The End of Valley Cheer Athletics

It has been a bit of a crazy month around here for October.  A lot of stressful events in a short amount of time, but we have survived them all, and I think we are all in a better place.

Valley stars Cheer athletics

Genevieve has cheered with Valley for the last 6 years, she loves cheer, everything about it!  But I got her fired from her team, yes me!   I had some questions for the owner Judy James, about a few expenses we had paid and why we were paying them.  She decided instead of addressing most of my concerns she would just fire Genevieve instead.  I think this is about the worst business decision that someone could possible make and it just shows why she continues to have lower enrolments and girls leaving for other clubs by the flock.  I hadn't really understood this until I tried to have a conversation with the woman about her business practices, instead of answering questions and remaining calm, she threated to kick a chair out from under me, for daring to question her ability.  Thankfully I was able to calm her down and get her to listen to my concerns, but in the end this did not accomplish much.

We had paid a huge amount for summer choreography each athlete paid close to $40 an hour to be there in the summer, with the promise of a fancy choreographer coming up from the US to teach the choreography.  When she did not have the proper work visa for the American to come up and work organized he was unable to come up and teach choreography.  Instead of passing along the refund thought we as parents were given nothing but having Judy by herself choreograph and teach the girls their routine.  She managed to hire another choreographer to come in and teach her other team Junior 3 but did not get anyone else in for youth 2 or Junior 2 even though they paid the same fees.  She even brought in her 3 month old and 2 year old grandchildren on one of the days, no other adult present in the building, but claimed that her grandchildren did not affect her ability to choreograph the routine.

We were paying an extra $22 a month for a strength and conditioning class that we were not recieving.  After I brought this to her attention, she did manage to change this so that the girls would be receiving this, but did not refund parents for the month and a half they were paying for a service they were not receiving.  

Once I was looking at all of this I noticed that Genevieve teams she was on was paying almost $2 an hour more for being in the gym then any other team.  She could not explain why, as they had the least amount of time in the gym alone, they had fewer coaches, they pay more then both level 1 and level 3 teams.  She decided it would be a good idea to blame this on the office manager.  Why she could not take personal responsibility of her own management and ownership of her own gym is beyond me.  As an owner you should be aware how much you are charging and why you are charging these fees.

Finally she had a team meeting and she decided that we should all by a $300 hairpiece for all of the athletes as this would help them look professional.  Now we can afford $300 for a hairpiece, but why on earth would anyone buy a $300 hairpiece!  And would that money not be better spent on some expertise coming to the gym, an expert tumbling coach, dance instructor, stunting instructor.  Man $300 each could sure be spent on something more benificial then hair.

After she had the team meeting with Genevieve team, she had a team meeting with the Junior 3 parents.  In this meeting she requested another $25 a month from each of the parents because a parent had come in demanding she make the teams even in what they are paying ha ha ha.  How she can add additional costs onto parents after they already signed a contract is beyond me.  Again super bad decision making on her part, the parents may pay it this year, as they do not want to loose out on all the money they have pain into the season, but I can guarantee they will be looking around next year.

After she kicked Genevieve out she had to combine the two teams Genevieve was on into one team, again poor decisions are costing her a huge amount of money.  But now she is expecting the parents of the junior 2 team who were not going to as many competitions to have to come up with an extra $2000 for the year to go to a competition in Portland and tacoma that they were not budgeting for, not to mention the $300 hair!  

Genevieve wrote a letter to Judy and did not get response.  I wrote a letter to every single cheer parent on valley, and had a huge response, I can tell you that I think Judy has sunk her gym by doing this,

Hi Judy 

This is Genevieve,

I don't think you realize what you did does not only effect my mom, it effects me too. I know how much you love coaching, I really do. You told me for the six years I have been on Valley, that we are a happy family, I honestly believed you. You have betrayed me and I can't think of you the same anymore. I looked up to you and compared myself to you, you have failed, betrayed and hurt me so much I can't tell you my pain.  I had a hard time believing that you could do this to me. You may think that it's not my concern and I shouldn't be writing this letter, that I'm not involved, well you got me involved the moment you kicked me off the cheer team. It's the bitter truth that you shouldn't ignore cause what you did, you can't change.  

(why I liked you)

You always made the funniest jokes and everyone laughed. You made cheer fun, there was a bond of love between coaches and kids. We weren't a team, we were a family, no one liked one more than another and you made that happen, you love all your kids at valley.

(what did I do? )

you know I was looking at everything and trying to figure out what I did to deserve this, and then it came to me... I didn't do anything wrong... You did though, you thought that everyone would just hand you their wallet and you could take what you wanted and no one would notice, well people did, you need to realize that my family can pay for that kind of stuff, but some families can't.  I wish that you could have figured this out with my mom, instead of acting so rashly.  I assure you these are all my words, they came from my head and heart.

please think about how you have hurt so badly an eleven year old

from, Genevieve Reimer 

We ended up finding a new cheer gym that we are thrilled with!  Genevieve is having so much fun, and learning exponentially.  A funny thing that happened is that before I told Gigi about what judy did, she said to me, mom I think I am ready to change cheer gyms.  I panicked a little and she said, no mom its okay nothing too bad has happened, but I can just see that there is a huge difference in the quality of coaching I am receiving at my private tumbling at Wayland and my coaches at valley.  I am ready to leave and get better coaching.  It was so hard to keep it from her but we were driving to her recital for her concert with Roy and Rosemary where she was performing in front of 600 people, not the time to tell her the news

So this is Genevieve doing her first spotted tuck on the floor.  She is doing amazing!  she is loving the extra coaching she is getting, and the confidence they put into her.  This one was pretty messy, but she went for it!  She just got back from tumbling today and she was doing some pretty amazing tumbling!  She is definitely going to kick some but this year.

