In my life this week…

Yet another week where I missed the last week’s update and had to go read the last post to see where we were. Really not much has happened. Our second week of spring break was pretty laid back with some spring cleaning added in.

We had our friends over again. Their daughter had just returned from her school trip to Paris and she came back with cookies and photos. Now I want to go even more. She had facts and a story for every photo that really helped bring it alive. The architecture, the history and the art all stood out and I want to go and immerse myself. Two things got me even more. The first is the stained glass in all the churches and abbeys, such beauty. I also learned there are a number of Notre Dames as it means “Our Lady”. The one that we all think of is the one in Paris and its full name is “Cathédrale Notre Dame de Paris”

The second is that they visited both Juno and Omaha beaches. Seeing those beaches and having her explain the incredible and different challenges faced at both beaches brought it home. I don’t think I have ever fully got it or ever will but this helped. One of the things that they did was run up the beach with girls piggyback riding the guys to simulate the backpacks that would have been worn.

I’m Cleaning…

It the last post I talked about having the kids put aside some bins so there would be less mess after a sleepover. That worked very well and the clean up that they did went a lot faster. My conversation after that was even better and they finally got that if they had less it would be easier to clean up. Two boxes of toys 1 bin of recycling and 2 of garbage left thanks to them.

I tackled our game closet and filled 3/4 of my trunk with puzzles and old toddler games. I also wrapped each game with an elastic and stacked them on their sides. I am hoping that will eliminate the falling over piles. Ian was very helpful in getting all the stuff out that had fallen in behind the folding door. It wouldn’t open or close fully.

In our homeschool this week…

We got some things finished this week. Philip has finished his report on Ancient Greece. Margaret has finished her essay on “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe”. Philip is now working on an essay about the Giver and Margaret is working on a timeline of Canadian Confederation.

Philip attempted to do a science experiment but I didn’t give him enough instructions. He was making a graph of how much sugar could be dissolved in water at various temperatures. He started by adding sugar one gram at a time. We will try again next week.

Ian decided that he didn’t need to know how to print as typing was easier and faster. “everytime I hit a button I get the right letter and it is the same everytime” We had a discussion about where he would have to use printing like birthday party invites. That convinced him to learn printing.

We are Reading…

I have finished “Libromancer” by Jim Hines. In this book the magic, with some rules of course, is the ability to pull objects out of the pages of book and use them like you would in the book. So you could pull out a lightsabre if you wanted. I quite enjoyed it but the last third had me up until one in the morning because I couldn’t put it down.

Global Warming…

Just an interesting graphic of the temperature variation from average for December through February.

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