May 6 2014

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!