May/June 2023
The Gilbertine Academy Administration
Principal, Head of School
Kenneth Noster
Associate Principal, Home Education
Simon Noster
Associate Principal, Campus Programs
Troy Lamoureux
Secretary Treasurer
Vic Wiens
Chief Operating Officer
TobyLauren Burgess
Office Manager
Rae LaRocque
High School Advisor
Christian Bekolay
High School Credit Advisor
Desmond Kilgannon
IT Systems Administrator
Levi Breederland
Home School Consultants
Janice Laurence
Peter Weidman
Terry Yaceyko
Administrative Assistants
Jennifer Laszlo
Amy Myshak
Henrietta Neilson
Office Assistants
Helen Burgess
Hannah Hoekstra
Finance Manager
Melissa McEachern
Senior Accounts Manager & Systems Developer
Saul Noster
Family Funding Team Lead
Taylor Laurence
Family Funding Systems Maintenance
Dylan Kwasnycia
Finance Assistant
Jim Burgess
Data Manager
Janelle Mailhot
Data Assistant
Abigail Mailhot
WISDOM Home Schooling is a registered trade name of The
The
Phone: (780) 741-2113
Toll Free: (877) 425-8546
with questions:
Box 78
Derwent, AB T0B 1C0
office@wisdomhomeschooling.com
with contributions to the WISDOM Magazine: magazine@wisdomhomeschooling.com
Publisher: WISDOM Home Schooling
Content/Editor /Desktop: TobyLauren Burgess
Desktop / Design:
Naomi Doyle
2 wisdomhomeschooling.com
Events Director
Marlane Noster
Events Coordinator
Kyra Tinant
Athletics Director
John Hoekstra
Socratic Dialogue Online Program Manager
Nicole Noster
Graphic Designer
Naomi Doyle
Mediated Learning
Program Manager
Dynamic Assessment
John Hoekstra
Mediated Learning Advisor & Educational
Therapist
Lora Cardinal
High School Subject Specialists
Bonnie Allen (Latin)
Troy Lamoureux (Latin)
Lydie Delli Santi (French Language)
Peter Weidman (Math, Sciences)
Pierre-Andre Beaudoin (Chemistry)
Andrew Siebert (Humanities)
Parent Support Council
Michele Barter (780) 363-3740
Nicole Barter (780) 660-9602
Pierre-Andre Beaudoin (780) 239-0381
Joan Bishop (780) 878-5380
Carrie Friesen (780) 217-4006
Rachelle Godin (780) 349-1827
Liz Gurnett (780) 349-1577
Sherri Hufnagel (587) 598-9344
Nola Hutchinson (780) 781-2527
Anella Jantz (587) 297-1992
Desmond Kilgannon (780) 225-6688
Randy Kopp (780) 723-5382
Gordon Loewen (587) 298-7565
Taylore Maschmeyer (780) 270-0460
Mark Meakes (780) 231-6594
Simon Noster (780) 581-8885
Sue Peachment (403) 994-1963
Kim Schultz (780) 623-2886
Louis Sehn (403) 581-3444
Glenn Spiess (639) 894-0470
Michelle St. Laurent (780) 862-2277
Brian Taje (780) 312-4525
Paul van den Bosch (403) 358-4497
Catherine van Kampen (403) 845-2923
Peter Weidman (780) 223-2414
To reach the chairman: psc@wisdomhomeschooling.com Bios and email addresses of PSC are on our website.
Georg & Gayle Beinert
Rene & Karen Godin
Menno & Margaret Knelsen
Darrel & Kristine Buchholtz
Sheldon & Sharon Kok
Don & Bo Reid
Cameron & Tanya Harrison
Joe & Diane Pollock
Jeremy & Cheree Quantz
Content:
Fairview
Fort McMurray La Crête
Edmonton St. Albert St. Albert
Innisfail
Calgary area
Innisfail
(780) 835-8722
(587) 644-1825
(780) 928-3008
(780) 417-3025
(780) 460-4468 (780) 460-2275
(403) 800-2739
(403) 931-3884
(780) 841-0065
WISDOM publishes articles by many individual authors. The opinions of the writers are not necessarily those of WISDOM. We reserve the right to decline any submission, and to edit those submissions we accept for accuracy, clarity & length.
Photography:
Unless otherwise credited, photography is courtesy of the Noster, Burgess, Tinant, and Doyle families. The people appearing in photos throughout this publication do not endorse any specific product, service, cause, association or endeavour. Images and photos are for illustrative purposes only.
Greetings:
What a great time of year to be adventuring outside, exploring our backyards and beyond. Now is a great opportunity to enjoy some of those science and physical education elements that just were not possible in -20! Although I hope you are enjoying the positive elements of this abnormally warm May, I invite you in joining me to pray for much needed rain in order to extinguish wildfires and nourish our fields and gardens.
The Provincial Election will be held on May 29th. Make sure to meet your candidates and discover where they stand on issues that are important to you, such as Educational Choice. Get involved in the democratic process; there are lots of volunteer opportunities. Most importantly, get out and vote!
Speaking of adventure, with summer come WISDOM Camps and Events. Check out the “Events” page on the WISDOM website to learn more about the exciting opportunities that are available to you. In addition to workshops (such as rock climbing or foraging), you will find information on Spring Socials and Information Sessions.
The Fall Term of our Socratic Dialogue Online Program is now open! Many courses are quite popular and fill up quickly, so do not delay in making your choices and registering.
Funding deadlines: send your receipts and completed Expense Form to us as soon as possible, no later than May 31st for reimbursement on July 15. Purchase Orders (POs) are available until the end of May (but the last day of May is when the vendor must finalize orders with us – do not wait that long to begin an order). If you have unspent funding from this year, do not worry, it will be automatically carried over and will be available to you for a second year.
If you have unspent funding from last year (2021-2022), do your best to use it now. Unspent funding cannot be carried over into a third academic year but will expire and be automatically returned to Alberta Education unless otherwise allocated. If you have unspent funding that will expire at the end of this academic year, please consider filling out the AB Education form to Transfer Unspent Funding to
our school to be used for home education student supports. The form, and further information is available on our website under Funding>Transfer Unclaimed Funds. Please submit this form by June 30th.
The AHEA (Alberta Home Education Association) Convention is back, and it runs from May 25-27 at the Westerner in Red Deer. Come by the WISDOM booth to say hi, we would love to see you. Save on shipping and order a WISDOM hoodie/mug/etc. in advance and pick it up at our booth! POs will be available for curriculum shopping, provided that you have funding remaining. Find complete information at aheaonline.com.
AHA (Alberta Homeschooling Association) has monthly online webinars for homeschoolers. Find more information at albertahomeschooling.ca
We encourage early planning, including re-notification of your intent to home educate with us next year. Every family who is re-notified and has submitted their Education Program Plans by the end of May will be entered into a June 1st draw for $200 toward educational resources.
WISDOM is celebrating our graduates in the July magazine again this year. Grads: send a brief biography and photo by May 20th to be featured in our July magazine. Also, make sure to order grad hoodies and tassels before May 20th. At the end of this school year, parents of grade 12 students may wish to request transcripts of parent awarded marks and recognition of high school completion by means of a WISDOM Diploma or Certificate of Completion. Please find more information on our website under Resources > High School.
Congratulations on the completion of another academic year! I wish you all the best as you learn through your adventures this summer.
Simon Noster, Associate Principal of Home Education simon@wisdomhomeschooling.com
Important:
The final funding claim deadline of this school year is May 31. Please go wisdomhomeschooling.com/funding or refer to the Funding Handbook to learn how to submit receipts by mail or online.
Write for The WISDOM Family: Do you have something to share? We welcome you to submit articles for many of our columns, to be considered for publishing. Also, if you come across an excellent article or blog, please share it with us. We will contact authors for reprint permission.
out our website under Library > Magazine for columns and upcoming themes and deadlines. Send submissions to magazine@wisdomhomeschooling.com.
By Ken Noster
If life truly is an adventure, everything that happens could only add to its richness. Is it possible that one person might strongly avoid an experience that another person would embrace as an adventure? What if they were the same person?
Once upon a time a young father, who generally liked being in control of his life, fell upon an experience that changed his outlook and permanently affected the life-view of his first-born child.
Early one February day, with anticipation of spending the whole day together, Papa and TL climbed into the truck, hooked up the new trailer, and headed down the road. They had been low on feed that winter, and there was ample hay available up north. Mama had packed sandwiches for lunch, and Papa assured her they would certainly be home for supper, even if it were a bit late.
The road was relatively clear and the day was sunny; a wonderful time to tell stories and share the joy of new surroundings. They didn’t even mind that the farmer (who lived in town) was late in arriving to load the bales. By mid-afternoon,
they were back on the road toward home. Then, about an hour later, disaster struck. They heard a loud bang and felt the truck lurch and labour.
Even though the new trailer had travelled safely all the way home from Manitoba, perhaps the added weight had finally persuaded a set of lug nuts to finally back off. “Next time I’ll check more than air pressure,” Papa rued while examining the damage. A wheel had spun off into the ditch, and the abrupt impact with the pavement had cracked the hub and bent the axle. Meanwhile, the instant addition of extreme weight caused an explosion of the tire running tandem to the missing one. With good reason, the truck had lurched and laboured as the trailer scraped to a halt. This was not the kind of experience he had hoped to inflict on his child, so Papa made a quick decision. “Well,” he said with a tone of anticipation, “we are having an adventure.”
Grateful that they had stopped a stone’s throw from a pull-out lane, Papa put the truck back in drive and slowly dragged the trailer forward to the pull-out, where they encountered the next step in the adventure. Steam blowing out of the
radiator alerted them to the extreme drag the trailer had put on the trusty truck’s transmission.
As the truck sat there, blowing out copious volumes of coolant, a good Samaritan drove up, surveyed the situation, affirmed that he had a solution, and drove away. By the time Papa was able to unhook the trailer, the Samaritan returned with two large jugs of coolant, poured the contents of one into the radiator, and then placed the other in the box of Papa’s truck. “You might be needing this,” he said casually. He then recommended a local repair shop, owned by a friend of his, just before driving off. The shop owner was just as eager to help as the Samaritan. After arranging repair of the trailer, Papa took TL out for a diner supper (a luxury they didn’t usually have) before checking into a nearby motel. Before saying their prayers and drifting off to sleep, they talked about what adventures the morning might bring.
Soon enough, even though the sun was not yet up, they enjoyed breakfast at their now favourite little diner, and began to organize their day. The repair shop had called around and located the closest
replacement axle, but it was going to take a few days to arrive. Not to be stalled, Papa assured TL that they were about to embark on another leg of their adventure, and they headed for the big city to pick up the axle. The shop would be able to begin replacing it within the day.
They sang songs and admired the scenery as they drove but, about half way to the city, the truck hesitated and then started to slow down. That overloading from the night before had taken too great a toll on a transmission that was already old and much used. Thankfully, although they seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, they found themselves only ten miles from a car dealership that ran a tow truck. The transmission could be repaired, but it would be cheaper to replace it with a rebuilt. Now, not only would the axle take some time to arrive up north, but the truck would be out of commission, too.
“No, we don’t have a courtesy vehicle,” the manager said. “You will have to get a room in town if you can’t find someone to come and get you.” With little children and a baby at home, there was no way Mama could come all this way, so it seemed the adventure would continue in this small town. Although Papa had been handling all the conversation until now, TL stepped forward with big blue eyes: “It’s my little brother’s birthday; I really don’t want to miss his birthday.” The manager melted: “Well, I guess you could use this old Toyota.”
With joy in their hearts, Papa and TL headed for home; it seemed like ages since they’d left, though it had been just yesterday. As the roads became more familiar and the anticipation of arriving continued to rise, they sang all their favorite songs and chattered about how much adventure you could have in one day.
