A few weeks ago, two friends of mine asked me to write 10 Random Things About Myself. Life has been INSANE and so I am only now getting to it. Hopefully I can make it worth your wait. :o)
1. When I was 13 years old, I had newly arrived in England. My family had moved there and my brother and I were out exploring one day. We climbed a spike fence to get down onto a railroad. The spiked fence should have been a warning, shouldn't it?
I was an avid reader and had read The Railway Children. In this story these children had moved to the country and had discovered a train that went by their house every day. They got to communicating with an elderly gentleman on the train by waving etc. They would listen to see if the train was coming by putting two hands on the track and then lying their heads on the track and listening for the rumbling vibration.
I figured this was a great thing to do, so I did it. You can only begin to imagine my terror when the most enormous jolt of electricty ripped through my body, throwing me away from the train tracks. My hands were burned with blisters, but that was the only physical sign that I had been shocked.
I sat there absolutely terrified and immediately began to scream blue murder. I thought I was dying! My poor 14 year old brother had no idea what had happened and tried to calm me down.
The funny thing (not then!) was as we were walking home I was sure I was going to die. If not then, then later. So my 'oh so wise' brother told me I needed to 'ground' the electricity that was sure to be coursing through my body. He told me to put my hands on a metal light pole. I was sure that he was going to kill me, so I refused.
For weeks after, this I prayed every night that I would not die in my sleep. My parents never knew this happened until only a few years ago.
Now the rest will probably be rather lame. *grin*
2. I was born at home by midwife, and slept in a drawer when I was little.
3. Excluding my first son, all my children were born in 1.5 hours (or less) from the first contraction, or sign of labour. My first son was born in 4 hrs 10 minutes.
4. When I was 19 years old I moved to Banff to earn money and save up to go on a solo trip to Europe. I am a very goal oriented person and I knew I could make my fortune if I kept my focus. While other kids were there to party, I used the opportunity to my advantage. I had applied for a job as a Chambermaid at the Banff Spring Hotel. That became my number one job.
I knew that I could make more money babysitting the hotels guests children and so while other staff members were outside smoking during breaks I would dash back to the housekeeping office and scoop all the posted babysitting jobs. In this way I got 95% of the jobs that came in. I didn't know this until I finally left and Housekeeping told me that I was there most reliable babysitter and that I took 95% of the job. I went on to travel and visit some of these guests that I got friendly with! A great way to see the world!
As I worked at the hotel I found other opportunties to make money. I was there for 5 months and over that period of time I held down 6 jobs, simultaneously, working on average 85 hours a week!
As well as being a Maid and a Babysitter, I worked parttime in one of the Hotel Gift Shops, cleaned the Chief Engineers house once a week, worked at Suisse Chalet in the town. And my last job that netted me a killing was cleaning the guys rooms. I was making $3.50 an hour and these guy staff members didn't like cleaning up after themselves. As a maid I was quick! So I used this to my advantage and advertised cleaning the guys room at $15 and it only took me 1hr +. Good money.
Even in the midst of this crazy work schedule I had a blast living in Banff and found it my favourite place to live. I was a staff member in a place (that I considered home) that people paid a fortune to stay in!
In this way I was able to save for my trip to Europe. That is another story!
5. I guess I can lead into the next one here. When I was in Switzerland I was walking down a street one day and heard the most beautiful singing. I followed the sound and discovered a family singing on the street. I sat on the sidewalk and listened. After they were done and the crowd dispersed I approached them. They had six children and I was always drawn to families. I discovered they were on their own - not affiliated with any church. I ended up going back to their campsite with them and spent the afternoon with them. The next day I rejoined them and travelled with them for five days. I loved their family atmosphere - the closeness. I loved their love of the Lord.
One day I had to make a decision - my plane was leaving to go back to Canada. I had to either toss my ticket and continue on with them or go home. I had never experienced this kind of closeness before. They suggested I pray and see what God told me to do. I couldn't understand why God wouldn't give me a 'go ahead' but I didn't get one.
It broke my heart and I cried my eyes out, but I left. My ties to my family were too strong to be broken. Over the course of the next couple months, I ran into various people who I told my experience to and they all thought the situation very odd. I didn't.
I went home to Canada and told my mother and she told me that they were a cult. I had told her their name. I didn't believe her. She called her pastor and he came over and brought with him a book written by David Moses's daughter. The founder of the group I was with was David Moses. The pastor told me my mother was right. It was a cult.
I read the book from cover to cover and was shocked beyond belief. All the little stories and way of life, I had been taught by the family were in the book - but this time they were in full bloom, not just in seed form.
For instance, I was told that if the father's daughter had to date a guy to get him to know God - that was okay. I accepted this as it didn't sound 'too bad'. When I read the book it actually said, if she has to sleep with the guy - that is okay. It's all for the cause. It is called Flirty Fishing. That was the name the father had given to me.
What I discovered was that all of the things they had 'taught' me or exposed me to were like little seeds. They were all manageable and acceptable, but the book showed what these ideas were like when they were really acted upon. When they were in full bloom.
Suddenly I realized that everyone was right. The name of the group of people I was with was Families For Christ. They used to be known as The Children of God, and previous to this Teens For Christ. I knew from talking to them that they had changed their name because they had been persecuted in countries.
A few months after I was home my mother gave me a newspaper article. The cult had been stopped at an airport where an underage boy was trying to leave the country with them. It was a frightening experience to realize that it took me another two years to unindoctrinate my brain from what I had been taught. I would have gone with them at any time in the following two years. Cults are very scary and insideous.
6. I fell off a 2nd story balcony twice when I was under the age of two. I was a real adventurous child! The second time I land *across* a picket fence. My mother was terrified to see what was the outcome! The neighbour got there at the same time and he picked me off the fence - I was okay. God must have a hand on me!
7. I have had many natural and not so natural disasters follow in my wake!
a) An Volcano in Mt. Etna, when I was in Italy;
b) the worst Snowstorm in England in 100 years, while I was there;
c) a Tornado in Edmonton/Banff area, when I lived in Banff
d) a Hurricane in Florida, while visiting a friend
e) an Earthquake in California, while on holiday there
f) a major Flood in Fiji, while on honeymoon;
g) a ferry boat sinking, directly after I crossed the English Channel
8. I had an unreasonable fear of electricity and electrical fires until I was about 32. I wouldn't even let my husband changed a lightswitch without a fuss. I was *certain* he was going to reconnect the wires incorrectly and the house would burn down!
God has a real sense of humour, or perhaps it was just His way of getting me to get over it. We moved to our town from a big city and decided to build a house. We were trying to cut costs and so had an electrician look at our house plans and show us how to wire it ourselves. He drew little red and green lines where all the wires were to run. He would come in later when the wire pulling was done and would hook up all the little boxes.
No big deal, right? Right. Guess who got the job??? MOI!! There I was for TWO WEEKS drilling holes in studs and running wires from here to there and having to staple them down. Staple them down? What about running a staple through a wire accidently? AHH!! Would have freaked me out if Ray did it. But since I was doing it, I was able to see I did it without any incidents.
After this was done, my irrational fear subsided and I was able to see there simply were two wires in the box and red went to red and white to white - type thing. No biggie. So now I can say I wired a brand new house! HAHA! Who'd of thunk!
9. In one year, Lord willing, I will have 5 or 6 car seats in my van! What a hoot!
A few years ago, a customer of Ray's got a call from a neighbour. The neighbour was concerned because he saw a car parked out front of their home. They were away as it was their summer home. The neighbour was not aware that my hubby was doing some work on their summer place. When he called the owners he said, "And what's really odd is the van is full of carseats!" (Like what burgler would come with a van and four carseats? *grin*)
10. I have been to this many countries: England x 4, Germany x 2, Spain, Switzerland x 2, France x 3, Luxembourg, Austria x 2, Italy, Belgium, Wales, Mexico, USA - countless, Hawaii - more perhaps, but the memories are starting to fade...
So how's that for Random and trying to keep it interesting. :o)
Friday, March 28, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Such Exciting News on the Adoption Front
Not our news, exactly. But in the long run I can only hope it will affect us, too!
In this last two days there have been at least EIGHT Medicals cleared on our adoption yahoo groups! We are lucky to hear about one Medical a week. And the news just gets better...
As well as so many Medicals clearing since Monday, we have also heard the most amazing timeline stories. Historically, I know of people who waited up to TWENTY ONE WEEKS for their Medicals to be cleared. These people, on the 'old method' of doing things had to wait for Court Approval before they could *begin* their Medical. That was *torturous*.
With the new and improved method that our agency is now implementing, the agency is now submitting the Medical files at the same time as Referral. This means the Medical could come through 12 weeks earlier than it used to - saving 3 MONTHS on our wait time to get our kids.
So to keep this as simple as possible - the new and wonderful news that we saw yesterday - one family got their Referral in mid-January. This is means that she has waited 9 1/2 weeks since Referral. Well, guess what? Using this new method of sending in Medical before Court Date, our agency submitted her papers two weeks ago. This Adoptive Parent heard yesterday that she got her Medical back. That was a mere TWO WEEKS!!!!!!
