest thanks. They wrote that Sisay got a new suit, shirt, shoes and a tie, and enclosed a picture of the boy wearing it. He looks so handsome! Smiling, and I guess enjoying the feeling of beeing dressed up! That's a "city attitude", you've got to look trendy!

And Sheyte got extra clothes and shoes as well. But what made us especially happy was the fact that the Abdela family are very practical! For the remaining money they've decided to buy a ... goat ! For breeding! We are talking business here! And we also have a picture of the whole family with the "star" upfront!

It gives such a wonderful feeling knowing that somewhere so far away, in a place that we would probably never visit, live people whose life will be a bit better, a bit easier, a bit happier just because we are thinking about them! And it teaches our girls a lesson of kindness. Ivana has been "writing" letters to Sheyte and Sisay, drawing pictures for them and sharing her stickers. When Mirek brought the globe, she asked where Ethiopia was. And before she was putting her quaters away to buy a plane ticket to go to visit grandparents in Czech, and then she changed her mind. She said that she'd send the money to our friends in Ethiopia. It might not be much, but the thought that what really counts. And I guess we'll match it up!

You can check out their webpage at www.ChristianChildrensFund.org

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

12th Carnival of Homeschooling!

Here is a wonderful collection of articles about homeschooling http://phatmommy.com/
I guess I'll have a sleepless night! All that reading makes me so excited!

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Immigrant parents' thoughts on homeschooling their American kids.

We haven't mentioned anything to our families abroad about our intention to homeschool our girls yet. It's a long process to bring it down to them and make them trust and respect our decision.

We are a trilingual family, the first generation of immigrants to the US whose English language is NOT a mother tongue, want to homeschool our children. Why?

There is no simple and short answer to it. I and my husband haven't been schooled in the US, and we are not familiar with the system from the first hand. I loved going to school in the former Soviet Union, and my husband totally disliked his school experience.

But since we've been living in the US, we've been very vigilant to the surrounding us social environment, and we are growing more and more into the idea of attached parenting and homeschooling. My husband is a self-employed contractor. So he gets to see a lot of families, thier lifestyles and relationships. And in most cases those are very pitiful families. There is very little or no respect, love, communication, understanding, compassion in a family. Kids from "better" neighborhoods go to the "better" schools. But what is "better" if students in one of the high schools in Marlboro, NJ are taught to subcontract their homework and essays to other students for a fee. Supposedly that's teaching them "business relations". Absurd... And when the WTC was going down, one high school student said, "Oh, my God! Is this going to be bad for the ecomony?" That was all she had said, as my husband was a witness! Shocking...

Did we have doubts about us being capable to pull it through? A recently watched report done by John Stssel, "Stupid in America", had become that "drop" we needed to decide for sure that homeschooling is the right path for our children and for our family. We have no doubts anymore.

I've planted a seed of homeschooling into my head about two years ago. I've done a lot of reading and research, met with homeschooling families, given ourselves a trying period to see how we can handle this, and how our children respond to this. I don't believe it'll be easy, but difficulties have never scared me.

And now we won't have to await our children to come home with trepidation hoping that today it was safe in school. Now we won't have to spend hours and hours of tedious homework and then try to really teach them something about the world we live in. Now we won't have to find a way how to squeeze quality family time into their busy schedules. Now we won't have to worry about the negative influence of the peer pressure and the need to be dressed into the brand clothes to be admitted into the "popular circle". They'll know that not blending in but rather standing out is a good thing.

Recently, I've read an excellent book that gave me a vivid picture of what the schools are about in the US. "Dumbing Us Down. The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling", written by John Taylor Gatto, an award-winning teacher of 26 years in Manhattan's public schools. And he raised a good question:

"...What is the purpose of mass schooling supposed to be? Reading, writing, and arithmetic can't be the answer because properly approched those things can be taught in less that a hundred hours-and we have abundant evidence that each is readily self-taught in the right setting and time. Why, then are the kids locked up in an involuntary network with strangers for twelve years?"

