Jul. 24, 2008 - The Old Schoolhouse Magazine ~ DIGITAL EDITION ~ Get it Now!!
Did you know that The Old Schoolhouse Magazine that we all enjoy and look for in our mailboxes is now available in digital form?? And for the fantastic price of $16.95. That's a huge savings from the Canadian paper edition!! No more waiting, it's instantly delivered to your inbox and right now when you subscribe you also get 19 FREE digital gifts :)
Check it out HERE.
Check it out HERE.
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Jul. 10, 2008 - Beat the Summer Heat!
I just came across this fun little bit of information :)
Tomorrow July, 11th or 7•11 *grin* is 7-Eleven's 81st birthday, and to celebrate it their website states that "Customers can pour their favorite Slurpee flavor in colorful, 7.11-ounce “Birthday” cups throughout the day, while cup supplies last "!
You can view the entire article on their website and at the bottom of the page it says their site is intended for US & Canadian residents so I'm hoping that this means tomorrow when we have to make our bi-monthly trek into town for banking, groceries, errands.... and the list goes on *grin* that we will be able to enjoy one of those free slurpees to beat the heat!! Cuz I know we're going to need it. Our air conditioning in the car went belly up last month
Tomorrow July, 11th or 7•11 *grin* is 7-Eleven's 81st birthday, and to celebrate it their website states that "Customers can pour their favorite Slurpee flavor in colorful, 7.11-ounce “Birthday” cups throughout the day, while cup supplies last "!
You can view the entire article on their website and at the bottom of the page it says their site is intended for US & Canadian residents so I'm hoping that this means tomorrow when we have to make our bi-monthly trek into town for banking, groceries, errands.... and the list goes on *grin* that we will be able to enjoy one of those free slurpees to beat the heat!! Cuz I know we're going to need it. Our air conditioning in the car went belly up last month
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Jul. 8, 2008 - Homeschooling in the News
I came across a couple of articles on homeschoolers today that I found quite interesting and thought that I would share :)
First, I'm sure that you all remember the very recent controversy over the contest that Subway was holding that excluded Home Learners from entering to win the $5000 prize for athletic equipment. Well a Subway spokesperson has finally piped up and given a reason for the apparent 'oversight'. Check it out here.
And the other was a rather interesting commentary on our biggest criticism as homeschoolers, you guessed it, socialization! Well this article talks on how homeschooling actually allows us to be 'socialization snobs'. *grin* Check it out here.
*WARNING* this article links to another persons blog in conjunction with why they wrote the 'homeschool snob' entry and it contains a some very bad words.
First, I'm sure that you all remember the very recent controversy over the contest that Subway was holding that excluded Home Learners from entering to win the $5000 prize for athletic equipment. Well a Subway spokesperson has finally piped up and given a reason for the apparent 'oversight'. Check it out here.
And the other was a rather interesting commentary on our biggest criticism as homeschoolers, you guessed it, socialization! Well this article talks on how homeschooling actually allows us to be 'socialization snobs'. *grin* Check it out here.
*WARNING* this article links to another persons blog in conjunction with why they wrote the 'homeschool snob' entry and it contains a some very bad words.
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Jul. 8, 2008 - 12th Canadian Home Educators Carnival
Yes that's right, the new Canadian Home Educators blog carnival is up and running and there are some really great blogs to visit! Make sure you say hello to everyone on your way across the country, we all love to hear from our visitors from time to time *grin*
The deadline for submissions for the next carnival is Monday, July 14th. Do you have something that you would like to share? We sure would love to meet more Canadians that are homeschooling alongside us :) Also the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival host is taking on a wonderful project and is providing the carnival in both of our official languages ~ English & French! Like myself, I'm sure that there are many of us that never give a second thought to reading all of our favorite blogs in English but there are a lot of French-Canadians that speak French as their first language and would truly appreciate to read it in French :) So that all said do any of you know of a reliable and accurate translation site or a way of easily converting the English entries into French? It would be greatly appreciated if you could pass along any tips that you can think of :)
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Jul. 1, 2008 - Happy Canada Day
Happy 141st birthday Canada! Hope you and your family have a great day and enjoy all of the fun events and fireworks today :)
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Jun. 27, 2008 - Celebrating Canada Day in BC
With Canada's 141st birthday coming up in a few days what are your July 1st plans? There are TONS of events and activities around our province this weekend winding up with the big birthday bash on Tuesday.
