Your Christmas Present!

Hi Kris,
In case you are missing Canadian Christmas...

And here is your Christmas present this year! We will put the mask up in the hallway to join the others, and the book will be waiting on your shelf for your return! (Incentive) The mask is hand painted and from Indonesia, or so I was told, but I liked it regardless.

Merry Christmas!

-from all of us!

The night before the night before Christmas!

We have been busy this past month with lots of events, get together's, and a week of the flu! Luckily we have all come through (unlike last year), and are gearing up for the fun filled days ahead spent with family and friends.

But before that, here is a picture overview of our last few weeks:
Making our Gingerbread House at Grammies House

Taking an evening trip to "sparkles in the park" a large lights and decorations display at a nearby park. They also had the carousel open and the girls enjoyed a winter ride. The girls also spotted these ducks by the river's edge and close by, 2 raccoons slinking around in the dark. I was lucky to grab this pic, because as soon as my flash went, they were off!

Christmas is coming!

We are starting to feel the bustle of the Christmas season, as you can probably tell from the quantity of blog posts lately.

The girls' excitement is growing daily, and we are trying hard to balance the meaning of the season with the glamour of commercialism.

We have been reading quite a few bookies and stories based on the Christmas season including;

1. The Animals' Merry Christmas - Richard Scarry


2. Mouse and Mole and the Christmas Walk - Doug Cushman


3. Night Tree - Eve Bunting


4. Franklin and the Christmas Gift -Paulette Bourgeois


5. Dora's Starry Christmas - Christine Ricci

We have been working on quite a few crafts, both for the girls' Christmas tree which they have set up in the basement, and for the Christmas market (an evening put on by our local homeschooling group) we attended last week.

The Christmas market involved kids from approx. 12 homeschooling families with tables set up in a local recreation center selling their homemade wares. The girls made button star ornaments, wrapping paper, Christmas card ball ornaments, Christmas cards, and Christmas tree cork stands and offered everything on their table for sale at 50 cents each. The client base included other homeschooling families and the onlookers of a nearby hockey game. After an exciting profit of about 12 dollars (thanks again Grammie and our other awesome supporters), the girls got involved in bartering and shopping and came home with handfuls of treasures and tasty treats (and one lone twoonie!).
The girls deemed the evening a great success and are looking forward to their next attempt at entrepreneurialism.
I am definitely visualizing a lemonade stand parked on our front lawn next summer!

We also took in a play put on by a local theatre group aimed specificlly at school age kids. The play was titled "Holiday dream" and for the short version involved a boy who wished everyday could be a holiday instead of a school day. Even though the girls obviously didn't have a great attachment to the idea of "no school" they seemed to enjoy the theatre atmosphere and the experience of being part of a larger whole in responding to the actors.

Well, these are just a few of our latest escapades, and we have many more events planned as we gear up to the big day... gingerbread houses at grammies, our early learners Christmas party, gift exchanges with friends, Christmas baking with Aunt Pam... the list goes on...

We will keep you posted :)

Hibernation

There is something really special about heading over to a friends house for our Early Learners Group with special bear and blanket in hand and being confronted with a tent set up in the living room!
The girls spent the morning learning about hibernation, getting fat and then skinny again in their "cave" as one of the moms explored with them the lifestyle of bears preparing for winter, while the other moms, including myself, chatted quitely and munched on fresh blueberry muffins, oranges and tea.

Have I mentioned how much I love homeschooling?

After a full morning of dabbling in hibernation, migration, adaption - some talk on syllables and creating caves out of margarine containers and plasticine, the girls were comfortable spending a quiet afternoon at home together hibernating ourselves from the winter weather.

Not prepared!

Well, I'm not prepared for the onslaught of winter, but the girls sure are. I think we may need to keep a snowman tally this year, as the girls are bound and determined to create one at every opportunity.

Even after a conversation about the different types of snow, the girls were not to be put off, so we managed to create this little guy!

The rain that followed didn't help his longevity, so we rescued his button eyes, and left the carrot for any industrious animals who might pass by.

I'm sure there will be many more, but we will remember him as our first of the season!