Consumer costs

According to this article, consumer costs, including the price of gas, is one of the issues that leaders will be addressing in this election.

In this article Jack Layton explains some of his plans in this regard.

Political Ads and Party troubles

Often times parties encounter all kinds of troubles during a campaign and often times these troubles are associated with ads and statements that are made without thought. Here is where I will collect links that have to do with that in this campaign.

This Toronto Star post talks about the Puffin Poo ad that the conservatives pulled.

This Canadian Press post talks about a statement made by Ryan Sparrow, a top Conservative Campaign official, to a father of a dead soldier.

CBC article about the same incident.

Conservative Candidate makes joke about listeria outbreak.

Leaders Travels

A great idea would be to create a map to use especially for tracking the travels of teh party leaders during the elections. It would be a good way to get some review of the layout of our country and the different provinces, along with following current events and learning some politics. You could make this as creative as you want. Design your own mini airplanes for each party, making it easily identifiable with the party, and park it at each place as you learn about the leader visiting that place. Create an individual mark of some kind for each party to leave on each place as they leave so that you have a permanent record of where they leaders have been.

Here I will link articles that I come across that talk about the leaders travels:

This article lays out the leaders travel plans for Thursday, September 11

This article includes information about the leaders travels on Friday, September 12

This article says that Layton and Harper will be in Newfoundland and Labrador on Saturday.

This article gives some information on leaders travels for Monday and also gives information on some issues.

Military Issues

One of the issues in this election is that of the Canadian military, especially as related to our role in Afganistan

In this article Taliban claims to increasing attacks on Canadians in attempt to influence elections

In this article party leaders react to Taliban claims.

In this article Harper commits to to a 2011 end date to the Afganistan mission.

Provincial Candidates

Here I will collect links about the candidates that are running in our province.

This post announces that Ryan Cleary will run for the NDP in the St. John's South riding.


This post announces Craig Wescott running as Conservative candidate in St. John's east and Merv Wiseman running as Conservative candidate in St. John's south.

This Western Star Article announces candidates in St. John's East riding - Craig Wescott for the Conservatives, Walter Noel for the Liberals, and possibly Jack Harris for the NDP

This Western Star article talks about the candidates for the Random riding - Liberal Judy Foote, Conservative Herb Davis, and NDP Terry White.

This Western Star article confirms Jack Harris running for NDP in St. John's East

This article points out how Westcott and Cleary have in the past publicly ridiculed the very parties and leaders they are now running for.

In this article Jack Layton laughs off Cleary's former remarks about him and his party.

This article is mainly about Cleary running for the NDP but it also mentions other candidates.

This Western Star article announces conservatives have candidates in 5 of the 7 ridings. Craig wescott in St. John's East, Merv Wiseman in St. John's South, Fabian Manning in Avalon, Herb Davis in Random, Andrew House in Bonavista.

In this Western Star article Gerry Byrne talks about his plans.

This Western Star article introduces Lacey Lewsis as the conservative candidate for Labrador.

This Western Star article announces Mark Kennedy as NDP candidate in Humber riding.

This Western Star article announces the candidates in humber riding - Liberal Gerry Byrne, Conservative Lorne Robinson, NDP Mark Kennedy, and Wayne Bennett for the Newfoundland First Party

In this article Fabian Manning says he expects to win, but some voters tell why they won't vote for him.

Labrador not happy that candidates running in their area are not from their area.

Reminder and update

DD learned a lesson today. She had used one site for information in making her poster about the candidates in the different ridings in our province. When my dad was visiting today he noticed that some of the info wasn't right. Turns out that the site we were using has some information from the last election posted and haven't updated it for this election. It was a well needed reminder for us to not just depend on one source for your information but to be sure to use more than one source and be sure your sources are reliable.

Also, I got a call from the Student Vote people today. Their program is available for homeschoolers so be sure to check out their website and register.

Williams' "ABC" Campaign

This is a topic that is of specific interest to us Newfoundlanders.

Newfoundland and Labrador's Premier Danny Williams thinks that Prime Minister Stephen Harper backed out of a promise he made to Newfoundlanders during the last election. The promise had something to do with the issue of equalization. As a result, Primier Danny Williams, though he is Conserative, has launched an "Anything But Conservative" Campaign and has said he will do his part to see that Newfoundland and Labrador has no conservatives elected in the upcoming federal elections. For the most part I really like our premier but his thinking in this matter baffles me. Maybe I'll understand it better once I research it, or maybe I'll just be all the more baffled, we'll see.

