A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

Homeschooling

What’s keeping Me Busy

By 8 Comments

You will find me being very sporadic on the blog over the next while. I have some reviews written up already and some random posts I’ll be getting done. Too many other things are keeping me on the go. I thought I would talk with you about what’s keeping me busy.

Homeschool Co-op

Homeschool co-op has started and I’m teaching a phys ed class and a logic/debate class. We are using The Fallacy Detective. I won it years ago in some contest I can’t even remember anymore. 🙂 Want to know more about the book just click on the picture. 🙂

Also it is spring time in Ontario. THAT very fact has my bones itching to be outdoors. To that end I’ve been a bit …busy. 🙂 I’ve been slowed up the last two days since I took a tumble and bunged up my lower left leg BUT slowed is not stopped! 🙂

White Barrel Gardens

garden beds from white barrels

First I started with what I am calling my white barrel gardens. Hubby works at a feed mill and they’ve been giving away these animal food quality barrels. Anyways, he’s brought me home six barrels I think. I’ve cut all but one in half, the last I’m hoping to turn into a rain barrel.

Two of them I’m using as starter gardens. I’ve planted lettuce in one and peas in the other. I used branches from the hedge that I’m planning to cut down as supports for the plastic. There is a need to water them soon and check for growth!

garden beds from white barrels

Barn Board Gardens

My second project involves the movement of 4 1/2 gardens. The hope is that I don’t have to rebuild all four, but so far I’m having to rebuild two of them. One is finished (my job), the lad is going to build the other. He’s getting paid so he’s eager to earn his keep! 🙂 I built the one so he has a template to work from.

New garden bed using barn board

I have to admit that it is a lot of work moving the beds from being vertical to the rabbitry to being in line, BUT it give me more useable room between the gardens and the rabbitry, which means…. drum roll.. LESS tripping and falling for yours truly! More room means it will be easier to do my twice yearly top to bottom clean out. Staying healthy makes that job easier.

I anticipate it will take another three weeks to get it all done. In the midst of that I need to do some reviews… Cross Wired Science is coming. Write a blog post or three. Finish our taxes! Find time for family and fun. Life does go on…but it means that some things (like blogging everything I think about) will fall to the wayside for a while.

what's keeping me busy

Review: Transcripts Made Easy

By 4 Comments

Did you know that my son is going into grade nine? GAH! I am trying NOT to join in with frantic homeschooling parents getting bent out of shape over highschool. Trying hard but not necessarily succeeding! 🙂

Everyday Education has come to my rescue… at least in the area of transcripts and grading. Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler’s Guide to High-School Paperwork has been a boon to quieting my mind over this important part of record keeping.

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

What I am Reviewing

Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler’s Guide to High-School Paperwork.
Everyday Education.
Janice Campbell
Digital ebook, PDF.

$24.95
138 pages.  4th edition. 
high school transcripts, homeschool transcripts, homeschool high school

Transcripts made easy is a comfortable read filled with a wealth of information. It comes as a PDF document easy to store on my laptop. At 138 pages I chose not to print off most of it, but I will be printing off some of the record keeping pages.

This is the fourth edition of this helpful guide for making highschool transcripts. You will find helpful tips from the following experts included: Professor Carol Reynolds, Judith Munday, and Kathy Kuhl.

The six sections of Transcripts Made Easy are:

  • Meet the Transcript
  • Plan with the End in Mind
  • Keep Simple Records
  • Grades, Credit and GPA
  • Create the Transcript
  • References, Resources and Reproducibles
Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

Transcripts Made Easy Details

Janice Campbell starts off by explaining what a transcript is (a record of what a student has studied.). She walks us through the different sections of a transcript, what to put into them and why they are important. SUPER helpful.

Transcripts Made Easy is designed so that you can jump in at any point and use only the parts you need. If you pick up this ebook from upper elementary school you would start at the very beginning. If you are just finishing highschool though, you might want to just skip to how to actually fill out the transcript.

