Taking Initiative

I just love it when my kids get what they need and go and do something all on their own. Here Zoe picked up a library book. She looked through it and decided on a craft that interested her. She got the supplies that she needed, set herself up at the table, and proceeded to make the craft from the book.

This doesn't always happen, but when it does, I just think it's great!!

Avocado Sprout!

 I can't remember, but I think we started this at the beginning of April. It took this long to see that it's growing roots and a stem. 

 Basically, what we did was we were careful to not cut the pit when we ate an avocado. We washed it and kept it in a clean extremely wet paper towel/napkin in a sealed plastic container. It took months. The pit got soft and then cracked and eventually this grew out of it.

We took it out and planted it in some dirt. Soon we'll have a plant!

Educational Gardens

 If you do nothing else educational for your kids, be sure to have a garden. Even if they don't want to help much, they can learn so much from it.

  The creatures that decide to live in or around the garden are always interesting.

 These pictures were taken at least a couple of weeks ago. Looking at these, I realize just how quick these plants grow. 

 Having a garden, we notice beauty that we may otherwise passed by and not noticed.

 We create life, and provide food and shelter for other living creatures.

 These are the first vegetables we picked. What a great way to learn where our food comes from!

We went outside and picked leaves, peas, and beans and we brought them in to look at more closely. 

Gardens are great!!

Juggling Kids' Sports

Phew... life, juggling sports between two kids has been a challenge. It's been fun though! Zoe is now finished. On the last tournament she was in her team won every game. Actually, they've never lost a game! It was their first year having a team at this level and there was a learning curve for all. Now we all know that the travel team for her age group (5-6's) check! We didn't know that. The kids didn't seem to mind. I'm sure all of that extra equipment helped.

Zoe was the only girl on the travel team. It was great experience for her. She played well, for her first year of lacrosse. 

That same weekend, Austyn was at a tournament in another location. He got a medal as well and they won their first game. We were so proud of them.

On the last day of Lacrosse Zoe got to play with parents and siblings and eat pizza. She got another medal and a team jacket with her name on it. 

Now that her lacrosse is done and our homeschool activities have slowed down, life will be a bit easier. I know this has seemed like a sports blog lately. I guess that is because much of our time at home is organizing and still unpacking, if you can believe that! I've given the kids some time to settle in a bit and let the stress of the past fade away. We've been slowly doing more and more educational activities at home, now that things are getting more organized. 

Making House Work Fun!

 One day, while cleaning up the house I thought of a creative way to get the kids involved. I made name tags! Yup... that's it! Name tags is ALL it took to get the kids doing house work. I'm serious!! It's true!! Not only that! They expanded it into reading, writing, and they also decided to do more than what the name tags implied they should do! 

Her name tag read "Official Duster Girl" and his was "Official Floor Boy". We redid his name tag to include other tasks. I can't remember what the final name tag said. 

They decided to grab the small clip boards that we bought recently at the dollar store and some recipe cards and started to make a check list. After each task was done they'd put a check to the side of each task they wrote down and would give me a verbal update of what is finished and what they still needed to do.

When Zoe cleaned the table and chairs, she made an "Out of Order" sign for each side, so that nobody would sit down and get wet. 

I was so impressed with how one simple thing brought about such an educational, imaginative, and fun day!

A Day In The Life Of A Pioneer Child

We attended a really cool field trip that was set up as a part of the homeschool Co-Op. One of the classes that Austyn is taking is Pioneer Life. It's nearing the end of the Co-Op so the teacher set up this trip. What a great experience! The kids first listened to stories from the women. They learned what it was like back in England compared to life in Canada. They talked about the trip here and why they moved to Canada.

Work never stopped. While telling stories, things still needed to get done.

Apparently boys had to do the jobs that required more lifting or muscle. Here the boys are moving and stacking the firewood.

The girls started off the day with a good rug beating.

The girls washed the clothes. They were EXTREMELY dirty. 

They carried the clothes over to the wooden fence and hung them on the fence and then they folded the dry blankets.

The boys carried the buckets. There was no water this time, but they would have hauled the water in the early days.

When they were busy or away the girls did their jobs as well. Boys rarely ever did the jobs that were considered for the girls.

Candle-making took up some of their time. The wicks needed to be dunked in the bees wax between 50 and 80 times.

It was a good deal of work, but the kids really enjoyed themselves.

Near the end they got to visit the schoolhouse. This was a good day for us. I think we will need to return to the museum to visit the rest of the exhibits another day.

3-on-3 Hockey

After being on a home team for winter, Austyn decided that he wanted to try 3-on-3 hockey. He loves it and has been getting some great goals! It has been proving to be great experience for him. We may decide to continue on with it instead of signing him up for a hockey camp this summer. Grandpa has really enjoyed watching these games. They are very exciting. I think he hollers more than we do! LOL!!!

Hands-On Farm Experience

 We went on a field trip with one of our homeschool groups to Rainbows End Farm. It was a great way to learn more about farm animals. In the above picture the donkey across the lane is being stubborn. 

The farm is set up in stations and at each there is a laminated sign that talks about the animals there and gives an activity for each child to try.

 Zoe feeding the baby goats.

 She was an expert at catching animals. 

 Austyn caught one.

The older goats loved to chew on my pants.

 Austyn feeding the baby goats with his friends.

 This kitty was hiding from the crowd of kids.

 The little ones were learning about rabbits and got to hold a baby.

 Zoe enjoyed this.

 Austyn got to hold a baby rabbit with the older kids as well.

 They took a goat for a walk around the farm yard.

 They could touch the goslings and ducklings.

 I placed a duckling on Zoe's lap.

 They got to choose to walk a donkey, a lama, or an alpaca. 

 They got to brush a donkey.

 Feeding the animals can be fun.

 These cows didn't mind visitors at all. They just lounged in the sun.

 Here is Zoe holding one of the chicks from the incubator.

 Austyn held a duckling.

 Austyn's friend had such a nice, warm, comfortable hold that his duckling fell right to sleep. 

 We took a wagon ride around the farm to see some more animals and ask questions about them.

This farm was an all around experience. Animals, farm life, nature, playing with friends. I have a couple more posts to do on this farm. Stay tuned for some pictures of their play time and nature on the farm.