Jenyfer Matthews

I went to the children’s school on Monday to turn in the work they had completed from the week before and to collect a new packet of work for the coming week. They also asked us to come back to do the same on Wednesday. I told my daughter’s teacher that since we don’t have a car, getting up to the school isn’t that convenient for me. He said not to worry about it because all of the work for the week was in the packet he put together for Monday pick-up and that we could send it back on Sunday when they return to school.

I told my son’s teacher the same thing. She didn’t seem quite as understanding, but she did say that the additional work would be available online if we needed it. She also let drop that it wasn’t a big deal if they didn’t do it at all because they would catch them up when they returned to school and that she wasn’t even doing much with her own kids.

On the one hand I was glad to hear it because I didn’t want to go back to get more work (they gave us plenty as it was!) but on the other hand, why am I torturing myself and my son with all this homework if it doesn’t matter anyway?

I am happy to report that we are finished with the massive research project. My daughter seemed to enjoy it well enough once we got into it. She even wanted to do extra work on it. Did you know that Henry VIII was an accomplished recorder player? Or that Tudors brushed their teeth with a paste made from ground pumice stone? Or that a folk remedy for headaches was applying a hangman’s noose to your head? I now know more weird and gross facts about life and hygiene in the Tudor times than I really care to!

There are things about Egypt that I *LOVE*. I finally finally took my microwave to the repair place to have it fixed a few days ago, along with a boom box that hasn’t worked in a couple of years. The shop called me today to say they were ready and did I need them delivered? Heck yeah! It cost me about $60 to fix both and I didn’t have to leave the house to get them back. Now that’s what I call service!

It’s always nice to be appreciated so imagine how pleased I was to get a notice that my blog was included in the top 100 on The Daily Reviewer site! Thanks to everyone who helped make that happen!

Top Blogs

Living abroad has its benefits. My husband is earning a comparable salary to what he might make if we were in the US, but the benefits are better. The children’s tuition is part of our employment package, we get to travel, and I get to stay home with the children AND we still save money. As an adult, I understand the hidden benefits to the situation. It can sometimes be harder to explain them to the children however.

Both children attend a British curriculum private school and I’d estimate that at least 75% of the children who attend the school have a parent who works for the oil industry. The oil people not only make some serious money, but living in a country like Egypt allows them to really live large besides. They typically have very large homes, big SUVs with drivers, and take every opportunity to travel. One mom I talked to this week said that they had scheduled a trip to Sharm al Sheikh for the scheduled long weekend and then extended their stay a few days when they heard the schools were closing – to the tune of $308/night. That’s about as much as I would want to pay for the entire weekend!

I don’t begrudge them their money or how they choose to spend it. But my children are beginning to notice the disparities. One of my son’s classmates came over for a playdate and made the comment “your house is tiny”. By comparison to his, I guess it is. His kitchen is as large as our kitchen, dining, and living rooms put together. Since I’m the one cleaning our home, I’m not too bothered by it being “tiny”! It’s plenty big enough for us, especially since most of time we are only ever all here at once to sleep

Last Thursday one of my daughter’s classmate had a leaving party at the school grounds. The invitation said to bring a swimsuit and goggles so I assumed it would be a swimming party. It was more like a small carnival. There were two bouncy castles (one small, one large), a bungee jump trampoline, a DJ, a popcorn cart, a bubble show, face painting and henna, and a large slip-n-slide in addition to a videographer, a table full of cup cakes, snacks, and juice. It was a beautiful day, the children had a wonderful time, and it certainly was a nice change of pace from sitting inside doing homework.

Things cost less here than they do in the US or Europe, but I’m sure it still cost a good bit for all of that. Certainly more than I would ever have considered spending on a child’s farewell party. Beyond the cost, I couldn’t help but wonder what that sort of display was going to do for my children’s sense of what is appropriate for parties. I skipped a birthday party for my daughter last June because there were so many scheduled it was ridiculous and each party was more elaborate than the last. *I* felt overwhelmed and totally inadequate so how must my daughter feel when I hang up a few balloons in the yard and invite her friends over to run through a sprinkler?

