So small...yet such a BIG character!!!

'Boots' seems to fit right in here at the house - he has sooo much confidence! So much energy one moment and then tired and ready for cuddles the next :) He drives us crazy with giggles with his crazy antics and is forever climbing through the heating vents or tangling himself up in the girls closet! He loves nothing better than to look for his next adventure...but is happy to have someone come and snuggle up with him and 'rescue' him whenever he gets himself into some kind of trouble he can't get himself out of ;)

This made me laugh ;)

Made me think of Charlie and all the jokes we make about her when she gets too near the fire pit ;)

Language Arts....

One of our Language Arts projects for this year is to compare and contrast books and movies. I noticed that there are many good movies coming out this year based on wonderful books! We have already started, with reading the book 'Coraline' and I picked up the dvd of the movie which we will read as soon as we finish the book (any day). It is easy to prepare simple unit studies around books.

Next we will read 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' This is a book we have had on the shelf for a long while and read many times - Susannah read it at school years ago and loved it and so I bought a copy for home!! The movie comes out next week so we can go and see that straight away - and I have a unit study prepared for it.

After that I want to do 'Where the Wild Things Are' - another favourite of ours!!! I found a wonderful unit study at the education store and it has some wonderful ideas with games and puzzles, story prompts, poem prompts and other unit study ideas in it!!

After that we will work on Alice in Wonderland ready for the wonderful Johnny Depp movie. That one will probably take longer as it's a bigger book and Christmas will be a busier time anyway!!

So that will keep us going over the next few months!!

Clay pots...

Abigail and Sam were busy making clay pots this morning......nice squishy, messy fun!!! :)

Finally....

updating the homeschooling blog!!!

athomefirstgrade.blogspot.com/

Magic writing....

The children were practicing their writing on the island today.....Sam was practicing his letters and Abigail was practicing spelling!! They used wet kitchen towel and then drew on the counter top!! :) It worked like 'magic' :) It was like a HUGE blackboard :)

It's great practice for Sam and his 'S's as he has a habit of writing them backwards so it was great for him to get lots of practice in getting them the right way round :)

Back at it!!

I haven't been posting much on this blog lately as all through the Summer I was posting all our activities as a family over on my main family blog 'Escaping The City' (let me know if you want access) - we certainly had a VERY busy Summer though - have to say it was a wonderful one!! We were very lucky here and had amazing weather. It was a little TOO dry really - in fact we didn't really get ANY rain sadly and our pond is all but dried up :( We don't really have any frogs to speak of this year - yet the grasshoppers have certainly made up for them and we have had those in their THOUSANDS!!! Sam has had a blast catching them and bringing them in to the house (unfortunately)!!

Anyway....Summer is coming to an end, and my older three children are back at school. This week we too started back with our studies. Last week the weather was just TOO good to be indoors doing any 'schoolwork' and so we went out and about - to the lake, the splashpark, and to our favourite outdoor pool. Making the most of the gorgeous weather while it lasted!!

This week has been a little cooler and we started getting into a routine of schoolwork again. Our facilitator made her first visit to us on Tuesday afternoon. She visits once in September, then she phones us in january to check all is well, and then visits in June to see how the year went. that is all that is required in Alberta!! For that we get approximately $715. of funding.

the meeting went well - we basically told her what our plans were for the year for Abigails education. What our hopes were for her for each subject and how we expected to get there (ie did we plan to use a curriculum (No), did we plan to use any resources or classes etc (yes we are signed up for art classes and gymnastics and will take part in SHINE activities and the local homeschool activities at the library etc etc).

The rest of the time we were chatting about horses (still Abigails favourite topic).

Sam starts Pre-K on Tuesday. He will go for a full day every Tuesday which will give me a full day each week to do something special with Abigail.

Abigail will go to art classes and gymnastics classes every Thursday. That will give me Thursdays with Sam!! Abigail and Susannah will also do dance probably. Susannah and Laurence are also doing Youth curling we think......Laurie is also doing volleyball at school. Chris is audtioning today for one of the school plays...no clue if he's hoping for something behind the scenes or on stage.....

