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
2 comments:
That's hilarious. Beer garden and all!!
That flower looks like a princess. Isla
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