Happy Halloween!

It's Halloween, one of my favorite times of the year!  We have been BUSY this week!  Lots of crafts and events on the go.  Sunday was dance class and a trip to the Oil Kings Game where C and her choir sang O' Canada.  It was a fun, emotional time. So proud of her for not being nervous for singing in front of the crowd and also very moving after the events in Ottawa last week. K also enjoyed her first live hockey game! Monday we had an unexpected snowfall so there was some outside time. 

Pregame, C in her choir tshirt and K in her Oil Kings t shirt and foam finger!

Tuesday we started on a Halloween craft: paper mache monsters! Pretty easy (but a bit messy) to do with little ones but it took 3 days to complete.  Day one was applying the paper and paste then letting that dry for the night.  Day 2 was painting the hardened balloon shaped object. Day 3 was popping the balloon and sticking the facial features on. 

No pictures from Day 1, too messy! Start of Day 2 after they dried

Painting on Day 2

Cutting out the face pieces

Final product!

 Simple Paste:
3 parts water
2 parts flour
I used 1.5 cups of water and 1 cup of flour for the 2 balloons and it was a perfect amount
Optional: white glue for extra sticky and salt to help preserve it.  

Wednesday and Thursday were pumpkin nights, scooping on Wednesday and carving the following night. Both girls were eager to dig in and not afraid to get messy.  

Pumpkin scooping and final result after dad helped carve

I also tried my hand at baking some pumpkin seeds and they came out pretty tasty! I've never really tried ones that I could keep snacking on, most were pretty bland.  But I had never tried any sweet recipes.  I tried some right from the oven and they were some yummy! I cooled some for the girls and they both loved them! 

Cinnamon Brown Sugar Pumpkin Seeds:
2 cups pumpkin seeds - I wash, soak for 30 min, drain and let dry on a clean tea towel over night
2 tbsp butter, softened
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp white sugar

I wash the pumpkin seeds, then let soak for 30 minutes, drain and let dry on a clean tea towel over night.  
Preheat oven to 300F and line a cookie sheet with foil (for easy clean up).  Add the butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar and seeds to a large freezer bag and squish together until all are coated. Spread evenly on sheet.  Bake for 10 minutes, toss, sprinkle white sugar and bake for another 10 minutes (I checked around 7 min too). Toss again and bake for a few more minutes, mine took another 7 so 27 minutes total. Keep an eye on them so they don't burn. Crunchy and sweet!

Thursday afternoon C had a field trip to a fire hall. She had fun sitting in the truck! 

K made a cute little picture while big sis C was at choir. We used her thumb to make a pumpkin patch and added a green vine. Quick and interactive craft. 

Halloween Day is full of fun! A friend's party in the morning and trick or treating after supper. Costumes pictures to come =) 

What are some of your favorite Halloween traditions?

So what do we do all day?

Well the first 6 weeks of homeschooling has flown by!  So far it has been about adjusting to schedule changes, organizing, searching for resources and ideas and wondering if this is really going to work out.  Guess what?  I think it will!

A walk in the woods on a fall day

I'm a work from home mom and my workload has doubled recently and I've also had to make the adjustment of going into the office twice a week.  My husband works Tuesday - Saturday, so I go into the office on Mondays while he's home with the kids.  This gives him some great one on one time with them and lets him do fun stuff like take them swimming or go out to lunch. I also go into the office on Thursdays and I have found a great homeschooled teen that comes to our house to babysit.  The girls love her and have fun going to the park, playing games and doing puzzles with her. 

Climbing wall at a local park

In terms of the style of homeschooling that I chose, I would say we are 80% unschoolers, 20% traditional parent led.  We do a couple worksheets a week and I help her learn how to read, write and do math, but for the most part I let her explore on her own and answer any questions she has.  She's in some registered activities like choir and dance and loves socializing on the playground. She went to a drama class hosted by our homeschool board and had a great time meeting other kids and learning about body language and role playing.

