Colin on Photography » kids

A New School in the Neighbourhood

Colin Carmichael — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 16:46:39 +0000

Having kids changes your life. Duh. Just a few years ago, the building of a new school (and all of the bureaucratic wrangling that goes with that) was a mildly interesting civic event to someone like me who has an interest in local politics. Now, as our second child prepares for kindergarten in the fall (just as our oldest is leaving) the prospect of a new school in the neighbourhood has ramifications that will profoundly impact our family’s daily life.

My wife sits on the ‘School Council‘ at our kids’ school. The new school planned for southeast Galt (the part of Cambridge that I live in) and the boundary implication were mentioned at a recent meeting. This isn’t news but I hadn’t thought about it for a while and I was curious how the existing school boundaries would be affected.

A quick Google search brought me to the Waterloo Region District School Board’s Accommodation Review for southeast Galt elementary schools. There is a LOT of information here, and I will admit that I have not read it all. I did, however, spend a little time poring over the maps provided in Appendices C&D. (I love maps)

Appendix C: JK-6 boundaries:

click image for full-size

Appendix D: 7-8 boundaries:

click image for full-size

There are a couple of weird things I noticed:

our kids will go to the new school for 7-8 even though Stewart Ave is closer. This is even more problematic for us since we’ll have kids going in two directions (Chalmers and Glenview to the west and ‘NewSchool’ to the east even though Stewart Ave is situated between Chalmers and Glenview.
kids who live on Dudhope (a block away from Stewart Ave) will now be bussed the 1.9 kilometres to ‘New School’?
Based on my reading of the busing rules (here), it would seem that our kids will be bussed to ‘NewSchool’ (1.85 kms) when they could easily walk to Stewart Ave. (1.1 km). It’s ridiculous to bus kids within city limits when there’s a school within walking distance!

I realize that these are pretty complex things to figure out (especially with the Jr/Sr split) but I will maintain my position from my trustee campaign last fall that if we had smaller schools in more neighbourhoods we could probably eliminate all intra-city busing.

If you live in southeast Galt – or even if you don’t – what do you think of the plan for the new school? Leave a comment below…

Oh those questions!

Colin Carmichael — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:30:12 +0000

photo credit: Leo Reynolds

So there we are (myself and the two older girls) in the car driving to the dump of all places when Hannah (4) blurts out “I don’t think I want to have any babies, Daddy.”

Woah. What? My mind suddenly filled with scenarios of jealosy and resentment towards the twins, etc. I quickly replied “Oh yeah, honey? How come?”

Her answer was very matter-of-fact: “I don’t want a big cut on my belly.”

Whew! Is that all? That’s nothing! Now, I should have had my guard up as soon as we got anywhere near birth, but I was so sure of my answer that I plowed ahead. I dove in without checking for depth.

Confidently, I assured Hannah that not all babies require “cuts” to be born, and that, in fact, both her and Bella had been born without any cuts required!

Great, right? No, you see it, don’t you… her next question.

“Well, then, how did I get out of Mommy’s tummy?”

Panic. I blurted out the only answer that came to mind – it’s served me so well in the past: “You’ll have to ask Mommy when we get home.”

The Punchline

Knowing the conversation on this topic was decidedly over, Hannah turned to Isabella and concluded: “I must have made my own hole.”

Christmas Tree Hunting

Colin Carmichael — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 14:00:44 +0000

There’s nothing like the smell of a real Christmas tree in the house. In years where we’re away from home during Christmas we make do with our artificial tree but every third year we’re home for the entire holidays. In those years we go tree hunting:

Big News… Really late!

Colin Carmichael — Thu, 21 May 2009 20:42:46 +0000

I just realized that I never announced this month’s big news on my blog! (though I suspect that anyone who reads this would have caught the news on either Facebook or Twitter)

So, the news is that the twins have arrived! William John Sinclair Carmichael arrived at 6:15pm May 6th weighing 6lbs 8oz. Emma Bonnie Jane Carmichael arrived 3 minutes later weighing 5lbs 13oz.

There are many, many photos to be found at our Flickr account.

For those of you keeping track at home, yes this means we have four kids under four years old (and three in diapers). Needless to say it’s a busy house. ;)

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Baby’s first pictures

Colin Carmichael — Wed, 01 Nov 2006 19:13:56 +0000

The ultrasound tech puts the due date at May 25th – our doctor said May 28th – I said May 27th… I’m sticking with May 27th. :)

I’m a horrible father.

Colin Carmichael — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 15:38:36 +0000

Not only am I out of town for my daughter’s first birthday, but Auntie Sue beat me to an online birthday wish!!

So better late than never,

New Photos…

Colin Carmichael — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 23:29:02 +0000

I just uploaded 70 photos to our Flickr account – we had a 4-month backlog!

Hannah is HOW old?!?

Colin Carmichael — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 22:50:50 +0000

According to a silly little script I wrote while Min was still pregnant, as of right now, Hannah is this old:

31393925 seconds
or
523232.083333 minutes
or
8720.53472222 hours
or
363.355613426 days
or
51.9079447751 weeks
or
11.9787564866 months
or
0.998229707214 years
or
0 years, 11 months, 4 weeks, 1 days, 16 hours, 32 minutes, 4 seconds

A Classic H. Photo

Colin Carmichael — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:33:11 +0000

Gord’s comment on my previous post prompted me to poke around his photos… I came across this beaut that I had completely forgotten about.

I don’t remember what we ate that meal – but is was orange, and H. loved it!

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