Can you see 2 digits? Week 30

Take a look at these. For whatever reason the topic of colour blindness came up one morning this week, so I Googled some tests and info to help them understand it. I pointed to the test and said to Leif "See the 2-digit number there?"

He said "What number?"

"The number there, like 64 or 28, it's a 2 digit number like that, do you see it?"

"No"

Then Hannah walks by and says "You mean the 25 right there?"

Hmmm . . so Leif is mildly colour blind. You learn something new everyday huh?

This week has been chock-full of discussions, observations and good times.

To make up for the loss of soccer activity Leif and Hannah have been playing soccer with their Lego set. They set up a spectator box, ticket booth, medic, video camera guy, referee . . check it out.



They played with it for hours. Leif named all his players; Mike West, Jack Hornby and Carlos Rodriguez. He knows some of the best players are from South America.When Leif played with Taro, it was sweet to hear him give the score by saying "I have 6 and you have 3, so I have twice what you have. But you can still catch up Taro".

Leif and I went to the Jackson Cup this weekend. Some of his coaches from soccer camp were playing in it. It is a local soccer final that sends it's winner on to the Provincials in Vancouver. The kid's coach Steph is the coach for the Gordon Head team who were playing for the cup at this game. Unfortunatly they lost, badly. But Steph told us in the 25 years they've had the cup games, this is only the second time his team has gotten to play in them. So it's exciting to have made it this far. Hopefully we can catch the Provincials on tv or find out the stats so Leif can follow along. It was nice to go out with Leif, just the two of us.

When Taro was over to play, Leif needed to do his paper route. He asked if he and Taro could do it by themselves. I wanted to honour his readiness for independance, but knew I was not comfortable with just sending them out entirely alone. So we compromised that I'd stay at the end of one block, and they'd go up that block, then around the end and I'd meet them at the next block. They were satisfied with this and did just fine. The next time he did his route, I asked if he'd like to do it that way again, and he said no, he'd prefer some company, so we went together.

In the car I try to get some CBC radio time when I can. They were following the trial of the Polish traveler who died at YVR from the taser use. Leif wanted to know what was being discussed, and we ended up having a big discussion about tasers, the police, why we call the police, when they use guns, how a bystander's video brought this situation to light, the court process, and reporters in the courts. It was great, and he seemed to follow it.

They are both starting to wrap their heads around the concept of movies, how the are made, that they are fake, and what actors are doing in them. After watching Annie we watched The Making of Annie, with all the auditions for the lead role, and saw the actors out of costume and character. Then Hannah noticed that the actor in Sound of music is the same actor as in Mary Poppins.

We got in some visits to the pool this week. At one visit we were all in the family changeroom and after a discussion on why we use those changerooms in particular, Leif asked if a person could ever change their sex. I told him how you can change your appearance to look more like the other gender, using hormone drugs, surgeries, etc. . . but that your body will never 'function' like the opposite gender, in terms of reproduction. Then we talked about how cold water makes your penis shrink. We always strive to cover all the important stuff. :)

Leif and Hannah watched an old favorite, School House Rocks, this week. I explained what was going on in the grammar section, how adverbs differ from adjectives, and what conjunctions do, nouns and pronouns.

They were both excited by a discovery they made in the bath this week. When they half-filled a bottle with water, then overturned another full bottle of water on top of that one, with their spouts connected, the water changed places with the air very very slowly, but it did happen. And once all the air was gone from the lower bottle, no more water moved into it from the upper bottle. They repeated this over and over with different quatities of water. Hannah cried "We've made an experiment!".

We finally have pictures to share of our knitted Inuit people. Since it is now Spring, we dismantled the winter table and put our Inuit guys out with the daffodil fairy. Maybe this is why it's still so wintery this Spring? Ivy's is the tall dark blue one, Hannah's has blonde hair and Leif's has dark plum hair.



The kids set up their own Spring nature tables in their room, using all the crafts they've made in years past.

Leif's


Hannah's



Hanah's after she added blue sky and green grass. Can you see it?



