The boys built a large structure out of blocks over the weekend—an armadillo house. It was almost as tall as Gareth:

Had a hiding space for armadillo and his food (the corks):

And what I thought were chimneys on top, were in fact additional food caches:

It was just so nice to see them playing cooperatively together, about something other than dinosaurs! :-)

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. He clearly understands the concept though! :-)

Was reading this blog, and found an interesting article looking at the psychological consequences of spending time in nature—doing something as simple as a short walk. The book Last Child in the Woods discussed similar research in places.

Adding my favourite pic of the boys on a nature walk last fall:

Not sure when Daegan created his latest round of science-art. Here’s what I found on the couch and asked him about: “An 82 million year old food chain,” he told me. “See? Phytoplankton gets eaten by zooplankton [slurping sound effect],  the enchodus, an ancient fish, eats the zooplankton [slurp!], cretoxyrhina, a shark, eats the fish [slurp!] and a mosasaur eats the shark!” (Yes, I have to ask my 6-year-old how to spell these creatures!)

I also found these drawing. He must have liked the archaeopteryx quite a lot, as he taped it to his bedroom door:

I love seeing the creations he makes with no input from us (other than supplying the paper and markers, and taking him to the library to get out books and DVDs of his choice).

The boys headed out to play in the snow right after breakfast. I guess both were still hungry as the first thing they did was eat it:

They ran all over the yard, making tracks and listening to the snow squish underfoot (very different than the dry powdery snow we get in winter):

And then, no surprise, out came the dinosaurs. The boys fashioned asteroids and kept wiping the dinos out. :-)

While they were playing, I called around to let everyone know soccer is officially cancelled for tonight. (I am the phone person on Gareth’s team). No kidding, eh? LOL!

…this afternoon—Earth Day—I was struck by the irony of the images outside my window. From last night’s 20C / 70F weather for soccer, to this. Here’s how the day unfolded.

12:30 pm, snow begins

2:00 pm

3:30 pm

5:00 pm

So what’s normal here? Well, according to Environment Canada, our normal high for today is 13C / 55F. Not much different than Toronto and Vancouver’s average highs of 14C, or Winnipeg’s of 12C. What is different is the extremes in the weather here: we simply don’t get many days at the normal here, especially in spring. Seems we are always much warmer or much cooler than ‘the average’. Calgary, with its weather extremes, is not for wimps! :-)

Was reading this blog and thought I’d join in the fun.

Instructions: "Bold the states or provinces you've been to, underline the states you've lived in and italicize the state/province you're in now..."

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /

British Columbia / Alberta / Saskatchewan /Manitoba / Ontario / Quebec / New Brunswick / Nova Scotia / Prince Edward Island / Newfoundland & Labrador / Northwest Territories / Yukon Territory / Nunavut

Yes, I have been right across Canada, save for the Northern Territories. And yes, I’ve moved around a lot. :-)

Both boys had their first community soccer tonight—the kids do drills and running for 20 minutes or so, have a snack and water break, and then play a half-hour game. It’s all low-key and fun. Daegan has played previously, but this is Gareth’s first go at the sport—and he kept his asthma in check without the inhaler! Yippee!  Our neighbour’s little girl is on the same team as Gareth, and Daegan is thrilled his team is his favourite colour: blue. It looks like it will be a fun next 8 weeks.

Here’s way too many pics <g>. Was an absolutely gorgeous night, 21 C (70F) when we headed over to the fields. Of course, Thursday night’s soccer will likely be cancelled what with the snow in the forecast. Sigh. Such is spring in Calgary.

Jim took Gareth to the mall the other day to get some shinguards as he starts soccer this week. We’re not shoppers in this family and spend as little time in malls as possible, as was evidenced by Gareth’s loud comment while walking past mannequins in a store window:

“Daddy…is that what we do with dead people?!?”

Jim and I watched this movie over the weekend and found it informative and engaging. I have certainly heard lots of bad press about Wal-Mart in terms of how they treat (and pay) their employees, which this movie discussed in part. They interviewed many former employees and managers, the latter confessing how they were trained to get folks to work unpaid overtime, and many other unethical practices. But the movie also looked at the negative impact getting a Wal-Mart has had on many smaller towns in the US, their environmental record, the crime in their parking lots, their discriminatory policies towards women (did you notice all former managers were men?), the ‘generosity’ of the Walton family compared to both their own employees and other wealthy business people (employees donations to others in time of need: $1 million; the Walton family, which earns hundreds of billions each year: $6000. Less than 1% of their income to charity; Bill Gates gives 58%), etc. More details can be found here and here.

