The show was pretty impressive. This year in Dutch class the kids learned their colors and numbers, how to have a shop transaction, names for foods, and about celebrations like Sinterklass and Queen's Day. And they told us all about it in Dutch!
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Winkelier
M had his Dutch assembly today, a little show to highlight everything the kids had learned this year in Dutch class. He was the Winkelier, the shopkeeper, and demonstrated a shopping transaction in which he sold a banana and an apple for 20 Euro. At the end of the performance when the head teacher remarked that it was a very pricey shop he ran, he said he wanted to charge 30 Euro but he didn't know how to say that in Dutch!
The show was pretty impressive. This year in Dutch class the kids learned their colors and numbers, how to have a shop transaction, names for foods, and about celebrations like Sinterklass and Queen's Day. And they told us all about it in Dutch!
The show was pretty impressive. This year in Dutch class the kids learned their colors and numbers, how to have a shop transaction, names for foods, and about celebrations like Sinterklass and Queen's Day. And they told us all about it in Dutch!
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Bike Repair
Our beloved tandem has been acting up lately. I have been putting off bringing it into the shop because basically, it's a pain in the neck. The bike shop near us is too expensive and has too long a wait these days, and the bike shop where I bought it is kind of far away. So, I decided to try out the Bike-Repair-Guy-Who-Makes-Housecalls.
There is something about seeing a bike tune-up happen that is a little unnerving--no one wants to know how they make the sausages. A few minutes ago I looked out the front window and the front wheel was off. I didn't know they removed the front wheel when tuning up a bike.
But, he's highly recommended and priced very reasonably. And with any luck my bike will now stay in gear.
There is something about seeing a bike tune-up happen that is a little unnerving--no one wants to know how they make the sausages. A few minutes ago I looked out the front window and the front wheel was off. I didn't know they removed the front wheel when tuning up a bike.
But, he's highly recommended and priced very reasonably. And with any luck my bike will now stay in gear.
 |
| Taken from really far away so I don't freak out the Bike-Repair-Guy-Who-Makes-Housecalls. And, yes, those are giant raindrops on my window. I guess when you are a bike repair guy in Amsterdam and don't work out of a shop, you get used to getting rained on. |
Friday, June 21, 2013
We're baaaaack!
Hmmm, what's been happening since March? Let's see, we went to Barcelona (nice), we went to Antwerp (bit of a dump), We went to Dublin (always great), we moved to an awesome new apartment, M continues to love and do well at school, M took 10 weeks of art classes, Grandma and Papa came to visit, M earned his ballet rosette, I survived half term break and learned the valuable lesson of planning, and we planned our summer holidays. Oh, and I made a new commitment to not let the blog updates go so long between.
 |
| M's group after taking their "ballet rosette" qualification test. |
 |
| M on the adventure course at Amsterdamse Bos. |
 |
| M in the kinderbad at Amsterdamse Bos. It was a nice day, but not as warm as it looks in this photo! |
 |
| M was a great help cleaning up our old apartment. So glad I took a page from my mother's book and put him to work! |
 |
| M realized a love of climbing walls when we found this pop-up activity at the Antwerp train station. |
 |
| Fun field trip to Oud Valkeveen, an amusement park for kids. |
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Detox
This morning I embarked on the Dr. Oz 48 hour cleanse. Why? I'm not exactly sure. A friend was doing it and wanted some moral support. I looked at what was involved and it seemed like a personal challenge I could do. Once I read reviews indicating it could help to reduce or eliminate junk food cravings I was sold.
We decided to cleanse during two week days instead of a weekend as it would have less of an impact on our families. Yesterday I bought the supplies, spending about 39 Euro. I'll chalk this all up to experience since by noon I started feeling crummy and by 2:00 I decided to eat a more substantial snack because I was feeling so ill.
Why did I feel ill? Here are my theories:
Theory #1: It doesn't say this on the Dr. Oz website, but when the cleanse is discussed on Oprah.com they note that you should drink enough caffeine to avoid withdrawal symptoms. I certainly don't over indulge on coffee, but I do have a couple of cups of strong English tea every morning. Maybe the hot water with lemon didn't cut it?
Theory #2: I'm just not a fasting kind of person. I haven't fasted a lot in my life, but occasional Lenten observances have shown me that it DOES NOT agree with me. Strictly speaking this wasn't a fast so I thought I'd be ok, but it was calorically reduced. Perhaps it didn't include enough calories to keep me going? I don't have a lot of fat stored up so I think fasting stresses my body sooner than it stresses most.