She hasn't even had her Court Approval yet. This means that when Court does come through she will be travelling days or at most, a few weeks later!!!!!!! This will been a real record!!! That means her total wait time from Referral could be as little as 14 weeks!!! Just over THREE MONTHS!!!!
Do you have any idea how wonderful this is for us that are waiting? We entered this adoption knowing it would take up to EIGHT months to bring our children home AFTER Referral. Now we are seeing miracles happening in THREE MONTHS!!!! This last situation was not isolated. The other stories were telling similar situations.
We can only hope and wonder if our latest Letter Writing Campaign made a difference.
We inundated our Members of Parliament and Minister Finley of the Canadian Immigration Centre with letters crying out for justice for the newly adopted Ethiopian-Canadian children sitting in orphanges, due to lack of man-power in Nairobi's High Commission (Canadian office).
I believe there were at least a hundred letters sent to the Minister, plus all our MPs, regarding this situation that is specific to Canada. And I know that a number of these MPs rose to their job and called and wrote to Minister Finley themselves.
Maddenly, I got a hopeless letter back from our MP, which I plan to rebut. A friend of mine said she was going to call me "Justine, Warrior Woman," based on my rebuttal letter. With her advice *grin* I am going to tone down my reply, before I send it. I might need the MP's assistance later, and so, I can't really burn my bridges, yet. It just *infuriates* me though, how useless and patronizing some of these government members can be.
This week has been the most exciting of all our weeks and months on these boards. As well as the Medicals clearing in record time, (Permanent Resident Visa route home) the first cases of the CIC (Canadian Immigration route home) have also been clearing. This is the new method of bringing the children home (Bill C-14 - what we did the CBC interview for in December). These have been clearing in about 6 weeks after Court Approval. So these are wonderful numbers also!!
Bottom line, whether we choose CIC or PRV to bring our kids home, both routes are showing that they are picking up their timelines and children are moving through the process quicker. This is an amazing thing. It shows that standing up and being heard, by writing letters, *does* make a difference!! The squeaky wheel gets oiled!! YEAH!!!
I can only hope that this will continue when we get our referral. We have now been waiting 15 weeks and 6 days. I pray that our referral is soon. I know it is in God's time, but it is getting harder to wait. Actually, that is not true. I am finding the time FLYING by. It is going so incredibly fast that I can't keep up!!! True. BUT, if I stop to think about it, it would be WONDERFUL to get a referral SOON!!!!!
In this last two days there have been at least EIGHT Medicals cleared on our adoption yahoo groups! We are lucky to hear about one Medical a week. And the news just gets better...
As well as so many Medicals clearing since Monday, we have also heard the most amazing timeline stories. Historically, I know of people who waited up to TWENTY ONE WEEKS for their Medicals to be cleared. These people, on the 'old method' of doing things had to wait for Court Approval before they could *begin* their Medical. That was *torturous*.
With the new and improved method that our agency is now implementing, the agency is now submitting the Medical files at the same time as Referral. This means the Medical could come through 12 weeks earlier than it used to - saving 3 MONTHS on our wait time to get our kids.
So to keep this as simple as possible - the new and wonderful news that we saw yesterday - one family got their Referral in mid-January. This is means that she has waited 9 1/2 weeks since Referral. Well, guess what? Using this new method of sending in Medical before Court Date, our agency submitted her papers two weeks ago. This Adoptive Parent heard yesterday that she got her Medical back. That was a mere TWO WEEKS!!!!!!
She hasn't even had her Court Approval yet. This means that when Court does come through she will be travelling days or at most, a few weeks later!!!!!!! This will been a real record!!! That means her total wait time from Referral could be as little as 14 weeks!!! Just over THREE MONTHS!!!!
Do you have any idea how wonderful this is for us that are waiting? We entered this adoption knowing it would take up to EIGHT months to bring our children home AFTER Referral. Now we are seeing miracles happening in THREE MONTHS!!!! This last situation was not isolated. The other stories were telling similar situations.
We can only hope and wonder if our latest Letter Writing Campaign made a difference.
We inundated our Members of Parliament and Minister Finley of the Canadian Immigration Centre with letters crying out for justice for the newly adopted Ethiopian-Canadian children sitting in orphanges, due to lack of man-power in Nairobi's High Commission (Canadian office).
I believe there were at least a hundred letters sent to the Minister, plus all our MPs, regarding this situation that is specific to Canada. And I know that a number of these MPs rose to their job and called and wrote to Minister Finley themselves.
Maddenly, I got a hopeless letter back from our MP, which I plan to rebut. A friend of mine said she was going to call me "Justine, Warrior Woman," based on my rebuttal letter. With her advice *grin* I am going to tone down my reply, before I send it. I might need the MP's assistance later, and so, I can't really burn my bridges, yet. It just *infuriates* me though, how useless and patronizing some of these government members can be.
This week has been the most exciting of all our weeks and months on these boards. As well as the Medicals clearing in record time, (Permanent Resident Visa route home) the first cases of the CIC (Canadian Immigration route home) have also been clearing. This is the new method of bringing the children home (Bill C-14 - what we did the CBC interview for in December). These have been clearing in about 6 weeks after Court Approval. So these are wonderful numbers also!!
Bottom line, whether we choose CIC or PRV to bring our kids home, both routes are showing that they are picking up their timelines and children are moving through the process quicker. This is an amazing thing. It shows that standing up and being heard, by writing letters, *does* make a difference!! The squeaky wheel gets oiled!! YEAH!!!
I can only hope that this will continue when we get our referral. We have now been waiting 15 weeks and 6 days. I pray that our referral is soon. I know it is in God's time, but it is getting harder to wait. Actually, that is not true. I am finding the time FLYING by. It is going so incredibly fast that I can't keep up!!! True. BUT, if I stop to think about it, it would be WONDERFUL to get a referral SOON!!!!!
Saturday, March 22, 2008
God's Call to Care For the Orphan
Tonight, Ray and I were watching a movie: Beyond Borders. We had chosen it because we had heard it was an amazing movie that showed Ethiopia for real – and it did. The first hour of the movie was set in a refugee camp in Ethiopia.
My face had a look of shock for much of the movie. Simply because I could not believe what I was witnessing. This movie was filmed with *real people* - real starving children and adults. It was a tragedy. There was a woman having an open stomach operation – without anesthesia! Why? Because there is *no* morphine!! The doctor said she was beyond pain. The only pain she felt was hunger and she thanked the doctor from rescuing her from the jaws of death.
It was so shocking to see Cambodia, Chechnya, and Ethiopia – the people, the pain, and the will to survive! Amazing – a must see! Disclaimer: be prepared for the language.
No wonder Angelina Jolie went on to adopt from Cambodia and Ethiopia!!!!! She witnessed these children – she cradled them – dying, and all! She to me, is a hero – why? Because she didn’t just ‘do her thing’ and make her movie and her money. She fell in love with these children and went back to ‘change one life’ – As the movie said at one point – One life saved.
Not only that, she went on to become the Goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR - United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Ironically, this is a position that she ended up being granted in the movie! Obviously filming this movie changed her!
We, as a people, may not enter adoptions to ‘save a life’. We began for our own selfish ambitions, but it didn't take long until our hearts changed, and we were driven to do more. And yes, at that point, a person *is* ‘saving a life.’
True, we will fall in love with our child – but it does not take away from the fact that there is a reason we chose to continue with that country. We know they need it. There are starving people. Homeless orphans. Sick and dying people.
For every child adopted, there is another space opened up in an orphanage for a street child. In Addis Ababa, there are 50,000 street children!!! Unfortunately, not all children can be adopted. If they do not have the right to adopt them to families, then all orphanages can do is feed and house them. But when a child that is available for adoption moves on, a child that can't be adopted can find a home in the orphanage.
My boys will watch all of those human interest movies, no matter how harsh and real they are: Hotel Rwanda, Beyond the Gates, Blood Diamond and any more that I come across.
By making our older boys aware of what is going on, we are helping to change the world. If each person does *something* the world will become a better place. And yes, there are corrupt governments that we can’t do anything about.
But there are many, many, millions of orphans that we *can* do something about!!! You may ask ‘why take two or three children. Why not just one?' Because it is no longer about us. It has moved miles beyond that.
If we involve our children in what is going on in the world and don't allow them to live like ostriches - as we did - they can't help but be changed. While I was growing up, life was what was going on in our lives, our school, our city. It wasn't until I was an adult that I was aware of country issues. Before that I had more "important" things to worry about: school, boys, clothes, friends.
Our children are so blessed to be exposed *now* while they are young. They will never go through life waiting until something lands in their lap, before they care about the people in other countries. Hopefully, they won't see issues that happen in other countries as 'someone else's problems'.
I am reading a book called Stolen Angels by Kathy Cook. This book is about Uganda and how the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) is abducting thousands of children and making them child soldiers and sex slaves. This book covers the whole issue, but is specifically the story of thirty girls from a girls' school that were abducted, and if you were to read the book you would be shocked and horrified to realize that they could have been returned if *people cared and got their heads out of the sand*!!
It isn't only me that was too concerned with what was going on in my own life to open my eyes to other countries. Many of us are guilty of having done this.
