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Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Reflections on a year of Homeschooling.

It's hard to believe, that it has only been a year since we started homeschooling.
The fort Theo built during our first weeks of homeschooling.


I can barely remember what life was like when we were chasing off to school every morning, and I am thankful for that. I have always known (since making the decision to pull out of public school) that this was the right educational path for my son- but that's not to say that it has always been easy. He is a difficult child to deal with- a lot of the time. So it puts a lot of stress and worry on me, which at times makes me not want to homeschool any more. But then God always shows up, and reminds us of why we are homeschooling. Because it's worth it, and because it's the best thing for my son, and my family.
Eva testing her sense of touch.

It has been great to have Eva join us as an official Kindergartener this year. Last year, she was kind of on the outside. She participated sometimes, but never really owned it. We have come into our own. We have a rhythm. We are learning how to read each other better. We are learning curriculum but even more than that- learning how to love learning for us. (I include myself because of course I am learning right alongside the kids.) The number of resources, and activities that are offered to my children is astounding. I feel so spoiled, especially because I get to participate in so much of it.

We have met so many amazing families through homeschooling. There is a community of people out there, that prior to jumping into, I had no idea even existed. I always thought that homeschoolers were socially isolated, but I'd have to say that is the farthest thing from the truth! There are many weekly get togethers, and these I cherish. Not only are my children developing healthy relationships with peers, but I have the opportunity to develop true friendships with their parents. It's a win win situation!

I feel SO IMMENSELY blessed to have found the Distributed Learning program that we are enrolled with. The teachers and co-coordinator are truly amazing. Portfolio meetings are the best. My child gets the undivided attention of the teacher for a whole hour. My children read to and show their teacher all the work that THEY have done, all the things that THEY have learned. It just feels so right to me. I love being on the inside. I love not feeling at the mercy of the teacher to find out how my children are doing. I know how they are doing because I am doing it along side of them. Learning is such a beautiful thing. That's why I became a teacher. I never would have thought that my teaching career would end up looking like it does today, but I am so thankful for it.



So that's it people. I love home learning. I'm not trying to brag, or frown upon the system. I just love what we are doing, and feel so thankful to have taken that leap of faith one year ago, to try it. I can't imagine our lives any other way.




Monday, January 2, 2012

Christmas Morning.


Above is a little slideshow I made of Christmas morning. There was food involved, but I was busy preparing it, and the photographer was busy eating it while it was hot. So please image mouth watering pictures of people piling their plates high with fresh baked cinnamon buns, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and sparkling orange juice!

We spent the afternoon recovering from the morning, and playing with our toys. Then headed off to Colin's parents for a lovely Turkey dinner. It was a beautiful day, full of family and fun. We are so, so blessed.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Peak of Winter

We usually take a trip down to Seattle in the fall, but this year we decided we would put that money towards doing a few festive things around our city at Christmas time. Top on the list was Grouse Mountain's Peak of Christmas.
We enjoyed skating on the pond, a short movie at the theater in the sky, a chat with Dancer, Vixon and Santa, a tour of some Christmas tree's but the most fun, was really just playing in the snow! Here are some photo's from that very overpriced yet fun filled day!





November

Clearly, I have got a bit of catching up to do!
Now that the kids are getting bigger and more independent we have started to branch out a bit from our regular family activities of swimming, walking, biking, and going to the park. In November we did our first ever family bowling night- just the 5 of us.  It was great fun. Kezia is not old enough to bowl yet, but she was happily amused by straightening up the balls as they came back, and playing a little "pass the bowling ball" on the floor.



We took some nice puddle jumping walks on the dyke...
My brother Scott (and Cristal) had their first baby. A beautiful girl named Mackenzie. She was born 7 weeks premature, so had to spend some time at the NICU before being greeted at home by her cousins.

The kids and I had a field trip to Granville Island to see the play The Wizard of Oz, and then had a fun filled afternoon of bird feeding/chasing, eating while listening to an amazing fiddler, topped off by a Lee's doughnut of course. I will remember this day with fondness forever. I hope they do too!
And last but not least, we ended November with Colin's moustache!
He decided to do Movember in honour of his Uncle Dick, who was going through chemotherapy at the time. He raised over $1,000 along with some other men from our church.