Today was our first Family Clay class, and it was dino-riffic! :-) Daegan has done a bit of work with clay in some of the art classes he’s taken, and asked to do a clay class with Mom or Dad. Well, this is even better: a class all four of us could take together. We had to wait until now to start, though, as the youngest age they accept is 4. Gareth made the cut-off by a few weeks.

In today’s class we put clay over top of an upside-down nylon/mesh-wrapped bowl to build a landscape—“like a beach, a forest, a desert…whatever your favourite type of place is” said the teacher. Right away Daegan starts getting upset as all he wants to build are dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. So I asked him, “Are you going to build a Jurassic or a Cretaceous landscape?” and he merrily went to work. Jim worked with Gareth, who also opted to make a prehistoric landscape.

We made dinos, snails, fossils, dinosaur nests and eggs, palm trees, crocodilians, leaves (imprints with a stamp), an elasmosaur (sea creature), prehistoric bugs…all the while Daegan is chattering away and amazing everyone within earshot with his knowledge of all things prehistoric. Racking my brains for other creatures to make, I asked Daegan if I should make a trilobite. “No,” he laughed, “This is the Cretaceous, and trilobites went extinct in the Permian.” Ah, yes. Silly me.

But then disaster. “It’s time to take our worlds off the bowls,” the teacher said. “You cut around the bottom with a knife, like this [which was going to wreck a number of fossils Daegan had carved into the clay], dig your fingers underneath and lift it off. Decide if you want your world to be flat, in which case squish it down, or rounded [in which case you were to stuff the base with newspaper].” Ack! I had no idea we would be taking it off the mold in this way—I thought perhaps we snipped the mesh, slipped it off the bowl, and the mesh would just disintegrate in the kiln. I made the base much too thin to be lifted easily, and we had so many creations on it. In the end, the only way to get it off at all was to cut in into three large pieces, wrecking lots of what Daegan had worked so hard to make. “You’ve got 10 minutes to fix it up,” we were informed, but it was too late. Daegan was in full meltdown mode.

So I whisked him out of the room, and tried and tried to calm him down. Working on keeping his emotions in check is one of Daegan’s on-going projects…and the same for me. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I tried various approaches and in the end, found one that worked. Daegan was able to calm himself and finish his project, clean up his spot in the classroom, and otherwise end the day on a good note.

So what was it that worked? An analogy. I talked about how in art, as in life, sometimes things happen that you can’t control, and it helps to learn to ‘go with the flow’. This got me nowhere at first. Me: “Let’s go in and draw some new fossils and imprints and make the best of it.” Daegan: “But it won’t be the same! It’s ruined!” Oy! I talked about how maybe a small asteroid had hit our world and shook things up, or maybe we started with Pangaea and now the world was breaking up…still no dice. But then I said, “It’s like when you mix colours. If you start with red and yellow, and they accidentally get mixed, you could call it a mistake and get all upset. Or you could say, “Wow. That made orange. I didn’t mean to make orange, but it’s not going to do me any good to say, “Put it back to red and yellow!” I’ll just have to make the best of it.” Success!

Daegan calmed down, started talking about how that would work with other colours too, like red and blue and purple, and that yes…I guess art is like that, Mom. It was good for me to see his upset, though, as other teachers had mentioned to me that he seemed to get very upset and frustrated at times, and they really didn’t know how to help him. Well, no kidding. Talking about colour combining isn’t going to work to calm down too many kids!

Looking forward to painting our world next week after it has been fired in the kiln. Hope to have some pictures to share then.

Here’s Daegan’s first attempt at making a cartoon. It’s called The Life Story of a Pteranadon, and is from his (yet to be completed) Cartoon History of the Earth. He drew the pics and created a told the narrative without any help; I was just behind the camera. Enjoy!

It’s been a slow, quiet, and somewhat tough day today—Gareth is sick, as am I. Was sitting here feeling sorry for myself—having to deal with a sick child when sick myself (no ‘sick days’ with this job!), clutter everywhere, laundry needing washing and folding, no idea what to do about the dreaded what’s-for-dinner question—when I turned around and realized how much I have to be grateful for. Here’s what I saw:

Yep—clutter, laundry, stains on the carpet (don’t let toddlers eat Oreos anywhere but at the dining table—or bathtub!), a cheap futon for a couch, remains of cereal bars and juice boxes the boys have fetched for themselves, a TV that has been on for hours straight. Nothing that’s going to make the cover of Better Homes and Gardens, that’s for sure!

But then I looked again, and realized how thankful I am to have that TV (yes, it’s older; not some plasma, flat screen, 42-inch wonder)—it’s distracted Gareth from his illness today, and kept both boys safe while I caught a nap myself. Grateful for the futon—even if some folks think it’s “too studenty!”—which provides a bed in front of the TV when needed. Grateful that Daegan covered his brother in a blanket; when I came downstairs after my nap, Daegs told me “Gareth fell asleep in front of the TV, so I covered him up.” Grateful for the cereal bars and juice boxes, which allow the boys to fend for themselves, extending my nap by precious minutes. The gas fireplace (wouldn’t we all prefer a crackling wood real one?) that keeps the basement toasty on a winter’s day. The laundry means we have clothes; the stains on the carpet a reminder of those all-too-fleeting toddler days. 

A home. For all of us. A source of comfort. Life is good, even with a sick 4 year old.

Been reading Everyday Opportunities for Extraordinary Parenting by Bobbi Conner (along with Pale Blue Dot, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Inside Out Girl—for my book club—and the latest Jane Green (British chick lit) novel in from the library…have I mentioned I am a voracious reader?), and found a quote that resonated with me.

“Throughout the four-million year history of humans living together in families, parents have had two jobs with children—to protect their children and to socialize their children. And, all of a sudden, in America I think those two jobs are at odds with each other.” – Mary Pipher

I don’t think they are at odds only in America; I’d say this is true in Canada and many other nations. Thoughts?

Yesterday Daegan watched Nova: The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies, about the monarch migration. I was working at my computer, half-listening to the show in the background. The part about the monarch’s wintering grounds in Mexico caught my attention.

