Saturday December 7

Cheer this morning, another trip to Abby at 9 am.  

Genevieve stayed up last night past 11 pm!   I went to turn off her light and she was still reading, she was a little tired this morning.  

Now I'm tired and she's itching to stay busy and do work, I think I need to get more stuff organized that she can do by herself.  

She drew a map of her cheerleading placements during her routine.  Here is the map, she starts out on number 1 and moves all over the floor.  She then showed me her routine and asked me to check if her map was accurate, and it was :)

Now what to do to occupy her, lately she has been ancy and wants to being doing something all the time.  

Tomorow she has a cheer demonstration in abbotsford, yeah 5 trips to Abby in 4 days ;)

I'm adding a few video's of Nathan and Genevieve's piano recitals, they happened in December but I can t find a post so I am adding them to this blog post.

 

Friday December 6

Classes at tla this morning.  Glad we are back, although I don't really like driving to abbotsford.  It was so cold this morning, and we were running late, yet again!   We had oatmeal in the car on the way to school, at least it warmed up the kids, I had put on water to boil for oatmeal, then saw I only had stealcut oats!   Ackkkkk they take about 20 minutes to cook, so we ate in the car.  Both Nathan and Genevieve had a good time in class today, I think Genevieve liked the crafts.  

Next up was ocupational therapy.  While Nathan was at ot, Genevieve and I read a book on ancient Egyptian myths.  She was very interested in these, and after each one she wanted to talk about what the myth explained.  The first one we read explained why we don't see all the moon all the time.  It's a good book and we had fun reading it.  

We then went home, had some down time and dinner.  I took Nathan over to a new friends house, while his dad watched the boys, and the moms and girls went to a tumble practice at twisters gymnastics.  Genevieve had such a fun time!   I think this will be our new Friday fun.  The coaches at twisters were so helpful with Genevieve who's working on her back walkover. She is so determined to get it!  They are very technical and that's exactly what Genevieve needs, she will take their critique and apply it.   Once you tell her place your hand this way or arch your back or whatever they tell her she will work on it until she perfects it :)

 

Thursday

Genevieve started her writting book and liked that, she is so independant.  

I gave Nathan some math worksheets to show him how much easier it is for him now :).  It was going so well until he was 4 worksheets in and got to the subtracting 9 trick.  It is so frustrating that he gives up as soon as he thinks it's hard.    I told him he could stop there.  Not sure how we will get around this mind block he has set up for himself.  I know I have to build up his confidence.  I know it took 4 years if public school to knock at how he feels, I just hope it won't take me 4 years to overcome this:).  

So we stepped away from math and Nathan and I worked on grammer island, of what protestations I had when we first started, he said it was to easy it was boring, but I knew it was not, it was foreign territory for him, he wanted to shut down.  We managed to work through quite a bit and he became quite ingaged in what he was learning.  

We have dental appointments and cheer later today so not sure how much more schooling we will get accomplished today 

Here is a story Genevieve worked on today. 

Oh and another I found she did last night at bedtime

Wednesday

An even busier Wednesday

We had to drop Jeff off at the airport this morning!

We went out for breakfast and played math gAmes for about 1/2 hour.  

Physio then hockey skating. 

In the evening we went to a soccer wrap up.  

Tuesday dec 3

Art class,library, and piano lessons.  

Math games, hmm I forget what else we did

Monday december2

Well we got up early to take Jeff to the airport only to find his flight was cancelled because of blizzards in alberta. 

So we went out for breakfast, then went home to regroup, I decided we should go renew our passports.  

So I brought with us story of the world to listen too and discuss.  It was okay but not the best thing to do in the car, especially this chapter I think.  It was a short chapter but it contained many new vocab words for them. 

We discussed both on the way to and on the way back.  This chapter discussed early writting of both Egyptians and people who live in Mesopotamia.   

Genevieve wrote a story of what she learned. 

Saturday and Sunday December 1

Saturday was my birthday and we had lots if kid stuff happening, cheerleading practice, Nathan's last soccer game of the season.  He played an awesome game, the best so far this year!

Sunday is a lazy day of eating decorating and chess.  Nathan has been begging to learn how to play chess, so today we taught Nathan, and Jeff needed a good review as he forgot as well.  So far so good, although I think they are going to need to call a truce, this is the game board now. 

Friday 29

Story of the world.  Thank you again Rachel for sending us the book on cd!   I love how Nathan and Genevieve really love listening to this story, and I think it adds some interest, as mommy is reading our language arts books, this just makes it a little fun.  The kids can do some other things with their hands while listening.  They usually start off playing something and then get involved in the story and give it 100%.   

