Off to camp!!

Laurence and Susannah heading off to Birch Bay Ranch last Sunday!! The two goblets they created to take with them. (They were had to take something 'Royal' with them for a Royal meal as they were going during the 'Royal' themed week and for one meal had to wear something or take something with a Royal theme to it. So we decorated dollarama plastic goblets with stick-on jewels to take - turns out everyone LOVED their goblets soooo much and everyone else either took boring swords and shields or nothing but luckily I had sent a packet of 6 crowns and a spare tiara with Susie in case anyone forgot something so Laurie and Susie shared them out with people)

The other pictures show Lauries dorm which is the cream block on the end of the row of buildings and then Susie by her bunk bed which is the top bunk.

They loved camp and say they can't wait to go again next year :) The first thing Laurie said when we saw him was 'I'm going again next year'!!!! :) Second thing was 'Can I have a hot bath? He missed his hot baths - Laurie LOVES to soak in the bath with a book like I do :) and he had cold showers at camp lol! But he loved camp! They really LOVED it :) Yesterday they went canoing, they've been trail riding, had movie nights, been zip lining, wall climbing....all kinds of things, had camp fires every night......huge waffles for breakfast....

But wow the boys dorm STINKS lol! ;)

Home again!

Susannah and Laurence left for camp last Sunday (and had a FANTASTIC time) and we left for Canmore on Monday morning. We've all had a lovely week and we arrived home tonight after picking Laurie and Susie up from Birch Bay Ranch tonight and having a BBQ and watching their Rodeo their tonight (oh wow that was cool - seeing Laurie turn round on the back of the horse after just 5 days of riding and seeing Susie dismount confidently and calmly and walk her horse off towards the stables).

It's been a great week - we were worried the weather wouldn't be good but we ended up having great weather and I came home with a tan :) the pool was a real sun trap.

I really needed this break - just a few days away - we've been to Canmore and Banff several times before and done all the touristy things before so this time we went to relax - we took the fishing gear, my book, and my paints and canvases and we sat by the lakeside and relaxed. We spent hours in the pool at our chalet and that was all we did for a few days :) Totally switched off from the speed of life :)

We stayed at www.mysticsprings.ca/ and it was lovely :)

The Library...

This week we finally got around to picking up 'A's Grade 1 library bag. Anyone who has just finished grade one can claim a prize bag from the library for free. They have been available since some time in June but we hadn't had a chance to go in and spend the time to go through one.

So this week we had the time and we took her in on Monday to get her bag. Inside the bag was a coupon for $2 off her very own library card, a bookmark, a booklet full of games, colouring pages and a a quiz that sent her on a hunt around the library for points. She had to go on this treasure hut and work out the points and then go back to the information desk when she had the answer. It only took her a few minutes and when she went back she won a stamp and a chocolate! Then she was also given a big poster of a dragon and the dragon has 24 scales to colour in - she gets to colour one in for every book she reads during the holidays - and when he is all coloured in she can take him back to the library and she gets one big scale to write her name on and put on the wall and he name ges into the draw to win the prize of having the librarian come to her class (or homeschool group) to read stories etc etc.

'A' LOVED her goodie bag and came straight home and read three books! She has since read lots of books to me and to herself and lying on my bed and her bed and on the sofa and on the porch and in the car....

This morning she was reading one of the Animal Ark books that Susie used to love.

While at the library on Monday the children also signed up for the annual Summer Reading Game - this year it has a space theme. Sam is taking part too and they each got a pencil and a tattoo.

The children all decided it was time for each of them to have their own library cards too so we did that too (no idea why as they only ever go to the library with me) but now they all have their own cards....now instead of keeping track of just my one card I have 4 cards to keep track of!!!

We went to the library again today and I got out a couple of books on magnets so 'A' could get a head start on reading about that and she can colour in a scale on her dragon at the same time! They got to roll the dice on the reading game too AND I ran into a homeschooling friend too - Jennifer!!! Not Jennifer from drama but Jennifer from 'The Trees' who I haven't seen for a couple of years and it was sooooo nice to see her! Wow have her children grown and we stood and chatted for a while and it was nice to catch up - hopefully we will run into each other in the Fall!

I thought I'd ask if they had any spaces left in any of their classes in August but to be honest I expected them to say no because they started taking bookings in June. I was shocked when I managed to get places in ALL but one of the classes I wanted!!! So 'A' and 'Su' have plenty of workshops to take part in before September arrives! Some of them sound so much fun!

I am a total bookworm - I LOVE to read, so I must admit that I LOVE that my children love the library. Going to the library is one of my favourite childhood memories - I remember it so clearly! And now I love to see how excited my own children get about our trips to the library! I love how quiet our house is after a trip the library because the children disappear to different parts of the house with their piles of books to curl up and read.

I love that our library is in the mall right now - its so convenient - I wonder how things will change when it moves across the road to the 'centre in the park'. I wonder if things will improve or if it will take time for us to get used to the change. I wonder what the childrens area will be like. I wonder how 'family friendly' it will really be!

