Friday October 23

Wednesday

No book work completed. 

Physio therapy 11-12:00

Nathan music therapy 12- 12:30

Gigi music therapy. 11-12. Gigi is working on completed her from song she wrote last week.  I love it!  I didn't record it though, next week. 

Hockey 1-3

CSOPA - I think Genevieve is starting to enjoy this class more, they are being productive and working on their play.  She is a little disappointed that the play is not a musical theatre production.  I think she is learning how to take direction though, and they are teaching them different techniques even if it is through games.  

Everyday day or so Genevieve is working a little bit at a time on her South Korea keynote project.  We stopped at the library after CSOPA and she got a few books out of the library about Korea. 

Genevieve read a book on Mesopotamia for bedtime for school that we will be doing this week.   

I purchased a unit from MBTP 11-13 ancient Egypt to complete with nathan and Gigi, they were not liking story of the world, I found we were reading but not really understanding.  So I think we are going to work around our timeline.   I borrowed the required textbook.  

Thursday.  Man I was late again!!!  I forgot to set my alarm and I woke up at 8:15, contemplated letting the kids sleep, decided this was a bad idea and got everyone up and moving.   We got to class 10 minutes late. 

Genevieve had cheer 4:30-6:30

Friday.  

Nathan did the reading for history, Mesopotamia.  And started working on some worksheets.  

During this time I started working with Genevieve on math

Then we switched and nathan started math.  During this time I could see nathan going downhill fast.   He started turning really pale and almost looked sweaty.  Under his eyes went dark and he kept on yawning.  He was fidgety and could not pay attention.  I could really tell he was trying hard.  He tried really hard to finish his unit in life of Fred and then he went upstairs and layed in his bed.  His EA came but nathan was not well enough to come down.  He needed complete darkness and had blinds closed, door closed and head under his pillow.  His headache was about a 5 on the nathan scale.    About 1 hour later he called me up to say that he was seeing aura.  His curtain rod was moving up and down.  He was seeing shapes.  A poster on the wall was distorted. 

1/2 hour later he called me up to say he was seeing bowling balls with the #8 on them.   This was a little freaky for him as it felt like they were going to hit him.  He put a pillow over his head and closed his eyes and he could not see them anymore , this is a little unusual as nathan usually still sees aura with his eyes closed.  

Nathan came downstairs after 2 1/2 hours, he put in ear plugs as his light sensitivity was gone but noise was still bothering him.  He took about 45 minutes to look more normal, just when his ea was leaving.   Nathan then became a little hyper. 

We went out to deliver the papers and we tried to keep his mood even.  

Now off to soccer practice 7-8

Election fun

Sunday evening we got to go see the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper for one last time.  We went to a conservative rally in Abbotsford.  Nathan and Genevieve again really enjoyed their time their.  Nathan was tired and really did not want to go, but of course he was excited when we went.  We didn't get to shake hands this time, but we still had rockstar seats. 

Monday morning Jessica came over and the kids did art work, they worked on some cave drawings to place in their timeline books.  I must take pictures of these and add them here to the blog in future...

After Jessica left, we went to go vote, nathan came down in full Mark Strahl regalia, very proud to show everyone.  I took a picture and sent it to Lisa, marks wife, and said look how cute my son is, but I dont think he can wear this into the polling station can he?  Nope he was not allowed to.  I went and grabbed him another shirt.  Nathan did not want to change out, he said he could just stay in the car, but I told him I wanted to show him how we vote...  So we went in and voted.

Next we went to home depot, to get a part for the toilet, the handle thingy broke (dont worry, I may not know what its called but I did manage to fix it)

We had a little bit of relax time at home, then I painted the kids faces with a conservative C and a canada flag on their cheeks.  We gathered up our supplies, so I could face paint all the kids at marks election night event.  We also brought games to organize a kids area.  The kids area was great, and Nathan and Genevieve even seemed to be helping the younger kids and organizing groups to play different games, Keva planks were a big hit, and guess what I didnt take any pictures!  Lisa would be dissapointed as many of the kids left before she arrived.  All the kids looked so cute with their facepaint, and we even painted on go mark go!