So we read chapter 2.  Did some map work, looked on our map where the Nile delta is on a present day map, received where the Fertile Crescent was.  So we could see how close they were.  

We learned about the story of Osiris and set.  This is an Egyptian myth which explains why the Nile floods every year.  We discussed how this myth is not true but how myths like these came about.  We talked about how at that time the Egyptians did not have any scientific knowledge to explain the flooding, so this myth helped them explain why the flooding happened. 

We practiced oral narration as both Nathan and Genevieve related to daddy what they learned in chapter 2.  I really like the discussion questions that are in the activity book.  Every week we will do some review of the previous week.  Next day I plan to review nomads, where the Fertile Crescent is, the Nile delta, where upper and lower Egypt is, how they combined to 1 kingdom, Pharos, and the story of Osiris and set.  

We also practised oral math questions. 

Piano practice.  Nathan and Genevieve are practicing a duet of silent night.  I am excited this is my favorite song.  It sounds terrible at the moment :).  It is definitely a unique skill to play a song on the piano together.  They will need to practice quite a bit.  

Wednesday October 27

Our typical busy day.  Ocupational therapy, and hockey.  Piano practice happened as well and well I forget what else happened.  

Thursday November 28

Today was one if those fun learning days, where you do one thing which leads to another and another learning experience. 

We started with breakfast table math, we have been working on getting to 10.  So asking questions like, if you have 23 how many to get to 30.  If you have 64 how many more to 70.   I think this is really working and Nathan and Genevieve are truly understanding how to manipulate numbers!  And they are doing this all in their heads.  I think tomorow I may give them a worksheet that we were working on before just so they can see how much easier it is for them to solve the equations.  

Then we used Nathan's CD player to listen to the story if the world. Thanks Rachel for sending this to us!  I had already read the introduction, but we listened to it again, I let the kids play minecraft when we were listening to it, as they weren't really wanting to do school.  But by the time we got to chapter 1 the iPads were put down and they were intently listening to the story.  We then had about a half hour discussion on the chapter.  We then went to our maps to try and find the Fertile Crescent, I thought it was in Egypt! It's not its in present day turkey, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait.   How did I grow up not knowing this :)

Here's a picture if our map

So after looking at a present day map we coloured a map of the Fertile Crescent.  I thought this was actually a good activity as the map was hard to decipher before we coloured it, it was then easier to compare to a present map. 

This one is Nathan's, I had coloured the blue for him, then he got interested in it, he coloured the Fertile Crescent, his hand hurt after that so he said, I think I should stop now. It was awesome how he said it, he wasn't frustrated at not being able to complete it, and knew his limitations.  Last year in school he had tons of colouring like this and it used to come home for homework, he would get so frustrated.  I used to tell him he could let Gigi do his homework for him.  I can't imagine how frustrating school was for him

Next activity was to colour this

Instead if colouring we decided to talk about what it was.  We talked that the shanduf is actually a lever that was used to water the farmland. We then had a discussion on levers, which dad joined in and discussed how he uses levers at work. We got out our book on how machines work book and read up on levers.  The book even talks about the shanduf. 

 

Then we built a lever and tested it out. We talked about the lever they have a science world and how you can lift the big elephant if you are farther away from the fulcrum.  

It's now recess lunch time, not sure what else we will do today, but so far the day has been a good one for learning!   I love days like this!

Tuesday November 26

Well daddy came home last night, so we had time with him in the morning.  We read another chapter in the lion the witch and the wardrobe. 

We went to art class, then piano.  Then Nathan and Genevieve spent the rest of the afternoon at grandma and grandpas.  

Monday 25

Today we went to mrs shulbas house for our author if the month party.  Genevieve had a good time making and decorating cookies, reading some stories, learning new vocabulary words and hanging out with some friends.  Genevieve's favorite books she read by this author were the little pea series, she thought they were pretty funny, she liked the play on words. She did not like the wumbers book as I think to her the book must have seemed crazy!  Numbers can not be used in words :)

Here is a picture of the Amy Rosenthal books Genevieve read this month.  We had never read any of her books, I'm sure Nathan would have really enjoyed these when he was younger. 

So after we went home, played some math and had piano practice.  

Friday

Math at breakfast, occupational therapy, Gigi did math and linkology while Nathan did ot.  

And the lion witch and wardrobe play.  Nathan and Genevieve had a good time but they were definitely not enthused about it.  It was a 2 person play with no scene changes.  Nathan said it felt like an expensive way to read the book.  I had mentioned that it followed the book almost to the letter, he said that's what he didn't like. He said he likes when they have to change things, this way just seemed more like reading the book then watching it happen.  We talked a lot about it at intermission.  Nathan and Genevieve noticed a few discrepancies, between the play and the book.  

