Free Range Learning

A Bright Idea

2008-01-24T22:24:00.000-08:00

I just had to share the science experiment that the kids and I did for our homeschool group's monthly "theme day" today.
We're currently in the middle of a cold snap, so we've been experiencing a lot of static electricity - our hair stands on end, and we get a zap every time we touch a door knob. We decided to do a little research into what causes static electricity, also hoping that we'd find some fun ways of demonstrating its power.
This website provided a pretty clear description of what causes that annoying crackle, as well as some fun, easy experiments to do.
The best one promised that we'd be able to light up a compact flourescent light bulb using a balloon that had been rubbed on someone's hair to build up static. We tried this in a dark/windowless room, and I'm happy to report that it worked!! The bulb flickered on and off, occasionally letting off a larger blast of light if the balloon was particularly well charged. The kids had a ball with it, taking turns holding the bulb over their heads and pretending that they'd just thought of something brilliant. I tried to capture it on film, but sadly, that proved impossible with my limited equipment.
The other fun thing that we did was to hold the well-rubbed balloon next to a thin stream of running water, which would then bend in the direction of the balloon, trying to connect. The kids were pretty sure it was magic, not science.

Now, if only I could figure out how to power my house using static cling and shocks from the carpet!

I'm still here!

2008-01-10T07:45:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the long abscence! If you're not a regular reader of my other blog and would like to hear my list of excuses, click here.

I hope to have a homeschooling related post up soon!

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List

2007-11-07T23:04:00.000-08:00

I got this in an email today and thought it was worth sharing!

The Bitter Homeschooler's Wish List:

(From Secular Homeschooling Magazine, Issue #1)

1 Please stop asking us if it's legal. If it is — and it is — it's insulting to imply that we're criminals. And if we were criminals, would we admit it?

2 Learn what the words "socialize" and "socialization" mean, and use the one you really mean instead of mixing them up the way you do now. Socializing means hanging out with other people for fun. Socialization means having acquired the skills necessary to do so successfully and pleasantly. If you're talking to me and my kids, that means that we do in fact go outside now and then to visit the other human beings on the planet, and you can safely assume that we've got a decent grasp of both concepts.

3 Quit interrupting my kid at her dance lesson, scout meeting, choir practice, baseball game, art class, field trip, park day, music class, 4H club, or soccer lesson to ask her if as a homeschooler she ever gets to socialize.

4 Don't assume that every homeschooler you meet is homeschooling for the same reasons and in the same way as that one homeschooler you know.

5 If that homeschooler you know is actually someone you saw on TV, either on the news or on a "reality" show, the above goes double.

6 Please stop telling us horror stories about the homeschoolers you know, know of, or think you might know who ruined their lives by homeschooling. You're probably the same little bluebird of happiness whose hobby is running up to pregnant women and inducing premature labor by telling them every ghastly birth story you've ever heard. We all hate you, so please go away.

7 We don't look horrified and start quizzing your kids when we hear they're in public school. Please stop drilling our children like potential oil fields to see if we're doing what you consider an adequate job of homeschooling.

8 Stop assuming all homeschoolers are religious.

9 Stop assuming that if we're religious, we must be homeschooling for religious reasons.

10 We didn't go through all the reading, learning, thinking, weighing of options, experimenting, and worrying that goes into homeschooling just to annoy you. Really. This was a deeply personal decision, tailored to the specifics of our family. Stop taking the bare fact of our being homeschoolers as either an affront or a judgment about your own educational decisions.

11 Please stop questioning my competency and demanding to see my credentials. I didn't have to complete a course in catering to successfully cook dinner for my family; I don't need a degree in teaching to educate my children. If spending at least twelve years in the kind of chew-it-up-and-spit-it-out educational facility we call public school left me with so little information in my memory banks that I can't teach the basics of an elementary education to my nearest and dearest, maybe there's a reason I'm so reluctant to send my child to school.

12 If my kid's only six and you ask me with a straight face how I can possibly teach him what he'd learn in school, please understand that you're calling me an idiot. Don't act shocked if I decide to respond in kind.

13 Stop assuming that because the word "home" is right there in "homeschool," we never leave the house. We're the ones who go to the amusement parks, museums, and zoos in the middle of the week and in the off-season and laugh at you because you have to go on weekends and holidays when it's crowded and icky.

14 Stop assuming that because the word "school" is right there in homeschool, we must sit around at a desk for six or eight hours every day, just like your kid does. Even if we're into the "school" side of education — and many of us prefer a more organic approach — we can burn through a lot of material a lot more efficiently, because we don't have to gear our lessons to the lowest common denominator.

15 Stop asking, "But what about the Prom?" Even if the idea that my kid might not be able to indulge in a night of over-hyped, over-priced revelry was enough to break my heart, plenty of kids who do go to school don't get to go to the Prom. For all you know, I'm one of them. I might still be bitter about it. So go be shallow somewhere else.

16 Don't ask my kid if she wouldn't rather go to school unless you don't mind if I ask your kid if he wouldn't rather stay home and get some sleep now and then.

17 Stop saying, "Oh, I could never homeschool!" Even if you think it's some kind of compliment, it sounds more like you're horrified. One of these days, I won't bother disagreeing with you any more.

18 If you can remember anything from chemistry or calculus class, you're allowed to ask how we'll teach these subjects to our kids. If you can't, thank you for the reassurance that we couldn't possibly do a worse job than your teachers did, and might even do a better one.

19 Stop asking about how hard it must be to be my child's teacher as well as her parent. I don't see much difference between bossing my kid around academically and bossing him around the way I do about everything else.

20 Stop saying that my kid is shy, outgoing, aggressive, anxious, quiet, boisterous, argumentative, pouty, fidgety, chatty, whiny, or loud because he's homeschooled. It's not fair that all the kids who go to school can be as annoying as they want to without being branded as representative of anything but childhood.

21 Quit assuming that my kid must be some kind of prodigy because she's homeschooled.

22 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of prodigy because I homeschool my kids.

