Italy Pt. 2

After exploring a little, we decided to get some rest before our big first full day in Rome. We had tickets for a tour and meet up was at 9:45am. The hotel provided a "free" breakfast. I enjoyed my very first Latte Machiatto. Yuuummm!
After, we hit the road.

Our first view of the Colosseum. So excited!

We took a tour using City Wonders Tour

We highly recommend using this tour. Patricia was an excellent guide, as an archaeologist and life long resident of Rome, she was able to provide us with more information that we would have been able to find on our own.

After the Colosseum we walked over to The Forum. 

Which was basically downtown Rome back in the day.   

Arch of Constantine

Original Temple in the Forum, currently a church.

 You can see the cut marks at the top from the ropes they attached to try to pull them down.

Everything used to be covered in walkways paved like this.

Head removed and sold.

When we left Palatine Hill, we were supposed to turn left and we turned right. So we got a very long backyard view of the place until we figured out that I screwed up and headed back the right way. 

We headed over to a nice little restaurant where I ordered everything wrong and ended up just getting a pizza in the end, headed back to the hotel for a short snooze and started out again. Every neighborhood seems to have a fountain, and about 10 churches.

Piazza Della Republica

Some really ugly head bowls for sale on the street.

Quattro Fontane (The four fountains)

We were on the hunt for the Trevi Fountain and we weren't exactly sure which way to go.

We passed by more churches

And official buildings with lots of guards.

And then there it was, the Trevi Fountain.

We felt like we were in Las Vegas! 

The streets are so cool. They are all paved with small pavers, restaurants all carve out a small seating area that jets out into the street. Cars actually drive down here. They are all so patient, never honking, just parting the people like Moses parting the Red Sea.

More monuments...

Motorcycles everywhere.

Turn the corner and BAM! It's the Pantheon!

There was a very high level of police at all the major sites.

Inside the Pantheon.

In my research I found a website that said the best espresso was to be found at St. Eustachio-Il Caffe. I failed to take a picture of the outside, but Jay was very impressed, and drank it like a true Roman, standing up!

Afterwards we wandered the streets, saw lots of local art performers, made a few purchases, and came upon Piazza Novana.

Fire Dancer

Jay looking cool, but really his feet were screaming at him. 

After this, we wandered back to the hotel. We had a train to catch in the morning!

Italy

My husband and I love to travel. We have not had much opportunity to do so since the kids were born plus we were busy moving from one county to another. The opportunity finally arose and we jumped on it. Although it was a quick 4 night 3 day trip, every moment of our trip to Italy was well worth it. In fact, we decided that it's a great way to see Europe. Rather than taking a week, we would rather pick an area, explore it and do as much as we can in 3-5 days. I was told by several people that you need 2 weeks to explore Rome. But I think unless you are really into seeing every single church and museum, Rome can be seen in 2-3 days. We absolutely love people watching and looking at what makes the city tick. We are not into museums. My husband loves to quote George from Seinfeld, "I need someone to explain the explanation" when it comes to art. And after viewing painting after painting of the same subject, they all blur into each other after a while.

We flew out of Ben Gurion on Thursday, March 31st. And as you can see we were both very excited to be getting away alone kid free. We used over-sized back packs rather than luggage. A huge time saver as we didn't have to check our bags. (All pictures are clickable for a larger view)

Goodbye Israel!

Hello Italy!

We landed safely at the Leonardo da Vinci-Fiumicino Airport at 8pm and took the Leonardo Express from the airport to the Roma Termini train station. A quick 30 minutes later we arrived at our hotel!

Some sites around our hotel.

Jay had the Marinara Pizza and I had the daily special.

Our first gelato! Yum!

To be continued.....

Homeschooling Schedule

A lot of people are asking how homeschooling is going. There are a lot of misconceptions on what happens during a homeschooling day. Especially if they see Lena outside during the day. So I thought I would share our schedule and what books we are using.
I took about 2 months of researching and joining homeschooling groups and asking lots of questions before we settled on our curriculum. It's one of those things where you really hope you made the right choice. Especially for us since everything has to be shipped. It gets expensive and you don't want to make too many mistakes.
Jay has decided to take on Languages and Mathematics. Which is just fine by me! He works with her from 7:30-9:00, then she has a break to work on homework, or review things for the coming classes.

Here is our weekly schedule. Every weekend I go over what I am going to be teaching, do research, read everything, make plans according to the lesson ( I am learning a LOT in the process too). Some lessons take longer than others, some are quite quick. But we aim to be done around 1:30 so I can go pick up Zane and have the rest of the day free to do things. She has Gymnastics Sundays and Wednesdays from 4-7:30 and occasional Mondays when she needs to work extra on things. 