Time capsules

Here are our First week of school 'time capsules'......Sam and Abigail have one each and inside are a few slips of paper and a piece of string!! The piece of string measures the exact length of their body so they know how tall they are today! We drew around one of their hands and stamped the date. We wrote out their favourites, weighed them, wrote about todays weather...talked about an exciting event coming up in the next week....

we then sealed all their bits and pieces up in a cardboard tube and rolled them up in pretty paper tied with ribbon!

We have put them away and will not open them until the last day of school next June!!! Then we will open them and see how much they have grown and changed in one school year :)

their own special 'time capsule'!!!

:)

Tag

What's your current obsession? Not sure I have one at the moment. Lloyd and I are working on a few major projects and I have a few ideas in my head but for once I don't have any 'obsessions'. I'm really excited about my upcoming trip

What are you wearing today? Khaki capris and a brown tee.

What's for dinner? Another crockpot dish!! I am still LOVING my crockpot and trying out new recipes in it - I love that supper is prepped the night before and already cooking in the morning so that by the time I am tired in the afternoon dinner is all ready and all I have to do is warm through some buns and do some fresh vegetables!!

What would you eat for your last meal? One of Lloyds wonderful Christmas dinners

What's the last thing you bought? groceries.

What are you listening to right now? Sam and Abigail making pots out of clay at the table beside me - the washing machine in the distance spinning on the last cycle - and the breeze blowing through the trees outside the window.

If you could go anywhere in the world for the next hour, where would you go? Canmore, for a long walk somewhere peaceful on this lovely warm sunny day!

Which language do you want to learn? Right now, Spanish!! What is 'spider!!! Bloody big spider' in Spanish????

What do you love most about where you currently live? The drive out of the city away from all those nasty subdivisions where all the houses look the same...away form all the busy roads and buildings and traffic.....that we drive away from all of that and out into the countryside - leaving it all behind. I get this wonderful release of stress as we drive further out and see nothing but fields and trees, farms, cows, quiet range roads....and then we pull onto our road and I see home :) It's a wonderful feeling!!

What is your favorite color? Turquoise

Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate - except for ice cream and then I prefer REAL vanilla - especially with apple pie!!!

What were you doing 10 years ago? I was married to my Ex, living near Stockport England. I had three children and was homeschooling but considering putting my Son in to school. I was studying astrology.

If you had $100 now, what would you spend it on? No clue.......I'll probably head to the scrapbook store at some point in the next few days though to stock up ready for next weeks retreat!!

What are you going to do after this? Lloyd will be home in a few minutes and we are heading out for ice creams!!

What are your favorite films? I like a LOT of movies.....my favourites depend on my mood......

What inspires you? Lloyd inspires me just sooooo much! Certain blogs I read...certain books I read...certain people I know...

Your favorite books? Too many to mention - I LOVE to read!!! I love Jane Green :) Sara Ban Breathnach...Gail Anderson Dargatz, Lori Lansen and I just finished the latest in the Immortals series.....I read all kinds of things :) I just love to read :)

Do you collect anything? I collect all the little love notes that Lloyd leaves for me in the mornings - I have them ALL.... I have a lot of them in a jar now but many of them are still packed away in boxes and I need to get them out and add them to the jar :) I collect jars and bowls and have a lot of them displayed around my home. I collect pins - from places I visit and from charities. But not from places other people go - I like to juts buy them when 'I' go to places!!!

What makes you follow a blog? If I find it inspiring I will add it to my bookmarks or if it belongs to a friend and I wnat to check up on what they are up to ;)

What was the most enjoyable thing you did today? We made time capsules!!! We filled them with info about the children NOW...and we will open them on the LAST day of school in June!!! We will see how they have grown and changed by the end of the school year :) We measured them and weighed them and wrote about their favourites etc - drew around their hands etc etc

What is on the top of your to-do list? Go to get new white furniture for my new room :)

What's your favorite time of day and why? Actually right now I'm loving any time of day :) And now I have to run because Lloyd just phoned to say he is on his way home - the weekend starts here :) Woohoo!

Consider yourself tagged ;)