Early Weeks

Well we are already three weeks in to Grade One and we've had a nice flow so far.  Some days we are out and about exploring and visiting and other days we are home doing our own quiet thing.  Because Fall can often be a short season here I feel a strong sense to be outside as much as we can before the snow flies!

Rowan got this Science kit for Christmas last year and loves going through various experiments.  One day we just did Messy Science where we went through whatever experiments sounded fun at the time.

Poppy watching the Jumping Raisins (raisins in soda).  We had already done vinegar and baking soda explosions, catching ice (salt on ice with a string laid on ice cube) and a few others.  I didn't take any photos of the 'after' where Poppy accidentally spilled all our mixtures on the table and floor - that was a sticky clean up!

A neat climbing rock in a nearby neighbourhood with a playground beside it - I think the rock was there and they built the park around it as it is huge!

We joined a HUGE group of homeschoolers for a tour of a Chocolate Factory - we will probably go again another day as it was difficult to hear our guide with the number of children on the tour.  We all enjoyed the treat at the end and had to buy a few extras to take home!

Outside the chocolate factory

Rowan working on Logic Linx - he really likes them 

We took out about 10 readers from the library - while they are helpful in early reading they are incredibly dull so I'm not sure how many Rowan will be interested in reading - he did finish this one and needed help with two words

Poppy's 'work' - finding ways to keep Poppy engaged in something long enough for Rowan to get the  adult time he needs for his projects and activities is sometimes a challenge but on this particular day Poppy enjoyed Busy Bugs (from Discovery Toys)

......for about 6 minutes anyway.....

One reason why I hesitate to spend money on learning materials - I wrote various words on cheapy sticky notes and posted them around the house without telling anyone.  About a day later Rowan noticed them and was so excited going around the house looking for them and reading the words (about 90% on his own)

Rowan asked "Is this like a treasure hunt?  Is there a prize at the end?"  I said "Yes!  You'll have a stack of paper with words written on them at the end!"  It didn't seem to matter that there wasn't a treat or prize of another kind - the search was prize enough, I think!

We are so lucky to have friends who live in a lake community and invite us often - so this is how we spent the last day of Summer 2011

And that is some of what we've been up to over the past two weeks!  Rowan has also started an art class at a wonderful art studio.  Poppy took a  library class of her own (with me) but she was feeling a bit sick so didn't last but is registered for another one through October.  Rowan loved the library classes when he was wee and I love that they're free so we'll see how Poppy likes them.  Rowan has also started Music class again for the year with a new teacher who runs the class at a much faster pace and has higher expectations.  I have (so far) tried to keep practice at home a focus and am adding some activities to supplement what the teacher expects.  We bought an ipad ap yesterday to help with reading music for young children.  Rowan says he wants to continue with music but grumbles quite a bit with practicing at home so I am trying to find fun and creative ways to get his interest.

And finally, Rowan has his first loose tooth which is very exciting!

Today is the first day of Fall and we will be looking for ways to celebrate the changing of the seasons!

First 'Official' day of Grade One

People are often surprised to hear how simple it is to homeschool.  You don't need a teaching degree, special training, or experience.  You choose a school board to sign up with and are provided with a Facilitator who is available as a resource throughout the school year (September to June).  You are provided with a small sum of money for school supplies, classes, materials, passes, and so on.  The Facilitator meets with the parent and child twice a year to check in and see how they're making out, answer questions, and so on.  You write up a Learning Plan (I will share ours another day) that is fairly simple to do.  There are so many resources available in the city for homeschoolers it can be overwhelming to weed through it all.  But when you find the things that excite you and watch your child continue to be excited about things it's easier to relax and trust in the journey.   Although I suppose it can be much more complicated for some folks, but we've been easing into it for the last 4 years (well, since Rowan was born, actually), so we're really happy with the connections we've made and the resources we have.

