Graphics

Austyn has been interested in doing photography, graphics and maybe helping us with apps that we develop through our business. Here he is helping me post a Book Sharing Monday. He is editing a picture of a book.

Email

Austyn now has email, in an attempt to bring meaning to reading, and spelling. He has been struggling with these subjects in life and really has little interest in them. To try and bring interest we set up for him to have a pen pal from Edmonton. At first he was sluggish with it, but it grew on him. His Dad also started to email him from his desk (in the other room) and he really had fun emailing him back.

I also tried to sign him up for Flat Travelers but haven't been accepted into the group still. It's been weeks! I may have to set this up with friends and just do it that way. If you don't know what Flat Travelers is, it's the homeschool version of Flat Stanley. HERE is the website, but again, they don't seem to be accepting new members.

Getting to know our library

We've been to our library a couple of times now. The set-up is okay. On the last visit the kids discovered the computers and decided to play the educational games.

I think that one of the reasons they noticed the computers this time was because there were a couple of homeschool kids playing games on them. The first time we visited the library it was Christmas break. Now that the kids are back in school it's much easier to spot homeschoolers in public. During this visit we ran into two homeschool families at this library. I figured we would since there is a pretty high number of homeschoolers registered in this city. I read online before we moved that the estimated number was over 8000 homeschool families were registered with the Edmonton school boards.

One thing that I found cool about this library was the book scanning system. You place the books in a pile on this special desk and the computer recognizes them. It misses some sometimes so I put no more than five books at a time. Also, when you drop books off you have to put one book in the slot at a time and it looks like they are automatically signed back in to the library as they drop in the slot.

I Guess This Is Unschooling... activity 1

I thought I'd start a series of posts about unschooling. Sometimes when we do something that is child lead I'll post it. I Guess This Is Unschooling seemed like a good title for now since I'm still deschooling myself and getting use to this type of homeschooling. Here is my first I Guess This Is Unschooling post. 

Austyn was telling me, after he had baseball practice last week, that there were some boys on his team who wanted to make a boy's club. We said that it wouldn't be fair to the girls and he agreed to call the club Baseball Club instead. He wanted to make badges for the members so we got busy on the computer. I showed him how to make them and we printed them out on card stock together. Then he cut them out and him and I made little wallets for the badges. They are to look like a police badge. Once finished he paper clipped them all to the wallets.

This week he gave them to his team mates. They seemed to like them. 

And we couldn't forget Zoe.

Computerized Microscope!

We did some Science today and this included the use of our microscope. We looked at some slides and a bee that we caught and kept. Here is Austyn checking out the microscope on his own while eating a cookie.

"The child is curious. He wants to make sense out of things, find out how things work, gain competence and control over himself and his environment, and do what he can see other people doing. He is open, perceptive, and experimental. He does not merely observe the world around him, He does not shut himself off from the strange, complicated world around him, but tastes it, touches it, hefts it, bends it, breaks it. To find out how reality works, he works on it. He is bold. He is not afraid of making mistakes. And he is patient. He can tolerate an extraordinary amount of uncertainty, confusion, ignorance, and suspense ... School is not a place that gives much time, or opportunity, or reward, for this kind of thinking and learning."
~John Holt~, (1923-1985) American Educator, How Children Learn

Educational Internet Games

One thing we do play is internet games.  There are a couple that are our favourites.

http://www.poissonrouge.com/

http://www.uptoten.com/

"Children are the living messages we send to a time we will not see."~ John W. Whitehead