The weirdest thing that happened on this outing—and which unfortunately happened so fast I didn’t get a pic—is I had a muskrat run under my feet! I was sitting on a bench by the Bow River, watching the kids throw rocks and such, and there’s a path connecting where I was to the Jeffries Pond. Out waddles this muskrat—I thought it was a squirrel at first out of the corner of my eye, and then once I saw the long tail I thought, “Eek! Rat!" both of which prevented me from grabbing my camera in time. Before I knew it he’d scooted past me, and dove into the river. I caught the ripple of the splash on my camera…sigh. Too late!

Anyhow, here’s the pictorial highlights of our Thanksgiving (hover your mouse over the pics for details):

After our walk I cooked up our Thanksgiving dinner. It was decadent and delish! We had BBQ chick’n cutlets, twice-baked potatoes, stuffing, ‘shredded brussels sprouts’ (OMG! I finally, after 40-odd years, have found a way to like brussels sprouts!), and chocolate-coconut pie for dessert. Not quite your traditional turkey and pumpkin thing, but we all loved it!

Wishing all my Canadian readers a Happy Thanksgiving. Hope you got to spend time with your friends and family this weekend, doing something that you love.

So here’s the plan, (which you can just make out in the background of the pic) loosely starting around 8:30am and ending around 11:30, give or take:

Monday / Wednesday (and what we did today):

Language Arts Warm Up / All About Spelling / Language Smarts / Gareth reads to me; Daegan does Growing With Grammar solo / Gym and Snack / Logic (or Math) Warm Up / Mathematical Reasoning / Life of Fred

Tuesday / Thursday:

Logic (or Math) Warm Up / Math U See / Math Readers, Games, Investigations / Gym and Snack / Language Arts Warm Up / Word Family or Cut-and-Paste Story Sequencing (Gareth largely solo); Writing Paragraphs (Daegan with me) / Gareth reads to me; Daegan Reading Detective or Grammar and Punctuation solo.

I also have a whole variety of fun educational apps organized on the iPad if I need something to occupy one boy while I work with the other, or if one finishes earlier than the other.

The ‘Warm Ups’ are a collection of puzzle-based workbooks the boys enjoy, like Dr. Dooriddles, Analogy Challenges, Math Analogies, Mind Benders, Balance Math, Lollipop Logic, Logic Countdown, various Perplexor titles and so on. The boys pick what they like that day.  Both boys enjoy riddles and puzzles like these: they are our fun ‘warm up your brain’ activity.

We ended the day by watching a bit of the news coverage of Jack Layton’s death (the leader of the opposition in our parliament, who lost his battle with cancer this morning), along with some clips of his appearances on the Rick Mercer Report and 22 Minutes (you can find the latter on facebook). I also read the boys much of Jack’s final letter to Canadians, written 2 days before he died. I am glad to be back in our routines, but also glad our schedule allows rooms for days like this very sad day for Canada. I’ll leave you with Jack’s closing lines; the entire letter can be read here:

My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.

We also read the poem In Flanders Fields, perhaps the most famous poem by a Canadian ever. Just today I found a wonderful book about the poem at the library, called In Flanders Fields: The Story of the Poem by John McCrae  (Canada) (US) by Linda Granfield.

It includes the entire text of the poem, one line per page, with moving artwork that helps interpret the poem for children, as well as factual details. Topics covered include John McCrae, WWI and its causes, a map of Europe showing where Flanders is, the role of various other countries in WWI, etc. I will be reading through all the material with Daegan (age 8 ) tomorrow; with Gareth (age 5) I think I will simply re-read the poem pages in the book, discussing the artwork as we go along.

We will also be watching the Canadian Heritage Minutes about John McCrae I found on youtube:

and perhaps a montage of some Heritage Minutes related to the Canadian Military. (BTW, if the face at the beginning of the 4th clip—about 4 minutes in—looks familiar, that’s because he now plays Spike on Flashpoint. He’s also an old friend of mine; Sergio and I worked together at a bookstore in Toronto for several years during our early 20s.)

And of course, there’s the option to attend a local Remembrance Day ceremony (a list of Calgary and area ceremonies can be found here; I believe the largest one takes place at the Military Museums), or watch one on television. Hope these links help you share Remembrance Day with your kids, and please share your favourite links on Remembrance Day, or similar days in your country, in the comments. I would love for my kids to learn more about other countries on this topic, and learn how WWI and other conflicts were truly WORLD wide in scope and impact.

Checking out small town playgrounds and restaurants, hotel swimming pools, tourist information centres and washrooms. Lots and lots of bathroom breaks when travelling with young kids!

