This week is Fire Prevention Week in Canada. We will be spending time learning about fire prevention in our home, including making and practicing a family escape plan.
Our fall fair was late this year - although not as late as I'm posting about it. Don'tcha just hate it when life gets in the way of blogging?!
Dylan participated for the first time. He mostly entered homeschool projects that he'd done throughout the year. His Lego display, though, was made specially for this occasion.
Winning so many ribbons caused much excitement around our home. He wore the medallion that he received for many days and pinned all his ribbons up on display. Since then, I have heard this statement more than once: "Oh, this is a good one. I'm going to enter it in the Fall Fair next year."
Kobe entered a scarecrow and a collage that he'd done. He received a 'first' ribbon for each of them, but didn't care much.
I entered my scrapbook and a photobook I did up and had printed by Blurb. It's fun to show the community what happens in this lil' home of ours.
Our homeschool group had a Welcome Back To School event. It was hosted by the great adventurers, Mr & Mrs G.
My boys are great friends...mostly.
There are those times of constant bickering, teasing, taunting that makes me sad (and angry).
Today was different. Today Dylan was mean. He said mean things to Kobe and Kobe ended up saying similarly mean things back in retaliation.
We were in the truck when it happened. I talked to the boys about how that might feel, but Dylan was flippant about it. When we got home, I sent Kobe to his room to think and Dylan to Zane's room - it's been cleared of all toys and 'stuff' because of Zane can't be trusted to stay out of trouble - to think.
Dylan's assignment while in there was to think of something he could do that was honouring to Kobe and would make Kobe feel loved.
While thinking, Dylan decided to make Kobe a book to teach him his letters. I liked the idea of a book, but told him he could do a book on how to treat people and a few nice things about Kobe. He wasn't allowed to play until the book was finished.
Here's what he came up with completely on his own...
Translation: Crossed out 'I'll break that' and wrote 'We should not break.'
Translation: 'Kobe, you're a nice brother.'
Translation: 'Kobe, I like how you play cars.'
Today was our first official day of homeschooling in Grade 2.
Did I just say Grade 2? Where does the time go? Yikes!
We had a hectic day. Dwayne's grandparents showed up unexpectedly last night. It was our first school day today. Dwayne came home just before lunch and said that he had to go to out of town for business and would be leaving just around supper.
All the excitement was a little hard on my new Grade 2er. He wanted to be visiting. And he desperately wanted to go with Dwayne - which he would normally be able to do.
But...
The mean ol' schoolmarm laid down the law and said, "We're sticking to the plan."
So instead of partaking in the excitement, Dylan learned a new memory verse, did some copy work, made a map of our town, sang O Canada, read to me, was read to, got his feet wet in grammar and learned a little more phonics than he knew when he woke up this morning.
We ended the day with a trip to the newly renovated playground down the street.
Tomorrow we'll add science and math to the schedule.
'Night. *yawn*
My desire is to decorate our home in a way that says...
Ad in our local paper:
Are you a beekeeper or interested in bee keeping? Come meet with us to find out more about apiculture.
Okay, I am not interested in becoming a beekeeper. But we are interested learning about bees and the whole honey collecting process.
I took Dylan to the meeting and then they scheduled a 'bee day'. Dylan and I were the only ones interested in learning about it without actually becoming apiculturists.
Monica, the lady hosting the Bee Day, is fabulous with children. Dylan got some great hands-on experience and the chance to ask a million - yes, a million - questions.
Dylan purposely dipped his net in the bees to see if he could get them to crawl on it. It worked!
The bees were swarming around. I thought Dylan might feel nervous, but he wasn't at all. He was too busy looking, touching, helping ... and asking questions.
It turns out Dylan is a master honey-scaper...
...and honey tester!"Mom, can I please play with that thing that you bought?"
Kee hee. Begging to learn. I'm so clever.
.
Lessons about the Lord's creation just happening around us are always welcome - no prep work for me, but hugely fascinating to the children.
