Enjoying the Chaos

I recently learned about a term called a TCK. It means Third Culture Kid. Although my parents are both British, I spent a lot of my childhood in the US. I know what it means to live in a culture different culture. Although there isn't a HUGE difference between the US and UK culture it still does exist. Although I think the gap is getting smaller.  This talk explains exactly what a TCK is - in case you like me hadn't heard the term before. Alice Fernades talks about her experiences. She talks about how she answers the question 'Where are you from?" I get asked this question quite often, living as an adult in a country where my accent makes me different. I probably get asked that very same question every time I leave my house. Similarly to Alice in the above video I have to go back quite a bit to give people the answer they want to hear which is 'England' whereas if truth be told that's the place that I have lived for the least amount of time and I don't ...

Culture Miscommunication... Miscommunication is a funny thing. It can happen anywhere, anytime. We have miscommunication with our spouses, siblings, parents, friends, neighbors, etc... Why? Because we are different, think differently, and feel differently. Even siblings brought up in the same household can feel differently about things and not understand each other.  There are many times in our lives when we have to sit back and try to understand someone else. Marriage is a huge example of this. Two people get married and move in together. They have been raised in different environments by different people, with different priorities.  It can be hard to blend these family cultures together to make a new one for the new family. I remember when my husband and I were married there were a few things that we each did that were strange. My husband likes to do things correctly...that's how he was taught. Now I'm not saying that I don't do things correctly but I approach things diff...

            “There is more to life than simply increasing its speed.”   Mahatma Gandhi When I was a child I remember going to a Native American Pow wow with my family. We were living near Omaha Nebraska at the time. We were there with friends and enjoyed a fun day of food and games. The pow wow was scheduled to start at a certain time in the early evening. As a child, I can remember looking forward to the event and of course, kept asking my parents if it was time for it to start yet! My parents told me the time it was scheduled to start and I counted down the minutes. The time came and went and still the pow wow hadn't started. Hours went by and finally the pow wow started - It was an amazing experience that just started a lot later than we had thought. My dad spoke to someone after and was told that start times were more suggestions than reality. They started when they started even if it was hours later than posted. Have you ever heard of...

I recently watched a Ted Talk from Delali Bright. She shares her personal story about growing up in West Africa. She talks about how the cultural paradigms of her childhood affected how she felt about herself as a person. Then how she suffered a shift when she moved to the United States later in life. Because of her experiences, she is a self-image activist. She feels that people should not be made to feel less because they do not fit into the physical appearance paradigms of their country. Her talk is really interesting and the video is available to view  here . So what can we learn from this experience? I'm sure many people suffer from the same kind of struggles. If you look back into history you can see the same kind of situations. Once it was considered ugly to have suntanned skin as it meant you had to work outside for a living. If you were pale, you were beautiful. Now it's considered beautiful to have a 'healthy' glow.  How do cultural paradigms affect our everyd...

Have you ever read an article that really resonates with you? I recently read the article  Is The Great American Teacher Dead?  You ought to read it! It's quite thought-provoking. I can remember when I was young maybe third or 4th grade I had a teacher that brought her guitar into the classroom and at the end of the day, we would all sit around and sing songs. I can remember lining up in the classroom racing to recite my multiplication facts You might wonder why this is relevant...I bring it up because I can only remember a handful of teachers and these two teachers are always the ones that come to mind first.  What makes a teacher memorable? For me, they were either really good, like the teacher I mentioned above, or really bad like a Religious Studies teacher I had when I attended boarding school. Or the foreign language teachers that basically kicked me out of class because I had moved to a new school where the other kids were years ahead of me and they wrote me off as...

Anyone who knows me knows that math is not my favorite subject! Any math questions from high school definitely get directed to my math-loving husband. I feel more like Mr. Incredible in the new movie...I need to stay up late at night to study. If you are like me and need to brush up on your math skills you need to check out  Math Essentials for Adults  by  Math Essentials . Even if you didn't homeschool your kids there would be lots of reasons to brush up on your math skills! For the last few weeks, I have been using this math refresher book. It covers general math, geometry, problem-solving, pre-algebra, and algebra. The book is laid out in chapters. I haven't been working in a traditional way through this book. I didn't want to start with addition and work through math in a traditional way. I like that the contents are separated into topics rather than chapters. Whole Numbers Fractions Decimals Percents Geometry Integers Charts and Graphs Wo...

I never thought I would actually say this about a grammar program BUT Captain has really enjoyed using  Hake/Saxon Grammar and Writing 3  from  Hake Publishing . I have never done any formal grammar with Captain and so although he works higher than his grade level for all other subjects I thought I'd give grade 3 grammar a try. We received the  Grammar and Writing 3: Complete Homeschool Kit  which consists of - Grammar and Writing 3 Writing Notebook Grammar and Writing 3 Teacher Guide (Answer keys and tests) Grammar and Writing 3 Consumable Textbook I was a little skeptical of how a grammar workbook would be received by Captain. However, I didn't need to worry. Before we used the program I was up against a little bit of resistance. Our school year was winding down and Captain was adamant he didn't want to try anything new. I insisted that we needed to give this a go and he agreed. We sat down and I opened the Teacher Guide. I was hoping it wa...