My intention was originally just to store all the e-mails I've sent telling about our fight to homeschool in Germany. From August 2005 through February 2006, I also wrote about our experience in the German school system, and then we were out of the country for six months doing a DTS with YWAM. We've been back since the beginning of September, 2006. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:55:00 -0500 Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:55:00 -0500 We have three computers (well, one isn't ours, but is more-or-less on permanent loan), all of which have different quirks. The main problem with this one is that it has a tendency to be near-dying--WHEN it's working, it's definitely the best of the three. It's the only one that lets me type easily, so I'm taking advantage of it working to try to update. Passport: after the futile trip to Nikosia on Columbus Day, I chose the next sort-of available time, Thursday afternoon. We borrowed a friend's car so that Jörn could take Lukas to gymnastics, and at 2:00 I left in our car, with Katie and Helen, first taking a friend home. I'd tried quite a few times to call the embassy to confirm the hours, but the recording between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. kept telling me to call between 2:00 and 4:00 p.m. However, just after dropping off my friend, I pulled over and tried one more time, as I still needed new photos, and if they couldn't tell me where to get them near the embassy, I preferred to try to get them in Larnaka. I actually talked to a HUMAN!! A very nice human, too, who said that of course I could come that afternoon to renew my passport, no problem--oh, but maybe she should just check if the lady who does that was in. She connected me to someone else, who informed me that under no circumstances could I renew my passport outside of the hours 7:30 to 11:00 (which is, actually, what the website said.) So...I looked for another place to get passport photos taken (being embarrassed to go to the same place as the week before...) and found a parking space directly in front of a place that gave me FOUR photos (instead of two) for SEVEN Euros (instead of eight.) As expected, I look annoyed and wanting to get out of there in the photo. Oh well. Monday this week I left at 6:30 a.m., with only Helen, and arrived at the embassy at 7:45, and parked only about a five-minutes' walk away. (A friend came to babysit the other four children as of 8:30, and another friend picked up Jörn at 8:40 for work.) I had to go through three separate security checks, and at the second one they told me I couldn't take anything except my papers, so I said (out loud) to Helen, "Okay Helen, no being hungry or pooping." They ended up letting me take the wipes and a diaper after all, which they put in a page protector along with my wallet, but not the crackers. It's a good thing Helen is very happy with mama-milk, because that's all I was allowed to take in. The rest was put in a cubby, no problem. (A friend of mine renewed her daughter's passport in Frankfurt, Germany, a couple of weeks ago, and had to walk several blocks to a kiosk that does businesss taking a lot of money to hold cell phones of people going to the U.S. consulate--no cubbies there!) When I got home, I was falling asleep while talking with the friend who had been babysitting, and she talked me into taking a nap. I DO NOT NAP. But I agreed to go lie down. I started to drift off almost immediately, at which point Marie came to tell me she had found something, then Jacob came to ask a question, and then Katie brought me my cell phone, as Jörn was calling. And then I actually went to sleep and slept an hour and a half. The afternoon was fairly calm, although the children were rather horrid about going to bed (Jörn has a regular meeting Monday evenings), and then when Jörn got home at 9:00 he brought along a couple of friends who needed to talk, who stayed until about 11:30. Tuesday I went to Tots in the morning, which despite having something like 20 children, is considerably more restful than my own five at home. Katie and Helen mostly bee-bop around doing their own thing--I occasionally have to rescue some child's hair from Helen, and I did play peekaboo with Helen in the playhouse for awhile, and she fell off of her chair during snack time, but nothing dramatic. Then we took Sue home and visited with her for a bit, but it got exhausting chasing Helen and telling Katie to keep her feet off of the furniture, etc., so we were home in plenty of time for lunch. In the afternoon I let Marie stay home (Jörn was out) while I took Lukas to gymnastics, but I spent so much of the time trying to keep Helen and Katie off of the mats (Jacob helped by chasing Helen a few times while I was dealing with Katie) that I didn't get to watch Lukas much or listen to the Greek. Tuesday evening we had a prayer meeting here, but only until about 10:00. (Oh, and I translated and proofread some things for a friend, but it wasn't much.) Wednesday I worked at the YWAM preschool--oh yeah, kind of a major thing that I haven't managed to mention here on the HOMESCHOOLBLOGGER blog, but as of last week, I'm working Wednesdays and Fridays in a preschool. (Those are the only two days that it happens...) I take Katie and Helen, and there are two other preschool children, as well as the 6-year-old daughter of the leader. I was VERY apprehensive about it all, but it's working out well, and it's so peaceful there. The three older children are at home with Jörn--Wednesdays his regular meeting happens here at home (the children have lists of independent and cooperative, non-parent-needed, work to