Life at Oak Grove

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

So fun!

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

Mama robin sitting on the tree…  I so want to get a picture of the eggs!

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

My first braids.

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

Where I live there is a outdoor water ban in my area until August.   We were asked to purchase a water barrel to collect rain water for the plants we have.

However, the pressure is non existent with the water barrel so forget about washing the vehicles or do a washer pressure job.

My husband has decided to see if he could get a pump set up…

He found something that can be attached to a drill for 20$.

Will it do the job?

Check it out for yourself….

*grin*

Gotta love my man….

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

Interesting plant on a path while exploring the campground.

Visit the site of the CowGuys by clicking on the image below.

My adventure with the TOS Homeschool Crew is officially completed.

It has been a marvelous journey but my attention is called somewhere else.   I will continue to review books/products on Canadianladybug Reviews! and will pursue my certificate in Social Media as well.   Homeschooling is a priority in our family and already I look forward for next year where I will have a preschooler, a grade one, a grade 2 and a grade 5.    I intend to plan a schedule that will be adequate for us over the summer.

I have also marked in BOLD PURPLE the products that I particularly loved and consider like gems for homeschoolers.

2008-20109 Crew Year
The Schoolhouse Planner
HelpMe2Teach
Homeschool Library Builder
Time4Learning
MediaAngels – The Missing Link: Found book
Let’s Make a Webpage ebook
Rhyme to Read
Little Man in the Map
Spears Art Studio Grades K-8
Trigger Memory Systems – Times Tales and Clean N’ Flip
Salem Ridge Press
Puppetools
Math Mammoth
Peterson Handwriting
KinderBach
Crayola Art Studio
All About Homophones
Heads Up
WriteShop Story Builders
One Year Adventure Novel
Schleich
Rocket Phonics
Bible Story Songs
Math Tutor DVD
Cadron Creek – Further Up and Further In (Narnia)
One 2 Believe – Noah’s Ark
SpellQuizzer
Homeschooling ABCs – Knowledge Quest
WriteShop Primary
Tapestry of Grace
Homeschool in the Woods – New Testament Lapbook
Memoria Press – Prima Latina and Latina Christiana I

2009-2010 Crew Year (jumped on board in March 2010)
Homeschool in the Woods – Olde World Style Maps (World and US)
Math Galaxy
All About Reading – What Am I?
Travels of Wiglinton and Wenks
Terrestria Chronicles - Books 6 & 7
Time4Learning – PreK program
TV Teacher – Alphabet Beats lower case letters
Lesson Planet
Ideal Curriculum
Cerebellum Corporation

2010-2011 Crew Year
TOS Planner
Schleich
LanSchool
Talking Fingers – Read, Write & Type!
Soli Deo Gloria – Young Hearts Longing for God (Psalms)
Collectorz Book Collector
KBTeachers.com
Wits & Wagers Family
Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary for Kids
Ten Marks
City Creek Press – Times Alive!
Curiosity Files – The Blue-Footed Booby
Kid Scoop
Zeezok Publishing Z-guide to the movies
Kinderbach
Science Weekly
Yesterday’s Classics
Monki See Vol One DVD and book
Go Trybe K-5
Talking Finger - Wordy Qwerty
Eagle Wings Considering God’s Creation

It is funny how you feel when you finish something.   I have mixed feelings about this.   Part of me feel relieved while the other part is sort of sad at the same time.   The crew was demanding at times in our life.  As a member of the crew you need to use the products as part of your homeschool.  So sometimes you had to put aside some of the other things so concentrate on a specific product.    It was fantastic to discover homeschooling products that could make our homeschooling adventure more fun.    There were also the deadlines to meet.  Not too bad if you are organized but when systems like Blogger goes down it can cause some stress,   Fortunately, Meeting the deadlines were not a problem for me.  

The kids enjoyed the experience as well.  My oldest is more aware of what reviewing is.  Maybe one day he will start his own blog and review products.  Who knows…  

I am grateful for having being part of the TOS Homeschool Crew over the past three years.   When I least expected God has provided with curriculum that were simply a blessing.   When I started this adventure I was embarking on our 2nd year of homeschooling.  I was brand new at the whole thing and didn’t know what to expect.    I have discovered products and something to do for fun – reviewing products.    Without my participation in the crew I don’t think I would be doing this.  

