A week in pictures

Have a lovely weekend!

Club Day. The Nature Version. Volume 1, Issue 2

There is trash in our world, and we want to help our environment right?

That was the proclamation from Jaelyn that started our day.  And it seemed appropriate given that today was Nature Club day.  It felt like it was a success.  It would have been even better if it wasn't sweltering outside and those poor little ones weren't melting.  But they were good sports, and seemed to have fun.

We made "story staffs".  This was an idea published in Taproot magazine's Issue 2 :: Paths in an article by Maya Donenfeld.  (I know, I know.  You've been seeing her name a lot in this blog.  She's just got some really inspiring ideas.  Give us a couple months and you'll be seeing other names, I promise.) 

What is a story staff?  Well, it is essentially adorning a walking or hiking stick with items found on a hike.  The item serves as a reminder of the hike and, hopefully, can help the owner share a story about that particular hike.  The stories our children today may tell could be something like, "You remember when we went to Nature Club and it was SO hot, and we cleaned up the park and found treasures, then we started to climb trees in the park.  Then we put the treasures on our sticks"

Our prework from yesterday was cutting the hiking sticks to a good length for 5 and 6 year olds.  I read somewhere that an adult's hiking stick should be 6 to 9 inches above the elbow.  It looked like somewhere between the elbow and shoulder, so that's where I measured them out, using my daughter as our model.  The sticks, by the way, were our first dumpster dive find.  I had planned to use them for another project, but they were just perfect for this one.  After the sticks were cut, my son and I shaved the bark off the lower part of the sticks using my husband's trusty pocket knife.  My daughter then sanded them and finished them with a concoction we made last winter.  Last night and this morning, I sewed and put the handles on the sticks.

And we really did pick up garbage and find treasures in the park.  The clean-up idea was Jaelyn's, and it's a good one.  The treasures we found included feathers, pine cones, flowers, grasses and leaves.  It was kind of tricky to get some of the items to stay on the stick the way the children wanted them to, and I hope for their sake they stay.  It wouldn't be too much of a story staff if all the story reminders fell off!

While I really shouldn't be, I'm amazed by how much I've learned just by organizing activities for the Birds of Prey and Nature Clubs.  I've used a chop saw and pocket knife for the first time in my life, or at least my adult life (and I still have all my fingers!).  I've learned about bird calls and markings and habitat.  I've learned about the children who have joined us.  And there is still much more to learn.  I doubt the learning will ever stop.

Serving ~ part II

There has been more serving going over the last week.  Most of it has been free of complaints.  It's been nice to experience.  Here are a few examples of what we've been up to in the serving department:

One of our neighbours was away and asked our children to care for her yard while she was away. Our children even weeded, even though it wasn't expected!

My son offered to watch his youngest sister at the playground today.  I forgot the camera at home though, so just imagine him playing peek-a-boo with her as she awaited her turn for the slide.  He made sure he was there to catch her at the bottom.  They had a lovely time together.

We prepared for Nature Club tomorrow.  There was some pre-work to do, and Nicholas and Jaelyn were excellent helpers, and even did most of the sanding and finishing work themselves!

These are some of the things that we had difficulty making time for when the children were in school.  I'm grateful we've been able to make the time now that the days stretch before us and the sense of urgency to be someplace has lessened.

Club Day. The Birds of Prey version. Volume 1, Issue 2

A message from the newest member, Jaelyn

Today there was much drama at Birds of Prey Club.  The good kind of drama.  The kind you want to keep your eyes glued to and your ears open for.   I did not have a front row seat for the action, but the bits I caught from a distance were thrilling.

As the boys started to arrive, they drifted into our wet backyard.  To the playhouse.  And in their minds eye, it became a fortress.  A mighty fortress that needed protection, even when the brave knights were out to rid the world of witches and willowisps.  The fight scenes where fascinating, as they happened in slow motion.  The axe and swords gently fell on one another as the knights performed intricate spins.  Their actions were anchored in the storyline they wove, and it was complex and full of twists and turns, evil and magic potions to undo the harms inflicted on them.  The minds of a group of 8 and 9 year olds is truly fascinating stuff.

And no, not one bit of it had to do with raptors.  Which was okay.  I truly didn't want to tear them out of the fantasy world they had effortlessly created.  A voice in the back of my mind, though, did wonder if their parents would disappointed if they didn't come home with the craft I'd told them we would be working on.  They likely wouldn't care.  But what if they did?