I have a great photo of the kids with Mark, but I think Lisa must have taken the pictures.  I am sure she will send them to me.

Before we left to go out the the conservative event on election night, we knew that it was going to be a liberal minority at least, nathan was very disappointed, to the point he thought it would be better just to stay home and watch the election coverage on our own TV.  I said no we had to go and support his friend Maclean, and Macleans dad Mark.  Even more disappointment as the polls kept coming in.  Nathan, ended up leaving the kids area, to stay glued to the tv to watch the numbers.  Man that kid really does know all the local candidates in the fraser valley.  Mark's race was a little tighter than I would have liked, and we did not get the check mark until about 9 pm.  I was super happy to hear it. We ended up staying pretty late, and not getting home into bed until about 10:30

Tuesday morning

Nathan slept in until around 10 am.  Genevieve was up at 9 am.  At about 11am, ginger our dog went and hid under the dinning room table.  Nathan and Genevieve were in  the living room.  Poor girl, I could not get her to go near Nathan.  Now I know every other time Ginger has done this Nathan has an episode, but I was optimistic that maybe ginger was grumpy from being up late.

So after Nathan was up and had eaten breakfast, I didnt know where the kids were, I heard classical music playing but wondered what they were up to, I was letting them relax in the morning because of the late night, and Nathan does not do well with late nights.  So I went and checked, and found Nathan cleaning his room, gigi had turned on the classical music and she was working on her slide show of South Korea.  Gigi is such a motivated and independent learner!  Seriously she has very little down time that she is not dedicating to reading (usually non-fiction), playing the piano/creating music, finding some kind of art project, or getting really excited about doing extra work for school, she likes projects lol  Love her enthusiasm...

Nathan in the morning also watched abou 1 hour of election stuff.  He was searching himself and listened to harpers consesion speech, and trudeaus acceptance.  Nathan's biggest worry about trudea is marijuana.   He does not think this is a good idea, we have talked about the fact that studies have been show that there is benifits to legalizing.  Nathan does not agree.  

Nathan had a few episodes of his angry like behaviour today that sometimes preceeds an episode, but I was not sure if that was just because he was tired.

I tried to start some ancient egypt things, but I thought I had the book I wanted to teach from and it ended up being the wrong book, and Nathan was really tired, so I said ok, you guys go make lunch so they did.

After lunch we went to piano lessons.  Genevieve finished a chapter in life of fred, and she also completed a unit in rightstart math. 

I did have to show Genevieve how to write a billion.  

Nathan's turn for math, man the kid was tired and grumpy.  But all of a sudden when it got harder, he seemed to put more of an effort in.  His eyes were twitchy, but again was not sure if it was just being tired.  We went home after and had time to relax for an hour, and then Genevieve helped me make dinner.  Off to cheer we went.

When we got home from cheer we were sitting in the living room, and Genevieve was eating her salad, and gigi, gave me the signal that Nathan's eyes were doing its thing.  I didn't bring it to Nathan's attention and after gigi was done eating it was time for bed.  About 15 minutes after going to bed, nathan called me that he was having visual aura.  He was seeing bubbles, with hexagons, and octagons that were just clear normal without bubbles in them, he could just see the ceiling regularly thought the hexagons and octagons.  15 minutes later, nathan called that he had a headache, and if I could bring him the essential oils.  He says he cant help it when I put on the essential oils it makes him smile, I think its the peppermint that does it to him...  It seems to help him anyway, not sure how long his stuff lasted, I think he was able to get to sleep fairly quickly.

Thursday and friday

Thursday was a busy day.

Kids went to Exploratorium on Thursday, we were late...Cant blame this one on Jeff.  Nathan was a little off in the morning, but I think he did okay at school.

After I dropped the kids off at school I went and picked up Nathan's computer, which had been fixed, except we lost everything on the computer...  All of my lesson planning for the year, was on his computer, absolutely everything...  so sad.  We also lost a few programs that were on the computer, co-writer (this one I don't think we will need as since Nathan is usuing dragon, cowriter is not really needed), we also lost classroom suite, which I haven't used much in the last few years, but it did have some neat things in it.  And the whole look of the computer, just seems different somehow...  Poor Nathan is not so good with change, I didn't give him his computer until he was working with his EA on Friday.  This way I think it would have helped him control his disappointment, he was pretty bummed but held it together because his EA was there.

