Paul (my brother-in-law) and his fiancee, Vicky, came for a week to visit us. They wanted some beach time so we heard that Buzios, just a few hours from Rio was a great place to go. Turns out it’s sort of the Hamptons for cariocas (people from Rio).
We were heads of heels excited they came.
Our favorite spot was Praia Ferradurinha (little horseshoe)
Climbing the rocks
Lots of SUP time.
The highlight was finding sea turtles there. Paul took the boys way out on the SUP.
Found them!
Took a little boat tour.
And some surfing.
Then off to Rio.
We stayed next door to the restaurant where “Girl from Ipanema” was written. You can see Sidney and Ezra with Paul and Vicky in the window.
Heading to top of Pão de Açucar. We love it up there.
Favela tour.
April and I had the salad bar.
Bless Paul and Vicky. We got a night out in Rio to hear samba at Carioca da Gema. One of the greatest nights of music of our lives. You can catch a little of the show in the credits of Ezra’s Episode 4.
What will Ezra have for dinner in Brazil? Not hard to guess what he’s thinking.
April and I love the neighborhood of Santa Thersa. The art, the restaurants and the friends we made at the place we stayed (Casalegre).
In Brazil, the academic school year begins in February/March (whenever Carnival ends) and breaks for “winter” in July, then continues from August to December. Since we knew that our time in Brazil would be from January thru mid July, it didn’t make sense to place our kids in a new school, with a new language, for only 4 months. So we decided to homeschool them ourselves. I learned that Brazilian kids go to school from 8:30am to 12:30p, or from 1p to 5p—that’s right: only 4 hours each day. The upper school kids go in the morning and the elementary kids go in the afternoon (in some areas that is reversed). The instructional time seems so short compared to schools is the U.S. and other European countries whose hours are usually a full 8-hr day. But during the off-hours Brazilian kids usually have their physical education and sports schedules much like afterschool in the US, but instead it happens before school. Barry and I basically stick to those hours, setting aside two to four hours, 5 days out of the week to cover the curriculum our kids’ teachers provided us with. During the remaining hours of the day the kids get their physical fitness in the form of capoeira, snorkeling or swimming.
Pool break with neighbor, Elizabeth.
Originally we were concerned that Sidney & Ezra were not going to get enough interaction with other kids, but they’ve been fast at making friends wherever they go. And obviously, language lessons are “built-in” as we have daily interactions in Portuguese. Ezra’s favorite phrases to say: “Eu não falo portugues” (I do not speak Portuguese), or “Posso jogar?” (Can I play?) Sidney loves asking for his “aqua com gas” at restaurants and can determine if hotels are at full capacity or not based on their “Ha Vagas” signs. Many friends have asked how the homeschooling has been going so I figured I’d write a little about it here. I’ll include a couple of lesson plans that were thankfully successful in case there are any homeschoolers out there. Things don’t always go as planned when homeschooling our boys (read more, in my newsletter). But every once in a while we strike gold as parent-teachers.
One thing that helped bring more creativity to our homeschooling was letting our kids take the lead. Here’s some lesson plans that worked really well: One day, I planned to cover sight words with Ezra. He’s a quick learner and claimed to already know all the sight words and wasn’t interested in doing that for that day.
So I asked him what would he rather do instead? He wanted to make binoculars out of toilet paper rolls. Always up for something crafty, I agreed that was a good project for the morning. So we made a set of binoculars together and while we were making them I got the idea to make bright notecards with sight words on them. Then I posted the cards all around the house. The mission today, I told Ezra, was to go on a Sight Word Safari. He was to use his new binoculars to find sight words in our “word jungle” and make note of all the words he found in his “field journal” by writing down each word. He LOVED it! Ezra was so proud to use his new binoculars and he giggled each time he spotted a new word. Plus, he was writing down the words I wanted him to learn. It was a total win-win.
Tape two toilet paper rolls together to make your binoculars. Punch holes on either side to attach the string. Have the child decorate to their liking.
Write one sight word (ex: the, and, with, she) on a notecard. Make at least 10-15 of them. And place them around the room.