So, after more than an hour of fantasy play, I asked them if they wanted a snack.  To which they did admit would be nice.  After that we moved on to the craft - a mobile I found in Raptor! A kid's guide to birds of prey. 

And I think I discovered today that the crafts I've planned the last two weeks are right up my children's alley, but not really up the others'.  I don't blame myself for miscalculating this.  I've only seen their group dynamics for two hours at our first meeting, and it was hard to tell if what I was seeing was due to the excitement of "the first meeting".  I didn't know enough about each child's inherent nature and what they are like in a small group of peers.  While this is only our second meeting, I think I've now observed enough to know what is "fun" and what is not for most of them.

After the meeting, I started to ponder to myself.  What to do?  Do we change the name of the club to the Knights of Cathedral?  Would that be too specific?  How about the Cathedral Players?  Do we still try to get birds in here in there?  Do we make shields and plaster eagles and owls all over them?  Make masks?  Try Birds of Prey Pictionary (which I started to create as the drama was unfolding)?

And then came the release out of the panic...what should be my daily mantra.  Keep it simple.  We'll have a project up our sleeve if they want to do it.  I can still share with parents what the project is, but also note that we'll only do it if there's time after playing and snack.  I can let them know that we may not learn a thing about birds of prey or anything else for that matter.  But they can join me on the porch to enjoy free theatre.  And who knows...we may just find ourselves watching the next rising star.

Intro to fractions

Yesterday, when my daughter and I were making a Brownie in a Jar recipe for her friend's birthday, I let her take a go at reading the recipe.  There were fractions in it, and she wasn't sure how to read them, and she didn't really know what they were either.  But she was happy to know how to read "sugar" and "cup", and that there were chocolate chips in it and a party to head off to soon.

I felt like it was a missed opportunity.  Sure, kids in our school division don't start learning about fractions until grade 3.  But she's going to be seeing them every time that we make a recipe or measure something.  So, how could I help her understand what those numbers and lines meant, in a way she would understand?  I was laying awake last night pondering that.  It had to be quick, easy, short on long words like "numerator" and "denominator", and hands on.  Here's what I came up with.

First, we got a blank piece of paper.  I wrote down a couple of numbers that we saw in the recipe and asked her if she remembered them.  She did.  I asked her if she understood what they meant and she said she didn't.  So, I went to the classic pie example.  We talked about the bottom number first.  It told us how many pieces were going to be in the pie.  I drew a picture to illustrate the first fraction I wrote.  Then we talked about the top number.  It told us how many pieces we would get.  I coloured the pieces in on my drawing.  We went to the next fraction and I asked her to show me what the bottom number meant.  Then what the top number meant.  She got it quickly, and then cut the pies into many pieces and coloured them all, saying she wanted to share the pieces with her family.

So then we went back to the recipe.  I told her that instead of a pie, we would now use the measuring cups and see if it really worked.  We took a 1/4 cup and a liquid measuring cup.  I showed her the number on the 1/4 cup and asked her how many she thought we would need to fill the full 1 cup.  She told me 4.  And then we tried it out, just to check.  And sure enough, she was right!  We did the same thing using a 1/3 cup, and it worked again.

She doesn't know they were called fractions.  She didn't hear the words "numerator" and "denominator".  But she remembers that we did an experiment, and what the outcome was.  That's what will matter for today.

When parents are occupied

Saturday was a rough day for the grown-ups in our house.  A case of the flu had hit, some of us harder than others.  An afternoon of rest was just what was needed.

And what did the older children do while the largest and smallest of our family were tucked under blankets amid 26C weather?  Have a look!

The new welcome mat

Our friendly neighbourhood postal worker

Important information about the store

The store itself

Notice how they didn't wait for the fancy signs we were going to hang and just picked up some wood and made it work on their own?

After running out for some must-do errands (our lovely farmers at Etomami Organics and Cool Springs Ranch only come to town every-so-often), I collapsed on the playhouse porch to see what they had been up to and to partake in some important playtime.  And the playtime they had in mind was the the best kind I could have hoped for on a sick day!

The post office was a busy place for a little while!

Enjoy your week!

A week in pictures

Some highlights from our week...

Enjoy your weekend!