Sunshine!
What, can’t you see it? Hmmm. Would you believe, lack of rain? Seriously, if you look up, waaaay up, you might spot something that has been scarce the last week of rain and floods. Blue sky! I’ll take what I can get đŸ™‚
Alberta adjustment
Some of the things I miss about living in BC are the seasons. I love Spring and Fall, but especially Fall. I love the crisp and colourful leaves, the cool air, the sunshine. Spring in BC is a lot like fall, but with more rain and flowers. Not too hot, not too cold or slushy. Alberta seems to have a distinct lack of my favourite times of the year. Some might argue this fact, but when it snows in May and June and again in September and October (leaving 2-3 months snow free, and the rest quite snowy), I denote a distinct lack of Spring and Fall. In fact, I’m pretty sure Albertans welcome in only two seasons: Suntime (about 2-3 months of the year) and Snowtime (the other 9-10 months of the year). Well, on one of my rants about the troubles of living in Alberta (yes, bad habit that is hard to cut out), my husband suggested an alternative. Perhaps I need to change my way of thinking from a lover of Spring and Fall, to being a morning and evening person. In the Suntime, these are the cool and peaceful times of the day…not too hot or cold. And perhaps in the Snowtime, I could be a noon person, enjoying the odd bit of sunshine that makes its way through. Hmmm, something to work with, anyway.
So, I took a picture of the yard in the evening. An yes, it looks like my hubby was right. This is a beautiful time of the day to be outside. Note the shade. I like shade. Ignore the bright blue chip bag nestled in the trees. And while you are at it, ignore edging needing to be done. I’ll learn to photo shop later đŸ˜‰
Front yard
And Back Yard. See the hot sun glinting off the shed and garden? In another hour the garden will be a shady haven too. Lovely. No, that swing isn’t actually facing anywhere important, it just gets blown over the least in that position. Also, please ignore the hoards of mosquitoes that come out at this time of night, they might wreck my moment of new appreciation.
Backyard
Today is…Tuesday
Morning: Scripture Study
8am-9pm. We spent the day with cousins (an hour and a half away). I had a Dr’s appointment in a nearby city (Wow, 35.5 weeks already!!!), and Giant and Ettin love playing with their cousins. What I love is that this was planned in my schedule! I don’t feel like I could have done something else today, or that we were missing school. I wrote it in my note book last week, and thus it was law.
Today is…Monday.
Okay, this is what I actually did with the boys today. Let me rephrase that. These are a few sentences summarizing many hours spent with the boys today. Like television, I’ve conveniently left out a lot of what happens during life, like laundry and dirty dishes and potty breaks and cleaning minor/major messes and playing with whatever little hands can get a hold of and putting on yet another pair of socks (Ettin)—-all very critical things which really consume most of the day. This, however, addresses the homeschooling part of life that I have actually put some thought into.
Morning: Scripture study: “I am a Child of God”/Pray/ Verses 4-14 of Enos / “Whenever I hear the song of a bird”/Pray
8-9am: Cleaning time and jobs (Giant did a nice job helping Ettin brush his teeth).
9am: Giant gave me a highfive (Ettin was absorbed in playing with trains). Giant is looking forward to playing with picocrickets with daddy tonight.
Story of Jesus: Today we focused on a picture of the shepherds (GAK 202). I told the story (which is nicely summarized on the back of the picture) and pointed out that even though the shepherds were scared, they left their flocks right away and hurried to find Christ. Then they came back and told others what they had seen. I talked about how we need to be like the shepherds if we want to know Christ, leaving our worldly things and hurrying on the right path even though we might be scared sometimes. And that we also need to share our testimony of Christ and the gospel with others. Giant was mostly interested in what one of the shepherd boys was wearing (looks like furs).
Morning Message: Good morning boys! Today i_ _onday. Tonight we will ma_e picocrickets with _addy. xxoxxo_ _ _ Love Mommy (heart). I really encouraged Giant (ahem, okay, I erased his erroneous attempts at letters and asked him to write them again)Â to write his letters carefully.
Ettin wanted to colour with chalk, so he decorated our message a bit and I redirected him to the couple of smaller chalk boards we have to colour on.
Drawing: The boys were more interested in washing the chalkboards, so that is what they did.
Independent play: Both played with different sets of trains. Ettin likes to play with everything properly (wheels belong on trains, which belong on tracks, which belong nicely connected together). Giant likes to innovate (train tracks can and will be used as catapults, trains will be attached to and hang off of anything magnetic he finds, and if the wheels and axles come off of the trains then we no longer have trains but planes or racers or spaceships or really anything else). This often leads to difficulties playing together.
10am: Snack was star pancakes (thawed out from making extra a couple of nights earlier—this planning ahead business is sooo handy!).
I told them the poem: “Starlight, Star bright…” And we talked about making wishes on the first star that you see. I asked how long Night Time is (longer than Stay and Play—a community parent and tot group— or a Bob the Builder DVD). Then I read “A Starry Night,” a very short story about two boys talking about the stars and constellations. I said the poem a couple more times (apparently this was a long snack time). Yes, I look at my binder and notes a lot. Yes, I only have a few lines to remember. Yes I have severe preggo/mommy brain and thus look at my binder and notes a lot. And yes, my son is eating the food off MY plate while I am otherwise occupied.
We cleaned up (plates to counter when finished, paws and kissers wiped).
Project: Pinprick constellations. Poking holes through pictures and then shining a light through them. Yes, my son is poking holes into the paper actor formerly known as “Giant.”
I had found some fun clip-art (a train, puppy, stars, and spider-man) and highlighted an easy outline to prick with pin holes. Giant started with the train, which was fairly detailed and he found quite challenging.
Lets just say his heart wasn’t into it.I suggested he try the spider-man face. This was worked on with much more enthusiasm and persistence, but was still a challenge to a little boy who doesn’t like to sit and do fine motor work. Why does my son like Spiderman?—We don’t watch cartoons or movies, we don’t play Spiderman, we don’t even really talk about Spiderman. But somehow Spiderman makes everything better.
I worked on the stars, and Ettin worked on the puppy with me. At one point Ettin climbed into my lap. Without his pin. Upon being asked where his pin was he pointed emphatically to his nose.
Um. Upon being asked again where his pin went he pointed again to his nose and said “yuukk,” which usually means he has tasted or experienced something he didn’t like. After a frantic and thorough examination of his nose and mouth, I then found the pin on the floor and we resumed our work. We also had a mini lesson on names of parts of the body, including “nose” and “mouth.”
Celebrate: We took our pin pricked pieces of paper to the lamp in mommy’s room (‘scuse the dust), and saw the cool shapes now outlined with light.
Here are the results: One not so glorious train…
And a nifty Spiderman…
Independent play: Back to the trains. Catapults. Spaceships. Whatever.
12pm. After lunch daddy took the boys outside to kick around some balls. I ran an errand (trying to pay some property tax that we didn’t owe…Sweet!). Daddy went back to work. Then I tried not to look at my water logged garden too closely and took the boys for a walk around the block.
1:15pm Home, stories, and naps.
We’ll play picocrickets tonight with daddy for FHE. Yay!
Educating Chaos
Teaching and Learning in Chaos. Trying out this homeschooling venture with my littl’uns. An experiment because, while I have a degree for teaching large groups of children, there were no classes offered for balancing teaching with wiping bottoms, nursing babies, entertaining toddlers, and running a household. Thus an experiement in home education, and thus another endeavour to find order in chaos.