A mid-winter's tale (Week 18)

Yes, if you're keeping track, there's a chunk of weeks missing there. Well, it's hard to keep up at times, so we logged some holiday weeks where I do not have to file a homeschooling entry. I'll bring us up to date in these next two posts, and then y'all can quit 'yer whining. :)

Before we jump into what we did Week 18, which was over New Years, here's what we did over Christmas:

Grandpa Jimmy came to visit from Toronto, and read storybooks to the kids all afternoon on the sofa. I loved watching them, and I absolutely adore this picture.




We went out for noodles at Noodlebox with Grandpa too. How could we not share a fave eating spot with a visiting relly?





Ashley, Virginia and Aubrey came to visit, and the cousins bonded.



Alright, back to the regular entry, Week 18.

We had a great family holiday over New Years. We drove down to Port Townsend and met up with Shona and Cynthia's families for a wee sleep over. We rented a house at Fort Warden, the heritage military base maintained by WA State Parks. It was awesome! To give it a cultural context, Fort Warden is where they filmed An Officer and A Gentleman with Debra Winger. It originally housed soldiers and officers and their families and these buildings have been converted to affordable year-round rentals. We stayed in a house on Officer's Row, which faced the parade grounds lawn and the soldiers barracks beyond that. They've maintained all the trademarks of the rinigal era in the decor, and we enjoyed guessing at the servants' quarters which were under lock and key in the attic.

The big draw was the batteries up on the hill. We put headlamps on the kids (see Hannah's pic below) and ran through tunnels, up and down the stairs, stood in old cannon rings and peeked out of bunkers at the ocean. It took us 2 days to see them all. It was incredible and loads of fun.















If you're ever in Port Townsend you MUST stop for pizza at Waterfront Pizza, the oldest pizza joint in P. Town. It was hands-down the BEST pizza I have ever eaten in my life. I mean it dude. Seriously.





After Fort Warden we set out for Portland Oregon. En route we stopped for lunch in Olympia and came across Hannah's latest venture:



It rained every day, but we didn't mind, we're used to it. Here's Ivy studying a downspout in Portland.




Powell's Books is enough reason for me to sneak back to Portland on my own. It is a bookstore that is an entire city block, housing new and used books on every topic imaginable. We each walked away with a great book; Leif - hockey, Hannah - Star Wars, Kit - garden gazebos, Ivy - Goodnight Gorilla and me - scandinavian sewing designs.

Hot chocolate at Powell's:



If you're hungry while you browes at Powell's, you can scoot across the street to Rocco's pizza and order a 19" pizza.



It was absurd, and we could not finish it. But pizza and a movie in bed all together in our hotel made our first night in Portland a lovely one.

We stayed at a fantastic hotel (at which our camera an out of batteries, sorry. but their website has a thorough gallery) that is a converted elementary school from the early 1900's. They have their own brewery, movie theatre (in the old auditorium, complete with sofas and beer/pizza delivery to your seats), all the classrooms were converted into guestrooms, so ours had the old chalkboard and cloakroom. We loved it!

The homeschooling family goes to school:



(When I first joked with Leif that we were 'going to school' because the hotel was in an old school, all he heard was he beginning and got all upset that we were sending him to school. Sigh.)


And you know what else we found and loved in Portland?

SUSHILAND!!!!!



Man oh man it was fantastic. The kids lurved the conveyor-belt delivery style, and the food was cheap so we ate extra. :)



Hannah trying calamari, which she ended up loving, though she found it tough to chew.




We visited the Portland Zoo, which was depressing and grim, even without the rainy weather. Ugh. But the Japanese Gardens was lovely and we all found it very soothing. Leif took lots of nature shots, as he tried to capture the peaceful feeling it gave him, and Hannah looked tirelessly for the Koi that were supposedly in the big pond that ran under all the little bridges. Kit checked out the garden structures and stone pathways, and I found a quiet bench to sit on and knit a few rows.

On our last pass through Portland, we found Leif's future endeavour, maybe.



