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!

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

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.

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.

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? :-)

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...

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.

I literally cannot write any details at all, but there are LOTS of problems for homeschoolers in Germany at the moment!!

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...

A comment was left with a question about homeschooling curriculum in German, but with no way (that I could figure out) to contact the person. Anyway, all I can really say is that we do like Zebibuch (www.zebibuch.de) for language arts for first through fourth grade, but other than that, I'm not familiar with anything in German. (And I can't seem to insert links anymore, it says that I should check the pop-up blocker, but I did, and it's off, so I have no further ideas...)

Incidentally, I have quite a few school books in German that I've been given and will never use, so if anybody is interested in them, let me know. I have math books, social study books (Sachkunde), and I think some language arts (Sprache) books. Any I have (sorry, NAK--I'll check exactly what I have when/if someone is interested...) would be for elementary school (Grundschule, 1st-4th grade).

Our daughter Helen was born yesterday morning at home, at 3:52 a.m., and we're all very happy. :-) We're still working on a middle name (which happily does NOT have to follow any of the "rules"!) and I enjoyed reading all the suggestions, especially as many of them are names that we have already used and/or considered! LOL (Anneliese is one of my favorite names, incidentally, but my husband vetoed that many, many years ago, before we had any children, so I named a doll that!)

The membranes ruptured at 6:30 a.m. on Thursday (September 4th), so we got everything organized, distributed the children, etc., and....waited. It was a very long, very boring day!! Occasional contractions, but nothing any stronger than in the last several weeks. The midwife came at 7:30, left again, came again at 1:00, left again, came again around 6:30 p.m., left again...(At the third visit we talked about what the procedure would be if nothing significant was happening by the next morning, because I would have then had to go to the hospital to be induced.) Around 10:00 we went to bed, but I couldn't sleep and was keeping my husband awake, so I got up again and went into the living room and did Sudokus and read the newspaper and wandered around. Around 1:00 a.m. (September 5th, Helen's actual due date) contractions finally started getting regular and a little stronger, around 2:00 they started getting much stronger and at 2:15 I woke up my husband and called the midwife, who arrived at 2:40, by which time I was 4 centimeters dilated. All the children have been born within two hours (at the most) from four centimeters, so I was much encouraged, but was still surprised at 3:30 when the midwife told my husband to put the towels in the oven to warm them--I couldn't imagine it could be THAT soon! No idea what time anything was after that, but I really only had one long contraction during which I pushed I think three times, and Helen was there. (Poor baby--the first words I said to her were, "So you ARE a girl--what's your name?!" Neither my husband nor I got our respective first choice on her name, but we compromised on our second choice, which was at least the same name. :-) ) Her umbilical cord was rather short and stopped pulsing very soon, my husband cut it, and Helen nursed for quite awhile before she was weighed. So who knows what her actual birth weight was, but officially, it was 4020 grams (8 pounds 14 ounces), and she measured 52 centimeters (20 1/2 inches) and her head was 37 centimeters (14 1/2 inches) around. She had all of her fingers and toes and earlobes and other important parts, and all systems are functioning well, top and bottom. :-) She also was apparently born knowing that she has four older, loud siblings, because she was definitely by far the loudest at birth!

We got the older children back in the morning (the girls at 8:30, the boys about half an hour later) and took lots of photos--they were all very excited. The friend who had the boys stayed for breakfast, and just after she left, another friend came, who after an hour or so took the four older children to the playground for a couple of hours so that we could sleep. My husband took her to the train station and went to playgroup with the other children in the afternoon and I wrote lots of e-mails (and tried to post here, but for some reason, couldn't get in) and enjoyed the calm. (Oh, and the midwife came during that time, too, to check on us, and will be here this afternoon, too.) Helen slept most of yesterday but not much of last night, doesn't like having her diaper changed, but happily loves the sling, where she's been most of today so far.

And what they say about the after-pains being stronger with each birth...it's true. And they go on longer than the contractions during labor. Other than that, everything is great and we're very happy. :-)

Oh, and in honor of the grand occasion...I tried to figure out how to insert a photo, but without success...

 

I feel like I should write something just to write something, but don't really have any ideas! Public school started in this state last  and I no longer allow the children to go outside in the mornings...except that I've already taken them out myself to dental appointments (when the dentist asked, I just said "They're in a private school, which doesn't follow the German holidays"--totally true...), and I have a check-up with the midwife in an hour, and will also be taking them.

