First Week back at school and we are reevaluating EVERYTHING! Kindergarten needs to be fun, so we are taking ourselves less seriously and playing more. This is one of our favorite Games: Kids of Catan. Gotta start em young!
Winter Class
Posted by on December 2, 2011 Leave a Comment
Homeschooling in the winter is super cozy. We spend as much of our day as we can curled up with a good book, or sitting at the table, looking out the sliding doors at the snowy wonderland. We’ve been trying to get outside when the sun is shining, but this is the biggest problem we have…
Avery hates it outside! I usually bundle her up, which is a challenge, and take her outside even if she doesn’t like it. I keep hoping she’ll get over it. The last time we went out was better. She didn’t cry and scream for the whole time. Maybe she’s getting used to it. Or maybe she just realizes that no one is going to take her inside for at least a little while.
She’s only sort of smiling in this picture because I told her that if she smiled she could go inside. I know, bribe parenting…bad Courtenaymomma. Mr. Snowman nudist there is apparently named “Alina Melina”. I’m thinking that is one confused snowman. Or should we perhaps switch to snowperson…
Emily and I have been talking a lot about how snow works and the weather. “Why it melts”, has been the question of the week as it warmed up so much. First his teeth fell out, which left him looking a bit like a hockey player. Then his nose fell off. Then the mits. Now he kind of looks like a zombie snowman. His face is all messed up and his arms hang limp at his sides. He went from cheerful to creepy in one week. Emily keeps saying we should fix his face, but to me, that seems just as morbid. “Excuse me Mr. He/She while I remove your head for repairs…” See what I mean. Next year I’ll make a clown snowman that can melt and the creepyness will be complete.
NaNoWriMo
Posted by on November 30, 2011 2 Comments
I did it. I dropped of the face of the blogosphere for more than a month because I took on the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge. The challenge was to write a 50,000 word novel start to finish in the month of November. You can’t finish something you started already. It needs to be a fiction novel. There are a few other rules, but that’s pretty much the jist of it. So thats what I did. I did it. I finished a novel start to finish yesterday. I even had one day to spare.
Emily helped me with some ideas for the story. We used that for some cool book writing parts in homeschool last month. I would tell her the story and make it up as I went along. I started by recording me telling her the story. It changed drastically by the end of actually writing, but that was to be expected.
It’s a children’s speculative fantasy novel. Think ages 9-12. I would have preferred to write a bit edgier and have it make the young adult class, but then I couldn’t read it to emily and that just didn’t seem fair. You, my blog reads get the first snapshot of my book. You’ll also get first choice to read sample chapters, and maybe even one day own a book written by Courtenay Kasper.
The premise of the book is the steam punk adventure of two young foxes whose parents are kidnapped and the kidnappers are coming for them next because they are actually heirs to a broken kingdom. The foxes set off in their hot air balloon airship on a journey across land and sea to rescue their parents. Along the way they meet many strange and silly woodlanders that will either help or hinder their journey.
That’s the basic premise. I kind of like to think of it as a steam punk redwallian adventure. You’ll get it if you get it. So now begins the long process of editing and developing my story until it is ready to be published. I know Morgan will publish at least one copy for us to have, so that’s a start. I’d love to see it read far and wide.
So off I go to edit!
Happy Sproutsgiving!
Posted by on September 24, 2011 Leave a Comment
I’m going to guess you’ve heard of Thanksgiving and maybe if you are nerdy enough, you’ve heard of Slapsgiving, but I’m going to guess you’ve never heard of Sproutsgiving! Probably because we made it up. In other words, it doesnt exist…but it does!
Sproutsgiving has become a tradition for us. Canadian Thanksgiving is in October, but the brussel sprouts are ready buy the beginning of September. Real brussel sprout fans could hardly stand the thought of letting them go to waste, or worse…freezing them! Mushy brussell sprouts give sproutyness a bad name. I think they are the cause of sproutful distaste amongst children everywhere and the cause of many “I-will-send-your-food-to-Africa-if-you-don’t-eat-that” threats.
Sproutsgiving is a time to enjoy the wonders of green crunchiness in all their awesomeness. So if you have a free night, I suggest you host your own sproutsgiving and be thankful for good friends to enjoy it with, or good friends who don’t like sprouts, so you can have theirs!
Sensory Day
Posted by on September 23, 2011 4 Comments
I am super proud of my girls today.
Em has come a LOOONG way in the last two years.
When we first started suspecting she has sensory processing issues, we tried some of these kinds of things.
They didnt go well…
She would NEVER have dug her hands in like Avery does.
But look at her now! A steady diet of sensory activities has helped her overcome her toughest aversions.
We aren’t out of the water yet. There are still melt downs in loud places and things she wont touch with a ten foot pole…And don’t even get me started on public washrooms and automatic toilets…
But we are getting there!
Homeschool make learning to write fun!
Couponpunk Court
Posted by on September 21, 2011 Leave a Comment
This is the post where I tell you that my new obsession is Couponing! I’m a wannabe extreme couponer… seriously!