In this post I will be collecting links that have to do with Premier Williams' and his ABC Campaign.

I only have a rough idea of what the whole "equalization" thing is all about so I need to learn more about that. As I get time I will try to find links that will help with that and the equalization issue may end up becoming a separate topic but for right now I will deal with it here.

This article tells about Williams email to MHAs seeking support for his ABC Campaign.

This article states that only one of the MHAs, Elizabeth Marshall, has said she does not support the campaign

This article says that the ABC campaign is making it difficult to find candidates and volunteers for the Conservatives in Newfoundland and Labrador.

In this article St. John's East Conservative candidate, Craig Westcott, explains his argument against Williams' campaign.

In this article Craig Westcott and Merv Wiseman, another Conservative candidate, speak to the equalization issue.


This article tells about Premier Williams sending a letter to each of the main party leaders detailing specific questions to answer.

Here you can get pdf's of the actual letters.

This article tells about Danny Williams attacking Stephen Harper in a speech. I have debated whether I should just leave this as links to articles with no comment about them but I just can't resist with this one. Danny Williams complaining about Stephen Harper's cuts sounds a little like the pot calling the kettle black. Many Newfoundlanders are upset at the way that Danny has been running things in Newfoundland and Labrador. He has done many things that he deemed necessary for our province, even though they may not have been popular. I think Stephen Harper has done the same thing in running things in our country. Also, it seems crazy for a member of the Conservative party to say that "the future of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians — and indeed all Canadians — will be very bleak under a Conservative majority". It just doesn't make any sense!

In this article Danny Williams says he may take his ABC campaign to other provinces.

This Western Star article talks about local MHAs support of the ABC Campaign.

This article talks about the media emailing MHAs about stand on ABC campaign.

This article talks about the cost of the ABC campaign.

This article talks about Danny Williams increasing his attacks.

In this article Harper addresses Williams ABC campaign.

Article talking about Conservatives helping other parties.

Williams has a website for his ABC campaign.

Williams takes ABC campaing to Manning riding.

The Leaders Debate

The Leaders Debate is a televised debate between the leaders of the main political parties.

There has been a big fuss about who should be participating in the televised leaders debate during this election. Here I will collect articles about the leader's debate in general and articles about the debate. If you have any link you think I might be interested in adding, please leave a comment.

In this article the Green Party threatens to go to court if they are excluded.

This article reveals that the networks have ruled that Green Party will not be a part of the debate.

In this article Green Party Leader, Elizabeth May, accuses Harper and Layton of threatening to boycott the debate is she was a part of it.

This site was posted by the green party about the issue.

This article announces that the networks have changed their minds and the Green party leader will be a part of the debate.

A Toronto Start Editorial about the debate about the debate.

Information about the debates to be aired October 1 and 2.

This is ridiculous!

According to this news article, Elton John is playing back to back concerts in St. John's on October 2nd and 3rd, but rather than stay in St. John's over night he is flying back to Halifax after his concert the first night and flying back again for the concert the next night!

I am not a concert attender at all. I hate crowds. I also hate overly loud music, except on very, very rare occasions for very brief moments, like when DD and I occasionally bomb down the road singing at the top of our lungs to our favorite songs. I also don't understand the outrageous costs ($112.50 each!) for tickets to these concerts. I could find a lot of other uses for the money. But to each his own.

I am also not a big Elton John fan. Actually, I'm not an anybody fan. It's not that I don't like Elton John's songs or music. I do like some of it, but I like a variety of music at different times depending on my mood. After reading this, however, I am even less of an Elton John fan.

I take it as a bit of a snub that he isn't staying overnight in our province. It just doesn't make any sense to me! Maybe there is a logical reason, but I sure don't see it. All I see is a snob that thinks he's above staying in what he considers a lesser place. I could be wrong, but that's what I see. I'd love to know the reasoning behind the decision.

Thoughts anyone?

It's Federal Election Time!

I love to use current events as a jumping off point for our learning. This morning DD and I brainstormed about how we could do that very thing with the upcoming election.