The ensuing week was full of new adventures, mostly through phone calls, decisions, and arrangements. The new axle mounted to the trailer alright, but it didn’t fit the original hubs. Another was ordered, but the supplier refused to take back the wrong one. Papa would have to try and find a different use for it but, eager to get his trailer off the highway, he didn’t spend much time arguing. Thankfully, the trailer and the truck were finally finished at about the same time and, enthusiastically, Papa and TL headed out in the old Toyota for the next leg of their journey. After all, it was an unusually warm day for late February, and what could go wrong when everything is an adventure?
No, the Toyota didn’t die, and the truck seemed to work okay. They arrived at the trailer at about the same time as an RCMP officer. He had been monitoring how long the trailer had been sitting there and was glad to see it was finally about to move off. “One bit of advice though,” he said, “you clearly have too much weight on this trailer, and you sure wouldn’t want to be stopped by one of those yellow trucks.” (In those days, bylaw enforcement officers drove yellow trucks.)
“How in the world can we take off some of the load,” Papa said quietly, and they started for home. Within a half hour, they came upon a farm yard that had hay bales and, more importantly, a tractor with a bale spike. Papa told the old couple who lived there that he needed to reduce the weight, and they agreed to remove a few bales. The beauty of an adventure is that you don’t mind investing in it, and here was an opportunity for the most recent investment. The old couple had agreed to take bales off the trailer, but they hadn’t agreed to buy them, so they landed some free hay that day, and Papa’s trailer was closer to legal; seemed like a good trade.
Some valuable time had been lost communicating the situation, warming up the tractor, struggling with remarkably heavy bales and a clumsy bale spike, and getting back on the road, but TL noticed that Papa was visibly more relaxed, and the adventure was back to normal.
About an hour down the road, they came upon a car with its hood up and radiator blowing out steam. The owner admitted that in spite of the warm weather he had forgotten to remove the cardboard from in front of the radiator. With the glee of one able to pay it forward, Papa reached into the box of his truck and pulled out the large jug of coolant. He slowly poured sufficient into the radiator before handing the remainder to the stranger: “Here, you might need this.” He resisted the stranger’s insistence on paying with: “Nope, I received it free when I was in trouble, and now it’s yours.”
On the last leg of their journey home, TL and Papa marvelled at how well they had been provided for during this great adventure. With each new development, there had emerged a solution, usually even before they had thought to pray for one. Now, it was time for prayers of thanks. Papa told TL how good it felt to be able to pass on the generosity of the Samaritan they had met so briefly and the wish that the stranger they met today would in turn be generous with others. TL noticed tears in his eyes as his voice grew quiet. They both sat silently for the last few miles, recognizing that their response to problems had changed, and filled with gratitude for this great adventure that had made it possible.
Kenneth Noster and his wife Marlane live near Derwent, Alberta on their certified organic farm. In addition to his role as Head of School, Ken also contributes to his faith community as a deacon. Ken and Marlane home educated their 6 children through high school. Those of their eighteen grandchildren who are school-aged are also WISDOM students.
Ihavebeen thinking about this term, adventure, and in the context of homeschooling I have come to see adventure as an attitude. There are those of us personality types that stay away from the thought of adventure as something to avoid, something uncomfortable and maybe even compromising. Yet, the reality is that ‘things happen’ and we are better off figuring out how to flow with it and draw from it a sense of adventure.
Years upon years upon years ago I heard the inspiring story of a man
and his son sent to a lethal concentration camp during World War II. The father, with his overwhelming love, determined that his son would not spiral into despair nor be separated from him. The Nazis didn’t allow children to stay with their parents, so the father kept his son hidden and transformed his son’s concentration camp experience into an ongoing adventure through great pretending and joyfilled creative moments. This story stayed with me and challenged me to try and do a better job of facing difficulties. My own
attempts have been mild by comparison with this heroic father, but what followed were many years of introducing adventure into our family life.
I think of the cold spring day when the power went out and promised to stay that way for quite a number of hours. We could have gone to the neighbours or just wrapped ourselves in blankets and stalled until the power came back on, but why not capitalize on the opportunity? We had previously delighted in reading the Little House on the Prairie series and
By Marlane Noster
played a bit with it before, so we decided to act as the characters of Little House on the Prairie and set to work as they would have, without the benefit of electricity. The grumblings about inconveniences quickly ceased, and we focussed our attention on figuring out how to make things work. It actually became a great practical application of what had previously been a more theoretical study and helped us all consider how differently people of that generation lived in comparison to our level of luxuries.
Another adventure emerged amidst frustrations that come from lack of skill. We live on land that provides great cross-country skiing, especially a long, steep hill that was a challenge to navigate. Many of us could not make it down the hill without falling, and the most nervous would consistently fall three times. I admit to wanting to avoid that hill, but there were others keen on making it an adventure. The hill was quickly named Three Falls, and it became the family challenge to overcome the name. It so happens that to this day the hill has retained its name, but most of the family finally managed to overcome the falls. I am grateful that we turned it into adventure rather than simply avoiding that hill, for it has provided years of abundant enjoyment.
Another place for adventure is in stories of all sorts, and is it not the case that when little children have nightmares, and we tell them adventure stories that can take their minds off the terrors? These became quite the creative opportunities.
Sometimes adventure can provide the initiative to get a tough job done. I recall one night in Fall when the temperature suddenly dropped alarmingly low,
and we had not yet picked all of our apples. We awakened our children and dressed them warmly, while asking their help to save the apples. Armed with ladders, pails, and tubs we headed out into the cold, dark orchard, where mist was rising from the warm earth into the cold air. Vehicle headlights cast a mystical appearance on everything, and ordinary things all looked a little different. Our eldest, recognizing that her younger siblings needed a boost of enthusiasm, began engaging them in a fantasy world where each apple became something magical to be saved from an impending threat, something like an evil villain’s acid rain, about to fall from the skies. We all became involved in her kingdom and the night picking seemed to go by quickly, almost too quickly. This unique event became an adventure long to be remembered.
One spring, one of our daughters had guests staying with us. We had previously determined we would be out in the garden most of that day, planting potatoes. I imagined the discomfort of my daughter, wondering how she could get out of the task or how she could entertain her
guests while we worked. Well, this mama had no problem asking guests to help get the job done sooner, so they could then get back to their play. We created a regimen of specific duties, where I marked out the line, one or two dug, others watered, some planted, and then the hole got covered with soil. Finally, with the completion of each row, I suggested that all do a potato stomping polka to firm down the soil. What ensued was a mini celebration after each row in the form of a rollicking shindig with each of us improvising unique polka moves. Years later, some of the same guests, now adults, asked our family if we still did the potato-
stomping polka.
These are just a few examples of the many ways difficulties have been turned into adventures as a result of a simple shift in attitude, sometimes by us as parents but more and more often by the creative initiative of our children. The results were not just days that were much more enjoyable, but also many great home schooling memories which we continue to cherish.
Marlane Noster is WISDOM's co-founder and Events Director. When she's not in the office, she dedicates time to her church, community and her family, including her six children and eighteen grandchildren.
By Lora Cardinal
Ifyou have ever wondered how to change an ordinary journey into an adventure, try taking your family on a camping trip! One might call this a guaranteed recipe for adventure, though some may have another word for this venture. Either way, the experience is usually memorable, builds character / resilience, and increases attachment, a sense of belonging, and faith in God, yourself, your family, and all mankind. We talk about Dr. Reuven Feuerstein in WISDOM’s Mediated Learning Workshops. He recognized the importance of attachment, a sense of belonging, finding the optimistic alternative, and the value of telling your family’s adventure stories to further enhance the brain’s capacity to change, grow, and learn.
Taking the family camping is no small feat. A lot of packing and gathering materials, food, clothing, tent, etc., goes into planning a camping trip.
the point where the initial journey is starting to become an adventure!
well until your youngest child who is 3 wanders off…
You are happy that you’ve made that camping list after last year, so you won’t forget the tent pegs this time and spend a fortune on special strengthened aluminum ones from town. Now you are ready for your journey, the first ingredient for an adventure. Your family is finally on the road, and you start to see the beautiful mountains. Your children decide to play a game and are thinking of all the words that could start with the letter ‘m’. They take turns saying, “mmmountains, mmmarble, mmmud,” and the middle child, who loves Lord of The Rings, proudly belts out, “Mmmiddle-Earth, Mmmordor, Mmmount Doom, Mmmirkwood.” Everything is as it should be. Suddenly a summer storm comes out of nowhere. Your vehicle ran perfectly for months, but now in the mountains, and on a steep incline, it breaks down. It’s rainy, getting dark, your children are tired and hungry, and you saw a bear! This is
The second ingredient for adventure comes into play as every family member draws up their own resilience, courage, skills, experience, and knowledge. Your family is determined to get to your camping site before it gets dark. Dad goes into hero mode, carefully pulls over as far to the edge as possible and gets out of the vehicle very cautiously as mom watches the bear on the other side of the road. The kids are unusually silent, as mom also provides a calming presence and prayers. The third ingredient usually involves Divine Intervention, and help from others, as is seen after mom’s prayer. A Sheriff pulls up behind the vehicle. You learn that she used to work in her father’s auto shop. She helps dad with troubleshooting, and the vehicle is back on the road. Thankfully, the bear was more interested in the berries than in you. Everyone cheers for dad as he enters the vehicle, all give praise to God, and many thanks are happily given to the sheriff for helping you on your way. Finally, you get to the camping site and find your prepaid spot is taken. There are no spots left in the main campsite, and you are stuck in an overflow parking lot with no fire pits. Mom and dad look for the optimistic alternative and learn you are closer to the stream than you would be if you had your campsite. And, for now, the rain has stopped. The children happily throw rocks into the stream while mom cooks up her stew on the camp stove, and dad sets up the tent. All is
This is what is called a recipe for adventure. Believe it or not, your family all came home with strengthened resilience, resolve, character, attachment, a sense of belonging, an increased faith in God, in yourselves, and a renewed hope in mankind. Dr. Reuven Feuerstein relates that by telling your family’s stories your child’s brain is being primed for learning, which is instrumental in helping the brain change, grow, and learn. This method of learning naturally instills a sense of belonging, curiosity, and attachment. No matter what happens, the stories your family has will be shared for years to come. What is most edifying is the strength of character that is shown, and the desire to get through an unwanted event with grace. Untoward, unwanted, and even painful experiences come from time to time, whether it be during a journey by foot, by the heart, or by the spirit. Is it in the way we face these experiences that we find the most rewarding adventure of all?
Lora Cardinal feels blessed to be able to apply her skills and education in the WISDOM Mediated Learning program. Home school parents already have intrinsic teaching and mediational skills. Providing families with tools to enhance, develop, and vitalize these skills is rewarding. Witnessing the drive, determination, and love home school parents and their children have is inspiring. Lora belongs to the ‘Alumni’ of WISDOM home school mums, and her three grown sons are now embarking on the next phases of this wide world of opportunity. Lora’s interests are ever-expanding, and her love of reading has overflowed the space in her bookshelves.
By Nola Hutchinson
Thisis the time of year when we’re naturally more inclined to be outdoors, cleaning up the piles of leaves that accumulated last fall, working on our yards, getting out for more walks and hikes, planning for camping trips, etc. It’s also time to be aware of ticks and the potential harm they can cause.
Any tick that will bite a human may carry various infectious pathogens. Ticks can feed on wild animals picking up infectious pathogens. The best way to prevent infection is to avoid tick-infested areas whenever possible, particularly in spring and early summer when nymph ticks feed. Adult ticks are a bigger threat in fall. Ticks that transmit Lyme disease favour moist, shaded environments, especially leafy wooded areas, and overgrown grassy habitats.
10 tips to avoid Lyme infection:
1. Wear long pants and sleeves that are tight at the waist, wrists, ankles, and neck if you’re hiking in grassy or wooded areas.
