Category:

Canada Study: Newfoundland and Labrador

12/4/2015

Creative Fridays includes our day to study our beloved land of Canada... and to have fun while doing so. :) We read, we watch, we create. It's all good. :)

The flower of Newfoundland & Labrador is the pitcher plant.
This amazing plant eats insects -- they become trapped and rot inside the pitchers. The plant then soaks up the nutrients. There are tiny downward facing hairs inside the pitcher that prevent the insect from climbing back out when they fall in.

We watched this video below, me cheering for the plant, my son cheering for the flies.

The Atlantic Puffin is the provincial bird of Newfoundland and Labrador. This sea bird lives in the cold ocean waters feeding on small fish such as herring.

They usually mate for life. The female lays one egg each year in an underground burrow.
Puffins are hilarious to watch! They would eat fish (such as sand eels, herring, hake and capelin), until they were so full they couldn't fly anymore. Then they'd have to float on the water for awhile, resting after their big meal. Every so often, one would try to take off again -- sometimes they'd make it and sometimes they'd just skip over the waves in a rather ungraceful attempt before deciding to take another break. So, yes, puffins can fly.

Puffins have colourful bills during breeding season, take off from cliffs and water but not land. We discovered the need for puffin patrol. Banding, rescuing, researching .. they do it all, and it helps promote pride in ones community when you efforts also bring in tourists to learn more about your little bird. :)

We learned that Newfoundland and Labrador has it own provincial song.
Ode to Newfoundland

1. When sun rays crown thy pine clad hills,
And summer spreads her hand,
When silvern voices tune thy rills,
We love thee, smiling land.
We love thee, we love thee,
We love thee, smiling land.
2. When spreads thy cloak of shimmering white,
At winter's stern command,
Thro' shortened day, and starlit night,
We love thee, frozen land.
We love thee, we love thee
We love thee, frozen land.
3. When blinding storm gusts fret thy shore,
And wild waves lash thy strand,
Thro' spindrift swirl, and tempest roar,
We love thee windswept land.
We love thee, we love thee
We love thee windswept land.
4. As loved our fathers, so we love,
Where once they stood, we stand;
Their prayer we raise to Heaven above,
God guard thee, Newfoundland
God guard thee, God guard thee,
God guard thee, Newfoundland.

A while back I found this kit called "treasure of Canada" which is a gem digging kit for the provinces of Canada.

Today, my lad dug out fool's gold and labradorite. I thought he might find it a neat way to get to the gems and I was right. He did get frustrated with the provided digging tools, but fought through.

We combined our Friday art study with our Canada day study. We learned about Vincent Van Gogh and how he would spread his paint on thickly and draw swirling lines through it. Since neither of us wanted to do a self portrait that the book we are using called us to do, we did a Puffin instead. This was a lot of fun, though we learned our acrylic paints desperately need replacing. :( Guess I know what I will be shopping for these coming weeks. :)

Mom's Version

The Lad's Version

Part of our Friday Studies to exercise our creativity as we work. To that end, as we study our provinces the villagers find they like to be involved. So we have the flag of "the Rock" and the flag of the villagers. :)

Resources Used?
Ode to Newfoundland.
Nations Encyclopedia.
Blank Map of Canada.
Free Colouring Pages.
HCS Learning Commons.
Kidzone.
Google Maps.
And various other internet resources just to learn more about specifics of puffins, labradorite, etc. More Youtube videos as well. :)

Christmas Craft Fun

11/27/2015

A while back I issued an invitation to the folks in my homeschool group. Come join us for a craft day. We'll make Christmas crafts...the ones that pop up on facebook so frequently.

Two families responded to that invitation but only one manged to make it here. Having one family here made it easy for this introverted family to just relax and have fun. :) We had a blast.

I had pulled up a variety of crafts that I found. Some simple ones and some more complicated.

These were supposed to be hot chocolate, mints, marshmallow jars, but in this house we are somewhat flexible in the "this is what you should do" rules.

The children experimented with what they wanted to have in the snowmen and how to fit them all together.

I loved what the children did with the pinecones. One became an elf, another a Christmas tree. The tree becoming an ornament for the tree.

