As the season's change

As the season's change, we have again reverted to outdoor living and the exploration of the nature around us produces no end of enjoyment and excitement.




The burst of colour, the intrigue of new growth, and the freedom to run and move our bodies leaves us breathless! (myself more than the girls, lol)

Come to a close...

Aislinn and Tara present their final "Ta-Da's"

I think participating in gymnastics has been great for the girls as they have always had a stronger development in fine motor skills over gross motor skills but that this chapter in our lives has come to a close.
The girls have enjoyed exploring new equipment, participating in a group based dynamic, and have gained an increased confidence in jumping, hanging and climbing skills over the past couple of years, and I- quite frankly enjoyed chatting with a great bunch of mom's and sharing laughter and stories over our children's development.
I think we will all miss our Thursday mornings, but we are ready to free up our schedule and experience new things!

Ummm...

Well.... we ended up having plans today... so...yeah maybe tomorrow?
(this is the reason you should never put things in print!!)

The Return of A Tale of Two Sisters

The Return of A Tale of Two Sisters ...coming soon... 04/27/08

(I could blog tonight, but frankly I'm too tired!)

Science Fair

Did I happen to mention that we also participated in our local home school group's Science Fair on Aislinn's birthday? So after a morning party, an afternoon of butterflies, we scarfed down a quick dinner and drove over to set up for the science fair. We did most of the work for our project the day before, but the girls did a great job of choosing and magnifying the household items they found, and doing a huge amount of writing.
What it did show me, was just how far Tara is coming with writing her letters, and her huge interest in learning to read (following in Aislinn's footsteps). The fair itself was great fun, as the girls enjoy the hustle and bustle, and the interaction with all of their home school acquaintances. Grammie, Aunt Jenn and Uncle Jay also came down to check it out which the girls greatly enjoyed.
The fair itself was run really well with about 30 projects set up, and ranging from nature collections, including bones, shells and rocks, right through to in-depth projects describing diabetes, optical illusions and light refraction.
The fun part was the community aspect, and the overall feeling of encouragement and success. Everyone who participated received an award, but regardless of that everyone displayed a true interest and sense of pride in what they had brought to share.

Birthday butterflies...

A month or two back, I signed up for a home school oriented butterfly program at our local butterfly conservatory thinking that it would be great fun.


Little did I know how busy we would be this week, but after a morning party with friends, we all headed out to the conservatory to visit with the butterflies. I had a great time taking pictures, and searching for interesting specimens (2 of which I snuck home...shhh!).


As you can see there are no pictures of Aislinn, because if I had tired you would have only seen the blur of her ducking and maneuvering away from the butterflies.

Looks like there is going to be some serious bug management required again this spring.
In the past she has been very disturbed by the presence of mosquito's and flying insects which is usual worse at the beginning of the season, but I had hoped it might be past.
She has been the unfortunate recipient of 2 bee stings in her short lifetime though, which I am sure hasn't helped.

Birthday cont...

Our week continued with visits with friends, lots of fun play time, and lots of cupcakes!

The beginning of birthday week

Aislinn turns 5 this week! Where has the time gone?

Because of the odd positioning of Easter, it made it tricky to plan an all encompassing Birthday party for Aislinn, so we opted for celebrating her birthday week!

It all began with a family party on Sunday with Jeff's family coming to our house to enjoy the celebration of both Aislinn's and Uncle Chris' birthdays.

As Aislinn and Tara are the only kids (so far) on this side of the family, they enjoy soaking up the adult attention by the handful.

There is nothing better than being the center of attention, opening gifts, blowing out candles, and... being swung through the air in their bathing suits wearing eye protection goggles?

March Break

And break it was, if I am referring to my Mom's very broken wrist which she sustained falling on the ice in her driveway!

We were in fact planning to spend a good part of the week with her and my niece Jordan, but it became more important, as my Mom spent the week in and out of the hospital (and consciousness) as they did surgery on her right arm.

The girls and I continued as planned, and enjoyed our days, playing in the house and out. On Wed. we spent the day enjoying a botanical garden center where they also offered a kids program involving a very talented magician.

After doing some crafts, we gave the scavenger hunt in the Mediterranean garden a try, and immensely enjoyed the springy smells and colours which were intoxifying to the senses.

The raccoon was a fun addition, and did an enormously good job of entertaining the girls with it's acrobatics across the greenhouse roof structures.

Family Tree

We had the opportunity to join in with our close friends and their idea to explore their family tree. We started the day with a short chat about family tree's using Dora's family as an example of how generations work, and how we get some of our genes from our parents and grandparents including eye colour, hair colour, but also things that we like and dislike.

We then shared lunch together, and headed out for a walk through the woods to collect dogwood branches to use in creating our own family trees.

The kids worked in family groups to create their tree and glue in the appropriate names. We enjoyed seeing names repeated through the generations, and chatted about which family members were still living that we knew personally, and which had passed away, including both my grandfathers, who learned that Aislinn was growing in my tummy, but had never had the chance to meet her.

