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Tuesday, December 21, 2010

December 13 - 17 2010

LLATL: Mary traced around a circular object,cut out the circles and created a snowman. Mary then drew a snowsuit and cut out a snowflake. She then identified the three objects.
Mary's Ocean scene

Aidan's Ocean scene


Stringing bells. Classification,measuring,patterning and simple knot tying. The wool stringing made the job more challenging. The chidlren had to "whet" the end of the wool and push it though an unlikely space.



FIAR book for this week: Very First Last Time




Tuesday, December 14, 2010

December 6-10

Homeschool Hazards!
The children estimated the amount of Lego in the Lego pillar.

Giant Lego Tree.






Our FIAR book for this week was Papa Piccolo. Set in Venice Italy A story about a single tom cat in Venice who overcomes his sour grapes attitude and learns to love 2 precocious kitttens.




These are the children's lapbook art. They made use of Meditareanean colors . The pictures wre traced and detail and color added. Mary stayed true to the coloring of the cats int he book. Aidan took interest in the srchetectural detail and added some speed illusions to the path of the kittens. The children also learned some other Italian names like: Marco Polo. Please note that this is added info.. We traced Marco Polo's trade route to China. Fun:)


Sunday, December 5, 2010

November 29 - December3

The insides of Aidan and Mary's lapbooks.
Sorry..the blg does not allow for rearranging. Here is Mary's Russian Lapbook.

We managed to fit quite a few families in the house. Great fun!
Aidan at his Birthday party enjoying Lego building play time with his HS friends and friends. They build ships and buildings and cities.. The friends create a sense of comraderie and we were so glad that he got to share such a wonderful day with people who care for him.



Aidans's colored Russian Architecture and spaceship. Mary's is coming.




Watching Uncle Ashley and his brothers singing.
All of their children were brought out on stage and some sang solos.
Very inspiring.





Going backstage after with Auntie.






Waiting for the concert to begin with Tomas and and Mary's beloved friend "Auntie Jenn."


Mom carved out wax on a candle to uncover the wick. Aidan was then allowed to strike a match and to light it in a controlled environment. Mary watched and made sure we were staying safe.
We learned that fire is dangerous.



The children had a full weekend. They were invited to a Christmas Concert Gala put on by our family. It is a Christian Christmas COncert. The children dressed up to be courteous to the Singers. They sat nicely and were able to bring along a friend that we knew would enjoy it as well.



This weeks FIAR book was "Another Celebrated Dancing Bear" It was about a bear that wishes to dance like his bear friend. It is about friendship and is set in old Russian style. The artwork is done in beautiful etchwork.
The children were incredibly inspired by our lapbook that I created for them. It is a classic Russian (onion)turret skyline with a space ship shape on the side. They took great care in adding candy cane type colors to the turrets, shapes to the architecture of the buildings and loved adding detail to the space ship.
SPACE RACE was a key word for our brief talk about Russian history.
We realized after looking at the map that Russia has some serious land mass.

Monday, November 29, 2010

November 22-26

We examined our crystals on a slide and with a magnifying glass.
After leaving salt in a bowl of water for a few weeks ..the children examined the curious salt crystals and recorded their predictions and observations.

Aidan uses light and shadows in his art.


"Monster in forest"


FIAR book Cranberry Thanksgiving






Mary uses light and shadows in her art.






"family time together"







Sunday, November 14, 2010

Novermber 8-12

Aidan is standing 5 boys in from the beaming blond boy! He is in first year of a three year program with Atoms. He is accepting and award for just playing. Teh coaches all volunteer and are amazing encouragers. They have helped Aidna become more gainly and the team gives him a sense of belonging and accomplishment!!
As the person in the FIAR book "How to make and Apple Pie and see the world" travels around the world to get their ingrediants ..we did the suggested science experiment of Evaporation.
We will observe Evaporation of salt left in a large bowl within the Dryer area.(Warmth)We will report back with our findings in a week or so.
Observations:
Aidan: Water rises up into the air. The salt is left.
Mary:I would think it would turn into rotten water....It would make salt!


Also ..The inside of Mary's lap book.





FIAR - How to make an Apple Pie and see the world.



The inside of Aidan's lap book . Perspective of a continuing story by way of 4-fold art in street scenes.

November 8-12

Mary's 4 fold continueing story line in art example in LAP BOOK.1

Entitled "the runuwy Poodle"


Aidan's 4 fold continueing story line in art example in LAP BOOK

FIAR - How to make an Apple Pie and see the world.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

November

Aidan adding Chip the beaver to the Map.. as we start at the Appalachians and check out some physical aspects of Canada.
Throwing Maple Tree helicopters in the air.



Inside of Mary's Lapbook.



List and an artist's perspective from above or below or anywhere:)


Inside of Aidan's Lapbook.


When asked to write down a list of travel words they referred to a stack of Airplane "Go Fish" cards and independantly wrote out some on the list plus other vehicles. The Glorious Flight Lapbooks.



















Thursday, October 21, 2010

September and a New School Year 2010.

Aidan's leaf rubbing and practice at drawing trees like in Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel. Mary's leaf rubbings and practice at drawing trees like in Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovell.
Some of the childen's observations were:


Aidan - "The steam was a little not strong enough . It is powerful..steam can power things."


Mary - "Steam can move things. it can also heat things up...Like Oatmeal!"


We cam e to the conclusion :Our pinwheel was too big and the paper kept melting and drooping. We think that it would be better if made out of a harder material .. such as plastic.









The children are helping put together a pinwheel for our pinwheel steam power experiment.


















This weeks FIAR book was "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel"










An example of our additional simple machines book pages. The children were to cut out and match the words and pictures .. and paste them fairly straight on their pages.