There are no guarantees that our children will adopt just because we do. Mind you, our oldest has already said he wants to. So we shall see. But, by making Africa and the plight of children in the midst of war, famine, or other desperate situations, important to our children - they *will* be changed. And I do believe they will rise up to be part of the difference.
God is showing us, over and over, that He is in charge and that He is behind the orphans and they are *His* orphans.
What would one child adopted from the millions do? Would it really make any difference - one out of 10,000,000?
If there are ten million orphans in the world, then we only need 10,000,000 people to adopt one child – out of a possible 6 BILLION ! And then there would be no more orphans.
Or, if people adopted two children then there would only need to be 5,000,000 people to take care of all the orphans in the world! Wow! Does that sound doable!
Now think, if God knows which of His people have a heart to embrace more children, then He is going to call them. He will woo them and show them that He will lead, guide them, and help them.
I have a friend in this very situation. She and her husband have 5 bio children, 2 adopted from Russia, are in the midst of an adoption from Liberia, and she is pregnant!! Well, God called and they answered!
Just last week, out of the blue, they heard of a precious little 22 month old boy that desperately needed a family. They responded and are now with him and in the process of bringing him home. Read down her blog and you will see how this amazing, exciting, God ordained adventure began!
Her story is an example of faith and obedience to God's command to care for the Orphan!
"Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we care for orphans and widows in their troubles." James 1:27
My face had a look of shock for much of the movie. Simply because I could not believe what I was witnessing. This movie was filmed with *real people* - real starving children and adults. It was a tragedy. There was a woman having an open stomach operation – without anesthesia! Why? Because there is *no* morphine!! The doctor said she was beyond pain. The only pain she felt was hunger and she thanked the doctor from rescuing her from the jaws of death.
It was so shocking to see Cambodia, Chechnya, and Ethiopia – the people, the pain, and the will to survive! Amazing – a must see! Disclaimer: be prepared for the language.
No wonder Angelina Jolie went on to adopt from Cambodia and Ethiopia!!!!! She witnessed these children – she cradled them – dying, and all! She to me, is a hero – why? Because she didn’t just ‘do her thing’ and make her movie and her money. She fell in love with these children and went back to ‘change one life’ – As the movie said at one point – One life saved.
Not only that, she went on to become the Goodwill Ambassador for the UNHCR - United Nations High Commission for Refugees. Ironically, this is a position that she ended up being granted in the movie! Obviously filming this movie changed her!
We, as a people, may not enter adoptions to ‘save a life’. We began for our own selfish ambitions, but it didn't take long until our hearts changed, and we were driven to do more. And yes, at that point, a person *is* ‘saving a life.’
True, we will fall in love with our child – but it does not take away from the fact that there is a reason we chose to continue with that country. We know they need it. There are starving people. Homeless orphans. Sick and dying people.
For every child adopted, there is another space opened up in an orphanage for a street child. In Addis Ababa, there are 50,000 street children!!! Unfortunately, not all children can be adopted. If they do not have the right to adopt them to families, then all orphanages can do is feed and house them. But when a child that is available for adoption moves on, a child that can't be adopted can find a home in the orphanage.
My boys will watch all of those human interest movies, no matter how harsh and real they are: Hotel Rwanda, Beyond the Gates, Blood Diamond and any more that I come across.
By making our older boys aware of what is going on, we are helping to change the world. If each person does *something* the world will become a better place. And yes, there are corrupt governments that we can’t do anything about.
But there are many, many, millions of orphans that we *can* do something about!!! You may ask ‘why take two or three children. Why not just one?' Because it is no longer about us. It has moved miles beyond that.
If we involve our children in what is going on in the world and don't allow them to live like ostriches - as we did - they can't help but be changed. While I was growing up, life was what was going on in our lives, our school, our city. It wasn't until I was an adult that I was aware of country issues. Before that I had more "important" things to worry about: school, boys, clothes, friends.
Our children are so blessed to be exposed *now* while they are young. They will never go through life waiting until something lands in their lap, before they care about the people in other countries. Hopefully, they won't see issues that happen in other countries as 'someone else's problems'.
I am reading a book called Stolen Angels by Kathy Cook. This book is about Uganda and how the LRA (Lord's Resistance Army) is abducting thousands of children and making them child soldiers and sex slaves. This book covers the whole issue, but is specifically the story of thirty girls from a girls' school that were abducted, and if you were to read the book you would be shocked and horrified to realize that they could have been returned if *people cared and got their heads out of the sand*!!
It isn't only me that was too concerned with what was going on in my own life to open my eyes to other countries. Many of us are guilty of having done this.
There are no guarantees that our children will adopt just because we do. Mind you, our oldest has already said he wants to. So we shall see. But, by making Africa and the plight of children in the midst of war, famine, or other desperate situations, important to our children - they *will* be changed. And I do believe they will rise up to be part of the difference.
God is showing us, over and over, that He is in charge and that He is behind the orphans and they are *His* orphans.
What would one child adopted from the millions do? Would it really make any difference - one out of 10,000,000?
If there are ten million orphans in the world, then we only need 10,000,000 people to adopt one child – out of a possible 6 BILLION ! And then there would be no more orphans.
Or, if people adopted two children then there would only need to be 5,000,000 people to take care of all the orphans in the world! Wow! Does that sound doable!
Now think, if God knows which of His people have a heart to embrace more children, then He is going to call them. He will woo them and show them that He will lead, guide them, and help them.
I have a friend in this very situation. She and her husband have 5 bio children, 2 adopted from Russia, are in the midst of an adoption from Liberia, and she is pregnant!! Well, God called and they answered!
Just last week, out of the blue, they heard of a precious little 22 month old boy that desperately needed a family. They responded and are now with him and in the process of bringing him home. Read down her blog and you will see how this amazing, exciting, God ordained adventure began!
Her story is an example of faith and obedience to God's command to care for the Orphan!
"Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we care for orphans and widows in their troubles." James 1:27
Monday, March 17, 2008
New Post on Family Blog
For those that read our other blog, I have updated it with some new posts. Fun with the boys doing a Shakespeare production, St. Patrick's Day Fun, and the boys winning their Cub Car and Scout Semi races....
http://raisingmyboysinthecountry.blogspot.com
http://raisingmyboysinthecountry.blogspot.com
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Early Education - Ages 3-8
I have had enough comments on how do I do Early Education, that I figure I will answer over here on the adoption blog, versus our family blog, since some of the ones asking questions have not been to our family blog. For those that are interested, our family blog is:
http://raisingmyboysinthecountry.blogspot.com
NOTE: All books have links beside them where they can be bought.
Here are links to other Homeschool Posts I wrote:
http://sixboysandalittlelady.blogspot.com/2008/02/homeschooling-our-way.html
http://raisingmyboysinthecountry.blogspot.com/2007/10/homeschooing-day-at-our-house.html
I learned with our oldest to play it light. When he was five years old I began school. I was so excited that I pulled out the workbooks - Abeka style and began reading, writing, math etc. He very quickly showed me that he was not ready for a 'traditional' kindergarten program. Even if the books said 'K' on them - it didn't mean they were K or that he was ready for K!!
I would get frustrated because he could not pull sounds together - I would get mad, he would cry. (Being brutally honest here. Some people *grin* think I write 'too nice'. Right, D?) My standards were too high. Not a nice way to do school. And trust me - if you go traditional and expect your child to read because 'that is what they are doing in kindergarten a public school' at age five, then you will get frustrated and when you are only teaching ONE child HE or SHE becomes the brunt of your frustration.
And just because in Kindergarten they are drilling the names of the letters, the sounds of the letters, and beginning words DOES NOT MEAN your child is ready for this!! And it is easy to measure your child against your friend's child, just because that child can do such and such. Every child is different, and what says that a child that can read is smarter than a child that has an amazing imagination? It is a fact that children in orphanages need to learn to play; they need to learn to imagine and do imaginative games.
A child in a homeschool setting that is allowed to learn at their own pace *will* have a good imagination because they are not being forced to do academics before they are ready.
Soon Dane, age 4, did not want to go to Kindergarten. He had seen Colt endure a year of school. Yes, I was still excited, but it was not what I was expecting. I had stepped into homeschooling thinking I would get my child to the age of 8, and by then he would be able to read and write, and then I would put him in school. I figured that would give him a few years of self worth, before he entered the public system where other kids began to tear down his feelings of who he was. I figured by eight, he would be pretty secure and could deal with the bullying and unkindness. That was my goal - get to grade 3.
Then one summer day, I fell across the Moore's book -
Successful Homeschool Handbook - and it changed my life.
They also wrote -
Better Late Than Early,
and Home Grown Kids.
Raymond and Dorothy Moore - anything by them is a *must read* if you are going to homeschool. These books will change your life. They show you how important it is for children to grow at a natural pace - not the pace the 'institution' or 'government' thinks they need to grow at. You learn through reading personal stories of families, how children learn from what is going on around them. For instance, if you are having a baby they are learning so much about biology; if you have a farm - they are learning about animal husbandry and harvesting and crops etc.
When I began to adopt this way of thinking my life and my children's lives changed!!! We began to homeschool with pleasure and joy!! Suddenly we were having fun!! And I can now look back and know that that was the turning point in my life. It was no longer - 'homeschool til grade 3' - it became 'homeschool as long as the Lord calls us to do so.'
