Spring Break Part 2 (Week 28)

I've come to accept that I do not fit the 'ideal' mold for a homeschooling mama. I have little patience with my kids, and loathe letting young hands 'help' me with a task I can do to perfection on my own.

So . . . I've signed them up for a week of cooking classes! I believe kids need to learn, from a young age, their way around the kitchen, how to make the basic things in life that they need, and confidence in what they create. I learned these things as a child (thank you Mom!) and thus grew into an adult who can cook for herself and feed others a variety of things. It's a basic living skill that far too many kids lack. I know, because I've met the adults who never learned this stuff. But as I can't bear to teach them myself, or better yet let them loose to explore the culinary world on their own, I chose Spring Break Chef Camp to do it for me. in the meantime I'll spend this week learning to chill out a lot more, so when they are done I can let them show me all they learned, and start sharing the meal-making responsibilities. A win-win no?


Day 1 they made pancakes with blueberry syrup, and the tastiest granola bars I've ever had. Day 2 they came home with these sugary concoctions:



Monkey Bread (think cinnamon bun doughnut holes) and Chocolate Espresso Ice cream cone cupcakes. Yikes.

Day 3 brought forth gross-looking (but very tasty) filled burrito things (think salsa+cream cheese= pink goo), mint chocolate chip ice cream and fruit kabobs.

Day 4 ended with banana chocolate chip cookies and pizza.

Leif couldn't resist getting a few afternoons of soccer camp in this week. he was full of energy from all that baking!

The weather turned gorgeous for part of this week and we spent hours outside on our street. Throwing handfuls of cherry blossom petals into the air to make snow, riding bikes and rollerblading. Leif found my (never-in-use-anymore) rollerblades in the garage and with 4 pairs of socks, sort of made them fit. Now I am a wobbly blader at best, but Leif took to it with no problems, and then Hannah followed suit. I impressed upon them the importance of learning to stop FIRST, but it mainly fell on deaf ears. As for the kids, there was only one fall, and Hannah recovered just fine. We're going to scope out the used sporting goods store next week for a couple pairs for the offspring.

When Leif wasn't baking. rollerblading or playing soccer, he managed to squeeze some Scrabble games with me into the remaining hours of the week.

Hannah has been rocking out with the newly-discovered recording piano feature. She now either records herself, then when it plays back she accompanies herself playing extra arts of the song, or she dances to the music she's made. It's a really cool creative thing to watch. We were watching Willow last night and afterwards she jumped up and played the theme song perfectly on the first try. Leif was very impressed.

Hannah has been working away on one of her drawing books. It's called Doodle All Year by Taro Gomi, author of such family favorites as Everyone Poops and My Friends. Each page offers a bit of the picture and asks her to fill in the rest. "What vegetables are growing in this field?", "Where is this car going?". It's a great project and she's enjoying herself. In the past she would just whip through books like this, thinking the goal was to complete it, not enjoy and experience it. It's nice to see her slowing down.



As she's no longer enamored with being a pilot for the Snowbirds when she grows up, Hannah is now practicing to be a thief. She's set up a pretend house in the kitchen, using the puppet theatre as a window, and practices sneaking in. She added to the challenge by setting up booby-traps (golf tees) around the perimeter.



In the meantime, she's come up with another way to earn some coin:



Her first busking stand. Combining of course her recent drumming skills with her desire for capital growth.



The supportive audience:



In our Avonlea viewing this week we ran into the Suffragette movement. This tied in perfectly with International Women's Day. I found a book at the library called You Forgot Your Skirt Amelia Bloomer which addresses an issue I've talked to them about many times before. Being a slave to societal norms when you do not agree with them is not worth it. Amelia Bloomer hated the heavy, tight dresses she was expected to wear, that limited her movement and ability to enjoy play and work. Her friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton hated that women had no rights, especially the right to vote. In their own ways, each of them changed women's lives forever. Nowadays women subject themselves to such lunacy as high heels that hurt and will potentially mess up your feet and back as you age, never mind greatly limit your movement and abilities while you're young. They spend money on make-up and hair-dye and the *latest fashions* just to look like everybody else. And men get stuck in it too, trying to keep up with what the covers of men's magazines and music videos tell them men should look like. Leif and Hannah run into this often when children argue with them about what a boy or girl looks like. These children actually argue about their gender, disbelieving my kids when they patiently explain that in fact girls *can* have short hair, and boys *can* have long hair. It's such insanity that at this young age stereotypes are already firmly enmeshed in the minds of many. The kids enjoyed this book, finding the logic appealing and the drawings humourous.