Mary's finished watercolor and "I wonder?" cover for her book.




Mary's question: "WHy do skunks make stinky Smells?"




As well as things to wonderful to own on the left.




She exactly wanted to emulate the pages of the Illustrator with the trees , fences and colored skies.





Aidan's finished watercolor and "I Wonder? cover for his book.




HIs question: Do berries make Paint?




As well as Things to WOnderful to Own on the left.






FIAR "Who Owns The SUn" which poses alot of questions. This deeply moved the children especially Aidan . He had extra questions about slavery and specifically added the dark shadows and light in his piece. This is the home of the family that had enslaved Big Jim and his family . We discussed forgiveness and not doing unto others as they have done to You. .






One of Mary's Illustrated books from LLATL.







Making Roti's from Instruction.




Mary helped me make spheres and then rolled the dough with me. Aidan watched for bubbles and burnage:)






















Also very sick with cold ,Baby Kellen is getting into the stash of LLTLA cards that we use for Mary's ENglish Curriculum.





















































When you Let Mary Loose with supplies.








Mary roaming while brother practices in the pouring rain.










Kids at work on their watercolor paintings. Capturing the mood, style, colors, lights and shadows of the art in "Who Owns the SUn?"




Mary helping the baby with some wood letters.






The playground





M writing a thank-you note to my Auntie in ENgland. Who remembers to send her a card every birthday.

Educational animal area. Information on the farm, sheep, pigs, egs and milk. Origins of wool.






Trying for a family pic.while at the Pumpkin patch. A bit awkward but natural.



Daddy reading the Christian Supplement that goes with our FIAR stories at the dinner table like devotions.






Excuse the varying bare chests..The kids are examining their clothes for "100% cotton labels" and also other natural fibres like linen in the house.






Capturing the kids in English action.






Excited about Aidan receiving his CLE curriculum for English.






Thanksgiving Canada style and part of the large Karesa clan. Altogether we make 24 with Nanny Grandad 5 kids with 5 spouses and 12 grandkids. We are spread abroad in local and far off US cities and one Uncle who has commited to serving and protecting us at home and away. As well one Sister and cro-in law who live in AB currently.









Both children listened while Daddy and Auntie Jamie who is in the vert business showed them how to respect and greet this extraordinarily large dog.






Fooling around with his all American Uncle PE!
Daddy's Immediate family is his parents ,brother and wife..their son and us 5..which makes 10 of us.






Getting to meet some Aunts and Uncles that came from the US and the Interior for their mothers funeral.. June, the kids Grandma is the youngest in the middle she is always handin gth ekids books to read and homeschooled her children for 16 years.. To the right is a very supportive Aunty Aunt Marion who was a Missionary in Zambia for many years.




She comes and vists the children, takes an interest in their school work and asks them to read to her on her visits.




Aidan reconnecting with a adult cousin from the US who is the same height as him. Just Aidan attended his Great-grandmothers Burial with Daddy. Later Mary and the rest of us joined the family for a time of fond memories and remembrance of Beulah Wilson a godly lady.





I asked the children to go outside with egg shells and recycle them. I asked them to wack them into the garden. We are preplanning this year .. by having a compost that will hopefully yield some nice soil. I handed the egg carton with egg shells and a camera.




We have succesfully grown beans from seeds. Tasting the product is extremely rewarding.





Learning about a miners families life in the Appalachians








Teaching the kids how to hang clothes on the line.




A morning FIAR session. Finishing off our Kimono lapbooks and discussing the rest of the related subjects.

Writing equation sums from blackboard demos.(Singapore)

Scootering and playing.
A table that I have set up under the porch for refuge .. for when I send the kids outside for "Outside play and recreation"

Coloring our English Comprehension for boys and girls mini books.

Using cubes to add.

Mary usign number flash cards to create number bond combos under 10.
FIAR - A Pair of Red CLogs - JAPAN. We made Kimono fold out lapbooks.










































Mary has the responsibility of coloring the story discs for FIAR.





OCTOBER




Getting to meet the local animals and to meet and watch Farmer Sam milk the cows

We were invited to A Sumas Farm and got to visit a Dairy and see the cows milked. The kids ran around for an evening, trampolined and got to go on a hay ride. It was a wonderful day.

Sewing with a plastic needle and wool. Aidan practicing tying a bow.









Making and coloring our Madeline books. A copy of our idea of the Eiffel Tower and our impressions of the books in drawing. Getting Multiplication right.

















Finding France. FIAR book Madeline.





Household chores.





Lentil is our next FIAR book. We did an experiment with sweet and sour and orange halves and quarters.







Grandad teaching about the Northern Lights at the Family Dinner table.
















Aidan helping with the pulley.





























Nanny teaching about the Northern Lights.


Listening to Nanny give us a presentation on High Level where Auntie lives. She had just visited and toured the local sites.




























One of Aidan's character traits is helping and protecting. He is helping Mary with math here.
















Doing crafts with Daddy. Aidan built a plane/ship from Instructions and Mary crumpled tissue paper onto color coded princesses.















Visiting Chilliwack on one of Aidan's game days. Aidan played the game and Mary and I shared soenm gril time walking around.




























Playing with Math Manipulatives. They were being used for Aidan's Instruction part of his Lesson.

















Checking our plum jam experiment. We liquified sugar and reduced fruit . We especially like the taste and color.














Caring for brother is an important job for the kids. The kids take turns distracting and carrying him around.














Finding China on the Map. PING the duck our first book from our FIAR curriculum.
















Setting up our shelves.
















We have begun our school year with the help of Five in a Row to cement all of our other subjects together.