Time Flies when you're having fun!

It's 2010. The Winter Olympics are upon us. I'm having a flashback of when they announced that Vancouver had won the bid to host the Olympics. My boss and I took a break from our office work and tuned in to the live announcement. Then we went back to work, feeling rather indifferent.  I was in the midst of a busy archaeological career, no kids, no husband with my future still unclear.  My days as a  archaeologist living out of her backpack were coming to a close as my body and mind were tired and sore from the physical and emotional nature of the work. I took a leap of faith and left my job to take a rest on Pender Island.  Enter David to the picture and a few years later we were having a baby!!  During Lauren's pre-labour days, we watched a lot of the Summer Olympics held in Athens, Greece. We called her our Olympic Baby (especially after a very speedy delivery- she was almost born on the Oak Street Bridge!). 

And here we are now,  the Vancouver games are here. Putting the politics aside, I am enjoying them, and surprisingly a bit emotional about it- mainly because it has marked a passage of time from life before kids to my life now. And how my life has blossomed in so many ways: an amazing life on Pender Island (no more living out of a backpack), no more sore back, two kids, and a stellar hubbie. Time flies when you are having fun (i.e., making babies and building a house).

Speaking of fun, this is what our schooling has been about lately. Fun, fun, fun! Especially with all this glorious spring-like weather. And what better is there to do than garden with your kids? What they don't participate in, I believe they still absorb through some kind of osmosis. We have been planning a new garden on a piece of land on South Pender. It is an open, sunny lot, that was gardened at least 15 years ago, and we are breathing life into it again. We will continue to garden here at home too, in our more shady garden (spinach and chard galore!!), but Lauren and I are excited to grow the 'sunny veggies'.  Also, on this land, the kids have been exploring, building forts, running, and for the first time, and they are really starting to play together. Yay!

In this old garden, Lauren helped me turn over sod and weeds that had overtaken the rich soil underneath. Worms everywhere. The kids loved collecting as many as they could to save them from my shovel! Then we built a garden 'lasagna' behind it, to hopefully kill the grass layer and foster soil growth too. So Lauren and Matthew helped me with the cardboard and we will monitor how long this process will take. 

More lessons to follow in this new garden space: fence building, installing a watering system. And of course seed selection and planting. It'll be a learning experience for us all.

our walks find sign of spring everywhere. Flowers...

... to plum blossoms.

This is one of the garden plots we are working on.

This is one view of the 'Limberlost' (named after my mom and I's favorite childhood book, "Girl of the Limberlost"). This is becoming a special piece of land to our family.

These are the giant redwoods (a rarity on Pender Island) on the property. Just behind the trees at their base, is where the kids are building a fort with one of their friends.

I love this picture. The kids completely understand the grandeur of these trees. I asked them how these trees make them feel, and this is what they did to show me. Cool.

Needless to say, our outside time has been rich. Continuing this outside exploration, in comes my Stinging Nettle obsession. Yes, I'm obsessed lately with collecting nettles. The kids are bored of it now, but they did go along with me on the first couple excursions. When I spot a patch on the side of the road, I pull over to a safe parking spot, pull on my gloves and snip away. The kids roll their eyes at me and laugh. Lauren and I are experimenting with drying techniques and various ways of eating them. Potato Nettle soup, green (nettle) eggs, nettle on their pizza, Nettle hummus (yum!) etc. And they eat it! I'm now putting raw nettle in my morning smoothies and the kids are even trying this! I am pleased they are getting into it, and trying new things (especially for two kids who can be very picky, especially when it comes to green foods).  A friend of mine with acreage just told me she has acres of nettle. I almost fell over. So this Friday we are heading over there to harvest more, and teach them how to do it. Our plan is to have enough dried nettle to get us through till next spring. They are amazingly nutritious and delicious. And make a tasty tea.

I am so excited about the art of wild crafting and hope to expand my knowledge of wild foods. What an amazing way for kids to connect to the earth. What's next I wonder, dandelions? Need to get some books  pronto! I'm sure a whole new world is going to open up to us. And to think I used to get great joy in weed whacking. I will never look at a patch of weeds the same way again!

Nettle harvesting. Here Matthew is pointing out a good one.

One of our ways of drying nettles. 

Other 'schooly' stuff:

Lauren has been going to dance on Fridays taught by Wendy Soares. Going well. It is more of a social time for Lauren, rather than a serious study of dance. But this is perfectly fine (and preferred) by me at this point in the game. But since Lauren could speak, she has always wanted to be a ballerina. In fact, when she was 10 months old and not even walking, lauren started 'dancing' to a Loreena McKennit song  (eyes closed, her arms up, blissed right out), and really, she hasn't stopped dancing since (man, I'm sentimental tonight!) So with this passion of hers, we may explore doing more structured classes in Victoria. We'll see... the whole world of ballet gets me nervous (I could write an entire blog about that world and the resulting body image problems it can cause! Yes, I'm speaking from personal experience...). The subject of girls' self-esteem  is a sensitive topic for me, so obviously I want to protect Lauren from unnecessary negativity. Wow, I'm a bag of hormones tonight. (note to self: do not write blog during PMS!).

dance class.

This is just before David took Lauren to the ballet in Victoria. A very special dad and daughter day. It was a big deal for Lauren. (sorry Dave, didn't get one with your eyes open!). Matthew and I spent the day at the pool for mom and son day. 

