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!

Book Sharing Monday - Animalia

 This is a book we've borrowed and read many times since we have moved back to Ontario. I'm not sure why it's a favourite, but it could be the cool pictures and the interesting alphabetical descriptions.

Zoe usually is the one bringing this book home. Austyn's favourite page is the one on dragons.

We discovered, after reading this book a few times, that there is a child hiding in every picture. My kids love looking for hidden things in pictures, so they loved this book even more then they already loved it.

Lego Club

 Recently, I was able to get enough Lego to continue on with Lego Club. As soon as I had my hands on the pieces, I booked a club day the same week. I started to look in September for Lego, but it has taken THIS long to get enough to run it with our own Lego, because nobody wants to give up their Lego.

 I know I've said the benefits of Lego Club before, but it does the obvious, which is inspires creativity and fosters friendships. It is also physics, math, science, mechanics, co-operation, team building, public speaking, and so much more! We have the kids bring their Lego creations from home or a picture. At the end of our time together they share what they have done at home and also what they made at the club. It's like show-and-tell. 

Austyn brought his Titanic that he made at home. We have been displaying it on our fireplace mantle so, even though he made it a couple of weeks ago, it's still in great shape. He changed a couple of things on the boat since that earlier picture. He added a couple of tall stacks and put a string across between them.

 After a little while Zoe got bored of Lego and went to play on the computer in another room and two of her friends followed. 

It's great to have this club, finally, established and open to ALL homeschoolers in our area. Watching the kids together, having so much fun made it all worth it!

Book Sharing Monday - Let's Play

I don't usually choose books like this for my Book Sharing Monday posts. It just needed to be shared! This book is great for all of those homeschooling families who are looking for some fun traditional games that can be played with no items at all or things that are easy to find.

This book takes us back and puts a twist on all of the old games that were played when our parents were children. There was no technology and games were more social and interactive. What a great way to interact with friends and family. Put the board games and video games away. This book can be used in indoor, or outdoor play and with just about any age. There are different versions of tag, hide and seek, hop scotch and many more. The ideas in this book will show up in our homeschool park days, for sure!

Homeschool Skating Ends

 There were only a handful of us on the last day of skating, but this year went well. We had families who came from the surrounding towns to skate. Some of the children have NEVER been on the ice before in their lives!! They have come so far and many of them don't use any kind of support anymore.

 The winter this year didn't give us many days with ice or snow, so it was nice to have the local arena to use during the day when all of the other kids were in school. 

I can't believe how well Zoe is doing. She does cross-overs now and skates so professionally for her age. She wants to take figure skating and hockey in the fall.

Austyn has benefited from the extra ice time as well. While many kids are finished with hockey and put their skates away he was doing 3-on-3 and homeschool skating every week.

I think we will have to organize this again next year!

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.

Book Sharing Monday - The Mother's Day Mice

The Mother's Day Mice by Eve Bunting is a beautiful story about some siblings who venture out to find the perfect present for their mother.

We enjoyed the story and the illustrations. This is a book that we read last year and will likely read it again this year for Mother's Day.