She came up with some very basic questions to start with - why is there an election? what are the different levels of government and what are their responsibilities? We discussed this some and discussed how we could do more research into these questions and the different ways we could present our findings. She's thinking about doing a "Politics" lapbook.

I had already done a little research for possible resources last night and found a site called Nodice.ca, "an independent website which contains educational resources and links for Canadian teachers and students, and information about federal, provincial and territorial elections in Canada." This looks like a really great resource that I hope to use in the future, as well as during the current federal election.

DD and I perused the Canada Federal Election 2008 portion of the site after our brainstorm session and had a great discussion time. Our perusual promoted more ideas. She plans to contruct our own Count Down to Election Day poster to keep it fresh in our minds and to get all of us talking about it. She's also planning on making a poster of the ridings in our area and filling in the candidates running for the different parties in each riding as we learn about them. She may also make a little mini booklet about the party leaders.

I was thrilled with how she jumped right into the topic and actually seemed to enjoy it. She reminded me that during an election a few years ago she had set up a voting booth in our house and everyone had to cast their vote for the local candidates. I had forgotten all about that. Then I told her about the Students Vote Organization I learned about through the NoDice site. I don't know if the program is open to homeschoolers or not but it would be a neat thing for homeschool groups to take advantage of if it is.

This lead to a discussion about the voting age limit, which lead to a discussion of the history of the right to vote, which is most likely going to lead to more research and project possibilities.

So, we're off and running! Are you doing anything to incorporate the election into your learning? I'd love to hear about it if you are.


Edit: Just found some more great resource sites!

Link to Learning is a site "Linking you to web sites supporting the Ontario curriculum." Although it states it is specifically for Ontario Curriculum it can be a great resource to any homeschool. This resource is not specifically for the election but I found this work sheet, about the different levels of government and their responsibilites, from the site. In reality there is nothing fancy about this worksheet and you could quite easily just make your own without printing it off.

Government in Canada is the site you are supposed to use to fill in the worksheet. It has great information about the different levels of government and their responsibilities.

Canadainfo is the main site where the page above is found and it is another great resource, not just for the election.

Election 2008 is a specific section of this site for the upcoming election. It looks like it will be a great resource. It answers DD's question about the timing of the election, among other things.

I'm trying to decide if I should just added resources to this post as I find them, or make a new separate post each time I find new resources, or if I should make a special section in the sidebar for the resources I'm finding. Any thoughts on that?


EDIT: I have decided that rather than add to this post I will be making new posts about specific election issues. You can find all thet posts about the 2008 federal election by clicking on the federal election 2008 label at the bottom of this post.


EDIT: Just a reminder to be sure to check the validity of facts and statistics and not to rely on just one source of information. DD and I have discovered that the Nodice site information is not correct for your province, at least as of September 11. Also, the Students Vote program is available for homeschoolers so go register!

revised and published in the October issue of Homeschooling Horizons Magazine and also published on Homeschooling Horizons website

The drive to be number one

Debbie makes some great points in her recent post titled "One week in town and ranting all ready...". This particular quote is very thought provoking:

"I read somewhere online the other day that over 80% of parents encourage their kids to be at the top of their class!!! Over 80%!!! Now I know it's been awhile since I have sat in math class, but it doesn't take a genious to know that 80% of all kids will not be at the top of the class. So what about all those kids who fall short?? How do they feel when they know their parents want them to be number 1, or at least number 2 or 3, in their class, but they just can't do it?"

There's nothing wrong with encourging our children to be the best they can be, but there is something wrong in expecting them, and passing that expectation on to them, to be "the best" at whatever they are involved in. Failure is inevitable if that is their expectation because nobody is best at everything. We need to encourage our children to compare themselves to themselves, and steadily work at improving themselves, rather than compare themselves to others and try to surpass them. Big difference.

Comments lead me to great site

Just yesterday Julie commented on a post I made a while back. This lead me to check out her site. What a great find!

Homeschooling Ideas is where Julie, an experienced home educating mom of 6 years living in the UK, collects homeschool ideas to share. Lots of great stuff here!

Happy Anniversary to Me!

21 years ago to day was my wedding day.



It hasn't always been easy or fun, but we're still together today.

Author Fiesta - September's Author: Jim Arnosky

Thanks to Alex's latest post, I just discovered Author Fiesta. I had actually seen the term, and read blogs posts on the topic, before but I didn't know what it was all about. This time I took the time to find out.