Then Hannah added a bear she drew and cut out herself



And a super-cute litte brown bunny with fuzzy wool fur. Love it!



Hannah is churning out the questions as usual. After watching the Sword and the Stone we discussed how Merlin the Magician won the duel, by turning into a germ, which is not invisible, just so tiny we can't see it very easily. This lead us to contagions and how illness is spread.

As we got dressed one day she asked again who made space. Leif explained to her how earth was made (two asteroids colliding) and she said we could also just ask the people who were around then how it was made. So this led us to a discussion about history, and how it is documented by those who survive and that prior to our existence nobody was writing stuff down. So we rely on the fossil record and carbon dating and things like that to make a sort of written history of the planet.

Hannah is starting to sight read some of Ivy's books. And her spelling is starting to incorporate vowels, if she tries 3 letter words. Longer stuff just gets confusing. Pig, cat, bat, hat . . .

All 3 of us had a great time this week at wilderness camp. It was a one day class with a group from Saltspring called Wisdom of the Earth. They teach tracking, survival, hunting, stewardship of nature, and aim to keep the dying traditions alive of the First Nations and other hunter gatherer societies. We only got a taste of things at this class, but they are hoping to offer a 6-week course this spring, so hopefully we can get in on that too. Ivy stayed and grandma and grandpa's, so I could fully participate and spend the whole day with Leif and Hannah. We learned about stalking like a fox, seeing like an owl, and listening like the deer. We played games that taught us about the food chain and how you need a balance in nature for everything to survive (deer eat plants, cougars eat deer, illness hurts all). We learned how to hide, to blend in with our suroundings so we could sneak up on our prey, and then how to throw a thick stick to kill it. We learned some basics of tracking, such has weight distribution on the feet, and how running tracks differ from walking tracks.

And then our class had a strange interruption. The trout truck arrived.



The truck had come to stock the lake for the summer fishing season.



I admit to being clueless about this practice, and found it very strange in a Brave New World kind of way. Growing fish so others could go catch them and feel sporty? The very nice guys working the truck let the kids dump some buckets of fish into the lake, before they flushed about 1000 fish through the big hose at the back of the truck. They said they're stocking bigger fish this time, so it's easier for fist-time fishers to catch any. Again, wierd huh? I guess my view of just letting the lakes sit empty as a clear sign of the damages of over-fishing and how we are messing up the planet as a whole is not so positive. But why create a false reality when things are in such a crappy state? Why not learn, learn, learn from our mistakes? oh well, I'm not a fisher, so I may never understand.




Leif is still figuring out the finer points of dominoes.



Then he built a functioning catapult out of Lego.




Ivy's been nurturing a sweet obsession with owls, so crafty mom made her this little fellow out of wool. Ivy seems happy with it.






And Hannah is starting to share her espresso-making skills with Ivy. Why not start them out young right?



I've been starting to give them some minor responsibilities in the house, in regards to taking care of their own upkeep. Loading their dishes into the dishwasher, making their beds (yes, even Ivy). We're not a 'chores list' type of family, by far, and my goal is not to force these things on them in an overt way. But rather to simply expect that little bit more, as they grow up, so they have a sense of what needs doing, so that when they become teenagers this is just a normal part of life, and when they move out and live on their own they are not wholly incompetent at this stuff. So for right now, it's putting your dishes away, and of course they put their own laundry away. Then we'll move on to doing their laundry and cooking some basic foods.


As for Kit and I, we are well, as always. Kit is off to pick up his new Bobcat excavator machine, and is gearing up for a big season of Ultimate. He has 4-5 tournaments this year, and they are trying to field a masters (over 34 years old) team to play in the preliminaries in Vancouver. The winners go on to the Nationals in Winnipeg. I'm still working on running farther and upping my totals for push-ups and sit-ups. I seem to have a hit a wall in all areas. I'm signed up for a 6-week knitting course and working to find the time to follow my own interests. After 8 years of parenthood, I see some room for my own needs, maybe, to get some atttention.

