I have moved…
Posted by: Moniksca on: November 11, 2009
to blogger so much better
Trip that didn’t happen
Posted by: Moniksca on: November 7, 2009
We recently visited Kingston and there isn’t much to do up there but I found the Miller Museum at Queens University. We had hoped to go to Ottawa to visit the Museum of Nature but it happened to be close at the time of our trip.
You know you’re a homeschooler when you base your trip on where museums are located.
We were planning to head out to the east coast when our car broke down, well my mother’s, and spent an entire day trying to get back home. I bet you didn’t know you could get CAA to tow your car 3 times. Thank goodness we had some helpful family members pick us up while VS stayed with the vehicle. We have the worst car luck ever.
The kids had fun in Kingston since there was a cat at the house. M1 thinks that was the whole trip, as long as they had fun I guess, that’s fine with me.
Here is my herbivore eating some plants:
This is my paleontologist digging for fossils:
Harvest fest
Posted by: Moniksca on: November 4, 2009
Yes I know, I’m late in my halloween update. For the past 2 years we have gone to harvest fest, which is held at a local church here. They put on a play and you sign up your child, they get a bingo card with all the games on them. The kids go and play games and get tons of candy. When you’re finished you give them your card and you’re entered in for a prize. They also had door prizes. We never win so I don’t even pay attention anymore. This year about half way through as they were announcing the winner for 2 tickets to see Robin Hood at a local theatre, guess who they call?
Yes we won!!! woohoo!!!
So benefits of harvest fest are:
- stayed warm inside and got a bag full of candy
- kids had fun playing games and tired themselves out for bedtime (They also had a bouncy castle)
- Parents sit and watch while eating home baked goodies
- won 2 tickets to a show
That made my night. Now we have to read Robin Hood before we go see it.
By the way, M1 was dressed as frankenstein (same as last year, I don’t know why he likes that mask so much) and I dressed M2 up in his army clothes and put 2 lines under his eyes in black makeup (he was an army soldier), didn’t think it would have been appropriate to give him a gun to carry so he brought his car, lol. He has yet to lose one, which is pretty good for a little guy. These boys sure don’t forget about their favorite toys. I’m not into halloween much, hence the boring costumes, but they still enjoyed it and M2 could care less about what he was wearing.
Play dough…great arm workout
Posted by: Moniksca on: October 25, 2009
- In: Crafts
- 4 Comments
I just worked out my arms making play dough for the little ones. I found a recipe online.
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2 cups warm water
1 tbsp cream tartar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
food colouring
Mix everything together and stir away until it is stiff. That’ s where the workout begins. Then once it cools you knead in the food colouring. So after my hands have turned purple from the blue and red food colouring (your suppose to use gloves), and my arm feels like it is going to fall off, I’ve got play dough. woo hoo. The first time I tried to make this it didn’t turn out because it was too sticky, turns out you have to cook it longer. That’s what we’ll be doing this afternoon, playing with our play dough. I wanted to make our own since M2 is still very oral, so that way if he does put some in his mouth, I won’t freak out, although this is not an edible recipe. It doesn’t contain unknown chemicals like store bought ones.
Since we have rid our house of white flour, I had to use whole wheat flour. Not as smooth in texture but works well enough.
So in the end I have an activity to occupy the monkeys and I have worked out my arms…now onto the rest of my body, lol.
What I love about homeschooling…
Posted by: Moniksca on: October 24, 2009
- You can wake up anytime you wish, well anytime M2 wishes since he wakes everyone up
- You can do school in your pjs
- You can take breaks when ever you/or student wishes
- No school lunch to pack
- You can set up your own schedule, afternoons/weekends, it’s up to you
- You know your own child and can pick and choose curriculum specific to your child’s learning style and interests
- You can choose what your children are exposed to in terms of curriculum or people ie. no bullies at home (except M2 can have a mean streak once he doesn’t get his own way)
- You can work at your child’s pace – it’s not the end of the world if they can’t multiply, you can work on it the next year
- You have more time together as a family
- You may take as many field trips as you wish and won’t have to wait in lines since all the kids are in schools
That is why we went to the zoo. Love it.
Busy Thanksgiving weekend…
Posted by: Moniksca on: October 15, 2009
This weekend was quite busy here. M1’s birthday was this weekend, my little 8 year old boy, you know that’s only 2 years until 10. So big, where does the time go?