do, and instructions to interrupt only if there's blood, which there was this Wednesday, but not too serious), and Friday is Jörn's morning off. Wednesday afternoon we went to Sue's house to watch Swallows and Amazons--the children had actually started watching it Sunday evening on the "new laptop" (the one that we bought new just over a year ago, which has Vista, which we really, really can't stand), but about 15 minutes into it it started getting funny and then quit altogether, and our permanently-borrowed computer doesn't have a DVD player, and the "old laptop" (the one I'm using at the moment, bought used on E-bay 3 1/2 years ago and excellent in every way except for it's tendency to need repairs that would cost thousands of Euros if we didn't have friends who have done it for us for free twice in the last month...) wasn't working. Actually, by Wednesday it had been repaired again, but we'd already arranged to go to Sue's, and the children were REALLY excited about that. A much bigger screen and actual sound weren't too bad, either. :-) Shortly before we were going to leave, we found out that the couple who was supposed to come to dinner at our house wasn't coming after all, so we invited Sue and Richard to dinner. After dinner we played Settlers of Catan with them AND with Marie and Jacob (who have been begging to play with Sue and Richard for ages), with Lukas, Katie, and Helen all trying to help. It was fun. I think. It was pretty loud, so kind of hard to tell. Then the children went to bed and we played a nice peaceful game. Today...Jacob complained that he got woken up by my shouting (at Lukas, who had just dropped a rock about the size of Katie's head within about two centimeters OF Katie's head...), but I refused to apologize when I looked at the clock and saw that it was 10:00. Other than that, the day wasn't too hectic. I took Lukas to gymnastics--this time Jacob stayed home, and Marie and Katie watched, and I stayed in the car with Helen, who had just fallen asleep, and sorted photos on the laptop. Then a friend dropped off two of her children while taking another one of them to the doctor (and she had her baby with her, too), so another couple of peaceful hours, because of course the children all went off to play. After the doctor's appointment, they came back here for dinner, which was very nice, although a bit loud. (But not as loud with nine children as it had been last night with only our five...I don't get it. Tomorrow: preschool, Jacob and Lukas to Discoveries in the afternoon, Marie to Youth Group in the evening, YWAM dinner, and bed. And I just realized that it's nearly 11:00 p.m. I'm looking forward to the time-change this weekend, as I'm not really enjoying the 7:00 a.m. getting-up on Wednesdays and Fridays... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/738192/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:55:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/738192/ First of all, for Ute: schön, dass Du mich gefunden hast! Ich denke immer, ich sollte mal auf Deutsch schreiben, aber komme nie dazu... Second: this is going to be really short, because I'm supposed to be home in 21 minutes and am not finished with what I have to do here, yet So for the quick update:  "here" is the wonderful guest flat (apartment to my compatriots) we had asked to stay in for two or three weeks and actually stayed in for SIX AND A HALF WEEKS! It was wonderful and we're very grateful--thank you, thank you, Sue and Richard! And the reason I'm "here" at the moment is because we don't have telephone/internet in our house yet, so I'm checking e-mail, etc. (Too much etc.--I'm sorry I'm so behind on answering e-mails, but I DO always answer eventually, you know I do, A and M!) And yes, our things arrived on Thursday (yay!) and nothing was broken (yay! again and a huge thank you to Neema and Judy, who packed most of the dishes!), but we didn't actually move ourselves in until yesterday. I still haven't figured out how to put photos on here (yes, you can tell me what to click, and it should be obvious, but when I've tried, it hasn't worked), but I'll get photos onto Facebook at least. Eventually. Don't hold your breath. But we're in our house and are very happy! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/666529/ Sun, 8 Mar 2009 11:09:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/666529/ Hi Ruth-who-left-a-comment-below :-) Please e-mail me, and I'd be happy to discuss the possibilities for ex-pats to homeschool in Germany. There are actually several LEGAL options in some places, but some places and some options are a little less...um...straightforward. So it's best not to go into detail here on the blog, unfortunately. I don't check this daily, but I do eventually--please do write. hsingermany @ aol . com http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/652592/ Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:53:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/652592/ For those who found this blog because of interest in homeschooling in Germany, please do write to me! I don't check the e-mail address associated with this blog daily, but I DO check it and will respond eventually. And for those who are here because of interest in us as a family: we are no longer trying to homeschool in Germany! We moved to Cyprus almost a week ago, are trying to find our feet here, and I think it's finally time to start writing on my new blog, which I started a month ago, with the grand and glorious and oh-so-original title of...drum roll...The New Blog. :-) No promises, but I might update that a little more regularly than I have this one, and I'm now going to head over there and write a bit about the last few weeks. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/647875/ Tue, 20 Jan 2009 14:29:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/647875/ The Dudek family received good news on December 24th: this summer, the parents had been sentenced to three months of jail each for homeschooling their children, but that has now been overturned. Here's the article in German, for those interested. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/636872/ Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:45:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/636872/ It's not like I'm doing a good job keeping up this one, but I've been thinking that I should start a new blog once we've left Germany, since we'll no longer be "trying to homeschool in Germany". Then the question is: would that be something where I could be less "anonymous", or something where I should be more anonymous? If the latter, I obviously wouldn't link it from here!  I would still keep this one to post (theoretically, when I find the time...) information I have about homeschooling in Germany, but would no longer write anything about our own family. (Not that I've been overly anonymous about us as it is--I do use my real name!! But nor have I written all that much.) Occasionally people write to me because they found my blog while googling about homeschooling in Germany, and we actually helped two families who found me that way get permission to homeschool here, which I admit to thinking is cool. I'm really just rambling in answer to the comment left on my last post, asking if I'll start a new blog once we've left Germany. I don't know. :-) I did actually "start" a new one awhile ago, but only wrote one entry that (as I recall--I'm not going to go check) didn't say much more than that I was considering starting a new blog. Any suggestions on a title? :-) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/622387/ Fri, 21 Nov 2008 14:46:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/622387/ So far I've packed three boxes of books, and since my husband asked me to count them, I'm doing that: 118, 126, and 80 books respectively. (The numbers are a bit out of proportion on the first two boxes because I filled in all the nooks and crannies with my miniature books...) That made a teeny-tiny dent in the number of books on the shelves. We've also given away about five big boxes of books and have sold 40 at amazon.de, and have a big box standing here next to the computer of books that are listed for sale at amazon. We want to have all (or most of) the books packed by the end of November, when we have to confirm which size partial container we're taking, because the books will make the decision. If they fit easily into 5.8 cubic meters, with enough space for a few other boxes, that's all we're taking, but if it's iffy that they'll fit, we'll consider taking the next size (I think 11.2, or something similiar), and then will also take more kitchen stuff than otherwise, our bed, and maybe even some bookcases. Maybe even the washing machine. I also filled a box with our favorite games that we definitely want to take, filling in some corners in that box with some knick-knacks and miscellaneous toys. The flags and the puzzle maps of Africa and Costa Rica also went in that box and I miss them already. Oh, and I gave away my globe, and have been surprised in the three days since that how many times I've looked towards where it should be to look up something, and it's not there. We've told the children that they will each get one box to pack whatever they want--Legos, wooden train set, and other toys that are really for everybody will be packed separately, so it's just their "stuff", which I would happily throw away, that they have to squeeze into one large moving box each. So when my six-year-old saw the flat boxes that we'd already picked up, he asked if he could have "his" box now to pack it. I said sure, no problem--and as soon as he'd finished packing it, I'd be able to get rid of everything else! He changed his mind. Not ten minutes later, my nine-year-old asked me if he could have his box now to pack it. I gave him the same answer, he responded the same way. It took my 11-year-old another hour or two to notice the boxes, but then she asked the SAME question! I gave the same answer, got the same response. :-) The three-year-old hasn't asked, however, she's the main reason I only pack while she's in bed, because she's very eager to "help". Eight weeks to go... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/621321/ Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:22:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/621321/ I'm slow about this, but just found out about an article at HSLDA about very good friends of ours. Oh, and I forgot that our new computer (or Vista or what? I don't know--it's just annoying...) won't believe me that I want to allow pop-ups, so I couldn't do the link, so here it is to click on or copy and paste: http://www.hslda.org/hs/international/Germany/200811070.asp . The first family mentioned is the one that prompted me to write my last entry, in which I could say NOTHING at all. They had to be sure of getting safely out of the country first! They stayed with us for a couple of days before flying out (because they were literally and quite reasonably scared to stay at home!), which was a treat for us, although the reason was of course sad. They're doing well in the U.S., but it's quite an adjustment for them. Then in the article about the Gorber family it mentiones another hearing on November 12th, which did happen, and