I then went home and I have no idea what I did, but it was then time to pick up the kids.

I picked up the kids and we ate, and then took Gigi to cheer, Nathan and I went home and had about 1 hour at home before we had to pick up gigi again.

We then went to a girls night at a friends house, the boys watched movies, they watched Bill and Teds excellent adventure, that's schoolwork right?  Nathan thought it was really stupid.  He said mom you know how those old movies are, they suck to watch, and they were really corny, the humour was not funny at all.

Genevieve made modge podge bowls out of leaves, and a votive holder, covered in leaves.  It was very ooey and goooey, the girls seemed to have a great time doing it, the moms did end up having to go over, to  help make the leaves stick to their ballons.  I cant wait to see how they turn out, we had to leave them at our friends house cause that modge podge was not drying anytime soon, we really used a lot of modge podge.   I bought the really big container, and the whole container was drained...

We worked on math in the morning, genevieve and I played a math fractions game, did a lesson in rightstart, and then she wanted to do life of fred again.

Nathan worked on life of fred, with difficulty... ugggg

Ea came and Nathan finished a project on South Korea.  He is quite happy with his work.  It was much easier working on it today then last week, thanks to dragon, a few kinks today, thanks to nathans computer, being reset to original.

South Korea, Nathan Reimer

Genevieve finished her top secret adventures, and played piano, and worked on her gingerbread song, she is learning to play and sing it at the same time.

We had to rush and deliver papers after EA because Gigi had an extra cheer practice tonight from 6-8. 

Wednesday october 14

We should have completed about an hour of bookworm today, but we did not, I did not sleep well last night so it was a slow start to my morning.

Kids showed a lot of independence though this morning.  I asked them to get their hockey gear ready and they had already done it.  They both made breakfast.  I made soup for lunch and we left the house at 10:30

First stop was to see Kim and Janet. 

Genevieve has her song completed!

 

She also started working on a new song today, I took a video so you can see how she goes about composing, how she figures it all out, and let's Kim know exactly what she wants. Love what she does.

Next up hockey!  They both had great games.  

After hockey I ran Gigi over to CSOPA.  Poor Gigi a little disappointed with her group.  She was the only one who had her lines memorized.  She is also disappointed with the play, it is not a musical, no singing.  I feel terrible that I did not beg and plead to get her into the older group, but they seemed pretty adamant about age restrictions.  I had heard such amazing things about csopa, I though even at Gigi's age it would be more serious.  She still likes it, but is a little disappointed.  She wishes everyone had her determination. 

After hockey nathan went shopping with grandma and had a great time.

Genevieve in the evening in her spare time, worked on her History Timeline.  I love how she just finds these types of things fun to do, to her they are not work, it is fun.

Tuesday, daddy leaves for two weeks...

The morning was spent with daddy, we dropped daddy off at 10.  His flight was delayed so we stayed with him for a bit.

We arrived home around 11, nathan played street hockey for 1/2 hour, and then we started school.

We read from the kingfisher encyclopedia of history.  I like this one better than the usborn encyclopedia, but I like having both.  We read and discussed for about 1 hour. We were reading on the Stone Age.  We discussed what they would like to place on their timelines and how they want to do this.  I suggested doing a research report and we can type it up and add it to our timeline.  Genevieve was all over this idea.   

We all helped make nachos, nathan made the guacamole, Gigi made nachos, I cleaned.  

Next up was piano

Nathan went first so Gigi and I worked on math.  We completed lesson 13.  Life of Fred middle school arrived today and the first book is fractions, exactly what we are studying now in Rightstart, so I let Gigi read it.  She loved it and completed chapter 1. 

Nathan's turn with math, nathan loves the humour in life of Fred and how the math is presented, he said he likes that they let you figure it out on your own.  Ohh how I hope this works for him.  Feel my pain... Nathan completed the chapter and was proud of himself that he scored 100 percent.  He I think liked how each question was so different.  

