For those living in Quebec who would like to hold a mock election to coincide with our upcoming provincial election, Voters in Training (Electeurs en herbe) is offering free educational materials to schools, youth groups and others. They don’t specifically mention homeschools, but they are affiliated with the Student Vote program which is quite happy to have homeschoolers participating.

We participated in the Student Vote for the federal election this year, and I couldn’t have been more pleased with the quality of the materials we received! We were sent real ballot boxes and privacy screens, printed ballots with the candidates for our riding on them (not official, but very close to the real thing) and a ton of great support materials. The girls really felt as though they were a part of the election, and took such an interest in the whole process from the campaigning right through the counting of the returns on election night. Holding a vote in our homeschool and knowing that their votes would be counted with those of students from across the country made a big difference to our daughters. They want to have a say, and Student Vote allowed them to do so. I look forward to similar results with our follow up activities for the provincial election.

We just registered for our provincial election materials. I’ll post when I’ve heard from Voters in Training and have a better idea of how their program works. With such a lousy voter turnout in the federal election here in Canada, I hope everyone will try to get more involved in the provincial election. The American voter turnout was tremendous this year. It would be great if we could follow their lead! If you’ve got kids - whether you be a parent, a classroom teacher or homeschooler, or a youth leader - please take some time to get them excited about voting. It’s a right and a civic duty, and if we can stir the kids up while they’re young maybe we’ll see a generation that turns up at the polls in great numbers.

To register for the Voters in Training Quebec election, visit this page on their web site. Materials are available in English or in French. Please include the word “homeschool” in your school name if you are a homeschool: let the world know how many of us there are!

To learn more about Student Vote, check out their web site here.

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while you will know that an acquaintance of mine has leukemia & has been working very hard to find a stem cell donor. He finally did, and he’ll be receiving his transplant in Ottawa today. This lovely piece of text is an excerpt from Emru Townsend’s latest blog entry. It explains how the transplant process works, but it is also a celebration of creation.

First, an explanation for those who haven’t been around the whole time. We talk about bone marrow, but what transplant recipients like me really need are healthy stem cells. Bone marrow contains plenty of the stem cells we need, but times have changed. In 70% of all extraction cases, we get the required stem cells through a process called PBSC (peripheral blood stem cell) extraction. This process is similar to donating blood, except the donor gets change: the blood is extracted through a needle, which takes the blood to an apheresis machine, which separates the stem cells from the rest of the blood. Anything that isn’t needed for the extraction is returned to the donor. As for those remaining extractions, yes, those are actual bone marrow—a spongy red tissue.

Either way, my transplant works the same. Not through any kind of operation, but by pumping the stem cells/marrow through my chest catheter, the same way as I get my blood transfusions, for example. As I understand it marrow transplants take three hours or so (don’t quote me on that); my transplant, which is of stem cells, is 60-80 minutes (two units, 30-40 minutes per unit).

“But wait,” you might ask. “I have been following your posts, and you’ve mentioned that your catheter is a central venous catheter. That is, it goes into your heart to get pumped into the bloodstream. So how do the stem cells get to inside your bones, which is where they’ll generate the new marrow?” Ah, that is the freaky part, the part that medical professionals marvel over but don’t question, because hey, it works. The stem cells know where to go and they just get themselves there.

A moment’s pause for the awesomeness of creation, please.

~ Emru Townsend, “Part of the Process”, Heal Emru Notes

If you would like to take some time today to talk to your children about leukemia and stem cell transplants, there is a free downloadable colouring book available from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. My children and I are using it to discuss what Emru has been going through, and what is happening to him during the transplant today. Perhaps you will find it useful too.

Emru had less than a 4% chance of finding a donor through a bone marrow registry when his sister’s bone marrow type was determined not to match his. This is partly due to the lack of awareness about the registry, but also in large part because he is of Caribbean decent. Non-Caucasian populations are not well represented among potential donors. Emru & his family have been working tirelessly for months to get the word out, so that people will realize the importance of stem cell transplant (which is also helpful for people with sickle cell anemia, by the way!)

