DutchInLaw

Not everyone finds books delicious, but a lot of us do. And if you're a homeschooler, or a homeschooling parent, you likely find books ESPECIALLY delicious. Sadly, the price of living and inflation and food goes up... and the price of books doesn't go down. Sometimes I give silent screams when I walk into a store here in Holland, turn over a cute little board book, and find that it costs 8 euros. For a board book that will probably be chewed on for a year or two before it's past repair. A 'normal' paperback easily costs 10-15 euros, so keeping up a book habit can get pricey, and the quality of books matters more. (At least, the internal quality of books mattes; half of the books we own are second-hand, which is why we can afford so many books :D :D :D). We also have library passes at not one but three libraries in the region, and regularly check out our limit for the kids (ten books per pass). In 2020, the estimated population size of the Netherlands is about 17 mil...

After March 2020, most public events in the Netherlands have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 epidemic, including my favorites like the Furiade in Maassluis and the Ladies Run in Rotterdam. When I search for '2020 Brandersfeest', I read that the organizers aren't sure what the situation will be in September, but they're discussing spreading the activities over a whole month instead of one weekend. So I'm glad we went last year and gave our kids a taste of what it's like when the nearby city of Schiedam holds a festival. In September 2019, the metro line extension from Schiedam towards Hook of Holland had just opened, so our family decided to try it out. The RET had even announced that travel along the new Hoekse Lijn would be free for everyone that day! And there would be refreshments! There was some good-natured grumbling about how all that sounded wonderful, until you considered that the metro renovation was planned to last 5 months (during which ...

As Pippin and Bloom and I headed out the front door, we waved to two of our neighbors who were chatting by their doors. "We're going to the Varend Corso," I called. "Do you want to come?" One who has lived here for years laughed. "Oh, I've seen it about thirty times." The other, who's also a recent transplant to Maassluis, said, "I'm busy tonight, so maybe another time. But what is it?" "Um, a boat parade, from what I've heard. Plants, flowers, music, boats?" According to the website , the "Westland Flower Parade" has been an annual tradition for the last 15 or so years, and I have a soft heart for traditions. Especially brightly colored musical ones where I can take photos and feel connected to this country that has been my home for almost twelve years now.  I decided to bring the kids too, but not my husband, since massive community events are not his cup of tea. (A massive community event like ...

When I first started 'practicing' homeschool with Pippin, I had high hopes but not a lot of context. What could a 2.5 year old learn? What would they enjoy? I read about some children who could read at 3 years old, others who didn't learn until 6 but were strong in other areas. I hoped to use the Sonlight homeschool curriculum once Pippin got older, but the teachers guide and books started from the 3/4 Preschool year. At two and a half years old, he fell more under the category 'totschooling'. So I focused on materials that would be a fun and casual introduction to letters, numbers, and the world around him. I wasn't ready to commit to a curriculum or materials that would be expensive or exhausting, especially if homeschooling didn't work well for us. I also didn't have much of a budget, or access to homeschooling communities from our home in the Netherlands. What I did have was plenty of free time, a working printer, and fast internet. So I started s...

This house is full of wobbly steps these days. Literal ones, in the form of my walking one year old who melts me with her hazel eyes and determination and the occasional casual THUMP as she lands on her little butt, gets up, and starts toddling off again. But there are more wobbly steps. Like me trying to clean the kitchen while avoiding the painful infection on the sole of my foot where an infected splinter punishes me for walking barefoot in the garden in one of the sunny days last month. Wobbly steps as D and I try to navigate the piles of junk in our attic because, as hard as I've been trying, I just can't clear it out. And every time I organize it (or, you know, take TEN GARBAGE BAGS to the kringloop in one week), it still spreads out again. Or I undo my previous organization so that I can move all of D's super cool, super manly power tools to a new storage room, and never put away what I moved out of that storage room. Wobbly steps as my big boy Pippin rides on...

A Day in the Life - Homeschooling a 4 Year Old in Holland As introduction, homeschooling in Holland is a tricky business. Homeschooling anywhere is a tricky business, but in the Netherlands the educational stance on homeschooling is complicated, which adds an extra layer to the daily challenges of stimulating a child's mind and building their knowledge base (and maintaining personal sanity). Currently we have a (second) official letter processing at the City Hall, and within the next month or two we hope to get official confirmation and acceptance of our notification of homeschooling. More information on Dutch laws here .  It is possible that we would be denied (technically illegal, but possible), in which case there will be discussions at home, negotiation with the city hall, and who knows what after that. Other homeschool families have been denied and then negotiated their way to success, or given in and enrolled their children in school, or moved to Belgium, which has ...

When I was homeschooled, my mother was fairly dependent on physical books; the Internet had only just been invented. Since we lived overseas, she ordered an English, faith-based curriculum called Sonlight. It was a fantastic fit for our family at the time, and I assumed I would use it if I ever wanted to teach my own kids. In January 2017, when Pippin was about two and a half years old, I decided to start our own homeschooling journey. The mandatory school age here in Holland is 5, and at that point a child either needs to be enrolled in school or have official exemption ( vrijstelling ) from the government. D and I discussed everything - in depth, read up on the laws, and talked with other homeschooling families here. Whatever the future held, we decided that starting early would give us time to see if homeschooling was a good fit for us. I did hours of research, and found that the Sonlight curriculum starts at preschool, for three and four year olds. During our last trip to the US...

