Oyster Creek Canvas

We met Greg and his two children at our performance in Bellingham, WA. They arrived while we were setting up and we had a good hour of conversation. We learned that Greg owned a sewing shop across the street. Intrigued, we asked if we could come by and have a homeschool visit in the morning. He said yes.

The next morning, we made our way to the Oyster Creek Canvas Company. A full service canvas and industrial sewing shop specializing in marine canvas. As we made our way around the shop, Greg shared about his past experience as a deep-sea diver and purchasing his first sewing machine to work on personal projects. That turned into larger projects, an industrial machine, and a building with a large scale production shop. Add his welcoming smile and genuinely warm personality and you have a recipe for success.

As we make our way around this globe, it is encouraging to hear stories like Greg’s. He’s our global/local neighbor and if you ever get to Bellingham, stop in and say “Hi” from us Hollands! And, if you have canvas needs, Oyster Creek Canvas is the best in the bay!

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Live Learning

We kicked off our Live Learning school year last monday. The goal this year is to pursue critical thinking, learning to communication effectively and take risks. The curriculum is fluid and allows for us to take in each day as it comes with the focus on nurturing the mind, body and spirit.

The children expressed interested in specific areas and we are moving forward in those interests, using the tools and resources we find on the internet, with host families, in libraries, visiting landmarks, business, and seeking an audience with experts in those areas.

As apart of the learning process each child set up and designed their own blog. Their blog will be the sounding board for their work. It will be where they will post about things they learn, sharing insights and conclusions, looking for feedback from peers and supporters. Of course, we give them feedback before the post goes live but we know the feedback they get from others is of most importance.

You can connect with the Traveling Turquoise Maven at http://travelingturquoisemaven.wordpress.com and Inky Inferno at http://inkyinferno.wordpress.com

As for specifics;

Our mathematics curriculum was donated by Education Reimagined.  We are pleased to be working through the first week of Euclid. We are learning about the relationship between all things not just calculation. There is also a focus on history which is a key component for us and allowing us to tie in some of our literature and science.

For Language Arts, each child has chosen a classic based on their level of reading and will be using that as a spring-board for writings, poems, songs, and conversation.

Both of our children are interested in Food Science and we have begun to explore that from different angles. Firstly, exploring it from a nutritional standpoint. We’ll be looking at the time line from farm to table, cooking techniques and how to get the most nutritional values from our food.

The excitement for learning is starting to reemerge in their eyes and we are so thankful to be able to walk in this mystery, to be FREE to really explore all that the mind can absorb, to know that each day we have the to opportunity to LIVE and LEARN.