Monthly Archives: May 2014
Homeschool weekend fun
I am learning that homeschool doesn’t really function on a monday to friday 9-3 kind of schedule. I grab the learning opportunities when ever I can. I am also learning that if I just share something with Hunter, saying something like “check out this cool video” then he doesn’t consider it as part of his school work and we get to learn some really interesting things, with no pushback! (Tricky mom stuff…)
I came across an article about how to make the best chocolate chip cookies and it had a scientific bent behind it with respect to experimenting with ingredients and their individual reactions to get different results. OK – this is something fun we can do…Baking is also great for math – all that measuring and combining.
Then I found this Ted-Ed video (I LOVE Ted-Ed video’s as they do such a great job of making information fun) and it went ahead and really explained the science behind baking cookies.
We had fun baking cookies this morning and doing some experimenting. We added extra flour to our standard recipe to get puffier cookies and then also tested out using parchment paper vs cooking spray and the difference between having 2 trays in the oven vs cooking one at a time. For all those that are curious – the puffiest cookies came by using cooking spray and having only one tray in the oven at a time (on the top rack) to capture that consistent heat at 350c.
The school of life – our first BIG decision
Our first big decision has come and gone with respect to what our “new normal” will look like – we have made the decision to keep going with homeschooling Hunter next year.
I have absolutely loved the experience this year while travelling – it has given us a front row seat to see what excites him, where he is passionate about something and what frustrates him from a learning perspective. It has also made all of us much more aware of the learning opportunities around us every day, and how to make the most of them.
Tim and I do our best to answer every question that is being asked or to guide him to find a solution, rather than blowing them off because we are juggling too many balls or tired.
Last night he announced that he wanted to get a TV, a DVD player and an electronic pencil sharpener and take them apart to see how they work! I am sooo excited that he is now exploring his own curiosity and we are just here to guide and support him.
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- our find – a bike in the ditch
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- Hunter’s pulled it all apart on his own
Last week Hunter and I came across a bike in the ditch down the street. He decided to bring it home to see if we could fix it. He had been spending a little time with Tim working on our bikes but you’re never sure how much kids are paying attention. I put the bike up on the stand and the next thing I knew, he had all of Tim’s tools out and was engrossed in this bike. 2 hours went by and he managed to take the whole thing apart and clean it, grease it etc. It’s such a dump bike that it’s not actually fixable but the experience was invaluable. And the best part was this was in the middle of a “school day”!
I am also loving the peaceful mornings – Hunter gets up when he gets up and there is no more rush to get breakfasts into everyone, lunches made and he and I out the door. The combination of homeschooling and me doing contract work has decreased the stress level at our house ten fold. We will make less money with this approach next year but it will be a worthwhile investment in our family and our selves!
Observations & thoughts from 8 months on the road
We’ve been home for almost three weeks now and in some ways it feels surreal to think that we just spent the last 8 months living on the road. I can still vividly picture the day in September when we stood in the driveway and took the picture of us all loaded up. If nothing else, 8 months flew by. I am grateful that we have this site to help bring it back to life and keep the memories accessible.
We set off on our road trip for a number of reasons:
- Tim and I were burnt out from work, life and all of the juggling that came with it
- We were craving more play time
- Hunter is getting older every day and really notices when we are not “present” and this was starting to have an impact on him
- WHY NOT NOW!!!
So – 36,000 km, many new tires and 8 months later and here we are…
After “what was your favourite thing”, the next most popular question that we get is “are you glad to be home”? My answer is that I’m not sad to be home and I’m not glad to be home, I’m just home and excited for what is to come!
I LOVED being on the road, for a number of reasons… If you were to ask Tim, he’d say it’s because I am all about “new” and there is some truth to that – there are just so many things to see, do and experience in the world, why on earth would you want to do the same ones over and over and over??? And yet, I do enjoy and appreciate a sense of routine and often found great joy in getting to know somewhere new (not just a quick in and out) and experiencing the nuances and routines of those different places. Just so much to learn in this world!
