April 2009 – a hippie with a minivan

consuming kids…

I just watched this on Youtube and I thought that it would be interesting to share…

(this is the first part of seven… follow the link… all of them are there and easy to find)

Watching this really makes me glad that we don’t have cable TV anymore… even though in Canada there are more regulations against advertising to kids, I was appalled at seeing all the commercials when we watched TV when we had it…. yes we watch movies and the boys see advertisements out of the home and even in the home, but I think they are in no way near being bombarded with adds as most kids are…

Avoiding artificial colourings and flavours also seems to give us an edge when it comes to advertising foods and restaurants… the boys are attracted to them of course but they know that cool packaging is just to sell the product, but it is the ingredient list that sells it for us if we are buying…

I think the ultimate goal as a parent is of course not to shelter kids from advertising (or from anything else for that matter) because really… it will never work and most importantly it will leave them quite unprepared in the future… No, the goal is to teach them what adververtizing does and how it works and give them the skills now to make the right choices.

No more training wheels!

Xavier decided yesterday that he wanted to take the training wheels off his bike but Simon was not able to get to it at that moment… So today when he asked again we all went outside and got the wheels off and watched him try riding for the first time…

Simon held him a bit but was able to let go for a second or two the first time that they tried…

but after about 5 min there was no need to help anymore and in the rest of the time that we were out there he knew how to push off and how to turn…

He is so proud of himself!!

and it really goes for show…
when kids are ready to do something they will do it, and they will do it quickly!!

AQED/QAHBE Symposium 2009

Yesterday was the AQED/QAHBE (Quebec Association for Home-Based Education) Symposium…

I had avoided going the last years because there was not much that interested me in the presentations that were offered, but this year I decided to take a chance and go. I am happy that I did so…

We left in the morning at about 6am and got there at about 7:15 and we were in the first arrivals… there was an intro and then the presentations started…

The first I went to was called “Eco-Education” and was basically about the language around homeschooling and about how the word “homeschooling” misrepresents the act by giving the impression that it is “school at home” when it is so much more (or even not close at all to that model in the case of unschooling). The words of “Eco-Education” in this situation doesn’t take on the meaning of ecological (though they can be intertwined) but takes on the meaning of “eco” as representing our “habitat”… our environment etc…

The second one was on “unschooling”… lol… I actually ended up taking a bit and I am glad I did… I had mentioned when I presented myself that I was an unschooler and that I was there to mingle with other unschoolers… and soon after we left the room I was aproached by a woman who presented herself and her partner and we ended up talking for an hour or two about unschooling and eating lunch together… it was really great to meet them and I hope that we can keep in touch because they were great people whom I would love to know more… Sadly they live far away but I hope that there will be other ways to keep in touch…

I also met a cool homeschooling mama that came all the way from NB to meet other French homeschoolers…

After lunch there was a seminar but I ended up ditching it and talking with another couple that are in the other homeschooling group that I go to at times and we ended up talking for another hour about unschooling and kids and family life etc…

It was really refreshing to be around so many like-minded people…

In the afternoon I went to two other presentations…

One was on Waldorf and I kind of regret going to that one… though I went to a walforf school when I was young, I did not see it at all in the same way as was described…

The last one was on a theory called Parent-Guide, Parent-Complice, which turned out to be a really cool presentation about parenting… many of the things presented in the book reminds me about a little bit of “Hold onto your kids” mixed in with “Playful Parenting” with a little bit of “NVC” thrown in… among other ideas that seemed pretty interesting…

After, I met with my friends and we headed out for supper and we had a great time eating and sharing before finally heading home at about 9pm…

Anyway… I am really happy to have been there and I had a lot of fun and I am honestly looking forward to next year…

Quinoa salad…

I hadn’t tried Quinoa until last year but since then I have been hooked.

My favourites are the coconut quinoa that Annie shared with me… and this Quinoa salad…

it is so easy to make, simple and fresh and full of flavour…

It is one of those non-recipes…where you just throw things in and adjust the taste as needed…

First, cook the Quinoa the same as you would rice….

When cooked and cooled a bit (but still a bit warm), add some chopped up veggies…I like adding peppers and carrots and celery. Then add a bit of olive oil, some salt or tamari to taste, some fresh (or dried) parsley, a bit of garlic powder and I like adding a bit of curry powder which seems to bring all of the other flavours out…

This is just a simple salad that can be eaten as a side, and because it is so complete nutritionally it can also be a meal in itself and keeps well and travels well…

Electrium…

Yesterday , the boys and I headed to the Electrium...

The Electrium is in Ste-Julie on the south shore of Montreal and is a place run by Hydro-Quebec to learn all about electricity…

The tour starts out with a few minute long films that were fun and held all of the kids attentions…

then they learned about safety,

then electricity/magnetism in Nature with electric eels and other fish, the human body, static electricity, power and circuitry…

It was really quite informative and most of all it was a lot of fun…

The boys loved it especially because everything can be touched and tried…

Xavier learning about how a circuit works….

This of course was a big hit…

But I think that this was Colin’s favourite part… the guy who was showing the tour let him go up even though he was a bit small… he told Colin not to take his hand of the ball and Colin listened so well that it was hard for him to hear when it was safe to do so… he just stayed so still and didn’t move…

If you are near or in Montreal the Electrium is on the south shore not too far away from the Island. It is free and though it is not a big place it is a lot of fun and even for little kids…