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Cross-Canada Trip Journal

4:36 PM - Jul. 11, 2008 - Wild Thoughts {1} - Add to the Wildness

We began journalling our travel adventures in between the West Coast (2006) and the East Coast (2007).

I had so much help and enthusiasm, we were whipping through it (at a snail's pace--"Don't put scissors in your mouth." "Please don't step on the pictures...").

This was an idea from a homeschooling magazine I read--can't remember which one now. It was either Homeschooling Today or Homeschooling Horizons. The writer enthusiastically remembered scrapbooking her way through family vacations with her sisters. Not necessarily keeping a traditional diary, just making a collection of mementos and scattered thoughts.

We began by getting an old atlas and a hardcover journal. I cut out the provinces from the Canada map in the atlas. We decided to journal chronologically (where we actually went) rather than province by province, since we got to the coast last. It didn't make sense to start there.

I made a title page for the whole trip, then a title page for the first part of it. I glued Saskatchewan and Alberta in place and marked our travel route on them with contrasting pen and highlighter for good measure.

We printed off some of our digital photos, and I made several maple-leaf-themed templates. Some for photos, and one for them to write a few thoughts on. We trimmed pictures with great creativity (and new scissors! Joy!!), jotted down favourite events and memories, and created layouts before gluing them into place.

Even Brat Boy filled out his own entry, writing "bunny" and "T-rex." (The bunny came into our campsite on the second night. First the kids fed it, then they chased it. Typical.)

I went back to my old blog posts from last year and printed them off, with a few edits. These made up the actual travel log for our Alberta segment. To make sure I could glue it in, I opted to space the paragraphs wide, print it on half-pages, and do some artful paper-tearing to fit things in the journal.

The result is a family collaboration that looks lovely so far, and contains the individual thoughts and memories of each of us. It's not really Daddy's kind of thing, so I doubt he'll contribute. We may convince him to after awhile, just so as to have some of him in the pages too.

Skills have included:

creative writing

spelling (they each had a mistake or two and a question or two)

copywork (Squirrelly Girlie wanted to write "my favourite things in Alberta" just the way I did)

dictation ("Banana, tell Brat Boy how to spell T-rex while I print the bunny picture.")

art

co-operative tasking

fine motor skills for the little ones

(A friendly neighbourhood rerun from our unschooling portfolio at LifeLedLearning.Blogspot.com)

© Copyright Cathi-Lyn Dyck 2005-2008

Wondering What to Blog About? Me Too....

9:13 PM - Apr. 15, 2008 - Wild Thoughts {1} - Add to the Wildness

However, I just got rid of the dino dial-up (WOOHOO), so I'm now able to access a lot more information. Here's what has resulted:

Added a bazillion news feeds from all over the world to my RSS reader. Discovered a smorgasbord of interesting and weird things.

Started a YahooGroup for brainstorming blogging ideas, where I (or anyone else) can post links to a wide variety of news topics. (ChristianBloggersHitList is found at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CBHL/, for anyone interested.)

Having great fun sorting through all the amazing news stories out there. For instance, this week, I found one on how classical music causes climate change. The solution involved cow manure. Now that's how to tickle my funny bone.

Also, a series from News.com on young cyberpunks (and I use the word "punk" in its most unintelligent sense) and how they get caught.

And, of course, we're greatly enjoying being able to bribe the kids to do their schoolwork with classic Looney Tunes clips on YouTube.

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© Copyright Cathi-Lyn Dyck 2005-2008

How Do Faith and Culture Connect for You?

9:28 PM - Apr. 13, 2008 - Wild Thoughts {0} - Add to the Wildness

I'm now managing editor for the Humble O Radio Blog. We like to talk about the intersection between faith and culture. This often involves discussing current events. We're pundits pretending to be reporters.

Repunditers.

If this strikes a chord in your writerly heart, read on.

Step 1: Please check us out to determine whether you feel a fit with our current content, and feel free to send a sub to the email addy listed below.

Step 2: Here's our call for submissions:

Humble O Radio is a live and interactive online radio stream that will feature music, compelling talk and interesting blogs from a Christian World View. We are looking for bloggers who are interested in writing weekly on the following topics (200-500 words per article).

Parenting
Finances
World Religions
World Politics
Health
Music
Art - Theater
Technology and Gadgets
Science
Empty Nest
Grand Parenting

Payment is in web exposure and the gratification of a great team environment. We're doing something so unique, it's been catching on organically even through a lazy winter. Just wait till we start actually working on it.

If you are interested please send samples of your writing and/or direct us to your blog to review your other writings by emailing us at humbleoradio @ gmail.com...be sure to close the gaps before and after the @ in the address for it to work properly.

Or, query me with your email address for full submission guidelines.

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Copyright Cathi-Lyn Dyck 2005-2008

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