It's all about Spiders (Week 3)

Fall crept in quietly here for us this year. The weather turned gloriously sunny and warm, with chilly mornings and misty nights. We woke up one morning to find huge spiderwebs across windows (outside!) and wooden structures around the house (again, outside). They were very impressive. We noticed the spiders all looked like the same type. Like this:



Some hid out during the day, while others hung out on their webs in the sun. All this activity called for a library trip to grab spider books. I found some on webspinning, on west coast spiders and the like. I'll let you know what we discover. For now we remain fascinated at the sheer width of some of their webs, one stretching all the way across our (now broken) pond. (More on the broken pond later.)

We've fallen headfirst into a great bunch of classes, ranging from gymnastics and soccer to aikido and wilderness camp. It's very busy, but it's also fabulous to have such great opportunities. Since we're talking about spiders, let's talk about rock climbing at wilderness camp. See the connection people? Climbing . . spiders . .

The Boys and Girls club wilderness camp has created a Wildkids program for us homeschoolers. It is way, WAY awesome, and I am impressed each week at what we get up to with great instructors who's goal is to support you in challenging yourself, without overdoing it and becoming afraid. This week was all about the 4-sided climbing tower. Check out Ms. Hannah:



If you recall from a summer entry, Hannah was not comfortable going higher than about 12 feet. Fine. So here she pushes herself, egged on solely by her own mastery of this wall. Once she got high enough to look down at me, she realised how high she actually was, and decided to stop there. I moved on to help support the next child up, being on the ropes (belay?) while they climbed. Then another parent comes over and says I might want to come check out Hannah. Here's where I found her, the little spider:



Dudes!! Do you see her little face up there in the middle? She's way up on a free-standing tower, that she's scrambled up on her own. She sat up there for about half an hour, as other kids climbed up, or attempted to, to join her.

Meanwhile, the original monkey boy was focused on taking the tower and going right over. His first climb he was playing it safe, testing the feelings, going about 3/4 of the way up and coming down again. Then before I knew it I found him up here:



From there, he tried it all. The free-standing tower:



And the tricky 'caterpillar' climb. It swings and twists people!



Pretty cool huh?

You know what else is cool? Notes written by little kids. Oh, wait, The pottery. Okay, so we finally picked up the amazing pottery the kids made at Japanese Art class. I brought 5 loads of it out to the car at pick-up time. I'll post more pics soon. Hannah made a gorgeous green tray/plate thing. I tod her how much I liked it and she replied that I could have it as green was her least favorite colour right now. (Pssst! Her birthday cake was her chosen colour, green!). So she put this down while I was brushing my teeth, with a note:



That IS exactly how my name sounds, right? Now note-writing is our new thing. I ask her regularily, "Can you write that down for me? It'll help me remember". We recently re-organised our bedroom, so their beds were on either side of ours, and I worried that late-night Kit would bang his foot in the dark, being unaware of the changes. So I employed our young scribe to pen him a wee memo.



Her current frustration is that she keeps running out of room to finish her statements, so I've begun drawing lines on big sheets of paper, telling her to write right on them, so she has enough space. Her latest note is an epic hung in the yard out back reminding people not to step on her bulbs she plans to plant with Kit soon.

When Leif surfaces from his Harry Potter reading, he draws pictures about, you guessed it, Harry Potter. Here's a quidditch match:



He's plowing through the first 'big' book, book number 4. It's real thick folks. He carries it with him everywhere, in case a chance to read comes up. I enjoyed the series as an adult, and think it'd be so cool to be reading it as a kid. We've talked about how Harry is ageing in each book, so the things he thinks about will be more mature than where Leif is necessarily at, as he's not ageing at such a fast rate. (He kisses Ginny in book 6 people!). And yet, while I feared this exposure at first, I've thought on it some more. In terms of material, this is fairly safe stuff, given the context (the viewpoint of the 'good guy'). Further, he knows about people loving each other because he lives with his parents. He sees us kiss and hug all the time, and it gives him context, again. Reading about love won't suddenly catapult him into a state of pre-teen fervor over girls. And it may actually be a good thing to learn about it in this way. So I'm happy now.

