October is here...

Week 5 midway

New car

Lots of excitement this week with a purchase of a new car.  Nathan and Genevieve went with us when we were looking at cars most of the time and I think this was a good experience for them.  I think it showed them not to get too involved with the car and to make sure you look around.  We had a list of things we were looking for and explained to the kids we may not get everything on our list.  We also talked about a budget.  What we could afford and what we were comfortable paying were two seperate things.  And finally the negotiations process, and we bought with a Jim Patterson dealership, that was a little tricky.  We ended up buying a Volvo S60 T6.  Nathan had all the electronics figured out in about the 1 hour drive home and was able to adjust things for jeff as he was driving.   We all love the car, but at 302 horsepower, I don't think Nathan will be driving it when he is 16, we have him down for a fiesta.  The car does have lots of safety features and does park itself, but control freak that I am, I am not sure I will use it much, I tried it out, and it pretty much freaked me out.  But parking in Vancouver in tight spots, it may come in handy! But I think it will just be way easier to park then the truck or the SUV.

VSO

Vancouver symphony came to Chilliwack and we went to the concert.  It was amazing! The program started with William tell overture, Ancestral voices, and then second half was Tchaikovsky symphony no 5. Genevieve and I both really loved a piece that Bramwell Tovey created called ancestral voices.  Nathan I am sure would have enjoyed it more during the day.  His eyes were tired and he wanted to just close them and listen to the orchestra, he did not enjoy the singing part.  

Bramwell, started off by explaining why he created the piece and what each song was about and how and why he did it.  He talked for at least 4-10 minutes about this.  The first song he used text from Keats to create the song, he chose this because it was about the same time as colonization, the poem is not about Canada, but describes a pastoral paradise.

The second song is from a poem by Charles Mair, who was the son of Scottish imigrants.  this one talks about the loss of the buffalo. (this was Genevieve favourite)

Next song was about residential schools, based off a letter of a beuracrat at the time, signed respectfully yours, even though nothing in the letter was respectful.  I had tears in my eyes with this song.

The last song was made using text from both Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau.  I loved that he used both prime ministers in this.  And this last song was about reconciliation.

I loved how Bromwell was able to create moments of pause and reflection in his conducting.

Tea date

Genevieve had music lessons, and Nathan wanted to go to the book store.  So we checked out both used book stores and walked past decades so decided to go in for tea.  We were sitting eating our deserts and Nathan drink was ready so he went up to go get it.  well, Nathan forgot he has giraffe legs, and well the whole table tipped over onto me spilling my entire drink on to me.  I didn't think there was that much sticky liquid in my drink.  It was hot and sticky and soaked front and back.  Nathan got his drink to go, and the very nice worker made me a new chai latte as well!  But then I had to drive in my sticky pants in my brand new car uggg.  I went home and then cleaned my seat after lol

we look so happy here.

you can't see how sticky and wet I am, trust me from top to bottom I am soaked

Nathan

Intro to online learning

Nathan finished his intro to online learning course last week.  He finished the course with 95% grade. I think he was happy to be finished.  I believe it was a great course though as he definitely learned some skills he needs for his other classes.  I am glad that he started 1 week early on this course and tried to blow through it, so that he had the information before he needed it for his other classes.  But I am happy he has 1 less course to be concerned about.

French

Nathan did a little bit of grammar work and I think this helped him with his questions and understanding a little bit more.  I think the combination of him asking me (only high school French here, but I still do remember some) and asking his teacher for clarification will help.  I think what he needs to do is take screen shots if he has grammar questions and just send them to his teacher.  He did this once last week and it seemed to help greatly.  I know he is just someone who has to completely understand something before he can move on.  He was able to verbalize to his teacher more about why he wasn't liking Rosetta Stone, so that was good.  He doesn't like that they don't explain things, especially the grammar, so he doesn't fully understand the rules why you do things.  I think with his teachers help he can figure this out.

Math

started pre-algebra with biology.  So far it has been pretty easy.  He just completed chapter 5 on Thursday.

Science

I think he is doing quite well, and is ahead of where he is supposed to be.  His grades have remained above 90% for every assignment or quiz.  He does have a unit test coming up, so it will be interesting to see how he does on that.  I think I will try and help him figure out how to study for a "test" as he really hasn't had tests like this because I have always figured it was better to get him to understand and show his understanding and I know tests don't  always do that.  I am thinking he will probably finish the module this week and write the test at the beginning of next.

Language arts and socials

He needs to do more of this, he won't have time today or tomorrow, I am guessing he will do some on Friday.

Genevieve

Genevieve has been carrying on with all her subjects, I need to take some pictures for you for LA and socials.  

Every day she has been doing  

1 lesson LA

1 lesson Socials

German - she has been starting new units about every 3 days, she is doing lots of review to try and make sure it sticks for her.  I am hopeful that our conversation group wills start soon, but I am worried that it won't be quite enough for her.

Math

Music

She is still working on her new song, but we found out the she needed to submit a written score, by next week.  There is no way she can submit a written score by then, that is very difficult for her to get all the timing correct.  She knows what notes they are but it takes a lot of time to go through each note and make sure it is correct.  So we decided that the best idea would be for her to sing Finally I see because she is very familiar with this song now and she will have more confidence singing it.  She will submit her other song for festival.

Genevieve and Anna performed at the cultural centre over the weekend.  It was a arts program they had at the cultural centre of all the arts going on in Chilliwack, they perfomed a few songs for the people who were checking out all of the booths.  

Choir - she is still enjoying choir, although they do not have enough girls for choir, and she is the only soprano 1, this is a challenge as she is not used to harmonizing and will be a pretty big challenge for her.  The choir director believes she can do it, but hopes to find another soprano 1 to help her out. There first concert is next weekend, so excited to watch this concert, not just to see Genevieve, but I think its going to be an excellent concert.