23 Quit assuming that I must be some kind of saint because I homeschool my kids.

24 Stop talking about all the great childhood memories my kids won't get because they don't go to school, unless you want me to start asking about all the not-so-great childhood memories you have because you went to school.

25 Here's a thought: If you can't say something nice about homeschooling, shut up!

Halloween Hangman

2007-10-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

I thought some of you might enjoy this online Hangman game with a Halloween flavor.

http://www.dedge.com/flash/hangman/hangman.swf

It's spooky spelling fun!

Jackson Pollock for a Day

2007-10-15T00:08:00.000-07:00

We've been a lot of really neat things this year, but I haven't had a chance to post about any of them yet!

I can tell you that I finally came to my senses and withdrew from the program we were registered with. I found that the reporting was taking up the little bit of free time I do have lately, and the last thing I want is for this house project to become something that the kids suffer from. My hope is that I'll be better at keeping up with this blog so we'll have a bit of a reminder of our year. Though we're missing the funding, I'm not missing the hoop jumping!

Today Jay went to a birthday party today at a local art studio where the kids got to pretend they were Jackson Pollock and did some paint throwing. Can you say fun?!

They mostly threw the paint using large brushes, but they also got to pop balloons full of paint. I can't think of anything that a group of 8 year old boys would enjoy more, and frankly, I'm a little surprised at how clean he was at the end of it!

Can you tell by the expression on his face that he's liking this art form? Heaven help me if he takes this up seriously!

Shoreline Cleanup '07

2007-09-18T22:36:00.000-07:00

Well, it's that time of year again, time for the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, something we've participated in for the past 4 or 5 years. The kids get a real sense of satisfaction from taking part, and we're always amazed at the stuff we find.

This year we were lucky enough to be assigned to our favorite beach (Spanish Banks for those of you who know the area), and the weather was even kind enough to cooperate. With a gorgeous setting like this, it hardly felt like work!

By the time we were done, the sun had come out, and the beach was looking great. We were pleasantly surprised how clean the beach was considering that the city's outside workers have been on strike for the past 9 weeks. There were the usual bottle caps, cigarette butts, and a few other odds and ends, but it was in surprisingly good shape.

If you're feeling the urge to get out there and help, the cleanup runs until the 23rd!

Dilemma

2007-09-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

For the past three years, the kids have been enrolled in a program set up by a local private school that provides us with $1000 (per kid) worth of funding toward the kids' various activities in exchange for a little bit of weekly reporting on my part. The school is based on a strong belief in child-led learning, so they are very unschooling friendly, and the kids have never been affected by their enrollment - they live their lives, I write up a synopsis of what they get up to, and our facilitator turns that into "educationese" in order to satisfy the government body holding the purse strings. So far, so good. I'm well aware that, according to the government, we aren't actually considered homeschoolers because of our affiliation with this school (it irks the hell out of me, but I've learned to live with it) - but then again, I'm not really homeschooling for political reasons (although I guess we all are to some extent).
We're lucky here in BC, because we have the choice to opt out of the education system and teach our children however we want, no questions asked. That's how we did it for the first few years, but as the kids got older and wanted to take more and more classes, the pull of the funding was pretty hard to turn down.
My reason for saying all this is that I'm thinking of pulling out of the program because of the work that lies ahead of us with the building of our house. My husband and I are planning to do most of the interior finishing ourselves over the coming fall/winter, and I don't foresee having a lot of spare time on my hands. The only problem is, we need the school funding now more than ever! The $1000 barely covers music lessons, and there's still photography, Capoeira, and gymnastics to pay for (and now we've discovered a really cool "knight training" class)!
I think it's pretty obvious that we can't continue with this particular program. There is the possibility of switching to the government's DEL (Distance Education) program, which offers the same funding and only requires a portfolio per term rather than daily input, but they're also more "schooly" in their expectations and therefore less unschooling friendly (I don't really care if my kids learn about the first World War in grade 10 or grade 2).
I guess my other options are to try and come up with a way for us to do our own fundraising (Bake sales? Handmade greeting cards with the kids' artwork?), or to cut back on activites, which I don't want to do.
How do the rest of you make your homeschooling ends meet?

Schools Are for Fish

2007-08-15T23:34:00.000-07:00

Here are a few new comic strips from Jason Holm. He has such a knack for hitting the nail on the head! (Click to enlarge image).

Piano Pals

2007-08-07T08:35:00.000-07:00

Bee is loving having a piano while we're staying at my mother's house. We only had room for a small keyboard in our old house, and that just didn't seem to cut it for her, as she always waited until we were visiting grandma to practice. Since moving here, she plays for between one and two hours a day - needless to say, she has gotten really good really fast. We obviously need to invest in the real deal when we move into our house.

Baxter, our 12 year old tabby cat, loves it when she plays and always comes running from wherever he is to sit at her side and listen. Sometimes he even tries out a few notes.

I think she enjoys having such an appreciative audience, and happily indulges him with her feline serenade.

Harry Potter Mania

2007-07-22T23:32:00.000-07:00

We joined thousands of eager Harry Potter fans on Friday night, heading out to one of the city's most beautiful gardens which had been turned into the Ministry of Magic for a few fun hours.

The party that we took part in was put on by Vancouver Kidsbooks, our favorite local bookstore, which always decorates its front entrance in honor of the latest Harry Potter book.

We were stunned by the volume of traffic that this event created. It was like the city's worst rush hour at 11:00 at night!

Once we got through the gates, it felt like we were deep inside the Forbidden Forest, surrounded by characters straight out of the pages of the books.

There was a mini Hogwarts Express...

...and Hungarian Horntail dragons just looking for trouble.

Dumbledore, Harry and Fawkes kept the crowd entertained until midnight struck and we were given what we'd all come for. I love how excited everyone was despite the rain, many people sat and started reading as soon as they got their copy. There were people dressed as every character imaginable, the best being the person dressed as the Fat Lady in the painting, carrying a picture frame in front of themselves all night.

Did anyone else take part in one of the midnight parties?

Summer Fun

2007-07-13T23:46:00.000-07:00

Wow, I am so incredibly bad at keeping up with this blog! Thanks to those of you who still bother to check in on it now and then.

My excuse is that we've been doing a whole lot of this lately, swimming at our favorite local pools and parks. This one in particular is one of the best pools in the city - the view of the mountains is incredible.

What's everyone else doing with their summer days?

Amazing Wildlife Video

2007-06-19T23:29:00.000-07:00

This video was posted to our local homeschooling Yahoo group recently, and it is without a doubt the most amazing wildlife video I've ever seen. It's several minutes long, but it's totally worth watching. I can't imagine what it must have been like for the people who did the filming!
Make sure your volume is up so you can hear the people talking in the background.

The Light of the Night

2007-05-18T22:22:00.000-07:00

Click to enlarge image.

Tie Dyeing

2007-05-15T22:37:00.000-07:00

Our group of homeschooling buddies got together a while ago to do some tie dyeing. All being a little crunchy, we decided to use natural dyes. I've never actually used them for anything before, but the colors are so incredibly vibrant, I can't imagine why we need chemical dyes at all.

We took organic cotton t-shirts from Mountain Equipment Co-op, and tied them up with string and elastic bands. Jay scrunched up his shirt like an accordion from top to bottom, and tied it horizontally from one side to the other (his is the one on the left). Bee started in the middle of her shirt and tied it towards the outside edges. Once they were securely tied, we squirted the dye from the bottles onto the shirts - this works much better than dipping, as you can get it exactly where you want it (you might want to do this on your lawn!). After leaving them to sit for several days, we rinsed them out and revealed their designs. Considering how much dye we squirted on these babies, I can't believe how much white is still left on them!

The colors are surprisingly stable, and I haven't had a problem at all with them running in the wash. To learn more about these awesome natural dyes, click here.

Socialization

2007-05-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

I saw this cute comic that deals with the dreaded socialization question on one of the unschooling lists that I'm on. Its creator is planning to make t-shirts and bumper stickers with it. Check it out here.

Some Drawings

2007-04-25T22:55:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's almost been a month since my last post! We've been up to a lot (we made some really great tie dye shirts with natural dyes that I'll post about shortly), but haven't had a lot of time for posting unfortunately.
Bee did these drawings of herself and her brother today, and they are just so darn cute that I couldn't resist sharing them.

This one is a picture that she did of Jay with our cat Baxter.

Here's one of Bee walking Princess.

And this one is what she envisions her life being like when we move to our new property.

I just love the huge anime eyes that she draws, as well as the crooked little grins.

Paper Airplanes

2007-03-29T22:13:00.000-07:00

My son is obsessed with this book at the moment. He bought it at a recent book sale, and has been folding paper airplanes like crazy ever since.

There are several neat planes in the book, but my favorite is one called the Hurricane, which is actually a round tube that spins as it flies in a spiral motion.

Included with the book is a pack of really cool paper in a variety of prints that adds pizazz to your planes.

Anyone else out there a fan of Klutz books?

Critters

2007-03-23T00:22:00.000-07:00

We went to a birthday party yesterday, and as the main form of entertainment, they brought in a man who keeps all kinds of animals, insects, birds, amphibians and reptiles. It was a lot of fun - we learned a lot, and got to see and touch some animals that we'd never seen in person before.

My personal favorite was Hazel, the Pygmy Hedgehog.

When he brought her out, she was curled up into a little protective ball.

But as she relaxed, we got to see a little more of her face...

...and in no time she was comfortable having the kids give her a gentle pat. Before too long, she was on the floor, eagerly checking out her surroundings.

The chameleon was very neat to see up close. Did you know that their color changes to show how they're feeling, not to provide them with camoflauge?

This Blue Tongued Skink was my son's favorite. His scales were surprisingly hard to the touch.

This Chinchilla named George was my daughter's favorite. I've never felt such soft fur, it's absolutely amazing. He was very happy just sitting quietly with the birthday boy.

This is a juvenile Cane Toad, which is highly poisonous (needless to say, we didn't get to touch him).

This scary looking guy is a Vinegar bug. Despite his fearsome appearance, the worst he can do to you is spray a cloud of vinegar scented air in your direction.

The hairless rat was pretty interesting - they've been bred to grow human ears and noses for reconstructive surgeries. Not quite as cute as the hairer variety though (I've had a few rats as pets and they are lovely animals).

The Japanese Fire Bellied Newt was pretty non-descript from above...

...but take a look underneath and you see where he gets his name.

This charming fellow is the Tailless Whipscorpion, which is harmless (although I'm sure it could do some damage to your ticker if you stumbled upon it unexpectedly!).

It was a very neat way to spend an afternoon, and my kids have been pouring over his website to see what other animals he has in anticipation of their own birthday parties. I'm game as long as I get to see Hazel again!

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

2007-03-03T09:26:00.000-08:00

Someone sent me the link to this great video and I thought I'd share it here. The speaker is fun to listen to, and the message is an important one.
Enjoy!

If you can't see the video, try this link.

Capoeira

2007-02-17T10:35:00.000-08:00

Capoeira is a Brazilian martial art that was created by African slaves in the 16th century, and it's my son's newest passion (Bee enjoys it too, but not like he does). It combines sparring, dancing, singing, drumming, high kicks and acrobatics - what more could a seven year old boy ask for?

If you've heard the Mazda car ads with the song "Zoom, zoom, zoom", you've heard a traditional Capoeira song. It's one that they sing in class and it's very easy to get stuck in your head for the rest of the week.

It's amazing what the instructors are able to do, things like spinning upside down on one hand with seemingly very little effort - the strength and flexibility that it requires is incredible. The women who do it are an inspiration, and the men - well, as one dad put it upon sitting in on a class for the first time, "I can see why it's standing room only with the moms.".

Ridiculous, we're only there to support our kids, honest. ;D

To learn more about Capoeira, click here.

The dark side of homeschooling?