Hannah is still plowing away at Book 2. The plan has been agreed upon that for my birthday we'll watch the second HP movie, so Hannah has approx 4 weeks to catch up on this one. Nothing like a good chalenge with a great reward at the end. We may even manage to talk the grandparents into having us over to watch it on the big screen (wink wink nudge nudge). Woohooo!

And how is Ivy you ask? She's had a busy week. She was rescued from the mouth of a giant salmon: (or is it a trout?)



And then came home to rock out on the drums with hair like a spent dandelion. Be still my heart.



Kisses

C

Sunrises and spells (Week 2)

I am very familiar with sunrises this week. I’ve seen one every day. Here’s the story. I’ve been struggling with sleep and mood issues these past many months, and the past month I’ve been waking up at 4:30 am for no reason, and can never get back to sleep. I’ve been reading lots of books and websites to learn more (who knew there was a deep limbic system?) and create my own plan to get better. It’s a combo of daily exercise plus specific supplements and some dietary changes. This all happened at the same time as a friend told me about a fun contest she and others are doing. It’s called Commit To Get Fit. You do a series of fitness tests (push-ups, sit-ups) go home and work out, and then three months later you do them again, and compare the numbers to see how ‘fit’ you got. I love a physical challenge, as you know, and it fits in with my need for daily exertion. So I joined and worked out how I’d do this. My plan was to get up at 6:30, do weights and then walk for an hour. As it turns out, since I can never sleep past 4:30, I don’t need my alarm. My weights are done by 5:30 and I head out in the dark. By the time I reach the top of the hill 25 minutes later, the sky is a glorious orange, the Olympic Peninsula in silhouette across the water. It is beautiful. I get home while the house is still asleep with a smile on my face. I dream of more sleep.

A friend of a friend had a slightly busted and very scratched iPod to pass on, and since I’ve yet to dive into this side of technology, it ended up in my hands. It is exactly what I’ve needed! I don’t listen to music on it, I listen to podcasts from CBC and unschooling radio shows. I take it on my morning walks and listen to The House (politics), Quirks and Quarks, Wire Tap, Q, comedy stuff, Vinyl Cafe and Humans Being. It is the perfect thing for a solo moment, when I can connect to my own interests on my own schedule. Yay for the generosity of strangers.

I also found something to bring some more balance into my life. I signed up for piano lessons. I've fiddled with it ever since I was a kid, but I’ve never been able to find lessons that were geared towards a by-ear-player like myself, but through a series of coincidences I found one just last week. I have homework and am being challenged by the practicing. It is a perfect me-time activity, because it’s not too long a commitment (1 hour a week for 8 weeks) and it’s something I can work on with the kids around. Things are looking up.

Alright already, on to the kids.

Hannah searched our weed-ridden front yard for a 4-leaf clover. She found one.



We’ve always told the kids that (besides Star Wars) any great movie started out as an even better book. And they’d need to read said book before they could see the movies. Yes, we dropped the ball there on the Narnia series. They were so not into the books, and then the movie came out and it was so good! But, we held firm with our next challenge, Harry Potter, and we have success! We read the first book out loud together and then got the movie. They loved it. They watched it 6 times in one weekend. Then they asked about the next movie, and I pointed to the next book. Leif had finished his Geronimo Stilton series by then (he read all 32 books this summer!) and started to read the second Harry Potter on his own. He has now moved on to the third book, waiting while we read it out loud to Hannah so they can watch the movie together. This new storyline has spawned many a wand-making session, choosing fallen branches and painting them, gluing shells to them, duct-taping them back together after a particularly harsh magic session. Leif has created the perfect dementor costume and hannah has discovered a pair of glasses that complete her Harry Potter look. She wears Kit’s old cub scout belt with the little leather pouch, where she carries her crystals. A backpack with flashlight, notebook, pencil, gold coins and her wand, she runs through the house yelling “Expecto Petronum!”. Here is Leif as Professor Quirrel:





I took Leif on eBay.ca to search for old Harry Potter Lego. We found a set in the 2nd hand shop years back and now he wants more. We had lots of chats about how eBay and auctions work, about factoring in shipping, and my own sure-fire tactics for winning something. Early one morning he found a set he hadn’t seen before, we discussed what he was willing to pay for it, how much it would cost to get here. When the auction was in its final minutes, we threw down our bid and won. He ran through the house waking everyone up with his news. Now he asks me every day “When will it get here?”.

The kids have been doing experiments in the freezer. They fill cups or containers with water, and try to catch them when they’ve started to freeze, but are not yet solid in the middle. Then they sink Lego guys into the centre, let it freeze, and then add more water to seal them in. The freezer is now full of little Lego skeletons and storm troopers looking out at me from their icy graves. It’s cool and creepy, and certainly adds some flair to an otherwise blah freezer decor.

We took in a few relaxing days in Tofino this week (pics to follow). Kit’s parents have found a nice house to rent on the beach that can fit all of us. We did puzzles, Kit tried his hand surfing and Leif and Hannah spent hour racing back and forth in a big tide pool on their boogie boards. They dug canals and built sandcastles. It was great. Leif and I had to leave early to get back for a class he had the next day. As we headed out along the winding hwy road, we talked about how he’d gotten so carsick on the trip up, because the last 2+ hours are nothing but winding roads. It’s rough for him. As we drove along the dark and deserted hwy he asked why was the road so wind-y? Why did they not just put it in straight? And why are all these mountains so pointy? So we talked about geological shift and how the earth’s surface is made up of plates. He’s heard this before, but now it has a practical application. That when the plates come together and buckle, you get mountains. How you can see long mountain chains on a map, and roads need to find the flat valleys between the mountains to travel along. So the earth’s shifting makes you carsick.

And a black bear walked across the road in front of our car, which was way cool.

Here’s the jellyfish I mentioned earlier. We saw lots in Tofino as well. I’ve found a great site called The JellieZone (love it!) but I can’t find this guy:



But from the little I read online, Jellyfish are amazing creatures! Hopefully we'll find time to learn more about them.


Hannah loves watching tv. We don’t have cable, but she gets a regular supply of dvd’s from the library. At first I picked stuff for them, because I’m a snob about good movies for kids. There’s so much crap out there. But once we exhausted my choices, and she still wanted to watch, I realised I had to let go. And now she’s discovering not every dvd is a good dvd. But she still wants to watch it. She’s a champion zone-out-er, and if I don’t pull her off it she’ll watch all day. After a marathon morning of tv, she was sad, hungry and bored. We talked about how tv does this to you, that too much can just mush your brain, and make you frustrated with life when it’s turned off. It’s just the first step, but then we can refer to that concept the next time she’s on tv overload. She’s more receptive to shutting it off now.


Hannah has discovered a style of book she likes to look at. We’ve been watching the fabulous movies of Hiyao Miyazaki for the past few weeks. They are amazing stories, some way violent, some not, all about the spirit and the soul, with strong male and female heroines. We’ve since discovered that his books are at our library. They are comic-style, and since Hannah’s seen the movie she can tell what’s happening in the story. They read right to left, which Hannah is proud to explain to others.


Leif stayed up with Kit and I to watch a great film by Michael Franti, “I Know I’m Not Alone”.
The kids are familiar with his music and his band Spearhead. We play his albums a lot and have been to many of his shows with them. Leif was interested in why he travelled to Baghdad and Gaza, and asked the obvious questions as he listened to Michael talk to the soldiers and the people. “Why are the soldiers still in Iraq if they’ve done what the people wanted? How can they not have electricity? Why don’t they stop building that wall? Why do they think Palestinians are bad? Why does Canada side with Isreal when they are being so mean to the Palestinians?”. Yeah, we had to get into suicide bombers and Allah. I think coming from an atheist family it is hard to grasp the idea of faith in a God, especially to such extremes. A big topic for a little dude.