I'm reading alot about unschooling these days. I used to refer to us as unschoolers, because we do not follow a curriculum nor strive to replicate school at home. I've always believed you learn through life, and if you need to know it, you'll figure it out. Then I met other unschoolers and there seemed to be a check-list of things you DID if you were a homeschooler, and we did not do all of these things (unlimited tv, no bedtimes) so I stopped using that term. But now I'm curious about how it all plays out, how it fits together for those who do do it. I understand that i do not know what the future holds, so how can I accuratey tell them what they *should* know. So I'm reading a lot, gathering the info, asking the questions. I'm never going to be someone who follows any dogma, of any group. But I think there's a benefit to learning more about something you don't understand.

Happy Spring!


C

Super Socco! ( Week 29)

. . . the 'real fruit' drink of the 80's, made by Dairyland, of all things.

I recall only ever having the kind in the all-white box, I think it was lime, or some equally obtuse 'fruit' juice flavour. That, being afraid of being put in goal (oh the pressure!) and doing a strange marching routine in my bedroom that involved saluting while listening to the Whitecaps theme song on a 45, is my total soccer experience as a child. You must recall their catchy theme song.


*****

White is the colour,
Soccer is the game,
We're all together and winning is our aim,
So cheer us on through the sun and rain,
Because Whitecaps, Whitecaps is our name!

- Whitecaps theme song


And so it is with an odd happy-yet-anxious childhood perspective that I escorted Leif and Hannah to a week-long soccer camp over Spring Break.

Every day from 9-12, every day that it rained, some days a lot, other days only a bit. With a bag of snacks, another bigger bag of wet weather gear, and Ivy bundled up in every possible outdoor layer she owns, we ventured out to the fields. Hannah and Leif insisting on wearing the same outfit every single day (washed nightly by yours truly to remove the stink and damp of hours in the rain) of soccer shorts, leggings, double socks, shin-guards, long-sleeve shirt, and new Star Wars tees on top. Oh and the toques, of course. They divided them up by age, then had them play a bit and re-organised them into better-matched levels of skill.

Hannah found her niche in the 5-6's, and spent all her time running around, or reminding her coaches of the various rules they'd just taught her. I'd worried initially that this might not work out for Hannah. Though she loves soccer, 3 hours is a long time to keep that love going, and not just burn out. I stuck around for the first hour, watched her find her groove, and then went to run a few errands. I returned an hour later to hear her 'offering' up her rule-reminders to the head coach, and I knew she'd be alright for the rest of the week. Overall she has had a great time. Even though it gets tiring, she never gives up. She runs and runs whenever they tell her to, does the drills, plays the games, partners up. She asked me often why the two other girls in her group of 10 spent all their time trying to kiss the boys in their group. I told her those were silly, silly girls. There were rough kids, bored kids, the kissers, and Hannah just navigated around them, scoring or missing or forgetting to pass the ball.

Thursday was a hard day, because it ended with a game that sounds fun (Star Wars!) but in reality was for Hannah, a real spirit-breaker. Two teams, point of game to run to other end of field and steal a ball from the other teams pile. Do not get tagged by said other team or you must start again. I've never seen her run so fast, doing figure eights, kids falling in her wake trying to keep up with her. And yet, every time, she got tagged. And after about 8 tries, it hurt. There were tears, we tried to create a positive try, one coach helped her, encouraged her, played defense for her, but still, she got tagged. The day ended in tears of frustration, the heart break of losing ("Mom, our team won!". "Be quiet Leif!"). I tried to slide in the reality that sometimes we just lose, even when we've tried our hardest. Other times we win and feel great. Pointing out how hard she tried, and that that is so important; that she never gave up, she kept at it. And that it just downright sucks that there is no reward for all that effort. But maybe another time, there will be. I fought the desire to buy her a treat and 'make it all better'. It was all better in 10 minutes anyway. Overall she had a great time and came away with a new experience in her repertoire, and a new soccer tee and water bottle. Wahoo.

