Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Change of Times for Ball

Because there are so few children signed up, the Learn to Play program will be on Saturdays at Coldstream Park (behind Coldstream Elementary) from 10am to 12noon. It probably won't be 2 hours - more like an hour or hour and a half depending on how quickly they get tired. It is 50/50 boys and girls and the kids so far are all born 01/00. Originally Saturdays was going to be for the younger children and Wednesdays for those 00 - 98. If you know anyone who would like to play ball, please pass it along! Vernon Minor Fastball decided to do their registration differently this year... and so for it hasn't done so well at getting the word out.... Those interested can call me 250-503-5416 or e-mail agordon-smith@shaw.ca.

100 Mile Diet Talk

Hey, this has crept up awfully quickly, hasn't it?
Thursday, April 26
Schubert Centre
7 to 9 pm
With: Jen Gamble (Shuswap Eat Local Project) Sarah Clark (Slow Food Movement) and Wendy Aasen (Food Action Coalition)

Anyone going? I sure want to but have to find a way to get my barn full of garage sale items over to Lynn's that night as well...

Garage Sale to support Kaetlyn

So Saturday, April 28, is our first garage sale for Kaetlyn's insulin pump fund. It will be at Lynn's house (3001 - 22nd Street on East Hill just up Suicide Hill). We'll be there from 10:30 AM on FRIDAY to clean, sort and price stuff. If anyone has stuff to donate and can drop it off on Friday, it would be greatly appreciated. Or be sure to come by on Saturday for some great shopping (yes, that IS Monique encouraging people to shop SECOND HAND........hee hee ha!). The sale is from 8 to 3 and we can use all the help we can get to make this event a huge success. This is a chance to rally around a member of our community, and renew your faith in our power to make things happen. Next time you're in need you'll feel the power of this event extend to you, too...
[Edited by Mary-Sue]

Monday, April 23, 2007

Tuesday = Park Day

Thanks, Jill, for attempting to find a park that works for ALL of us. Alas! It doesn't seem like it's going to be quite that easy... So how about trying out a few to find which one works the best?
First up is Polson Park, the most central, the one not perched up on a hill somewhere...
We'll plan to converge there TOMORROW (Tuesday, the 24th) somewhere around 10:30-ish? Bring your own lunch. Hope to see everyone there!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

Wanna Play Ball?

This year Vernon Minor Fastball has done almost no advertising and their t-ball and mite program has been reduced to only 7 players. And I'm the coach! We will be running the 'Learn to Play' program developed in Saskatchewan. I have taken the training for it and I think it is excellent. The emphasis is on skill development and there is no competition involved. It is a very thorough program based on actual brain and muscle development. It is full of games and just fun ball where no one is struck out, every bats until they hit, everyone runs around the bases, no one is out. The session starts with warm up, skill development games that develop throwing, catching, hitting and pitching and then we play a little pseudo ball game. Fastball is a kind of softball so we use a larger ball and pitching is underhand. Vernon Minor Fastball is a girl's organization at the older levels and a small organization (less than 200 registrants from ages 5 - 19) and kids get to know other kids from all over town. I use lots of parent participation and we just have a lot of fun in a supportive environment! Our 'games' will be on Wednesday evenings from 6 - 7:30 at Alexis Park and we may have an alternate Saturday morning at Coldstream Park (not Creekside Park but the one behind Coldstream Elementary that the creek runs through and they do the Salmon presentations at - its beautiful down there....) That will depend on if we can get enough kids registered (if there is more it will be just on Wednesdays) The cost is only $45 and it runs to the end of June and will start in a week or so. If you are interested you can e-mail me agordon-smith@shaw.ca.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Wheels for Change Bike Tour

Hello everyone,

I'm passing on some info here from my neighbor Celia who is involved in the Wheels for Change Bike Tour. They are working really hard on getting this going but could use support in tons of ways. Check out their website here and contact them if you can help. They would also like you to pass on the info to anyone you know. They need help, but they also want the word getting out to the pubic so they can have a big event when they come into town on their way to Victoria.

Thursday, April 12, 2007

David Suzuki/Resource list

David Suzuki is going to be speaking at the Performing Arts theatre on June 14. Tickets are $29. Kind of pricey. I'm planning to go with my son Evan because he's a fan - and I'll pay for it with his SD learning investment. Just thought I would mention this event in case there are any other Suzuki fans amongst us.

oh and PS - I will type up my resource list and post it to everyone via SD so we can get a start - then you can add to it etc.. It would be nice to have something in place by the end of the summer at least. I think our plan was that I would collate it and then we would post it in here, and as changes happen Andrea or Mary-Sue could edit the post.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Bring your bikes!

Hi everyone,

Our street is blocked off right now because of road construction so we have very little traffic. My kids have been having a great time biking out front. I would like to invite anyone who is interested to come to our house this Friday morning around ten for a bike ride play time. I thought it might be fun to decorate the bikes (for no good reason) and have a little bike parade. We could celebrate using our bikes again! I'm not talking about a big ride - just riding around on our block. If you are interested, come around ten and bring your lunch or something to share. We'll be here with our helmets on...

Girl's bike

Hi Gang,

I have just been donated a really cool old-fashioned girl's bike for our garage sale for Kaetlyn's insulin pump - but I thought I would give you first dibs if you're interested. It belonged to my former neighbours whose eldest daughter just turned 18 - I think it might go back before her time even. It's a banana seat and it's just cool - needs new tires and a tune-up. It's small - probably for a girl around 5 to 7 years maybe? I'm going to be leaving it at Mary-Sue's place (where we are gathering the garage sale items) if you're interested.

Monday, April 2, 2007

No Foolin, It's April!

Just a reminder that we have our parent support meeting on Wednesday night at 7pm in Bean To Cup basement. Also, I'm eager to try out the new starter to the meeting that we agreed upon: a "What brought you here tonight?/Why are you here?" question going around the room. Also if anyone new comes we will introduce ourselves, tell how old our children are and a little about why we're homeschooling and how...
Does that capture what we agreed upon? If not, please help me out in the comments.
Thank you.

Wednesday's Meeting

Hi Gang,

So we have a meeting coming up, right? We'll start by going around and checking in with everyone - giving each of us a chance to say what we hope to get out of the evening - have I got that right? I would like to start our resource list so maybe go through your house and take a note of anything that you would be willing to share that would be of interest to others.

This is a move in reducing consumption and easing our footprints. (And remember Angela to bring the skeleton thing for me to borrow! (: )

Hope to see everyone on Wednesday night.