A saluate to my firefighters!

This week is Fire Safety Week. Earlier today I published a post about it on the Newfoundland and Labrador Homeschool Nations blog that I am co-ordinator for. In that post you will find all kinds of links to information and activities. Inspired by Fire Safety Week I decided to post a saluate to my own firefighters.

DH is the Fire Chief of our community's volunteer fire department. I searched through my pictures for a picture of him in his fire gear to post but I couldn't find one.

DS#1 has been a member of the volunteer fire department for almost three years. He couldn't wait to be old enough to join and he sent his application in the day of his 18th birthday. He loves the work and has actually decided that it is something he would like to do as a career.

Here are some shots of him in action:







Being on a volunteer fire department means that you are on call 24/7. They both have their pagers attached to them at all times during the day and the pagers are sitting on their night tables by their beds at night. The pager may go off at any time and if at all possible you are expected to respond ASAP. This is something that my men do quite willingly. Sometimes it's quite funny to watch them scrabble the second the pager starts buzzing.

I am proud of them for their willingness to give up their time to be an asset to our community. I am thankful for all the members of our volunteer fire department that do the same. They are a very important part of our community and today I want to send out a salute to them all.

Featured in the 25th edition of the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival

Prayers for the Stauffers

Juanita, a dear friend and fellow homeschooler, could use your prayers. Her 14 year old daughter, Emily, was attacked and killed while on a walk yesterday afternoon. Emily was a beautiful young lady inside and out. Her dad wrote a short blog post about it today.

Accept your self part 2

I found Celtic Mom's post through Mary's post, and what they were saying went along with the accepting yourself journey I've been on.

Celtic Mom talks about how we compare yourselves to others and end up with an "unjustified inferiority complex". She reminds us that we are all unique and each one of us is special in some way, but the sad thing is that we tend to focus on what we think is wrong with ourselves instead of on what is right. She challenges us to find pride and joy in being who we are, instead of wishing we were someone else.

That's not always easy, but it is important. We have to remember that God created each one of us unique and if we are busy trying to be someone else, then we are missing God's plan to be who He means for us to be. Instead of looking at others and trying to be like them we need to look at ourselves and be who we were meant to be.

I know all this, but I still couldn't bring myself to list 10 things I like about myself like Celtic Mom and Mary asked. I like the idea, but it's just too hard. Sorry. I am, however, working on seeing the positives, not the negatives, and even trying to realize that some of what I see as negatives may in fact be positives. I am meant to be me, not a carbon copy of someone else.

Accept yourself as you are

I seem to have struck a cord with many with my recent talk about how much I hate pictures of myself and how I'm trying to get over it. For many years now I have joked that I am alergic to cameras. I avoid them, at least the front of them, as much as I can. You would not believe how many paper pictures I have ripped up and how many digital pictures I have deleted over the years. Because of that, there are very few pictures of me, especially since I've been married and had kids.

Finding the scrapbooking hobby a few years ago made me realize how sad that is. According to pictures, I have pretty well been absent from our family's life for years. I can't go back and change the past, but I can change the future, and I've been trying to work on that, but I really haven't been that successful. I haven't been able to let go of the fact that I don't like pictures of myself. But I need to get over that. The importance of it was really driven home to me recently by this blog post, which was drawn to my attention the day after the writer of the post died, just a few days more than a month after she wrote the first post.

Earlier this month DD was getting ready to go out and looking like her beautiful self and I wanted to take a picture of her. She agreed on one condition, I had to get in the picture with her. Reluctantly I agreed. I hate me in the pictures. I almost deleted them right afterwards, but I kept them for her. I've never posted them anywhere but I am going to post them here as encouragement for you. Here are the pictures DD took that day:




Here are a couple of pictures I took of myself and Little One the day after I read the post I linked above:




And here's one I took of me. The great thing about a digital camera is that you can take lots and delete lots until you finally come up with one that is passable, if not totally acceptable. This was the best of the many that I took so you can imagine how bad the others were. ;)




I challenge you to do as the lady I linked to above said, "hand over the camera and get in those photos!", or have some fun taking some self photos of you with your kids, or even you alone. Don't let another day pass with your kids not having a picture of you, especially one of you with them. You may not like what you look like in the pictures, but it is the you that your kids love. Be brave - get in those pictures, and keep them, and post them even. Accept yourself as you are.