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

From just learning how to keep records, what to record, how to track hours and more, there are many options provided. When it comes to transcripts, regardless of where you are in the process you can still come up with a usable transcript, so fret not. Help is here.. make full use of it!

One of the Things I most appreciated was Ms. Campbell’s careful explanations as to why we need to be careful how we put our transcripts together. When explaining why grading on transcripts is important, she helped me understand the mindset of the person who would be looking at that transcript. She then proceeded to walk me through the different ways of grading material, extremely helpful to someone who has never graded her child in his work. 🙂

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

Section Details

As much as you can just jump into the area that you most have need of, really the whole book is helpful.

  • Meet the Transcript: Talks about what a transcript is, the different areas, and what needs to be included.
  • Plan with the End in Mind: How to plan out your highschool education, sample methods, how to make sure you are meeting requirements, developing study skills and more.
  • Keep Simple Records: Simple is best right? Why by complicated. Keep good records to make the end product easier to manage. I only skimmed the special needs section, just know it’s there.
  • Grades, Credit and GPA: How to grade, how to manage grades if you are an unschooler, different ways to mark, and a helpful writing evaluation rubric is included.
  • Create the Transcript: different types of transcripts are given, along with directions on how to create them. Pros and cons are listed for each helping you make an informed decision.
  • References, Resources and Reproducibles: forms you can use to make your homeschooling journey easier. Forms I intend to use are the class profile, the subject worksheets, and the line transcript.
Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

My Thoughts

Janice Campbell writes with a personal tone. I LOVE how she disseminated her information in an easy-going, practical format. She even reminded me that if I have a question about how to do something with a document, just ask google and there will be an answer. Sometimes I forget that!

She takes what would seem to be an overwhelming task and breaks it down into simple record keeping. Some for the homeschool parent to do, and some that the student can do. I have been pleased to talk through some of her material with my son. His first question was “Is there a sheet I can fill out?” I could happily tell him “yes!” 🙂

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

The loads of examples provided, to show the variety of transcripts and type of record keeping amazed me. There is more than one way to do it all, it’s just a matter of finding a system that works for the parent.

An excellent resource for anyone looking at how to put a transcript together for their student.

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

Suggestion:

Something I would LOVE to see is .. oh, how do I put it? With PDF’s you can use the fill and sign feature. So I would love to either see separate PDF’s for each of the forms that can be filled out OR….

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

A link to a google docs folder with pre-made forms already to use. That was my first thought when I saw the sample diploma along with instructions on how to recreate it. It was like… OH.. if only this were a google doc so I wouldn’t have to recreate it! I could then just fill in my son’s name and the name of our school. THAT would be the best! (YES, I admit to having a lazy side!) 🙂 I don’t know which would be better. Separate PDF forms could get cumbersome, but be really useful. BUT the google docs aspect could simply be an embedded link. I don’t know. I just LOVE the idea of having ready made forms that are fully editable, and available as a separate file.

My Recommendation:

If you are homeschooling highschool, regardless of your methodology, go get this book. It’s chock full of important information to consider in regards to homeschooling. It’s more than just transcripts, it’s grading, legal requirements, options, how to grade and so much more. It is well worth your time invested.

Everyday Education

50 members of the Homeschool Review Crew have looked at the offerings of Everyday Education. Click here or on the banner below to go read the reviews.

Transcripts made Easy by Everyday Education

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/janicepcampbell
Twitter: https://twitter.com/janicecampbell
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/janicecampbell/

#hsreviews #highschooltranscripts #homeschoolhighschool #homeschooltranscripts 

Fitting in the Basics of Life in the Midst of Busyness

By 8 Comments

T’is the time of field trips, year end celebrations, graduations, co-op times and more. In the middle of it all is karate, art classes, homeschooling, youth clubs, volunteer work and more.  Just how do you fit in the basics when your family is always busy doing stuff? Fitting in the Basics of Life in the Midst of Busyness is not always so easy. Today I will address a vital component to making it all work. 