Libraries are such wonderful places - I hope they are a regular part of YOUR family's life too!!!

Art class in the garden!

Drawing flowers in the garden! We took blankets into the garden and drew flowers and coloured them in! 'A' drew a Phlox and a Foxglove.

Registered!

We finally registered this week and are now officially homeschooling for the upcoming school year. I've had a good look at what A would be doing in school over the next year if she was in school for grade 2 and this is basically it:

Math:

recognize and apply whole numbers up to 1000, and explore
fractions (halves, thirds and quarters)
• apply a variety of addition and subtraction strategies on whole
numbers to 100, and use these operations in solving problems
• use an appropriate calculation strategy or technology to solve
problems
Patterns and Relations
• identify, create, describe and translate numerical and non-
numerical patterns arising from daily experiences in the school
and on the playground



Shape and Space
• estimate, measure and compare, using standard units for
length and primarily nonstandard units for other measures
• name, describe and construct a variety of 3-D objects and 2-D
shapes
• apply positional language, orally and in writing, to
communicate motion



Statistics and Probability
• collect, display and describe data, independently, based on
first-hand information
• use simple experiments, designed by others, to illustrate
chance


Science:


Exploring Liquids
• observe that liquid water can be changed to ice or to steam,
and back again, if heated and cooled, and that wet materials
dry out when left open to the air
• learn that water is our most important liquid, that we use
water in many ways, and that water is essential to life
• describe some properties of water and other liquids, and
recognize the importance of water to living and nonliving
things

Buoyancy and Boats
• learn about balance and stability and about different methods
that can be used in propelling a watercraft
• explore the concept of density
• construct objects that will float on and move through water,
and evaluate various designs for watercraft



Magnetism
• learn to distinguish materials that are affected by magnets
from those that are not
• learn how magnets can be used in sorting objects, moving
things and holding things together
• describe the interaction of magnets with other magnets and
with common materials



Hot and Cold Temperature
• observe that temperatures can go up and down, including the
temperature of their surroundings and the temperatures of
particular objects within it
• learn about methods that are used to control temperature in
buildings
• learn how insulation is used to keep things hot or cold



Small Crawling and Flying Animals
• learn about where small animals live, what they eat, and what
they are eaten by
• learn features of the animals that suit them to their particular
environment
• describe the general structure and life habits of small crawling
and flying animals; for example, insects, spiders, worms, slugs



They also have a social studies project to do which I plan to change to something more relevant to us, and also art which they have no specific projects to do. Drama again no specific projects. Health studies the same - and physical education the same. these are all things that can be covered by our extra curricular activities.

I didn't add Language arts to the above list because 'A' has already covered everything that is listed in the LA topic for grade 2 and so our year will be spent continuing to enjoy LA...reading, writing stories and letters, poems and just enjoying the computer and writing for what it is - rather than making her DO anything...she can just enjoy her writing and reading.....

So if THAT is grade 2, it makes you wonder what on EARTH kids go to school for a WHOLE YEAR for lol!

Art on Pink....

One of my favourite festivals takes place this weekend - Art on Whyte - and I hope to make it there at some point this weekend. I love going! Last year we went with my Mom and Oliver, the year before, I think Lloyd and I went alone. If you've never been, do try and go! It's a wonderful chance to enjoy the amazing artists this city - and this country has to offer!!! There is artwork to buy as well as pieces to admire and just to enjoy - and the artists are at work as you walk along the street!

For me it's also a chance to enjoy Whyte Ave and to have brunch somewhere along there, stroll along with my wonderful husband and also to do a little people watching :)

Today, with art on my mind, we got out our paints and colouring pens, our artists pencils and sketch pads, our canvases and brushes, and we took our blankets out by the flowerbed at the front of the house. We sat out there and we drew the flowers and then we painted and coloured our sketches :) It was so lovely and relaxing and we really enjoyed it!

Chris is at camp, Laurence is sleeping over at the twins, Susannah is sleeping over at her friends so it's just been me with Abby and Sam and we've been having a lovely relaxing fun day playing outside and painting. Abby painted my Phlox and then painted my Foxgloves. I did the Lupin and then I did this Daisy. I'm not quite sure what Sammy was doing :) Maybe the sky...or the blanket :)

Happy Birth Day!!!!!

Just a quick post to wish Jennifer and Garry all the very best for Friday. I will be thinking of you both as you head into Edmonton to welcome your new baby into the world. How exciting for little Miss Soleil!

I hope everything goes well, as I am sure it will! I will be thinking of you all!

Best wishes and lots of love
Jane
xxxxx

Happy Birthday!

Just hopping online quickly to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Mum, Josephine. The lady who taught me the important things in life -

like how to find things that have gone missing by sticking a pin in a cushion and repeating devil out, devil out, devil out (I now joke to the kids that Grandmas a loopy witch lol)

and that it's possible to stay in bed until you hear your husbands car pull onto the driveway home from work and then you can be out of bed, dressed and be at the kitchen sink washing dishes before he gets into the house and he will NEVER know you've been in bed all day ;)

Happy Birthday Mum!!! Have a wonderful day!!!

