Giraffe
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Posts posted by Giraffe
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Hello,
I was here for a long time when DD was a small one, thinking I would homeschool or afterschool her. Life threw us a few twists and turns and I find myself in Turkey with a third grader going to a Turkish private school. We've done well with just her school - she even reads at or close to grade level in English thanks to their English program and Harry Potter (All hail JK Rowling!).
Today she expressed a desire to learn American history (which is obviously not covered in school). I looked in my cache of resources and I have nothing on American history. Ancients, yes. Middle Ages, a bit. Early Modern - nada.
I know SOTW covers it, and I can use that, but she wants JUST American history - not combined with the rest of the world. I'll get there eventually, but she's been resisting any form of afterschooling so I want to approach this carefully - you would resist too if you left for school at 7:15, got home at 5:30, and then had homework!
Oh - and I need a downloadable curriculum. Shipping to Turkey is sometimes a bit unreliable, and always a looooonnnnggg process.
Thank you!
Giraffe (aka Hope)
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Ziplocks are great, but ... The can of shaving cream *was* in a ziplock bag. Ziplock bag failed at a certain point...
Oh dear....
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My daughter can't wait to get back overseas and get her Kinder eggs. Amazingly, she has no problems not eating the toy inside the plastic egg, despite being American by birth. :P
My suitcase will contain: peanut butter for a niece that recently discovered it, box mac-n-cheese (yes, THAT stuff) for DD who loves it, guacamole mix for when I can't stand not having Mexican food (I can find avocados, thank goodness), chili powder, and candy sprinkles.
Non-food: gummy vitamins, iron supplements, vitamin D3, and deodorant!!
PS: I finally just made vanilla extract with vanilla beans I brought back last year. Much safer for my clothes!!
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Ziplocks: God's gift to travelers.
You have reminded me to stock up on quarts and gallons before my flight Friday. Thank you!!
P.S.: I'm so sorry about the suitcase and clothes!!
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I think I'm late to this, or at the very least missing something, but: postcards?? If someone(s) would like Turkish postcards, clue me in? I return next week....
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I am winding down my library binge. Finished The Buried Book, abandoned Frames Of Mind. Too academic for me right now. Which is silly considering I've abandoned it for Homeric Moments. Ah well, c'est la vie.
More once I'm back from the parents' home and I'm able to concentrate a big more, but I do like the sound of Flufferton Abbey...
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Hugs to Mumto2 and all those dealing with family health issues. I fear the day that comes to my doorstep.
Still reading, still library bingeing....
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Omeprazole does nothing for me. I have to take Pantoprazole (I might be misspelling). Different people respond differently so maybe try another type of PPI?
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In Turkey we have "beş çay" or 5:00 tea, which is tea and some snacks to hold us until the evening meal at 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening. I always thought that was close to the British tradition but I am likely wrong. If we eat enough at tea, then dinner/supper becomes something simple vs. a full meal. DD's "beş çay" is very often her evening meal, just because she fills up from it.
The word for breakfast in Turkish is "kahvaltı", which translates to "before the coffee". It always includes copious amounts of tea and then is followed by, you guessed it, Turkish coffee. I find it interesting that westerners view the morning meal as breaking a fast while Turks view it as preparation for the first coffee of the day.
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I've had two cats now who have made it their mission to protect me from The Shower. One sat outside on the closed potty and waited, silently, kind of like a lifeguard. If I took too long, he would, ever so carefully, peek his head around the curtain and give me a disapproving stare.
The second cat would do the same, but wail with increasing intensity until I emerged from The Shower. He couldn't believe I went into that tub of torture voluntarily. I used to wonder if he was mourning my passing or calling for help. My other cats at the time ignored him.
Yeah, cats.
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Hello all!
Finished "Anathem" quite unexpectedly while waiting at the DMV. I found myself without anything to read (let's just pretend there weren't about 400 other books on the Kindle - I'm on a library bender, remember?!) so I now carry my big WDW bag with at least four books in it in case I find myself waiting somewhere again. And a notebook for notes, of course.
Have breezed through "How To Tutor" and slotted it for return. Not what I was looking for, unfortunately. On the other hand "Imagine" by Jonah Lehrer is fascinating. My neuroradiologist MIL pronounced the science something quite unpleasant and unmentionable, but I'm really enjoying the looks into how we come up with ideas and insights. It's giving me a glimpse inside my DH and DD, both of whom are dreamers.
