Ex Patria

Some charities to consider for your Christmas donations

Are you donating money to charities for Christmas?  (Is anybody even reading this blog these days?)

Here are some suggestions for worthy causes you may not yet have heard of and which I care deeply about:

Children's Relief Network: I worked with them back when I lived in Bucharest and those children need everything they can get.  CRN saves kids from life on the street, or life in the sewers, from life wasted in glue fumes, from being just another neglected orphan in a country that is still not prepared to deal with its incredibly high number of orphans.  Please do consider this charity, it is very dear to my heart.

Angelus Hospice in Chisinau.  From their website: "In 2002, a local surgeon, Dr. Valerian Isac, recognised the need for this kind of care and established Hospice Angelus as the first provider of palliative care in Moldova. The primary goal of the organisation is to provide medical, social, spiritual and psychological care to patients with incurable and terminal illnesses."  I know the people who are involved with this and I can vouch that every dollar or Euro you donate will make a difference to people who suffer.

Hippocrates Children's Centre Moldova has a special story.  It's run by a doctor who lives around the corner from where we lived in Chisinau.  Friends of ours rented an apartment in his duplex.  He's really sweet and very dedicated and only after a wonderful BBQ where he played jazz on the guitar did I find out that he had partnered up with Tony Hawks of "Playing the Moldovans at Tennis" fame to found this children's center to help chronically ill children in Molodva (and now also Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus).  It's a very worthy charity and needs every cent. 

Last, not least, Margaret's Hope Chest.  Carin is a dear friend of mine and how she overcame the brutal murder of her grandmother to give hope to others is a story that is inspiring and, like the name suggests, full of hope.  It is a Christian charity and even though - no, because I'm UU, I can wholeheartedly recommend this cause for you to support.  Hope and love should never be confined on one's own religion but given freely to everyone who needs it.

Oh, one more:  KIVA.  Kiva is awesome and wonderful and I recommend a KIVA credit especially as a present for young people.  It helps them understand the power of helping others to help themselves by microlending.  Which is something we care greatly about here at Expatria.

Thank you!

 

Have yourself a quiet and peaceful advent time

I love advent.  I might love it more than Christmas - it has to do with anticipation and all those little rituals and traditions that come with the advent time.  advent wreath, Barbara blossoms, cookies, quiet hours with music and books, advent calendars, Christmas markets, festive lighting and decoration - I love it all.

But advent is so early this year!  I forgot to get a wreath.  Or rather, I thought about it all week long but the wreaths I saw I didn't like, decided I would do one myself, forgot to get greens...  and all of a sudden, it was today.

I remember that in Romania and in Armenia, it seemed the most important thing to me to have everything very traditional.  I'm a bit more relaxed these days.  Old age makes wise?  Who knows.  I saw an idea in a magazine lately where they made an advent "wreath" with canning jars, evergreens and little number tags.  I stole the idea but I didn't have four same jars, so I took four different jars, made those number tags out of simple paper, used the butcher's twill they used but ran out and used golden wire instead.  I also didn't have evergreens, so I filled my tray with walnuts and left-over greens and berries from the bouquet my Mom gave me, and some little fake mushrooms from a wreath from years ago.  Voila, our advent wreath of 2011:

 

Oh, and do you remember our old fall tree from a year ago?   I was ready to throw it out (it's only been there because we forgot to take it down when we moved away.)  The kids were horrified.  Throw out the tree?  But, but, it's a tree!!  You don't go and kill trees! 

I'm not cruel, and I'm a reasonable adult, so I compromised.  We removed the "fall" leaves and put up those little paper stars we made also a year ago.  The kids love it.  "We have stars on our tree!" I admit it looks cute.

On this note, have a nice first Advent Sunday.

Composer of the month - December 2011: Johann Sebastian Bach

"We have a composer of the month?"

"Now we do."

Really, why do they always question when we do something new.  Do they do that in "real" school, as well?

I love classical music and we play a lot of it -- when we have a stereo.  We didn't have one those past 8 months since we didn't pack ours and the house in Chisinau didn't have one.  I missed it more than I realized because now music is playing all the time.

