oakville

Homeschool sick day

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We all struggle, it is inevitable.  But what can we do as homeschooling families when the days don’t go as planned?

D260A3B8-DCAB-41B4-B18D-49F424796C57We can choose to panic, that school won’t go as planned… much like life…. or we can have a new lesson plan for the day and live out peace… as much as we can.

35614DF0-FBFC-4F4F-8B49-40CFD0B7035CThis week, Elise broke 3 bones in her arm.  There were definitely some challenging moments.  However, we took advantage of a slower pace.  We lit candles and a fire in our fireplace.  We sang songs together, read Bible story books.  We had friends over.  And of course we did a lot of crafts.

We may not have checked every box on our curriculum list this week.  But we grew in our relationships and took some time to recover.  I hope my children will grow up and honor the seasons in which they find themselves.  Sometimes you need to dance and sometimes you need to cuddle and sing under blankets.

Why go screen free?

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Have we ever let our kids play tablets or watch tv mindlessly?  Yes.

Will we ever again?  Probably not.

What happened?

It was the first practice for my girls’ competitive cheerleading team, and my boys were looking around, bored, sticky and hot in the crowded viewing area to see if there were other kids to play with.  There were, there were almost ten other boys Caleb’s age, but they all had their necks flexed as far forward as possible, transfixed by tiny flashing screens.  There were even kids as young as Owen (who is two by the way) breathlessly holding onto their parents’ cell phones as surprise egg videos played for them.  At one point, a mom was receiving a call, when she tried to retrieve her cell phone from her toddler… you would have thought she was trying to pull out her kidney!  All the moms seemed to nod, knowingly.

Hey, I am a mom of 4, I totally get public displays of bad behaviour, but can we not see a causal link here parents?  This technology is addictive and inappropriate for this age.

The day this happened, I did still allow my kids to access screens at least most week days.  When Owen napped, the other kids could have an hour or so of tablet or tv time. Although I didn’t love it, I figured it gave me a chance to catch up on work I needed to do or have some alone time.

However, watching those small children clutching onto those screens as fiercely as a drug addict would his next hit… it flipped a switch inside of me.

It has now been a month, and I can’t see us going back to screens.  The changes that I have witnessed have been spectacular and as I have researched further into screens and their impact on young people, it has solidified my decision.

Look out for part 2 on how we have removed screens.

Toddlers in the forest

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Owen found his first ladybug.  He just about lost his mind with excitement.

Belle was very worried about the ladybug’s safety and kept trying to hide it under leaves.

… she was right to be worried.  Owen trued to eat it!  But I quickly re-homed our new friend a few feet away.

Kids or Coyote snacks?

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Coyote information to keep your kids safe when hiking or playing in the forest

Enjoying nature with your little ones can be wonderful.  Worrying they are going to be eaten by a coyote, not so wonderful.

How do you keep your kids from being a bite-sized coyote snack?

First, here is a short video on what is called Coyote Hazing, produced by our town.

We tend to stick to the same general area to play in the forest.  This allows the kids to leave bigger projects like building shelters or obstacles courses or bridges they can come back to another day.  In our familiar area of the forest we have never seen a coyote.  However, a mountain biker we see a few times a week, told me that another hiker had been surrounded by a few coyotes just up the trail from where we go.  Scary!

So we have taken a few steps to make sure the kids learn how to deal with coyotes.

  1. We have practiced putting your hands way over your head, (with a big stick is extra points) and yelling “GO AWAY!”
  2. We have played coyote many times, with the above, and making sure no one turns and runs, because apparently that can encourage coyotes to chase you.
  3. The two older kids, who occasionally go a little further than the younger kids, have very loud whistles.
  4. I have an air horn, which should scare off most animals.
  5. We are double checking any new areas we play in for brush or little shelters that could be used as coyote dens.

Has anyone come across a coyote in Oakville or otherwise?

This recent sighting makes me a little extra cautious, but it won’t stop us from enjoying the outdoors, and it seems to add to the adventure.  The kids are even enjoying our new “Coyote” game and have added it to their rotation.