I received a very nice message in my inbox a couple of weeks ago, but am unable to reply to the sender so I thought that I would post the responses here for them or anyone else who is interested.

Is homeschooling legal in Saudi? No. No one seems to care that we do it, but it is not legal or recongnized. Most Saudis have never heard of it. But, Saudi people we have told are intrigued by the idea.

 Are students allowed to attend a school if they don't have records from the previous year? I don't know how it works with the schools here. I think it is ok. But, I do know that every child is tested before entering the expat schools here. And I have heard that they are very difficult, but don't seem to hold much weight on whether or not they can attend the school or not (in most cases).  The schools may ask you about transcripts, but if you're tough and say that you don't have them because you homeschooled them, you should be fine. You have to be very assertive and strong here and you can get what you want.

I am glad that I homeschool here. Other parents have a lot of trouble with registration, buses, discipline, and other general educational issues because of the schools here. I am often grateful for keeping it simple here at home. Plus, if there were a problem with them at school it would be more difficult for me to get to them, since I cannot drive here. 


Our main concern is about college. In order to attend university here the student has to have graduated from a recognized high school.

Where do you think they will attend college? In the states it isn't a problem at most colleges. It really depends on what country they will attend college in. The UAE is starting to recognize homeschooling. The homeschooling movement has really taken off there. There are many homeschooling groups there. There are so many options with homeschooling. I'm planning on having my boys take college classes online from an American school during high school. Another option for you may be to have them attend classes from an American school online. My friend homeschools her daughter with Keystone Academy. It is accredited and a good school. Her daughter will be attending college next year.

Are there any problems with home schooling in saudi that you know of? I don't have any problems with homeschooling here except getting certain curriculums sent to me. The mail system here is poor. Customs goes through everything and you never know what could get thrown out. But, lots of people get curriculum sent here without any trouble. I just don't want to take the chance of losing a lot of money. Also, there aren't any libraries here for us to use.

I love homeschooling my kids here. There is a free museum at Aramco here. If you move here to Saudi, send me an email and I would love to more if I can.

 

     One of the things that surprises me the most about living in Saudi is how much we enjoy living in the desert. The sand is just one big playground for us. We camp in the sand, drive in the sand, and climb, climb, climb!! We even have birthday parties in it!

    Last week, I read an article about a pyramid that was found under a sand dune. Now, when we go play I can't help but wonder what might be hidden underneath. We've even visited an ancient Christian church that was hiding under one for many centuries.

    As far as driving in the sand is concerned, it's not as easy as it looks. When we first started out, we thought all we needed was 4 wheel drive. FALSE!!

We have found that the following supplies are essential:

Shovel

5 liters of water per person per day

Tire guage

tire inflator

GPS

fully charged cell phone

first aid kit

full tank of gas

And it's a smart idea to bring a buddy who has a 4 wheel drive too.

Some tips:

Deflate tires to around 14 psi.

Keep your momentum going. If you're hesitant, you are more likely to get stuck. But, if you step on the gas and aren't going anywhere, stop! Try reverse to get out of it. If stuck, dig underneath until you can see daylight in the undercarriage. Then, you should be able to get yourself out.

We always drive in the desert by my husband's work to be safe. Our family is part of a group called The Naturalists and as a group they explore the desert together. Our dream is to one day explore the Empty Quarter.

I couldn't make a new entry, so I edited this one. It's time to take a break. I hope to be back after the Holidays!

People loved to stop us and take pictures with our kids in India. It happened many, many times!!!

       We're home. For those of you who were wondering, we were in India and it was AWSOME!! It was an incredible experience. We left on August 23, the day the guru was killed and the violence against Christians erupted. But, we did meet some very special missionaries there and we have been praying for them. I admire missionaries and am grateful for the sacrifices they are making every day to help others. It is very sad that their mission is often misinterpreted. I met a very special family there. They are homeschooling too. The mom told me that they call being a missionary the m word because they don't want anyone to know. They help widows make money by making and selling necklaces. It's a wonderful program. It's too bad that they have to live in fear. Please pray for them.

       We started homeschooling Saturday (the weekends here are Thursday, Friday). It was a good week. It was a rocky start, but I see alot of progress already. We were very blessed that our friend, Becky, gave us 3 full sets of the Scott Foresman curriculum. It has helped us alot!

     I will be posting pictures from our 2 month trip to India for awhile. But, it will have to wait until tomorrow.....

   We've been enjoying the beach for the last couple of weeks. It's been very laid back and relaxing. Today, we decided to rent a car and drive up the coast for a Wednesday flea market. It was something I was glad I saw, but it was a bit stressful. We were bombarded the minute we parked the car. They asked us to promise that we would visit their stand. I told them that we couldn't promise, but we would try. They still accused me of promising though! LOL! DS8 had a dollar and wanted to get a cross necklace, but they put jewlery on everyone. It's hard to leave a place and negotiate when 4 kids have necklaces and bracelets on! Dh would just walk away and it was not fun pulling the kids away. We ended up purchasing quite a bit for very low prices, thanks to Dh's bargaining skills. What happens is that they ask for a price, we walk away and then, they ask, "How much will you pay?" and then, we tell them a very low price and they say ok. We're not used to it being that easy. Most times when we want to buy something we make sure that we have a price decided already. It makes it much easier. Many Westerners aren't sure about how much things are and end up paying way too much. We've lived and learned that lesson ourselves.

