Country Study - Thailand

Corresponding with our Universal Yum box, we studied Thailand. We had loads of fun opening our first Yum Box. The girls are super happy that I signed us up for it and can't wait for the next one each month.

Here's some resources that we used:
The Impossible (movie)
Foods of Thailand (book)
Social Studies Explorer: Thailand (book)
Culture in Thailand (book)
The Changing Face of... Thailand (book)
How Tsunamis Work (youtube video)
We also youtubed various videos on actual tsunami footage from 2004.
Tsunami re-creation

Brianna wrote a report on the 2004 tsunami. This was her best researched report in a while, I think she enjoyed putting it together!

Helloooo?

*taps mic* Anyone still here?

Ok, so I pulled another one of my disappearing acts. I swear my intention is to post regularly! I just swear I see squirrels and rainbows and get distracted lol

I have started Bullet Journalling (more about that later). One of the reasons, is to be less squirrely. One of my goals for May is to get back to blogging regularly. The whole point of this blog is so people can learn about our journey and so me and the kids can have this cool diary of sorts to look back on. I also really enjoy writing!

Teeny up-to-date on us...
Joshua - as of his last speech assessment, he is up to 2.5 years old in speech. This is fantastic as a year ago he had 4 words and relied solely on sign language. He's *finally* starting his 2nd block of speech therapy next week so hopefully we can get that number even higher! We're also waiting on referrals and assessments from the Ottawa Children's Treatment Center for autism, sensory processing disorder and occupational therapy. Joshua also starts soccer this month!

Olivia - in February she joined Brianna in Time4Learning after completing Reading Eggs and Math Seeds. She has already completed Social Studies for Gr. 2 and is 3/4 done science and math in Gr. 2. So we're mostly focusing on English, which has always been her weaker spot, but she's more than half done Gr. 1 there. She loves Brownies and is excited to do her first camp with them this month. She also starts her 3rd year of soccer this month.

Brianna - finally finished all her Gr. 6 work and I swear it's like a light bulb clicked. It took her almost 3 years to finish Gr. 6 yet she's on course to finish Gr. 7 by the end of July! She is absolutely thriving in Pathfinders and graduates to Rangers for next year. She's been working her tail off to sell cookies and fundraise to pay for their trip to England in 2019. She squeezed into her final year of science camp (technically she ages out 5 days before camp but they've allowed to to take part this year). She's been encouraged by the River Institute to volunteer with them next summer (most likely helping with the younger campers group).

Isaac - graduates this year!!! How the hell did that happen! Wasn't it just like, last year, that he started Kindergarten!? He's been accepted into 2 programs at one of the city's best colleges (!!!) and currently plans to do both, double majoring. He's also working with a program there to work over the summer. He may possibly get a couple hours sleep. He has also almost completed a completely drawn by hand, D&D style game with a friend of his. We tested it out this weekend and it was pretty damn fun!

Dylan - has been working full time at the same place Lee is since the fall and has been doing great! While they work for different companies in the same building, he and Lee see each other a couple times a week. Everyone thinks they're brothers lol He had some nerve wracking trips home in the winter due to storms (he has the same anxiety that Lee does and this was his first winter doing any kind of distance driving).

Lee - after a round of (fairly low) winter blues, his anxiety appears to be doing much better. He's in his happy little world at work in wash bay without anyone breathing down his neck. There's a possibility of promotion to days wash bay late in the summer due to someone's retirement that he's really excited about, so we've all got our fingers crossed for that one!

Me - I fell into a food-happy slump over the winter and gained 9 of my hard-earned 40lb loss back. However, now that the weather is nice again, I've been getting out for multiple mile walks a few times a week. My business is slow, as it always is in spring and summer but I'm happy with that as it gives me time to selfish sew! My goal is to have 75% of the family's summer clothes be mama made this year.

So that's us for now. I hope to have a LOT more frequent postings, including a pile of the drafts I was working on last fall. How's everyone else doing in blog land?

Weekly Wrap Up/Tot School - 11/18/16

Life is kinda back to normal now. My big show is over. It's still my busy season, but I have time to breathe and not spending 36 hours a day in my office is nice. I still have another show to do before the holidays but it's a much smaller scale show and I can get everything I need ready in a day. So my office time has been spent catching up on our family's "needs for winter" clothing list and gifts.

The girls have been doing well in their online schooling (Time4Learning and Reading Eggs/Math Seeds) so we'll be continuing doing mostly that for the rest of the year. We do really need to finish our Thailand Country Study though! Joshua has been doing a lot of the same school activities (his favorites) so not too many pics of his schoolwork, but he is loving independence learning too!

My booth at my big show. I had record sales so all the hard work was worth it!

Olivia and Joshua have a huge set of wooden blocks in their room. Olivia has taken to making elaborate stories to go with towns she's built

Boxes are a kids favorite toys. Joshua and Olivia like to color them too

Joshua loves to help with the laundry

Safety is very important in construction. No one needs to know it's just a bike helmet!

Joshua loves to "circle the correct answer." Here he's finding all the red items

The girls and I took part in the local Remembrance Day ceremony at the Cenotaph. Olivia wanted to leave her poppy for the soldiers.

Brianna and Olivia did a lot of baking for various Guiding activities. Here, Brianna's teaching Olivia how to grate orange zest.

And here, Olivia taught Joshua how to roll out cookie dough with the rolling pin.

Brianna worked with her Pathfinder group, putting on a spaghetti dinner for the public to raise funds for their England trip. The girls did everything from busing tables to dishes and clean up afterward.

