Home Schooling

Neither Stacey nor I have ever been "home-school people". Now if anyone reading this home-schools their children, I don't mean that at all in a derogatory way. I mean simply that it was a path we knew we had no interest in pursuing with our children for many reasons and was probably one of the last things I ever thought I'd be doing. So when this trip came up and we decided that we would take on the task of educating our kids for the year, I must admit I was quite nervous.

Now you'd think with me being a teacher and Stacey having quite a bit of teaching experience, this wouldn't sound like too much of a daunting chore. However I can tell you that it has been probably one of the most angst-ridden parts of planning for this entire Italian undertaking. If we mess it up, our kids will return home being behind their peers. We will have double work to do to get them caught up to be successful. Any of the nay-sayers who thought this "year-off" thing was foolish would have been proved right (which by the way I'm thankful to say is a very small number of people). It's a lot of pressure and I think our experience as teachers perhaps made it more so because we know so much about what "good" teaching is and should be.

So how did we end up doing it? Here's a taste of our day the way we've set it up for now. We're only in week 2 (with apologies to my school colleagues who have been back in class for a month and half now) so perhaps things will change as the year progresses.

Oh, and I should mention we have four days of "school" and a "field trip" day each week. We do Monday/Tuesday and Thursday/Friday as pairs of days. Wednesdays are our day to get on a train and go somewhere nearby. Last week's trip, as our loyal readers will know for instance, was to Florence. Tomorrow we're planning to visit a castle and see some dinosaur fossils near La Spezia. While Wednesdays don't have "class" time, they will definitely be educational. Weekends we leave unplanned, but of course just like weekends at home, many will be filled with local activities I'm sure.

8:30 - Breakfast. This is not an optional time. The kids understand that our day begins then and that they are expected at the table, dressed with beds made, at that time (as expected, they are setting their alarm for 8:20). While we eat (everyone is expected to eat something) we do a little family devotional time to get ourselves focused for the day which is followed by some current events. I must say I'm surprised how much the kids have enjoyed the current events discussion so far. Even over the weekend when we don't have to talk about those things, they've asked me to find more things to tell them about. We've covered a wide range of things from volcano eruptions, to Ebola, to robotic cheerleaders, to ISIS and they seem to want more. Who knew they'd care so much?!

9:00 - The first block of the day begins. As you can see on the board, which is updated every day with the whole day's agenda so there are no "What are we doing today??!?!" questions, our first block begins with a workbook they have that has creative problem solving puzzles. They begin with a page in that each day to start of with something fun and to get their brains working. That's followed by math and some language arts time. We're using a series of books from Newmark Learning this year that do a great job of laying out the Common Core standards for their grades and help guide us in being sure we keep them up to standard. You can also see in the back there that the kids have a work table that is their school space. During this first block we have them remain here to help them get started with the "I'm in school" mindset.

10:15 - Recess/Snack time. (you'll notice that the times I type are slightly different than you see on the board as we've already began adjusting some times since taking the picture based on what's working) Every day we have some sort of snack, usually fruit of some sort (which is all really tasty here by the by) followed by a walk to a nearby park where the girls get to get their energy out a bit. This is their playtime, just like at school we don't intervene, they just play and have fun with each other.

10:45 - Piano/Italian. Each day during this next time period, the girls split up and either practice piano or practice their Italian. Piano is taught sometimes by Mom, sometimes by Dad at an electric keyboard. Meanwhile the other daughter is at the laptop in our bedroom working on Rosetta Stone to develop their Italian.

11:15 - Spelling/History/Reading Buddies. This is the second formal block of the day. During this time we rotate through those various topics as we need. Some days it may be a lot of time talking about history of a country we're going to visit or studying heroes or the Revolution. Other days it may be reading buddies where the two of the read aloud to each other a book of their choice, right now it's Treasure Hunters by James Patterson. Spelling most days, which is not a big fan favorite.

12:00 - Lunch. Eaten together as a family with little to no agenda usually. I quite enjoy getting this time to just chat with everyone. I've already begun to feel closer to these girls than ever before and we've only been here a few weeks!

