Canadian Home Educator's Carnival

Jacqueline has created a new home for the Canadian Home Educator's Carnival - check it out. :-)

There is a current call for submissions to the third edition - if you're reading this and you're a fellow Canuck educating your kids at home, please consider making a submission to the carnival. Details are available on the blog. The deadline for submissions is May 2nd and the carnival will be posted on May 5th.

Happy clams

We've got our menfolk home. *grin*

The kids and I left at about 4pm on Wednesday and made really good time, hitting the airport in 3 hours --- funny how you can travel so much faster when you're driving a car that actually has get-up-and-go LOL ....They rented me a 2005 Nissan Altima - and yep, it's the newest car I've ever driven. Wow.


Ganeida, if you read this, remember that incredibly boring bridge?



There it is, boring as ever LOL....


Christopher was asleep within minutes of leaving town.....




Cindy wasn't though - she was waaaaay too excited! *grin*





Christopher did wake up a bit later though, and stayed awake the rest of the way, singing along with our tunes and commenting on what a "really looooong drive" it was.






This is what we were driving... :-)




Excited kids, waiting patiently at the airport - okay, not so patiently...the plane was 1/2 hour late getting in....







and.... they finally arrived! Cindy darn near knocked her father flat LOL -- the poor guys had been awake for 39 hours at this point!




Sooooo glad to have them home - even if it only until next friday...it's better than not at all!


I guess the drive they made overnight when their flight was canceled was pretty hairy - the highway was actually signed as "Travel Not Advised" and they didn't see a single other passenger car for most of the 7 hours until they got near Edmonton. Horrible Horrible driving conditions... A few 18-wheelers and some 4X4 trucks - some of which were in the ditch - but nobody else in a little car was crazy enough. ;-)

They called me when they got close to Edmonton and I hopped on google maps to get them directions to the airport - I knew it was on the other side of the city and wanted to find them a way around as opposed to through...found it and it worked fairly well for them. They caught the Edmonton flight to Toronto and then Toronto to Halifax and everything worked out well.

Norm did end up driving home - he said he felt awake enough and I made him promise to trade with me if he started feeling dopey - and it was about 12:45am when we pulled in to town....would have been later than that if I'd driven home, as along with being dark, it also rained and changed to freezing drizzle along the way.

Oh yes.. and they brought the snow with them. It's April 25th and my yard is completely white - it started last night! LOL ....it won't last, but Norm is not impressed - bikers don't like snow! ;-)

I'm just sooooooooooooooooo glad they're home. <3

Oh and guess what he brought me as a present? A new dvd player (ours sucked - it wouldn't play anything with even the tiniest scratch, and considering that I rent a lot of documentary stuff and whatnot from the library to use with Cindy, we've been frustrated)....and the first two seasons of Perfect Strangers on dvd! Yes, I'm stuck in the 80's. *grin*

Revisions...of course...

If there's one thing that can be said with certainty around here, it's that nothing is ever certain. ;-)

Revision - I'm renting a car and driving over with both kids, leaving in a couple of hours....Diane isn't feeling well, so she's not coming...This is new for me, I've never done a car rental before - didn't think I could because I don't have a credit card, but I found a place that will rent me one with a cash deposit, thankfully. This'll be kinda neat, actually - it's likely a new car - or new compared to what I'm used to driving LOL ......won't really cost much more than it would to drive our own in the long run.

I hope the guys get some sleep on the plane - they're boarding in Edmonton right now (I just spoke with them)...reason being, I'm all fine with highway driving in the daytime but I don't do the whole driving-in-the-dark very well and it'll be dark by the time we leave from there; one of them may have to do the drive home.

Nothing is ever simple around here, heh.

Note to self - make a cd! I can't stand driving without my tunes. *lalalala*

New plan

New plan.....

The guys are going to drive (tonight) from Fort McMurray to Edmonton (I think it's about a six hour drive for them, maybe more?) because there's a flight from Edmonton that leaves sometime in the morning and gets into Halifax (Nova Scotia) at 7:35pm tomorrow night.....that's their 'nutty' part....

Ours is that Diane and I have to figure out how we're gonna go fetch them from Halifax - it's about a 4 hour (each way) drive from here (as opposed to the 45min that it would have been to get them on the original flight) ....thing is, both of our cars are having problems right now - the station wagon I have isn't okay for highway driving, and hers died a couple times on the person she left it with while she was away this past week. With neither of them being reliable for off island long highway driving, we need to find someone who will lend us a car....Possibly her aunt, she said....the aunt has some kind of big SUV thing or something....

