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 :)

Workbooks...

Some of the books Abigail is using this year....of course we are also using much much more than this but these are just a few of the things we fall back on. I picked up the grade one books to be sure Abigail had covered the basics that she didn't do last year. She has flown through them - especially the math which she finds ultra boring and doesn't want to do but I said if she flies through it in a couple of weeks we will go and get her grade 2 and 3 as a 'treat'...and of course she loves this idea...so she is rushing through it. instead of doing a page a day or whatever she is doing she is doing several a day. She just wants to get it done. I know she doesn't need to do it but I kind of want her to do the basics again because I think her teacher really messed with her confidence and I kind of want to bring back the fun she had with math before - she used to love how easy it was and then in school she was struggling because her teacher was a dork! I want her to find it fun again and see it as puzzles again! To WANT to do it....so thats what we're doing!

I have been having fun going through the Education Station catalogue choosing things....I much prefer their south store to Scholars Choice. I think I'm going to go there next week and head to Ikea for breakfast. There are a few things I have my eye on for Abby from Edu Station....

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....