Our oldest has been to public school for one year and then chose to come home. He did very well in highschool. He made friends and did all that was expected of him. He enjoyed taking classes he wasn't able to take at home. And he achieved very well on his marks. But he did not like seeing the standards of the other kids. He did not like the hopelessness - lack of future hopes and dreams of the majority of the children. He also knew that if he came home he could graduate early, while working 2-3 days a week getting life and work experience, plus saving more money in his house/college fund. And by the time he has graduated he will have had enough time to get his pilot's license!
So I can tell you, thirteen years after we began homeschooling, that we love to homeschool and it is a long term plan for us. I am so happy to be able to homeschool each of our children at the level they are at. We have eliminated the idea of 'grades' from our home. Why? Because, for example, we have one child who is doing Grade 10 French, Grade 9 Math, Grade 6 Language Arts and he is in Grade 5.
What is the purpose of the 'grade' system? To show an institution where the children are supposed to be herded when they come in the front door. In a home there is no need for this. You teach a child 'where he is at'. So if you have a 5 year old who doesn't want to read yet, who cares? By the time he is 11 he will be reading, IF you read to him, and expose him to good works of literature.
So what do we do with our five year olds?
Think about a regular kindergarten classroom. These are the 'stations' they have in a classroom: housekeeping - where they have dolls and play kitchens and laundry; rice or water table where they scoop and measure and play with boats; playdough or pliable dough; nature shelf where the class has collected items from walks or field trips - shells, leaves, plants they are growing; Painting easel; Craft table; Stamps, Scissors, and Punches; Dress-up; Free Play; Reading Corner - where there are library books to read; ABC or 123 section where they learn about academics;
Okay, so that is in a regular kindergarten classroom. Now let me show you how homeschool differs or is the same.
Housekeeping - where they have dolls and play kitchens and laundry;
Our children learn to diaper and dress and feed *real* babies as soon as they are five years old. Actually as soon as they have a baby brother arrive they begin helping. They are helping bring diapers, and clothes from the dresser, and helping to dress the baby. They are able to help you bathe the baby. They know how to push the baby in the stroller or play on the floor with the baby.
Our just turned three year old helps in the kitchen. The other day I was making cookies and he was able to help. He gets his chair and stands by the mixer. I break the eggs into the bowl and he tips them into the blender. He scoops me the flour and I cut it straight across the top for equal measuring. He then stands on his chair and scoop by scoop pours it into the mixer. He learns the following vocabulary: one cup, half a cup, teaspoon, eggs, baking soda, flour, oatmeal - all by hearing me say these words as he helps me to bake.
As soon as our children are able to walk they are working with laundry. They help empty the dryer into the basket and then push it down the hall. They learn to separate the towels, cloths, and rags from the rest of the laundry and then they hand deliver them to the correct drawer/cupboard. They also fold their own laundry by age three and put them in the correct drawers - which are labelled with words and/or pictures.
Rice or water table where they scoop and measure and play with boats;
We have a sink in our bathroom that has a stool pulled up to it. Under the sink there are scoops and measures and boats. Our three year old is capable of filling up his sink and he and the five year old play for hours with the water and toys. They learn all about science - size and volume and buoyancy all by playing. The same is done with a rice table - I prefer this to the sand table as it makes less mess. This can be simply a large dishwashing tub set up on the floor on a sheet, so that you can clean up the mess they make. Again, the same benefits as the water table.
Playdough or pliable dough;
We do not buy playdough. We make our own. It is simple to make and one of our older children always makes it for the younger ones. What am I saying? The older ones like to play too! They make is in a variety of colours and we keep it in zip loc bags. Gather some neat playdough cutters, little serving plates, knives, tea cups and watch the play ensue! This is the recipe:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 cups water
2 Tbsp oil
Food colouring
1 Tbsp vanilla (for smell)
Blend the flour, salt, cream of tartar in a bowl. Set aside.
Mix water, oil, and food colouring in a saucepan.
Slowly whisk into the water the dry ingredients.
Mix on medium heat until it starts to thicken. Continue stirring.
Remove from heat while it is still not a formed ball. It will 'gather' as you need it and it cools.
Mix well and use a bit of flour if necessary.
Cool and add vanilla (optional).
There are tons of recipes for all kinds of fun pliables and not so pliables. Ever tried playing with Cornstarch and water? Pour the water in and stir it. It turns to liquid. Let it sit and it hardens like concrete. Stir it up again and it becomes like liquid. Lots of conversation and learning from that!
Nature shelf where the class has collected items from walks or field trips - shells, leaves, plants they are growing;
We go for a walk and pick flowers as we go. We bring them home and put them in an encyclopedia and press them. When they are dried - weeks later, in my life - we then put them on paper and cover them with a small piece of sticky clear paper for preservation. The children draw a likeness beside it, and then label them.
We have lots of nature books. We find flowers in the books that we want to study and the children will draw a likeness and label them. Other times, we will see some wildlife while out walking. We don't have our sketch books with us, so when we arrive home, we pull out the nature books and find the animal. The children then copy from the book and label. They will then write a narration of what occurred on the walk. The littlest ones can narrate to me. Here is an example of a newly turned three year old's nature narration:
Walk. And see horsies. And a black horsie. Wunning away. Twees. I saw a black one. Slippery on the woad. Another twee. Went to Wetty's house.
Translation. We went for a walk. And we saw horses. And a black horse. They were running away. There were trees. I saw a black tree. (burned) It was slippery (snow and ice) on the road. And I saw another tree. We went to Betty's house.
So even a small child can give you a narration and it is nice to keep it as they 'say it', as that is authentic and it won't be so long before their grammar and wording is correct and those sweet baby years are a distant memory. The drawing they can do at this age are also wonderful memories. This little three year old is now eleven and I am glad I have this. One day I will be compiling all of the work from their nature journals and putting them in a http://www.blurb.com/ book as a keepsake. In the meanwhile, I use binders and plastic page protectors to protect all of their art and writing work.
The children can also keep a Nature Shelf. This is where they put the items they have collected and want to display.
Some wonderful books regarding Nature Journaling:
Anna Comstocks - Handbook of Nature Study
Wild Days - Creating Nature Journals.
The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady.
Keeping a Nature Journal - Clare Walker Leslie.
This one does not have a picture available, but is a great book for setting up your own museum
This is easily done. We buy liquid tempera paints and have them on a bookshelf beside the easel. The five and three year olds can climb up and help themselves to the paints. Even the three year old knows exactly how much paint to squeeze into the little tubs. The five year old washes out the paint pots and the brushes and hangs up the smocks.
Craft table;
Our craft table is set up in the schoolroom/kitchen. This little table is in the corner with shelves beside it full of markers, crayons, paper, scissors, glue. I used to have them use our regular school table but found that we were too crowded and they couldn't do their crafts 'when they wanted' because my table was taken up too much of the time. So now we have their own little corner where stuff is available all the time.
Stamps, fancy scissors and punches.
The little ones are very capable of wielding a pair of scissors and the scrapbooking punches. They love to take the box of paper scraps from my scrapbooking and sit and cut and punch.
Dress-up;
I hit Walmart after Halloween and buy all the wonderful costumes that are on for 1/2 price!!! We have the most wonderful, high quality plush costumes of: giraffes, lions, tigers, leopards, dragons, knights, gorillas, Spiderman etc. I try to stay away from things that tell the kids what they are: commercialized costumes. Instead, I buy costumes that allow the child's imagination to go wild. Then of course, each year our kids are involved in a homeschool play, where they get to dress up as their character. They also like to take bits and pieces of old costumes and create their own.
Free Play;
We all have this: Duplo, Lego, Lincoln Logs, Brio train tracks, Kinex, Cars, Dolls - yep, we have boys and we have dolls - boys *love* to be daddies! I like to buy quality toys that I can add onto as the years go by. Toys that I will hang onto when the kids are grown up, so that their children have toys to play with when they come to visit. Mind you, at the rate we are going, we will have kids at home still when the grandbabies start coming!! *laugh*
Reading Corner - where there are books to read;
I buy books and lots of them!! I buy constantly. We just learned about the Iditarod and so we bought a handful of picture books and novels of the Iditarod. We use the library but I like to read the books we have, as we have so many of them and then there are no worries about overdue fees and lost books.
ABC or 123 section where they learn about academics;
If you want WONDERFUL and fun and gentle - here you go!
http://ebeth.typepad.com/serendipity/gnomes-and-gnumbers-a-mat.html
This is the most wonderful website. It shows you how to teach numbers through Gnomes and Gnumbers. To read through these Lessons - begin at the top and read down. It will begin with a story about some Gnomes. You will be given a supply list and suggestions.
http://ebeth.typepad.com/serendipity/along-the-alphabet-path.html
This part of the website teaches the alphabet. It begins with: A is for Apple Blossom and Angel of God. Each of the letters of the alphabet has a story attached to it. The site is full of ideas for nature, art, reading etc. It is a beautiful well rounded way of learning.
Look further into her site and you will see other gems!!
Back to the 'Academics', we have Educational Toys and here is just a handful of them:
Alphabet puzzles,
Number puzzles,
Picture puzzles - floor puzzles - lots of these!