Tag, You're It

Janet tagged me, and while I often avoid a game of tag I'm in a strange mood this morning so I think I'll play for a bit. She also got to me by mentioning that she has Newfoundland connections. :)

Here are the rules.
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag sixish people at the end of your post.
5. Let each person know he or she has been tagged.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Now for Six Random things about me:
1. I'm a chocoholic, but I'm not a chocolate snob, just about any chocolate will do. :)
2. I would love to be bilingual. I loved French in highschool, but hated it in college. I think the best way to learn a language is to be surrounded by it. If I had a friend near by that was bilingual I'd make her talk to me in french all the time so that I could learn.
3. I sometimes joke that I am bilingual because my sister and I drive my mother and DH crazy speaking pig latin when we don't want them to know what we're talking about. We've kind of developed out own version of pig latin and can converse in it quite easily, while others that know pig latin have trouble following us.
4. My optometrist says I have the weirdest eyes he's ever seen. I'm near sighted in one and far sighted in the other and he declares that my eyes are older than me.
5. I have never dyed my hair, except for that one time when I tried a wash in wash out dye once as a joke. I wear my grey "sparkly" (as my DD calls them) strands with pride. I've earned them. :)
6. I had all 4 of my children by C-section and the last 2 are 13 years apart. I had the last one while in my 40s and had to endure a doctor advising me to consider terminating the pregnancy because of the dangers to both me and the child because of my age, inspite of my assuring him that I considered this child a gift from God, albeit a surprise gift, no matter what. Both Little One and I survived and are as normal as can be, well, that actually depends on who you talk to I guess. :)

Opps! I relly got carried away with this. I meant to keep it light and fun, but got a little serious in that last one. Oh well. There it is.

Now, I'm going to break one of the rules. I'm not going to tag 6 people. Instead I'm going to say if you read this, consider yourself tagged. Play if you want, don't if you don't. Let me know if you do decide to play because I'd love to come read about you.

Thanks for the fun, Janet!

Glassy Beach

This week some of the homeschooling families in our area got together for a hike to glassy beach. We were blessed with a beautiful day for it and we had a great time. Here are some of the children enjoying their adventure.



Glassy beach is a beach in a small cove in our community that is covered with bits of broken glass and pottery that have been rubbed smooth by the ocean and the elements. You can dig way, way, down and still find mostly the smooth bits of glass and pottery. It is really neat. It's a bit of a hike to get there and the beach is quite small, but it is well worth the visit. Here Little One and I are searching for treasures



We went there for the first time years ago and I was awed by it. It seems to me that there is not as much there now as there was then, probably because there have been a lot of visitors since then and many people have taken bits of the glass and pottery for souvenirs and to use in crafts. I have heard that the town was trying to institute a by-law restricting what people take from the beach in order to protect it as it is. I can understand that, but I can also understand people wanting to bring a little home. We didn't bother to bring any home, we brought home some great pictures instead. :)

Here are my two beautiful daughters. This is the only picture I took. The rest were taken by DD#1.



Little One looking out over the ocean.



My beautiful eldest daughter sitting on a rock looking over the ocean. She took this herself!



Me. DD insisted this one was a keeper so I was a good mommy and let her keep it. I'm really working on trying to let my children have more pictures of me because they are so few.



DD took lots of great scenery pictures too. Here's a sampling:

Wanna trade Candidate cards with us?

A few posts back I mentioned that DD and I were planning on making Election Candidates Trading Cards. Shortly after I posted that DD and I were chatting and we came up with what we think is a great idea. We thought it would be neat to actually trade Candidate cards with others. Read on to see if you're interested.

We have decided that our cards will be 3 1/2 x 2 1/4, the size of a normal playing card. On one side of the card we will have a picture of the candidate, something to indicate the party the candidate is running for, and the riding the candidate is running in. The other side of the card will have information about the candidate - name, age, and a short bio including information about family, work, education, political experience, etc. There really won't be room for a whole lot of information so we'll have to see what we can fit. We are hoping to get cards made representing each of the candidates in the seven ridings in Newfoundland and Labrador but we will definitely be making cards representing each of the candidates running in our riding.

Most likely the design of the cards will be done on the computer and then printed and front and back stuck on to cardstock to make the card. This would make it pretty easy to make as many cards as you wanted of the same kind. If we decide to make the cards without the computer somehow we could still scan the finished cards and make duplicates if needed.

