Book Sharing Monday - Happy New Year

 Happy New Year!! Usually I post these earlier than the actual date, but I decided that I'd start Book Sharing Monday again in the New Year and this is the New Year. I don't even know if anyone even does Book Sharing Monday anymore, because I've been out of the loop so long. I'll just do it on my own this week. Enjoy!

This is a book that we purchased from our local library. I'm not sure why people wouldn't want to borrow this book, but I'm not complaining, because now we own it! 

This has turned out to be the best book I've seen in a long time to explain to children how many different people around the world celebrate New Years. In some places New Years isn't celebrated on the same day as in North America. 

There are customs in this book that we may like to adopt in our home. It is an easy read, so young readers can read it on their own if they choose to. 

Our Holiday Season

We have been involved in the French Story Time at our local library. The teacher is amazing and the kids have learned so much. Here is a song they sang infront of a bunch of parents for Christmas. Austyn has taken an interest in singing and was asked to sing a part of the song solo.

 We really never stop homeschooling. Our life is full of learning and educational activities. We learned about Christmas past, other religious holidays, watched movies, made crafts and much more. The kids made these pictures to give as gifts. Austyn ended up liking his too much to give away, but I thought that the concept was creative. I didn't give them the idea to do these pictures this way. They did this on their own. Zoe's is the one covered in tape. She still really enjoys using tape over glue.

 We have been visiting family more since we've been here in Ontario. My mother got a few visits from us. We can't paint in the house we are in, easily so we go to her house to paint and do other crafts. The kids got to choose things around the house to give to people. These two boxes are gifts they chose for eachother.

 What did we do with our Christmas crafts? We decorated Grandma's tree!

 We are still living with relatives, but this didn't mean we stopped some of our own traditions. We made cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. This always includes a great deal of joking around.

 We took the time to write Santa letters and then we also did a letter to keep with the cookies. Zoe did the top part and Austyn did the bottom.

 One of the most memorable gifts that they got first thing on Christmas morning was the Bell off of Santa's Sleigh. Austyn had the great idea of asking Santa for this on his letter because we read about how the little boy got a bell in the book Polar Express.

Above are a couple of the surprised looks they had opening gifts Christmas morning. Nanny, Papa, and Grandpa were all there.

We went to more relatives for supper.

 Zoe enjoyed doing make-up and hair.


Austyn enjoyed singing to everyone.

On Boxing Day we saw more family. This is the first time that everyone was together (except one person) in many years. It was nice.

First Holiday Craft

I remembered doing this craft at a Homeschool Co-Op a couple of years ago and decided to pull it up on the iPad and do it with the kids. We are a bit limited because we don't know where many of our craft supplies are, but this craft just requires, paper, scissors, a stapler, and tape.

Mine is on the left. I followed the directions exactly. Zoe did the one on the right. I'm so proud of her because she did it all by herself except for the stapling. Austyn's is in the middle. I helped him a great deal. The cool thing about Austyn's is that his has more ribbons cut and a bigger center, on each arm of the snowflake. It looks different than ours and turned out amazing.

HERE is the link to make them yourself.

He is now 8 Years Old!

I can't believe that he is eight years old! Where does the time go?! We celebrated his Birthday in Florida with a Captain America cake.

Easter at Our House

 Things have been a bit crazy with trying to find somewhere else to live. So, I'm a bit behind in posts. Zoe and Austyn coloured some eggs before Easter.

Zoe decided to make a picture for the Easter bunny. Here is the front and it says "Dear Easter Bunny". She tried to spell it on her own.

 The other side says "From Zoe". Again, she did this on her own.

 She gave the bunny one of her eggs in another envelope and it says "For Easter Bunny" on the front.

 Here are the gifts left on the table. 

It took them a long time to search for all of the eggs. I'm wondering if I'll find one or two during our move.

Happy New Year!

 We went downtown with some new homeschool friends for New Years Eve. Here the kids are getting a good view of the magic show.

 Some poor kid is assisting with a magic trick.

 They are decorating their New Years shakers with their new homeschool friends.

 Who needs skates anyway? Sliding on ice can be just as fun!

 There is a great view of the city behind them as they slide around.

 This is the building we were in for some of the New Year events. This is City Hall.

The inside of the building is just as beautiful.

This is a view of the library, CBC and other buildings with all of the preparations for a busy New Years Eve happening in front.

 This is the Art Museum. You can see Daddy and Zoe bringing us Pizza they just purchased.

This is the Children's Library. We got a good look through the windows and can't wait to come back and check this place out when it's open.

GloDOODLE

Zoe is enjoying her second favourite Christmas gift. Her first is her make-up. This is the GloDOODLE.  She plays with it in bed before she goes to sleep.

The light can have different colour settings. She writes me messages on it and pictures.

Our Christmas

 

The kids woke up at 3AM to open gifts and instead of listen to them not sleep we all got up to open gifts. After we did that we went back to bed until relatives started to call us to wish us a good day.  

Here is Zoe showing off a new dress and her new make-up.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and getting our supper ready. We had turkey, cheese potatoes in the crock pot and corn. Supper was early so we could eat with our family back in Ontario on SKYPE. Eating with them virtually was almost as good as really being there and we played a game until some of them had to leave to return to their homes.

Our Christmas Eve

 

On Christmas Eve we made cookies. Here we are making shortbread cookies and got a bit carried away with the powdered sugar. 

Here they are baking. These cookies have some dried cranberries on top.

Daddy made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies because that is Santa's favourite, of course.

Here they are on the cooling rack.

For supper I made Minestrone Soup in the crock pot.

They wrapped gifts that they picked out. I love how they did printed on their tags and just had to get a picture.

The kids made pictures for Santa and put out cookies and milk with carrots for the reindeer.

We usually all open one small gift on Christmas Eve but this year just the kids opened one.

Merry Christmas!

Handy Crafts Before Christmas

Here are some crafts we worked on this week. It was my first attempt at beeding. I'm making a snake bookmark for Austyn. Zoe made the dog (well she started it and I finished it for her) and it's orange on the otherside (we worked with what pieces of felt we could find). Austyn made the bird almost completely by himself and he started beeding himself a bracelet. We threw out all of the recycled stuffing we had before we moved here to save space so we stuffed the bird and the dog with dried rice. Austyn put a large bead in the birds head for a brain.

The three of us spent some bonding time while we worked away at our crafts and chatted. It was nice.

My Silly Kids say Happy Holidays!

We haven't done much this year for the Holidays, but we still had fun. Moving across the country and selling a house tend to get in the way of any homeschool plans but we still found many fun educational things to do each day.This is a game called Guess What I am. You put your face in an unknown board and you ask yes or no questions to figure out what you are. We took this a step farther and made it a fun drama moment where the kids chose the animals they wanted to be and they made the faces or acted out the character. We had so much fun! This is what I hope for everyone during the Holidays. It is our hope that you have fun this season! Happy Holidays!