A lot of "Firsts"

I love the first time I get to experience something new. The first time I tasted a fig plucked right off the tree or the first time I coaxed a tomato plant out of a seed and ate a tomato out of my very own garden. I loved the first ride on a truly scary roller coaster, my first trip to Paris (am I really looking at the Eiffel Tower in person?!?!), the first time I crossed the finish line of a 5k or a triathlon, and of course, the first time I held my very own baby.

Firsts are so special because they are accompanied by a sense of wonder and maybe even a little fear. Will I like this? Will it taste good? Will I be any good at this? Will I get hurt? And the endorphin rush that accompanies so many of these first experiences can rarely ever be repeated. So over the years, I have learned to a) stop and appreciate the first moment of a new experience and b) lay aside some of my fear and try any new thing that interests me.

This year has been so full of firsts for the girls and I. Homeschool? Really? I never thought I'd be doing this? And I also get the thrill of seeing the girls experience so many firsts. First international trip, first dance class, first public speaking experience, so many firsts!

And one first we all got to share together: skiing.

Most people know, I am a Florida girl by birth and there's not a winter day that goes by that I don't long for a palm tree and my flip-flops. Even though I have lived most of my life in the North East, I never got around to the whole skiing thing. My Floridian parents had no interest and it all just sounded so...COLD!

This year, it was just time. I had never skied. The girls had never skied. And with a whole school year stretching out before us, I knew there would never be a better time. We joined the Snowflake Club, a small group that negotiates inexpensive rentals, lift tickets and lessons for homeschooled kids who are uniquely suited for taking up all those empty weekday mornings on the slopes. You know...when the rest of the world is either at work or in school.

Every Tuesday during January and February, we drove two hours into the Poconos to the Shawnee Mountain Ski Resort. I have to admit, I was a bit nervous at first. I wasn't afraid to ski nor was I concerned about my ability to learn. It was more about all those stories you hear about people breaking a leg on the slopes. Who would do the laundry, cook, clean, carpool, etc...if I were in a caste? I really don't want to find out.

The girls and I suited up in all our gear and met our instructor for our first lesson. We learned how to make "pizza": angling your skis so you can control your speed, and how to make "french fries": holding your skis parallel so you can go faster. (Fast food terminology for pre teens: perfect!) The girls picked this up all in no time flat and after an hour we were off to another first...The ski lift!

My girls loved the ski lift. And then at the top of the mountain, I reminded them of our lesson. Remember to angle your skis, and lean forward a bit, and bend your knees, relax your arms, blah, blah, blah. You know what happened next, right? They both blitzed down the hill at top speed leaving dear old mom behind and at the bottom exclaimed, "that was AWESOME!"

Ah, who cares if they learn anything. At least we had fun. Hmmmm...that might be the theme for this whole year ; )

Art 101 - Back to Basics

There are lots of good reasons to homeschool your kids. Lots of them. Hundreds, maybe. But today I'm only talking about this one: passion. When you keep your kids at home, they have time to explore the things they are truly interested in, and spend less time on an arbitrary schedule that often suits the lowest common denominator.

My girls love art. They can, and often do, spend hours drawing, coloring, painting, kneading clay, and making "stuff." I loved to do that too when I was a kid, but as I got older, I spent more time doing homework and less time on my art.

At home, I am giving the girls lots of time to experiment on their own, but I also want to give them a framework to take their own projects to the next level. In this particular art lesson, we focussed on blending colors with a traditional color wheel. The purpose of a color wheel is to lay a foundation for mixing colors. Some people possess this skill innately, while others have to learn it, and a color wheel is a good starting place. Not everyone understands that to get lavender, you need one part red, two parts blue and three parts white or to get lime green you need four parts yellow, one part blue and one part white. A color wheel is a starting point for understanding how primary colors create

secondary and tertiary colors and beyond. We meant to finish our project with a lesson on pastel colors, but the day got away from us.

Next up, still life. I'd rather be painting landscapes outside, but it's below freezing this week, so indoor still life it is!

We don't have Science down to a Science.

I don't know about other homeschool families, but I find it really hard to fit science into our day. Perhaps it's just not my favorite subject, and other families excel at it. Perhaps other families struggle to teach the things I love and we all just gravitate to teaching the subjects that come easy to us. What I know for sure is, I can't skip it. My mother wouldn't let me!

