Monday, March 31, 2014

Tricky

This blog gets trickier as the kids get older.
When they were younger it was just one cute face after another.
And don't get me wrong, they're still cute.
But as their activities get more independent it is difficult to 'catch them in the act'.
A started a new session of gymnastics this weekend.
It's at a new location and while the class is large (25 students) there were only 2 boys.
Yikes!!
He wanted to leave before the class had even begun but I compelled/forced him to stay and he enjoyed it. The instructors were great and they had him at the right level.

 

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Aw Shucks

I received this message from E when he saw my last blog post:
Love my school,teacher,programs and 
More thank you mom and program leaders

Item #2 on the agenda today concerns the last unit of the year. (The ocean unit finishes mid-April.) And I can't think of what to do.
Suggestions?
It needs to be something that can incorporate work in language, social studies and if possible some science. (Don't worry about math, French and history we have other work for that.)

Sunday, March 23, 2014

School Check

As part of our Ocean Unit ... fish defence.
They were asked to show creatures using spines/blades, camouflage, hiding, diversion. speed, and protective shells. I think they both showed great detail.
 
This was my contribution.
In my opinion, the kids show more commitment and interest in a task if I work alongside them.
Besides, I love to colour.
They've done a science experiment, talked about the depth and nature of the ocean and a couple different ocean creatures. They're about half way through the unit so they still have a lot to learn.
They're more than halfway through the history curriculum for this year.
This week I had them indicate on a map the main events of a pivotal and busy few years(1744-1751).
Now they have that clear I think we're ready to go forward in time again
 
And sometimes we just play games.

Friday, March 21, 2014

ROM

Field Trip Day!
Not an idea unique to us as there were 6+ school buses outside when we got there.
One area we had neglected to explore until yesterday was the dinosaur zone.
Very cool.

Here's my cuties.
Though I still wouldn't say I 'love' the subway, it's still the lesser of two evils.
The other evil being driving for 45 minutes to get downtown and then paying $20 to park.
We saw the ROM subway station which is pretty posh.
Of course, we also saw a hobo with his 200lb stinky dog and some teenagers using the f-word as verb, adjective, adverb, and noun.
 
 

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Chuckles

We tend to get a little silly when we play ping pong.
Actually, A and I call it ping ball because we rarely hit well enough to create a ping and then pong situation.
Anyway, I was watching the two of them dance like monkeys and tried to snap a picture of it
but they stopped as soon as I took out the camera.
But it didn't take long for A to bust out the moves.
E was unconvinced.
 
Working on our Ocean Unit.
Do you know what percentage of the ocean is salt?

 

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Date Night with Mercer




My guy loves Rick Mercer's show. And lucky us, we got to see Mercer tape one of his upcoming shows.
The highlight as far as I was concerned, was getting to go out on the town with my handsome hubby. Of course it wasn't a late night because after three hours ... when the childsitting bill passes the $40 mark ... I start to hyperventilate. So we grabbed some wings and went home to finish our Friday date night.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Before and After the Drive

The kids surprised me with an impromptu concert for my birthday.
They sang the birthday song and then all took turns on the piano.
When we all squished in for a photo on my birthday E said, "We always take a family picture when we get together."
 
And that got me thinking about the importance of traditions.
We have a few that we do in our house, for example, we pray before meals, I read them a chapter before bed every night, we nap on weekends.
 
And when I thought about it further I could see that other members of our family have developed their own traditions with the kids.
 
There's the Grandpa with the silly song, the Grandma with the secret handshake, the Nana and the way they say good-bye on the phone, the Grampy who sends candy mom would never buy them, there's the Granny who makes their favourite foods and the Granddad who fixes everything.
 
And given all the positives that come from having traditions I'd like to say thank-you to everyone for doing what they do.
M got into the kitchen this afternoon and experimented with making potato chips.
A few tweeks to the recipe next time and they'll be a steady snack
  

Thursday, March 06, 2014

Sail the Seven Seas

The ocean unit is progressing nicely.
We haven't delved into any specific animals yet but have been focusing instead on the names, locations, depths of oceans.
I incorporated a couple of science experiments this week. The first was about how salt affects the freezing point of water.
The second was about density.
So .... with that hint and the picture below .... can you figure out how we got the egg(raw in shell) to float?
However, learning will be put on hold for today because we're off on a field trip.
Pictures to follow.

Monday, March 03, 2014

Snip Snip

So you can probably tell this is P*cman  and a ghost. 
And birds, two different ways. 

We thought we'd visit a different homeschool group today. And although it won't be a match for us, it's a much younger crowd, we had two pleasant surprises.
First, we ran into the sister-in-law of an Ottawa friend.
 Second, we had fun making shadow puppets. 
The boys are going to really miss the piano in the lobby. 
And, my sushi looked much prettier this time around. 

Update Dec2020

My Guy A My Guy E School Rooms at Home Deck the Halls It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas