137 St-Ferdinand #153, Montreal.  Five minutes walk from St-Henri metro.  Free parking in the two parking lots on St-Ferdinand & St-Ambroise.

Each week, two volunteer parents and a paid teenager will organize cool projects and take field trips with a group of 12 children aged 5-12 years.

Weekly themes: aeronautics, engineering & building, nature, music & Spanish, claymation, and arts.

English-speaking camp, with French translation when necessary.

For more information: www.communidee.ca/camp

Since we opened our doors on St-Ferdinand, over 150 homeschooling families have visited our space. Here are some of the things we have done in the past year:

Activities: math, science, engineering, building, art, sewing, cooking, yoga, kung fu, karate, music, French, Spanish, Chinese, creative writing, philosophy, finances for kids, geography, public speaking, history timeline, videogames, board games, running games, lego club, book club, biking, Nerf wars, water fights, snowball fights, skating and tobogganing.

Special activities: Chief Topleaf, Assault Prevention Centre, downhill skiing, birds of prey, reptiles, Yad Vashem, trains, Dazibao, Brain Awareness Week, Black History Month, Wii Day, and several Let’s Talk Science presentations.

Projects: made a mural (now our logo), made movies (claymation and live action), built a container garden, set up vermicomposting, watched silk worms turn into moths, and created a newsletter.

We organized a group deal on legal services, had parent meetings (info sessions on homeschooling), created an organic veggie coop, organized a book and clothing exchange, group haircuts, a film series showing documentaries about homeschooling and alternative education, and a discount card for local homeschool supply stores.

Events: several parties, the Not-Back-To-School picnic (which had over 250 people attending last year), Olympic day, a Christmas sale, and school photos (portraits).

Field trips: Redpath, Lachine, Beaux Arts, Contemporary Arts, TOHU, Pointe-a-Calliere, Planetarium, NFB, Armand-Frappier, Science Centre, Biosphere, Morgan Arboretum, Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal, L’Illusion (puppet show), several plays by Geordie productions, Carillion hydro dam, police horses on Mont Royal, the fire station, apple picking, water park, Labyrinth Shed 16, bee farm, sugar shack, parks, and hiking.

We also visited several businesses in our building & neighbourhood – garbage incineration R&D, embroiderers, a sculptor, a pita-maker, a clothing designer, Foulab hacker space, and La Gaillarde (a non profit eco-fashion boutique).

Fundraising: We have raised around $5000 through our grassroots fundraising projects, including a spaghetti dinner, several bake sales and two raffles where we gave away prizes donated from 35 sponsors. We make some additional income by occasionally renting out our space for birthday parties and to other homeschool groups. This summer we will have a six-week daycamp for kids 5-12 years (homeschooled or not).

Looking at it all together like that, you can see we’ve been quite productive and had a lot of fun!
Looking to the future:
Despite our success, we have been struggling to pay the rent during slower periods. We will continue with our grassroots fundraising projects, but we would be a lot more comfortable if our membership continued to grow.

If you are planning to come check us out one day, please let us know!

If you want to support the centre through a donation we now have PayPal on communidee.ca – or you can mail a cheque to: Centre Communidée, 137 St-Ferdinand #153, Montreal, QC H4C 2S6.
Here’s to another great year!

This year, we are offering mini-versions of some of our workshops:

• 10h30 – Music with Aline
• 11am – Math with Brad
• 11h30 – Yoga with Danielle
• 1pm – Arts & Crafts with Daryl
• 2pm – Science with Tania, Rina & Olga

Other workshop-organizers will be there during the day to present their activities for January, February and March 2012:

• Spanish – Aline
• Chinese – Bea & Isabelle
• French – Isabelle
• Arts & Crafts – Daryl
• Language & Math Games – Rina
• Engineering – Danny & Rina
• Yoga & Nutrition – Danielle
• Kung Fu – Nikolai
• Public Speaking – Kim
• Film Project // Double Digits – the big kids (Rowena, Tatiana, Yuval, etc)
• Parent Meetings – Mary Martha & Rina
• Math – Brad
• Science – Tania & Olga

We have also planned several field trips and other events. For all the details, check the calendar at www.communidee.ca

There are over 50 family-oriented prizes to be won, valued at almost $1500!