Advise to any prospective parents wanting to try Valley Stars, now called Valley Cheer Athletics, run as fast as you can.  She has refused to refund me any of the $2000 she has collected from me for this season.  If you are in the gym, do not pay for anything in advance, you will never get it back.

Opera fun

Norma Met Opera

Genevieve ad I went on Saturday morning to cineplex theatre to see the met opera live.  We went last year to a few, we hope to be able to attend more this year.  

The first in this years production list was Norma.  We both didn't have great expectations, as we have never heard of Norma before.  We were thankful that there is a program they give you, that has a summary.  It is nice to read these before you so you can become a little more familiar with the piece, so you can appreciate it a little more.  

Genevieve and I both appreciate that the live in HD versions you get subtitles.  Definitely helps us understand a little better.  We also really liked the intermission as they have interviews and behind the scenes descriptions.  You would not get these if you were in New York watching.   

Genevieve's voice teacher usually goes to the concerts as well, she said next one she would like to sit beside Genevieve so she can give Genevieve tips as it is happening.  I am the youngest one in attendance everytime, besides Genevieve... Everyone has a full head of white hair, compared to my 1/4 head.  There is one this weekend but we will have to miss it even though we would really like to see this one as Genevieve has her youth choir performance.  

http://www.metopera.org/Season/In-Cinemas/

Thanksgiving

We went up to my parents house in Hope to make thankgiving dinner for them, and stay the night.  Man I was so tired this weekend.  And I think I may know why now, in that everyone else is sick.

Sickness

Genevieve has a cold.  She woke up Monday and still did her school work and all the dishes before I even woke up.  I went downstairs and was surprised to see the dishes done.  I had to think to myself if I had actually done them and forgot.  I went to go thank Genevieve and she was doing her school work.  I didn't tell her it was a holiday.

Nathan woke up Monday feeling like death.  He had nausea on Sunday.  He reports that it is different from a migraine.  But he has been pretty useless, laying around for a few days.  No school out of Nathan, but you know he is probably sick when I told him fine if your too sick for school your too sick for electronics, and he gladly gave up his electronics.  He is feeling a little better now and reading a book.  

So I am guessing Nathan will have to wait until later in the week for his chemistry test.    He also has hockey Wednesday and Saturday, so I am not sure how that will go when he is under the weather.  I am guessing that the hockey may be all he can handle this week.    

As for me, I am exceptionally tired, but so far do not have any other symptoms, mothers always get sick last though, after our systems are beat and bombarded by the sickies we are taking care of.

October is here...

Week 5 midway

New car

Lots of excitement this week with a purchase of a new car.  Nathan and Genevieve went with us when we were looking at cars most of the time and I think this was a good experience for them.  I think it showed them not to get too involved with the car and to make sure you look around.  We had a list of things we were looking for and explained to the kids we may not get everything on our list.  We also talked about a budget.  What we could afford and what we were comfortable paying were two seperate things.  And finally the negotiations process, and we bought with a Jim Patterson dealership, that was a little tricky.  We ended up buying a Volvo S60 T6.  Nathan had all the electronics figured out in about the 1 hour drive home and was able to adjust things for jeff as he was driving.   We all love the car, but at 302 horsepower, I don't think Nathan will be driving it when he is 16, we have him down for a fiesta.  The car does have lots of safety features and does park itself, but control freak that I am, I am not sure I will use it much, I tried it out, and it pretty much freaked me out.  But parking in Vancouver in tight spots, it may come in handy! But I think it will just be way easier to park then the truck or the SUV.

VSO

Vancouver symphony came to Chilliwack and we went to the concert.  It was amazing! The program started with William tell overture, Ancestral voices, and then second half was Tchaikovsky symphony no 5. Genevieve and I both really loved a piece that Bramwell Tovey created called ancestral voices.  Nathan I am sure would have enjoyed it more during the day.  His eyes were tired and he wanted to just close them and listen to the orchestra, he did not enjoy the singing part.  

Bramwell, started off by explaining why he created the piece and what each song was about and how and why he did it.  He talked for at least 4-10 minutes about this.  The first song he used text from Keats to create the song, he chose this because it was about the same time as colonization, the poem is not about Canada, but describes a pastoral paradise.

The second song is from a poem by Charles Mair, who was the son of Scottish imigrants.  this one talks about the loss of the buffalo. (this was Genevieve favourite)

Next song was about residential schools, based off a letter of a beuracrat at the time, signed respectfully yours, even though nothing in the letter was respectful.  I had tears in my eyes with this song.

The last song was made using text from both Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau.  I loved that he used both prime ministers in this.  And this last song was about reconciliation.

I loved how Bromwell was able to create moments of pause and reflection in his conducting.