Though I searched the Author Fiesta website for an explantion of what it was all about I really couldn't find anything except by going back to the first post on the blog. It appears the blog owner features a different children's author and/or illustrator to feature each month and sometimes provides links to information and activities around the theme.

I've decided to use this to guide some of my reading choices with Little One.

September's Author/illustrator is Jim Arnosky. I never heard of this author before but I'm off to see what I can learn.

The Complexity of Teens

Just read Barb's latest post on the Handbook of Nature Study blog and these words stood out to me:

But this time I noticed a different atmosphere, a feeling of "we've been here and done that" sort of attitude. I had to quickly remind myself that this is their normal reaction anymore to just about everything. I think they are not interested in something because they don't appear to be too excited on the outside. But later on in the day when they are talking to their dad, they relate a the whole experience in a different light. Apparently the outside of a teenager doesn't accurately reflect the inside at all times.

So if you have older children and they appear to not be interested at first, don't give up. It may be that they just aren't showing it outwardly but inside the experiences are deeply affecting them.

It is so true! Oh how I ached when my boys no longer showed excitement for the things we were doing. I got so upset because they weren't interested and I gave up doing a lot of great things. I wish I had had the wisdom of Barb in realizing that this is just the teenage way and that often their outside doesn't rightly reflect their inside. It is so, so, true! I saw that so many times. I wish I had remembered it more and continued with more.

I see the same thing now in my oldest daughter. Hopefully I will remember that just because she looks bored out of her skull does not really mean that she is. She's just growing up and changing. Its sad, but sweet.

And to think that I get to go through this again a few years time with Little One! Oh my! I wonder will I finally remember it then.

WiiFit Fun!

My sister brought her WiiFit out for us to try this weekend. What fun! I ache today because of it but I really love it. My parents, sister, and I all got together and bought the Wii system for the kids for Christmas and we really enjoy that, but now I want the WiiFit too. I'm not thrilled that it tells me I'm obese, but I really already knew that so it wasn't any big surprise. I think I could actually do something about it if I had the WiiFit to make the exercise fun. Here are some pictures I took of the family enjoying it this past weekend:

Here's DS #1 trying out the ski jump with DD#1 watching.


Here's DH doing the Heading the Soccer ball while holding Little One in his arms. Once again DD#1 is watching.


I have a really great video of DH doing one of the exercises but he's threatened me that if I post it I will lose all internet privileges, as well as my new camera, so I think I'll keep that to myself.

I wish I had a picture of Little One giving it a try. She loved doing the ski jump and the slalom. I also wish I had a picture of DD#1 doing more than watching, but she didn't do it when I was in picture taking mode.

I managed to get all the way across the tight rope walk! I was useless with the tree yoga pose, but I did pretty good with the rest of it. My calves and thighs are aching today from doing the lunges. It really is great fun, though. Thanks, sis, for letting us try it!

I have a camera!

My parents gave me a camera for my anniversary, which isn't until this coming Friday but Mom couldn't wait to give it to me. I'm so excited! I have been going crazy without a camera, but it just wasn't in the budget to replace the one I lost. I've been warned that I am to guard this one with my life. :)

We were at my parents cabin today so I had to try out my new camera. Here's a picture I took today of my parents with my children.

Lots of Fun Freebies!

Homeschool Freebie of the Day is having an End of Summer Bash. Hurry over and check it out! All kinds of excitement right until Monday sometime. One fun thing is the Treasure Hunt Time where you have to search through their past posts for the chance to download a previous freebie again, just in case you missed it the first time. Check it out!

Homeschool Memoirs: Agendas

The Homeschool Memoirs theme for this past week is "Homeschool Agendas". We were asked to share our 2008-09 School Plan. I've been avoiding doing this one because, to be perfectly honest, we're still working on our plan, and we probably will be for quite some time. In the past I have started the school year with plans all laid out for the whole year and then been terribly frustrated when they haven't unfolded as I planned, so I have become much more relaxed - maybe too relaxed.