2. Get regular check-ups if you experience common Lyme symptoms, especially if you spend time in high-risk areas.
3. If you discover a feeding
tick, use a safe removal method. Proper tick removal will greatly reduce your risk of infection (see below).
4. Check the exposed, hairy regions of your body daily during camping trips. Ticks like to hide in hair. Don’t forget to check your scalp!
5. Avoid endemic Lyme areas during the late spring/summer. Keep the grass in your yard cut and the hedges trimmed and neat.
6. Check your body and clothes for ticks after being in the garden or the woods. Ticks can cling to the folds of your clothing and bite you when you put the shirt/ pants back on.
7. Wear insect repellent when travelling through high-risk areas. Check your friends and family for ticks and have them do the same for you –you can’t see your entire back and scalp.
8. Keep your yard clear of potential tick habitats, like piles of dead leaves, long grasses, bushes, and woodpiles.
9. Discourage deer from coming into your yard. Deer are one of the main hosts for Lyme-carrying ticks.
10. Work with your veterinarian to ensure your pets are tick-free. How to safely remove a tick:
1. Using fine pointed tweezers or a tick removal tool, grasp the tick as close to your skin as possible and pull it straight out taking care to remove the mouth parts.
2. Save the tick for identification and testing by placing it in a sealed container or zip lock bag. Label the container with the time and date, along with information about when and where the bite may have occurred.
3. Disinfect the bite area and wash your hands after handling the tick.
Lyme disease is easiest to treat in the early stages, so it’s crucial to seek immediate attention if you suspect you may be infected. If you’re suffering a variety of symptoms, and your doctor is having trouble determining a diagnosis, consider being tested for Lyme disease. Lyme is often overlooked because there are so many symptoms –patients can be misdiagnosed and treated for a variety of other very serious illnesses like: MS, Arthritis, Crohn’s
disease, Alzheimer’s, Lupus or psychiatric disorders.
Ask yourself…
• Do you feel more tired than usual?
• Are your muscles cramping and sore?
• Are you sensitive to light?
• Do you have a weird rash on your body that may look like a “bull’s eye” mark?
The Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, the source of information shared here, has a host of additional tips on their website at canlyme.com. They also sell tick removal kits to keep in your vehicle, home, and backpack.
Our homeschooling families who are dealing with the effects of Lyme Disease would encourage you to take all the precautions you can to avoid the difficulties of this disease. Nola Hutchinson is a WISDOM alumni mother and current facilitator. She and her family love being active outdoors and in their community.
photo source: healthline.com
By Hayley Watson
Whenwe think of adventure, we often think of the external kind. Travelling to exotic places, taking on new challenges, being in unfamiliar environments. This type of adventure can be incredibly rewarding and enjoyable and provide wonderful opportunities for growth.
However, there is one great adventure that we often overlook in its potential to offer new perspectives: the adventure into our own minds. Young people today are pulled in so many directions, and there are so many sources of information telling them what to do, where to go, how to look, what to say... This external focus can be overwhelming and confusing. What our culture seems to have forgotten is that the direction children and adolescents need is found within them. And the adventure that will help them the most is the one that brings them closer to themselves.
But how can we encourage this adventure? What does it really mean to journey inwards? If you are willing, I would like to take you on an exploration into your own mind, as a place to practice. I am offering this strategy as
something that you might find you can add to your toolbox, so you have one more resource to draw from when teaching your children the power of their own intuition.
The strategy I’m going to take you through is a mindfulness exercise. All that means is that we are working with our mind. In this exercise, we will be stretching our mind muscles in a few ways. Specifically, we are practicing focus, mental flexibility, and creative thinking. These three natural abilities of our mind can help us when our lives seem too full and demanding, or when we are up against obstacles that we fear we cannot overcome. These mental skills help us adventure inside of ourselves to find the answers.
So, let us begin. I’ll describe each stage of this adventure into the mind, and then I will invite you to pause and close your eyes, so that you can experience it for yourself. Everyone will experience different things in their minds, that’s the beauty of being human! So please use this exploration as a guide and don’t feel limited by the descriptions I provide. If your mind leads you to a different place,
I encourage you to follow it!
The first stage of the adventure into our own minds brings us into a forest. It is often thick and earthy, and the ground feels solid underneath our feet. This is the landscape of our thoughts and feelings. If we explore this layer, we find powerful, strong roots winding through the earth, supporting the forest and giving it life. These are the stories we believe about the world and ourselves. The framework we live by. Sometimes these roots and the trees that sprout proudly from them are stories of love and joy, and sometimes they are stories about our own inadequacies, or the things we are lacking or that have been taken from us. Our forest has many layers, and there are always different species of plants to explore, from the shrubs, to the moss, to the flowers, to the ferns. As you walk through this forest, feel its solidity. Notice what it looks like and feels like. Is it dark today, or is the sun shining through the trees? Is the earth dry and parched or is it moist and rich with growth? See if you can notice without judgement the quality of your thoughts and feelings. I
invite you to close your eyes and take a wander!
The second stage of this journey takes us deeper. You come around a bend in the forest and you see a cave that brings you down into the earth. As soon as you enter the cave, you see a river of lava. You are not in danger, and you will not be harmed (remember, we are using our imagination!). Instead, you get to play with the experience of the lava flow. It is fluid and malleable. It is bright and glowing. This is the spark of inspiration that comes before a thought is formed. The sensation that occurs before a strong feeling arises. Like when a child experiences something sudden and unexpected, and you see a moment of pause where their mind is searching for the emotion that best fits the moment. Imagine that their mind in that state is like lava, flowing freely. It could form into anything; it is not solid or rigid or pre-determined. I invite you to play around in your lava for a while. Notice what it feels like to be free and wild!
The third stage of our journey goes deeper still. You see an opening in the floor of the lava cave, but you can’t see what’s down there. There is a moment where you pause. You recognize that to go deeper requires you to trust the journey without knowing where it will lead you. Your curiosity nudges you to take the leap and so you jump over the edge into the opening. Immediately you are floating, as if you are in outer space. There is no gravity, so space, no time. It is dark but there are bright stars everywhere. This feels strange and possibly a little frightening, but if you let go it begins to feel as though you are the wind itself blowing through the trees. Utterly spacious and open. This might be the hardest part of the mind to explain with words. It is the quality of emptiness that provides the possibility for each new spark of thought to form
in the lava. It is the part of our mind that is not attached to anything - not our thoughts, our feelings, or our identity. It is what helps us change and adapt to everything life throws at us. No matter what is happening on the surface of our lives, this beautiful spaciousness inside of us remains constant. It is an inner/ outer space that is endless, and we can step into it for clarity and peace at any time. I invite you to explore this space and see what it has to offer you today!
The final stage of your journey begins when you spot a star that glows more brightly than the rest. It is beneath you, and you are drawn down towards it. As you move closer, you feel an immense sense of love and connection. When you touch down gently on its surface, you feel held. It is as if this golden bright star is wrapping you in the most loving embrace that you have ever experienced. This is the part of our mind that knows itself to be whole. This is the part of us that remembers the depth of our power to connect. This is our internal source of self-love, and it is ever flowing. It can be a challenging part of our mind to access, and it requires the leap of faith we took when we let go into the spaciousness. When we connect to this place, all our worries and the challenges of our day-to-day lives vanish. We feel this flash of pure joy and love when we are so in-the-moment that everything else melts away. I invite you to relish this feeling!
Ok, here comes the fun part. Now that you have journeyed so deep into your mind that you have touched your own wellspring of love and connection, you get to spring back up to the surface in a rapid ascent. As you move through the inner/outer space, you feel the love inside of you, as if you are now a star shining brightly. As you move through the lava, you feel the love as a spark creating a new possibility. As you move
through the forest, the spark becomes a new thought you form, maybe even a new feeling or a refreshing new take on yourself and your life. I invite you to travel back up to the surface and see what spark you bring with you!
And there you have it. A journey we can take that transforms our lives, if we want it to. And we can get there anytime we like by playing in our internal playground, while sitting quietly in a moment of pause amidst the busyness of our lives.
If you would like resources that help you connect with your child to explore and play with their thoughts and feelings, my team and I have created the Open Parachute resources to guide you. The above exercise was a metaphor, and the resources we have created for children and adolescents are much more practical, but they target the same core skills. These core skills help youth explore their day-to-day challenges by getting curious about their own reactions and experiences and finding their own internal resources and resilience. When you go through these resources with your child, it is a chance to take that journey with them, so together you can explore new depths of love, connection, and joy for your family!
Dr Hayley Watson is a Clinical Psychologist specializing in children and adolescents with a PhD in school bullying interventions, along with four further academic degrees in the field of mental health. She has been creating and delivering youth and school-based programs globally for the past 15 years, and has worked across a range of sectors including police victim services, non-profit organizations, private psychology practices, hospitals, schools, and universities. She trains educators and parents worldwide on holistic wellbeing practices, and is the founder of Open Parachute - a video-based school mental health program using documentary stories of real students sharing their experiences of overcoming struggle as a platform for reducing stigma and building resilience. These programs currently support over 300,000 students across Canada, the US and Australia.
photo source: kaboompics
By Belinda Letchford
This post could also be called “Untie the Apron Strings so they don’t get Cut,” but I’m sharing these thoughts in connection with Finding the Grace Within’s prompt: Letting Go!
I’m in a season of life where my kids could leave home at any time. Their plans are flexible – they are looking for adventure, change, challenge – they are ready (or some of them, that is!) to make their way in the world. Leaving home doesn’t make that happen, but it could be a part of that happening. People are warning me of the pain up ahead – and I’m pushing back!
I’m not pushing back on the kids leaving home – that is a given, that will happen. I’m pushing back on the idea that it has to hurt. We talk about the idea of cutting the apron strings, of letting go – and the obvious conclusion is that it is going to hurt. But what if we untied the apron strings – not so painful after all!!
Letting my children go is a part of my plan: letting go doesn’t have to hurt.
Now, I admit, my kids haven’t left home so this is an unproven theory – but it is the thoughts that are in my heart, and in that sense, the thoughts that are preparing my heart for that day. I don’t want to hurt – I want to rejoice with my kids, I want to set them off with all the hope and joy and confidence that I can give them. I want to revel in their adventures, I want to celebrate their highs, and be enthusiastic about their choices.
If the truth be known, I’ve been slowly untying those apron strings since my little one started to crawl – letting them move onto the next stage of their life. First, there was crawling and letting them explore the floor, then there was walking, and the world opened up for them – this was the beginning! Because next, before I knew it, they were going on playdates without me, then they were travelling across the country, and then
across the world by themselves. How can I not rejoice with them when I have been teaching, training, preparing them to be able to live responsibly and capably. This is what they’ve been trained for.
Of course, there will be the heart twinge! I will miss my friends (because by this stage, they are my friends), my days won’t be the same – but I don’t want my days to be empty because my kids aren’t around, I don’t want my heart to be empty because my kids have moved on. I certainly don’t want to hold them back physically or emotionally with my own pain. Instead, I want to let them go with anticipation – because they are ready to do the next thing in their life.
Letting go doesn’t have to hurt.
Untying the apron string has been a long, unfolding process –like I said, it started when they were just little, though it has become more obvious in their later teens/young adult years. As my kids have grown older, they have:
• Expanded their friend circle to friends that are beyond our family friend circle
• Learnt more than what I could teach them
• Connected with other people who give them wise counsel
• Developed passions that are different than Peter’s and my passions
• Have desires to go places and do things that we would never think of
There is an aspect of ‘letting go’ each time an aspect of their life expands or changes. My involvement in their life changes – I’m still involved, I’m still needed, but it looks different. Leaving home is just the next step for them – whenever and why-ever they take that step. And it is equally true that letting them go is the next step for me.
I think apron strings can be seen in a negative light – they are the bonds of love, or family that limit or control children. And for sure we would all know situations where those apron strings are interfering with family life – and yes indeed, they need to be cut, and it will hurt (both parties) but apron strings are there for a reason – initially they hold our children in a safe place. This is good. But there comes a time where the apron has to come off.