Another Avonlea episode dealt with inventions. There is a character played as the eccentric, bumbling recluse who makes 'crazy things' that are often flops. He invents a ringing tea kettle, a plane (that does not fly) and raises bats to learn how they 'see' with their poor eyesight in the dark. He hypothesises that they use echo-location and talks about how useful such a tool could be for planes and boats. Leif did not understand how they could not know about these things back then. I explained how we form a world view based on what we know, and often necessity is the impulse to learn more and to ask questions. It is because we can imagine something that we need or could use that sparks our impulse to make that something, or that a commonly held belief that doesn't sit well with what we think can lead to finding different answers (Darwin). Just as evolution was discounted by so many people in those times (and still today), things that exist today that are commonplace for him did not exist even when I was a kid, let alone in the time of Avonlea. (While I can recall my first CD, my grandfather remembered when ice was delivered on a buggy. Who knows what will be the norm in these kid's adulthood.)

Did you notice what happened at the tail-end of this week? Spring arrived!!!



We took a trip to Vancouver and visited Van Dusen Gardens for some much-needed plant appreciation and family times. It was a blast.

Our first stop was a visit to Nana's bench. Kit's grandmother was the master gardener of the family (a title his own mother is in charge of now) and when she passed away the family dedicated a bench to her in Van Dusen Gardens. Beside the pond, under a tree tree, perfectly shaded to watch the fish and turtles.



Then we set out for the hedge maze.



Somewhere in there my children cavort and yell.



I could not get enough of the bits of spring poking through the skeletons of last year. This tree was covered in dry cones, and one branch held these wee beauties:



Hannah tried to carry all the things she found home with her, which made her walk with a limp due to the huge branch she carried, along with cones, leaves and dried flowers. I told her we'd take pictures instead. These fairy-wing-like leaves were everywhere.



While in Vancouver Leif and Al took in a Vancouver Giants hockey game. Leif came home FULL of and-then-this-happened stories. It was great.

On the ferry home Leif and Hannah tried a bit of photography.

Taken by Hannah:






I guess our plans to give the kids the crappy point-and-shoot and save the very expensive fancy camera for ourselves didn't hold. We never stick to these rules we aim to impose. At least we slack off together.

Taken by Leif:





On our return from Vancouver I had a very special parcel in my bag. before we left my mom handed me a box I hadn't seen in decades, that I had completely forgotten about until I saw it. And then the memories came flooding back. Life is so funny like that isn't it?



When I was a kid my mom and I decorated a branch together for Easter. I remember looking forward to it, and en joying playing with what went where, and it becoming 'my' thing to set up. I am so happy to see all these lovely old decorations again. Thanks Mama.



So I sent Hannah out to fetch a branch (she came back with really odd ones) and we got to work setting up our tree for Spring.



Then I got out the crafts the kids have made over the years for Spring, all in time to welcome in the Equinox late on Saturday night. They've blown eggs and then coloured them, felted onto them and crocheted holders for them.



I also have hens they have knit or sewn. They are such wonderful creations. What shall we make this year?

In recent discussions the kids and talked again about how Easter is a Christian/religious celebration, tying in the the pagan symbols for spring and life with their own beleifs about Jesus' life and death. We don't practice cHristianity and we do celebrate the seasons, so why not celebrate the arrival of spring with the much-anticipated egg hunt? So we did.






Kit and I have been working away at the front yard, moving plants and debating what should go where. We are leaning towards evergreens and I have seen many a Japanese-style pine or juniper that I really like. How we'll incorporate it all is yet to be decided, but pics are coming soon.

I've found a horrible, terrible, damned addictive crafting site, and I spend any free minutes scrolling through it, bookmarking ideas for things I'd like to make once our basement room is finished (my crafting studio is getting a decent chunk of the real-estate down there). In the meantime I've been working on things I can make with sweaters that I shrink in the wash. These are my latest, wrist warmers for all us folks who hate the 3/4 length sleeve found on far too many women's shorts and sweaters.



There you have us, full of chocolate and sunshine.

C

Spring Break Part 1 (Week 27)

Spring is coming! And what better way to celebrate it than a plate of animal cookies baked by Hannah?



A lamb, some pigs and a duck. Awesome!

Spring Break is always fun because there are lots of great camps to take advantage of. This year our district has 2 weeks of break, so this week the kids did soccer camp. Leif and Hannah were both signed up for a morning half-day camp, and then they were invited to join the afternoon camp if they wished. They did! So they each did 6 hours of soccer each day. Insane! They loved it, even when it poured and SNOWED!

When Hannah wasn't playing soccer she was playing around on the piano. She's been listening to Chariots of Fire and has picked out the notes on the piano. Now she plays a medley of that and Harry Potter, Sar Wars and The Sound of Music. Then she discovered our electric piano has a memory function, so she can play a tune and then the piano plays it back to her. To her dismay, even if she yells out her songs, the piano does not record her voice. :)

Hannah and I played with mirror-writing this week. Hannah began of her own initiative, spelling TIK TAK TOE backwards on a piece of paper.



Then she read it in the mirror.



