I've been teaching English at a local institution for a while now, just one class a session, so 4-6 hours a week. They have asked me to teach a beginner's Arabic course next session. My undergrad degrees are in Linguistics and English, and I have a Master's in Arabic... and I studied Arabic overseas and have lived in and/or visited the ME off and on for the past 20+ years. But, I am not a fluent speaker. The main program I attended in the US back then for Arabic was geared towards Arabic as a research language. I consider myself a competent speaker, and I have experience over all these years teaching English and Arabic -- although Arabic has been limited to my kids and to the odd small group (I guess almost like tutoring, but still a group). So I've been a bit hesitant. I have stated and re-stated to them that I am not a native -- or event fluent -- speaker, which most people request when looking for a foreign language instructor. Their response is that 1) I have an advanced degree from a reputable university, 2) I do have some experience teaching Arabic, 3) I have good pronunciation, and 4) it will be helpful and motivational for beginners to learn from someone who has herself learned Arabic as an adult. And when I say beginner, this course is for people who don't know any Arabic at all, we will be focusing on learning the alphabet, a little vocab, and very basic introductory conversations. (They are also offering a conversational Arabic course, and for that one they are focusing on hiring a native speaker.) I'm torn. These discussions have been going on over the past month, they just asked me again if I was interested and I said I was as long as everyone is fine with the fact that I'm not a fluent speaker. If it matters, the people wanting to hire me are Arabs. So, what do you think? If you were a beginner, would you be ok with a teacher who was a non-native and non-fluent speaker? The students are all adults, this is like a continuing education course. Coupled with the fact that we're living in an Arabic culture, so they could have regular exposure to fluent speakers. I guess I'm worried I'll get in the class and have to deal with negative reactions. Thoughts?

Just an add on, I think the tradition is to fast two days, either the 9th and 10th or the 10th and 11th. This day of observance actually wasn't that long ago, I remember because my middle ds was fasting with us and had soccer practice -- maghrib came right in the middle and he and a friend had to run off field for a few minutes to break the fast. For the Shia it is a commemoration of the day that Husayn -- one of the grandsons of Muhammad -- was killed at Karbala. It is a day of mourning for them, and I believe the most famous aspect of that is the public self-flagellation that some do -- but I am pretty sure that is a minority of people who do that. The event is quite controversial in Islamic history, because it was one of the early confrontations between the growing split between Sunni and Shi'a Muslims, so it is interesting (to me) to read the different interpretations of the event, depending on the side.

We just got back from the hospital and ds' mri. Final diagnosis is cellulitis. The mri showed that the inflammation is all in the area between the fat and muscle layers; so no bone involvement, no tumor or blood clot, no pus, etc. We don't know how it got started, it looks like there are many possibilities (bug bite/sting, small cut, etc.). The dr said that he can see the swelling has spread to his ankle and foot, but since overall the swelling seems less intense, and the pain and heat is less (although still there), we can continue with oral antibiotics and the other meds he prescribed. If in the next day or two he is not showing marked improvement he will have to be admitted to the hospital for iv antibiotics for 2-3 days (!). Thanks again for everyone's input, it really actually is helpful to have some chatter about it, kwim?

Well today we were still dealing with insurance red tape. Blood tests came back normal. His leg was better in the morning, but as the day wore on got worse. It's now swollen, hot, and turning red. This really does not sound like a good sign to me. I talked to the dr, and he said aside from bringing him in for an iv antibiotic, there isn't much to do until he gets authorization from the insurance company. So I'm supposed to keep on with the meds he has, and call him in the morning to update (it's 6 pm here now).

Thanks Chaya (and thanks everyone who's posted)... I'm hopeful we'll get some answers tomorrow. At least the blood test results will be back and we will hopefully either have a clue what it is or rule something out, kwim? The insurance company is already dithering a bit on authorizing the mri, I don't know how fast all of that can get settled.

