Every time I’m about to start a post, skost študiram…če bomo v slovenščina ali v angleščina as I worry about alienating both readers. Angleščina always wins out because
It’s my mother tongue and the only way I know to fully express those rabid thoughts.
I’m an English teacher 🙄 this is a blog about what I do, how I do it, and even worse,
I’m a writing teacher and brevity is not necessary the soul of wit. So this, along with future posts will be long-winded. (Brace yourselves)
Not that I couldn’t make the attempt in Slovene, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish.
While my landing page brims with shiny, protracted (often verbose🧐😅) text that would give chat GPT and Google translate a run for their money, if you think I actually sat down to translate and proof-read the Slovenian page to utmost perfection, then I’ve got a bridge in Nigeria I’d looooove to sell you!
That, along with the building of this site, took an entire army (including grammar and spelling Nazis) of amazing people and a good several months- a price I couldn’t possibly fork out just to churn out a mere blogpost every now and then. So I will do this the best way I know how, and let pictures do the rest of the talking.
Down to the nitty-gritty‼️
As mentioned previously, 4 years in the thick of it, trying to make something of The Lemon Tree , I took the plunge last year and attempted my very first summer camp. This was against all outside voices filling me with fear about whether it would work, if I had enough kids, I’d burn out, and my personal fave, “won’t you go to the seaside? “ ( In Slovenia, something is seriously wrong with you if you’re at a party and not drinking, and if you don’t visit the seaside in the summer)
So Against these odds, and being a trier, (I swear, I will try anything at least once! Except skydiving, backpacking across any continent whatsoever and Kravavica🤢🤮) I rolled the dice, put together a flier with 4 dates, and left the rest to the camp gods.
4 registrations for July, 5 in August, and I was good to go, doing away with 2 other dates.
The first day of July camp (7:30 STAT!) started out on a sweet ,sweet note, with these 2 dollies gifting me an ice-cream machine I’m hoping will get some action this summer.
Next, we jumped right into a pre-set routine to keep things on track.
Circle time and warm-up Yoga stretches with a different kid taking the lead each day that elicited a ton of giggles. None of them could keep a straight face for longer than 2 seconds.
Monkey see, Monkey do 🙈🙊
Then to the order of the day, GAMES! Shooting pom pom cannon balls off a pre-assembled pop-up pirate ship, with eye-patches for even more authenticity- Aye!😉
Ahoy there captains! 🏴☠️
Only thing missing was a wooden peg leg and captain Jack Sparrow walking the plank.
Next, we headed out for a game of dobble on steroids- always a fave with the kids.
In the heat of the excitement, completely forgetting I’d advertised malica in the program, ( I too struggle with UK & US spellings of program and programme so use it interchangeably as the spirit leads🧐😅I’m unstable like that😎 ) by which time the kids were famished, so an early call to Picikato, the nearest and only open restaurant within a 3km radius was placed.
“eeewww, she’s feeding them junk food!”
Well, what was I supposed to do? Cook for them? Sadly, my super powers do not extend that far, and why would I risk poisoning them and catching a potential lawsuit?
“omg isn’t that expensive?”
Well, what was I supposed to do? Cook for them? Ain’t nobody got time for that🫤
To allay your fears, this year I’ve got that covered with another nearby restaurant that will be open for the summer and we’ve prepped a menu with somewhat healthier alternatives, but French fries will remain a constant✌🏽
Nevertheless, it was a great way for them to learn responsibility, taking initiative and live-action role playing.
Dessert, coffee to replenish my batteries, some more games, and before we could say Jack Robinson, it was 3:30 pm and time to call it a day!
The next day, after Iva’s mom had seen the tomfoolery I’d gotten up to on the parents’ Viber group where I’d been keeping them up to date with all our goings-on, she had mercy on my soul and packed a whole breakfast for us the following morning😍🥰
Flabbergasted and overwhelmed with gratitude doesn’t even begin to cut it.. I cried…🥲can you tell?But first, giggly Yoga
Next, we feasted like royalty.
Yuuuuuuuummm!😋😋
We had eggs cooked in ocvirki mast ,(if you haven’t tried that, be sure to put it on your bucket list) jam, butter, cheese bread, spreads.. we could barely move by the time we were done.
Quick game of drop-it to reinforce shapes and colours before heading out to the great outdoors…
for even more games!