These are wonderful for teaching Geometry before they are even aware they are learning it!! Briton was building with these and he is only just turned three. He needed to find a hexagon because he was building a pattern. This is teaching patterning in a natural way - not out of a workbook - simply from blocks! He was playing by himself and was creating his own design.
And there are of course, workbooks. I use these as much as a child is able. But I find that they learn better by hands on. It is so much more concrete when they are learning about colours: i.e.: red and yellow make orange - to actually use paint to *see* the transformation. But I have to say that I don't use much, as they get bored! They want to *experience learning*, not fill in pages that *tell them about learning*!
There are books that I will use for my early years, but I have found that I am not using these books until my child is between 6 and 7. It all depends on the child. The books that I will and do buy for my early years of learning are the following and each of them has a link where you can buy them. The store I have linked you to has great discounts and ships to Canada without a hassle at the post office.
First Language Lessons
I love this book. I use it with my 8 year old son. In the little book he has learned about:
Nouns, poem memorization; Story Narrations; Writing His Name; Proper Nouns - places, his address, days of the week; months of the year; Common Nouns - things, living things; Pronouns; Abbreviations; Verbs - action, state of being, helping etc; Titles of respect - I could go on and on.
It covers everything he will later learn in school, but this book teaches it on a oral language level of a 6-8 year old!! He has really enjoyed this oral book. There is very little writing involved. It is scripted so that the mum knows how to instruct the child. It is done in a very gentle way and there is tons of review. If I was to have only one grammar book to teach elementary school - this would be it. You can bring it up and make it harder or use it as it was intended.
Reading Made Easy by Valerie Berndt
This book is a wonderful way to begin reading lessons with phonics. It is gentle and thorough and gives scripted sentences so the parent knows how to teach. By the time you have been through the 120 lessons, your child will be reading on a comfortable independent level.
These following books all teach the alphabet sounds. When they are done these I will then move them on to the full series of Explode the Code - books 1-8. I do not buy the 1 1/2, 2 1/2, 3 1/2 etc books, unless the child needs more repetition.
Get Ready For the Code - book a
Get Set For the Code - book b
Go For the Code - book c
This is just the beginning of the learning that goes on around our home. When we go shopping I send my four older children in four different directions with a list. They are responsible for getting what they know I buy. If there is a price comparison they are expected to do it and get the best buy. It doesn't always work out that way, though!
As for the little ones, I have Cooper, our five year old walk with me and pick things off the shelf as I call them out and point in the general direction. He is learning to identify what we need, buy the correct amount and be helpful.
There are life skills. Little ones can be helping with all the cleaning chores around the house, and baking, etc. There are so many ways to help a little one to reach to their full potential without putting them in front of a workbook. Play is so valuable. Play is a child's *work*. While I was being taught as an Early Childhood Educator we were given a book. It was called Work Jobs - why? Because it was filled with activities that look like play, but are actually *work* to a small child. They are learning through play. That is their 'work'.
My personal thoughts are - they are only little children for such a short time. There is so much time in their lives later on, for filling their mind with all the information that you think they need to know. Right now they are little - let them be little and learn through the joy of fun!
Learning comes in many forms - let them learn in the way they like best right now. Let them choose what they want to do. More often than not they will choose play, because that is *how* they learn!
http://raisingmyboysinthecountry.blogspot.com
NOTE: All books have links beside them where they can be bought.
Here are links to other Homeschool Posts I wrote:
http://sixboysandalittlelady.blogspot.com/2008/02/homeschooling-our-way.html
http://raisingmyboysinthecountry.blogspot.com/2007/10/homeschooing-day-at-our-house.html
I learned with our oldest to play it light. When he was five years old I began school. I was so excited that I pulled out the workbooks - Abeka style and began reading, writing, math etc. He very quickly showed me that he was not ready for a 'traditional' kindergarten program. Even if the books said 'K' on them - it didn't mean they were K or that he was ready for K!!
I would get frustrated because he could not pull sounds together - I would get mad, he would cry. (Being brutally honest here. Some people *grin* think I write 'too nice'. Right, D?) My standards were too high. Not a nice way to do school. And trust me - if you go traditional and expect your child to read because 'that is what they are doing in kindergarten a public school' at age five, then you will get frustrated and when you are only teaching ONE child HE or SHE becomes the brunt of your frustration.
And just because in Kindergarten they are drilling the names of the letters, the sounds of the letters, and beginning words DOES NOT MEAN your child is ready for this!! And it is easy to measure your child against your friend's child, just because that child can do such and such. Every child is different, and what says that a child that can read is smarter than a child that has an amazing imagination? It is a fact that children in orphanages need to learn to play; they need to learn to imagine and do imaginative games.
A child in a homeschool setting that is allowed to learn at their own pace *will* have a good imagination because they are not being forced to do academics before they are ready.
Soon Dane, age 4, did not want to go to Kindergarten. He had seen Colt endure a year of school. Yes, I was still excited, but it was not what I was expecting. I had stepped into homeschooling thinking I would get my child to the age of 8, and by then he would be able to read and write, and then I would put him in school. I figured that would give him a few years of self worth, before he entered the public system where other kids began to tear down his feelings of who he was. I figured by eight, he would be pretty secure and could deal with the bullying and unkindness. That was my goal - get to grade 3.
Then one summer day, I fell across the Moore's book -
Successful Homeschool Handbook - and it changed my life.
They also wrote -
Better Late Than Early,
and Home Grown Kids.
Raymond and Dorothy Moore - anything by them is a *must read* if you are going to homeschool. These books will change your life. They show you how important it is for children to grow at a natural pace - not the pace the 'institution' or 'government' thinks they need to grow at. You learn through reading personal stories of families, how children learn from what is going on around them. For instance, if you are having a baby they are learning so much about biology; if you have a farm - they are learning about animal husbandry and harvesting and crops etc.
When I began to adopt this way of thinking my life and my children's lives changed!!! We began to homeschool with pleasure and joy!! Suddenly we were having fun!! And I can now look back and know that that was the turning point in my life. It was no longer - 'homeschool til grade 3' - it became 'homeschool as long as the Lord calls us to do so.'
Our oldest has been to public school for one year and then chose to come home. He did very well in highschool. He made friends and did all that was expected of him. He enjoyed taking classes he wasn't able to take at home. And he achieved very well on his marks. But he did not like seeing the standards of the other kids. He did not like the hopelessness - lack of future hopes and dreams of the majority of the children. He also knew that if he came home he could graduate early, while working 2-3 days a week getting life and work experience, plus saving more money in his house/college fund. And by the time he has graduated he will have had enough time to get his pilot's license!
So I can tell you, thirteen years after we began homeschooling, that we love to homeschool and it is a long term plan for us. I am so happy to be able to homeschool each of our children at the level they are at. We have eliminated the idea of 'grades' from our home. Why? Because, for example, we have one child who is doing Grade 10 French, Grade 9 Math, Grade 6 Language Arts and he is in Grade 5.
What is the purpose of the 'grade' system? To show an institution where the children are supposed to be herded when they come in the front door. In a home there is no need for this. You teach a child 'where he is at'. So if you have a 5 year old who doesn't want to read yet, who cares? By the time he is 11 he will be reading, IF you read to him, and expose him to good works of literature.
So what do we do with our five year olds?
Think about a regular kindergarten classroom. These are the 'stations' they have in a classroom: housekeeping - where they have dolls and play kitchens and laundry; rice or water table where they scoop and measure and play with boats; playdough or pliable dough; nature shelf where the class has collected items from walks or field trips - shells, leaves, plants they are growing; Painting easel; Craft table; Stamps, Scissors, and Punches; Dress-up; Free Play; Reading Corner - where there are library books to read; ABC or 123 section where they learn about academics;
Okay, so that is in a regular kindergarten classroom. Now let me show you how homeschool differs or is the same.
Housekeeping - where they have dolls and play kitchens and laundry;
Our children learn to diaper and dress and feed *real* babies as soon as they are five years old. Actually as soon as they have a baby brother arrive they begin helping. They are helping bring diapers, and clothes from the dresser, and helping to dress the baby. They are able to help you bathe the baby. They know how to push the baby in the stroller or play on the floor with the baby.
Our just turned three year old helps in the kitchen. The other day I was making cookies and he was able to help. He gets his chair and stands by the mixer. I break the eggs into the bowl and he tips them into the blender. He scoops me the flour and I cut it straight across the top for equal measuring. He then stands on his chair and scoop by scoop pours it into the mixer. He learns the following vocabulary: one cup, half a cup, teaspoon, eggs, baking soda, flour, oatmeal - all by hearing me say these words as he helps me to bake.
As soon as our children are able to walk they are working with laundry. They help empty the dryer into the basket and then push it down the hall. They learn to separate the towels, cloths, and rags from the rest of the laundry and then they hand deliver them to the correct drawer/cupboard. They also fold their own laundry by age three and put them in the correct drawers - which are labelled with words and/or pictures.