No mention of arthritis, it isn't at a joint. It's right in the middle of the long lower leg bone. As the dr was palpating the area, pain was greatest in the middle, as he moved to the ankle and to the knee the pain was less. also the swelling is all around the leg bone, no swelling around the knee or ankle...

I asked about the blood clot and was told that the swelling would be more on the back of the leg, whereas this is all on the front (is that wrong?). And for cellulitis, just from what I've read isn't there redness with that? He has no redness at all. I just looked at it again, it's still just really tight and warm. And hurts when I touch it. Weird.

I had never heard either of these terms until today. Last night my ds complained of leg pain. He wasn't loud about it, I generally let these things sit a bit. I let it sit until this morning, he was still complaining and saying it hurt when he walked. When I sat him down to get a proper look, the entire front of his lower leg was swollen super-tight. And when I touched it it was burning hot. No redness, no cut, no bite mark, no nothing; other than the swelling, it looked like his other leg. And he couldn't think of anything he had done to hurt his leg, or anything that might have hit or injured his leg, it just spontaneously started hurting. The heat and swelling concerned me so we headed to the er; the er forwarded us to an orthopedist, who had an x-ray taken (came back clear), blood drawn and placed a request for an mri. We're still waiting for insurance approval for the mri, but I noticed on his notes sheet that the dr wrote: "osteomyelitis? periostitis?" He put ds on antibiotics and some other drugs to hopefully reduce the swelling and the pain while we wait for some answers. Has anyone dealt with this kind of thing before? I have never seen anything like it. It looks and feels like a really bad infection, but without the redness or central point of injury, kwim? I kept looking for a bite, like a scorpion or spider, but wouldn't there be redness at the site? Confused and concerned...

My in-laws lived there for 30+ years, and I visited regularly (at least once a year) for the past ten years. They aren't American, so they didn't live in an American compound nor did dh and his sisters go to American schools, so I can't help you there. An aside, my youngest sil dropped out of her high school there one year in and completed her diploma at home using the American School; she eventually went to a grad school in London, so that path worked for her. Just fyi. :) About going around the city, it was not terribly unusual to see western women wearing an abaya but not a headscarf. My feeling of Jeddah is that it is more open than other cities. If you're talking about books, there is a major bookstore chain (al-Jarir) that carries a good amount of English books and also craft supplies, etc. I also know of an education supplies store in Jeddah, if you end up there let me know and I'll get you the info. I don't have extensive knowledge, but I do know there are some expat groups and if they are anything like the ones I'm involved with here, if you can get hooked into one (most have online group pages) you can find a lot of things -- books, furniture, etc. -- that people are selling; there tends to be a good amount of fluctuation in expat communities, people constantly coming and going. Just yesterday I bought a carload of garden pots for a good price that someone was selling because they're moving next month, kwim? We can get Amazon shipped here, but the shipping costs are generally prohibitive (to me). I use eBooks where I can, there are a couple of international online bookstores that I hear ship for free, but I have never used them and don't know for sure they deliver to KSA. Really, your best bet imo (assuming it moves forward) is to scout out online expat groups for Jeddah... hth!

I had to google the series, because we did have those at one point but I think gave them away some years ago (once my littles weren't so little anymore). There is a book in there that's titled "Life Begins" which is talking about creation, and after that I think is the one about Adam, which is something like "The First Man"? Do you already have these books? I can't remember if there was a list on the back covers of all the titles, in order, or not. Are you needing all the titles put in order time-wise? I could at least do that for you going off the descriptions I see from google, going off the prophet names...

Thanks for posting, that's really interesting. It's reminding me of some ESL sites I've seen, where they have short videos or readings and then provide key vocab, questions to test comprehension, etc.

When I was growing up, my dad had this enormous theater-/carnival-style popcorn machine that he would roll out onto the front porch, kept it running all night and handed out bags of popcorn. Do people even do that kind of thing anymore?

