Monday May 26 2014

Sunday

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 :)