My mother (a.k.a. Gramma Peg) is a former elementary school teacher and she looooooooves science. She loved teaching it before she retired and made it clear that if I didn't immerse my daughters in an in depth science curriculum, then she would do it for me. Take it away, Mom!

She came up to visit in October and we started our visit with a trip to see theBody Worlds Exhibit at the Franklin Institute. It's an exhibition that adults find fascinating and controversial and most kids find "gross!" Perfect.

Body Worlds is a traveling exhibition of preserved human bodies and body parts that are prepared using a process called plastination to reveal their inner anatomical structures. This process was developed in Germany and has been used for this type of exhibition since 1995. It is controversial because even though the bodies have been donated to science willingly, some religious groups consider the plastination treatment and the display of skinless human bodies to be irreverent. In other cases, there is concern that proof of express consent to use the bodies for display was not easily obtained or provided, raising the question, "where, actually, did these bodies come from?"

To me, a dead body is a dead body, and in this case, a dead body is a very educational opportunity. So controversy aside, my mother and I took the girls to the exhibit. It was truly amazing! If you get the chance to visit a show in your area, definitely go. These aren't plastic models; these are the real thing. The pregnant woman and the smoker's lung were outstanding, but the whole exhibit was a stunning example of how complex the human body is. They don't allow photography in the exhibit, so in order to see more, either go to the show, or visit the website: www.bodyworlds.com/

After the exhibit, we took the girls to the IMAX production of The Body and like every IMAX film I

have seen at the Franklin Institute, it was fantastic. It was a great way to kick off our month of 6th grade science, specifically anatomy.

Later in the week, Gramma Peg started the girls on their first hands-on science experiment and instructed them on the process of testing a hypothesis. They hypothesized, tested, retested, recorded, discussed, plotted and graphed for the better part of a

day. Gramma Peg is an excellent teacher and the girls were exhausted at the end. (In these pictures, the girls are testing the impact of tinfoil on water temperature over time.)

We plan to pick up the hypothesis discussion in the spring when we do a unit on botany and experiment with hydroponics and vegetable gardening. In an effort to win the war against the groundhogs in our yard, we will pick up a short lesson on solar power when I invest in a solar electric fence. Can't wait to zap those little buggers who steal my tomatoes every year! Mwaah Ha Ha!

Hmmm...I may not love science, but I seem to have a little "mad scientist" in me ; )

Greece - The Final Installment (Mom's Version)

Journey to the Center of the World!

For our final day in Greece, we decided to take a guided tour to Delphi, several hours outside Athens. It was truly difficult to choose a tour, as there are so many amazing places as well as dozens of beautiful islands you can visit in a day trip. I was seriously tempted to choose the tour to Philipi, where St. Paul visited and preached during his missionary journeys. The New Testament book, Philippians, is a letter from Paul to the Philippian people and their young church after he left, encouraging them to keep their Christian faith strong. Very hard to pass up an opportunity to walk in the footsteps of Paul!

In the end, we chose Delphi, based on the recommendations of just about everyone we spoke to.

Delphi was the site of the Delphic oracle, the most important oracle in the classical Greek world, and a major site for the worship of the god Apollo after he slew the Pytho, a deity who lived there

and protected the navel of the Earth. The ancient Greeks believed that Delphi was the birthplace and center of the known world. Our tour guide pointed out a particular rock that is believed to be the symbolic sculpture of the "navel." It is considered good luck to rub it, so of course we did! (It does kinda look like a belly-button!)

The following passage is borrowed from Wiki:

Delphi is perhaps best-known for the oracle at the sanctuary that was dedicated to Apollo during the classical period. Apollo spoke through his oracle: the sibyl or priestess of the oracle at Delphi was known as the Pythia; she had to be an older woman

of blameless life chosen from among the peasants of the area. She sat on a tripod seat over an opening in the earth. When Apollo slew Python, its body fell into this fissure, according to legend, and fumes arose from its decomposing body. Intoxicated by the vapors, the sibyl would fall into a trance, allowing Apollo to possess her spirit. In this state she prophesied.

It has been postulated that a gas high in ethylene, known to produce violent trances, came out of this opening, though this theory

remains debatable. While in a trance the Pythia "raved" - probably a form of ecstatic speech - and her ravings were "translated" by the priests of the temple. People consulted

the Delphic oracle on everything from important matters of public policy to personal affairs."

Fascinating! People made pilgrimages from all over Greece and the surrounding area to ask the oracle for guidance. And in reality, the oracle was an old woman hallucinating from the toxic fumes rising up from the ground.

