When we left Germany two years ago, I started a new blog, as we were no longer “trying to homeschool in Germany.” I’ve kept this one, though, because even though I’m no longer actively involved in the fight for the right to homeschool in Germany, I do still care, and every few months I actually get an e-mail asking for suggestions or contacts. Minor little problem that the e-mail address associated with this blog is one I remember to check about once every six months at the most…
Anyway, then I never did manage to get this site to let me upload photos, no idea why, and started yet another blog, since what my real-life friends and family actually mostly wanted was photos. So I thought I’d mention that here, in case any of my long-ago contacts have looked for me.
Friday, May 17, 2013
January 20, 2009--The New Blog
For those who found this blog because of interest in homeschooling in Germany,
please do write to me! I don't check the e-mail address associated with this
blog daily, but I DO check it and will respond eventually. And for those who are
here because of interest in us as a family: we are no longer trying to
homeschool in Germany! We moved to Cyprus almost a week ago, are trying to find
our feet here, and I think it's finally time to start writing on my new blog,
which I started a month ago, with the grand and glorious and oh-so-original
title of...drum roll...The New
Blog. :-) No promises, but I might update that a little more
regularly than I have this one, and I'm now going to head over there and write a
bit about the last few weeks.
Edited May 17, 2013: all of the posts on this blog are taken from a previous site (Homeschoolblogger.com), which was closed down recently and which also hosted The New Blog. My current blog is called Always Somewhere and can be found at www.sheilasomewhere.blogspot.com. I'm still interested in the legal situation in Germany, of course, but am not up-to-date on the issues.
Edited May 17, 2013: all of the posts on this blog are taken from a previous site (Homeschoolblogger.com), which was closed down recently and which also hosted The New Blog. My current blog is called Always Somewhere and can be found at www.sheilasomewhere.blogspot.com. I'm still interested in the legal situation in Germany, of course, but am not up-to-date on the issues.
December 26, 2008--good news for one family
The Dudek family received good news on December 24th: this summer, the
parents had been sentenced to three months of jail each for homeschooling
their children, but that has now been overturned. Here's the article
in German, for those interested.
November 21, 2008--A new blog?
It's not like I'm doing a good job keeping up this one, but I've been
thinking that I should start a new blog once we've left Germany, since we'll no
longer be "trying to homeschool in Germany". Then the question is: would that be
something where I could be less "anonymous", or something where I
should be more anonymous? If the latter, I obviously wouldn't link it
from here! I would still keep this one to post (theoretically, when I find the
time...) information I have about homeschooling in Germany, but would no longer
write anything about our own family. (Not that I've been overly anonymous about
us as it is--I do use my real name!! But nor have I written all that much.)
Occasionally people write to me because they found my blog while googling about
homeschooling in Germany, and we actually helped two families who found me that
way get permission to homeschool here, which I admit to thinking is cool.
I'm really just rambling in answer to the comment left on my last post, asking if I'll start a new blog once we've left Germany. I don't know. :-) I did actually "start" a new one awhile ago, but only wrote one entry that (as I recall--I'm not going to go check) didn't say much more than that I was considering starting a new blog.
Any suggestions on a title? :-)
I'm really just rambling in answer to the comment left on my last post, asking if I'll start a new blog once we've left Germany. I don't know. :-) I did actually "start" a new one awhile ago, but only wrote one entry that (as I recall--I'm not going to go check) didn't say much more than that I was considering starting a new blog.
Any suggestions on a title? :-)
November 19, 2008--packing, packing, packing...
So far I've packed three boxes of books, and since my husband asked me to
count them, I'm doing that: 118, 126, and 80 books respectively. (The numbers
are a bit out of proportion on the first two boxes because I filled in all the
nooks and crannies with my miniature books...) That made a teeny-tiny dent in
the number of books on the shelves. We've also given away about five big boxes
of books and have sold 40 at amazon.de, and have a big box standing here next to
the computer of books that are listed for sale at amazon. We want to have all
(or most of) the books packed by the end of November, when we have to confirm
which size partial container we're taking, because the books will make the
decision. If they fit easily into 5.8 cubic meters, with enough space for a few
other boxes, that's all we're taking, but if it's iffy that they'll fit,
we'll consider taking the next size (I think 11.2, or something similiar), and
then will also take more kitchen stuff than otherwise, our bed, and maybe even
some bookcases. Maybe even the washing machine.
I also filled a box with our favorite games that we definitely want to take, filling in some corners in that box with some knick-knacks and miscellaneous toys. The flags and the puzzle maps of Africa and Costa Rica also went in that box and I miss them already. Oh, and I gave away my globe, and have been surprised in the three days since that how many times I've looked towards where it should be to look up something, and it's not there.
We've told the children that they will each get one box to pack whatever they want--Legos, wooden train set, and other toys that are really for everybody will be packed separately, so it's just their "stuff", which I would happily throw away, that they have to squeeze into one large moving box each. So when my six-year-old saw the flat boxes that we'd already picked up, he asked if he could have "his" box now to pack it. I said sure, no problem--and as soon as he'd finished packing it, I'd be able to get rid of everything else! He changed his mind. Not ten minutes later, my nine-year-old asked me if he could have his box now to pack it. I gave him the same answer, he responded the same way. It took my 11-year-old another hour or two to notice the boxes, but then she asked the SAME question! I gave the same answer, got the same response. :-) The three-year-old hasn't asked, however, she's the main reason I only pack while she's in bed, because she's very eager to "help".
