Thursday 1 December 2016

Ellar's Homeschool Journey


Ellar homeschooled for Kindergarten.  He loves to learn.  He's eager and willing to participate ~ always asking very intuitive questions and he has very contemplative answers.  Ellar loves Science.  In fact, last year our homeschool was STEM based.  Well...actually STEAM based (added the "A" for "Art"!).  Ellar is a builder and he has an active imagination.  Ellar also has a very tender, empathetic heart.  He always wants people to be happy.  If he is having a hard time, often he internalizes it.  This is a blog about his Grade 1 homeschool year!


Ellar wants to be an RCMP officer when he grows up.  I think it's because he's obsessed with rules, fairness & guns!  He will make a great law enforcement officer, that's for sure!  We like to get out into our community and say, "Thank you," to the brave men and women that serve.  


Ellar is a very compassionate fellow!  He loves babies and toddlers and small animals!  We have 2 cats, 2 guinea pigs, and 2 dogs!  He likes to help take care of them and learn about them.


Here is Ellar sitting across from his older brother, Connor, older sister, Greta, and beside his younger sister, Astrid.  They were all homeschooled for 2 years together!  It was a lot of fun and the kids all have fond memories of it.  Public school is a very different environment for learning and growing.  Our classroom is very peaceful and supportive.  The kids compliment each other and help with each other's work if needed.  This year will be a little different for Ellar being the only one at home for school!  But he and I will surely have a lot of fun together ~ we like hanging out with each other!


We took the kids to the Kennedy Space Centre on one of our homeschool adventures.  Ellar was very interested in asking the NASA astronaut questions!

   

On that same trip, we traveled by road up through Florida to Atlanta, Georgia.  This was mom's favourite city so far!  We visited the Centre of Civil and Human Rights and we learned about the American Civil War.  We also traveled to Tennessee and visited a Confederate cemetery on a plantation that owned a large number of African-American slaves.  The plantation was in Franklin, TN, and it was turned into a Confederate hospital during The Battle of Franklin.  Ellar was very interested that there was still blood stained wood floors from the emergency amputations and caring for the wounded.  This homeschool field trip the these three states in the USA was very educational.

                    

We even went to the Grand Old Opry!!  Every adventure needs some music and nightlife!!  We all got dressed up in our cowboy/girl boots and enjoyed a wonderful night of country music!

            

We also enjoyed the Country Music Hall of Fame where there is so many artifacts of country music, and onto Studio B where greats like Elvis recorded most of his albums!  That was the actual piano and room (Elvis liked the acoustics ~ even though is was a cramped and seemingly dilapidated building!)

                           

This is work of Ellar's from Christmas last year ~ and the name of his elf says it all ~ Jokey ~  Yes, Ellar is a comical jokester!  He has a great sense of humour!  When our town puts on a Christmas Kantata, Ellar sometimes is shy and doesn't want to get up on stage...but for a couple of years he was a Shepherd :) and performed in from of the community with a group of other children.


Ellar loves the outdoors.  If he could be outside from morning until night he would!  We have a cabin on the Muskwa River we visit all seasons (boat in the summer and skidoo in the winter).  Ellar loves good nutrition and learns a lot by helping to garden!  Dad's a hunter, so Ellar's also learning about hunting and trapping, too.


Learning how to meditate, alternate nostril breathing, and yoga asana is a regular morning routine for our homeschool.  Ellar is a very active kid.  He loves hockey, dance, gymnastics, soccer, swimming, and piano to name a few of his favourites!



Gymnastics
Dance
British Soccer Camp ~ Year 2
Snowshoeing fun at home!


PHILIPPINES 2016!!  Our first time ever on a Boeing 747 aircraft!  We spent 6 weeks on 4 different islands in the Philippines:  Palawan, Cebu, Bohol, and Luzon.  We experiences the Filipino culture, people, and cuisine.  The kids all attended the public school in Port Barton for a day ~ it was very exciting for them!  We visited the butterfly farm and the crocodile sanctuary.  We visited many museums and war memorials, and in Baguio we also toured the Philippine Military Academy ~ very impressive.  We toured the chocolate hills and the rice terraces.  We even got to float down the mangroves at night to see fireflies and learn about them!  We rode on jeepneys and tricycles, and they drove very fast!  We are looking forward to our trip to CHINA this March/April 2017!


And with that ~ this is my very first blog post for the remainder of the 2016/2017 school year!!  More than anything I just wanted to see if it works!  But further to that, it will be one of the mediums I use to communicate with his BC certified teacher in Vanderhoof.  Ellar is a great kid ~ and we're excited to take on this adventure just the two of us for the rest of this year!  We've got a lot of work to do, but I know it's so worth it!

Thank you kindly for reading my blog!