Hannah's latest pre-soccer dance tune My Door Bell by White Stripes

She's not yet seen this video for it, knowing there's all these kids in the video will just make it even cooler for her.

Her other favorite song right now is Soobax by K'Naan


Leif had an equally challenging week, in a different way. On the fist day he was bumped up to the 10-13 year olds group, to his absolute joy, and he stayed there all week. I'd look over at his field and see him go head-to-head with an opposing player, both hopping around to get control of that ball. He was challenged by bigger players, and sometimes overcame them and felt great pride, other times being defeated but taking it in stride. When he made a great save in goal the coach would say he was 'on fire', and he'd repeat this to me later. When he had the ball and other players would yell his name for a pass, I know he loved being part of that group. they taught him new ball moves that he has yet to master, which is great, because it gives him something he can work on on his own time, and reminds him of how much there still is to learn. Yet he can look back on all he has already learned and know he can do it, but it takes practice.

We're now moving into a break period between soccer seasons, and it will be a noticeable lull in his days. But his coach asked him back to the last 2 team practices, and he begins a new regimen of soccer 4 times a week in mid-April (reg class, first team sessions 2x a week, plus summer league). He's really excited about that.

Here's a soccer clip we love to watch.


Leif has found a new interest this week; dominoes. He began with a simple set-up, and then tried more interesting things. Here's one from the beginning of the week. he's since tried even more complicated things, and learned what works and what doesn't.



He asked me if ambulance drivers were doctors and we had a discussion about how they are not necessarily doctors, but that they have the medical knowledge to handle specifically emergency situations. To keep you alive until they can get you to a doctor. How do they do *that*? he asks. And I explained. This lead us to talking to Hannah about how to call the ambulance (or police)if she needed help. This jogged my brain to do a little safety session with them both, now that Hannah is older, about staying safe, getting safe, and getting help. We'll start this next week perhaps.

Leif and Hannah got some mail this week. My mom wrote to them to stay in touch when she cannot come to visit. They each got their own letter and got different, personal information. I suggested (lightly) that they write back. Leif was stuck at what he should write, how do you know what to write? I suggested writing his thoughts on what Nana had written (her dog is unwell) and then he could tell her a bit about his week. He opted for the latter, and with only one or two questions about punctuation (no spelling ones), this is what he turned out.



I think his attempts (and successes) at punctuation are great! I grabbed a kids punctuation book out of the library so we could look at it next week. I hope my mom and Al write back and we can continue this exercise.


Hannah's letter is precious. She never asked me what to write, nor how to spell anything, and just had the idea to parrot back what my mom had written to her. I love that she wrote 'are you' as 'R U'. Of course! To help you see her genius, here's the beginning translated for you. " Hi Nana and Al. I (heart) U both so much. How are you doing?" (HAW R U DOING). The rest is her own uncertainty at the idea of St. Patrick's day (I don't know what the green people are for? she writes) complete with 4-leaf cover art. I hope the recipients save these treasures!




On our paper route walk Hannah asked me about the word 'adjective', and could you use 'adjec' as a short form of it? No, sorry. I asked her if she knew what the word meant, which she did not, so I explained it to her. Then we brainstormed some adjectives. I said my tea is 'hot', she said 'or your tea is warm'. This is child-led learning, as opposed to rote grammatical worksheets. Yay.


Leif has been experiencing an uncomfortable bout of eczema and I suggested he go off wheat for a week. Before he did, he had one last big bowl of the beloved buttery noodles.



And a week later, his rash is 99% gone. It could be the wheat, it could be just a coincidence. We're adding wheat back in to see.

After all the Robin Hood reading and watching last month, it was only a matter of time before the castle playmobile stuff came out again. Now the basement is wall-to-wall Kings Feasts and then thieves try to sneak in and steal food for the poor. I can think of worse ways to spend your days. :)


As usual, I leave you with some Ivy moments. Th other day I bought her some new socks, and when we got home she wanted to put them on. I said no, she already had socks on and her new ones could get put away in her drawer for tomorrow. I noticed later on that she was in our room with the door shut, which is not an unusual occurrence. She likes to just hang out in the quiet sometimes. When she came out, the grin on her face made me immediately look at her feet. Oh yeah, she was proud. She'd put on her new socks if she damn well felt like it thank you very much!



