The Whole Fam Damily

Family Reuinion 2010

 My sisters and brother

Lyse, Keri, Dana, Tamara, Me and

our brother Michael.

 Again, with my Mom

 And again, after Tamara said

"Everybody suck in."

Learning Notes: Week Four

Another great week. I know there will be times I say otherwise but as for now it is going well. This week:

Math:

Addition

Counting backwards

Sets

Introduction to Money/counting money

Began subtraction

Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading

Lessons 38 to 40

We are finished all of the short vowel sounds. She is reading so well.
I love this method and this book.

History:

Hieroglyphics and cuneiform. Made name plate and pendants with cuneiform lettering.

Mapwork: Egypt and Sumer. Colored in the Nile River and labeled map.

Science:

Bird Migration

Picture of Sandhill Cranes

Learned of Autumn Equinox

Made African Harvest Drum

Reading:

Seeker of Knowledge (The man who deciphered Egyptian Hieroglyphics)

The Incredibles, a movie story book

Dot's Pot

The Busy Little Squirrel

By The Light of A Harvest Moon

Honk! Honk!

The Flight of the Snow Geese

Luck

Black Sky River

Poetry:

Fall

Signs

Mushrooms

Blackberry Picking

Words

A Cold October Night

Late Fall

Fall's End (began to memorize this one)

Copywork:

Began a copy book.

Athena is a girl.

She has green eyes.

She has a dog.

It is a Golden Retriever.

Music:

Listened to Josh Groban on the way to Regina.

On our trip we were lucky enough to come across a migrating flock of Snow Geese. We drove onto a grid and were able to hear their sounds and get a few pictures as they were taking off and landing.

And as luck would have it, on our way back on Sunday she spotted some Sandhill Cranes!! Again, I turned into a farmer's field and we could hear their sounds and see them fly. The pictures are not great but I'll share them here anyway.

First Day of Fall

Fall is here although it has seemed like fall for weeks already. The weather has been cool and rainy with a few warm days scattered in here and there just to keep us sane I suspect. The cloud cover is enough that it keeps us from viewing the Harvest Moon.

Our schooling is going extremely well. Athena is engaged and we are finding our groove. School work from about 9 until noon and then she goes on to play and I get to my regular household management. Doesn't that sound important? Our week was filled with great art projects as well. Something we lacked last week. We made hippopotamus stand up figures, which tied in with our Ancient Egypt study. Did you know that hippo means horse and potamus means river? So a hippopotamus translates as river horse. No, i didn't know that either.

We also did some cuneiform carving into some clay. She made a name plaque for her bedroom and a pendant for a necklace with the letter A on it. She really enjoyed this project.

And today, on the first day of autumn, we had pumpkin pie with whipping cream for breakfast. Yes, you read that right. (Don't judge me.)

 After lunch we made caramel apples to take to Regina with us tomorrow. We are having a family reunion and I just can't wait.

 Paul left today for a work fishing trip up north and Athena and I are heading south for a couple of days. Shiloh will be staying at a kennel here in town. We'll all be reunited on Sunday.

The dog thing is going well so far. She sleeps all night and half of the day. She plays with Athena a bit but mostly enjoys chasing birds and following Paul around wherever he goes. We went digging through her papers that they gave us at the pound and found her name was Pete. Pete. For a girl. Unfortunately this is the name she responds to. I feel foolish calling her Pete. I feel even more foolish trying to call her Shiloh Pete so she gets used to her name. Ughh.

And in sad news, I found that my bag of birdseed has a small hole chewed in the bottom and there was a small pile of empty shells scattered around it. I keep the seed in the garage which has direct entry to the house. Paul was in the city so I texted him to get a live mouse trap. Of course, being an unsentimental testosterone laden man, he bought kill traps. And this morning it did its job. That little fella was so cute too. Such is life and death in small town Saskatchewan.

So I am off until Monday where I hope to post beautiful pictures of my girls, my grandchildren and my whole family. First time in 5 years that we will all be together. Like I said before, I can't wait!

I leave you with this picture. Paul having secret dealings with three Hutterite men and the end of the driveway. Looks kind of suspicious but I assure you Paul was only trying to take a look at their dugout pump.

Have a great weekend friends. I know I will.

Learning Notes: Week Three

Great week in home education. With every passing hour I spend with this girl home schooling I am more an more convinced that this is the very best educational environment for her. At this stage of the game I cannot even imagine a reason that I would put her back in public school. So this week we accomplished the following:

Math:

Ordering, greater than and less than, comparing, on and on. She loves math and actually did three more pages than I planned out this week. This week we move onto subtraction.