I have this picture of a cook working away in the kitchen, wearing an apron of course, and the pressure is on, the mess is flying. As the day goes on the apron gets messier and messier as hands get wiped and even the face of sweat and tears are mopped up on this apron – but at the end of the day the cooking is done. The cook takes a deep breath, a breath of
satisfaction, knowing they’ve done their best, looking forward to their meal being enjoyed. They untie the apron strings, pat their hair into place and step forward with the dish they’ve worked so hard over. They step out of the kitchen to present their dish.
Do you see the analogy? We work so hard with our children, but there comes a time when we are done and can take a deep breath knowing we’ve done our best, and we take off the apron – we untie those strings that have kept our children safe in our heart, and we step out with them, presenting them to the world! And we wait with anticipation for the world to enjoy them as we do.
How are you approaching the cutting of the apron strings (so to speak)?
Belinda and her huband, Peter, live in the far north-west of Australia on a small farm. They have four adult children whom they homeschooled right the way through. Over this time Belinda has taught and supported women both face to face and online. Her heart is to encourage families to be intentional, relational and heart focused in all areas of family living. She continues to do this in her new season of life – as her kids leave home one by one leaving her with more time. During their homeschool years Belinda had an eclectic style where she chose resources to meet her chidren’s needs, abilities and talents and at the same time making the most of their family life as a learning opportunity. You can catch up with Belinda on her blog & newsletter or social media:
Website: livelifewithyourkids.com
Instagram: Instagram.com/belindaletchford
Facebook: facebook.com/livelifewithyourkids
4things that have helped us home school a child with Asperger’s
By Kari Patterson
It’s been almost six years since I last shared about our adventure with Asperger’s — so much has changed!
This December Dutch turned 14, and I marveled as I watched him joyfully interact with a great group of friends, playing games around the dining room table (see pic above). Poetically, it was at a playdate with these same kids, seven years earlier, when his struggles surfaced in such a way that we realized he had Asperger’s syndrome.
Now, as I watched him, it was hard to believe this was the same kid who seven years ago was so overwhelmed that he thrashed in my arms and cried out that he couldn’t make his brain work.
He is truly transformed in so many ways, so I’d love to share a bit of our story and four things that have helped us along the way.
4 things that have helped us homeschool a child with Asperger’s
No matter what quirk or diagnoses your child has, you know him best. Yes, we can learn from books, podcasts, therapists, experts. Absolutely! But at the end of the day, you know that look he gets when he’s feeling scared. You know that thing he does with his hands when he’s trying to calm himself down. You know why he carries that certain item everywhere he goes. You know how that seemingly innocent situation causes him to panic, or shut down, or act out.
I remember a Sunday School situation where after church I found Dutch huddled in the corner, redfaced, angry and sobbing, crying, “They’re mocking me! They’re mocking me!”
He said he never wanted to come to church again. I knew the teacher and
the children and couldn’t imagine them mocking him, so I tried to learn more about the situation. I learned that he had not wanted to play a certain game they were playing (common), and so they’d sung a song about him (at him) to get him to play. It was meant to be humorous, but children with Asperger’s have a hard time picking up on sarcasm, or understanding well-intended joking. In his little brain his teacher and the entire classroom were singing in unison to make fun of him. Of course that was not the intent, but knowing how Dutch’s brain works helped me to enter into the situation and be his advocate. No one else knows our children like we do, so no one is better able to advocate for them.
That said, I have tried to never use Asperger’s as an excuse for misbehavior. When Dutch was eight he was very disrespectful and disobedient and I found myself making excuses for him. I met with a mature mom and educator and asked for her advice. She was kind, but firm, as she said, “ The standard is the same, you will just have to work harder to reach it. He will still need to be obedient and respectful. You can be empathetic but you cannot allow Asperger’s to be an excuse for poor behavior.”
2. Celebrate his “trait” and give him examples to follow
When Dutch was seven we sat him down and explained what we’d discovered. We told him about a special “trait” (we didn’t call it a syndrome or disorder) he had, called Asperger’s, that many great people in history probably had (though it wasn’t named yet). We talked about Einstein, Benjamin Franklin, Mozart, even Bill Gates.
We explained that because he had this trait some things were going to be much easier for him, and some things were going to be much harder.
I told him some of the ways that his brain was special and strong, and some of the ways that he might struggle. Then we affirmed that we were committed to helping him, loving him, teaching him, training him, doing whatever was needed to help him succeed as a boy with Asperger’s.
Then we never mentioned it again.
Of course we read, we learned, we prayed, but we just wanted him to be a uniquely gifted kid without worrying about labels.
As he grew, we also tried to give him examples of godly, well-adjusted people with Asperger’s. Several years ago my husband Jeff began listening to Brant Hansen (who has Asperger’s) with Dutch Dutch LOVED him. So we bought him Brant’s books. Blessed Are the Misfits was profoundly impacting and helped Dutch understand himself in the context of church and even his relationship with God.
Interestingly, this year of restrictions (due to COVID) has actually been a blessing in disguise for Dutch as we adopted a House Church model. He gets less overwhelmed (no crowds, no loud amplification) and the format lends itself to frank, deep discussion with people he knows (his fav) rather than surface-level small talk (he loathes).
3. Let him lead when it comes to learning about himself
One day this year I was standing in the kitchen, and Dutch was hunched over his computer, intent on something, for quite awhile. Occasionally, he would ask me questions about himself: “Do you think I get easily overwhelmed in crowds?” Or, “Do you think it’s hard for me to pick up on sarcasm?” I answered his questions, and after awhile he finished his task and announced with a huge smile, “Guess what? I think I have
I laughed to myself because of course we had told him he had Asperger’s 7 years ago, but apparently he didn’t remember that! This was hilarious to me!
We had not mentioned it all these years, but just from him following, listening to, and reading material by Brant Hansen, he was able to identify many of the same qualities in himself. I loved that he took it upon himself to take a diagnostic quiz, and that he saw the results as such a positive thing, because it made him that much more similar to his hero Brant.
I think we can all identify with this. Most of us enjoy taking personality tests or learning more about our uniqueness, when we initiate the interest. But most of us don’t like being labeled or diagnosed by others. Seems reasonable that kids are the same.
4. Choose stresses carefully
We didn’t want to coddle Dutch and make the world revolve around him, since that isn’t how real life works. I had even read once that since a church setting can be particularly stressful for children with Asperger’s that parents shouldn’t make these children attend church. I respectfully disagree.
However, I learned the hard way we needed to choose his stresses carefully. That is, making him do baseball practice, a baseball game, piano lessons, a playdate, a trip to Costco AND church all in one week was a disaster.
For us, church is a non-negotiable and so are close friendships, so the answer was to ditch baseball and piano (which he disliked anyway). Admittedly, a part of me felt like a failure that my child wasn’t doing any extra-curriculars, but removing those two things brought him back into balance.
Life has stress. That’s inevitable. All
of us introverts know that there are situations that are stressful but still worth doing. So we try to choose those stresses carefully.
Now, at 14, Dutch is an absolute delight to our family. He patiently counsels his sister when she’s anxious. He helps her with math. He plays with and babysits his toddler brother for hours. When our baby was born this fall Dutch would hold him for hours and soothe him when he was fussy. He constantly helps me around the house, he carries in the groceries, he’s like having another full-grown man around the house! I just never dreamed that the struggling little boy thrashing in my arms would become a confident, capable young man. We still have a lot of room for growth, but I thank God for all He has done so far.
So, if you ever want to talk more about homeschooling a child with Asperger’s, please reach out! I’m certainly no expert, but I can empathize. I’ve cried more over this kid than the others combined!
Are you also walking this same journey – to homeschool a child with Asperger’s? What has helped you along the way? What has been most challenging? Let’s encourage each other!
Kari Patterson and her family live out in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. As a 2ndgeneration homeschooler she espouses the same philosophy her own mom did in the 80s: Cultivate a love for learning and one’s education will never end. She bakes bread, brews kombucha, speaks at conferences & writes at Sacred Mundane. Her new book Sacred Mundane is available now.
by Melissa Lam
“In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth” Genesis 1:1
How did we get here? We’ve drifted so far away from how God intended for us to live. It’s like the world’s longest game of telephone and along the way the call got lost and with it, the true meaning of life. The current status quo has become all about the hustle, the next achievement; we’re consumed by busyness. (I’m all for working hard and having goals! I believe having a vision and working towards something is healthy. But I’m talking about when “success” becomes our idol, the thing we live for.) Distractions are all around us, and as we go about our day the pressure of life continues to close in on us. Societies, expectations, and obligations are holding us hostage; deep down our soul wants to escape but our flesh holds on to the status quo for dear life.
All this pressure is causing us physical, mental, and emotional suffering. So how do we heal? How do we create a life worth living? The simple answer is Nature. Nature is our inheritance; it is our free gift from God.
Take a long walk into the heart of nature, where you find yourself surrounded by trees. This will give you peace. Find shade under one of those trees. This will give you comfort.
Dig your feet deep into the soil. This will ground you.
Dip your toes in the shallow creek and let your hands graze the top of the water. This will calm you.
Stand with your arms outstretched and let the sun embrace you like a warm hug. This will settle your heart.
Seek out a remote spot and take in the beauty of a sunset. This will inspire you.
Feel the breeze brush up against your face and notice the smell of flowers that drift in. This will delight you.
Do you notice how everything in Nature works in harmony, flowing effortlessly? The good news is that our life is meant to flow in the same way. Personally, my soul has been gravitating towards a simpler life for way too long, and I’m ready to rekindle my relationship with Nature and reclaim my free gift.
It’s up for grabs for you too!
Melissa Lam and her husband Hung are middle school sweethearts. They live in Airdrie with their 2 children and are in their third year of homeschooling with WISDOM. In addition to homeschooling together, they also run a financial education centre in Calgary.
by Nadine Painchaud
Looking forward from the early eighteen hundreds, a lot has changed over the years and our lives are very different as a result of these changes. Transportation has evolved as methods were invented for moving people around faster. The quality of crops planted and harvested has changed, making the farmer’s yield quite different from years ago. In addition, the industrial revolution changed how children are educated forever. Over the years, from the early eighteen hundreds to present day, transportation, farming, and education have changed drastically.
The ways in which people travel have greatly changed. Today people have cars, taxis, buses, and planes to get around. People didn’t have those options of motorized vehicles in earlier times; instead, they traveled by horses, wagons, and bicycles. As a result, people didn’t
use to travel very far, unlike today where you can get on a plane and travel around the world in twenty-four hours. Most people at that time would walk two to five miles to get to where they wanted to go. In both times, the eighteen hundreds and today, trains were available for transportation. Indeed, there have been advancements in transportation affecting every aspect of our lives.
Farming in our world today has changed drastically, as well. People in the past used horsepower or manpower to plow and cultivate their crops. They also had to harvest and thresh by hand. Therefore, it took longer to harvest meaning they could not work more land. Whereas nowadays, people have tractors and combines that do the work in place of relying on horsepower, which makes the work faster, meaning that they can work more land. Although more can be harvested more quickly now, crops were
more organic in the early eighteen hundreds because they didn’t use pesticides or genetically modified seeds.
Education too, due to the coming of the industrial revolution, forever changed how children learned. They were originally homeschooled until the wide development of factories when they were sent to school, freeing their parents up to work in industry. Originally, schools were a one room schoolhouse where all grades learned together. Children learnt to interact with different ages of students in the early eighteen hundreds and only schooled from grade one to eight because at grade eight they were needed in the field and at home. Schools now have students grouped into classrooms of children the same age. Students are now expected to graduate after twelve years of school and continue on to university or trade school rather than to work in the field. This
change in how education is delivered has affected family life and how kids’ hearts and minds are formed.