Ivy loves to arrange her 'people in her 'stuff'. Her Wild things guys, or old rubber babies, or stuffed gecko, wrapped in blankets or stuffed in bags, put into her wooden carriage (used to be mine), or propped up in her high chairs. Here she is at her puzzle table where she's arranged her Max doll in a high chair with a piece from her puzzle, so they can work on it together. Golden!!!!!!!!




And at the end of the day, her stuff is all set up, waiting for her to wake up and get it all out again the next day.

Life inside a snowglobe (Week 28)

That is how we started this week. We woke up Monday morning to a glorious flurry of big fat snowflakes. We sat at the window and just watched them fall. We talked about Wilson Bentley again and his photographs of flakes, and still cannot believe they are all different, and yet we know that they are.

This tied in perfectly with our new french videos. I'd purchased two volumes of Passe-Partout, a french series I watched when I was younger. This first series was all about springtime, and the first episode about sugar shacks (cabane a sucre) in Quebec, and how they tap sugar maples for syrup in the winter. How they can eat so many foods and put syrup on them (pancakes, scones, ham, eggs, potatoes). How the syrup starts out as just a mildly sweet water from the trees, and must be heated over long periods to evaporate the water and leave behind the tasty syrup.

And since it was snowing RIGHT THEN, we put some syrup on the stove to boil, collected snow in a frisbee, and poured the hot syrup over the cold snow. Voila! Tire-sur-la-neige. Snow taffy. Oh my it is tasty, there is no flavour like it. The Francophone Society of Victoria is putting on a sugar shack festival this weekend and we hope to get to it, even just to have more snow taffy. Mmmmmmmmmm.


Hannah is asking more and more questions, most of which I can answer. What are our brains for? How come if you whisper 'bee' it sounds like 'pee'? Who made space? Like I said, I can answer most of them. She wowed us all by effortlessly counting to 100 this week, and then tapped into her creative side when I unpacked the groceries. I almost always, always bring my own bags. But if I forget, I get a paper bag.

So Hannah made this:



Robert Munch's Paper Bag Princess. Wohoo! sShe stores it upright on her dresser, the crown and Leif's ring from the dentist perched on top. She's 'keeping the ring safe for Leifer". Okaaaay.


And to give our youngest one her due, here is the Paper Bag Sister:




Since soccer classes are over now, we took to the local field and did our own thing. We played games, practiced skills, and just got out there with our cleats and enthusiasm for the sport. Next week both kids are in a 5-day soccer camp for spring break, and they're very excited. Hannah asked if she could be in it, though it's for 6 and up. Her coach said she would easily fit in, skill-wise, so we'll see if she can actually last for the 3 hours a day it requires. I'll be sticking around the fields just in case.


Leif got a great surprise this week, and we had an important little chat. His paycheque for his new, bigger paper route was deposited in his account, and it was $50 too much! I told him I'd found this error and had called the paper company to correct it (partially true. I already knew why it was higher, but had never told him to expect this). He said 'Don't TELL them!". And so we had a chat. About how keeping the money if it isn't ours is stealing, and how they could likely find the error, he'd have to pay it back anyway, and then how woud he look for not reporting it in the first place? "Okay, you're right". But then I explained that the money was a bonus for having his route for 6 months. The paper has a high turnover because it pays pennies, and they offer this incentive for carriers to stick with it. I'd never told him because I didn't want it to be his only motivation to do and keep his route. They don't give it every 6 months, just this first time. Had he known about it he could just quit once he got it. It worked out really well as another learning experience about work, and sticking with it, and not expecting a reward simply for doing what you'd agreed to do.

