We used to live in Arlington, VA. This was taken on one evening in late December. God is amazing! And why can’t every evening sky be like this?
Not So SAHM
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Winter Rainbow
That one time in Amboise, France
For our 15th anniversary we went to Amboise, France. Un voyage en amoureux.
Amboise is a small town along the Loire River about 2 hours south of Paris.
S’il vous plaît, take a quick tour back there with me.
There’s a castle looking over the city. This was once the home of the French royal court. It was so peaceful exploring the grounds. Amboise is not overrun with tourists. At least it wasn’t then in June. Maybe it is in August when every Frenchman is on vacation.
Love me some gargoyles. I took way too many pictures of them. My husband was probably ready to rip the camera from my hands. Maybe one day I’ll show you more of them, plus the ones at the National Cathedral in D.C.
The Loire River at sunset. Très romantique!
The hot air balloons lifted off every evening while we were there.
The narrow streets were very charming. Si charmante!
I couldn’t stop taking pictures. ALL THE CHARM!
Some parts were very aslatian.
At the edge of town the houses were built into the rock. I think they used to be low rent dwellings where the poor could afford to live. I think now they’re getting expensive to rent/own.
Below is one of my favorite chemins in Amboise. Sigh. Up the hill are tiny houses with large gardens and impossibly small streets, walkways really, curving every which way. The hospital sits at the top of the hill, and across the street from it is their cemetery. We got a macabre chuckle out of that. Sorry.
Everything in Amboise was charming. Am I using that word too much?
This was our dinner view on our first night. Amboise welcomed us spectacularly!
And oh, the things we ate. . .
Mon préféré!
My husband had moules frites several times. . .
The only way to eat mussels is with french fries and beer (that’s my Coke).
The open-air market. We stopped here our second day and stocked up on fresh fruits, veggies, eggs, cheese, meat, and apple juice. Mon Dieu. This is what I made one night. . .
We were in a very tiny apartment, but it did have a closet with a window, a single or double burner, a sink and a fridge, so it was considered a kitchen. Oh, and kitchen had a slanted roof so you couldn’t stand up straight very well. But I loved every minute of cooking there.
This is a bronze statue of one of Amboise’s most famous residents. Leonardo da Vinci came to live here in the last years of his life. He died in Amboise. This statue, da Vinci as Perseus, is actually on a little island, l’Ile d’Or, in the middle of the Loire.
A…n….d… now I want to go back. Time to save up those centimes!
Passez une bonne journée!
Not So SAHM
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We took the week off! (Homeschool scheduling)
It wasn’t obvious to me when I first started scheduling our school years that I needed to add in some REGULAR break time. I wanted to do school for about 180 days, and in my flawed thinking, the faster we got that done, the sooner our summer could begin. Forget the love of learning; forget school fatigue; forget appointments; forget beautiful false spring days in the middle of winter where we just want to play outside.
I was so married to this schedule. Each week was a struggle to keep pushing towards the arbitrary goal I had set. And there was nothing to look forward to. Not only was I burned out, but my daughter, the main reason for all this, was hating school. Ugh.
Sometimes things are so obvious, yet I’m just stuck with my initial plan that it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. I had to allow myself to give ourselves breaks during the school year. To accept that our school year would extend past 36 calendar weeks. I laugh now thinking about that. You all are probably thinking it’s so idiotic to not do that to begin with. Homeschooling is about flexibility, and I always have touted that, but I wasn’t allowing myself to be flexible.
What we’re trying this year is to school for six weeks and then take a week off. I am LOVING it. The weeks go by so quickly that it seems like we’re always just a week or two away from a break. At first I was hesitant to really play up the break weeks. I want the girls to love schooling and so I didn’t want them to love the break weeks more. But even when we’re doing something we love it’s always nice to take a break and do something different, right? And the bonus is I have a week to recharge my batteries, review what we’ve been doing, and make any necessary changes to our school days, curriculum, etc. if necessary.