I had planned to incorporate music into the curriculum but I forgot the recorders in Germany (just like the stereo), and the piano is still a plan (when we have a new posting),  so I thought at least they should have some passive exposure.  I bought three installments of the "Classical Kids" series, among them Mr. Bach comes to call.  It's delightful, really.  I would like to hear more of the music at times but that's easily fixed.  We have the Magic Flute as well and Alan likes to listen to it while building Legos.  It's sometimes amazing to me how much the kids pick up from these CDs.

While we listened to the music, I had the idea that we could go and visit the Bach Museum which is just an hour north of here,  and visit the Organ Museum (also in English, by yours truly) in Ostheim, and...  and then I had this idea about the composer of the month.  A month of intensive listening to and hearing about one particular composer. Brilliant, right?

For Bach, a month seems almost not enough so we begin now, in November.  I have to stock up a bit on my CDs which is never bad and next week, we do the field trip to Eisenach and a week later, we go to Ostheim to visit the Organ museum.  We'll talk about his life and listen to his music, we'll learn what a fugue is and much more.

The result of today's intensive listening to Bach is that Alan wants to learn to play the violin.  He fell violently in love with the violin concertos and while that is healthy and normal, I'm not at all sure about the violin thing.  It's cheaper than an organ, though, so there's that.

Oh, I owe you the cinquain the boys produced -- it was a cooperation:

Redwood
big, strong, sturdy
growing, living, thriving,
towering over the forest
I'm small.

The cinquain is a fun format and the kids are ever getting better at their poetry.  Only the poetic riddles today resulted in a lot of Tolkien-quotations.  But you know, the one I came up with, they solved in microseconds:

Shrieking, screaming
Always wanting attention...

I had a third and a fourth line but they blurted the answer out in unison.  I guess I'm too predictable.  So we bagged the riddles.  Tolkien is hard to beat.

Nature Study

We are new converts to Anna Comstock's Handbook of Nature Study.  I stumbled upon this via my UU Homeschooling group where the owner of Intellego Unit Studies is a member and somehow I came from there to this website which is dedicated to that very book, Handbook of Nature Study.

I love nature anyway, and we do have daily outside time for the kids, and we take enough walks with them to make them really strong hikers.  They can walk for miles and miles.  We haven't had as many walks in Chisinau as we would have wanted but now we have nature right in our backyard again, a good time as any to start with a more intensive version of our nature study.

I read a few chapters of the book and I have to say, it's lovely.  Make no mistake, this is a hefty volume and cannot be touted around during walks.  The Blogspot site says very clearly that the book is not a field guide, and it isn't.  But it shows you what's important and it's a bottomless pit of interesting information.  The book is quite aged, it is celebrating its 100th birthday this year.  But nature doesn't change so quickly, and many views that Anna Comstock holds are surprisingly modern:

During many years, I have been watching teachers in our public schools in their conscientious and ceaseless work; and so far as I can foretell, the fate that awaits them finally is either nerve eshaustion or nerve atrophy.
[...]
In my belief, there are two and only two occupations for Saturday afternoon or frenoon for a teacher.   One is to be out-of-doors and the other is to lie in bed, and the first is best.

She encourages to say "I don't know" when one doesn't -- a concept that must have been very strange in the early 1900s.  She doesn't paint nature in rosy tones and doesn't glorify, a tendency of tree-huggers that I've always found a bit strange. 

Jacob is doing a new program and his unit right now is about habitats.  This tied in nicely with the nature studies, so we decided to do the outdoor challenges that the Blogspot website suggests. 

Yesterday, we set out for our first tour of discovery.  Our chosen nature study spot is right around my Dad's cabin in the woods.  It's lovely there and the kids love it so much.  There's tons to discover, like a hidden pond with lots of carp, and the remains of a settlement given up hundreds of years ago.  It makes me happy to see my kids roam through the forest, picking up stickss, climbing rocks.   Doing this with a bit of reflection afterwards can only be good for them.

We found last night's frost in the shade.

Leah found pine cones and when I showed her from where they came, she was stunned by the enormous trees towering over her.

We found different types of lichen on trees:

We found a dead tree with a curtain of bark hanging down:

We found lots and lots of beech nuts:

Trees.  There's something about them, no?

Mommy got to play around with some sun flare:

The kids very gamely posed for a memory photo on what they insisted was the old city wall of the abandonned town:

The plan is to go to this spot every week and observe the changes.  Let's see how that works out.

