Fun with our Little Stuffed Friends!

 In our house school and play merge. We sometimes choose (consciously) to do school but we usually do it with our stuffed friends. Story time can be in a cozy circle of stuffed animals and dolls on the floor.

 The stuffed animals come in handy when practicing real life situations. One good example of this is when they played hospital. They lined their stuffed friends up all the way down the hall as Dr. Zoe checked each one and Nurse Austyn kept things going smoothly.

Doing math and art in our class room (living room, in this case) involves the attention of the whole class, not just two children. It's common to have stuffed animal hands held up in the middle of work for a funny question.

Muttart Conservatory

 We went to The Muttart Conservatory with one of our homeschool groups. The kids saw a video and planted a plant to bring home.

 They took a tour of the conservatory through their senses. In each area they discussed their senses and what was different in each area.

 These are insect goggles. They took turns looking for fruit in the tropical room. It wasn't easy with these compound eyes. 

 What a cute picture.

 They had many discussions and question and answer sessions.

 They got to let lady bugs go. Here is Zoe's lady bug.

 She watched it for a while after letting it go. 

 Here is Austyn's lady bug.

They did many activities with their chosen partner. Austyn had two partners.

Here is a spider I watched.

 Since the kids were well taken care of by the Muttart staff, I was able to sneak away and get some pictures. Here are a few. 

New Friends

 We went to visit new friends who also just moved to this area. It was fun. I think everyone had a great time.

 This is bumpy stair sliding races.

this moment - queen of drama

{this moment}

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{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

Poor Sick Kid!! Look at all those spots!!

If you would like to see what others have posted or if you would like to join in here is the link to SouleMama's Blog:
http://www.soulemama.com/soulemama/2011/01/this-moment.html

Telus World of Science - Narnia

 We went to The Telus World of Science for Family Day to check out the Narnia exhibit. We saw the White Queens dress.

 We felt a frozen waterfall and read about how weather is controlled by global warming. We got to lift battle gear.

 We learned how a stone arch is built. 

 Zoe made a Lucy doll and outfits out of paper.

 Austyn made a shield and decorated it with symbols.

We saw many other outfits from the movies and saw the wardrobe that the author used which inspired him to write about Narnia.

Book Sharing Monday - Secret of the Dance

Secret of the Dance by Andrea Spalding and Alfred Scow is a fictional story based on the true story of a first nations boy named Alfred who was born in Alert Bay in 1927. He grew up during the time in Canadian history when the federal government banned first nations tribes from practicing their traditional celebrations and dances. 

His family took a long, secret journey to a private location so that the elders could perform a sacred dance called a Potlach.

The children were told to stay in bed and not to leave the house that night. Alfred left the house to see what the adults were doing once the other children were fast asleep. If the government officials would have caught them the adults involved would have two choices; go to prison or have their masks and ceremonial regalia confiscated. Most aboriginal people caught in Canada chose prison to be able to keep their masks. If children were caught involved in the ceremony they would be removed from their families.

I love learning about the good aspects and also the sad aspects of our Canadian history. There are so many things that I never learned in school. I'm always amazed at how awful the first nations were treated.
A whole generation of children didn't get to experience the joys of their own heritage through ceremony and dance. How did that affect them? How would we deal with someone telling us that we can't celebrate Christmas or Halloween? I can only hope that life is better for the first nations today.

To join in on the fun of Book Sharing Monday or to read other entries visit http://canadianhomelearning.blogspot.com/