Checking out some art at Borden Park

But then she will also come up with things on her own like counting to 100 (and then 200!) while driving in the car, or asking random questions that will lead to a 5-10 minute discussion and looking up information on the internet.  She asked "How do people get coats if there is no city"? This led to a discussion on shipping goods on a national and global scale, and where her clothes and food might come from. We were able to relate the discussion with a visual experience on the way back from the drama class when we seen transport trucks lined up to go into the container yard and then the train full of containers head down the track.

We joined a group of homeschool families that enjoy swapping postcards and have received quite a few so far.  We plot the locations on a wall map and briefly discuss the topic of the postcard. We received one from Kentucky and talked about the horses that were on the postcard and the Kentucky Derby.  That led to a video of a horse race, looking at images of fancy hats, and then it took a turn and we moved into a discussion on the Queen of England (she loves her fancy hats too!), real princesses and the famous landmarks of London!

Our postcards since the beginning of September, except for one from Australia that was being used as mail in their playhouse.  We have sent 20 out so far and need to get more postcards!

 
One of my daughter's favorite pass times is puzzles, an activity she usually saves for when her 2 year old sister is napping.  Puzzles have many benefits in early childhood education.  Hand-eye coordination, fine and gross motor skills, problem solving, memory, goal setting and patience are some of the things she's working on and learning each time she sits down to do one.

A fairy 48 piece

Hello Kitty 50 piece

Not a day goes by in our house that crayons, marker or colored pencils aren't pulled out and the kids are sprawled all over the floor, at a table or on their bed coloring or drawing. She's learning more hand-eye coordination and patience, practicing how to hold writing tools and also discovering color, hue, patterns and more.

Drawing, coloring and practicing some numbers

Playgrounds are a weekly must , usually getting out to one a couple times a week.  We are also lucky to have a small one in our town home complex and C usually spends all of her weekend afternoons hanging out there and catching up with the neighborhood kids. We missed one week because it snowed (yup, SNOWED IN SEPTEMBER!) and we weren't prepared for it.  But new snowsuits and mitts were purchased so that won't be stopping us next time!  There are also lots of fun indoor playgrounds and activities around us that we will be hitting up once the temperature drops.

Checking out a new playground

 
Then there's also the fun stuff they haven't seen before or only comes out once in a while (due to high mess factors). Play doh, painting, crafts,  I made up a batch of moon sand and C spend half an hour playing with it while younger sister napped and I made supper. She loved the feel of it (so did I) and used play doh accessories to mold it and scoop it.

Scooping up some Moon Sand

Moon Sand
8 cups of all purpose flour
1 cup of baby oil
You could also add a couple drops of food coloring to the oil before mixing
Mix well! It can be stored and used again, just put it in a air tight container or cover with plastic wrap
I halved the recipe, but will make another batch when both kids are awake to play with it.

Painting outside on a sunny day

There's been so much to do and keep us busy since the school year started and I am excited for what's to come!  Thanksgiving crafts this weekend, drama class part 2 next week and Halloween crafts, decorating and parties coming up soon.  

What activities are your kid's favorite and keep them busy?

Socializing

Socializing. It's why parents send their children to daycare, preschool and then onto Kindergarten / the school system. When you mention to someone that you homeschool, one of the first things they bring up is "Well how will you socialize them?".  Homeschool moms and dads usually chuckle on the inside and then say their kids have plenty of chances to socialize.

I started home schooling less than 2 weeks ago, and honestly, I'm trying to find a break from being social! Between park meet ups, not back to school picnics, birthday parties, community events, choir and dance lessons to start up soon, plus the neighborhood kids that they play with almost daily, there are lots of opportunity to socialize your children if you homeschool.  I have also signed my daughter up for activities through my home school board - 2 afternoons of drama class, 1 trip to a fire hall and an afternoon at an indoor climbing wall over the next 2 months and monthly meet ups for connections and gym time. Whew! I'm tired just thinking about it all!

waiting for the fireworks at our friend's community league Party in the Park

How do adults socialize? They make small talk with the grocery store clerk, they interact with their co-workers (a tight knit group of people of different ages that need to work together, similar to a family), and they attend functions and gatherings (birthday parties or weddings and usually people of different ages in attendance). The same activities that my children are exposed to.  They are learning to say thank you after receiving their cookie in the bakery department of the grocery store or say hello to the store greeter. They are learning how to clean up after themselves and help out other members of the family by doing chores like emptying the dishwasher and feeding the pets. They are learning how to play with kids of different ages at birthday parties. They are socializing in so many ways.

