Happy Easter!

Easter snuck up on me again. What I thought was going to be a quiet weekend turned into more! On Friday we were fortunate to have Grannie watch the kids while we worked on the basement and other things that needed done. Yes Jeff, Mom, (and everyone else) the trim is coming!! It is always so nice to have a day without the kids to get some work done. I cannot wait for the basement to be finished!

On Sunday we drove up to the cousin's farm (as Mason puts it) in Lindsay. We had a very nice lunch of Schnitzel with Opa and Oma and then headed up to the farm house to see "the cousins"! Aunt Silvia and Uncle Harry have 5 children and Mason and Mickey always love to see them and visit the farm. Upstairs they go and we don't see them for a few hours! It's always nice to compare homeschooling notes with another homeschooling family as well!

Today we're off to Grannie's house for an Easter lunch - more good food! Mason will be thrilled to see an apple pie!

Mason was over the moon about Easter this year. Since it crept up on me we didn't do too many crafts, but we did makes these Easter baskets for Grannie and the cousins!

A funny thing...

Mason saw me reading one of my own books today and it was the first time he realized that I was reading to myself. So, after a look of confusion, he asked me, "Mommy, why is your mouth not on?"

Snowy Hike - Hopefully THIS is the Last One of the Season!

The day started out with some dress up and then we proceeded to the Guelph Lake trails. We were all tired today so our hour and a half hike seemed a bit too long! I did manage to get a chick-a-dee to eat from the palm of my hand. Pretty cool! The kids know all about chick-a-dees from their Grannie. They were quite cheeky today! The birds, not the kids!

Our Last Snowy Hike - Hopefully!

Today we went to Mono Cliffs Provincial park. The day was off to a bit of a rocky start when we almost ran out of gas! Oops. Cut that a little close. We brought Emma along and she had a whale of a time. We hiked for 4 hours. All bodies were tired. I think Mason fell asleep within 5 minutes of being in the car.

For the Love of Reading

Mason is really starting to get into reading. These are the books he has read so far. Way to go bud!

A Family Tree

Today we went to a friend's house for a session on making a family tree. We had a brief discussion about family trees. She had a great idea and used Dora'a family as an example. We had a quick lunch and then ventured out into the woods to collect dogwood to make our tree. We had a snack break of popcorn and hot chocolate out in the snow. Lots of fun. Mason found deer poop too which made it extra special!! After our walk we came back to the house and we each worked on our own family tree. It was a great learning experience and one that we can add to in the future!

Art-Tastic!!

Today was my day for hosting the co-op. My topic was art and my goal was to teach to kids to recognize different art forms and to be successful at creating art pieces appropriate for their age. I always find it difficult when I'm instructing because Mason and Mickey are always so excited to have their friends over that they find it difficult to settle down for me. Anyhow, I had to cut my discussion shorter than I would have liked but we still had fun. The kids were given three different faces on popsicle sticks; a happy face, a no emotion face, and an unhappy face. When I showed them a piece of art, they held up the face to show how they personally felt about a piece of art. Then they could explain their feelings. I was happy to see that they didn't worry about what others felt but instead maintained their own opinions.

We created a few different works of art. When they first arrived they did a piece with scribbles creating different shapes. In the shapes they had to fill in the space with different patterns. This got them thinking about different line types and different designs. I was really impressed with what the kids produced. Mason could have worked on this for an hour. He actually finished it when everyone left! I also paired them up and they drew each other. The point of this exercise was for the children to recognize details in what they are looking at. I also had them make a value line to learn how it feels to use the pencil to make different values. We did some painting and mixing of paints. We created all of the primary colours and the secondary colours. We also added white and black to our favourite colour to create a value chart.

All of these items were put together in a portfolio which I made up for each of the kids. I think it's always a good idea to keep a collection of work and progress.