Fitting in the Basics of Life in the Midst of Busyness

Learning Opportunities Abound

Everywhere we look there are things we can do to keep ourselves busy with… err… Learn From! There are so many opportunities to socialize, develop our faith, our emotions, our bodies.

I have two teenagers living with me right now. One has youth group, full days in high school, and friends he wants to spend time with. In the middle of it he wants to see Canada, study for an important test in Brazil, and do well in school here. The second has karate, army cadets, church cadets, music class, a paper route, animals to care for, friends to spend time with and homeschooling to do.

And me… besides the mirade of small jobs I have… I have a household to run and youth to stay involved with. How does one manage it all.

Communication

Honestly, that’s what it comes down to.

Hubby asks daily “so what are your plans for the day?” He’ll mention what he has to get done, and I’ll bring up my plans.

Boy one: “Do I have youth tonight?” “Can I go ________?” “I must study, I stay home today!” We text mostly, and attempt talking occasionally. He’s not too keen on learning English this one. But still, communication happens.

Boy Two: “Are we on week one or two?” “Can I do this?” “Today is really busy, can I choose not to do this?” “How can I fit in this? I really really want to do this, how?”

Mom: “What day works best for me to go to the library?” “Can you make supper?” “Did you pay this or do I need to?” “Who is sweeping the floor today?” “Do we need to make cat food yet?”

Adjusting to Make it fit

By talking and adjusting our lives we make it all fit. Sometimes we choose one activity over another. For instance this coming weekend the lad had opportunity to go two different places… which to choose! Then I wanted a day away with hubby, how do to that if lad chose option two? Discussion happened. No fretting needs to happen if all the details are known.

None of it would happen without communication. Communication lets me know that we need more bread, or we’re out of deli meat. Communication lets me know that bathrooms have been done. Through discussion we decide if some schoolwork can slide so a project can be more timely completed. Conversation helps us to proactively take charge of what we to so that all those little things still get done that help make our house a home.

Your turn now…. how do you make it work? When life gets crazy busy and it seems something is always on the go, how do you maintain your home in the midst of it all? What is your key to Fitting in the Basics of Life in the Midst of Busyness?

Four Essentials of Child-Led Learning

By 24 Comments

Guess what!   Amanda agreed to guest post for me today.  Isn’t that great?  Welcome her with me to my blog today.  🙂  She’ll be talking about Four Essentials of Child-led learning.   Student led learning has taken us through world war 1 this year.  

“Mommy, what’s this?” Sicily questioned as she pulled out her kids’ meal toy.

“It’s an arctic fox.” I replied.

“Oh! I like him.”

“Would you like to see if we can find a YouTube video about an arctic fox?”

We headed to the tablet to look up videos on the arctic fox to learn a bit more about this little stuffed animal she got.

The video we found was a snippet from a documentary with an arctic fox searching for food. These little guys hop up and nose dive into the snow to catch small prey.

Sicily giggled non-stop while watching the fox catch mice in the snow.

From there we read books, did a few process art creations, and even pretend we were arctic foxes hunting for mice in the snow.

This love of arctic foxes extended into more arctic animals, so we started to study the polar bear, penguins, and orca.We learned about blubber, ice, and how penguins stay dry.

All this learning from a single fast food kids’ meal toy.

That’s the beauty of child-led learning. One small experience can spark months of learning and many different avenues to travel down.

What is Child-Led Learning?

In our house we follow a child-led approach to learning. That means I follow my kiddos interests for topics of study. Then I follow their lead with academic skills as well. I wait until they are 100% motivated and ready to learn each specific skill.

But it wasn’t always so smooth. I had many failures in our quest to learning at home. But through all those failures and over 11 years of teaching experience, I’ve discovered the 4 essentials to child-led learning.

4 Essentials to Child-Led Learning

Child-led learning doesn’t mean you have to give up all control. You are responsible for the 4 essentials.

When you get these 4 essentials to child-led learning correct, your days become peaceful and your child begins to learn quickly.