Wealth dominates the schools in the US. There is a major segregation of working poor and well-off families. In reality kids do not get the real picture of the social structure of the society, but rather a distorted one. So why the first question about homeschooling is always about socializing. And what about it? Modern schools are not the right place to acquire that skill. Participating in real life and learning from that experience is. "I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand", wrote Confucius.

Discovering meaning for yourself, and discovering satisfying purpose for yourself, is a big part of what education is. How can this be done by locking children away from the world? Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual. It should teach you how to tackle the challenges and grow, it should make you spiritually reach, a person who loves whatever you do, wherever you are, whomever you are with. It should teach you what's really important in life.

"Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten", B.F. Skinner.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Spring is in the air!


These are the first flowers in our mini garden.

They made my day!..

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

How I 've got not to like fairy tales!

I used to disagree with Mirek on the issue of reading fairy tales to our girls. When I was a little girl I used to love fairy tales. I didn't read a whole lot of them, and my favourite one was "Cinderella" (not the Disney kind, of course). I'd daydream of becoming a Cinderella and trying on a glass shoe and dancing with a prince. My fantacies were innocent. I didn't want to be a mean step mother or dumb and jealous step sisters. I wanted to be what's the best in the fairy tale, what had the most magic and joy, I wanted to be a part of a "happy end".

Mirek was telling me about his dislike of fairy tales when he was growing up. That he'd rather read adventure books, or books about Native American tribes and their culture and traditions. So, I took the "fairy tales issue" as a boy/girl difference in interests.

Ivana loves fairy tales. She loves to play dressing up and chose to be a Cinderella for last Halloween. We went to see "Cinderella" show in the theater, and it was all innocent until... As a gift we got a "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" videotape from our friends. Now what do I get to blame for teaching my daughter to play "A poison apple! Sleeping death!" game? Why did she get attracted by the evil side of the story, rather than kind? Why did she prefer to imitate the cackle of the queen's changed voice and pretend that her hands are all wrinkled and warty instead of singing happy Snow White's songs? Why does she think it's funny to let her little sister bite into a red apple from our frig and make her pretend she's falling on the floor? "Ha, ha! Her breath will still-her blood congeal. Now I'll be the fairest in the land!"

We've been telling her all these years that the characters in the fairy tales are not real, that they are all a product of somebody's imagination only. Now, is that game just Ivana' s way of excercising her own imagination, and what are the long term effects of her watching these kind of stories? Are they really beneficial for her developing personality and what are they really teaching the little kid about the world?

I put the videotape away a couple of weeks ago, and there was no more "poison apple, sleeping death" game. Instead, I decided to concentrate on really educational tapes for them to watch. A friend from our homeschooling group let us borrow a few tapes about artists. We've watched "Leonardo Da Vinci', "Monet", "Degas and the Dancer"already, and there are so many other wonderful stories to watch from these series.

Now Ivana is not running into the other room and waiting for the episode when the Huntsman is about to kill Snow White to pass, but happily dancing with a little ballerina Marie from the movie "Degas and the Dancer". A red delicious apple is not being served to Leona as a "poison apple". And I think "that" tape will not be having a come back!

Saturday, March 11, 2006

A trip to the beach.



This morning our landlady's son came by to install the window guards. Since more and more parents tragically leave the windows wide open, enough for the little kids to fall out from, now it's a law that if you live on the second floor or up there have to be window guards. Our landlady told us that she didn't want to be fined, and would have to put the guards. We were kind of hoping that it'd take her a long time , and we'd move out before that. Apparently not... And now we have even less light coming in because of these ugly black (and in my opinion useless) window guards.
They say "never say never", but in our case we were very vigilant about having the windows open. There is no way Ivana or Leona can open them, they are quite heavy. And whenever I wanted to have fresh air (with all the street fumes and smog!) I'd open the windows from the top. In the morning as I was looking at the guards, I wanted to start packing!

So, not to waste such a gorgeous day and get aggrevated about not being able to live in a nicer place, we went to the Newark Museun, park and then beach.

I grew up by the Black Sea, and I absolutely love the water. And now I don't get to see the sea and hear the waves every day. As a matter of fact, we haven't been to the ocean in about seven months! All the winters before we had gone to the beach at least a couple of times. It was always so refreshing to see the grey-blue craziness and get soothed by the sound of the crushing waves. And before the kids I found it to be very romantic to play snowball fights with Mirek and chase each other and roll in the snow, again to the accompaniment of the waves.