When my children have questioned why we don’t have a car, why it is that we don’t go to the Red Sea every weekend and why we rarely travel as a family outside of our summer vacations, I have to tell them that we don’t choose to spend our money that way. But I can already see that that answer is going to be less satisfying as they get older and want the same things their friends have. I’m okay with that, but I’m not sure I would want to know their answer to being given the choice between having a laptop for Christmas or having their mother at home to greet them after school and ease their life in so many countless and unseen ways!

It’s officially the weekend but we have no time off. My son is finished with his homework, but my daughter has miles and miles to go yet. We have to finish up a book report and finally make a start on the mammoth research project on the Tudors. She’s right at that perfect age where she’s a bit young to be left with such a project on her own, but just old enough that I don’t feel inclined to be too soft on her because I *know* that she can do more than she’s letting on. My primary job this weekend will be trying to convince her to work with me so that we can get this done efficiently. Fussing, fretting, complaining, and tears will only drag things out, not get her off the hook.

Her teacher this year is a bit of a performer – apparently he puts on costumes and uses voices and teaches them by entertaining them. It seems to work really well for him. At this point I’d put on a fat suit and pretend to be Henry the VIII if I thought it would speed things up!

Have a great weekend whatever you are up to!

I can’t remember where I found the link to the “blog” of “unnecessary” quotation marks (sorry!) but you don’t have to be a writer to find it amusing. Then again I’m a cheap laugh these days – anything to get away from homework for a few minutes!

It’s just after lunch and so far today I have:

*Helped my son complete a math sheet (on coins) and his spelling words (to be tested tomorrow)

*Helped my daughter complete a math sheet
*Given her an “in my day” lecture about how I did my own homework BY MYSELF
*Watched a tantrum at the mention of the research project yet to be started
*Delivered a speech that I was here to help her with the project, but if she chose not to cooperate she’d be taking the heat on her own with her teacher and principal
*Helped her complete a reading comprehension sheet

Never have I been so grateful to take a “break” to sweep and hose off the balcony and vacuum and mop my floors!

It’s only Wednesday, what would have been the first day back to school after a long weekend, and we haven’t quite completed the “easy” assignments yet though we only took two days of the five days off before we started them. In what alternate universe did they expect to get all this done in three days? I really can’t believe my child is *that* much more productive in school hours.

They have assured us that school will start again on October 4th and that they will NOT be taking the scheduled October 6th holiday. I have all my fingers crossed that it’s true. I’ll bet my children do as well!

The home-schooling that is.

I greatly admire teachers for their patience in working with children – especially 20+ children at once. I know that children act differently at school but never has that been more apparent to me than now. Take the certificate my son brought home from school last week for “exemplary behavior” during carpet time? Where is that child now? Or does is his teacher some sort of child whisperer?

The homework that my son brought home isn’t all that difficult – he is only six. The most challenging part of his homework is getting him to focus and sit still to do it. My strategy is to get two pages a day done, first thing in the morning before he goes out to play. On the one hand, he’s as fresh and energetic as he’s going to be during the day. On the other hand, he’s fresh and energetic and sitting still and focusing is the last thing he is interested in doing.

The homework my daughter brought home will likely break me. A good friend of mine who has a son in the the same class was puzzled why I was freaking out so much about it. Until we figured out that 1) she thought that the work they sent covered the entire break (it doesn’t, it’s just the first few days) and 2) she was missing the instruction sheets for the two most involved assignments. I helpfully made copies for her and now she’s freaking out as well.

