Posted in Homeschooling my kids

This year, as part of our homeschool, we registered the kids for Awana.   First time ever and they love it...

It is quite amazing how much they learn and how much I am learning too!    So we practice verses all week and on Thursday nights the kids have to tell them to their leader.

We have one T&T, one Sparky and one Cubbie who are having fun going to their meetings.  

My T&T is so eager that sometimes he does too much - so he has been told to slow down...   Slow down we did.   He has an advantage on the other kids because he is homeschool which means we incorporate the Awana lessons in our days.   Obviously the kids who goes to school during the day do not have as much time to spend on their book/projects to do.   So to make it harder I asked him to also do the silver and gold sections.   In a recent project, he has to do a poster on creation.

My Sparky has a blast.   I find that it is more difficult for him to do memorization.  He was having trouble with the New Testament books the last two week.   Fortunately, his Sparks book came with a CD (which Jasmine had broken and we got a new one!) and I had bought the extra CD with songs as well.   So we popped these in the CD player and listened to them.   He was able to say them no problem after that. 

My Cubbie is having fun.   I'm glad he was able to adjust himself easily for this.   I had a bit of fear but he is so happy of his vest and getting new patches for it.   It is so cute.

While the kids are going to AWANA, hubby, Jasmine and I are having a date night.   Mostly we do groceries... LOL  but it has to be done.  The funny part is that Jasmine doesn't want mommy to push the cart is has to be daddy - ALL the time.  *grin*   Daddy's girl through and through.  

Posted in Homeschooling my kids

2009-2010 is definetively a busy year for me.   This year I will have a 3rd grader, a SK and a JK as well as a very curious toddler who is demanding.   But doing homeschooling is still something I feel God as called me to.

The past year I got introduced to wonderful new products in homeschooling and I am excited to use them more this year.   I have a feeling that there might be too much on our shoulders but I will see as the weeks are going by.

This past week was pretty good (apart from Monday that is).   Not sure if it was the stress or something else but my baby girl was a difficult on Monday.   I gave her crayons - no, wooden things to put on a lace - okay for a little while then no, hard wood puzzle - no...   I was stressing out... and wasn't very patient I must admit.   But then nap time came and I was able to catch up a bit with my oldest.   I think it's great that he can work by himself if I need too.

My SK and JK both go grab their little workbooks when they see their older brother doing his work.   So cute!   I'm so glad I took a book for my JK - it's not much but he learns logic and recognition of sounds and so on.   My SK is working on writing his alphabet while my 3rd grader has completed his writing in cursive for the alphabet.   He also started his Gamma book on Math U See.   So far so good...  we are going on with the flow.   I need to get in a more schedule morning but I need also to remind that flexibility is important too. 

Being flexible is what we did yesterday as I woke up not in my plate.   So after an hour or so of schoolwork, we jump on the opportunity to ride with daddy to go pick up his server for the business where is was on co-location.   Daddy also ask our oldest to help with various things related to the business as well like verifying updates on the server and so on.   He is getting quite good at it.   8 years old and he knows how to update a PC.   Nuts!

My 3rd grader is also reading the series Guardians of Ga'Hoole and even though book 1 and 2 were harder to read for him, he is zooming through 3, 4 and 5 at an incredible speed.  I guess the story started to pick up.   I have read book 1 and I really enjoyed it.   Daddy is reading right now and he likes it too.   I really need to catch up on my son so I can talk about the story with him!   A movie is in the making for this series.   Pretty neat!

Well - I should get back at organizing the school room.   I heard there was a contest about it somewhere so I need to clean up a bit before taking pictures...  *grin*

Posted in Homeschooling my kids

We are back in town.   We had a good time in Niagara Falls and discovered neat things to do.   We had mostly good weather and we are blessed by this since we heard that in town it was rain, rain and more rain almost all of July.

Since hubby left with Alexandre on Thursday, I am wondering if we are doing the best choice for school.   Yep!   I am in my yearly doubting myself and being stressed and distressed.   I just want to give up and cry because I feel so useless.   I'm not sure it is in the best interest of the kids anymore.   Well, I know that school is probably not in the best interest either so why not a Christian school instead.   I don't know where to go to get encouragement and honestly I am not sure I care.    I'm in the pit of self-pity I guess.

The easyest solution would be to bring the kids to school.   It's not easy to school with a toddler and a 3 year old, a 5 year old who sighed everytime I asked him to do something.   My eldest is not so bad...  He is pretty much independant.  I can give him some pages to do and he would do it.   It's the younger ones who drain me.   I partly wish that I could separate myself in 4 and give as much attention to all of them.  

