We Are Family! (Week 25)

We are very excited this week because our awesome cousin/nephew Aubrey is coming for an extended sleepover. The kids have been planning activities and tidying the hose to prepare for his arrival.

What have we been up to in the meantime?

The kids and I read a French/English flap book in bed this week. Leif found the concept of feminine and masculine nouns baffling and I had a tough time explaining it. I talked about how, because I learned Fench immersion style (the best way IMO) I never focused on the rules of the language, I just know what sounds right. This lead to a discussion on how a child born in an English counry but raised in say, Germany, will grow up speaking German, because that's the language it hears all around. Then Leif said "Can a kid know 2 languages?" and I said well yes, look at me. (It's funny the hings you can discuss ad nauseum with kids and thus think they *know*, only to realise years or months later that they did not absorb the info at all how you thought they did). He was amazed that as a child I could speak french and english. But this is old news in our house, so it was funny that he just clued in about it now. So we discussed my talking to them in french and seeing if they could just figure out what I meant. Doing our own at-home immersion. I'm game, but really need to brush up on my slang and conversational terms.

We were at Costco this week, and they had Canadian school-curriculum-based activity books. Canadian! As much as I loathe workbok learning, I had to look at these. We grabbed a Gr 1 for Hannah (she's already done a couple grade 1 books, but they seemed fairly easy compared to this one) and a gr 4 for Leif. I said we'd do a bit each day, for fun. Yeah, even I didn't buy my tone and false joy, but I wanted to do a bit of lame workbook stuff, just to expose them to the ritual, if nothing else. So far it's been good. The books are challenging, but not over their heads. We have run into questions where I can tell what answer the books want them to give, yet the answer the kids really have makes just as much sense. Argh, workbooks. So limiting.

Leif needs a hobby. He loves playing outside, building/playing with Hannah and reading hockey stats. But he has no particular interest that entertains him on his own. He's commented this week, after exhausting his other activities and Hannah's gone off to colour or read, that he doesn't know what to do. I said he needs an interest, a hobby. Maybe something to do with his hands, or a project to create and work on. I tried to brainstorm ways to use the mountain of hockey info in his head, but came up empty. I can think of loads of things that interest me, but that's useless. Give me your ideas people.

A new activity for Leif this week is skateboarding. Our neighbour has left us his old board and Leif's been trying it out. It amazes me a) how fearless he is (but in a safe way) to try new things on it, and b) how easily it comes to him. I'm going to try to find some books/DVD's to inspire him. Though I'd like to avoid the pile injuries my brother got from his years-long passion for skate boarding. Please. But I also know how fun it was for him.

Hannah and I did some rhythm clapping games. She'd clap out a beat and I'd match it, then she'd change it a bit and I'd have to match the change, then we'd trade roles. This was during a drumming practice at home, where she was trying to make up a new beat of her own to show Damian.

Hannah and I spent a few mornings this week watching birds. She usually sleeps in until about 8:30, but this week she woke up at 7 sometimes, which is right when the birds come out. We say all the wrens at the birdfeder, and then Hannah discovered if we sat on the diningrom bench by the window, there's a whole group of Juncos that were hanging out in our current bush. We saw the house sparrows go in and out of their cedar tree, so we suspect there are a couple of nests in there. And then later in the morning we saw a lovely red-headed woodpecker in our willow tree, though only for a brief visit. Our birdhouses are not pleasing to any birds. While many come by to check them out, no one moves in. We've also hung out a bag of wool clippings for then to build with, but no action there either. Hannah pointed out that eating all that peanut butter suet would make her thirsty, so we've hung a birdbath beside the feeder so they can get a drink if they need to.


Hannah and Leif have created a new game, and I don't understand it one bit. They play multiple people in the game (Leif is both a 1 year old baby and an 11 year old boy, different names for each). They gave Ivy a role too (a boy named Sage) and they play it for hours, running around outside. Between the Playmobil civilisation and this new many-peoples game, they are playing together all day. Always great.


Um . . . and then they decided to make cigarettes together. I just did my thing in the house as they set up their factory scene, cutting strips of paper, dipping them in water and then laying them to dry on the heater.



Leif went outside to get some 'tobacco' (yard clippings) and then they struggled with rolling, getting the right shape, do we need tape, it keeps falling apart, etc . . . finally they were both done and asked for a light. My brain was going a mile a minute as I thought about how I was handling this. By making it no big deal, letting them explore openly in my presence, showing no judgement on them and their crafting (but openly sharing why smoking sucks, an opinion they've heard before) I hoped it'd be the best way to proceed. Shaming and reprimanding would only cause them to still want to do this, bur now need to hide it from me. So, I took a deep breath, and lit their smokes.