I have no clue where my journey is bringing me. I will continue reviewing books and products for sure but this time I will be the one contacting the companies. I already have some wonderful relationships with some. We are blessed with wonderful books and products on a regular basis. But to be honest, I think I will have more time to dedicate to this blog – Life at Oak grove. Looking forward what the weeks, months and years to come has in store for me and my family!

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

Interesting mushrooms in the woods…

Well it is official, our camping season has started.  This past week-end many campsites have opened in Ontario including where our RV is parked.   So we packed and drove to Logos Land to open up our “cottage” like my mother-in-law says.   And once there, we realized we forgot some things…   But we were able to open it, spend two days there and enjoy the nature.   The Ontario provincial flower, the trilliums were in full bloom and we even found the loon’s nest.

So has the camping season opens in our area, we also pondered on what we could do while we are at the RV (and not on the road with it) this summer.   What are fun activites that our family could suggest to the you.   We are blessed to have a variety of things we could do around Cobden, Ontario.   To get the most out of your summer in the Ottawa Valley, you need to be open to try new things too!

You could rent a pontoon on White Lake and go fishing with your family.   It is a wonderful way to spend time in the outdoors, swim in a lake, make memories together and observe the nature around a lake.   We did that last year and plan to do it again this year.  The kids enjoyed their time on the boat and we were able to see some bald eagles in the area too!    It was a wonderful time with the whole family.

You could grab you binoculars and observe the birds as a fun way to discover nature around you.  This past week-end we were blessed to observe for the first time for us a Baltimore Oriole which is very colorful in the shades of orange.   It was such a pleasure to see it.

You can study the forestry development from the early years at Chutes Coulonge on the Quebec side at the historical park.  Not only will you have the opportunity of learning more about how timber travelled the river, but you will also have the opportunity to walk in nature.   They also have an aerial park where you can zip above the falls and be challenge with an obstacle course.

But the activity we discovered last year is about discovering nature and using your scouting skills to find something.  I’m talking about geocaching.   What is geocaching?  Simply put it is a treasure hunt anywhere in the world.   There are tons of geocaches around the world – literally.   All you need to have is to get a gps device, grab good shoes and be ready to search a while.

We decided last year to try geocaching.   We had my husband iPhone with the geocache app on it.  So one morning while we were camping we grabbed a lunch and went on a discovery adventure.    The first cache we were looking for was on a dirt road close to our campsite.    A long dirt road that was going straight from the highway 17 to another parallel road further down. Somewhere along that road there was a cache and our objective was to find it...    With the app you get the location of the cache using some positioning codes.   So we stopped where the GPS was telling us the cache would be. And we proceeded to look for it.   We walked through tall grasses, turned around a big tree, put our hands in holes on the ground to try to find it without success.   This was our first attempt to find a cache.    And the kids were looking as much as they could.    My husband decided to go down the road to see if we could have missed something.  The kids went with him.   I stayed close to the truck and thought... "If I were a cache where would I be?"    There a bit down the road there were some rocks.    Could it be?    So I went and looked around and I found it.    So I turned around and yelled at the rest of my family which was way down the road by now...    The kids ran to me and proceeded to search for the cache.    Dominic found it at the base of the rock - it was well hidden.

Each cache can be hidden in different ways.  You can find little trinkets in the caches and usually if  you take something you should leave something else for the next family or group of person searching for it.

Our next stop was in a cemetery.    A bit weird we found but we walking around, trying to figure out where it was.  This one was hard too.   When using the app, you can look at cheater pictures to figure out where the cache can be.    We gave up.   We looked... and even though the cheater pictures are not clearly indicating where the cache is, you can figure out the background and then look around there.   The cache was inside the hole of a tree...  No way our kids could have grab it.    This time the cache was a plastic container with army print duck tape around it.  This type of cache is easier to include little trinkets in it.  You could find toonies or loonies (2$ and 1$ in Canada), little toys, a piece of paper and a pencil to write your name and day you found the cache, and so on...