Balancing that book with "Frames Of Mind" by Howard Gardner and "The Bookseller" by someone who's name escapes me.
I just love library benders!!
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Hugs to those who fly often, especially over uncertain regions.
I am still reading "Anathem" and have my brain completely turned inside out. I may have to reread parts. But that will have to wait because I am in the USA and have access to the library!!! I put the brakes on the reserve list at 23 (some are for DD, really!). I cannot wait to head over there tomorrow and pick up my first batch of little treasures.
Books! Glorious books!!
And my mom GAVE me her copy of the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of "Anna Karenina" to take back with me. Heaven!!
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Hi guys! My life continues to be surreally crazy busy. We are still in Turkey, I'm teaching a English as a foreign language, DD is going into second grade, DH is still in the US doing his PhD (where we are for the summer). I'm hoping when we get done visiting the grandparents that I can settle down a bit (yeah, right). I've had pneumonia (with hospital stay), found out I'm severely iron deficient anemic (you know it's bad when two different doctors ask you, in all seriousness, how you are able to remain standing), and vitamin D deficient. My fused spine has given me a hard time so I had the pain nerves burned off, literally, so not as much pain these days, thank goodness.
Finally finished Wolf Hall and am up to about 7 books read so far this year, which is good considering. Read Lexicon by Max Barry, a whole bunch of Silva novels (Gabriel Allon series), Shadow Of Night by Deborah Harkness, and am reading Anathem right now. Still plugging away at The Iliad but can't listen to it (audiobook) around my daughter who gets undone by violence easily.
Read People Of The Book last year and agree the frame story was basically pointless but it did provide breathing space between the stories set in the past and as a literary device it worked.
I really enjoyed Lexicon. It has grown on me and stayed with me longer than I expected. I can't wait for the third installment of the All Souls Trilogy by Harkness. And Anathem is amazing. It's my airplane book (been on a lot of those lately).
I've missed you guys! Will try to stay in touch better. Promise!
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I really liked People Of The Book. I didn't think I would, but I did.
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Rosie, I've missed you!! :tongue_smilie:
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Fun idea! I could try to participate, but I do get a lot of the books I read from the library, lol. (I can still come up w/ some books to send, though.) Over the past year or two, I have sent a few books on to fellow BaWers (& they have shared a few w/ me too).
We need a flat librarian or something that could go along & then each person to get the box would have to take a photo of the flat librarian on their bookcases, or in their library, or out & about in town, etc.... :lol:
Hey, for overseas pals, we could send postcards saying hi. I say that because Rosie did the awesome postcard send-out from Hanging Rock if you read Picnic at Hanging Rock. (Which I most certainly read because I considered it to be uber cool to receive a postcard from the locale & the better bonus that it was from Rosie!)
:coolgleamA:
Hello from one of the overseas pals - long lost and returning, she hopes. Long story that I'll explain later (it's 4am here - not quite coherent but insomnia reigns). As far as postcards go - I can send some from here - Izmir, Turkey, home of Homer and ancient city of Smyrna. Or I can post them from Foca, which was formerly known as Phokaia, which is just up the road. You'll get to Phokaia in HOAW, those of you reading along. Off the coast are the Siren Rocks. Yes, those Sirens. Others have claims, but these fit the story and they have enduring myths about them in the Turkish culture as well, not just in Greek.
But if you want to do this, it has to be before mid-June when we head to the US for the summer.
More later when my migraine dissipates and I've slept. I've missed you all!
Giraffe
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I think you are right, but I also think the connection, weirdly enough, go both ways. ...which makes the process more like peeling an onion... one has to keep cycling back. Though, at some point, one has enough of a framework, that the cycling doesn't have to be as linear...
..do you, by any chance, have a Turkish reading list to recommend?
I agree with you. It is a cyclical process. It's so interesting!
I’m sorry I’ve been out of touch (again). I got a job and I love it, but it’s running me ragged. I’m teaching English (as a foreign language) to middle school kids at a local private school. 16 classes, 32 lessons a week, spread over 4 grades. It’s insane, but fun.