Hannah had a different but similar chat with me this week as well. Unfortunately she spent most of it looking past me out the window, and really got nothing out of it. Oh Hannah. :) In a fit of discord with Leif, she tore a library boook in half down the spine. I explained that we'd need to tell the librarian and perhaps we'd need to pay to replace it. This brought on tears about spending her remaining bit of money and then having nothing left, and we talked about how not being caught is not the goal when such a thing happens. That she's not in trouble, she is just doing the responsible thing, to tell them what happened and find out how she can help fix it. In the end they simply taped the book back together and we took it home. Hannah was not really present with me to get this little life lesson, but now at least we have it in our history to refer back to when another such situation comes up. And since she's already acting exactly like me as a child, I know more suh situations will come up. :)


She spent the rest of her library time like this.



In a fit of culinary creativity, I made dinner sound appealing by giving it a Star Wars name. Woohoooo. We made Nabooo Nachos together, complete with Slave I ship and Hyperdrive Ring ship nearby.




Leif decoded Taro's note this week. I hadn't realised that Leif had spelled DUDE d-o-o-d in his letter to Taro. To Taro it made perfect sense, of course, so he used it in his reply salutation to Leif. "Hey Dood". Be still my heart. Taro's mom and I both grinned about it, and in our usual teaching method, we don't correct it at that time, as we know they'll come upon the correct speling over the next few weeks. It's a word they use because we use it often, and write it often. To us, it's more important that they carry on a written dialogue than have perfect spelling at this age. We now that reading and spelling are not linked in such a way that once you can do the former you also can do the latter. Spelling correctly comes much later.

In this same vein, Leif has developed a keen interest in being asked to spell words, like a speling bee. Sushi, avocado, laptop . . . this will be a fun one to pursue over the next few months.

In Leif and Taro's coded correspondence, they talked about their favrite species. Yes, species. this led us here in our house to discuss whether zebras are the same species as horses (which they are, Equus) and to take a brief, brief look at some different taxonomic classificiations. Zebras, horses and humans. Leif asked about all the h.sapiens and homonideae classes used in our own classification. I hope to expand on this interest with some good library books.

Next week our library books are all about spring, and ducks. We are seeing some lesser-known ducks at the beach these days, and need to get to know them.

I leave you with some beach shots. Leif spent our many beach visits throwing logs into the ocean, Hannah spent them collecting bigger logs and rolling them into the ocean, and Ivy, well, she just liked to lay all over the logs.









C

Tiddlelipom and piddleliday! (Week 27)

I have no clue what that means but Pippi Longstocking sure does, and she says it all the time. We've had a lovely bit of luck this week. We'd recently finished reading Pippi Longstocking together, and then we learned that the local private school was putting on a production of this same tale. So we went, of course.

It was a great intro to theatre for the kids. Hannah was full of questions, about the program, the stage and set, why it didn't start when they said it would, what's with the music? She watched it with her usual serious look. Leif being older could follow the dialogue and got the jokes and the various characters. They both asked why the play didn't show the fire scene, or the big boat scene, and it took some time to explain how that was not possible in a stage, how movies differ. They set the play against a background of 80's music, so that's my next project for Hannah, to get her some great old-skool tunes.

Our winter craft class ended up meeting one more time. While we are not yet finished the knitting portion of our project, I do have pictures of what they've made so far. Now, I did help a smidge here and there, but overall the kids made these themselves. Stitched, glued, etc.


This is Hannah's beige Inuit dude, igloo and seal.



This is Leif's brown Inuit dude, igloo and seal.




Aren't they great?!!

We finished up soccer classes this week. Hannah is doing really well at it, both in her skill level and that she's enjoying the class. Her class is right before Leif's and then she is able to join in for Leif's class as well and play alongside the other kids. I feel great about this because she is happy, she's willing, she really does like playing soccer. Leif helps the coach out with Hannah's class, and he is working on playing down to the level of those kids; not being Mr. Hotshot all the time. We've talked about how important it is for their age to gain confidence, to feel that you can accomplish these little tasks well, and how he can help give the younger kids that feeling, and it doesn't change how good he is or how others see his own skill level. Phew.