Child-Led Essential # 1: Encouraging Environment

You’ve probably heard from a Reggio approach to learning that the environment is the third teacher.

Well I’ve always been an overachiever. I strongly believe that your environment is the first teacher.

Your environment is more than just your homeschool room. It’s your whole life style.

Child-led learning is more of a lifestyle than a learning approach.

This also includes the experiences you give your child, and most importantly your everyday experiences. Have your kiddo help you do household chores, including help pay the bills, cook dinner, and fold the laundry.

The environment in which you provide your child and the experiences you give them, is what ultimately decides their unique learning timeline.

You control the environment.  The environment controls what your child learns.

Your child controls WHEN and HOW they learn.

Child-Led Essential #2: Relaxed Routine

Having an environment that supports your child’s interests and the skills you want them to learn isn’t enough.

You need a relaxed routine that gives them plenty of time to explore in the environment you created.

On a typical day, we plan to have 2-3 hours in our homeschool room with no structure except our morning meeting.

During this time, my kiddos explore whatever I’ve place in the environment. There are always open ended toys, learning games for specific skills they are working on, and invitations to play, create, and explore.

I have a table with materials/books from our current theme for them to explore at any moment.

We try to follow the Montessori 3 hour work period. During the first hour, my kiddos explore and choose freely what they want to play/learn.

The second hour, called false fatigue, usually ends up with them dancing, playing music, or chasing each other around in a circle. This is the hardest part, but according to Montessori it’s needed to reach maximum concentration.

 This second hour is sort of like their coffee break. I tend to leave a snack on the table once they hit this time that they can choose to eat if they want. Most of the time, we cut back on a lot of the chaos of this hour because they almost always choose to sit and eat a snack.

About 45 minutes later it starts to get quiet again. The kiddos are entering the third hour where deep concentration happens. Their brains are ready to learn new and more challenging skills.

 This is the time I will invite them to do the works I want them to do. Sometimes I will ask them to join me in an activity whereas other times I will sit down and start working on the activity myself. Most of the time they will join me, but not always. It’s their choice.

Child-Led Essential #3: Simple, Child-Led Activities

Learning doesn’t require a huge storage of materials or complicated activities. I rarely go out and buy new materials. We use what is available around the house or out in nature. Many of our activities are done with rocks and sticks.

Have you ever heard the saying “Less is More?”

It’s so true when it comes to educating our kiddos. The simplest of activities will be the ones that attract them the most and will have the most learning.

Why?

Because with simple activities and materials, the brain only has one thing to concentrate on.

When you have a bunch of moving parts their brains will most likely focus on the skill you don’t want them to learn.

Take for example, the ever popular preschool activity of tracing letters on a line.

It seems simple, but is it really?

In order for the child to trace on the line, they need to first have the development and strength in their eyes to focus on the lines.

Then they need the hand strength and hand-eye coordination to be able to stay in between the lines.

On top of that, they need good fine motor skills in order to hold the pencil correctly, so they have the pencil control to stand in between the lines.

And last, which is the main goal of this activity…

They need to form the letter correctly.

In order to do this activity perfectly, your child needs to be developmentally ready in all those areas which doesn’t happen until around 5, sometimes even 6, years old.

Keep it simple…

Hand them a blank piece of paper and a pencil.

Their only focus then will be on letter formation.

With enough practice, your child will begin to write smaller and smaller as their muscles develop. There is no need to ever introduce lines until about first or second grade.

Child-Led Essential #4: Trust the Process

This essential to child-led learning is the most important, but the hardest of them all.

You must trust the process, trust yourself, and most importantly trust your child and their unique learning timeline.

Remember…

You control the environment.

Your environment controls what your child learns.

Your child decides when and how they will learn it.

Set up your environment for success by providing materials/books for learning about their interests and the skills they are ready to learn then trust that your child will learn what needs to be learned on their own timeline.

Ready to get started with child-led learning? Click here to download our getting started guide.

To learn more about how we implement child-led learning into our homeschool preschool, click here for our Ultimate Guide to Homeschool Preschool.

