Category: School
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Noah’s path
Erin and Sophie look like the ones making the big moves this year, but Noah is on a new path of his own that represents at least as big a shift. He stopped computer-gaming. He went through a phase early in the summer of watching movies (dozens of them — classics from the past five […]
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Looking ahead
It’s the time of year we normally start planning our upcoming unschooling. We’ve found Learning Plans to be a useful tool in our lives. This year Sophie’s learning plan process started in July, and it looked very different from usual. “I want to go to school,” she said. She wants to be more tangibly productive. She […]
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Second market and other bits of news
Quick update from the second market. Despite the dreary weather (cool and raining on and off all day) Fiona sold out her teas again quickly (proceeds: $25, initial investment now recouped), and Sophie, who had taken huge quantities of candy with her, sold almost all of it. Just a couple of lollipops left, one gift […]
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High school
Erin returned from Corazón tour to a whole slew of English assignments. National Youth Orchestra starts before the school year ends because it’s built more around the university academic year than the high school one, so somehow she not only has to get caught up in English and her other courses, but she has to […]
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Festival Week at School
Last week Sophie and Fiona went to school. It was the week of the Arts and Writers Festival at the local public school, the one that umbrellas us as homeschoolers under their DL program. So they were invited to join the school classes for the week. We looked over the line-up of offerings and the […]
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Falling Sand
Way back in 2006 Noah discovered Owen Piette’s “Falling Sand Game.” These silly little desktop diversions were quite the rage at the time. You sprinkle virtual coloured sand in a little window on your desktop and it falls, slowly or quickly, depending on which colour you choose. Lovely zen-like patterns form in the heaps at […]
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DL program thoughts
We had our mid-year meeting a couple of weeks ago at the local public school to discuss how the new Distributed Learning program they created for homeschoolers is working out. If you’re new to the blog, or an occasional reader, and want some background on the creation of the DL program, you can read this […]
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Science Fair
Another perk the result of our affiliation with the local public school and school district — the kids were invited to participate in the science fair. We didn’t have much notice, but Fiona was keen and we lucked into a terrific idea. She chose to investigate the changes in rhododendron leaves in response to cold […]
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Seventeen years of awesome
You may have noticed that as the years roll by I post less and less about my older kids. That’s because I sense that they don’t necessarily want every moment of their lives chronicled in public through their parents’ eyes. They’re their own people, and they have strong sense of privacy about things that are […]
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Montreal chat
Erin is in Montreal, checking out the McGill music faculty and falling in love with the city all over again. She was there for a week in 2008 on an exchange trip and loved it then. This time her perspective is different. She’s not there for a visit; she’s looking to live there, and soon. […]
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Stop Motion
Here’s another of the perks of being affiliated with the local bricks-and-mortar school. Sophie and her friend had expressed an interest in playing around with stop motion animation. And now on Fridays they are welcome to go in and spend time using the Mac Lab and its iStopMotion software, camera, props and other resources. Our […]
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Recital, and other plans
Erin is planning a violin recital in November. A full program. She’ll be performing as part of the Valhalla Fine Arts Community Concert Series. Usually these concerts feature guest artists, but this time it’s a home-grown one. She’s also going to play the same program in Kelowna the week before. Her accompanist lives there and […]
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Field trip report
Fiona returned home happy. She was glad she went on the field trip. The bus ride was long and noisy. She talked with the kids she shared seats with and made some new friends. She loved looking at the fish anatomy. They cut open a recently deceased salmon and she got to see the heart […]
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Big yellow bus
I should have a different photo here. A photo of Fiona in her shorts and current favourite T-shirt, a neat braid, her smiling face, with school lunch stuff in her bright-coloured backpack, hopping on the school bus. She was cute as a button. But I didn’t bring the camera. Instead I have this old photo […]
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Book report
Our experiment with homeschooling whilst registered with the local school’s brand new “school within a school” Distributed Learning program continues to be quite successful. Noah has settled on Science 10 (heavier on physical sciences) and Math 9 as his first foray into coursework, quizzes and exams. Sophie is doing Science 8 (heavier in biology) and […]
