Midsummer pictures

We celebrated Midsummer in the traditional Swedish way. It was awesome to be part of such an old tradition, complete with fiddlers in their old costumes which represent their local communities. We were in the small town of Gnesta, about an hour south of Stockholm. The place where the celebration took place was actually sort of like a log cabin village that you might find in the U.S. somewhere, except these buildings were painted red. It is used today as a youth hostel.

First things first: Raise the Maypole! This is sort of like getting your fresh cut Christmas tree to stand up in the tree stand. This is usually a daunting task for the man of the house, but the Maypole went up MUCH easier. It was already decorated with garlands of birch boughs and wildflowers.
Here they are raising the Maypole:



They played old Swedish songs as we held hands and ringed ourselves around the Maypole to dance together.



This fellow was playing a most unusual instrument! Have you ever seen anything like it?



After we finished dancing around the Maypole, the fiddlers and dancers showed us how its really done! Square dancing, Swedish style!



As we watched them dance, the clouds rolled in, the wind shifted, the temperature dropped, and we knew rain was on the way. So we headed over to our friend's house to BBQ and hang out together! We stayed up till 1:00 playing Yahtzee! The original plan was to sit outside and enjoy the midnight sun but instead it was cloudy and rainy!

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Yesterday I received all of my Math U See curriculum. We sat down and watched the first lesson. I think its going to be very good for all of us. I've received everything I ordered now. Its kind of bewildering to look at it all. I wonder how in the world am I going to accomplish everything I hope to? After having my kids in school for several years, I worry about how our transition will go. ~N~ was in school for 5 years and ~D~ for 3 years. They are both very excited about being homeschooled but I wonder what exactly it means to them and what they think it will be like. We've talked about this, about their expectations and mine. I think its good to discuss it, but its hard to envision what it will really be like.

Rejoice, rejoice,
Again I say Rejoice!

Marla

Midsummer, Maypoles and Comments about the Sun

Its that time of year again when all the Swedes gather outdoors around the Maypoles, dressed in their traditional costumes and ready to feast on pickled herring and new potatoes! We've been invited to celebrate with some friends who live about an hour south of us. The husband is American and the wife is Swedish. I've never danced around a Maypole but it sure sounds like fun!

Once we've properly celebrated Midsummer, all the Swedes will enjoy their month long holiday, which means everyone heads off to their summer cottage and their boat for the whole month of July. Everyone keeps asking us where we're going for "holiday", and we really don't know. We want to go camping, maybe in Norway. But we're certainly not going to be gone for a month! Things are so different here, compared to the U.S.

Tonight, at Gröna Lund (Stockholm's amusement park), the Huntsville High School Symphonic Band will perform. We're planning to go if the rain lets up. Nearly every day it alternately rains and then the sun comes out (or vice versa). The temperature rises and falls to such a wide degree that you don't know if you should leave the house wearing a turtleneck, pants and armed with an umbrella, or if you should be clothed in order to work on your tan (if you're lucky enough to have skin that tolerates the sun.)

The sun is interesting here. I have never been burned so bad as when we lived in Texas. Stepping outdoors in the summer in Texas is like curling up next to the burners in your oven. Within minutes you'll be scorched, piping hot, and declared "Done." But here, in Sweden, where the sun must try extra hard to get its rays this far, I can spend hours outdoors and never get sunburned. Might get a little pink or be blessed to have some freckles enlarge, but never be sunburned like I experienced in Texas.

And another thing regarding the sun. I don't like the dark winters when, if we're lucky, we get about 5 hours of daylight. But I do like the sun filled days of summer. Every night, we awake at about 3:30 to glaring rays of sunshine streaming through our window. Then we go back to sleep! We still have dusky light at 11:30 pm, which fools us into thinking its still early in the evening.... (grin!)

SO, as they say in Sweden, Glad Midsommar!

Rejoice Evermore,
Marla

What type of homeschooler will I be?

Abraham Lincoln You have a Bible and a library
card what more could you possibly need? You
prefer the Charlotte Mason Method of reading
living books for everything: historical
fiction, biographies, real histories, nature
guides, etc. No soon-to-be-outdated textbooks
for you. Visit my blog:


What Type of Homeschooler Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla


I guess this is my future! We aren't actually homeschooling YET. We're enjoying Summer Mode right now. Sleeping in, playing all day, reading when we want. The boys did make a Vocabulary Notebook on the computer to track new words they come across while they read. This idea comes from Heart of Wisdom. They created a page for each letter of the alphabet and will add new words to the pages, along with the definition, the place where they saw the word, the date, and use the new word in a sentence. Seems like a good way to work on vocabulary and they were both excited about doing it on the computer!