I actually have similar organizational plans in my own imagination, lol -- if only they were easily made into reality! ;) So is your under-running intention here that you would ultimately have some activity/religious-day-of-note for most days of the year? Are you wanting exposure to a range of spiritual beliefs? And how much retention (and correspondingly, depth) are you hoping to get here? In other words, is the idea that you will have a kind of "thought of the day" that takes about half an hour each morning and is drawn from a myriad of belief systems (emphasis more on personal spiritual connections)? Or is it learning about a range of religious beliefs by having regular exposure (emphasis more on learning about different religions)?

How are you planning this out time-wise? How much time are you intending/expecting to spend, at least at the start? Each month? Each week?

Just remember that the four things you have listed there are actually bundled. So Eid al-Fitr comes at the end of Ramadan, and Eid al-Adha comes at the end of Hajj. Also, while laylat al-Qadr is an important part of the Islamic calendar, there is not consensus on what night of Ramadan it will actually fall (one of the last odd-numbered nights -- 21, 23, 25, 27, 29). We actually have a national holiday here next week for the New Year of the Islamic calendar, I don't know how prevalent that really is across the board though. We also have a holiday on the day of Isra' and Mi'raj, and I think also on the day of the Prophet's birthday, if I'm remembering correctly. But these are not consistently observed across all Muslim countries -- I believe only what you have mentioned there are. :)

I just read through the Secondary Guide on this topic, here's part of what they have. As I mentioned before, they give links to eSamples of what other students have done, to give you an idea. The one I recall looking at, the student had made a website (like a blog) with links to a handful of scanned pages of work on each subject/course. So, like, 2-3 essays from a writing a course, etc. Every Clonlara student must submit a Graduation Portfolio as a requirement for graduation. Your Graduation Portfolio should be a reflection of your individual high school experience with Clonlara. This is your chance to showcase your talents and abilities, educational activities, greatest achievements, and personal growth. A portfolio can contain writing samples, artwork, math calculations, science lab reports, an annotated reading list, photos documenting your academic and non-academic pursuits, brochures from field trips, certificates of achievement, your resume, letters of recommendation, and anything else that highlights what you take pride in and/or demonstrates your personal and academic advancement. Be creative. The sky is the limit! Your Graduation Portfolio must be one cohesive document.

I forgot to add, they also require an exit exam at the end; they send it to you at the beginning of the school year (so you have a lot of time to work on it). From the Secondary Guide: The Exit Exam is a required part of earning a Clonlara diploma. You are allowed to research your answers and take your time on this examination. The Exit Exam is not designed just to test your knowledge. In fact, many of the questions are opinion questions. The Exit Exam has been redesigned to give students the option between the regular exam and a research paper.

There are some changes, Rose. My ds 15 is in 10th grade with Clonlara, he completed 9th with them last year. I have used Clonlara with all my kids since my oldest was in 1st grade. There aren't any grids that I've seen. At the beginning of each school year ds and I have a conference consultation with our adviser to discuss what we're looking at credits-wise for the year. She then sends me an email with a summary of our conversation. I then prepare credit planning forms, one form for each course. These are not set in stone, they are designed to give Clonlara an idea of what you are going to cover and how you're going to do it; the adviser reviews them and then lets you know if all looks ok, or if they think something is not going to work for whatever reason. You have a lot of flexibility here, this is where I think the "unschooling" aspect of Clonlara comes in -- there are a lot of ways you can design a credit, kwim? Once the forms are approved, I don't have any contact with Clonlara, unless I am making a major change to one of our courses in which case I send a heads up to our adviser (for example, last year I changed one of our textbooks mid-semester; and one course I had as 1 full credit and I scaled it back to a half credit). At the end of each semester we fill out credit request forms, which have sections for both the student and teacher to complete on what was covered and achieved. At the end of the highschool experience, you do have to submit a portfolio of work. Again, this is pretty flexible, but it should be something that would reflect work achieved over the four years... they had as an example a website one student designed where he uploaded samples from different courses he took, etc. But it could be a project that encompassed a wide range of subjects/curricula, they are pretty flexible on that. You also have to submit a reading list that covers the four years, and must include from a variety of genre. And you must complete a set number of community service hours and submit forms for that (that have been signed by supervisors), I split it out and it comes to about four hours per month of the school year. I don't have any experience with applying to colleges (yet), I can hopefully comment on that in a couple of years! ;)

