Happy Birthday Zoe!

 We had plans to go out for her birthday, but instead had to stay home because Austyn had a fever.

 

She woke up early to open gifts before Daddy left for work. This worked out because at least she could enjoy her gifts all day since we couldn't go out.

 She couldn't go through the day without making a gift for me. She put some odds and ends in a box and wrapped it up for me. 

 She had a fun day playing and fell asleep on the couch inside a bin she just got. 

 After supper we had cake and played a game.

She chose her favourite game. It's called Guess What I Am. She took this picture of Daddy playing.

Hockey Play Offs

 The play-offs have started. This means that the season is coming to an end.

They are going to miss their friends.

Lego Quest - Food

Zoe and Austyn both made something this time. Austyn made a roast chicken and lettuce salad and Zoe made a big sandwich. Here is the link to Lego Quest to see what other kids made.

This moment - What is that under my bed?

{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. 

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

Kitties Love to Watch

When the kids get busy on a project the cats are there. When we play games the cats are there. Just about everything we do at home, the cats are there. They love to watch us and be with us. Here is a picture of Zoe getting into a project that she initiated on her own and one of our cats is right up close watching. Zoe is so use to this that she just keeps on working away and the cat just keeps on watching.

Finding Balance

I've been trying to find support on the board that I created. It's called unprocessed learning. I have been posting some of the issues that I'm having with unschooling. One of those issues is finding balance. I've asked how other unschooling parents do everything and still have time with their kids - in particular Radical Unschoolers. I've got no reply so I've resorted to chore lists. The kids don't seem to mind so far. I laminated the lists. They like reading their own chores and checking them off with their favourite colour of marker. They had a say in what is on the list and I have my own chore list as well.

I needed to try these chore lists because it seems that I'm cleaning up after them and doing chores all day long and hardly getting the time I (or they) want me to spend with them, or we are spending a great deal of time together and the house is totaled. Some would say that the time spent with them is more important than how clean the house is, but what they don't realize is that with a messy house it's hard to do anything. We need to find that balance.

It also seems that with moving it takes a long time to find the correct place to put things, my grove for maintaining a house, and keeping up with the needs of the kids. In my experience it takes over a year. It seems like once I find that perfect groove, we move again. It can be so frustrating some days.

If the message board doesn't take off soon, sadly, I will likely delete it. It was started for support but if there is no support on it, I don't see why I should keep moderating it. There are a good number of Canadians on it and I think that makes it more unique than other boards.

Books on the iPad

The iPad has proven to be a good investment so far. Sure, sometimes we play games that seem to have no educational relevance, but it has also been a great educational tool. I will do a post on some of the apps we use. Here is Zoe using it to read a story. She has seen just about every Alice In Wonderland movie that exists, has acted out all of her favourite scenes and memorized many of the sayings and songs. Now she is listening to the story on our iPad. The program she uses is called vBookz. She chooses the book off the virtual shelf and can get the program to read the book to her. It has a little rectangular magnifying glass that moves along the lines and highlights each word as the program reads it.

Business Cards

I sat with each of them to make their own business cards. I thought it was a fun idea since we've been meeting friends that we'd like to keep in touch with. Zoe's business card is a princess theme and Austyn's business card is on raptor spotting. They started to hand out a few at hockey practice with our supervision.

Book Sharing Monday - Cat & Mouse

Cat & Mouse by Ian Schoenherr is such a fun book. 

My kids both laughed their heads off at the images. We have two cats and I guess Austyn and Zoe could truly relate to the way cats react to certain things. The story is fun and reminds us of two nursery rhymes while entertaining with the illustrations. This will be a regular in our home.

Art of Matter

 

We used a book from our library called Touch It! Materials, matter and you. I think it's targeted to the very young (which is perfect for Zoe). Usually we use books that are more directed at Austyn.

I put all kinds of things in a muffin tin, got out some glue and card stock. They made pictures using different materials.