Homeschool Adventure Week 6&7

October 30, 2013 by tam

During week 6 my cousin from Ontario paid us a pleasant visit. For her is was a time to relax, see family and see the sights. The boys super-enjoyed having her here as did we!

Along with visit and reminiscing the boys and I did our circle time and yoga. I must say, I am thrilled with how much the boys love the yoga and even add poses and take turns leading! This is rest time.

I like rest time.

Then we did a craft which I found on Pinterest to go with our number four study. We seem to be going through the numbers quite slowly what with everything else going on in our home lately but it has allowed us to see numbers in a different way, not just for math but in shapes and nature. The piece we worked on is called God’s Eye and I thought it worked well with the number four, being four sided and all… it was quite fun to do and easy too! It simply consists of a lot of wrapping embroidery thread around popsicle sticks but the fun is in the colours and combinations. I told the boys they could be their dream catchers explaining to them that God’s Eye will trap the bad dreams and let the good ones through. The boys hung their dreamcatchers by wands they made onto their bed posts.
Xman told me the next morning the dreamcatcher had worked and had captured all his bad dreams. One morning the dreamcatcher didn’t work and seeing as it was a full moon I told him it may be tired of catching dreams and needed to be placed in the light of the moon to recharge just like our crystals. The light of the moon is a wonderful thing!

More stories! This one was from the Grimm Brothers entitled The Duration of Life. The boys used the chalk board door to illustrate as I told the story. I had to take three picture of the door from top to bottom to get all the drawings in.

L drew God as a face with big hands creating the world.

God then asked four animals, a donkey, monkey, dog and a human, how long they wanted to live.

In the end the human chose to live the length of time God suggested plus those of the other three animals combined. According to the Grimms we should live for 70 years but not without many trials and tribulations that all animals share but I kept that part out of the story. I like to end things on a good note especially with sensitive minds and very big imaginations!After the number four is the number…? Five! We read this great story called The Five Elements and the Five Coloured Stones about a Chinese Empress who was twenty-five feel tall and her adversary who was even taller who wanted to take over the land. There was a battle with an and army, the Water Devil and even a Fire God. The heavens fell to earth and the sun and moon went on vacation which brought darkness to the land. A magical brew was made which included five coloured stones to make a paste and put the heavens and sky back together. The sun and moon returned all everyone lived in peace.

The boys made the scene with the magic brew from Lego. The Empress is in the back at the top of the castle while one of her helpers mixes in the ingredients for the paste. I think most of these blocks came from our Lego Champion game!

We also stayed busy collecting things for the nature exchange.

Grammar and writing consisted of one of our circle time poems Parting Blessing from this wonderful book! I find Lucas, being older, can write longer before his hand tires. As well, he copied the work out in the format of the poem which made it easy to read.
The first poem Xman wrote out was hard to read for this reason. I had to explain to him why it was good to write the poem as he saw it in verses while skipping lines. He was a bit reluctant at first as this was my idea and not his (I can relate!) but once he finished he agreed it was much easier to read and you could see the rhythm the poem carried by the way it was written.

Since then, L came up with a tune for the poem and they sing it all of the time! It has been a busy couple of weeks which makes for a delay in posting. But I did it – eventually! 😉

This week is busy as well with a Discovery Centre program where the boys learn about Rube Goldberg machines (they are super fans!) and two Halloween parties oh my plus the usual programs. Hopefully I will have HAW #8 ready to go on time!

Happy Spooky week to all!

Nature excursion and search

October 29, 2013 by tam

We have had a couple of fun weeks keeping our eyes peeled more than usual for fun and interesting bits of nature for our nature exchange. Two wonderful places we went were Lawrencetown Beach and Point Pleasant Park, and also a gravel road to find pyrite!

We had a great time and can’t wait to send our package off and see what we receive in return!

We went to the beach in search of fun things to exchange but spent most of the time enjoying the water – I planned well with the rain boots! What a glorious time we had and the boys can’t wait to do it again.

2013Oct22_Lawrencetown Beach_08 Waiting for the water to fill up their boots!

Out comes the water!Which makes for very wet socks!Spotted some wildlife on the way home.
Some fun flyers!Point Pleasant Park
Sumac tree berries?
Perhaps some of you remember the Asian Longhorn Beetle passing through the park and destroying many a tree after Hurrican Juan had already thinned out the forest. It is still a beautiful place to go walking but where you couldn’t see from one trail to the next, at times you now can as the forest is much less dense. (sad face)

A short visit to the Prince of Wales Tower to see the canons and the canon balls.
Permanent resident.Some of the left over stumps from trees that had to be cut down.
I could not go without finding at least one mushroom!This was the coolest trunk! Look at those amazing swirls!
Learning how to skip rocks.

