End of year Facilitator meeting

Yesterday we had our end-of-year meeting with Abigails homeschool facilitator. It went really well and I am really pleased with our school board. I have to say our Facilitator is the best one we have EVER had!! She just put me completely at ease, was so relaxed about everything.....so easy-going. Telling me that she doesn't expect any child to be at a certain grade level at any age and she just expects them to be going at their own pace - so long as they are progressing in the right direction...

She told me not to push writing (which is COMPLETELY the opposite of her teacher at school and is EXACTLY what I NEEDED to hear and is absolutely just the best news EVER)!!

...trust me as a homeschooler meeting a new facilitator you just NEVER know what to expect and you don't know what they will expect or how 'schooly' they will be or anything...

She told me she thought I'd done an amazing job of homeschooling through renovations and doing so many activities and crafts in my bedroom with no kitchen or place for studying or crafts etc....that changing our original education plan was completely fine and we had done plenty!!!

It went fine - we are all set to finish the year NOW if we want :) Yep - school is DONE :)

Or we can continue the year until school is out......

Or we can school all year round....

But like I said to her, the kitchen has been out of use for so long, I am just excited to be able to use it at last, for science experiments, crafts, baking, writing, painting etc etc etc......so I just plan to do all kinds of things with the kids there and less 'book work' anyway!!!

We will be outside so much more now the weather is better and many more field trips so there would be less book work anyway and now the pressure is off to do less writing I am much happier. We read more in Summer as we all take part in reading programs at the library.

I don't think 'homeschooling' ever stops :)

I'm looking in to horseriding lessons. I want to get easels for painting so we can go and paint around the acreage and out by the lakes etc around here.

I registered Abigail for next year, so thats done! Funding will be $715. I have no clue how to spend it! I've spent a little already but not much! I'll take Abby to Education Station and Michaels and go crazy :)

Art Classes...

Abigail started art classes last week and has been enjoying them very much. The first class was on 'acrylics' and they painted a colour wheel and then had time to free paint on a canvas. thery also learned about a Russian artist. After the class we went to Michaels and she selected the materials she had used in the class and we are going to spend time working on more acrylic paintings.

This weeks class was on drawing with charcoals. They studied Picasso amongst other artists....then they studied portraits and learned how to drawer a face. They drew a self portrait and then had some time to do a free drawing - Abigail did a horse.

I will take some pictures of her work later and add them! She is loving the classes and I will definitely be signing her up for more!! the teachers are wonderful and Abigail loves being at Smeltzer House surrounded by all that history!

While she is at the class I go for coffee with my friend Jennifer, who is involved with organizing SHINE. I'm planning to join SHINE this year and go along to some of their field trips, workshops and park days. I think Abigail needs this and I need the push! Jennifers pretty good at encouraging me to do more and Abigail loves her children :)

Stable....

So this is what I wanted to buy....a stable block.....it would be ideal...nice and small..big enough for three small horses...ideal for the front paddock.

Sadly they were sold on the first day - for $20,000 each!!!!! I actually think thats a LOT for an auction! You then have to pay to have them moved and then for the concrete foundation and they aren't made THAT well!! So now we have a picture of them we'll just get Denis and Tim to make us some!!!

But we got talking to the lady behind the counter and she breeds horses and she's invited us out to her farm as she knows someone who has some horses that might be suitable for us - broken horses suitable for the children to ride....

Susannah and Laurence can ride, so I'm going to set Abigail and myself up with lessons in the next few weeks and we're going out to this lady's farm to see the horses.

Canada's Largest Auction...

Last night was date night...we went to Moxies for dinner down at South Ed Common. The food was really nice and great service - we got there early and there was no line up - I think everyone else had gone to Milestones for their 'date night' special (you order and your date gets theirs free) as they had people lining up out the door even at 5:30pm!!!

After dinner we drove down to Nisku to the Ritchie Bros auction house to see the huge auction there - Lloyd had registered a few days ago as he was interested in the prices of the track hoes...he knows he will need one eventually so he was interested to know what they will go for at the auction. I knew there were cars, golf carts and diggers, helicopters etc there but I had no idea there would be log cabins and stables there! It was really interesting to walk around and see everything! I really had a great time and we had so much fun! We went in the auction rooms and listened to the auctions taking place - they were selling lots of wood at the time for $900 a lot - there were people online in Saskatchewan going up against people in the room....really interesting to watch! Very fast!

It was a fun date night and just what I needed after a day of facilitator meetings and worrying about Val and her family!!! (sorry Val lol)

Saying goodbye

I can relax a little now I've heard from Val :)

It's been a very difficult few days for her family - and I know it will continue to be difficult for them as they have said goodbye to their youngest little foster child - he has moved on to a new home after 2 and a half years. I have only ever know them with him so it was very hard to say goodbye for us too. Abigail and I spent Tuesday afternoon with Val and 'Z' at Kidz Quarterz. I'm very glad that I had to rush off at the end for Sam because a slow goodbye would have made it even more difficult!

Anyway - I spent all day yesterday thinking about Val and her family and wondering how they were doing. I know Tuesday night was very difficult for them, but I believe yesterday went smoothly (as difficult as it was). So many things will remind me of Z around here.....Sams little car on the deck....my bowl of Christmas tree baubles (I forget what you call them)....even the birds arriving back in the Spring will always remind me of him now I think :)

On a brighter note, this weekend Vals Grandson arrives for a few weeks with Grandma and Grandpa (Grandad??) and I know Val is looking forward to THAT distraction ;)

I wish the little guy all the VERY best for his future and I really hope he is in his forever home very VERY soon. I think he was very lucky to have 2 and a half years with a wonderful loving family.
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