Eliana, you asked for a Turkish reading list. I will try. This is what I’ve read/planning to read:
· Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization, Lars Brownworth
· Osman’s Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire, Caroline Finkel
· Atatürk, Lord John Patrick Balfour Kinross (This is the original edition, not the revised one published by a more recent Patrick Kinross)
· The Ottoman Centuries, Lord John Patrick Balfour Kinross (again, original edition, not revised)
· The Great Speech (Nütük), Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
I haven’t gotten beyond this. I’ve read Lost to the West, and am about halfway through Osman’s Dream.
Turks highly recommend Kinross’ books because Kinross actually knew Atatürk as a contemporary and as a colleague/friend. He has insights other English language biographers cannot provide. My husband (a Turk) sought out and found the books above at Powell’s Books in Seattle and we’ve carried them around with us as if they are gold. He sniffs at other biographies, including the more recent edition of the same book, but I honestly don’t know how different it is. Turks are obsessively protective of Atatürk.
HTH!!
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:grouphug: :grouphug: :grouphug:
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Goodnight Moon. DD, age six, pulled it out the other day for me to read to her just so she could hunt the mice. We've both memorized the story so it was all about the mice and the snuggle.
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Praying for you, your dad, and your mom. :grouphug:
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Well, I have decided that Internet access is Important. And not having it is Bad. We have had spotty access for the last week or so and I am online now only thanks to a portable hot spot my FIL has loaned me. My lifelines are cut and I'm floating without anchor. Grrrr. After this post I will call the internet provider again and pray for a truly English speaking person who can actually help me.
Eliana, your quote is important to me because it describes perfectly my theory of history and literature. I have maintained for a very long time that one cannot know modern times without knowing the history that brought these times about. And one cannot know history, truly, without knowing what brought that history about. And literature is an important part of understanding history and the people that lived in it and formed it. The stories we tell tell on us, as it were. So I launched a project, that I will never finish, of reading history and literature chronologically. I first read an overview of the time - SWB's History of the ____ World books. Then I delve into the period. So far I've made it into Ancient Times, and no further. I read HOAW, Herodotus (you all will recall how much I despised him) and am now in The Iliad. I have a hard time making time for this project, but I do enjoy it (Herodotus notwithstanding). I am redoubling my efforts now and hoping to make more progress.
By example, I will use Turkey. I live here in Turkey and am surrounded by the issues that you all occasionally see in your newscasts. You might recall some protests about some trees in Taksim Square? To understand the true issues that were being raised, you have to understand the current government, how it relates (or doesn't) to the precepts set down by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founding of the Turkish Republic, and the relationship of the Turkish Republic to the West, the Ottoman Empire, and by extension, the Holy Roman Empire and Constantinople. I kid you not. So I need to read about the Holy Roman Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the rise of Ataturk, who he was, what was in his "Great Speech" that everyone here knows, why Izmir burned (my city here and important to all this), and only then might I understand what's going on now. Because this is so important and relevant to me, I did a bit of a jump and have been reading a history of the Ottoman Empire that is extremely interesting. Once I'm done with that, I will go onto a biography of Ataturk (written by an English friend and contemporary), then his Great Speech (Nutuk). Maybe then I'll start understanding my adopted land.
Yes, I know. I'm insane. But that doesn't mean I'm not right. ;)
In other, lighter, news, I finished People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks and A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. Looking for the second book in the witch series at my virtual library. Interesting, kind of weird, but fun. Good for nights of insomnia. I LOVED People of the Book and will look for more of Brooks' works as well.
That's all from my little corner of the madhouse....
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I'm back from our 10 day trip to London, Bruge, and Paris. Got a lot of reading done on the plane and trains. I'd tell you guys all about it BUT while in London DH and I got the call that we got a match on our adoption!
*squeeeeee*
She's due anytime so we're frantically getting ready to go just in case. If we don't leave for a few days I'll be back to chat.
Also, I'm a little rusty on this newborn thing ... anyone have any books to recommend? It's been nine years since I had a baby.
Hooray!! Congratulations!!!
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Ugh. I got the LAMEST response. I kind of wish I had not bothered at all.
Yeah, no one in customer service has the power to override the "system" to extend the promotion. Uh-huh. :rolleyes:
I got the exact same response. They must be getting flooded with complaints/inquiries.
Grumble.
American History? Afterschooling, overseas, 3rd grade
in K-8 Curriculum Board
Posted
Thanks!