But, even the big SUV thing only sits 5 people -- so, if we borrow that it means that I have to find someone to watch Cindy.... can't fit the 2 guys plus us 2 girls plus 2 kids in it...Cindy will have to stay at my mom's or Blair's mom's or somewhere until we get the guys home. She won't be happy about it, but it's really the only option no matter what vehicle we take because nothing anyone has seats six, and nobody can watch Christopher. (Well, not many - the two who can are Diane and Norman!)

We'll have to sort it out tomorrow... it's after 1am here, ack. I'm soooo tired...but sooooo glad that they found that flight out of Edmonton...now, let's just hope Norman's car makes the drive to Edmonton okay for them...it's not exactly a new car...

ZZZZZZZZZZZZ. sleep.

...

We *thought* everything was okay - they got checked in and everything - and.. the flight got canceled. "Icy runways" . Outgoing planes can't take off, incoming planes were sent back to where they'd come from.

He called and said all they were told was basically that the flight was canceled and that they had to call some phone # and re-book for another day. Apparently the airline doesn't even put them on another flight? They have to start all over and re-book it all? I don't understand that - I thought that if a flight was canceled, you get moved to the next available one? They only have a certain amount of time off!

They were already *there*. I'd gone to bed, last I'd spoke with them they were all checked in and ready to go, we thought things were fine...then the phone woke me up.

This sucks.

RAWR

Blair and Norman are supposed to be leaving on an 8pm flight out of Fort McMurray tonight to come home for a visit --- and of course, on April 23rd, it's snow storming there.



Short of sending an army of those guys their way, all we can do is wait and see if their flight gets off the ground tonight. (It's an overnight flight, bit of a roundabout way of doing it, but cheaper than the daytime flights)

THINK HOT THOUGHTS!




*******************


While I'm on the subject of the guys and Fort McMurray - have you ever seen a truck as large as this??? (Open it in a new tab for the full effect - it's a really big photo of a really big truck)




Man, I would LOVE to try driving one of those things. Forward anyway. I don't do backwards very well on my own two feet, nevermind in a towering beast like that.

Canadian Carnival of Home Educators

Go visit Jacqueline to see the second edition of the new Carnival of Canadian Home Educators. (The first one can also be read there.)

Thank you to Jacqueline for starting this up! New things are sometimes a bit tough to get off the ground, but I suspect that, given a chance, this will grow into something much larger than it is right now. Just a funny feeling, y'know? :-)

The Poison Thing that Lives in a Shell...

Not long ago, Cindy and I watched a show that we'd recorded from the National Geographic Channel called "Australia's Deadly Dozen" -- Miss Cinders loves her animals and she's also a bit fascinated with Australia itself, so I suspected she would like this show...and sure enough, it was a hit.

I showed her a clip I came across on Youtube - the person who put this together used a song done by a comedy duo known as the Scared Little Weird Guys and a bunch of clips that went along well... and she's been singing this constantly for days now. It's stuck in MY head! :-P




** I think my Aussie friends know me well enough to understand that we're laughing at the song, not at your country! Yes yes? Good then! *grin*

Charlotte Mason Carnival

For anyone interested - there's a Charlotte Mason Blog Carnival up at In the Sparrow's Nest. :-)

Missing photos from before..

Here's her finished little drawstring bag. :-)


Laid out flat....






With the drawstring pulled....





I said it was for books or stuffed animals or such, didn't I...Max has other ideas!

First Sewing Project

Miss Cinders has been bitten by the sewing bug. This is fantastic - it's a wonderful skill to learn......Thing is, I can't sew beyond some very VERY basic stuff. Like the drawstring bag that she wanted to make - it worked well because I *did* know what to do....but now she wants to make a dress! Aye.

Fortunately, I have sewers in my family. :-) ... My mother sews, my good friend Diane sews, my Meme sews -- they've all been sewing for years and have lots of experience making a variety of things, from quilts to curtains to pj pants and more. We'll get them involved and see what they can teach us together! :-)

Which reminded me of what Dawn said the other day in her post titled "Homeschooling without a College Degree"...

2) If I need a teacher for my child who has mastery over a subject, I can find one. Homeschooling does not mean the parent simply steps into the role of teacher. More often we're facilitators and coordinators. My daughter has an interest in calculus? I know a college prof who adores calculus (not to mention how her eyes light up when quantum physics is mentioned). My son wants to pursue microbiology? I believe there's an uncle on my husband's side. Either one interested in tearing down an engine or the principles of flight? I have a dad and two brothers who are aircraft engineers. I had a friend whose 12 year old son had a passion for geology. She found a local professor, had her son write him a letter and voila! Her son now has a mentor on the subject.

