Category: Hope

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. :)

Reptile Bob

3/28/2013

yesterday my homeschool group put on a field trip done by Reptile Bob.

The lad was thrilled. :)

He got to hold a green oh shoot.......green tree frog (my mind blanked for a moment). He was very enthusiastic and asked if he could hold everything, but was told (numerous times) very politely by the instructor that everyone would get a chance to hold them but the animals could only have three or four people hold them at a time. (he was disappointed but coped well). :)

Reptile Bob is very good at bringing in the marvellousness of how God created the different species of animals. Getting the children to really LOOK at how each animal was designed and then figuring out what made them unique in their particular environment.

Reptile Bob is very good at bringing in the marvellousness of how God created the different species of animals. Getting the children to really LOOK at how each animal was designed and then figuring out what made them unique in their particular environment.

As you can see, he has an audience wrapped around his every word. The children listened well and asked good questions.

she simply did not want to stay in her box. Females have a flat undershell, males have a indented one.

He showed off I think about four different snakes. Pointing out what the good was in them, the differences in how they reacted and caught prey, how their markings made it easier for them to hide in their particular environment. This one above is a corn snake I believe. Snakes can eat things about three times bigger than their girth. They have limited, blurry vision. Most hunt their prey can some ambush it. Female snakes have shorter tails.

She wouldn't run for us today. She's this colour because she's a desert lizard (a bearded dragon to be precise). And she'll puff up her head to scare of enemies. :)

All in all it was an excellent field trip for us and the lad was quite pleased. :)

HOPE Days and Science

3/15/2013

This morning we to HOPE days as a family. This is our cooperative teaching time with our homeschool group HOPE.

I am teaching a class on rabbits and other small animals as well as assisting in a Drama Class. My son is attending a gardening class and a trip involving six countries.   It's a good experience all round.

Anyways, when we got home the lad wanted to play with some of his toys but I kept falling asleep on him due to a short sleep night, so I suggested instead that we do an experiment.   We are using Supercharged Science as our science at the moment and for a while I've been wanting to the hovercraft experiment.

Being the scientists that we are we switched it up a bit.

Aurora experiment called for paper cups, CD discs, juice lids, balloons and hot glue.   We chose that the lad would use a CD disc and I would use a plastic protection ring. We wanted to know if there would be a difference in how they worked.   The directions Aurora gave didn't work for us, due we think to the difference in juice lids. We found what worked best was popping open the lid.

my plastic disc and the popped up lid

The lad chose to conduct some of his own experiments as well. He tried hard to use the pop lid to make a rocket but couldn't figure out how to do it. The balloon just couldn't release air fast enough for him through the lid regardless of what he tried. Though he did succeed in making a cat food rocket. Sprayed cat food all over the kitchen and it was just a hoot (at least to the lad, I was somewhat unimpressed with having cat food fall on my head). :)

see the hovercraft in action. I tried to get the lads but well.....he doesn't like his face showing on-line and I just couldn't get one without his face. (too happy that it worked he was).

Today's Efforts In Learning

2/26/2013

We started off our day with Adventus. Today's lesson was a bit of a challenge for him to figure it out. We needed to work together to bring understanding. We did our question from Target the Question. We did another lesson from A+Tutorsoft math, we did the starter lesson for multiplication. I told him all he needed to do today was listen to it.

We plan to do the Essentials in Writing lesson when we return from the library.

At the library we drew some more First Nation Lodges, find more First Nations recipes we can make at home, and work through immigration - when people came to Canada. Ended up working on the timeline for immigration to Canada. It needs some fine tuning yet.

Had gym time with the Homeschool group.

Then home to make supper.

This is what we are having

Easy Crockpot Pulled Pork

Yield: 6-8 servings

INGREDIENTS:1 large Vidalia onion, sliced thin
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon paprika
2 teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 (4-6 lb) boneless pork butt or shoulder
¾ cup cider vinegar
4 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
1 ½ teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoons dry mustard
½ teaspoon garlic salt
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

DIRECTIONS:1. Rinse pork roast under cold water and pat dry with paper towels.

2. Place onions in crock-pot. In a small bowl, combine brown sugar, paprika, kosher salt and pepper; mix thoroughly. Rub mixture all over roast and place the roast on top of the onions.