yes, the parents have full custody again. The report I was given (I receive the e-mail updates from schuzh, the German equivalent of HSLDA) was quite upbeat and positive about it all, but I found it very sad: after all, the children ARE in school, which is not where the parents want them! But they are also at home outside of school hours, so that's the compromise they're living with right now. Not mentioned in the HSLDA article were two points that I found rather telling. One, the judge commented that it's impressive how well the parents have done with the children "despite the unusual background"--in other words, that "even though" they have been homeschooled until recently, they're all doing extremely well academically and socially in public school. "EVEN THOUGH"!!! I submit that that it would be more accurate to say "BECAUSE"!! The other point was that there was a decision being made about whether the court would recommend a social worker visiting the family regularly to help them with their parenting skills, and the judge said that as there is no longer any basis of trust between the parents and the social services, that wouldn't likely be effective, so no, the court didn't recommend imposing that. To update on our family, we won't be trying to homeschool in Germany much longer: we have one-way flights booked to Cyprus in less than nine weeks. Very, very weird for me to think about: although we have spent rather a lot of time outside of Germany in the last few years (a total of 12 months out of 36, not counting short trips to Norway, Netherlands, Switzerland, etc.), Germany has been my home for over 17 years. It's been the place I keep my books and photo albums and (since we got married and I stopped taking him with me everywhere I went...) my lion cub, Cubby. But my books and photo albums, and Cubby too, are all moving to Cyprus with us in two months. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/619504/ Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:10:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/619504/ I literally cannot write any details at all, but there are LOTS of problems for homeschoolers in Germany at the moment!! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/605606/ Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:11:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/605606/ Just have to say that I enjoyed reading the name suggestions, and C, you listed SIX names that we've either already used or were very high on our list, including my number one choices for both a boy's name and a girl's name! But I won't say what they were, in case we get another chance to use one of them and I can talk my husband into one of them the next time around. :-) Several other names other people listed were also names that we've either already used or really like. One that "I" really like, but my husband doesn't (and it doesn't follow the rules, either) is Anneliese, which I named the doll my husband gave me 12 or so years ago, since he said that there was no way, forever and ever, no matter what, that we were naming a real child that. It's such a pretty name, though! Helen did finally get a middle name two and a half days after she was born: Teshuah. I keep reminding myself that I got my first choice with all eight names of our four other living children, so it's about time that my husband has first choice...I do like the meaning ("salvation", in Hebrew, so I guess essentially the feminine version of Joshua/Yeshua), and I guess it's pretty, and I'm sure I'll get used to it. But so far (Helen is 2 1/2 weeks old now), Helen Teshuah is not getting called by her full name anywhere near as often as any of the other children did at the beginning, nor can I really imagine her getting called by her full name when she's getting in trouble when she's a bit older, either... And a big plus with the name Helen: her name is NOT in the top ten either in the U.S. or Germany! (All four of the other children's first names are in the top ten either in the U.S. or in Germany or BOTH.) Helen was number 348, I think, according to one website. Oh, and no, we didn't know before she was born whether she was a boy or a girl, and had pretty much agreed on a boy's name, which is why the first word's Helen heard from her mother were, "Oh, you're a girl! What's your name?" (She didn't answer, but at least she was asked...) My parents were here for a week, which we really enjoyed, and it was hard saying goodbye this morning. A family reunion is tentatively being planned for spring (northern hemisphere!) 2010, and we really doubt that we'll get to the U.S. any time before that, either, but hopefully at least my parents will be able to visit us again before then. Totally different topic (but at least in keeping with this blog's name, which the rest of this post isn't!): good friends of ours have been "turned in" to social services for homeschooling, and they're trying to make some quick decisions. The most likely scenario is that they'll join what is probably becoming the biggest group of German homeschoolers: they will become foreigners. All that really remains to decide is exactly which country will become their new home, and when. I've heard of lots of other families recently, too, in several different countries, but can't give any details on any of them, as they are still in precarious situations. Things are not getting any better for homeschoolers in Germany, as far as anyone can see... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/594200/ Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:21:00 -0500 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/sheilalange/594200/