A Secular Site!

I have zero problem with the fact that I'm a minority being a secular homeschooler. However, it is nice to see some things made for secular HSers! I was directed to the site secularhomeschool.com and am very excited to check it out!


Also got some great FREE pdf files (I guess they're e-books or something) from currclick.com. They were having a big Cyber Monday sale. It was set pdfs that were free but I think I picked up 7 or 8 that will be useful for us.

And last but not least, a shot of the baby helping Brianna with her schoolwork :)

Week 3 Begins

This week we have the addition of Grandma. My mom moved in with us as of yesterday. It'll be nice for the financial help and the Olivia entertainment when Brianna's not done her work when the baby gets up.

We added French to her work last week with the workbook her French teacher gave me and the workbook I bought. Thankfully I've bookmarked Google Translate! Once we get more settled in I think I may look into Rosetta Stone as I've heard good things about their French program.

Ahhhhh...

Today was SUCH a nice change from yesterday! Other than a little snaffu over her math work, Brianna totally cooperated in getting schoolwork done. The movie I had planned for the day didn't work out cause the tv's on a fritz, but even with the delays we were completely done school before 1pm and that included breaking for lunch and a 20 min break in the morning! YAY! And I finally got our first day of homeschool pic loaded... great day all around :)

Holy Busy!

I've totally slacked in the blogging department with the start of homeschooling. We're now just over a week into homeschooling. We've had some rough days, today being one of them, but we're making it through. It's testing my patience a LOT to work through the school mentality Brianna has and try to get it out of her. Right now, the school mentality pissing me off is working. I get very frustrated. I'm pretty good about walking away when it gets to me but sometimes I blow up before the walk away part *blush*

I KNOW it will get better with time, it's just a matter of getting through this rough start. She IS doing really good with our daily stuff, weather tracking, writing a descriptive story about a picture and her math speed challenge (flash cards). It's just some of the other stuff. 

I am proud to say she is a zillion times better at telling time now!!! I found great blank clock sheets at donnayoung.org and we worked on them pretty well every day. She's almost done her time unit and I'm pretty confident she'll ace her test for it.

I also got her a French workbook. I got Gr. 1 level because we have to find out where she is. Can't remember if I blogged about this before... because she was in Immersion she's not in Gr. 3 for French. There's no such thing as Immersion workbooks so we have a choice between workbooks made for a French child doing their regular work in each grade or workbooks for an English child who is starting to learn French. Well Brianna's not JUST learning French, she's been in 1/2 day French since she was 4! Brianna seems to think there's something wrong with doing Gr. 1 workbooks, but I've assured her that if she thinks it's too easy, we'll move to Gr. 2 and so on.

I have a picture of our first day that I wanted to add but Blogger is being a PITA tonight!

Presents from the French Teacher

Finally got around to unpacking Brianna's backpack. Her teacher told me that she included a duotang of worksheets for the play they just started in French class. She also included a DVD of the actions. 

While unpacking her backpack I found in her agenda a sheet of paper with a whack of websites to use! Apparently she's being left in the "online class" where they can make comics with their classmates. There's also a whole bunch of sites that are reference sites for French and several French sites with games and such on them. 

It's so nice to have this bit of extra support from her French teacher! Also, the crossing guard, Yvonne, has told me to get ahold of her for French help too.

On a side note, I was able to get a ride to my first homeschool mom's meeting! The woman who's driving me still has her son in PS for this year, but she's looking to pull him for next year. Can't wait til Wednesday!

No More School!

It's soooo nice to not have to be walking to the school right now. It's a PA day for the school board today so I wouldn't have to anyways, but now I don't have to walk to the school on Monday! 

Yesterday was Brianna's last day. She brought home her backpack FULL of school stuff. Her French teacher even gave me a folder full of French worksheets which I thought was very nice of her since I won't be able to get a French workbook til next weekend. 


Today we have homeschool soccer and I told Brianna she's a full member of the homeschool group now cause she's not just missing a day of school. She's pretty excited about that. She was worried last night about Rebecca not being her friend anymore cause she's not in school, so I see a playdate in the near future.

Remembrance Day

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Today we remember the fallen and the ones who have served. Bow your head and honour them with a moment of silence at 11am today. Freedom isn't free. Someone had to pay for it.

Contact!

Woooooooo!!! Got mom's laptop to accept pdf files and work my printer! While I'm missing most of my bookmarks cause there's way too many of them, at least I can check out new HS sites and am able to print work sheets and such!

Found a great all about me 22 page e-book for once Olivia's Kindergarten age. Also found some great maps of Canada from the 1800s and such. 

Tomorrow's Brianna's last day of school wooooooo!

Woooooo!

One more week to go!!!!!

Today I start my cleaning week. With the organizer I found on donnayoung.org I want to start with a base clean house so I can keep up as easy as possible. I think it won't be as hard as it could be, since Brianna's already used to chores and helping clean.

I also found a new homeschooling book at the library that wasn't already in my collection so excited to start that!

Now if only MY computer was working properly! I'm not used to not having all my bookmarks *cry*

Teacher Talks

Stopped in after school to talk to Brianna's teachers about homeschooling. I wouldn't say they were thrilled with the idea, but neither balked at it either. 

Her English teacher said that because her time there was over the same day as Brianna (the other teacher is coming back from maternity leave), that all projects hope to be done by then. But she has no problem gathering Brianna's work and such for next Thursday. She even said that I can have the math text she's working in since otherwise it'll just be garbaged (they work with in the book so it's not like it can be reused by another student). She's also going to send home her English workbook so I can see what Brianna has already done this year.

Her French teacher was a great help in the area that troubles me the most. She said that she'd get together a list of websites and workbooks that she recommends so I can continue in Brianna's French. She will also gather together any finished or in the middle of work that Brianna's done.


Now all I have left is to count down the days until we're officially homeschooling! Only 12 more days!

Letters of Intent

Mailed out the letter of intent to the school board. Apparently they don't always respond, but I can request it if I need it. 

Also met with Brianna's principal today. First to bring up the bullying again and second to give him my other letter of intent. He was surprisingly very open to HSing. He wants my name on the school list to be mailed school newsletters so I can stay in the loop and mentioned that at one of his old schools that they invited HSers to field trips and such. He also has no problem with Brianna coming back to the school to visit her old teachers and such (obviously out of school time)

I am very surprised by the show of support. From what I hear it's quite rare. He did mention some paperwork, which I assume is to relieve the school of any liability to Brianna while doing school stuff once she's no longer registered, but I'll be going through the paperwork with a fine toothed comb to make sure there's nothing else in there. 

In Ontario, we're lucky enough to have zero regulations on HSing other than providing a letter of intent, so I know the schools can't "make" me do reports or testing. I *can* have Brianna tested during the EQAOs if I chose, but I don't have to. I also know that I don't have to let anyone from the school/board look over Brianna's work or my plans. Hopefully the paperwork is solely what I assume... removing liability from the school (which I have no problem with).