Some days Lena is just burnt out. Whether is be from a night of little sleep, just too much work, or just life, she has the option to say, Hey, I am done. I can't focus. Or, I hate this subject. Can we do something else? That is the beauty of homeschooling. How can a child, learn if we force it into them. They have to be interested and open to accept what is being taught. Even though we have a schedule to follow, it's not going to kill either of us if we double up some days, miss a class or two on another. We have 365 days to work on everything. No one is setting the schedule but us. 

Here are the books we are using:

Math: Singapore Math 6a and workbook

Geometry: Teaching Textbooks Geometry

Writing: Writing With Skill  and the Instructor Text

U.S History: Howard Zinn A Young Peoples History of the United States As well as his website.

Vocabulary: Wordly Wise 3000 Grade 6  And the Instructor Text

Science: My Pals are Here And workbook

Geography: Don't Know Much About The 50 States and States & Capitals, Student Guide

World History: The Story Of The World  And Activity Book

Religion: Case for a Creator for Kids, Case for Faith for Kids, Case for Christ for Kids, And The Complete Idiots Guide to World Religions

It may seem like a lot, but her education at home is so much richer and one on one that it ever was at school. If she doesn't get something, we go over it again and again until she does get it. There is no passing it over. If she wants an extra day to study about Native American's, then by all means let's!

First Day of School!

The first day of school is nerve wracking for everyone. Lena actually began a day early because September 1st was Zane's first day of preschool and Jay would not be able to teach her in the morning.
Zane was pretty excited about the first day of school. But then it was time for mommy and daddy to leave. The crying started and he changed his mind... We knew he would be ok, gave him one last hug and kiss and prayed he would still be talking to us when we picked him up in a few hours. He LOVED it. Now every morning he asks if it's a school day and seriously gets upset when we have to tell him no, it's the weekend.

Zane's First Day of Pre-School

Pre-School looks pretty fun!

You can go now mom.

Lena's first day of Homeschool- Grade 6

Zane, one happy little man 

at the end of the day.

New Adventures

We are about to start a new adventure! Homeschooling! Lena has been just miserable here in the school in our area. So we have decided that the only solution is to homeschool her. It's actually coming at the right time because Zane is now old enough to attend preschool! So Sunday-Thursday he will be at the local preschool from 8am-1:30pm. Then home to have lunch and NAP.
I am still waiting for our homeschool curriculum to arrive, things coming from The States take forever and a day. I joined an awesome facebook group called Hip Homeschooling Moms. Everyone has such great ideas and suggestions. Pinterest has become my new best friend.
While I await the new books, I decided on my first project. I made a calendar for September and each day has a holiday. Every month will have a calendar made just like this.
Here is a preview of September. I look forward to diving into these subjects, learning a little about them myself alongside Lena. Some days I could not find a great subject, or holiday, so those days we will just do a little extra work on a coming holiday.
September
1. First Day of School- Labor Day
2. Blueberry Popsicle Day
3. Welsh Rarebit Day ( Cheese on toast)
4. Wildlife Day
5. Pizza Day!
6. Icecream Coffee Day!
7. Grandparents Day
8. Pardon Day
9. Teddy Bear Day
10.
11. Patriot Day- Remembering September 11th.
12. Milkshake Day!
13. Roald Dahl Day
14. Pet Rock Day
15. Greenpeace Day
16. Guacamole Day
17. Constitution Day
18. Respect Day
19.
20.
21. World Appreciation Day
22. Elephant Appreciation Day
23. Autumn Equinox
24. Voter Registration Day
25. Rosh HaShanah
26. Pancake Day!
27.
28.
29. Michaelmas
30. International Translation Day.

Bucket List

Last week after mentioning to Lena that we might be going to the Dead Sea, she asked me if I had a Bucket List. You know, those popular lists that people make of things they want to do in their lifetime. I honestly don't have a Bucket List, but if I did, going to the Dead Sea would have been on it.
I have been to Israel 3 times before we moved here. Each time family members asked if we wanted to go to the Dead Sea. Every time I was either sick, or it was unGodly hot and the thought of going to the lowest place on Earth didn't sound very appealing.
Our "Minister of Tourism" Abed once again led us on our foray into the desert. The night before we left we ran around buying sleeping bags and tents, packing food and anything I thought we might need on this overnight camping trip.
Yes. I camped. I do not like to camp. Camping to me is sleeping in a cabin and having to use the public toilet. Not sleeping on the hard ground and having to pee by the dumpster at 3am because there are NO public toilets open, no porta potties, no buckets to be emptied on the sly in the morning.
There are several roads to get down to the Dead Sea. Abed wanted to avoid the Toll Freeway, as he was using his company car and didn't want it to show up on the bill. This added a little extra time to the trip, but we went along with it. We also made it clear that I did not have my passport and did not want to travel through the West Bank.
I had looked at mapping options the night before and tried to figure out what route we would take other than Highway 6 (Toll road). There is a road that takes you through Jerusalem and then through the West Bank and down along the Dead Sea. I figured he wouldn't take this as we requested no West Bank.
As we were passing through Jerusalem we came to a "Security Check Point". Jay and I kind of looked at each other and asked ourselves "Are we going into the West Bank?". There are no signs that state YOU ARE NOW ENTERING THE WEST BANK. So if you are a traveler like me, you would have no idea that you are going there. No one stopped us to check ID's, or asked any questions, so we just drove on. The West Bank doesn't really look any different than Israel after all.
As we were nearing the Dead Sea, we came to a small town that was a little touristy, complete with Camels! Zane went INSANE! We HAD to stop and ride one!! SQUEEEEE!!!