Making music is one of Joshua's favorite things.

Two of Olivia's friends (2nd and 3rd here) are going to be living in Australia for the winter. Olivia is very sad that her friends will be gone, but they plan to penpal so at least they can keep in touch!

Joshua keeps stealing Tupperware lids to make "pizza"

Most of Joshua's shape tracing end up looking like circles, but you've got to start somewhere!

The girls had their Enrolment Night for Guides and got a bunch of new badges!

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, 1+1+1=1, Practical Mom, Hip Homeschool Mom and Homeschool Creations

Girl Guides of Canada Enrolment Night

First off, let me say... that's not a spelling mistake in the title. All over the kids Guiding books it is spelled Enrolment. My computer wants me to add an L but I'll leave it out as that's how Guides spells it. I will have to ask why....

Tonight was Enrolment Night which all Branches take part in. For Olivia, it was welcoming her officially to the Guiding world. For Brianna, it was for her to reaffirm her Promise to Guides (because she was in Sparks before and once a Guide, always a Guide).

Olivia, to the right of the Guider in the white sweater

Each Branch showed off their stuff with songs and parades and most importantly, the Promise. Then each Branch was called up to receive their new year pins (Year 1 for Olivia, Year 3 for Brianna) and any earned badges. Olivia also got a certificate welcoming her to Brownies.

Brianna, 6th from the left

Also at the Enrolment Night was a bake sale and jumble auction to raise more money for the Pathfinders/Rangers England trip. Both girls baked cookies for the sale, I donated some LoveBugs items for the auction and Brianna helped run the auction.

Olivia, on the far right

The girls are super thrilled with their new badges/pins and are now more excited about learning how to earn more. Brianna is on her last year of Pathfinders but Olivia has a 2nd year of Brownies after this one, so loads of time to earn oodles of badges!

Weekly Wrap Up/Tot School x2 - 11/4/16

Our neighbours had a family emergency last week, so Brianna had a short week of school while she took care of their kids so they could be at the hospital in the next city, an hour away. Add in yet ANOTHER round of snot in my house, it made for a fairly unproductive week.

I have my major show of the year this weekend, both days, so I've been spending 8-12 hours a day in my office making stock. Because I hand-make everything I sell, prepping for shows of any kind is very time consuming. I do love it, but I wish my house ran it's self while I was busy.

Because of me living in my office, school has mostly consisted of computer work (Time4Learning for Brianna, Reading Eggs/Math Seeds for Olivia) and unschooling. I haven't done set preschool with Joshua in a couple weeks, but we all know, learning continues even if there's no formal teaching! Joshua now counts to 20 and is working on dressing himself. Even my blog has suffered. I have like 13 draft posts with post ideas, but no time to write them!

While this huge show is exciting and I hope to gain loads of new contacts and customers, I can't wait for it to be over and life can slow down again!

Brianna has re-found our math help book and has been discovering how helpful it is to her schoolwork

One of the kids favorite shirts that I make is called a Candy Pocket. In our house though, it's a kitty pocket!

Cars are probably the most important thing to Joshua after food and snuggles

Sure, not the proper way to play with these monkeys, but still works on fine motor skills!

Brianna took a paint class last weekend and came home with this! I was super impressed. She is not good at drawing things or people, but is apparently quite good at landscapes!

Olivia's hand/eye coordination is amazing with this tape the tiles app. I'm amazed how fast she can go!

Halloween!

Joshua loves to watch Olivia do her schoolwork

Joshua is very determined in his independence

Brianna was was feeling particularly crappy so I told her to go take a nap. She refused and continued her schoolwork. Later, I looked over and found this. I guess I won... 

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers, Practical Mom, 1+1+1=1, Homeschool Creations and Hip Homeschool Mom

Last McMaze Ever

We have a local farm, McMaze, who runs amazing events, corn mazes, pumpkin picking, haunted hay rides, ect... Unfortunately it was announced that they were retiring/closing after this season *cry* My sister and niece insisted they had to take the girls for one last hurrah.

They even brought Joshua a baby pumpkin (he stayed home for a playdate with friends)

Weekly Wrap Up - 10/21/16 and Tot School Weeks 6 and 7

This is a combined post because I'm in a crazy busy period of work. Still lots of learning going on, just not as much documentation! Random colds have been floating in and out of our house too, so set school work hasn't happened as normal.

The girls took part in their first Cookie Blitz. Most of Guides funds come from cookie sales. This Blitz in particular ended up sold out!

Paramedics came to Olivia's brownies to teach them some basic first aid. Olivia was thrilled to bandage her friend's "cut" arm. Even better (in Olivia's opinion) was the fact that they let her keep the gloves. She wore those things for days!

Brianna's dad is really good about me homeschooling her and has never questioned my wishes in it. Occasionally He gives her assignments. This one was of the history of the company that he works for.

Life Skills! We got new blinds this week and I had Brianna hang them. Now she knows why I hate them lol

Random pumpkin craft with LOTS of help from Joshua.

Brianna did Joshua's schoolwork with him. He loves telling everyone letters.

This one was more a lesson of sharing and taking turns. Something Joshua is completely not fond of.

Joshua woke up this week with a swollen face, complaining of pain. A doctor's visit showed nothing wrong. No ear infection, no tooth abscess, no strep, nothing. Just random swelling and pain. Now it's gone. I guess Joshua just likes to be special.

Linking up with Weird Unsocialized Homeschooler, Hip Homeschool Mom and Homeschool Creations.