Trying Chinese foods for New Year...

The children tried out some Chinese foods for our new year festivities last week! We also had some decorations around our display table to celebrate the new year. We have decided to extend our study of China for the rest of the year instead of just for New Year because we have been enjoying it so much! Susannahs friend Melissa was able to join us to try the foods. Most of the foods were made with sticky rice. The bread was filled with a pureed bean.

Wonderful resource

www.k-3learningpages.net/editions.htm


Lots of links for grades K- 3......from an Albertan teacher too.....

Display table..

Here is the table in the hallway where we are displaying our work for Chinese New Year as we do it. I think we have decided to continue studying about China as our 'community' to learn to about this year as we are finding it so interesting, so I bought an information and activity pack on it at Education Station on Wednesday which looks really fun! And the fun the pack can be pulled out each year at New year for us to go through as well! We also bought these fun lanterns that can be reused each New Year too!

We have so many more crafts that we want to do that we just can't fit them in by Monday...it's such a fascinating country and culture, so we plan to just keep learning about it!

Oh and the little Valentine Tree isn't part of the Chinese project - just my little holiday tree - oops!

Tomorrow we are off to see the Dragon Dance at West Edmonton Mall :) We've been before but this year they have a market there too as well as all the other events they normally have. Grace was telling us about the market before she left for Hong Kong!

The little box on the table is made from Bamboo, which pandas eat, and was made in China!

Chinese numerals

Making mint ritz cookies...

Yum!

Day one of our Chinese New Year studies..

Today we started our project on China - we are doing a little every day this week and will finish next Monday on the first day on Chinese New Year - January 26th 2009. The start of the Year of the Ox!

Today Abigail learned where China is on the Globe, saw where Beijing is, Hong Kong (where our friend Grace is visiting her family), where China is in relation to us, where the Great Wall is....

They made flags, lanterns, decorated a table with decorations for the holiday. Both Abigail and Sam made mini books at their level which talked about the Chinese celebrations and involved cutting, colouring and handwriting.

Tonight we had Chinese food and they ate with chopsticks! We had noodles, rice, beef and broccoli in a gravy....some chicken with pineapple....a variety of dishes to try....this dinner wasn't planned but we've had problems at the house so we couldn't cook here at home tonight so we went with take-out and chinese was perfect!!! I didn't get pictures though! I'm planning to take them out for a celebration lunch next week though and THAT is when I'll get the pictures!

Elk Island Park....

Sunday walk at Elk Island...

National Popcorn Day!!! Today!!!

www.popcorn.org/


Have some fun and learn a little too! Coloring sheets, teachers resources, worksheets, recipes, games and lots more information for this fun holiday!

activity ideas for Chinese New Year....

www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/chinesenewyear/


Just one of many websites worth checking out this week for Chinese New Year activity ideas....

and here is a GREAT project a school did that is worth following along with:

zone.cps.k12.il.us/Showcase/Student_Projects/China/china.html

and these are neat:

www.chineseforfamilies.com/My_Homepage_Files/Download/NewYearCrafts.pdf

We had a Kitchen God two years back.....definitely a memorable experience we enjoyed!!!

Week one round up...

Some of our plans didn't happen....BUT our schoolwork routine has happened EVERY day which has been really good. Abigail has been writing her journal every day. She seems to enjoy this and actually reminds me about doing it and choose to do this even on days (like today) when I say she doesn't have to.

She's worked in her printing book, done her math, Language Power (a program I think I will continue and try and get hold of when she finishes this book) She's had time on the computer, reading.....colouring and crafts, we went to the local restaurant and had breakfast with friends and saw Grace - our waitress (and friend) who is Chinese and is heading back to Hong Kong for Chinese New Year next week. Talking about Chinese New Year with Grace started us planning a project for next week to celebrate the New Year. Sam and Abigail both want to make things and learn about China and again - we did that two years ago including making a Kitchen God that we burned on the fire outside after smearing its mouth with jam. We also made dragon puppets that year and I gave them each money in red envelopes. I shall have a look and see what I can come up with this time....

