Enjoying Spring Snow!

Archery...

Abigail tried out some archery at the Boat and sportsmen show.

Spring Break update...

I got some new math workbooks for Abigail this week - one on time and money - just to see how she could do with that - and I was really surprised at how well she did - I mean she has always just sued money and I never really thought about 'testing' her on it - she just used it in 'life'.......but she just knew all the names of the coins and everything without asking and then with the clocks she just knew all the times and everything with both analogue AND digital!!! I was really surprised!!! Yay :)

Our days have the same routine generally - mornings are spent with the children doing their 'schoolwork' Abigail can choose what she does as long as she does a variety each day and as long as by the end of the week she has done a good variety of work - some math, some science, some language arts, some social, some art, etc etc etc.......and she LOVES to help Sam with his too.

Because of the renovations we have going on home-renos.blogspot.com/
we are still having to stay upstairs and so we all do our work in my bedroom either at my table or on the floor, which is less than ideal but we get it done - hopefully it will only be a few weeks now until we can use the table and island downstairs. For now though we can't do many crafts or anything too messy which is limiting and means we can't have too much fun :( but Abby has done a little painting still.

We still go swimming regularly and we go to Kidz Quarterz (the indoor playground). I will be glad when the snow has gone and we can get outside more. the children like to go out and sled now that its warmer though and at least now the snow is wetter they can build snowmen!

I've been through the checklist of things Abigail needs to know before the end of the year - and the things I wanted her to do before the end of the year and there are just a few more things I want to cross off - so I'm heading to Education Station tonight to pick up some supplies....I want some 3d shapes for sure.....She needs a new Social book to work through too. Maybe one on the Inuit so we can use the Inuit books we already have! Or maybe one on maps.......hhhmmmmm

working on the diorama

Abigail continues to work on her wild horses diorama...

planting seeds...

We planted all our indoor seeds this past weekend - Sunflowers, Lupins, Echinacea.....as well as pumpkins, watermelon, tomatoes.

The watermelon have to be pollinated, so we had to plant both make and female seeds and our bees will then carry the pollen from one to the other once they flower! One of the Lupins has already sprouted!

Paper doll

Abigail and her paper doll that she had fun with this last week...

homemade sidewalk chalk.....

livelifecreateart.blogspot.com/2009/03/handmade-sidewalk-chalk.html

I think we will be making some of this as soon as I have a kitchen!!!

Back to work...

Now our trip to England is done, and we are over our jetlag, we are back to work again!! Abigail has finished her social book ad her 'community' studies...so we need to go and get another workbook for her when we are near that store....she is working through her workbooks pretty fast and doing well....the only thing we don't do regularly is reading together - we start books but don't often finish them....I really need to do better at that! And we need to finish her diorama as we haven't finished that since our trip!!! Maybe this weekend!

We are back into our routine of swimming etc when Sam is at school....and Sam is signed up for his Pre K again after Easter so we will continue with our swimming and running/ skating etc after Easter too as I enjoy this as our phys ed. activities together.

Today we signed Abigail up for a series of art classes after Easter - I'm so happy as we got ALL the classes we wanted for her :) Lloyd was at work early especially so he could get online to get the classes we wanted. I must write and thank Jennifer for letting me know about them! I must find out about the library group too and take Abigail along to that! And along to the picnics too....once they start in the better weather as she will enjoy seeing her friends....

I want to find a better math book for her though as I don't like the one we are using right now.....at all.....so I think we will look for another when we go to Education Station.

I'm loving the poetry reading comprehension book though and Abigail is really enjoying it too and asking to do several pages a day instead of just one....

Sams math has come on in leaps and bounds in the last couple of weeks too.

All in all it's nice to be back in the old routine - and with the nicer temperatures at last things are looking cheerier :)

Trip to England

Abigail recently came with me to England. During our stay we went to London for a day. We went on the London Eye, visited the Hamleys toy store (where we had lunch with Aunty Karen), rode on a double decker bus, saw Big Ben at the Houses of Parliament and rode on a train and the underground/ tube. We also had to go to the Canadian Embassy to get our return visas.

On the way from Heathrow to Abigails Grandparents house, we stopped at Stonehenge.

We visited the seaside - West Bay and enjoyed splashing in the waves despite it being February. We even managed to see snow in March - and crocuses and snowdrops!

Abigail saw all four Grandparents AND visited her Great Grandmother, Nanny Spicer! She had 2 sleepovers with her cousin Isaac who she hadn't seen since she was 7 months old, and she spent time with both her Aunts. She saw the house that her Grandma Spicer grew up in and she met my cousin Lynn and her Great Aunt Pat. She learned that Lynns little boy Evan is a whole head smaller than her even though he is a month older! She really liked this news!

The flight to England was a night flight and Abigail didn't enjoy it too much as it was difficult to get comfortable in the seats - and the television screens weren't working at all times....

the return flight was more fun as the staff were more friendly and the people on the flight were also much more friendly and chatty - more children on the flight and the people more child oriented! The tv's worked and the food was better and the flight was day time too! Both Abigail and Sam were very well behaved on the flights though - I was really proud of them.

Abigail was a little obsessed with double decker buses on the trip and took almost an entire disposable camera full of pictures of them! It will be interesting to see the pictures she took - I even bought a miniature bus in London just to remind myself of her on the trip :)