Violin continues to go well.  Denny has asked the children to practice almost everyday. Lauren has taken this on, and decided that having a sticker and reward chart would work best. And it is working! I love that she knows how to motivate herself. She comes to me and asks to practice!!  The violin kids are having a recital on April 3rd. Looking forward to this. And I'm really amazed at their progress. They learn so fast!

Spring Leaves attendance has been hit and miss. Complicated by our situation with Matthew these days. High anxiety, brought on by a sore tummy or not (maybe just his personality or young age??), and wanting all of mom's attention (when I can't always give it) has made him not enjoy the school. This will pass. Seems after talking to many of the moms, three is a tough age. And Lauren, has been quite happy not to go but busy herself with our activities. I do hope, to attend the gym portion of Spring Leaves because clearly, the children have been having fun here. And without question, from a personal standpoint, I really want to attend Spring Leaves. To participate and to observe, and to get bits of wisdom from other parents and Julie. I just have to wait for my kids to catch up with me. A matter of time...

Exploring with Ooblek!

Lauren busies herself daily with art and writing. She is a prolific book writer and creator. She tapes pages together to form a 'book' and draws pictures and dictates each and every word. Her stack of books is growing. She is on volume 3 of a book series of random drawings and abstract sketches.  She is also working on a very special book, where she is writing her own letters, and now wants to use lower case letters. She is also a prolific card maker. Valentines day provided a perfect chance to make many. Even one for the dog. Aside being a great opportunity for art, and drawing, her card making is wonderful for developing her writing skills. We still sound out together, and she knows more and more words that she doesn't need help with. She's got this one down perfectly and writes it often: "Dear Mom. I love you". Lucky me! She knows how to write other family members names, and is starting to sound out words on her own. More often than not however, she has trepidation to try. She exhibits some anxiety about getting it wrong. Of course I only gently encourage her, I tell her mistakes are o.k., and that they help us learn, blah, blah... I just know that when she does sound something out on her own, she gets such great joy. And she wants to read so badly! Future bookworm I predict.

Here is a poem from her book titled "Lauren's Book of Butterflies":

Twinkle, twinkle, butterfly,

Fly as high as you can fly.

Up above the clouds so high,

like the sunshine in the sky.

Twinkle, twinkle, butterfly,

Fly as high as you can fly.

THE END

And here is a page taken out of another book called the "Butterfly Garden":

Lauren loves the movie "Tinkerbell" and it was somewhat surprising to us that she immediately identified with the tinker fairies. But it soon became clear why. She loves to tinker!! The other day she 'tinkered' with the recycling box contents and came up with this creation from an Almond Milk tetra box. I thought it was brilliant. A mini puppet theatre complete with a moving butterfly performer! This butterfly is attached to a gold ribbon which is threaded up through the pour spout of the box so that it can go up and down when pulled.

A couple of weeks ago, Julie returned Lauren's Mind Map. It was interesting and helpful to review. We have definitely introduced many topics Lauren had expressed interest in, way back in September. One area of interest is geography. Funny enough the Olympics have proven to be an excellent learning platform. For example, during the opening ceremonies, we got our light up globe ready and when the athletes from each country paraded out, we found their country on the globe. It was great fun. I even got a refresher- it took me too long to find some of them!  China is one country that Lauren has always had a strong affinity to (and she mentioned this on her mind map). I think we shall delve into this next week, starting with a trip to the library.

Another thing I am working on is how to entertain and stimulate Matthew while Lauren does her work. We still try to practice violin at 9 am, then follow with some work book lessons. Lately I have been setting up a station on the floor, with drop cloths, bowls full of water, bubbles, scoopers, cars, etc... to keep him happily occupied. One day I got  him washing coins- he loved this!. Or I pull out the play dough. But now, I'm running out of creative ideas that will turn on the mind of a 3 year old boy. Must visit some other homeschooling mom's blogs, or web pages for ideas!!

Summary of workbooks:

• Basic Phonics Skills Level B- completed chapters on all consonants with exercises of beginning and ending sounds. Now working on short and long vowel sounds. This book has been very easy for Lauren, 100% understanding so far. She enjoys the book's exercises too! She is excited we are over half way through this big workbook and thus, has provided a great sense of accomplishment. And I'm learning that Lauren likes to set goals for herself and work towards them. 
• Math Ahead Grade One- one chapter completed one math equations expressed in different forms. Has memorized some answers to simple equations (i.e. 2 +2, etc.) and for the ones she hasn't memorized, she can get to the answer, either by counting on her fingers, or in her head, or by using manipulative blocks. 
• Complete Math Smart 1 (her favorite math book): Completed section 1. The chapter summary says that so far the child has practiced comparing and sorting according to size, height and weight. Also matched objects by one-to-one correspondence and practiced counting to identify  sets with more, fewer, or the same number of objects. All of this for Lauren was very fun, and she'd say "more! More!" We are about to dive into Section 2 which states it will build upon the above concepts and focus on adding and subtracting and terms like sum, difference, total and equal and the signs that represent these terms.  

O.K., I think that's it for now. Fingers are cramping and eyes are crossing. This isn't proofread very well (sorry).

Thanks for reading and apologies for the sentimentality. But what can I say, I'm head over heels for my kids and when I reflect on them and how they are learning and growing, it gets me emotional. Like I said before it is an honour to be their mom, and watch them blossom like spring flowers or leaves. Yes, like Spring Leaves!!  : )

Until next time,

Joanne