Theory #3: There was something in what I ate that triggered a headache. This has happened in the past, especially when my daily caloric needs aren't met. I don't know what food I ate that would have been the trigger. Maybe stevia? It was in the almond milk. Flax seed? Maybe, I can't say I eat that very often.
In any event, I was in bed by 3:30 with a cluster headache. Poor M missed swimming lessons. Thankfully Peter got home early so he could feed M and get him ready for bed. At midnight I woke up feeling a bit better and ate some banana and toast.
The next morning I felt a lot better. Interestingly, I wasn't interested in the bacon I cooked for M. Nor have I been eating as much junk food. The leftover vegetable stock became chicken soup last night and beef stew tonight. I have been enjoying the detox drink and all the fresh vegetables in my fridge.
So, I don't think it was a total bust. On the contrary, despite how awful I felt I really did feel some benefits of the cleanse. But if I were to do this again I wouldn't restrict my consumption. Rather, I'd add some of these cleansing foods to my normal diet.
We decided to cleanse during two week days instead of a weekend as it would have less of an impact on our families. Yesterday I bought the supplies, spending about 39 Euro. I'll chalk this all up to experience since by noon I started feeling crummy and by 2:00 I decided to eat a more substantial snack because I was feeling so ill.
Why did I feel ill? Here are my theories:
Theory #1: It doesn't say this on the Dr. Oz website, but when the cleanse is discussed on Oprah.com they note that you should drink enough caffeine to avoid withdrawal symptoms. I certainly don't over indulge on coffee, but I do have a couple of cups of strong English tea every morning. Maybe the hot water with lemon didn't cut it?
Theory #2: I'm just not a fasting kind of person. I haven't fasted a lot in my life, but occasional Lenten observances have shown me that it DOES NOT agree with me. Strictly speaking this wasn't a fast so I thought I'd be ok, but it was calorically reduced. Perhaps it didn't include enough calories to keep me going? I don't have a lot of fat stored up so I think fasting stresses my body sooner than it stresses most.
Theory #3: There was something in what I ate that triggered a headache. This has happened in the past, especially when my daily caloric needs aren't met. I don't know what food I ate that would have been the trigger. Maybe stevia? It was in the almond milk. Flax seed? Maybe, I can't say I eat that very often.
In any event, I was in bed by 3:30 with a cluster headache. Poor M missed swimming lessons. Thankfully Peter got home early so he could feed M and get him ready for bed. At midnight I woke up feeling a bit better and ate some banana and toast.
The next morning I felt a lot better. Interestingly, I wasn't interested in the bacon I cooked for M. Nor have I been eating as much junk food. The leftover vegetable stock became chicken soup last night and beef stew tonight. I have been enjoying the detox drink and all the fresh vegetables in my fridge.
So, I don't think it was a total bust. On the contrary, despite how awful I felt I really did feel some benefits of the cleanse. But if I were to do this again I wouldn't restrict my consumption. Rather, I'd add some of these cleansing foods to my normal diet.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Work Wednesday?
Wasn't I meant to be posting about work issues on Wednesdays? Well, here we are, and I have had some interesting work lately. Although M has transferred schools, a move that continues to go well, I am still working in the library at his former school. Mainly I do basic stuff, checking books out and in, but it has helped me to get to know a K-12 collection. Recently I have made some acquisitions recommendations in media studies and I'm also working on a project to create research guides for students working on their International Baccalaureate extended essay, a kind of senior thesis required for graduation. Today I also began leading the weekly library program for M's class. I really enjoy my work with K-12 libraries. Some aspects are completely different from anything I've done, and some are quite similar.
Over the past couple of weeks I have also found myself looking at employment ads with increasing frequency. I haven't quite determined what this means--will I apply for something? I suppose if the right thing came along, maybe 20 hours per week at a school library. Meantime, I'm pretty content to volunteer in exchange for learning so much about a different type of library.
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Old Becomes New, New Becomes Old
I tried to nonchalently post about baking but since this blog had been silent for the previous three months I'll admit it was a little suspicious. This fall may have been the most challenging three months in my time as a parent, and perhaps the most stressful quarter of my life.
It all started at the beginning of October when M's new school requested a meeting with us. They were concerned that he wasn't adjusting well to school and was very disruptive in the classroom. The school recommended psychological testing, a full time learning support aid and reducing his schooling to half time. Since our boy started daycare at 8 months old and was fine in nursery school last year we were pretty shocked by this news.