Tea date

Genevieve had music lessons, and Nathan wanted to go to the book store.  So we checked out both used book stores and walked past decades so decided to go in for tea.  We were sitting eating our deserts and Nathan drink was ready so he went up to go get it.  well, Nathan forgot he has giraffe legs, and well the whole table tipped over onto me spilling my entire drink on to me.  I didn't think there was that much sticky liquid in my drink.  It was hot and sticky and soaked front and back.  Nathan got his drink to go, and the very nice worker made me a new chai latte as well!  But then I had to drive in my sticky pants in my brand new car uggg.  I went home and then cleaned my seat after lol

we look so happy here.

you can't see how sticky and wet I am, trust me from top to bottom I am soaked

Nathan

Intro to online learning

Nathan finished his intro to online learning course last week.  He finished the course with 95% grade. I think he was happy to be finished.  I believe it was a great course though as he definitely learned some skills he needs for his other classes.  I am glad that he started 1 week early on this course and tried to blow through it, so that he had the information before he needed it for his other classes.  But I am happy he has 1 less course to be concerned about.

French

Nathan did a little bit of grammar work and I think this helped him with his questions and understanding a little bit more.  I think the combination of him asking me (only high school French here, but I still do remember some) and asking his teacher for clarification will help.  I think what he needs to do is take screen shots if he has grammar questions and just send them to his teacher.  He did this once last week and it seemed to help greatly.  I know he is just someone who has to completely understand something before he can move on.  He was able to verbalize to his teacher more about why he wasn't liking Rosetta Stone, so that was good.  He doesn't like that they don't explain things, especially the grammar, so he doesn't fully understand the rules why you do things.  I think with his teachers help he can figure this out.

Math

started pre-algebra with biology.  So far it has been pretty easy.  He just completed chapter 5 on Thursday.

Science

I think he is doing quite well, and is ahead of where he is supposed to be.  His grades have remained above 90% for every assignment or quiz.  He does have a unit test coming up, so it will be interesting to see how he does on that.  I think I will try and help him figure out how to study for a "test" as he really hasn't had tests like this because I have always figured it was better to get him to understand and show his understanding and I know tests don't  always do that.  I am thinking he will probably finish the module this week and write the test at the beginning of next.

Language arts and socials

He needs to do more of this, he won't have time today or tomorrow, I am guessing he will do some on Friday.

Genevieve

Genevieve has been carrying on with all her subjects, I need to take some pictures for you for LA and socials.  

Every day she has been doing  

1 lesson LA

1 lesson Socials

German - she has been starting new units about every 3 days, she is doing lots of review to try and make sure it sticks for her.  I am hopeful that our conversation group wills start soon, but I am worried that it won't be quite enough for her.

Math

Music

She is still working on her new song, but we found out the she needed to submit a written score, by next week.  There is no way she can submit a written score by then, that is very difficult for her to get all the timing correct.  She knows what notes they are but it takes a lot of time to go through each note and make sure it is correct.  So we decided that the best idea would be for her to sing Finally I see because she is very familiar with this song now and she will have more confidence singing it.  She will submit her other song for festival.

Genevieve and Anna performed at the cultural centre over the weekend.  It was a arts program they had at the cultural centre of all the arts going on in Chilliwack, they perfomed a few songs for the people who were checking out all of the booths.  

Choir - she is still enjoying choir, although they do not have enough girls for choir, and she is the only soprano 1, this is a challenge as she is not used to harmonizing and will be a pretty big challenge for her.  The choir director believes she can do it, but hopes to find another soprano 1 to help her out. There first concert is next weekend, so excited to watch this concert, not just to see Genevieve, but I think its going to be an excellent concert.

start of week 4 September 26, 2017

Well I feel a little bit more relaxed now.  I think I needed last week to destress from my mom's surgery and then my car dying on me.  I find it interesting that I did not feel any stress about my moms surgery until after I came home and she was home safe and sound.  I knew that I was probably feeling some stress, but I know my body and mind is a little strange and I deal with it on my own time.  I was just extra cranky for my kids last week, but I am feeling much more like myself this week.  I may also be because Jeff is coming home today.  I know he often feels like I am pretty independent and I don't need him for much, but I certainly do rely on him, he just doesn't know it!  Even if he was away during my moms surgery, being married for 18 years, he knew exactly what I needed.  When I called him upset that he had booked the truck in to get winter tires and that he also wanted to take the truck in for brakes, I think I lost it a little on him.  UMMM we have no car, how can we manage without any vehicle.  But I know jeff, he wanted to make sure if we only had the one vehicle, it had to be safe.  He knew exactly how to "deal" with me lol.   And the even funnier thing he could "feel" my stress in my text message.  Looking forward to him coming home for the week.  Maybe not looking forward to possibly buying a new car, I hate car shopping, I hate making a deal.  I hate spending money.

Had a surprise delivery this morning of scones from my good friend down the road, always sooooo good.

Nathan

Well today he got up he seemed to be feeling pretty good, I didn't notice much in him.  But I noticed he was yawning a lot, and he was looking really pale about 11:30.  I asked him if he would like to take an Advil because he was looking so pale, I asked him if he had a migraine, he deflected me.  Finally when I went to get the Advil, he said, I already took a Tylenol this morning because I had a headache.  ahhh ok well you can take an Advil too as well as the Tylenol.  I instructed him to take his migraine meds as soon as he feels any nausea.  He wasn't too keen on this but I think he will do it.  