One of the things I find fascinating in mainstream Dutch culture is the way normalcy is prized. Calling a person  " n uchter " - down-to-earth - is  a compliment. (It's also the word for sober, and I was very confused when I read a medical document that called for blood taken on a ' nuchter ' stomach. In that context, it just means empty, not that for other blood tests it's fine to show up totally drunk.)  Doutzen Kroes, the famous supermodel, said in an interview that she considers herself  nuchter , and values her simple background in Friesland, one of the northern provinces. Googling ' nuchter ' and Doutzen Kroes brings up several hits, including a page that even calls her, translated, 'the Dutch downtoearther'. High praise for a globetrotting international beauty. But if she keeps fame and fortune from going to her head, shouldn't we all? A common phrase I've heard here, especially from parents, is " Doe normaal ." Act...

Maybe I'm totally crazy to even consider it, but I log into the familiar blue and white NANOWRIMO website anyway. National Novel Writing Month? Sure, I may be about twenty weeks pregnant, living in a fixer-upper house overseas, and spending my days as expat mother and wife, but why not start writing a new novel this November? I'm sure the first people who signed up for the NANOWRIMO challenge were crazy too. And the people who first had the idea to turn the international, vague dream of "Write a novel some day" into a website with definable numbers and a voracious writing community. I didn't know anything of the sort existed until a few years ago, and now I enthusiastically sign up for almost every new session or 'camp' throughout the year. But the big pull is, of course, the month of November, when people around the world look at the slogan on the site header, "The world needs your novel," and decide it's somehow true.  The site...

In our old house, the kitchen piled high with the mess, and in our new house, the kitchen piles wide with the mess. The two adults and the child who live here all have more interesting things to do throughout the day than clean, which means it's normally evening before anyone takes action. And by anyone, I mean D clearing off his part of the counter so there's space for the bread machine, and me clearing off my part of the counter so I can set out breakfast bowls and spoons. In the morning, the counter fills up again quickly, but I'm teaching Pippin to help unload the dishwasher so I can load it again. Sometimes the mess in my kitchen stresses me. On rainy cold days, when the world seems against me, even just clearing the counter can seem too much to handle. Other days it's much more manageable, fortunately. When guests come over, the kitchen gets cleaned quickly. If there's a good movie on Netflix, the kitchen gets cleaned thoroughly (like when I binge-watch...

I hesitate while filling in the website form. Me, a teacher? I was looking for a free download, not a psychological cross-examination. I'm browsing a resources website while Pippin naps. By entering simple information like my email address and a little about myself, I get access to free downloads like coloring pages and preschool 'printables'.   It only takes a few seconds to fill in my info, down to the last question or two. A few simple clicks will get me to the downloads page I'm looking for. The part that's making me pause is the dropdown box with, "I teach___ " and then a drop-down menu. The choices range from pre-K to homeschool to adult education. There's also a simple "I don't teach" option. 

Tonight I was so bored of painting my nails and reading adoring fan mail that I decided to clean my dusty-from-unuse stove. Wait. No, that's how it happened in the alternate reality where I'm a famous but and reclusive writer, living in a seaside loft by my lonely self, writing best-selling songs and poetry and subsisting on organic salads and fruit smoothies. In this reality, I took a break from all my other to-do lists to scrub the stove that we use every single day. The stove that has five glorious burners so I can cook Christmas dinners for nine people or just spread out fresh pans of chocolate bark. The same stove where a gleeful Pippin helps me mix pancake batter and fill muffin molds.  The same stove that was filthy and sticky from a concoction of dust, grease, and miscellaneous spatters and practically screaming for a bath.

It's funny how Christmas takes on different flavors as I get older. December as a whole becomes different, and instead of a spectator, I'm the orchestra director. I'm the one doing the Christmas magicking, whereas as a child it just seemed to happen. Back then, the music wrapped around the days in a soundtrack of jingle bells and choirs. My parents called us downstairs for the Christmas story, and explained our traditions as we lit candles and unpacked the tree. My mother taught us special Advent crafts, and we made ornaments of clay or felt that represented Baby Jesus coming to this world to show God's persistent love to surprised humans. As a child, I watched as presents appeared under the tree, and wrapping paper rolls appeared in the closet. Guests showed up at our house to feast and laugh and hug. As an adult, and especially as an adult living in Holland, I know that Christmas dinners only happen when everyone synchronizes their schedules and messages about who...

In Dutch, there's a phrase  mee bezig zijn.  It translates literally to 'to be busy with', but it means more than just being busy and extends to the idea of being occupied. If you asked, I could say, " Mijn blog? Daar ben ik niet zo mee bezig, de laatste tijd ." I haven't been occupied with my blog lately. A word you can use in combination with  bezig  is  druk  - which also means busy. Work can be  druk , traffic can be  druk , a hyper toddler who wants to touch everything and run everywhere in our new house is definitely  druk . And together, the words come out as (very) busily occupied, which is what we've been since we signed papers to buy a house in August. Since then, we've been packing, moving, unpacking, and renovating a huge house in a quaint old neighborhood, down the river from Rotterdam. Or up the river, depending on what way you're looking. It's a beautiful old house, dating back to around 1910, but is also a major fixer-upper,...