Here's what ~N is reading:



Hopefully, he'll be so interested in this book that he'll change his mind about reading and decide he likes to read. He's a good reader but he's the type that would rather run off and play than sit and read.

Here's what ~D~ is reading:



~D~ loves to read and has narrated to me the first chapter, which he just finished. I originally wanted to read this out loud to my boys before we went to Budapest but I didn't get it ordered in time. It is about the adventures of a Hungarian boy and girl. Cousin Kate, the city girl from Budapest & Jancsi, the farm boy on the Hungarian plains.
I'm on the lookout for books like this. Historical fiction, especially those that deal with places we have visited or plan to visit.


Have a great day, y'all!!

Rejoice evermore,
Marla

A Timely Investment

Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!

Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow". You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success!

The clock is running. Make the most of today.

~ Anonymous

Rejoicing in this moment,
Marla

Waiting

I ordered the stuff... And now I have to wait... Patiently... Somehow...

This is what I ordered:

Math U See, Delta and Gamma levels, plus Manipulatives
Shurley Grammar, level 3 and 5
Muzzy Spanish
Heart of Wisdom's Ancient History package, Adam to Messiah
3 Science Unit Ebooks from Heart of Wisdom (Creation, Light and Energy)

I am eager for everything to get here so I can figure out some sort of schedule! I don't plan on having us schedule out every minute of the day and stick rigidly to it. But I do want to have some goals and try to establish what should be done each day and each week. I think we'll strive to get the math, grammar and history going in the morning when everyone is at their best, and then work more freely throughout the day on other subjects. This is where I find it very helpful to read other homeschooling blogs. They give me a realistic idea of what to expect! Samantha, do you still have this schedule hanging up in your living room?

Our Schedule:
We get up sometime in the morning...
We do school sometime during the day...
We go to bed sometime at night...
And we stick to this rigidly.

I love it!

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Today is June 12. We arrived in Sweden exactly one year ago today! Its hard to believe that a full year has passed. I now think in terms of each season we pass through being our last here. It makes me sad to know that we have experienced a Swedish Spring for the last time.

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"Man is not free unless government is limited." ~Ronald Reagan

My husband and I have watched President Reagan's funeral. We have wept for this man and his family, especially Nancy. She seemed so fragile as she gently caressed the casket and placed a tender kiss there. As the media has taken us on a journey to the past, revisiting memorable times and events that President Reagan was a part of, I couldn't help but wonder if Nancy feels that time has passed by so quickly. To look back on one's life and realize how fleeting it is when we face death. We are here for awhile and then we are gone. Our life is but a vapor. I was touched by the fact that President Reagan loved stories and jokes and that so many of the video clips and photos capture him smiling that gloriously happy smile of his. Will people look back and remember that I smiled a lot, or not? God bless the Reagan family in their time of mourning and sorrow. May they know the peace of the Lord during this time and be comforted by His loving arms.

Reminds me of something our Sunday School teacher in Okinawa always said:

"Tis one life
Will soon be past
Only what's done
For Christ will last!"

Rejoicing in His Name,
Marla

Hooray - School's Out!

Finally! The big day has arrived and my munchkins are home! I am relieved and happy and blessed!

It's been a chaotic couple weeks. I finished the 4th grade digital class yearbook and am quite pleased with the final results. I've never used Adobe Acrobat before this, but now I must say what an awesome program it is. Without it, this yearbook would not have been possible. Somehow it shrunk my 133 MB Publisher document to a mere 5 MB. I do not know HOW, but I'm grateful that someone smarter than me does!

We have been to end of the year class picnics, Sports days, awards ceremonies, and out shopping for teacher appreciation gifts. There have been soccer games and practices, church picnics, and doctor appointments. The stuff of life.

I always regret that I do not take the time to write about our adventures when I'm in the midst of such craziness. I wish I were as faithful to blog as y'all are. You know who you are.... Instead I'm taking quick naps or reading a book or fixin' supper or cleaning something or doing laundry. And now so much time has passed that I've lost interest in writing about our trip to Denmark. Hopefully, we'll have some long summer days in which I'll have lots of time to catch up on all these "regrets."



Rejoice Evermore!
Marla