Ask the student to grab their pad and pencil and new binoculars to “Go on a safari to find 10 sight words.” When they spot a word with their binoculars they are to write it down on their “Field Journal.”
On other days, we’ve been open to letting the local landscape inspire our curriculum. For instance, the country’s capital city, Brasilia, is an ideal place to explore architecture. This planned city, in the shape of an airplane, is filled with the futuristic buildings of Oscar Neimeyer. Brasilia is like Tomorrowland meets Soviet Russia meets Suburbia, geometric buildings with planetary curves stand side by side with clusters of concrete rectangles housing government offices. So for our architecture lesson we read about Oscar Neimeyer, then visited some of his buildings (because we could!), and sketched what we saw. To practice being our own architects we took a flat sheet of paper (something 2-dimensional) and explored all the different ways we could make it 3-dimensional using elements of movement to inspire us. The process looked like this:
Architect Adventure (2D to 3D)
Materials needed: various sheets of paper, cardboard, tape/glue stick
Ask yourself: How can we show “Roll”, “Fold”, “Twist”, “Curve”, “Leap” , “ZigZag”, “Ripped” with a sheet of paper? Take time to look at each element from a different perspective: does it stand on its own, what does it look like from atop or on its side?
Make note of things the new structure reminds you of: something in nature? or in a machine?
Can you make your own structure using paper, glue and the new ideas you just experimented with? [allow 15-20m for this] What could your new building be used for? Give it a name.
I actually had fun myself doing the activity with the boys and we were really happy with our results. Taking a little initiative to learn more about the environment we were visiting gave us all a chance to connect to the place on a deeper level, and to experience the things we were seeing with a new perspective.
We’ve also taken some pretty awesome field trips while we’ve been here:
Find out more about our homeschooling adventures in my March newsletter for SoulShine Life. All of us keep learning more as we go along. Some days are easier than others. But the fun part has been watching the kids learning process happen in real time and picking up some new information for myself in the mean time. With Barry and I both keeping our own learning experiences transparent, speaking a new language or in dance class, our children get a glimpse of how their parents are students too.
Hang loose! Today I am going to have a surf lesson. We drove into town and arrived at the shop. We had to take three boards with us. Two longboard and one shortboard. We arrived at a beach called, Engenhoca. We first had to hike through the jungle to get to the beach. After a twenty minute walk through the jungle we arrived at Engenhoca. The beach had good long waves. The teacher first showed me how to stand up on the board when you get a wave. Then we were off to the water.The teacher helped me past the break. I got some pretty good waves. I shall always remember that moment.
We just had 2 wonderful weeks in Itacaré, Bahia. Why did we ever leave Bahia?
Praia Egenhoca. You can see Sidney’s surf lesson on his blog.
April and Ezra at our “home” beach- Concha.
Beach in Serra Grande.
Our sunset spot in Itacaré. Our first night a guy was playing berimbau there. Sidney was so inspired he wanted his own picture like it. Check out his blog for that.
We visited a cacau farm/chocolate factory
Pick the cacau.
Get out the seeds.
Dry and roast them in the sun.
Add sugar and you’re good to go!
Had a great Passover. Couldn’t find matzah, so we did it ourselves.
We were joined for seder by our friend, Sarah, we met in Arraial, and Nitzan, a fellow capoeira student (from Israel).
Nitzan showed me how to make this the easiest Passover. We made tapioca “sandwiches”. You just put the powdered casava in the pan, add heat and toppings, fold and you have a kosher for passover meal!
And Easter.
Dyeing eggs.
Hunting for eggs.
Unlikely plant to find an egg under, but there it is!
As our school back home was taking their spring break we took one, too. OK, technically it’s more like a summer break. Well, all right, we’re pretty much on summer break for most of the year, so let’s just say we took a break from our routine…vacation. The break was initiated by the arrival of my in-laws, Flora and Ramon. We were all so happy to have them visit and for the chance to share some Brazilian experiences. We spent a week enjoying life in and around Arraial (You can see our visit with them to the Pataxó reserve on Sidney’s blog)
Where there is Flora, there is line dancing.