Delphi was also host to early athletic competition, precursor to the Olympic games. Due to recent earthquake activity, we were not able to climb to the highest level to look down into the stone amphitheater but we were still awed by the ruins left behind and the stunning Greek countryside.

The tour included admission to the Museum at Delphi, which again, was filled with more amazing artifacts and history than one could absorb in a day. But the girls were done. Done with

old marble statues. Done with appreciating ancient fluted columns. Done! And since I was so very grateful for their great attitude during the trip, I let them go back outside to play with the 400 stray cats and kittens begging for food near the museums outdoor snack shop. They fell in love with one particular kitten, named him Apollo, and begged me to smuggle him home in our suitcases.

After the tour, we ate lunch at a beautiful, rustic restaurant and shared a table with several other tourists, all from Canada. The weather was warm and the dining room was "open-air," which you

don't often see in NJ! We ate more pita bread, cheese pie, lamb, and rice. The girls played outside and used the last of our film to take pictures of the lonely horse wandering around the fenced in yard next to the restaurant.

By the time we returned to the hotel, it was late. We had just enough time to eat dinner and pack for our long journey home.

Thank you Greece. Thank you for your hospitality. Thank you for your wonderful food and balmy weather. Thank you for letting us see and touch your amazing history. Thank you for your friendly people. We can't wait to visit again some day!

Greece - Part 2 (Mom's version)

The update continues...for those who want to hear about our trip, or for those who are planning a visit.

After we left the Acropolis (back down the death-trap stairs with no guardrail!), we visited the new Acropolis Museum.

(Side note: One of the most impressive things I noted about Athens, and the Greek people in general, is their incredibly generous and tolerant attitude towards children. Not only are kids welcome everywhere, but bringing your children is encouraged in all manner of restaurants and museums. A perfect example of the Greek attitude toward children is the custom of not charging for children. Often restaurants and museums don't even charge you, or charge a nominal fee, for the kids. At the Acropolis Museum, I only had to pay one Euro for a ticket for myself...the girls got in free!)

The Acropolis Museum is an archaeological museum and was built to house every artifact found on the Acropolis from the Greek Bronze Age to Roman and Byzantine Greece. It also lies on the archaeological site of Makrygianni and the ruins of a part of Roman and early Byzantine Athens. The building itself is beautiful.

The coolest part is easily the glass floors that allow you to look down upon the ruins over which the museum was built. Maddie was a little freaked out and wanted to walk off to the side on the more solid-looking floor. We didn't spend long in the museum. There is only so much antiquity 12 year-old girls can take in one day. And I desperately wanted to see the...

National Gardens.

I love gardens. And if I travel and there is a chance to see a beautiful garden, then that's where I

want to go! So even though the energy of my sweet twins was flagging, we trekked back to the main square down town and walked the National Gardens of Athens from end to end. Greece is much more tropical than I would have expected, with a climate much like Florida. As a result, the botanical plantings reflect the long hot summers and mild winters. I did not expect to see palm trees, yet they were everywhere! The gardens were beautiful and I could have stayed for hours, but the girls had run out of steam. We made one last stop at the...

Greek Parliament Building to see the colourful Evzones perform the Changing of the Guard Ceremony in Syntagma Square. The guards wear traditional Greek uniforms and when they change places on the hour, they do an odd march that sort of looks like a dance. Here is a picture of the girls with one of the traditionally dressed guards.

Afterwards, we caught the shuttle so I could take my exhausted girls back to the hotel for a dip in the pool. But then I thought, why swim in a hotel pool when you can swim in the Mediterranean Sea?!?! And when will we ever

get a chance to do this again? So we walked down to the beach, and although it was a bit cold, there were many people, hotel guests and locals, taking an afternoon swim. It was beautiful and we watched all the cruise ships passing in the distance while the girls hunted for sea glass.

The end of our 2nd full day in Greece brought the biggest surprise. The conference Jamie was attending was hosting a big dinner and invited the families of all the conference guests. We were told the dinner was being held at a remote and private museum (The Vorres Museum http://www.sitemaker.gr/vorres/) and we would all be taken over on tour buses. We

had no idea where we were going, or how fantastic and unexpected our experience would be.

The tour buses dropped us off 40 minutes outside of Athens at a discreet entrance, a cobblestone walkway lit with candles that opened into a private courtyard. There was a harpist and other musicians playing in courtyard, an open bar and a beautiful selection of traditional Greek appetizers. The courtyard extended into a beautiful garden and then into a historic home that was converted into a small museum of Greek artifacts. We enjoyed the food and music and explored the area and rustic garden while waiting for all the other guests to arrive.