Now the guards don't bother me that much as I'm thinking about our today's walk on the beach. The sun was already setting, it was a high tide, and the water was coming closer and closer, and we had to go further and further away from it in search for the shells and other ocean treasures. We didn't find anything special worth keeping, besides a few shells that Ivana wanted to put in our fish tank. But the time we spent together as a family was priceless. I'm always trying to keep in mind this saying: "Yesterday is a history, tomorrow is a mystery, and today is a gift".

So, why to worry about these ugly black (and in my opinion useless) window guards?..

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

One man's trash...


...is another man's treasure!

Last week Mirek brought two huge black garbage bags full of ... well ... garbage! He had started finishing a basement for the client, and the place was full of stuff that was not needed by the previous owner anymore. And as Mirek has gotten my "schooling" about being recourseful and giving things a second chance in life, he just couldn't put those things into a dumpster!

And now we have a globe! In great condition, probably barely used. Mirek's passion is geography and we've been thinking about getting one. He was so eager to show the girls all the places they'd talked about before. Now Ivana remembers the places on the globe where her grandmas and grandpas live.

And we also have a microscope! Our curious four year old was sooo thrilled and ready to look at the germs and bacteria. Well... it's not that type of a microscope, but we had so much fun with it on the weekend! There were a couple of ready samples like a feather, a tiny piece of nylon, seeds from some kind of plant. But we didn't stop on the ready samples. We took a thin coating from the onion (both of us remembered doing that in school). We compared a human's hair with a dog's hair. We scraped some orange peel. Mirek shook off a couple of dandruff flakes (yes, we are that crazy!). I wanted to see if we could find the dustmites on the fibers of the carperting. No luck there... Then Ivana found a dried out bee. We tore it's wings and put under the microscope. We got so excited! Mirek checked all the windows and found a lot of potential material to examine: a moth, a mosquito, a lady bug, a fly. What we liked the most were the legs of the lady bug. Hairy! I guess we'll never look at this cute bug the same way!

Well.. sounds like we are one untidy family, right? Wrong! We were in our house in the Poconos, and the used to be alive insects got stuck between the windows and the screens and dried out.

It was the firts science class at our "school at home"...

Monday, March 06, 2006

My children are my teachers.

Staying home with my girls and homeschooling them is not a one way ticket, it's a round trip. It's amazing how much I've learnt with them and how much they are teaching me not even knowing about it!

Things that I've learnt thanks to my daughters:

My life without them would've not been to the fullest.
My life without them would've not had so much love.
My life without them would've never showed me my true self.

Things that my daughters are teaching me. How to...

...enjoy living in the moment;
...be happy with what you have rather than with what you want to have;
...to be patient and have self control;
...admit making mistakes and move on without feeling guilty;
...be flexible and see what they enjoy doing rather than what I think they should enjoy doing;
...have fun together doing simple things;
...look at everything I say and do from their point of view;
...not to have high expectations and get disappointed;
...give them as many hugs and kisses as I can sqeeze in a day.

And I hope and pray that we'll continue to enjoy the wonderful journey of homeschooling in the years to come!

Thursday, March 02, 2006

Amazing human body.


Ivana has been asking questions about how our body works for some time already. And it became more and more challenging to answer them since she wasn't satisfied with the answers we were giving her. So we visited "Body Wars" exhibition at the Newark Museum and then gave her a book "Uncover the human body" for Christmas, so we can learn together.

We've read that book a couple of times and it's a very visual one. As you turn the pages it gives a three-dimentional look inside the human body. It's a book and a model, you turn each page and uncover a new layer of understanding. It's recommended for ages 8 and up, but she seems to enjoy it. And then at the library she spotted "The Magic School Bus. Inside the human body" by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen. Then we borrowed another book from thew same series that explores the senses.