If you decide to make cards representing the candidates in your area we would love to trade with you - you sending us a set of your cards and we sending you a set of ours. Anyone interested? Leave a comment to let us know

A whole new twist

Our election studies have taken a whole new twist. I found out that a friend decided to run as a candidate for our area and I offered to help with his campaign. I've never done anything like this before and it really gives you a whole new side to the election process. I didn't realize before all the work that goes into an election campaign!

Today DDs and I were busy putting together lawn signs.

DD was thrilled to get to use DH's chop saw to cut the posts for the signs.



She made fun of me when I struggled at first with using the power tool to screw the placards onto the posts, but I got the hang of it before too long.



She had a better understanding of how difficult it was at first when she finished cutting the posts and tried her hand at using the power tool, but she soon got the hang of it too.



Even Little One had a part to play. All on her own started taking the finished lawn signs and putting them up with the others.



It was a new learning experience for us all on all kinds of levels, and it was fun to all be working together.

First Homeschoolers Hike of the year!

Not this past Friday, but the Friday before, some of the homeschooling families in our area got together for our first hike of the year. We decided to try out the new boardwalk that has been built in one end of our town. It's not completely finished yet but what is finished is beautiful. We had a great day for the hike and we got some great pictures. In the one above you can see little one trotting off after the others thinking she's just as big as they are. In the picture below she is enjoying a cookie from a stash of homemade cookies that one of the moms brought. They were yummy!





I took a group picture of all the children but I won't post it because I'm not sure how everyone feels about having their pictures posted on the web. Some of the older children weren't too pleased about posing for the pictures but it turned out really nice.

Here's my oldest dd clipped from the group picture:



And here's little one, my youngest dd, clipped from the group picture:



I even got DD#1 to take a picture of little one and I on the hike. Pictures of me are rare because I always try to hide from the camera but I'm realizing how silly that is and how important it is that my children have pictures of me with them as they are growing up, so I'm trying to be better about getting some taken.



The pictures below are beautiful scenery pictures DD#1 took while we were on the hike. She has a real eye for taking great pictures. She actually took all the pictures on the hike, except for the group pictures that she was in.





It was a great first hike and I'm looking forward to others throughout the year.

Election Candidates Trading Cards :)

Inspired by part of Renee's post today, DD and I have decided that the next project for her political studies will be to make player/trading cards for the candidates that are running in our province in this election. The front will be a picture of the candidate and the back will have information about the candidate. We will probably include something on the front to indicate the party the candidate is running for. We're pretty excited about this idea! It will be something neat to add to her election 2008 lapbook. I'll post pictures when we actually get some done, which will probably be a while as we gather information and work on a design.

Who knew elections could be so fun!?! :)

Another homeschooler watching election happenings

I've been watching Becky's blog for a while now. She often gives me food for thought. I kind of thought she would be having something to say about the federal elections. While I may not always agree with what she says, I like hearing what she has to say because she causes me to think. If she's okay with her, this is where I will link her posts on the election.

Cracking up II

Coming back with their marbles

On the shoulders of...

Opportunities and opportunism

Highs and lows on the Canadian Campaign Trail

A pause for what is truly important

Once again Ann causes me to stop and consider what is really important. I have been so caught up in so much. My blog has been overtaken by election posts as I try to encourage learning along those lines. It, too, is important, but I must not forget what is truly most important.

In Ann's post today, titled A Place for Everything..., she tells us, as only Ann can, about her prayer bench. It's simple, yet extraordinary. I love it. I want one like it. I love how she's thought it all out and made sure that it serves the purpose it is set to serve - to make prayer a visable, vital part of the every day, every moment.

Thank you, Ann, for the reminder to pause and consider what is truly important.

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. :)

Looking for Ideas on what to Blog About?

I've come across a couple of great sources of inspiration for homeschooling bloggers, especially Christian homeschool bloggers.

Blogger Friend School is a new website for an idea that's actually been around for a couple of years. They are actually having a Back to School Giveaway to celebrate their third year together. The Blogger Friend School of 2008-2009 starts September 2 and goes to June 9, 2009, but you can actually join in any time. Every Tuesday assignments will be posted. The site states "Our homework assignments will be BIBLE BASED with the purpose of uplifting one another and strengthening our faith." On the class description page you can read about the chance to be named Head of the Class and to receive perfect attendance awards. Sounds like a lot of fun! I'm hoping to participate when I can throughout the year.