All in all a good experience and a great discussion starter.  Genevieve thought they portrayed mr tumnis as being too silly, she didn't feel that he seemed silly or stupid in the book, it was not something I had picked up on and it was interesting to hear her support her point of view. 

Nathan was not feeling the greatest today either.  And it is uncomfortable for him to sit in the seats, he does not have support for his neck, anything I tried did not work for him.  Maybe he just didn't want to seem weird having a coat as a pillow etc.  but we popped Humpty Dumpty's shoulders back in during intermission and I massaged a few areas and he did much better during the second half.  

Here are a few pics

Nathan says your not getting a serious picture from me, I wanted him to put his arm around his sister, yeah right!

What I'm eating

I'll pose pretty mommy :). And look I'm wearing the perfect fur coat to go see Narnia in!

Come on Nathan lets get a real picture with your mom

Ok seriously time to give me back the camera

Thursday

Thursday

We went to the Vancouver symphony, so much fun!   I am definitely looking forward to going again.  Nathan and Genevieve had never seen a symphony performance before, we have been to a the nutcracker before and checked out the pit, but it was much different seeing them.  My only complaint was it was a little short!   I think it was just over an hour, I know Nate and Gigi would have liked more.  The performance was all about dance music, we learned a little about various composers thru the ages.  This was great as we do look up the composers if they are listed in Nathan and Genevieve's piano music.  I think Nathan and Genevieve were surprised at how many of the pieces of music the recognized.   

After the vso we went walking in search of food, we ended up at the Vancouver public library.  We decided to go in and check it out, they thought the building was cool, you were inside but it felt like you were outside on a street!  We went in and checked out the kids section, an entire floor!   Nathan and Gigi spent about 1/2 hour just wandering looking at the books.  Poor Nathan thought he was going to get lost, I gave him a spot to go to if he got lost, he went there once and waited I'm sure 30 sec before he saw me, mom I was looking for you, oh were you lost :).  And the resource section is the size of our library entire kids section.  

We talked to the librarian and she told us the library is seven stories, and told us we should go check out the library sorter, so that's what we did. 

Could you imagine working here!   They all waved at Nate and Gigi who watched it seemed like forever.  

So after a steamed milk from starbucks we continued our search for food,   We walked a LOT!   Had some food and home we came.  

A very good day.  And we also did math along the way.  

Wednesday nov 20

What have we been up to.  

Monday not much, had an appointment with Nathan's teacher, math games, piano, and Narnia

Tuesday art lesson, piano, math games, as well as discussions on math and oral math questions.  And lots of outdoor fun.  We decorated our outside tree.  

Nathan and Genevieve helped me for about 45 minutes, than holding the ladder and untangling lights was boring so scooter riding and soccer practice it was.  

Wednesday

I had a drs appt 1st thing this am, so the kids packed done books and games to read and play.  Genevieve read kids can book of Canadian geography.  Nathan read diary of a wimpy kid

We then went right to physio, where Nathan had one of his weird events, getting out of the car.  He lost sight in both his eyes at the same time, he said it was black circles constricting closing how much he could see.  His stomach felt weird when this happened as well.  This occurred right when he was getting out of his door, of course his door was along traffic.  This fact made me a little nervous, thinking about what could have happened, he was able to remain standing by leaning against the car, and it  lasted less than a minute.  I turned around to look for him and he wasn't there.  

So physio did a lighter day today, we went home he wanted to practice piano, fought Gigi over wanting to play the piano.  And he had enough energy for hockey. 

Gigi playing games waiting for Nathan to finish. 

This game was scrabble junior, they then played snap it up math game. 

Tuesday November 12

Today hmmm

We had a nice big breakfast as we don't get home until 1:30 on Tuesdays.   

Then the kids practiced piano. 

Art lessons

A stop at the library 

Piano lessons.  I had planned on going grocery shopping while Nathan and Gigi had their lessons but as we were leaving the house Nathan says where your bag of math games, I want to play with you first.  So I went and got them.  This meant I had to shop after piano with hungry kids but it worked

We got home later because of the shopping and I was tired.  

I put in a movie about Scotland as Nathan is supposed to do a presentation at school on Friday.  We then attempted to read ( Nathan about Scotland).  Genevieve the other if the month and cats.  I tried to help Nathan hot down some important points in Scotland, this was slightly tortuous for us both grrr.  He is still not himself.  