History:

The Egyptians. We learned about the Nile Delta, all about the Nile river and its annual flooding ( Now I know how Moses "parted the Red Sea"). We also learned about some of the Egyptian gods and goddesses. She likes the story of Osiris and Set the best. Just began to learn of mummies and sarcophagus. Did some map work as well. Read about how the White crowned King of Upper Egypt fought with the Red crowned King of lower Egypt for dominion over the land and how the white crowned King became the first Double Crowned King of all of Egypt and later became the first Pharaoh. She loves this stuff.

Listened to Egyptian Treasury on CD by Jim Weiss

Language Arts:

Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading Lessons 35 to 38. Good stuff. She is gaining confidence with her reading skills.

Bob Books Set 2 Books 5-8

Spelling: Short vowel words. She loves when I give her the chalk board and chalk and dictate a spelling list.

Science:

Collected seed pods and leaves

Did leaf rubbings and leaf classification

Dehydrated seeds and re-hydrated bean seeds

Learned about the Harvest moon

Learned about apple growth and harvest

Did experiment about oxidization using apple slices and lemon juice

Read about Autumnal Equinox

Watched Video: Animal Antics in Fall

Music:

Listened to 1 and 1/2 hours classical music (not including supper time classical music)

She has decided her favorite piece so far is Piano Quintet in A Major "The Trout" : Second Movement by Franz Schubert

Art:

Decorated an Egyptian Sarcophagus (coffin)
Various fall crafts

Leaf rubbings

Corn Husk Dolls

Field Trips:

Leaf hunt

Reading:

How do you know its Fall?

Autum Leaves

Let's Look at Fall

The Autum Equinox: Celebrating the Harvest

A Day at the Apple Orchard

Bill and Pete Go Down the Nile

Croco'nile

Countdown to Fall

An Open Letter to My Family

Dear Family members,

I have some news that I am about to share with you before our big re-union next weekend.
Feel free to openly judge me, as I know some of you will, and I probably deserve it if history is any indicator.
We got Athena a pet. (I feel your collective eye rolls). I have been wanting her to have a pet for some time now, especially since we started homeschooling. I KNOW that I did not have the time nor the energy nor the inspiration to get her a puppy. Been there, done that. We had Parker, but alas, he has left us. He was last seen on the deck on July 1st.

Anyway, back to my story. Where was I... oh yes, I didn't want to get a puppy so I put an ad on Kijiji asking for an older, fully housebroken, gentle large breed dog. I got email after email from people offering me their dogs. One woman even tried to pass off a "portly Sheltie" as a large breed because she was just that fat! And then I got an email from a worker from the SPCA who informed me that they just got a dog in whose owner just had to move into a retirement home.

So, Jill ran out there for me as the pound was about to close. She saw her and took a picture with Eden petting her. Only problem was, she had a few applications on her already. I should call Monday morning. So I did. Still available but they were checking out the applicants information. Call back Wednesday. So I did. Wednesday she was still available. Did I want to put my name down so the Director could call me? Yes. Wednesday evening the Director calls and tells me that the applicant she is considering looks like it will be approved so she doesn't think we will have a chance. Did I want her to call me if she was still available. They had until 8pm Thursday night. Yes I did.

So... no phone call on Thursday. No phone call on Friday. Oh well, it was not meant to be I supposed. Saturday morning comes and we are all three outside working in the yard. I come in to get a drink of water and there is a message on the machine. "She is still available but we have had much interest so if we want we better come to the city immediately as they open in a half hour. Their policy is first come, first served." So we jump into the truck as we are. Leaves in our hair, burrs on our pants and dirt under our fingernails. The pound is 45 minutes away.

We get there and there are people milling around already. We head straight to her cage and Paul gets a leash. We take her out and immediately we love her. Paul goes back in and Athena and I take her to an off leash area and let her run. And run she did. But when I called her she came right back and sat down.

We put her back in her kennel and we go find out how many days before we know. Two other people are there showing interest and one was going to fill out an application that minute. The Director approved our application on the spot and within minutes she was ours.

She is a 3 year old Purebred Golden Retriever. She is fully housebroken. She can sit, lie down, stay. She needs some work on a leash but we got a Halti and she is under control. She is gentle as can be. This is our second day with her and all is well. She slept in her kennel from 10pm to 7 am with just a whine or two at the beginning. She does her business outside, every time. She loves to play and she is particularly attached to Paul already. Follows him everywhere. She is very affectionate and wants to be pet all day long. Athena just loves her. She is very very sweet and very very good. (Feel free to leave your 'head shaking' comments in the comment section.)

And so, I introduce to you Shiloh.



And now, to my friends, and thank you Jill and Heather for your help and advice,
We got Athena a dog! Yeah!!!