2007-01-26T22:37:00.000-08:00

I seem to be neglecting this poor blog lately.
The kids and I have been busy with various things, but nothing too exciting.
Our homelearning group held its monthly "Theme Day" on Thursday, which was fun. There were many great presentations, and we learned a lot (about Chinese inventions, why it's important to recycle cell phones, bones in the human body, why popcorn pops, invisible ink, etc.) . This month's theme was open, which is supposed to allow the kids the freedom to talk about whatever they feel like, but my guys seem to have a problem with that. When there's a specific theme, they usually look for a way to make it fit their interests, but when it's completely up to them, they have no ideas. In the end they decided to make a movie for their friends using their Littlest Pet Shops and a batch of borax slime. It turned out to be more of an in joke between the two of them than anything else, but they had a ball making it.
Theme days are always fun because it's a chance for the kids to play together as a group, and for the moms to catch up/bitch/compare notes.
We (the moms) ended up talking about how it seems like a lot of homeschooling mothers try to create this image of non-stop domestic bliss, never admitting to the frustrations and outright madness that sometimes ensues. It occurred to me today that this is probably partly because by choosing to homeschool, we're doing something that many people don't understand and are eager to find fault with, which makes it hard to admit that sometimes it's not all fun and games and academic brilliance. If someone asks in that oh-so-interested way "how's the homeschooling going?", it can be humiliating to confess that you haven't been out of your pajamas in days, and that the kids can't be within 10 feet of each other without one making the other one cry (not that that ever happens at our house, of course). That's when it's great to get together with other women who are in the same homeschooling boat to vent your frustrations and restore your sanity.
So in the name of solidarity, I'm here to tell you that in between acting out our favorite Shakespeare plays and studying the various dialects of the Yanomamo people (what, you think I'm making this stuff up?), we have our fair share of crying jags and uncontrollable hissy fits (and sometimes the kids have bad days, too). : D

Harry Potter

2007-01-12T21:26:00.003-08:00

Our whole family is filled with Harry Potter nuts (grandparents included), and we're anxiously counting down the days until the next movie comes out:

We're not quite finished reading the Order of the Phoenix yet though, so it's a good thing the movie's still several months away. We'd like to have The Half Blood Prince finished soon too, as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will probably be released in the summer. Our favorite local bookstore (Vancouver Kidsbooks) always decorates the front of its store to look like Hogwarts or Gringott's Bank, and hosts a midnight party on the day of its release. We haven't made it to one before (the kids were younger and hadn't read as many of the books previously), but we definitely don't want to miss our last chance to participate. They still have their Harry and Hermione costumes from last Halloween, so they'll be dressing the part as well.

The latest craze around here since Christmas has been Wizard's Chess and the Harry Potter Scene It game. The kids are usually playing one or the other. They're obsessed, I tell you.

Any other Potter fans out there?

Rock On!

2007-01-09T13:00:00.000-08:00

I took this photo of Jay yesterday while he was playing with his new electric guitar. It's a loan from a friend of his who has decided that he doesn't want to learn how to play the guitar after all. His mom knew that my guy would like to learn, so we've got this adorable mini electric for the next three months (longer if we decide to take over their rental).

I think the first course of action will be to get headphones for the amp - improv rock guitar at full blast can be really hard on the nerves! :D

He looks like such a little rocker with his long hair (the dimples and sweet face kind of blow it though), and I just noticed that the shirt he's wearing in the photo says "Draco School of Rock". Too funny. He and his sister are convinced that they will have their own band one day, with her on the piano.

Now to find him an instructor!

Knitting

2007-01-05T10:28:00.000-08:00

I learned to knit as a child, but I was pretty much starting from scratch when the kids and I decided to do some knitting a couple of years ago.

Bee is really good at it. She's very crafty, has nimble fingers, and can focus on a task for a long time if she's interested in it. This is her working on a scarf made with some cute fuzzy yarn that we got at a nearby wool shop. I'm making one out of the same yarn, but mine is in tones of orange, green and pink as opposed to her pink, blue and purple.

I'd love to one day be good enough to make our own socks. I guess I better get practicing!

The Sound of Music

2007-01-03T11:43:00.000-08:00

I realize this might come as a bit of a shock, but up until a couple of weeks ago, I had never seen all of The Sound of Music. I'd seen bits and pieces in passing over the years, but I hadn't ever sat down and watched the whole movie. The crazy thing is, it's one of my mother's favorite movies, but she's not exactly the type to sit down and watch a movie that she's already seen once, so it's not too surprising that it was never on in our house.
We finally sat down over the holidays and watched it (my mom included) , and I think we've found a new family favorite. We've been singing the songs ever since (we gave my husband a grand performance while he was trapped in the car with us the other day) and we were tickled to hear "The Lonely Goatherd" sampled in Gwen Stefani's latest single. I can see it being even more fun to watch once you know all of the songs.
Bee is keen to learn some of the songs on the piano. We got my sister-in-law the piano book last year when they bought a piano because she's a huge fan of the movie, so maybe we can borrow hers.
Any other Sound of Music fans out there?

Paper Fashions

2006-12-30T18:44:00.000-08:00

Klutz books have always been a favorite around our house, but this latest one, Paper Fashions, has got my daughter obsessed!

A couple of her friends have the book and she would pour over it whenever we went for a visit. Luckily, she got it from her grandpa for Christmas, and it seems to be her favorite gift as she's spent hours making different outfits over the past week.

I especially like the two shirts on the right in the above photo.

The evening gown is also very elegant.

Now if only she would take up sewing!

Gingerbread House

2006-12-23T18:02:00.000-08:00

On Thursday we went to visit some friends for a little Solstice get-together. They have a really neat reversible cast iron mold that makes two styles of gingerbread houses. Since we've been enjoying the Little House on the Prairie books for the last little while, Bee decided on the log cabin style.

We got the house constructed, but brought it home to decorate, which Bee did last night.
The gingerbread mother, standing by the door, is wearing a blue apron and calling the kids in for dinner. Santa is up on the roof getting ready to go down the chimney. I love the vivid colours she chose for the icing, and the little added details such as the skating marks on the pond and the holly decoration on the front door. The warm glow coming from the windows looks very welcoming.

Merry Christmas!