12:30 - Parent/child exercise. This is one of my favorite times of the day. Each day one of the girls goes with just one of the parents and does some sort of physical exercise with them. Stacey's been doing some jogging with the girls individually. I've taken them on some bike rides where we've explored the city. Another day I took Arya to see if we could get lost and find our way back. It's PE disguised as fun with a dose of parent-daughter bonding thrown in for fun.

1:00 - After telling stories from whatever adventures we went on during P/CE time, we sit down and plan upcoming travel plans. This may be researching possible places to visit on a longer trip to another country or what our next local, Italian trip will be. We may look at history, we may look at sight-seeing, book hotels, plane flights, look at maps, and just figure out what's coming next.

1:30 - The last official part of the day is silent reading. From 1:30 until 2 (and sometimes longer as both girls are finally starting to get excited about reading) everyone stops and reads, Mom and Dad included. Such a nice experience to be in the house with everything quiet and just have the chance to sit and read. A very restful way to end the school day.

Once we hit 2:00, it's free time for all, just like a regular school day. I've just taught the girls chess so Ashley is always wanting to play that. Sometimes the girls will have tea parties (pictured below). Sometimes they read more. Frequently we'll all go out on some errand together. Right now as I type, it sounds like they're giving each other acting classes...I'm not sure what means, but it sounds like fun!

"So how's it going? Is it working the way you hoped?" you may ask. I think it is says I. We do get the occasional moment where one will say something like "I don't want to do X" and we have to remind them that if they were at "real" school they would never say to their teacher "I don't want to do my writing!" So far though, that's been the real only negative I've felt. As a teacher, I very much appreciate that I have a 1-to-1 or at worst 1-to-2 teacher-student ratio. It's so nice to be able to give my students my full attention. I feel like I can help them however they need and I can also move at their pace instead of have the pace dictated by the struggling students. I feel like we can cover so much more in one day than would ever be possible with a full sized class at school. I know they appreciate that last part too as both have commented on how work that we get done in 15 minutes they claim takes a hour at school because the teacher is spending so much time "getting the bad kids in trouble". Again though, this week 2. Ask me again in June!

A Day in Florence

This week we went to Florence for a day. Italians call it Firenze. We saw the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore. It is the cathedral there. It’s also call Il Duomo.

We saw the inside of the dome and it has Jesus, angels, and saints. I thought it was very beautiful. Filippo Brunelleschi designed the dome.

We climbed 458 stairs to the top of the dome. We also climbed the cathedral tower. It was 412 stairs up. That’s 1,740 steps (up and down)!

We went to lunch close to the cathedral. After we ate lunch, we went to the DaVinci museum. We got to build things and interact with stuff like turning wheels and pulling ropes.

The machines in this museum are copies of the real ones that Leonardo DaVinci invented. 

After we went to the DaVinci museum we went to the Palazzo della Signoria. There were a lot of statues like the model of David by Michelangelo (the real one is in a museum). I didn’t like seeing the naked statues.

Then we took a long walk to the Ponte Vecchio bridge which is a bridge that has buildings on it. It used to be called the street of gold because it was where all the gold was sold. There are still a lot of jewelry shops on the bridge. 

Next we tried to go to Boboli Gardens, but is was closed because they were repairing it from a big storm. This is a picture of us eating gelato before finding out we couldn’t see the gardens.

I got limone, nutella, and menta flavors. It was yummy.

Our last stop of the day was to Il Porcellino. It is a bronze pig. You can see me rolling a coin down it’s tongue for good luck. 

I was very tired at the end of the day. We ate pizza for dinner then took a train home. 

Our Quirky Italian Flat

So we’ve now been in Lucca a week, and are adjusting well to la dolce vita. Our italian flat is just as we expected… mostly. We wanted a smaller place, with italian charm, and we got it! The wood beamed ceilings are beautiful! The musical neighbors, a joy to listen to. The gelateria and pasticceria around the corner - yummy! No complaints here! We just thought it might be fun to show you some of the quirky things that we have found in our “old world” place.