French

Nathan isn't too keen on the Rosetta Stone way of learning French so far.  I think I am going to have to start reviewing his lessons that he has completed and then, maybe come up with some alternate learning activities, I am not sure, or maybe sit with him and then maybe go over some things.  I think today it did help, he found that his teacher had a lesson on grammar.  He watched some of it, until, I noticed his headache was too much.  I am going to have to help him figure out how he can learn another language successfully.  I think he needs to understand that the more he hears it he will just pick it up and learn it.  He was speaking full sentences at about 12 -18 months, I am sure he can pick up a second language easy.  He says maybe he is too old and his brain is already set.  Oddly enough I thought the immersiveness of Rosetta Stone would be what would work for him, but I think that he finds that part the most frustrating.  He can get the answers, but he is frustrated that he doesn't 100 percent understand.  I think he maybe needs some kind of text book to look at as well.  Or maybe we will try again tomorrow without a headache and do more of the teachers grammar lesson.  As soon as he did it, I could see that it did help with him understanding some of the conjugations.  He seemed to be able to understand what the conjugations were.  I think it took me about 6 years of conjugating in class as rote memorization before I actually understood what we were doing.  I could conjugate verbs, but I had no idea what I was doing or what it meant.  

Science

No science yesterday but he did complete science today.  I talked with him about what he learned today, and said maybe tomorrow I could go over things with him and just make sure he really understands what he is doing and the concept involved.  Although he did do an assignment and received 95% so I am thinking he does understand what he is doing.  I think spending an extra day reviewing it will maybe help him in the long run though.  After his reading today, he did have one question for me and man so a Nathan question.  I knew he would ask it because the book told him what to do but now why he was doing it.  Glad he was able to ask me.  And I hope that when he does go to school, he also has the confidence to ask the questions in class as well.

LA/Socials

nathan completed a unit of each yesterday, but not today, due to migraine

Math

really have to get Nathan back on track for math.  He has not done math in almost 2 weeks.  He was going to start on his new book today, but migraines and math do not get along, he said if his head is feeling better this afternoon he would do a lesson.

Into to online learning 

Yeah almost finished, Nathan is on the last chapter of this course.  I think he will be glad when he is finished so he has more time to think about his other courses.  I do feel it was an absolutely valuable courses and he has learned so much from it

Genevieve

Genevieve has continued on with her studies.  I think she is doing quite well with her German.  I need to check on her math, although she says she has completed 7 extra lessons in math.  She is working on her book today.  She is working on her drawing program trying to get some ideas going for pages.

Yesterday grandpa called her up and asked her if she could cut his hair as Grandma is out of commission.  I think she had fun with that.

Here is a link to an article in the Hope standard of my dad and his seniors swim team at the BC seniors games.  Too bad my dad could not compete as it was the same time as my moms surgery, but he has been training hard for it, and having fun at the same time.

Hope Standard, write up on my dads swim team!

Week 3 September 2017

Nathan

Science!  

Yeah for Nathan, he completed 3 weeks of science in 4 days, with a migraine for 2 of those days.  He has learned a few things in his science class, about "normal" school.  He had to draw 20 bohr's diagrams.  So after the first two he was like, okay I get this, do I really have to do all 20.  Why in the world would you have to do 20 diagrams.  Cause Nathan sometimes you just have to jump through hoops.  

He has his first quiz, which was closed book, he was like why would you have to close the book.  Well Nathan sometimes you just have to.  So he closed the book, then he got his test back and he got one wrong.  

Question 12

Complete

Mark 2.00 out of 3.00

Flag question

Question text

What are three things that a Bohr model diagram usually contains?

Atomic number, atomic mass, ion charge, symbol of the element.

Comments

Comment: 

And the orbitals

Nathan looked at the answer and went but the orbitals are the diagram.  Well Nathan sometimes it is hard on a test to convey that you really do know what you are talking about when the teacher is just looking for a specific answer.  I told him next time just overload with information to really show you know what you are talking about.  I think I will make sure he has his dragon dictation hooked up as well, hopefully it works on tests.  As I know that would make it easier for him.

And then he had a learning experience for a science assignment.  He had to write chemical formulas.  I saw it when he was doing it, I know it was correct, but then he had a few corrections on it.  He was using an excel spreadsheet as asked by the teacher.  Well when he pulled up what he had submitted, sure enough all of his sulphates, were messed up.  They were supposed to say SO4 and something happened and none were on there.  He had S but no O4.  Very weird I am not sure how that happened at all.  

French he is cruising along in that as well.  I am not sure where he is at because he was doing it while I wasn't home. 

The goal for tomorrow will be to carry on with all subjects tomorrow.  He has missed out on math this week, I did not get him to do any because of the migraine, he was still recovering today so day 4 or 5 with extreme exhaustion.

Happy that he had all of these learning experiences with science this week though and happy that he still had above 90% in everything, it is frustrating as I know how well he does know his stuff.  I have been having fun quizzing him and getting him to explain everything to me just to make sure he really understands everything 100%.  

Genevieve

Thursdays will be busy for Genevieve

Art in the morning with Jessica

here are some pictures of their barn board quilts they are working on.

all of them together

Nathan's first one.

Number 2 Nathan

did I really have to label these?

Step one with this area project was to plan it out, and then draw it not he boards, they then planned out their colour schemes and layer it out.  Day 2 they started painting, they need several coats and need to dry inbetween.  

German 

she has been reviewing this week which I think is a good idea, I have added vocabulary onto a quizlet account so she has been playing lots of games on their to reinforce what she has been learning in mango.

Private tumbling

wow has Genevieve been getting stronger and stronger.  Last year it was hard work for her to be able to pull off handsprings, and you can see this year, it is almost getting effortless.  Next week she will move to the floor for her back tucks.  

Choir

Genevieve is loving choir.  I went to pick her up today and the choir director says wow is she ever talented.  Those high G's she can hit, just amazing, and she is only 11, I just could not believe she was 11 when she told me, I thought she had to be at least 14.

