Kiwi's Odyssey: Going into this week-end!

About Pierre

Aaahhhh, hubby! We met at university and just 'clicked' and the rest is, well, history ... in fact, not only did I get my BSc at university, but I also got my Mrs. after graduation ;) ... and Pierre is still as handsome as the day I met him !

Pierre has proven to be a wonderful man and wonderful provider to his family. Pierre is loyal, loving, kind, funny, warm hearted, and a 'trickster'!

Try this on: ‘Babe’, I’m seriously thinking that I can’t go back to work – I just can’t leave Cody … he took so long in the making and with 5 loses every day is a gift! What’s the point in having our son and not been able to watch him grow up and being there for him? Followed shortly thereafter by: Followed by – Oh and babe, I want to homeschool our son … I assure you I’m ‘normal’, but this just seems ‘right’ for our family.

I just want to confirm here just how amazing my husband is. And how much he has sacrificed to make this possible. And how he has given me the greatest gift - the gift of time to spend with my son.

Thank you babe!

About Cody

I just hate to put Cody is a ‘box’ when he’s growing, changing, accepting responsibility for his actions – or not - depending on his mood, and developing into a wonderful human being. Cody’s first passion is his love of nature, animals, insects, and reptiles … a true naturalist!

Cody is very sensitive and affectionate. For a seven year old Cody has a wicked cool sense of humor and has that twinkle in his eye when he cracks a funny. His belly laugh is contagious!

As for inquisitive – Cody truly must know. And in his mind, he already does know how to lay flooring, work the skill saw, install the sprinkler system, drive the minivan … he isn’t convinced he’s not old enough for a drivers license:) He has a wonderfully analytical mind! Keeps his mum and dad on their toes!!!!

Cody enjoys playing outdoor games/sports and is well coordinated. But Cody would give it up for the finding of a toad, snake, salamander, dragonfly, butterfly etc. I’m thoroughly enjoying spending time with him, learning hands-on with him, seeing life through his eyes, encouraged by this enthusiasm and passion for living. Right now we’re a ‘team’ and it works well for our family.

How we got started Homeschooling

Cody is my miracle Canuk! And I knew that homeschooling was right for our family when Cody was 3 months old. I sure didn’t have any of the details mapped out in my mind back then, but I decided the best way to figure it out was to dive right in head first. But first, I had to figure the ‘mum’ thing out! (I’m still trying to get that one right!)

I initially read any homeschooling books I could get my hands on and started to make contacts with local groups. My goal was to get involved with other homeschooling families and ask them a ton of questions while my son started slowly building friendships with other homeschooling children.

I knew I looked like an alien from the expressions that found their way to the many homeschooling parent due to the age at which I started Cody’s involvement, yet, even to my amazement – and thankfulness, there was a ‘niche’ for us. At 12 months old Cody and I were involved in three different homeschooling groups and activities, and regularly meeting some amazingly wonderful families with a wide range of homeschooling views and directions.

Cody really started connecting with the younger siblings of homeschooled children and just as we were getting settled and into a routine with our fellow homeschoolers, my hubby up and gets a job in the States.

So we had to start all over again. I must say I wasn’t looking forward to being the ‘three eyed monster’ once again, but still believed that finding a good support group was definitely beneficial in our homeschooling experience! So, when it came to house hunting it was important to me to research homeschooling groups that would be accepting of a 30 month old.

I could not believe my luck when I found a homeschooling group that actually catered for younger children – we hit the homeschooling jackpot!!. Our activities with the group include: recess, lesson days, library days, park days, field trips, monthly parent nights (which actually does discuss the forward growth of the group) which blends into what we are doing now.

Where we’re planning on going

One of the cool things about homeschooling is being able to look at what others are doing, asking tons of questions, sometimes being allowed into the ‘classroom’ at home, and often ‘touching and feeling’ projects that others already tried with their feedback.

It’s awesome when the ‘light bulb’ comes on and you think to yourself – that’s wicked cool and man I just have to do that. Knowing my son’s learning strengths and challenges, I can see what could work for us and maybe how we can change the resource/activity to be tailored to his needs.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Going into this week-end!

One of the things that I love to see is my son being involved in our ongoing projects. Poor kid just thinks this is what all families do ... but I can't get enough of watching him work with his dad!

I just love this picture! Recently we were winterizing our windows. Pulling them out and putting insulation around and in the frames. This actually not only insulated the windows, but also has reduced the noise from outside ... anyways, in this picture, Cody is actually supervising!

This past week-end, the boys built the sink counter together!

Anyways, it was just awesome to see them work together and have fun! This past week-end PJ took vacation days so we worked Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday .... then the evenings during the week ... tonight we're chilaxing! Ready for another full week-end.

We pulled down the remaining walls, pulled off the popcorn ceiling, put up the new sink bench and sink with the temporary plumbing, and took down the ceiling.

I must mention that I really, really, really dislike taking popcorn off the popcorn ceilings. Why would I do that? you ask ... well, we needed to find the screws holding the sheetrock up - so the popcorn must come down. Sad to say, my hubby would like the entire house free of popcorn ceilings!!! It is a brain dead job - spray with water, wait 3 minutes and scrap with a texture scraper.

Sooooo glad to have the reverse osmosis back! Didn't know just how much I would miss it! I use it for cooking, cleaning the veges, drinking ... and the taste is the best!

Here's what we're looking like as we go into this week-end ...

No walls and no ceiling ... National Lumber will be delivering our load tomorrow! We have a little more to do before we are ready for the sheetrock to go up, but we're aiming for having a ceiling and walls by the end of the week-end! We also need to rent a couple of tools from Home Depot to hoist the sheetrock up to the ceiling!

We're very lucky to have a good friend come over to help put the sheetrock up (yeah and thank you). So with an extra hand, it might actually happen!

So, it's time for some shut eye ... ready for another do-it-yourself day tomorrow!