Here's a peak at some of the festivities planned for July 1st:
Our capital city of Victoria kicks off the celebrations with street side entertainment downtown, historical walking tours, or how about a free trolley tour? At 5:30 head on down to the Parliament buildings lawn to enjoy some great performers and music. You won't want to miss the Pied Pumpkin Pumkids @ 6:25pm and it all wraps up with fireworks over the Inner Harbour at 10:30pm and the singing of O Canada. More info at www.victoria.ca/canadaday
Kelowna's festivities start at 11am at Waterfront Park and up and down the boardwalk where you will find live music, family entertainment and a children's activity zone. Get your appetite on while your there and head over to Prospera Park for a smorgabord of vendors with tantalizing food. The official ceremony and cake cutting happens at 12:30pm. But that's not all, enjoy an orchestra starting at 8pm and there will be fireworks at 10:30pm in front of Tug Boat Bay. More info at www.parksalive.com/canadaday.htm
Salmon Festival in Steveston Village starts at 10am with a parade (floats, antique cars, marching band and more) starting at Garry Point Park. Enjoy a Japanese cultural arts show, children's festival, carnival rides or enjoy the famous Salmon BBQ. More info at www.stevestonsalmonfest.ca
Surrey is set to hold Canada's largest party at the Cloverdale Millennium Amphitheatre starting at 10am with lots of family geared activities and performances with children's performers, midway rides with 'little one' friendly rides and the never fail fun bouncy castles! For the older children there are BMX demos and an action zone, winding up with a fireworks display at 11pm. More info at www.canadaday.surrey.ca
Prince George is having a picnic at historic Fort George Park. Pack your favorite foods and picnic blankets as the celebration starts at 12pm. There will be a giant 4' x 8' birthday cake and entertainers for 7 straight hours with music, face painting, arts and craft stations, water dunking pool, miniature railway train and more! More info at www.multiculturalheritage.com/canada_day.html
Vancouver's Canada Place is hosting an all day party from 10am - 7pm with live music, kids zone, face painting, kid's crafts, acrobatics and aerial performances, and sampling of authentic maple taffy and more. The evening winds up with a 25 minute fireworks display over Burrard Inlet from two barges, one in Coal Harbour and the other at the West Vancouver seawall. More info at www.canadaplace.ca/canadaday
There are to many activities to list here, and I'm sure that most of you already have your weekends planned, but if not then do a quick 'BC Canada Day Events 2008' search through google and it brings up so many you'll wish you could clone your family 10 times over just so you don't miss out on all the good stuff *grin*
Want to share your favorite Canada Day Photos? Send them to me with a caption or how about a link to your blog so we can all share in the festivities province wide :)
HAVE FUN!!
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Jun. 25, 2008 - The Tall Ships Are Coming ~ June 26th - 29th, 2008
There is a lot of excitement in our household this week in anticipation of the arrival of the Tall Ships in our capital city of Victoria this Thursday! We've actually had it marked on our calendar since last winter when we first heard that they would be making a trip our way again. Their last visit I believe was in 2005 so you can guess how badly my oldest son wants to see them :)
Over 2 dozen tall ships from around the world will arrive on Thursday June 26th and will be available for viewing at the Inner Harbor until Sunday June 29th. The festival area will be open from 10am - 9pm where you can enjoy live music, displays, the marketplace, food, demonstrations on various things such as traditional maritime skills like wooden boat building and more. There will also be a kids area or 'Pirate School' each day where children ages 4 - 10 can learn about carving, swordplay and how to make treasure maps, while older children ages 10-14 can learn handy skills such as knot tying, line tossing and signaling. Fun stuff!! For complete event listings for each day of the festival click HERE.
But that's not all! From 10am - 5pm each day you can board all of the ships and have a good look around them and if you are one of the lucky festival goers that has one of the 'Adventure Sails Passes' you also get to go on a 3 hour excursion on your favorite tall ship! For more information on the different tickets and prices available click HERE.