It was a great week-long holiday. The kids got a sense of geography, history, how to negotiate who gets the coveted Gameboy from the 90's while we drove long distances, and that we can find good eats in any town. I knit stuff and ripped it out again, Kit got to use his Crackberry data package to locate food and maps as we navigated the towns, and we all had a great time.

I'm already planning when we can go back. :)

The wind up (Week 14)

Things are shutting down slowly in our days. Classes are ending, sports being put on hold until the New Year. I think we will all welcome the utter lack of pressing plans for the next little while. Our last set of soccer games is this Saturday. Check out last Saturday, when Hannah continued to take the ball and RUN with it. (She's in the red hat people)



Over at Leif's game, he was THE MAN for the multitude of corner kick opportunities they had. (Also in the red hat)



I has been freezing cold here for a week now, so our outside time has been limited. We've been sure to get some sun on our faces any chance we can, and get some fresh air busting up the ice on our pond. But overall it's been another inside kinda' week. We've spent it opening advent doors and seeing the treasures inside (Harry Potter lego, tickets to a great Christmas Pageant, Noodle box family take out), doing our Holiday baking (this year it's Peppermint Bark, Nanaimo Bars and Ginger squares) and playing an odd, ever-changing game with bouncy balls. Let me back up.

Kit's birthday was on Friday, and Hannah managed to finish the third Harry Potter on Thursday night, so much excitement was had as we celebrated with Kit; we were wathcing the third movie after his birthday dinner. Things are changing in the movie, as the actors age with the storyline (between filming) and their faces take on a different look as they enter their teen years. The storyline is also more challenging, as Hermione travels back in time and sees herself in her present. Hannah really had a hard time understanding that, still does actually. And we've realised that while we understand it, trying to explain it leaves us at a loss for words about mid-way through. But it is really cool to watch and think about, and maybe the wheels are still turning away in Hannah's head on this one. She launched this one at us the other day:

"You know that Chirp joke about "What flies but has no wings? And the answer is time? I get it now. It's because (big arm waving here) time is a thing, and when it's outside, it's flying, like a bird, but it doesn't really have wings, but inside it's different, so it's all about how we see time and where we are during it."

Sort of.

Reading Harry Potter has brought up some things for Leif as well. He's just finished the 5th book, and it's a tough one. First, there's a really evil (like child abuser evil) teacher at Hogwarts this year, and she makes Harry write lines in her office, makes his hand do it whether he wants to or not. And as he writes, the script is getting carved 'magicaly' into his hand, which hurts and bleeds, then heals and carves again with the next thing he writes. So he's basically reading from the point of view of watching torture, watching a child be abused by an adult with intent. Great. And he brought it up to me (I'd forgotten all about this evil wench of a character) because he said he felt wierd reading that part, that he felt physically not-okay about it as he read it. And we discussed why that was, at least in a basic way. Because he knows what wrong is, and he could see it happening in the story, and his instinct is to stop that injustice, to make it go away, and the sick feeling is because he is not alright with it yet cannot affect it *and* still has to witness it, because he wants to move on in the story. Ugh. I'm starting to worry about these books, as I now what lies ahead.

A side note, another parent brought up to me that they cannot find much in the pre-teen boys genre of ficton that is NOT like the HPotter series, in regards to young boy battling evil forces, darkness all around. I hadn't made this connection, yet I have seen other series that Leif could move on to after these. And I wonder if I can get him to move away from this sort of thing. I know his next chosen read will be The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. More boys battling evil. I wonder if he'd willingly leave this genre after reading nothing but for over a year at that point?

At the end of the fifith book he was confused about a conversation Dumbledore had with Harry. the point of it was that, out of love for Harry, Dumbledore went against his creed and kept information from Harry because he knew it would harm him, it would be too big of a burden for a young boy to carry. How Dumbledore was sad for this fate that is Harry's, that the boy had yet to learn about. That he felt a familial kinship with Harry and thus wanted to protect him. It was heavy stuff and hard to explain. Our language has such a dirth of negative descriptors, adjectives, yet for feelings of love and joy and happiness or friendship, we have some similes, some metaphors . . . but you end up sounding like a Hallmark card and the child you're explaining it to is still waiting for the punchline of information he seeks to make it all make sense.

I love a good long sentence.

The bouncy ball game is good for hours of fun, yet I am very much unclear on the rules or the strategy involved. It's about bouncing your little rubber ball around the kitchen (as your mother cooks and bites her tongue not to screech to get the hell out of the kitchen!) and trying to get it to go between the stove and the cupboard, or knock over a golf tee set up under the island cart. They play it for hours!

Another fun thing lately is CADOO, the Cranium game for kids and parents. Hannah's been playing with Kit and it's cool to see her brain figure stuff out fast. "Go get something round you can balance on your head for 30 seconds". Hannah thinks for a second, then runs into the kitchen, and comes back with a mandarin orange on her head. Nice.

We went on a forest walk with Taro and Leah and found relics from the old lime mine that was once in operation out in Brentwood Bay.



We learned that the sunken gardens at Buchart (which is directly behind the park we hiked in) are the old lime mines, which sank over the years after the mine was shut down. You can still see the big smokestack in the distance.

And we found cool mushrooms.






Some pictures of our wintertime-preparations.

Fetching our tree means a visit to the tree farm in Saanich, where they have lovely Clydesdales.



Then we need to hunt for 'my' tree. It looks like this, and we call it a noble fir, though it is slightly different.



They seem to be harder and harder to find each year, and it turns out that is because they are afflicted with an aphid from Europe that totaly messes up their growth, and so they are planted less and less. Damn non-native bastard bugs.


The tree at home, all decked out.





The Lighted Truck Parade is the best parade ever, and my favorite holiday activity bar none. I LOVE it! Cement mixers, flatbeds, big rigs, all decked out in lights from grill to hitch, driven by big guys with beards and smiles for the kids. My kind of manly.



One year we'll get our small big truck in there. But not this year. :)

And me? I'm excited. Excited because Kit is off as of next week, and I can find joy in going for a run every day. Excited because I'm helping Shona with her fabulous Community Love-in Wedding Fair, which is in January, but we have much behind-the-scenes crafting to do. Excited because I've ordered two great knitting patterns from Magpie Patterns and I can't wait to get started on them in the New Year. Excited because I've cleared out one end of the basement so I can sew and now I have loads of ideas for things I want to make. Excited because the kids want to read and play Scrabble and watch movies with me all winter. Excited because life is what you make of it, and I'm determined to make mine shine.

Ho ho ho.

C

A Photo Essay (Week 13)

We skipped last week's blog, I'm just so busy, I wish I could double the hours in my day (not everyone else's, just mine). So here's this week, what we've been up to, where we're headed. Go visual.

We beaded.



Leif has been asking about drawing depth/perspective this week (a field of a soccer game or a hockey game) and I offered some practice techniques (how to draw a 3D net, or how to draw a cube). Then my mom, Nana, arrived for a visit, and I put her years of teaching and artistic skill to work.



In an effort to reduce clutter and improve the flow of the house, I sold a bunch of bookcases and we're putting up big shelves instead. But first we need to build them.



We bid our fall table farewell.



And began the slow assemblage of our winter table and snowman's mantle.




Ivy built a tall, skinny tower of markers.



Leif drew a comic.



New chickadee mags arrived and were devoured.



On the first sunny day in 4 weeks (I mean it!) we headed out to find some fungus.



We made pinecone treats for the birds.






Hannah discovered if she takes a picture of Leif on a wierd setting as he jumps on the bed, he can actually become invisible. Way cool huh?



And my favorite part of the week was a trip to vancouver to catch up with our good friends and my brother, my nephew and my lovely Sis in law Virginia. Here's Ivy and her buddy Bryn, and Ashley and a bunch of cousins.





Baby it's cold outside.

C

Mean People SUCK (Week 11)

This is the lesson I taught the kids this week. Ugh. In reality I'd rather teach them, and I will and have, that we can always try to find the grain of goodness behind someones actions, and if there isn't one, get the hell away from them. But for now, in our recent situations, I've stuck with this bumper-sticker mantra. Mean People Suck.

I'm out of the house once, and Hannah needs to talk to me, so Kit shows her how to use the phone to call me. A logical thing, he knows she needs to learn this, so let's start learning. She dials the wrong number. She says 'oh I'm sorry I'm trying to get my mom'. "You're too young to be on the phone get off the phone!" harps an older woman. She finally reaches me and is in tears.

All the kids are out front playing. I'm not. They're playing street hockey, their usual thing. They know all about cars, they know about the hidden turn at the end of our street, how you need to listen for the car before you'll see it. A car they do not 'know' from the neigbourhood drives up, honks at them, and this older woman (see how nice I'm being?) yells at Leif to get inside, where is your mother, you shouldn't be on the street! In tears, my dear son APOLOGISES to her, saying he's sorry he upset her, he's doing his best to keep his sisters safe while they play. She honks and yells some more, and drives away. Leif is in tears for a long time, as I try in (in vain) to make things better. I said "what kind of person yells at little kids?". We re-visited a topic that we've touched on before, that just as many people aim to spread happiness, others aim to spread poison. They just barf their venomous thoughts all over you, and you are so stunned by their anger and rudeness you have no idea what to say. This has happened to me so often since I became a parent, and I still have no ability to deal with it. As much as I know that person is not going to 'hear' me, is not going to be open to my explanation, I still hope to be able to calmly chat with them, and not just stare dumbstruck as they lay into me.

I explained that we are like fish that are swimming upstream. That our culture promotes everyone swimming the same way: girls do this, boys do this, families do this. And when you do not swim that way, you need to work harder to keep your direction, to remember why you do what you do, and have that beacon ahead of you, guiding you through the masses.

I don't know if any of it helped. I'm not going to bring it up again, these two incidents, because I know it will just remind them of that crappy feeling. I can still recall two times when two (different) men reamed into me, and I have to distract my mind so I don't get upset and frustrated yet again. There's nothing to be done about it now. For now the lesson is simply that sadly enough, there are mean jerks out there. You need to seek out nice people, and remember that includes yourself, that you are nice and good, no matter what other losers say.

Fuck. What a lesson.


H'okay, onto to brightness, finding the light and joy.

Hannah is so very excited, want to know why?

She's on a soccer team, just like her brother. Her regular soccer classes ended last week, and she had been expressing her frustration with them, because it's always new kids each term, that they come to class knowing nothing about soccer. And so they do not know about passing, and proper play, and it frustrates her to wait for them to learn (which never happens in just one term). So I asked Steph about her joining Leif's club mid-way through the year. Sure, they'll sneak her in, she's good. And this discussion happened the weekend of team photos. So I found out her new team, took Leif's uniform off him after his photos and made it all fit Hannah. We found her team, took the pic, and got the practice schedule. Her coaches are very nice, and hopefully she'll connect with her teammates over the weeks of practices. She is so excited, did mention that? Photos to come soon.

Leif has cause for excitement as well this week, in an odd sort of way.



His first sports-related injury, woohooooo! He took a hockey stick to the face, to the tender yet hard cheekbone no less. His dear friend Taro feels awful, but both think it's pretty dang rad.


This week had the usual skating lessons and aikido, both of which the kids love, and they are really catching on. Skating is hilarious to watch, as Leif tries to be fastest, but cannot stop at all, while ever-cautious Taro comes along behind him, slow and steady, and Hannah does her best to catch up, which means falling down more than anyone. There are no tears of frustration, well, except mine because I cannot get their damned skates laced tight enough.

It has been raining for days now. If I were a believer I'd be building my ark. Instead here's a lot of indoor activity, some more suited to the inside life (World of Goo and Monopoly) some not so much (hockey and dodgeball come to mind). Hannah is 3/4 through the 3rd Harry Potter and Leif is plugging away at number 5. It is a tough read; so much Quidditch talk and it is bigger than the other books.

Among our many indoor ventures, we've had "the celebration of the coming winter with our Mandarin tea with animals" installation.



Also much role-playing has been had, with all 3 kids re-enacting the "Freeing Of Dobby" scene with Ivy as Dobby, Leif as Lucius Malfoy and Hannah as Harry Potter. Ivy calls her Mister Potter and runs from Leif shreiking "No Lucius Malfoy you're a bad guy!". It's theatre at it's bet.

Hannah and Ivy played "Overly prepared Robber on Horseback with faithful steed", as seen below.



As any good cowpoke knows, after a hard day of riding what goes down best is a nice smooth glass of water. But first, you hitch your horse up outside the saloon.



Then it was Ivy's turn as the robber. But there was no willing horse to be found.



We're slowly adding the music from Charlie Brown's Christmas to our piano playing. We're just tinkering, but it's coming along. I've found a place to buy the sheet music, so I may get into that and they'll see it and follow or not. You never know what activities will spark their interest.

Ivy's forever asking me where the Sun has gone at night and then supplying the answer herself (Japan).

All of us are struggling with a cream-cheese-on-crackers-with-red-pepper-jelly addiction. Man is it good!

I leave with Hannah's latest creation, she calls it "you know, those Chinese dogs?" I think she means a Fu dog. So this is "Fu Dog of block crayons". Only the gifted can see the dog.





C

It's not easy being green . . . (Week 10)

Kermit the Frog has it right. I've been struggling with some earthly issues lately that are taxing my brain, more than I think they should. We recently dug up and demolished our huge 2-bin compost system. It was not in a good spot (we'd already moved it once) and we had rats, again. Now every time I have to throw out an orange peel or eggshell I feel crappy for such waste. We make so much garbage! And we're a recycling and buy-less-packaging house to begin with. We buy bulk dish, laundry and hand soap, we by recycled TP, we don't use paper towels or napkins, we use cloth diapers, we recycle foam and other hard to recycle stuff. So to toss perfectly compostable food just hurts my brain every time. So I've been looking into smaller composters, worm bins, you name it. Plus, I'd like to get a cat this year, and I had no idea pets were so harsh on the planet. Or at least that there is a green way to have pets and a not-at-all green way. And the green way is going to take a lot more work. I want to get all my ducks in a row before I take in any more work. I've got a full enough plate as it is.

So one thing I looked into in this vein was having our own chickens. I know, I know. So much work and more poop! But I know a few folks who have them and there's truly, truly no smell, and it seems like it's not a huge workload to maintain it. They can eat the food scraps and sabe us money on eggs. But as I said, there's still more to learn. And where I'd put the chickens is where we could put a hockey/basketball court instead.

So we visited a neighbourhood coop:




I'll keep you posted.

Leif is great, we know that. He's working on a hockey list for who he thinks may be on Team Canada at the Olympics. He's rocking out at soccer, aikido, street hockey, Harry Potter.

But this week is about Hannah, people. She's on fire.

Hannah has pulled out our solar system model set. The planets come off their rods so we had them all mixed up. I got out a book that gives the symbols of the planets so she could figure out who goes where (we know the order but the planets have only the old symbol on the bottom, so I chose not to tell her the obvious (mars is red) and let her figure this out herself first). She nailed them all, of course.






She's been plunking away at the piano, figuring out another song from Harry Potter. I'd written the first song they learned on a sheet for them, just using the alphabet letters, not the notes format. CD#A# etc . . Then later on I saw that she had added to that sheet of paper:

"Mary Had A Little Lamb (or Twinkle Twinkle or ABC song)

BAGABBBAAABBBBAGABBB"

How awesome is that? I've put up a picture of where the notes actually fall on a sheet of music, and printed out blank music sheets, so we'll see if that ties in sometime. But otherwise, they're both learning how I did as a child, just by plunking away and memorising where your fingers go. I prefer this method to learning to read music, it's just like the rules to the english language, you can learn the language through immersion without the rules.



Hannah also pulled out this cool thing we have, it's a wooden cube magnetic mosaic thing. You can copy pictures they give you or make your own. Hard work, as you can see:



We've been more this week about giving, and about understanding what can bring us true joy and happiness, and what is just successful marketing. With Christmas approaching I'm looking around at all that they/we have, and that we have more than we need, and there's no room for the few gifts they're going to get anyway! I do not want to be a heavy blanket on their holiday joy by forcing them to donate their gift money t orphanages in Cambodia or anything like that. I do not think that forced giving is giving, and I do not think it teaches kids anything. But I DO want to ingrain in them what is truly great about Christmas and the fall/winter seasons overall. That it is the dark time of year and so we bring light into our lives by being with friends who makes us smile, connecting with family, eating tasty food and doing fun things together that we remember with fondness from years past. That if we focus solely on finding 'joy' in opening our gifts on Xmas morning, we will only end up with sadness when that short moment is over. But if we look forward to tobogganing at Beacon Hill, and family card games, and Christmas baking, and leaning carols, and stockings, and seeing all the lights . . . then we stretch out that festive feeling and find joy in every day.

This discussion was preceded with Hannah's request for another huge lego set, even more expensive than the one she wanted for her birthday. So it's time get this message out. :) Meanwhile I'm going through all of our stuff, again ,to see what can be passed on to create more space. It's amazing what we have to give away. After our chat I impishly hinted that I'm making their gifts again this year, and refuse to give them any hints. This lead Hannah to deciding to make something for Ivy, and give it to her right away. So I cut the felt pieces for her and she found a private space to get to work. We told Ivy she had to stay away for now.



And in less than an hour she'd finished this ball:



Ivy loved it!


I came across these quickie math sheets we printed for them. They got every question right, and we dropped the activity. I love seeing the difference simple maturity makes on a child's abilities. This is Hannah's sheet, full of backwards numbers.




And this is Leif's, everything in order.



But when he was 5/6, Leif wrote and spelled just like Hannah. And in the time since, we've never sat down and had him practice his letters/numbers, in a formal way. He'd just write us notes, letters to Taro, label all his art . . . and as his brain aged, his motor skills improved. That being in school and doing rote exercises over and over does not then produce a different product or outcome. Kids simply mature at diff rates, and their abilities change as they grow. Some may have clearer printing at a younger age than another, some cannot read until the are 10. But it is never for a lack of trying, nor of ability. It is rather that we have expectations that all children are like little trained seals, and they'll all perform 'well' and up to our expectations if we just work them hard enough. I fee badly when friends of ours notice or as if our kids can read, and they both can, and their child can't. But there are other things their children can do, or are interested in. And those things matter just as much. We would never expect each of us to be the same and hold the same skills as our other same-aged adult friends.

I was chatting with Hannah his week about the numbers places, that there's the 1's, the 10's, the 100's, because we were doing some Farmer Brown things and it was 60+60 which she struggled with, because it's double-digits, a whole new terrain for her. And I had the lovely surprise that the explanation I gave to Leif about this same topic was total greek to her. Well of course, she's not Leif, why would she think exactly like him? I appreciated the reminder to give my head a shake , and maybe our LC Dave can offer up some other ways that I can explain this to her.

In the meantime she figured out how she thinks she can earn some cash.



(Please give me some money). Not a chance sister.


While the issue here is party that our camera is on it's way out (and the one we covet is mucho dineiro!), the real thing is that she's just too fast! Here she is at her last soccer class, and every single shot was this blurry.



She has expressed frustration with her soccer class, because the kids do not know how to play. So Steph (her coach) has agreed to let her join Leif's soccer club, Gordon Head, and we'll get her on a team of her peers. She's so wicked good at soccer, it's great to see her so proud of herself.

And Ivy, well she's as radical as ever. Here she is with Puppy, her pal.




And here she is in full goalie gear, after diving for a save in our basement. I love this shot!



I hope this cold weather is forcing you nearer to your fire or your housemate(s) and your pets. It's time for blankets, board games and slippers (okay, beer would fit better, I'll admit it).


Kisses

C