Abigail had another outdoor education class this morning, so we were up bright and early and headed off to the Wilderness Centre. While Abigail was in her class, Sam and I joined Jennifer and her Son Mahon for another walk through the gorgeous Fall tinged woods. This week we headed in the opposite direction and went towards the boardwalk and along part of the Fox Loop. The boys had great fun climbing trees, discovering pathways through tall grasses and making up games with guns and swords and bombs :)
This weeks class was on shelter building and outdoor survival.
When we got back from our walk the class wasn't quite over, so we got to watch the end of it and see the children finish their shelters and dismantle them!! Sam enjoyed watching :) Tomorrow we are going down into our woods so he can have a go at building a shelter - I'm hoping Abby is willing to show him what she learnt!!
The children had been split into teams to build the shelters and here is Abby working working with her team. I did see that her friends Nuala and Garrett were in her team which I'm sure will have pleased her!
In this mornings class they were also taught several different techniques for tying knots...Abby was rattling them off to me in the car and was explaining what their best uses are (ie for tying a canoe to a tree on a river bank etc etc) and which knots were easy and which were more difficult.
She has thoroughly enjoyed these classes and I am sad there is only one more left - I really hope they put on some more like these next Semester because Abby has gained a lot from them! I love the age range in the class (8 - 17) and the teacher works sooooo well with the kids and gets them working in teams so well. Thats what I love so much about homeschooling - that kids aged 8 - 17 get on so well and work together so well and age just doesn't come into it! They just treat each other like equals and the teacher treats them all like equals too!!
At the end of the class they had to dismantle the shelters and put all the branches and logs scattered around the place so the eco system could return to normal - a good lesson for when in the real wilderness - yet Abigail had started to walk off and the teacher was quick to call her back and tell her to help out her team and that teams work together!! :)
After this class we headed over to the North West of Edmonton, to Castledowns library, where our French club was meeting. We listened to our French cd while we drove over - Sam loves the jelly bean song which teaches you the colours in French. I think Abigail likes the one that teaches the days of the week!
Today we focused on singing the songs the children had been learning, we also played a version of Twister which teaches actions and colours....and then we played Bingo which in French is 'Lotto' and is our board game. We played two rounds of that and the children had to say the name of their picture as each one was called - Sam's board was all vehicles and he won the first round! His pronunciation of all the vehicles in French was really good :)
I'm thinking about getting Rosetta Stone French. I'm really enjoying learning French along with them and they are picking up a lot of the words fast - but putting them into sentences is different and I think a program like Rosetta Stone would be really helpful.
We left French and headed home...they were tired and of course their day was not done as they still had to go out for the evening as it was their Dads night to have them - even though I'm sure they would have liked a quiet evening at home really - not that they don't want to see their Dad, it's just that because of their visits with their Dad it sometimes feels to them like they never stop. Sometimes they just want to stay home and play and of course they can't :( Those days are over.
Still, we are home all day tomorrow and we have no plans at all - Abigail has borrowed a dvd from the library that she wants to watch. Sam wants to go and play in the woods for a little bit. I want to bring my painted furniture in from the garage. But apart from that we don't HAVE to do anything. I think they are REALLY looking forward to a day at home :)
