Shaving Cream Spelling

I thought I'd change things up a bit in the spelling department. Instead of doing it the traditional way with paper and pencil, we wrote out our words in shaving cream! Needless to say, the kids LOVED it and it wasn't even as messy as I thought it would be. It was fun for everyone although the kids were a tad disappointed when my answer was "no" when they asked if we could do this everyday!

Spring Birds

Yesterday we spent another afternoon at the RBG learning about spring birds. The weather was gorgeous and we saw and heard many different kinds of birds. We went on a beautiful hike and had the opportunity to feed the birds and chipmunks. The kids had a great time again and we all slept really well last night!

Seriously, if you were a bird, would you not land here to eat the seeds out of this precious hand? He stood there so patiently for such a long time!

Victoria had at least one land on her hand. I just wasn't fast enough to catch it on the camera.

Pretty cute Canadians eh??

I love these pictures of my boys in the field together. I took about a million of them!

How often do all four of them sit so nicely in a row? Perfect photo op.

All tuckered out after a full afternoon!

Frogs and Salamanders

Just because we didn’t have enough field trips already in one week (LOL!), we added another one on Saturday night. This time Mike took Victoria and Austin to this cool conservation area where they were having a Frog Watchers’ Hike. It started with a puppet show and little educational session and then off they went into the woods. The weather was wet but thankfully not too cold. They learned all about different kinds of salamanders and frogs. Unfortunately they didn’t find any salamanders (besides the one the guide had) but the Carmody team found the biggest and apparently the most interesting frog. They all had a great time and all three of them came home wet, tired and happy! They didn’t get home until 10:00 pm which is very late for Victoria and Austin. But thankfully they slept in an extra hour and a half the next morning.

Another Field Trip

Who knew such a stinky field trip would be so interesting? I just took Victoria and Austin on the field trip to this place (aka the dump) and we learned so much (the little ones were at home with Grandma). It was kind of cool to see where all our garbage goes and especially about all the things that can be reduced, reused and recycled. Our tour guide was great and did a good job teaching the kids all about what goes on at the waste management site – on the tour and afterwards in a classroom setting.

Colds, Flu and Field Trips

Seriously, that pretty much sums up our week. We’ve actually had sickness here in our house for about two weeks now. I think we’re pretty much over it . . . just a few lingering coughs and a 10 day course of medication that needs to be completed for strep throat.

Somehow though, in among the sickness, we managed to squeeze in a few field trips. The first one was to the RBG where we learned all about wildflowers and how to identify them. The kids fed the birds and chipmunks out of their hands. Despite the cool weather, we all enjoyed the hike and the fresh air did us good.

Get your craft on

I recently came across a really cool website called Craft Hope. This is directly from their website: "Craft Hope is a love inspired project designed to share handmade crafts with those who need them. It is our hope to combine our love for crafting and desire to help others into a project to make a difference around the world."

The current project is making bracelets for Orphan Outreach in Russia. "For Project 12, we are partnering with Orphan Outreach and sending them with a little love to take to Russia. This time we will be making bracelets for them to pass out to kids. Bracelets are a huge hit with kids of all ages — hemp bracelets or beaded bracelets. They are going on a trip in August and have asked us to collect bracelets for them." Go here for more details.

So I'm challenging you to get your craft on and start making bracelets. They can be hemp, embroidery floss, beaded, material, etc. . . . as long as they're homemade. Let me know if you're willing and able to make some bracelets, even a few, and I will send you my mailing address. I will collect as many bracelets as I can before June 8 and then send them off to the founder of Craft Hope in time for their deadline.

Thanks!

Happy Mother's Day

One of my favourite parts of the day was when Samara came up to me and said, "you know what the best part is Mom?"

To which I replied, "no, what's the best part Samara?"

Her answer: "You can never get fired" (said with the best smile . . . the one where her nose gets scrunched up and her eyes disappear - love it!)

Aaaww . . . thanks Samara.

So there you have it. Once you're a mom, you're always a mom. You can never get fired!

Chocolate!

Upon feeling a little bored and unmotivated with our current curriculum, I was on the hunt for something different to bring excitement back into our learning. That’s when I came across this website and decided to try out a unit study. I had Victoria and Austin look over the different topics and choose their top three. They had one study the same on both of their lists . . . Chocolate! So I purchased the unit study and we began studying everything chocolate. The study is meant to be used in a week but it’s so jammed packed with stuff that it was easily spread out over two weeks. We continued with our regular math and some of our reading but everything else was put on the back burner. It was so fun and one of the best decisions I’ve made. The unit study covers everything including geography, history, math, spelling, reading, writing, etc. . . . and all from a Christian perspective. We learned all about the history of chocolate, the lives of chocolatiers like Milton Hershey, Rodolphe Lindt, Domingo Ghirardelli, Henri Nestle and John Cadbury. We learned all about the rain forest where cacao trees grow and how a variety of chocolate is made. The kids loved it and the best part (I’m sure the kids would agree) was all the chocolate treats we got to make: chocolate fondue, chocolate bowls, chocolate shakes, chocolate scented play dough and much more!

Here are a few pictures of us making and enjoying our treats.

At the end of the study, Victoria and Austin each put together a great lapbook to help them remember everything they learned.