Friday, February 20, 2009

Spring is coming... right?

Well i must say it is pretty hard to blog without pictures! But I will do my best. We have been here in matheson since november and now are completely ontarion as we now have ohip coverage and coverage from work! I didn't realize how long 3 months could seem until you move provinces and need some medical help. It does make me appreciate the health care system here in canada. Although i would say they could use a little reconstruct on the way they handle things when someone moves provinces. Chloe's teeth were pretty bad over the holidays and we had to have one tooth pulled as it was absessed. We finally had the surgery at the hospital the beginning of february and they ended up pulling another tooth because it was absessed as well and 2 root canals and 8 fillings... soooo i am hoping that will be it for a while.. john and chloe eat the same things.. i brush their teeth at the same time.. and john has nothing wrong with his teeth and chloe.. well don't know what's up with that. Oh the fun with preschoolers!
I have been seeking out my way for homeschooling this year. I had purchased a curriculum for preschool through Rod and Staff. It's very good and thorough but I was having trouble enjoying it with my children. I found it was hard to get it done when we weren't having fun and I felt i had more trouble teaching that way. So I began reading some homeschooling blogs and found that a lot of people homeschool different ways and they all learn. I began looking on the internet for materials and started creating "Amy style" something that would work for us.
I decided to take the Alphabet one letter a week and base our schooling around that theme. We are now finished letter F and going onto G next week. I have a box where i keep my materials and goodies to pull out for the children which is not allowed to be touched by the children and everything that comes out is a surprise. It's fun for me and for them!I've been pleased with this sitehttp://www.first-school.ws/theme/alphabet.htm for free material. We are also trying to put a bible verse that dave is giving us up for every letter and learn them during the week. We also are colouring through a Psalm 23 colouring book and using that as the verse we say at sunday school. The other thing that I found was lacking was the teaching of "work" to the children. I found a neat site on the web http://www.handipoints.com where we have been keeping a chore chart and have made it part of our school. Usually(as I am not always on top of things:)) we do our chores in the morning after breakfast before school and check them off on the chart and play a little game in the handyland before going to the school room. If I had a camera I would take a picture of the school room and insert here... haha . We have a bedroom on the main floor of the house we are renting and it is cleared out to make a little laundry/school room. It works for me! So that's our attempt at schooling this year. I'm sure things will evolve and get smoother and more scheduled as things go along but i'm pleased so far with how it's going.
We are also looking to purchase a little country property still although there has been a lot of things to overcome in getting it but if the Lord wills we hope to have it for sometime in march.
Click here to see the property.
Psalm 39:4

2 comments:

Sarah said...

Sounds like things are going well for you up there. I am glad you got the coverage finaly for your family. Good job on figuring out a system for school. YOu are ahead of me I think after two years of teaching. We still don't have a good routine etc. I think we did last year but this year has been more of a hap hazzard approach. the kids are still learing but it is more stressful.

I hope the property works out for you.

Good to hear from you again.

Anonymous said...

Hi Amy
Nice to hear your news. I checked out the link for the house. It looks like a nice property. The kitchen has lots of cupboard space. That will be a big change from NFLD. I hope it works out for you.
Aunt Dot