Homeschool Memoirs 2008-2009 is a part of The Homeschool Blog Awards. On the Homeschool Memoirs 2008-2009 page it says that the purpose is to help you keep a "memoir" of your homeschool year and also for homeschoolers to get to know one another. Each Wednesday they will be posting a theme. The first theme was posted August 20th and was "All About You" and at the time that I wrote this there had already been over 140 people sign the Mr. Linky for the theme. I'm going to try to remember to do that one in the next couple of days.

So, there you have it. If you're looking for ideas as to what to blog about you can check out the assignments at Blogger Friend School each Tuesday and the themes at Homeschool Memoirs each Wednesday.

More information on request for information

I received an email requesting more information about my request for input that I posted here. I thought it would be a good idea to answer those questions here because other people may have the same questions.

Who is the research for?
The research is for an article for a Canadian Homeschooling magazine.

Where will the info/results be posted/shared?
The information will be used in the article in the magazine.

Why?
It was a request from one of the readers to have an article comparing homeschooling regulations and funding in the different provinces.

Are there others working on this?
I am gathering the information and, with help from an editor, will be putting the information together for the article.

Are the info providers anonymous or listed?
I would not mention any names in the article without prior approval from the people involved. That's always been my policy with the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival that I run and with any work that I have done on articles for the Homeschooling Horizons Magazine, and it will always be my policy with anything that I do at any time for any reason. Any time I use someone's name, and/or any information they provide, I send them what I have written about them, or using their information, and receive their approval of what I have written.

I hope that answers some questions you might have. If you have any other questions feel free to leave a comment or send me an email.

Jacqueline

Homeschooling in Canada?

I have been asked to do some research for an article on homeschooling regulations, re. funding, reporting, etc., in the provinces. I thought it would be good to get some information from people with first hand knowledge and experience about such things.

I would love to hear from you as to what your experience has been in whatever provinces you have homeschooled in. You can email me about it and/or write a blog post about it and let me know where to find it by leaving a comment here. I'd be delighted with either form of communication.

You can pass this information on to anyone that you think might be interested in helping provide information.

Hope to hear from you soon!

EDIT: I answered questions about this request in this post here.

Love these ideas!

The Charlotte Mason Carnival hosted a Back to School Planning Bash. I love this idea! Lots of great links to check out there. Learned about this from our very own Canadian homeschooler Mamma Squirrel.

The Homeschool Blog Awards is hosting a Homeschool Memoirs 2008-2009 Meme. Another great idea! I learned about this from another of our own Canadian homeschoolers - Michelle.

Hmmmm....I wonder could I do something with these ideas for the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival?

Essential Ingredients to Homeschool Success

Just read a post by Terri at Knowledge Quest where she shares 5 Essential Ingredients to Homeschooling Success. Go read her post because it is great and she says much more than I'm going to highlight here.

After reading her post I decided to list the ingredients and share how I feel we're doing in each one:

1. "the desire to foster a closer relationship with each of your children and your kids with one another."

This has always been very, very important to me, and in spite of how important it has been, it hasn't been commpletely successful. We're going to have to discuss this one as a family and come up with some plans

2. "a teachable spirit on the part of the parent"

I have always loved to learn, but I have to admit that I'm not always teachable. Sometimes I'm too stubborn to admit that I need to learn something. I'm going to have to work on that one.

3. "creating a home environment that is conducive to learning"

Our home environment is pretty conducive to learning but there's definite room for improvement in that respect. I need to work on getting things in order to make it more conducive to learning. Part of that is that I need to be more organized and get rid of some clutter.

4. "2 hours of your time to devote to your children’s studies"

Need to work on this one too. I tend to get lost in the computer and I need to tame that monster. I've actually been working on that and doing better.

5. "a library card"

The library has always been very, very important in our schooling and we made regular visits - until last year. Need to get back on track with that one.

Having a Purpose and Specific Goals

Every since I read Jeannie Fulbright's post Homeschooling with Purpose some time last week I have been putting lots and lots of conscious thought into developing a purpose and goals for this coming year, and into getting it in writing. The gist of Jeannie's article was that you need to have specific prayed through goals for your children and then trust God because He had plans for those children before they were born and He intends to see them to fruition.

There seems to be two counter ideas there - planning goals and trusting God - but they are not really counter ideas and it is important to do both, and to do both together, not separately.