There was a lot in the movie that disturbed me, but what stuck with me afterwards were two things. First, I found it very telling that they had great difficulty finding a current Wal-Mart employee to say anything negative about the company—no doubt out of fear for their job. I find it simply impossible to believe that in a company of that size that EVERY employee is happy and has no complaints in any regard. Can you say Cuba?

Second, I got to thinking about a fundamental tension we have in a society in which it is the norm to invest in stock, mutual funds, etc as well as to work. It’s a pretty unquestioned and mainstream idea now that in order to save for the future / beat inflation / be able to retire, the average person needs to invest. I don’t think this was the case in previous generations—there were always those who did invest, but the average person saved, lived beneath their means, and relied upon family for their old age. So we now have a society in which average Joes and Janes are both employees and investors. Now here’s my concern: Insofar as we are investors, we want companies to maximize profit. And maximizing profit (in a truly unregulated free market) may mean having employees work unpaid overtime; not providing benefits to employees or making the benefits so expensive employees can’t afford them, not paying a living wage, treating overseas workers poorly, cutting corners wrt the environment, etc. But insofar as we are employees, we do not want any of these things: we want to be paid fairly for our work, given benefits and holidays, have job security, etc. So we all want the company we work for to behave one way, but companies we invest in to behave another. (Of course, most of us do not want companies to behave unethically to maximize profit…but we sure don’t do a whole lot of digging around to find out whether a company does this or not. Most folks just look at the bottom line return on investment: how much am I making?) Is it even coherent to have a society made of employee-investors—wanting our employing company to behave one way, but all others another? Is some regulation necessary, or can we have indeed ‘a true free market’? Or am I just talking about ‘socialism’ here, a word much bandied about in the US media, and little understood?

We took the boys to the bird sanctuary Sunday afternoon for some free displays and activities in honour of Earth Day later this week. We attended a presentation on composting (in which Daegan was the only child and the most vocal and engaged participant!), met a Great Horned Owl, listened to a storytime about animals and the earth, chatted with folks from the Calgary Gardening club, etc. This last was quite amusing, as while we were talking Daegan asked if he could have a nibble on some of the fresh herbs in the display pot. “Can’t get him to eat lettuce,” Jim said to the lady ‘person’-ing <g> the display, “But he’ll demolish your entire herb display if you let him.” A moment later I noticed some young romaine lettuce leaves growing in a different pot. “Daegan, have you tried those yet?” I asked. “No. What are they?” he replied. “Try it first and I’ll see if I can find out,” I said, at which point both Jim and the display woman clued into the dynamic. He nibbled. “What do you think?” “Hmmm….delicious! (another nibble) What is it?” All three adults in unison: “It’s LETTUCE!” LOL! To his credit, he ate much of the rest of the piece (sharing with Gareth), stating that fresh-picked lettuce was actually quite good, and “could we grow some in the garden this year, please?”

After finishing up in the displays area, we headed to the bird sanctuary proper for a nature walk. We saw mallards, Canada geese, goldeneyes, wood ducks, scaups, chickadees, gulls, robins, a small bird of prey (we think it was a merlin), starlings, flickers, a blue heron in flight overhead (way cool!), a muskrat, and several ground squirrels. Here’s the highlights (hover over image for details):

This next picture needs a bit of explaining. These are common goldeneye ducks, the male (white and black) following the female. The male was putting on his courtship display, which involves a crazy amount of head / neck bopping (up, down, out, back) and then this move, where he arches his head back and makes a loud raspy beeping sound. It is soooo funny to watch—nothing subtle about this duck’s desires!

Are you doing anything special for Earth Day this week?