While the Mexican government has set aside sections of the forest where the monarchs overwinter as a sanctuary, they do not have sufficient people (or money? or interest?) to enforce this. And some folks in the local Mexican population do not have enough money to feed themselves or their children. So the sanctuary area is being illegally logged, with devastating results for the monarchs. There are not enough trees to support the monarchs, and the trees in some areas are now so few and far between that they are not insulating enough in cold weather. “During one storm in a particularly harsh winter,'” the show said, “80% of the monarch population died.”

My proud moment came as Daegan turned to me and said, “Mom? Is there anything we can do to help the butterflies?” Teaching compassion for other living things, and caring for the environment is a big part of our ‘homeschooling agenda’. (And disappointingly, there was no info on how to help on the Nova website.) But what a complicated issue, as during a particularly harsh winter, the local Mexican population is no doubt going to be cold and hungry. I would have thought that eco-tourism would be an option here, but there are concerns that not enough trees remain to keep that monarch population viable. (A second population overwinters in southern California, but the main monarch population—all those that migrate east of the Rockies—overwinters in Mexico).

Makes me aware of how much international cooperation is required for so many environmental concerns. There are precidents here, like the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Let’s hope something can be done before it is too late. I don’t want to imagine summer without the migrating monarchs.

The boys and I found a neat website that taught you how to draw dinosaurs one step at a time. Here’s the step-by-step way to draw a Tyrannosaurus rex, and my attempt at doing so. (See? I am overcoming my art phobia! <g>):

Ok, so it’s not perfect, but I am quite pleased with it. It’s clearly not a generic dino, not a Triceratops, a Stegosaurus, or anything else. It’s a T rex!

Here’s Gareth’s T rex, who he said is lying down and sleeping:

These step-by-step drawings were clearly a bit much for him. Daegan, on the other hand, while also finding them challenging, did his best to follow the instructions and pay attention to detail. Here’s my favourite of his works, a Quetzalcoatlus, alongside the original:

Note the white ‘fur’ on the body (made from the fluffy bits of Q-tips), as many palaeontologists think Quetzy, as he is known in our house, may have had fur. (Anyone know why Daegan often flipped the orientation of his drawings, making them in mirror image to the original?)

And here’s 3 others, which suffer a bit from being crammed on the same page (but my suggestions of one creature per page, or starting a new page, were met with “Why? There’s lots of space right here!” Sigh. Not life-threatening, not morally threatening…let it go. <g>). In order, here’s velociraptor, oviraptor, and archaeopteryx:

The other dino art we did yesterday came from a game Daegan made up. He took all our dinosaur magnets off the fridge, and put them in a bag. “Let me teach a class,” he said. “I’ll teach you how to draw a dinosaur. First, you have to close your eyes and reach into the bag. Pull out a dino, but don’t look at it, and keep your eyes closed and count to 10. Now look at it and trace the outside to get its shape. Then there are three steps.

“First, you draw the skeleton (and he brought over a picture of the skeleton from one of his many dinosaur books so you had a model). Then, you draw on its muscles. Last, you colour on its skin, or sometimes feathers.”

I played the game once, making an apatosaurus (the dino we all used to call brontosaurus growing up). Other than not quite understanding why I needed to keep my eyes closed and count to 10, I thought it was a neat game!

My friend’s son, on his blog, issued a challenge to other kids: design a bug that can live under water. Here’s Daegan’s bug and his description of it:

My bug is called Coristerus snipperus, or Coral Snipper. Its diet is below—the little dots are phytoplankton, the (stuff to the left of the dots) zooplankton, and (the thing to the right of the dot) a little fish. It’s an omnivore. Its claws in front (right-hand side) are for snipping its food.

It has antennae to help it feel stuff because it doesn’t see very well.

The circle up top shows its lungs close-up. It has lungs because it can live outside the water as well. It breathes under water with its gills (vertical lines to the right of the lungs).

It has two long legs in back to whoosh (propel) it through the water. It has lots of little legs underneath to help it crawl on land.

It has two different types of teeth. The triangles (beside the gills) are canines, then it has 6 molars, and then more canines in front. It needs different types of teeth because it is an omnivore.

At the back it has a stinger to help it sting predators. Underneath the stinger it has a bag for keeping its food in, because sometimes it runs out of room in its claws. –Daegan, age 6

Gareth made two bugs. From the first it should be obvious we’ve been doing lots of dinosaur art lately:

My bug is called a Rattler Bug. He has a rattler (at end of tail). He’s related to rattlesnakes. He has legs and arms with claws. He swims under water with his claws and feet and also lives on land. He eats plants—seaweed and land plants. He has teeny legs, but a long neck for ducking his head down and catching plants underwater. He puts the plants in his claws to feed himself.

He has brothers, sisters, and babies. He is a little boy bug. The dots on his face are his eyes and nose. Rattlesauruses try to eat him but he rattles his tail to make the rattlesauruses run away.  --Gareth, age 4

Here’s his other bug:

This is a Tiger Bug, short for Lion Bug. He has legs (bottom left) and they didn’t get eaten by anything because they have good camouflage. He can change colours like a chameleon. He has tiny claws (upper right, underneath the head at extreme upper right).

These bugs (Rattler and Tiger) do not exist. –Gareth, age 4

OK. I know you’ve seen this sort of experiment before; it appears in just about every “Simple Science Experiments for Kids” book out there. I found a simple version of it at funology.com, and found myself curious. “Note the different reactions” it said, to combining vinegar, lemon juice, and lime juice with baking soda. “What different reactions?” I wondered. They’re all acids, so they’ll all do exactly the same thing and make bubbles. Big deal. Well—I was wrong! There are differences.

We started the experiment with 5 acids, as we had a lingering bottle of balsamic vinegar in the cupboard, and I noticed the rice vinegar in the fridge when I went to get the lemon and lime juices. So here we are to start off. Five identical bowls with 1 Tbsp each of baking soda inside, 5 acids at the ready, and 2 increasingly impatient boys:

The boys (with some help from me) added 2 Tbsp of each acid in turn. The white vinegar reacted with some small bubbles, and they expired quickly.

The balsamic vinegar reacted much more vigorously, and looked a lot like bubbling Coke. Gareth was apprehensive at first, but quickly overcame his fears.

The lemon juice was a huge surprise. It almost overflowed the bowl! The boys found the big foamy bubbles quite amusing.

