Wintering

January is almost over and it seems Winter is flying by!  Just popping in for a quick post without pics to give an update on what we've been up to.

Rowan:  finished skating class at the Rec Centre and is gaining a renewed passion for hockey now that the game is back on.  He is out skating with a friend and or his Dad two - three times a week.  He talks hockey from the time he wakes until he goes to bed at night.  He continues with Music although threatens to quit every now and then.  He prefers to stick with one song and practice it until his fingers are sore rather than trying to get better at different pieces, but that's ok.  Right now he is in sports and drama once a week and loves both.  He gets to see two of his very good friends in both classes and is so happy at the end of the day.  I think he really needs and wants to see friends a lot more than we do but my introverted self has to work on that.

Rowan finished Book A of the printing program we have been following and is about to start Book B.  He also started Phonics Level B (Modern Curriculum Press) and LOVES it.  He prefers Phonics sheets over any other schooly stuff.  We also started Story of the World and he is enjoying it although it is hard to find quit time in our house for him to listen and me to read.

Poppy:  still loves her music class although we have missed quite a few due to illness and other activities.  She started Gymnastics after much begging and painful (for her) waiting.  She looks so big in her own class following her teacher and peers around.  She loves to sit with Rowan and I with her own workbooks.  She loves to print letters and looks so serious at school time.

Poppy has been begging for a sleepover for months and we have finally arranged for one coming up.  Rowan is invited too but is more hesitant.

We have been fostering a lot more the last few months.  We have had some delightful experiences and some challenging ones.  Overall I am confident in continuing with being a foster family as it allows me to continue to work and feel valued outside of homeschooling my children in my chosen field.  We also feel we are doing something very valuable for the children who come here as we see so much change in such a short period of time.  But more than that our children see another side of life and take part in contributing to the growth and richness of the lives of others, and these children also bring that to our home.  Rowan talks about most of the children long after they are gone.  Poppy more often complains about them, but even that I think is ok for her.  Both of our children participate in a give and take in our family.  They really do have a rich life with being home schooled and having me home with them all the time.  We are so blessed to not have to send them to school or care so I can work elsewhere so I think having less time with Rand or I while we're at home is not a bad thing.  We have to make sure we are aware of what all the children need and make sure ours aren't having their needs put aside too often as it would be easy to do if we aren't careful.  For now, our lives are busy and full and moving forward at lightening speed.  But we're together and we laugh a lot.

Fall Groovin'

I started this post in......October?  And am finishing it at the end of January.  Life.  I might have to call myself the Seasonal Blogger since I seem to get my posts finished at the end of the season or beginning of the next!  Well, here was our Fall......

Rowan mailing his Grade Two Learning Plan

We started our Poetry Study (various nursery rhymes for Poppy, Robert Louis Stevenson for Rowan), Composer Study (Bach), and Picture Study (da Vinci).  The kids read (or were read to) one poem each week or three, and were to memorize them and recite for family.  Poppy continues to love this activity and is excited for every new poem.  She prefers to throw a bit of drama on the poem recital and also prefers a large audience.  Rowan did great with his first poem (Autumn Fires) and then decided the activity was ridiculous and had no interest in performing for anyone.  He did enjoy the poems and read them, also discussed bit of them mostly enjoying the vocabulary learning.  Poppy has memorized Johnny Appleseed, Three Little Kittens, First Snow, Little Boy Blue, and a few others.

For Composer Study we listened to 4 different pieces by Bach regularly and learned the titles, a bit about the piece.  We enjoyed listening to Mr. Bach Comes to Call and read a few books about him as well.  I love this blog for ideas and guidance on Poetry, Composer, and Picture Studies:  Don't Need No Education.   

For Picture Study we listened to the Magic Tree House (Carol Pope Osborne) story about daVinci (Monday with a Mad Genius), coloured our own versions of the Mona Lisa, printed off the Mona Lisa and red chalk self-portrait.  The kids enjoyed this as well.

Rowan got back at the Math U See program (slowly) and we tried Jumpmath (bust).  He also got back to the All About Spelling from last year.

Poppy coloured one letter at a time (and we looked up pictures of the flowers before colouring them) while Rowan did his sit down schooly stuff (Note:  I avoid calling it school 'work'.  I think the word 'work' in itself turns anyone off and I want our formal sit down stuff to be fun enjoyable, intriguing and stimulating.  Not 'work'.)

Rowan also started the Getty-Dubay Handwriting Program book.  It is helpful to see a different way of making letters from the way he has basically taught himself.  I like this program because the lettering is not boxy and stiff but quite fluid and beautiful.  Rowan has a lot of artistic talent and I think penmanship can be artistic if we are shown certain ways to print / write and then expand on it to develop it in our own way.  Rowan is learning things like where to apply pressure on the pencil to have letters look a certain way.  I do sit with him while printing or he quickly goes back to his habit of printing how he is used to just to get the pages over and done with.