In addition to six math worksheets and three reading comprehension sheets, my daughters assignments include a reading book, daily mental math quizzes, writing a book report, and a research project on the life during the Tudor times. The research project will compare the rich and poor on seven points including housing, food, clothing, entertainment, women and children, and working life with each point being two pages of text and pictures and a minimum of 10 sentences each. Since she had a meltdown during one of the (EASY) reading comprehension sheets this morning, I can only imagine what happiness and joy will flow when we start on the research project.

I myself was a very good student but I’m not at all cut out for homeschooling. I’ve already told my husband that if the rumors are true and the schools remain closed until Christmas or beyond, I’m leaving and putting the kids in school in the US. It might sound extreme but I’m not the only mother here thinking the same thing!

As I previously reported, many of the schools in Egypt haven’t started the school year yet due to concerns about the spread of H1N1. Since there are no reliable, objective media sources to give any sort of idea of how many people in Egypt are actually affected by H1N1 or what the government reasoning is, rumors and speculation abound. The most popular belief is that it’s all just an excuse because no one wanted to go to school during Ramadan.

A few schools, my children’s among them, were able to open on time at the beginning of the month, which apparently really ticked off the Ministry of Education. Now, just as we are coming into a long weekend for the Eid holiday marking the end of Ramadan, the Ministry of Health has ordered ALL schools to close until October 3rd. The reason? Because pilgrims to Mecca for the Haj may bring back H1N1 when they return home.

All I can say is that whatever the reason for this edict is, it’s ridiculous. You can’t hide from germs, and H1N1 isn’t really all that big a deal anyway. If they are worried about the pilgrims, then quarantine them when they come back into the country. It could be like a short meditative period to reflect upon their spiritual journey and while it would be a little OTT, at least it would target the group they are reportedly concerned about.

Avian flu is a much bigger problem in Egypt that H1N1 and I don’t see the government closing down schools or killing all the chickens (which might actually help in that case!) because of it. The only thing that giving everyone this much time off is going to do is give them more time to travel. DUH.

Because the schools are closed, so are the school grounds. I haven’t broken the news to my children yet, but that also means the community soccer on hold until further notice because they use the school grounds for practice and games. How the soccer league will deal with that remains to be seen. The only thing that will carry on is tennis because our coach is something of a fanatic.

So, just when I thought I was out of the woods, I have the children back at home for at least two weeks – there is a further rumor that the school closure will go as long at October 7th because October 6th is Armed Forces day holiday. To say I’m frustrated doesn’t really express a the true level of my feelings on the matter. The ONLY up-side to this is that I can sleep in until school starts again. Unfortunately, when I wake up, I’ll have to homeschool the children. Yuck.

Facebook that is.

I resisted getting a profile to promo my books for a long time, finally only giving in so I could look at some pictures a friend put up from the conference we attended together in Italy last September. I admit that it was kind of fun to “friend” people I met at the conference and other writers I’ve met online. I’ve since added minimal information to my writer profile but rarely ever log in to “socialize”. Who has the time??

I know the world is getting more and more fast paced and that it’s easier for people to post one line to 400 of their closest friends at once than to write a personal email to one person. Maybe it’s precisely because of that I appreciate it so much when I do get a personal email from a friend. That said, email is enough of a time-suck for me, why would I want to spend my time on Facebook “poking” people?

And I also know Facebook is an easy way to share pictures (that’s how I got sucked in), but I still prefer a service such as Shutterfly. Like Facebook, it’s a central place to put the photos and I can share them with however many people I wish at once – without requiring them to join an annoying service. The only reason for anyone I send a link to an album on Shutterfly to join would be a burning desire to print my pictures on a mug or a t-shirt!

I know millions love Facebook, but in truth I find Facebook a little creepy, and here I’m specifically talking about my personal email address. I’m guessing that they are using people’s email address books to “suggest” who you might know and want to befriend. I get it – the whole point is to bring people together. Maybe I’d be more into it if I had an office job and wanted a way to kill some time, but since I’ve successfully ditched many of those same people in real life, I hardly relish the opportunity to make my present location and situation known to them online!

Don’t even get me started on Twitter…