A stuffed felt Christmas tree joined them. I got this inspiration from the trees up at Fanshawe Pioneer Village that we recently went to.

Our sock snowman proved a hit! Check out how they are decked out. :)

I like offering options about how children should engage themselves in a craft and the variety is great is it not? :)

if you want to know how to make them, check out this youtube video.

We ended up having a whole family of these delightful clay pot snowme n. They all looked different, one had a baseball cap, another a pink hat, all had different faces and different head gear. Seeing the creativity expressed was so neat. :)

Christmas sleighs from candy canes and chocolate bars, and gob stoppers in a box. Every single one made looked different, and one even had a man driving it. :) Fun to see the artistic designs of these children. :)

These ornaments made using bits of crayon turned out to be a total hit. I think almost everyone made one, except for the youngest who made an ornament using pony beads stuffed inside the ornament...it looked quite nice. They were so easy to make, and the colours sometimes mixed in ways we didn't expect. Its a very neat craft to make.

After a meal of spaghetti we finished off our night making gingerbread men. It was a great afternoon and we look to be doing it again sometime. :)

Water: in Oceans and the water cycle

6/30/2015

My son and I have spent that last couple of months working our way through this book one page at a time. Learning different facts about the oceans... from the animals dwelling therein, to the different levels, to the ships crossing them, and even to the dangers currently facing our oceans. We been amazed, stunned, shocked, and horrified at the different points throughout this book. It's been a good read for us.

My lad has asked copious amounts of questions and we've taken plenty of detours into the world of "google" as we searched out answers to his questions.

We learned about different boats and took the time to look them up. Chinese junks, tirenes, and more
We looked up some of the different submersibles in use to study the oceans.
We were amazed at the different sharks in the ocean like this hammerhead.

I have to admit to being bothered by the evolutionary push in the book as well as the insistence on global warming being a fact. I found myself skipping past a few pages that talked exclusively about such topics. Both are theories and I wish they'd be treated as such, instead of as accepted fact. But take away that, and boy, we learned a ton and had fun while doing so. It's cool to follow new thoughts and ideas, and do outside learning on our own. :)

We did some more learning about water as well. I recently received this book from Raincoast books. It's called Water is Water and is written by Miranda Paul. What a delightful book! It taught my boy that there is more to the water cycle than...

click image to go to source

Water is Water: A book about the water cycle is a great book. The illustrations by Jason Chin add so much depth and interest to the story line. My son had fun looking for an animal in every picture. Sometimes the animal followed from page to page, and sometimes they added a new animal...what could it be and what would the water be doing next? It was SO well done. :)

Loved doing this book for a review. :) It's a short book with simple language, about 40 pages long suitable for children 6-9. My son and I took turns reading pages in it, and just thinking about the different forms that water can take. At the of the book we learn that a cat is 80% water, and other pertinent facts about water and the water cycle. Nicely informative in a way that will speak into the lives of children and the precious resource that water is.

Some resources that may further your learning about water. :)
Free Lapbook on the water cycle.
Free Water cycle notebook.
Worksheets onthe Ocean.

Cacti and things learned, things remembered

6/18/2015

My son has recently discovered Cacti and HE wants to be responsible for taking care of them. Thusly we have some cactus in our house. We started with these two, but one grandson, convinced his gramma that he needed more AND a pot... so we have three more (but I don't have a picture of them yet).

I think it's interesting. My hubby doesn't talk about his growing up years a whole lot beyond the occasional comment here and there.

We were talking about my lad's sudden interest in Cacti and he came out with "I liked cacti when I was younger too.   Mom bought me some too."

It was neat.   A simple thing like buying cacti and I learn more about my favourite fellow neat huh!?!?!   :)

When my lad was out with gramma getting more cacti, I'm told he asked a lot of questions of the nursery people. Learning how often to water them, how they grow and divide and how big they might get.    Mom was quite impressed with him, and the nursery staff were quite pleased (so I am told). :)

What did they tell him?
- keep them in sun
- water them once every two weeks
- keep them in sandier soil
and "I don't remember the rest mom". :)    Nine year olds eh?