Today we had friends come over to play and go sledding. That was fun and Abby wanted to write about it in her journal as soon as her friends left!

This week we covered antonyms and synonyms amongst other things. Still covering parts of a paragraph. Her sentences are great now and her printing is soooooo much better than it was even a couple of months ago.

That said, She IS now in grade one, as I have registered her for grade one. And we have decided NOT to register Sam for kindergarten this year but will have him in preK for another year. We do NOT plan to make the same mistake with Sam as we did for Abby.

Reading to Sam...

Reading to Sam this morning.....Walter the farting dog...

Hammer pictures

Basic but fun, Abby and Sam worked together to sort the shapes into their colour sets and then design a picture of a house with a tree in the garden and a moon and bird in the sky. Then they hammered the pieces into the board to make the picture.

Making a chocolate house

Melting and setting chocolate was the order of the day today as we set about making a chocolate house from a kit Abigail was given for Christmas! Lots of messy sweet fun! Yum!

Gingerbread House

Abigail helped make a gingerbread house and had lots of fun!

Baking cookies...

Making cookies with Susannah...

Dance class Open House...

Abigail goes to dance classes at our community league and loves it - she took tap before Christmas and will now do Jazz. They will do their recital in May. They danced to songs from the musical 'Grease'!

Bowling...

We went bowling during the Christmas break and plan to make it a monthly family event! Abby had great fun bowling!

Royal Alberta Museum

Trip to the museum for Sams birthday last week.

Day One.

Lloyd went back to work after Christmas today so last week didn't really count as our routine was messed although we did do a few things:

Abigail did some work in her 'Language Power' book.
She wrote a story about a character named Emma who wanted a horse.
We went swimming for two hours on Tuesday and to the indoor playground while Sam was at Pre-K.
We went to the Royal Alberta Museum on Wednesday.
Abigail wrote thank you letters t her Grandparents and received a reply from Grandma Thorpe.
Lloyd came back from England and brought back food and English money for Abigail to try/ look at.

Anyway, today we started our new routine. Abigail finished some worksheets left over from her classwork in school. I figured she may as well finish them. They were to do with long vowel sounds. Writing sentences using long 'o' words and then thinking of 4 words for each long vowel. She did very well.

She then started her daily journal and had to write five sentences about her week. She had to use full stops and capital letters and use her word wall folder to check her spellings.

She did really well! She also supervised Sams 'schoolwork' which was cutting from his new book 'I can cut' - a HUGE book of pages of dotted lines just for cutting - he LOVES to cut :) so she was telling him what to do! She kept an eye on him while I got my chores done and they finished there school work at the table. Then I checked what they were doing in between my jobs.

After their 'work' they did a craft at the table before playing, having lunch and watching a movie.

Tomorrow we have running on the track and swimming again if the roads are ok - it's been snowing all day today so I guess we will wait and see! Abigail also has dance class tomorrow night. Wednesday we have friends coming over for the afternoon and if the weather is good enough we plan to go sledding with them :) Thursday we have swimming again! Friday we may head to the library!! And each morning will be Language power, written work and I need to find her math program so she can work on that! Maybe dig out MathUSee again! See if she likes that!

I finally filled in her registration package though today as I was procrastinating over that!

No more school.

Abigail left school last Friday and will not be returning after Christmas. She brought home all her supplies and we will go through it all next week some time and see if any of it will be of use to us.

Of course the last week of school was all parties, concerts and gift giving, so she is a little sad to leave now, but our first week of homeschooling will hopefully be focused on swimming and other fun activities, so all should go well if the weather and health goes to plan!

Perhaps we can fit in a trip to Kidz Quarterz too! We also have Sams birthday that week too! We could look at the Ukrainian Christmas festivities that week too!

For now though we are focusing on our own Christmas celebrations.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Mini Marshmallow structures!!!!

Abigail and Sam had fun building with mini marshmallows and cocktail sticks! I built a pyramid and a spider too :) It's a yummy craft :)

Sew much fun...