I'm in pretty much the exact same situation; my boys are 15 (almost 16) and 12, and my daughter 8. We have lived here since my oldest was 6. They still talk about how they want to move back to the US, but I think they're basing that primarily on summer trips, where it's all vacation time and playing and eating favorite things only and fun, kwim? It's not how reality would be if we were living there. I kind of look at it the same way I do at homeschooling. It is a different life experience from many other people, that doesn't make it bad, just different. I went to small, private Catholic schools my whole lower education career, then went to a huge, public university. I learned that my insular community was not the experience the majority of my peers had, and it was eye opening. So I think, at least to some extent, many people go through this time where they feel out of sorts when they go into something new, kwim? I also have the added complication of a different religion than the rest of my extended family, so that puts us even further outside the familial culture, and that of the majority of our society. I was reminded of this in particular this past summer; I was having a girls' night out with old high school friends, and listening to them talk about their kids who are similar ages, their life experiences -- while similar to what I had growing up -- are completely, completely different from my kids. Just not even in the same spheres. It doesn't make one better or worse, just really different. And it was a bit of a jarring experience for me, frankly, being reminded of that.

I have relatives who are on a no-wheat diet, and this summer I made numerous pies using ground nuts as the crust... basically just chopping the nuts in a food processor with some sugar, salt and butter, then use like a cookie-crumb crust (press into tin, pre-bake). Frankly, I thought they were fabulous, and even preferred to a regular crust. my opinion. It does use up a lot of nuts. I like dried fruit with plain yogurt and chopped nuts, I have that every morning as my breakfast with some fresh fruit :)

A few months ago we had a small bird that kept attacking our windows... and would fly around the house attacking different windows. From what I read online, this particular species is very territorial and I believe he was attacking his reflection on the windows. Here's an article about it. I don't know about hawks, though...

I got contacts when I was a teen, I use rigid gas permeable ones. I think these aren't popular anymore (if they ever were), but I have been happy with using them over the past 30-odd years. They do take time for daily maintenance (cleaning/soaking), but I have only needed replacements a few times over the years.

A question that's been in my brain for a number of years... We're around a lot of nationalities, and a lot of native English speakers from different areas. When my dd (now 8) used to watch the Little Princess on tv, I found her accent unusual? It's not exactly like any of the other British English accents I've heard. Is there some specific regional accent she's got going on, or is it just a quirky thing that was made just for her character (or part of the voice actor's normal speech patterns)? I've always been curious... Here's a link to a YouTube clip, if needed.

My ds 15 yrs has an impacted molar. I never realized, I was having dental work done for myself and asked the dentist to check the kids' teeth and the dentist said, "did you know your son is missing a molar?" Um, no. :( Anyway, they did a set of xrays and the molar is there, but tilted under the gum and pushing the other teeth. His teeth were not badly misaligned (yet), but over time they would have become so because of the impacted tooth. He got his braces last year (he had just turned 15), the orthodontist wanted time to get the teeth aligned before dealing with the impacted one -- he actually has an appt tomorrow morning for an updated xray in preparation for surgery next week. Long story, short story is that he is 15 and has braces. I don't think it's even on his radar that it's something "for middle schoolers," he sees people of all ages wearing them. I don't know that that really helps your dd, though. :(

Doesn't it say why it won't let you file electronically? I've used TaxAct for years, and TurboTax before that, and never had any trouble with filing at all.. only this year, and even that wasn't on the TaxAct end of it but the IRS. I'm making myself all jittery just sitting here thinking about it. Why can't they tell me what's wrong?! Sigh