Alternative Parenting – Page 23 – a hippie with a minivan

I need to get out more…

With the price of Gas in the last year being so high I have not been going out as much…

Montreal is the place to be for homeschooling in Quebec. But Montreal is about 90 km away… about an hour driving or more depending on the location… Which means that as the price of gas went up I went out less and I am feeling more and more like we are missing out on stuff… There are groups that get together on a regular basis, that do things and go places together… that just hang out and talk at least once a week etc..there are also English home schoolers/kids there… which is something I think that the kids need…

Of course, the price of gas is not the only reason I don’t get out much… I am a homebody… I like to be at home… and sometimes going out with the three kids was a lot of work and it was not something that I looked forward to all of the time… but as the kids get older that is changing. Xavier is getting to be less intense and the other two follow more…. It is actually getting fun to go out again…

So I have decided that we are going to change this… I need to change it… so I am going to be joining the Montreal Homelearners group every week…. They meet on Thursdays at 11am-3pm which means that we don’t have to leave the house too early to get there and we don’t have to come back in the dark and we can pick up Simon who works about 10 min away from there and see him a bit earlier also…

Parenting Books…

I have been reading and rereading a few books lately and I thought that I would share the my list of “must haves”…

I would guess that many of you already know and love these books but if you don’t and you have kids or are around kids you need to read them..

The difference between these books and mainstream parenting books are that these are not all “how to” books… they are not books meant to give quick fixes while putting parents into an “us against them” frame of mind with children. They are not all-in-one manuals and instead all compliment each other. These are books that will change the way that you think about children and how they are and should be raised.

Calling all homeschoolers!

Here is a really cool website to register on…

Homeschool Media Network

You can use an alias if you are under the radar or just don’t want to use you name and you can list yourself as a homeschooler in you region and maybe find other homeschoolers… the site is also a way to see how many homeschoolers there actually are…

it is free and it takes just a few minutes…

Qualified?

When I tell people that I am homeschooling one of the first questions is asking me if I am a “qualified teacher”… do I have my degree in education?.. am I qualified to teach my children as much as a child in the public system?…

First… this is a bit insulting…

I mean.. I do think that even though I don’t have a degree in education, I am smart enough to keep up with my children who are of pre-school/grade one age… and as they grow I think that I am smart enough to keep up with them…

Second… does having a degree in education automatically make you a qualified teacher?

but the Ironic point?

A few days ago in the news.. this was mentioned…

Unqualified teachers flood Quebec classrooms
Mon, 2008-10-06 05:38.
Catherine Sherriffs

The number of unqualified teachers in this province is on the rise.Last year, more than 2,300 teachers in Quebec classrooms did not hold a university teaching degree.
That’s an increase of more than 1000 per cent over five years.
School Board officials aren’t denying it, saying a massive shortage of teachers in this province is forcing schools to hire anybody they can get their hands on.

http://www.cjad.com/node/802900

I wonder if people even realize?

I think I am going to mention this fact the next time someone asks…

The book is official…

The launch was on sunday and It was pretty amazing…

The turnout was more than anyone could have expected… about 150 at the least… and 75% of the authors that shared their stories in the book were there…The editors even had to go back to their office and get more books because they were selling so quickly…

It really feels great to be somewhere surrounded by people with the same views.. and so many of us not only have the same views on birth and breastfeeding but automatically for many parents homeschooling, baby wearing and other ideals follow easily…

Another great thing was to meet Michelle and her two little ones… I hope to meet again!

I feel quite priviliged to be part of the book and part of the community that realized it.