Some of the best parts of being on the road were:
- We smiled and giggled more than we had in ages (and we weren’t really a grumpy house to begin with) and just had FUN
- Learning to be in harmony with each other. As hokie as that sounds, it is about giving everyone their space, being empathetic and yet also being there to help and support each other. Nothing like trying to have a foot stomping rant about something and just being hugged in response. That sure changes the dynamics fast.
- Teamwork – acting as one unit vs three individuals and knowing that you didn’t have to do everything yourself
- living in the moment and letting go of the need to plan everything
- taking the moment to BREATHE, slow down and create space for ourselves to think
We have this wonderful shared basket of memories that we already finding ourselves using as framework references when in another situation. They mean so much to us and nothing to anyone else and that makes them extra special.
We learned that some days “Chasing the Sun” was more literal than philosophical and that patience plays a big role in life. Bad weather always gives way to good if you can wait it out. How you wait it out makes all the difference in the world.
Our biggest learning is the validation that we don’t want to go back to the old “normal” and that we have the ability to define our new “normal”. So far that has entailed the clarity that we don’t want to work as much as we used to, that we need to ensure we have family fun time every day and that we want adventure to be an ongoing part of our life. We are also working on being open to the questions that we find ourselves seeking answers to. I am already catching myself slipping back into “busy” and just remind myself to breathe and that I don’t have to feel that way – it is soooo freeing!
More to come as we continue to embrace adventure in our every day and contemplate the road ahead.
Our favourite things from 8 months on the road…
We have been home now for 2 weeks and are still transitioning back into things. The first question that EVERYONE asks us is “what was your favourite thing?”. That is a really loaded question and one that just seems impossible to answer, other than with the simple statement of “spending time together” or “visiting family”. In 8 months we saw and did so many different things and had so many amazing experiences…
We’ve broken it down into favourite things by segment, to help highlight some of the top things:
Favourite Mountain Biking
Favourite Kayaking
- Mexico
- The pacific ocean (Tofino, Neah Bay, Oceanside)
- Rio Vista, San Marcos Texas
Hunter loves his new surf/boogie board
Favourite Surfing
Favourite Touristy thing
I’m still working on a wrap up post so stay tuned for “Our learnings from 8 months on the road”!
Where are you from???
The most common question that we were asked on the road was “where are you from?” To most this is a fairly simple question to answer – not quite so for us.
To begin with, we live in Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory, which is in the far north west corner of Canada. Unfortunately there are some Canadians that don’t know where this is, let alone the majority of Americans.
By default, we seem to have created a multi-tiered strategy to answer the question:
1) if we were in Canada, then we would answer “Whitehorse, in the Yukon” (just to help cover the gap of where is Whitehorse… although not many people give provincial context to Edmonton, Victoria, Saskatoon etc.)
2) if we were in the USA, then we would start with “the Yukon, up near Alaska”.
- 90% of the time, people responded to that with “WOW – ALASKA, that’s really cool – you are a long way from home!” To which we just went with it and said “Yep”, not seeking to clarify and explain
- 10% of the time, people would respond with questions or comments related to their trip to Alaska or the Yukon as part of their bucket list adventures and we would happily explain more
3) Sometimes a judgement call was made on the spot and we would just say “Alaska” and not even make the effort to explain the Canadian component of things.
- On the rare occasion we got questions, we would then take the time to explain that we were from the Canadian side of Alaska – unfortunately, there weren’t a lot of clarifying question on that front. Definitely a lack of north american geography knowledge out there!
Our one exception to all of the above was if we were mountain biking. We would always take the time to explain where we were from, that we have top rated trails in North America and many times I would haul out our trail maps from my camel back and show them off! We proudly gave out Boreale Mountain Biking’s contact info to many bikers and bike shops…
