A Lesson in Geography

More pictures to get back into the groove of blogging ...

Watching the Olympic Opening Ceremonies while trying to find each country on our big floor map.  The smaller the country, it seemed, the less time we had to find it on the map!  Guess the we had better brush up on our geography.

Today's Lesson: Hanging Doors

One of the jobs left around the house is hanging doors.  One of these doors is a bathroom door which, although I accept that having kids means getting very little privacy, is a luxury I no longer wish to live without.  So, bright and early this morning Roger pulls up in his truck and starts pulling out tools of all shapes and sizes.  Immediately anything that I had planned to do today with the boys went right out the window.  I had lost them to the call of wood, saws, and a very cool nail gun -- should I be worried that they seemed particularly interested in the nail gun?  So "teacher" Roger was watched very carefully and followed up and down the stairs and regaled with stories about their Halloween costumes and anything else that they thought was cool enough to talk about to the guy with all the great "toys".

Then there was a little snag.  It turns out that our old doors -- which I rather liked -- are not square.  Which was fine because it matched the rest of the house, but when they put up the new walls, they (just for kicks, I suppose) made everything square.  This meant that the old doors wouldn't fit without great effort.  A great debate followed about pre-hung doors versus the labour intensive job that it would be to put the old doors back.  In the end we went with pre-hung (oh, well).

When the new doors arrived, Owen was alarmed that they didn't have any door knobs.  Isaac, in his all-knowing voice, reported:  "No Owen, free range doors don't come with knobs!"

Painting Self Portraits

A couple of weeks ago was Rembrandt's birthday -- I have this great book (Let's Celebrate Today: Calendars, Events, and Holidays Second Edition) that tells about important historic events and famous people's birthdays (today, by the way, is Beatrix Potter's birthday, and Peru's Independence Day, among other things).  Anyway, my plan was to tell the boys a little bit about Rembrandt, show them some of his paintings, then break out the paint ourselves.  Well, it didn't happen on that day, or the next day, or the day after that.  Before I knew it a week had gone by, then 2 weeks ... well, you get the picture.  But we finally got around to it this week.

Sugar High

Today we are all on an extreme sugar high!  We visited a maple sugar bush this afternoon and came home with lots of information and sugar coursing through our veins.  Now sugar maples are on our wish list for our new place!  Sugar Moon Farm is located about 30 minutes outside Truro.  It was beautiful day for a drive, so we packed everybody up and hit the road.  We arrived just in time for lunch which included biscuits with maple butter, maple sausages and pancakes with (what else?) maple syrup.

Then we moved over to the sugar camp to learn where all that maple syrup comes from.  The boys listened patiently as the guide explained how they tap the trees (all 2500 of them!), where sap comes from and what it looks like (Isaac was even brave enough to taste it -- he wasn't that impressed) and how the wood burning equipment worked (they burn 16 cords of wood in 2 months!). 

Then came the real treat.  They were not boiling syrup today, but they were still making sugar on snow!

Mmmmmm!  Yummy and educational, now that's my kind of trip!

Gentlemen

We have a new book at our house.  It's called "50 Things Every Young Gentleman Should Know" and I'm excited to read it with the boys.

Maybe it's my old fashioned-ness that makes this book appeal to me, but I like the idea of teaching my boys to be gentlemen.  Published in 2006 -- despite the Emily Post feel of the name -- "50 Things Every Young Gentleman Should Know" contains short chapters on basic subjects like: saying please and thank you and making an apology, along with more challenging issues like: dealing with foods you don't like, meeting people with physical challenges and, my personal favourite, putting down the toilet seat.  It easily and clearly explains what you should do, what you should NOT do, and why.  It seems like a good beginning.

Well, this is what the boys looked like today -- maybe we'll start tomorrow.

They don't look much like gentlemen -- gentlemen of the sea, maybe.  I'm sure that they remembered to say thank you when they stole the treasure, asked politely before comandeering another ship and didn't rudely stare at other pirates' wooden legs so that their mother would be proud.  Pirates can be polite, right?

A Meteor Shower

Ever have one of those days, where at the end you struggle to remember the good things that happened?  You know that there must have been at least one or two, but they get squashed by the numerous other things that maybe weren't so great.  Today was one of those days at our house.  Now, I know that I complain occasionally, but I really try to stick to the positive and remember the highlights of the day -- and Fridays are dedicated to positive things.  Anyway, all I'm saying is that if I get a little side tracked today, please forgive me.

With the recent exposure to Star Wars at our house, everybody now carries a lightsaber (or "light saver" as Owen calls it), flies around the house in an x-wing fighter, is on the look out for Darth Vader (or wants to be Darth Vader), and wants to befriend a Wookie -- and Dada thought that my hair in the shower drain was bad!  So, of course, space talk is constant.  Today, the talk was about meteors, so we decided to get out our space book and see what we could find out.

Turns out there was a whole chapter about meteors, meteorites and meteoroids -- a short chapter with lots of fun facts -- which included an easy experiment.  Most of the chapters include some sort of experiment or hands on activity using common materials, which is part of the reason that we chose this book.  So we played with meteorites in our living room!  Some flour, a little cocoa, a bucket and some marbles and presto, you can see how meteorites impact the earth!  It turned out to be great entertainment too.

