Making friends....Jake style

Jake had one of his new friends over today. They laughed and laughed and laughed together as they engaged in various activities. As I watched them play and listened to them, I couldn't help but smile to myself. I was remembering the way Jake went about meeting new friends when we first arrived here in Newfoundland.

It was one of our first days here and he wasn't about to wait for people to come to us. No. He set out to meet the people of our new neighbourhood. He went up and down our street, talking to people who were out in their yards. If there was nobody around, he went to the door and knocked. He knew exactly what he was going to say and it went something like this, "Hi, I'm Jake, I'm 9 years old and I've just moved here from Ontario. I'm looking for some friends and was wondering if you have any children around my age I could play with?"

He came home, pleased to find out there were at least a couple of children in our new neighbourhood.

A few months later, Larry started tutoring a high school girl who happened to have a younger brother. The first night he came home and told us there was a boy about Jake's age there and he reminded Larry alot of Jake. They were similar in personality and he thought they'd get along well. So, Jake was determined to meet this boy and thought it would be a great idea to go with his Dad the next week for the tutoring session. Hesitant at first, we were unsure how this would appear and if it would be too many distractions for Larry, trying to keep an eye on Jake while he was supposed to be tutoring.

We told Jake, we'd think about it though and see if we could come up with a way for the two boys to meet.

Jake didn't need any of our ideas. No. He had his own, thank you very much.

He knew the boy's mother worked at our little general store here in town. One afternoon, on his way home from the library, he decided to stop in and have a talk with her. The conversation went something like this:

Jake: Hi....are you L.......M's mother?

L: Well....yes I am

Jake: Oh ok.....I'm Jake.....my dad is Larry and he tutors your daughter. My dad told me you had a son about my age and I just wanted you and him to know, if he's looking for a new friend,....... I'm available. I could come to your house with my Dad when he tutors.

L: Ummm....sure that would be fine.

Then Jake handed her a piece of paper with all of his 'stats' written on them. Important things like, where he was born, his birthday, his favourite colour, his grade (kind of like one would see in a magazine about a movie star). He asked the boy's mother if she could give that to her son.

Soooo....with that, Jake went with Larry. The two boys hit it off, really well. Jake has been going every week now. The last time he had Larry stop at the store first. Using some of his birthday money, he bought a chocolate bar for his friend, one for his sister that Larry tutors and two for me (he knows how much I love chocolate ;0) ).

Jake thought it would be a good idea to invite the boy to our house today and had planned on asking him last week. With all the excitement though, he forgot. So, this morning Jake got up and patiently waited and watched the clock for a "reasonable hour to call his friend." He gladly accepted the invitation and Jake was beside himself with excitement. It's been awhile since we've heard Jake laugh as hard as he did today.

I'm glad he has a new friend.....especially since he found him with his own unique method.

Unscheduled Time

It continues to amaze me, what the kids pick up on their own, simply because

a) they are interested in it
b) they're given enough free, non-scheduled time to try these new-to-them things out

Many times, well actually most times, these are pursuits that seem to come out of nowhere. I have no idea where they get their ideas from......certainly not Larry or I making a suggestion for them to try this or that.

Some examples off the top of my head

Jake
~~ selling marshmallows at the side of the road
~~ all of his entrepreneurial pursuits in general
~~ creating games
~~ drawing pictures






Tyler

~~ researching cartooning
~~ creating cartoons
~~ music
~~ exploring
~~ geography, maps, flags of the world
~~ travelling















Brittney

~~ taking a shirt and stitching her own pattern onto it.
~~ taking complete charge of her nutrition -- making sure she's getting enough from ~~ each food group by keeping track of what she's eating. It's common place for her to ask for more vegetables or another glass of milk or to say no to junk food because she's already had some today. Now don't get me wrong, she *loves* her junk food too, but seems to know when to draw the line
taking charge of her physical fitness -- roller blading, bike riding, walking (when ~~ it's too nasty to do the other two). She loves the way exercise makes her feel and gets outside most days.
~~ doing laundry (I tell her this is a good one to have as mom doesn't much care for it ;0) )














There are more but these are the ones that come to right to mind.

I often hear the notion of providing the right 'opportunities' for children, whether it be the right school or the best instructor or the best activities etc. We believe one of the best opportunities to offer our children is the opportunity of time --- time for them to explore their own interests, develop new ones or expand and/or alter already existing ones. So, while they do have some structured type activities (Piano lessons, youth group, gym class/swimming with the homeschooling group etc.), we try to reach a balance between scheduled and unscheduled time.

Hmmm...I wonder what new things tomorrow will bring.