Homeschooling - Limerick

The boys had to write a limerick today.  That's not an easy task, you know.  But once they got going, they did a great job.  I'm immortalizing all their poems, for better or worse.

There was a young boy from Moldova
who invited his German friends over.
They asked, where is that?
And they had a spat,
and agreed to meet in Cordova.

Pretty neat, eh?  I only supplied the name of an obscure town in Argentina to rhyme with "Moldova".  Tomorrow, we talk about the cinquain.  That's an American thing, right?  Because I never heard of it before.  Homeschooling teaches everybody!

Free verse

Today, we wrote poems in the free verse style. I really didn't expect much, having always dreaded writing poems myself -- because I loved writing poems and they were always torn apart by my German teacher.  You know, I was this dreaming teenager with all those noble feelings about love and peace and such.  He wasn't very sympathetic.

Anyway.  The boys surprised me.  Alan's poem is actually a work in progress, he told me he would be thinking more about it as the kids went outside into the backyard for recess.  But here are the first results.

Frost
glittering winter wonder world
looks like snow,
tastes like ice
                                by Alan

 

fire,
it warms my hands,
my feet,
and back
hot

                   by David

Quick and dirty: Homeschooling, ctd.

We started a new program with Jacob:  Moving Beyond The Page.  It's a curriculum for "creative, hands-on, and gifted learners".   I looked at it, and the "gifted" part that first scared me off, well... I don't really see it, yet.  Maybe later.  I hear it's writing-intensive which I like.  Writing is so important.  The 5-7 program starts slow, the higher levels may not be quite that slow.  However, so far Jacob loves it - it is very hands-on which the Sonlight isn't at all.  I'm not at all sure about his learning style but he loved the activities todayy.  I can see that it will be more work than just sitting at the desk but you know, whatever works.

Today, our lesson was on "My Environment" and he had to remember the three key elements, namely shelter, food, and water.  We then went through the concept of his environment, what belongs to his environment, what is important, etc.  We walked through the house and talked about the different rooms, and which room is the most important in the house.  Some of his answers delighted me:  "The fireplace" and "the bed, and the books!" are the important features of living room and bedroom.  In his opinion, the kitchen is the most important room in the house, because there he can find food and water.  Makes total sense to me.

We wrote this in our activity sheet, and then he drew a picture of the kitchen.  I think I'm in love with this program already!

We also did a craft - Jacob doesn't love crafts and often runs out of steam in the middle.  He had to put masking tape on a piece of paper, trying to create the shape of a tree.  Then he colored over the tape with various colors, and then we peepled the tape of.  (If you want to do this really simple and effective craft, do wait until the masking tape is completely dry.  Wait an hour or more.  Because if you don't wait, you'll peel the paper off, too.  Patience is not a family trait.)

Other than that, it worked beautifully.  Also, isn't his handwriting nice?

This is Leah's super simple version, btw:

 I didn't ask her to create a shape, just stick the tape on and color the paper.

Then, we found a different use for the masking tape:

 Truth be told, she thought it was funny and posed for this picture.  But really, it helped with the shrieking and there was always a smile on her face.

The older boys did their usual stuff but when we run out of curriculum in January, I am leaning towards MBTP for them, as well.  Let's see how the next weeks go.  But so far, I'm liking it a lot.

 

One last time

I am packing.  The movers come on Monday to add our boxes to a half-full truck that goes to Germany whenever it's full.  I don't think we are going to fill it up but we are certainly trying - where did all those books come from?  No, wait.  I know where they come from.  I just didn't know there were so very many.

We are leaving early.  My Dad has some health problems and I really want to be home right now.   We accelerated the move by almost two weeks and we are leaving on the 15th.  That's just a few days! Which is, not coincidentally, the day our green cards expire.  We had applied for the extensions, and those are supposedly being worked on, but I've learned my lesson and will not overstay on the promise that the new cards will be done "tomorrow".

So, Tuesday.  I still can't quite believe that we are going to leave Moldova and won't be coming back.  (I am writing out this on purpose.  I want to see whether in three months, I'll be eating my words.) 