This is the latest trip to the mail box! Its like an amazing reward to just check the box and get free stuff or scads of coupons (Pronounced Koo-Pons for us Canadians!) I just started Couponing, but its already saved us several hundred dollars! And my first questions is always: “And is that on things you actually need”? YES! Definitely. I bought a few things because they were novel, but otherwise I only bought things I new we use regularly. We certainly aren’t going to run out of Dish soap or deodorant any time soon. Have you seen that show Extreme Couponing? Well I aspire to be like that, but not to the extreme of buying hundreds of jars of mustard(which is icky anyways!).I am part of a group from a nearby town that does a coupon swap once a month and teaches the newbies like me how to stack coupons better and things like that. Then I have 2 friends in the area that are into couponing too! So we are going to start our own swaps!
I imagine you will probably hear alot more from me about couponing in the future! My cousin put it perfectly “Its like crafting that saves you money”! Love it!
8 Years.
Posted by on September 20, 2011 2 Comments
One of the first pictures of us.
8 years is a relatively short time in life, but it’s how long I’ve been married to Mr. Right. I should say, Mr. Mostly-right because if I’m Mrs. Right, we cant both be right all the time can we. Let’s be realistic now…
On September 20th, 2003 we promised to walk with each other through all of life’s journey until we either die or Jesus comes back. That’s certainly not as cuteseywootsey(technical term) as I imagined it being. This is what I pictured:
Cute aren’t we?!
Its a nice thought to picture walking together with the sun shining down and the birds tweeting in the air(we got married long enough ago that that was the only definition for tweeting). Such a nice thought. Walking together with huge smiles and loveydovey(again…technical term)doe eyes. If you’ve been married for more than about 24hrs, you know thats not the case. Walking together on this journey of life is more like this:
Not us in case you are wondering…
There’s usually a little more Camo needed. Marriage is hard! Don’t let anyone tell you it isn’t. It definitely has is amazing moments, but it certainly has it share of war moments too. Sometimes with each other, but mostly just with the things you walk through. In our 8 years we’ve walked through some very hard things together. Miscarriage, Post Partum Depression, very early labours that could have ended with stillborn babies, miscommunications, loss of friendships, loss of jobs and places to live, financial hardships and everything in between. We have been hurt as a couple by others and hurt each other too. We are very committed to our relationship and making it work, but we would never have made it this far without Jesus in our lives. Honestly.
Jesus Christ is the reason we still walk together hand in hand through this life. I read yesterday that the christian life is not about a continual staircase of trying to do better and better, but a continual trek back to the foot of the cross. We need Jesus in our lives. He needs to be the center of everything we do. The reason our marriage continues is because I know that I need to ask Jesus to kill my pride and ask for forgiveness instead of demanding that I am right. I need Jesus’s forgiveness in order to forgive Morgan and He the same to forgive me. We aren’t perfect, far from it and thats why we need grace in our lives every day. I pray for our marriage everyday that Christ will give us the strength to become more like him, the wisdom to shut our mouths and only say kind things, and that he would kill our pride so that we dont forget who is in charge in our marriage. Christ is, not us.
When we are 80, we will have been married for 60 years and I hope we look like this.
My Grandparent. Married 60 Years. In love with each other and in love with Jesus.
Happy Anniversary to my best friend who loves Jesus so much that he continues to forgive me and hold my hand through the hard things in life. I love you Morgan. Here’s to growing old together!
Ephesians 2:8 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—” Thank you Jesus for your Gift of Grace in our lives.
Cheeseland!
Posted by on September 16, 2011 4 Comments
Geography has been our favorite subject this week.We’ve studied different maps and learned how they work. We’ve looked through maps with physical features and political maps too. Emily can tell you about the continents, where she lives on a map. Where our Compassion sponsor child lives in Africa. Where Israel is and where our dear friends Marty and Sue live. She can tell different ways to read a map and how to tell where physical features are. The thing that bothers her the most is that, on the map, she thinks she should be able to drive to see Auntie Coco in a few minutes because Quebec is really only an inch and a half away from BC.
While looking at a physical features map showing mountains, forests, deserts, rain forests and ice caps Emily said: “That doesn’t look like a desert. That looks like cheese! It looks like Cheeseland!!” Seriously, you try keeping a straight face…
Math was more sorting and matching, but we also got a bin of number games and magnetic numbers to work with at the local Child Care Resource centre. We’ve been working through the difference between a nine and a six. Tough stuff. That and b,d,p,q…no wonder this sint easy for kids. they ALL look the same in lower case. Writing is not the favorite this week. It wins no prizes for laughter and happiness. We’ve been doing letter copying and that seems to help. That and the magnetic letter tracer , which I love!
Hooray for the Magnatab!