Caring for cacti needn't be challenging. It's like caring for any other plant... water them when they need it, be mindful of pests, repot as necessary and enjoy them.

Project Fair Pictures

5/26/2015

This past week HOPE had their annual Project fair.

My son did an exhibit on Minecraft. He had so much fun. :) I unfortunately forgot to get a picture of him and the gaggle of children huddled around his presentation. :) But he always had someone there to talk minecraft with.

Here are some shots from the different project available. :)

This included a small write up with guinea pig with a "fun catch the error" giggle in it. :)

These pictures were based on the Percy Jackson novel.

aren't these art work pieces well done? One young fellow was quite pleased with what he and his sisters accomplished..

trip around 10 countries which came with food to share and buildings to see. :)

You know what I think mom?

5/18/2015

Those hand spa places should have a tadpole option. Make it easy and fun for people.

Just so you know they did an excellent job of cleaning off his gardening with mom dirty hands VERY clean. :)

My Son's Delight

5/13/2015

Tadpoles grow. Pollywogs. They have tripled in size.

He is more than delighted.

A Week in Review: May 2

5/5/2015

This past week was a terribly busy one for us.
The lad needed to do a lot of bookwork and by Thursday he was just done with it.

Monday: Gramma's for the afternoon as Jim and I were having our afternoon together.
Tuesday: Fun with the KICK group. Group games and a library tour.

this was a fun game where a group of children gathered on either side of a sheet and then had to pick one student out of the pack to sit at the front. That person had to race to name to other person when the sheet dropped. They had FUN with this. :)

Wednesday I had a doctor appointment. The lad and Dad went to gramma's to work while I had my appointment.
Thursday: Dad had an appointment (he had stayed at Gramma's overnight to save on the driving back and forth to town). He had a good report but come home with his hand very achy from being examined. It's been sore the rest of the week.

Thursday. Enough with riding in a car and doing paperwork. Just enough was his cry. AND since it was such a nice day, we decided to make a day of it outside.

When the lad went in after we did all this work, he wanted to play his hour of minecraft and he had worked hard so it was a good way to relax for him. Though I have to admit, he wasn't pleased when I told him to shower first. :) I continued working. I turned over a bunch of dirt on our muddy pathway in an effort to get the soil loose to get some grass growing here. :) as you can see, as i work I'm adding some stepping stones. Next year I will have the rabbity tents organized differently so I can walk in from the shed through the hay tent to where the rabbits are. :)

Off and on throughout the day we took time to enjoy some flowers and to enamel our "words of Christ" board.

I love my daffodils. I have a variety of colours scattered over the yard

click image to go to review on Knowing God by Name.

We finished our week on Friday going to HOPE days. I'm teaching a chess class and afterwards we had fun playing and visiting in the park with some of the other families.

the children had a lot of fun playing two on two chess.

Review: Star Toaster: Orphs of the Woodlands

4/15/2015

Imagine a world up for review, created by the folks at Star Toaster, called Orphs of the Woodlands, with good guys (you and WAK underground), bad guys (night creatures) and those in need of protection (the orphs). Now imagine having to navigate this world with the need to learn New Information Daily. To pass along that knowledge in the form of jobs, so that you can keep helping out the Orphs and solve the secret of High Tower Place. Now that is a world to review, and I'm delighted to have worked with my lad reviewing Star Toasters' world "Orphs of the Woodlands". The particular book we studied was "The Treasure of HighTower"

Orphs of the Woodlands is built upon the premise of build an engaging story, within which you put learning opportunities, and then provide a forum by which you can test out those learning opportunities. Let there be a reward for successful completion of that testing period. An online book, with online education opportunities and a game to boot! :) What fun (and it was).

Signing into Orphs is a two part process. First the parent signs in, then as you scroll down the page you'll see the Student accounts. Same password, different passwords for each student account. As you can see my son had an account, and so did I. :)

To log into the student account you need to click on the student account options (located in red) and that pulls up another screen allowing you to see your student's progress, as well as have your student log into their account. If you click on student progress it opens up a new window where you see the progress made. I tell you this since it can be confusing if you fail to use student account log ins. :)

The Story and Details.