About the Author

Amanda is the owner of Learning Through Experiences where she helps beautiful mama’s homeschool their kiddos using a child-led approach without spending a lot of time planning & prepping. She is a former elementary and preschool teacher with over 11 years experience. Amanda has 2 kiddos of her own, Sicily & Kade, who follow this exact child-led approach that she advocates. Amanda is the creator of Learning Through Experiences: A Child-Led Curriculum. In her spare time, she likes to read, garden, and relax in a bubble bath.

Five Tips for Teaching Yourself Art

By 15 Comments

I would love for you to welcome my neice to my blog today! WOOT WOOT! 🙂 Nicole writes over at Inkwyrm about book reviews and writing. I think she does a fantastic job at both. Anyways, she’s looking at selling some of her art work (as a gal’s gotta make a living right?) and I thought, how nice it would be if I could support her efforts! To that end…. Here’s Nicole.

Hello everyone! My name is Nicole K., and Annette asked me to be a guest blogger for today’s post to talk a bit about what I do, so here I am!

I am an artist and writer in Alberta, Canada, and I’ve been doing art all my life. Starting around eight, I began to take my art more seriously. Ever since then I’ve been doing it steadily. I currently do a range of art styles, with my background mostly being pencil and leaning toward realism. My usual is style based off of anime and manga, mostly using ink and alcohol-based markers, with a few other mediums thrown in.

Aside from a stint of lessons when in elementary school (a short stint), and the public school art classes, I am an entirely self-taught artist. Every art skill I have because I sought out the information myself, whether it be through people I knew who were better artists than me, looking up tips online, or through stubborn experimentation.

Today I want to talk about that, and give five tips on teaching yourself art.

Tip #1: The internet is your best friend

You can find just about anything on the internet, and art tips and skills are no exception. Using the powers of google and YouTube have saved me MANY times as I’ve struggled through a piece, from looking for references to looking for ways to keep watercolour paper from wrinkling. Not sure about how to use an art supply? Look it up. Want to know how to do a different type of texture? Look it up.

The internet is your best friend, and there’s no shame in using it.

Tip #2: IT’S OK TO COPY

Speaking of the internet, references are one of the BEST things you could ever use. I’ve heard from people time and again ‘I’m not an artist, I can only copy’, but I say NO to that. Where copying someone’s art and calling it your own is one of the worst things an artist can do, it’s perfectly fine to copy a piece for practice. During my high school years, where I developed most of my current style, all my time was spent copying other people’s work. It’s how I learned proportion, expressions, body language, linework, and SO MANY other things that I apply to every piece I do now.

Don’t know what something looks like? Find a reference online and draw it. Then draw it again from a different reference. The more you copy, the more you understand what you’re drawing, and the better you can do when trying to draw it from memory.

Tip #3: Mistakes are OK

Make mistakes. If you’re not making mistakes, it means you aren’t learning. Mess up, see what went wrong, and use that knowledge for future improvement. Try new things, and don’t be afraid of messing it up. That’s what sketchbooks and scrap papers are for.

Tip #4: Learn to take advice

Understanding that there is always something that can be improved upon is a huge part of learning. You don’t have to follow every piece of advice you get, and you don’t have to listen to every criticism you get. Be willing to listen if somebody points out an issue with your art. Having a critical eye for your own work can be hard when it’s a picture you’re really proud of. Remember that most people who give honest advice aren’t out to get you, they just want to give you a hand and help you improve.

Again, you don’t have to follow all advice you get, and some advice won’t be good, but hear them out anyway. You never know what you might learn.

Tip #5: NEVER tell yourself that you will never be good enough or have no ability.

A couple years ago, I taught an art class at a kid’s summer camp that my church held, and this was the first thing I told my students.

There are few things I hate hearing more than “I’ll never be that good”, or “I’ll never be able to do it”, or “my art sucks and I hate it.”

Guess what? ALL ARTISTS HAVE FELT THAT WAY BEFORE.