Family passes to museums:

- Ecomuseum Zoo

- Pointe-à-Callière

- Contemporary Arts

- Canadian Centre for Architecture

- Musée Marguerite Bourgeoys

- Fort Stewart

Family passes to activities: 

- indoor skating at the Atrium 1000

- a cruise in the Old Port with Le Petit Navire

- swimming at the Olympic Stadium

- a game of glow in the dark mini golf at Putting Edge

Activities for children:

- art classes for kids at the Dollard Centre for the Arts

- t-shirt painting at Artista Café

- science workshop at the Redpath Museum

- face painting by Aline

- private French lessons with Isabelle

- karate at the Dojo Studio in NDG

Books: 

- Zoom (social studies curriculum) from Nelson Publishers

- books and comics from Drawn & Quarterly

- Shel Silverstein poems

- The Chronicles of Narnia book set

- Usborne Art Treasury

- Usborne Ballet Treasury

- Usborne Science Things To Make & Do

- Usborne Mysteries & Marvels of Nature

Other:

- family portrait (photography) by Matthew

- babysitting by Tatiana

Tickets are $5 each, or 3 for $10.  Buy your tickets at the Christmas party or before December 16 by contacting sonya.o@gmail.com.

Feel free to pass this along to others who may be interested. Thanks!

There are over 50 prizes to be won!  Tickets cost $5 each, or 3 for $10.  You can buy your tickets at the NBTS picnic or by contacting sonya.o@gmail.com.

The Sucrerie de la Montagne generously donated our grand prize: an overnight stay in a traditional log cabin for two, including dinner and breakfast.

A family pass to the Stewart Museum.

French curricula: Collection Lexibul 1 & 2 – Manuels, Cahiers, Elèves, Livrets de Lecture, DVD et Matériel complémentaire, published by Nelson Education.

A family pass for a cruise in the Old Port of Montreal with Le Petit Navire.

A free children’s art course at the Dollard Centre for the Arts.

A family pass to the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

A family pass on the Amphi-Bus Tour.

A free pass for two at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (children are free).

A family pass to go indoor skating at Le Atrium 1000.

1.5 hours of face painting for children offered by Louna.

Books from Scholastic: Mythology of the World & The Usborne Art Treasury.

Books from Usborne Canada.

Two tickets to any show at the Segal Centre.

A t-shirt painting activity, a ceramic painting activity, and a glass fusion activity, from Artista Café.  Artista is having an OPEN HOUSE on Sept 10 & 11.

Four hours of cleaning services from Dynamic Cleaners.

A family pass for a free swim in the Olympic pool.  A family pass to the Tower Observatory.

Four tickets to The Little Prince, a Geordie Production.

A free pass for two to the Jean Paul Gaultier exposition at the Musée des Beaux Arts.

A $50 gift card for Bummis.

A gift certificate from La Tasse Gamine.

A family pass to Pointe-à-Callière Musée d’archéologie et d’histoire de Montréal.

A family pass to the Ecomuseum Zoo.

A family meal at the restaurant Nouveau Palais.

A Montreal Canadians t-shirt signed by Tomas Plekanec.

A family pass to Musée Marguerite-Bourgeoys.

A family pass to Château Ramezay.

A family pass to play glow in the dark mini golf at Putting Edge.

A $20 gift card for Dict-O-Manie educational games.

A family pass to the Morgan Arboretum.

A free pass for two children to a Family Discovery Workshop at the Redpath Museum.

Comic books from Drawn & Quarterly.

Three free karate lessons at the Dojo Studio.

A massage from Nina de Cocq – 514-418-8193.

A men’s Roots jacket from the movie “The Immortals”, from Jack Geist & family.

A hand-made baby quilt, from Sherry.

Please remember, you are free to share the link with your friends and relatives, but do not mass mail it, post it to facebook or any other similar places and please ask that your friends don’t either.  Thanks.

Click here to download the movie.