Abigail had today off of school.....a trial run of homeschooling I guess you could say ;) We spent much of the day 'crafting'. Abigail did some cross-stitching and then used some felt and created a gingerbread house design. She has stitched the shape of a house and is stitching on buttons and other embellishments onto the house to decorate the gingerbread house. Here is the house with just the square of the house even before the roof shape has been stitched - I will take more pictures as it progresses. As I type though it has already progressed much further and I am really impressed because she has done it all by herself with no help except for the occasional help with threading her needle.

Three days

Abigail only went to school three days this week. On Monday she didn't want to get out of bed and today she got out of bed, but at 7:30am she came in to my room still in her pj's and asked if she could stay home. She is just NOT happy at school.

Last week she went to school two days.

I have noticed a few things though - the less she goes to school, the MORE she loves to read and go back to her work books as 'fun'.......she sees them as quiz books - you know, the way we all see Sudoku and word search books as adults. When she started school she lost all interest in them and she stopped reading for fun - it was a chore and something she HAD to do as homework and for a set time - she had to get the clock and would time herself for the 15 minutes and then stop!!!!

But before school, she would just read and read!!! She loved to read! On library day we would get massive piles of books from the library and bring them home and sit and read all day - read them in the car on the way home....but once in school she would maybe choose one or two :(

It's nice to see her already becoming more like her old self.

We've signed Sam up for Pre-K again after Christmas, and on those afternoons, Abigail and I will go ice skating and swimming together and maybe walking/ running on the indoor track. Abby will have dance class still on Tuesday nights. She wants to go back to drama if we can get her in (maybe not until September) and we can start going to the homeschool group at the library on Fridays.

I'd like to do some voluntary work somewhere somehow.....I'm not sure how we can do that or where with Sam but hopefully we can....

A return to homeschooling?

Well, after 3 months in school, it looks as though Abigail may be returning to homeschooling after all. We've had a couple of meetings with her teacher and with the counselor and we've talked to Abigail about whether she would be happier in a different class after Christmas, whether she would be bored at home or miss her friends, but she is fairly insistent that she WANTS to stay at home and go back to her drama classes, maybe ice skating...the homeschool group at the library...back to her friends from homeschooling and her laid back lifestyle.

Abigail is very bright, doing great in math and science and her reading is well ahead and all that jazz....but her OCD's from her tourettes are holding her back. She can't get her writing finished as fast as the other children, she's easily distracted, she's almost 2 years younger than some in her class....she tends to leave things at school so half the time she doesn't bring her homework home or she won't write down what it is or she won't remember things so doesn't get assignments done....

So what to do - put her in grade one? Is that the answer? So we had her tested by the school counselor and she said no she's in the right grade for her work.....Abigail says she would prefer to homeschool than go into grade one. This surprised me. Although I do wonder how she would have faired in grade one.

She has been home for most of the last week....she had a cold and cough but really just needed some tlc. She went back yesterday but came home and STILL did not like school....came home and asked AGAIN to homeschool. But we have said that she can not keep coming in and out of school that she has to stay out if she comes out - at least for a few years. We suggested she try until Christmas and decide but she said she just wants to leave now.

I have always said I would NEVER force a child of mine to go to school unhappily because I can't think of anything worse than being force to go like that. And as much as I am enjoying my quiet days at home during the week, Abigail has to come first. At least while Sam is in pre-K we can go swimming and do things together which will be nice to do with her - maybe Kidz Quarterz etc. And I had already planned out a grade 2 curriculum for her so I guess we will deschool until Christmas and then start grade 2 after Christmas.

So yes, it looks as though we are starting homeschooling again!

Busy scrapbooking

This is A's scrapbooking page she worked on this evening.....it's bee a rainy day today and she has also been modeling with clay, making window stickers, playing 'Brain Age' and 'Jenga' on my DS and writing stories in her exercise book.

Yesterday she came with me and had her hair cut and we did some shopping in Staples and Dollarama - she bought herself a mini fish tank that comes with plastic fish that really grow - she has to give them warm water daily and they grow over three days - and they really do!!! Kind of neat to watch ;)