Homemade Caramels

2006-12-21T11:34:00.000-08:00

The kids absolutely love the caramels that one of the vedors sells at our local farmer's market, and I was planning to contact the woman who makes them to see if I could get some for stocking stuffers, but then I got to thinking that surely there must be a recipe for them out there, and I could just make them myself. I did some searching and finally found one that looked promising.

These are the resulting caramels - glossy and creamy and unbelievably good. They might even be better than the ones at the market! They taste a little like the Werther's hard candies, but are soft and chewy and melt in your mouth.

My plan of putting them in the kids' stockings flew right out the window when they started going stir crazy from being stuck at home while I was in the kitchen baking, so I put them to work wrapping the individual candies in waxed paper. Bee (my little manager) took great pride in wrapping them just so, and was so pleased to show off our huge pile of professional looking candies when her dad got home. I think we've got a new holiday tradition on our hands.

The recipe that we used to make these delicious treats can be found here.

Piano Lessons

2006-12-17T23:34:00.000-08:00

Bee started taking piano lessons last spring, and loves to play her favorite songs over and over, (one time as fast as she can, the next time really slow).
Her brother has music in his soul (he's always humming quietly to himself), but he's never shown any interest in learning an instrument. Until last week, that is, when he asked Bee to teach him how to play the piano.

They spent almost two hours that day working on the first two songs in her lesson book. I was stunned by her patience, and he was thrilled to be getting so much attention from his big sister. The next day, while she was away at a class, he decided to learn one of her favorite songs. He worked on it steadily for about an hour and a half (with a little help reading the music from me - I played the guitar and clarinet in my "youth"), and by the time she got home, he could play it no problem. I think he may have found himself an instrument!
While they were practicing the other day, I peeked into the room and saw her playing the piano, with him beside her resting his head on her shoulder. Trust me, they can fight like you wouldn't believe (especially now that she's maturing and he's, well, a typical 7 year old boy), but I think the bond they share will serve them well throughout their lives.

Word Cloud

2006-12-15T20:44:00.000-08:00

Here's the essence of our blog summed up in a "word cloud".

Click here to make on of your own.

Door decor

2006-12-14T00:12:00.000-08:00

We've been busy doing most of our Christmas decorating over the past few days.

We made this wreath several years ago using gloves and a hat. The photo is a bit washed out - his nose and bow are supposed to be red, not orange (and the door is actually dark blue like the one below).

The kids made these gorgeous snowflakes using patterns from a book we borrowed from a friend. We've never made such pretty ones before!

Favorite Things - Chess

2006-12-08T23:29:00.000-08:00

Playing chess is one of our favorite ways to pass the time.

Making Candles

2006-12-04T21:21:00.000-08:00

We bought a bunch of beeswax a while ago and have finally gotten around to making some candles with it.
This wax gets its nice brown colour from the buckwheat that the bees got their nectar from. It smells absolutely heavenly.

The kids helped me get the votive molds ready by sticking the pre-tabbed wicks down with a bit of Tacky Wax.

After pouring the melted wax into the molds, we used some chopsticks to hold the wicks in the middle until it hardened a bit.

When the wax cools, it shrinks, making it possible to tap the candles out of the molds.

Making candles this way is incredibly easy. The kids are going to give these ones to their various teachers as thank you gifts.

To read more about our attempts at candle making, click here.

Online Snowflake Maker

2006-12-01T09:44:00.000-08:00

Now that our own snow has started to melt, the kids are having a ball with this website where you can make virtual paper snowflakes, and they've made some pretty incredible designs. There's also a gallery where you can see some of the amazing flakes that others have made.
I love it because I don't have to sweep up thousands of paper bits!

Make-a-Flake

Snow Fun

2006-11-29T00:58:00.000-08:00

We had a rare winter blast over the weekend and the kids (the furry one included) had a great time playing in the snow.

Jay gets a snowball ready.

Princess looks on expectantly.

Pounce!

Bee in the snow fort we built.

There's more snow in the forecast for tomorrow - we can't wait!

To see some more snowy photos, click here.

Multiplication Fun

2006-11-24T23:47:00.000-08:00

A lesson in oxymorons, or a great way to learn your times tables?
My son has been really enjoying a game called Timez Attack lately. It's an adventure game for the computer that teaches kids their times tables while they try to escape from a dungeon, battle trolls and fight dragons. We downloaded the free version a while ago, but we purchased the full version today, as they're offering $10 off until the end of November (just enter the word "turkeybrainz" in the coupon code line during checkout).
Jay played it for 2 to 3 hours tonight and is up to his 4X tables!

Go to the Big Brainz website for more information and a free trial.

Self Portrait

2006-11-18T10:54:00.000-08:00

Bee completed this picture of herself in her art class last week.

It's done with a combination of pastels, watercolours, and collage.

To see some neat photos of our mason bee house and its inhabitants, click here.

The Many Uses of Cedar

2006-11-14T23:24:00.000-08:00

Last week we took part in a program at a local museum to learn more about the many ways the local Musqueam people used the cedar tree. It's amazing how important it was to their way of life.

The above photo is of what a waterfront village may have looked like hundreds of years ago. The houses and story poles were all made with cedar.

This is some of their large collection of story poles...

...and there was an artist on site doing a carving demonstration, which the kids were quite interested in.

This canoe is decorated with some traditional coastal artwork.

Jay was very interested in this canoe, which the kids were allowed to touch and examine close up. It would have been hollowed out, and then filled with several inches of water and steaming hot rocks in order to steam the wood to make it more pliable. After a while, the sides of the canoe would then be spread to make it wider in the middle.

They made bentwood cooking boxes in a similar fashion, steaming a single piece of wood and bending it to make the four sides of a box. They would cook in them by dropping hot rocks into the box to heat the contents.

One of my favorite things that we saw were these bowls. Everyone got their own individual beautifully carved bowl when they were born, and they took it with them wherever they went throughout the rest of their lives.

Even more impressive was that they could even make various articles of clothing out of cedar. These hats are woven out of individual fibers of the inner bark. They were a particularly good thing to have in our rainy west coast weather, as the fibers would expand when they got damp, making the hats impervious to water.

