First Year of Lacrosse

Zoe has started to play Lacrosse. This is her first year and she seems to be enjoying it. If you didn't know, Lacrosse is the official national sport of Canada. It can get rough, but it's great exercise and goes hand-in-hand with hockey.

Lego Titanic

 Austyn has been interested in the Titanic. One evening before bed he decided to make the Titanic out of Lego. He spent about an hour on it that night and when he got up in the morning he spent a couple more hours. This was the final result! I think it turned out great!

He added many details. One detail was the propeller.

Rocks and Minerals

 Austyn decided that he felt like learning more about rocks and minerals. We spent a morning going through his rock collection. We did experiments to the rocks. 

He made little labels. He printed the name of the rock on each and put a letter to indicate what type of rock each one is. This particular rock kit had activities that seemed to be set up to be done over a period of time, but because he is so interested in this subject we finished almost all of them in one morning!

If you look closely at the picture above you'll also see two meteorites, a dinosaur bone fossil and a man-made mineral. He has started a collection.

Book Sharing Monday - Imagine You're a Mermaid

 We enjoyed this book. It really takes a child to a place where they can imagine being a mermaid. There are activities at the end and the pictures are so unique and interesting.

 Zoe sent an email to the mermaid in the book, using the email address provided. We have yet to get a response back, but it was fun and she did such a good job of typing the email out.

Getting Back on Track!

Looking back to how this year has been going for us, with regard to our homeschooling, I feel like we didn’t have the best year. In fact, I think this was our worst. Stress, moves, living in someone else’s house, and extended family needs are just a few things that affected our ability to homeschool effectively this year.

That being said, we didn’t just NOT learn anything. Zoe learned to cursive write some words. She continues to surprise me with her spelling, reading, and her athletic ability. Austyn learned about fossils, crystals, rocks, minerals, and meteorites. He continues to learn more as time passes. He read a beginning reader and started a second. I got worried about his reading and through trying to get him to read, I learned that I need to let go a bit more and let him choose what, where, and when he wants to read. I will post later about his reading (I’m currently doing some research on this matter).

On a positive note, we did a good deal of things outside of the house. We were out most of the time. Hockey, skating, hiking, tobogganing, shopping, traveling, play dates, park days, gymnastics, a co-op, lacrosse, and the list goes on. We were rarely home. This probably was needed, so that we could meet friends for support. Going out made things easier when taking over a local group an easier task. I didn’t know any homeschoolers in this area when I took it over and that was a challenge. I went from organizing things and having nobody come and chatting online with hardly any response to a great turnout for homeschool skating and great chats online about things that really matter most to the local homeschoolers. They have been an important part of our lives through their support when times were getting a bit tough. This may not be the best place to homeschool in Canada, but it sure is working fine for us, now that we are settling in.

Looking back, this year looked like an unschooling family that was struggling through stress and thinking that we need to be doing more school-type things because of everything that was happening around us and the bad behaviour we were all carrying around.

With the stress and behaviour improving, now that we have our own space, I’m feeling more positive. Things are coming together and we are meeting many new friends. We have great support. We are in a new house. We are still unpacking and organizing and I notice a huge difference in all of us. The kids are starting to initiate their own learning again. I think I just need to relax and look forward with positive light. Things will fall into place. Proof of this is already presenting itself. Society and pressure may have a grasp on my feelings sometimes, but then reality hits, I realize what works best for us. We will get back on track, and just like people who have a baby or have a death in the family, we are homeschoolers who are human. There are productive years and years that we just need to realize that SHIT HAPPENS! ;)

Book Sharing Monday - The Squeaky Door

This is a cute story about a boy who stays at his grandmothers' house and is frightened by the squeaking door. He can't sleep so the grandmother gives him different animals to sleep with and in the end the problem is fixed. You will love how it ends up.

Book Sharing Monday - Love Your World

This is a good book to introduce being good to the environment for young children. It could give your young family ideas for Earth Day. 

The pictures are fun and the text is short for easily distracted minds. This book goes right to the point so that each idea is made clear without all of the extra information that an older child might want. 

Many simple things that a child could do to save the environment are introduced in this book so that everyone in the family (even your youngest) can feel like they are doing their part.