Castle View Academy

How To Set a Basic Budget For The New Year

Following on from Christmas, which is one of the most expensive times of the year, it's a good time to think about budgets. Set a basic budget for the next year; including the holidays so you don't end up in debt and so you can end next year better off than where you are now. Check out our posts on ways to be frugal and stretch your budget, too. We've had a bit of a nightmare this year as far as our bank account goes. We've had just about every electrical appliance break down on us ... read more

Folktales From Around The World

Childhood is filled with folk tales, no matter where you live in the world. When I was taking a Cree culture course in University we learned about the trickster character that featured in many of the Cree tales, and how the tales were meant to teach a lesson to keep children safe: don't talk to strangers, don't go into the woods alone, etc. It was fascinating and I've been putting together a little collection of them from around the world during my travels; Russia, Norway, Japan, Ireland. ... read more

Life In The Arctic: Artistic Nature-Science Unit Study

Last year my children used "Life in the Arctic Circle" - Artistic Nature-Science Unit Study #11 by LightHome Publications and learned about various Arctic animals and more. Life in the Arctic Circle is a downloadable PDF magazine that consists of 103 pages in total. It's well-written and contains a plethora of information about northern species. There is a short article on how to recognise and treat hypothermia, and another on building igloos, but the vast majority of this magazine is on ... read more

December Degustabox Unboxed

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! This past year has simply flown by in a flash...it hardly seems like winter yet with 12C weather; I've even spent about 10 hours the past two weeks catching up on some much-needed garden work. In fact, I was trimming bushes and pulling weeds when our delivery driver pulled up and dropped off our December Degustabox! On manual-labour days like that, it's a pleasure to take a break and peek inside to see what a box reveals. And in this month's box, there was ... read more

5 Fun Facts About Jupiter For Kids

Fun Facts About Jupiter at Castle View Academy

I’d like to thank Spaceman Neil of for submitting this week’s guest post with lots of fun facts about Jupiter! Such a fascinating place for children! You may have heard a lot about Jupiter in the news recently because NASA’s spacecraft known as Juno arrived on Jupiter July 4, 2016. Talk about a reason for a fireworks celebration! Even though astronomers for decades have used telescopes from Earth to study Jupiter, they hope that Juno will help them better understand how planets ... read more