Over the years, from the early eighteen hundreds to present day, transportation, farming, and education have changed drastically. Looking back people can see how transportation has changed by moving people along fast and allowing them to travel farther. Farming increased and people started to use pesticide on their crops. Children used to have school at home but are now educated outside the home for the most part. Times have definitely changed through transportation, farming, and education but not necessarily for the better.
The following are answers to the questions about my interest in nature, more specifically, ants.
What do you love to learn about?
I love studying nature. My dad is a trapper and a hunter, and I have opportunities to study the various habitats/behaviors of wolves, wolverines, coyotes, foxes, lynx, cougars, bears, rabbits, pine marten, beavers, and squirrels on our traplines. I am also interested in very small creatures, such as ants. I have found and collected various species of ants on our traplines in the Rockies. I found a rare species of Lasius ponderosae ants, which are native to the Rocky Mountains in Alberta and Southwestern United States. I am intrigued by their habitat, eating habits, nest size, body colouring, etc.
What sparked your interest in studying nature, specifically insects?
The thing that sparked my interest in studying nature was my early exposure to trapping and hunting and numerous outdoor adventures. When I was 6 years old, I collected a bucket of frog eggs and watched them hatch into tadpoles and grow into frogs. They were in a 5-gallon pail of water with some rocks and driftwood on our back deck. We fed the tadpoles steamed lettuce which they seemed to really take a liking to. It was entertainment for the whole family! I have been interested in bees ever since I can remember. I would catch bees with my bare hands while they were collecting nectar and pollen from our rose bushes and lilac trees. Bees don’t sting if you handle them gently! I removed several wasp nests and captured the queen, drones, workers, and part of the nest in a container. Then I could study the eggs, the larvae hatching in the comb, the pupae, etc. I removed the stingers from wasps and bees and studied them under a microscope. I also studied the newly hatched bees under the microscope. Once their exoskeleton has hardened, they get a lot of hairs on their body! I wanted a beehive and to collect our own honey, but since we live in town, that wasn’t feasible, so I started studying ants. Ants were easy to find everywhere!
I started collecting ants in 2016.
What are some memorable experiences you have had with your collection of ants?
A memorable experience for me was at the end of March 2022, when I bought my first queen ant with hosts and Lasius americanus workers in a glass test tube. I ordered the ants from Canada Ant Colony. The ants came from Toronto. I paid extra money for winter shipping to ensure the queen would be alive on arrival. I was so excited!
In the summer of 2022, I found my first ever Slave-Maker Queen and colony at our property southeast of town. I put them in an ant nest when I got home.
Another memorable moment was when the Lasius umbratus Queen and Lasius niger workers that I ordered from the Netherlands in February 2023 arrived.
With regards to ants, right now I am interested in most of the parasitic Lasius and Formica species. My goal is to capture and successfully raise every parasitic Lasius species in Canada.
Some discoveries I have made:
Watching a queen ant lay eggs is amazing! I have watched different queens; sometimes they curl their abdomen so that they can use the mandibles to grasp the egg. Keen eyesight is a plus when studying ants!
Every parasitic Lasius species has its one main host species; each parasitic queen is made to infiltrate a certain host species.
Certain parasitic queens need to kill a worker in order to get the colony’s scent on themselves so that the colony accepts them. Queens for the Subgenus Chthonolasius do this the most out of all the Lasius Parasites. Ants from the Subgenus Acanthomyops have rarely been seen doing this. I haven’t witnessed the queen killing the worker, but I have seen the dead workers in the nests or test tubes; the workers that I had seen previously attacking the queen ant had accepted her and were grooming and feeding her instead.
I discovered that I could hibernate Camponotus novaeboracensis ants, commonly known as Red and Black Carpenter Ants, in our cold storage room in the basement. I had collected the ants in spring and in early November 2018, I put them into hibernation. Some ants were in test tubes, and some were in acrylic nests. I then placed them into a cardboard box lined with styrofoam and cotton batting for insulation. I fed them honey and sugar water prior to putting them into hibernation. In late March of 2019, I took the ants out of hibernation and about 50% had survived.
What advice would you give to other students or families who want to more seriously study and collect ants?
To seriously study and collect ants you need a lot of patience and persistence. I like to carry a backpack with the tools and equipment I need in case I come across an opportunity to explore an ant hill, fallen logs, or other areas where ants may be located. Typically, I have a small axe, hammer, mini crowbar, shovel, test tubes, and plastic containers with lids.
To learn more about ants, go to the following website: formiculture. com.
How has homeschooling impacted or contributed to your pursuit of these studies?
Homeschooling has afforded me the opportunity to go exploring at prime times during the day. For example, after a rainfall I can go out and collect queen ants at my leisure while they are having nuptial flights. Nuptial flights are a phenomenon where the males and queen ants leave their nests due to a pheromonal signal to go out and mate. The queens will mate with as many males as they can and store the sperm for a later date when they can lay eggs and start up a new colony. I have collected many queen ants during the nuptial flights. Because of homeschooling, I can spend more time studying ants, whether it’s in my own yard, the surrounding fields, or the majestic landscape of the Canadian Rockies.
What else do you want to study?
Something else I want to study is fish, specifically Rocky Mountain trout. I love fishing and enjoy exploring the rivers, streams, and tributaries that exist on our traplines in the Rockies.
Sincerely,
Barrett Driedger
Barrett is a WISDOM student who is passionate about insects. His family lives in Wetaskiwin.
By Paul van den Boch
springtime.
I enjoy all of the seasons of the year, but spring is the season of new beginnings. The season of “first chapters”, of stories that are just starting, of adventures to be begun, of music to be imagined and songs to be sung, of walks to be taken and places to be explored.
I was thinking about all of that when I visited one particular WISDOM home schooling family recently. I was given the privilege of reading a story written by their young student. It was a story of action and excitement, and, at the end of one
episode, one of the characters (probably wanting a break in the action) suggested caution before the characters took on a new challenge. A desire for safety was expressed. The answer from the main character was simple: “adventure is not safe”. So, all of the characters embarked on the adventure.
Well, of course they did. It was an action story. But would that happen in real life? Think about that line “adventure is not safe” and consider what would your reaction be if I asked you the question: “Want to go on an adventure?” If you don’t know what you would say, I understand.
I suppose the prudent answer would be to ask for a little clarification: “how safe or unsafe is this adventure?”
Fair enough.
And the answer just might well be: “I don’t know”. I have a hard enough time with the present, so I won’t try to predict the future. So that “I don’t know” may mean that some people will decide not to embark on such an adventure.
It’s too unknown.
It’s too scary.
There is too much at risk.
We don’t want to put ourselves in danger. It’s not safe.
I understand all of those concerns. All of those are valid, and should be weighed and considered, particularly if there are risks not only to the one person making the decision but to other people as well. Do we need to evaluate possible dangers? Yes. Should we consider possible gains and advantages of such an adventure?
Also, yes.
Should we always remain in safety and never take any risks?
No.
That is not what life is for.
“A ship in the harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”
- John A. Shedd, from his book Salt From My Attic, 1928
In the case of home education, the future is certainly unknown. What will our children learn? What will they decide to become when they grow up? What will they be like when they are adults? As parents, we want the very best for our children, and there are certainly those in modern society who will not embark on the adventure of home schooling because they see too many risks. I see those same risks for my children and I don’t want
to delegate the handling of those risks to anyone else other than my children’s parents. That’s one of the primary reasons we home school.
How about the following questions. I’ve heard these questions (and you have too):
• What about socialization?
• How can you overcome parental imperfections?
• Isn’t it risky to entrust education to parents?
My answer to those questions is that public education has many risks also and at least with home education it is an adventure of our own choosing. And we can choose excellent answers to those questions…
Socialization?
There are many more opportunities for effective socialization with home schooling than in public schools.
Imperfect parents?
There are parental imperfections, of course, but those are far outweighed by the advantages of an education provided with an abundance of parental love.
Who can we entrust education to?
Life itself is risky, and there is no better place to handle those risks than under the guidance of a loving parent.
I believe that time spent with a parent grounds a child in who they are and gives them the solid ground of themselves so that the coming events of each day are not fears to be endured but surprising puzzles to be handled and solved and mastered.
So what risks will we take? What is the best for our family? What is the most important thing to us? Can life be made perfectly safe? Is that a life we would want if we could make it perfectly safe? Lots of questions… Each parent will answer those questions in a different way,
of course. But wise parents know that life can’t be made perfectly safe. Nor should we try to make it so. We can’t protect our children from every bump and bruise so we allow them to play. We can’t protect them from failing occasionally so we allow them to venture out on their own, knowing we have done our best to prepare them for such ventures. We allow this because we know that overcoming failure provides a wonderful sense of accomplishment.
Parents know that life is hard. Life has difficulties, yes, but we can learn from those. Life has risks, yes, but we can grow as we solve life’s problems.
Life is an adventure. An adventure to be lived. Part of living the adventure is a growing feeling of calm in the face of the unknown. And what is the unknown? The unexpected, the unexplored, the not-yet-experienced. Those are scary things, but if we, as parents, can provide our children with a sense of emotional safety and security and love, we can give them solid ground from which to launch themselves on their own adventures. The unexpected is not so unexpected when we know we’ve handled surprises in the past. The unexplored isn’t so much scary as exciting. The not-yet-experienced is an adventure awaiting us. The walks we embark upon are also an opportunity to share the adventure with others (and with our dog too). A snowy field doesn’t seem so cold when there are other footprints walking the same way that we are going.
A friend of mine not only accepts the unexpected but looks for it and invites it in. “Life is a series of surprises to be opened, blind corners to be negotiated, adventures to be experienced. I accept life as it is and not how I think it ought to be. To have expectations is to endure future resentments.” My friend noted the following quotation and I’ll share it with you here.
“All I know is that my life is better when I assume people are doing their best. It keeps me out of judgement and lets me focus and what is and not what should or could be.”
– Brené Brown, from her book Rising Strong 2015
It took me a little while to see my friend’s point. She wasn’t saying “don’t plan for the future”. She also wasn’t saying “don’t work for things that need to change” nor was she saying “let your kids do whatever they want without accountability”. Not at all. She’s a mum who has given her children a high moral standard and who knows her children will make mistakes but she will continue to love her children anyway. She’s a person who works for positive change and hopes that things turn out well but, since she can’t control the outcomes, she does not have any expectations. Hopes, yes. Expectations, no. She does the work and sticks with her process and then leaves the rest in God’s hands.
That’s something I’m learning to do. Life is an adventure. Weigh the risks. Plan well. Then step out in faith, knowing that God is holding your hand on this adventure. Always.
Paul van den Bosch is a WISDOM Facilitator who prays every morning to be able to accept the adventure of every day.
We’re done another year of homeschooling. How does time manage to slip by so quickly?!
Every year, to commemorate the passing of a grade, we host a celebration of learning. I do this for several reasons:
• It gives us an opportunity to reflect on the school year.
• It allows me the chance to document growth.
By Jennifer Bly
• It helps me in the process of evaluating the curriculum we use.
• It encourages us in our homeschool journey.
• It’s used as evidence of learning.
Today I would like to share what our celebration of learning looks like.
Our homeschool is registered with a homeschooling school board. We have a facilitator who visits our home three times a year and on our final visit, we schedule a celebration of learning. Our celebration includes a display of various activities we’ve worked on through the course of the year. From artwork to science projects, we put out a selection of work for our facilitator to look through.
A few years ago, prior to our first-ever celebration of learning homeschool visit, our facilitator suggested that we assemble a booklet of our favourite experiences. As a result, this has become a lovely tradition for us.
At the end of the year, my daughter and I review her coursework to refresh her memory about all of the activities she did. We look through her binders and then my daughter answers various questions such as:
• These are four things I learned to do well this year….
• Some of my favourite books this year were….
• My favourite field trip was….