As the weeks went on there was no improvement. Many times I was called to pick M up early from school because he was having a difficult day. While I was sympathetic toward my child, I began to wonder what the issue really was. We didn't experience anything other than normal 5 year-old behavior challenges at home, and M's behavior actually had dramatically improved since the Summer when we began to be firmer with discipline.
The test results came back extremely high in one verbal aspect, advanced in most areas and average or behind in a few. The psychologist explained that this type of "disharmonic" profile could be very frustrating for a child, and combined with an international move, a new school and other changes in his short life could easily explain his behavior. Plus, she and I reasoned out that in a class with kids 6-10 months younger, with most English learners, he didn't really have any peers in his classroom. While he had friends in other classes he saw on the playground, he must have felt pretty isolated for most of the day.
One day out of the blue M told me, "I make noises when they are doing something I don't want to do." I asked what he meant and he explained, "Like counting to 10. I can count o 100." OK, so he was, at least in part, being disruptive because he was bored. I explained this to the school but it had little impact. I had watched his teacher reading to the class and she did seem to be going awfully slow, especially when M was used to hearing me read chapter books to him. Was this acting out because he was bored and unchallenged? I had volunteered in the class a few times and seen several of the children wandering around, not doing as they were asked. Perhaps the lack of discipline and structure was hard for M?
In January he tried out is previous school again, a school which is smaller and has more structure. They knew he was receiving one on one learning support at the new school so they wanted to observe him to see the level of support that was needed. We told M this was his opportunity to try out his old school and then as a family we'd make a decision. Turns out, within five minutes he adjusted beautifully, stayed with his class for the whole day both trial days and everyone there--the school administration, learning support team and teachers--unanimously agreed that one on one learning support wasn't necessary! So, whatever was going on at the other school seems to have been solved by more structure, firmer discipline and a more demanding curriculum. We had a family meeting and everyone voted to move him back.
That was three weeks ago, and while it's still early days at least we know that he can hold it together during the school day (something the other school thought he was unable to do). He is a changed kid--more agreeable, more mature, happier. Every day he tells us all about what he did and what he learned, which I now realized I hadn't heard all Fall. He describes the atmosphere as "calmer."
This experience, particularly learning about his intelligence profile, changed the way I parent. I had always thought kids were adaptable, and things like school choice, while important, wasn't really that important in the sense that kids adjust. At least for my kid that's not true. He's a much more sensitive person than I am and I need to continually consider that. This will have implications for our move back to New York, but that's still several years away. Perhaps if we give M 3 or 4 years of stability in his current school the move back to New York will be easier. And we have a lot more choice in New York. For now, we are all much happier where he is.
It all started at the beginning of October when M's new school requested a meeting with us. They were concerned that he wasn't adjusting well to school and was very disruptive in the classroom. The school recommended psychological testing, a full time learning support aid and reducing his schooling to half time. Since our boy started daycare at 8 months old and was fine in nursery school last year we were pretty shocked by this news.
As the weeks went on there was no improvement. Many times I was called to pick M up early from school because he was having a difficult day. While I was sympathetic toward my child, I began to wonder what the issue really was. We didn't experience anything other than normal 5 year-old behavior challenges at home, and M's behavior actually had dramatically improved since the Summer when we began to be firmer with discipline.
The test results came back extremely high in one verbal aspect, advanced in most areas and average or behind in a few. The psychologist explained that this type of "disharmonic" profile could be very frustrating for a child, and combined with an international move, a new school and other changes in his short life could easily explain his behavior. Plus, she and I reasoned out that in a class with kids 6-10 months younger, with most English learners, he didn't really have any peers in his classroom. While he had friends in other classes he saw on the playground, he must have felt pretty isolated for most of the day.
One day out of the blue M told me, "I make noises when they are doing something I don't want to do." I asked what he meant and he explained, "Like counting to 10. I can count o 100." OK, so he was, at least in part, being disruptive because he was bored. I explained this to the school but it had little impact. I had watched his teacher reading to the class and she did seem to be going awfully slow, especially when M was used to hearing me read chapter books to him. Was this acting out because he was bored and unchallenged? I had volunteered in the class a few times and seen several of the children wandering around, not doing as they were asked. Perhaps the lack of discipline and structure was hard for M?
In January he tried out is previous school again, a school which is smaller and has more structure. They knew he was receiving one on one learning support at the new school so they wanted to observe him to see the level of support that was needed. We told M this was his opportunity to try out his old school and then as a family we'd make a decision. Turns out, within five minutes he adjusted beautifully, stayed with his class for the whole day both trial days and everyone there--the school administration, learning support team and teachers--unanimously agreed that one on one learning support wasn't necessary! So, whatever was going on at the other school seems to have been solved by more structure, firmer discipline and a more demanding curriculum. We had a family meeting and everyone voted to move him back.