One of our core beliefs about children and learning is that it happens all the time with very little energy on the part of anything or anyone on the outside.  Children are in essence incredibly brilliant.  If you spend some time observing them and wondering about them without trying to correct or teach them, you will see brilliance all the time.  So we don't believe you start school or learning in September - although our society certainly does.  Learning is everywhere, all the time.  It doesn't end at 3:00 or during lunch hour.  It's anytime of day, month, year.

We decided the day after Labor Day would be the first 'official' day of Grade One for Rowan more to begin the rituals of September.  We do need to mail in a Learning Plan (which Rowan helped create, agreed to, and popped in the mailbox himself).  And we decided on an extraordinary plan for the day.

After stopping at the mailbox to mail the Learning Plan we drove just past a small town outside of our city called Okotoks.  We went to visit the Big Rock, as it is called, or the Okotoks Erratic.  We had never been there but had learned a bit about the magic of it and there was something so symbolic about beginning the more formal part of homeschooling (not that we consider our style to be formal at all) by walking down a long path to a gigantic rock that travelled hundreds of miles thousands of years ago to a place that makes you think "Now how the heck did that thing get all the way out to the prairie?"  In other words, you can't help but be curious about it when you see it.  And once you get up to it, it is absolutely huge!  There are smaller pieces that have broken off to explore, bugs, birds, and critters living on or very nearby.  You can sneak right inside it almost due to the cracks and crevices.  Or you can take a real risk and try to climb to the top of it.  SO many things about this Big Rock fit with this first day of Grade One.  My heart just leaps to see this picture of Rowan, all on his own, wandering down the path alone to see the rock.  Of course we were close behind, and Poppy took no time at all before she was racing behind saying "Wait for me, Rowan!"  Rowan had listed "exploring caves' as something he wanted to do over the summer and we hadn't yet so he was very happy for this adventure as there appeared to be caves all around the rock.

There was a bird circling overhead for some time - Rowan grabbed his binoculars out of his backpack and his Birds of the Rocky Mountains book.  We think the bird we saw was a Prairie Falcon looking for it's lunch!

Once we ate our lunch on a chunk of flat rock, we were ready to move on.  Rowan said to me, "Do you think this is the best day ever, Mom?"  I have told him about something I do and have since childhood - when something really special happens that I feel really happy about and want to remember, I think to myself "I am going to remember this forever".  And each day I remind myself several times of my forever thought so that I don't forget.  So I said to Rowan, "I think I would like to remember the first official day of grade one forever".  And he said, "Me too."

From there we visited the St. James Willow tree in Okotoks.  We took out the book Heritage Trees of Alberta from the library and have started choosing trees we want to visit.  This tree was quite easy to find in the heart of Okotoks.  Rowan has also been talking about climbing trees all summer but we haven't come across any that were climbable for a 5 yr old (and a tagging along 2 yr old) - but this willow was perfect.  Many of the stems were very near to the ground.  Originally there were 12 of them but some had to be cut off so there were 8 that we counted.

After the rock and tree climbing we found a sweet little ice cream shop in Okotoks and an independently owned toy shop to explore.

Feeling grateful and overjoyed with how our week began!

The longest camping trip......

In August we took a 12 day road trip and went to Revelstoke for 3 nights and Kelowna for 7.  The final night (on the way home) we always find a  hotel somewhere and relax without the set up and take down of our trailer.

While in Revelstoke we went to the Enchanted Forest, a magical place that I visited many times as a child and it always amazes me how fresh the memories are as soon as we pull into the parking lot.  This is Rowan's second time being there although he wasn't quite 2 the last time we went so he doesn't remember it.  There are wee houses, elves, fairy tale characters, and so much more hidden and waiting for children to explore than all through this incredible forest.  It was a wonderful day.  We went for lunch at Three Valley Gap, another place I remember my Dad taking us to have lunch while looking out this giant window at the mountain and the trains going through the pass.  We did something I have never done - visited the Revelstoke Dam.  Much more interesting than I thought it would be!  We also went to the Revelstoke Railway Museum and learned about the building of the railroad through the pass.  The kids really enjoyed it there.  We found an incredible Artisan Bakery as well as a delicious Indian restaurant - people who eat spicy Indian food in 32 degree weather with no air conditioning while on holidays are die hards!