I'm not sure which day we will make it down to Victoria or if we will stay overnight or make it one giant day trip, but we are going to be there matey! *grin*
Maybe we'll see you there. ARRGH!
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Jun. 24, 2008 - Canadian Home Educators Carnival ~ CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS!!
The 10th edition of the Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival is up and running! Make sure you stop by and check out what your fellow homeschoolers are up to across the country and maybe you even have a blog entry that you would like to submit?? It doesn't have to be something you just wrote, it could be something from a couple of weeks ago even! Each week the carnival host picks a random topic that you can use as a jumping off point for creating a submission, but this is by no means a restriction as to what you can submit! Feel free to share anything. We would love to hear from you :)
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Jun. 24, 2008 - The Homeschool Planner is now ready to purchase
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Jun. 17, 2008 - How to avoid Summer 'Brain Drain'
With the school year coming to an end, what are your summer plans? Are you finished and looking forward to shelving all the books or does your family school year round incorporating a more relaxed school routine into your summer days? We fall into the latter category, keeping up our school studies throughout the summer to minimize loss of information over the summer holiday :)
Did you know that your child can lose as much as 2.5 months of what they've learned in Math and English during the summer? Not all that hard to believe actually. I've found that sometimes our math studies go in waves where we will work really hard on one subject like multiplication and then as we move onto another math topic we leave behind all of the multiplication drills and they start to dwindle away finding that we need to hit them hard again to get them back up to snuff so you can just imagine then what happens to my son after 2 months of fun in the sun *grin* Well I've found a great workbook series to combat the 'brain drain' that happens during the summer months, called the Summer Smart Series and it covers Kindergarten on up in a fun, full colored workbook. It's broken down into 8 weeks of lessons (about 2 pages a day) with each module covering math, language arts, science, social studies, and arts & crafts and what's really great is it's Canadian!! Plus the price is right, between $10 - 14.
Another great way to keep your children interested in learning is to join one of the Summer Reading Programs offered by your local libraries. We participated in ours last year and the kids really got into it, reading over a dozen books each week to earn tickets for the weekly draws and even won a couple of books!
The Vancouver Island Regional Library is holding their summer reading program again this year and it kicks off this Saturday. It's open to all children ages 12 and under and make sure you check with your library for the special dates throughout the summer that they will be holding events for the children.
The British Columbia Library association is holding their summer reading program this year with a 'Read All Over the Map' theme and weekly book lists, activities, quizzes and more! There's even PDF's for parents with activity ideas etc. for all age levels.
The Fort Nelson Public Library also has a summer reading program for ages 5 - 16. They also have a link to the provincial website for discussion groups, book reviews, contests etc. for the teenaged children.
The Greater Victoria Public Library has a whole host of activities going on this summer. They've got a summer reading program, storytimes, programs for school aged children on up and craft activities.
Want to know what's happening at libraries across British Columbia & Canada that will interest your older children? Then check out this neat forum where librarians can post upcoming events!
Well that's a start on how to keep the synapses growing this summer *grin*
Do you have another summer activity in BC that you want to share with all of us? Let us know!
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Jun. 14, 2008 - BC's FREE Family Fishing Weekend
I don't know how I managed to forget to remind you about the Free Family Fishing weekend this week but I did! Don't worry though you still have one more day of 'fish~tastic' fun left :) The free fishing weekend has been happening now for probably a good 8 or 9 years and always falls on the Father's Day weekend, and is for non-tidal (fresh water) fishing only. There are a ton of events happening all around BC this weekend. Check out the events list HERE. It's still not to late to get involved in one of the derbies! You can get a temporary license for this weekend at any retailer that sells fishing licenses or go online and download the PDF file and fill it out at home.
We're actually awaiting the arrival of our fishermen with some tasty Rainbow Trout for tonights dinner :)
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Jun. 14, 2008 - Anyone attend the Convention in Surrey last weekend??
Any of you wonderful readers out there in blog land have the pleasure of attending the Homeschool convention in Surrey last weekend?
