Saturday, November 12, 2011

5 WEEKS in Review (Oct 10-Nov 11, 2011)

Wow it is amazing how fast time gets away from you.  These last 5 weeks have been crazy busy.  Oct 10 was Thanksgiving here in Canada and we celebrated by getting together with family and took some family pictures, at the end of the 5 weeks was Halloween and Remembrance Day.  The rest of the last 5 weeks have been filled with OT assessments, Speech therapy assessments, Eye Exams, Therapist appts, Xrays at the children's hospital for H's leg, babysat my nephew over night, got a new kitten, a ton of extra activities for Girl guides, and a week of hand, foot and mouth disease. We did manage to fit in some school too :) 

All of the testing with the SLP confirmed that while H has progressed he still has a moderate language delay.  The Optometrist and the OT have confirmed he has tracking and convergence issues, and the Optometrist feels there is some visual processing issues too so we have to go do more testing.  His cast is on until mid December and that posed an issue today when we woke up to snow on the ground.  As an 8 yr old he wants to go out and play in that first snow fall, but we can't let the cast get wet.  I did let him out to play for a bit but he says it wasn't very fun because he couldn't do much.  We both can not wait until this cast can be long gone.  As a result of his results with the OT and SLP they have requested that I stop all reading, writing, and spelling lessons with H.  It is making things worse for his eyes and will set him up for failure.  So instead we will be doing sequencing games, clapping out syllables, picture recipes, and other such activities.  He is thrilled with the changes, and thinks school is going to be so much fun now.

Speaking of school, this last 5 weeks we continued working through our explorers unit with the big kids.  They have 4 days left and then it is all done.  We did some more work on the water cycle.  This week I caught H and I pretending to be drops of water on a ride going through the cycle.  He would announce a phase and then they would both act it out.  The 2 younger kids did more in their fall/apples study, as well as 1 about thanksgiving, and 1 about halloween.  We took a day to learn about Terry Fox, and did some worksheets about Remembrance Day.

Over Halloween we had to deal with hand, foot and mouth disease so we could not go to the church party and had to postpone doing the pumpkins until everyone was well.  Instead of carving them for jacklanterns, we roasted them and pureed them and are using them to bake.  They think this was a perfect use for them.

Here are some pictures to highlight the last 5 weeks.


H -Thanksgiving 2011

The Grandparents, my kids and my nephew

I shushing the neighbor's barking dog

Puppet Show H and I were making



Video we watched while learning about Terry Fox

C rock climbing for girl guides


Crown H made for I

C girl guide enrollment

Trying to say the promise correctly

Offically a real girl guide

Pumpkin time






Cousins watching a video together

Nephew teaching I how to play Mario on the DS

Our new Kitty Smoky
Smoky loves to sleep with I
Was asleep until I took the picture
Attempting to take a nice picture
There it is
Look who learned to wink
Nephew coloring pumpkins while I babysat him 
I coloring pumpkin
H coloring pumpkin
C coloring pumpkin
At the optometrist






Friday, October 7, 2011

Weekly Report (2 weeks in review) Sept 26-Oct 7, 2011

These last 2 weeks have been packed full with outside commitments.  Girl Guides has kicked off with a bang this year.  In the last 2 weeks C has gone to her first camp of the year, Sold 7 cases of Girl Guide Cookies, had a special 5 hour meeting to prepare dinner as a group before the regular meeting this Wednesday and today they had a full day at the provincial park doing hikes, crafts, and open fire cooking.  In addition to that we had the parent meeting for A's scout troop as well as H's cub troop.  And of course kids church/youth group/bible study for the last 2 weeks.

As for school we have really been focusing on lapbooks, reading and documentaries for the most part.  A & C wrapped up their study of  9/11.  They watched the movies Twin Towers and a national geographic title called Inside 9/11.  This one was very very well done but it was 3 hours long!  All 4 also watched 2 videos related to their study of the water cycle.  One was a Magic School Bus movie called MSB: Catches a Wave the other was a Squibs movie called In the Clouds: Air, Weather & Water.  If you are looking for a good movie to introduce the atmospheric layers, the water cycle, names of clouds and what their Latin names mean in a fun way this is the movie to get.  The kids watched it 3 times because they enjoyed it so much.

Of course with all the running around to extracurriculars we listened to audio books in the car as usual.  The 2 titles we listened to this time were Bloody Jack A very good story about a young girl that hides herself as a boy on a navy ship after being orphaned in the plague.  WARNING: This title does contain some swearing, violence and some sexual talk including a part where the girl stabs a man that attempts to rape her.  NOT a story for young children.  The other title was a BBC radio theatre presentation of Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe  This title was very much wholesome for the whole family.  Silas is falsely accused of theft and kicked out of his church.  As a result he turns his back on God until a little child appears out of no where in his living room during a blizzard.  A very sweet story about the power of love to heal old wounds and God faithfulness to us even when we turn our backs on Him.

Last week I also introduced the children to Zydeco music.  They really enjoyed the rhythms and I asked to listen to it a few times.

A and C finished reading the 9/11 books we had from the library and completed their lapbook.

The Man who walked between the towers













H finished up his study of Johnny Appleseed.  He completed his lapbook, watched a Disney Johnny Appleseed movie(it was a short one with 3 other stories on the disc), did apple tasting, learned the story of the star in the apple, made apple sauce, and did apple prints.  I joined in for the apple prints.













 H and I also completed a lapbook called Harvest Festival.  Here in Canada it is Thanksgiving this coming Monday so this lapbook was a perfect fit.




We read many books about Autumn as well.
















The kids loved the new leaf rubbing plates.  The leaves were we live have already gotten too crunchy to use for rubbing, so these are the perfect solution.  All 4 kids loved creating pictures with them.




Out of his own interest this week H decided to test an experiment he saw done on Myth busters.  On the show they put 2 phonebooks together page by page and proved that the friction was enough that even 2 tanks could not pull them apart.  He grabbed 2 identical phone books and went page by page putting them together and then tried hard to pull them apart again on his own and as a tug o' war with A.





We had a little buddy with us today too.  Since the last time he was here he has learned to crawl very well, and to stand and creep along the furniture.  He loved the raccoon puppet today and would bury face in it whether it was on my hand or not.



This little guy is such a joy to have here, and the kids adore playing with him when we watch him.  Having him join us today was a great way to wrap up the last 2 weeks.