Archive for the ‘Jim’ Category

 

Family Nature Walk

March 22nd, 2010Posted by Risa Kawchuk

The weather was great again this past weekend, so we went for another nature walk in our nearby natural area, Edworthy Park. We saw (and heard—“wick! wick! wick! wick!”) oodles of Northern Flickers: I quite like this shot I got mid-flight; it is not until you see their showy colours and white undertail “flickering” when [...]

Science Fun with Ice Cubes and Salt

March 12th, 2010Posted by Risa Kawchuk

Jim did a couple of really simple science activities with the boys on the weekend, using just ice cubes, salt, and string. He emptied an ice cube tray into a large bowl, and then put one cube in each of the boys’ blue bowls, along with a piece of string, asking: “How can I use [...]

Zoo Visit with Dad: Dinosaurs Alive!

March 6th, 2010Posted by Risa Kawchuk

Jim took the boys to the zoo last Sunday morning, giving me (and my ankle) a chance to rest. This was our first visit to the zoo since our decision last year not to renew our memberships, something we decided to revisit in light of the zoo’s recent decision to invite an independent inquiry into [...]

Tin Can Robot

February 3rd, 2010Posted by Risa Kawchuk

On Monday night Jim and the boys put together this tin can robot kit that we’d bought for the boys ages ago (and hidden  in the closet, and promptly forgotten about!). Here’s the finished product. I quite like how the opening of the rootbeer can looks like the robot’s mouth: Jim said it was quite [...]

Dad’s lesson on probability

February 1st, 2010Posted by Risa Kawchuk

Jim and Daegan did some simple activities last night about probability. If you’ve got a pair of dice, paper and pencil, and some kind of counter (we used cuisinaire rods, but anything from pennies to beans to bingo chips will do), you can do this too. I found it interesting how Daegan would form hypotheses [...]

Science Experiment: Acids, Bases and Density of Gasses

January 19th, 2010Posted by Risa Kawchuk

  I mentioned in yesterday’s post that Jim did a neat science experiment with the boys on Sunday night, building on an experiment I did with them last year. I loved the simplicity of this experiment, and that it uses items most folks have at home already. Here’s what you’ll need: a large (mixing) bowl, [...]

The 4S Weekend: Swimming, Skating, Science, and Seymour the Stegosaurus

January 18th, 2010Posted by Risa Kawchuk

  We had a lovely weekend. Friday night I took the boys swimming at VRRI, where the pool is wonderfully warm. They do lots of rehab stuff there, so I am not kidding when I say the pool is kept at the temperature of a warm bath. Ahhhh! The boys had lots of fun splashing, [...]

Sunday Skating with Dad

January 4th, 2010Posted by Risa Kawchuk

Like many parents, Sunday was Jim’s last day of holidays, so he took the boys skating in the morning. The boys are in fact signed up for skating lessons Sunday mornings, and everything was all set to start, except the folks running the program forgot to tell the skating coach that the first lesson was [...]