Yesterday Daegan had his first drama class ever—an activity I thought he might enjoy given (a) you get to move around a lot, (b) you get to play games and be silly, and (c) it’s not competitive. However, Daegan very clearly stated that he did NOT want to be signed up for it, insisting that he did not like drama class because it is something he has never tried before. Sigh. I find this  to be a rather challenging aspect of parenting this child. One the one hand, Jim and I believe in listening to your kids, respecting them and their wishes as much as possible, etc. On the other, we do not accept “I don’t like it” as a reasonable stance when the activity (food, etc.) in question has never been tried. And the reality is, with Daegan’s personality, he simply would not try many new things without a bit of a push from us. So after a brief discussion of ‘new things he’s tried that he now loves’ and ‘new things he wants to try’—e.g., going on a fossil dig—that he would not get to try following the ‘I don’t like new things’ stance, I signed him up for class anyways. We told him we expected him to try it with a good attitude, and if at the end of the 8 week session he really didn’t enjoy it, that’s fine, we won’t sign him up again.

The result? Here’s what happened when I went to pick him up from class:

Daegan sees me waiting just outside the door, gives me a huge smile, says goodbye to his teacher, and comes running. “I liked it! I didn’t think I’d like it cuz it was new, but I really liked it! It was so much fun, Mommy…(pause)…Do I have drama class again next Saturday?” He told me a bit about the specific games he played (a variant of musical chairs entitled ‘the homeless fairy’, and one called ‘energy!’ were his faves). Afterwards, I had a quick word with the teacher as to how Daegan did. (We’ve had some challenges in other classes). “Oh, I had lots of kids struggling to pay attention at times today,” she said. “But Daegan? Daegan did really well—he listened well, and was enthusiastic and very keen to put on a show.”

Fingers crossed and early days, but looks like we may have found another outlet for the boys’ creative energies. Gareth starts a new drama class next week as well.

Took the boys down to Edworthy Park in the river valley this afternoon. There’s a great playground (one of 4 in the park, actually), and a paved path between parking lot and bathrooms that is perfect for bike riding. (The boys did not want to take off their bike helmets, going back and forth between playground and bikes.) The boys ran around doing all kinds of things, playing with other kids…was so good to be back outside in the sunshine. Here’s some pics:

Eventually, of course, the lure of nature in the river valley could not be avoided, and Daegan was off looking for bugs, buds, and wildlife. What a little nature nut!

Yesterday Daegan and I took a break from his math curriculum, Math-U-See, to play some games. Daegan is in the midst of mastering his addition facts, and I am wanting some options for reinforcement beyond ‘yet-another-worksheet.’ He enjoys doing his triangle flashcards while jumping on the rebounder (can you say kinesthetic learner?), but I thought I’d try a couple games as well. Both were very well-received, with him wanting to play multiple rounds. And it provided yet another opportunity to learn the art of winning and losing graciously (quite a challenge with 6-year-olds I am finding). Here’s the games:

Addition War:

(This is a variant of the classic War card game). Remove face cards from a deck of ordinary playing cards, and play with whatever subset you like. (We worked with ace thru 5 to start). Deal the cards into two piles (or more, if more players). You each turn over two cards and state the math fact (e.g., if I flipped a 2 and a 3, I would say “2 plus 3 equals 5”); player with the higher sum takes all 4 cards. In case of a tie, have a war—place 3 cards face down, then flip the next two and sum. Higher sum gets cards. Games ends when one player has collected the entire deck.

Make 10 Go Fish

Remove face cards from the deck. Plays like Go Fish, except the ‘pairs’ are cards which sum to 10: ace plus 9, 2 plus 8, etc. 10s go down on their own. Place a ‘cheat sheet’ nearby to assist younger players in which sums add to 10—I drew a number circle. We play with three cards in the hand (little hands have a hard time holding many cards). Ask for a number from the other player that would sum to 10 with something from our hand. If not, go fish. (We were, in fact, playing with my Birds of North America playing cards, so Daegan insisted we say “Go Flap” instead! <g>).

These games are almost endlessly adaptable: Addition War can involve more than 2 cards—sum 3 cards, or more; you can play subtraction or multiplication war instead. Make 10 Go Fish can be played to a different sum, or you can allow different ways to make 10—e.g., instead of pairing 6 only with 4, you could pair it with a 3 and 1 (ace), or 2 and 2.

Both these games are also easy enough and familiar enough that children could play them with a friend or sibling also learning their math facts. 