👑👸🏻🐝💁🏽♀️
Where the time went, I have absolutely no clue because they were hungry AGAIN!
Picikato to the rescue!
…mislim, what was I supposed to do? Cook for them?🤷🏽♀️
Clean up was a breeze!
Next, we got artsy with camp diary posters
The next morning had us feasting on left-overs from the day before
Easy-breezy lemon squeezy clean-up
and off to the great outdoors we went…
The entire time , they were running about , I kept thinking “what if one of them falls and cracks open something? LAWSUIT LAWSUIT! LAWSUIT! I quickly bundled them right back indoors and made a mental note to play future running games in the fields on soft grass. But then, what if something bites them… oh God!😬 I swear, the what-ifs keep me up at night😩
Indoors had us putting finishing touches to our Summer Camp posters
and then… you guessed it… lunch!!
Gold cups for golden kids!🤩✨
and a sweet treat to cool down…
Thursday morning, Alex came bearing muffins!!😍
They were warm, smelt amazing, and I couldn’t resist gobbling down one with my morning Go juice☕️’
By this time, on day 4, morning Yoga had completely taken on a life of its own😅
For the life of me, I too cannot explain what is going on here🤷🏽♀️but, yeah…
Settling into our routine just fine with another quick game of Fire in the hole before heading out to do a bit of exploring
Ahoy there Captains!🏴☠️
And off we went!
More sights than sounds….
Back indoors for a quick nibble, by which time we’d nailed our routine down to a T…
Another game, because it is after all a board game summer camp…🙄
Thursday entries into our journal posters😃 as Friday was the grand finale at a secret location where we wouldn’t have been able to complete them…
and a photo-shoot to boot 📸
All together now:::
More games, lunch, and you know how the rest of the story goes😃
Grand finale Friday morning Yoga for the win,
Absolutely, utterly nuts for donuts.. WITH donuts😍
🍩🍩🍩😍
And a happy robot dance by Majči because we’re off to a secret location,
Campers at the ready! And off we went, to take in some more of Slovenia’s gorgeous natural beauty.
Iva questioning her life’s choices
At some completely off the grid-no-signal-middle-of-nowhere-tresspassers will be shot on sight – private property.
As you can probably tell by now, Alex was the only boy enrolled at July camp, and none of the girls were particularly interested in playing football with him (a bummer I’ve managed to sort out with this year’s camp) so we had to trade-off with other activities everyone could participate in, as our secret location had lots of outdoor fun on tap!
A bit of exploring in the woods,
and back in time for a make-your-own- pizza party!
A real treat!
And a chance to finally put my feet up and get pampered a tad!
Some more games,
Ice cream😋
and a quick photo shoot📸😉
Thus, ended my first July camp on a sleep-deprived but super-exciting high note!
If I haven’t bored you to death with this lengthy post, then keep your eyes peeled for part two of the August 2023 camp.
Komaj čakam da se šola konča…I know! I know! I went on and on about it in the previous post and running the risk of sounding like a broken record, AMPAK just four long, dreary but exciting weeks to go, and we can get into the summer groove. No worksheets, no lesson preps at ungodly hours (I in fact ban them from coming in with school bags or notebooks) just days of soaking up the sun, board games galore, and even role-playing games!
Long and dreary because a watched pot never did boil🙄 but super exciting because June is the one month all lessons cease at The Lemon Tree and I give my students the opportunity to finally get their own back at me. Roles become heavily reversed and they get to boss me around playing teacher, trooping in shoving tests and worksheets they’ve painstakingly prepped at home in my face- in Slovene of course! Plus, I get a kick out of watching them go power crazy wielding their preferred weapon of choice- The elusive Red Pen (if they’re lucky enough to find one- no bags, no pencil cases 😈 ) It’s the sweetest thing, really 😇With the second and third graders, I’ll sometimes put down wrong answers and flunk woefully just so they can wear that smirk on their faces.
Even more nostalgic as the month closes in, my little lemons troop in with the most heart-warming end -of-school-year treats that make me bawl my eyes out 😩
If Nik isn’t bringing me flowers, he’s definitely packing a tasty treat!
Ulalaaaa brought a whole picnic basket of pancakes she made at home- by herself! 😱I often wonder what noble deed I did in my previous life to deserve such delights😇
AND a lemon tote to boot!