And here's something you don't see on your front steps every day:



Yes, when we have so much on the go, we've started project #200, ripping up the front walk to fix a crack in the foundation. Man was it loud. That's Kit in the machine. He bought a Bobcat in the spring, as his jobs are getting that big. He does beautiful work, although it's loud and makes a huge mess at first. If you come by, use the back door.

C

Summer Lovin' (Week 1)

Before we jump into fall, let’s wind up the summer and get a bit caught up okay? Where to begin? The summer was lovely, as always. We fit in a Vancouver trip for Shona’s birthday and some PNE action. Would you believe Hannah was ONE INCH too short to go on any of the big rides? She dealt with it really well, and before we left we discovered she was tall enough for the swing ride, a ride I loved as a kid and am terrified of as an adult. She's the one farthest to the right, over the roller coaster.



Ivy and I hung out on the Merry-Go-Round, of course, while Kit and Leif just did coaster after coaster after coaster.




Ivy got to reconnect with her pal Bryn (the Brynster) and the talents of the St. Brights were showcased once again at Shona's party. No pics, sorry. This year we did The Family Circus, with Leif and Kit juggling, Hannah hula-hooping and the girls and I doing some bendy stuff.

We also managed a trip to my favorite place, the Cabin. Quiet, peaceful, filled with other adults to play with the kids. I LOVE it there!

Hannah built a bird house with Al



Leif was goalie and I took shots on him every day



And Ivy, well, she lay around in the grass alot. It's lovely grass.



We took in the 4H fair in Coombs. The Geese were fantastic.




We hit upon a book called Planet Ocean at the library. I’m debating buying it, it was just that cool.

Hannah acquired a drum set and quickly figured out how to play one of her favorite songs. (Doorbell by white Stripes, see archived entries for links). We had our first family and friends band show, it was fun and loud, and looked like this, with Leif on drums and Hannah in the bone-suit:



Hannah is voyaging into the land of reading, with such classics as Big Pig Dig and Ted’s Red Bed. Like any reader on the threshold of this new skill, she often guesses at the words based on the first letter. I’ve pointed out how some words look almost exactly like another, except one letter is different. So if she knows how that first word sounds, the next one can be a breeze.

We were lucky to have Ryan and Shona and their kids over for a wee visit. While Ivy and Bryn continued hatching plots in odd languages, they also took some time out for a bit of singing. Or at least, Ivy sang to Bryn and Bryn listened patiently. Again and again.




The kids were intrigued by the different kinds of cameras Shona brought along. One in particular was an old school point-and-click, very similar to my mom’s first camera, which I had around here at one point. Shona explained distance, when you would switch it to different settings and why, and then let them loose with it on the beach. She’s told me some of the pictures are fabulous. I’ll keep you posted.

Besides Ivy’s singing to Bryn, the house has also benefitted from Hannah’s unique musical ramblings. In the car she started in with her latest, the Molecule Song. We haven’t chatted molecules/atoms/cells since the spring, but somehow she came up with “Molecules are in everything, yes everything. The car, my skin, that dog over there.” I think it’s a pretty cool tune actually. Very Veda Hille.

She’s also discovered Louie Armstrong and plays his cd often. She’s picked out one of his tunes on the piano and plunks away at it sometimes.

Even though we’ve lived here for 10 years now, we’ve never seen jellyfish at the beach. Yet this summer they are everywhere. Loads of clear ones, the kind I remember from childhood summers on the boat with my brother, how they glowed in the night waters. And burgundy ones that come in only one size: BIG. I’ve tried to find jellyfish books at the library, but like many scienc-y books, they are all older and vague, often hand-drawn (which is SO cool, but not what we need here) and covering the world-over, not just our little West Coast jellies. I’m sure the internet has stuff, but it’s so much nicer to gather around a book, than my laptop. And you can take it to bed, or read while you eat breakfast. Books rock.