The past few weeks I have been trying to make a conscious effort to jot down possibilities for the coming year. I only have one formal student this year - DD#1, who is almost 16 and if she were in school would be going into grade 11. For the past couple of years I have been encouraging her to become more involved in the planning process because it is her education and I think it is important that she own it. I am here to mentor her and help in any way I can but it's no good for me to come up with all kinds of plans without her input. We've done that in the past and it just doesn't work. We've been discussing this off and on this month and we will be getting much more serious about it in the coming week. We have a general plan of sort that we will be using to guide us to make a more concrete plan.

My plan is that we will be sitting down this coming week and writing out some goals for the year, looking at what subjects we need to cover, what subjects we want to cover, what texts and resources are available and appealing, and discussing how to reach our goals. I'd like us to break down the big goals into monthly and weekly goals and have regular meetings at the beginning of each week to plan for the coming week and at the end of each week to evaluate how we did and what needs to happen next.

We take advantage of a whole lot of resources but we are not slaves to any of them. We have Saxon Math, but we also use lots of online sites. We have an Apologia Science, but we also use online sites and the library. The library has always been our main source for language arts, and it will continue to be so, along with many online sites and old texts that I have on hand.

DD has a great interest in music and has taken voice lessons and taught herself to play guitar and is working on piano and violin. She will continue with this and I'm also hoping to interest her in some music history.

History is not something we've done much with but it's something I hope to do more of this year. I'm hoping to integrate it into the other subjects as much as possible.

Current events have also aways played an important part in our schooling. Watching the news and reading the paper and discussing the happenings are a given. We often use these as jumps of points for further study.

So, as you can see, I have a lot of ideas, but no definite plans in place yet. We will take it one day at a time.

A verse that is important to me in this area is "Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12

Homeschool Memoirs #1 - All About You

It kind of feels like the first day of school at the Homeschool Memoirs meme and we're being encouraged to introduce ourselves, as the first theme is "All About You". Here goes...

Hi! My name is Jacqueline, not Jackie, but you're welcome to call me Jac if you must shorten it. :) I was named after my Aunt Jackie and it was always emphasized that she was Jackie and I was Jacqueline. I always introduce myself as Jacqueline and I still cringe when anyone calls me Jackie. When I became a teenager some of my friends started calling me Jac and I didn't mind that so much. My DH and my sister call me Jac often. One time it caused some trouble for Sis as a boyfriend got kind of upset about hearing her talk so much about Jac. ;)

DH and I will be celebrating our 21st anniversary in a few days time. Well, I should say our anniversary is coming up again but it will probably pass by yet again without too much celebration. DH is just not one for remembering or celebrating special days. Romance is not one of his strengths. He's a good guy, though, and a hard worker. He holds down a full time job and does lots, and lots of volunteer work. He's been going through a pretty tough time lately as his dad as been fighting cancer so I will be much more understanding this year than I have been in the past. ;)

When DH and I married I was a teacher in the public school system and I loved my job, however, when the little ones came along I couldn't imagine leaving them with someone else to go back to it. DH and I talked about that before we married and I told him that I thought my place was with my children until they went to school, than I'd go back to teaching again. So that was the plan, until I discovered homeschooling.

Way back in February I wrote a post called Our Homeschool History (Part 1) but I never did get around to writing part 2. :) Maybe some day. Anyway, at that post you can read about our beginning homeschooling. We started homeschooling when DS#1 was 8, DS#2 was almost 7, and DD#1 was almost 4. They are now 20, almost 19, and almost 16, and we have a new Little One that is almost 3 (she was a big surprise :)). The oldest two have finished their home education and are working in the field of construction at the present time. DD#1 is my only formal student this year, though I'm sure Little One will join us as much as she can doing her own little thing. She thinks she's as old as the rest of them. ;0)

Whenever I'm asked why I homeschool I say it's because I love to teach, I love to learn, and I love spending time with my kids. It hasn't always been easy but I can't imagine life any other way.

I am a proud Newfoundlander and a proud Canadian. I've lived on the island portion of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador all my life, except for the 3 years I attended college in Ontario. I love connecting with homeschoolers, especially fellow Newfoundland or fellow Canadian homeschoolers. That's why I started the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival.

Well, I think that's enough about me for now. There's lots more I could tell you but I'll leave more for another time. I've struggled big time in writing this and I need to just finish it and post it so that I can get on to the next assignment. By the way, I am a terrible procrastinator and often leave things til the last minute so you may find that I'm often one of the last to post in the meme. My motto is better late than never. :)