Between another round of sore throats and some wonderfully warm weather—leading the boys outside, the mud and warmth beckoning—we’ve be doing a lot less reading. Here’s what we’ve read over the past couple of weeks:

Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon is about an impossibly small girl who is picked on at her new school, and how she copes admirably. The whole story is being told to her grandmother, who says she knew Molly Lou would do just fine…and when you turn the page you discover grandma is also impossibly small. Cute story, but am I the only one who thinks it sad that so many books aimed at the 4-8 crowd focus on bullying and teasing and such at school? Graeme Base’s The Water Hole is a wonderful number book to share with a child who loves nature, or animals, or art. The book contains differing numbers of animals from various continents coming to an increasingly shrinking waterhole…and then the rainy season begins anew. Animal Friends contained several cute, funny, and short poems—perfect for my two during this Poetry Month of April. Tornado Alert we read after I mentioned my friend Tiffany had tornados frighteningly close to her home in Nebraska, one of many titles in the Let’s Read and Find Out Science series. The Tub People was a sweet and unusual story about tub toys, and how the little tub boy was rescued after slipping down the drain. Warm and touching story that both my boys liked. 

The Tin Forest is about a man who lives surrounded by a junkyard, and decides to take matters into his own hands to beautify his surroundings. He sculpts trees and plants and animals out of scrap metal, and one day, a real bird comes and lands on a metal branch. He soon brings his mate, they build a nest, and start dropping seeds, and plants begin growing. Which attracts more birds and insects and wildlife…and soon, you can’t tell in the picture what is live forest and what is the original tin forest. The Magic Hat was very popular with Gareth, who enjoyed the silliness that ensued when people were turned into animals via the hat. He took to creating his own storyline, though, and did not let the people turn back into humans as they did in the book! :-)

The absolute favourite of the week was The Wizard, the Fairy, and the Magic Chicken. Very funny story about three friends who argue and try to outdo one another: “MY wand has a MOON on it” (wizard); “MY wand has a STAR on it (fairy); “MY wand has a PICKLE on it,” said the Magic Chicken. LOL! By trying to outdo one another, the friends create a problem, and the only way to solve it is to work together. Wonderful absurdist humour (and artwork) with a point—highly recommended! Sheep in a Shop is a playful, bouncy book to read aloud, though not quite as good as the original Sheep in a Jeep. You Are Special was an interesting book to read for us, as it was a heavy-handed religious allegory. There are wooden people in a town, all made by Eli (God) on the hill, and they run around all day giving each other stars (approval) or dots (rejection). One character who always gets dots meets another, who, to his surprise, has no marks on her at all—neither stars nor dots. “What is your secret"?” he asks, and she tells him to go see Eli. Eli tells him that what people think of him does not matter; he is special because Eli made him / loves him. This book lead to some interesting discussions in this house!

Happy reading!

Gareth had his second Rainforest Safari class today, and again he came home excited and talking about it. He showed us this cute art project they did: they trace their arm for the tree trunk, and make handprints for the leaves. They then decorated their tree with their choice of animal stickers. I like how Gareth has the sloth hanging upside down, as they do in life.

They also did some painting, played games, the teacher read them a story at the end, etc. And the highlight of the day was getting to try a food from the rainforest: chocolate! LOL! Forget global warming and carbon sinks and all of that…I think we’d get much more environmental activism by telling folks we need to preserve rainforest because that’s where chocolate comes from! :-)

Just a lovely warm spring day today, so the boys headed out to the backyard in shorts and T-shirts. Gareth called to us through the window a few minutes later: “I’m hot! Can we set up the sprinkler to run through?” This gave Jim and I a good chuckle because—as you’ll see in the pictures—we’ve still got a few snowbanks in the yard! We told Gareth to take his shirt off instead if he was hot. Here’s some highlights of their play (hover over the pictures for details):

So how hot was it out there? Our backyard faces due south, and is completely sheltered. It was in full sun with no wind. Here’s what the thermometer out back said:

And how warm was it really? Here’s the thermometer we have out the north-facing kitchen window—which desperately needs cleaning. Lots of splash marks as it is over the sink, but in the interests of more homeschoolers showing realistic, lived-in homes with non-perfect yards and children, I am including it. It was really about 16C / 61F. Quite the difference, eh?