We had a party for him with our local friends here. They had fun, VS decided to test out his clown routine and figured out this is not the career choice for him…thank god. He entertained them while I fed them. Great team work. We had to have the party on Friday since VS was working on the weekend, that left out his out of town friends who were greatly missed.
I told VS to ensure that all the kids had a chance to win at his games, since you know how kids are, the world comes to an end if they don’t win something. Also, since M1 is a sore loser I didn’t want him to cry at his own party. Yes, he cries if he loses at any kind of game. He won’t even let his brother win as they race up the stairs. He must win all the time.
We’ve finished our dinosaur lapbook and now onto Ancient Egypt. Math is going really well. I’ve learned to go against all my urges and stop pressuring him. We’ve just been taking it slow and steady.
The in-laws invited themselves up and then they requested that I make a turkey. Thanks to to a combination of google and youtube, the turkey turned out really moist and delicious. It was the second one I’ve ever made. The secret? it was cooked breast side down and then flipped over the last hour to crisp the skin. Awesome!
I’m tired.
Change again…
Posted by: Moniksca on: October 6, 2009
So here we are in our second month of homeschooling and I have just revamped our reading schedule. It looks a little more intensive, however, M1 seems interested so far in the new readings which is good. I was reading a lot on Charlotte mason and thought “what am I waiting for?” so I decided I might as well start now. The curriculum is outlined at Ambleside online so I just adapted it to suite us. There’s lots of read alouds and we’ve just finished peter pan. Although, since we have the Disney book, M1 kept asking why the pictures from the novel didn’t look the same as the Disney book and why other things were different. FYI Tinker bell is actually evil, at least that’s what we think. I think that we’ll have to read the novels first before he sees any movies.
Oh boy…
Posted by: Moniksca on: October 3, 2009
- In: Rants
- Leave a Comment
My end of the week rants:
Still editing my proposal…I’m kind of sick of looking at my work. Is that a good sign? I still have a thesis to write up. ugh.
I need a vacation but no passport equals me having to get an enhance driver’s license. It sounds like a really rigorous process with the interviews and all. I just want to shop in the states, so much work.
We’re studying ancient Egypt now and M1 says that he is Egyptian because he likes to wear only his underwear, this is also why he admires Tarzan. Too funny.
I find it funny that CNN was only going to cover the last round of decisions for the 2016 olympic bid and then when they were eliminated in the first round, were scrambling to replay everything. Who were the analyst who figured it was going to come down to these two and sent Obama over there to Copenhagen, what a waste of his time.
Oh boy…
Posted by: Moniksca on: September 27, 2009
- In: Family| Rants| School| bad idea
- 2 Comments
My end of the week rants.
I spent the entire week working on a poster for a conference and on the last day my supervisor spent the whole day changing everything. What was the point of me working on it then?
My proposal defence got pushed back to the 26th, I just want to get it over with at this point.
Before the end of last week when M1 was to receive his allowance, he had already requested a raise. When he asked what he could buy with $1.75, I responded with 1 item from the dollar store. I guess he was not pleased with that and requested more money. After our second week, he was happy to hear that he would be able to purchase 3 items.
Well maybe 2 since the dollar store is no longer $1 but a $1/$1.50/$2 store.
On trying to plan what we will be doing for M1’s bday, VS suggested hiring a clown, and then suggested that he be the clown who could do “cheesy” magic tricks. I think it could work…if he were performing for toddlers. M2 finds him hilariously funny, however, he also laughs at M1 hitting his bum so not happening.
The dilemma is that VS is working weekends and won’t be around for it plus it’s thanksgiving long weekend.
Oh boy…
Dino Land
Posted by: Moniksca on: September 19, 2009
This is what we’ve been working on for the past week. M1 wanted a play area for his dinos. We first crumpled up newspaper and taped it down to make the hills. Then we paper mached a with newspaper, and a second layer was completed with white paper towel. Then is was painted. M1 painted it all by himself, except for the volcanoe, which I did. I was advised that it could only be brown, when I tried to mix in some other colours, he was not happy with me. He now wants to make a second one, since he can’t fit all his dinos on it. I have no problem building things with him, but I just have no space to store it.
We made cut out trees, a deciduous and coniferous tree, and a cactus. I asked why didn’t he put his cactus on and he told me that they were for deserts, and that this environment was very warm. “oh” I said. lol. Of course, how did I miss that.
llleeesssaaa
- You may say i'm a dreamer... December 22, 2009
Meli’s World
- Where should I go? December 27, 2009
