Life learning – Page 8 – a hippie with a minivan

Happy Thanksgiving!

To our fellow Canadians of course…

Thanksgiving really marks the beginning of Autumn for me and I love Autumn.

The colours are changing, the air is cool and the leaves are starting to fall and it all just makes me feel homey. I feel like cooking hearty slow cooked meals, I feel like sitting outside with a warm cup of tea and watching the kids play in the leaves.

Last Friday we went to “La Courgerie” A pumpkin, squash and gourd farm with the local homeschooling group.

We took the Ferry and then it was a 15 min ride there. 4$ each gave us a tour of the farm and learning about the types of gourds and squash. A taste of products that they make there on the farm and the owner also showed us the some instuments made in africa that are made from gourds which all the kids got to hold and we all made music at the same time. We also went a picked pumpkins and then had a tractor ride around the farm.

Tonight we are eating the Traditional Thanksgiving supper…

Turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, maple glazed carrots, homemade cranberry sauce, stuffing and Pumpkin pie for dessert… Xavier is really looking forward to it all and has even made a centre piece with somethings that we found at the farm… including this one…

recycling…

Today we went to the Recycling Triage plant with the homeschooling group and we had really great time… It was also quite informative because we had quite a few questions on how things are separated since we no longer separate recycling at home.

We got some breakfast and ate on the road and had a nice ride there (about an hour drive). The tour started with a visit to where people bring stuff from their homes that are then recycled (wood, paint, concrete, metal etc) or thrown out (broken furniture, appliances, oil etc)

Then we headed for the triage plant but we were lucky to have a truck arrive and unload in front of us….

Then we had a little information session on what they do, how it is done and where it goes and what is done with it after…

Xavier surprised me… not only did sit and listen he even put up his hand to ask a question…

“Can toys be recycled”

The answer was no.. not because the type of plastic is not recyclable but because the type of plastic is not indicated on it.

Then we went on a tour of how they do triage…

Magnet that takes Metal out…

Xavier

Xavier stayed next to me the whole time but Colin made two friends and stuck with them… they even lifted him up to see things!

and here is a video just to show How fast things are moving in there… the workers are taking plastic bags out of the paper…

it was really a great day…

Wasn't ready for that…

I have always known I was going to homeschool… way before I had kids… even when I was a kid myself…

I was ready for people questioning me, asking about homeschool, wondering about the legalities and the logistics and the myths.

But… I wasn’t ready for the reactions that I have been getting…

Because Xavier is now “school age” everyone asks about school. When I say that we homeschool some ask the questions that I was ready for… but many others surprise me…

they have no idea what homeschooling is… they have never heard of it.

I wasn’t ready for that. How can someone have never heard of homeschooling?

I know that it isn’t popular in french-canadian circles but I thought the concept was at least known. I remember talking to one of the moms in my area that homeschools and she too had never heard of it until she started searching for information on school alternatives for her son who has leaning problems.

It really surprises me each time… I won’t even think about talking about unschooling with them…

Is this common?

Support…part 2…

Well, as I said in my last post… we are starting a homeschooling support group in our area. We are at the moment 5 families that homeschool…

However, I am the only unschooler.

The first meeting was last week… we went to the house of the seasoned homeschooler so that the “newbies” could ask questions and see her material. She is not only a homeschooler, but she loves collecting homeschool curriculum, books etc and is even starting a library in which people will be able to borrow material from her to compare different curriculums before buying. So, in her house downstairs she has a classroom set up (a large table for her kids surrounded by bookcases, posters a teachers desk etc…) and she has so much stuff… too much…

The other mom’s were loving looking at everything, asking questions, comparing stuff…. though my friend Isabelle was a bit overwhelmed by it all…

As for me… I was dissapointed by the meeting. I don’t want to talk about curriculum and what kids “need” to know by what age… I don’t want to talk about the logistics of how to school at home. Half the time I was there I could not relate at all to what the concerns were… the rest of the time the colourful workbooks had me wishing that Xavier was interested in that stuff…

I am going to tough it out a bit but I am a bit worried that it will not only be what I don’t want in a support group, but that it will make me doubt my choices and beliefs.

new found support…

ok… a few things I forgot to blog about…

A few weeks ago I went to my first homeschooling support group meeting and it was pretty nice.. the problem though is that it is a bit far (about 45min/1 hour away)… At the moment that doesn’t matter for me though.

The group seems to be a eclectic bunch… a few the lean towards unschooling or unschool, a few that are a bit more school-at-home… It will be nice to have some planned activities, To get out with other homeschoolers and meet up with other parents that homeschool. I think that the kids will like that also, especially seeing that other kids don’t go to school and it is not only him…

I told my friend Isabelle on that Thursday about the group and how I enjoyed it and how we had planned activities for the upcoming year and how there are a few moms near here that are now HSing and how we are thinking about starting a group…

Anyway…. Her dd had told her that she didn’t want to go back to school… (she went to K last year and was due to start G1 on the following Tuesday) and when I talked to about that she again told me how much she wanted to homeschool and then asked me tons of questions and then I said that I would share some links…

Well, on the Sunday night I got an e-mail from her saying that she is taking the leap and is going to start HSing…

She was the first real friend I made when I got here, we have very similar parenting values and I find it so exciting that we will be able to support each other…