The lime juice reacted, as Daegan is describing it in the picture, “puffy like the lemon juice, but with littler bubbles.” Who knew the acids reacted so differently?

The rice vinegar was similar to the lime—little bubbles—but did not get as puffy.

We had a little discussion about acids and bases while the boys watched the various bubbles die down, and I thought we were done. But then Gareth asked, “What about Rice Milk, Mommy?”

I asked the boys what they thought would happen before we added the rice milk. “White and bubbly” was the reply from both. What really happened?

No bubbles. (You can see both surprise and disappointment on Gareth’s face). Daegan quickly inferred, "So Rice Milk is not an acid. But what about…?”

Rootbeer was Daegan’s choice. The rootbeer I am sipping now, in fact (in the name of science, of course! <g>). So what happened?

Surprisingly little, once the carbonation fizzed away. I had always heard that soft drinks were acids, and hence bad for your teeth. So Daegan got the idea to stir the mixture up, and then we saw the rootbeer react with the baking soda.

Next we tried grapefruit juice (my idea), figuring it would react vigorously, like the lemon and lime juices did. Nope! We had to stir it up again to get much of anything happen.

The boys asked to try water, our final experiment. (They are signing ‘water;’ in the picture):

As expected, nothing happened, even after mixing. “The baking soda is just dissolving; there’s no bubbles.” said Daegs. Good to know the tapwater is not acidic!

“Not so fast,” I said to the boys as the left the kitchen. “There’s one last very important part of this experiment—you can help me do the dishes!” Yes, science AND home economics! <g>

I showed my boys a story and picture a friend’s son had posted on a blog, and Gareth immediately wanted to create his own. As he had a toy school bus, helicopter, and Wigget—his trusty T. Rex puppet who goes everywhere with him—this is what he dictated:

Once upon a time the Animal Mechanicals were sleeping. They all heard their clocks go “RING!” They go to their bus and open the door. And they close the door. And Kimodo drives the bus. Then their bus turns into a time machine. Then they go to the time of T. Rex.

Then Kimodo pushed another button and turned their bus into a helicopter (“brpt-brpt-brpt” helicopter sounds). And then they flew higher and higher and higher. The T Rex stretched its knees up in the air (???) and it stretched very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very long. Then its eyes gone “boom” (opened). Then it was raining T Rex (giggles. Makes banging noises while thumping his T Rex puppet to the ground.) Is that funny?

Then it stopped raining T Rex and rained banana peels. Lots of them covered T Rex. The he popped up and said, “This looks like a good row to eat here.” And he started eating plants, cuz he was a plant-eater T Rex. And then, Kimodo pushed the bus button and the helicopter turned back into a bus.

Then he pushed it again and turned their bus into a busasaurus Rex (“ROAR!”) Then the T Rex ate food with the busasaurus T Rex. Then the back of the bus opened and they pushed in food and they ate it all up. And puffed up. And floated away.

Then they go back in time again to the Jurassic to see Archaeopteryx. (starts singing: “Artchaeopteryx, a bird-like flying dinosaur…archaeopteryx, with a mouth full of teeth”). Then the archaeopteryx wanted to eat them. Archaeopteryx ate lots and lots and lots and lots of plants and floated away. And archaeopteryx’s friends floated away too. Then a Daegan floated away. And a Gareth. And a Mommy and a Daddy. (more giggles)

The End!

(Daegan: How do they get back down after floating away?)

I thought I’d add a pic of Gareth and his beloved Wigget. This is from a year ago, when Gareth got Wigget for his 3rd birthday. My, Gareth has grown up a lot in the last year!

Homeschooling, like any activity with children, is always evolving. Interests wax and wane, abilities develop (and recede!); there’s illness, playdates, and outside lessons (drama for Gareth—solo—and a Family Clay class right now). And just when you think you’ve got it figured out and a good rhythm going, a momentous change occurs.

Back in September as Daegan and I began our first “official” year of homeschooling, what to do with Gareth while we worked was a non-issue. There were several DVDs he enjoyed that Daegan had largely outgrown, so Gareth was only too happy to have the TV (we only have one) to himself for the 30-60 minutes of one-on-one time Daegs and I needed. But a few months in, a change. Gareth: “I want to do homeschool too!”

So we’ve adapted. Now I spend most of my time with Gareth, and Daegan takes his work to his room (he likes quiet) as he knows what is expected of him in his Math U See and writing books. Gareth and I started with some simple matching, like this:

And tons and tons of one-on-one reading. I tried doing other worksheets, but things weren’t clicking yet. Then about a month ago I tried again, and Gareth was suddenly able to pull apart the sounds in words: “Bat….buh-at….buh” (phonemic awareness).

Note how we make the worksheets work for us. In the bottom sheet, Gareth got very upset about the nickel (“that’s not what our loonies look like!”—we’re Canadian; he gets loonies, or dollar coins for allowance) so he opted to cross the whole question out. And in the bottom right corner, we needed to fix the question by adding an “L”, as—according to Gareth—that is clearly a ladybug, not just a bug. In the previous sheet at the bottom, he called the cot a bed, and bed does not start with C so it’s not circled. It used to drive me nuts to see kids get marked wrong on these sorts of worksheets in school—working one-on-one you find almost all of your child’s “mistakes” aren’t mistakes at all!

Well, today I decided to try something new. I’ve seen no signs that Gareth was reading yet, but wanted to see if he could use his new-found phonemic awareness to match some words to their objects. So I put the sheet in front of him, and he promptly pointed at the word ‘cat’, said “cat” out loud, and drew the line. He read ‘flower’ right away too, and was able to puzzle out the other matches. (Gareth writes very lightly, sometimes barely marking the page, whereas Daegs practically creates a type of braille on the other side as he presses so hard.)

The back side of the page was much harder, as three of the four words began with B (so much for going by the beginning sound!). He immediately read ‘apple’ and drew the line, got confused by ‘ball’ so we skipped along to ‘bed’ (which he read right away) and ‘box’ (ditto). We then came back to the mystery word which he now sounded out, looking at the one object yet to be matched and said, “That says ‘ball’, Mommy!”

I am so excited to have a new reader in the house! Way to go, Gareth!

