Today we finished our latest read-aloud novel, Farley Mowat’s Owls in the Family. First published in 1962, it tells the story of a boy, Billy, and his latest pets: two Great Horned Owls, which he names Wol and Weeps. Billy lives in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and his pets include the expected (dog named Mutt) and the [...]
Honest, Calgary. Our first real snow of the season fell back on November 13, 2010, and we’ve had snow on the ground ever since. Not your usual state of affairs in chinook country (chinooks are warm winds that blow off the mountains and melt away the snow; some claim the word means “snow eater”). Today [...]
Today the boys had their final performance from their homeschool drama class that they had been doing at Evergreen Theatre. The play was about Whooping Cranes, the challenges they face, and what we can do to help them survive. I’ll have a video link to the performance up later, but for now here are pictures [...]
Today the boys and I headed about an hour NW of Calgary to the Cochrane Ecological Institute, a wildlife facility. You can find out more about them here. Their mandate is: The Cochrane Ecological Institute- Cochrane Wildlife Reserve Society is devoted to the preservation of North America’s biodiversity through the conservation and breeding of endangered [...]
The boys brought home their final projects from their Homeschool Art class today: papier-mache birds! They are soooo proud of them. Here’s both sides of Gareth’s colourful bird: And here’s Daegan’s project: They made these over 3 classes. The first class they discussed the project, and built their armature (rough shape, or skeleton, out of [...]
This morning we went to one of the CPO’s Education Series concerts, entitled Adventures in Nature. The conductor arrived with twigs in her hair, and a green leafy vine wrapped around her skirt. The orchestra performed various pieces highly evocative of nature, like Flight of the Bumblebee and Swan Lake, and also made nature sounds [...]
The boys have been loving their homeschool art class this session, in part because it is the first time they’ve been able to do the class together (now that Gareth is 6), in part because they have several friends in the class, and in part because they have one of Daegan’s all-time favourite teachers: Michelle. [...]
This evening Daegan and I watched a show I had PVR’ed earlier—an episode of PBS’s Nature, entitled Birds of the Gods. It was about birds of paradise, and was absolutely amazing! You can find details about the episode here, and folks in the US can watch the full episode there online as well. It was [...]
On the weekend, after their first Fit ‘n’ Fun class (awesome!), the boys and I headed over to a friend’s house to meet some 2-day-old baby bunnies. It was an amazing experience to interact with the bunnies, and Daegan took to it right away, handling both babes and parents. Gareth was a bit more nervous [...]
Just a gorgeous day here today: warm (11C / 52F and mainly sunny….which is way warm for Canada in January!). Got out for a little walk and enjoyed the birds, which reminded me of the other bit of nature we’ve seen a lot of this winter… Our whole family has been enjoying watching the many [...]