(Dawn, I did try to put you inside a nice neat little 'quote box' but I couldn't get any attempted codes to work)

I quite agree - if subject matter comes along in which the parent isn't very skilled, assistance can be sought out! :-)

Many homeschoolers are doing this all the time - I don't know of many mothers who are teaching their child everything themselves. Their children go out for swimming lessons or art classes, they sing in choirs ensembles & play violins, they go to karate or gymnastics, they join co-ops that sometimes have all sorts of activities on the go, and so on and so on....you get the idea. :-)

Anyhow - here's the little rascal sewing her very first thing...it's a drawstring bag that she'll use for carrying a stuffed toy or a book or whatever she likes.

(This is Diane's machine, at her house. We snuck in. Nah, I have a key.)




The photo of the finished bag turned out all wonky, so I'll take one of her with it later. It's cute, I might just make one for myself! :-)

Read Alouds

Hah, "read aloud" always looks awkward to me - just the way the words sit together...

Cindy and I finished with Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - she loved it! :-) - reading aloud isn't something that we've done a lot of prior to this year (well, not since she was 'little' anyway) so I'm glad she's enjoying it... and I am too!

The one we have now is pictured in my sidebar thinger - it's a selection of short stories about several Canadian pioneers (obviously, from the title LOL)...I found this on the library's used book sale table - it's apparently part of a collection, but this was the only one there. (I didn't know if she'd be all that interested, but when I showed her, she paged through it a bit and said 'sure'.)

Speaking of reading - the other day, my reluctant reader comes running through the living room, grabs a book in one hand, tucks a cat under the other, and says to the cat "Let's go read!" :-o

I don't think Toby (the cat) was all that impressed with the subject - "Caring for a new puppy" LOL - but she can read books about nosehairs to her big toe if she likes! She chose the book herself and went off to read willingly. No encouragement, no "it's silent reading time" nada... SHE chose to go read in her free time. This is not a common occurrence here, so humour me in my YAYs. *grin*

Christopher's photos

As a rule, I've always avoiding buying the traditional "school photos" - they were expensive, and they were blah...boring. Standing, chest level, boring background, etc.

Well, I had to buy Christopher's set this year...they did a FANTASTIC job with his - now, you have to understand something. Christopher can't smile upon request - he grins when he's happy, laughing, etc, but if you ask him to smile (like for a photo), what you get is...hard to describe. He'll usually bare his teeth and move his lips around, but it's usually nothing like a smile...it often resembles a bit of a snarl, in fact. If you consider that a natural smile just sort of 'happens' on your face when you're happy and a requested smile (or, I guess we could really say 'fake smile' ?) is one that you consciously make -- you 'know' what muscles to move in your face and you 'know' how a smile should look ... Christopher doesn't - he's never seen a smile...he's felt them on the faces of others (though you can't feel the whole smile at once) and he's felt them on his own, but he can't make them..yet. :-)

Anyway. Check this out! (Keep in mind that this is a photo-of-a-photo, so the quality sorta sucks on here ...I put it on the table and snapped it with my camera - the actual photo in hand is beautiful and glossy and lovely) ..



They got him smiling! :-) Yay!! They must have been joking with him, making him laugh, etc - awesome! The previous school photos of his have usually just been straight on, straight face...This is a great shot!

And the background doesn't suck! It's not a chest-level blah swirly yuck background. Okay, so it's not a REAL tree - hey, it was like January when they did these LOL

They did a black & white shot as well and it looks cool...

I caved and bought the set. *grin*

Now of course Miss Cinders wants "school photos" -- we'll see what we can do about that. :-)

In her own words

I've been reading a lot of entries for Home Education Week and while I haven't done them myself, I saw the one titled "In their Words" and thought that Cindy might enjoy that. :-)

Dana wrote: Share your children’s home education experience in their own words. What have they said about their education? What are their likes and dislikes? Share some stories, some quotes, or turn your blog over to your children for the day.

I gave Miss Cinders the keyboard and asked her to write what she thought about homeschooling - below is her text, yes she likes smileys and exclamation marks LOL


I like homeschooling!
i like homeschooling better than my old school because when i'm homeschooled i don't have to feel dumb when i ask a question.

i like homescooling also because well..... IT'S JUST REALLY FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-):-) :-) :-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-);-)


I know what she's talking about there - we've had several long conversations about it... she'd given up asking questions in class because of being responded to with impatience by the teachers and ridicule by the other children. When it became obvious from her marks that she wasn't understanding, they tossed her into the 'resource class' - this was part dumping ground and part zoo, the "dumb kids room" (those are not my words - it's what the other children often called it) .....she'd go off to that class every day for an hour and sit there, doodling in her notebook and feeling stupid. If she wasn't doodling, she was acting out and getting sent to the "quiet room" to fill out another of those pointless "personal reflection forms". (Don't ask)

Thinking about that makes me very angry - not just at the situation, but also at myself for allowing it to go on for as long as it did. I didn't know how bad it had gotten for her, but I know that I also wasn't looking as hard as I should have been. I can't change that though - I can't unwind the string and go back.... but what I can do is what I've set out to do through homeschooling - provide her with an educational environment that encourages her, one that works with her strengths and her style of learning, where she can grow and discover what a beautiful, intelligent, and wonderful young lady she is.

