Monday, Sept. 14/09

     Today, we used our bags of fun from our ravine hike....

    First, each of the girls (Erika, Kaeli and Gillian), including myself, sorted out all of their items into different piles that they decided on. After they were done, they each explained why they made the piles they did. We talked about classification and how even within the piles they had made, we could sort even more, ie.the pile of leaves could then be sorted more into colors or shape. After that, we talked about living and non living things and what makes them that way and decided on which of our groups would fit where.

      Then... we made one big poster of all our findings and the different sortings. After that, each of the girls got to make a picture from their findings having something to do with the hike.

Rachelle

Hike in the Ravine- Sun. Sept.13/09

     Well, we went to church in the morning, then had wanted to hit the trails in the ravine for the afternoon with a picnic lunch. We were able to meet up with some great friends to go on our hike and picnic with... the more the merrier =)

     With the twins in the chariot, Bryan carrying the backpack full of food, we were off- all 14 of us! The ravine is so beautiful, especially right now with the leaves changing color! We hiked for a while to find a picnic spot and had some lunch. Then... the fun began. The big boys, took all the kids (minus the twins) down to a stream. We heard a lot of "aaahhhhhh", "ooooooo" and "splaaaaaash"! Must have been lots of fun!

      When they came back "up", I gave each of the kids a paper bag and asked them to collect things... whatever they wanted! They each filled their bags.

    

A few hours of fun later- we headed for home.
Rachelle

School Starts?

     We have started, well, sort of, I guess, for this year. It's always kind of funny to me though when people ask, "When are you starting school?" because my thinking is, "Aren't we always schooling?" We have been trying to teach our kids (and others...lol) that school is learning, school = learning. It's not a certain place you have to be or certain times certain things have to be done, it's simply learning. Our main reason for choosing to educate at home is so that our kids would love to learn and along with that have the desire to learn.

     Now, we do follow curriculum, specifically like Math because the basics are the basics. We believe education is important and we want to give our kids every opprtunity to succeed and with that, being educated is important. Not all we do is conventional though, for example, our Social Studies curriculum follows time, not random topics like in the school system. Although the outline looks different, in the end they will have covered the same material, but making a lot more sense here because it follows a time line.

     We are educating at home for us and our kids- because we believe that it is the best decision that we can make for all of us. In turn, we don't look any differently at anyone else who chooses to educate at home or not, nor do we look differently at what people choose or not choose to teach. That is the joy of living in a free country and for us in Alberta, where the options are numerous! We are thankful we have the option and opportunity to grow alongside our kids in this journey. We are often asked if we will educate at home all the way through grade 12 and our answer is always the same... we take it a year at a time and a child at a time. Each year holds its own challenges and schedules and each child holds within themselves their own interests and needs. We pray that we will always be sensitive to this and do what is always best for our kids and our family (even if not everyone around us agrees). 

     So with this... our journey actually began 6 years ago now- officially when Erika started kindergarten. She is now in grade 5 and Kaeli is starting grade 2 this year. We are excited to share our story... even if it is only for our own portfolio. There will be posts here by each one of us at different times.

Rachelle