We saw lots of wildlife, like these pronghorn antelopes resting in a field near the highway in SE Saskatchewan:

We checked out the T Rex Discovery Centre in Eastend, SK, where we watched a movie, got a guided tour, checked out displays on all kinds of prehistoric life, excavated fossil replicas, had a scenic picnic lunch, and spent generously in their superb gift shop. Highly recommended!

Outside the T Rex centre, and in many other places, Daegan caught bugs for us to examine more closely:

On our way between dino stops, we visited Medicine Hat, Alberta, taking in the world’s tallest teepee, a nature centre (where we got to see a black widow spider!), and two nature walks in Police Point Park: one through “the enchanted forest”, and one along the South Saskatchewan River:

I went for a quick birding outing to Kinbrook Island Provincial Park, just S of Brooks, where we were staying overnight before out big day at Dinosaur Provincial Park.

We saw the stunning badlands of Dinosaur Provincial Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so designated due to its abundance of fossils, it’s “aesthetic” badlands, and its rare, undisturbed riparian habitat. (The Red Deer River runs through the park). Literally thousands of dinosaur fossils have been found in the park, including more than 40 dinosaur species and more than 400 complete skeletons—and excavation continues today. This is the highest density of dinosaur finds in the world. It also has a superb interpretive station with a mix of dino info (including a replica of a palaeontologist’s camp) as well as displays about today’s wildlife found in the park (plants, birds, reptiles, bugs, etc.). We will be going back later this summer—it was absolutely incredible.

The boys also spent time making entries in their travel journals, drawing and writing about the highlights of the trip. Here’s one of Gareth’s entries (“a T Rex named Scotty found in Saskatchewan”):

and here’s one of Daegan’s, about a bug he caught in Medicine Hat:

Tomorrow, a more detailed look at the T rex Discovery Centre.

The true story documentaries (“The Ultra Geese” and “Operation Migration”) included in the bonus materials were fascinating. Wildlife biologists really did teach geese to migrate, and for a good reason too: it was to see if this technique could be applied to help some of our most endangered species of migratory birds. After perfecting their technique with geese, the team of scientists worked with sandhill cranes (a common crane), with the ultimate goal of working with the rare whooping crane, which once ranged over most of North America, but which need to learn their migratory routes from their parents. At the time of the documentary (1995), there were only some 200-odd whooping cranes left in the world, and all belonging to one flock that nested in Wood Buffalo National Park on the border of northern Alberta and the Northwest Territories, and wintered in one location in Texas. This made whooping cranes extremely vulnerable: if anything happened to that one flock, or their one migratory pathway, the species would become extinct. I went to Operation Migration’s website, and found out that since the movie was made (in 1996), a second flock of 40 whooping cranes migrating via a second, more easterly pathway has been established—taught by scientists in these ultra-light fliers. How inspiring!

On a personal note, I was touched to receive a blog award from Alicia of Magic and Mayhem, and will write more about it soon. But right now I’ve got a badly hurt ankle (twist? sprain? arthritis?) that has not gotten better over the past week. It’s bad enough that I have booked a doctor’s appointment at a clinic this afternoon. Jim, my amazing hubby, is helping me out at home today—what a guy! Fingers crossed that I am back to my old self asap, so on that note, off I go to ice and elevate my leg again.

Oh, and I’d love to hear comments as to what you knew about Canada already, and what was surprising or new to you in this clip. Did you know about the oil? World war II? While there was much press of our refusal to join the Iraq war, did you know about our involvement in Afghanistan, something that has (so far) cost 140 Canadian lives? (Remember, we have about 1/10th the US population, so multiply that number by 10 to get a sense of perspective compared with American forces lost). I loved the quote by Kennedy too! Enjoy!

but we are more

than genteel or civilized

we are an idea in the process

of being realized

we are young

we are cultures strung together

then woven into a tapestry

and the design

is what makes us more

than the sum total of our history

we are an experiment going right for a change

with influences that range from a to zed

The only part of the opening ceremonies I greatly disliked was the rendition of our national anthem, O Canada, right at the beginning. As one reviewer said, you could see folks wanting to sing along and show the world the pride they feel being Canadian, but this rendition deprived them of that opportunity. I also thought Rick Hansen should have been the one to light the final cauldron, not Wayne Gretzky, but was pleased that Hansen brought the flame into B.C. Place stadium and I also liked that the cauldron was lit by several people inside—a fitting end to a show about the coming together of peoples. For those who do not know who Hansen is, please click the link to his wikipedia entry I provided above—his life is one of pure inspiration. Too bad one of the columns of the final cauldron-lighting malfunctioned, but it gave me yet another opportunity to drive the point home to our 7-year-old about going with the flow and making the best of it when things don’t go as expected!