In the past I have planned and not really trusted, and I've also trusted and not really planned. Neither works on it's own and this time around I'm taking it slow but I'm also being purposeful. I'm spending much time jotting down my thoughts and praying over them and I'm gradually working towards developing a plan. I've talked to DD#1, who is my only official homeschooler this year, about what I am doing and have asked for her to join me in the praying and the planning. I've been planning on talking to DH about it but haven't done that yet. Finding time to talk to him is so hard but I have to make it a priority in the next day or so.

A long time ago and friend of mine told me how important it was to develop a philosophy of education for your homeschool and to have it written down. I think I'm finally getting around to doing that and it feels good.

Guiding, not pushing

Once again I am inspired by Ann's words at Holy Experience. Today she reflects on the coming school year and is inspired by words she over hears her mother speak to her children while showing them how to use a sewing machine, and it reminds her of a scripture that says the same thing. Gently guide, don't push. She gives us practical examples from her day. I hope I remember that that is How to Parent: Just Guide Gently.

Napier's Bones - Multiplying with Wood

Ever heard of Napier's bones before? I didn't, until I read Farm School's lastest post just now. This site gives a really good explanation of what they are and how they work, while this site tells you how to make your own neat set out of wood.

Lamenting vs grumbling

I am often moved by the posts at Holy Experience, and such was the case with today's post, Even when He doesn't: Learn to Lament. I have admired Ann's writing for a while now, and now I also admire their commitment to hold fast to their faith, even when it is difficult.

This statement stood out to me today "Lord, remind me today to voice my lament not as disgruntled frustration, but as longing, the language of the heart." I am so guilty of grumbling, and grumbling, and grumbling....and I excuse it by saying that God wants me to be honest with Him, and I may as well be because He knows my heart anyway. I need to learn to lament - to be honest, but not be grumbling. There's a difference. It's a difference of attitude, and of true faith. It's hard though. But I know through experience that it makes a difference. Why do I keep forgetting it? Thank you for the reminder again today, Ann. I needed it.

Fun Science Learning Downloadables

Thanks to Dawn's post which provided me with the link, I just spent a good chunk of time at Ellen McHenry's Basement Workshop. Be sure to check out the Free Products to Download on the left hand side. It provides you with links to all kinds of fun hands on activities.

A squatty potty!

Thanks to Molytail, I had didn't miss One Child Policy's post about The Squatty Potty.
I had actually heard about the squatty potty recently from a friend who has a brother on a teaching stint in Asia somewhere, so when I read the blog post this morning it wasn't a totally foreign concept to me, and after reading the post I can definitely see advantages to these types of toilets.

Nothing bugs me more than going into a public washroom, or any washroom, and seeing the toilet seat covered with pee. What really bugs me about it is that it probably happened because the person didn't want to sit on a seat supposedly covered with someone else's invisible germs but yet has no problem leaving full evidence of germs all over the seat for someone else to either sit in or have to wipe up. Gross! The squatty toilet would elminate that problem.

I have a cousin that recently did a teaching stint in China. I can't wait to ask her about these.

Anyway, this is a very different post from me but I just had to share it with the ones I love. The next toilet that goes in my place may just be a squatty potty. :)

Routines

Lifestyle Homeschool has a couple of excellent posts today on routines. Establishing Daily Routines talks about what a routine is and why it is important. Writing a Daily Routine outlines som very practical steps and tips to writing a routine. This is something I have done in the past and it was very, very helpful. I need to go back to it again and I just love the simple steps she's given to doing it. Looks like there's more coming to this series too so keep an eye out for it.

Two Kinds of Writing

Jeannie Fulbright makes some more good points in her blog post today, Academic Writing vs Creative Writing. It's definitely worth taking the time to check out. And she's promising more to come on the subject.

Good points...

...made in today's post by Jeannie Fulbright. I just wanted to put it here so I wouldn't forget about it. Here's a quote from it - "Anytime we make decisions based on fear of failure, fear of inadequacy or based on our emotions, rather than a strong peace from God - we are may be falling onto a trail that is dark and much more difficult to traverse - and it often leads us where we didn't want to go."

A couple of things...

...that caught my eye in my google reader today.

From Homeschool Nations Nova Scotia blog - Nova Scotia homeschoolers hold an annual end of summer "Not Going Back to School Camping trip". And they even have a facebook group. how cool is that!