I've decided not to post the pics of them smoking, it's just too awkward. I myself found it wierd, but that's because of my own hang-ups about what a mother *should* do. I'm working on letting those go this year.

Between downpours this week we got out for some tennis. But before we did, we had to dry out our equipment. :)




Hope you and yours are well!

C

The Dawn of a New Civilisation (Week 24)

When you leave 3 kids in a room full of playmobil, you can end up with a pretty elaborate situation a few hours later. Leif and Hannah (and Ivy) have created a co-operative community in our back bedroom. There is a bunny family cabin, a knight's castle and a viking village. All share a water delivery system, ponds and food services. Each maintain their own parcel of land, and the animals roam freely between them. They are close enough together to help each other, yet respect each other's boundaries and privacy. Can I live somewhere like that too? This set up has provided hours of play this week. And nobody's spilled any water yet!

Both children have rediscovered Reader Rabbit video games this week. Hannah is rocking through the sections on money, adding up the right coins to get the right dollar amounts. She's also doing a geometry section, where you have to draw shapes that match the size they ask for (a 3-inch tall trapezoid for example).

Leif is working on the math section, specifically adding and subtracting. He's also working on a new fantasy hockey team list and figuring out how the game set up works for the Olympics. Why a team is in group A (or B or C), who they play, who moves on from there and who they play next and why.

This week I had a chance to sit in on Leif's aikido class. It was great to see what he is doing. His Sensei will say a command or phrase in Japanese and he knows exactly what she means. He's learned directions and terms in Japanese. He is really focused and intent on the instructions she gives, and carries them out as she's asked him to. Awesome!

leif and I had another Richter scale chat this week, as we had an earthquake! I woke up in the night to the bed shaking and heard pots clanging in the kitchen. We checked in the morning and it was a 3 level quake. The kids slept through it, but enjoyed my morning demo (shaking their beds).


Hannah's birding activities are achieving a slow success. We moved a bunch of potted bamboo up onto the porch, to offer shelter for birds using her suet feeder. This morning at dawn the feeder was absolutely crammed full of little brown wrens!!! It was lovely!



(see the one in-flight on the left?)


This spring hopefully we can continue to build on this small success and soon have a yard full of birds.

Oh, Hannah just ran in to tell me she's spotted a bird living in our cedar tree (oh how I loathe that tree). We went out to peek at it, and we've ID'd it, it's a male House Sparrow. Okay, I know, no big deal. But it IS for us!!!!!!! (The lady in the link seems to hate house sparrows. I'd thought they were a hated bird, being non-native, but local birders I know don't hold them akin to starlings, and even build birdhouses for them. But never starlings. Oh the politics. It's similar to my teaching the kids that the native black squirrel is better than the invasive grey brought over from Europe by an idiot in Sooke. But in the end, I still took the orphaned grey squirrel we found to the vet for help. They're all beings).

Hannah's drumming is going well. Her teacher taught her a basic marching beat, and it let Hannah see how you can create a rhythm, and practice it anywhere. On the seats in the car, at the table, on the couch. It doesn't bother me. It gives her an introduction into how you can play around on the drums, which was not common in the past. Unlike a piano, you cannot necessarily pick out a tune on the drums. But now she can create a beat. Cool.

The Chinese New Year parade was fabulously loud as always. We cycled down, our first big ride of the year. It was gloriously sunny, and we pedaled under tunnels of cherry blossoms. Hannah was bummed to learn that we're heading into cycling weather, no more driving everywhere. I'll have her legs up to snuff in no time.

The scene in Playmobil village has now morphed into a countryside race track:



Note the spilled water before the finish line. They wanted to create some challenges. They rev up little cars and let them go, as spectators watch from the sidelines. They use the camera to record the race so they can watch an instant-replay to discuss who won.

And of course there is a beer garden:



Love it.

As we start to dream of the not-so-distant spring, our winter flowers show off their stuff. This helebore is amazing in it's details, just like every bit of nature.



Kisses

C

Gone to the birds (Week 23)

Remember when I said February is busy for us? Indeed. Besides the weekly activities, February is the month of Lupercalia (fun and games), and we also celebrate Chinese New Year this month and Valentine's Day. For Chinese new Year we decorated with origami and our white lucky cats (see last week's post), and next Sunday we'll head down to Chinatown for the dragon parade and then some tasty noodle box. For Valentine's (on the same day this year) I'm planning a strawberries and whipped cream with pancakes breakfast. We'll see if I pull it off.