It was an interesting field trip, and the kids enjoyed playing anthropologist, figuring out what various tools and artifacts were used for.

Our guide seemed a bit wary of the whole homeschooling thing to begin with, but she warmed up pretty quickly, and one of the moms even heard another employee say what a good group of kids they were.

I guess it was educational for all involved!

Hooked Rug

2006-11-09T08:20:00.000-08:00

Bee finished hooking this rug yesterday using a kit that her aunt and uncle bought for her. It's pretty small (maybe 10 X 10), so she's thinking of turning it into a pillow. I think it looks great!

Busy Kids

2006-11-07T10:14:00.000-08:00

I just read this article about how full kids' schedules are nowadays and I think it's right on the money. My two get really stressed if we're out all day and they don't have a good chunk of time at home when they can do their own thing, whether it be cooking, working on a project, or just reading a good book. You have to wonder how kids cope when they're at school all day and are then sent off to various activities in the evenings and on weekends. How are they supposed to formulate their own thoughts and figure out who they are if they don't have time to just be?

No Time for Childhood

Call it "hyper-parenting," and it's rampant, according to Dr. Alvin Rosenfeld.

This child-rearing phenomenon has well-meaning parents delivering kids to an endless array of academic, social and athletic activities and programs in order to accelerate accomplishments and enrich childhood.

"Over-scheduled lives have become the norm. Parents feel remiss, even neglectful, if they don't fulfil every iota of a child's potential," says Rosenfeld, an author and child psychiatrist in New York.

So adhering to a relentless to-do list in order to make kids the very best they can be is the name of the game. It's widely believed to be the sign of good parenting, but just who is it good for and at what cost?

Read the rest of the article here.

Field Trips - Fire Hall and Pathology Lab

2006-11-03T22:03:00.000-08:00

We've had a full week this week, with two neat field trips in the past two days. Yesterday we went to a local fire station to learn all about what the fire fighters do and to see all the neat equipment that they use. The kids were thrilled to get to sit in the trucks, and got a real kick out of seeing one of the moms dressed up in fire fighting gear.

It's amazing to think that the gear she has on weighs close to 100 pounds, and then there are all of the tools and equipment to carry on top of that! They must be incredibly fit.

One of the dads in our homeschool group is a doctor, and today he arranged to take us on a tour of the pathology lab at one of our local hospital. There was an entire room filled with walls of specimens like the ones pictured below, and we saw some pretty amazing things. We were able to examine samples of almost any body part one could think of, as well as compare healthy tissue to diseased or damaged tissue.

It was enlightening for the kids (and the adults too) to see what a difference your lifestyle choices can have on your internal health. It really makes you realize how incredible the human body is. In the above photo, some of the girls are learning about the female reproductive system with one of the moms (who is also a nurse).

After these two trips, we're definitely inspired to be more careful about our health and safety!

Pumpkin Carving

2006-10-31T23:36:00.000-08:00

The kids carved their pumpkins this morning and Princess was very interested in what they were doing.

We love Halloween and the kids always have a great time planning their costumes. This year Jay went as Harry Potter, and Bee was Hermione (they're both obsessed with the HP books). They looked fantastic and we all had a lot of fun trick-or-treating with their friends, but the poor dog won't even go outside to pee because of all the firecrackers!

To see the final result of their carving, click here.

Halloween Cookies

2006-10-30T22:29:00.000-08:00

The kids spent the morning decorating cookies for Halloween, and now we've got a plateful of scary ghosts, spiders, pumpkins and witches hats to share with the kids in Bee's art class.

I'm surprised the kids are sleeping, they're so excited about the big day tomorrow!

Favorite Things - Brambly Hedge

2006-10-22T11:17:00.000-07:00

One our very favorite things to read is the Brambly Hedge series of books by Jill Barklem. Her illustrations are amazing; a person could spend hours looking at them (and I think we have).

The stories center around a community of mice living in the English countryside. In the books we hear about their weddings, birthdays, voyages, snowstorms and other fun adventures. In the above photo you see one of their kitchens, where all of the big feasts are prepared. I hope to have a kitchen just like it one day!

This is the store stump where they keep all the goodies they've collected over the summer. They also have a dairy and a flour mill. The books are filled with wonderful illustrations, including landscapes and cut-away drawings of each of their houses.

The stories are sweet, but with a sense of adventure. They're a bit like Beatrix Potter, but don't have the dark element that some of hers have. I think the illustrations are even better.

The kids and I dream of living in Brambly Hedge one day, but in the meantime the books transport us there whenever we feel like a visit!

Panda Cub Web Cam

2006-10-18T23:38:00.001-07:00

I thought some of you might enjoy this:

http://www.zooatlanta.org/animals_panda_cam.htm

So cute!

Homemade Baby Carrier

2006-10-16T12:03:00.000-07:00

Bee spent some time this morning making a baby carrier for her Calico Critters.

I swear, the girl can make anything out of a few scrap materials and some hot glue!

Chocolate Cupcakes

2006-10-12T15:54:00.000-07:00

The kids and I had an entire day at home today, so we decided to do some baking. In our search for something to make, we turned to one of our favorite cookbooks, Honest Pretzels.

Mollie Katzen's book has one of the very best chocolate cake recipes I've ever tasted. It's incredibly easy to make (it can be mixed right in the pan), and is totally vegan (no eggs or milk). Even if it wasn't either of those things, it would still be one of my favorites. We decided to use this recipe to make cupcakes, as the kids firmly believe that anything tastes better in miniature form!

Made-in-the-Pan Chocolate Cake:

1 1/4 cups unbleached white flour (I've used half whole wheat with good results)
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1 cup water
1/3 cup canola oil
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. vinegar (cider or white)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Stir together until batter is smooth (or mix directly in an 8 inch square pan for a cake). Spoon evenly into a 12 cup muffin pan. Bake for 20 minutes (30 minutes for cake). Allow to cool before frosting (this cake is even good without anything, or with fruit).