I am a few weeks behind with our Homeschool Adventures posts – those will come next, pinky promise! 😉

Make and Listen

October 24, 2013 by tam

This is my first time joining in on the Make&Listen Along for I am finally starting a new project! I recently knitted a hat for myself, although easy as it was I kept making mistakes. Now onto some fingerless gloves and a hat for the boys which I hope to have done before this wonderful fall season is over (fingers crossed!). Not too long ago we were walking through a forest on a search for some goodies to add to the Nature Exchange of which we are very excited to participate in, and I realized that although I had the convenience and comfort of fingerless gloves for this work, the boys did not. It was due time to make something similar for the boys and after much searching they unanimously decided on this pattern.

There is a pile of books waiting for my attention as I try to finally-with-no-excuses get back into art making and make those dreams a reality! Etsy maybe and art gallery store!

Today as I crocket and learn ‘no-foundation single crochet’ and joining in the round without a gap, the boys are busy listening to a classic Bare Naked Ladies Album and playing Life while the scent of rice and quinoa cooking fills the room.

A good day to be.

If you have something to share that you are listening to as you are making share along here!

Xman turns seven!

October 19, 2013 by tam

These boys had waited patiently (not!) for their birthdays and on Thursday it was Xman’s turn to be super excited. He already knew what his present was as he is the one who found it but now he got to use it! Super fun!

We had cheeza (cheese pizza) for lunch after Xman helped me with the cake then off we went to the play café again with some family and friends. After much running and chasing we had a light dinner and a library visit before heading home for birthday songs and cake and a very late bedtime!

Happy birthday, my love, you are indescribable!

X brought his Snap Circuits to the table that he had received last year in order to get ready for what was to come…

Snap Circuits Add-Ons! Now he can make an AM/FM radio, an LED number count-down and more!

On to decorating the cake and chocolate acorn Pokémon.

He looks quite good for 61.

As X had done for L so too would he do for himself. He played Happy Birthday on the keyboard while we sang!

And, of course, we have the traditional family photos! Mr Xman you are super awesome and a little silly too. Thank you.

Moon Phases at birth

October 18, 2013 by tam

I have been falling in love with the moon. I have always found it so beautiful but lately I find it mesmerizing. I started to read more about the moon and it’s relation to our planet and the sun and doing so has made me feel more a part of the circle of life, and the energy to which we are all connected.

Naturally I became curious as to what phase of the moon I was born under and found this:

You were born during a Full moon

– what it says about you –

You’ve spent your life in the middle of things, whether it’s between people who oppose each other, ideas that oppose each other, or places that are very different. You’re very aware of perspectives outside the norm and good at anticipating how different people will see a situation. You value second opinions, because they give you a feeling of balance. You don’t have a single group of friends and the people you spend time with may not have a lot in common with each other.

What phase was the moon at on your birthday? Find out at Spacefem.com

I do love a full moon. No wonder.

Tonight is a Penumbral Lunar Eclipse, meaning it will be a full moon but the earth’s orbit will block some of the rays of the sun from the moon. I will miss seeing this glowing friend of ours tomorrow but it is nice to know that it was there to say ‘hello!’ when I came into this lovely world.

What discoveries have you made lately?

Giving thanks to the earth

October 15, 2013 by tam

I’ve said it before and I will say it again, on a day like today it’s best to be outside! Off went to our favourite park – we were there yesterday finding mushrooms and chickadees and more, oh my!

Today was another search for mushrooms, not for picking, just identifying. And with mushrooms we always find moss and lichen, so many wonderful kinds for which we love making up names.

Before we left I found that Annie and Dawn were putting together a nature exchange and decided that we would start a collection for this as well which we will show once we have collected.

The sky was perfect as the sky always is with wispy clouds and the scent of ocean and pine in the air. A beautiful day to be thankful on this day of Thanksgiving and a perfect way to celebrate!

It was a busy day at the park so we decided to venture off the paths and into the forest to find what we could find, treasures that have always existed but tucked safely away. Nature never disappoints!

L found a walking stick! 🙂

Stick balancing which is always fun and worth the time.

We found a path through the trees.
2013Oct14_Shubie-Thksgvg-_14

A wonderful day indeed then off to home to prepare our Tofurky dinner but not without some newfound treasures and some oldies but goodies as well.

A new theme!

October 14, 2013 by tam

I know! I did it again and went and changed the theme to our blog. This one is really fun and we all like it – go ahead and scroll down and see what happens.

