Brianna's Moving Out (well, for pretend)

I was reading through one of my Secular Homeschooler group's and was reminded of this great idea I wanted to try when Brianna was older. Real life finances, without the real life hardships.

The basic idea was fairly simple. Start with a part time job, find a place to live, pay bills, etc....

So Brianna and I sat for a few hours last month setting it up. Because of all the time involved in setting it up, I went ultra basic. As the time goes on, there will be more details.

Here's what we did for September:

I had Brianna do some guestimating. I had her guess what she would be spending per month. Her answers - rent ($560), heat ($100), electric ($100), food ($100), extras ($250). Apparently I need to take her to the grocery store more often...

Brianna got a part time job at the local dollar store. Minimum wage at $11.60 per hour, 20 hours per week (for Sept, to keep it simple). I also explained the available gov tax credits that she would be entitled to for being low income (here, Trillium monthly and GST 4 times a year). We went over Lee's pay stub to learn about deductions. I set it up so she started "working" in August so that her Sept bills (rent, in particular) were paid on Sept 1st.

We did an actual house hunt with the local rental companies so she could see what legit rentals offered. She decided on a 1 bdrm apt about 6 blocks from home (and about 1.5 miles from work) that included fridge and stove (not all that common here) and heat. It cost $515 + electric.

We set her other bills at - electric ($40, based on current rates and what I paid almost 20 yrs ago for a 1 bdrm), cell ($45, her existing, real life bill), internet ($57, a real package from our cable company), bus fare ($55, as she currently does not want to walk to work).

She decided to "sell" her bar fridge that she for real owns as her apt came with a fridge so would rather the extra money. She otherwise furnished her appt with the furniture she for real owns (bed, dresser, desk & chair, wall unit, end tables, tv and laptop)

After all her bills we paid, she was left with $128 This month (Oct), we will add "grocery shopping" in detail to the lessons.

Weekly Wrap Up/Tot School - 11/18/16

Life is kinda back to normal now. My big show is over. It's still my busy season, but I have time to breathe and not spending 36 hours a day in my office is nice. I still have another show to do before the holidays but it's a much smaller scale show and I can get everything I need ready in a day. So my office time has been spent catching up on our family's "needs for winter" clothing list and gifts.

The girls have been doing well in their online schooling (Time4Learning and Reading Eggs/Math Seeds) so we'll be continuing doing mostly that for the rest of the year. We do really need to finish our Thailand Country Study though! Joshua has been doing a lot of the same school activities (his favorites) so not too many pics of his schoolwork, but he is loving independence learning too!

My booth at my big show. I had record sales so all the hard work was worth it!

Olivia and Joshua have a huge set of wooden blocks in their room. Olivia has taken to making elaborate stories to go with towns she's built

Boxes are a kids favorite toys. Joshua and Olivia like to color them too

Joshua loves to help with the laundry

Safety is very important in construction. No one needs to know it's just a bike helmet!

Joshua loves to "circle the correct answer." Here he's finding all the red items

The girls and I took part in the local Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph. Olivia wanted to leave her poppy for the soldiers.

Brianna and Olivia did a lot of baking for various Guiding activities. Here, Brianna's teaching Olivia how to grate orange zest.

And here, Olivia taught Joshua how to roll out cookie dough with the rolling pin.

Brianna worked with her Pathfinder group, putting on a spaghetti dinner for the public to raise funds for their England trip. The girls did everything from busing tables to dishes and clean up afterward.

Making music is one of Joshua's favorite things.

Two of Olivia's friends (2nd and 3rd here) are going to be living in Australia for the winter. Olivia is very sad that her friends will be gone, but they plan to penpal so at least they can keep in touch!

Joshua keeps stealing Tupperware lids to make "pizza"

Most of Joshua's shape tracing end up looking like circles, but you've got to start somewhere!

The girls had their Enrolment Night for Guides and got a bunch of new badges!

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, 1+1+1=1, Practical Mom, Hip Homeschool Mom and Homeschool Creations

Weekly Wrap Up - 10/21/16 and Tot School Weeks 6 and 7

This is a combined post because I'm in a crazy busy period of work. Still lots of learning going on, just not as much documentation! Random colds have been floating in and out of our house too, so set school work hasn't happened as normal.