The drive to Kelowna was beautiful.  We were surprised at the fact that we didn't feel as relaxed there as we though even though we were there for quite a while - things seemed very hot, dry, and brown unless they were watered by humans.  We'll be heading back to the mountains next year as we feel more at home there than we did in the Okanagan.  The campground was packed and the spots were very small - you could hear everything going on around you.  But the beach was glorious and only steps away from our site.  There were fabulous restaurants and we enjoyed Peachland a lot.  Again we found a wonderful bakery and great Indian food! This time with air conditioning.  We visited a Parrot Sanctuary where we learned a lot about different varieties of parrots and some very sad news - many parrots outlive their owners and also people are not aware of how much work they are so they end up being abandoned or mistreated.  The parrots at this sanctuary, if they are the 'cuddly sort', are lent out to elderly people who have lost a mate.  The idea is the person has the parrot to wake up and feed, to talk to (and who will talk back often!) and it helps improve their quality of life and prevent severe loneliness.  The parrot is eventually returned to the sanctuary.  It was quite interesting.

The highlight of the trip was watching Rowan's growing excitement for fishing.  And the highlight for him was the morning I woke him up before Dad and Poppy, we quickly packed our fishing stuff and breakfast and snuck out to the dock to fish a bit before all the boats got on the water (to scare the fish away).  We went out about 4 times and didn't catch anything, but we had fun trying.  We fished right on the Okanagan Lake from a dock in our campground, from a motor boat we rented in Peachland, and at a place called Shannon Lake that is stocked mainly for kids.  At Shannon Lake we could see the fish rising everywhere and had a few bites but didn't catch anything.   I cursed myself a few times for not paying more attention when I was younger while I had the chance - my family if full of avid fishermen and my Dad took me out as far back as I can remember.  But I did pretty good considering I didn't really know what I was doing - there were a few phone calls home for help!

On the way back we stopped in Golden ad a seedy motel and had a nice dinner.  We were all ready to get home though as it was a bit too long to be away from our pets, garden, house, and extended family.

Highlights of Summer!

 Well the summer has flown by without a single post from us!  Here are some highlights up until August when we took our big holiday - I'll post about that later.

Holding the Painted Lady butterflies we raised from caterpillars - released on the morning of Summer Solstice

Camping with cousins near Drumheller

 In July we went camping just outside of Drumheller - always a favorite campground for the kids although Rand and I found the close sites a bit too close this year.  Drumheller throws a great parade on Canada Day.  We went for a long hike one day and spotted several tracks in the mud.  Our nieces came out on the final night and the kids had a great time together.  There are lots of activities for the kids at this campground including an outdoor heated pool, playground, hoodoos to climb, and a river for fishing.

Watching fireworks for the first time on the final night of the Stampede

 We went to the Stampede on the final night.  The fireworks were spectacular although we did have to wait until quite late to see them.

Picked 7 lbs. of strawberries and made strawberry jam

In mid-July we went to Kayben Farms - a really fun place to visit with lots of activities - and picked our own berries for jam and pie.  Rowan picked half of the berries himself and both kids helped me make jam.  The farm also has animals to visit and feed, a huge play structure with slides and swings, a neat water play system with pumps and slides to put toys on, and a yummy cafe.

Rowan also played in his Music Finale in June with his Music class.  He was cool and calm on stage in front of a lot of people.  He later said he wasn't as nervous as he thought he would be!  Rowan took an art class at the 4Cats art studio and learned about Robert Bateman.  The kids painted an animal of their choosing - Rowan chose an octopus.  The studio was very professional but kid-friendly all at once.  He'll be taking a series of classes there in the Fall.

Next post will have highlights of our 12 day camping trip to Revelstoke and Kelowna - our longest holiday yet!