I created worksheets that have space to paste or draw a picture, as well as lines to write and explain her answers. I place all of these sheets into a duotang and add a sampling of work into the various sections (i.e. in the language arts section, I may include a report or a poem she wrote).
We also collect pictures from the year and assemble them into a photo album. We place dividers between each of the “subjects” represented in the album. The photo album is one of my daughter’s favourite items in the celebration of learning. She will look at the pictures repeatedly and enjoys reminiscing about the experiences we enjoyed.
After everything is collected and complete, my daughter presents her assembled memory book and photo album to her dad and grandparents. She will answer any questions they may have and will sometimes share facts she learned throughout the year.
Then when her homeschool facilitator performs the last visit of the year, we display a selection of my daughter’s work and my daughter presents her memory book to the teacher.
This method of gathering and assembling information is a wonderful way to document my daughter’s learning. It also helps me gauge what kind of activities she likes best. For instance, this past year, my daughter indicated many cooking activities as her favourite school year memories. Whether we were cooking for math, social studies, language arts, or science, it didn’t matter. So now I know that for next year, I should try to incorporate as many cooking experiences
as possible into her curriculum.
Documenting the year in this manner may sound like a huge project but I do things throughout the year to keep it from becoming overwhelming. Here are a few things I do regularly so that our year-end documentation can be done with ease:
• We have a plastic bin with a cover that I use to store my daughter’s special projects from the year.
• I keep track of our joyful/special moments in my homeschool joy journal.
• I record our daily activities in our comprehensive homeschool planner.
• Every month I download our homeschool photos into a labelled folder on the computer (i.e. May
2016 Homeschool Photos).
• I assemble a photobook throughout the year via the Chatbooks app on my phone
• Every 1-2 months I order our favourite homeschool photos.
• I document my daughter’s daily attendance in our homeschool planner.
Would you like the 13-pages that I use in our homeschool celebration of learning booklet? You can download this booklet here: https://tinyurl.com/rjxb8s7r
Jennifer Bly is the author of My Kitchen, My Classroom: An Introduction to Homeschool and the creator of The Deliberate Mom. She loves to write about parenting, homeschooling, and her faith. Jennifer has a BAHSA with a specialization in Early Learning in Child Care and resides in Edmonton with her husband and two daughters. You can find more of her articles at thedeliberatemom.com.
By Nadene Esterhuizen
With my teenager’s increasing independence in their homeschooling, our days have settled into a new rhythm, and I have found peace in making some new, small, personal goals for myself. Charlotte Mason calls it “Mother Culture“. One of my goals is to regularly sketch in my nature journal. I look forward to quietly making an entry once a week during a lovely time of quiet observation, some scientific research, and creative sketching, painting or journaling.
Here is where I find inspiration for my nature journaling ~
Barb at Handbook of Nature Study ran a monthly Outdoor Hour Challenge which we enjoyed in our early homeschool years. Her nature journal prompts are open-ended statements ~
• The most inspiring thing we experienced was…
• Our outdoor time made us ask (or wonder about)…
• In the garden, we are planning/ planting/harvesting….
• I added nature journal pages about….
• I am reading…
• I am dreaming about…
• A photo I would like to share…
Simple, gentle prompts which lead to her monthly Outdoor Mom Journal posts.
As my grown children and older teens no longer go on nature walks, I am privileged to go for walks with my little granddaughter who comes to visit us often. She notices all the tiny details and loves to pick up leaves, feathers, stones and any other interesting nature finds. I keep her nature finds on a little tray.
Often I use her finds as a journal inspiration.
This nature tray was inspired by Celeste, a mommy to 6 little kiddies under 8, of Joyous Lessons, who writes about their nature tray She set up a little tray for her family’s nature finds and encouraged her children to look at, play around with, and record these ‘finds’ in their journals. At the end of the week she stores or clears the tray ready for the new week.
She says, “In a way, this holds me accountable too: I don’t like to clear out the tray until I have had time to document and sketch a bit, but the tray must be emptied to
make room for our new finds. So through the routine, I’m nudged into at least a weekly journal entry.
This seems like such a minor tip–perhaps this is something you already do! But if you’re anything like me, it’s little things, those easy habits that allow the “extras” to become smoothly woven into the rhythm of our days, that make all the difference. It’s this little habit that prods me to get out the colored pencils and notebooks!”
I find some amazing inspiration on the Internet. Remember I posted about Helen at Middlewood Journal? Here’s someone who inspires me I found on Instagram … I am totally in awe of L Gastinger, who describes herself as “a botanical artist, illustrator, documenter and interpreter of all things exquisite and awesome in nature”. Her doublepage spreads are so intricate, details and
perfect, you simply must pop over to view her work!
Lastly, I love gardening and this year has been a year of big gardening changes for me. After struggling for years working in my vegetable garden which was very near a row of willow trees, my hubby and I finally created a shade-netted vegetable garden in a lovely, sunny open space. It has been a joy to harvest food in less than 3 months!
I also completely transformed a decorative flower garden into a herb and salad/ kitchen garden outside my back door. I cut down huge shrubs, transplanted flowering plants and moved all my herbs. I prepared the new beds with ash, manure and compost layers and covered them with a thick mulch layer. Late summer and autumn seeds and seedlings are in and I am already
planning my winter seeds. With all this happening, there is plenty to note, sketch, paint, photograph and journal!
So, simply, I plan to set time aside each week for my nature journal entries and aim to participate in a monthly Outdoor Mom’s Journal.
What about you? What inspires you in your nature journaling?
Nadene Esterhuizen is a South African farmer’s wife, mom to 5, and a granny to 2 sweetie pies. She homeschooled her 3 daughters from toddler to graduate following a Charlotte Mason-based approach. She’s also a middle school teacher with 10 years teaching English, History, Geography, and Art, with a specialization in Gifted and Remedial Education. Nadene loves to blog at practicalpages.wordpress.com because she has a passion to inspire, encourage and share parenting and homeschooling with others. She is a homesteader and gardener who also loves being creative.
By Michelle Hutton
Hithere, My name is Michelle Hutton, and I am a mom who homeschools with WISDOM as well as a ranch owner, running Wandering Ridge Ranch in the Compeer area. We are located in Special Area #4. I am also a volunteer firefighter on our local department here. It’s quite the life changing experience, because I get to be the one who consoles you during the time of a fire. I have been a part of our department for 2.5 years now but there is a back story as to how I got to be on here. I had to laugh when Terry asked me how a homeschool mom got to be on her local department. It honestly stems back to when I first moved to the Altario area eight years ago. We were sitting on my in-laws’ deck when we saw the smoke from a fire. We weren’t sure what was on fire, so my husband and I decided to take a drive and see what was happening. It turned out that a tanker truck had started on fire in the cab of the truck (due to faulty exhaust) and the truck went up in flames. Between us, a member of the fire department, and a contract operator for the oilfield, we were able to put out the fire in the truck, as well as the several mini grass fires that had cropped up. We got this done before Consort fire or even KAC Fire departments arrived. The driver of the truck was very thankful for us showing up and handling it as quickly as we did.
It took me 5.5 years to figure out who the local fire chief was. I was at work at the UFA when the fire chief for our department came in. Noting his name on the UFA file I realized he was the fire chief, and I made mention of how I wanted to talk to him. He asked me how far we lived from the firehall, and he said, “Well, get into our local department!” I laughed, because between working at UFA and homeschooling, I wasn’t sure if had time. He then showed up at our house the next day with the paperwork I needed to fill out and before I knew it, I was on our local fire department.
The things I have learned since joining have honestly eased my mind come the ‘fire season’. (We don’t refer to it as spring or summer anymore, just ‘fire season’ lately.) The 1001 Fire Fighting course really helped ease my mind with structure fires as well as wildland/grass fires. Wind speed and direction will play a pivotal role in how a woodlands or grass fire will evolve and change directions. The same plays with a structure fire as well but in those situations you have no time to prepare to leave. With woodlands and grass fires you at least have time to evacuate. Being prepared beforehand is the best option. Please read the following information to help prepare yourself and your loved ones.
When a natural disaster gets close to
your home and authorities recommend you evacuate, it’s important that you leave immediately. Don’t wait to be ‘ordered’ to leave. Departing right away—before a mandatory evacuation is declared—can help you avoid being caught in fire, floods, or road congestion. It also means you’ll need to have a plan in place and your evacuation kit ready to go. Here are a few tips for packing an emergency supply kit:
Evacuations and how to prepare for them.
First, download the Alberta Fire App, and check the regularly updated Alberta Wildfire website for currently burning fires.
www.alberta.ca/wildfire-preparedness. aspx has a wonderful checklist to follow! It will walk you through a step-by-step of what items to take. At the beginning of spring each year I always pack my tote with all important documents.
1. Pack your items in crates or bags you can easily carry. You’ll store them in your car but may need to cart them to other locations. (Roughneck totes or Rubbermaid totes with handles are great for this!!)
2. Include food and water for
everyone in your household. Three gallons of water per person and a three-day supply of non-perishable food is a good start.
3. Pack a change of clothes for up to a week and personal hygiene items.
4. Bundle up what you’ll need for the little ones. Infant supplies, such as formula or milk, bottles, baby food, diapers, and wipes, may be hard to come by, so pack what you’ll need.
5. Don’t forget your pets. Include food, water, medications, travel crates or cages, leash, and/or litter box and litter for your furry friends. A point on livestock, if you have them. I keep a running log of all brands on our cattle, tag numbers, names, and pictures to go with each cow/calf pair, the horses have metal tags with my phone number that can be braided into their manes as well as paint makers that are animal safe. Open
barns, gates, and buildings so they can run. They can be rounded up once it is safe to do so!
6. Remember medication. Pack a supply of prescription medications and eye care, if needed, such as contact solution and glasses.
7. Carry your ID, important papers, and cards. You’ll want to bring your driver’s license, passport, health insurance cards, legal documents (birth certificates, social security cards, will, vehicle registration and ownership papers, marriage/divorce papers, etc.), financial records, such as bank account information, credit and debit cards, government benefits, retirement and investment account statement, tax returns, as well as copies of your insurance policies.
8. Include a battery-powered radio, extra batteries, and a flashlight.
9. Bring your cell phone and charger,
along with some cash in case power is out in the area and ATMs are not available.
10. If you have time, pack valuables, family photos or other irreplaceable items, laptop computers, etc. If you don’t have room for computers, you can bring just the hard drive or a thumb-drive with your important data stored on it. It’s best to backup all of your computers to a cloud or put the data on a disk or drive to be stored somewhere safe, ahead of time, so you don’t have to do it in a rush.
11. Don’t forget a first aid kit with supplies to treat injuries.
Please be safe out there! And if you have any questions, contact your local Fire department.
Michelle and her family reside in Altario in Special Areas 4. Where she runs a full time ranch with longhorn cattle and horses, and homeschools 2 kids as well as being on the volunteer fire department.
By Terry Yaceyko
Theword Family is HUGE in the Home School World.
We want to bring our children home and we want to make connections as a family. We usually do really well at connecting personally with our kids (*always remember to make HEART connections as often as possible!) and then we realize we need to make connections as a FAMILY with other families and children.
Sometimes life makes it hard to connect with other families. Perhaps we have too many little ones and don’t get out often. Or we are a rural family with lots of chores and responsibilities. Or we are an urban family living where it is hard to make connections – everyone is busy and doesn’t want to connect with strangers. The reason doesn’t really matter – we just need to be purposeful and intentional to make regular connections as a family and for our children.
I have been collecting ideas for months and will share as
many as I can below for families of all ages.
First, I would suggest praying that God will bring the right people into your life and the lives of your children at the right time. But along with doing that, we need to be active and proactive connecting with others.
• Start (or attend) Park Days and Home School Community Events in your area.
• Watch for other home school families at the local library / playgrounds and suggest another park date or home visit when you find them! (*How do you recognize a homeschooler? Well, they are often out and about during school hours. Sometimes they have a lot of kids and drive a big van. Sometimes they don’t, but I think they always look like they like children (and obscure facts). They also often take out bags of books from the library!)
