The First Day of School

Did your kids start school today?  I know a number of you started already, some started today and a few are starting next week.  I want to encourage you to celebrate the beginning of school!  Perhaps have a end-of-week celebration, create a photo collage of each of your kids, include a couple activities that your kids love - just for fun!  Helping to establish routines, goals, expectations and more are definitely important activities.  However, I want to encourage you to invest in helping your kids love learning by including some FUN stuff that may or may not connect to any of the lessons.

Having a huge belly laugh with students reminded me:  I have the responsibility of teaching them the many lessons before me, I have the OPPORTUNITY to have fun with them and build a love of learning and school.

Let's have fun!

Writing session for kids with Author Sigmund Brouwer

Hi Everyone!

We are only 1 week away from Sigmund Brouwer's visit to Fort Nelson! I found him to be a great presenter last year and he especially has a heart for reluctant writers and helping boys engage in writing. The session I attended last year had students from grade 3 to 10 and everyone seemed to enjoy the session, especially the Q&A time. This year, rather than just being online, we have the opportunity for him to be PRESENT, sharing encouraging, motivating and insightful information on writing, answering questions AND getting to see the kids and brainstorm with them! I would encourage you all to attend with your kids (to observe the process and glean ideas) and then to attend the evening session to ask questions, get specific answers that apply to you family and possibly even start building goals around writing and publishing yourself (for you or your kids!). It was so exciting for me last year, to read comments by a range of students who were looking forward being "writers".

Here is the link to register. Please feel free to pass it on to other people in the community too, so that they have the opportunity to come to this session. It would be great to have a full house for Sigmund AND to encourage writers in Fort Nelson!  smile emoticon

Register for this workshop session!

Take care,

Niki

Staff Training

Wow!  It has been an intense past week!  Have you every felt a little overwhelmed with your schedule? That is me this week!  I've been in 5 full days of meetings, two half days of meetings, had three staff evening events, ran around for numerous meetings and have been entertaining/neglecting company through it all.  This is what my last 8 days have looked like.  I'm sure that you can understand why my prayers have been so focused on "God, You are my strength and I need you."

It is all valuable and I am thankful for this time.  I am so thankful that our school, HCOS, is so committed to building community in our staff, spending time equipping all of us and pouring into us vision and purpose and encouragement.  I hope that I am able to do that for each of you.  Highlights for me have been our times of corporate worship, seeing how the different divisions of the school work together, building community with the teachers and support staff, and the workshops.  I learned more about subscriptions and foreign languages in hopes to be able to support everyone better.  :)

I am looking forward to an excellent year!

What beautiful work!

One of our own students (I think of all of you as my class) has been learning to quilt and she has just finished another lovely quilt.  Isn't it beautiful?! I love the bright colours and pattern she chose!

Great job!!

Information Emailed out to You

I have emailed out some information for all of you.  It includes the SLP information that I need as well as information for new families to HCOS.  For those of you who have been with us before, you are most welcome to scan through that document as there may be useful information for you there.  Like this:

Portfolio Dates – Portfolios are term summaries of what has been completed for the whole term.  These are student work samples (emailed, posted, mailed, faxed, picked up) and often a written/oral summary from the parent.  They are due to me November 6, February 19 and May 31.

I'm looking forward to hearing from all of you!!  :)

Welcome to a New HCOS School Year!

Hello HCOS families!

My name is Niki Hildebrandt.  My husband, Bruce, and I were able to host a number of friends and family this summer.  This is a picture of a moment of our summer - Bruce and I are in the front.   What a blessing!

I love to explore, try new things and see where God wants to take me.  What a privilege to be called to partner with you and your family in your educational journey!

What a great year is before us that will no doubt have highs and lows, opportunities to learn and grow, and find joy in growing closer to God.  I’m so excited to get moving!

I am interested to know how you would like to do your reporting this year as there are lots of options and I want to make sure that we choose something that fits you.  Please email me directly with your choice of reporting style (email, Skype, phone calls, blogging, etc) so that I know what your preference is (and that you were able to get to this link).

May our Father give us wisdom as we all continue to journey to become the people that He has designed us to be.  

Niki Hildebrandt  nhildebrandt@onlineschool.ca

Happy Summer Everyone!

I am enjoying beautiful weather, time with friends and exploring new sites!  I recently found this one

KidsHealth

and I am loving it!  So many great resources for science and health! I've linked the section for Kids but there are also sections for teens and parents.  Have a look - great stuff!  There's even a section for "Educators" that has exercise videos for DPA and unit guides for different health units.

Have fun exploring!