A Day with Nature...

An early morning hike + meeting new friends + a picnic lunch + fishing for tadpoles + watching goslings = a perfect day!

Fairy and Princess...

Fairy was helping Princess out this afternoon with her drawing. Princess was so careful drawing her little stick man and those other shapes (whatever they are!). Too cute!
Fairy did another watercolour painting. She had asked me for inspiration, so I had answered "how about a garden?" She still wants to outline the butterfly, the cart and the plants, but it is still a bit too wet right now. I think it's already beautiful.

More Math?

I was planning on doing some fun math games and reading math stories this summer, but I think we have already started!

I found this DVD at the library yesterday. Dragon, Princess and I watched it this morning, while Fairy was painting. It was really well done. Here is a link that explains more : Reading Rainbow "How Much is a Million?" .
I was expecting just the book to be read aloud, along with the illustrations. I haven't watched this PBS show before, so I didn't know how it worked. After the story, there was a visit to the Crayola Crayon Factory and to the Giants Stadium. The Giants Stadium talked about estimating, how they need to estimate the amount of food that will be serve, how many toilet paper rolls they will need for the 72 washrooms!
You can watch a sneak peak here. There is also a Parent/Teacher page with some extra ideas to go along with the book, check it out here and here.

Cute Little Math Story Book

Dragon is having fun with this story. It talks about the Numbers living at the Hotel Infinity. The black and white illustrations are appealing and Dragon laughs every time we read about the cat that is trying to figure things out!
Fun and Math don't usually go in the same phrase for me, but in this case...it does!
The book is " The Cat in Numberland" written by Ivar Ekeland.

Going further every time...

Something for Me

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that a local sports store was offering an eight week learn-to-run class, and I joined it. I have been wanting to get back into running for the last four years, and I have tried on my own, here and there...but nothing consistent. I am determined to get back into it completely this time, and I think it will be easier with a group! When I first started to run four years ago, it was with a Running Room learn-to-run clinic too...and it worked! So I am optimistic.

At the end of the eight weeks, we will be running a local 5K race, that is happening during a festival. Should be lots of fun!

Why is my picture showing 2 pairs of running shoes? Well, Fairy also wants to learn to run. I didn't sign her up for the actual class, but she will come along every day, or every other day when I am doing my training. This week we start with a 5mn warm up walk, then we repeat the following patern 10 times : 1 mn run, 2 mn walk.

Newspaper Hut

I found this idea on Pepper Paints, here is the link where you can see all the directions for this fun project. It didn't take long to do, but did use a lot of newspaper!

The kids love it, and Adrienne  is even using it as a spot to finish her science schoolwork! During the building phase, Celeste  was jumping through the triangles...so I am going to see about making a hopscotch with the newspaper tubes for her...an indoor one could be fun!

Author Fiesta - Patricia Polacco Links

Fairy and I have been working on our Author Fiesta and enjoying it a lot too.
Fairy worked on the copy work suggested...and what a great quote it is (read it at the end of my post)! Fairy also filled out the author research form.
We were able to find all the information at two websites:
Wikipedia and Patricia Polacco.com. We found out that there is a Meteor Festival on July 12 at the author's home in Union City, Michigan. It looks like it is about two and half hours from here. Fairy would love to go! We'll see...
On the author's site, there are colouring pages, quizzes on the books, bookmarks to print and a ton of information. Great site!
The kids and I also watched two of the books read by actors on BookPALS. The first title was "My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother" read by Melissa Gilbert, and the other one was "Thank you, Mr. Falker" read by Jane Kaczmarek. Both are great stories. Follow this link: books online.

"All of us have that "voice". It is where all inspired thoughts come from...but when you have electronic screens in front, of you, speaking that voice for you...it DROWNS OUT THE VOICE! When I talk to children and aspiring writers, I always ask them to listen to the voice, turn off the T.V. and LISTEN...LISTEN...LISTEN." Patricia Polacco.

Just Noticed Something...

I just realized that since I have moved, my posts have all been about exploring the town or family stuff...besides the Author Fiesta we are participating in. Not a lot about school stuff.
Well, we have been doing school work in the mornings, we started back after our move, on April 29. It was a bit slow at first, just covering math. There were still many boxes to unpack and the excitement of the move was still very much there. We moved in on April 22.
Anyway, by the second week, we were back to doing the basics, math, english (grammar/writing), spelling, reading aloud. My main concern right now are those subjects. We would all like to be finish soon, and we will be, definitely before the end of June.
The kids and I enjoy learning about history, science and geography so we won't mind finishing those through the summer if we have to. I am planning on doing some review for math through the summer months as well, using little fun workbooks and games.
I am slowly planning for next school year too...Once I have all figured out, I will post about it!

Another Beautiful Afternoon...

The kids and I went for a bike ride yesterday. We just ventured out, not really knowing where we were going...but ended up at a waterfront park we had been before anyway! It was another beautiful day, on the way back the kids had slushies...and then, for them, the day turned out to be even better! The leftovers of a garage sale were at the end of a driveway with a big FREE sign on them. Fairy noticed some Barbies, and since Princess just started getting interested in them, I let her have a look...She found several princess ones, Belle, Snow White...and outfits for all them, even a prince! We think it's Beast... Dragon was pleased to find a light saber and a few Spiderwick MacDonald's toys! The best find I thought were a collection of finger puppets. The kids have a little theater already.
Anyway, it felt like Christmas to them! I just kept thinking of that saying...one person's garbage is another one's treasure! You can see their "stash" in the last picture.

Author Fiesta

Cay Gibson is a homeschool mom and writer that has put together a monthly "Author Fiesta". You can find out more about it at this blog : Author Fiesta

The author for the month of May is Patricia Polacco. I have taken out a few books from the library that we will start reading this week. The titles we are reading can be found on the left side, under May Author Fiesta. We are looking forward to meeting a new author!

It's Her Birthday Today!

A Simple Afternoon

Watching trains go by and waving at them, riding bikes, blowing bubbles and doing chalk...perfect way to spend a sunny afternoon outside waiting for Nana and Papa to arrive!

I like playing around with my camera, and this last one I find funny! I have the back end of the wasp...and without realizing it, I also caught an ant or some small bug on the branch!

Cooking on a Rainy Day

Princess likes to help me cook. She gets right into it. I can always count on her dragging her chair over to see whatever I might be doing in the kitchen. I don't mind at all! Today was a rainy day, so I decided to make a soup.

Fairy and I like this lentil soup. I have been making it for the last few years, it is usually perfect on a winter day, or a rainy day like today.

Here is the recipe:

1 Tablespoon of oil (I use grape seed oil)
1 Leek chopped finely
1 cup of turnip grated
2 carrots grated
1 parsnip grated
3 potatoes cut up in small cubes
1 cup orange lentils
4 cups chicken, vegetable stock or water. enough to cover everything

In large saucepan add 1 tablespoon of oil and heat
Add leeks and stir for 2 minutes on medium heat
Add the stock or water
Add all the other vegetables
Add lentils
Cook until all the vegetables are soft
I then puree everything with a hand blender, right in the pot. Add salt and pepper as desired.