We did a third cache that day.  But it was located in between very passing roads and having little ones (my daughter was two and my third son four at that time), we decided that I would be the one looking for it.    I went and followed the footsteps of a previous group of people looking for it.   It's easy when there is tall grasses that have been walked on...   I looked and looked and was going to give up when I spotted it.    A small birdhouse was hanged on the fence.  Could it be it?   So I went and discovered the cache in the hole - an old film container.    A small cache that gave a lot of trouble.

I prefer finding bigger caches but there is different ones all over the place.   When we were back home we even found some close to our house.   All we have to do is pack a snack and bring water.    Geocaching is definitively a good way to create wonderful memories with your family during the summer.   If you don’t have a smart phone on which you can download a geocaching app, you can purchase a handheld gps device for about 150$.    I am looking forward to do more geocaching with the family this summer.

This year I think I would also like to visit the Bonnechere Caves.   It would be a good way to study geology with the kids and discover something else around our campsite.

So what are you planning to do this summer?   Which fun activity are you going to do with your kids?  What are your Summer Success Secrets?   Please take the time to give us some ideas.

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

My smiling Jérémy….

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

My sweet girl at the campground.

Last year, I got introduced to the Voice of the Martyrs Bold Believers Activity Books while attending a meeting at RVHEA on geography.   I thought the idea was interesting but found the activity books a bit expensive.   However, I discovered that they offer the PDF format for FREE on their website.

Click on the image below to access the download version of the Bold Believers Activity Books from Voice of the Martyrs.

Have fun exploring the countries where persecution exists.

A while back – make that a couple of years ago… – I stumble on this page http://everything2.com/title/Flags+of+the+world+on+your+Rubik%2527s+Cube and found a fun geographic activity to do with your kids using a Rubik’s Cube.   Yes that very same toy that was popular back in the 80s…   I had one back then.   We have one now…  and no it is not the same one I used to play with back in the days.    Anyhow, I thought it would be cool to share the information I found on everything2.com because as homeschoolers we always are on the look out to spice up our lessons right?

So go ahead, check out the link above and have fun with your kids…

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

My neighbours had bricks in their garage.  They gave us some so we can do a flower bed in the front of the house.  I have plans for this for quite a while but never was able to complete it…   They also had some dirt they wanted to get rid off (as they have put a play structure for their son…) and some extra plants for us too! 

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

Ontario official flower – the Trillium.

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

Opening week-end of the campsites in Ontario!  Yeah!

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

Last Awana night – time for the awards!

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

Since January I am back in the studying mode…

We have discovered that a College in my are is offering a Social Media Certificate which has five courses in it.

I already done the Introduction to Social Media course.   It was fun as I learned more about the world of Social Media.   Yes I know I have been part of this world for a few years now but somehow I managed to discover more about it during this course.

Last Friday the new session started.   I originally thought of taking only one course which is titled Developing a Social Media Strategy.   But after looking at the workload and talking with my husband, we agreed I should take another course.   So now I am also taking Monitoring and Measurement.  

Call me crazy if you want.

Yes I have four kids and I am homeschooling.  Yes I do reviews on my other blog – Canadianladybug Reviews!.   And yes…. camping season is opening this week-end.  Summer is coming faster that we think and I will have to read and prepare assignments. 

But I see numerous advantages for taking these courses.  

1) A better understanding of the social media world

2) Being a professional IT person and owning a business, we will apply this there too.

3) Finding ways to publicize LobsterNetwork.

4) Work opportunities in the future (we never know).

I think this is just for a period of time.  When I am done with these two courses, there will be only two more to do before completing the certificate.

So until August this year, I have two courses to tackle and have fun at the same time with my family.

A few weeks ago, I received an email about a prayer request on an upcoming case at the Supreme Court in Canada.

Tomorrow (May 18th) is the date.

Here’s the email.