Energy efficient laundry
When we decided to move to Italy, visions of hanging laundry on a line out the window filled my brain. I knew most italians do not have dryers and was prepared for that. So I was shocked when we found out that because we live in an historic tower wall, that hanging laundry is not permitted. Instead, our landlord bought us a combo washer/dryer. No it’s not side by side or stackable. It’s one machine!!! 

Cool, right?! The reality is that it’s a small machine that runs 6-7 articles of clothing at a time, taking ONLY 4 hours to complete a full cycle. Yay for low energy in Europe! Needless to say, some of our wasteful clothes washing habits are changing. We are already more vigilant about what goes in a pile on the floor!

“I’m a big kid now” potty
Now let’s be honest, I’m short. Five two and three-quarters (Dave’s note: don’t you like how she has mention the 3/4 inch, like a kid saying they’re not 4, but 4 and 8 months?!) I like to brag. Because of my height challenges, I have come to expect the need for a step stool or ladder at times. I even climb a shelf now and then to reach that out of the way Christmas platter. But dangling feet on the potty - COME ON! 

Unlike our american toilet which is mounted to the floor, this toilet is mounted to the wall, so I guess they can make it any height they want :-(

Oompa-Loompa loft
In direct contrast to toilet issue for the vertically challenged is the second floor girl’s room. I think this picture pretty much speaks for itself!

I do clear the middle beam. It must be five feet three inches exactly - oh sorry, I mean 160 cm.

Contemplative decor
The moment we walked into our place, Ashley took this ceramic statue off the table and hid it. “What is this?!” she said.

Yes, she had no clue what this piece represents, as we are not Buddhists. She just saw a guy with a funny hair-do. Because she had such a strong reaction, I put it on the center of her desk when she wasn’t looking. She followed suit by putting it on my nightstand for me to find. I put it next to her bed. She then moved the statue, an ugly vase, and a cactus onto the kitchen table, and on and on it goes with the decorating fun!

Power struggles
Many of the lights in the house are small spotlights mounted to the ceiling that one might find at say, Ikea (pronounced with a short “I” as in “little”, i-kay-uh here). They don’t give off a ton of light. But don’t worry we have a floor lamp with plenty of power. It is used most frequently while the kids are at their desk doing their schoolwork. So much power in fact that NOTHING ELSE can run while it’s on. Load of laundry? Nope, fuse blown. Dishwasher? No way! Okay, can I at least charge my phone? Ha ha ha silly rabbit, tricks are for kids and this fuse box is your best friend.

Rustic sink - Tiny drain
This stone sink is old. Well it at least looks old. But the flat is newly renovated. That’s the funny thing. We love the look and feel of the sink, but could they have at least made the hole a tiny bit bigger? 

Yes, no garbage disposal. I can deal. But it's only about the size of a fifty-cent piece. It actually reminds me of watching my grandmother scrape all the plates into the garbage before she set out to washing the dishes in the sink. I just have to scrape things really well. No rice left behind. 

My college dorm TV
When we saw the apartment, it was just being completed. We had a month before we moved in and so the landlord and real estate agent asked us if there was anything else we would like to have. Pots and pans? Linens? TV? Yes, yes, and yes. Dave and I had been back and forth on the TV issue, assuming that all channels would be in italian anyway, did we really need one? Well we quickly agreed that even AirPlaying a movie from the laptop through the AppleTV could be an enjoyable break for us and the girls, not to mention the fact that I could keep up with life in Downton Abbey! Most of you know that my husband prides himself on his electronics (Dave looks around innocently) - as do most males in our extended family (and probably yours too!). So, heavy laughter ensued on my part when we found the TV purchased for us.

Beyond the size (which you’ll notice is comparable to the laptop), there wasn’t even an output to connect the apple TV that we’d been carrying in our suitcase for the past 3 weeks. HA!

“I’ve fallen and I can’t get up!”
This is a pull string. 

There is one in both showers. It buzzes throughout the house when you pull it. Great idea! No more yelling, “Mom, I need a towel!” just bzzzzz bzzzzz bzzzzz bzzzzz bzzzzz. A bit annoying, but again, a great idea! The problem? That buzz is the same buzz that you hear when someone buzzes the front door 4 flights downstairs wanting to get in. Bzzzz bzzzzz….hmm is someone in the shower or at the door? Oh, one more thing. The light switches - oh, just read on, it’s the last quirk, I swear!

