So, what can I tell you? Soccer continues, aikido continues. The kids are rocking out at both. This week we went to a Hallowe'en event at our library and got a chance to test out their costumes. I say pretty awesome huh?
We went to Goldstream Park to check out the salmon run this week. We saw the salmon. Unlike last year, we saw them alive, yay! No dead, rotting carcasses being pecked at by birds. We watched them struggling upstream, me explaining to the kids the life cycle of this fish, and managing to sneak in a sigh at the plight of the parenting sacrifices involved. :)
We snapped some pics in the woods:
Leif took this one:
We saw this CRAZY spider on the fence and had to snap it's portrait. It reared up in attack position and tried to fight the camera. Note the weird spiky points on it's back, one on each side. I'd love to know what it is, but ID'ing spiders, like caterpillars, is an endless and often pointless endeavour.
For my birthday Hannah drew me a fantastic Haunted House scene (we'd been drawing together earlier in the week). See the witch up on the right? You can see her best because of her striped tights and huge shoes. Isn't it fabulous? That pile of sticks on the front steps is her creepy rocking chair.
Hannah is attacking math again. She asked me in bed how come 5+5=10, 7+7=14 and 6+6=10 also. I said let's work this out together. Her problem? She'd forgotten all about 13 she exclaimed. I love seeing her brain work. Often when she gets math stuff wrong I can tell exactly where she's missed something, and I just walk her through it, letting her figure it out for herself, and she gets it.
Hannah's swimming lessons ended this week, and she did not pass her level. She's not bummed, I told her it's a hard one and thus requires two kicks at the can to pass it. But what a simple example of how group teaching is a total waste of time. She didn't pass because of 2 things (her front and back crawl)things she would have spent an entire private lesson on with Nelly and passed no problem. But in a group the teacher simply cannot give ech child 30 minutes of her attention to really master a skill. It blows. So she's signed up for another 8 Sundays, and I'll try working with her in between to help her get it.
Hannah's spending lots of time playing Creative Machines on the computer. It's a very cool game. You have all these supplies (cannons, bows and arrows, weights, matches, hot air balloons, kites, string, see-saws, magnifying glasses, solar lights, you name it) and you use them to create machines. So the magnifying glass focuses the sun which ignites the string which lights the cannon that fires the cannonball onto the see-saw which bumps the other ball down and hits the weight which knocks the scissors which cut the string that holds the hot air balloon and it flies away. Yeah, it's way cool.
Leif's computer time is spent playing pinball or Monopoly. When he's not on the computer, Leif's reading Harry Potter, or comparing stats in his hockey magazines, or practicing his aikido rolls (no it's not sushi).
Speaking of computers, I feel a problem brewing. I've been reading about self-control and totally understand how I'm keeping the kids from realising when anything's 'enough' because I decide for them what is enough. Fine. So I've been just letting the control over screen time go for awhile, to see what happens. And you know what? they're on the computers more and more everyday. I'm not saying anything yet, but I feel I'll go against what I 'think' and end up cutting them off in the near future.
Nothing like being the warden of your house. I wear the role well. :)
C
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