My 'Regular' School

There’s an old saying that goes something like, “there’s no job harder than being a parent”. I can speak from experience and agree that is almost true. I think a harder job is that of a home-schooling parent. Trying to teach your child and student that there will be challenges in life and then providing them with skills so that they can overcome those challenges. Sometimes the challenges come from sources that you least expect.

During the earlier days of my 13-year home-schooling career, the K-W Record sponsored an online stock market competition for local classrooms in Waterloo Region and surrounding areas. At the time, my two children were at or near the age of twelve and had already developed a love for reading, including reading the K-W Record. Imagine their excitement when my children discovered that their local and familiar newspaper media was sponsoring such a wonderful contest. The grand prize for the competition was what attracted my students to the contest – a pizza party complete with ice cream for your entire class. Wanting to seize this unique learning opportunity, I agreed to enter our home-school into the competition.

I contacted the Record to ask for permission to enroll our not-so-traditional class into the competition. I was told that home-schoolers would not be allowed into the competition. I thought about trying to convince the individual at the other end of the telephone that my students would have no problem in keeping up with traditional classes but I had been down that road too many times. I knew that the proof that was required wouldn’t be available until my students were successful beyond the high school age, whether it is university enrollment, college-bound studies or a job in which they excelled.

Since I couldn’t wait six years to apply for the stock market competition, I had to come up with a different strategy for registration. Registration for the contest actually occurred online. I went to the website to look at the registration form. The first blank on the form asked for the school name. I looked at the blank and thought to myself “would it work if I simply made up a name for our home-school?” I decided to try it and so ‘The Snyder School of Higher Learning’ was born! I finished the registration process, crossed my fingers and said a little prayer and waited to see if our application would be accepted. A day or two later I received confirmation that ‘The Snyder School of Higher Learning’ had been accepted into the competition. And so the contest began. Newspapers were delivered to our home-school for us to monitor the stock market pages and make our fictitious stock purchases – but not just two newspapers. Two dozen newspapers arrived three days each week because it was thought that our class was a ‘regular’ class from a ‘regular’ school.

The contest went on for 4-6 weeks and my students watched the news and the stock market numbers diligently, making educated decisions on whether to buy or sell. At the end of it all, ‘The Snyder School of Higher Learning’ came in second in the competition. Visions of pizza and ice cream soon vanished and curiosity arose as to whether there was a runner-up prize. We soon got our answer. A few days later, a large box was delivered to our ‘school’. It was quickly opened and my students were awarded K-W Record vinyl wallets – and not just two wallets. Thirty wallets were delivered to our ‘regular’ class at our ‘regular’ school.

It’s been six years since that competition and the proof is now in. The Snyder School of Higher Learning may not have been ‘regular’ but it was successful. Both of my students have gone on to post-secondary education, one at Western University in London, Ontario and one at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New Jersey.

I hope the K-W Record forgives me for bending the rules. I also hope that my children weren’t the only ones who learned something through their stock market competition. I think I still have one of those wallets in my purse – and a few more in my basement!

The Life of a Leaf

Here is our first project - a joint effort by Addison, Michaella and Melissa

My Life as a Leaf

It’s autumn in Ontario, Canada and my life is almost over because I am a leaf. But that doesn’t bother me because this is a natural part of my life cycle. When I was born, I was a dark green, rubbery surface with bumpy veins. Now I am bright red like a rose but I don’t smell like a rose. I smell more like my mother, the maple tree that is on the edge of the north side of the bush. Now I feel more like a bran flake without any milk.

I’m now falling quickly from my mom and am drifting from side to side until I silently and softly touch the ground and get used to my new surroundings. I see thick bushes and prickly vegetation all around me and I am so relieved that I am not in those thick bushes and prickly vegetation.

I just hope that my life does not get complicated by having a human squish me with its heavy, blue hiking boot. I would rather be blown with a gentle gust of wind to somewhere that I will be safe until the snow falls and I will be buried and decompose and I will start my new life as a piece of dirt. It may take a while but I’ll be patient.

We've only just begun!

I thought that I had put away my pencils, papers, blackboard and textbooks for the last time but I have come out of retirement at the Snyder School of Higher Learning to 'play' with Addison and Michaella. After homeschooling my own children, who have now gone on to university, I now have the privilege of sharing some of my time with Addison and Michaella.

This 'blog' will serve as a public blackboard for our projects. I will write a few articles and Addison and Michaella will contribute as well to their own pages of the blog. Their nearly weekly assignments should appear here for all to read and comments from supportive family and friends are certainly welcome. We hope that you enjoy this blog as much as we have enjoyed creating it.