Chocolate Frosting (from Allrecipes.com)

2 tbsp. butter or non-hydrogentated margarine, melted
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 1/2 tbsp. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 3/4 cups icing sugar

Mix butter and cocoa with mixer until combined. Stir in milk and vanilla. Add icing sugar until frosting has reached the desired consistency. Adjust with more milk or sugar if necessary.

Cakes made with this recipe are even more moist and delicious the next day,not that they ever last that long!

Okay, I've waited long enough - time to go eat one!

Thanksgiving Clay

2006-10-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

The kids decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner for their Littlest Pet Shop animals a few days ago (in Canada we celebrate Thanksgiving on the first Monday in October). They made a delicious looking feast out of modeling clay, including salad, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, roast turkey, gravy and stuffing, with pumpkin pie for dessert.

Bee is quite an amazing sculptor. She's been able to make things with incredible detail from an early age. Here's a photo of some elves she made out of Fimo a couple of years ago.

She's a big fan of Barbara Reid's work, and would like to get into claymation (she loves Wallace and Grommit).

Field Trip - Native Plants

2006-10-05T20:02:00.000-07:00

We took part in a program about native plants at a nearby park today. We learned a lot about the plants native to our area, and even got to taste some of them.

It was a gorgeous day for a walk, and the red leaves of the blueberry bushes were stunningly beautiful.

We saw some really cool mushrooms in the underbrush, and the kids had fun imagining the fairies and gnomes that might live in them.

I've only ever seen toadstools like this in storybooks!

We learned about cattails and their edible roots (which apparently taste like celery). Muskrats must like celery, because a pair of them moved into the park and ate every last one! Here are some of the kids blowing cattail fluff back into the pond.

The ground in the park is covered with cranberries. Here our guide is telling us all about them - did you know that cranberries float, so the farmers harvest them by flooding the fields and scooping them off the surface? . We'd love to visit a farm during harvest time (which is right now)! At the end we got to taste the berries - they were sour, but yummy!

Racing back to the nature house!

Back at the nature house we got to make cattail bracelets while snacking on blueberry fruit leather and labrador tea.

Pay a visit to our other blog to see some more pictures and learn more about our native plants.

Some Colleges Courting Homeschoolers in Quest for Best Students

2006-10-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

COLUMBIA, Missouri (AP) -- Bombarded by choices at a college job fair, Sara Kianmehr quickly found her match: Columbia College, a small, private school that didn't mind that her transcripts came from her parents.

The college "was the only institution that didn't have a puzzled look and say, 'Home school,' and ask me a million questions," the 19-year-old junior said. "There was a big appeal."

With colleges and universities aggressively competing for the best students, a growing number of institutions are actively courting homebound high achievers like Kianmehr, who took community college courses her senior year of high school and hopes to eventually study filmmaking at New York University or another top graduate school.

The courtship can be as subtle as admissions office Web sites geared to home-schooled applicants or, in the case of Columbia College, as direct as purchasing mailing lists and holding special recruiting sessions.

After years of skepticism, even mistrust, many college officials now realize it's in their best interest to seek out home-schoolers, said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers.

"There was a tendency to kind of dismiss home schooling as inherently less rigorous," he said. "The attitude of the admissions profession could have at best been described as skeptical."

Home-schooled students -- whose numbers in this country range from an estimated 1.1 million to as high as 2 million -- often come to college equipped with the skills necessary to succeed in higher education, said Regina Morin, admissions director of Columbia College.

Such assets include intellectual curiosity, independent study habits and critical thinking skills, she said.

"It's one of the fastest-growing college pools in the nation," she said. "And they tend to be some of the best prepared."

Read the rest of the article here.

Littlest Pet Shops

2006-09-29T17:35:00.000-07:00

The most played with toys in our house at the moment are the numerous Littlest Pet Shop animals that the kids have collected.

They use them for all kinds of things, including as models for their many photo shoots.

This fairy monkey is just so cute!

Here's "Cappy" hiding in a cave during a recent camping trip.

Their latest ongoing project has been making a movie (using Pet Shop animals as actors) of Bee's favorite book, "Into the Land of the Unicorns". The above photo was taken for the movie poster. Another movie is also in the works - "Harry Paws and the Philosopher's Bone" (starring a Littlest Pet Shop dog, of course).

Shoreline Cleanup

2006-09-24T23:35:00.000-07:00

We took part in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup last week. The section of waterfront that we were responsible for was a duck pond and stream not far from where we live.

Here are the kids assessing the job - there were a lot of plastic bags and coffee cups in the water.

Here's Bee collecting bits from the underbrush. Apparently the small pieces of garbage are as much or more of a problem than the big stuff because the ducks and birds eat it which can kill them, and when they decompose, the plastic remains and the cycle begins again, killing countless animals.

Here's a picture of the happy ducks enjoying their clean surroundings. We've found some pretty strange things doing this over the years (thankfully there were no needles this time), but the worst thing we found this year was an empty propane canister in the water.

Leaving the park clean is rewarding for everyone, but the best thing is that I don't think any of the kids involved will ever litter after taking part in an event like this, and will certainly become more aware of what a problem garbage is.

Fun with Photography

2006-09-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

I found these when I downloaded the photos off my camera today. They were taken when Bee was chasing Jay with the camera and a wooden sword. I think the blurred aspect of the pictures captures the thrill of the chase beautifully.

Rain Dance

2006-09-19T22:47:00.000-07:00

Here are our crazy children out doing their rain dance when the heavens opened up at bedtime last night. The sound of rain pounding against the windows always sends them running out the door!

Pajamas and rubber boots - they obviously inherited their mother's keen fashion sense!

Africa Webcam

2006-09-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

National Geographic has set up a live webcam of a watering hole in Botswana. We watched it last year and saw all kinds of amazing things (elephants, warthogs, giraffes, impala, ostriches, etc.). Afternoons and evenings (North America time) are the best times to watch, as that's when the animals are having their bedtime and early morning drinks.

Check it out here:
http://www9.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/wildcamafrica/index.html

What we did on our summer vacation...