I'm hoping that some of you would like to be a guest blogger here on the BC Homeschool Nation blog. Any takers?? Doesn't have to be anything fancy. Some ideas you could share about are what the highlights of the convention were, what your favorite seminar(s) were and why, did you come across a brand spanking new curriculum or book that you think we all need to check out, are the seminar tapes available to purchase, or maybe you had a big AHA moment that you would like to share with us? Leave me a comment and a way to reach you if you're interested :)
In the meantime stop by Sandpiper's blog. She has listed some fantastic books that she picked up at the convention and tells us a little about why she bought them :)
Hope to hear from you!
I'm hoping that some of you would like to be a guest blogger here on the BC Homeschool Nation blog. Any takers?? Doesn't have to be anything fancy. Some ideas you could share about are what the highlights of the convention were, what your favorite seminar(s) were and why, did you come across a brand spanking new curriculum or book that you think we all need to check out, are the seminar tapes available to purchase, or maybe you had a big AHA moment that you would like to share with us? Leave me a comment and a way to reach you if you're interested :)
In the meantime stop by Sandpiper's blog. She has listed some fantastic books that she picked up at the convention and tells us a little about why she bought them :)
Hope to hear from you!
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Jun. 13, 2008 - Baby Beluga Born at the Vancouver Aquarium
You have to see this!! It is super cool :)
Qila a 12 year old Beluga Whale at the Vancouver Aquarium just gave birth to her first calf (baby beluga), a girl, on Tuesday June 10th, at 4:28 pm. The video actually shows the birth and you can see the baby start to swim and take a breath even before going underwater again. Everything seems to be going well :)
You can read more about the birth at the following links:
Canada.com
Qila a 12 year old Beluga Whale at the Vancouver Aquarium just gave birth to her first calf (baby beluga), a girl, on Tuesday June 10th, at 4:28 pm. The video actually shows the birth and you can see the baby start to swim and take a breath even before going underwater again. Everything seems to be going well :)
You can read more about the birth at the following links:
Canada.com
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Jun. 6, 2008 - FREE full color Book Plates
Okay.... raise your hand if you have ever loaned out a book and never got it back again. Come now, I can't be the only one that has forgotten to write their name or child's name inside of a good book that someone just had to borrow and then *poof* never to be seen again :) And usually you have no idea who in the world asked to borrow it and no one seems to have seen it *grin*
Sound familiar? Okay maybe I'm the only one with this problem
but I've just found the perfect solution to that unsightly name scribbling or lack of names all together that I do on the inside of book covers..... Book Plates! THIS site has some of the most fantastic book plates in full color and they are super cute! This is going to be a rainy day project for this summer so that the next time we are asked about borrowing a book we can slap in a fun book plate with our name on it and cross my fingers it comes back *grin*
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Jun. 5, 2008 - BCHLA Dialogue & Dessert ~ Friday June 6th, 2008
BCHLA Dialogue & Dessert!
6:45pm - 8:45pm
Friday June 6, 2008
Guildford Library Meeting Room
15105 - 105th Avenue
Surrey, BC
Please join us for a "Members Only" discussion and dessert this Friday evening, after the homeschool convention has closed for the evening.
RSVP via email at president@bchla.bc.ca to confirm your attendance.
If you are unsure as to the status of your membership, please do not hesitate to contact me. This meeting will only be open to those with paid memberships from 2007-08 and 2008-09.
RSVP via email at president@bchla.bc.ca to confirm your attendance.
If you are unsure as to the status of your membership, please do not hesitate to contact me. This meeting will only be open to those with paid memberships from 2007-08 and 2008-09.
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Jun. 3, 2008 - 7th Edition Canadian Home Educators Carnival is up
The newest edition of the Canadian Home Educators Carnival is up and running today! Make sure you stop over for some great articles. This weeks includes information on some favorite resources, a very interesting math program, and how homeschooling without credentials leads to 'Educational Anarchy' a rather amusing read *grin* and more!
Make sure you check it out.
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Jun. 1, 2008 - Call for submissions!!
The 7th edition of the Canadian Home Educators Carnival is just about to be released but there is still time to send in an entry about what has been happening in your province or territory! Doesn't have to be something that you just wrote yesterday, perhaps you've got something that you could share from last week. Whatever it is we would love to meet you and read all about it :)
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May. 31, 2008 - This could be the greatest Toy/Educational Store Ever!