We're also trying to do regular Nature Walks with some ideas from here.

Some of the resources we'll use this year along with Math-U-See and All About Spelling carried over from last year.  The kids have good quality sketchbooks for our Nature Walks.

Our Homeschooly Room and Nature Table right outside the room

Fall Classes:

Poppy has been asking to go to preschool.  I dreaded hearing it.  I did a lot of soul searching and looked into some preschool programs.  In my head I rationalized why it might be ok to send her - she is asking, she is outgoing and loves playing with new children, she warms up to adults quickly, there might be some different stimulation than what she is exposed to at home.  And I would have a couple of hours to myself to get things done without kids!  However in my heart I had more reasons not to.  She is so impressionable.  In her parent and tot dance class she imitated her dance teacher's every move last year (even the moves I wasn't so keen on....).  In swimming lessons this past summer she told me she'd be fine, I could leave her with "Cody" (her 16 yr old male swim teacher).  She is only 3 and so very impressionable and vulnerable.  I just don't feel it is right for her to have her influenced by people I barely know.  And I also can't justify paying other people to do things we can do at home or with friends.  So we came up with a great plan - my lovely neighbour agreed to have her over one afternoon a week in exchange for her 7 yr old daughter who came here to play big kid board games with Rowan.  Poppy got to walk two doors down by herself and be there for an hour and get a bit of independence and I had the comfort of knowing she was in good hands.

Poppy is back to her Orff Music program which she loves.  She does get to attend this class on her own and I come in at the end to hear the summary of the lesson and a description of the short and sweet music homework.  The class is still very play based with some beginnings of music theory and instruction.  The teacher is phenomenal.

Poppy also took a rock climbing class (see commentary on this below).

Rowan is back in Yamaha Music class in the Junior Musicians Course.  He also took a Home school Sports class at the Rec Centre near our home with several good friends.  Poppy and I spent time at the library visiting with younger siblings and reading.  Rowan also took an Outdoor class called Outdoors In where the class explored various Ecosystems in the city in great depth.

Poppy is a Rock Star!  She loved rock climbing!

I was very turned off at the first class and contemplated not returning but am glad we did.  I have some background in adventure programming and outdoor experiential education and must have been trained by some of the leading instructors in safety as I often see children's instructors making several errors.  The harnesses were not as tight as is necessary for 3 - 4 year olds (they have a huge risk of freaking out at the top of the wall and trying to get out of their harnesses on their own - they darn well should be on properly!).  Kids were walking all over ropes, under other climbers, not given anything to do while waiting for other climbers (and there was a LOT of waiting! probably 10 minutes climbing time in a 60 minute class).  Instructors were encouraging kids to climb higher!  Climb higher!  How about a little higher?  And allowing parents to coax and push their kids much farther than they were willing to climb.  Climbing is about personal physical challenge - individual challenge.  There should not be guilt or disappointment or comparisons.  If a child has climbed at all and they feel good about it, the end.  While Poppy was kicking ass and climbing 2 stones away from the top she was still encouraged to go higher!  Can you go just a little higher?  Then you'll be at the top!  Well, the top should not be the goal. Going as high as you feel comfortable and challenged as much as you feel good about should be the goal.

Anyway the following class had an instructor who was much more vigilant about safety and group management.  Many kids were still bored waiting but Poppy had lots of time on the wall.  She glowed at the top and on her way up.  She was physically very strong and quite skilled.  I quietly watched her and celebrated the fun she had, but I didn't focus on the achievement but more of the experience.

Getting harnessed up

Off she goes.....

Ready to come down!

Painting on good watercolour paper with semi-crappy watercolour paints

For the first Official To Us day of Grade Two we travelled to high River to see one of the Heritage Trees of Alberta.  We stopped for a yummy lunch at the Whistle Stop Cafe which is a restaurant on an old locomotive.

Whistle Stop Cafe, High River

There were Window Writers for the kids to draw pictures on the windows.

We checked out some of the murals in town, like this one of a Buffalo Jump.  

Found the tree we were looking for - an old Cottonwood that had to be cut down for safety reasons.  Two artists were hired to design and carve three wolves in the stump - each looking in a different direction to guard the area.

High River

This is the book we use to search out interesting trees in our beautiful province.  

Pond Dip with Outdoors In

At the end of an Outdoor class at Carburn Park

Carburn Park

Shannon Terrace

Touching a bear skull at Shannon Terrace

Playing a Squirrel Game

Looking back our Fall was very full.  The weather lasted beautifully and we were very lucky to enjoy many parts of the season.  While it looks like we accomplished much (and I guess we did), we also had full schedules with more of just life.  I worried and wondered about our homeschooling methods because I felt busy with work, extended family, personal appointments, and so on.  The more I voiced it the more I heard the same from many other families.  So I guess we're on the track we're meant to be on, playing and living and living.  We get to do so much of what we love, contribute so much to the world around us, and have freedom and luxuries many don't ever get.  Lucky us!