The missing piece

As another year of homeschooling starts we take the time to discuss plans, hopes and dreams with each child.  We haven't always been a homeschool family and want to ensure that this method of schooling is working for each child.  This year 2 of the teens are taking a combination of "face 2 face" classes and homeschooling.  One of our teens came "home" for school 3 years ago after struggling with bullying, extreme anxiety and academic challenges.  When we were considering whether or not homeschooling was a good option or not, we feared that her anxiety and ability to handle social situations may worsen if she wasn't exposed to social situations.  It is a common myth that home schooled children aren't exposed to enough social situations and therefore struggle socially.  For this particular teen homeschooling was the key to overcoming many of her challenges.  With the help of an education assistant at home and "face 2 face" classes her academic challenges are being worked on (at public school she qualified for an education assistant but the school reassigned the assistant).  Working at home and in small classes (5-8 students) has reduced the anxiety and bullying, giving time for confidence to be developed.  The reduced anxiety has also freed up energy so she can more actively participate in youth activities.  In the last year she has successfully taken on leadership roles at St John Ambulance as team captain for various competitions and leadership roles at Air Cadets.

As parents we were happy with the progress being made and our teen is happy with the homeschool option.  There is only one thing that she wished she could change, she missed the idea of being on a high school sports team.  Her older siblings had been on school teams and watching them she envisioned herself doing the same.  We looked for recreational teams in the area to no avail but after contacting a local private school we were able to have her join their school team.  Volleyball practice started on Wednesday and our teen is beyond excited.  At practice she also met up with a couple other homeschoolers that had the same goal of playing on a team.

Homeschool wrap up

We have been continuing along with our schooling and are wrapping up a few of our courses having completed and met the curriculum goals.  Each homeschool year we put a heavy push on the academic courses at the beginning of the school year with the goal of finishing some early so we can switch our focus throughout the year.  Language arts and math continue for the entire school year as they tend to be a challenge for some and my thought is if the kids can be stronger in these then learning in other subjects will be made easier.

We start the week with swimming lessons for some, we have 3 instructors and 1 assistant teaching 7 of the children and an added bonus they have the whole pool to themselves.  We are very fortunate to have this set up and we are seeing some nice progress.  With the more compromised children there is a heavy focus on safety which is really important as we live so close to the water.  2 of the girls have been making great progress and are now swimming lengths of the pool.

While we swim 2 of the others are focused on language arts and math with their education assistants.  The teens are also wrapping up science and car maintenance just studying for the final exams and will be so relieved when they are complete.  Car maintenance was a community class with their peers and is being replaced with interior design another community class which hopefully will be just as interesting.  The teens have also been taking a variety of one day community classes with their peers including food safe, WHMIS, science labs, snowboarding etc.

4 of the kids have been learning to sew and just finished making boxer shorts.

Tuesday is therapy day which amounts to an insane amount of therapy appointments, schooling in the vehicle, walks through the forest and playing on the playground at the park.  Each day at home we are also working on our therapy homework with the help of the kids education assistants.

We have been working on our baking skills and enjoying the added snacks we have created.

We are studying the life cycle of salmon again this year as we raise 100 salmon eggs to the fry stage.  Our salmon eggs have been hatching in the last few days and are now at the alevin stage.

For art the younger children have been working through the Home Art Studio program and thoroughly enjoying it.  They have been learning about prime colours and mixing them.  Also they have been learning how to handle a paintbrush and how to get different effects while painting - straight strokes and swirling strokes.  The art work they have been doing is also helping to reinforce some of the scissor skills that their occupational therapist has been working on with them.

All of the children have been learning sign language at varying levels dependent on their abilities.  Sign language is also very helpful for the children with speech challenges as it is another clue in trying to understand what they are saying.

The bulbs that we planted in the fall have sprouted and have encouraged us to plan our spring gardening program.  We recently bought some seeds to start inside and have ordered seed catalogs to plan our garden.  The teens will be working with Dad building more garden beds and designing a sprinkler system while the younger kids will be focusing on planting.

Sunday, Monday Happy Days, Tuesday, Wednesday Happy Days.......What our schooling looks like

A lot of learning and fun has been happening with "homeschool" back in session.  We have had to get creative with how we squeeze schooling in along with all the therapy and medical appointments but have managed to make it work over the last couple years.

Mondays we are typically home doing our learning  - mornings consist of the basics reading, writing and math.  For us getting this done first thing ensures it gets done before anything else might disrupt the day.  Having multiple children with varying abilities we have had to be creative with how we do our learning.  We have found the Lexia program that is available as an app (and on computer) very helpful for our children that have challenges with their motor and articulation skills.  This program has really helped them progress and given them a way of demonstrating their learning.  We also use other preschool rated apps for our lower functioning children.

