Last Thursday, during our “week off workbooks”, the boys and I headed to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, one of our favourite places. It was a lovely day, and I was excited to see some new exhibits: ‘Alberta Unearthed’, featuring 25 of the most significant fossil finds in Alberta in the past [...]
Yesterday the boys and I did a fun activity tying into our learnings about the human body: we made a model of our blood, based on this activity an acquaintance of mine did with her daughter. I began by asking the boys, “What is blood?” and we attempted to find a reasonable model for it. [...]
Today the boys and I started our Human Body learning, the main science topic they asked to do this year. In my usual style of creating a “unit study” (I am so NOT a planner in this way), we dropped by the library last night and I cleared them out of a shelf of books [...]
Over the summer the boys and I have been enjoying a new Bill Nye series (yes, of ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ fame) called Stuff Happens. It’s a 12-part series about living more sustainably, and thinking about the environmental consequences of our lifestyle choices. But unlike many shows of this ilk, this one is fun, [...]
Over the weekend we took a short family break and headed to Brooks, Alberta, about 2 hours SE of Calgary—this was in lieu of a birthday party for Daegan (each year we give the boys a choice between a short family trip or a party). We visited a few nearby sites (more tomorrow), including Dinosaur [...]
Over the past couple weeks, the boys and I have been enjoying some science DVDs in the ‘Backyard Habitat’ series that we borrowed from the library. We particularly enjoyed the ones on City Birds and Deer, no doubt because we could relate to them so well. In fact, right now we have a pair of [...]
Yesterday the boys and I headed to our local homeschooling store, CHER, to pick up some materials we’d decided on for next year. While there, I told the boys they could get one ‘treat’ each. After scouring the science section, Gareth chose this kit, which contains three projects / experiments, including dissecting a (heat-sterilized) owl [...]
The other day Gareth came up with an experiment he wanted to try, involving tearing paper. He gave each of us a sheet of paper, and asked us to fold it up as many times as possible. Gareth then put his folded sheet into a large bowl of water, let it soak for a minute, [...]
here’s what Daegan did with them: Just a short post tonight as I have a lot on my mind. I am realizing that I am at a crossroads of sorts, that what has been so helpful in the past no longer is—I have moved on, grown, changed. I want (and need!) to make room for [...]
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 [...]