2006-09-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

This summer we went camping at our very favorite place.

Here are Jay and Bee enjoying the view from our campsite.

Anemones in a tidepool.

We love these purple starfish.

This huge stump washed up on the rocks years ago - Bee and Jay like to pretend it's a giant ship.

This is one of the sandcastles that they built on their grandparents' beach - the moat is filling up nicely!

This is a picture of the "schoolbus" that serves the islands around here - it's called The Scholarship. It picks kids up on the neighboring islands and brings them to a central school - it might almost make school worth attending (okay, maybe not).

Calvin and Hobbes - Free Range Learners

2006-09-14T10:44:00.000-07:00

We love, love, love Calvin and Hobbes!!

Tomato Soup

2006-09-09T15:23:00.000-07:00

We got our first rain in ages today, and Bee decided that she felt like doing some cooking. As she often does when this urge strikes, she took out our favorite cookbook for kids - Mollie Katzen's Honest Pretzels. It's got all kinds of fun and delicious things to make, and we cook from it regularly.

The order of the day was tomato soup (quite fitting for a drizzly day). It was really yummy, with lots of garlic, croutons, and a dollop of homemade pesto stirred in.

I hope it rains more often!

Summer's Bounty

2006-08-31T10:59:00.000-07:00

Jay's tomato plant has produced a bumper crop of lovely tomatoes!

He's been sharing them with Bee and their Littlest Pet Shop animals.

Magnetic Poem

2006-08-23T16:15:00.000-07:00

Saw this on the fridge today:

Our Favorite Things - #1

2006-08-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

Several months ago we bought the Radio Theatre production of The Chronicles of Narnia on cd to listen to in the car (we "read" a lot of books this way as we spend a lot of time in the car going to various activities). We've enjoyed all of the stories immensely, but I was moved to post about it after listening to The Voyage of the Dawn Treader on our way to the library yesterday. Without ruining the story for those who don't know it, there was a certain part of the story that had us all absolutely riveted! The kids have been dying to go somewhere today just so we can listen to it some more.
We don't listen to them only in the car - we have found that listening to them at night with the lights turned down (or by candlelight) makes the stories even more magical. With a cup of something warm to drink in your hands, life doesn't get much better!

Silly Book Titles

2006-08-18T11:23:00.000-07:00

We saw these on the Bruce Coville website and thought they were pretty funny:

Joe Wins at a Track Meet by C. Howie Runns

How to Succeed in School by Rita Book

Foot Coverings by Susan Socks

Falling Trees by Tim Burr

Downpour! by Wayne Dwops

Chased By A Werewolf by Claude Bottom

The Vampire's Victim by E. Drew Blood

The Bad-Tempered Werewolf by Claudia Armoff

Creature From Mars by A. Lee-En

Monsters I Have Known by O. Pen Jaw

French Overpopulation by Francis Crowded

Cooper's Hawk

2006-08-13T12:31:00.000-07:00

Bee took this photo awhile ago of what we think is a Cooper's Hawk (any birders out there that can confirm this?). It landed in the tree in front of our house while they were out playing one day, and she was quick to grab the camera. We thought we'd post it today because we saw him scare the daylights out of a Junco this morning while we were in the yard. The poor little bird flew like a rocket headlong into the Laurel at the back of our garden, and the hawk flew off looking like he could care less.
We feel so lucky when we get to see things like this even in the middle of the city!

Sewing Project

2006-08-11T21:58:00.000-07:00

This smashing backpack is the latest project that the very crafty Bee made with her equally crafty grandma.
The model is Rachel, her "Just Like You" American Girl doll. Her other dolls (Jess and Elizabeth) will be getting their own backpacks shortly.

First Harvest

2006-08-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

Jay was thrilled to harvest his very first cherry tomato of the season today (it's the first tomato of the whole garden, actually!). I'm told it was very yummy.

Slime Mold

2006-08-11T21:17:00.001-07:00

We discovered this weird stuff in our garden awhile ago. It was the brightest French's Mustard yellow - bizarre. Thanks to a fellow blogger, we found out that it's actually something called slime mold.
This is what we found out about it (thanks to Wikipedia):

"It has been observed that they can find their way through mazes by spreading out and choosing the shortest path, an interesting example of information processing without a nervous system."

and this:

"In 2006, researchers at the University of Southampton and the University of Kobe reported that they had built a six-legged robot whose movement was remotely controlled by a Physarum slime mould. The mould directed the robot into a dark corner most similar to its natural habitat." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slime_mould)

This is what it looked like the next day:

And the day after that:

Pretty cool stuff!!

Great Homeschooling Article

2006-08-11T21:17:00.000-07:00

Minding your own
July 13, 2006

Stefanie Mohsennia is a librarian, a self-described "sit down, read and write type." She liked school and did very well. But as a parent, she began to see that her son's learning style differed from hers; she became concerned the school would be unable to answer his needs.

Basics, like the structure of the school day, interfered. Mohsennia said her seven-year-old son "would not be interested in math at 8 or 9 a.m. in the morning."

"Why sacrifice his love of learning?" she asks.

She took a big step and decided to home-school her son. But ironically, to home-school, she had to leave her home.

Mohsennia relocated to Canada from her native Germany, where home education is legally verboten.

Home-schooling is legal everywhere in Canada. Mohsennia's son joins the 80,000 kids estimated by the Canadian Centre for Home Education who are being home-educated as the movement to teach your own grows steadily.

To read the full article, click here.

Ladybug Lifecycle

2006-08-11T21:15:00.000-07:00

We've got masses of ladybugs in our yard this year, and have managed to get some good photos of ladybug reproduction. We saw these two beetles mating in the corn and bean patch.

Here is a cluster of eggs that we found on a cosmo leaf.
Below is a photo of a ladybug larva (this is what they look like after they've hatched out of the eggs). They apparently molt a few times before pupating and becoming beetles. Just look at him chowing down on all those fat, juicy aphids (their favorite snack).

Next are two photos of pupae that we found.

And finally, a brand new ladybug newly emerged from his pupa!