After lunch we have time for a walk or play outside before it is nap time for the youngest 2.  While they are getting settled the others practice their sign language - the younger functioning children really enjoy the "Signing Time" dvd series.  Adding sign language to their struggling speech abilities has been a benefit as it gives us one more clue as to what they are saying.  We then focus on science, social studies, therapy homework and art for the remainder of the day.  Some of the teens are using the See the light dvd series for art lessons.












 Tuesdays we school on the road - the majority of the day is therapy appointments in a neighboring (100km away) community.  We average 20-30 appointments every Tuesday but the one saving grace is that they are all at the same location.  Arriving first thing in the morning we sit in the vehicle or at the park down the road alternating the children, depending who has an appointment at which time.  In between appointments we do our schooling, play at the playground or walk on the nearby trails.

Wednesdays the teens meet up with their EA (educational assistant) for schooling done in the community.  They will work on social studies, english at the library in the morning and then in the afternoon they focus on life skills and social skills. It is important to us that our children learn how to access resources in the community and know how to relate to people, with their special needs this takes more work than your typical child so we practice these skills regularly.  A couple of our children have extreme anxiety and are scared of people, by schooling in the community once a week this is helping to reduce this anxiety.  The other 6 children participate in therapeutic horse back riding in the morning and then we go home for afternoon schooling.

Thursdays is a home day for most of us with schooling similar to Mondays.  The one exception is that 2 of the teens are taking a Car Maintenance course that is instructed by Dad so they are away for 1/2 the day.   This course is open to anyone who home schools in the community and has been a huge success with many teens enrolled in it and gives the teens an opportunity to school with their peers.  During the afternoon we have also been doing some sewing and/or cooking which is always fun.














Fridays is also a home day for some of us similar to Mondays and Thursdays.  Some Fridays the school we home school with has field trips planned for the high school kids.  In the last month they have participated in an internet/social media safety course and gone for a hike up a mountain to the cross.  The field trips are a great supplement to their learning.   3 of the younger children also have their vision therapy appointments each Friday.

shared at http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/
http://squishablebaby.com/the-homeschool-link-up-homeschoollinkup-week-50/
http://our4kiddos.blogspot.ca/2014/09/my-week-in-review-6.html

Working together....back to routines

We have been busy getting back into the routines that come with school and all the added after school activities as we say goodbye to summer.  September is a good time to review the progress over the last year and make new goals for everyone.  With our children that have additional special needs we take an extra look at their therapies and schooling ensuring we don't get stuck in a rut and are still moving forward.

Every September and then again in January we request a progress assessment from our therapists.  The speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists and behavioral consultant have all been busy with our children determining their current levels.  Having these assessments, aids us in setting goals for the next months.  We are determining if the therapies and therapists are effective, what we should focus on and/or if we would get more benefit elsewhere.

We also take a serious look at their educational needs.  September is a great time for setting academic and/or life skill goals for the year, choosing curriculum's and methods to suit everyone's abilities.  As a homeschooling family of multiple children with special needs we have the benefit of educational assistants that support our children.  We have been busy training our educational assistants so they can support our children in meeting this years goals.

After all the assessments are complete and our educational assistants have had sometime to get to know the children and their needs we plan a team meeting/IEP (individual education plan) meeting.  For this team meeting we invite all the therapist and teaching staff, we want everyone on the same page working with the children so they can have the most productive year possible.  Working our way through the family discussing everyone's needs, brainstorming ideas and making an action plan for school, therapies and any extra curricular activities that may benefit each child (on top of the extra curricular activities that meet their interests).

Schooling options....what works for you?

We as a society are fortunate that there are so many options available for schooling our children and if one program doesn't fit your child's needs you are free to try something different.

Over the years we have had many go through the public system and it has worked well for some of them.  This year we do not have any in the public system which  in a way is fortunate as the teachers are currently involved in contract negotiations and school isn't expected to open for a while.

For some of our children with special needs we found they were able to be better supported if we home schooled them.  With the program we are enrolled with the "home school" has access to the provincial special needs education funding.  With the use of this funding the parents are able to direct how they would like the money allotted to support their child.  The parents can request therapies, special education assistants, therapy equipment, activities, resources, etc. This home school program is also able to receive special needs funding for our adult learner providing extra support for working on life skill training.


Some home school programs have a combination of home and face to face opportunities.  The school we are enrolled with has this option and the face to face programs range from academic classes to supplemental field trips.  As a family you are free to choose what works for your child.  We have been able to choose to send our child to activities that they are successful with and keep them home for extra one on one support with the challenging subjects.  We feel the children are getting the best of both worlds by having the benefits of being in a class and the added support of home.

This year, like last year, we will be home schooling 8 children with a range of special needs.  We have 3 special education assistants hired that will come into our home and work along side me schooling the children.  The children will also receive weekly speech, physical and occupational therapy supports.  Other supports they will be receiving include vision therapy, therapeutic horse back riding, private swim lessons, art therapy and therapeutic equipment.