Your favourite artist? They’ve felt that. The most successful artists? They’ve felt that.

ALL OF THEM HAVE FELT LIKE THEY CAN’T DO IT.

But you know what they did? They refused to give up. They looked at their art, and instead of saying “I’ll never be able to do it”, they said “I can’t do it yet, but someday I will”.

DON’T. GIVE. UP.

Getting down on your art does nothing. We all have good days and bad days for art, but what matters is getting past the bad days and pushing onward, moving forward even when it’s hard. If you have to, leave a piece for a while and come back with fresh eyes. Relax. Art is supposed to be fun, so have fun with it and stay positive. We’re all in this together.

In Closing

If you are trying to teach yourself art I hope these five tips gave you ideas or a hand up. If you like what you’ve read and seen here, you can find me on my instagram where I post most of my art (@inkwyrm), my facebook page Inkwyrm Art, or check out my own blog Inkwyrm, where I post book reviews and talk about writing.

Thanks Annette for having me as a guest! I hope you all have a wonderful day!

Me adding this information.  My neice is selling Commission pieces of art.  She’s not selling stuff she’s already done (it’s too dear to her heart) BUT if you have something you’d like her to do (like dragons! or your favourite game character or whatever).. give her a shout via her facebook account  or her Instagram (above) and she’ll be happy to work with you.

The pricing is $50 for an original and custom 5×7 piece, of any character you like. This includes drawings of yourself or loved ones. Larger pictures and more characters are available at a higher price. 

Spiritual Education In Homeschooling

By 6 Comments

For families that are faith based homeschoolers a question that often arises is how does one fit in a spiritual component to their homeschooling.  The question arises What is Spiritual Education?  How does one approach it?

Is it part of the homeschool day, as in, is it subject that is completed once a day just like math, science, art etc.  OR is a more generic part of the day NOT considered a subject in the curriculum.   The question then begged is, how do you as the parent teacher help your children understand the difference?

Spiritual Education in Homeschooling, two main methods

I admittedly am not sure of the answer but want to take the time to explore it.  Personally I’ve done it both ways, where it’s one or the other.   Currently I’m doing a mix of both. 

Faith in every Subject

Spiritual education can be woven into every single subject that is taught.  That’s a given in a faith-based homeschool due to the fact that as believers we understand that God is in all and through all and manifests himself throughout the entirety of the world.   He does.   So when we teach art we understand that God is the first artist and shows himself through the things he has created.  The more we understand how God put things together, the more we understand how much he cares for this world. All the details he holds in place show us his omnipotence.   But does weaving faith facts into lessons teach our children how to have a daily devotional time?  Does it teach them facts about the bible which they should understand?

I don’t think so.  It does teach them the relevancy of God to every subject and area of life, but it doesn’t actually teach them to dive deep into God’s word and to think meditatively about spiritual things.

Meditative Study

The way to really understand a subject is to take the time to read and think about what you are learning.  So as you do math you learn that 1 + 1 = 2 and then can bear that out with practical application.  To understand Shakespeare you read his works, consider the time period that he lived in, figure out what the words he used actually mean, and therefore are able to understand his works. The same goes for understanding God.  You actually need to stop, read his word, consider the history and time period, consider what you already know about him, and really think about the verses that you are reading.  What do they tell you about God, what do they tell you about people (including yourself).  It’s important to learn these skills early so they translate into continuing these skills as adult. 

Curriculum or Outside of Curriculum

The challenge I find is this.  Having a devotional time as part of your homeschooling day, means it won’t be forgotten.  Do your math, your science, have your devotions, do your English.  It’s just part of your learning time.  You know it will get done. But here’s a risk involved: your children will see this only as a subject to be completed, not a life skill to develop.

BUT if you separate out your devotional time what do you do on those really busy days when it’s hard to fit everything in?  Then you risk your devotional time being forgotten, or laid aside, in the busyness of life.  The risk you run is teaching your children that sometimes all the running around we do is more important than learning more about God and his will for our lives.   How does one counter that?  