Each February we get together with friends and make candles. It's part of finding brightness in the darkest season, and we were first introduced to the ritual through the candlemas festival in Waldorf. This year we made lovely globe votive candle holders with beeswax. Not only are they easy to make and you end up with a fabulous product, but they are fun too!

You fill a water balloon and dip it multiple times in wax.






Let it dry then pop the balloon and drain it.



Stick in some sand and a tea light (also beeswax) and voila! Your home has a warm glow and the best aroma there is.



Hannah's week has been a busy one. She loved folding origami, and made many different pieces. Her favorite was the simple cup (which could also be a hat). Her drumming lesson was as fun as ever, as she continues to work on Billie jean. Hannah's challenge is relaxing her hands. Both in her piano playing and drumming she uses so much force because she is concentrating so hard on what she's playing, to get it right. She needs to relax and let her fingers dance over the keys and the sticks bounce off the drums. We're working on it, but it's tricky. After much perseverance she has picked out and memorised a Sound of Music song on the piano, and a Harry Potter tune as well.

This week Hannah, her Grandma and I took part in the Great Backyard Bird Count. You count over a period of 4 days. Armed with all our bird books and binoculars and paper and pencil, we've ventured into forest, meadow and urban street to look and listen for feathered creatures.



Man is it tough! When we have Grandma along we have hope, because she knows her local birds and has been a bird-lover for years. But when Hannah and I venture out solo, we are lost. We watched a group of birds in some shrubs yesterday and between looking them up in various books and playing calls in our great bird sounds book, we narrowed them down to a kind of wren, perhaps the Winter Wren. But we aren't sure. We *think* they were wrens, but they could have been something else entirely. Hummingbirds we can spot, and theirs is a song I recognise, so it's a start.

In keeping with our birdwatching interest, I found a suet feeder kit this week and Hannah put it together. She read the instructions and matched up the parts, and then we went for a walk to find berries to attach to it. It's lovely!





Unfortunately, there are no trees or shrubs right near our house, so no shelter or camouflage is available for the birds to hide in. So our feeders are not popular yet, but hopefully we can remedy this for next year.

Hannah baked lovely valentine cookies this week, two layer sugar cookies with raspberry jam in the middle and a heart cut out on top, so the bright red jam squeezed through. They were both pretty and tasty.


Leif is still into hockey. Surprised? Wait until you see this:



Yes, he figured out how to build his own goalie out of patio pavers. Now he can go out and take shots whenever the mood hits. He's trying to get me to make a fantasy hockey team list of my own, to compare with the one he's making, but I am clueless. We're enjoying watching the Olympic hockey games together, and last night watched some figure skating. I noticed the new scoring system and that launched a discussion on the old vs. new system and the scandal that caused it to be changed. He pointed out flaws in the new system, so we stopped talking and watched them skate. The Canadians fell down. Boo. But we also got to see the Canadian mogul skier win our fist gold medal, which was awesome!

We surfed Wikipedia this week looking for the 7 Wonders of the (ancient)World. Most of the have been destroyed. It was hard to explain why these are wonders, that building them then (or even now) was an incredible feat.

Leif is back to making his own smoothies, and tried out some new recipes this week. Very tasty!

Leif and Kit have started reading the Hobbit together. They call me in whenever any elves are singing, as that was my role when Kit and I read LOTRings together so many years ago (pre-kids).

Leif and I listened to Quirks & Quarks this week, and the topic was weightlessness in space travel. Bob interviewed a Canadian astronaut who'd been in space for 6 months and how his body had to adapt to life with gravity when he returned.

Together we have been watching The Road to Avonlea series from the library. We're starting on season 1 and are about halfway through. I've been looking forward to doing this with the ids, hoping it'd catch their interest, and it has. They need a lot explained to them as the terms and phrases used are so foreign ("If providence allows" and so much talk of pride and gossip) so we pause it alot. The kids built forts in the living room and have been sleeping in them all week, so we watch our nightly Avonlea from there and then I sit beside them and knit while they drift off.

Speaking of knitting, I finished my first project, a lovely hat. This picture is not the greatest, but I'd just finished it and wanted a photo to share. Yes, those are my new glasses too.



I've ordered more patterns and can't wait to start my next project. Meanwhile my sewing projects are in piles on the table, as our basement is in such disarray I'm not motivated to get down there and sew. I shrunk/felted a bunch of wool sweaters this week to cut up and make ponchos and arm warmers out of.



When I get to those projects I'll share pics.

The photo of the week? Ivy finding her perfect colouring spot in the front yard, atop a stack of patio pavers.



Kisses

C

February (Week 22)

(Week 21 we did a seasonal review; you didn't miss out, don't worry).

Ah . . February. The dreariest month, yet so often a pretty fun and busy month for us.