A friend of mine, who has chosen to school year round runs a four weeks on/one week off schedule. I’d be willing to try this if we were able to school year round. Right now we are moving just about every summer and I’m not at the point where I’m willing to school during those moves. . . although we *will* be roadschooling this summer when we move, and that’s something I’m going to blog about more in the near future!
Schedules are beneficial to most homeschool families. Unschoolers or families with very young kids probably don’t work within the confines of a schedule. I’ve come to realize that a flexible schedule helps me to stay organized and on track–with our school work and with our breaks!
What is your “school work to break time” ratio within your homeschool schedule? I’d love to hear how different ratios help different families.
P.S. The picture above is from a break from last spring. I don’t think I took any pictures during this last break week!
Not So SAHM
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Scale in Photography (St Louis Arch)
I follow Digital Photography School on Facebook and read their post the other day about How to Use the Human Form to Give a Sense of Scale to Your Images. I love the images that they use as examples. I love lines. It reminded me of this picture I took a couple years ago when we visited St Louis.
I wasn’t even thinking about scale when I took the picture; I wanted to capture my family and the Arch. But it’s so cool to see it in that respect. The trees help give a sense of scale, too. My husband is just under 6 feet tall.
We visited on a weekday in April and it wasn’t crowded at all. Still, I was surprised that I was able to capture my family alone. This is one of those pictures that I really should print and hang on the wall. (Is anyone else as bad as I am about that?)
If you’re into photography, do you have any pictures that give a sense of scale like this? Link to them in the comments, please. I’d love to take a look!
NotSoSAHM
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Learning by experience
I was reading through the ofamilyblog earlier today (this post) and what she said, what I quoted above, screamed out to me.
I think we all realize this, and I even know this about myself and how I learn best, but I need the fresh awareness of wise thoughts like the above. I taught myself how to sew. Not by reading books about it, but by buying a sewing machine and turning on the thing. I taught myself how to knit by grabbing a pair of needles and yarn. I did have to read instructions and (re)watch YouTube videos about casting on, but it was by actually experiencing the act of knitting that helped me really understand how to do it. I’m still currently teaching myself about photography, and although I need to read a lot about the technical aspects, it’s not until I start pressing the shutter button that I’m actually going to really understand photography. And how do any of us learn to cook? Julia Child can walk us through the steps, but the roast won’t cook itself.
The same goes with schooling, and it is not just the life skills that should be learned through experience. There is definitely a place for rote memorization and workbook practice, but (as I keep needing to be reminded) this should be just the beginning of the complete learning experience. Learning about fractions on a math worksheet is the first step. The next, and most important step, is applying the fractions to real life–in the kitchen when doubling a recipe, at the store when figuring out the cost of a sale item, etc. And memorizing the important names and dates of the Jamestown Colony is important, but being able to go to Jamestown (or doing something similar) and seeing, smelling, feeling, experiencing the life of the early colonists and Native Americans will make those facts “stick” as ofamilyblog so wisely put it. The same goes for any of the subjects we teach our children.
Experiential learning helps things become more real for the student, which is so important if we want to instill a love for learning in our kids. I struggle with doing this in my girls’ schooling. I know there are parents out there who are naturals at finding and creating ways to help their children experience learning. I need help remembering, and I need help figuring out, how to incorporate experiencing into our learning schedule. So, thank you ofamilyblog, for giving me a little jolt today. Now, I’m off to Pinterest to collect ideas. . .
And here’s proof that we do learn by experience sometimes in this household! I took the girls to Jamestown the last time we studied about the colonial period, and Reagan got to learn about many aspects of Colonial life. Here she’s learning how to build a fence.
(NotSoSAHM)
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Love is work. . . (but not that hard in Paris)
Love is work. . . and so rewarding.
We’re locked together, doing life as one.
Har. Har.
We were blessed to visit Paris a couple of summers ago. One of the traditions is to place a lock on one of the bridges along the Seine. This is the Pont des Arts.
We had our girls toss the keys into the river, symbolism for how hard we’re willing to work on this thing called love.
It’s a cliché but anything worth having is worth working for. I love my husband for being willing to work on our marriage.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
(NotSoSAHM)
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Not So SAHM 