   The area we are in now is predominantly Catholic. It's been great seeing all the crosses around and pictures of Jesus. It is believed that St. Thomas (an original apostle) visited the state south of here to spread the Good News! The man who drives the women to the grocery store in Saudi is from there and now I know why his name is Thomas. On the way back from the market today, we considered visiting St. Francis Xavier's tomb. He came to this country to preach to the Portuguese settlers. When he died, his body wasn't embalmed and wasn't decaying. It was proclaimed a miracle. The church where his tomb is has been described as marvelous. Unfortunately, the driving was a little crazy and we were afraid of getting lost, so we just went back to our hotel. I am happy about what I've learned though. I am amazed by how much we've learned on this trip. It has been a great vacation!!

   Today we're just relaxing. We've seen all the tourist spots in this town. And there aren't many places to go. The movie theaters are all in Hindi. We are excited to take the kids to Kung Fu Panda and dh is dying to see Batman!

   So, Ds8 and I are in the internet cafe and the rest of our family are swimming. We have to pay almost $10 for all of us to swim at our hotel every day. That can get expensive. But, it's common for hotels to charge for that here.

   We went to McDonald's today (again)! We like it, but the staring can make me feel uncomfortable. I sometimes have to zone out and look out the window and forget that 20 people are staring at us while we eat. We have had to get used to this over the years. The kids don't even seem to notice it. My husband has learned that if he stares back, they will look away... I'm not that brave. I have to resist my strong urge to hide under the table!

     It's very rainy and muddy here. It's no fun going out in the rain, but we have ventured out a bit. We went to McDonald's! When we first got here, we told the kids that they weren't allowed to ask for the "M word" because they constantly wanted that instead of trying anything new. Well, in this town there aren't alot of good restaurants and the hotel restaurant is more expensive than the M word, so we''ll probably eat there for dinner tonight too! Dh bought me some silk today. That is all the rage in this town. You can't get in an autorickshaw without them insisting that they stop at a silk shop. It's very cheap here. He bought me some material that I can have tailored into a shirt. It's difficult to get conservative clothes that fit me right in Saudi. So, that will be nice. It's peach silk and I love the color. I got 2 meters for about $22. That's pretty good.

   Today we got up bright and early (7am)! Ugh!! We visited a university and a monkey temple. The university has 15,000 students and 2,000 of them being foreigners. I liked seeing it and the housing that is provided. It looked very nice. The monkey temple was neat because we love watching monkeys. Ds8 loves animals and could have watched them all day. I worry about them sometimes because they can carry rabies. And this country doesn't have the vaccine, so we would probably have to go back to America immediately if someone got bit. Most of them are oblivious to us, but some seemed a bit aggressive.

Here's a pic I took of a couple of kids:

     Being a tourist, isn't always easy for anyone no matter who you are or what country you are travelling in. You are more susceptible to scams and being cheated. We have travelled alot and that experience has helped. Yesterday, we had some issues at our hotel because all of the waiters were charging us different prices at the restaurant and cafe. We're lucky that DH was on top of this and had it changed every time. But, it was wearing him down yesterday and decided to speak with the manager. The man was very helpful and we don't expect to have anymore problems at this hotel. But, it is common practice at most places. There are many autorickshaw drivers waiting outside our hotel to take us places. They receive commission for taking us to silk shops and other places. Yesterday, our rickshaw driver took us to one of these places without us realizing what was going on and it was very uncomfortable walking out without buying anything. DH was a little upset about this incident, but we talked about how desparate these people are and we would probably do the same thing, if in their situation.

Dh and I have been very impressed with how well the boys have handled things. When we first got here, we took a boat to Elephanta Island and a vender tried to give ds4 some candy because they think if he has it in his hands and opens it, dh has no choice but to buy it. Fortunately ds4 is not your average tourist, he said, "I do not have any money. I do not want this. Why would you give this to me? I am just a kid!" We were shocked and very grateful for this attitude. It has really come in handy. He is a target everywhere, but he always stays strong and says "No. I don't want that." Never any hesitation.

Here are some more pics. We have seen many of these on this trip!

Happy boys:

In this picture, the kids are eating fennel. Here, they bring this out with the check after every meal. We loved it at first. It has a licorice taste. But then, I realized that they don't dish this out special for each customer, but everyone digs into the same dish. One time, there were bugs crawling in ours. But, it is delicious and helps with digestion. I would like to incorporate this into our after dinner snack when we get home!

This is a little dark, but it's a very cute monkey on a leash!