I thought our tree turned out fabulously, and I think will be a great reference point for future exploration.

Catching Up!

Wow,

I have fallen way behind on blogging so bear with me... Here is an update on our very busy past two weeks.

Pics from the Sugar Bush

This week...

Has flown by!
The week started with our early learners morning focusing on fine arts. The kids took a few minutes to talk about and look over famous pieces of art and give their opinions using hold up faces featuring happy, unhappy, and indifferent emotions. They also got to try their hand at using patterns to create art, sketching, and exploring paint combinations in creating their own colour wheels.

Tuesday found us at home enjoying a pyjama day involving crafts, baking, games, reading, and baths. Our latest read "A Mouse Called Wolf" by Dick King-Smith. We are looking forward to reading more of his books (if we can find them --time for a trip to the used book store!)

Wednesday involved a few errands and our last trip to the pool for this session's last swimming lesson. Both girls passed their levels - not that they really understand what that's all about, but they enjoyed the comments their instructor had for them. They are looking forward to starting the next session Aislinn as a "whale" and Tara as a "Salamander".

Thursday started fast and furious with gymnastics bright and early, and then friends over to explore some of our community newspapers. This was a build up to our field trip to the local newspaper to view the process of creating the daily paper and for a view at the extensive machinery. Very cool press, but I forgot my camera that day:( The girls also worked on a card for our tour guide using the newspaper letters to create the words and their names. It worked out beautifully, but did very much resemble a ransom note!

Friday we drove out to a nearby conservation area for our sugar bush field trip. The girls enjoyed the wagon ride, and listened intently to the information our guide shared with us. Definitely helpful that she was great with the kids. The girls then enjoyed a shared lunch, some time in the play barn, visiting the barn animals, and walking the birds of prey trail. We got home around 3:00, with both girls zonking out in the car. The remainder of the afternoon passed snuggled up in front of a movie.

Science Center

It looks like this is becoming a science month for us!

To help us get through a bit of the February blahs, we decided on an impromptu all day visit to the Science Center. We packed up a picnic lunch and headed out with the intention of arriving at opening time to maximize our day.

The girls had a great time and stayed on the move from 10 right till closing time at 5. Our favorite areas were definitely the Human Body, the Living Earth, and Kidspark, with an electricity show, and an unexpected charades performance thrown in as well.

Pennies

The girls were happily playing upstairs on Saturday morning sorting the money from our change jar. The piles were sorted first by pennies and all the silver coins, and then the penny piled changed to shiny pennies and dirty pennies.

Walking by, I suggested to the girls that there was a way to change the "dirty pennies" back to shiny again- so we hopped on the Internet to find the "recipe".

The next hour or two involved the continual soaking of change in the vinegar solution, rinsing in warm water and drying the newly cleaned pennies.

The fun part, was the second half of the experiment where we got to change silver bits of hardware into the copper colour using the already used (yet still clear) vinegar solution.

Aislinn is reading!

and she is ecstatic. She has told everyone she can think of either by phone, in person (even the librarian) or by hoping up in their lap and showing them!

Now I am suddenly feeling under prepared and so have spent our library time today scouring the shelves for reads that will help her strike forth with confidence, reads that will challenge her slightly, and reads that will engage her interest; all at the emergent reader level. (Wasn't that succesful so any recommendations gladly accepted!)

Aislinn has been on the brink for months (so you would think I'd have better prepared myself ) often sounding out words with very little difficulty, but was reluctant to turn her skills toward conquering a sentence. Then the other day, minutes before leaving for a visit to Grammie's I asked her if she would like to snuggle on my bed and take turns reading the words of a story. I think I read the first word on the cover, and once she realized she was able, took over reading the rest of the book. And then she read another one, and then she read them again, and then she read them to Jeff, and then Grammie, Grandad, Uncle Chris, and whoever else she could rope in. She had definitely reached the memorization point, but after a quick trip to Chapters to purchase the BOB books, I think it has given her enough variety that she has had to go back and follow the words again.

She has now read 8 of the 12 BOB (level 1) books plus "Zac the Rat" and "Dan can Add" and most of "Hop on Pop" (Dr. Suess).

Now to find the balance that will grow her confidence, maintain her enthusiasm, and keep the pressure off. (My struggle with her in any undertaking!)

And as a mommy moment -- nothing makes you feel more needed than the look in a child's eye when they glance over from across the room while reading to someone else just to reassure themselves that they still have your love and support.

My latest strewing...

Well, this is my latest strewing attempt, and the girls immediately sticky tacked it to the wall. They now have penny, dime, loonie and twoonie down pat, and are starting to put the idea of value to each coin.

Then I came down with a ridiculous cold, and have spent the past few days just surviving, but I know now that strewing seems to be a great tactic with my girls, and hope to return to my system once my head returns to a functioning state.

Might not have much to do with homeschooling but...

They sure are having fun!

(Yes it's 11 o'clock in the morning and one is in her pajama's and the other in her bathing suit!)