Ohhh yesterday before bed and yesterday afternoon after I posted we did some more homeschooling.  Genevieve drew a self portrait, and made a snowflake snowman.  And then just before bed we read 2 chapters in Narnia.  

Friday November 8

Well I woke up today not being able to move my arms grrr.   I slept with my arms above my head, typically if this happens it's only 1 arm and I can use my other to move.  But no I couldn't move either hand, thankfully I am flexible and my feet still worked.  It took about an hour to regain feeling in my left arm and over 2 hours in my right... So we didn't go to tla this morning.  

So today we didn't do a lot school wise.  Nathan and I did flash card math.  I also got Nathan to count by 2 starting with 1 while he's playing mini hockey.  I would like to see both kids be able to really understand how to work numbers before we move on in math.  

Genevieve and I played an awesome new math game I bought while Nathan was at ot.  It's called mathological liar, Gigi loved it. 

On the backside if the cards is a mystery you have to solve.  Each mystery has 4 suspect cards.  You have to read the cards and figure out if they make sense.  If they are correct they didn't do it.  If there is a mistake, they did it. 

Here are 4 suspect cards, this was an easier puzzle to solve.  

What a fun way to do math, it involves a lot if reading and comprehension to do as well.  So this is probably not a good fit for a struggling reader.  I would think this may take the anxiety of word problems away from some kids though.  

Not sure what else we will do today...

Nate and Gigi practiced piano already and we went on YouTube and listened to different styles if music, opera, classic and boys choir.  Nathan and Genevieve enjoyed this. 

Monday November 11

We started the day off decorating a folder for our lion the witch and the wardrobe unit study.  I decided that we should have a folder as I'm pretty bad at saving things we've done.  I guess I should save them until at least we have our teacher conferences :)

Here is Gigi's decorated

We then finished activities from last weeks unit 7&8.  We made some snowflakes we have in jars with water and borax hoping to grow crystals. 

Nathan played mathological liar and liked it.  And then Genevieve Nathan and I played 7 ate 9.  The last game is good as it reinforced what I was telling them about quickly adding, and that it is important to be able to skip count forward and back on both even and odd numbers quickly.  I have been getting them to work on skip counting odd numbers.  I will work on skip counting down soon.  I should say they know how to do this but I think they have to think about it too much, even numbers are much easier for both of them.  

Piano practice

And yeah we started story of the world. We did the intro chapter today, discussing our own history.  We also discussed the importance of historians and archeologists in studying history.  

So even though we are making progress in our homeschool lessons, I still feel we have a ways to go, we have so much to learn and do.  I know for our family we need to ease into this but it is so hard to not jump in and do everything.  Nathan was not having a great day, yesterday he was soooo hyper, and today he was anxious and moody.  I started him on his adrenal pills, which I should have yesterday noticed the adrenal fatigue, but I didn't and today I think he crashed.   I know on days like today he would not have retained anything at school and I would have picked him up in an emotion mess, but still it is hard to feel good about not accomplishing the goals I set for today.  

Perhaps I am expecting us to get more done in a day then we can at this point.  I find the transitions the hardest time wasters in our house.  It takes time to get them back on track to what we are doing.  I think what takes us two hours would take others one hour to complete. 

This is a picture of my wish for a schedule, or at least the start, so much more to add in.  But I would at least like to start following this schedule. 

Wednesday November 7

Well the days continue to get easier for our homeschooling!

Both Nathan and Genevieve practiced piano.  Nathan ate 7 bowls of oatmeal while Gigi practiced!   Good thing I made a very big pot of oatmeal!   While Nathan practiced Genevieve wanted to do science, so she grabbed a bin we have of electrical components, and powered up a light which she took into to Nathan so he could see his music better :)

Genevieve than practiced a bit more piano while Nathan read a book about matter.  He enjoyed the book, as he kept on grabbing me so he could explain what he was learning.  He read a few pages and bookmarked it for later.  

Next we worked on some worksheets from Narnia.  We then read 2 chapters in Narnia.   Unfortunately poor Nathan could not get comfortable his neck was aching.  We finally went up to my bed which was more comfortable.  Poor guy. They are playing mini hockey for a break right now, then it's bath time and on to cheer practice.  I hope to work on some math with Nathan when Genevieve is at cheer.  

It took us a long time to accomplish what we did today as the kids were excited about learning, we had many tangents we went on and I feel if Nathan was feeling better we could have accomplished more.  Poor Nate was a little sad, he said I'm finally excited and want to learn, and now I don't feel well!

I am sure we will have lots if ups and downs but I hope we can keep done of the excitement for learning!

Gigi said she was doing science experiments with jars :)