We did do a Schultüte (a big cardboard cone filled with goodies, given to children on their first day of school) with Lukas, as he of course knew about them and wanted one, and we did give it to him on the first day of school in this state. When Marie was first-grade age, we had three other homeschooling families living nearby and had a "not-back-to-school party", which was really fun, and the two first-graders got their Schultüten. Then when Jacob started, that was when my two older children DID go to public school for six months. But this time it felt artificial and silly--we don't follow a school calendar of any kind, and there are no homeschooling families anywhere around, so it was just us. Lukas was of course pleased with his Schultüte--I mean, candy (just a small package of Maoam!) and new crayons and one's own gluestick and a cool pencil sharpener and a pencil case filled with marking pens and colored pencils, plus a bag of Erdnuss-Flips (peanut butter-flavored things that look like Cheetos and taste like styrofoam) to fill it up--of course he was happy! And Lukas has been registered as a resident of California, all totally legal, if a little weird, and on October 1st I'll file the affadavit in California...

We finished Mystery of History Volume 2 last week, with written tests (I HATE that kind of thing, but my very weird children both requested that I photocopy the test at the end of the section this time and let them do it written, instead of just talking about it all!), and I was fascinated by how much they remember. The two little ones (okay, not SO little, but they supposedly weren't doing MOH, being 6 and 3) like to walk around the house chanting "Marco Polo traveled east, 1271." What they will DO with that information, I have no idea... And we're going to start Sonlight 3 (just the Core--I don't like their science or LA) today, which they are very excited about. Of course, since I supposedly try to make a point of NOT following a traditional calendar, I'm annoyed that we're "starting" at a "traditional" time, just by chance! LOL But I do comfort myself with the fact that nothing else we're doing is "starting" right now. Marie is somewhere in 6th grade German, Jacob somewhere in 4th grade German, Marie about 1/4 of the way through 7th grade math, Jacob--oops, okay, again, just by chance, he started 4th grade math last week, we're reading a book on geology together, I'm reading the Narnia books to Lukas, Legos and trains and dress-up clothes are always there, etc. So the vast majority of our lives (at home, anyway...) is NOT on a schedule. :-)

Of course, with school starting back up, our outside activities have started (or will soon start) back up, too, so Marie has violin lessons and orchestra rehearsal, Jacob has art class, Katie and I go to a playgroup once a week (starts this week), Marie and Jacob have youth group while Lukas and Katie and I have mother-child playgroup, Sunday school is happening again, and so on. Lukas may take swimming lessons starting in September--no swimming lessons in the summer in this country, because nobody is around!!

And our baby is due in 18 days, but it's been mostly a nice, cool summer, so I'm feeling very well, overall. However, we're having the usual nightmare with names--maybe worse than usual, even! We've used up all our favorite names that also fit the "requirements", not to mention several names that DON'T fit our requirements, and there just isn't much more out there. Anyone want to help? Here are the rules:

--May not start with J, K, L, or M (I hated having the same initials as two of my siblings...) 

--May not end in "a" or the "schwa" sound (I hate being called "Sheiler"...)

--Cannot have the short-a sound in English (my husband's English is excellent, except for that one little detail. I can't hear the difference between "Alan" and "Ellen" when he's speaking...)

--Ideally, should be very close to the same in English, German, and Spanish (have only managed that more-or-less with Lukas so far, and of course I always have to explain that it's with a K, not a C--even my mother still spells it wrong, and he's six years old...) Added bonus if it's the same in Greek, which we don't speak yet, but want to learn in Cyprus!

--No "th" or "r"--Germans can't pronounce the first and I can't pronounce the second in German!

--Preferably no obvious nicknames, although outside of English-speaking countries, people don't have the tendency to automatically shorten names, so it's not so much of a problem.

--It would be nice if we LIKE the name, and having used up 14 names so far (all the children have two names each, including the three we lost in pregnancy), they're getting scarce!

"In der Schule verrohen die Kinder"

 

We've been using Rosetta Stone for Spanish off and on for several years (unfortunately, more "off" than "on"...) and are very happy with it. So I'm happily entering a drawing for winning a third-edition version of a new language! To double my chances, I'm writing about it here and linking to DeeDee's blog, where I found out about (and am entering!) this contest. :-) Below is a blurb about the new Homeschool Version 3--I especially like that it comes with a headset and a microphone!

