Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Meeting Reminder

Hello everyone,

Just a reminder that our next parent support meeting is tomorrow night, Thursday, October 30 at 7pm downstairs at Bean to Cup. Hope to see you all there!

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Dance Class

Hello everyone,

I just realized that I hadn't posted this here and there might be some who are interested. I still have 4 more spots available for the class.
Our Creative Ballet class is returning by popular demand. This class will be appropriate for those with dance experience as well as beginners. Like previous classes, this one will be adapted to the participants who will have an active role in the direction of the class. I have a great passion for ballet. I have studied it myself for more than 9 years. And I would love to share that with children. The class would remain flexible and responsive to the participants and it would also work towards goals of mastering ballet techniques and developing strength, flexibility and stage presence. Our performances would continue to be dominated by the individual choreography of the students. However, I believe that as they study and come to understand more about ballet, it will naturally emerge in their own style of dance. I believe that fostering this excitement, creativity, and personal expression in dance is as crucial as learning technique and will have a much longer lasting impact whether or not they continue with their studies in dance.
This class will use the technique of ballet to learn more about dance and how we express ourselves and tell a story with our bodies through dance. And we will study ballet. Students will be expected to attend dance performances at the Performing Arts Centre. We will be buying tickets through the Inner World School for $10 a ticket. Family members/friends are welcome to accompany their dance student. We buy tickets in sets of 5. Although all of these performances are not ballet, both modern and jazz are derived from ballet other dance forms are useful to contrast and to broaden the scope of understanding of dance.
I require a minimum of 6 students for the classes to run (maximum of 10). Ballet students will need to wear a leotard (ballet-speak for ballet suit) and tights (tight shorts with tights and fitted white t-shirt for boys) with slippers (gymnastics slippers are still fine and ballet slippers are okay, too) and have their hair up (so we can clearly see their body alignment). They could still bring skirts or other dance costumes to wear at a certain time during the class.
Classes will go October to January. We will have a performance the middle of January either on our class day or at another time.
Dancing Buas - Creative Ballet
Date: Thursdays, October 30 to January 15 (two weeks off for Christmas/New Years)
Time: 3:30 - 4:30
Cost: $100.00 ($10 per class - payable all at once or in installments) (free for members)
Place: Inner Light Yoga - 2807 - 44 Ave
To register, call Andrea at 503-5416 or e-mail innerworldschool@shaw.ca

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Hi Everyone, I am posting this on behalf of Lynn.

Michael has been taking Tae Kwon Do at Kees for the past year and really enjoys it. I appreciate that they encourage respect, dedication, self discipline etc as well as helping kids develop coordination, balance, strength and flexibility. They have a promotion on right now & have given their students one month free membership passes to give to their friends. I have a few, and wanted to put these out to the group. If anyone has been considering martial arts, a one month trial could be a good way to check it out. Would you please pass this on to the rest of the homeschooling group. If anyone is interested they can contact me directly (558-4695) & I can get the passes to them.
oops - wanted to mention to that these can be used by kids and/or adults too !

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Grey Canal Trail

We're planning to go for a hike tomorrow afternoon at the Grey Canal trail just after1:00. Since the Silver Star road parking lot is now closed, you have to park at the far end of the trail - just off of L&A road (I can't remember the name of the road you turn on to - Rugg Rd., maybe?). If you'd like to come but don't know how to get there, you could meet us at Butcher Boys at 1:00.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Hi

Just moved to Vernon. Have 3 kiddos (7, 4&1). Looking to meet some other Home Schoolers and join some activities, maybe organize some, and learn about the area. We are renting a house in Bella Vista area. Can others read these e-mails? When is the next get together? I don't usually go anywhere without my kids or my nursing toddler but now with 3 shopping is getting more challening....
Delia
p.s. any tips for snowshoe buying for the area/type of snow/gentle trails
pps anybody good at making sourdough bread because I need help....my dough is sooooo sticky but I really would like to get better at making sourdough bread

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Jan Hunt update

Just to be sure I contacted everyone, Jan Hunt is now in Falkland on Oct. 23, 6:30 pm.

Friday, October 10, 2008

Ski Program 2009

Hello Everyone,

I know the leaves are still a little green to be thinking about skiing but it is time to get organized to make sure we have the experience we would like. (well, actually, Mary Sue is organized, you know me....)