We have been to Mahatma (The Great One) Gandhi's house. That was a wonderful experience. I bought his autobiography at the train station and it was very educational. He even talks about homeschooling! He loved to learn and was constantly challenging himself. Here is his library.:

We are taking a day of rest. The kids are tired of museums and temples. We saw many yesterday. I thought that I would just post some pictures from the beginning of our trip.

Here are some pictures of our first hotel. Our hotels since then have been nicer, but I wanted to show what a lot of the hotel rooms and bathrooms are like in the big cities here.

We're having a nice time on our vacation. We're staying at the nicest hotel so far. My husband thinks that it used to be the Radisson according to his GPS. But, we're hardly paying Radisson prices. We have a deluxe room for about $40. It has a pool, internet, and a nice restaurant. The kids don't want to leave this place. My husband and I are afraid to leave the hotel to venture out. We have been surprised by all of the begging people. We have never been exposed to anything like this before. The second we leave, we are surrounded.

We hope to visit the Ganges tomorrow. People come here to have babies, die and get cremated or just to bath in it. 60,000 people come here to bath in it every day!

Sorry, it looks like no pics today. Photobucket won't work here in this internet cafe. I'll work on it more later.

     Today we visited a National Park and a palace. We had a good day. We took two autorickashaws up a huge mountain.

Yesterday we had to go to Riyadh for a visa. It was a nice little trip. The embassy was really neat. Ds4 wanted to go up and confront a man for smoking. I don't know what we did that programmed all our kids to want to fight people for smoking, but every one of them has gone through this. I had to grab him, get all his attention and explain to him that we don't confront strangers. I told him that smoking was wrong but that it was his decision. I asked him if he understood and he said that it's wrong for him, but that man can do it.

      We had another incident when my husband gave each boy a can of pepsi. There were many bees in this embassy and the bees wanted that pepsi. I didn't know that ds4 and ds6 were terrified of bees. They just screamed and screamed. It was not pretty. I had to get them out of there. Screaming is highly frowned upon in an embassy.

      I really need to post some more pictures. Dh bought me a new camera and I've been struggling with a little. But, I'm practicing. Hopefully, I'll have some awsome pics this week!

I downloaded this and it really helps with organization. Check it out!

    I've always been interested in Charlotte Mason. But, I never read up on it and I was under the impression that it wasn't structured enough for me. Boy, was I wrong! I have been doing a lot more research on it and it sounds great. I always liked the Nature Study, Shakespeare and Composer Study, Copywork and Narration, and living books. Now, I'm loving the habit training as well. I still like the idea of classical learning because of the memorization, but I would like to incorporate both methods next year.

    Unfortunately, this is my second post on the subject because my post got erased when my internet failed me. I don't have as much time now, but I have done a lot of research on habit training and it has already helped me plan the things we need to work on for next year and even the behaviors that need work right now. There are many helpful websites. I was really happy to find Ambleside online. I was so surprised that they had free curriculum. It really helps with the planning. It has links to other great resources too. Even though I had looked at Ambleside before, I had completely missed that.

       Well, I better post this while I can. Our internet has been sporadic at best. We're going to get Mobily in the fall. That should solve our internet troubles. There are too many people on the system here now and it's hard to get on.

       Hope you're having a great summer!

    Sorry for the long absence. I thought that I would check in and let all my friends in on what we've been doing. This morning, we did shopping to prepare for our trip this summer. We had to get backpacks, compasses, water bottles and some travel journals. I decided that it would be neat for the kids to start writing about the people we meet. We are always amazed by the wonderful people that God brings into our lives everywhere we go. Also, they are reading a lot of Magic Tree House this summer and they think it's cool to have a travel journal like Jack. We have a friend on the compound who volunteered to teach the boys how to use num chucks. So, we picked up some rubber ones, so the kids could practice. He's a very nice guy and I appreciate the time he's spent with them. They also went to a birthday party tonight. They're very busy boys.

     What I love about taking a summer break is that I get to see how they use their knowledge in more practical ways. I also get to know what they are really interested in. If they want to still learn about it in the summer, than there is a good spark there and it gives me a hint about what they really know and how they learn. They're doing lots of reading, which I love. We've also been doing Candy Math from the new site that gives away a free ebook every day! I love freebies and the books have a lot of good info.

    Tomorrow we are celebrating Father's Day because Thursdays and Fridays are the days off here. So, tomorrow is our Sunday. We'll probably have an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. I didn't realize that Father's Day was coming up so soon, so we'll have to wing it. I'm sure he'll have a relaxing fun day with the boys. I'm sure we'll go swimming!  And when I tell the boys they'll rush around and make him many wonderful cards. DS8 made him a lapbook months ago and has been saving it. It's very cute.  

Well, that's all for now. I hope to post some more pictures soon.   

Here is a picture of the newest member of our family, Whiskers (or Whiskey).

   I thought that I would post some pictures from our time in Thailand at Dream World with our very special Korean friends: