We went to see Totem, a cirque du solei show! It was awesome, we did have crappy seats but it was still awesome! We discussed the performance on the way home. We have been to see the Chinese acrobats locally, and we discussed the difference in the performances. All agreed totem, was way better. I explained that the cirque budget was a lot bigger than the Chinese acrobats. We also discussed the artistry was more prevalent in the cirque performance. Totem was supposed to be a evolutionary tale, it was beautifully done, and I think even if you do not believe in evolution, I don't think you would be offended, it is the story behind the act. I liked how they treated native culture, I think they did that well. Anyway awesome performance and we had fun, we bought the CD to listen to the music while we are driving...
Monday
Language arts
we completed two units of sarah plain and tall
-we discussed how we use different environments for our enjoyment. We go for walks in the forest by our house. When we went and stayed at a cabin, on the lake, we went swimming everyday, and went out on a boat. Nathan and genevieve play road hockey on the cultisac in front of our house. They environment plays an important role in what we do. We go skiing here, in the prairies, we laughed at their ski hills :)
-we discussed fiction vs nonfiction, they both understood Sarah Plain and Tall was fiction. We talked about historical fiction, and what other books we have read that are historical fiction. Genevieve has read many historical fiction books so was able to tell us all that she has read.
-we talked about farm life 100 years ago. We looked up pictures of plowing the fields with horses.
Socials
Moving beyond the page suggested activities for today were physical geography of the USA
- instead, I used Canada my country. We started labeling a political map of Canada. I then brought out a physical map of Canada, and asked if they noticed the differences. They were both able to figure it out. We read Canada my country and started with the appalacian area of Canada, of course Nathan wanted to know more about the Canadian shield portion, before we could move step by step through the areas :) The kids are familiar with what the western mountain, plains, and the arctic are like, but the Canadian shield and the Appalachians were new to them. They remembered it was difficult to build the CPR railroad through the shield.
- we read the up close book about Prince Edward Island, and looked at the kids can book of Canada for the same region.
Math
- Of course during our socials lessons Nathan complained we don't do enough math that he doesn't know all of his times tables, and that most grade fours do. And then he demanded to know what division was. I knew we would not be able to move on until I explained it. This is why it seems I can not get very far in anything, as Nathan's brain moves in tangents and he NEEDS the requested information before we can proceed :) So we grabbed the pencil crayons and he understood division in about 2 minutes. I was able to ask him some questions and he was able to figure them out without using the pencils. Genevieve understood the concept but needed the pencils to be able to figure it out.
Physiotherapy
Nathan and genevieve worked on the bosu, and balance board passing balls to each other for about 1/2 and hour.
Play
Nathan had a playdate this afternoon, and gigi had a tea party with the moms until we got too boring and then she played piano.
All in all a really great day for learning in mrs Darcy's homeschool :)
After the zoo, we went to OT. The OT said she has noticed some great improvements with Nathan over the last month. His hand and arm strength we have not noticed, but his core strength is improving! I forgot to mention the bosu ball arrived and Nathan is using it everyday at home. Nathan and Genevieve warm up everyday before we start school.
We arrived home and had a sleep over with some friends! Both Nathan and Gigi had soccer practice from 6-8 last night! Wow I'm tired!
We have had quite a few weeks without blog entries here, but we have not stopped learning. We have been finding a wonderful, life, school, and activities balance. Nathan and Genevieve, are getting better and better at devoting time each day to learning, without complaining and learning!
So what have we accomplished, hmm, wish I wrote in the blog every night! Since I have short term memory, I will post some pictures of some accomplishments and talk about a few of the things we have done.
Language Arts - we are working on sarah plain and tall.
We are on chapter 5. We usually only accomplish either the Language arts or the science/socials from moving beyond the page in 1 day. I would like to by September be able to do both LA and socials/science in 1 day. Right now because we are not doing both it is taking us about 6 weeks a unit! this is dragging the subjects out a little too long. 4 weeks I think is a perfect time to aim for each unit lasting. We are certainly learning each unit in depth, and both Nathan and genevieve really enjoy it.
So In our language arts portion of Sarah plain and tall we have:
-written a letter to penpals to describe what it is like in Canada, our environment, and culture. both Nathan and Genevieve enjoyed the letter writing
- venn diagram to show the differences in environment between Kansas and Maine. We used are personal experiences to help us. Kansas would be similar to the Canadian prairie provinces we visited this summer. And Maine would be more similar to where we live on the Ocean.