Wish I took pics but I lefty camera at home.   Let's hope tomorow is just as successful.

Finished off the day with Genevieve going to cheer practice, 5-7:30.

Today was a tough practice, but she completed for the first time ever  T-jump, standing back handspring, back walkover, back walkover.  This combination is at the beginning of her routine, and it is a little bit of a challenge for Gigi to do it from standing, and not a tumbling pass.  She had a coach stand and spot just in case, but she was able to do it without a spot but she lacks confidence in what she is doing.  I can't wait to see her do this though!

Thanksgiving weekend

Thursday - exploratorium

            - cheer

            - soccer practice

Friday - kids worked on their language arts. 

Nathan finished his invitations, they looked great.  

Genevieve worked on finishing up her MBTP.  She can is almost ready for the tea party, but since she wants to invite friends I need to figure out a day that works.  

EA 1-4. Nathan worked on a report of South Korea. 

Genevieve worked on top secret adventures South Korea    

We read the book seesaw girl last month.  It was a book on Korea 1400's life of an aristocratic girl.  

We then delivered papers

Had dinner then off to the pool to have a Friday night hangout with some other homeschoolers. 

Saturday - a day of rest - no cheer no soccer, wow it was peaceful.  

Sunday.  Nathan held his tea party.  He prepared snacks served tea, and organized a game.  We played professor noggins Canadian History.  We learned that my parents know a lot about Canadian history, especially my mom, we will have to play this game again. 

Nathan's tea party

We had our family thanksgiving dinner later with both sets of grandparents.  

Monday 

We worked on our timelines today.  

We also went into a metric system math lesson as we needed it to divide Genevieve's space equally into 10 pieces.   We had about a 1/2 hour lesson, on math and then they had to implement what they learned.  Nathan wanted to learn more about other metric measurements.  I explained the principal is the same we just change the base. 

Genevieves timeliine

Nathans time line
 

I have more pictures but they are on Jeff's phone and for some reason they didn't get sent to my phone...

We then watched a nova movie on Neanderthals. 

Nathan during the lesson was acting a little off, hard to concentrate, making weird noises, still trying but just difficult to teach.  We decided to watch the movie to calm down. 

By dinner time nathan was having a really hard time, just not himself could not stay quiet.  Ginger ran away and hid and both Jeff and I knew nathan was in god a big something.  His eyes were also twitching at the dinner table.  Nathan went down to watch the hockey game, came up for bed at 8 pm. While getting ready for bed he had some aura as he walked into his bedroom, Jeff was there to catch him but he said he felt dizzy and would have fallen if Jeff was not there. He was seeing all sorts of bubbles and floating dots.  About 1/2 hour after going to bed he came into my room crying he had a nog headache between his eyebrows.  This is not a typical spot for nathan to have a headache.  He said it was bad, but he was still able to walk so maybe a 6 on Nathan's headache scales.  A 10 is when he turned purple and I could not move him an inch.  I rubbed his back and used essential oils on him peppermint, almond and lavender.  This seemed to help him.  

Anyway ginger the super dog really does know when something is up with nathan before it even happens.  Too bad she runs away and doesn't comfort him, but we know if ginger is hiding, it will be a rough night for nathan.  

October hello...

We had a beautiful start to October.

 

The kids are still liking Thursday exploratorium!  I am so happy for this.  After exploratorium we met up with Tyler and Cody at the BMX track in abbotsford.  We had snacks and kids biked for a few hours and sat chatting for a while.  Simmone and I sat and wondered what they were talking about.  Genevieve went to cheer for 4:30-6:30.   We skipped soccer practice because last week was just way to hard on nathan, I figured we would go tomorrow as Jeff is home and we can split up.  

Friday kids worked on science they built a windmill and had a candle underneath. Nathan thought it was a pretty stupid experiment as he thought the results were pretty obvious. But the experiment was not the greatest success as the windmill was too tight and did not spin. I thought this was actually good for our experiment showing that they don't always work out.  

taking turns hammering a nail through the plastic bottle to make a hole for their fan
 

Nathan's EA came over and nathan finished up some work in MBTP, and he started on his final project which is putting on a tea party.  