As you read the story there are several features to note.
1. At the bottom of the page you are told how many pages are left in the chapter.
2. Vocabulary words are highlighted in red. You can click on them if you don't know what a word means, and then a window pops up giving synonyms, starting with the most common, easiest word.
3. The black boxes either pop up lessons or recipes. You can click on them immediately or wait until you get the jobs part of program.
4. Also highlighted in red are interesting quotes that just add depth to the story.
5. The name of the main character is chosen by the student, along with your student's best attributes.

At the end of the story you are given a number of jobs to do. These jobs are divided into categories, such a language, life skills, vocabulary etc. Every 10 jobs you get a pay raise. The jobs are how you earn gold stars to help pay for the care of the orphs. The jobs are answered via multiple choice answers.

correct answer

incorrect answer

When the jobs are done you are shown to this screen where you help to provide care for your orphs. My son figured out before I did that there is a strategy to what you buy and where you place it. Some plots of land are definitely better to get than others are. :) And it apparently matters a lot where you put resources to help support the orphs.

Our thoughts:
My son said "There's lots of orphs". "I like it". "It's fun. Building the stuff and putting it in the right spots so you aren't wasting resources.

My thoughts: The story line is engaging, the placement of quotes, lessons and recipes are interwoven nicely. The jobs fit well with the story line of each chapter. Professor Forp made my son laugh when he first met him. The "Mom, do you remember when we learned ______? Hey mom, can we try that purple cabbage trick? Mom, ....". Means my son is engaged in what he is learning and remembers it even once the product is put down for a day or two.

What are the things that I particularly enjoyed about Orphs of the Woodlands?

Regular practice reading out loud for my son. He'd do a page, I'd do a page.
A lad enjoying his school time, and wanting to work through the lessons so he could help those poor orphs.
Regular emails. At first I found them annoying until I read them more thoroughly, and then I found them useful. Tons of information in those emails. :)
The customer service is excellent. My son said "Mom, you should email them about......." I did so, and they responded with a "excellent job noting that young man, but ........" So encouraging and nice. :)

Product Details:
Vendor: Star Toaster
Product: Orphs of the Woodlands
Type: Online Educational Resource and Game.
Age: Grades 4-7
Price: Normally $19.99 for 60 days for up to three students, One month extensions for $6.99 also for three students.. Currently there is a free trial offer. The first 100 pages, and access to 50 games/lessons for free.
To learn more about the premise of the program, go here.

Follow Star Toaster on Social Media:
Pinterest., Facebook, and Twitter.

Review: Hockey in Canada Books

1/13/2015

Take one non-sporty child who turns down any sport books quite quickly. Add these eight hockey books. And before you know it you have a boy asking "Can we read just one more mom?" "Can we read one at breakfast?" We enjoyed our time following he adventures of Puckster together.

I have to admit that I was surprised at how much my boy enjoyed these books. I thought he would mildly tolerate them, but he thoroughly enjoyed them though he did ask lots of questions about why they had all these animals playing hockey and why was the moose on a sled and what exactly is a mascot or a stick boy or .... and the questions went on and on.

I liked the fact the books are a story that continues from one book to the next. I appreciated the tips scattered throughout the book. I liked the page at the end of the book that summarized the things learned and taught what specific terminology was.

One of the recurring themes was the need to work hard and if you are part of a team, to remember that you are PART of a team. Going solo doesn't cut when you are a part of team, and to learn new skills you need to work at them, and sometimes your teammates can help you with that. This is a skill I'm trying to teach my boy...how to say "Hey, I don't know how to do this.. can you help me?" So it was nice to have that reinforced in this book series.

These books were published to help parents and coaches be able to teach their children/team hockey skills and I can very much see them being helpful with children under 10.

If I were going to teach a hockey unit to younger children these books would definitely be part of that of that teaching session.

Go TEAM CANADA GO!

Book Details:
Series: Puckster
Published: Hockey Canada
Average Page Length: 24
Author: Lorna Schultz Nicholson
Illustrator: Kelly Findley
To Purchase them Go to Indigo Books.