That was three weeks ago, and while it's still early days at least we know that he can hold it together during the school day (something the other school thought he was unable to do). He is a changed kid--more agreeable, more mature, happier. Every day he tells us all about what he did and what he learned, which I now realized I hadn't heard all Fall. He describes the atmosphere as "calmer."
This experience, particularly learning about his intelligence profile, changed the way I parent. I had always thought kids were adaptable, and things like school choice, while important, wasn't really that important in the sense that kids adjust. At least for my kid that's not true. He's a much more sensitive person than I am and I need to continually consider that. This will have implications for our move back to New York, but that's still several years away. Perhaps if we give M 3 or 4 years of stability in his current school the move back to New York will be easier. And we have a lot more choice in New York. For now, we are all much happier where he is.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Food Friday, Sort of
Well, I at least thought of this post on Friday, even though it's Sunday and I'm just getting around to posting it.
About 15 years ago I spent a year in the developing world. Daily life included many inconveniences, including power and water cuts, a lack of the type of entertainment I was used to and serious difficulties in finding foods that I never knew I would crave.
And crave I did. One of the things I learned about myself while I was there is just how resourceful I am, and what a kick I get out of problem solving. I made chocolate chip cookies with chopped up candy bars. After a few tries I realized that some oat meal in the batter makes up for the gooeyness of the chocolate. While I gave up a lot one thing I gained was cable TV. This proved to be particularly challenging for my cravings because I was continually exposed to food I could not acquire. Two things I was particularly proud of making were a barbeque chicken sandwich (inspired by a TGI Fridays commercial) and English muffin bread.
The English muffin bread doesn't have the "nooks and crannies" celebrated in the add, mainly because it's not fork-split but sliced, but other than that it makes a nice breakfast toast. And, if you've ever seen an English muffin recipe, you'll notice the bread is a lot easier to make.
So, when one of my favorite online expat forums was lamenting the lack of English Muffins in Holland I immediately thought of my English muffin bread recipe. Funny, my tastes have changed and in the past year-and-a-half I have not once thought of making this bread, but I made some this morning and it was really good. So, here it is:
2 teaspoons yeast
3 cups flour (I substituted about 1/3 whole wheat flour, as I do with almost everything)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup water
cornmeal & oil (for the pan)
Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, yeast, sugar, salt and soda. Heat liquids until very warm (120-130 degrees Fahrenheit). Add liquid to dry mix and beat well. Stir in remaining flur to make a stiff batter.
Put in greased, cornmealed loaf pan (or mound on a making sheet). Cover and let rise for 45 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and let cool.
[Pretty sneaky post, eh? Not mentioning once my near 4 month absence from the blog. I'm working on a post that explains that, so stay tuned.]
About 15 years ago I spent a year in the developing world. Daily life included many inconveniences, including power and water cuts, a lack of the type of entertainment I was used to and serious difficulties in finding foods that I never knew I would crave.
And crave I did. One of the things I learned about myself while I was there is just how resourceful I am, and what a kick I get out of problem solving. I made chocolate chip cookies with chopped up candy bars. After a few tries I realized that some oat meal in the batter makes up for the gooeyness of the chocolate. While I gave up a lot one thing I gained was cable TV. This proved to be particularly challenging for my cravings because I was continually exposed to food I could not acquire. Two things I was particularly proud of making were a barbeque chicken sandwich (inspired by a TGI Fridays commercial) and English muffin bread.
The English muffin bread doesn't have the "nooks and crannies" celebrated in the add, mainly because it's not fork-split but sliced, but other than that it makes a nice breakfast toast. And, if you've ever seen an English muffin recipe, you'll notice the bread is a lot easier to make.
So, when one of my favorite online expat forums was lamenting the lack of English Muffins in Holland I immediately thought of my English muffin bread recipe. Funny, my tastes have changed and in the past year-and-a-half I have not once thought of making this bread, but I made some this morning and it was really good. So, here it is:
2 teaspoons yeast
3 cups flour (I substituted about 1/3 whole wheat flour, as I do with almost everything)
2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup water
cornmeal & oil (for the pan)
Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, yeast, sugar, salt and soda. Heat liquids until very warm (120-130 degrees Fahrenheit). Add liquid to dry mix and beat well. Stir in remaining flur to make a stiff batter.
Put in greased, cornmealed loaf pan (or mound on a making sheet). Cover and let rise for 45 minutes. Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 25 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and let cool.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)