Leif’s love of hockey continued this summer. I found a cheap and flimsy, yet functional and repairable, goalie net at a yard sale, and his love of goalies soared. Hannah got right into it with him and they were out in the driveway everyday. After coming in with a fat lip from a slapshot from his sister, Leif asked about getting some gear. His buddy Taro told him the second-hand sporting goods store (Sports Traders on Store Street) carried hockey gear, we were off. He tried on lots of stuff, and after much discussion and price comparison, he brought home a helmet with face cage and a goalie stick. He paid with his hard-earned paper route cash. Once home he improvised with my old baseball glove and his goalie gloves. And now he only gets nailed in the crotch.



Speaking of his paper route, the kids have come up with a new game. There’s a great tire swing at the end of the route, so it’s our reward. I stand in the middle and push the kids around me, and they’ve decided I am the Sun and they are in orbit. So they discuss which planets they are, telling Ivy she is always mercury, she’s so small. It’s nice being the Sun.

In July I did manage to wedge in a little rant about the Canada Day holiday and its history as Dominion Day. They didn’t really feel any inkling to join in my feelings of wishing it was still Dominion Day. But I tried right? We did take in some Canada Day festivities, mainly ice cream in the hot sun in the harbour. We tried to get on Naval ships and stuff, but the line-ups were huge and tiring. Next year we need to plan our own shindig, though I say that every year. We did partake in The Living Flag, a downtown business initiative that was fun, and hot. You can’t tell it’s us, but we’re in there. We’re the ones wearing white, even Ivy.


The kids did a schwack of swimming lessons this summer, the time of year when great classes are offered during the day time, yay. Hannah did her level 2 and 3, Leif his level 6 and 7.




Their fabulous teacher Nelly retired this summer, at the end of their classes. This warranted some baking of course.




Hannah drew herself swimming with Nelly, and signed it from all of us.




This summer the kids were introduced to a St. John pastime, the model plane air show. I stayed home and painted the kitchen. Everyone was happy.



We had many a tea party this summer, sometimes inviting lego storm troopers, others not. The menu was always the same.



Leif also stayed up one night creating a very sweet surprise pre-birthday breakfast tea party for Hannah. He wrote out menus, made place cards and folded napkins into fans. In the morning I was chef and server, and all three of them cavorted around together. It was a great idea.



Hmmm, what else happened this summer? Oh right. Hannah turned SIX.



And then . . .



Woohoooooo! Six is perfect!



She’s been counting down the days since about May, forever changing her cake request, finally deciding on a truly Hannah-esque cake (pink and white icing with green polka-dots and storm troopers on top, strawberries on the sides). A lovely party in the park was the plan, and then we took them all to the pool to cool off. She had a great day. Once home we had a little family party. She’d been asking for a certain lego set since last fall. She’d wanted it for Christmas but we said no-go sister. It’s a really expensive set! So we got together with all the grandparents and pooled our dimes. She said it was the only thing she wanted, so she got it.






We finished up with an early September camping trip to Ruckle Park with Ryan and Shona et kids. Leif and Hannah honed their disc-tossing skills, and Leif discovered that he loves disc golf, just like his Papa. Ivy and Bryn sat in little camping chairs observing the bigger kids, like the little old ladies they will be some day. Hannah read her Hiyao Miyazaki comics and I jumped in the Pacific every day. It was a much-needed little holiday that should've been longer, but we loved it while it lasted.


On a very sad note, this summer we said good-bye to our lovely Bodhi-cat. She was struggling with some hyperthyroid issues, and that distracted us from discovering that her cancer had returned. She stopped eating and we couldn’t figure out why. She hung out with us in the back yard one sunny evening, and I snapped this picture. She died later on that night. She is missed.




Kisses

C