It started like any other Monday—back to routines, back to some seatwork (math, writing, reading) for homeschool, back to household chores. But as the day wore on, a theme developed. Quietly at first, but by this evening my eldest was saying to me, “Why have I had so much dinosaur excitement today?”

After completing their seatwork and a few chores this morning, the boys elected to watch The Magic School Bus—the dinosaur episode “The Busasaurus”. I did a few things, and went upstairs to prepare lunch, checking the mail as I did so. Daegan’s long-awaited Zoobooks magazine—the dinosaur issue as advertized in last months magazine—had arrived. After lunch, he went to his room with the magazine and was not heard from for a good hour. Well, apart from the odd squeals of delight: “Triceratops! My favourite!” Or disagreement: “That’s not right! Not all therapods had sharp teeth—most scientists now think gallimimus didn’t have teeth at all!” Seeing him challenge what he is reading in this way warms the cockles of my philosophically-trained heart. :-)

Later in the afternoon Daegs and I did some art together—we worked on one of the dinosaur mosaics he got in a Sticky Mosaics (Orb Factory) kit for Christmas. Whilst talking dinos the whole time, of course. Yesterday he and I watched a Nova special I had recorded about Microraptor, called The Four-Winged Dinosaur (microraptor, unlike all modern birds, had feathers on its legs/feet, as well as its arms/hands). We discussed bird-like dinos, whether first flight was ground-up or treetop-down, the reasons why dinos evolved feathers, how many other species of dino may have had feathers (current scientific thought is that T Rex likely had feathers, at least while young and small).

So what do I find the boy doing after baths and teeth-brushing tonight? He’s created his own dinosaur craft—cutting Q-Tips to length to match the bones in his hand-drawn Struthiomimus. And I still need to post his rendition of the Dinosaur Song that we recorded last night!

So there you have it: Instant unit study. Theme: dinosaurs. I wonder if Phil Currie got his start this way?

Daegan and Gareth have discovered a show with great animal and nature related songs: Big Green Rabbit. The boys have been singing The Dinosaur Song and The Archaeopteryx song a LOT lately—you can find both songs on youtube. Here’s Daegan’s version of The Archaeopteryx Song:

And the lyrics:

Archaeopteryx, a bird-like flying dinosaur
Archaeopteryx, with a mouth full of teeth
Archaeopteryx, a long bony tail and then
Two feathered wings with three claws on each.

Archaeopteryx, from the Jurassic period
Archaeopteryx, been found fossilized
Archaeopteryx, from the maniraptor group
Archaeopteryx, just about crow-sized.

Run and hop, flap those wings
No one knows if it could fly
Run and hop, flap those wings
But they’ll never get up to the sky.

Archaeopteryx, a bird-like flying dinosaur
Archaeopteryx, with a mouth full of teeth
Archaeopteryx, a long bony tail and then
Two feathered wings with three claws on each.

And here’s Gareth’s somewhat jumbled version, cuz ya can’t put just one kid on youtube in the interests of preventing sibling rivalry!:

Jim took the boys skating at Westside recreation centre this afternoon. Last winter Jim and Daegan did a half-dozen or so skating classes, but this was Gareth’s first time on skates. Westside is a lovely facility, with different ice areas and fire pits to warm up. And in between the areas are lots of benches and rest areas. I didn’t go along (craving alone time to do such exciting things as fold laundry and take the dog for a walk in the bitter cold), but here’s the story as the boys and Jim told me.

They got there, and got skates on. Jim was pretty exhausted at first, as Gareth was clinging (having never done this before) and Daegan seemed to have forgotten everything he learned at skating lessons last year. But after a couple SLOW trips around the ice, it starts coming back and Daegan is now largely skating on his own. But Jim and Gareth need a break so they head over to one of the rest areas.

At the rest area, Gareth goes right up to another Dad and says, in his sweetest 4-year-old voice, “Excuse me…..could you please teach me how to skate?” Now Jim was a bit embarrassed, but this fellow took it in stride, and when Jim had a closer look at him, he noticed there was a patch on this fellow’s jacket that said “Assistant Coach”. Turns out this guy taught skating and coached hockey! And after checking with Jim, he was happy to give both boys pointers. He even gave Jim some tips on things to do with the boys next time they go skating.

Turns out Mr. Assistant Coach was there with another Dad and their respective kids (ages 8-10 or so, so much more independent) for a skating birthday party. In between helping my kids, this dad would give the birthday kids tips to practice slide stops or whatever, and then send them off to work on it on their own. And he spent a good 15 minutes straight at one point working one-on-one with Gareth while Jim skated with Daegan—one-on-one attention being something Daegan rarely gets from Jim when Gareth is along. And at the end, he noticed Jim trying to haul to boys off the ice towards the exits, and came over saying, “I remember how tough this was to do with two kids. How about you take Gareth, and I’ll help Daegan get his skates off?”

Thank you, Mr. Assistant Coach, for helping make my boys’ afternoon more enjoyable—to say nothing of my husband’s! :-)

Jim and I recently took the ‘90s BBC comedy series The Thin Blue Line out of the library, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s what Rowan Atkinson did after Blackadder and Mr Bean, and is again very different from both—and much more of an ensemble piece. Here’s the imdb (Internet Movie Database) link for the curious:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0112194/

We watched season one / Disk 1 (this is British TV, so a season is all of 7 half-hour episodes), and a few nights later finished season 2 / Disk 2. On the weekend we made a point of getting the boys settled in their rooms at a reasonable hour, as we were both looking forward to season three. But despite winning the British Comedy Award for Top TV sitcom for its second season, there were no further episodes made. And yet there was a third disk in the set…

Turns out the third disk was all the extra material, including a superb documentary about Ben Elton (writer for Thin Blue Line and Blackadder, along with the ground-breaking The Young Ones, among his many other credits). Jim and I knew very little about him other than that we found his comedy and wordplay quite engaging. The documentary was called The Best of British: Ben Elton, and features interviews with Hugh Laurie, Rik Mayall, Kenneth Branagh, Stephen Fry (and more) as well as Ben himself.

There was one bit about Elton’s up-bringing that made Jim and I howl with laughter. Apparently Ben was VERY verbal as a child, overwhelmingly so to his friends and family. In Ben’s words: “I’ve always been a talkaholic. My Mum used to have a rule when I was little that she had to be on her second cup of tea before I was allowed to start talking.” As Jim and I are regularly woken up by Daegan discussing the finer details of archaeopteryx evolution, or prattling on about various epochs, eras, and periods in history, we loved this rule! (e.g., “Mom, did you know that the Paleozoic era is broken up into 6 periods—the Cambrian, Ordivician,…but the Mesozoic has only 3, the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous?” This at 6am on a Saturday!) I’m thinking we should adopt “Mrs. Elton’s rule”…at least on weekends. :-)

Gareth received a wonderful book for his birthday that we’ve now read through several times (and I’ve caught both boys looking at it solo too): My Pet Dragon: A Story about Adventure, Friendship and Chinese Characters by Christoph Niemann. The story is engaging enough: a young girl gets a pet baby dragon, who runs away and she sets off to find him, meeting various people in various locations along the way. But the coolest thing about the book is that you learn to read some Chinese writing! Even as an adult you come away learning something from this picture book.

The Chinese writing (characters) are cleverly incorporated into the story via the artwork, like so:

I’ve found Daegan staring at the inside cover for ages. It’s pretty fascinating, and my brain’s not even primed for language learning anymore! <g>:

Here’s the amazon link for more info:

http://www.amazon.com/Pet-Dragon-Adventure-Friendship-Characters/dp/0061577766/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1232517024&sr=1-1

The boys have been asking me for days now if they could go back to the dollar store where they saw some dinosaur skeleton figurines as they wanted to buy one. I really don’t like encouraging this kind of thing (like we aren’t knee-deep in dino and other animal figurines in this house already), but we worked out a deal. They’d help me with my errands—gathering and returning books to the library, taking bottles and cans into the recycling depot—and I would provide them with a ride to the dollar store. But they’d have to use their own money (this is part of why they get an allowance).

Now this might not sound like much work, but it was. We usually have over 300 library books out at a time (we’ve got 4 cards and are allowed 100 books per card) so finding and gathering the 25 or so books and DVDs that were due was no small feat. And our cash back on the bottles and cans was a whopping $37—it wasn’t just a few empties. :-)

At the dollar store, Gareth selected a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton (his favourite dino), and Daegan a pterosaur. When we got home the boys amused themselves and I later found this (Jim added the info in the corner later):

Here’s the original skeleton toy:

I thought it was pretty impressive for a kid who just turned 4. And I’m planning to register Gareth in the Anatomy and Nature art class that Daegan did last year—I think he’d love it.

Jim saw this simple experiment the other day when he was watching Beakman’s World (a kid’s science TV show) with the boys. It is quite counter-intuitive and really simple to do. All you need are 2 drinking straws and a glass of water (we used juice).

Begin by putting one drinking straw into the beverage and having the child take a sip. Nothing unusual here.

Now tell the child you are going to give them a second straw, but instead of putting it in the beverage, you want them to put it outside the glass. Ask them what they think will happen when they sip from both straws—one sucking liquid, the other air.

If all has gone right (the child is not blocking the second straw with the tongue or resting it on the table), there is no liquid in the child’s mouth. You can play this up a bit, telling them to suck harder, switch straws, etc. Make it fun. :-)

Now switch kids and let the older have a shot at it and see if he can get any liquid to come up with the second straw sucking air.

Lastly, have the children place both straws in the beverage and sip, so they know you weren’t using any kind of trick straw. This is science, not magic or a practical joke.

So what’s the explanation here? Didn’t you think that when sucking both liquid and air the child would get a mix of each? (I did!) But no. Sucking on a straw does not work the way many of us think. We aren’t so much sucking up liquid as creating a vacuum, which then the liquid rushes into as the air pressure on the rest of the liquid in the glass forces it along. By sucking air, you are not creating a vacuum, hence the straw will not work.

This also explains why if you’ve ever tried to drink from a straw with a small hole in it, it works until the hole gets above the level of the liquid. Once the hole is in the air, there is no longer a vacuum, and the straw seems to stop working.

The boys and I read _On This Spot: An Expedition Back Through Time_ by Susan E. Goodman. The excellent illustrations are by Lee Christiansen. The “spot” in question is where today’s New York City appears, and looks at what was there during various times. It begins with today’s skyscrapers, taxis and people…but ON THIS SPOT 150 years ago (the next page): horse-drawn carts, people selling vegetables, etc. And ON THIS SPOT 350 years ago there was a fort called New Amsterdam, and during the ice age…, and during dinosaur times…, etc. My two junior palaeontologists loved it!  

Here’s the link on amazon; we borrowed ours from the library:

http://www.amazon.com/This-Spot-Expedition-Back-Through/dp/0688169139

No, we don’t. There’s no requirement for homeschoolers in Alberta to do so, and given the number of pages to wade through I am grateful—the Kindergarten to Grade 6 Math Program of Studies alone is 51 pages, to say nothing of other years or other subjects! I do peek at the official curriculum from time to time, to get a general idea of what kids of certain ages are typically doing, but I don’t worry much about it. An awful lot, especially in subject areas like science and social studies, is unnecessarily specific. Trust me, your kid can turn out just fine without studying magnets in grade 2, an African country in grade 3, or Greek mythology, well…ever, really.

How do I know this?—From my own personal experiences growing up. We moved around a lot during my childhood (4 elementary schools; 5 if you include Jr. Kindergarten; and 2 high schools lasting a total of 6 years…missed middle school / junior high all together), and curriculum was not standardized across regions. I hit some subjects several times (studied Japan 4 years running in elementary school!), missed others completely (Greek mythology, WWII, and, somewhat amusingly, high school sex ed.) Sometimes I arrived at a new school and found myself way ahead or way behind in various subjects—returning to Ontario from B.C. I found myself far behind in French. I remember asking several friends, “What’s ‘oublier’ mean?” and receiving the answer “I forget” and saying back, “Oh, don’t worry about it. Thanks anyways.” Turns out ‘oublier’ means ‘to forget’! LOL! But the end result was I learned how to learn—the how is far more important than the what, IMHO—and did just fine in school and university.

