Kids' CBC Wonder World

Kids' CBC Wonder World

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Homeschool Co-Op

I'm happy to announce that starting Friday October 16th we will be starting a homeschooling Co-Op. We will meet every Friday afternoon (except holidays) at 2pm, the length of time is yet to be determind but it will not go past 4pm. We have a location to meet at and when its not available we will do a feild trip our meet at a different location. We are hoping to have parents and other vollenteers to help teach classes each week. If you would like information or would like to be added to the contact email list you can email me at kitchen.ellie@gmail.com or leave a message on the guest book.
Some ideas for classes are fire prevention, science, wood working, music, art, operation Christmas child/who and where are the people we are helping( 3 lessons),
and much more. I would LOVE to get some more ideas for classes and feild trips.
This is a great oppurtunity for home educated families spend some time learning in a group setting and to give parents a break from teaching one day a week! This is not only a chance for the adults to share knowledge and skills with the kids but mabye you have a teenager who has something to share with a group of students. We are open for volenteers and ideas!

I Love U

I Love U

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The fall season

Fall is my favorite time of the year, its when the air gets crisp and the sun seems to shine brighter. The leaves on the trees turn into beautiful bright colors and everything looks new and fresh again. I love that my routine begins again and new activities start. I love picking the fresh fall fruits and veggies and going to the markets. It's also my favorite time of the year to do outdoor activities, there's nothing better then a cool sunny fall day spent out side to rejuvenate your soul! This is the season of my life for quality family time.
Some of the things we as a family like to do and extra fun for school in the fall are: Visiting farms, to pick apples, plums, pumpkins and grapes. We visit different markets and talk about the importance of buying local when ever possible. We will do a Unit study on farm life and talk about the important roles of each person, animal and different farm equipment used, this is a great time to visit a working farm . All ready this fall we did a study on ocean animals and did a shoreline clean up at our favorite beach, this opened up awareness of keeping shoreline creatures safe and cleaning up our fragile environment. I think our family eats better, feels better and plays better in the fall!

CBC Mainstreet interview

If you missed the series that Mainstreet ran called "Thinking Outside the Classroom" You can hear them again on the website but not for long.

www.cbc.ca/mainstreetns . The one I took part in is labeled" From the practical to the spiritual. We scan the province to get a sense of the variety of reasons people choose to homeschool. I'm the second person in the interview.

Thank you to the CBC for doing this week long series on Homeschooling.

First Day Back to School!

I am happy to report that today was a delightful first day back to school! I was organized, prepared and completed each subject in the time frame I had slotted . Sure we're starting a week later then public school but we don't have snow days and in services three times a month, so I think we're doing just fine. When my husband got home from work today and asked all the kids how school was the all yelled at the same time "Awesome", so I think today was a great start to a long year ahead.
I was thinking back to this time last year wondering if things went so well and yes the first day was great but things were pretty rocky a lot after that if I remember correctly.Being organized and not having a clear plan was my first hurtle. Once I sat down with my husband and talked to him about what was important for both of us to accomplish with the kids education that year things became to look up again. I listed the subjects and activities and made a schedule for each day.This was vital to keeping me on track.
The next hurtle I had to jump was dealing with teaching the two oldest and entertaining the two youngest. Sometimes I could coordinate naps with school but this sometimes met changing our daily start time from morning to afternoon (our two year old was not napping as much anymore).
I found this hard because even the best intentions to complete school in the afternoon sometimes ended up not even happening. This was a pattern all year and is a must to fix this year.The children and I both need the consistency that doing school the same time brings.
The third big thing that prevented us from being consistent last year was doing too many activities away from home. This is something I have to change even if it means we miss out on somethings that are important to us.
How am I going to learn from my mistakes and tackle all of these issues that plagued us last year?
A lot of prayer and guidance on the Lord because I can't do all of this alone, lots of great books by women who have been through it all before me and an amazing scheduling system.Thankfully I have Marlene from Homeschool and More ( located in Petitcodiac, NB) she is fantastic at directing me to useful and sometimes life changing resources. At my most recent visit to her store she highly recommended a book called Seasons of a Mothers Heart by Sally Clarkson and Managers of Their Homes A Practical Guide to Daily Scheduling for Christian Homeschool Families. Both of these books were life changing for me and are going to help me keep my focus and keep me organized this school year.
Best of luck to everyone this year and I'll keep you updated on my new direction and outlook for this year.

CBC Mainstreet Interview

I just got off the phone with Stephanie Dormet the host of CBC Mainstreet. We did a short interview regarding the reasons why We homeschool. Like every parent who chooses to home educate their children I had a long list of reasons we chose this route.They really focused on our religious reasons which is our most important reason for homeschooling. They were going to be asking the same question to many people to find out their different reasons and people from many different areas .
CBC Mainstreet is on 3pm-6pm and is found at 92.1 FM.
SEPT 3 - 11 Thinking Outside the Classroom