An idea has been mentioned to put the 3 year old in junior kindergarten for a year (his birthday would be in November which means he would be one of the youngest in the class).   But two days ago, I decided to sit him down and make him practice his name writing.   It went well.   And he needed the attention.  My 5 year old was practicing his writing for the letter of the alphabet from a book - so he was somewhat independent.   I realized that send ing the 3 year old at school where he would be a number among 20-25 other little ones - wasn't for his best interest.

So why am I so discouraged today?   Probably doesn't help that I am sick and that Jasmine - my toddler - is sick too.   The energy I had this morning is partly gone.   I'm tired and just want to go to bed.   Darn sinuses!

So here I am pouring out my heart to you - whoever who will read this - and knowing deep down that it isn't that bad.  But I have a short vision today.   Will I be able to school a 3rd grader, a kindergarten and a junior kindergarten this year?  And taking care of a toddler?  

Part of me wants me time... but after a month of being alone during the day I would be bored to death.  

I think I will ask my husband to care for the kids once a week so I can have time for myself to do what interest me like scrapbooking, card making or drawing.    I need some time and space for recuperate from the business of homeschool.   As soon as he comes back I will talk to him.  

Posted in Homeschooling my kids

yes we have one of those... even though it is not the one we first thought it would be.

At first, we thought Alexandre would be it just because of when he was a baby, he walked at 11 months.   Ah!   Totally not...  He is our golden retriever who cares for people.   He is sensitive to the bone that kid.  Sweet like a peach.   Oh sure he is competitive but not strong will.  Alexandre is easy to teach.  You give him a few pages and he takes off and go do it.  

Then we though it was Dominic... after all he decided to walk at 9 months but now I don't think so.   Dominic is my drama king.  When something happens to him, watch out!    We had to bring him to see the doctor to get rid of warths and he was kicking and yelling so much because it hurt.     Him - it's revenge.  We work on this to tell him that it's not always about hitting back.   Don't take me wrong it's not always like that only when he is really mad...  Dominic needs to have something in his hands when I am teaching him (well except when he needs to write then the toy goes next to him).   His attention span is short and he loves to move.  

Then came Jérémy.   My rocker... He loves to rocks on the sofa, in the bed to fall asleep and yes he is still doing it at 3 years old.   Hubby was like that as well as some aunts of his - they don't rock anymore.   Jérémy like to push the buttons to see if we will do what we say.  For example, if he doesn't finish his supper, no dessert...   These days he took the habit to not finish his food...  Which drives me nuts but he knows it drives me nuts so I try not to react.   If he doesn't finish his breakfast, I don't give him a snack in mid-morning until he finishes it.   I think he is getting it....  So I have became a bit more creative for toilet training as he doesn't care.   He always carry Mr Lunt and now Jesus and Mary in his hands so now, if he doesn't go in the bathroom, I take them away until he goes....   Boy that worked!   He zoom to the bathroom to get his little characters.   So funny!    With him, we have to do a game of everything almost because he is so stubborn about not doing something if it doesn't make sense.    I see some interesting teaching moments in the future.   He is bright though.   Sang the alphabet the other day without any errors.   A surprise for both hubby and I.  He was the child who took the longest to walk - 17 months for whatever reasons...  

Jasmine is learning to walk these days.  She is cruising the walls now and taking her courage to go from one bucket of toy to the other without holding.   She is more girlie in her crawling, walking and even high five...   She rocks too but only in his seat during food time.   I think she might do it in the crib too but I am not sure about this.    She is a wiggly worm when it's time to change her.  Boy I never seen that.  Even my mother-in-law is amazed by it... she had babysat lots of kids and she never seen a kid moving so much.   So we shall see how she will be in the future.  I don't want to make any assumptions at this time.

Having said that, I think I will have fun next year when I will teach a 3rd grader, a SK and a pre-schooler as well as take care of a toddler...   Fun, fun, fun!

Posted in Homeschooling my kids

Well a bit of everything...

OUI (that stands for yes in French), WE got a Wii for Christmas.

And since then, WE are including the Wii for homeschool.   How you may ask?   Simply with the Wii Fit (another thing we got for Christmas).   It is amazing.   Unfortunately I still can't use it because my cast is still on but I am planning to try the Wii Fit as soon as it is gone (which is Thursday btw).    We created a Mii for Alexandre and he is doing his fitness routine regularly.   Mind you I am not sure if it will last but I think it will.    There is another training game we want to get - it's called Personal Trainer and on it there is something like 500 training exercises.    Another one came out called Boot Camp 2009 but between you and me the trainer need to get dress a bit more.   I wouldn't get that one just because of how Jillian is dressed.  

We also discovered Wii games for the young ones who are learning color and shapes and so on with them.   And we bought Endless Ocean to learn about scubadiving and animals from the ocean.   Apart from the Wii Fit, the rest of the Wii will be awarded based on the fact the kids have completed their homework or not.