‘In case you've not heard, Rosetta Stone has just launched the first 14 languages of its new Homeschool foreign language curriculum in the UK.  The new curriculum is available in three levels for each of the 14 languages released.  This is not just the same Rosetta Stone program redone, it's an all new curriculum.  Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3 includes a headset with microphone, and students must participate in lifelike conversations and actually produce language to advance through the program.  Of course Rosetta Stone still incorporates listening, reading and writing as well in addition to speaking.  Many homeschoolers requested grammar and vocabulary exercises, and with Rosetta Stone Homeschool Version 3, they're included!  For parents, the new Parent Administrative Tools are integrated into the program and allow parents to easily enroll students in any of 12 predetermined lesson plans, monitor student progress, and view and print reports.  Rosetta Stone has been the #1 foreign language curriculum among homeschoolers, and it doesn't look like that's going to change any time soon.’ 

Here are two links to articles on the HSLDA website about the situation in Germany. It was encouraging to have Mike Donnelly from HSLDA as the keynote speaker at the homeschool conference in May for Kaiserslautern Military Community Homeschoolers. Although his stated focus was that it is important for those from the U.S. to understand what has been and is happening in Germany because of how it could affect the rights of U.S. homeschoolers (military or otherwise), they were still excellent talks about the situation here for those of us who are NOT military. And although U.S. military homeschoolers are not in any danger here at this point, Mike really does want to help those of us who are. I really can't share much about our own situation here at the moment. We're not technically breaking any laws at the moment, but the situation is precarious, at best.

http://www.hslda.org/hs/international/Germany/200806710.asp

http://www.hslda.org/docs/news/washingtontimes/200806170.asp

 

So much for my attempt to update regularly: another six weeks have gone by since I last wrote.

Just for the record, I think Marie has practiced the violin about three times since then, and not been able to play with anyone else, because the person she'd just started working with left earlier than expected...

I'm now nearly 20 weeks pregnant and feel the baby moving often, and my husband has even felt the baby twice, which was very exciting! At the last check-up, we got asked who has big feet, and my husband said "I do" at the same time that I said "He does." We have a big-footed baby! :-)

We only have eight more days here  in South Africa (less, if one wants to count hours...), and are sad about leaving. The January DTS left on outreach and we're really missing them (they all got here at the same time we did), but the children have quickly been making friends with the new DTS, too, which started a week ago. Also, one of the guys from the previous DTS wasn't able to go with the other teams on outreach, because he's a refugee here (from Democratic Republic of Congo) and couldn't get a passport, so is doing local outreach. He surprised us with a visit a couple of days ago when he had a day off, and when Katie saw him from across the room, she froze, then FLEW into his arms, yelling his name, and just kept hugging him, again and again, saying his name and then laying her head on his shoulder. It was pretty cool. There's a team from Mauritius here at the moment, that the children hung out with a lot this morning, and another team from Réunion. One man on that team speaks English and one woman speaks German, but the rest only speak French and/or other languages that we don't speak, so communicating has been challenging, but all the children do now know how to say "bonjour"--and pronounce it better than I do, of course!

In answer to a question, we're headed back to Germany next week, where I've lived for over 16 years and where my husband has lived for his whole life. :-) We still have an apartment/flat there (well, most of it still belongs to the bank...), but will likely be selling it in the next six months. We're in the process of applying to go on staff with YWAM Cyprus in Larnaca, with the idea that we would go pretty much as soon as the baby (due September 5th) has a passport. My husband will go back to work at the bank when Katie turns three (July 24th) and his parental leave runs out, then will take another three years of parental leave for the new baby. (His boss is not going to be thrilled to hear about this! LOL) He's been working part-time (20 hours a week) at the bank for the last six years, as we didn't manage to raise enough support for him to go full-time with the mission work in Germany at that time, but we're hopeful that in the next three months we'll be able to raise more.

What else to write about? After taking something like eight months to finish the first quarter of third grade math, Jacob finished the second quarter in three and a half weeks. He's like this with everything: walking, talking, potty-training, reading...and now long division. iI takes him awhile to get something, but when he finally gets it, he TOTALLY has it! So Jacob is now math-free until we get home. (I have the next book at home!) And Marie finished sixth grade math several weeks ago, but at the moment she's doing a free one-month trial at www.aleks.com. There's no way we would end up subscribing, as it's pretty expensive (and completely on the internet, not very practical with one computer and a husband working from home), but it seems like a great program and it's a good thing for the moment, but I still don't know yet what she'll be doing next. Anybody in Ireland (or the U.S., for that matter) headed for Germany any time soon, so that I can order Singapore Math (NEM) without horrendous shipping costs?

I really can't think of anything else. When we truly leave Germany, I should probably start a new blog, with a more appropriate name, but I'm not any more likely to keep any other updated than this one, so it probably doesn't matter much...

I've been politely scolded by a few people for not writing much, so will try to make up for it today. :-) One attempt at an excuse is that the original reason for this blog, obviously reflected in the title, is to discuss homeschooling in Germany, in particular highlighting the difficulties for us and for others. Quite a few people have contacted me because of finding my blog having googled "homeschooling Germany", so people finding my blog that way obviously usually aren't interested in what we're doing in South Africa, etc.... There's also the fact that I don't get to the internet very often, partly because it's sometimes not working at all, partly because it's turned off at night, and mostly because when my husband isn't in class, he usually needs the computer. (And when he IS in class, I'm completely responsible for the children, and watching a 2 1/2-year-old while concentrating on writing a semi-coherent, grammatically-correct blog entry isn't very easy.) But since several of my friends do check my blog regularly in the hopes that I've written something (very faithful, optomistic people, considering my track record...), I decided to try an actual more-or-less complete update. And one that won't be of interest to people only looking for information on homeschooling in Germany, although you're more than welcome to write to me! :-)

First of all, of great excitement in our family is that Katie (two years and seven months old) is potty-trained!! This is the first time in ten years, five months, and 7 days (we declared it official on February 29th LOL) that we are a diaper-free family!! Each of the others potty-trained after the next child was born--in the case of Lukas, it was only four days after Katie was born, but still...we had never had a break before, and we intend to enjoy it.

Of even more excitement, if everything goes well, is that this diaper-break will only be six months long. It's difficult to be as excited as we want to be, considering my history (three miscarriages in the last four years), but I'm in the 14th week now with this pregnancy and everything seems fine so far. (Everything did the other times, too...) I've had two ultrasound scans, both perfect, and will have another next week.

Our time here in South Africa is already over half up, we only have another 7 1/2 weeks here. :-( The last couple of weeks my husband has been extremely busy, but we've been keeping pretty busy ourselves. We participate in base intercession Monday mornings, base worship Friday mornings, and class worship on Tuesday mornings, go to "baby group" Wednesday mornings, and to a Bible study for homeschool mothers every other Thursday. In between that are lots of trips to the library and visits with friends, and the children go swimming nearly every single day in the swimming pool here at the base. (The building used to be a hotel--ideal for a YWAM base, with all the rooms, bathrooms in each room, etc.!) It's embarrassing to say that we've only been to the beach once as a family, and the three "men" went last Saturday while we three "ladies" went to a baby shower. :-) As far as sightseeing is concerned, we've been to Boulders Beach, where penguins live, twice, and we went to the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town a couple of weeks ago. We've also been to the mall once--something a lot of people seem to find exciting, but except for the bookstore, I HATE shopping of all kinds, was glad to get home, and will happily never go again. LOL Oh, and several weeks ago the children and I also hiked about three-quarters of the way up the mountain right behind us, and we go to the grocery store regularly for milk and cheese and other little treats.

In between all this, the children do do a certain amount of "formal" schoolwork. Marie is nearly finished with Primary Mathematics (Singapore Math) 6B, Jacob is almost a quarter of the way through 3A and mostly through Miquon yellow. Marie has less than 10 pages left in her German workbook (I can't remember what it's called, but it's a standard book from Bavaria, for any Germans interested...) and Jacob is finally making progress in Zebibuch 3, now that my husband is doing it with him every day! We're enjoying Exploring Creation with Botany and expect to finish it before we leave South Africa--it's pretty cool seeing such different plants here. And learning that a strawberry is not a berry and a banana is is fun. LOL We're also working through "Little Footprints", a literature-based unit study created by South Africans for South Africans, advertised as being for those who are tired of reading about the Fourth of July and snow at Christmas! LOL We've enjoyed most of the books so far, and have discovered a wonderful South African author/illustrator, Niki Daly. However, although Marie and Jacob do cooperate with the books, it's much more at the level of Lukas, and we're really just doing it for the exposure to South African literature. I think people have said it's something like Sonlight, I would say it's much more like Before FIAR, at least "Little Footprints", which is aimed at up to age 8, I think.

All four children have been doing a lot more Spanish with Rosetta Stone in the last week, having re-gained enthusiasm with the arrival of a DTS team from the U.K. that has two native Spanish-speakers (from Ecuador and Venezuela, respectively). It's pretty fun watching Katie in the morning when we're sitting in the dining room eating breakfast--we're nearly always the first ones here--greeting everyone who walks in by name, and in the case of Germans (there are two others in my husband's class, but there's also a German DTS team on outreach here at the moment) and Spanish-speakers, with "Guten morgen" or "Buenos dias" to the appropriate people.

On their own, I can't begin to list what Marie's reading...she did go through a brief Nancy Drew phase (reading up to 6 of those books in an afternoon), but now having discovered Trixie Beldon, likes that better, saying that Nancy Drew gets a bit too scary and is a little too grown-up sometimes. She's also picked up a lot of much better quality books, I try to read at least some of them to have some idea of what she's reading, but I don't have the time to cover all of them, and at least a few I probably would have vetoed if I'd known about them in time... (One we both enjoyed very much, but had a few scenes I could have done without my 10-year-old daughter reading, was "The Forestwife", a re-write of Robin Hood mainly from Marian's point of view.) Jacob has been reading a lot of Asterix and Obelix (Marie reads those too) and finished "The Voyage of the Dawntreader" this morning, having read "The Horse and His Boy" last week. I don't assign any kind of reading at all, that being about as necessary as telling them to breathe...

Marie has also been having fun playing the violin with various people who play the piano--one was a Korean DTS student (here on outreach from Hawaii) who was a piano/music major in university, the one she's working with right now can't even read music, which doesn't stop him from playing piano about a million times better than I do (and I had seven years of lessons...) and being able to help Marie so much more than I can and accompany her after she's played something once.

In general, hanging out with everyone is wonderful for all of us. There's a DTS running here at the moment, with 21 students (about half of them South African) and 6 staff members, as well as of course the SOIP with 8 students and 7 staff members, lots of other staff people who are in and out (especially the cook, who is from Brazil), mission builders and visitors who stay from a few days to a few weeks, new speakers each week for the DTS and SOIP, and DTS outreach teams which stay for varying amounts of time. When we arrived at the beginning of January there were three teams here: from from Argentina, one from Hawaii (all Koreans, except for one Canadian Korean!), and one from Florida. After they left, another Florida team arrived, after they left the two teams that are here now (from the U.K. and from Germany) arrived. So there is ALWAYS someone around to play with the children--rough-housing, swimming, teaching Jacob to do hand-stands, playing endless games of Uno with Lukas (no one person could possibly play as many games as HE wants to play, but he always has fresh victims!), chasing, teasing, whatever. There aren't any other children here right now, but that hasn't been a problem. :-) (The 11-year-old daughter of the assistant base leader does come here to swim and hang-out sometimes, and we spent yesterday afternoon with two of my husband's classmates and their two little girls, but they live off-base, so we don't see them much.)

Next week (Saturday morning) the SOIP will be leaving on outreach. Because of my pregnancy, we made the decision that the children and I will stay here. (In all honesty, not  so much "because of the pregnancy", since I feel great and this would be the best time to travel, but because of the "if something goes wrong" part...being a two-day jeep drive over dirt roads from the nearest medical facility wouldn't be the brightest of ideas. And, because of the pregnancy, I wouldn't be too excited about either malaria OR malaria-preventing medication...) The outreach is only three weeks, but this will be the longest amount of time my husband and I have ever had apart, and I'm not looking forward to it. Still, being here at the base I'll have SO much more support than I possibly would have at home, and I know we'll manage! Just before they get back, the DTS leaves on outreach--that's going to be a difficult goodbye, I know, as they don't get back until after we've returened to Germany. My husband's team is going to Zambia, the other team is going to Tanzania and Malawi, and the two DTS teams are going to Sierra Leone and Turkey, respectively.

So, any questions, I'll try to answer. Also, to those who know me and know my regular e-mail address, please write, and I'll try to write back! I'm actually not TOO far behind, I think I only have about 12 unanswered e-mails, and only one of those is from January, the rest from February. That's pretty good, for me. :-)

Proceedings were opened against us in the middle of September last year, to which we had one week to respond. We did respond within that week, and heard...nothing. Once we arrived in South Africa at the beginning of January, we sent a fax to the school authorities (Schulamt) in our city in Germany, saying that we're now in South Africa, and would they please let us know where we stand with them legally. Today (February 11th--it took awhile!!) we received a letter, that they have dropped all charges against us! Yay!! Of course, on the one hand, I would definitely say that they didn't really have any other choice, but on the other hand, if you get a speeding ticket, you don't get it dropped just because you move, either, so...it's just a great relief to know that they've dropped charges!

I regularly receive updates about families still fighting in Germany, unfortunately, nothing any more positive than a court date being pushed back by a few weeks and so on, no positive rulings of any kind, at least not that I've heard of. The "positive" stories are all about the families who have managed to escape--who no longer live in Germany. There's a not-very-funny joke going around (actually has been for some years): What do you call a German homeschooler? Answer: a foreigner. The point being that German homeschoolers are leaving Germany and are now foreigners wherever they are. As far as most of the authorities are concerned, homeschoolers leaving the country is simply a matter of "good riddance." None of them have any interest in hearing that these families have been "forced" to leave--they emphasize that they had every right to stay--as long as they put their children in school. Over and over again there are mentions of "reconciliation talks" that have accomplished nothing, because the parents aren't willing to compromise. The thing is, many ARE willing to COMPROMISE: to submit to testing, evaluations, even to using a certain curriculum...but the authorities are not willing to compromise in any way, shape, or form: as far as they're concerned, "compromise" means that parents give in completely.

Anyway, we're out of the fight for the time being, but as I always say, watch this space...

Too funny--the way to get comments is to post an empty message! (For my blog, anyway, four comments is a lot, and that's what I got for the last "message"!)

Yes, we arrived here safely and happily and at the time planned. (Can't really count being about an hour late, when the whole journey was about 24 hours!) We like it VERY much here, except for Jacob getting a bit too much sun on Friday and now having a huge blister on one shoulder, and the fact that the internet connection is sporadic at best. I actually wrote a rather long post under the last title, but when nearly finished, all the computers suddenly shut off, and it was gone...I was surprised when I logged on just now to find that the title had survived, though! LOL

We went to the beach last Saturday (a little silly--we'd walked down the day before, but not to swim, and it was totally empty, and on Saturday it was of course very crowded) and went to a national park on Friday and swam in a lake that was very brown with minerals. Other than that, the most exciting thing for the children and me is that we got library cards last week--all four children got their own, as each child may only take out 6 books--and we foresee many trips to the library while we're here. (It's a five-minute walk if Katie (2 1/2) walks, faster if she's in the sling/carry cloth.) Lots of people have said that the library is "so small", and I suppose it is, but compared to the half-shelf of books in English at our library at home, it seems huge and we're quite satisfied that we won't run out before we leave in April! (But we might have read most of the books by then, so it won't be SO hard leaving, either.)

My husband's first week of lectures went well, mostly orientation and "cleaning-your-slate" stuff, the first speaker will be this coming week. I'm registered to take part, but they're still working on finding childcare for us, or for the two little ones, anyway. Someone had agreed yesterday to do it, then called this morning to say she woke up with the flu...

In the meantime, we're all enjoying the community living--no shopping, cooking, cleaning up! Heaven! :-) And the food is WAY too good, and peanut butter and GOOD bread are available at all times for when they do serve something someone doesn't like. The children love having all these people around, always someone to play with, and Katie knows the names of a lot more people than I do. (And a lot more people know her name than know mine--we walk down the hall and people I don't remember having ever seen are calling out "Hi, Katie!" and in the last couple of days, several people came to me and kind of embarrassedly asked my name, saying they knew Katie, but realized they didn't know my name. It's been fun. :-) )

Jacob (8) has made friends with the handyman and spent last week helping him fix windows, and Jacob can't wait until he comes back, but he's only here three days a week. Officially school-work-wise, the children have been doing German and math and we're reading a book about South Africa together, and I've ordered a couple of children's books set in South Africa that should arrive next week, but most of their/our time is spent interacting with each other and other people. Several days ago I was chatting with a group of people, including one girl (from the U.S.) who was homeschooled through 10th grade, a few South Africans, and several Dutch people (none of whom had any idea that homeschooling was legal in the Netherlands), and the big S-word came up: What About Socialization? The girl who had been homeschooled and I first started to laugh, at that moment Lukas (5) runs through the room being chased by an 18-year-old, Jacob is helping the handyman, and Katie is chatting with someone else (an adult) nearby about airplanes. (Marie (10), was admittedly probably reading somewhere...) I finally just said, "Well, as you can see, my children are very shy and wary of interacting with strange people in new situations..." No more comments were made on the subject. LOL

I'd probably better wrap this up before something happens to it. I haven't been able to access my e-mail today (internet connection may be sporadic, but connecting to AOL is even less reliable...), so for those who know me and would normally write to me privately, I'm not ignoring you, just can't get into my e-mail very often! Oh, and the time difference to Germany is one hour (we're ahead), and we're ten hours ahead of the west coast of the U.S.