ShoSho the Camel

The ride cost 20 ILS, which is just under $6. The excitement was a little too much for Zane, and this happened shortly afterwards.

Zane with his own ShoSho camel

The drive through the Desert was a long and boring one. The Dead sea is broken into 2 separate area's. The Large part has no beach access and is surrounded by sinkholes and barbed wire. I guess the water level has gone down and separated it into two separate bodies of water. Some older maps show it as one body of water.

When we finally arrived in Ein Bokek it was only 30*c (86*f) it was very comfortable. I think it did reach 32* at one point, but we were very lucky to go when it wasn't unbearably hot. The sand is terrible. It's very rocky and sticks to you like crazy. You could never get all the sand off of you, unless you were IN the water... We unloaded our cars and the guys went hunting for a spot to put our stuff and possibly pitch the tents. 

Ein Bokek Beach

We wanted to get one of those sheltered area's but they were full at the time. So we just dumped our stuff, changed and jumped into the water. At first it doesn't seem any different. Until you get out to just past your armpits and the water starts lifting you. It is the strangest sensation! It's like you have a life jacket on or pool noodles. It took a lot of getting used to. You kind of panic at first when you lean back just a little, your legs rush to the surface. There are signs with guidance directions all over.

Trust me. Salt water is NOT your friend. Our lips were burning from it. The pain if you got a droplet in your eye!!! And the taste! UGH! Needless to say, we were very careful about not splashing. 

The first time my legs floated up, I panicked. You can't figure out how to get your legs back down. The usual tricks used in pools don't work too well when you are buoyant. 

Zane is actually sitting on Jay here.

Soon a group moved on from their sheltered area and we moved in, setting up camp. We purchased a 6 person tent. HA! maybe if you all weigh 100lbs and don't want to move? It fit 3 across with Jay stretched across the end.

We BBQ'd that night, enjoyed music from our neighbor and paid our 5 shekels to use the toilet inside the tourist center.

The salt running and drying down my legs.

 Hotels seen in the background of the Dead Sea. 

As the night approached more and more people moved in to camp overnight, or as one group decided, to party. All.Night.Long. It was still quite warm as we headed to bed, but as the night went on a wind kicked up and cooled it nicely. Around 3:30 we all woke up and needed to pee badly. As I mentioned before, no where to pee officially. So we trecked off to the dumpster and added our mark. Poor Jay did not sleep a wink that night. I think he finally fell asleep around 5 and got up with the rest of us at 7:20. Lena woke up at 6, joining Abed to watch the insane tourist group from the Phillapines screaming and shouting as they frolliced in the water at sunrise.
We ate our breakfast and went swimming for a few more hours. We really got the hang of floating by then. Oh, I forgot to mention that the salt water burns the crap out of anything newly shaved. Our legs were burning with little bumps all over, Jay's neck was bright red and a few other body parts were feeling the sterilization of the salt water.
Around 12:30 we packed up and loaded the car for the drive home. Abed assured us that this alternate round would be shorter and easier. HA. The road took us straight through the West Bank.We really didn't realize this until we were stopped at a checkpoint and asked for our ID's. I handed over my Drivers License and explained that we were coming from the Dead Sea and Jay's ID was in the trunk. We were asked to show it. When I opened the trunk and had to pull out sleeping bags, and coolers, she realized that we were telling the truth and honestly had no idea we were in the West Bank and let us on our way after asking Jay a few questions,without having to unpacking the entire car for a piece of ID.
The "shorter" drive home took just over 3 hours. 30 minutes longer than going down.
Next time we will take the 6 and call it a day.
Jay has some great pictures on his phone, but he is at work. I will try to download them later.
And to answer the question of why we didn't stay in a hotel? The rooms that were available were about $260 a night. It doubled the day of our arrival to $550 a night. Thanks, but no thanks.

And even though I personally am not a camper, please do not let this derail you from visiting the Dead Sea. It is a very unique experience that everyone should have the chance to encounter at least once in their life!