Genevieve worked on organizing her tea party as well. 

We then delivered papers and delivered flyiers for mark strahl's campaign. 

Saturday we had cheer and soccer and my twin cousins 50th birthday party.  I can not believe I am closer to 50 then 20...

Monday

Jessica came over in the morning and the kids worked more on their art project from last time and started a new one.  Kids really like the art course, I really plan on using Jessica around lesson planning, she works so well with the kids and gives a good history lesson while teaching art.  Kids are loving this hands on approach much more then story of the world, so point taken I think we will do history with more of a hands on approach.  I ordered the ancient Egypt unit from MBTP thinking it would probably be more to our liking.  We are also working on our history  timelines and filling them in.  

I think after Jessica left I got the kids to work independently in MBTP literature unit. 

We then went to horse, we tried bareback for nathan but that did not work.  Poor kid spent the next few days having sore hips.   We are going to have to stop horse riding.  We may try again in 6 months to see if it changes again. 

So rachel this frees up a lot of $$$ in horse riding, as I don't think we have used any of this years funding that I budgeted for horse riding yet...   I tried last week to look at the budget but it doesn't show when I log in, not sure if they have changed something. 

Tuesday - morning time I got the kids to read the rest of their novel in MBTP.  Nathan is showing a HUGE amount of motivation and independence, he so badly wants to show me he is ready for more difficult work.  He is working 2 days ahead of Genevieve!  Yes you read that correct!  But it was wonderful the independence they are both showing now, I was able to clean the house before Jeff got home!  

We then went to piano, Genevieve and I went to the dance store to get her dance slippers and we went to her favorite tea shop to have tea and they had a gluten free muffin for her.   We sat and had tea and had a math lesson.  It was a nice way to learn. 

Nathan and I worked from a grade 9 bc algebra workbook that I got from the library.   We worked on exponents. 

Oddly enough while nathan was doing this he knew in his head what 16 *2 is.  I think his brain works better when you work it harder!  I asked him how he knew this, he said well I think I have memorized it already somehow. I think he had to have memorized it because it was instantaneous. 

We worked on - base numbers as well and how you treat this.  Of course this was a little more difficult for nathan to understand, you just can't say to nathan a - * - = a +.  That just doesn't make sense.  So we watched a few videos.  I think what made it stick was just saying at breakfast the next morning, nathan please don't, don't eat your breakfast.  I know totally not math but he could understand the double negative makes a positive, we will see how this translates to math later on. 

Do after piano 1 hour break before cheer 5-7:30 and pick up Jeff at the airport. 

Wednesday

Nathan woke up not in a great way or mood.  He was grumpy and had a headache.  I attempted to do math with nathan, even had daddy sitting there so nathan could show Daddy what he's doing.  Nathan could not do 4*4.  Ugh no point in doing school work I persevered and tried for. 1/2 hour.  Finally said mom I need to lay down I have a migraine.  So even though daddy was home nathan went and layed on the couch for 1 hour. 

Gigi and I spent about 1 hour on math. We completed lesson 11.  Worked on fractions, we also reviewed 9 facts.  

We left late today for physio... I blame this on Jeff, his being home must have messed up my scheduling, Jeff says I'm always late.  

Physio 11:30-12:30

Genevieve worked a little more on gingerbread song, I so love this song.  They have typed out lyrics and piano notes for the song, her teacher is going to work in figuring out how to publish songs so they can work on that!

 

Nathan felt better after physio, he was still feeling dizzy at physio, but felt himself after. 

Hockey 1-3.  Much better today, the other kid who was playing rough is no longer playing that way yeah. 

3:30- 5 csopa

Gigi came home excited that she has her part, she has a lot of lines!  

In typical Gigi style she needs to have everything memorized by next week, so Gigi and I worked on lines while the boys watched the first period of the hockey game.   I am impressed with her ability to memorize and not get down on herself.  She didn't get frustrated at all just took it in stride.