From Stellae Boreales blog - The Stellae Boreales, an advanced performance group from SuzukiMusic in Ottawa, have arrived safely in China. You can follow their tour through their blog. I happen to know that there are some homeschoolers in the group. :)

A day of remembrances and celebrations

July 1st - Canada Day. A day to celebrate our country and the freedoms we enjoy. It has always bothered me how little the activities that I've seen at Canada Day celebrations actually have to do with what the day is supposed to be about. I'd love to see activities that teach, or review Canadian history, geography, politics, etc. There's no reason why that couldn't be incorporated in the games that are a part of most celebrations. Even the decorations could help in that respect, with a little bit of forethought. It seems, however, that people are content just to party. Oh well.

Mind you, with all that's happening in our country lately it seems our freedoms are slowly slipping away from us and we have less and less to celebrate in that regard. I'm still thankful for the freedoms that we do have, but I'm also sad for some that I see slipping away.

A few years back, while studying with my son the book No Man's Land, by Kevin Major, I discovered that there are a lot of Newfoundlanders that actually struggle with celebrating Canada Day on July 1st. July 1st to them is Memorial Day - the day they remember the terrible battle at Beaumont Hamel when the Royal Newfoundland Regiment was nearly wiped out. Kevin Major's book is an amazing read about that battle.

Many communities in Newfoundland start the day, July 1st, with Memorial services and end the day with the Canada Day celebrations. It's a day with a mixture of remembrance, mourning, and celebration.

Maps of War - great resource for Social Studies

I love this site! - Maps of War I almost didn't check it out because the name didn't appeal to me, but luckily the blog where I discovered it had a map from the site embedded into their blog so I actually saw how neat it was. What made me love it even more is when I read their Sharing Policy. They actually want you to copy, paste, and share their maps, as long as you link back to them.

Here are my favorite from the site:











I can so see using these maps as a base for unit studies. I want to incorporate at least one, if not more, of them into my plans for next year. I will show DD the map and then we will dissect it bit by bit and do more research inspired by the map bits.

Thanks to Phyllis for posting about it!

Gardening

Cloudsome hosts a Sunday Garden Tour on her blog every Sunday during the summer. This year she explained the tour and started it in May. I love the idea! I discovered it thanks to Becky at Farm School. Today Becky posted pictures of her blooming lilacs and I'm so jealous! I love lilacs but every time I've tried to grow one my DH has mowed it down. I'm thinking maybe he doesn't like lilacs. :)

I'm a gardener wanna-be. I've been one for years. You'd think I would have learned something by now but I'm still struggling. A few years back I wrote a gardening column, called Green Thumbs and Greenhorns, for our local newspaper hoping that I would learn something from other gardeners. It was fun and I did learn a lot. We even started a gardening club for a little while, but it dwindled out, much like my garden.

I even have a blog called Green Thumb Wanna be. I started it way back in 2004. It dwindled out too. Every spring I get the gardening bug and I think this will be the year, but it doesn't happen. Same thing happened this year. Back in February I had big plans, and they were good plans too. I was really looking forward to fulfilling the plans, but then life got in the way. I guess I should probably go back to that blog and explain what happened. Maybe it's not too late to do something with it.

I do have a small corner garden in my back yard where I have some lovely perenials donated by family and friends. They have managed to survive over the years. I was actually out weeding them a little yesterday and dreaming of doing more. I'd love to be able to take pictures of each of the plants that I have back there and make a little book about them, naming and describing their growth. Some day.

For now, however, I content myself with virtual garden strolls such as the one Cloudsome allows me to enjoy. Maybe some day I'll be able to participate rather than just watch. :)

Teachable Moments

Today little one and I had some fun making letters and shapes with hair clips. It wasn't a planned activity - it just happened.

She was sitting on my knee as I was checking my email. I had some hair clips on my desk. She started playing with them and I got the idea to make a letter A for her with them, as that is the first letter in her name. She was thrilled. Then I moved the clips and made a tringle, which she also liked, and she proceeded to ask me to make a square.

I was hoping she was going to attempt to make some of these things herself but she was more content to tell me what to make and watch me make it. We didn't stay at it long but that's okay. I'm sure we'll do it again soon and one day she will be making attempts to make things on her own and tell me what she made.

I love to look for teachable moments in the day. You don't have to have a big lesson plan or certain supplies. Learning can be a natural part of ordinary moments in the day.