• Plan individual play dates and have your kids / teens get together with compatible kids / teens in the Home School Community.
• Spend time regularly (weekly / biweekly) with the same family to develop deeper relationships.
• Host a free drop-in craft time weekly at your house for kids of similar ages. (I really like this idea for crafty moms. Look for some easy crafts and make some kits.)
• Start a homeschool book club – a WISDOM Mom shared the below via email with me months ago:
“I can’t imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once.”
C.S.
Lewis
In our homeschool book club, born out of a desire to host a book club for my own children and share it with friends, we’ll be reading a book a month as families and then coming together as a community to celebrate the book together. Some stories even have picture books to accompany the chapter book!
There’ll be delicious snacks and treats inspired by the food and drinks enjoyed in the story, an activity inspired by the books, and a time of discussion using open-ended questions. The point is not writing book reports or seeing how well the children comprehend the main point of the book but rather to enjoy books together.
When there’s a shared, social experiences we remember things better. That’s my hope with this book club – to enjoy books together and create community around good stories.
I am running the book club in conjunction with our local library who is graciously hosting us and providing the materials for the craft activities. We’re advertising through word of mouth and posters at the library, where all the homeschoolers gather! It will be a multi-age book club with books that appeal to a wide range of ages. Some of the titles are The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall, The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien, Sweep by Jonathan Auxier and Mr. Popper’s Penguins by Florence Atwater and Richard Atwater.
• Take part regularly in a Home School Swim time.
• Plan to host a Friday Afternoon (or evening) Teen Group Gathering for ages 12 and up. Fun activities could be swimming, biking, sledding, skating, nature hikes, movies, holiday parties, field trips and much more.
• Host a regular Friday (or Saturday) Night Family GetTogether for games, wiener roasts, movies, laser tag, etc.
• Start a Facebook Home School Event Group / email list for home school events in your area. (I just updated WISDOM’s Home School Support Group List – updated yearly on the WISDOM website – and was surprised at how many new Home School Event Groups there were! If there isn’t one in your area, why not start one? AND let me know, so I can add it to the Support Group List!)
• Host a Poetry Teatime at your local library or home.
• Gather for Pizza Night – and games or a movie - one Friday a month.
• Start a *socialization pod* with 3 or 4 families with kids of similar ages who commit to gathering weekly / biweekly to hang out, swim, play games, build with Lego, etc.
• Start a Nature Walk Group that meets during a weekday morning every week or two.
• Join the WISDOM Pen Pal Club or WISDOM Mail Events Program and connect regularly through snail mail.
• Be willing to travel the distance to get together with homeschool friends. Make a commitment to do so regularly.
• Take part in the WISDOM Ballroom Dance Workshops and Gatherings.
I know I concentrated on praying for new friends for our children and family, keeping busy with volunteering and service opportunities in the homeschool community (and other areas of our life), as well as traveling / making the effort to connect with home school families of like mind - with potential friend opportunities.
One of our daughters never really made close friends in high school and that was tough, BUT it was a good reminder to draw close to God and reach out to others. (I’m thankful for the relationship I have with each of our daughters and the relationships they have with each other, but friends are a
blessing, too.)
I also think sometimes our kids need practice making friends. It is so tough for some of them. They might be shy or reticent - and not open up easily in bigger groups. Smaller groups work better. When we did home school gatherings, I always had a *show and tell* time for the kids - it really helped to make connections. (Oh, you like collecting rocks? So do I. You sew? So do I. And so on.)
I had one veteran home school mom tell me it is harder for older kids to make friends, too. When they are little, everyone just plays together. When they get older, they need to connect and find kindred spirits to be friends with.
How do you find kindred spirits? Well, the first thing to realize is that everyone is longing for a friend. Start looking for others who are looking for friends. Look for people with the same values AND delights. Work at being a safe person – don’t gossip or make fun of others. Be *attractive in spirit* to be around. Be brave – take a chance at being friendly whenever you can. Start a conversation and see where it leads. Put time and effort into people that put time and effort into you. (*This would be a huge ongoing discussion to have with our children.)
• Talk about *being* friendly, Model it to your children. Host gatherings and be hospitable regularly. Teach your children the skills they need to make friends. Teach your younger children icebreaker skills – jokes, fun group activities, etc. (One of our friends had daughters who always had something fun to show when we got together. A fun science experiment, a joke, specialty magnets and
more. They *were* the icebreakers in our home school support group!)
• Talk about introverts and extroverts and the different needs each has. Talk about the benefits each would have as friends. Be willing to be a friend to someone different than you.
• Volunteer in service while waiting for friends – babysit, clean, bake, be *snow angels* in the wintertime and shovel neighbor walks, etc. Keep busy and the lack of friends might not be so evident.
• Talk about the number of friends that your children want. One good friend is worth a lot. Do we want a lot of *shallow* friendships OR a *deep* friendship? (On the other hand, it is wise to have a variety of friends and not put all your time and attention into one person. Friendships change / people move away and so on.)
• Allow online connections if needed. (Always monitor them!)
• Encourage real life connections and limit online activity.
• Perhaps get a pet (dog / cat) for a child or teen that is lonely. One of our daughters got a kitten during COVID and it was a blessing for her and our family.
• To be successful connecting, find your people / tribe. Be yourself and do what interests you. When you find people you like, try to reach out regularly and connect. Be consistent and show up.
• Try weekly one on one play dates (alternating homes) with another trusted family. Moms get a break and kids get time to build friendships.
I think a huge tip about making connections is to make a commitment to do them regularly. There’s something about meeting together regularly that starts making *heart strings* in our lives. We just naturally share with those who are familiar with us.
I hope some of these ideas have inspired you to make more homeschool connections for your children AND your family. I know they have inspired me!
I’ma huge proponent of parent directed homeschooling and WISDOM – have been for years. Richard and I homeschooled our children for 26 years – 25 of which were with WISDOM. We connected with the heart of WISDOM in the beginning and even volunteered on the Parent Advisory Council (now Parent Support Council) for years, too.
I started working for WISDOM when our youngest daughter graduated. In the first couple of years, I had answered the question “What makes WISDOM different than other Home School Administrations?” often enough that I quickly wrote down a list of 10 reasons one day. During COVID, I expanded the list to 20 reasons regarding why WISDOM is different. I thought you might like to read the list!
(In no particular order)
• The Founders (Kenneth & Marlane Noster) support parent directed homeschooling only and WISDOM has only done parent directed homeschooling since it was founded. (I appreciate Ken and Marlane’s commitment to home education and their integrity has remained steadfast no matter what. (Read their bimonthly columns in the WISDOM Magazine or order the booklets “On Building Noah’s Ark” and “Notes to Myself” to get a glimpse into their heart for homeschooling.)
• WISDOM is focused on serving home school families. (This is so huge. I can’t say that Admin, Office Staff, or WISDOM Facilitators get everything right, every
day, every time, BUT we *all* are focused on serving WISDOM home school families. We constantly are talking about what we can do better to serve our families, and in serving you, make your homeschool journey easier.)
• (I LOVE this one!) All Facilitators, Staff and PSC (Parent Support Council) are homeschooling parents, graduates, or grandparents. (5 of our Facilitators are Home School Grads! You don’t have to worry or wonder if any of us will understand parent directed homeschooling. We all have had experiences with the highs and lows AND have been in the trenches of homeschooling. We are here to support and encourage you on your homeschool journey. AND we have 1029.5 years of parent directed homeschooling experience! *I took a poll of admin, staff, and facilitators!)
• Do you know what the WISDOM Parent Support Council (PSC) is? (The PSC are a group of homeschooling parents who meet yearly to help advise WISDOM on ways to best serve the homeschooling community AND to take information back to the families in their communities.)
• Have you checked out the Mediated Learning Program yet? (It’s a great service for homeschooling families. Through Mediated Learning, WISDOM offers parents an effective method of interaction, designed to benefit all learners, regardless of learning or behaviour difficulties, levels of giftedness, age, or background. Many families have benefited from this program!)
• The homeschooling through High School emphasis (This is a cool reason why WISDOM is different. From the very beginning, WISDOM wanted to equip families to homeschool through high school. Last year, 367 students graduated from WISDOM, going on to Post Secondary, the trades, and working full time. Currently, WISDOM has a full time High School Advisor in the Office, and four High School Specialists available to help families with high school questions. You can homeschool through high school with confidence!)
• The WISDOM High School Conference is also huge. (WISDOM is the only Home School Administration that presents a High School Conference for homeschoolers – and has for years. It is a first-class event that all homeschool families with students 12+ in Alberta are welcome to attend and it has a different theme every year. Post Secondary Institutions have been very impressed with the caliber of homeschool students attending the Conference.)
• I don’t know if everyone values the bimonthly WISDOM Family Magazine as much as I do, but I recommend sharing it with your kids, extended family, and friends. (The quality of writing is outstanding, and the quality of publication is outstanding as well. It is a great source of homeschool encouragement and inspiration AND shares all current WISDOM information that our families *need* to know.)
• Have you checked out the WISDOM Events, Camps & Workshops yet? (Our Events team works very hard to offer the best events and in person / online activities for our families. There have been over 100 events since September! While WISDOM encourages our families to connect with their local homeschool support group for activities, WISDOM also plans quite a few events around the province each year.)
• Wow, what can I say about the WISDOM Socratic Dialogue Online Courses? (These fulfill another need for some of our families. Top quality courses are offered with low student enrolment (12 or less in a class) by a tutor experienced in leading Socratic discussion. This program gives support to parents homeschooling, especially in the high school years. Some of our families LOVE this program.)
• The Office stops to pray for our families on weekdays. (I don’t know any other Home School Admin that offers this. Life can be hard / tough, and it is a comfort to many of our families that they can call or email a prayer request in and KNOW that the Office Staff are praying for their requests. *If you are a praying family, please pray for WISDOM and homeschoolers in Alberta!)
• Why not check out the Extras Available for WISDOM Families (free and discounted programs)? (This list is on the WISDOM website and is a great resource for our families. Many resources are available for our high school families as well. Take a look!)
• WISDOM Mail Exchanges started during COVID and have really met a need for some WISDOM
families. (This is an extension of WISDOM’s Pen Pal List and great fun for the families taking part. Fun mail exchanges – some cost nothing, some cost more –encourage WISDOM students to write letters or cards and encourage all taking part.)
• Have you looked at WISDOM’s Home School Support Group List lately? (This is updated yearly AND is the most complete list – by far – in Alberta! It also is a
service to the Alberta homeschooling community. Make plans to meet with other homeschoolers – in your area – as soon as you can to make connections and attend activities!)
• The TLC *Terry’s Terrific Learning Connections* was also started during COVID to encourage WISDOM families. (It is a monthly – September through June –themed e-newsletter – full of homeschool links, ideas, and encouragement!)
• The Kindergarten Connections e-newsletter is great for those with little ones. (It is a bimonthly e-newsletter meant to encourage and support families that are homeschooling the youngest homeschoolers among us.)
• WISDOM’s Home School Resource Booklets (22 current booklets with new ones coming Fall 23! *Free by request. This is another one of WISDOM’s incentives to support and encourage homeschooling in Alberta. Each booklet is plumb full of encouragement and support based on a theme. Lovely to read and lovely to have on hand to share with those thinking of homeschooling.)
• WISDOM’s Useful Sites and Educational Links – a huge ever-growing list on the WISDOM website. (This is a hidden gem on the WISDOM website – available to any homeschooler, but a great resource for WISDOM families. It has the best links found on the web for homeschoolers – everything from Art Resources to Book Lists to Career Planning to Current Events to Free Resources to Gameschooling to Graduation Ideas to Internet Safety to Nature Study to Science Resources to so much more. It’s a great place to start when looking for great homeschooling links – courtesy of WISDOM!)