Dear OCHEC members and leaders,

Earlier this week you received an email from OCHEC forwarding to you press releases about the Supreme Court of Canada case on May 18th regarding the Province of Quebec curriculum, the Ethics and Religious Culture (ERC), addressing the issue of whether parents have the right to choose the kind of education their children will receive, particularly in regard to religious instruction. Basically, the province of Quebec is insisting that its students take a course on Religion and Ethics that teaches all religions are on a par. Thousands of parents have tried to excuse their children from the class, but their request has been refused (the province supplied the school boards with a standard rejection letter). Two parents have fought this and the case will be argued in the Supreme Court. How does that work? On May 18 the nine Justices of the Court will hear both sides of the case presented (certain Christian organizations, including CCCC and EFC, are among the interveners) and then they will decide if it is the parents or the province who are able to decide what their children should learn in this case.

Why are we sending this out to our Homeschooling community? Because if the SCC decides in favour of the Quebec ministry of education, it will set precedent giving the government the right to choose and insist on the content of curriculum even religious curriculum. This case could be used in the future to decide legislation regarding home education freedoms.

We’ve been asked to circulate a request to join with one support group that is organizing prayer and fasting for the weeks leading up to this case. I’ve attached excerpts of emails from S K who is spear-heading this prayer and fasting movement. 

If the Supreme Court of Canada case we referred to is decided in favour of the Quebec school board things related to parental choice of educational material will be non-negotiable. Forever. And it would almost certainly affect homeschooling, eventually: imagine if you could only homeschool if you agreed to a certain curriculum (including books you disagreed with) and your kids were required to be tested on the material....and that was the only homeschooling option. Consider how things have changed from when you were a kid. I remember being read Bible stories, told about John 3:16 and studying The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe in my public school, when they still said the Lord's Prayer. None of that would happen now. Gideon Bibles are barely permitted in the Waterloo region schools and the school board is considering further legal action on that issue. What else will be lost over the next 20 years if we do not seek God's face on this? (2 Chronicles 7:14).

Pray! Pray! And please again consider fasting .

Here are a few suggestions for specific prayer:

Pray Proverbs 21:1 "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever He pleases." - that God would direct the hearts of the Justices ("kings") to allow parents, not the government, to decide what children should learn.

They are

The Right Honourable Madam Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, P.C.

The Honourable Mr. Justice William Ian Corneil Binnie The Honourable Mr. Justice Louis LeBel The Honourable Madam Justice Marie Deschamps The Honourable Mr. Justice Morris J. Fish The Honourable Madam Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella The Honourable Madam Justice Louise Charron The Honourable Mr. Justice Marshall Rothstein The Honourable Mr. Justice Thomas Albert Cromwell

Pray for all the people arguing this case on May 18 - for our Christian brothers & sisters intervening in the case, that the Holy Spirit would tell them what to say (Matthew 10:19-20). We are asked to pray for those who persecute us - not sure if the opposing folks would count as persecutors! - but pray that they (and the Justices) would have their hearts turned to Christ.

Above all, whatever happens, pray that God would be glorified.

Please ask yourself: What if you were in the situation of wanting to excuse your child from seeing an objectionable movie in class, BUT YOU COULDN'T. [These things are already happening in public schools in Ontario.] Or, you did not want your child to read a blasphemous book, but you had NO WAY of preventing it - except for your child to get an incomplete credit in that course. Or, you want to send your child to a Christian school, but the Christian school is not allowed to teach Biblical Christianity (Jesus really IS Lord, etc). Or, you are homeschooling but are forbidden to teach about Jesus (or, say, use creationist materials) or just that you are required to have your kids follow certain curricula.

Well, you could say that this doesn't affect you, and it probably wouldn't immediately. But I think it is naive to think that it wouldn't eventually. The underlying issue is WHETHER IT IS YOU OR THE GOVERNMENT WHO SHOULD CHOOSE YOUR CHILDREN'S CURRICULUM.

Lest you think "Oh, that couldn't happen here", please consider the fact that more severe restrictions already exist in western Europe. For example (this is from Wikipedia, accessed today, under "Homeschooling in

Germany"):

"Homeschooling in Germany is illegal with rare exceptions. The requirement to attend school has been upheld, on challenge from parents, by the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. Parents violating the law have primarily or most prominently been Christians seeking a more religious education than that offered by the schools.[1][2] Sanctions against these parents have included fines of thousands of euros, successful legal actions to remove children from the parents' custody, and prison sentences.[1][2] It has been estimated that 600 to 1,000 German children are homeschooled, despite its illegality.[3]”

PLEASE PRAY. OUR GOD ANSWERS PRAYER.