Gorgeous Day on The Rock

It was simply beautiful here today (sorry, no pictures, you'll just have to take my word). The sun was shining brightly, not a cloud in the sky and wow.....was the sky ever blue!!! We're just not used of that shade of blue....the sky we're used of is more a shade of .......ummmm..... hazy brown (even on the good days).

It felt much warmer than the 2 degrees the thermometer said but...who are we to argue with a thermometer??? Larry and I walked back behind our house, down to the ocean. The ocean was sooo blue too and quite calm. It looked like a nice summer day on a a beach (except there was more rock ;-)). We walked to the lower spot and then up to the higher spot. Most days, we still have to pinch ourselves that we're actually here.....living on the ocean (the local people here call it "the water" and I think they think we're a bit strange for calling it "the ocean" however....when I hear them call it "the water" I have to fight the urge to not jump up and down exclaiming like an excited child, "BUT IT'S THE OCEAN.....THE ATLANTIC OCEAN...")

Oh....and we're still keeping watch for an iceberg. We all seem to get pretty excited over the odd chunk of sea ice floating around.....I'm not sure we'll be able to handle actually seeing a real iceberg......but I've got my camera ready. Hopefully, we won't be disappointed.

Field Trips...Homeschooling Style

I quite often get asked what our next homeschooling field trip is going to be. While we have a couple of ideas in the discussion stage, we have no concrete plans just yet.

Our last one, which was our ultimate field trip, was one we all enjoyed. We embarked on a cross-Canada trip and while it involved a lot of relaxation and enjoyment, it was also very educational. It was amazing, even for us adults, how much more we learned about our great country by doing this than what we had learned (or could learn) from a text book.

It began in the summer of 2006 and we were living in Ontario at the time. In July, we left from Ontario and drove to British Columbia and then back to Ontario. We were home long enough to do some laundry, sort mail and then back on the road heading to the east coast of Canada. Our trip concluded with living in a small fishing village in Newfoundland for two months before returning to real life in Ontario.

I love the flexibility homeschooling offers. Although the western part of our trip took place over the summer months, the two months we spent in Newfoundland did not. We were able to bring our books and work here. We were also able to meet up with the active homeschooling group here and take part in some of their activities. The kids were able to make some more friends, from a different province, which they would not have had opportunity to do if they were in a regular school.

We were able to meet homeschooling families from across Canada, which was a blast!

We were able to see the differences in weather, culture (way of life, food etc.) and landscape of this great country. Even though we are the same country, each province was unique. It was amazing and breathtaking.

Hmmm......I wonder what we can do next.

More Cartoons (click to enlarge)

Here is one of his political cartoons and his attempts at using the computer to colour.

Cartoons, anyone? (click to enlarge)

I know many homeschoolers, who are unschoolers (which means they are homeschoolers that don't follow a 'boxed' curriculum). They are child-led, or they follow their children's interests and go from there. Although we are not unschoolers, we do have some unschooling tendencies.

One of these areas would be Tyler and his cartooning. A couple of years ago, he developed a deep interest in this. Each day, after his book work was complete, he'd stash himself away, in some corner of the house and cartoon. Completely on his own and of his own accord, he taught himself. No help from Mom or Dad, totally on his own (mom has trouble drawing a stick man. :\)

He had his work looked at by a couple of accomplished cartoonists and a professional commercial artist. They all commented positively on his work as each asked or commented something to the effect of "Art must be his favourite subject in school" or "He must get really good marks in Art" or "His Art Teacher must be pleased with these." They were even more shocked when they found out there was no teacher nor had there ever been. ;-)

They were able to offer encouragement to him along with a glimpse into the way the industry operates. They advised him to put together a portfolio and what steps he could take next in his pursuit.

At age 14, he approached a couple of our local newspapers. One of them ran his cartoons on their website.

A friend of ours, who ran the site for his son's bike club, also put some of Tyler's cartoons on that site (Thanks, Rick!)

He is hoping to pursue cartooning, in one form or another, as a career. He continues to read and work on improving his technique. He's been experimenting with drawing cartoons, scanning them into the computer and then using the computer to colour them. He's even tried his hand a a couple of political cartoons. He reads biographies of famous cartoonists and gains encouragement and knowledge from them.

He continues in this unschooling vein to become a cartoonist.

Who knows....one day....he may just be.

(These are just a few of his earlier ones --- he's done many different types but haven't been able to scan a lot of them in yet)

Time flies

A while back, Jake asked me if he could use my computer to check his emails. (I guess the budding tycoon that he is, he always has emails to answer?). When he'd finished, he told me, "I've left something for you on the computer, Mom." When I returned, he had typed "I love you Mom" into Google and the above picture is what came up. The other picture is taken of him and I figuring out how the web cam works.

Wow....I can hardly believe he is going to be 10 already.....where has the time gone?