Rosetta Stone

I am not sure how some of the bloggers do it, but I guess I fail at managing my time. I envy those like Christine who finds the time to regularly blog with 14 kids in the home, or Christie, who always uplifts my spirits with her wisdom, or Annie, who teaches in the middle of the night, but still manages to update her blog. With only 7 kids, only homeschooling one of them, with only one full time job, with a full course load for the semester and the Jewish High Holidays being here (Sukkot just started a few hours ago), I just simply can't find the time to update as much as I'd like to. I do have to let go of the project I have been planning and preparing for, simply due to the lack of time. But that is beside the point, really.

The point is, someone gave me a copy of Rosetta Stonewith several languages as a gift. I got hold of a few more, and I'm at the point of trying to decide if I want to use it with Noa for home school, or just start a course or two myself. Craig has thrown himself on the French Level 2 (he took French last year, but this year he opted for intensive Arabic, so no French at school) and he is loving it. And depending on where Kevin will be going to next year or this work and teach exchange and whether we will follow him there, learning the target language wouldn't be contraindicated. Because Kevin got accepted into a program that will take him, for one or two years, to somewhere else. Japan, Korea and the Phillipines have one-year-programs, the US, Poland, India, Austria, and the UK have both 1 and 2 year programs, the Czech Republic, New Zealand and Indonesia have only two year programs. If it's for one year, we will not go with Kevin to certain countries. If it's a two year program he gets into, we are definitely moving with him for two years. This should all be determined sometime in the next 6 weeks or so. 

Of course as the kids rejoiced over the computer speaking Hebrew! French! Arabic! Russian! Justin asked who Rosetta Stone was and how many languages she spoke. This resulted in an impromptu History lesson on Napoleon, Ancient Egypt and the Rosetta stone. We only had one question left after that: is their an ancient Egyptian language set for Rosetta Stone? 

And the 5 things about my day thing from Christine's blog: 

1. This was the first day since we came back from the States that we didn't go to the beach even though we were in town.

2. We had fast food in the sukkah today! I'm loving that Sukkot came this early this year, so being in the Sukkah is absolutely pleasant. And kosher McDonald's made the kids' day!

3. Being on holiday my kids do absolutely no school work. We play with LEGOs instead. And we also spend a lot of time in the sukkah. Have I mentioned how much I love this holiday, the festival of the Tebernacles? I didn't even notice Facebook was gone, and there have been at least 2 comments added to your post since I started writing this.

4. I sometimes forget that Israel is not in Europe. I enjoy the comfort of it being so Western in many aspects, and take some of the "strange things" as granted because they seem normal for the climate or whatever. But then I mention something that everyone seems to know in Europe... and then people look at me confused. Like the Vienna Choir Boys, the Hallelujah Chorus of Händel's Messiah, the church bells ringing at noon, or sinply Easter candy. I do love how the East and West meet here, it just surprises me from time to time!

5. I just finished reading the 4th Twilight novel. I only did it for the LOL's and can't wait till my blog friends rip it apart on their blog like they did with the first two movies. Real vampires don't sparkle in the sunshine, they turn into dust! (No I don't believe in vampires.) But honestly, as long as it makes another generation actually read books, I don't mind. I'll just continue to make fun of it. (and everyone is welcome to do the same with things I read/watch). The world would be a lot more boring if everyone liked the same things.

Being a home schooling dad... again.

I know everyone is more interested in the Great Big Family Get Together story, which is in the process of being written and then re-written, real names replaced with something I can stick to for the future (then have to sort through older entries and rename people casually mentioned there by their real names). Don't worry: Efi, Chalin and Dan will stay Efi, Chalin and Dan. 

Till then... Home schooling. I'm a specimen of a rare species:  I'm a homeschooling dad once again. I still find the below video incredibly funny.

School room decoration dilemma

We are in a very blessed situation where there is a nice and spacious room in Janice's apartment that we can use for school purposes: afternoon homework time and home schooling alike. We have all the essentials in there, but a question of decoration came up. A blogging friend suggested decorating with the alphabet, which is such an awesome idea! But then the question arose... which one? 

The Armenian one? 

Or the Hungarian one? 

Or should it be the Hebrew alef bet?

The magic box

While the adults of the family visited the US, Hungary, Armenia and Ireland this summer, they all bought various "cool stuff" for the kids. Even grandpa, who arrived a day after us from the States brought two suitcases full of awesomeness for the grandkids. There were toys, games, DVDs, books, sweets, clothes, all kinds of fascinating things. 

The other day Feri (one of the Marzell boys, from the shipping company) brought over a box I asked them to bring for us from Hungary. My kids were ecstatic when they opened it! There was much cheering, happy shouting, jumping around and many thank yous. 

The boy contained school books from Hungary. Reading, writing, grammar and music for the younger kids, literature, history, grammar and geography for Craig. Since then I had to teach several lessons, even though I didn't want to start Hungarian School till after Rosh Hashanah. 

They are working. Learning is easier for some of them than for the others, but the enthusiasm is there: move at your own pace. Learn for yorself rather than for the tests, the school, the teacher's expectations. One of my boys is still finishing up last year's workbook. Another one is on lesson 4 of this year's. It doesn't matter. The only thing you take with you, an LDS bishop used to say, is what you know. And my children want to know as much as possible.