Tomorrow

Carry on with academics, make sure she hits everything tomorrow.  She also has a voice lesson.  

For me I will be working on getting them a schedule printout for next week telling them what they need to get done.  I had one the first week and I had sorta one for the week I was gone.  Kids got lots accomplished this week without one, but I could feel that they did not feel as settled, or maybe that was me who didn't feel as settled.

September 2017 week 2

Babysitting Grandma and Grandpa

Or was it the other way around?  My mom went into the hospital on September 11th for bypass surgery.  I went down to stay with my dad, so he did not have to be alone and waiting and then stayed while she was in the hospital.  I was able to do this because we have such wonderful grandparents on both sides.  Jeff's parents were able to come stay with Nathan and Genevieve while I was away, and they were willing to stay as long as I needed them to!  We tried to prepare as much as we could before the arrived so their stay would be easy on them.  Both Nathan and Genevieve tried to help by doing most of the chores while they were here.  So they both took turns cooking all of the meals and making sure their grandparents were well looked after.  I am pretty proud of both nathan and Genevieve for stepping up and doing all that they could.

Genevieve visiting grandma in the hospital

grandma few days post surgery, looking pretty good at this point

Nathan sent me lots of pictures of what they were up to

Proof Nathan was doing dishes

School

They both also continued their studies while I was away.   Nathan had to problem solve and figure some things out on his own for his intro to online learning class, he could not get ring central to work, he called me and I logged into the hub, but I was on my cell phone so I could not access ring central to see what was going on.  Nathan talked to me calmly while he was trouble shooting and then I said well Nathan I am sorry I can not help you, your just going to have to fool around and see if you can get it to work.  Well he decided to shut down safari and try it from another browser and guess what it worked.  I think it took him almost 2 hours of fooling around. (If it was me, I would have been frustrated after about 5-10 minutes of trying).  I was just texting jeff to see if he could help out as he was at work with a computer (and I secretly know jeff would actually like to help out with school work especially tech stuff if I can't do it!).  I think I am sensing that a computer would be helpful for me to have as well though...  I don't have access to a computer during the day because both of the kids are always on their computers.  

So what did the kids actually accomplish at school while I was away?  Well I haven't really checked it over yet, but I know they both completed several LA lessons and Social studies lessons.  Maybe this week we can all have a sit down and discuss their LA and social studies since they are both working on the same thing, I kinda feel a little left out, as I have not been following along with what they are doing.  I think they both must be enjoying it as neither of them are complaining.  It is much better then the ancient world MBTP units.

Hockey Hockey Hockey

Wednesday hockey game...
Friday, very late hockey game over at 10 pm, that is past bedtime!  This game Nathan received a crosscheck to the back into the boards, he got a penalty shot because of it and scored
Saturday, game at 4
Sunday game at 2

Monday.... guess what.... Migraine

So Friday I arrived home from being at the hospital with my mom, and we go to take Nathan to hockey at 8 and my car does not start, will not turn over at all, so we hop in the truck, and I dropped Nathan off at the rink so I could go try and look at the car.  I am glad as I missed when Nathan was checked from behind!  I went home and looked at the car, hmm what was I to do.  Decided first thing to do was try to jumpstart the car.  Of course its a Volvo, I had to read the manual to figure out how to jumpstart, nope not stupid, its a Volvo... the battery is in the trunk of the car, and you need tools to access.  I knew you jumpstarted from engine compartment even if the batter was not there, but I just wanted to make sure where.  Well jumping did not help, I decided to look around the engine a bit, that didn't help much either, no idea what I was looking for.  I knew I should have looked at the battery, and got out the battery tester, and check cables, but I just didn't have the energy to do it.  So I decided to stop wasting time in the dark and cold, and go watch Nathan play hockey!

Saturday I decided to stay home and not go see my mom in the morning, at first I was going to look at my car, I decided if I just ignore my car, it might make me feel better so that's what I did.  I thought the kids needed me home.  Saturday night after hockey, we talked about going and seeing grandma and grandpa at the hospital, kids were going to go swimming at the pool with grandpa, while I spent the day with my mom.  Nathan says, well how am I going to my hockey game... umm you have hockey again... umm can you miss it?  ha ha ha.   Jeff happened to be on the phone while all this was figured out and he says well do you know anyone on the team?  Guess what I did, one of the kids I had kept overnight at a away tournament, so I had the parents phone number.  They were happy enough to pick up and drop off Nathan.

Monday.

I knew Nathan had been waiting for me to start his science, because he wanted me home incase he had questions, he knew that meant he had a lot of work to get done in 1 week.  So he opened up science and started.  He got to the reading and then he had to do the check your understanding questions.  So he tries to do them, he gets the first two, then says, OMG this is too hard, I can't do this, why did you put me in science 9?  As he was reading I notice constant yawning.  The first chapter in science is chemistry, Nathan already has a pretty solid understanding of chemistry, so I was a little confused as to why this was hard.  I knew he needed to get this done.  So I decided to help him go over his reading, maybe this was because he was having a hard time comprehending the science text book.  So we would read and discuss.  More complaining from Nathan, more yawning and complaining how tired he was.  I finally asked him, are you getting a migraine, no no no, I am not, I am just tired, stop telling me I am always getting a migraine.  (I know when he replies like this it is a sure fire sign he has a migraine coming). So I tried to trick him into taking Advil, I said Nathan it will really help with your sore back (his back has been sore since the hit and he has been having a hard time sleeping because of it).  So I did manage to convince him to take Advil.  I had to leave to go get my mom from the hospital and bring her back to her house in Hope, so I told Nathan to stop the science, and just try to work on his intro class.

