saturday May 24

I guess I should do an update.

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 :)