I'm eagerly anticipating my trip home to Canada. I don't have anxiety about it, except over leaving my cats. We have a count down app on our phone - 43.3790 days left! ;) I think its hard not to become the "this one time, at band camp" girl. I have a tendency to want to chime in with my awesome experiences all the time but most people get sick of hearing about it unless its shocking or completely bizarre. Its not that they aren't interested in you or your life, its just that they aren't interested in hearing the nitty gritty details over and over and over again - and the perceived negative comparison with their own lives. Hearing you say great things about another country and all the cool things you've done over and over again can kinda give one the thought that maybe where live isn't great or exciting in comparison. Its a bit like talking about a movie or a tv series repeatedly that they won't ever get to see. Or talking about an awesome party they weren't invited to. You said it was your expectations that made things easy and difficult when you moved. So, if you can, change the expectations. I do not treat going home like going home. I treat it like being a tourist on vacation. :) I plan all the things I want to do while I'm there, same as I do when I travel to new places. When talking to family, I always speak excitedly about the things my family and friends can "do" for us or experience with us while we are visiting. Little things like how much I look forward to grabbing a timmy hos on the way home from the airport and eating junk food like poutine and things made with pork. Or bigger events like fishing and camping. And we just try to be super positive about the experiences we are having that we can't get in Dubai. I have found that acting just a bit like a happy tourist rather than a citizen-coming-home makes people realize you are different, but in a way they can relate too and a way that makes them happy. These are JMHOs, of course! YMMV....

If your kids are oblivious to the fair-weather status of their "friends" and still want the kids over, then I'd be tempted to invite them over individually (not more than one family at a time) to act as entertainment for my own children. The worst that could happen is that your kids get playmates for the day and never see the kids again until next summer. The best that could happen is that you actually click with a family given the 1-1 exposure and develop deeper friendships that go beyond the summer. Don't cut off your nose to spite your face... see it as an opportunity.

I HATE trampolines. I broke my leg in two places on one, and couldn't run for over a year. And I didn't fall off or anything - it was a pressure break from being double bounced. I still let my kids on them but... I've got no interest at all and won't go on one.

We travel 4 times a year and our vacations usually represent just under 3 months of travel each year. tbh we don't bring along much school work. We are taking our yearly vacation back to Canada for 4 weeks in July/August. We school all year round and skip the xmas/easter/march/summer breaks so our "vacations" end up being only slightly more time off than PS kids take off school. So, I don't really stress it all that much. If Math is what you are worried about, could you photocopy a chapter or two out of the math text? Part of me shivers at the idea of ripping up books, but I see how that could be helpful. One year we traveled back to Canada because my father was dying. We didn't know if we'd be there two weeks or three months. At the time we were doing K12 so lugged pretty much 50lbs of books back and forth... it was annoying but we snuck them in our hand baggage and never got caught. :/ It was less than ideal and made wandering around the airport a work out for the arms. Never again... My oldest is just finishing up 5th grade, so I've got no better advice for you. We find pads and kindles helpful - history/social studies tend to be found everywhere around us when we travel so I don't worry about that much. Formal science gets neglected but we can catch up.

Same as everyday, croissant and coffee.

Over 100$ for sneakers as a teen. Now I think 50$ is the norm... but I'm not much of a shoe collector. Im fashion challenged.

I tip 10% or round up, whatever is more. I'm in the UAE. In Canada I used to double tax, which then was 15%. When in other countries, we usually look up the standard tipping practices and act accordingly, so anything from not tipping at all to rounding up to american style pay-the-waiter's entire salary. I think tipping 20% is ridiculous (not the tippers, but the practice itself). I understand why some people do it - but there isn't anything special about bringing me a menu, a drink, and a meal that warrants me paying a person 10$ or more for doing so. I'd much prefer that they would build this price into that of the food and compensate the waiters directly.

The problems she missed are because she didn't write the math out at all - just an answer. As in, she was asked to do two separate multiplication problems and add them together. Doing stuff in her head instead of showing her work is an issue we have. Its a tough one because usually she's right, and I can see she thinks it is a waste of time... but as the problems become more complex and involve more steps she is going to make more mistakes.

I'd be interested in this, but not super interested in their ridiculously high shipping costs.

My just turned 7 year old has always found math easy. She's using math mammoth and is currently working in book 3A. I accidentally gave her the Chapter 3 test instead of Chapter 1, and she got 91% on it. Would you skip two entire chapters on multiplication based on these test results? On the one hand it seems silly to spend that much time working on a concept she already gets, but at the same time practice and internalization can be important for speed. I've let her go onto Chapter 4, which won't take more than a week to zip through before we move onto 3b. :/ Just wondering what you all have done in the past. Three years homeschooling and I still question/doubt myself all the time.

We assign rooms based on what works for each child. My youngest has a bigger room than my oldest right now, but that's because the oldest's room connects to a balcony. I didn't want a 4 year old to have unsupervised access to balcony from which a fall could mean injury or even death if she landed wrong. I trust the oldest so the decision was made.

Doesn't bother me, but I don't like the "massage parlour" cards featuring scantily clad asian ladies that get slid under my door. Those are hard to explain.

Clean house and a cup of coffee, all before noon!

UAE is full service only. You can use debit or credit, but its easier to use cash to pay.

I think I want to retire to Canada. No matter what, I look at it as my home. I will probably move back to Ontario and be around my family (assuming they are still there) or maybe to Nova Scotia, which is where my father's family comes from and where generations of our people have been buried. I see myself on an acreage with fruit trees, a garden, and forest. But how realistic this is with the healthcare and other help requirements of old age... not sure. Maybe I will just have a small apartment in a big city. DH wants to retire somewhere outside of Canada where our savings and any pension would be worth more. We are still 30ish years away from retirement so who knows.

You are very lucky that you speak Arabic. I'd go further with the language bit and say that not only is it easy to "get by" in Dubai knowing only English, its actually difficult to learn Arabic because English is so prevalent. When I lived in Brazil, I picked up a working understanding of Portuguese in only three months, and by the end of the year I was dreaming in Portuguese. I expected something similar when I came to Dubai - I have a linguistics degree and I was pretty excited about learning a non-euro language. But here all my Arabic friends speak english exceptionally well and usually speak different dialects of Arabic from each other. I've only managed to pick up maybe 20 words in the nearly 3 years I've been here. :\ I'm hoping to hire myself an Arabic tutor because organically picking it up just won't happen. Inshallah, I'll learn Arabic before I leave. Expat living was always part of my plan. I grew up in Germany and moved to Canada (my home country) when I was 10ish. I never lost the travel bug and have taken every opportunity to travel and live abroad. For us it wasn't difficult to decide where to go because there weren't many options at the time. Dubai is an EXTREMELY easy place to get into as expats make up the majority of the population. DH got a job there after sending his CV in on a whim. It was all chance and good luck. I miss lots of things from home. The food, the rights citizenship grant, consistency in shoe sizes. :) I miss things from the places I've lived as well. I don't feel "weird" when I go back home as a result of currently living overseas. I've always felt weird because I spent so much time abroad while young, so I was kinda ruined before I even had the chance to be normal. Sometimes I feel like my small town friends who haven't traveled lead ... i dunno, lead smaller lives? Like they lack perspective and can't understand that things that are different aren't necessarily bad, that their way of life is one of many and not the only one. Like they have no interest in anything beyond their town or their country. Not everyone is like that of course. I hear so many people bad mouth Dubai yet they haven't left Canada and have no idea what they are talking about. My kids identify with the culture that we have created for them in Dubai. My youngest doesn't remember living in Canada. My oldest is still Canadian and fits in fine when we go home every year for vacation, but there are behaviours in her that are a product of her expat experiences.

I will, but only because I am feeling overwhelmed and maybe writing a list will help! - Finish two loads of laundry - Dishes and counters and tables wiped - Vaccuum - Clean the Cat litter - Print instructions for cat sitter - Pack bags for myself and the children - Find spare key - Clean both bathroom sinks and toilets

I have two. I got my first when I was 14, and my second when I was 16 and living in South America. They have no meaning to me and both were done on a whim. I don't regret them and I have no plans to have them removed, but I would probably erase them if doing so was painless and cheap. I don't actually ever think about them or notice them anymore and no one else does either as they are hidden.

Mine doesn't vomit, but when he brushes its the nastiest thing ever - he gags the entire time. Maybe a sensitive reflex? Either way, get him to the dentist. If he's got problems with his teeth, the longer he lets them go the longer the tools will the in his mouth! Unicorn - any sources on the discharge thing? I'm interested in knowing more about it. I'd love to have a magic solution to stop his gagging in the morning...

We have time limits for some things - Math, Reading, spelling practice, handwriting. Goals/Assignments for others - Latin, History/Science, LA projects... Like others have mentioned, I find if I am not actually present and giving them reminders to stay on track, mine with stare off into space, start colouring or otherwise get distracted.

I think I am the only one that didn't want Freddy to be successful. I mean, he brought it on himself a bit - he wasn't forced into cheating, he did that one his own. If he hadn't been all up into prostitutes I could have had more sympathy for him, though he didn't deserve his fate.

My DH (then fiance) moved to a different city while I finished up my last year of university. We were apart for nearly 8 months. He drove the 3.5 hours every other weekend to see me, and we spent every break/vacation together. It was still difficult and by the end I felt like we had grown apart emotionally. It was awful and not something I'd advise for anyone - though I suppose you wouldn't face the same issues because you've been together longer and likely have a more solid relationship. When we moved overseas, DH went ahead of us by 6 weeks. This was hard, but doable. In some ways it was nicer that he went ahead and took care of some stuff before we got there. Getting paperwork completed, sorting out a car and other little things like that are easier done without children underfoot...

I was never going to have kids - NEVER. Even got a tattoo on my stomach because I'd never be pregnant so stretching skin wouldn't be a problem... I was never going to get married. I was never going to be financially dependent on another person. I was never going to vote differently than I did at 18. (HAHAHA) So many nevers... so much delicious crow.

Right now my girls LOVE Dixit. My 6 year old is even asking for the expansion pack for her birthday. Its imaginative and fun. Other favs for kids are: Kings of Tokyo Carcassone or Carcassone kids Settlers of catan (which is too hard for my 6 year old to play well) Ticket to Ride (but again its difficult for my 6-almost-7 year old) Zombie Dice - quick and fun.

Shop and Ship is a popular forwarding service that many people I know use, but for what they charge its not worth it for anything heavy like books. I go back to Canada once a year so I take advantage of that and order books to my mother's house. We get 2 bags per person at 23kg - so I can usually fit about 60kgs of books into the luggage to take back with me. That plus book depository and pdfs gets me through. But its hard not to have anything on hand to flesh out subjects as needed. It makes me rely a lot more on the internet than I'd like to. Its annoying to be limited by location and to have plan everything ahead by at least year. :/