Lots of love from

Jane, Lloyd,
Christopher, Laurence, Susannah,
Abigail and Samuel.
xxxxxxx

Off to camp!!

Chris left for camp a few minutes ago. He will be away for the next week at an Intensive Movie-Making Camp for teens. He's sharing a room on a college campus with 3 other teens. He isn't allowed off of campus, but he should have a lot of fun! We go next weekend to get him and see all the movies they make during the week long camp!

He was a bit nervous before he left and everyone got lots of hugs! Even his siblings :)

As nervous as he is, I bet he ends up having a blast! I hope he learns a lot of useful skills. This is week one. Next year he can take part in week two of the course if he wants to. By then he will have done a year at Victoria and may feel he doesn't need to - or may feel it will be more worthwhile....we'll see.

I think it will do him good just having a week away! I hope he misses us! This is the longest I've been away from him in 6 years! I know I'll miss him - as much as he drives me nuts right now!! ;)

I'll take the odd mosquito please!

I saw on the weather network yesterday a report on the town of North Bay Ontario. Every year for two or three weeks, they have to deal with a deluge of these HUGE flies call Shadflies. There are millions....BILLIONS even of these flies....and they coat the walls and roads and cars and backs and lights and EVERYTHING!!!!

EEEWWWWWW!!!

Just for two or three weeks...and then they are gone as fast as they arrive. I think they are only out in the evening and at night...but STILL this is in summer when you WANT to be out and about enjoying the summer evening - I mean this is CANADA for gawd sake!!! I'm sorry but three weeks out of an already short summer is just TOO LONG!!! I know the summers are longer in Ontario but still...it's still Canada!!!

Aren't they GROSS?????

Pictures from my garden today

So many things still haven't flowered.....so I still have things to look forward to in the garden over the next few weeks.

Today Lloyd and I got to eat our first strawberry from the garden (remembering that SOMEONE stole the first strawberry last week some time....so today Lloyd and I shared the second strawberry :)

It was VERY yummy :)

Our vegetable garden now seems to be growing well.

We have strawberries growing VERY well - in the next week or so we should have a LOT ready to eat - but I know they won't make it to the house - they never do - no matter how many we grow, they just get washed off by the garden and eaten there and then. WE have a tap by the vegetable garden thankfully :)

We also have raspberries and tomatoes growing there.

Peas, pumpkins, squash and watermelon and rhubarb.

Radish, golden beets, lettuce and carrots (a purple kind) and broccoli

Everything else is going to have to wait until next year. We just ran out of time, energy and motivation for this year! I decided to focus on my flowers which I am LOVING. I also planted a LOT of sunflower seeds but I am not sure if ANY of them grew. It may be hard to tell if any of them grew until Fall - because of where I planted them - I scattered them in fields where hay grows tall - I mixed the seeds in buckets of moist soil and clumped the seeds into lumps of soil to see if that would help them get started and we tried to sow them in old gopher hills etc etc and bare patches etc so the soil would help but there is no guarantee that it will work. I've since read that you should use a clay mix in the soil. (Actually MISS B if you read this thats an idea for you and your girls with flower seeds in the city as they suggest it to add flowers to the cracks in city sidewalks) our best sunflower ever survived from a packet of birdseed in the crack by our garage door! They suggest you put seeds in clumps of soil mixed with clay and then go around the city dropping them in cracks in sidewalks and then when it rains they grow and then in the summer the sidewalks look stunning :)

Quadding after the storm

Susannah quickly made the most of the big puddles left over from todays thunderstorm!

Loopy and the bee...

Susannahs Lupin seems to grow constantly! The bees LOVE it! I think I will buy a lot of these next year - I love them - the leaves are as stunning as the flowers! They look gorgeous in the rain!

Lloyd and I had to run to Costco today so we also went to Greenlands for coffee and I bought a few more perennials for my flower garden. I love buying a few each weekend and adding to my garden - it's coming together nicely and I know it won't look perfect this year - and probably not next year, but it's coming together - and considering that we only dug it up this Spring and just a few weeks ago it was a pile of mud and nothing more really, I'm proud of what we've done to it :) I know what I want to do with it, so this year is really about sorting it out and bringing it together and next year will be about rearranging it and seeing what survives and where the spaces are and what I need to get and what needs to go where.

I'd also like a bird bath in there somewhere.The Goldfinches spend a lot of time in there and I think they'd like a birdbath - and maybe a birdfeeder in there too. I'll have to remove the bird bath in winter of course.

Another video

Chris and his friends messing around yesterday :)

Susannah

Susannah on the porch this afternoon after a storm - she had been picking up hailstones during the storm and paddling in the puddles left by the rain....and her hair was all curly and damp from the rain.