Hope you are getting out and enjoying spring wherever you live!

We’ve been enjoying warm weather this week (actually, its been only a couple degrees above what we should be this time of year, but it’s been such a long, cold, snowy winter it feels tropical!), so I took a walk through the backyard today to see what I could see. There’s greening grass, bulbs shoots pushing through the soil in several places, and new green growth at the base of the hollyhocks and grape hyacinths. Each morning this week we’ve been treated to a pair of chickadees making themselves at home in the bird house we’ve put up in our crabapple tree. Fingers crossed, we might get to watch baby chickadees be raised! And then I saw this.

Spring is here!

We started buying Toobs when Daegan was about 18 months old—past the sticking everything in his mouth phase—and they have been one of the best toys we have purchased. Both boys still play with them, in some capacity or other, virtually every day...more than 5 years later. The range of sets is very broad; click on ‘toobs’ and ‘mega toobs’ here to check them out. They are popular with both boys and girls, are an easy gift suggestion to relatives for Christmas and birthdays, and work well as prizes in party loot bags. I have also used them to stuff plastic Easter eggs for a egg hunt, an alternative to candy and poorly made dollar store items. I also like that the figurines are easily portable and hardy: our boys have played with them in the tub, the sandbox, and the snow without damage (though, as we recently discovered, polar bear figurines tend to get lost in the snow and not found again til next spring!) :-)

Each toob contains about a dozen animals, each with the full name printed on the bottom (e.g., ‘chinstrap penguin’, ‘macaroni penguin’, ‘Emperor penguin’—not just ‘penguin’), right away giving reading practice and incentive to develop research skills. When we got the penguin toob, for example, we did a bit of online research and learned that different species lived in different places—South America, New Zealand, Africa—only a few lived in Antarctica! Here are some of the other ways the boys have played and learned from these toys:

Learned geography from the ‘placing the animal on the world map’ game we played recently. Many toobs are grouped by biomes (rainforest animals, arctic animals, etc.) reinforcing the concept of different living environments as well.

Classification of animals into different groups. Daegan keeps his figurines in containers labelled ‘birds’, ‘reptiles and amphibians’, ‘mammals’, ‘dinosaurs’, ‘insects’, etc. You could also sort into herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and scavengers to demonstrate food chains/webs, or living animals vs. extinct, domesticated vs. wild, endangered vs. abundant, etc.

The boys have used the figurines in many ways to reinforce learning from elsewhere. Many times while reading a book or watching a DVD we’ve ‘paused’ while they run to their room to get the figurine animal being discussed. (Young children seem to learn best from concrete, rather than abstract, representations). Daegan has also matched figurines to the pictures in field guides and his animal encyclopedia. When we returned from our trip to Vancouver (and its aquarium) last spring, the boys played with the sea animal figurines for weeks afterwards, acting out what we had learned on our visit. 

Daegan demonstrated his understanding of the evolution of birds using toob figurines and others here.

The boys have created many play scenarios with the figurines, especially those featuring family dynamics: a mommy, daddy and baby animal and their adventures. Not unlike how other children play with stuffed animals or dolls. They often fall asleep with their favourite figurines alongside in bed as well. :-) Gareth has lately taken to building zoo-like enclosures out of blocks (Lego, Jenga pieces, etc.) and creating a Prehistoric Park.

They have used them in all kinds of art projects, from making ‘fossil imprints’ and trackways in playdoh, to using them as models for drawing or painting.

But the main thing, for me, is that these toobs help give an appreciation of—and hopefully respect for—the wonder and diversity of nature. As one of our boys’ heroes, John Acorn (aka The Nature Nut) said on one of his shows: “We’re living in the Golden Age of animal replicas.” They are very detailed pieces, a true blend of art and science. Happy playing and learning!

P.S. We found the toobs least expensive at Michaels, the arts/crafts store, when using the weekly 40% off coupon (available in fliers on online). As each toob contains a dozen or so animal figurines, each toy cost us less than 50 cents, in Canadian money.

Here’s what I read last month. Hover over image for title and author. And as always, if you have suggestions for me for further reads, please leave them in the comments.