Rice or water table where they scoop and measure and play with boats;
We have a sink in our bathroom that has a stool pulled up to it. Under the sink there are scoops and measures and boats. Our three year old is capable of filling up his sink and he and the five year old play for hours with the water and toys. They learn all about science - size and volume and buoyancy all by playing. The same is done with a rice table - I prefer this to the sand table as it makes less mess. This can be simply a large dishwashing tub set up on the floor on a sheet, so that you can clean up the mess they make. Again, the same benefits as the water table.
Playdough or pliable dough;
We do not buy playdough. We make our own. It is simple to make and one of our older children always makes it for the younger ones. What am I saying? The older ones like to play too! They make is in a variety of colours and we keep it in zip loc bags. Gather some neat playdough cutters, little serving plates, knives, tea cups and watch the play ensue! This is the recipe:
2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
2 tsp cream of tartar
2 cups water
2 Tbsp oil
Food colouring
1 Tbsp vanilla (for smell)
Blend the flour, salt, cream of tartar in a bowl. Set aside.
Mix water, oil, and food colouring in a saucepan.
Slowly whisk into the water the dry ingredients.
Mix on medium heat until it starts to thicken. Continue stirring.
Remove from heat while it is still not a formed ball. It will 'gather' as you need it and it cools.
Mix well and use a bit of flour if necessary.
Cool and add vanilla (optional).
There are tons of recipes for all kinds of fun pliables and not so pliables. Ever tried playing with Cornstarch and water? Pour the water in and stir it. It turns to liquid. Let it sit and it hardens like concrete. Stir it up again and it becomes like liquid. Lots of conversation and learning from that!
Nature shelf where the class has collected items from walks or field trips - shells, leaves, plants they are growing;
We go for a walk and pick flowers as we go. We bring them home and put them in an encyclopedia and press them. When they are dried - weeks later, in my life - we then put them on paper and cover them with a small piece of sticky clear paper for preservation. The children draw a likeness beside it, and then label them.
We have lots of nature books. We find flowers in the books that we want to study and the children will draw a likeness and label them. Other times, we will see some wildlife while out walking. We don't have our sketch books with us, so when we arrive home, we pull out the nature books and find the animal. The children then copy from the book and label. They will then write a narration of what occurred on the walk. The littlest ones can narrate to me. Here is an example of a newly turned three year old's nature narration:
Walk. And see horsies. And a black horsie. Wunning away. Twees. I saw a black one. Slippery on the woad. Another twee. Went to Wetty's house.
Translation. We went for a walk. And we saw horses. And a black horse. They were running away. There were trees. I saw a black tree. (burned) It was slippery (snow and ice) on the road. And I saw another tree. We went to Betty's house.
So even a small child can give you a narration and it is nice to keep it as they 'say it', as that is authentic and it won't be so long before their grammar and wording is correct and those sweet baby years are a distant memory. The drawing they can do at this age are also wonderful memories. This little three year old is now eleven and I am glad I have this. One day I will be compiling all of the work from their nature journals and putting them in a http://www.blurb.com/ book as a keepsake. In the meanwhile, I use binders and plastic page protectors to protect all of their art and writing work.
The children can also keep a Nature Shelf. This is where they put the items they have collected and want to display.
Some wonderful books regarding Nature Journaling:
Anna Comstocks - Handbook of Nature Study
Wild Days - Creating Nature Journals. The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady. Keeping a Nature Journal - Clare Walker Leslie. This one does not have a picture available, but is a great book for setting up your own museum
This is easily done. We buy liquid tempera paints and have them on a bookshelf beside the easel. The five and three year olds can climb up and help themselves to the paints. Even the three year old knows exactly how much paint to squeeze into the little tubs. The five year old washes out the paint pots and the brushes and hangs up the smocks.
Craft table;
Our craft table is set up in the schoolroom/kitchen. This little table is in the corner with shelves beside it full of markers, crayons, paper, scissors, glue. I used to have them use our regular school table but found that we were too crowded and they couldn't do their crafts 'when they wanted' because my table was taken up too much of the time. So now we have their own little corner where stuff is available all the time.
Stamps, fancy scissors and punches.
The little ones are very capable of wielding a pair of scissors and the scrapbooking punches. They love to take the box of paper scraps from my scrapbooking and sit and cut and punch.
Dress-up;
I hit Walmart after Halloween and buy all the wonderful costumes that are on for 1/2 price!!! We have the most wonderful, high quality plush costumes of: giraffes, lions, tigers, leopards, dragons, knights, gorillas, Spiderman etc. I try to stay away from things that tell the kids what they are: commercialized costumes. Instead, I buy costumes that allow the child's imagination to go wild. Then of course, each year our kids are involved in a homeschool play, where they get to dress up as their character. They also like to take bits and pieces of old costumes and create their own.
Free Play;
We all have this: Duplo, Lego, Lincoln Logs, Brio train tracks, Kinex, Cars, Dolls - yep, we have boys and we have dolls - boys *love* to be daddies! I like to buy quality toys that I can add onto as the years go by. Toys that I will hang onto when the kids are grown up, so that their children have toys to play with when they come to visit. Mind you, at the rate we are going, we will have kids at home still when the grandbabies start coming!! *laugh*
Reading Corner - where there are books to read;
I buy books and lots of them!! I buy constantly. We just learned about the Iditarod and so we bought a handful of picture books and novels of the Iditarod. We use the library but I like to read the books we have, as we have so many of them and then there are no worries about overdue fees and lost books.
ABC or 123 section where they learn about academics;
If you want WONDERFUL and fun and gentle - here you go!
http://ebeth.typepad.com/serendipity/gnomes-and-gnumbers-a-mat.html
This is the most wonderful website. It shows you how to teach numbers through Gnomes and Gnumbers. To read through these Lessons - begin at the top and read down. It will begin with a story about some Gnomes. You will be given a supply list and suggestions.
http://ebeth.typepad.com/serendipity/along-the-alphabet-path.html
This part of the website teaches the alphabet. It begins with: A is for Apple Blossom and Angel of God. Each of the letters of the alphabet has a story attached to it. The site is full of ideas for nature, art, reading etc. It is a beautiful well rounded way of learning.
Look further into her site and you will see other gems!!
Back to the 'Academics', we have Educational Toys and here is just a handful of them:
Alphabet puzzles,
Number puzzles,
Picture puzzles - floor puzzles - lots of these!
These are a big hit!! They are big enough for the little ones to be able to begin building when they are 2 or 3.
Different colour counters and sorting dishes of the same colour,
Linking cubes and pattern books,
Pattern blocks;
These are wonderful for teaching Geometry before they are even aware they are learning it!! Briton was building with these and he is only just turned three. He needed to find a hexagon because he was building a pattern. This is teaching patterning in a natural way - not out of a workbook - simply from blocks! He was playing by himself and was creating his own design.And there are of course, workbooks. I use these as much as a child is able. But I find that they learn better by hands on. It is so much more concrete when they are learning about colours: i.e.: red and yellow make orange - to actually use paint to *see* the transformation. But I have to say that I don't use much, as they get bored! They want to *experience learning*, not fill in pages that *tell them about learning*!
There are books that I will use for my early years, but I have found that I am not using these books until my child is between 6 and 7. It all depends on the child. The books that I will and do buy for my early years of learning are the following and each of them has a link where you can buy them. The store I have linked you to has great discounts and ships to Canada without a hassle at the post office.
First Language Lessons
I love this book. I use it with my 8 year old son. In the little book he has learned about:
Nouns, poem memorization; Story Narrations; Writing His Name; Proper Nouns - places, his address, days of the week; months of the year; Common Nouns - things, living things; Pronouns; Abbreviations; Verbs - action, state of being, helping etc; Titles of respect - I could go on and on.
It covers everything he will later learn in school, but this book teaches it on a oral language level of a 6-8 year old!! He has really enjoyed this oral book. There is very little writing involved. It is scripted so that the mum knows how to instruct the child. It is done in a very gentle way and there is tons of review. If I was to have only one grammar book to teach elementary school - this would be it. You can bring it up and make it harder or use it as it was intended.
Reading Made Easy by Valerie BerndtThis book is a wonderful way to begin reading lessons with phonics. It is gentle and thorough and gives scripted sentences so the parent knows how to teach. By the time you have been through the 120 lessons, your child will be reading on a comfortable independent level.
These following books all teach the alphabet sounds. When they are done these I will then move them on to the full series of Explode the Code - books 1-8. I do not buy the 1 1/2, 2 1/2, 3 1/2 etc books, unless the child needs more repetition.
Get Ready For the Code - book a
Get Set For the Code - book b
Go For the Code - book c
This is just the beginning of the learning that goes on around our home. When we go shopping I send my four older children in four different directions with a list. They are responsible for getting what they know I buy. If there is a price comparison they are expected to do it and get the best buy. It doesn't always work out that way, though!
As for the little ones, I have Cooper, our five year old walk with me and pick things off the shelf as I call them out and point in the general direction. He is learning to identify what we need, buy the correct amount and be helpful.
There are life skills. Little ones can be helping with all the cleaning chores around the house, and baking, etc. There are so many ways to help a little one to reach to their full potential without putting them in front of a workbook. Play is so valuable. Play is a child's *work*. While I was being taught as an Early Childhood Educator we were given a book. It was called Work Jobs - why? Because it was filled with activities that look like play, but are actually *work* to a small child. They are learning through play. That is their 'work'.