There are nonetheless guidelines for us “traditional” (don’t follow the provincial curriculum) homeschoolers to follow. Here’s what we are to achieve:

 http://www.qp.gov.ab.ca/documents/Regs/2006_145.cfm?frm_isbn=0779748387:

Learning Outcomes for Students Receiving Home Education Programs That Do Not Follow the Alberta Programs of Study

1   A basic education must provide students with a solid core program including language arts, mathematics, science and social studies.

2   Students are expected to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes that will prepare them for life after high school. A basic education will allow students to

(a) read for information, understanding and enjoyment,

(b) write and speak clearly, accurately and appropriately for the context,

(c) use mathematics to solve problems in business, science and daily life situations,

(d) understand the physical world, ecology and the diversity of life,

(e) understand the scientific method, the nature of science and technology and their application to daily life,

(f) know the history and geography of Canada and have a general understanding of world history and geography,

(g) understand Canada’s political, social and economic systems within a global context,

(h) respect the cultural diversity, the religious diversity and the common values of Canada,

(i) demonstrate desirable personal characteristics such as respect, responsibility, fairness, honesty, caring, loyalty and commitment to democratic ideals,

(j) recognize the importance of personal well‑being and appreciate how family and others contribute to that well‑being,

(k) know the basic requirements of an active, healthful lifestyle,

(l) understand and appreciate literature, the arts and the creative process,

(m) research an issue thoroughly and evaluate the credibility and reliability of information sources,

(n) demonstrate critical and creative thinking skills in problem solving and decision making,

(o) demonstrate competence in using information technologies,

(p) know how to work independently and as part of a team,

(q) manage time and other resources needed to complete a task,

(r) demonstrate initiative, leadership, flexibility and persistence,

(s) evaluate their own endeavours and continually strive to improve, and

(t) have the desire and realize the need for life‑long learning.

I personally find it amusing—especially since I did a B.Ed and had to spend hours poring over the countless pages of the official curriculum—that what we want our kids to achieve by the end of high school can be summed up in one page.

So what do your kids do to settle themselves down for bed? Here’s what Daegan got up to one night in December; I found this on his floor in the morning, and asked for some explanation. “It shows the evolution of modern birds,” he informed me.

“See how the dinosaurs evolved and became more and more bird-like?” he said. I asked him to provide me with details, so here goes, more or less verbatim from Daegan’s explanation (I took notes!):

First, there’s an eel-like creature from the Cambrian. Then a fish from the Silurian, and acanthostega from the Devonian. Then hylonomus from the Carboniferous.

Then came the archosaurs in the Permian. The achosaurs were the croc-like ancestors of dinos, pterosaurs, birds, and crocodilians, so the chain branches at this point. On one side is Dinosuchus in the Cretaceous, the other shows the other kinds of dinos that evolved, like ornithiscians. The birds evolution chain continues with a theropod, coelophysis, from the Triassic, and then comsagnathus from the Jurassic. 

Then we see Iberomesornis from the Cretaceous, then an ancestor of microraptor (hiding) and microraptor, again from the Cretaceous. 

Lastly, we have some early birds, one from the Tertiary and one from the Quaternary, and lastly the modern crow from the present day.

So the boy’s got a future in science, you say? :-)

It’s been an unusually snowy—and COLD—last month in Calgary, but today was quite mild, so I sent the boys outside to play. Here’s Daegan pulling Gareth on a baby toboggan (which he barely fits!):

Here’s the boys playing in the snow. You can see how mild it is: the ice in the birdbath is melting (yes, I know, getting a heated birdbath is on the list! <g>)

When I saw both boys out there on sleds, I got a “brilliant” idea (cough, hack, wheeze). I thought, since we’ve got so much snow, why not pile it up against the back fence (the last place in the yard to melt) and build a mini toboggan hill? So out I went, and after a solid 15 minutes of shovelling, this is what resulted:

This was obviously going to be a lot more work than I thought! I’m planning to move more snow to the pile tomorrow, but it may be short-lived. The forecast is for temps. of 10-14C / 50-57F over the next few days. Seems the chinook gods have been appeased. 

At Gareth’s Open House birthday celebration, we gave away dinosaur-themed loot bags with dino figurines, a small craft kit, fruit snacks, and stickers. Here’s what Daegan (age 6 1/2) created with his stickers:

Daegan told me it was a dinosaur forest. “It started out as just a deciduous forest,” he explained, “but then I added some coniferous trees. You just make them with triangles.” I just found it interesting to compare this to what he was doing with stickers just a few months ago—i.e., putting them on a page and that’s about it. This ‘dino forest’ shows a lot of detail: different types of trees, pterosaur eggs and nests in the trees, plant-eating dinosaurs like Triceratops and Stegosaurus are shown eating plants (stickers), other dinos have their eggs and nests behind them on the ground. Meat-eaters believed to hunt in packs are placed grouped together; the long-necked plant eater is not. I wonder if he kept it to dinos from a certain time period?—I’ll have to ask him in the morning. :-)

We had a quiet family Christmas this year, after a very busy autumn. With Jim working long days and hours on his latest contract, and me headed to Nebraska and Winnipeg, we only had 5 days of holidays together as a family—from Dec 24th through 28th. Such is the life of the self-employed: feast or famine.

Here’s Christmas morning pics:

Daegan and Gareth up early and sitting dejectedly on the couch, as they could not find any presents from Santa under the tree:

Of course, Santa had come during the night, and left presents hidden under the blanket behind the tree, which the boys did not notice:

Here’s what was under the blanket: plasma cars! If you don’t know these, they are way cool—you sit at a slight incline so that by simply wiggling the steering wheel from side to side, you move forward. No pushing necessary. Daegan said: “It’s not what I asked for, but I love it!” Now that’s the kind of thing a parent likes to hear.

Here’s Gareth on his plasma car. You’ll notice Santa was clever enough to have his elves make a blue car for Daegan, his favourite colour, and a red one for Gareth, his fave. For any friends or relatives wanting to send stuff to the boys, a useful mnemonic for colour is: Daegan-boy-blue; Gareth-eczema-red. :-)

And here’s a few shots of the boys opening gifts. Once again, Jim’s Mom in Whitby and my relatives in Winnipeg (my gran, Aunt Bev/Uncle Dave and Aunt Wendy) helped make our boys’ Christmas a very special one. Thank you!