A collection of ‘rants’ from the Rick Mercer Report (a weekly, Canadian faux news show, similar to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart…yet different). Watching the rants on TV is far better, IMHO, though I did enjoy reading his preface about how the show has enabled him to travel all over Canada and meet all sorts of people—and how he gets annoyed with folks from one part of the country who slam folks from other parts without ever having set foot there themselves. Having lived in much of Canada, and travelled to every province (though I have yet to hit the northern territories) I have a lot of sympathy with this view! I should mention that Daegan (almost 7) has started watching the show with me, and while much of it goes over his head, he is getting a wonderful introduction to Canadian geography, politics, lifestyles…and humour. The bits where Mercer goes and tries different activities (everything from ice-skiing with giant kites, to tagging bears in Algonquin park, to training to be an astronaut, to immersing himself in freezing water to study hypothermia…and way, way more) are very funny and accessible to even the youngest viewer.

I read this one for my book club. It was a fairly engaging story, set in France and Algeria in the 1850s, and based on a true story. France has invaded and conquered northern Algeria, but there is trouble brewing in the south: the religious leaders, claiming God on their side, may incite an uprising against the French. So the French military gets the idea to have a magician perform in Algeria—the magic would appear as though a gift from God to folks unfamiliar with sleight of hand tricks, and thus divide and quell the potential uprising until France has sufficient troops to take over southern Algeria. The magician’s wife, however, is ethically disturbed by this—especially when she travels to Africa and sees the different culture/religion/way of life, and how it will be destroyed by the French. The book has an odd style, however, in that everything is presented ‘from the outside’—you get very little insight into what the characters are thinking or where their motivation for certain actions comes from.

Debbie Travis of The Painted House fame offers reflections on raising her two boys, along with reminiscing about her own childhood in northern England. I found this book very funny and engaging—she spins a good yarn (or twelve). But one part of the book left me wondering how much of it was the truth. She mentions waking her son up, and hustling him out the door for school…only to arrive on a strangely empty and quiet street. She had just flown back to Montreal from L.A., and realized she was still on L.A. time! The problem with this, of course, is that the time zones go the other way around. If she was still on L.A. time, thinking it was, say, 8am, it would have been 3 hours later, not earlier, in Montreal. So it shouldn’t have been the quiet of 5am, it should have been the hustle and bustle off 11am. Still, a light and funny read, and her description of her own childhood is worth the read alone.

There was some interesting information in this one, like how many babies in the US are now born to women over 35 (1 in 7); the advantages (financial, emotional) of later motherhood, and the “truth” about fertility: most women at 40 can procreate without medical assistance; most women cannot do so at age 43. And while the author did make an effort to talk to women from a wide range of lifestyles (married, single, adoptive parents, gay), her sample was very small (just over 100 interviews). Her implied attitude towards folks who choose to have families earlier I found insulting at times: saying older mothers don’t “have to settle” in unsatisfying relationships implies younger mothers do, older mothers being “more emotionally together/mature” implies younger mothers aren’t, etc. I recall another passage in which she talks of a professional mom who had a child just before 40 and did not alter her career. The child was in daycare 12 hours per day, and Mom claimed “she loved motherhood” and wanted to have another. I am all for people working or not outside the home as best works for your family, but come on: a young child in daycare 12 hours per day means you rarely see your child during the week while he/she is awake! And surprise, surprise, the author chose to have a child later in life, and adopted another. The book read too much like a defence of the author’s particular life choices—and again, power to her if that works for her family—than an objective look at why women choose to have children when they do.

I really enjoyed this book, about a young woman who worked with owls at a university and how she hand-raised Wesley the barn owl—who had damage to a wing and would not be able to fend for himself in the wild—in her own home. Wesley’s actions are fascinating, as he imprinted on her and not wild owls, so he has a mix of human and bird behaviours. His love of splashing in the bathwater—something no wild barn owl has ever been seen doing—was hilarious, and there are lots of pictures throughout. She also talks about what she learned about life, spirituality and herself in the 19 years she and Wesley had together until his death from old age. Highly recommended.

I must admit, I have rather gone off reading books by so-called “parenting experts,” for a number of reasons. But I enjoyed the overall message of this one: grow up, be an adult, and keep your cool—even when, in fact especially when, your kids are losing theirs. When we talk about "losing it” with our kids, the author says, what we really mean is that we have (temporarily) lost our adulthood. I found this idea very helpful. The other parenting book I recommend is Barbara Coloroso’s Kids are Worth It.