Jeff had called to check on everyone about 45 minutes after I left and guess what, Nathan reported a migraine, he was extremely nauseous and could tell he was getting a bad one.  But he did not think to take his migraine pill.  thankfully jeff texted me, and I was able to get Nathan to take his zofran, sublingual.  When I called an hour later, Nathan had crawled into bed with Genevieve, she was up in my bedroom doing German.  When I had left I told Gigi that Nathan was getting a migraine and just to stay away (Nathan gets grumpy lol), and to make sure she made him something to eat.  I thought it was pretty cute that he had gone up to be with her.  So Monday was pretty much a write off school wise.

Tuesday Nathan woke up still feeling a headache.  about 10 am he took another zofran.  By 12 o'clock, he was tired and still had a headache, but he was determined to come upstairs and try to do some school work.  I stayed close by as I wanted to make sure he was understanding and that I could help guide him a little.  He started with intro to online learning as that class requires fewer brain cells, and then moved onto French.  I asked about science and he said no he was not well enough.  At 2 oclock I left to take Gigi to piano, and when we arrived home at 4 pm Nathan was still doing his French!  I then gently encouraged him to do his science an he was able to get some done, including sending a chat message to his science teacher asking for clarification on something.  All while still dealing with a pretty big migraine.  He then had about an hour break and came up and did about 40 minutes more of French before he declared bedtime at 8:15.

Music

Genevieve's teacher has asked for more time with her, I knew that 1 hour was not long enough for both piano and voice, especially if she is wanting to complete RCM, so we will be adding 1 hour of music lessons on Fridays.  

I still have to work on ways to help Genevieve manage all of her music endeavours so she can spend the amount of time she requires on each.  

She has been moved to soprano 1 in the Youth Choir and she will have the first performance October 14h singing hallelujah, she will be accompanying Roy and Rosmary.  Here is a link to them performing hallelujah, I can't wait to hear it, Genevieve is super excited.  I think she is super excited to be moved up to soprano 1 as well.  Lots of work in a short amount of time.

Genevieve has been working on her song for her Canadian composition and it is sounding great, she has some time to figure it out and perfect it.

I feel she is going to be behind for finishing her book project in time for Christmas unless we can figure out some time for her to work on it.  I think it is a bigger learning curve.  She has been working with her drawing tablet and enjoying it, but I think it will take time for her to perfect it.  We will see how we can find the time for he to work on it.  I think I may give her a break from LA and Social studies after she finishes this unit, so she can focus on her book.

So the more I am listening to Roy and Rosemary the more I am excited!  It think Genevieve is going to love their music, I don't think she knows anything about them.  They have quite the following, and I think their music will definitely appeal to her.

First week of School

Great start to the Year!

I was a little concerned last spring when Nathan has said he would like to return to a regular brick and mortar school for high school starting in grade 10.  So many things popped into my head.  I really was concerned that it would be difficult for him and that it would then be difficult to graduate.  With EDS you just never know when and what is going to hit you next.  So what is any great parent to do but go into panic mode.  I made lists and schedules, and tried to figure out how in the next two years we can get him prepared and ready to return.  I then panicked and thought how can we get him ready in two years, then I though oh my, I only have two years left to homeschool with them.  Well summer school with us was really going well, and Nathan has constantly been showing improvements all over the place.  So I started to panic less and figure out what a realistic time frame and what we can really do to make this a reality for him.  So the plan for Nathan this year education wise is for him to complete 2 courses online, but then that meant he had to take a 2 credit course called intro to online learning as well.  His online courses are French 8 and Science 9.  

Nathan and his first week.  

So I received an email the week before school talking about the intro to online learning course, and then I had to tell Nathan he needs to take this before he starts his online courses.  I thought this was going to go bad, but he went with it and was happy when I told him he gets 2 graduations credits for completing this course.  We had a little trouble as for some reason his courses were not loaded into his account yet, so we had to wait until the Friday before school started to be able to have access.  Nathan worked over the long weekend to get ahead in his online class.  On his own he was working at it, even when jeff and I went out for the day, I think he just wants to get it done.  The very first part of the course he had to watch a video that talked about mis-communication if you don't know computer lingo.  Nathan watched the video and he said I don't get it, why would I have to watch this video.  Ahh Nathan's first experience with filler and getting peoples attention.  I get it I understand why the video was in there, it was to make it fun, a funny little intro to the course.  Nathan is not about filler, he thought it was a waste of time as he had to watch a 3 minute video that he gained little information from.  But he carried on and started moving through the course quickly.  1 week later and he is 60 percent done the course.

He started French on Thursday, he wanted to wait so he had a little bit more of the intro course under his belt so he could navigate Moodle a little better and know what he was doing.  He finished the first couple of French assignments on Thursday and made a grocery list for me so I could go buy his ingredients for his ratatouille assignment.  He was a little annoyed that he had to cook for French class, but I think in the end he was pretty proud of his creation.  He is going to make the ratatouille for grandma and grandpa next week.  He had a video chat with his teacher on Friday and she asked about what activities he is in, and said it was good for her to know just so that if he had a hockey tournament just to shoot her a message, and she would know that he would be doing less that week.  Nathan then told her about his migraines, and was able to tell her their may be days where he can not do any school work.  

Proof he is cooking and his chopping skills have greatly improved!

aww, see he does look happy he made it.

Yes Genevieve is a little terrified to eat this.