My Christmas gift this year was rather unusual: a trip to Lincoln, Nebraska for New Years, followed by a trip to Winnipeg in January….solo! Jim (bless him!) was home with the boys for a whole week while I went on my adventure. Here’s how it all happened.

I had been planning to be in Winnipeg for my aunt’s 50th birthday in early January, so when my friend Tiffany posted on an email list that they were having a New Years party, and we were all invited, it got me thinking. I'm pretty sure Tiffany didn’t really expect any of us to come—members of this homeschooling list are found all over North America, and even beyond—and I am pretty sure she didn’t expect anyone to come from as far away as Calgary. But it seemed an intriguing possibility: I was already going to fly Calgary-Winnipeg-Calgary; how much more would be it be to go Calgary-Lincoln-Winnipeg-Calgary? The answer: not much, in either time or money.

So Monday, December 29th with a 4:00am taxi ride my journey began. I’m glad I went early as clearing customs at the Calgary airport took nearly an hour (at 4:30am!!!). The customs agent was friendly, but one of her comments rather put me off: “So how much money are you carrying?” “Canadian or American?” I asked. “Either” she said. “About $3. I am just bringing the various Canadian coins to show my friends’ kids.” “Oh,” she said in a serious tone, “I always tell people to carry at least $100 cash. You never know when there will be a natural disaster—happened to my friends on the island of Oahu last year; all power was out and their bank and credit cards didn’t work.” “Uh, thanks, I’ll remember that for next time” I said, thinking to myself: I really don’t want to be reminded about disasters, natural or otherwise, when I am about to get on a plane! :-)

The flight to Denver was not the best. The plane was freezing inside—the flight attendants were wearing ski jackets and gloves! “We can’t get the heat to come on” they informed us. Hmmm…..and this plane is supposed to fly for 2 hours to Denver…..safely???? The flight left about 6:30am, so folks were asking for pillows and blankets. “We have no pillows or blankets of any kind on board.” The seats were cramped and uncomfortable, there was drink service only but no snacks, and no movies or little TV sets on the back of the chairs. Now I know why Jim always tries to fly Westjet! (This flight was Air Canada/United).

I slept much of the way to Denver, then had to boot it across Denver airport to my connecting flight to Lincoln, making it to my gate 8 minutes before boarding time. Whew! Glad I didn’t have the kids in tow as we never would have made it.  The Lincoln flight was also cramped but better—there was heat and I sat beside a friendly older woman who had lived in the Lincoln area all her life. She educated me about Lincoln and Nebraska, and I educated her about Calgary and Canada. :-)

I got to the Lincoln airport just after lunch, and recognized Tiffany walking towards me right away. Well, ok…..I actually recognized Jack and Jessie (her kids) first! My first impressions of Lincoln were sunny and warm (it was probably only a few degrees above 0C / 32F, but Calgary had been so cold lately it was a treat). And no snow. Tiffany’s Mum was also with her, as she had been visiting over Christmas and her flight back to the UK left later than afternoon. We visited a friend of Tiffany’s who lived near the airport, dropped her Mum back off, and made our way home. We stopped at a health food store (yay! all the foods my kids would need to survive in Lincoln are available—this being pretty much soy yogurt, rice milk and almond butter for Gareth). In many ways Lincoln reminded me of a mix of Winnipeg and Calgary, both of which are positive associations for me.

It was great to sit with a proper cup of tea (one of about a billion I drank while there!) and STOP MOVING for a while. I’d forgotten that jiggly feeling you get from a full day of travel. A short while later Alicia and her kids arrived. I don’t remember much other than a whirlwind arriving, and Anna’s first words to me: “Jack threw up in the car!”

So those of you reading from the APHS list probably want some details, right? Here’s my impressions of people and places:

Tiffany’s house: homey, comfortable. I remember commenting to her that I liked that not all her furniture matched. (And I mean that in the most complimentary way!) Not that it was garage sale or student digs special—far from it. The couches in the family room were lovely and very comfy (especially the new reclining one!), the dining room table with a gazillion leaves was superb, etc. It was a wonderful, comfy home that real people lived in—not a show home or something done up on one of those real estate shows. You know? And I loved the yard—bird feeders everywhere, just like I’ve got at home!

Tiffany: she really is Gorgeous. Fun, bubbly, made you feel welcome right away. Makes a mean cup of tea, and introduced me to the joys of butterscotch schnapps in hot chocolate. Pretty fair Wii and Pictionary player too. Great sense of humour, and threw a fun New Years party. Does it get any better than playing Pictionary with kids at 3:00am??? :-)

Rex: I really liked Rex. He reminded me so much of my Uncle Dave in Winnipeg, who I adore. I like that the first thing he said to me was: “So let me get the ground rules straight. Vegan? –”Yup”—And you don’t like okra?” LOL! I do straight-forward just fine. He was very helpful to all of us, he stayed up yapping with us long into the night that first night, he took me on a drive and walk to the local lake to see the area (I have a thing about wildlife and landscapes) and drove me to the airport way early in the morning on the day I left for Winnipeg. As they’d say on Red Dwarf, “What a guy!”

Alicia: friendly, smart, down-to earth. A little frazzled (long car trip with 4 young kids, one of whom puked!), and much more petite than I expected physically. A very kind and patient person, and amazing to watch with kids. There were a few times I watched her diffuse situations between kids, and I sat there thinking, “Yeah….I gotta learn how to do that cuz losing it and yelling at my kids just isn’t working!” But, um, not perfect. <VBG> That was also a relief to see!

Victoria: lovely, sensible, responsible, down-to-earth girl. Very intelligent, and a pleasure to talk to. And a great eater—the girl gulped down at least seconds of everything I cooked. I’ve got some curry spice packets headed your way, Victoria!

Jessie: very sweet, kind girl. I got lots of hugs from her and others while I was there, which made missing my own kids a lot easier. She has a similar oldest-child responsible energy to her like Victoria. She took me and the other girls on a walk to the local park, and made a great tour guide. I learned about “rattlers” (honey locust tree pods), which we don’t have in Alberta. I also saw lots of oriole nests in the bare trees. 

Anna: funny, charismatic, a bit of a ham. Has a real gift for drama—she did some Kid Charades for Alicia and me on New Years Eve, and was awesome at them. Drew several pictures for me. Collects bottle caps. I'm saving some from a local Canadian brewery to send her way.