🍋🍋🍋🍋
Not the first time she’s brought pancakes either, bless her 🥰
Nor the second…
Her sister, Jona will often bring in bits and bobs she’s crafted in art class💚
And dainty little jewellery she knows I adore
The hand- crafted ones particularly hold a special place in my heart
Vid. G. my personal interior decorator, responsible for constantly getting me to move around classroom furniture and sending me links to purchase even more classroom decor , instead of turning in homework.
and on the classroom walls
Sitting pretty 🍋🍋
The most darling would have to be from first fruit and resident artist, Tisa.S, all of whose artwork deserves very special recognition☺️
on the wall … and in my heart 💛
She’s older now and will absolutely go ballistic at her spelling mistakes when she sees this😅
Four years, she’s been scribbling darling little keepsakes
That, and who do you think has been responsible for all those perfect little four-cornered lemons on board?
She, of course!
Now I get all flustered when I don’t see the lemons and will scream blue murder🤬 if a student accidentally wipes them off.
I couldn’t draw one this perfect to save my life!😩 She’s since stopped attending classes after 4 years with me, but she’ll pop in every now and then to say hi with her friends who still attend- just to paint in fresh ones 🫶🏽🍋💛
Flowers are the way to my heart, and my little lemons know this, and exploit this knowledge with reckless abandon, especially in lieu of the dog eating their homework. On my instastories, there’s and entire album dedicated to those cherubic-manipulative -flower-totting faces… arrrghh!! how can one not love them?! The second I spot them through the window, I’m click-click ready📸
On this fine winter’s day in February, after we’d picked some while out for a walk, Nina came back the very next day with another handful😍
Truth be told, engaging with children and creating a magical childhood full of wonder is the noblest mission there is, and I wouldn’t change it for the entire world!
AND now I have to eat my own hat by admitting my that mother was right🙄just this once ( But that’s a story for another post 🙃)
Whoever coined ‘March Madness’ had not an inkling what they were going on about, because ask any teacher, student or parent and they’ll tell you the month of May definitely takes the cake!
Every year like clockwork, come May’s end, students are just doggone tired, parents have had it up to their eyeballs with their second shifts moonlighting as Uber drivers, and teachers, well… I’ll just speak for myself and tell you worksheets hound me in my dreams, the sound of my printer has become nothing short of irritating, I’m surviving on coffee and a prayer, and for the life of me, cannot seem to find a single pen!
(Fun tip: If you’re ever stumped about what to gift a teacher, allow me to speak for all of us when I tell you we just need stationery- mostly pens; red, black and /or blue) No need to break the bank. Anything that won’t fade into oblivion after a few scribbles will do nicely. (Now pencils that just refuse to sharpen is a story for another post. Is it the pencil? Is it the sharpener? Why? Who killed JFK? Was Osama really buried at sea? Why would anyone make erasers that either just won’t erase? Or that will soot up your notes, or just plain rip out the sheet? Questions that continue to hound. Another post my friends)
It’s a real *Kovačeva Kobilasituation in these streets!
WARNING🚨🚨‼️ I might do that…A LOT‼️Swerve completely off-topic and weave Slovenščina into my posts- a necessary side effect of having lived here for 15 years. Specific English words tend to evade me, and coming up with the Slovene equivalent has become a mainstay reflex, causing me to develop my own unique-speak I like to call Slovenglish.
I’ll even go through the trouble of foot-noting the translations – figured it’d be a fun way for you, Dear Non-Slovenian-Reader, to pick up on a few Slovenian words and phrases😌you’re welcome!)
After slogging through worksheets prepping older kids for next week’s final school tests, I was just about wired by the time the 3rd graders trooped in today, and I knew I’d rather gorge my eyes out with a spoon than open another textbook. Were it not for the bi-polar weather we’ve been having lately, I’d have marched them right into the woods for a breather, but it poured- and then some.
Sure enough, I could’ve cracked open any one of their favourite games, but I wanted something different, entertaining, interactive and educational, tailored to their age group. That, and feelings of nostalgia since taking up writing again, took me back to days of yore, when initiative and a shoe-string budget had me coming up with my own games….waaay before I even purchased the first board game.
Enter this life-sized one I spent an entire Sunday afternoon devising.