The kids have spent a lot of time in the hot tub this week. It's become a morning ritual to jump in and play for a hour. They've developed a whole world in there. They get frisbees and lots of plastic animals, and create herds and families, and ferry them across the tub in the overturned frisbees. Some sink and must be rescued, others are adopted by bigger animals because there is no mother or father of that species.







Leif received a coded reply from Taro, but I'm not telling you about it until next week. Mwahahahaha . . . . (Okay in truth, he hasn't opened it yet).

C

Do you know the Freemason's Cypher Code? (Week 26)

We do. And we can write with it and understand it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigpen_cipher

Anna brought it up at our craft class this week and I was so glad. Leif and I touched on codes and code breakers when we read about WWI and II last fall. I thought maybe he'd get 'into' codes and we could write secret notes, but it just didn't take. Now it has. Last night he wrote his own pig-pen coded letter to his dear friend, and we delivered it today. While I cannot divulge what it said, because I know the mama needs to keep the secrets, not spread them, suffice it to say it was the best little coded note written by an 8 year old, who has a sense of how you speak to others in written form (how are you?), and yet at the same time, is a newbie to this whole social discourse thing (what you a doing?)(huh?). It was precious, and made Kit and I want to watch The Big Lebowski to see if Leif had truly caught the essence of 'the Dude' in his tone.

This week Leif had a new experience. His soccer coach invited him to come to the practice for their Academy class. It sounds more big-league than it is, the truth is it's a practice-only class for kids 8 and up who are truly commited to improving at soccer. So not just the community team with over-sized donated t-shirts, get my meaning? I think Leif enjoyed it, and this week we'll talk to his coach more to see what happens next, can he come back, what's the deal? I think I can get him 3 weekly opportunities to play this spring, which he is really excited about. And I need to toss on my cleats and go to the field near our house and work with him too, he'd love it.

Our knitting class has finished up, but our project has a bit more work to go. This week Leif knit his Inuit guy and read more about igloos. Now we just need to knit his hood and stuff him and give him hair. Hannah had struggled with the knitting and just wanted me to do it for her, but I'm going to try again with the hoood part, I think she could get it if she doesn't start out thinking she can't do it. Pics next week, promise.

We got a story kit out of the library of First Nations stories/tales, plus some factual books on the various bands in BC and their traditional lives. So far we've read the stories, and we all really liked them. Leif liked the story best of why the birds fly south each year (they lost a bet between the animals and the birds) and thus the bat is a bird-like animal who stays here all year (he helped the animals win the bet). Hannah liked the story about how we humans were once naked tiny people, and how we grew with the animals help to be brave and tall. (My fave was the Eagle boy). Next week I hope to weave in some learning about BC bands and culture. We'll see . . .

The annual Lego display was up in Sidney until March and we managed to squeek in during the last week of it. It is always fun for them to see what is made, and it inspires them to create new stuff at home. Leif was excited to see a Robin Hood set.



We'd been watching the original movie version with Errol Flynn, and Leif and Hannah were enthralled with the swordfight scenes. They'd tell me how fair Robin was, he always gave the guy his sword back and waited until he was ready. And he hit his mark EVERY TIME MAMA!!!! Yes dears. They've been re-enacting different scenes from the film throughout the week, and then the lego show was the perfect addition to our Robin Hood fun. Leif also liked the dragon set at the show, and tried to copy it at home. (It's so great that when he sees something he likes he doesn't want to buy it, he wants to figure out how to make it out of his own lego.)





Leif's dragon


He was also really inspired by the castle set he saw. He took pics and then came home and copied them. He doesn't have a draw bridge in his lego, so he built a working port cullis on his castle. Sweet! Spot how much his matches the museum set.














Kit and I are doing exercises each day (we're feeling our age, the bones aren't doing so well). Push-ups and sit ups, and now chin ups. The kids HAD to show us their strength. I was impressed.

