Year 5 :: Week 13 :: A little late...

Last week was another busy week for us!

It was the first week of November, which meant NaNoWriMo. Adrienne and Andre decided to participate in the Young Writers Program. I didn't ask them to this year, I only let them know that I was trying it again for myself. I was very pleased to hear them both say they wanted to do it! We have been writing almost every day. As of today, November 9, Andre has 1,860 words in his novel about shape shifters, and Adrienne has 1,495 in her novel about orphan pirates set in Australia. I love seeing their imaginations at work! They both have a goal of 5,000 words.

Andre spent an afternoon last week researching information on Atlantis and the Bermuda Triangle. You can see my Book Sharing Monday for two books that were helpful in his research. He used Google Earth to locate some of the places that could have been the site for Atlantis, then told me what his theory is. We read together the entry on Wikipedia for Atlantis and that lead to more reading and discussions here and here.

On Thursday, we took a family day trip to a small town. We spent the day there, exploring and enjoying ourselves.

That's about all I have for you. We still covered our basic subjects, and read more Canadian History, along with doing some World Geography.
NaNoWriMo is taking up a lot of our time, and I have no problem with that! Seeing her siblings spending their time writing, Celeste decided she would do NaNoWriMo too. She is so cute...she got herself one of her books and is copying the words. She then counts the words and tells me her totals, just like Adrienne and Andre! You can see her work in the photo below!

I am so surprised and happy to be nominated in 5 different categories for the Homeschool Blog Awards!!!

You can find Canadian Home Learning listed in:

- Best Homeschool Mom Blog

- Best Blog Design

- Best Photos & Artistic Content

- Best Crafts, Plans & Projects Blog

- Best Encourager

The voting is open until midnight, November 18th (central time). There are some really cool homeschool-related prizes to be won, but really I am just happy to be part of this!
You can vote by clicking on this link. The list of all the categories are towards the bottom of the post. Click each category and then find Canadian Home Learning. Clicking on the name brings you to each blog, clicking on the circle enters your vote.

Thank you!!

Book Sharing Monday :: Unsolved!

My son has always had an interest for unsolved mysteries, like the Bermuda Triangle and Atlantis. While searching for books at the library on this topic, we came across this series. "Unsolved!" is written by Kathryn Walker. From the back of the book, it looks like there are twelve titles in the series. We took out the two of interest to us, "The Mystery of Atlantis" and "Mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle". These books are filled with many photos and drawings, a glossary, and also suggestions for further reading.

"The Mystery of Atlantis" explains how the stories of Atlantis began and what Atlantis might have looked like. The book also tells about all the different possible locations of Atlantis, then just like with the book on the Bermuda Triangle, the chapter "Did Atlantis Exist?" explains how people are still argueing over whether Atlantis was real or fiction. 

"The idea of Atlantis has captured people's imaginations for centuries. It has been used in novels, games, and comic books. Television series and movies have also been based on the story." 

"Mysteries of the Bermuda Triangle" talks about all the strange events that have in the area of ocean between Bermuda, Miami, and Puerto Rico. After reading about the vanishing ships and planes, the reader is invited to think about what could be the truth. This is where you can find out about many different explanations.


"Some ships and planes have had trouble with their compasses while traveling inside the Bermuda Triangle. What could be causing this?"

If you are participating in Book Sharing Monday, please include your link below. Happy Reading!

The Karate Kid - then and now

When the first Karate Kid came out, I was twelve years old. I remember liking the story very much, but not so much the fighting. My kids wanted to see the new one but I thought they should watch the original Karate Kid movie before we rented the new version with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. A few days ago, we were able to watch that first Karate Kid movie (1984) from our local library with the famous "wax on, wax off". My kids loved it and I enjoyed watching it again.

Tonight we rented the new Karate Kid and all watched it. It is a bit long, but Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith are awesome in this version. The story follows very closely to the original, with some interesting changes, in particular the setting. The new story takes place in China. There is beautiful scenery in mountains, the Great Wall of China, and even inside the Forbidden City. Unlike the first Karate Kid, there is no blood in this new movie, but still a lot of fighting. The focus is again on gaining and giving respect, training hard and focusing.

I have a couple of favourite quotes from this new movie:


Dre Parker (Jaden Smith): " I thought you were just a maintenance man"
Mr. Han (Jackie Chan): "You think only with your eyes, so you are easy to fool."

~

Mr. Han: "You have taught me very important lesson, Xiao Dre. Life will knock us down, but we can choose whether or not to stand back up".

Advice for a wanna-be-unschooler from freeplaylife

I have enjoyed reading freeplaylife's posts on unschooling and homeschooling for the last few months. I also feel like I have connected with Tiffani (as much as you can in the virtual world) through her self portrait BAM project on flickr. She is a beautiful, fun loving, inspiring woman.

I have been thinking a lot these past few weeks about our homeschooling life. The kids and I have been into a routine since the summer, and it works. It works, but that's about it. I feel at times that we have lost that love of learning and that we are just checking things off a list. That love of learning that we have when we follow a particular interest, passion, or do a really cool project like Mystery Class.

I decided a few days ago to send a personal e-mail to Tiffani from freeplaylife and ask her this simple question:

"When you have a minute, I would love to hear your top 5 advice for a wanna-be-unschooler like me. I will go and read more on your blog later, but I figured you probably have some tips or insights...I have noticed that we are all getting bored of always doing the same thing. My oldest is even considering going to high school... We need to get the love of learning back in our house."  I thought maybe she would send me an e-mail back with a few points when she had a chance, but instead she decided to make a series of posts on her blog! So far, she has written two excellent posts, and I can't wait for the rest.

You can read the first one "Advice for a wannabe unschooler: Widen your Concept of Education" , and the second one "Advice for a wannabe unschooler: Get to Know Your Child as their own Person". I have called myself a wanna-be-unschooler for a few years now, always thinking that I couldn't completely unschool my kids. I have read a lot about unschooling and we also have unschooled friends. As time goes on, though, I am realizing that maybe we could, in our own version,  unschool. I shared a quote today on my facebook from John Holt, and it reflects very nicely how I feel about education at this point:

‎"Since we can’t know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much and learn so well that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned." 

A love of learning and an ability to teach yourself is what I hope to give to my children.

I am looking forward to the next posts and the advice that Tiff will share with all of us on her blog. The second post put a smile on my face when I read it, it made me feel good. I do feel I know my children very well and we have done many of the things on her fun list. It gives me hope that we could do this “unschool” stuff!