Train Station Field Trip!

 

 We sat down and watched a movie about railways in our area and in Canada. I learned somethings and I quietly repeated some of the film to Austyn to keep his interest. Each child was given a post card to take home with a picture of the train station on the front.

 After the film we explored the station and Kev read about trains to Austyn.

 Once we were finished in the station we went outside in the rain to go inside a caboose. 

 There was a model train set up.

There were two telegraph machines set up so the kids could be at either end of the caboose and send messages to each other in morse code. Austyn still remembers reading about Thomas Edison and using the telegraph sparked an interest in making one of our own. I have looked up the instructions and am planning on getting the materials we need to make them at home. 

Recycled Booklet Fun!

 

I watched some interesting videos many months ago on the internet about different ways to make little booklets. While visiting relatives the kids got interested in a pile of papers that were set out to be used for camp fires. They were all of the extra pages that got printed when printing websites. I remembered learning about how to recycle the pages easily and use them for little books. I thought it'd be a great way to keep them occupied while visiting. So, I picked up some papers and started to fold and cut.

Here are all of the beautiful books that Zoe made. I have to add here about how she told each story over and over in detail and in the process also learned what "Step Mother" and "Step Sister" means. Her story books were on Cinderella/Zoe and while reading to her Grandma about the step mother and the step sisters Grandma (being silly) said, "Step mother? Do you mean she was made from a step?" and Zoe couldn't answer. She just wanted to move on with the story and could tell that it was suppose to be a joke. But after she was finished telling her story again, I asked her if she knew what it meant to have "Step" infront of mother or sister. She didn't so her and I had a great conversation about it. After the conversation her stories changed to express the feelings of poor Cinderella/Zoe who missed her mother so much. It was so sweet!

I don't know if you can tell by the pictures above or not but Zoe used an effect on her name. It's called "beading". Earlier that day I showed her how to bead. She liked it so much that she used it all over her book and finished the above picture that I started for her. I found this effect in a book.

The book is called "Games for Writing by Peggy Kaye".

For those of you who know Austyn or have read our blog, you might remember that he's not interested in printing or doing anything with a pencil at all. Well, it was so cool, because as soon as he saw what Zoe was doing he decided he wanted his own book. I made his long and thin to be different. He loved it and chose to make a rule book for his pretend bank. I wanted to encourage him to do most of it on his own. I had just finished reading the information in "Games for Writing" and knew that by encouraging him to do it without worrying about too many details was so important. So, I reassured him that he could make mistakes and that it wasn't a big deal. I told him not to be worried too much about his letters and to just relax and let it happen. It did! He relaxed and just wanted me to help him with spelling. He used his eraser a couple of times and even switched to the left hand when his right hand got tired. The book turned out wonderful! He came up with most of the rules on his own. I love it!

Lincoln Blocks

We've had these building blocks for months now and the kids maybe picked them up twice. Since we've been sharing them at the Pioneer Mini Co-Op Austyn has been using them much more. His next log adventure is supposedly going to be an old fort and he'll use his army men to fight a war. This is a great way to  move into seeing an old war reenactment that we'll be watching soon.

Rediscovering a Book!

While sorting through our home library I found a book that seems to fit perfectly for us this summer. It's a book that I picked up at a used book sale and we've not used it yet. I was flipping through and it seems to be something that would work well for us right now. 

It's all about nature. It's packed full of nice quick reads and activities. The book is nicely broken up into usable subject groups. Here is the list of subjects broken down in chapters. I think we may do the subjects out of order. We'll just choose what makes sense for us to study first.

Here are the Contents:

Chapter 1

Trees

Chapter 2

Green Plants

Chapter 3

Soil

Chapter 4

Animals

Chapter 5

Birds

Chapter 6

Insects and Spiders

Chapter 7

Weather 

I am a bit excited about this book and our activities. I can't wait to share some of them with you here as we study nature in our neighbourhood.

What is The National Sport of Canada?

If you said Hockey, you are wrong! 

It's Lacrosse. 

It may not be as popular as Hockey but it's cheaper to play and the game can be played all year round. Right now is the main season for Lacrosse and Austyn is signed up for the team here. Because of the lack of kids there is only a travel team in our area, but it's fun and we get to travel to other towns to play other teams. The above picture is of one of his games. 

If you want to learn more about this game you can google it. Here is the Wikipedia link for the History of Lacrosse.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_lacrosse

Canadian Pioneers Mini Co-Op - Week Two - Outdoor Activities

For half of our Co-Op we learned about farm life on a dairy farm. Obviously farms were not like they are today but it still gave them a memorable experience. The kids could touch the cows and ask any questions they wanted to. They learned how the farm was run.

We learned about the milk and how the calf is bottle fed a few days after it is born. The kids put their ears up to the tank to listen to the milk getting turned inside. 

We can't forget the smaller critters at the farm! This potato bug is very happy to live here.

Of course where there is an abundance of milk there must be cats! This young cat is pregnant and Zoe is feeling her tummy.

We found these cats in a large plastic barrel. The kids just had to hold the kittens.

The kittens made many new friends that day.

Can't leave anyone out. The mother cat got a great deal of attention.

As we gathered up the kids and left the barn we said "goodbye" to this black cat sleeping high up on this pile of hay bails. 

What's a homeschool trip to the farm without a splash in the mud?!

Canadian Pioneers Mini Co-Op - Week Two - Indoor Activities

For half of our time at the Co-Op we were indoors. Much of what we did indoors was a repeat of last week. Many of the kids didn't get to do all of the indoor activities and a couple of families missed the first week. Above is the Lincoln Blocks and the Preschool Threading/Sewing Set.The basket and pioneer game continued. This week as well and can be seen at the tables above.

A new activity this week was to sew their own book marks. They turned out great. Some children made pin cushions or dolls again.

Another new activity was to build little wooden homes.

Some of the kids headed outside as the sun came out to do some outdoor games that pioneers did, but it quickly turned into something else all together. We considered stopping them but after some strict rules and moms designated to go and watch them closely they burned wood and leaves with magnifying glasses.

The smaller kids looked for bugs with the magnifying glasses. It's funny how kids just take things in a whole new direction. Sometimes it's not even related, but in our group if it's educational and nobody is getting hurt we are happy to just leave them alone to learn what they want. The picture above is of a tiny millipede.

Decorating the Van with a New Friend