We did a last trip to Orheiul Vecchi on the weekend. First, we gave the kids a treat by stopping at the McDonald's.  Do you know there is a new species of sparrows that specializes in French Fries?  I told the kids not to feed them since too much salt is bad for the birds but the sparrows didn't seem to think so.   They were cheeky!

At Orheiul Vecchi, we released the fish from our fountain into the wild.  The fountain will be drained for the winter, so we needed to get the fish out.  I hope they fare well in the river!

Then, we climbed the hill and went into the cave church a last time.  We lit candles for Doug's dad and for Benjamin, one last time.

We climbed out on the rock face with the sheer drop one last time.

The kids ran up and down the endless stairs one last time.

We walked up to the church one last time.

The kids posed in the courtyard with the bell, one last time.

They climbed the crumbling socialist monument behind the church, one last time.

And then we drove home.

Now we're making chocolate chip cookies to use up flour, brown sugar, and chocolate.  We're dividing the books up into piles that can go into the van, and those that have to come with us for homeschooling.  We're enjoying our last days in this giant house before we're all cramped up in our tiny (but cosy, oh so cosy) home in Fladungen again.

And we're changing plans, again.  A high ranking State Dept official is coming to Moldova next Friday and should, if at all possible, meet up with Doug.  So now maybe Doug comes only to Budapestwith us and then flies back to Chisinau on Thursday while we continue on to Germany.  It's very fluid, our life.  Always changing.  It makes planning hard sometimes.

Oh, and somewhere in there, it's my birthday.  C'est la vie.

Moving on, part xxixv or so

Two days before shutdown began at Doug's project, USAID Kiev finally got around to granting the NCE (non-cost extension) until December 23, 2011.  I don't know if that was just something that ended up in the slush pile or if this indicates their general work style but in any case, that was close.

So now we know we are shutting down on December 23, not on November 15.

Our visas expire on November 15, though.  What fun!  Did I tell you I got arrested and speed-tried when I left the country earlier this year three days after my tourist visa expired?  Even though our permanent residence visas had been in the works for months?  Even though same visa was granted the very next day?  I had to pay a fine, too.

So you can imagine I am very twitchy about this, "Oh, we think you can just dip out and back in and it will all be fine."  No, siree.  I want this in writing, with a big fat stamp from someone very high up in the government, best handwritten on pergament with illumination and fancy signatures.

Then there is the move which is scary.  How did we end up with all those books?  Oh, yes.  This reading habit we have.  I have to tell you that I'm really proud my boys filled notebook after notebook this homeschooling year but it all weighs a ton.  Maybe you remember that we have this odd restriction of 20 inches?  Because we get an air move not a ground move, and it seems the planes flying in and out of Moldova are really small, so they only take 20 inch cubes on board.  We need to get rid of quite a few things - the white board, the table and chairs, Leah's high chair which I got at a sale at the International School and which I love (it's from Hungary, solid wood, so lovely).  Unless we can somehow stuff it into the car. 

Being clever, we thought we fly the kids to our home in Germany, have a nice Thanksgiving, then Doug goes back and stays until the end.  I fly back before Christmas (thus burdening my Mom with the kids for a few days) and we both drive the car.  Air luggage!  (Six people!  Six bags!  That's more bags than we actually have here!) plus an empty car that can be stuffed to the brim.

Alas, it's not going to happen.  Our lowly status as Short Termers doesn't allow for Doug to fly his family out.  We have to drive.  Bummer, really.  I would have preferred not to drive with four kids over snow-covered hair-raising serpentines in the Carpathian mountains but obviously USAID doesn't think that's dangerous at all.  I will trust they know their stuff.

So we are driving, on Thanksgiving.  Why so early?  Because we figure the weather will only get worse, and Doug has two days off, so we are not wasting precious days on the drive.   He will then return on this free Air Moldova ticket (that's another story for another time) and stay until the project is officially, finally done.  Whereupon he will fly back to Germany and spend Christmas with us.  Whatever comes next, we have no idea.

Do you have a nice job for us?  Maybe not in a landlocked country, or one that is ravaged by civil war, or famine, or abject poverty?  Because those countries pop up a lot lately.

So, instead of planning this move which is scary, or dealing with the visa issue which is done by the project, I am procrastinating.  Like, shooting photos.  That's also nice.