I got this book mainly for its bibliography—the primary bibliography of nonsense stories, poems, etc. for children is HUGE—but I ended up reading it and finding it fascinating. Many of my favourite authors were discussed, like Lewis Carroll, Dr. Seuss and Dennis Lee. I am going to be working through various suggested readings with the boys over the next few months/years, as this sort of writing appeals to the funny bones in all of us. The chapters ‘Nonsense and Philosophy’, ‘Sesame Street as Theatre of the Absurd’, and Nonsense and the Didactic Tradition: Nonsense that Moralizes, Nonsense that Mocks’ were very enjoyable to this lay reader, and as I said, the bibliography is amazing! Highly recommended. 

Gareth started a new class today: Rainforest Safari. Its just over an hour of games, crafts, songs and stories about the rainforest—a preschool alternative. When I picked him up at the end of class he was beaming—“I like my class!” he shouted. They did a jungle obstacle course at the beginning (beanbags as stepping stones across a river; a tunnel to crawl through like crawling through the plants, etc.). They played a boa constrictor game: the teacher was the snake and tried to catch the kids who pretended to be other animals. Gareth told me he was a “4-toed sloth” (like a 3-toed sloth, but everything is 4s now as he is 4 years old). They learned about the emergent layer of the rainforest—aka the very top layer stretching to the sunlight—and made a butterfly craft as butterflies flit about in this layer. Gareth’s only disappointment is that he has to wait a whole week for the next class!

Today is my grandmother’s 90th birthday. We hoped to be in Winnipeg to wish her well in person, but for a variety of reasons have to postpone our trip until the summer or fall. Just as well for me—I am sick as a dog with what seems like the gazillionth cold of the season. Jim called her tonight (via a relay service, as she is deaf), and I sent flowers that will arrive tomorrow morning. My mother is there for the week to spend it with her, and she took her and several friends out for dinner.

My gran is an amazing person. She went deaf at age 9, due to complications from scarlet fever (no universal health care back then, and ‘growing up in the North End of Winnipeg’ is another way of saying ‘poverty’). She continued to attend regular school, and had to make her own accommodations: I remember her telling me she used to pass spelling tests by looking at the paper of the kid next to her and correcting his spelling on her page! She completed high school with excellent grades; in today’s world she’d have gone on to college/university. She is a very bright woman, always reading and doing puzzles (do NOT challenge her to a game of Scrabble unless you want to lose badly! <g>); she worked for years in a loud factory (not an issue for her); raised 2 hearing children on very little money (my grandfather, also deaf, had a grade 6 education and worked as a janitor). She’s been on her own for more than 20 years now since his death, and in that time has travelled all over North America (bus tours), bowled avidly, did activities and put out a newsletter for Deaf Club: whose grandchildren were in town for a visit, up-coming events of interest, birthdays, anniversaries and passings. I have so much respect for how she continues to make the most out of her life despite being dealt a less-than-ideal hand.

Here’s some pictures from a recent visit with her (June 2007). Happy Birthday!

Daegan and Jim took a nature class yesterday, rather ironically entitled “Signs of Spring” (we’re suffering through the longest winter I recall in my 16 years in Calgary). It was held at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, for ages 6-12 with parent, and was well-attended. Daegan even met up with a boy, Alex, whom we had over to do homeschool activities from the Jr. Palaeontologist crate from Science Alberta last fall.

The class began inside, with a discussion of spring, lifecycles (dragonfly, butterfly, frog…both Jim and I thought these topics more appropriate for a class of 3-6 year olds, not 6-12, but nature education is not a strength in this city.) The kids then made a dragonfly craft.

Then it was outside for a guided walk around the sanctuary. They had binoculars for each family to borrow, but the birdwatching was several weeks behind what it should be by this time in the year. They saw geese, ducks, flickers, chickadees, and gazillions of gulls that stop over every year on the river and reservoir. The guide pointed out coyote and deer tracks, a magpie nest, woodpecker holes, beaver damage to trees, a porcupine hole/home, and the new nesting boxes put up by Ducks Unlimited for the wood ducks (so-called because they nest in tree cavities). She also talked about how there are no frogs or salamanders in the area because of groundwater contamination from an old refinery site across the river. They test each year, and the pollution levels are finally down low enough to support amphibian life here again, so they are hoping to see some in the area in the next few years. Fingers crossed. Daegan also saw a ground squirrel on his way out.