Homeschool Adventure Week #5

October 14, 2013 by tam

X ended up catching a cold again this week so there was a lot of low energy going around. I brought L to sports class this week while X stayed home with Daddy and played Yahtzee. I really didn’t want him running around being all snot-filled and feeling like he just wanted to lay down and rest. That being said, L scored a goal during their soccer game!

This week was filled with little projects and board games, me second shooting a wedding on Thursday (weird I know!), reading and resting, and Xman really wanting to clean the floors!

X Washing floor

Floor washing attracts a curious Gypsy girl!

L got the Lego Play Book for his birthday and he has been building a miniature town complete with a museum, beach and hover trucks.

The days were beautiful so we took advantage by spending our time outside playing chess, strategizing, snacking and planning more creations.

X won chess pretty much fair and square I gotta say.

X-won-chess

…all while the house siding is being torn down around us to make way for new siding!

L and I played scrabble and I showed him how to incorporate one word into another while utilizing the ‘triple word score’ making him beat me by a long shot. See bottom left where he added ‘go’ to ‘car’ then next turn ‘soy’ to ‘cargo’. Great game!

We read a FABULOUS book by Neil Gaiman which had the boys and I roaring with laughter and enjoying the notion that time travel can make someone be in two places at one time, while flying in a Floaty-Ball-Person-Carrier with a dinosaur. Dinosaurs aren’t really extinct, did you know that?

I just finished reading a wonderful book filled with myth and magic which has left images in my head and set my mind to wondering…and wandering…

We have a cousin arriving today for a week of visiting! I am glad and thankful that Xman was so keen to clean the floors!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend – we bought two Tofurkey’s this time around because last year we found they were so good that one just wasn’t enough! 😉

Remembering winter…

October 8, 2013 by tam

I have been doing a massive editing of hundreds of hundreds of images dating back to 2009 to either add to the blog or just for archiving.

I came across these two pics last night and seeing as how winter seems just around the corner, seeing these faces amidst the big flakes gave me warm fuzzes.

L’s birthday weekend

October 7, 2013 by tam

It’s been a great weekend for us all and especially for L. This weekend he had his 9th birthday. Wowza!

This is a post with A LOT of pictures for those family and friends who do not live nearby.

We started out at a play café called Rebel Space with friends. They had a great time together and tired each other out indeed!

From there were went for some lunch and then to the library. In the parking lot we found many a fire truck so, naturally, we went to visit some trucks and the boys got to go inside of them and try out the firehose too!

I found it interesting to learn that this particular truck is no longer used to carry more than two firefighters. The seats in the back (sorry I didn’t take a pic!) would have been facing sideways facing each other which wouldn’t be safe if they were t-boned. They changed the truck seating about 6 or 7 years ago. This truck is still used as a support vehicle for extra equipment, communications (they have a fax), and other supplies.

The boys loved aiming the hose (a smaller hose than the firefighters would have used!) at the target. Xman wanted to use the hose twice.

Lucas only wanted to use it once but he hit the target so quickly I only managed to catch the end of it with Stephen untangling the hose.

I managed to get a video of X the second time around!

This truck is used at the interpretation centre to help the public become more aware of fires and fire safety.

Off to the library for a bit of reading…and relaxing…we came home with many a comic books and then some!

On the way home we stopped at the market for eggs and some fun chalk drawing by L. Have you seen a crockasoraus before? If not, it looks a little something like this.

L loves to make long squiggly arrows…

When we left the market the sky outside reflected in this building looked pink in the windows’ reflection. I had to take a pic. Lovely.

Sunday:

Lucas: “I slept off and on like an elephant last night I was so excited!”.

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. Apparently, he explains, it’s true, elephants only sleep four hours at night and not all at the same time. 🙂

L was so exited in the morning and he brought his favourite stuffy, Milkshake, that has been with him since birth to partake.

“No pictures, please!”
L was specific about the few things for which he asked. This is his first model to build.

I had no idea L already had a hot wheels type Blue Angel which is one reason why he wanted this model. I think there will be more of these!

Lego? Is that Lego? 🙂

This set came with cool transparent stickers!

A new scorpion character.

Lego Galaxy Squad Star Slicer. Pretty cool, I have to admit. Nice mantid!

Our most awesome friend, Sharon, came by for the big day as she has known the boys since they were in my belly. She is totally in love and we love her too! She helped decorate the cupcakes to be Koopa Troopa shells. Xman helped add the white icing too. L placed them aside. A good system going to keep things moving! Oh yes, and these were little mushrooms with eyes! Cute Koopas! Happy Birthday, L! Of course we had to make room on the table for his Lego and winged friends!Xman decided to run over to the piano and play a song for a sing-along. So fun!