Category:

Building a Pond

5/25/2014

I like ponds.
I can't afford a big pond.
So... A while back.. a couple years ago I think I thought to myself... can I build a small pond?
No one was interested in helping me, except my lad's best friend and last year didn't work out. This year my son got on board. "Mom! Can we make a pond for my toads and frogs?"

My response was "Sure son, you can do that". :)

So on Thursday and Friday two lads worked hard at building a pond.

My boy had already done the preliminary work of digging the hole and testing the size. We discovered though the old shower curtain had a leak so the pond was emptied and a plastic line was placed under the shower curtain for some added support.

First came the fitting of stone.

Then came the work of building walls. This took the lad's a lot of time. Dad helped with cutting the wood for them.

I was sure I had a picture of Jim cutting wood but apparently I didn't so I will substitute this picture of a watchful on looker...

ah ha!!!! I knew I had a picture!!!! :)

Putting the wood around proved to be somewhat problematic due to the shape of the base and the escape desiring nature of toads.....

The need to protect the bubbler that will keep the river fish alive. This was done through a ziploc bag and covering the corner with old feed bags and a block of wood.

Plants were added....

And toad hidey area were added. As well as lots of toads. The boys had a lot of fun observing the toads and learning how escape focused they are. There seemed to be four different types of toads: a reddish one, a greenish one, and lots of American toads and a couple that looked different...more white than the regular toad. I KNOW I took pictures of them but they somehow vanished from my camera....

The boys were laughing about how this would be a toad education centre so my son ran with that theme and put up some math problems for the toads (and one frog) to solve.

They thought they had the toads all secure but about five of them got away on the boys. The frog remained and I had thought if anyone would escape it would be the frog! So... the remaining toads went back to the house for safe keeping. The lad worked hard yesterday. And my lad worked hard to checking for small holes and other areas that the toads could escape through.

They did a good job did they not?    My lad has one last job to do and that is to reconnect the one bubbler with it's filter.   But that's a job for later today or tomorrow. :)

Oh.. frogs sing VERY loudly at night.. oh my but can they sing. It's almost as pretty as listening to our birds. :)   But he's happy and it makes my lad smile. T'is a good thing that!   Indeed! :)

Oh... almost forgot!   At the end of a hard day's work we had a campfire.   Lots of un.

It was a very lovely couple of days. I'll happily do it again! :)
Might not be the prettiest...but it'll do. :)

Canada Day

7/2/2013

This is my boy, he's a goofy child, but a good one. :) He's an artsy/craftsy type of child who tells stories in his play and just has a good time. He, like his mom, constantly has to be reminded to talk just a bit quieter. :)

He's having fun with some friends in their pool on Canada Day.

On the way to their house we tried to sing "O Canada" but these 'friends that were riding along'' kept breaking into song singing "O Minion Day" (we tried to shush them up but they were fairly insistent). Minions may be tiny, but they are persistent, that's ALL I can say about it. :)

I had a picture of the minions in the car but... they seem to have disappeared when I organized my photos yesterday. It's rather frustrating. Pictures have just randomly disappeared.

So anyways, we arrived at our friends house just a tad bit deaf. Our friends house is a new to them house, they moved in two weeks ago. We oohed and ahhed over the spaciousness of their new digs, the children played in the pool.

We had a lovely lunch, and then more play time, and then off to the Canada Day Parade. The children were happy that floats were tossing out candy. The girls LOVED this pony.

The boys were a bit more captivated by the little speedy cars that zoomed around in big circles making blurry pictures for my camera. :) We followed up the parade with more swimming.

The lad and I arrived back home in town just in time to catch the firewokds. BUT the lad was too whipped to enjoy them. All he wanted to do was go home to bed, so that's where he went. :) He slept for almost 11 hours. :)

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.

Pinery

9/8/2012

Together with another homeschooling family, yesterday my family went to the Pinery Provincial Park for a walk about.   We had lunch, walked a trail and dug holes at the beach.   We had a very enjoyable time.

The lad found bugs galore with the other children.

He traded one of his toads in order to keep some of the bugs. All types of caterpillars.   He gave them a whack of green stuff to eat so they should be okay for a spell. The lad usually releases them in about three days so no lasting harm done to the wee critters.

The highlight of our walk was the young lad from the other family used my son's bug net to catch a big green frog.   Hubby took a pic with his camera so I don't have it here to show you. :)

We also found a small toad that we took home with us. The lad liked this since now he still had a toad even if he gave away his bigger one. :)

Events over the past bit

6/23/2012

We continue to have fun with toads. The one our lad regularly catches in the backyard is called Dark Night. He plays a pivotal role in several stories.

We've also been releasing ladybugs in the backyard to combat the aphid problem.   It's been fun watching where they go. We bought a bag for $20 at Ontario Growers in the local big city. :)

We had play dates with a couple different homeschool families.

The lad had the sheer joy of drawing a lemonade stand sign and then selling pop, lemonade and cookies at my annual yard sale. AND THEN!!!!!!! he used his earning to buy a lego Spider.!!!!   What fun!   We've spent a lot of time playing with the spider. :) mommy didn't have to help him at all. Not bad overall for one six year old boy eh?

What else? We've continued to do our reading at night, but really haven't done a whole lot in the way of homeschooling this past bit. We've taken time to do on the spot learning, but no book work and no organized time for learning.