Because of Emru, his sister Tamu, and wife Vicki, there are a lot of people who got involved to educate the public and a lot of people discovered registering was as easy as filling in a form and giving either a cheek swab or a blood sample. Donating stem cells is not much more complicated than giving blood, and does not put the donor at any risk medically.

I know a lot of homeschooling families like to do community service projects, and this might be an interesting idea for service in your community. Think about putting up some posters or talking to people in your community about registering. I’m sure you can come up with other ideas, too!

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

I have been hard at work creating some e-books for homeschoolers to use, and would very much love to have feedback from a few parents.

For the time being, they are mostly children’s classics from authors like Beatrix Potter, Thornton Burgess, Edith Nesbit & Charles Kingsley. I am trying to work on books that are difficult to find in a printer-ready format. I am also including some books that were the inspiration for movies released over the last year or so. Later there will be novel and unit studies, including a book of Canadian artists for parents who are following an art appreciation program and would like to be able to include some Canadian content. Informational books for parents are in the works too!

All the books are formatted for reading on-screen or in hard copy. Large print editions are already available for some of the books, so if anyone has a child with a visual impairment or who needs/prefers larger print for any other reason, please let me know so I can get these to you. The books come with little extras, such as a biography of the author, copywork, or information about the degree of readability (i.e. what grade level your child needs to read at, in order to read the book independently.)

The e-books I am producing will eventually be offered for sale, however I am looking for a handful of parents who would like to read the books and use them with their children at home. Once you’ve had a chance to use the book(s) I need your feedback on things like fonts, lay-outs and other formatting issues, and also on the content of the books. Any suggestions you make will be taken into consideration as I prepare the first edition for sale to the general public. Suggestions for other types of materials would be appreciated, as well!

Beta testers will be provided one or more books each, free of charge, for their review. Once any changes have been made and the final product is ready, testers will receive a free copy of each book they helped evaluate.

If you would like to help out & receive free e-books, please email me at freehold2@yahoo.ca and be sure to write “Beta Test” in the subject line. Please include the age(s) of your child(ren) in the message body (please mention any special needs or reading levels that are significantly higher/lower than average, so I can select the best product for you to test drive.) You may also request your first book be from a specific category: storybooks, novels, nature study/science.

Thank you in advance for your help,
Ruby
Freehold2 Editions

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

Here are this week’s freebies from www.HomeschoolFreebieOfTheDay.com

Monday, Sept 15: Easy Homeschooling Curriculum
Wonderful guide to choosing the right curriculum materials for your kids, by Lorraine Curry & 16 homeschooling experts (This is aimed at Christian homeschoolers)

Tuesday, Sept 16: Stories To Tell To Childen (& How to Tell Them)
Classic book of read-aloud stories with instructions on how to be a better storyteller. Excellent!

Wednesday, Sept 17: The Absurd ABC by Walter Crane
Delightful ABC rhymes with wonderful Crane illustrations

Thursday, Sept 18: Required Poems for Memorization
A collection of classic poems which were originally required reading & meant for memorization in school grades 3 and 4 in the early 1900s.
Wonderful verses, great for reading aloud, recitation & remembering.

Friday, Sept 19: ???? Can you guess the mysterious Friday resource ????
Be sure to stop by the site to check out our weekend goodie!

Make a note of the ones you want, and be sure to stop
by that day and get your copy!

You can download all of these on their respective days
at our site: www.HomeschoolFreebieOfTheDay.com

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!

Mr. Q of E=MCQ has produced a second course for homeschooling families. Called Elementary Earth Science, the first chapter is available for download free of charge so you can evaluate the material. The course is designed to be completed over 36 weeks, and comes with both student and parent materials. It includes readings, worksheets, tests and lab work for kids aged roughly 7-10.

The Elementary Life Science course, also 36 weeks for the same aged kids, is still available free for download PLUS Mr. Q has added extra resources. The full text of the new earth science course, if you decide to buy it, is $50 for the complete material (parent & student texts.)

This work was created by Ruby of Freehold 2, and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.

Excerpts copyright quoted authors. Please visit their sites to read more, and respect the terms of their copyrights. Thanks!