Huge hit with my first graders , circa 2019😃
A quintuple whammy that tackles shapes, colours, numbers, auxiliary verb question forms and contracted answer forms.
First thing we did was move back the furniture to make ample space, then set the children about the task of laying out the game.
Half-way through, common sense prevailed, and I handed out strips of double-sided tape to secure the cardboard pieces in place, lest one of them slips, falls and cracks their skull open on the cold hard wood floor.
In the meantime, J and I set about pumping the inflatable die.
A right headache that took forever as we soon discovered a hole on the side😩
It did pack a bounce, and the games could actually begin…
for all of some 30 seconds before we had to pause the game and get pumping again🙄
Not forgetting visual cues for question phrases and *kratki odgovors (I did it again. It just sounds better… to me. See footnotes if you will. I’m in this for the long haul😂)
After a while, we just plain switched to good ol’ regular die, ‘cos ain’t nobody got time for that💁🏽♀️
Was all in all good fun and a great photo-op when they all landed on the same spot📸
Serendipity💫✨🌟🍋
The minute class is over and I turn my back for a split second☺️
🫶🏽🫶🏽🫶🏽💛
A great finisher for a long, maddening day.
Even better right after, I got to destroy a group of high schoolers in a game of Dabble😈
…and that’s all folks!
Marching right out of the month of May, may your June shine brighter, come what may!
If you’ve made it this far, I sincerely thank you for stopping by. I’m guessing your interest has been piqued, and the burning question as with many others persists: What’s with this chic and lemons? Only to now be stumped with Dreadlocks and Broomsticks…?! 🙄(a story for another post, promise)
If I got a dime for every time one of my students has gone Yomi, zakaj ti maš rada limone? I’d be a millionaire by now.
Next to black, Yellow is my absolute favourite colour.
Naturally, when I think of yellow, I think of sunshine, lemons, lemonade, lemon cake, eye-popping yellow summer dresses, yellow tulips, positivity, limoncello, lemon ice-cream, lemon sugar cookies, …the zesty list is endless, and not to mention the many medicinal properties, home remedies, and food recipes using lemon as a main ingredient or catalyst.
I’m constantly awed by how a fruit so common, yet sour, can be ripe with so much symbolism.
Lemons have a rich history, spanning across the globe for their flavour, health benefits, cleansing properties and even spirituality.
In literature, (modern and ancient) lemons are a symbol of cleansing, freshness and healing, and the lemon tree, a catalyst for clarity of thought.
For me, the tree itself signifies zest for life, hope, new beginnings, and endless opportunities born out of taking something simple and amplifying it to create an atmosphere and experience.
Hence, The Lemon Tree was founded on my dining table after packing up my Beauty Atelier in 2018.
My first fruits: solitary fruit of my loins and my neighbour’s girls
Since then, it’s taken on a life of its own and grown to 50 kids, 25 adults and counting.
In between, I rented an apartment space next door after outgrowing the dining table.
We soon outgrew that too
and only just moved to a new location in Štore last August,
and settling in nicely
FULL DISCLOSURE: I’m a HUGE nail polish aficionado… the seeds of which were planted after hatching out Little Diva parties for kids which was birthed from Vionette Beauty Atelier, previously known as Handjob ( Judge me not! It really is a long-winded head-scratcher for another post)
Little Diva Parties at Vionette Beauty Atelier, circa 2015
Prior to the beauty studio and moving to Slovenia, I lived and taught Conversational English in Warsaw, Poland for 3 years at The Tower Language Center , gaining experience and working with huge conglomerate firms like Ikea, Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Coca Cola, Orange Telecommunications and the legal department of the Ministry Of Defence.
I moved to Slovenia in the summer of 2009, had my son, and decided to pursue a life-long dream of owning that chic little nail studio I keep going on about, which folded 4 years later (I really am looking forward to dishing on that, and ultimately at some point in the future, reviving it, so do stick around)
Of course I treated my clients to lemon cake, bubbles and the finer things!
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a darling shot of this symbolic lemon tree I planted yesterday, gifted to me by friends over the weekend. I’ve christened her ‘Hope’
So here’s to Hope, and to a healthy ‘blogging’ fresh start, and I do hope you come back more often.
Hugs,
Y☀️
PS
Here’s the last one a bunch of my first fruits gifted me which I ended up killing😩 We’ve got this Hope!