We set up all our decorations for February on our nature table. There are lucky cats and origami for Chinese New Year, the snow drop fairy for winter's first flower and play dough hearts for Valentine's Day.

The first Tuesday of each month is admission by donation at the Art Gallery. They have a show of modern Japanese art on now that I’ve wanted to see, so we checked it out. It was really interesting, and the installations were all very different. We all enjoyed the Happo-En, the life-size tea house made out of styrofoam the artist collected here in Victoria. Leif remarked that some ink drawings reminded him of the work of Hayao Miyazaki, and when we read the artist’s bio, it said he was greatly influenced by the works of Hayao Miyazaki. Good eye. Hannah and I really enjoyed the installation that was cherished items entirely covered with clear glass marbles. A deer’s head, a toy tank, a fake peach. We all watched a video installation that we found fun to watch but did not fully understand the meaning behind it. Hannah was excited to find a life-size styrofoam deer outside when we were leaving. On our way out we noticed that they were setting up a different show, that involved Canadiana paintings framed with cut up hockey sticks. Leif was definitely interested in coming back to see it once it’s up. We’ll mark the calendar for the 1st Tuesday in March.


The sun came out this week so we headed out to the yard. This led us to see how messy and dreary it was, as we’ve been too busy to tidy up the dead plants and fallen leaves this year. Kit has been working away at the front patio, and that is where the sun was at that hour, so we hung around there. Leif set up his hockey net and practiced taking shots. Hannah pushed the broom around to move the sand into the spaces between the paving stones. I bailed out the rubber container that currently houses our 25 goldfish that are without a pond. The kids took turns catching the fish and transferring them to a clean container. Hannah remarked at how slippery they were, and Leif was very interested in the water treatment stuff I added to the clean water. As I fumbled trying to explain why we treat the water for the fish, yet we drink that same water straight from the tap (a really good question I think!) Hannah jumped in and talked to Leif about how we used to treat the hot tub water because our dirty bodies were in it all the time and so it needed help. That it was straight tap water too, but it couldn’t stay clean with us using it all the time. Smart kid that Hannah.

We moved the fish back into their clean Rubbermaid and proceeded to choose a special fish for each of us. Then we drew their pictures and gave them names. I really enjoyed seeing the kid’s art . It is rare that Leif and Hannah colour a picture. Usually they do more of a stick-figure scene style of drawing.




A neighbourhood friend went away last week and asked if we’d come by each day to feed their cat. We said of course. But Leif was not very interested in following up on this, so Hannah took the job on herself. She scootered over each day, found and petted the cat, and re-filled her food dish. This gave me the idea for Hannah to launch a little local business. Hannah’s Pet and Plant Care Services. To help neighbours out of they go away, or work long hours. She can water plants or let their dogs out for some fresh air in their yard. We printed up signs and she delivered them to all the houses she knows where the owners have pets. We also plan to put some signs up on the telephone poles around our block. I told Hannah that since her name is on those signs, people will be calling to talk to her, so she needs to be ready to handle a phone conversation. I also talked to her about how nothing may come of this right away, people may not be in need of her services yet, but it’s good to get the word out there. We’ll see.


Hannah had her third drum lesson this week, and Kit and I worried because we had still not gotten her drums set up for her to practice or fiddle around on. I worried that if she didn’t practice, she’d feel flustered at her lesson, and decide she didn’t want to continue. Any attempts to get her to practice made her push us away and resent her lessons. And she was still too shy to really speak to her teacher. But when we got there she showed him what she knew from last week, and through his useful questions, she opened up and chatted with him and told him whether things were hard or easy. Then she played most of a Micheal Jackson song, her current music choice, and they talked about what other music she liked that might have drum parts in it (K’NAAN). I just sat in the corner and knit my beloved hat and watched her in awe. Way to be bold daughter.

Leif had an important soccer game this week. It’s against another local team that they’ve played twice before, and have found them to be slightly under-handed and rough, and have lost to them each time. This game the boys were determined to do their best, and were so focused on passing and really holding their shape, and they won! Leif scored a beautiful goal, over the left shoulder of one player, the right shoulder of the next, and over the keeper’s shoulder, tucking it nicely into the corner of the net. It was awesome.

I noticed him incorporating his aikido skills into his soccer playing. When he was tripped or tackled, he’d roll and be right up again.


It feels like lots of talk about Hannah this week, but not much about Leif. She's just doing more different or new things, whereas Leif is enjoying the same things he has already been doing. He's becoming very familiar with navigating the internet to find hockey game highlights. And he asks me about the ads that he sees (you must watch an ad before you can view a highlight. Every time)which can bring on interesting discussions. He finds many ads do not make any sense. Yay!