Yeah, I know they're sideways. If I could fix it I would. I MUST stop filming this way.






More Star Wars inspired living skills this week. Hannah makes Luke Skywalker smoothies!!!









After this kitchen success, Hannah helped me make muffins. She has mastered cracking eggs. As she beat the egg in the bow, she asked me where did 'they' get the first chicken. From the mouthes of babes. I explained the quandry of, well, did the chicken hatch from an egg, or did it lay the first egg. As she figured out the answer-less riddle, she broke into a huge grin.

Hannah has asked if she too can take more soccer, and do the 3-hours/day 5 day long spring break soccer camp Leif is signed up in. While she's 'underage', she's good for her age, and I'm going to ask her coach if we can sneak her in. I think she'll rock at it. Unless she gets tired. Then she'll hate it.


Today was a gorgeous day. We spent it here.



Hannah and Leif would roll a big log off the end of this pier thing, and then throw rocks at it until it washed onto shore. Then they'd drag it out again. Hannah was determined to build a fort out of logs, so we did. :)


Monkey see . . .


. . monkey do.

Mid-winter has passed (Week 25)

. . and we can see hints of Spring's arrival. The kids have been noticing the appearance of buds on the cherry trees on our street. Leif has switched to a bigger paper route (64 papers vs. 33) in response to the lure of more cash. Now we deliver to our own street and the two parallel. It's a nice route and we've been blessed so far with gorgeous weather for our deliveries. And Hannah and Ivy have found a good way to travel along with us.



Leif and Hannah have been taking a new handwork class with Anna, our friend and former teacher from our Waldorf homeschoolers classes. They're doing a seasonal unit on Eskimos (the Inuit in the North) and building igloos, sewing seals and knitting an Eskimo. They're also learning some songs and acting out hunting scenarios. I can take some pics once they are finished. For now, all this hunting talk has inspired a new theme for dress-up at home. Leif the First Nations Boy hunting the Sister Cheetah to save the Princess. Yeah, we're staring our own unit of First Nations Studies next month, just to get a handle on the finer points.








I've introduced Hannah to the concept of skip counting. I drew a field of paired flowers and we counted them all one at a time. Then I pointed out how, since they were all paired, we could also count them another way. She had to think on it for a bit, but then she got it and after a few seconds of silence, she counted up to 38 by two's. Woohoo!

Leif is working on his times tables. I don't *want* to just make him memorise them, but I do see the value in knowing them. Sarah, any tips on how to do/teach this? For now, we look at the patterns in the numbers, how they repeat each other and what you can see when you wrte them out in paralell rows (2,4,6,8 with 3,6,9,12 etc).

Hannah has had fun giving me rhyming words for any word I start with. Goat, moat, boat. I sometimes write them down as she says them and point out how the ending spelling matches up.

Leif and I have been talking about Obama's visit to Canada. Why he's here, who he's meeting with and why the security is so high. Leif was surprised to learn he didn't fly on a plane with other people, that he had his own plane and transportation fleet. We listened to the Obama and Harper question and answer period on CBC and I tried to explain what they'd discussed, while still listening to the next bit. A tough exercise.


This month we celebrated Candlemas, a mid-winter party to keep the cold at bay and invite the warmth of spring. We gathered at the ever-lovely Saxe Point Park with friends and food, and were entertained with songs and stories.






Then we form a circle and walk around dipping stations, making our own beeswax candles and singing about the quiet of snow and candlemaking. It's a wonderfully relaxed, fun time, and we look forward to it each year. We meet new families, see old friends and the kids climb rocks by the ocean all morning.








We have begun reading Harriet the Spy together. I read it about a hundred times as a kid. I'd forgotten all the nasty stuff Harriet says in her journal (the woman was so fat her face looked like puffy bread dough. Nice.) but they love it, especially the wierd descriptions Harriet writes about her classmates and people on the street.


I leave you with a snapshot of Ivy, playing with her dollhouse (which was originally mine!) and her most reserved yet willing playmate.




Spring is coming. A few more weeks.