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Field trip to the library!!

This afternoon we went on a field trip with another homeschooling family, to one of the Edmonton Public Libraries!  We had such a GREAT time and I am sooo pleased we went!!  Because there were only four children, they got so much attention and were given goody bags as well as plenty of time behind the scenes to have tries with the book sorting machine and on the book trucks (the carts that they move the books around on).

We were also given an online tour of the EPL website by the librarian and she showed me soooo many online resources that I had never heard of before - designed for teachers and kids - that will be sooo useful for us!!  

The lady that showed us around was so enthusiastic and really inspired a love of the library in the children.  Abigail had not been too keen about the trip to begin with as she had thought she knew everything there was to know about the library - but she REALLY enjoyed it!!  All the kids loved the book sorting machine and had great fun taking turns putting books and dvd's into it and then trying to guess which bin they would end up in - and racing along the line of bins to watch them fall :)  

I was especially proud of Sam, who was the first to answer almost every question asked about childrens books/ alphabet etc....I have not pushed him to read until he has been ready for it, and suddenly in the last few months he has been really keen to learn....always writing and loving to sit and read with me, so I was really proud and pleased when he knew the answers and called out the right letters etc...

His favourite book at the moment is The Three Little Pigs, and his favourite part is when the wolf falls into the pot at the end :)  Although he DOES love to yell out that the Wolf was 'bad and he was mad'!! and various other well known parts from the story :)  

The children are off to the main library downtown with their dad this weekend and next week we have more library plans - including heading back to our own AMAZING library!!  We are sooooo lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful libraries here - they offer so much more than books these days and once you have your  library card much of their services/ programs etc are free!!  :)

Our morning...

This morning Sam was colouring in a book he has on The Prince of Egypt...it lead to us talking about Moses and 'Moses Baskets'....and then we looked online for the story of Moses...we read an online picture book all about the story of Moses from his birth all through to when he left Egypt with the Hebrews....to the burning bush and the ten commandments.  We then looked at an activity where we had to make our own stone tablets and think of our own list of commandments for getting along with people...Sam was good at thinking things up like 'sharing' and 'being nice'....

We aren't a religious family, but I do think these stories are good stories for the children to know and understand and I do think the commandments are mainly good moral codes to live by.  

The picture above is of the children colouring in their books.  At the time Abigail was colouring in her Rainforest book - once it is coloured in, she can pull out separate parts and build it into a 3 dimensional rainforest full of all the animals - and each animal she colours has information beside it all about that creature and the part it plays in the Rainforest....or some interesting fact about it.  

I had to laugh though as they were busy colouring and Sam turned to Abigail and said "Do you think you could colour more quietly"?   Hahaha  I guess pens can be quite noisy ;)

Abigails story - Alice the Black Cat.

Alice the black cat.

Once upon a time there was a black cat named Alice.  She lived in a small town named Canmore.  Now in Canmore everybody thought black cats were unlucky.  So poor Alice had no home.  But one sunny morning a girl named belle came in she was from America. and she loved cats but of course alice was the only one in the shop. so belle picked her,  before she was taken out of her cage she got spiffyed up it was her big day.     When alice got to her new home she was amazed she’d never seen anything like it before. A few years past and she met a male had a kittin and the rest of her life forget about she was the most popular cat around.   

The end

I hope no one was listening....

Last night I went out for supper with my friend Sharon - we hadn't seen each other since before Christmas, so it was great to catch up!!!  

We had such a great evening - shared a couple of starters, and enjoyed an amazing dessert each.  We even got the desserts for free because we ordered Sticky Toffee Pudding and they didn't have any - so the Manager said he'd give us our desserts on the house!!  :)  PERFECT!!  :)

We also shared some hilarious conversations and some of them were rather *blue*.....and I wonder still if anyone from the booths either side of us could hear hahahaha!  lol....it was a funny night - so many topics covered and so many smirks and giggles :)

Thanks for a great night Sharon - lets not leave it as long next time :)

xxx

Our Tuesday....

Yesterday Abigail was up early and wrote a story on the computer.  Then we went into town and ran a couple of errands before heading to Michaels for their free make and take workshop - making Easter chicks out of plastic eggs :)  It was just a sweet little craft but fun!!  :)  I joined in and we had a good time chatting with the girl who was running the class. Sam refused any help and got busy with the scissors and foam etc....

Sams chick is yellow, mine is blue and Abigails is green.  While at Michaels we stocked up on a few things we needed - Abigail needed some really thick yarn for finger knitting - she had been researching ways to improve it on youtube and one girl said to try really thick yarn.  We got talking to one of the sales staff there and chatted with her for ages...and we also found a punch art kit reduced from $17. to $3.  Not something we have ever tried before, so we bought the kit and need to find a tool somewhere as they had sold out.  Abigail is excited to try this new craft!

We got glue and Sam bought a canvas to paint.  

In the afternoon we met some friends at Kidz Quarterz.  We haven't seem them for a LONG while, so it was great to catch up.  They are fellow unschoolers - their first year unschooling, and the kids had a blast burning off some energy and finding endless tokens and toys (???) while J and I talked education, ideas and homeschooling all afternoon :)  Oh and we also talked over a few business ideas and about art journaling and crafts etc etc - a love we both share....

All in all it was a great day!!!  And anyone who says that KQ is not an educational field trip is sorely mistaken - just watching these children all afternoon is amazing....watching them sorting out money, tickets, candy.....sharing things out, making decisions, compromising, ordering food, drinks, counting change, reading menus, caring for siblings, making new friends, dealing with bites (???).....playing games, taking turns...but at the end of the day they were there to have fun - and they did :)

As did I :)