The school provides a special needs teacher that helps select curriculum that is appropriate for the child, prepares the IEP and report cards.  The school with the parents hire the education staff and the school looks after the staff training and other staff issues that may arise.  The parent is responsible for the planning, implementing, overseeing and teaching along side the education assistants.

This weekend I will be busy organizing and setting up our learning areas, planning out our days and getting ready for back to school.  I have been researching hands on projects to match up with our learning outcomes and it looks like we will be having a fun year.  The first day of school for the teens is a retreat to a local summer camp where they will meet up with their school friends for games, water sports and lots of fun.

Fish hatchery field trip

We have been raising salmon eggs that are now fry, as a culmination of our learning we went to a local fish hatchery and participated in a 3 part presentation with other members of our homeschooling community. Upon arrival we were divided into 3 groups and went through various stations.

The first station we attended was "ocean food web" at this station we learned how plants, animals, fish and the sun interact in nature's food web.  We were given different cards which included the sun, plankton, barnacles, herring, salmon, whales, eagles, etc. and learned how all these need one another for life.  To reinforce the "web" idea we had a string that was passed from one person to another connecting the different needs ie. plankton is food for herring, herring for salmon, salmon for whales.

Then we went on a "forest walk/fry release"  to learn about the various native plants and how they contribute to the rivers ecosystem.  We each released some Chum fry into the stream after learning what traits are needed for survival of the fry.

The last station was "aquatic insects/invertebrate" where we studied various insects that live in the waters around us.  At the end of the class we caught insects from the touch tank, studied and identified the bugs with the aid of a magnifying glass then returned them to the tank.

What a fun day of learning, spent outside in the sun with our friends.

shared at http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/weekly-wrap-up-the-spring-break-edition/
http://www.hiphomeschoolmoms.com/2014/04/hhms-favorite-posts-hip-homeschool-hop-41514/

What have we been learning at school?

A glimpse of what the older kids have been working on during the last term.  We study the basics each morning and then add a unit study to bring our learning to life and make it a bit more interesting.  For our unit study we have been reading the "Sign of the Beaver" and studying various topics brought up in the story around aboriginal people and their culture.  We are also using Northwood Presses - Native curriculum here  We also included some aboriginal hobbies/art for our art class and some cooking.

The "Sign of the beaver" tells a story of a 12 year old boy Matt James Hallowell, and his father, who, as early settlers, together build a log cabin in the wilderness of the 18th century North America.  Matt is left alone to guard the cabin while his father heads back east to collect his mother and sister.  Alone, Matt has to work together with native Americans.

In the story the characters hunted and gathered their own foods so we researched ways of hunting, snaring and fishing to gather food.  We all tried making snares for catching small game.  We also researched edible plants and went into the forest and identified them.

For cooking we made some "Johnny Cake" which is a type of cornbread.  Most of us found it to be very dry and bland.

We read about a bee attack in the novel and researched remedies that the aboriginal people used for a variety of alignments including healing bee stings.

We studied kayaks and learned that the Inuits were the first to invent them, when they invented them, what they were made of, etc.  We also learned that the Europeans kidnapped the Inuit and had them make kayaks for them based on the Inuit sketches.

For the art aspect of our studying we did some soap carving with guidance from the book  Soap Carving for Children This book teaches how to make carving tools out of popsicle sticks and then teaches how to carve using bars of soap.  We also made moccasins from kits that we purchased from here

We studied the homes of aboriginal people and made models of plank houses and demonstrated the different parts of the house.

For our final project/report each child chose an aboriginal band to study, report on and present to our family and friends.  Each child was given free rein on how they wanted to present their research one did a power point presentation and 2 did poster board presentations along with an oral presentation.

A field trip to the Provincial Museum finished up this terms studies in the First Peoples Gallery.  The museum has a handout with questions that can be answered from information presented in the displays which was a great encouragement for the children to read and learn from the displays.

shared at http://www.hiphomeschoolmoms.com/2014/03/hhms-favorite-posts-hip-homeschool-hop-4114/
http://www.weirdunsocializedhomeschoolers.com/weekly-wrap-up-the-one-in-which-spring-sprangor-is-it-sprung/

They have hatched

As a homeschooling family we are always looking for ways to make our learning "real" so when we read about the "Salmoniods in the Classroom" program with the Department of fisheries we knew this was for us.  After many emails and phone calls we were able to be included in this program and became the proud "parents" to 100 salmon eggs.

After a training program we set up an aquarium with a chiller 2 weeks before the eggs were delivered so that everything would be stable when the eggs arrived.  The aquarium needed to be blacked out as salmon eggs and alevin are very sensitive to light.

After caring for the eggs for about 1 month (they were already 2 months old when they arrived) all but 1 egg became alevin.  The alevin will feed off of the yolk sack for the next few weeks as they continue growing to "fry".

While raising the eggs we have also been studying the life cycle of salmon, the different types of salmon and the habitat that they live in.  We have watched videos, read books, and completed worksheets.  Over the next few months we will continue working on this unit, keep reading to watch our fish develop.