The girls took part in their first Cookie Blitz. Most of Guides funds come from cookie sales. This Blitz in particular ended up sold out!

Paramedics came to Olivia's brownies to teach them some basic first aid. Olivia was thrilled to bandage her friend's "cut" arm. Even better (in Olivia's opinion) was the fact that they let her keep the gloves. She wore those things for days!

Brianna's dad is really good about me homeschooling her and has never questioned my wishes in it. Occasionally He gives her assignments. This one was of the history of the company that he works for.

Life Skills! We got new blinds this week and I had Brianna hang them. Now she knows why I hate them lol

Random pumpkin craft with LOTS of help from Joshua.

Brianna did Joshua's schoolwork with him. He loves telling everyone letters.

This one was more a lesson of sharing and taking turns. Something Joshua is completely not fond of.

Joshua woke up this week with a swollen face, complaining of pain. A doctor's visit showed nothing wrong. No ear infection, no tooth abscess, no strep, nothing. Just random swelling and pain. Now it's gone. I guess Joshua just likes to be special.

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler, Hip Homeschool Mom and Homeschool Creations.

Weekly Wrap Up - 10/14/16

The remnants of sickies are still hanging around our house. As I'm sure you don't want to see a pile of snotty Kleenex, this is a picture-less Wrap Up.

This week is Fire Prevention/Safety Week. We started out the week watching a video our local firefighters put together about smoke detector and battery replacements. We just checked and changed batteries in ours last week so it was a "yay we already did that!" moment.

Being that it's my busy season for my home business, the girls have had a lot of independent work. I mean, most of Brianna's already is, but Olivia too has been mostly working on Reading Eggs and Math Seeds rather than paper worksheets.

We did a nature walk. The girls insist on calling it a "nature walk" even if it's something we do often and it's right next to our house *sigh*

We started our first Country Study in over a year. Getting a subscription to Universal Yums certainly helped get the ball rolling! (check my post about Universal Yums here) Our Country Study this round is Thailand. Look for a post next week to read all about it!

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Hip Homeschool Moms

Tot School - Week 5

We got some new Melissa and Doug "toys". Joshua looooves them. His favorites right now are the wooden alphabet (which has both upper and lower case) and the cutting eggs.

Joshua loves to be a big helper. One of his favorite "chores" is emptying the dryer.

We got some new lacing cards and he thinks they're just great! Lacing cards are a great way to practice fine motor skills without it being something "boring" like writing or coloring.

He really likes these printables I keep pulling out (a lot of them are leftovers from Olivia's preschool years so I'm not positive where I got them!). He's having lots of fun learning how to glue. Next up, scissor skills! *eek*

Linking up with 1+1+1=1, Homeschool Creations and Hip Homeschool Mom.

Weekly Wrap Up - 9/30/16

Olivia loves to curl up in our lawn chairs (since she's small enough she can actually curl up) and read books.

Olivia has been riding biking with the neighbour's children in the evenings. She became quite the pro at riding a 2 wheeler this summer and helped teach her year-younger friend how to as well.

Olivia was recently shown how to properly use a steak knife to cut. Joshua loves this as it means that she is willing to often cut up strawberries for him!

Brianna got a note from the local organizer of the Terry Fox Run thanking her for her continued fundraising and offered to make sure that her run is officially recorded (as Brianna was sick on the actual run day).

Olivia finished up her apple experiment with all sorts of gross success.

We recorded our "day in the life" post for iHomeschool Network.

Brianna has really taken a big change in responsibility in her school work this week. She went from needing more prompting (and arguing) to do schoolwork than Olivia, to really buckling down and getting it done. Her chores still take a lot more prompting, but I'll take it!

We all began working out again this week. Because of my surgeries in June, this summer was way too laid back. Brianna really fell short in the healthy dept. We have a dedicated workout room that we share with the neighbours (we have the equipment, they have the space) so no excuses!

If you've been reading my blog for a while (or just read back to a few years ago), you'll remember my niece Tanya used to homeschool with us. She went back to the public school route and is not working on dual credit courses at the college that Brianna plans to attend. Today was her Sweet 16.

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers and Hip Homeschool Moms