The marbles actually made very impressive craters.  The hard part was getting the marble out without damaging the crater too much.  Then we had to try again and again and again and again ... you get the picture.

Then we had to see what would happen if we dropped them from different heights again and again and again ... well, you know how it goes.

Everybody was interested in the results!  Who says science can't be fun?  The boys are now eagerly awaiting the next meteor shower, while looking for meteorites and avoiding meteoroids (and blasts from the Death Star) as they fly around the house!

Sew What!

 

This is what I gave the boys for Christmas this year.  Yeah, I know, "what is it?" was their reaction too. I had great hopes of making them each an apron for baking or crafting or pretending whatever their little hearts desire.  I got the pieces cut out, but didn't get any farther -- thus the very unimpressed reaction.  It is now March and I'm still looking at the pieces, so today I decided to actually make an apron!

I decided to start with Isaac's and got to work while the boys were playing outside and Laurel was asleep.  Here is the pattern that I used.  I picked this particular pattern because rather than having to tie it in the back -- a difficult skill for any youngster -- it uses velcro!  The decision to start with Isaac's was also part laziness.  Because his was cut from an old shirt, I used the button strip and button holes as the straps, thereby saving myself some time.  I also left the buttons on, and that might be laziness too, but I prefer to think of it as added decoration!  After patting myself on the back, it didn't take too long for it to come together.  After some finishing work -- done under 4 pairs of watchful eyes -- here is the finished product.  Hooray, one down and two to go -- I'd better make it three, by the time I get them all done, Laurel will be ready for one too.

Isaac was very pleased with the outcome and immediately decided that he needed to sew something too; and Aidan, not to be outdone, joined in.  They have been asking for some time to learn to sew, so I guess that today was the day -- so much for getting any more aprons done.  

Isaac picked out some hockey print, flannel material that had once been pajamas.  He wanted to use the sewing machine, so after cutting out his squares and pinning them together (the thing was solid pins when he was done!), we started sewing.

Meanwhile, Aidan had chosen red felt for his project and took great care in cutting out perfect squares.  He also opted to add some buttons on his.  So, after making a pile of buttons and some brief instruction, he started patiently sewing.  I thought that he would lose interest after 2 or 3, but he put 7 buttons on and even threaded the needle by himself.

When the projects were done, it was proudly declared that they would be pillows for their pets (stuffed animals).  They were both so pleased with the results and I was amazed that they did so well.  Guess who will be doing all the mending from now on?  Yeah, I know, it will probably still be me.  Oh well, I'm sure their future wives will thank me one day for teaching them this life skill, right?

Monopoly

The boys are really enjoying the Monopoly game that we got for Christmas.  Well, except Owen, his job is to roll the dice for me for right now and he's happy with that.  We play in 30 minute blocks, which seems just long enough for these young tycoons, then everybody puts all their money and property into an envelope marked with their name and the space they were on.  It has been a few years since I have played and we've had to consult the instructions a couple of times to refresh our memories, and I'd forgotten how much math is in the game -- I guess I don't have to feel bad about missing our math lesson this morning, this was way more fun!

 

Isaac is in jail until the next time!

Fish

Guess what we did today.  No, we didn't go fishing (but we watched some fishing) and we didn't have fish for supper (that would have been mean under the circumstances and not very filling), we got a pet fish!  The boys would prefer something a little more interactive, but given that our house to people ratio keeps shrinking, bigger pets will have to wait until we get a bigger house.

We started by getting a book from the library.  I know, "how hard can it be to look after a goldfish?", but I wanted this to be a "project" and ... think about who we are talking about.  Also reading it in a book meant that these weren't just rules that I was making up -- me?  I never do that!  Anyway, we spent a few days talking about fish in general and how to care for pet fish (no, you cannot sleep with it, or feed it your broccoli or take it for a walk -- would I really make up such rules?).

 

This, by the way, was the first time that Owen has ever written his own name!  Yes, that is really a "W", can't you tell?

So, off we went to the pet store today, full of knowledge about how to pick out the best goldfish.  After walking past all the puppies, kittens, birds, reptiles, hamsters, ferrets, etc. and having to stop at each cage to check them all out -- going to the pet store is a complete adventure in itself! -- we found the fish.  I was amazed that not once did I have to say "no, we cannot get a (insert animal here)".  After picking out a cute little fish (and ignoring the book's advice on not picking from a tank with floaters -- we didn't have much choice), the guy bagged him up and we were on our way. 

Then the debate was on as to what we should name the little fella.  Owen suggested "Santa Claus" (not sure what about the fish brought to mind a plump, jolly guy), but was overruled.  In the end they decided on "Nemo".  Not very original, I know, but given their track record of naming things, the fish is lucky his name is not "Fish".  Seriously, they are not very original name pickers -- their stuffed animals are named brown bear, yellow bear, big dog ... you get the idea!).  Oddly enough, "Nemo" is Owen spelled upside and backwards -- interesting.

Nemo is adjusting to life in the Winter house and is now accepting visitors.  Cross your fingers that he lives for more than a day or two.  I suppose it would then turn into a lesson on the cycle of life!