• WISDOM’s Facebook Pages – full of homeschool support and information. (Facebook is still the best place for homeschooling parents to make connections. The main WISDOM Facebook Page is a great place to connect with other WISDOM parents, to read (and
share) encouraging links, posts, and pictures. A newer Facebook Page activity is Win It Wednesday, where families have the chance to win new / gently used books, games, and resources during the school year. Why have a Win It Wednesday? Well, the last couple of years have been tough for everyone. Getting a little something in the mail raises spirits. It’s something WISDOM can do for their families.)
• WISDOM Online Chess Workshops – a perfect mix of fun, education, interaction, and chess mastery in one hour! (Almost all families taking part in these workshops have loved them. They are divided into age categories, so children / teens who love playing chess can do so with other WISDOM students of similar ages. Highly recommended.)
• *Bonus Reason!* WISDOM’s Ballroom Dance Workshops – “Ballroom Dance Classes changed what our lives looked like as homeschoolers! -Patty M.” (It is so fun to share with new parents about WISDOM’s Ballroom Dance Workshops. They have been part of WISDOM’s *subculture* for years and years – thanks to Mike and Michele Barter, WISDOM’s Ballroom Dance Teachers – and so many families enjoy connecting AND dancing at the Ballroom workshops and dances.)
• These are just a few reasons that make WISDOM different – there are many more!
I must admit I love sharing the above with parents calling WISDOM for more information, asking What Makes WISDOM Different? No, WISDOM isn’t the best fit for everyone, but for those for whom it is a good fit, WISDOM works very well!
Happy Home Schooling with WISDOM!
You are invited to attend family gatherings across the province! We invite your family to attend the social-style events, and you may also bring friends who are contemplating home educating. Meet friends, learn home schooling techniques and network with the WISDOM team. Some events include socials for the whole family, while others are adult-only information sessions.
RSVP by filling out the free registration on our website, wisdomhomeschooling.com > Events > Open Houses or contact the event host.
When: Monday, May 29th. 4:00 – 9:00 PM
Where: Echo Dale Regional Park, Cypress County
Current WISDOM home schooling families and those contemplating home schooling with WISDOM are welcome! Visit with other home schoolers and members of the WISDOM team, and find out more about how WISDOM can serve you best.
We provide: gluten free sausage and wieners on a bun, condiments, paper plates and cutlery, and drinking water.
Please bring: a salad or side dish to share, lawn chairs, games and accessories, etc.
RSVP by May 27th to Louis Sehn call or text 403-581-3444 or email louis@wisdomhomeschooling.com
When: Friday, June 2, 11:00 am- 2:00 pm (alternate date in case of rain: June 16)
Where: Telegraph Park, 48580 Range Road 214A (the access is right on Highway 617, just 0.8 km east of Hay Lakes)
Join us for a time of connecting and fun at this campground with a pond and day use area. Bring along your fishing supplies if you’d like to fish the stocked trout pond (parent supervision required). We’ll gather to enjoy our lunches together. There will be a fire pit available if you’d like to plan to cook hotdogs. Dessert will be provided.
Current homeschooling families and those contemplating home schooling are welcome! Visit with other homeschoolers and members of the WISDOM team, and find out more about how WISDOM can serve you best.
Please bring:
1. lunch and beverages for your family
2. hats, sunscreen, bug spray
3. lawn chairs
4. fishing rods and tackle, if you wish to fish
5. extras such soccer balls, skipping ropes, ball gloves and baseballs... RSVP by May 26 to :
Joan Bishop, WISDOM Facilitator, joan@wisdomhomeschooling.com (780) 878-5380 cell
Or
Nola Hutchinson, WISDOM Facilitator nola@wisdomhomeschooling.com (780)781-2527 cell
When: Sunday June 4 2023 2-6pm
Where: Kleskun Hills Natural Area at the Ray Boyer Hall- 41060 Twp Rd 724, just north of highway 43, between Grande Prairie and Bezanson.
Current homeschooling families and those contemplating home schooling are welcome! Visit with other homeschoolers and members of the WISDOM team, and find out more about how WISDOM can serve you best.
Kleskun Hills is a beautiful natural area to spend the afternoon. We have rented the Ray Boyer Hall for our potluck and to be protected from the elements should the weather not be favorable.
This is a potluck snack event.
Please bring a water bottle, lawn chair, a friend, and snacks to eat and share with others!
Looking forward to seeing you there!
RSVP to Anella Jantz
587 297 1992 - or email anella@wisdomhomeschooling.com
When: Monday, June 5, 2023, 4-8pm
Where: Bethel Bible Camp - 10 minutes west of Westlock, Alberta
Directions: Click link for directions to Bethel Bible Camp
What: This event is open to all current WISDOM home schooling families as well as those families who are contemplating home schooling with WISDOM in the future. This is a great opportunity to visit with other home schoolers and members of the WISDOM team, and find out more about how WISDOM can serve you best.
Details: - WISDOM will provide hot dogs, buns, condiments and beverages. We will enjoy a meal together as well as have an information time, door prizes, games and socializing. This event will run rain or shine.
Please bring: please bring potluck sides, salads or desserts to share with the group. (Please note: if you have a highly restrictive diet, feel free to bring your own food if you wish.) There are many activities to enjoy at the facility, but you are welcome to bring other lawn games, board games, or lawn chairs if you would like.
RSVP on the website by May 30
If you have any questions or for late registrations please contact Liz Gurnett by text at 780-349-1577 or email at liz@wisdomhomeschooling.com
This event will be co-hosted by Rachelle Godin (email: rachelle@wisdomhomeschooling.com)
When: Wednesday, June 15, 11-2pm
Where: Gregoire Lake Provincial Park Day Use area (Rain or Shine)
Current home schooling families and those contemplating home schooling are welcome! Visit with other home schoolers and members of the WISDOM team, and find out more about how WISDOM can serve you best.
Please join us for outside activities eg. old fashioned races, Capture the Flag, ultimate frisbee and tug of war! (If you would like to swim please do so after the event.)
We will provide plates and cutlery and drinks etc.
Please bring: a lunch to share - potluck style!
RSVP by June 13 to/questions?: Karen Godin 587-644-1825 or Kim Schultz kim@wisdomhomeschooling.com
When: Monday, June 19th, 2023
Where: Slightly North of Sundre, private home/land
Current home schooling families and those contemplating home schooling are welcome! Visit with other home schoolers and members of the WISDOM team, and find out more about how WISDOM can serve you best.
We will gather at 10am for a Plant Walk led by knowledgeable locals. The Townsend family are graciously hosting us. Then we will eat our own picnic lunches and visit on the lawn. After lunch there will be time for Capture the Flag or other forest games.
Please bring: your own lunch, lawn chairs and a snack or cookies to share (optional!). ��
RSVP by May 31st to Catherine van Kampen - Once you have registered I will send out more detailed directions! catherine@wisdomhomeschooling.com
Spruce Grove-Stony Plain Spring Social
When: Wednesday, April 5
High Level/Fort Vermilion/La Crete Spring Social
When: Sunday, April 16
Edmonton Spring Social
When: Saturday, May 7
Red Deer Spring Social
When: Sunday, May 7
Vermilion & Area Spring Social Event
When: Saturday, May 13
Lethbridge & Area Spring Social Event
When: Monday, May 15
Calgary Spring Social
When: Tuesday, May 16
You are invited to write to any Pen Pal Club member listed here!
To join the Club, please send a short letter of introduction (like those posted here) to the WISDOM office, along with a note giving parental permission.
You may also ask your parent to email office@wisdomhomeschooling.com.
Hi! I like playing Roblox. I have 1 sister and we have 5 pets. I hope you can be my pen pal.
My name is Brennan and I like cowboys and anything to do with the Wild West. I like to hunt, build Lego, play with our dog Dexter, go exploring by the creek and build things.
Hi, my name is Lilly and I am 9 years old. We just moved to the country. We have a dog and 3 cats. I would like to have a horse someday. My favorite colors are green, gold, navy blue and silver. I like to read and write and draw and color. My favorite season is summer because I can have my own garden and plant things, My favorite flower is a lily because it's the same as my name. I love nature and exploring in the woods. I'm also very silly and I like to play with Lego. I hope you write soon!
Hi! I have two dogs and a hamster, his name is Toby. I love animals and going swimming. I have 3 siblings, my older brother who is 13, my older sister who is 10, and my baby sister who is 6. I like to read books about animals but I really like reading Dog Man comic books. My family is Greek. I like to take care of my hamster and my collection of plants. I hope to be a vet one day. I believe in God every day. I hope you can be my pen pal.
My name is Oliviah and I am 14 years old. I enjoy reading, writing, and drawing (mostly dragons). I love to go camping in the mountains with my family and I also love snowboarding! I love animals (mostly horses). I live in a tiny town called Glendon. Something I want to be when I'm older is an author! I hope to get a pen pal soon!
Hi. My name is Shirley. My favourite animal is a horse. I also like to paint, read, and swim. I live on a farm in eastern Alberta. I am 9 years old. I would love to have a pen pal.
Hello! I like learning. I am funny, crazy, creative and I like drawing. I have one sister. My favourite animal is a wolf. I love running and being sneaky like a ninja.
Hi! I love to draw, ride my bike, read books, and play video games. My favourite book series are Chronicles of Narnia and Wings of Fire. I have 2 bunnies and 2 cats. I like going for walks with my friends. I hope to get a pen pal soon. Bye!
Hi! I like to play Lego and build stuff with old boards. I live on a farm and like to play outside. I have 3 sisters and I am the only boy. I would love a pen pal.
If you'd like to be a pen-pal of someone listed here, please send your first letter to:
[Penpal name]
c/o WISDOM Pen Pal Club Box 78 Derwent, AB T0B 1C0
Find the symbol above hidden the magazine and email us to tell number it is on - we will enter you a fun prize.
Draw held on May magazine@wisdomhomeschooling.com
Pencil
hidden somewhere in tell us what page you in a draw for May 31! magazine@wisdomhomeschooling.com
· Call us at 780-741-2113 or 877-425-8546 · · Email us at office@wisdomhomeschooling.com ·
The funding year is open until May 31. You may access up to 100% of funding now, either by using purchase orders or submitting receipts. To submit an expense claim, complete the Expense Claim form and submit by mail or by using our online receipt submitter.
Go to wisdomhomeschooling.com/funding or read the funding handbook for more information.
Questions? finance@wisdomhomeschooling.com
We always respond to emails. If you do not receive a reply from us within two weeks, we did not receive it. Please send it to us again.
Call us at 780-741-2113 or toll free at 1-877-425-8546
We take calls between 9 and 4, Monday through Friday, with an hour off at noon.
If you reach our voicemail, you may enter the extension of anyone in the office at any time during the greeting. To speak to a home school consultant, dial 1. To speak to a member of the funding team, dial 2. To leave a general message, stay on the line or dial 3.
We endeavour to return calls as quickly as possible. If you do not hear back from us within two business days, it may be because the message didn't come through clearly, so please call again.
We offer many ways to connect with the larger WISDOM community, from camps and workshops, to our Social Networking phone and email list, to a Facebook Group just for WISDOM parents. Email the office with your Facebook email and we will add you to our Facebook support group, or send a request to join on Facebook.
(The Magazine is free to WISDOM families.)
□ Option A - paper subscription ($30 in Canada, $44 in USA)
□ Option B - digital subscription, delivered to your email inbox ($18) Where should we send it?
Name: Address: Phone Number:
Email:
Method of Payment:
□ Cheque payable to WISDOM Home Schooling
□ E-transfer to billing@wisdomhomeschooling.com
□ VISA/MasterCard Number
Expiry
Name on Card
□ This is a gift subscription
Detach form and send with payment to WISDOM Home Schooling, Box 78, Derwent, AB T0B 1C0. You may also request subscriptions by emailing magazine@wisdomhomeschooling.com