Friday Nathan logged into his science, I am picking up his textbook this weekend, so he hasn't started yet.  But he logged in and on the side we saw that there was a online meeting that was mandatory on Wednesday, and he had missed it... oops.  I thought this would upset him, but he was okay and emailed the teacher explaining his plans and what he was doing, that he was trying to complete the intro to online learning first and also he was waiting on his science textbook.

Math, Nathan missed a few days this week, getting excited about his online courses but he has picked that back up, he still has a week left in his physics book, I thought he would be done, but we didn't do any math for the last 3 weeks of summer I believe.  Camping, daddy, and canning got in the way.

Language arts and Socials.  Nathan and Genevieve have both started a unit on medieval history, their LA book is midwifes apprentice, I think Nathan is enjoying medieval history.

Nathan's morning setup

Nathan Health

So I don't know whose kid I have but I think there is someone else or Nathan has someone else's body.  He has grown so much this summer, but he also has grown in strength.  He has been doing hockey camps and workouts at exceed training all summer, and it has greatly paid off.  He had his first physio this Wednesday after having the summer off, and she really can't believe the progress he has made.  Strong encouragement to continue what he is doing.  Another pretty amazing thing is Nathan seems to have more energy, he isn't as tired as he used to get.  So he can do more without fatigue!  This is huge!  I am thinking it has a lot to do with his physical straight, his body does not have to work as hard to keep in his joints, he also has less pain, and pain is a drain.  I have been noticing this all summer but didn't know if it just had to do with summer, and less activities and no school.  But school and hockey started up this week and he has been able to keep up.  Each school day, he has been getting himself up and always starts by 9, somedays he is even up at 8 am and started school with me still being in bed.  Not only is he getting up and doing his work on his own, but he has also been doing school work until about 4 pm, sometimes later.  In the afternoons I have had to run Genevieve out and he is able to continue on working on his own.  So then I thought the test would be hockey, I thought for sure after the first hockey practice he would not be able to wake up, I think the next morning he needed me to get him up, but he was able to get up and do school work that day!  no headache, no fatigue.  He had a game on Thursday and he was okay to do school on Friday, and even had himself up at 8 am.  He has a sore foot and arm, but he is okay, he put some voltaren on it and is thinking that he needs to streghthen his feet.  Physio had mentioned that his feet and ankles are pretty unstable and that is something they can work on.  And hockey... I was almost in tears watching him play.  At first I went to his practice and thought oh my this team sucks, Nathan is one of the better players on this team, and he is a first year bantam, I thought oh no.  Then they had their first game, his team blew out the other team 16:5.  Nathan was able to hold his own well and you could see how much better he was able to skate and generally hold himself up there.  He plays another game tonight, Nathan claims his team does suck and he thinks the other team just sucked more.  We shall see tonight.  They are just playing balancing games where they trade players.  Right now he is on a team with a coach that was an assistant coach of his last year, Nathan liked him and the other coach on the team, Nathan says is good too, I kinda want him to stick on this team, just because at least one of the coaches knows him.   The games are longer this year, so you could see Nathan starting to fall at the end of the third period, so he does have to build up his endurance, but wow, he had some really great shifts.

I am so proud of Nathan and how far he has come in such a short time.  The amount of effort he puts in, is huge, he seems to try at everything.  Sometimes this is hard to see, and when he is tired, he can look lazy, and like he just doesn't care.  I am so happy he is where he is, and I know he would not be here if it were not for our choice to school at home, and the wonderful support we have received from the school.  My heart feels a little less heavy when I think about where Nathan is now, I have confidence that he is going to be successful at whatever he wants to do in life, and that he will be able to find something that he can do to support himself and a family.  I know he will have medical struggles all throughout his life, but I don't think they will be as bad as we were imagining it would be just 5 years ago.

Genevieve and her first week

So everything did not start this week for Genevieve so it seems like we have a little bit more time.  Nathan was a little jealous that Genevieve did not have to do so much school work.  I didn't dare tell him he didn't have to do as much as he was doing... ha ha.  Genevieve is liking how organized I am this year.  I thought I was always organized, but apparently this year, I have totally found my exact level of organization the kids need.  So I watched a video on memorization this summer and I then have made the kids up some flashcard boxes to help with this.   Genevieve is really liking this, Nathan not so much.  I have put in cards in their LA and Socials binders that they have to look at the vocab for the day and study, then they continue to study the vocab words on other days.  

German - 

We are very keen on German this year, and I am determined to make this a successful year for Genevieve.  We have found a study group that will be starting in October on Friday afternoons.  She has also started mango languages again, starting from the beginning.  I am making up flashcards for her on quizlet and printing them for her flashcard box, but she can also go online and play the games that are on quizlet.  I plan on getting Genevieve to do German everyday, 1 lesson a day.  We will see in October when the study group forms, what we will add or do.  She also has Marlene her Piano '/voice teacher to help her.  I may get her voice teacher to speak some of the words so we can record them.  If I upgrade my account in quizlet, I can upload voice, so that she can hear the correct pronounciation every time, I will see what we end up needing.  Genevieve is a natural at most of the pronunciation.  She is working on two German songs at the moment.  An die laute, and Marienwurmchen.

Language arts and Socials Same as Nathan.

Math

Genevieve has started teaching textbooks 7,  I think this will be a good choice for her this year, as she will be able to do it independent and she is wanting more independence I think.   It will actually give her a lot of review and time to make sure she is solid in some basic arithmetic, before moving on.  She is also doing some flashcards for review of basic concepts.  We will see how long she does it until she is bored.  She did complete 8 lessons this week.  

