Sunday April 13

IWe went for a hike today up to the lookout on mount hope.  Nathan was tired before we left, he's had a busy week with lots of physical activity.  Unfortunately Nathan's hikers did not fit him, and I offered mine but those didn't work either.  So I should go buy him another pair.  There goes $200 :).  He wore his runners today, but he tweaked his ankle a little comming down.  Gigi had lots of energy and raced up and down, frequently saying come on guys your soooo slow :).  

I forgot to take a picture from the top, it was very beatiful!

Here is a picture Genevieve drew this weekend as well. 

Thursday April

We woke up early and left the house by 7:20.   Traffic was horrible and took us forever to get to children's.  Our appointment was for 9:30, we were not done until 12:30.   This appointment was Pediatric ophthalmologist.  We went over new symptoms, she checked everything out.  She felt bad that she has no answers for us, she recomended we see neurology again, she was asking well what does neurology say.   Ummm neurology doesn't really tell me anything :).   She has moved us back to yearly exams, unless we need or would like to see her sooner.  My first appointment with her, I didn't really like her, I didn't connect with her, I have definitely changed my mind.  Our first appointment she was researching eds, as she didn't know much about it.  It scared me at first.  But since seeing other drs who pretend to understand, I will take the drs willing to learn from me.  It just scared me at times that I must be the expert :).  Last appt with the ophthalmologist I didn't bring our big medical binder, she asked me to bring it to this appt.  I didn't bring it because I think I can look intimidating to drs when I bring it, and look like I'm trying to run the show, I don't think our neurologist likes that :)

Anyway stopped for lunch on the ride home, it was then close to cheer time so we didn't go home.  I got Gigi out of cheer at 5:45 15 minutes early so we could get Nathan to his soccer game in chilliwack at 6:30

Nathan loved his soccer game, he is back to big fields and big nets, he had an awesome game.  He even scored his first goal in 3 years!  Nathan plays defence and loves it!  He really is an awesome soccer player.   

Wednesday april 9

We started our social studies unit on "the Land", in moving beyond the page. 

We then had physiotherapy.

here is a video of genevieve singing and dancing to music at her music lesson :)

Went to the library, and the park.

And tonight was gigi's first time playing soccer, she had a great time, and she really played well.  She got right in there and into the game!  Very impressive for her first time out.  Nathan took her outside this afternoon and gave her some pointers on the game, and explained the rules to her.  He really enjoyed that.

And lastly we stopped at DairyQueen for a dessert, because it was jus that kind of day, and banana splits were on sale for 2.49 :)

Oh and I got a phone call from childrens to confirm Nathans appointment tomorrow, I knew I had an appointment in April, I just forgot when it was!  9:30 am tomorrow, how I love to wake up early...

Tuesday April 8

Today we took daddy to the airport early in the morning.  We then went for breakfast at ABC, this is our usual custom after dropping off daddy.  I then had a DR's apt, and then we had a special surprise today of babysitting a baby!  We got to take Makela to piano lessons with us.  Both Nate and gigi adore her and fought over who got to hold her and sit by her.  We stopped on the way home, to buy Nathan some cowboy boots for his riding lessons :)

 

 

gigi being little mommy

Nathan being very cool :)

So we had a wonderful afternoon of learning how to take care of babies!  They got to change a diaper, feed her, and each of them had about 1/2 an hour where they were the one solely responsible for the baby.  And then finally Mikala's big sister and brother came over for a playdate.

Monday April 7

Here is genevieve posing in front of our house, she wanted to get a picture with all of the flowers we have planted this week.  We went to the store and the kids picked out all the flowers and had a great time planting all of them

 

 

 

 

Here is a picture of Genevieve with facepaint on.  After Nathan and jeff went to the hockey game, I painted genevieves face.  We ordered pizza for dinner and watched Pride and Prejudice.  Yeah she loved the movie and wanted to watch it again the next day.  I am soooo thankful she liked it, since how can you not love jane austen.

 

 

                                           
                                       
                                               Nathan ready to go watch the canucks


fierce Nathan


 

Nathan is super excited

So this weekend we did some light schooling.  We watched the new science show called cosmos.  The kids also watched into the arctic, this was Geneviève's favorite, she loves learning about animals.  This was a great movie to watch as we are still working on learning about the arctic.  We played a few math games as well.

 

 

Monday

 

We started our moving beyond the page unit Sarah Plain and Tall.  We started by learning that the story would have 2 settings, we reviewed what the term setting is.  I told them the story would take place in Maine and in Kansas.  We then coloured some maps, of the area called New England.  When I asked the question why do you think this area is called New England Nathan was able to come up with the answer.  We also learned about the prairies also called the heartland.  I then copied a map of Canada and got the kids to colour the praire lands in Canada.   We discussed our trip to regina this summer, and how different the climate and environment was in the prairies compared to where we live.  We looked at the difference between Maine and Kansas, and talked about possible differences.  We then did some research on each of the states. 

 

I then showed the kids the title of the book and asked why some works are capitalized and others are not in the title.  We then talked about that Sara is a noun and Plain and Tall are adjectives.  Nathan said that Plain and Tall may not be adjectives, but maybe they could be the names of the children.  We also discussed and is a conjunction.

 

 

 

                                                                        Nathans work

                                                                                  Nathan

                                                                              



                                                                           Genevieve

I almost forgot we met with Jim Greendyk, Nathan really liked him and fell in love with a horse he will probably be riding :)  Nathan is pretty excited, I am as well.  I think it will be a great fun way for Nathan to improve his core strength.  I so want him to be able to sit comfortably.  Jim said that riding a horse takes an incredible amount of core strength, like trying to sit on a moving exercise ball, I think Nathan is up for the challenge.  He also said that depending on Nathan and what they accomplish Nathan may be able to show a horse as well!  Now to go buy cowboy boots :)  And he did suggest jeans as if he does really get into it, jogging pants can chafe, well that may be an issue, as I haven't found jeans that don't have buttons but I can sew! 

Oh and we have had lots of road hockey going on this week as well.  We have been taking advantage of all the awesome weather and getting outside to play lots.   Including a play date on Friday, with a bunch of kids playing roller hockey :)

Friday April 4

Wednesday we played math games in the morning, then physio

We then went to the park and played roller hockey.  

Lots of fun, we played for about 2 hours and had lunch.  

Thursday am.  Our last science lesson on weather.  We read and talked about how different environments and weather affect animals and their adaptations.  

Nathan's work

Gigi's

We read these books that we had at home, we really liked could a polar bear survive in the dessert, we were surprised to find many similarities between Camels and polar bears!  Did you know polar bears don't drink water!  

We answered these questions from the book.  

We also used the books on Canada's animals to do some of our research.  

They also had a map and had to label and colour in the Mohave, Sahara desert, Antarctica, and Greenland.  

I really enjoyed our lesson today, I really like when we can cross connect all that we are learning together, today we really did that.  We discussed the arctic, environment, geography, animals, and habitats.  I can really see the connections being made when we cross connect on different things we have learned.  

April 1st

April 1st already.

We have 1 day left in our unit study on tornado, and weather from moving beyond the page.  The kids are excited.  I am really pleased with the progression they have made in a short period of time.  They usually put up a little fuss before we start, but are then engaged and do not want to stop. 

Here are pictures of summary of skills from both our science and literature unit.  We completed all but I think 2 activites, they are just all so good, hard not to do them and even the ones I thought oh why are we doing this, they turned out to be so engaging and great for the kids...

summary of skills