Lights, camera…..bzzzzzz
The light panels throughout the house look like this.

There are several on every wall. Three switches right? Now, just remember which one goes to which. Not too uncommon. Even in our CA kitchen we had multiple lights on a panel. But this is different. Every panel is different. Not only is there a switch for the lights, but sometimes there is a switch that sets off the “I’ve fallen and can’t get up” buzzer, and sometimes it is a blank switch that does nothing. Oh, did I say that every panel is DIFFERENT?!!! light-buzzer-light, light-blank-light, blank, light, blank, buzzer, light, light, the combinations are endless, let me tell you. And this is how it goes: just as we get the kids settled down dreaming of sheep, I have my hot tea and read a few chapters from my book, kiss my hubby good night and press the switch for my bed light….. bzzzzzz bzzzzzzz. Thump thump thump thump. “Mom, what was that?” Seriously?! I think some color coding may be in order.

Our Trip to the East Coast

We went to the east coast for 3 weeks before we went to Italy. We went to Virginia, Washington DC, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. We went to these places for me to learn about the colonials and American history...and maybe to have some fun too.

Our 1st stop colonial Williamsburg:

 Arya and I were bad so we got put in the stocks. 

I got in extra trouble so I got branded. In colonial time, if someone was found guilty of a crime, they may have the option to hung (not so good) or to get branded on their palm. If those chose the brand, it was a mark that meant if they were ever in trouble again, they would be hung without question. I picked the brand.

When I finished we got to stomp in the clay to help make bricks. To soften the material for bricks, brick makers would stomp on the clay. 

   

When we were there we also went to Busch Gardens, European themed amusement park. Here you see me about to go on Alpinegeist with a loud man next to us.

After Williamsburg, we went to Charlottesville and saw Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's house. As you can see, I was very excited. Do you recognize the house from the nickel in your pocket?

Our next stop was Washington DC:

We had a nice two-story apartment we stayed in for the two weeks we were there.

I asked our congresswoman (Anna Eshoo) for a tour of the capital building and she said "yes"! The inside of the rotunda is under construction right now so we were only able to see a bit of ceiling because half of it was covered by a big sheet that looked like a donut.

I also got us a tour for Engraving and Printing where paper money is made. Arya won the lottery and got $1 million in $10 bills!

I was really excited because I was also able to get us a tour of the White House! We went inside and saw interesting historic rooms like the red, blue, and green rooms (sorry, we couldn't take pictures inside).

We went to the National Cathedral. On the outside there are many gargoyles and some of them are very strange; there's even one of Darth Vader! We brought along our binoculars so we could see the gargoyles outside and check out the stained glass windows inside.

At the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, I held tobacco caterpillar along with some other bugs that I didn't get pictures of.

Also at the museum, we went to the butterfly garden and this one decided to land on my mom's hair! Another landed on my dad's shirt (Dad's note: it was nice of Ashley to choose the picture of Stacey though as she is far more interesting to look at than I am).

One day we decided to go to the National Zoo. Arya was particularly excited because they have pandas there!

The Washington Monument was very, very tall. When you stood underneath it and looked up, it looked like the wall went on forever. We went up to the top of the tower and saw a beautiful view of national mall.

That same day we also saw the Lincoln Memorial, which you may recognize from the penny!

After DC, we moved on to Philadelphia:

We went to Independence Hall where the liberty bell used to ring and where continental congress signed the Declaration of Independence. 

We saw the famous LOVE statue. Arya insisted I give her a piggy back in the picture. (Dad's note: City of Sisterly Love?)

At the liberty bell museum, we got to be right next the famous bell. I was surprised that the bell wasn't more protected. It wasn't in a case and only had two guards.

New York City here we come!

We had less than 24 hours to see all of New York City! Fortunately we've been there before so we just did a lot of things in and around Times Square like Toys R Us (3 stories tall!), M&M store (also 3 stories), and the American Girl Doll store (guess what...3 stories!). Mom and Dad surprised us by taking us to see Aladdin on Broadway! It just happened that a few weeks before I had started listening to the music from the movie for fun, what a coincidence that they took us to this show! The genie was really good. He had just won a Tony award for playing that part.

Last stop, Boston:

One of my favorite places on the whole trip was a museum/interactive recreation of the Boston Tea Party. Each of us were given names of real participants of the party and even got to throw tea overboard!

We walked the Freedom Trail, which is a path that goes through downtown Boston allowing you to see many historical places on the way. The last stop on the trail is the USS Constitution, a war ship that sailed in the War of 1812. All the canons were named funny and weird names, but unfortunately I can't remember any of them right now. :-)

Well, that was our trip! I learned a lot and had a great time and from there it was off to Italy!

The Journey Home

As I sit on the flight from Boston to Frankfurt (where we will transfer to a flight to Florence, followed by a train ride to Lucca), I realize I haven’t taken the time share any of our adventure to the east coast. And as I type that, I realize the last you, our loyal readers, heard, we were still in Italy on our site-inspection trip having just locked up our amazing new apartment. A lot has happened since then…let me give you one of the more wacky, roller-coaster-of-emotion days I think I have ever experienced.

Way back on August 15th we finished up that pre-trip to Lucca. As you heard, it was a great success and left us all looking forward to our eventual (now imminent) return. We left our VRBO apartment that morning with the plan of a train ride to Florence with a one hour layover to transfer to a train to Rome which would give us 4 hours to get to the airport in Rome and onto our California bound flight. Sounds easy...right?

The train ride to Florence left on time and was quite uneventful. We spent the time talking about our favorite parts of the trip, how we felt we were ready for this grand adventure, and enjoying the countryside. About 15 minute out from Florence however, the train stopped. And stopped. And stopped. Then a very nice Italian person announced something in Italian that I didn’t understand but took to mean “there’s a problem on the track, we’re delayed. Sorry about that.” As we waited longer and time passed, I began to watch the time and gradually saw the time of our connecting train to Rome approach and eventually pass, all the while us sitting helpless on the train. Eventually the cow moved off the tracks (I like to think that’s what it was though there is no evidence of bovine intervention) and we made our way to Florence a good hour and a half late.

Upon arrival, I got to learn how to take care of ticket exchanges in Italy, which was a hoot. After waiting in the wrong line for a few minutes, then taking a number for another line in which I was 30th in order, all the while watching possible other connections to Rome depart, I finally noticed a “pay 5 euros and skip the line” line. Here, with a wait of less than 30 seconds I was able to get new tickets to Rome on a train that left just over an hour after our original one putting us only a bit behind schedule, still plenty of time to make it to Rome and our flight…theoretically.

The trip to Rome felt very similar to the one to Florence. Very pleasant. Uneventful. Exciting to be on a bullet train that was doing better than 160 mph. And similarly to our first locomotion of the day, this one also had a late-in-the-ride, something-on-the-tracks stop that lasted. And lasted. And lasted. In the same manner, I watched the time pass, but this time not for a relatively easy to reschedule connecting train, but towards the “if we don’t make it, we won’t be back in California for an extra day or more” flight out of Rome. By the time the heard of goats (again, no proof) made their way to their new pasture and we pulled into Rome, we had just over an hour to get from the train station to the airport, check in to an international flight, get through security, and board. Doable, but tight…or was it?

As we ran through the station I pulled out my notes about our return flight, checked the airport (Ciampino), checked the airline (Lufthansa), checked the time (1:20), checked that we had all our stuff and 2 very anxious but extremely helpful and patient little girls. We got in the taxi line, got a ride very quickly and were pleased to notice that we had managed to choose the closer of the two major Roman airports. Huzzah! A break! Maybe we’d make it!

Now, you know when you watch a movie or the Amazing Race and it seems that people always get crazy taxi drivers? The kind that weave in and out of traffic like frogger, catch red lights REALLY late (or not at all), and think that generally traffic rules are really more guidelines? Yeah, we got that guy. Which I suppose was a blessing at this point because though we all sat in stunned, trying not to wet ourselves silence the whole ride, I think we may have made record time to the airport. If memory serves, we got there around 12:40. MAYBE enough time to catch our flight.

We run out of the cab, into the terminal and check the big board. “Let’s see…Frankfurt, where’s Frankfurt…hmmm…1:20 flights…no…nothing…Lufthansa? No…no Lufthansa…” Something was amiss. Our flight was not listed. Nor was any flight to Frnakfurt, or Germany for that matter, nor was there a flight on Lufthansa. I check all my notes, right day. Right time. Right airport. What’s going on? I go back to my original confirmation email. Right day. Right time….uh oh. Wrong airport. Somehow in my notes (which up to this point on the week long trip had been accurate and much easier to refer to than digging through various emails for various bits of information) I had put down Ciampino airport instead of DaVinci. Ugh!

With that, we knew we were sunk. By this point it’s approaching 1:00 and the airport is at least 15 minutes away. I pull out my phone and call my credit card company with whom I booked the flights to get recommendations on changes. As I’m working with them, Stacey suggests we get in a taxi right away because whatever flight we end up getting, it won’t be out “we only do regional service” CIA airport. We get in the taxi and I finish the conversation with the credit card company. The representative said at that point it would be better to let the airline deal with moving our tickets than them rebooking. Cheaper and more likely to be helpful. Fine. We enjoy the drive across town (really across the area outside of town to be accurate) knowing we likely will be here an extra night.

We arrive at DaVinci around 1:10. No rush because a) we’re not checked in, b) though our bags are travel sized, we have liquid and items that require checking and c) just to get through the airport to the gate before they close the doors at this point would be essentially impossible. I walk up to the Lufthansa ticket counter and tell the nice German lady the whole story and ask what we can do. She seems pretty sure as we were that our chances of catching our flight were essentially zero at this point and she begins looking for alternatives for us. As she’s searching, I mention to her, mostly in jest, that I noticed on our way in that our flight was delayed 15 minutes and that perhaps it may be delayed a bit more such that we could catch it. She laughed it off as I expected, but soon she started making comments about how there were no other flights that would get us out that day and how she didn’t want us to stay the night. She looked over the counter at our bags and asked if we were planning to check them. We told her we weeerrree…and that’s when she told us to dump all non-carry-on-approved items and run to the gate. She didn’t think we’d make it (neither did we) but she thought it was worth a try. With a couple taps on her computer, we had a piece of paper that to this day I don’t quite know what it said on it really and marching (sprinting) orders to get to the gate asap. So we did.

Lickety-split to and through security. Our magic paper and our pleading faces was apparently all the security people needed to let us cut. We again found ourselves in the Amazing Race moment that would come right before the commercial break: Will they make it?!?!?!?!?

We did. Not only did we make it, it turns out they hadn’t even opened the gate yet so nobody was aboard! Unreal. The girls stepped aside and caught their breath and I took my magic paper to the gate to officially get us checked in (remember we never went through check-in, the nice German lady just gave us a magic paper so we didn’t have seats yet). Apparently the man at the gate had been expecting us because he gave me a “you made it!” smile as I approached. He took our passports and began doing his thing…though as he was doing so, he was making faces of consternation and saying things in hushed tones to his partner in Italian. Seriously. All that and we won’t get seats? What a day.

Eventually the printer starts making printing sounds and the man seems to relax. Expecting the worst, he calls me over. “Well, I was able to get you checked in as usual for your connecting flight from Frankfurt to San Francisco. But,” great, here it comes…. “I had to put you in business class for this flight.” Oh that’s ok, we were expecting to miss it anyw….wait. Did he say business class? 

“I’m sorry, did you say business class?” 

“Yes! But only for this flight I’m afraid.” Needless to say it was at this point that decided that the almighty was taking a personal interest in us that day. There was no reason we should have even been close to making this flight and now we were doing in business class. Unbelievable. 

In any case, the rest of the day was pretty much to plan. A bit of tight connection in Frankfurt, but nothing compared to the rest of the day. When we arrived at my parent’s house in Saratoga some 36 hours after getting on the train in Lucca, we all agreed that if we could make it through that day, we were pretty much prepared for whatever else this year has in store for us.

More catching up to come in the near future!