Her book, this week she did not do any work on her book as we were just getting in the swing of things with other things, but this morning (Saturday), I have finally loaded her Wacom tablet onto her computer along with the drawing program that came with it, she has been busily watching tutorials and playing around with it for hours, she loves it, and is excited to get started again on her book.  I think she was feeling a little overwhelmed with the magnitude of the project, and so I think she had kinda stepped away, but this has brought her passion back.  I will let her play around still next week while I am gone, and then we can work on getting a time line going for her and some goals.

extra curricular Genevieve 

Well it looks like the rec cheer team that she was supposed to coach did not have enough people sign up, but they are running a free drop in on Tuesday to try and get some more people so I guess we will see.

so since she was going to be without coaching I thought about adding something else for her, because we are not doing CSOPA this year.  Someone had posted about a homeschool  choir this year and I had enquired, it ended up the person did not have enough time to do it this year, so instead I looked for another one and found the Chilliwack youth orchestra.  Perfect!  Checked it over with her voice teacher and she said yes, good for her.  So I signed her up Tuesday night, Wednesday morning I got a message saying that if I was interested the other woman is not doing a choir, but she would be willing to do a group lesson.  The teacher is a voice teacher at Trinity western and I thought wow, this might be a good opportunity for her to have some time with other homeschoolers, who love the same thing she does, but also have the experience of another teacher and she mentioned she would do some ear training, which I think Genevieve could use.  So I signed her up for that, as it was really a good price both of them were.  We love Marlene and will stick with her as her main vocal coach, but its always nice to sing with others.

Music 

Genevieve is super excited as she has an opportunity to play in front of the leutenant governor.  It will be a Canadian composers concert, and Genevieve will play her own composition, she will be the only one who has written both piano and singing as well.  There are a few others who have composed piano pieces.  The majority of the players will be playing others pieces.  She was very excited about this and has a piece in the works that she is excited about playing.

Genevieve's note to herself for this week, this is not a game lol

Looking ahead

Once Genevieve has completed her book, I think we will have some time on our hands, I know we will want to focus on some science concepts, but I think we will have more time then science can take up.  I am thinking of adding this unit onto the end of our year, I think it could be used for Language Arts as other reviewers have said it has a large language arts component.  I think it would interest her and help her in her studies as well.

http://bfbooks.com/History-of-Classical-Music-Jumbo-Pack

I am wondering if the school has any of the books already, I know we have used some of the CD's in the past and Genevieve has enjoyed them.

Summer 2017

Another year has past...

I always love Canada Day celebrations, Genevieve was in the Abbotsford parade again this year with cheer, and we dressed up including Ginger for the occasion.

Next up is Genevieve's Birthday, this year we went to cultas lake amusement park.  I think this was the best idea ever.  We got all the kids their ride passes and Jeff and I set up at the beach.  Kids were told to stick together and come back for food and drink when they needed too.  The lake is right there so when they needed to cool off, they jumped in the lake for a cool down.

Genevieve also had some family celebrations as well.  For her birthday presents she received a recording microphone and a Wacom tablet!

We had a few camping trips this year, maybe not as many as other years but we had fun.  I tried to keep this summer a little easier by not going on any major trips and we also kept a routine of doing school work almost everyday.  We mostly just did math everyday, read some books aloud, and did a little study on rocks.  I think doing the daily schooling helped both of them.  We all seem to do much better with a little structure.  Genevieve continued to take private tumbling and group tumbling.  She also carried on with music and voice instruction, she really liked doing this over the summer, as she was able to find more time to practice, and I think feel like she was getting ahead.  Every year in the fall it is always tough getting back into music, not because she hasn't practiced, but it is finding out where she is at, then finding music selections.  Then she needs to get some Christmas stuff organized to play, then it seems all too soon, she has to make selections for festival, and she just isn't ready, it seems so rushed.  This year, because of the summer, she has most of her songs picked out.


Here are some camping pictures of our trip to Manning Park with jeff.  We love going the august long weekend as they have a lantern festival every year.  Kids love making their own lanterns and launching them at night.

recreation of baby photos... Nathan is a little long...

Nathan's banana, or Canoe

Genevieve's ship

Both Nathan and Genevieve helped me with canning this year, and boy did we do a lot.  Genevieve did about 10 hours with me and Nathan was at about 7 hours!  Nathan was our master peeler, so he stood in front of the stove and dipped tomatoes and peaches in the boiling water then transferred them to ice cold water, Nathan also had the opportunity to be my go getter ha ha, whatever I needed he had to go get.  Genevieve is my master chopper and mommy massager.  She stayed up late with me a few days to help clean up after canning and make sure we got everything done.  All I can say is that they were excellent workers and I think they knew they just had to help get it done, they knew there was no way I could get it done on my own.  We had 2 water bath canners going at the same time and managed to get 140 lbs of peaches done in 4 hrs, thanks to their efficiency!

sooooo much

and here it is all in canned ready to go for winter

Lots of memories this summer playing with friends, and camping with them.

Here is a funny memory with my parents, grandma wanted to see if Nathan was taller then her, umm grandma who are you kidding, Nathan is almost as tall as grandpa.  In the picture grandpa and Nathan were then trying to stand on tiptoe to be taller, I got a normal picture here.  But they sure had a few laughs.  Genevieve made some cards while staying at grandma's as well, she brought up a lot of her supplies and had some fun creating.