For a couple of years now a good friend of mine has been dropping hints about a really great toy and educational supply store all wrapped up into one that I just had to see :) Now there are some really great toy stores about an hour and a half from our home (we live in the sticks) so I wasn't sure that making a special trip to see one nearly 3 hours from home was going to be worth it but the lure of being able to peruse vast amounts of curricula and accessories was what truly lured me there *grin* and oh boy was it worth it! Kool and Child is the 'mac daddy' of stores!! Well that's for anyone living north of Nanaimo on Vancouver Island that is, maybe you Victorians have something even better that you might want to tell me about?
Kool and Child is located at 208 Wallace St. in downtown Nanaimo and is a 4000 sq. foot building packed to the max with every kind of educational and developmental toy that you could imagine for all age ranges plus more. A child's dream come true literally and that is only on one half of the store. On the other side is a home educator's paradise! Oh my goodness.... it nearly blew my mind LOL. I think I may have had to pick up my jaw from the floor when I entered, I didn't even know where to start. I just wanted to run from one corner to another, like a kid in a candy store everywhere I turned I saw something even better *grin*
There were books and workbooks for art, mathematics, science, language arts, geography, history and more, flashcards, board games, any sort of help for a learning topic that you could imagine, hands on manipulatives, science kits, art kits, posters, charts, bulletin board theme cut outs galore, stickers, stamps, building/construction kits for your hands on learner and so much more I can't even list it all. You truly need more than a few minutes if you get the chance to go, so make sure you've got at least an hour slated in for browsing time and there are kid friendly spots for children to occupy themselves while you drool :) Their website only gives you their address and hours of operation so unfortunately you cannot browse the store at home, but if you know of a certain book or kit that you would like to get they will do their hardest to get it for you if they don't already have it in stock.
This was well worth the 3 hour drive and I can definitely say that I will be going again :)
Do you have a favorite educational/toy store that you would like to share with us? I'm sure there must be some really super ones on the mainland to!
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May. 26, 2008 - $100 Coming To A Mailbox Near You Soon!
The BC government has announced that all British Columbia residents that have filed a 2006 or 2007 income tax return will be eligible to receive the 'one time' $100 Climate Action Dividend cheque that is set to be mailed out sometime around the end of June. It is completely tax free and is supposed to offset the looming carbon taxes that will come into effect in July. That means for the average family of 4 you will be getting a nice little cash boost of $400 dollars next month since each of your children will also be issued a cheque as long as they are currently receiving the Canada Child Tax Benefit. Not bad since it's just in time for the summer holidays although they are hoping that you are going to use it for climate change initiatives for you family. Wishful thinking but I can see my husband dreaming of other things *grin*
It's a lovely gesture but not one that is actually going to help out for the long term with what the new carbon taxes might mean to families that don't have the extra cash flow to cover those extra dollars since they are estimating that the average Canadian will pay $60 for just this year in carbon taxes. But hey, that's just my .02 cents :)
Read more about it HERE
And if you were naughty and haven't filed this years income tax return *grin* or your child is not registered yet for the Canadian Child Tax Benefit you can fill out THIS form so they are eligible to receive the dividend to :)
It's a lovely gesture but not one that is actually going to help out for the long term with what the new carbon taxes might mean to families that don't have the extra cash flow to cover those extra dollars since they are estimating that the average Canadian will pay $60 for just this year in carbon taxes. But hey, that's just my .02 cents :)
Read more about it HERE
And if you were naughty and haven't filed this years income tax return *grin* or your child is not registered yet for the Canadian Child Tax Benefit you can fill out THIS form so they are eligible to receive the dividend to :)
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May. 26, 2008 - Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival
If you haven't already heard about the brand new Canadian Home Educators Blog Carnival then make sure you check it out! The 6th edition is due out tomorrow and I can't wait to see what you guys are up to :) This carnival is just for Canadians and each week Jacqueline takes us on a tour across the provinces and territories to have a sneak peak into what is happening across the country. There have been some really great entries. One of my favorite recent entries was from Newfoundland where At Home On The Rock and her family had a front row seat to watch Icebergs float by their property! Can you imagine!! That is totally amazing :) Here on the west coast there are definitely no icebergs floating around but boy would I love to go and visit them to see that in real life *grin*
So make sure you check it out an hopefully you will get a chance to participate as well :)
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