As an expansion activity we traced the page from the book and Ivana colored all the organs. She just loved doing it and insisted on sending one "picture" as a get better note to her best friend who was sick. It's so funny to hear her talk about the red and white blood cells, plasma, blood cerculation and food digestion. She asks me to bend down so she can see my spine, or looks at Leona's hands trying to see her veins. She comments on the food going down the esophagus, then to the stomach, small and large intestines evry time we are having a meal. Mirek had a cut on his finger and she comforted him by saying that platelet cells would make it heal soon. Then she asked...
"Mommy, lets play a game."
"OK. What game?"
"I'll be the oxygen and you'll be carbon dioxide!"
"Hmmmm... how do you play that?"

Well, Ivana could not come up with the rules and neither could I. So Mirek was very helpful and suggested a different game. He was a white blood cell, Leona was a virus and Ivana was a bacteria. He was chasing them around, of course skipping the white blood cell's "function to destroy" the desease germs.

Today we had another round of tracing and coloring the human body. Leona demanded to do one of her own. "Me too deebee dodee!"(human body in her language). And this time Ivana was especially interested in the heart and asked me if her heart was ever gonna stop working.

Well... I guess we'll leave that until she is a little bit older.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Hitler liked blue eyes...

I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately. I took a bit too much upon myself and the time came for my "batteries" to get recharged since they've started running on low.

Since we live in the city I have the convenience of walking to the stores, bank, post office, library, park, etc. Everything is at my fingertips. So I'm so used to walking every day that when the weather doesn't permit to go for a walk it takes toll on my levels of energy and mood. Last week the girls were not feeling well, it was bitter cold, so we were home most of the week. And of course this week I could feel it!

Today the sun was out and the sky was bluer than blue. My body craved the vitamin D and my skin needed to be reminded how if feels when the wind brushes up against the cheeks. We headed to the park. The little ones were on the swings for a while and then on the slides. Ivana was running around chasing a pooch, burning extra calories after a very substantial double breakfast. I happened to have a couple of nuts in the pocket of my jacket and that came in handy. The squarrels were so hungry they were snatching the nuts from my fingures. And then it seemed that they gave us that sad look when there was no more nuts.

We didn't stay for too long, just enough to get revitilized again. And I needed to just stop by in the library to return a book. As I came to the library steps it was a bit of a challenge to lift a full double stroller. I managed somehow to drag it up, and then all of a sudden that boy appeared. I was puffing and buffing trying to catch my breath and the library was closed for another couple of minutes. The boy was about 12 years old, I'd say. He seemed to be very polite and complimented the girls on their blue eyes. Ivana's and Leona's eyes have more green than blue, but it didn't matter. He said that he wished to have had blue eyes. Well, it seemed a bit bizzar to hear that from a boy, and then he made sure those were not contact lences. "Kid, they are 2 and 4 years old!..." I wanted to say, but said that he had beautiful hazel eyes. Still he insisted that blue would have been his first choice. I wondered about the reason and that's when his answer just stunned me. "Because Hitler liked people with blue eyes. He said that those who have blue eyes are special people and that they get blue visions. Do you get blue visions?" he asked me... Hmmm..."Well, I don't and the color of your eyes does not make you "a special person". It's who you are makes you a special person", was my reply. The librarian came down to unlock the doors and proceeded to get that chain hanging on the gates that had prevented me from using the handicap accsess with the stroller.

And then the unthinkable happened... It's not that easy to open the door and to push the stroller through, so people always help me or I ask Ivana to hold the door if it's not too heavy. This one was heavy for her, definetely not for a 12 year old. The boy had seen me struggling with the stroller before and this time he walked past us and as I was preparing to enter after him the door practically slammed into my face. OK! Then he was standing by the elevator and just watching. Watching me struggling again. Trying to hold the door with my foot and pushing the heavy double stroller through. And then there was another door. I had to repeat my manoeuvre. He was still standing and watching by the elevator. I looked at him and he was looking straight at me. He wasn't hiding his eyes, there was no shame, no remorse. "Opening the door for us would've made you that special person", I said. "Not the color of your eyes." There was something in that look after my words. Or at least it looked like that.

I just hope I made him think. If we were just a little bit kinder towards each other, the would've lived in a totally different world.