Combination?

This is why I see combining the two methods as win-win.   Your child (as a subject) learns the books of the bible, or learns memory verses, or works through a Sunday School lesson. A regular study time that teaches without necessarily the meditative aspect of a personal devotional time. 

And then at a separate time (like at a meal or first thing in the morning) you can have a family devotional time, or take 30 minutes after (or before) you start your homeschooling day to have a personal time of reading God’s word and talking about it.  To that end, in our day, we do a couple of things.  First as I go through the book of John I talk with my lad about what I’m learning and get his insights as well. I’ll read verses to him and say “Hey, this is what I’m thinking and learning.  What are your thoughts?”  

At supper (almost every night) we are working through the book Comforting Hearts, Teaching Minds.   We are doing this with our international student which gives us a lots of reasons to stop and just talk as we want him to understand what we are learning too.  We take turns reading scripture and then applying that to what we have learned.  Sometimes we are so amazed.

What Others Do:

I know from talking with other moms that they  have their own routine.  Perhaps they will start their day with 20 minutes of quiet bible reading, or a morning circle time, and as part of their bedtime routine. We each, through trial and error, find our own way.  It’s important to do so though.  God gives us life and care.  His son died for us.  It’s the very least we can do to take time to know him, our heavenly Father, just a wee bit more eh?  

Jack the Police Dog

By Leave a Comment

Today my son and I joined other members of the HOPE group to see a police dog demonstration.  We got to meet Jack and his Handler Jackie.    She is the smallest dog handler and has the largest dog in this area.  She talked with us about the work that Jack does with her, his training, his likes and dislikes and demonstrated some of his skills.

Police Dog Jack

Jack spends most of his time during general duties – going on patrol, clearing houses, looking for people, and other such normal activities for a police dog.  He has also been trained in drugs and one other thing… bombs I think.  My memory isn’t completely clear.

Came from Czechoslovakia  when one year old $10,000.  They work with European breeders because they need the pedigree of solid working dogs with good noses. 

His handler did all the training with him.  Jack works for his toy (a ball with a rope on it).   His ball is his “good job” marker.   They are trained using positive reinforcement only.  She trained Jack in London and returns there twice a month to maintain training.   

police dog and handler

Carries a gun, pepper spray and a tazer.  Tazers come with an inbuilt confetti that is marked with the number of the tazer.  So forensics can always tell which tazer was used.

The students (and some of the moms) asked good questions that ranged from size of Jack (75-90 lbs), to ammunition needed (carry two clips with 14 bullets), to items they need to carry.  The fun of trying to keep with a dog who can clear a 10 foot fence.   Jack is currently the largest dog in the London, St. Thomas, St. Mary’s and Stratford area.   He is a black German Shepherd.  

He has had 6 apprehensions in his life.  An apprehension is when a dog bites a suspect to hold them.   They are trained to bite and hold rather than to bite and reposition.  This training minimizes damage to the suspect. 

She helped us understand why a police dog can clear a house quicker than a person can.  Having a powerful nose lets them know if a person is hiding in a room even if a door is shut and locked.   Means the officer doesn’t have to wait for a key to gain entrance nor do they have to search every cubby, closet or even the ceiling. 

His handler was pleased to show us some of Jack’s skills.  He SO loves his ball and watched it eagerly be tossed away and did everything he was supposed to before he finally was able to keep it.  He ran through his exercise twice showing off different skills I only caught the first part on camera. 

His handler ended up being called back to duty, but before she headed off, we were shown a secret from the police car.  She has a button on her suit that can remotely open the back door of the vehicle.  Jack is trained to burst out in full protection mode.   Unfortunately Jack got the protection sleeve off his handler before I got the camera out and snapping a pic.  

emergency releaseWe learned that Jack lives with his person 24/7.  At night he has an outdoor kennel that keeps him comfortable.  The police vehicle is equipped with Jack in mind, with a temperature controlled environment and everything.

It was a great demonstration and I’m glad we went.Â