When dinner was announced, we were all led into the tiny house we had just explored and to our surprise, a secret door was opened to reveal an enormous modern art museum built beneath the home and into the side of the mountain. Several hundred guests walked through this "looking glass"-like door and meandered through dozens of modern paintings and sculptures. The

hallway ended with a giant gallery where an enormous banquet had been prepared amidst the artwork. Needless to say, we were all simply blown away by the magical hidden gallery and the incredible effort and generosity of the people hosting the conference who had arranged this dinner.

After we ate dinner (all traditional Greek cuisine), they had a live band and some Greek dancers give a demonstration of traditional Greek dance. At the end, they invited guests to join them and learn the dances. Jamie and the girls just wanted to watch, but I could

not resist giving it a try. Again, would I ever get a chance to try this again? In these pictures, I am being whirled around by one of the dance instructors. I have no idea what I am doing, so it is a credit to this man's dancing skills that it looks so easy! I certainly could have stayed longer, but my girls were exhausted and I knew we had a long day of adventure ahead of us, so we took the first bus back to the hotel.

Next up: Day Trip to the Center of the World!

Our Trip to Greece (Mom's Version - Part 1)

Wonderful. Our trip was wonderful!

I have to admit to some trepidation as we were planning this trip. Despite Jamie's company defraying some of the cost, an international trip for four is not an inexpensive endeavor. I wondered often if the girls would truly appreciate it. Would they understand the history? Would they be bored? Would the jet-lag overwhelm them? Would they have the stamina to run around and see all the sites I had planned for us? Would the limo ride to the airport be the best part?

Getting There

I was very pleasantly surprised by what good travelers the girls turned out to be. There was little to no whining or complaining and the girls were up for every adventure I had planned for them.

Maddie was accurate about the flight. It's a loooooong way and by the end of the journey, everyone just wants to get off that plane. But we each had a stack of books and a stash of snacks to ease the trip. Our hotel was on the outskirts of Athens. The good news: it was beautiful and right on the water over-looking the Mediterranean Sea. The bad news: it was 45 minutes of bumper to bumper traffic to get into down town Athens. In the end, we loved it and it felt like a good trade off. Had we stayed down town, we could have avoided the extra shuttle ride everyday, but we would have missed the seeing the incredible sites on the coast where the hotel was located.

Going to the Dogs (and cats)

I am not sure what Athens municipal policy on stray animals is, but is safe to assume it's more liberal than what I am used to in the U.S. Everywhere we went during our stay, there were stray dogs and cats dozing in the sun and under tables. The girls were thrilled! Both are passionate animal lovers and stopped frequently to pet as many as possible. Jamie and I tried to discourage them, but despite Jenny's memory that we didn't let her pet them, both girls managed to get their hands on dozens of stray pets each day.

Here are some high lights from the trip as well as some tips for anyone planning a trip to Greece.

The Plaka

The Plaka is the downtown marketplace. It is something of a tourist trap, but as

tourist traps go, it is absolutely charming. I've been to many touristy places in my life and most are filled with ridiculous plastic objects and there is very little variation from shop to shop.

Not the case here. We found so many wonderful shops filled with lovely clothing, jewelry, shoes and hand-made items. There was junk too, but even that was fun. Every shop offered a collection of plastic miniature replicas of the most common Greek gods and goddesses. We ended up purchasing a classic pair of Greek leather sandals for the twins (I am still wishing I had purchased a pair for myself!) and several "evil eye" charms made from venetian glass and silver...earrings for Jen and a necklace for Mads. Greece is a very superstitious country, and many locals still believe the evil eye wards off evil.

This area of Athens was charming. The streets are cobblestone and wind so unpredictably that I was concerned we might never make it back to our hotel. The area is dotted with small, family owned restaurants and fountains. And then you look up and suddenly, there it is...

The Acropolis

It is stunning how the Acropolis rises right out of the middle of Athens, hundreds of feet into the sky, capped by the Parthenon and all its history. We looked up and saw it many times the first day, but waited until day 2 to visit it so Jamie could be with us. On the 2nd day, our primary goal was to visit this incredible landmark and one of the Wonders of the Ancient World.