In sum, the class was ok, but we’ll still be sparing the time and money to take nature classes in Edmonton (at Devonian Gardens and the John Janzen Nature Centre). As Jim said, “the worst nature class we’ve taken up there was still 10 times as informative as any class we’ve taken here.” Sigh.

I thought I’d start a new weekly feature and discuss various curricula, magazines, DVDs, and other resources we use in our homeschool. Hope it is helpful to someone out there in the blogosphere. I am not compensated in any way for my reviews on this blog, I don’t sell these books, etc., so while you might disagree with me, at least you know these are my honest opinions.

Both my husband and I feel very strongly about kids learning critical and creative thinking skills, skills that are not tied to any particular subject area or content, but can be broadly applied across a wide range of disciplines and life situations. One of the best resources I’ve found for this for the very young is the Can You Find Me? books from Critical Thinking Press. Each page has a short rhyme with clues, and then a colour picture of possible answers. Check out a sample page here. From what I have seen, these books would be acceptable to both secular and religious homeschoolers.

I am working through the books with both boys—for Gareth, who is not yet reading, I read the rhyme/clues aloud, and he points to the correct solution. (As with all materials of this type, if a child comes up with an unexpected answer, but can provide a rational explanation of it, I accept it and congratulate them on their creative thinking. I am pleased to say that I have not yet encountered any ambiguous or poorly constructed questions in this series, unlike so many other workbooks out there!) With Daegan, we take turns reading the clues out loud, and he points to the answer. Any mistaken answers are opportunities for discussion: I ask how they got that answer, and we go back through the rhyming clues one by one to see if they fit. Usually the problem lies in a child not knowing the correct meaning of a word (or shadings of meaning)—a wonderful opportunity to learn in that teachable moment!

Critical Thinking Press has a number of other titles we are using in our homeschool which I will discuss later. Check out their website here for more information.

We got our blue box today for Calgary’s new curbside recycling program (yeah, like the blue box program you’ve probably had in your city for the last 20 years). Up until now we had to collect and sort our recycling and take it to a depot. So this is definitely a step in the right direction, and unlike at the depot you can now recycle numbered plastics as well. Oh, and for those who couldn’t be bothered to take their beverage containers in for the refund, you can also drop those in the bin and the city will recycle them and take the profit.

However, just look at the size of these bins! Here’s the bin next to the garbage can we usually put out each week. How much recycling are they expecting each household to produce in a week?

A few more annoyances. The bin was dropped off with 3 information pamphlets in a plastic bag—a non-numbered, and therefore non-recyclable, plastic bag! This may seem trivial, but they are dropping these bins to every home in Calgary (population 1.1 million).

We put our first few items in tonight, and Jim discovered another problem: the bin is so big and deep, that you have to be very careful when putting glass jars in, or they will shatter all over. Grrr…. And the city has decided to automate this program: the truck that comes for pick up has a mechanical arm to grab the bin. So you need to place your bin facing a certain direction, ensure it is not too near trees, poles, cars, fencing and so on, and is on level ground. Since our pick-up is in the back lane, with fence, garage, telephone pole and the neighbours’ camper parked out back—and on a slight hill—this is going to be interesting. :-) Seems to me the labour saved by not having a person pick the bin up will now be spent in a person righting the bins placed incorrectly outside. Not exactly as user-friendly as would be desired, and for many folks, these bins are just too big and unwieldy to be used. What the heck was wrong with the smaller blue box program as run in other cities very successfully, or Edmonton’s blue bag program? Oh right—we didn’t think of it. Gotta do things our own way here in ‘The Heart of the New West.”

Still, Gareth had fun playing in it before we put the first load in.

Did your family do anything to mark the day? We watched a couple of BBC April Fools videos with the boys. There was much giggling from our two little nature nuts. Check out flying penguins, flying penguins—the making of, and the classic from the 1950s, spaghetti trees. Daegan particularly liked the mention of the dreaded spaghetti weevil. Happy April Fools!