Posted in Learn

Could you do me a favour, again?

I changed the settings of my pictures, and I wonder if they are still visible for you. There should be a total of six pictures in my posts. Thank you so much for helping me out.

Posted in Learn

After reading AcceptanceWithJoy's comment, I concluded I'm memorizing. Except for some unimportant details about this course, I'll probably forget everything. But you know what I will remember? The fun I had with my friends and the great professor we had. He's retiring, so I'm one of his last students. I liked him. Oh, he could be very boring, but you know, he loved teaching us. He regards it as a privilege to teach us new things. Last year, I was making my exam and made a mistake. Some professor would just ignore that, others would give a big sigh, and there are a few who would start yelling at you. But this professor didn't. He started to explain what I did wrong, and why I made that mistake. He than went on to talk about one of his favourite subjects, trying to teach me something while I was actually there to make my exam. Now, you should understand this. It was very warm, he would be sitting there all day, wasting his time listening to students reciting what he said only weeks earlier. But he wasn't irritated by that. He loved to teach us just a little more before we left. That's what a teacher should be like! I'm sure going to miss him.

So ... if I fail my exam tomorrow, it's not too bad. It means I'll get to see him in September again!

I would appreciate your prayers tomorrow morning. Well, I guess that some of you will still be sleeping as 9 in the morning is only 3o'clock in New York, and exactly midnight in LA. Quite weird if you start thinking about it.

Good morning / Good afternoon / Good evening / Good night

Make your choice!

For those who wonder, I got my ice cream: citron and raspberry sorbet.

Posted in Learn

I don't know what the weather is like where you live, but temperature around here has risen above 30°C (86+°F). You don't hear me complaining though! My room has windows facing the West, I'm right next to a river and there are lots of trees surrounding our building, not allowing any direct sunlight into my room. So the temperature inside here is great. It's perfect for studying.

But you see, that's exactly what's driving me crazy. We hardly ever get weather this warm. I should be enjoying a dive in the sea and nice cold drinks. But here I am, locking myself in in my room, trying to get twenty chapters of Greek text into my head (can you actually say that in English? In Dutch we say 'learn by head' instead of 'learn by heart', so we try to get stuff into our head. You don't try to get it into year heart, do you?). There's only one thing that can cheer me up right now. Wednesday morning around ten in the morning I'm going to sit my exam, and afterwards I'll never have to think about taking Greek exams anymore.

Downside of the situation is that I should start studying for my next exam right away.But hey, I can handle it! I already decided how to keep myself focused: tomorrow, after lunch I'll go out and get some...ice cream!!! You see, life as a student isn't that bad after all!

Posted in Learn

Could you do me a favour and tell me if you can see the pictures in the post below? I've posted three, but I'm not certain everyone can see them.

Thanks!

Posted in Learn

Considering many of you have never been in Belgium, let alone studied the educational system, I decided to fill you in on that. You never know it might come in handy.

In comparison to a lot of countries, public schooling in Belgium is great. Schools get paid for every student that attends the school. So they try to get as much students as possible. Which means they invest loads in educational material, good buildings, school trips, whatever may persuade people to get their child enrolled. There are a lot of schools for children with special needs, also paid for by the government. Belgian students score high on international test, and anyone with a high school degree can attend university. Why would anyone want to homeschool their children?

The reason is simple: Belgian students may be high in the international rankings for their knowledge, they're also the number one in the world ranking of students who hate going to school. They might learn to study, but they never learn to develop. And of course there are the same problems like everywhere else. There are more students who fit in the school system, because there are a lot of different systems, but there are still a lot of people who don't fit in.

A few of the parents of those students decide to homeschool their children. But homeschooling is rare and considered weird in Belgium. And there are indeed a few homeschoolers who are holistic or part of some strange sect. There are also parents who pulled their child(ren) out of school because they developed problems. But there aren't a lot of people who decided they want to homeschool their child before it has entered school. The reason for this is that people aren't aware of the choice they have! So even if it's really easy to homeschool your children in Belgium, there are only about a hundred primary school students that get homeschooled. There are no Dutch curricula. There are no homeschool groups.

I presume you understand that my dream to homeschool one day is regarded by many as the craziest idea so far. But hey, it's a dream!