Jack (Tiffany’s): gave me a BIG hug at the airport. Spent a lot of time watching movies, playing Wii (which he seemed to LOVE), and playing with the other Jack. He is pretty big for 6—he must have a few inches and 10+ pounds on Daegan. Kept wanting to drink the rice milk which I bought to put on cereal; next time I know to buy two!

Jack (Alicia’s): Was busy on computer or Wii much of the time, so I didn’t talk to him much one-on-one. Did well playing Pictionary with us New Years Eve, and I do remember his reaction to seeing a short video I brought of my two boys: “Can you bring them next time? I want to play with them!” I also remember him getting rather frustrated at one point and Alicia totally being able to calm and diffuse. Reminded me of Daegan in this way.

Alex: looked like a little Jack (they are both VERY blond) and was always busy, as toddlers are. Rather enjoyed playing with the water in the dog’s dish (and after repeated attempts to remove him, we pretty much decided “not life-threatening, not morally threatening….let him be” <g>). Could not get enough of the Green Iguana song on youtube.

So here’s some pics. I didn’t take as many as I should have—too busy yapping! :-)

The two Jack’s playing together:

Here’s Tiffany cutting Victoria a piece of Christmas cake (with rock hard royal icing on top). The cake was awesome though—a fruitcake I actually liked:

Tiffany also has 3 wonderful dogs, which I took for a few walks (sometimes with kids, sometimes without). They are CALM and hence a refreshing change from our own neurotic mutt:

And here’s the gang getting all dolled up for the New Year’s party:

Between this trip and the one to Winnipeg, I could not have asked for a better Christmas gift. Getting to meet new people, getting to just take care of me for a week….bliss. Thanks again, Jim!

Working my way backwards here….this blog will eventually be mainly about homeschooling. Really! <VBG>

After Christmas, I visited friends in Nebraska (more on that later) and then went on to Winnipeg. My aunt Wendy, one of my favourite people in the world, was turning 50. My other aunt, Bev, along with Uncle Dave (Bev’s hubby; Wendy’s brother) were throwing her a surprise 50th party with a fish theme (Wendy loves to fish). While Wendy later revealed that she had some inkling something was up, she had no idea I was coming. It was wonderful to see the look on her face—”what the heck are YOU doing here?!?”—and to receive many tight hugs to confirm my reality. :-)

There were friends, neighbours, family, work associates (and many more who couldn’t make it as “Winterpeg” weather did not cooperate) and a whole lot of fish-related decorations! The photoboard “50 Memories” that was done up was very well-received; everyone seemed to gravitate towards it, spending fair amount of time looking through old pics of Wendy and reading the captions underneath. And naturally, there was tons of tasty food too. Here’s some pics from the party:

Me and Wendy (who does NOT look 50!). You can see some of the 50 Memories photoboard in the background:

The 50 Memories photoboard, which showed 50 photos from all stages of Wendy’s life, with captions. This took some coordinating with Wendy’s son Joel to get access to Wendy’s many photo albums, and a lot of thoughtful work to put together:

There was a wide range of emotions at the party (and I won’t post any pics of my teary-eyed aunt who was clearly very touched). One very funny moment came at the start of opening the gifts and cards. Two of Wendy’s close friends, Louise and Pat—who happen to be sisters—ended up giving her the exact same card, with a gift certificate to the same scrapbooking place inside. (They all scrapbook together). Makes me wonder how much stuff our genes really do code into us!

One of the most thoughtful—and time-consuming—presents Wendy received was of this stand, with fish cut-outs containing poems, puns and quips….all fish-related. Here’s a pic of Wendy before she read many poems and got too misty-eyed:

And then on to cake. A friend of Kaley’s (Bev’s daughter; my cousin) made an elaborate fish-shaped cake, which Uncle Dave brought in. I took some ribbing about whether or not a vegetarian could eat this cake (and when it was cut into, the cherry layer did look rather like bloody guts……YUM!)

And a few last pics of folks as they were leaving. Here’s Wendy with her boyfriend Fred, Fred’s Mom Stella, and his sister Odarka:

And here she is with her friends Louise and Pat, the sisters who gave her the same card and gift. They look like they’d be a lot of fun to go out with one night next time I’m in Winnipeg:

I’m very glad I was there to wish Wendy a Happy 50th. I got to hang out with her all of the next day, and we went to visit my soon-to-be-90-year-old Gran, sitting with her while she ate her dinner at the seniors centre. (I stupidly forgot my camera! Argh!) It was great to see her too, and I look forward to celebrating another milestone birthday in Winnipeg in a few short months.

On Wednesday we had a small celebration for Gareth on his actual birthday, complete with baked goods from Calgary’s own Good Earth coffee shop near Jim’s work. Gareth blew out candles, opened presents from us and relatives—you know, the usual stuff—but was most excited to help Jim put together his new booster seat. It’s been sitting in a box in the garage for ages—the exact same one as Daegan has, naturally—but by law we had to wait until age 4 to use it. We’ve since passed along our old carseats to our friends who had twin girls last June.

Here’s the highlights. The boys showing how old they are:

Gareth, admiring the goodies after blowing out the candles (he’s addicted to Good Earth’s date squares):

Gareth in his beloved new booster seat:

Gareth opening his gifts and cards. Check out the cool dinosaur card my aunt and uncle sent!

Here’s Daegan doing his T-Rex impersonation:

And lastly, Gareth drawing in his new Go Diego Go notebooks (note the shirt he’s wearing!) My favourite comment from him about his birthday: “4 is the best age…..it’s even better than 6!” Guess sibling rivalry is not dead in this house! :-)

Today we had some friends over to celebrate Gareth’s 4th birthday. Jim made a homemade dinosaur cake, with some help from the boys. I found a video online showing how to make the cake here:

http://ca.video.yahoo.com/watch/3394787/9492665

Here’s Jim and the boys in action:

And a few finishing touches….

“Cool--coprolites!” exclaimed Daegan when he saw the finished product. (Coprolites are fossilized dino dung, BTW…..in this case, chocolate truffles. <g>) Oh, and red food colouring does not yield red icing, no matter how much you add!

Here’s Gareth blowing (I sure hope he wasn’t spraying!) out the candle:

Here’s a few other random pics from the party: