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.
Sophie at the wheel
Sophie has been coming to Nelson with us on Tuesdays for the past month. The older kids have Corazón rehearsal on Tuesdays, so I end up driving four teens to rehearsal and back. Fiona likes to come along for the
Unschooling in a nutshell
“But what, exactly, would I do?” Involve your child in your life. Cooking, cleaning, running errands, fixing the toilet, looking after little siblings, working in the garden. Talk. Just natter on about interesting things. Listen to the questions he asks
Planets, updated
The Planets
Paper maché over styrofoam craft balls. (Except in the case of earth’s moon and Mercury, which are paper maché on dried peas.) Fiona is on a bit of an astronomy kick. She really enjoys stargazing, though we don’t do nearly
Four for four
It was a proud mom day full of accomplishments. Fiona and Sophie spent their third day on downhill skis with the school’s field trip program. This time I went along. They’re skiing fabulously! Sophie got moved up to the intermediate
A Nook for Sophie
Our home was originally built as a 15 by 30-foot log rectangle with vaulted ceilings and two rooms. It’s seen three separate additions over the years, the largest and latest of which was ours, put on when Noah was an
Cursive in a day
I’ve gotten used to “graphomotor delays” in my kids. Erin was 8 when she first managed more than a kindergarten-style scrawl. She had been reading proper novels for four years and was playing the Bach Double on the violin but
The drive to learn
“Help me understand about unschooling. I know kids learn to talk and walk with no overt teaching but they learn by example, I think these are more of a biological drive in the human being. I am not sure learning
Creativity and writing
We’re part of a new program at the local school, a Distributed Learning (i.e. government-funded home-based education) program. It’s a bunch of well-meaning people within the school system trying to figure out not only the government regulations and expectations but
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
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
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
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
Convenience store quip
Have I mentioned lately how supremely flexible and wonderful the high school is about accommodating Erin’s music, travel and work-related learning? Well, yeah, they have been great. She can take Tuesday afternoons off for choir, and alternate Fridays and Mondays off