Of course, being homeschoolers, we seized the opportunity to learn a little more about our world: we had a globe at the ready and consulted it throughout the athlete’s parade:

And the boys learned more about Canada’s regions and peoples and traditions too. We were VERY happy to see the prairies represented (Calgary is at the intersection of prairie and Rocky Mountain) with the boys flying over wheat fields with Joni Mitchell’s song “Both Sides Now (Clouds)” warbling in the background. If you’ve never been to this part of the country, with its seemingly infinite wheat fields and open space, it might not have made much sense—but it was a fantastic representation I thought.

I’ll leave you with the full text of “We Are More”, the poem about Canada and one of my favourite parts of the ceremony: (I’ve put links to wikipedia entries for bits that may be less familiar to folks from outside this country)

We Are More

by Shane Koyczan

When defining Canada

you might list some statistics

you might mention our tallest building

or biggest lake

you might shake a tree in the fall

and call a red leaf Canada

you might rattle off some celebrities

might mention Buffy Sainte-Marie

might even mention the fact that we’ve got a few

Barenaked Ladies

or that we made these crazy things

like zippers

electric cars

and washing machines

when defining Canada

it seems the world’s anthem has been

" been there done that"

and maybe that’s where we used to be at

it’s true

we’ve done and we’ve been

we’ve seen

all the great themes get swallowed up by the machine

and turned into theme parks

but when defining Canada

don’t forget to mention that we have set sparks

we are not just fishing stories

about the one that got away

we do more than sit around and say "eh?"

and yes

we are the home of the Rocket and the Great One

who inspired little number nines

and little number ninety-nines

but we’re more than just hockey and fishing lines

off of the rocky coast of the Maritimes

and some say what defines us

is something as simple as please and thank you

and as for you’re welcome

well we say that too

but we are more

than genteel or civilized

we are an idea in the process

of being realized

we are young

we are cultures strung together

then woven into a tapestry

and the design

is what makes us more

than the sum total of our history

we are an experiment going right for a change

with influences that range from a to zed

and yes we say zed instead of zee

we are the colours of Chinatown and the coffee of Little Italy

we dream so big that there are those

who would call our ambition an industry

because we are more than sticky maple syrup and clean snow

we do more than grow wheat and brew beer

we are vineyards of good year after good year

we reforest what we clear

because we believe in generations beyond our own

knowing now that so many of us

have grown past what used to be

we can stand here today

filled with all the hope people have

when they say things like "someday"

someday we’ll be great

someday we’ll be this

or that

someday we’ll be at a point

when someday was yesterday

and all of our aspirations will pay the way

for those who on that day

look towards tomorrow

and still they say someday

we will reach the goals we set

and we will get interest on our inspiration

because we are more than a nation of whale watchers and lumberjacks

more than backpacks and hiking trails

we are hammers and nails building bridges

towards those who are willing to walk across

we are the lost-and-found for all those who might find themselves at a loss

we are not the see-through gloss or glamour

of those who clamour for the failings of others

we are fathers brothers sisters and mothers

uncles and nephews aunts and nieces

we are cousins

we are found missing puzzle pieces

we are families with room at the table for newcomers

we are more than summers and winters

more than on and off seasons

we are the reasons people have for wanting to stay

because we are more than what we say or do

we live to get past what we go through

and learn who we are

we are students

students who study the studiousness of studying

so we know what as well as why

we don’t have all the answers

but we try

and the effort is what makes us more

we don’t all know what it is in life we’re looking for

so keep exploring

go far and wide

or go inside but go deep

go deep

as if James Cameron was filming a sequel to The Abyss

and suddenly there was this location scout

trying to figure some way out

to get inside you

because you’ve been through hell and high water

and you went deep

keep exploring

because we are more

than a laundry list of things to do and places to see

we are more than hills to ski

or countryside ponds to skate

we are the abandoned hesitation of all those who can’t wait

we are first-rate greasy-spoon diners and healthy-living cafes

a country that is all the ways you choose to live

a land that can give you variety

because we are choices

we are millions upon millions of voices shouting

" keep exploring… we are more"

we are the surprise the world has in store for you

it’s true

Canada is the "what" in "what’s new?"

so don’t say "been there done that"

unless you’ve sat on the sidewalk

while chalk artists draw still lifes

on the concrete of a kid in the street

beatboxing to Neil Young for fun

don’t say you’ve been there done that

unless you’ve been here doing it

let this country be your first-aid kit

for all the times you get sick of the same old same old

let us be the story told to your friends

and when that story ends

leave chapters for the next time you’ll come back

next time pack for all the things

you didn’t pack for the first time

but don’t let your luggage define your travels

each life unravels differently

and experiences are what make up

the colours of our tapestry

we are

the true north
strong and free

and what’s more

is that we didn’t just say it

we made it be.