Eight weeks to go...
I also filled a box with our favorite games that we definitely want to take, filling in some corners in that box with some knick-knacks and miscellaneous toys. The flags and the puzzle maps of Africa and Costa Rica also went in that box and I miss them already. Oh, and I gave away my globe, and have been surprised in the three days since that how many times I've looked towards where it should be to look up something, and it's not there.
We've told the children that they will each get one box to pack whatever they want--Legos, wooden train set, and other toys that are really for everybody will be packed separately, so it's just their "stuff", which I would happily throw away, that they have to squeeze into one large moving box each. So when my six-year-old saw the flat boxes that we'd already picked up, he asked if he could have "his" box now to pack it. I said sure, no problem--and as soon as he'd finished packing it, I'd be able to get rid of everything else! He changed his mind. Not ten minutes later, my nine-year-old asked me if he could have his box now to pack it. I gave him the same answer, he responded the same way. It took my 11-year-old another hour or two to notice the boxes, but then she asked the SAME question! I gave the same answer, got the same response. :-) The three-year-old hasn't asked, however, she's the main reason I only pack while she's in bed, because she's very eager to "help".
Eight weeks to go...
November 15, 2008--update--mostly positive
I'm slow about this, but just found out about an article
at HSLDA about very good friends of ours. Oh, and I forgot that our new
computer (or Vista or what? I don't know--it's just annoying...) won't believe
me that I want to allow pop-ups, so I couldn't do the link, so here it is to
click on or copy and paste: http://www.hslda.org/hs/international/Germany/200811070.asp .
The first family mentioned is the one that prompted me to write my last entry, in which I could say NOTHING at all. They had to be sure of getting safely out of the country first! They stayed with us for a couple of days before flying out (because they were literally and quite reasonably scared to stay at home!), which was a treat for us, although the reason was of course sad. They're doing well in the U.S., but it's quite an adjustment for them.
Then in the article about the Gorber family it mentiones another hearing on November 12th, which did happen, and yes, the parents have full custody again. The report I was given (I receive the e-mail updates from schuzh, the German equivalent of HSLDA) was quite upbeat and positive about it all, but I found it very sad: after all, the children ARE in school, which is not where the parents want them! But they are also at home outside of school hours, so that's the compromise they're living with right now. Not mentioned in the HSLDA article were two points that I found rather telling. One, the judge commented that it's impressive how well the parents have done with the children "despite the unusual background"--in other words, that "even though" they have been homeschooled until recently, they're all doing extremely well academically and socially in public school. "EVEN THOUGH"!!! I submit that that it would be more accurate to say "BECAUSE"!! The other point was that there was a decision being made about whether the court would recommend a social worker visiting the family regularly to help them with their parenting skills, and the judge said that as there is no longer any basis of trust between the parents and the social services, that wouldn't likely be effective, so no, the court didn't recommend imposing that.
To update on our family, we won't be trying to homeschool in Germany much longer: we have one-way flights booked to Cyprus in less than nine weeks. Very, very weird for me to think about: although we have spent rather a lot of time outside of Germany in the last few years (a total of 12 months out of 36, not counting short trips to Norway, Netherlands, Switzerland, etc.), Germany has been my home for over 17 years. It's been the place I keep my books and photo albums and (since we got married and I stopped taking him with me everywhere I went...) my lion cub, Cubby. But my books and photo albums, and Cubby too, are all moving to Cyprus with us in two months.
The first family mentioned is the one that prompted me to write my last entry, in which I could say NOTHING at all. They had to be sure of getting safely out of the country first! They stayed with us for a couple of days before flying out (because they were literally and quite reasonably scared to stay at home!), which was a treat for us, although the reason was of course sad. They're doing well in the U.S., but it's quite an adjustment for them.
Then in the article about the Gorber family it mentiones another hearing on November 12th, which did happen, and yes, the parents have full custody again. The report I was given (I receive the e-mail updates from schuzh, the German equivalent of HSLDA) was quite upbeat and positive about it all, but I found it very sad: after all, the children ARE in school, which is not where the parents want them! But they are also at home outside of school hours, so that's the compromise they're living with right now. Not mentioned in the HSLDA article were two points that I found rather telling. One, the judge commented that it's impressive how well the parents have done with the children "despite the unusual background"--in other words, that "even though" they have been homeschooled until recently, they're all doing extremely well academically and socially in public school. "EVEN THOUGH"!!! I submit that that it would be more accurate to say "BECAUSE"!! The other point was that there was a decision being made about whether the court would recommend a social worker visiting the family regularly to help them with their parenting skills, and the judge said that as there is no longer any basis of trust between the parents and the social services, that wouldn't likely be effective, so no, the court didn't recommend imposing that.
To update on our family, we won't be trying to homeschool in Germany much longer: we have one-way flights booked to Cyprus in less than nine weeks. Very, very weird for me to think about: although we have spent rather a lot of time outside of Germany in the last few years (a total of 12 months out of 36, not counting short trips to Norway, Netherlands, Switzerland, etc.), Germany has been my home for over 17 years. It's been the place I keep my books and photo albums and (since we got married and I stopped taking him with me everywhere I went...) my lion cub, Cubby. But my books and photo albums, and Cubby too, are all moving to Cyprus with us in two months.
October 16, 2008--trouble in Germany
I literally cannot write any details at all, but there are LOTS of problems for
homeschoolers in Germany at the moment!!
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