Random Updates...bullet style

*This is what I see when I look at my right foot. I had to have my big toenail removed. I thought I would be up and running around the next day but I was wrong. The podiatrist told me I wouldn't be in any pain; it would just feel like a "tiny mouse heartbeat in my toe". She lied. For one, I don't know what it feels like to have a "tiny mouse heartbeat" in my toe, and two, my toe throbs a lot and bleeds when I don't stay off of it. I didn't do so well with taking the dressings off last night so I'm starting to understand why God didn't have me birth my own children. I'm finding out I'm not so good with open flesh.


*Andrik is learning how to use a napkin. Unfortunately he hasn't learned to use a clean section of the napkin each time he wipes so even though he tries to be neat, he ends up messier. I still say he uses food as wearable art.

*Andrik sleeps in the funniest positions. The other day I went to wake him from his nap and this is how I found him. He's still a great sleeper and gets at least 11 hours of sleep at night and then naps for a couple hours during the day.

*All that sleep is necessary for bossing us around during the day. I get a lot of pointed fingers at me lately telling me what I need to do or telling Artem what to do. He's definitely learning to assert himself, even if he gets a little too big for his britches at times.

*The boys are starting to play together a lot better. They do more interactive play than parallel play during the day. Andrik absolutely adores his big brother; Artem still has his moments when he can't be bothered with a little brother. But it's getting better, slowly but surely.

*We all attended an Emirati wedding the other night. At a Muslim wedding the men and women are separated and have their own party in separate buildings. I took Andrik with me and Randy took Artem to the men's side. I walked into a huge reception hall with approximately 500 women in attendance and the only person I knew was the two year old holding my hand. I didn't even know the bride. Talk about awkward. At a Muslim wedding on the women's side, the ladies are in VERY elaborate gowns and eat for awhile, visiting with the other women in attendance. The bride prepares to enter the room for the first time and gets up on a raised runway and does her "catwalk" where she walks back and forth in her wedding dress, smiling and waving to the women. After a couple laps, the bride sits on stage while more food is consumed by the ladies in the hall and then the dancing starts, still separate from the men, and finally at the end of the night the women cover themselves with their abayas and the groom enters the hall. At this point the couple is considered married and allowed to be in public together.

*Artem is obsessed with his Cars shirt. He dresses himself in the morning and wants to pick this shirt every time. He's starting to get particular about his clothes and not just put on anything that mom picks out. Right now he wants to wear his Cars shirt and Harley Davidson shirts but can't be bothered with remembering underwear.

*Sweet tea...how do I love thee? My liquid obsession isn't available here in Dubai so I brew my own now and keep a gallon in the fridge all the time. We have a Swedish babysitter that comes over once a week so I can have some "mommy time" and she comes over every other Friday night so Randy and I can go out. Every time she comes over she helps herself to glass after glass of my sweet tea. I love that I got our Swedish babysitter addicted to a Southern delicacy. :-)

Dubai in June

June in Dubai is not exactly "Chamber of Commerce" kind of weather. It's not unbearably hot, but with temps in the low 100's and humidity levels hovering around 75%, it's a little sticky. Despite this, the boys still love to get outside and play. We have some great shade trees along the west side of our yard that shades the boys "playground" so as soon as the sun goes down behind the trees, it's playtime!

Andrik's blood obviously hasn't thinned out yet from those cold Russian winters which makes him the sweater in the family. He sweats just walking around the house, so 98 degrees with 80% humidity makes this kid look like he just got out of the shower.

I send the boys outside with cups of ice water and make them stop every 10 minutes or so to get something to drink but the best way to beat the June heat is popsicles! Even Bella likes to get in a bite or two.

Speaking of Bella, June in Dubai means nothing to her. She still wants to play ball despite it feeling like a sauna outside.

But the best way to beat the June heat is in the pool!!

Randy better be careful, these boys are going to grow up quick and pay backs are going to be rough!

A Home Schooling We Will Go

Years ago when I was a brand new public school teacher I had my opinions about home schooling. I thought it was for the children that couldn't behave in public school, or for the children of the super liberal, granola/hippy parents that didn't want the system to "corrupt" their children, or for child actors that were living on movie sets. But home schooling wasn't something that I would ever consider doing because, after all, I attended public school and turned out just fine. Thank you very much.

Isn't it fun to look back and laugh at oneself at some of the simple-minded beliefs we held when our rose colored glasses were brand new?

Home schooling...the thing I said I'd never do...guess who is now home schooling her four year old?

Here in UAE expat children must attend private schools rather than the public schools that the local children attend and the majority of private schools here are "for profit" and charge an arm and a leg for tuition. Randy's company pays for a good portion of the tuition but we would still have to pick up quite a bit of the price tag to educate our boys.

The schools that follow the American curriculum have a KG1 and a KG2 program and the children start when they are four and they must be four by December 31st of that school year. KG1 is the equivalent to the American PreK program and KG2 is equal to Kindergarten in the states and according to Artem's birthday of November 15th, he would make the cutoff here in UAE and go to KG2 (Kindergarten). However, if we were in the states he wouldn't make the cut off which is normally the first day of school in August and he would have to wait another year to attend Kinder if we were in the states. That's fine with me because even though I think he could handle it academically, maturity wise, he's not there. Plus, if I put him in KG2 (Kindergarten) here, when we return to the states he would be the youngest in the class by almost a full year and the rest of his schooling he would be the baby. I was the youngest in my classes all through school since I have an October birthday and started when I was four. It's not that big of a deal for a girl, but I think for our son, he needs to be older rather than younger.

So for those clear as mud reasons, we decided to keep him out of school this year and have me homeschool him instead. I shipped a large portion of my teaching things here to Dubai including 750 children's books, which I think means I could start my own library for the neighborhood and we use an extra room upstairs as our "classroom". I also include Andrik in our classroom time and have him practice colors, shapes, writing, math, and he joins Artem and me for calendar time.

I wanted our classroom to look and feel like a typical classroom so we ordered some white boards and Randy installed them for me. To the left we have our calendar area and to the right with all the letters is our word wall. In a couple months that will be filled with sight words.

I love that we have sliding doors and a balcony outside of our classroom. When the weather gets cooler it will be a great place for the boys to plant seeds and do messy projects.

I brought our old kitchen table upstairs to the classroom since I finally bought my dream round table from Pottery Barn for the kitchen. (Only took me about five years to find one I like, can't accuse me of making an impulse buy) This old table has been well "loved" the past three years here in UAE and was ready to be replaced so it's perfect for the classroom. Two major moves done by cheap labor have not been kind to it. The boys can get messy on this one and it won't matter a bit.

I bought this alphabet chart when I first started teaching. Randy thinks I need to update the chart since letter V has a VCR tape as the picture.

The boys work with math manipulatives; Artem makes patterns while Andrik strengthens his fine motor skills by clicking the unifix cubes together and identifies the colors of the cubes.

More patterning practice.

Finding letters on the word wall.

Practicing handwriting on his own white board.

Yep, we are knee deep in home schooling, the thing I said I'd never do, but it's the best thing for our family right now and I'm enjoying being back in the "classroom". I've missed it. Artem is excited everyday to go to school even after I made him write the letter b the correct way, twice, after which he announced, "School is hard!" You haven't seen anything yet little buddy. Just wait until September when we start Algebra!