Bad fork, down!

Sometimes she really likes being small for her age. *grin*



My worst nightmare come true. GIANT FORKS! gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

I hate forks. I've always hated forks. I haven't eaten with a metal fork in...?? years anyway. Y'know that goosebumps-on-the-arms, hair-standing-up feeling that is often the result of someone scraping their fingernails down a chalkboard? *cringe* .. I get that same horrid feeling if a fork touches my teeth, my plate, or, heaven forbid..another fork.

Two forks, tines latched together = me with my hands flapping in the air and yelping for someone else to untangle them. I'm not kidding. Ask Diane, who comes to supper now and then and has been the untangler more than once, after I found forks making babies together in the sink. Mmmhmmm. We're all allowed to have our quirks yes?

Now you know why Cindy is grinning like a cat with a canary dessert.

Speaking of dessert - I have to find Miss Cinders so she can come in and make her cupcakes - Diane is coming to supper tonight and Cindy wants to give her cupcakes for dessert. Fine by me, but she needs to bake them very shortly, as I need the oven for my meatloaf...

There's a hole in the bucket....

Or rather, the wall.

All three bedrooms looked a bit drafty for a while today - along with the front door - as the landlord's crew turned up to do replace the old windows with new ones.


Here's what the old windows looked like - they were the lift 'em and stick a block of wood (or shoe) in them...needed storm windows in winter, yada yada. Old and starting to rot away.



All three bedrooms (That's Christopher's window) had the same (the wood trim stuff is already off in that photo)..

Here's what they all now have! :-)



Much better!

But man, the racket they made while they were here! They brought this noisy contraption, which I believe is an "air compressor" ...




And they brought this odd looking thing that went THWACK.




They also replaced the busted screen in the front door - which meant taking it all apart, much to the amusement of Miss Cinders...





And best of all? I only had to retrieve one cat from outdoors. Max, of course.

>^..^<


Oh yes - the new car is all properly registered and insured and working like it ought to be.... Blair, I know you and Norm want to see photos other than the one that the guy used for the ad -- I'll get some as soon as I get a chance. :-)

(The neighbour's daughter seems to be rather taken with the car, as she called not 30 minutes ago to ask Cindy if they could "go play in the car!" ...um yeah. No. LOL)

Oh, and the old car is G.O.N.E ... the guy who accompanied us up to look at the new one bought the old one. After he wondered aloud how I'd driven it all through the snowy winter on bald tires LOL

*********************

Miss Cinders is off to supper tonight at our Pastor's house - they've invited the whole "preteen group" (the grade 5/6 Sunday school class) for supper & whatever else they have planned (it's 3 hours on the invite) ... She's very excited and if she asks me one more time whether she should wear the blue top or the pink top, I'm gonna send her in her pjs. *grin*

>^..^<

Introduction to timelines

Cindy has never heard of a "timeline" before, and when I tried to explain what this was (using the whiteboard)I could see that it wasn't clicking. My little boxes and drawings of 'time sections' and such wasn't cutting it, so we did the little activity that was suggested in SOTW1 (a newly begun addition here) -- she built a little timeline of her own life. :-)

She had a great time choosing photos (and of course - the trip down memory lane that resulted from the dig through the photo boxes!) and now she 'gets it', understands that a timeline shows the flow of history -- in this case, hers.

Now the challenge is on me to come up with the way to create a full size timeline that we can use for our history discoveries --- I've read of many different ways, but I'm going to go in search of sites with more photos so I can see some in action.... The one thing that trips me up is trying to decide how to break up the time periods - space wise, I mean... I like the binder idea that I read about, because then you can always add extra (you won't end up with a space being 'full' ) but I don't think Cindy will like that as much... I think she'd do better with a wall timeline where she can see it all laid out.....but how big to make it? How to space out the periods? Etc...

She loves the idea of making one and being able to add characters and events to it, so I'll have to get digging and trying out some ideas... Always open to suggestions as well! :-)