- discussion on the differences of life on a farm 100 years ago compared to now. Genevieve noticed in the book that they baked their own bread. While we bake our own bread on occasion, it is more typical to buy our bread. We talked about what a general store would look like, and what would be found in a general store, compared to what is found in our grocery stores. We discussed that a family would have to grow all their own food, and just buy staples from the general store. I think we are in need of a trip to a general store...Maybe kilby? I have tickets to go to Fort Langley too...
- we sang home on the range, attempted to play it on the piano, and listened to different versions being played on youtube. We discussed that through the music of the time, we can see what is going on in culture and what is important at that time. We usually write a song from what we know and what is important to us. (except gigi who writes a song about a scary world out there and rats eating you) I will have to post another song she wrote, as it is much less scary :)
- we had an activity to look up wildflowers mentioned in the book, instead, gigi and Nathan went on a walk and picked wildflowers. They came back and we then identified them in a book we have on wildflowers in BC. (have I mentioned how much I love having resources at hand). So we actually had to read quite a bit of the book and read even on flowers that we did not pick, but flowers that we have seen. Skunk Cabbage was one of them, and we learned that the Natives in times of famine would eat skunk cabbage - we learned what the word famine was and we learned about some Native culture all while exploring wildflowers! We also read about foxgloves and that they are poisonous, they are the plant we get digitalis from, explained to the kids what digitalis was and that it affects your heart. and on the way to school, we spotted all of the wildflowers on the road and tried to name them - lots of foxglove out right now :)
And here is a picture of some flowers we are growing from seeds...
Socials with Moving Beyond the page-
again we are really liking how when we are learning everything can be tied together and we can use the bits and pieces and pull them all together.
- we have been learning about natural resources
- we have gone over what renewable resources mean and what it means to conserve. We played a game to find as many coins as we could in 30 seconds, I hid 30 coins ahead of time. we recorded how many of the 30 we found and then tried another 30 seconds, we continued recording until we had searched for 2 minutes. It was a great way to show, how much harder it would be to find and use natural resources if they are diminished.
- I think a field trip with jeff to the stave lake damn next week would be a good idea!
Spelling-
gigi is continuing with her spelling and enjoying it, we have not got to a level where she is challenged yet, but I can see it improving spelling by her ability to just sound out the words she is working on.
Math
We were working on mental addition with 2 digits at the table so 33 plus 44. Math is such a challenge for us, not really sure if it is working having them both do the same math... I took Nathan in the other room, as he was having a hard time. He feels he is not very good at math. I brought down the beast academy books and said well you can do beast academy, he says that's because beast academy is easy. I had to explain to him that beast academy is actually a more challenging math program for most children and that his brain just works a little differently, that the harder stuff is easier than the easier things like memorizing addition facts. I think I will talk to his pediatrician about this and see if he has any suggestions. So while Nathan did beast academy I helped gigi with math. We looked at teaching textbooks and she did the grade 3 sample. I am now wondering if I buy teaching textbooks for genevieve, keep Nathan on beast academy, and supplement with rightstart math games...
Piano
we met with a new piano instructor at the academy of music. She has experience teaching piano to children with all different kinds of disabilities. I thought this may be a better fit for Nathan. He was not doing well with his piano instructor, she was very nice, but just not a great fit for Nathan. Right away Nathan liked her and got a good feeling from her. She nailed both Nathan s and gigis personalities right away, she has her masters degree in vocals, so gigi is very happy, she may get some vocal training. And she suggested gigi needed to be on stage - told you she nailed their personalities :) So we will start next year with piano with a new teacher. Gigi was not wanting to switch but after meeting the new teacher she was very excited!
genevieve singing a song she made up, she also helped decide what chords to play on the piano, to match her song :)
Occupational Therapy
Nathan is bringing his computer with him and working on his typing skills, he is working on his core and upper body shoulder strength, as well as his fine motor control of his hands
Physiotherapy- for next year we would like to look into getting a peanut ball and a rebounder as he loves exercising on these. As well as an exercise ball! I can't believe I forgot to put that on the list...
horse therapy
before we attended horse therapy this week, Nathan was not really looking forward to it, he said it was getting boring. I was very shocked to hear him say this, jeff took him to his last lesson, so I was not there. It became obvious once he started riding why he said it was boring, he had hit a road block, he was at the stage where it became hard, he could not progress, until he was able to get a better control of the reins. I could see his frustration of his hands not working to adjust the reins. Jim let him try and figure it out for a bit, and then pulled him over and gave him some help. And bingo Nathan got it, he sat and worked with it and worked with it and then suddenly he had much better control. He loves it again :) I think his favourite part of horse riding is actually grooming and snuggling the horse :)
Camping
we went camping last weekend at Chilliwack lake. The kids played from the moment they woke up to the moment they went to bed. There were so many kids up there camping it was just crazy. Nathan met one friend and played with him all weekend and then they found out he was homeschooled. Nathan begged me to go and meet his mom and get her phone number so he could have a playdate. So I went over and he lives in Aggassiz! So we will have a playdate soon...
- we also had some science lessons while camping, someone brought some paper lanterns, to light and float up in the sky, we had an impromu science lessons on why the lanterns floats up. Reinforced our tornado science, and that hot air rises :)
Well we have done much more than what I have written, I am sure, but this is what I have to write about :)
Yes I know I have slacked off on my blog :) This does not mean that schooling has slowed at all. We are still plugging along, with a mixture of good days and bad days. But as we struggled this morning with Nathan first and then Genevieve having troubles again, we were reminded that we are doing so much better than the start of the year! When I look back at how difficult school was at the beginning of the school year, I am so greatful for the progress we have all made. I have learned how to teach and what works for the kids. Nathan and genevieve have learned to relax, and enjoy school. Nathan today just told me that his favorite time in homeschooling is language arts and science. I am thankful we have found moving beyond the page and that they both enjoy it.
So what have we been doing since I last posted? We have been working on moving beyond the page, sarah plain and tall and geography/mapping skills. Nathan and genevieve have been starting out the mornings with an outline map of Canada to fill in. We have all the provinces and territories nailed down, except PEI, new Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, which we started labelling this morning. I am a little ashamed to admit that I had to look up the atlantic provinces to make sure I was not making any mistakes. We have been discussing natural resources, we took an outline map of Canada and used the Canada up close books of the province to look up all the natural resources in the provinces. The kids worked at looking at the table of contents of the books, and trying to figure out where the natural resources would be located. The kids made symbols to put on the map to represent the natural resources. We ran around the house and outside trying to find as many natural resources in 10 minutes. In sara plain and tall, we wrote letters to a friend describing where we lived. We wrote chapter summaries in the perspective of Anna. We used a venn diagram to describe what we would see in Maine, Kansas and what we would see in both places.
Math - We are working on mentally adding 2 two digit numbers. This is what caused a few meltdowns this morning but we worked through it. Nathan put up a fight first, and then gigi did. Funny thing is when gigi was putting up a fight Nathan said, genevieve, mom is just getting you to do it this way because it is a different way of doing it and it will make it easier for you. oh my, all of a sudden he was the mature one :) We worked a little bit on telling time.
Canadian studies - still working on the arctic. We have been reading on adaptability of plants and animals in the arctic. I borrowed frozen planet from the library, and plan on watching that sometime this week. We have watched a lot of planet earth this week.
Spelling - Genevieve is really enjoying all about spelling. I think she enjoys the 1 on 1 time with mommy.
Therapies - Horse therapy, Nathan is in love with this, and he really is enjoying it and I can see so many benefits! Physiotherapy, same as usual, and OT
We have been working at home with the bosu ball we received a few weeks ago, it has worked great for a break inbetween, school breaks. It helps Nathan settle and give his body the feedback it needs. Right now the kids are playing balance dodgeball.
story of the world - we read a few more chapters this week
Physical education
Cheer- we had a cheer competition this past weekend in Kelowna!
Soccer- both Nathan and genevieve are playing in the spring soccer with Chilliwack FC
Genevieve- this is her first year playing and she is getting right in there when she can!
Nathan- wow what an improvement in skill level from fall soccer until now! He has always been a great defenceman, but he is able to be a forward this year as well, he is able to drible the ball with skill from one end of the field to the other. He has scored a goal in everygame. He scored 2 goals on his birthday. His hand eye coordination and core strength has improved so much this year. Thank-you janet for working with him all year!