How it all began!

Hello, and welcome to my first post, it's going to be a long one! I am a work from home mom of 2 girls, Chloe 5 and Kaiana 2.  I had Chloe enrolled in Public School for French Immersion Kindergarten last year, but after having her home over Christmas break and looking into the home shool options in our area, I decided this spring that I would try my hand at homeschooling her for Grade 1.  It's something that I had always considered but never thought I would have the opportunity to do. I began working from home while on maternity leave with Kai, and with that working out well and finding a great support group of home school parents in Edmonton, it started becoming a reality.

Breakfast while camping at Wasa Lake BC

First off, I was amazed to find out how many home school families there actually were around me.  Lots of local home school groups on social media for support and organizing activities and field trips. Then came the awesome moment when I discovered there was funding for it! What? I was going to get paid to teach my children? Well not paid really, but most expenses related to home schooling would be reimbursed.  Funding ranges from $820-$1500 or so in Alberta, depending on which method you choose. This is the money the government designates per child if they were enrolled in a brick and mortar school.  When you home school, the funding is delivered to your board and paid out after you submit your receipts.  Some boards also do purchase orders with stores like Staples and home school curriculum stores. I chose traditional (leaning a bit into the unschooling category, but I'll have another post about that in the future), with me being her teacher and choosing what she learns, so I'm on the lower end of the funding. But that's ok!  Still plenty of supplies and field trip admissions I can get with that! If you choose blended or teacher directed, you receive more funding (to cover the cost of textbooks, curriculum, online classes, etc.).  We are very lucky in Alberta to have this funding and home school regulations vary from province to province and state to state, so if you are looking into it, make sure you check with your Provincial or State Board of Education to see what their regulations are.  

homemade bird feeders- paper towel roll, peanut butter and birdseed

There's also plenty of choice when it comes to which home school board you register with. When many people hear the words home schooling, they think of Christian families that home school their children and teach the bible daily. Well, that is still a common occurrence, especially in Alberta and parts of the US, but it is more than that.  Some choose to home school because their children are being bullied, or due to learning disabilities that require more one on one time.  I chose to home school because I didn't like the way the Alberta curriculum is going (don't even get me started on "new" math") as well as Chloe's curiosity and love of learning. We are not a religious family but I chose to go with a faith based board due to the programs offered and their flexible nature.  There are plenty of faith based home school boards that do not push their religion on you, they just want parents to have the freedom to teach their children how they see fit.  There are also secular boards to choose from as well. Lots of options out there! Once you choose a board, you complete their registration process, submit a program plan and wait to hear back.  It usually only takes a few weeks and then you're approved and ready to go! 

Enjoying a snack when we visited Beaumaris Lake

I spent the summer making notes of things I wanted to teach and methods of doing so, field trips that we could take and crafts that we can make. Chloe seemed pretty excited from the start about staying home and learning lots.  She wondered about friends, but I assured her there were lots of chances to meet up with other home school kids and take part in activities and park days. Also, since the spring she has a new found independence and has been playing daily with the neighborhood kids.

First day of home schooling Grade 1!

The new school year started this week and with most moms getting their kids used to waking up early and packing lunches, our first day of home school began around 10:30am when Chloe woke up.  She had the chance to sleep in after a busy long weekend of camping in the mountains. I won't be stressed out this school year trying to sign forms on the way to the bus, I won't be waiting for the bus in -20 C with a bundled up toddler, I won't have to fund raise and bug my friends and family several times throughout the year.  The school year will be at our pace, if we want to sleep in or take a day off, we can! We will meet twice with a facilitator from our board who will review samples of Chloe's work, but over all it's pretty laid back if you want it to be.

Checking out a new playground

So thank you for taking the time to read about how I came to choose homeschooling!  I think it will a fun year and a positive change for our family!  Join me each week as I write about how we spent the week learning and living.  I'll try to post links to fun activities, crafts and recipes and share our field trip experiences.