Avery traces the letters and so does Emily, but I usually give Emily a goal with her letters. Things like spell your name, or spell hat, cat, sat, rat…etc. Thats pretty helpful for her to think through the sounds and break it down. She has her moments when she cant find a letter and she freaks out that it isnt there, even though I just told her AGAIN that ALL the letters are one there and she just needs another second to find it. I am totally buying the uppercase board and the number board too!
We had a Local Home Learners meet and greet yesterday and that was pretty encouraging. It was nice to meet other families who have a little more experience under their belts than say…7 days! I enjoyed it and Im looking forward to that meetup every month. I think it will be a good opportunity for me to get new ideas and just be all around encouraged. Several people brought curriculum to swap, buy, give away and I got some great stuff. I got an Apologia science book for next year, some manipulatives like tanagram and magnetic letters, some early readers, a writing program for supplementing, and best of all…Math U See for the next 3 years! Such a good find and an amazing lady gave me all the Math U See things for FREE! She just said “It’s your first year, be blessed! I truly am blessed by her kindness and I will totally be blessing in return with any resources I can.
Emily is enjoying her iPad and the different games she is learning with. Im waiting for my itunes card to come from airmiles, so I can go to town with paid apps for her…and me! I took a video of her and she say her favorite thing about homeschool is staying with me ALL day. Makes me feel good about myself, but I sure hope she list something besides that next time someone asks her. Talk about stereotypical homeschooler answer. If you dont know the difference between homeschooler and home schooled, you need to be informed…
While they were sleeping…
Posted by on September 7, 2011 1 Comment
I should probably be sleeping too because you see, I am not well. I’m many things, but well isnt one of them. August has been officially written off. Some time in the begining of August I caught a cold, which turned intho an upper respiratory lung infection. No biggy. Round 1 of antibiotics. Score= Cold 1 – Antibodics 0.
Then my cold morphed( because morphing is cool) into pneumonia. Insert * ER, X-Ray, Evil Nebulizer, 2 new puffers, and 1 new antibiotic here*. No biggy. Round 2 of antiboitics. Score= Cold 1.5 – Antiboitics 0.5.
Then I coughed until I puked a few times and tore muscles in my ribcage and broke a rib…No biggy. *insert 2 new pain pills and still finishing antibiotics here*.Round 3 includes serious pain meds. Score = Courtenay is KO(knocked out for non-Nintendo street fighter fans).
# 7 I think!
Don’t worry, I waited until I started to cut back on meds before blogging. If I cant drive, I certainly should blog, who knows what could happen.
P.S. Ribs are more important than you think they are. True Story.Snorkel.
First day of Homeschool!
Posted by on September 6, 2011 7 Comments
“it’s back to school time. or as home-schoolers call it, stay-where-you-are time.” – Steven Colbert
That makes me snicker, but I’ll tell you, I really enjoyed watching the bus drive by this morning while my kiddos were in their jammies eating breakfast. Welcome to our first day if homeschool! It certainly isn’t our first day of home learning. We’ve been doing that since the wee ones were born! Today was our first day of government sanctioned school at home. I cant believe we are here already. Emily is 5 and 1/2. Wow time goes quickly. Im going to be blogging our journey as a way to remember and for our support teacher to know what we’ve done this year.
Here is our first day! Emily in Kindergarten and Avery in Preschool.
We started with Waffles! I think thats going to be the beginning tradition! I would have made real waffles, but we just got back from Calgary late yesterday and we were missing pretty much everything to make them, so Eggo was the waffle of the day.Then Emily got dressed in her back-to-school Justin Beiber shirt.lol. We were going to take the back to school pictures but the new printer isn’t hooked up, so I’ll print out our sign in a few minutes after I blog and then we’ll take the pictures.
We started with Bible. We started right at the beginning of Emily’s Children’s Bible and I explained about the New Testament and Old Testament and how they fit together. Then we read the story of Creation and had a time of prayer.
Then we moved on to Math. We are still waiting for part of our Math to get odered, so we are working out of 1 workbook for now. Its called Early bird Math We are in the 1st unit and are working on Matching.
While Em was working on Math and Reading, Avery played with playdoh. She created mushy masterpieces for about an hour before she switched to colouring.
Then we read from Book 1 from Progressive Phonics. We are starting with short /a/ sound words. Emily is picking them up really quickly. The writing portion proved to be the tough part of our day because Em isn’t very patient and neither is Mommy with this one. She thinks she know it all already, so she just squiggles whatever and says she’s done. This one is going to take patience I think! Get Set For The Code is another writing book we are using and that went better,but its less actual letter writing.
Then we tried out our back to school sensory bin!
It’s got Shredded Paper, Magnet numbers, 3 sizes of tweezers or Tongs, squishy fiddle bugs, erasers, a little burlap bag from a friends wedding last month, a scoop and bouncy balls. The girls thoroughly enjoyed it and they are already excited for the other sensory bins.
We decided to call it quits for the day and made lunch. I’m sure we will do a few things after nap time, but Mommy needed a break! They did too.
Id’d call that a successful first day of school!