On another note, I was able to go out with hubby and the kids during a little shopping spree.   At the Wal-Mart, we looked into the games bin and I found the two Nintendo DS BrainQuest game - one for grade 3-4 and another one for grade 5-6  - for 9.96 each instead of the 35$ previously found...    So I am very happy with this discovery.    I use the Nintendo DS as a motivation.   Our games are education once again.   Did you know there were game such as Spelling Challenge, Math Play, even the Flash Focus is something Alexandre can us.    For Dominic, we got a little game for younger kids but he will get it on his birthday only.   

We used to have 2 Nintendo DS but unfortunately, one of them disappeared the day I had surgery back in November.   My husband thinks he might have dropped it and I called the hospital a few times but they don't have it.   So we lost it.   Hopefully, someone will enjoy the games that he had in there - including my Bible Game.   Now if I can only put my hands back on that game....   I was enjoying it!

Posted in Homeschooling my kids

I am getting quite addicted to my local library - something that's been years in my life.   Sure when I was in school I borrowed tons of books but now... not so much. 

But with homeschooling buying books can get quite expensive in our family!   What can I say - I'm a book lover through and through.   I'm glad my kids loves books too.   And hubby is happy to see his kids enjoying books at an earlier age than he did.  But realistically, money don't grow on trees...

So I decided to check out the local library.   Got some books a week ago...  Then I finished the first Harry Potter and decided to continue the series... so I went back today and got book 2 - 4.  LOL   Won't be able to miss anything anymore...  I also got Charlie and the chocolate factory as well as it's sequel.   I read the first book when I was younger but never the second one.   I will read these with Alexandre.

Alexandre returned his books and borrowed a bunch of other ones including Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder.   It's so cool to see him getting his book and read.

We took it relax today.   Got up way too early because I couldn't sleep...   Since we will be going to a butterfly exhibit next week, I decided to do some butterfly activities.  We didn't do all of them - keeping some for next week.  The kids watched the Magic School Bus about butterflies and I read a book From caterpillar to butterfly.   I also took out my DK eyewitness book on butterflies for reference.   For the kids I printed some butterfly coloring page and Alexandre had different activities like wordsearch, identification of a butterfly part, identification of the grow process as well as a math page on butterflies.

Oh and today we could go vote by anticipation.   So we did.   We prefer voting in advance to avoid the crowd.   Alexandre came with me and I explained to him the whole voting process.   He asked what was a prime minister and I told him.   In Canada, we have a prime minister not a president...   And I told him that we have too many parties - crazy I tell you!    Election Day is on November 14th but our duty as a citizen is already done.   On the 14th you can bet to see my husband in front of the TV to watch the elections though - just like he was in front of the TV in the last two days for the debates (one in French andthe other in English).  

Posted in Homeschooling my kids

What did we do this week - apart from going to the turtle hatching event on Friday?   Here's my highlights of the week...

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Posted in Homeschooling my kids

... is a very interesting store.   So a trip there yesterday evening means now that I have three kids in homeschool...  Why?   Well I found a french book for preschoolers which means Jérémy can be introduced slowly to certain notions.

Oh everytime I do the sound book for the French alphabet, he joins in with Dominic.   So he was already sort of homeschool...  It's just more fun to have a book for him too!

And he was all happy.  Holding his book tight in the cart.  So cute!

Posted in Homeschooling my kids

I didn't know but apparently this is the season for turtle hatching.   And I just got and e-mail for an activity at Petrie Island (a bit far from my place but so worth it to go to) about Turtle Hatching.   So I called, left my name and phone number and wait until they call back....   Registering 3 kids - ages 2,4 and 7).  Cost?  6$ plus parking which is 2$ for 5 hours or something like that.   Not too bad...   Don't know if I have to pay too!

They will watch a video on turtle hatching and then go see if there is evidence on the beach.   Isn't it cool?

Today we did our first lesson of Mystery of History - which was about creation.   Okay we did lots of reading and we did a coloring about the creation.   Tomorrow I will give an assignment to Alexandre (the other two are a bit too young).    It was fun.

Tomorrow I have an appointment with the specialist for my foot - going through the different things before surgery in November.   I am not looking forward to it but it has to be done.  This bunion of mine is killing me at times and it took me 2 years to see this doctor (this is my 2nd appointment with her).  

Posted in Homeschooling my kids

October 14... the day after Thanksgiving here in Canada.   We are going to the polls...  So it got me thinking.  Is there some teaching resources about Elections in Canada?

I found this link at Elections Canada for teachers...  Unfortunately, the order department is close for the period of the elections.  Bummer!

So I looked again and found this interesting site for anything in Canada as well as background resources for teachers.   

So if you are interested on how Canada is ruled.  Check the sites...