Thanks for reading this far! And feel free to circulate this to anyone you think would be interested.

"As a Father, God finds His greatest pleasure in relieving the wants and granting the desires of His children. Prayer is the child's request, not to the winds, nor to the world, but to the Father...Prayer is the seeking of God’s great and greatest good, which will not come if we do not pray." (E.M.Bounds)

From an HSLDA Canada email I received today.

Right to opt out of anti-Christian course in Québec argued before Supreme Court
In September, 2008, the Province of Québec changed the religious education curriculum, requiring all students from first grade to the end of high school to take a course each year entitled, Ethics and Religious Culture. The course surveys all religions, treating Christianity on par with all other religions. No religion is permitted to be presented as more desirable than any other. The course is mandatory for all public and private schools. Even religiously based private schools are not permitted to teach a religion course contradicting Ethics and Religious Culture.
The Applicants, Lavallée and Jutras, are a married couple with four children. They live in Drummondville, Québec. On behalf of their children, they applied for exemptions from participating in the Ethics and Religious Culture course. Their requests were denied. Several thousand parents living in the Province of Québec also applied for exemptions from the Ethics and Religious Culture course on behalf of their children. All requests were denied. The Minister of Education has, apparently, indicated that all such requests will be denied. School boards have been supplied with a standard form rejection letter for this purpose.
The outcome of this case will potentially impact religious education throughout Canada. Right now even private Christian schools in Quebec are prevented from teaching religion from a purely Christian perspective.
For more on this story please click here and here.

Please join me and many other Canadian homeschoolers in praying for this issue.

Thanks.

TOBYMAC is coming to town…  Yeah!

Got the email yesterday and bought 4 tickets already.   Our friends also bought 4 tickets.

The concert is on Thanksgiving Day for Canada but that’s okay.

So looking forward for this concert!!!   Will you be coming too?

For more information go to UnitedWorship.

He will also be in

Moncton, NS on Oct 5th

Montreal, QC on Oct 6th

Toronto, ON on Oct 7th

Winnipeg, MB on Oct 13th

Saskatoon, SK on Oct 14

Edmonton, AB on Oct 15

Calgary, AB on Oct 17

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

As I mentioned yesterday, I went to the 50% off sale at Value Village.  I was able to get good deals for me and the kids.   But the most wonderful item I have found is definitively a beautiful coat for my daughter Jasmine.  Granted she won’t be to wear it until she is 7ish but I couldn’t resist getting it.

I don’t believe the coat has ever been worn.

Here’s some details…

Can you see the bright colors?

For those who don’t know what Value Village is it’s a 2nd hand store where you can find almost everything from clothing to kitchen items.   I find that in the last few years, their prices went up a bit when they realize the good quality of the clothes they have like Osh Kosh, Gymboree, Children’s Place and so on.

If you are wondering how much I paid for this here’s what the price tag was: 14.99$   And I got it 50% off for 7.50$.  

For a coat that had never been worn, that’s absolutely fantastic don’t you think?

I am participating in the 2011 Mommytography 365 Project! For this year long project I will be posting an image a day, to get me out shooting, using my camera and learning new things with it daily. Anyone interested in photography can join, no need to be a Mommytographer. We have teens to adults, male and female, as well as people from all over the world. Come join the fun!

You go away for a few hours…. and what does your kids do with their father.  Being silly with one of the assignment my oldest son, Alexandre had to do while product testing WriteShop Junior E.

To complete his lesson 7, Alexandre had to create a 3D character…

He took the roll of brown paper we had and did both side of his character…   Then he stapled it and stuffed it to make it 3-dimensional.

There was a 50% off sale at Value Village this morning.  I wanted to go for the opening.   I left and here’s what they did while I was away.

Nature calls….

It stinks in there.

Washing the hands (and yes the water is open!).

I want to read some comics…

Reading

Working in Dad’s office.

Exercising.

Ready to do some crafts in Mom’s Craft area.

More exercises….Notice the shoes…

Mmmm!  I wonder how the shredder works.   Yikes!  Take me out of there!

SIGH

So glad they had fun though…. *grin*