3. In a medium bowl, combine vinegar, Worcestershire, red pepper flakes, sugar, mustard, garlic salt and cayenne pepper; whisk to combine. Drizzle about 1/3 of vinegar mixture over roast. Cover and refrigerate remaining vinegar mixture.

4. Cover crockpot; cook on low for 10-12 hours. Drizzle about 1/3 of reserved vinegar mixture over roast during last ½ hour of cooking.

5. Remove meat and onions; drain. Chop or shred meat and onions. Serve with remaining vinegar mixture or your favorite barbeque sauce.

Working around weather and more

1/22/2013

Today I had a doctor's appointment so homeschooling was put off for a bit.

Then this afternoon the lad had a gymnastics group time with our homeschool group HOPE. The lad had fun and had an opportunity to practice his gymnastics skills.

The weather played a role in how little homeschooling we got done today as everything took longer to get to and come back from.

When we got home after all the running around we did our math with A+Tutorsoft. We finished up section one. Tomorrow he's going to do some practice sheets to reinforce what he knows.

Well.. NOAA, this is a find

1/7/2013

Homeschool freebie of the day posted this link to NOAA 2ooth Activity book.

Well, well.. I think I may have found what I can do for HOPE days. (that's our spring or fall session of group teaching with my homeschool group).

Anyways, it's rather a neat resource put out by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Experiments, Learning, Explanation, Thought provoking.

I browsed through a great deal of it. Downloaded the entire activity book. I downloaded it as separate parts for ease of use. :) Found that most of it worked really well, but couldn't figure out the "game" that is linked on one of the pages. if someone else can.. LOVELY. :)

Pumpkins and a Check in

10/29/2012

I'll be submitting this post to the Carnival of Homeschooling.    The theme for this week is "check in".

Anyways, I am the editor of the newsletter for my Homeschool group. As such I see everything that comes through and one thing I am aware of is how few field trips we do, and how often folks assume that everyone knows something because "we've been doing it for years".    That attitude of course does little for the new members of the group. So I find myself emailing and asking for additional information. I can get away with this since I'm the editor and therefore just NEED that information. :)      Communication is vital.

As I find the job of being an editor a fine tuning type of job, I find that homeschooling requires that same level of commitment. I need to fine tune as we go along in our days.   I need to check in with myself about how we are doing and what I might be able to do better. I need to ask myself the questions of: Am I covering what needs to be covered?   What do I want to do with this subject?   How can I teach this is more than one format?   How can I.... and so forth.   I need to check myself sometimes to.. I can get so caught up in the subject that I forget the long term view.   Do I want to teach about pioneers all year OR is my focus on the broader scope of what it means to be Canadian?    So I have to do my checks and reining in of myself. So much I could cover, but I need to keep my focus on where it needs to be. :)

One of my intentional check ins, is that I need to make a point providing my singleton son with friends and opportunities to play and learn together.

To that end, I am trying to pull together events that the children of my homeschool group can do together.

We had our very first event last week. We had a pumpkin day. The children had a hoot.

While we waited for everyone to arrive and settle, the children played on the Wii for a while.   Trying to beat some level on a game.

Everyone brought their own pumpkins and carving instruments.   Since this one the first event we had three families involved, and we met at one of the homes.   Some pics below.

I took lots of other photos, but I make a point of not putting up pictures that clearly show children that aren't mine. :)

Our hostess made us a lovely snack of macaroons and then this apple dip that was just yummy. :)

after carving the children went out and play outside, they had a hoot running around, catching frogs, and just being children. It was good.

HOPE and KICK

9/21/2012

This morning the lad and I attended week two of the HOPE days fall session.   I taught storytelling, and helped with two separate classes.   The lad partook of Ancient Rome, phys ed and some other class that I can't recall what it is. He is enjoying both classes. He apparently is doing a good job of talking their ears off though. :)

After connecting with one of the mom's about an issue, we moved quickly home, where the lad and I prepared for KICK to come over. KICK is the London Homeschool group that I am also part of.    They were coming over to learn about rabbits and guinea pigs.

We had a good time.

I had set up a couple different displays... one with different foods good for bunnies, one with different types of cages, and another with livestock items.

I did some mini demonstrations for nail cutting, grooming and what not. Talked about how to handle baby rabbits and how to treat teenage bunnies.

We then played a rousing game of rabbit agility.   I heard LOTS of giggles, had some good questions asked, and the children enjoyed themselves.

A good day all told.