My personal thoughts are - they are only little children for such a short time. There is so much time in their lives later on, for filling their mind with all the information that you think they need to know. Right now they are little - let them be little and learn through the joy of fun!
Learning comes in many forms - let them learn in the way they like best right now. Let them choose what they want to do. More often than not they will choose play, because that is *how* they learn!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Yeah!! It Finally Came!
This morning, as soon as I knew the mail should have arrived, I gave my 16 year old son a break from school. Why? So he could RUN to the post office for me!! *smile*
About 30 minutes later, he arrived home. He came in and then left again, without giving me the mail. I went to find him and there he was out front doing some cool down exercises!?! I said not so patiently, "Where's my mail?" I *knew* he *knew* what I was waiting for but he calmly, slowly, lethargically took it out of his jacket. He then slowly inspected it to see if he had the right thing... - STOP scene.
At that moment, I grabbed the envelope out of his hand, while he grined wickedly at me!! BOYS!
I quickly ripped open the envelope and after reading thoroughly, I saw that, yes, we are approved. We can step forward with our application process. Now, I haven't heard of anyone not being approved, but we are self employed and I am the accountant, so my paperwork is always rather unprofessional looking with no official accountant's stamp. Hence my nervousness until it was in my hands!
YEAH!! We can now officially sit back and wait for the next step - Referral and Court Date (where the actual Adoption takes place).
Onwards!!!
About 30 minutes later, he arrived home. He came in and then left again, without giving me the mail. I went to find him and there he was out front doing some cool down exercises!?! I said not so patiently, "Where's my mail?" I *knew* he *knew* what I was waiting for but he calmly, slowly, lethargically took it out of his jacket. He then slowly inspected it to see if he had the right thing... - STOP scene.
At that moment, I grabbed the envelope out of his hand, while he grined wickedly at me!! BOYS!
I quickly ripped open the envelope and after reading thoroughly, I saw that, yes, we are approved. We can step forward with our application process. Now, I haven't heard of anyone not being approved, but we are self employed and I am the accountant, so my paperwork is always rather unprofessional looking with no official accountant's stamp. Hence my nervousness until it was in my hands!
YEAH!! We can now officially sit back and wait for the next step - Referral and Court Date (where the actual Adoption takes place).
Onwards!!!
Monday, March 10, 2008
Talk About Suspenseful Waiting!
Three weeks ago - THREE weeks ago, I mailed my Permanent Resident Visa to Immigration Canada. My friend mailed hers a couple days ahead of me. She got hers back in eight DAYS!! The reports I have heard are from 8 - 11 days, the average being 10 days. This is from when you pop the application in the mail until it arrives back at your door with the approval!!!
So why has mine taken TWENTY ONE days so far? I have no idea. But I will tell you, it has been suspenseful!!
I know God allows twists and turns to keep us on track and following Him, but STILL! *smile* For those that don't know what this is, a PRV application is when we apply to sponsor our adopted children. We have to fill in one application per child that we are intending on sponsoring. We have to send in financial information, business information because we are self-employed, birth certificates etc etc.
Now, as a self-employed family, it always adds tension while waiting for approval on anything!! So of course, I was hoping for and watching day by day to see if our approval came through on the 10th day. We usually get our mail from the post office once a week or ten days - kind of lazy. But I can tell you, this last 2 weeks I have been checking the mail daily waiting for that precious piece of paper!
The irony of this situation is this: I am a details person. I keep receipts in an envelope. I keep thing organized. I can find almost anything you ask me for cause I know where I put it. Cause I am the Organizing Queen!! LOL!
Well, apparently I am up to lose my crown. THIS time, when it was the ONLY time that I have needed to see that receipt to be able to track the package, I didn't have it!! Everytime I have mailed anything, it has gone Express Post and I have kept the receipt. I know by keeping them I could track the package if they went missing. Mind you, it has never crossed my mind that Canada Post would actually lose an Express Post parcel. How naive of me!! *laugh* I guess I figured if the parcel went by Express Post it must have guardian angels on it!
But I learned something yesterday. I actually *saw* what happens to our carefully packaged parcels when we drop them off at the post office. It was after hours and the truck had arrived to pick up the parcels. The guys lumbered the trolley out to their big truck and then began FLINGING the parcels into the back of the truck! ACCKKK!! Can you imagine?! I will, from now on, package my stuff carefully!!!
Anyhow, since I didn't have the tracking number I had no way of knowing if my package of precious papers had even arrived at the Mississauga office!! Finally today, I went online and decided to start trying to find some information. Thankfully, it was not too hard. I first went to the CIC website and from there was able to find that I could track my application - even if I only had a CIC receipt number. That I had!! So I punched it in and voila... up came my info.
Apparently, though I sent my package on Monday, February 18, via Express Post - 2-3 day mail to Ontario - it arrived on Friday, February 22. They then did not begin processing it until February 28th!! And lo and behold, they had it back in the mail on February 29. So it took the regular one day to process. Great. But they held it for a week, before they began to process it and then it has taken a further 10 days (so far) to get here after being mailed.
I am sure there is a 'reason' I was held up. The interesting thing are the delays in this process. I know there are reasons. My friend, Denise, reminded me today that maybe this 'delay' has something to do with our request for specific children. I am not sure yet, how this might help, but it is certainly possible.
Also, when we went to Foreign Affairs, it took us 4 1/2 weeks, while everyone around us was getting it done in 7-14 days! And then while waiting for our homestudy update to happen it took 3 1/2 weeks, when our original homestudy write up only took 1 week!!
So I know these delays have a purpose. It is just hard to wait when you know things can be done sooner.
The wonderful thing is, as soon as the PRV applications come in the mail we will send them off to our agency where they will add more documents to the package, and then they will be shipped off to Nairobi. The file will then be opened in Nairobi. When the children are referred to us our file number will already be set and we will be 'enroute' to our Permanent Resident Visas for them.
In the past, this bunch of steps only took place AFTER the court date - which will not happen for two to three months after referral. By doing it in this new order, we will shave 2-3 months off of our wait from referral to going to get the girls. That is a wonderful thing!! This means that our travel time will be approximately 5-6 months after we see the children for the first time. YAY!!
So here is hoping that tomorrow - day 22 - we will get our PRV in the mail!
In the meantime, I shall be waiting for the mail as long as it takes, no matter how much snow I have to dig out to get to the post office! *grin*
So why has mine taken TWENTY ONE days so far? I have no idea. But I will tell you, it has been suspenseful!!
I know God allows twists and turns to keep us on track and following Him, but STILL! *smile* For those that don't know what this is, a PRV application is when we apply to sponsor our adopted children. We have to fill in one application per child that we are intending on sponsoring. We have to send in financial information, business information because we are self-employed, birth certificates etc etc.
Now, as a self-employed family, it always adds tension while waiting for approval on anything!! So of course, I was hoping for and watching day by day to see if our approval came through on the 10th day. We usually get our mail from the post office once a week or ten days - kind of lazy. But I can tell you, this last 2 weeks I have been checking the mail daily waiting for that precious piece of paper!
The irony of this situation is this: I am a details person. I keep receipts in an envelope. I keep thing organized. I can find almost anything you ask me for cause I know where I put it. Cause I am the Organizing Queen!! LOL!
Well, apparently I am up to lose my crown. THIS time, when it was the ONLY time that I have needed to see that receipt to be able to track the package, I didn't have it!! Everytime I have mailed anything, it has gone Express Post and I have kept the receipt. I know by keeping them I could track the package if they went missing. Mind you, it has never crossed my mind that Canada Post would actually lose an Express Post parcel. How naive of me!! *laugh* I guess I figured if the parcel went by Express Post it must have guardian angels on it!
But I learned something yesterday. I actually *saw* what happens to our carefully packaged parcels when we drop them off at the post office. It was after hours and the truck had arrived to pick up the parcels. The guys lumbered the trolley out to their big truck and then began FLINGING the parcels into the back of the truck! ACCKKK!! Can you imagine?! I will, from now on, package my stuff carefully!!!
Anyhow, since I didn't have the tracking number I had no way of knowing if my package of precious papers had even arrived at the Mississauga office!! Finally today, I went online and decided to start trying to find some information. Thankfully, it was not too hard. I first went to the CIC website and from there was able to find that I could track my application - even if I only had a CIC receipt number. That I had!! So I punched it in and voila... up came my info.
Apparently, though I sent my package on Monday, February 18, via Express Post - 2-3 day mail to Ontario - it arrived on Friday, February 22. They then did not begin processing it until February 28th!! And lo and behold, they had it back in the mail on February 29. So it took the regular one day to process. Great. But they held it for a week, before they began to process it and then it has taken a further 10 days (so far) to get here after being mailed.
I am sure there is a 'reason' I was held up. The interesting thing are the delays in this process. I know there are reasons. My friend, Denise, reminded me today that maybe this 'delay' has something to do with our request for specific children. I am not sure yet, how this might help, but it is certainly possible.
Also, when we went to Foreign Affairs, it took us 4 1/2 weeks, while everyone around us was getting it done in 7-14 days! And then while waiting for our homestudy update to happen it took 3 1/2 weeks, when our original homestudy write up only took 1 week!!