The kids and I really enjoyed this TED talk about teaching crows to perform tasks. We've discussed it many times in the car since we watched it.


Ivy's newest favorite song by Veda hille, a lovely Canadian. She sings it often "luck, lucky, luck luck, lucky luck ".

Caelen

It's all about blocks (Week 20)

This week the theme has been around blocks, bricks, building and understanding. For Leif this meant a big talk about Haiti. we talked about what happened, why it happened where it did and not somewhere else. He asked about the Dominican R. and why they were comparatively unaffected so I found a quake reference online from years ago that shook up the Dominican but left Haiti untouched. We went online to Wikipedia and found photographs of the destruction (not the injured) and we talked about why it mattered so much that their city and infrastructure were destroyed (bricks and buildings) and what they need now (to be built back up and not have efforts blocked by politics and mismanagement of funds). We talked about the Richter scale and how coastal cities have experienced major quakes (San Fran) and that Vancouver Island is situated on a fault, yet there's been little to no quake activity during my entire lifetime (oh the balance of telling the truth without causing a panic). And we also touched on Search and Rescue efforts and how people can survive being trapped for many days, and that dogs are useful in these searches.

It was a big chat. Who knows what parts stuck with him or were of interest to him. He went off to build with Lego.

Thanks to a great holiday gift (gracias Shona!) Leif has been delving into the art of comic strip drawing this week (blocks!). Without any suggestions or ideas from us he created Bob and Lob, two guys who reminded me very much of Akbar and Jeff from the long-ago Life In Hell series. I found some of those comics at the library and Leif has been perusing them this week.



Hannah's week has been full of tough concepts to grasp and concrete ways she can help out (no pun intended I swear!). We've been working our way through the series Ivy & Bean and Hannah has really enjoyed it. We're waiting for book 6 from the library, which has had a few holds ahead of us. But the other day we saw it in the bookstore (hardcover no less) and so Hannah said "let's buy it!". So I explained why buy it when we can borrow it in a few days? Why trade our money for something that will end up cluttering our house forever and we'll likely never read it again? She sort of got that, as it's a concept we've discussed many, many times before. This is why we are at the library at least once a week.

Then she was checking out the Lego.com site and decided she really *really* wanted this Star Wars set ($200). So I mentioned how she'd gotten a similarly priced set as her one and only b-day gift last year and that once assembled she'd never played with it, and now it was broken into a million pieces anyway. That she could get so many diff things for such a sum, and that hey, she didn't even have that much money anyway. These concepts were tougher. I told her how I used to buy things that were 'okay' and 'on sale', instead of waiting for what was 'just right' and not focused on the cost. Meaning one good pair of quality, long-lasting shoes that I really need, instead of 4 cheapo ones that are just for fashion. That if she had to earn $200 it'd take her X amount of time at a job she didn't even have yet, and the Lego would be something she'd get little use out of, because it's so complicated and fragile. Is it worth her money? She really could not grasp these big ideas, so we dropped it for awhile. In the meantime I've committed to helping her find all the pieces (798 bricks people!) for her broken set and help her re-assemble it.

To soothe her over-taxed brain Hannah has been helping Kit and Terry outside with the front patio work (bricks). She really enjoys helping adults, it gives her such a feeling of competence and usefulness. I so remember enjoying that feeling too as a child. She's helped dig out the driveway, hammer down the concrete wall, lay patio stones and glue the stones on the stairs. How great it will be for her to use these areas over the next decade and know she played a part in it. (Pssst Al, we'll need some Hannah-projects for the new cabin as well!).



This week has held the usual run of soccer practices and games, aikido, skating lessons and good old skating and ice hockey fun for both kids.

A new addition to Hannah's week is drumming lessons. She goes 30 min each week and then we try to encourage some practicing at home (we know if we insist or push her she'll just drop out of lessons entirely). Right now her teacher has her working on the drum part of this great White Stripes song (since she's mastered Doorbell already). It's called Seven Nation Army and we're loving it. When we finish our house reno she'll have her own drum room to bust out in.

Ivy's week has had it's ups and downs. The babysitter thing didn't work out. It's so funny that I just assumed it would, when I have never had a sitter for the other two kids. I'd just forgotten why and have been more focused on getting a bit of freedom for me. So we're back to doing everything as a foursome, and I just bring along a stack of books and snacks for Ivy.

We are all excited about watching the upcoming Olympic hockey games. Yes you can be anti-Olympics and pro-athletes. :) We're thankful that it will all take place in our time zone, and we hope to get to Grandma and Grandpa's to watch things on the BIG screen.

C