Mary Sue and I are starting to get organized for this year's ski program. We will be booking a Thursday 10am lesson slot on Jan 22, 29, Feb 5, 12 and 26 - a total of 5 days. (February 12 will be a 11am lesson time) Before we can confirm those dates, we need to have an idea of numbers - so we know if we have enough to do it by ourselves like last year or if we need to get together with another group.
Prices will be the same as last year which is very reasonable and are included at the end of this post. What they are doing a little differently in an effort to be more organized and have people not miss their lessons, etc., is to limit the number of people at the hill taking lessons on a particular day. In the past, we have been able to accommodate people joining us at the last minute but this year we will have to be more concrete on our numbers. We will still have a little wriggle room but not the fluctuations that we have had in the past. So please let anyone know who might be interested so they can contact me as soon as possible. (agordon-smith@shaw.ca 250-503-5416) Once our numbers are confirmed, more details will follow.
Looking forward to long warm days in the cafeteria knitting and crocheting while all of you ski!
Sincerely,
Andrea Clarke
Lesson: $10
Lift/lesson: $17
Lift/lesson/Rental skiing: $22
Lift/lesson/rental boarding: $27

Cross Country
Lesson $10
Lesson/Track $12
Lesson/track/rental $14

Parents MUST be helping to obtain these rates:

Lift $25
Rental skiing $10
Rental boarding $13
Track ticket $12
Rental track $2

I notice that although the parent rates are higher than in the past, they no longer have to pay for a lesson so it works out to be about the same.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

so sorry - cancelling

I'm very sorry guys. The stress of planning this, plus a few other things in my life, has totally gotten to me. I just can't do it anymore and am cancelling my involvement in it.

If anyone wants to take it over, they are welcome. I can send you the contact info.

I'm snapping at my kids and feeling sick inside. I don't know why I do this to myself and I don't know why I hate planning things, but there it is.

I'm very sorry. First the park wouldn't let all us parents in during the program, and now a $5 event has turned into a $14 or more event. It seems very wrong to me, that they couldn't accomodate us for $5. I'm through with it.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

wildlife update

well I already wrote this in the wrong blog so this will be shorter.

Ok, I can pay $80 which we would split into everyone who shows up and then on top of that everyone would pay admission just as if it were a normal day - so if you have a membership you don't pay but if you don't, it's $12 per adult and $9 per child.

And for that we would get a tour and a private animal encounter.

So this could get mightly pricey for people with a few kids. I say we take our chances on a weekend - there's lots to do for a whole lot longer and it's much cheaper. We could plan a date and meet up there - car-pool just as we were planning.

AND - if people are interested in an outing that is free (except for gas), you are all invited out to my house for a hike in the woods - we have lots of trails and it's pretty cool in there, no difficult hiking but a great forest, and we could bring a picnic lunch (weather permitting) OR just hike and then have a kind of potluck lunch here at the house OR perhaps we could all meet and go hiking up Mt. Rose/Swanson outside of Armstrong. That is my all-time favourite hike and it's do-able for little kids too - and the view at the top is outstanding.

So there's some options - let me know. We could even do some "activities" on the hike - I have tonnes of cool books with wonderful ideas I've been wanting to try out. If everyone wears hoodies we could lie on the forest floor and imagine what it's like to be a bug. hee hee hee
So this would all depend on the weather of course.

Saturday, October 4, 2008

Wildlife Park 2

Hi all,

Well, I think I emailed everyone who said they were coming, but I'm just making sure everyone knows the scoop.

So the park says that they will accomodate only 1 parent per 5 children in the "classroom" for the program and the rest would have to pay and then I guess could walk around the park and look at the animals. Younger siblings are not welcome in the classroom either. Their program strictly attends to ministry curriculum, but is supposedly "interactive and exciting". I must say I am just not sure. For some of you it's a very long way to go to end up in a restrictive, "schooly" type presentation.

I don't know how we decide which ones of us get to participate and which don't - the whole thing is ridiculous because we all want to be able to discuss the day with our kids I would imagine. I suspect that these folks (like so many others) just don't know how to get their mind out of a school-type situation. I must say I'm disappointed. The booking person suggested that we could go on a weekend instead when they do have animal encounters for the public. We have done this before and it is great - Liam had a snowy owl fly to his arm the first time we ever went.

So - I'm really not sure about going ahead and paying for it. The restrictions on parents and younger siblings is very off-putting. My inclination is to just go on a weekend and do our own thing, but if most people still want to go, we can do that too.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

BMX on friday

Just a reminder that some of us are meeting at the BMX track on Friday afternoon. I plan to be there from 1 to 3.