Fishing!

One of the advantages of homeschooling... you can take off on a nice fall morning and go fishing with your grandpa.
The kids had all sorts of fun, and apparently they are pretty good at casting their lines into the water, and pulling out fish!! Z caught 7 and E caught 3!!

They also enjoyed the grandfather's perrogative of taking them to McDonalds for breakfast AND lunch on the same day LOL. I'm sure they will remember this day for a long time.

Fall Family Walk

We went walking in a lovely park by the river yesterday. The kids had a marvellous time running through the big trees and rows of thick bushes. There were some wonderful old trees just perfect for climbing (and picture taking), and they had fun making crayon rubbings of the bark and collecting leaves.

Later on, we spent a fair amount of time throwing rocks into the river, and then headed off to the slurpee store for the before-promised treat.

All in all, a nice fall afternoon.

Normal?

My little 4 year old girl is so excited because today is her first day of joining the girls choir that her sister has been in for 3 years.
She keeps trying on new outfits to wear, and just recently came down with some hair accessories.

"Mommy can you put this barrette in my hair?"

"Sure honey... there. You look so pretty!... you look like your big sister!"
(she scrutinizes herself for a few seconds)...

"No, actually I look like a normal person."

"What's a normal person?" (and what does that make her big sister? LOL

"Oh, I don't know." she says, nonchalantly and then after a mere 60 seconds of being a normal person, she takes it off and declares she doesn't want to wear it anymore.

I wonder if she thinks I am a normal person. hmmm...

New bike!

Feeling sorry for his little preschooler who couldn't keep up with the big kids, daddy decided to use his RBC Points to purchase a fancy new tricycle for H this summer. It's red and silver and shiny with a bell and a horn, and a seat on the back to take friends with you. She loves it.... but (and couldn't you see this coming?) the TWINS love it more. You should see P whiping around the driveway and sidewalk on this thing. Looks like daddy needs to start saving his points again so he can buy another one.

H (and all the kids really) has spent the summer playing all day at the park across the street with the neighborhood kids. Within one block of our house there are 5 girls close to the kids age, and 1 boy for Z. Including our kids, there can be a mob of over 10 kids at the park at one time playing tag, chase-the-girls, catch the butterflies, and other inventive games. What a fun summer! Even the twins got to enjoy the fun by being scary dragons that chase the other kids around up and down the slide.

This is just the sort of fun that children love. Warm sunny days outside, close to home, but far enough away that they are in their own little world. Thank you God for giving us this wonderful house and wonderful neighborhood!

Week 4!

With a new baby on the way shortly (I am 34 weeks pg already!), I decided to start school a little early. The kids were a little unhappy about the idea at first, but as we quickly fell into a rhythym, everyone has been enjoying the new structure that school gives to our days.

Z is in grade 1 already, and is doing a fantastic job of all of his work, although he detests reading lessons (but we are persevering because we know that there is a light at the end of the tunnle and he is improving every day).

E is in grade 4 (can't believe how old she is getting). She has been enjoying her schoolwork this year too.

H is in preschool and is learning new things all the time. She loves letters and enjoys copying words from all over the house, and making up her own words.

The twins... well, let's just not talk about them right now LOL. They are quite a pair, and enjoy getting into mischeif. This is a whole new post of its own.

Here's our plans for this year... i'll start with grade 4 and do grade 1 when i have more time.

Grade 4

Math: Horizons 4 (still working great for us)

Spelling: All About Spelling (starting at level one for review and working through the rest of the

4 books as time allows... the kis LOVE this new spelling program and look forward to it each day)

Copywork: Memoria Press Cursive copywork book. (E is just practicing her cursive formation here)

Latin: Latina Christiana 1 (this is going great this year).

Writing/grammar: Writing Tales 2 (we love this program... I wish I had found it last year, and I wish she would write higher levels of the program... it's a great gentle introduction to writing).

History: History odyssey level 1, Early Modern Times

Science: Exploring Creation with Astronomy (2009 is the International Year of Astronomy and we are having fun already... posts on this to follow)

Art/nature study: Hearts and Tress Kits (more on this later... we are loving these mom-friendly kits for nature and art study. )