There is one main gate located next to the new Acropolis Museum, but without a tour guide, we didn't know about that. And I am so grateful, because had we known, we would have missed our own private adventure. We ended up trekking up the side of the Acropolis, through a sort of residential neighborhood, built right into the side of the mountain. I was most amused by the signage. Here we are, walking towards the Acropolis, one of the wonders of the world and the single greatest tourist attraction in Greece, and here is a picture of the official directional signs to guide you on your way.

Hilarious. And not particularly helpful at times. But totally charming. We ended up climbing to the top on a far less traveled path and had a much richer experience as a result. When we finally summitted the steep hillside, we joined the rest of the hundreds of tourists who had entered via the main gate. It was crowded and somewhat dangerous, yet stunning from every angle. In the US, every national treasure is heavily guarded, surrounded by glass or rope, with painstaking effort taken to ensure the safety of the tourists and accompanied by brochures and signs to explain exactly the details and history of the site you are visiting. Um, not the case here.

We wound our way up the steep steps with not a guardrail in sight. Jamie and I marveled about how many tourist must fall every day on the way up. The girls opted to skip the steps altogether and scamper up the rocks on the side. There are virtually no guards at the Parthenon, only a few college students with whistles. Jump on a 2000 year old treasure and get carted off to jail??? Nope. But someone will blow a whistle at you!

There are no signs, no barricades, no brochures. In a way, it's very refreshing. I was amazed by the sheer volume of marble remains...so much that often it is just piled up around the base of a temple and partitioned off by a single thin rope. There are dozens and dozens of Ionic and Corinthian capitals stacked in pallets as if to say, "Look! We have so much history here we just have to stack up the extra in a corner! Please don't stick it in your purse and walk off with it." (Oh that I could have carted one of those home to put in my garden!)

We spent about an hour at the top, examining Athena temple and the other smaller structures and then made our way back down to the museum area. It was incredible to see such an amazing intersection of history and architecture and I was pleased that the girls seemed to enjoy it and soak it all in, even though they did try to pet all the stray dogs on the way up and down : )

More to come! Stay tuned...

Greece - Day 2!

Our 2nd Day in Greece

By Jenny!

On our second full day in Athens, Greece, our family started out at the Plaka, the Greek

market place. We stopped at an ancient Greek Starbucks! After we got breakfast, we headed to the Acropolis and Parthenon. It took a while to get there because when we asked for directions, we got “That way…about ten minutes!” While it really took half an hour. It was pretty confusing! We went up narrow stairs and down small corridors. In my opinion, the best part was all the stray cats sleeping in the sun! I tried to pet all of them! But sadly, did not succeed. *sigh*

When we finally got up there, it started to get interesting. It was really high up, and we weren’t even at the top yet! There was a really big crowd and it was hard not to get jostled. We found our way up the steps pretty easily. This time there were stray dogs everywhere! Again I tried to pet them and again, I did not succeed. Mom and dad said “No!”

The temples were extremely amazing. When we were walking through the ruins, we found

we were able to sit on some of the ruins. So naturally we did. We found some carvings of letters in one of the blocks and that was really cool. And just before we left, Mom found, all stacked up, the top parts of pillars. I don’t really know how to explain it. All I know is that it was incredible how it was left there, all stacked up with no one to guard it.

After visiting the temples, Dad left to go back to the conference and Mom, Maddie, and I went back to the Plaka. We went shopping and wandering. Then we had lunch. We stopped at this sunny outdoor restraunt. We ordered lamb on sticks, pita bread, and Coke. Then we went to Greece’s new Acropolis Museum. It was HUGE! In some parts of the museum, the floor is glass, and you can see the ruins that the museum was built on!

Mom wanted to see the National Gardens, so we left the Plaka and headed for the gardens.

We wandered through the gardens, trying to find where the “ Changing of the Guard” took place. The “Changing of the Guard” is exactly what it sounds like. The guards change places every hour but they also do this funny sort of dance in front of the Greek Parliament building. We made a mistake and went to the back of the building where there were two guard dogs. I was a little scared then. After we found the right place and went back to the hotel, we went to a dinner for my dad’s company.

We got all dressed up and went to the dinner.

The dinner was held at an art museum and we ate in a gallery. Before dinner, we wandered around in the museum and looked

at the paintings and sculptures. One painting that creeped me out was a crazy picture of a doll’s head. In the end we were all really tired. So that’s the end of our second day!

Next up: Mom's version of the trip. Hint: I was not as focused on petting stray dogs during our trip ; )