Then we got crazy with her name. It's such a great name.



At Hannah's drum lessons she had a substitute instructor. He showed her how she can think of beats like syllables in names of fruit. PEAR is one whole beat, APPLE is two 1/2 beats . . blueberry, watermelon . . . it was cool. I'm hoping to sew her a satchel so she can carry her things around with her, and that includes her drumsticks, so she can drum out beats anywhere she goes.

She enlightened me this week with her explanation of odd and even numbers. That they must be divisible by 2 or they are odd. I love the stuff they dish out while I'm driving.

Leif played soccer, soccer and more soccer. When he wasn't playing soccer he was playing outside with us, or watching hockey on the computer.

We were listening to the radio and a story came on about baby boomers, immigration and minorities (I'm sure we all heard that story this week) and Leif asked all about it. So I explained the concept of generations, and what the baby boomer gen is, why it is called that, and how od they are now and what that means. Then explained why immigrants can help in the hole booomers are leaving in the workforce, but too often they are relegated to being underpaid cab drivers. Again, a great car chat.

I introduced a new idea to the kids this week. I told them how Earth Day is in April, and tha I had an idea that they could earn an Earth Badge, similar to their embroidered swim level badges. I told them they need to find a way to measure energy we use or waste we create in the house, and then see if they can find a way to reduce that amount. Create an experiment and hypothesis to test your idea and carry it out. I'm getting a bunch of books and DVDs from the library on this topic to give them the info and ideas. I hope this is a success.


And how are our birds you ask? Well, for days we've watched the two house sparrows bicker over real estate. He wants the bigger house he can fit into, she the smaller one she feels is safer. It's so funny to watch them debate it day after day.



And finally, a male Red House Finch has discovered my kitchen sink window feeder. But if I move in the kitchen he flies away. It's tricky.




I hope your last weeks of winter are not wearing you down, wherever you are. :)

C

And Aubrey makes 4 (Week 26)

Can you feel the love? I can. This is what Hannah made us for Valentine's Day:



We're continuing to hang out with our fab cousin Aubrey this week. The kids have been great at helping me take care of him and keep him safe and happy.





We went to the Lego Exhibit museum this week, an annual event. It's part of the Sidney Museum's regular exhibits. The kids favorite part is not the Lego though, it's the heritage school room set up, where they pretend they're in school like on Road to Avonlea.



We've had alot of good talks because of Avonlea. How their lives and houses worked (pumps for water, no fridges or bathrooms) how society was (women as property, women can't vote, religion ruling their actions and beliefs, alcohol and gambling).

We watched videos of road families, which means families who sell their homes to live on the road together in motorhomes. It's a lifestyle called Roadschooling and it looks pretty fabulous. The kids interviewed in the videos commented on how silly it is that schooled kids they meet always ask them the same things. How old are you, what school do you go to, what grade are you in? Leif and Hannah could really identify with that, they get it all the time. And then they get asked "If you were in school, what grade would you be in?" I remind them that it is just people's way of trying to make connections, just like the adults who ask them if they're excited about Santa or if they wish they were in school (eep!). But it does point to the way our culture has everything so boxed up, everything and everyone in tidy categories. When confronted with kids who are not in school and don't believe in Santa or the Easter Bunny, they do not know what to talk to them about. Just like adults who turn away from me after they ask me what I do for a living and I reply that I stay home with my kids. It's a real conversation-ender. Sigh.

We built hundreds of train tracks this week, as Aubrey is a real train lover. Here is Leif's gravity-defying creation:




Leif's soccer team has been focusing on passing lately, and during their last game we noticed that they were too focused on passing, and forgot to try to score. So this is a shot from behind the opponent's net, as Leif held control of the ball, and I yelled 'SHOOT!' as a gentle reminder that he was still allowed to try to score. He did, and it went through all 3 burgundy players, over their goalie's shoulder, and tucked right in to the corner of the net. Score.




We went clambering over the rocks at the ocean this week, after Aubrey went home. We hiked and jumped from one beach to the next, and saw Oyster Catchers and tiny fish. Then I snapped this shot to show the kids why plants are the seat of life's beginning, that they made and make the oxygen we need. All in a tiny tidepool.



We've discovered a new much-loved play area near our house. We can bike there and we are hidden from the houses yet there is tons of space to roam around. The kids played pirates and then some wierd animal game. Even though it was a place accidents could happen, they all stayed together and kept each other safe. I hope we can make time to go there every week.



After that we biked on to Aikido, where the children met Numata Sensei, a 7th level black belt Sempei from Japan. This was a really, really big deal. He has practiced Aikido for 40 years, and gave them a demo of what he could do, both with his hands and with his sword.



Hannah volunteered to do a demo of children's aikido, and was very proud of her role.



She has asked if she can move up to the next level of instruction, and we patiently await her Sensei's reply. She is very keen on Aikido.


C

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