I came across this site about the periodic table of the elements, and was quite taken with Worksheet 3, as that kind of puzzle quite engages Daegan. So I thought we’d do a little bit on the periodic table of the elements this morning, before tackling the chemistry/geography puzzle worksheet. We started by watching a [...]
I have no idea how my husband came across this site, but it is too surreal not to share—and on Valentine’s Day to boot! I warn you now that this game is intended for mature (youth) audiences. The game is set in Sex City, where The Sperminator has gone awry. He used to be one [...]
Last night we watched the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver with our boys. Overall, I thought it was very well done. It showed the diversity of people, language, culture and landscape that it is Canada—and the underlying respect, gratitude, tolerance and quiet pride many of us feel who live here. Not that [...]
Today is the 201st anniversary of Darwin’s birth, so to mark the occasion I read the boys a poem I found online. It’s from an out-of-print book called Hocus Pocus Diplodocus: The Entire History of the Universe in 21 Poems, by Tom Stanier (published 1980). It also goes well to the tune of Yankee Doddle [...]
I gave Gareth the same assessment I gave Daegan, but I modified it by rewriting the words on index cards so as they were larger for him. I wanted to get a baseline reading level for him, so we can see how he improves by this time next year, as Gareth is just starting to [...]
I just gave Daegan the same informal reading assessment I did with him last year in February. His reading level is grade 7.35. Last year his reading level was grade 6, so we’re seeing improvement, which is the goal. Here is the list of words for the grade 7 reading level; Daegan was able to [...]
Full Disclosure: The book links below are through the Amazon Affiliates Program. The first link (Canada) is to amazon.ca, the second (US) to amazon.com. If you buy a book through a link, I get more books from Amazon to sate our bibliophilic tendencies. For more book recommendations, see the “Books We Love” tab at the [...]
The boys and I did some shopping this morning, trying to get it out of the way before the regular school kids are out for teacher’s convention (tomorrow and Friday) and Family Day (Monday). Our first stop was Indigo Books, where Daegan used the last bit of his birthday gift card (from last June!) to [...]
I only recently found out that to celebrate the Olympics, the City of Calgary is offering a variety of coupons on their website for free admission to swimming and fitness centres. They’re good through the end of the February. And remember, to quote The Happiness Project blog (one of my favourite sites): “Exercise for sanity, [...]
My friend Cindy posted this video clip on her blog, and I found it really touching and thought-provoking—no doubt aided by the fact that I too am raising two sons, relatively close in age. Enjoy!