So I know these delays have a purpose. It is just hard to wait when you know things can be done sooner.
The wonderful thing is, as soon as the PRV applications come in the mail we will send them off to our agency where they will add more documents to the package, and then they will be shipped off to Nairobi. The file will then be opened in Nairobi. When the children are referred to us our file number will already be set and we will be 'enroute' to our Permanent Resident Visas for them.
In the past, this bunch of steps only took place AFTER the court date - which will not happen for two to three months after referral. By doing it in this new order, we will shave 2-3 months off of our wait from referral to going to get the girls. That is a wonderful thing!! This means that our travel time will be approximately 5-6 months after we see the children for the first time. YAY!!
So here is hoping that tomorrow - day 22 - we will get our PRV in the mail!
In the meantime, I shall be waiting for the mail as long as it takes, no matter how much snow I have to dig out to get to the post office! *grin*
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Three Months
Today is EIGHT months since we began our adoption adventure. Tomorrow will be THREE months since our file went to Ethiopia. We were hopeful that we would be one of the lucky families that got our referral within a few weeks. It wasn't to be. We do know that we are well into the wait though, and we can only hope it won't be too long.
The nice thing is that with our agency's new policy of applying for the Medical as soon as the Referral is given, we know that we will not wait any longer than six months after we have seen our children's faces to bring them home.
Though we are happy that the wait has been shortened from 8 or 9 down to 6 months, we would obviously like the girls to come home much sooner after referral. I know of a lady from England who is just now getting through Court. She will be travelling TEN DAYS after Court to pick up her child!!!!
There is no difference in our countries way of doing adoptions *except* for the High Commission in Nairobi that we Canadians deal with. We are the ONLY country that is taking 6 months to bring our children home after we are granted by Ethiopian courts to be their legal parents. The rest of the countries are bringing home their children home in weeks to 2 months!!! In China, it takes FOUR DAYS to get a Visa to bring an adopted child home to Canada!! This discrepancy is related to *Ethiopian* adoptions.
And this is nothing to do with making sure the children are legally coming into our country. This has all been done *prior* to the Court where the decision has been made for us to be able to adopt our children.
This is *purely* lack of manpower in the High Commission. This is outrageous!!!!
We all had high hopes that when our government spoke of the new Citizenship being granted to our internationally adopted children that we would be able to have them home sooner. Immigration is still telling us that it will be 6-8 months. We have yet to see it being any sooner. WHY is our country the only one taking so long to issue a piece of paper allowing our children to come to the families that are desperate to have them join them?
Many, many, many families have been writing letters to the Minister at the Canadian Immigration Centre.
For anyone of our friends that cares to join our campaign, this is the address of the Minister that I have written to:
I have also carbon copied this letter to our own Member of Parliament in our area. I have heard of great help being offered by other people's MPs. They have even helped them to find out where their files are in the High Commission office in Nairobi. This is why we voted them in - they are there to help us.
If you wish to join us in writing a letter, please do so. The more letters that they get the more likely they are to move on this. The last time we campaigned the government, we were *heard*!!! It did make a difference. But now is the time to act again. If the government thinks that it doesn't matter to parents that their children sit in an orphanage 6 MONTHS after they have been ADOPTED they are wrong!!!! We need friends and family to join us in this endeavor. Please consider writing a short letter stating that Canada has the longest time in bringing their children home that are adopted from Ethiopia. We are waiting 6 months after adopting our children for the High Commission to issue the Medical and Visas that state these children can enter Canada.
An Adorable Find
I popped into a store today to buy a protractor set for my son's math lessons. I left the store with over $100 worth of stuff. HOW does that happen!!! That is why it is best not to leave the house!! *laugh*
But I am glad I went because that is the store that I got the beautiful frame for a mere $15. As I was leaving the store, wandering down the toy aisle - browsing - I fell across the most wonderful treasures!! Little baby dolls in different ethnicities!!! Little Native babies, Chinese babies, White babies and then little Black babies! I was quick to scoop three of the little Black babies. They were only $5.00 each!! What a find! And I love the fact that they are totally rubber/plastic with no nylon hair or eyelashes which means they can be washed and loved.
But I am glad I went because that is the store that I got the beautiful frame for a mere $15. As I was leaving the store, wandering down the toy aisle - browsing - I fell across the most wonderful treasures!! Little baby dolls in different ethnicities!!! Little Native babies, Chinese babies, White babies and then little Black babies! I was quick to scoop three of the little Black babies. They were only $5.00 each!! What a find! And I love the fact that they are totally rubber/plastic with no nylon hair or eyelashes which means they can be washed and loved.
How Cute!!
I was just telling my 11 year old son the other day that he could sew me some baby blankets. He was asking me if he could use my sewing machine to make something and I thought it would be a simple project. It is time to start 'thinking' about projects for the girls. And now I find this adorable little boy baby.
Photos, Photos, Frame
I am the photo queen. I take a camera everywhere I go. I take pictures constantly. I love pictures. I have wonderful ones of my boys hanging on the wall. Here are a few of my 'interesting' samples and a few of my 'nice' pictures.
My Impish Boys Looking Sweet
"So What Do Ya Think?"
Today I found a wonderful photo frame. I will be able to fill it with pictures of all my children! I have always had a hard time finding a nice frame big enough for all six of them, and now that we will have even more children, it is even harder. So I was quite pleased to find this beautiful frame! I can't wait to fill it with updated photos of everyone.
He Calls Himself the "Evil Elf".
My Impish Boys Looking Sweet
You're Under Arrest!
First Pool Day
I Love My Brother
Crazies in the Swimming Pool
"So What Do Ya Think?"
Sweet Brothers
Out For a Walk With Brother
Lifting the Garage Wall - All Boys On Deck
The Ogre in the Ogre Game
Today I found a wonderful photo frame. I will be able to fill it with pictures of all my children! I have always had a hard time finding a nice frame big enough for all six of them, and now that we will have even more children, it is even harder. So I was quite pleased to find this beautiful frame! I can't wait to fill it with updated photos of everyone.
Preparing For Children
It is amazing how quickly that last 3 months have flown by!!! While I am aware that we are waiting and do certainly notice as each week goes by, I can say that I haven't felt the wait. Actually, in the first month or so, I did. And then, once I made the decision that I couldn't watch the clock or calendar, but must instead fill my time with what needed to be done to cause the time to go faster, the days have whipped by!
I have such a long list of things I want to accomplish before the children come home that I fear I might not get it all done. And then, I know it will not get done for *years*!! When I was due with our fifth child I decided to take all the photos that I had taken for the previous ten years - the years since we had been having children - and scrapbook them. This was a big job, but as anyone can attest who knows me - it was not a problem getting it done! I sat on the couch with my scrapbooking equipment set up around me and proceeded to pound through those pages. I got four albums done - 236 pages - in under a month. The only thing I didn't finish was labelling 1 1/2 books. That job has sat languishing and I have been constantly reminded that I haven't done it for the last five years!!!
So now, I knew this was the time. Five years have gone by since I have done photos. Not that I didn't want to - I just always had more important things to do.... like: giving birth to two babies, taking a month long trip to Tennessee, a road trip to California, selling our house, building (family built) our new house, not to mention schooling four children.
So in this last two weeks I have done the following: I have labelled those two albums! Yeah! Done! I have gone through about 8 albums from 1986-1991 and disposed of all those photos that a person really doesn't need - landscape, landscape, landscape, before kids party pictures, etc etc. By the time I was done I had reduced those albums to about 2!!! And they are now neatly in envelopes, so that one day I can give my kids copies of the ones that are really important!
As well as that I have now begun my fun adoption project. I am making special 'hands on' albums for when the children come home from Ethiopia. When each of my boys leave home I will be giving them a nicely scrapbooked journey of their lives. I have already begun the older children's books and the two oldest boys will have theirs brought up to date before our girls are home. One day I will also make those books for the girls. But in the meantime, I want them to have an album that they can handle and pour over. An album that shows what came before them. So they can see their new roots.
This album will not be the fancy one that will be their adoption journal. The adoption journal will have less photos and will journalize our journey to them. This book is more of a photo journal of the road before they came.
I began these journals last night. Last week, I went through our pictures and found photos that date back to when Ray and I got married. I then continued forth with photos of each time a baby was added to our family and photos in the intermittent years. Photos that show the child(ren) growing up. The album shows aunties, uncles, granny, memere, grandad, grampa and friends. And even special dogs in our lives. This way when they see the people that are important to us they will know, "That is Aunty Mandy' or "I know that Dog!" The people will be familiar. Obviously most of these people they will meet before the books become theirs, but in later days when they don't seem them (because they live so far away) they will be able to identify them and become familiar before the next visit.
It is odd. I think about these children as *ours*. We have been praying for them and believing for them for the last 8 1/2 months, but I *forget* that they are also my sister's and my mother in law's. They are *their* little nieces and grandchildren!! We do not live in a cocoon, but I easily forget that there is a world outside of our little home. It will be exciting to know that our family acquires new children "just like that". Mind you, for anyone adopting, they know it is not 'just like that'. *smile* Though they arrive out of infant stage, there were certainly growing pains to bring them home!
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