Sidney’s favorite ping-pong buddy.
At Pitinga, our favorite beach.
Swimming out to the reef.
Not sure of the legality of this experience, but this is the freshest urchin Ramon has ever tasted. The guy even brought limes with him.
This is an actual ship from the time when the Portuguese arrived, conquering- er, discovering- Brazil. Porto Seguro is where they landed.
Then we took a road trip together to Caraiva. More like a dirt road trip, ¾ of the ride is on a rough dirt road,
which leads to a river, which leads to small rowboats taking us over to town.
In town this is the only vehicle, and there are about 3 of them. The “roads” are all sand.
We enjoyed the laid-back beach town vibe.
Then we made our way back to Trancoso, the once sleepy, hippie town that is now a playground for the rich and famous AND the hippies.
The beach was amazing.
We said “Até Logo” to Bahia and headed to Rio. It’s like New York and Miami, mixed together with some amazing little mountains. It is as beautiful as people say and just plain cool. We saw the sights and had a good time.
Tram up to Sugar Loaf.
From top of Sugar Loaf at night.
Lola and the boys on Copacabana (left corner)
The kid loves his agua de coco.
Sidney got to see a game at Maracana.
On the beaches of Leblon.
Of course we found the best desert place. Kurt’s. Sidney’s having the Brigadeiro cake.
Glorious air conditioning!
Favelas.
View from the top of our place.
We were so sad to seem them go home.
Back to America we went. Oh, I mean on to Brasilia, the capital. Filled with malls and food courts (Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Subway and more) and air conditioning. We were very fortunate to have our friends, Priscilla and Rafael to pick us up and let us stay with them for the first weekend. They showed us the town and, of course, a mall. Called “shopping” here. It’s a noun in Portuguese. Rafael did a great job of constantly explaining how the streets flow and the addresses work. I was extremely grateful once I was on my own with the car for the week. In Brasilia, it takes 3 rights or ¾ of a circle to make a left. That led to lots of confusion, but the addresses are laid out on a grid that is very clear. I was able to navigate the city without a map often. Luckily I’m a NYC driver so I could handle the aggressive drivers on the road.
With Rafael and Priscilla in front of the legislature.
Hangin’ with Leo, Rafael and Priscilla’s son.
Brasilia is filled with the architecture of Oscar Niemeyer and so many amazing buildings.
We think this looks like we are in the movie Star Wars, in front of Uncle Owen and Aunt Ru’s house.
Mestre Ralil was so gracious.
The highlight for Sidney and I was the capoeira training. We were in the hometown of our school, Raizes do Brasil, and from the moment we walked in to class we were welcome with open arms. Everyone was friendly and introduced themselves. The mestres and professors, all who are friends of Mestre Foca (our mestre in NY) were so generous with us. Mestre Railil, the Grand Mestre, who is usually very busy, was so kind to teach a class while we were there.
Mestre Cara. So kind.
The kids in Sidney’s class quickly befriended him, and once they saw him play they all wanted to get in the roda with him. Mestre Cara, who taught the kids classes, took an immediate liking to Sidney, and once he saw how good Sidney was (and man, he is so good), he took him under his wing. Sidney couldn’t get enough capoeira. He went to the kids classes and then took the adult ones with me, sometimes. He actually preferred those as he is so hungry for training.
For me, it was great to be reminded of the style I originally learned, that involves much more twisting and bending. It’s a bit more on the dance-y side. Sul da Bahia- where the training was excellent- tends to be a bit more straight forward. Also, we got a lot more time playing in the roda in Brasilia than we did in Arraial.
That being said, as much as we enjoyed our travels, we really missed our life in Bahia. Living on the beach, no malls, significantly less screen time for the kids (which means significantly more creativity in their play). As I post this we are now in Itacare, a surf town in Bahia and back to our ideal beach life again. I’m studying the other style of capoeira, Angola. More on that in the next post.
The highlight was finding sea turtles there. Paul took the boys way out on the SUP.
Let Passion Be Your Guide 