More of Health Week

Well, we went to the doctor's office on Friday, expecting Jaymi to have her vaccination, but then we found out that we couldn't get it done there. So we now have a new appointment at a different place in a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, we have learned more about health, including mental health and exercising.
Jaymi has her own pedometer that she is using, she loves to use our exercise machine (with us in the room with her of course) and today Jaymi did some yoga while watching a Yoga Kids ABC DVD.

Health Kick!

It's a new homeschooling week for us, and we have officially begun Health Week!
We named a bunch of different categories of health:
Dental Health
Mental Health
Physical Health
Eye Health
Food Health
Heart Health
We have studied how germs work (viruses & bacteria) - the Magic School Bus has a great book where the kids go through a human body-, how blood flows through the body, why the body need oxygen and how it gets it, and what the body is made of.
We have also focused on the importance of exercise, including using our new exercise machine.


We even found these cute little stuffed germs! We bought the flu germ and the tuberculosis germ.












This is all leading to Friday, when Jaymi will have her kindergarten vaccinations - ouch!

Easter Resurrections Buns/Rolls

This is a fun Easter recipe that I have done with Jaymi for 3 years now. It really teaches the story of the resurrection, in a fun (and edible) way!

Take a roll of Pillsbury crescent rolls, open and separate.
Preheat the oven (as directed on package).
Explain how the crescent roll symbolizes the tomb that Jesus' body was put in after he died.
Explain that you are using a marshmallow (small one) to symbolize Jesus' body.
'annoint' his body with oil (melted butter/margarine) and sprinkle with spices (cinnamon) - explain that they used to do this to the body to make it smell good and bless it.
Wrap the marshmallow up in the crescent roll, making sure that it is sealed everywhere (pinching the sides to seal), explaining that it is symbolizing when Jesus was put in the tomb, and it was sealed up tight.
Put the crescent rolls in the oven and bake as directed on the package.
While you're waiting, explain how Jesus' body was there for three days, and no one could get into the tomb.
Explain that after three days, they went back to the tomb and noticed that it was open.
After the crescent rolls have cooled a bit, break one open and 'discover' that the marshmallow is gone! Explain how Jesus' body had disappeared because he rose, etc....

Good Friday

Today was Good Friday, and we decided to have our first Passover Seder.
I know, it's a bit later than it should be, but I just decided today.
As a result of the tardiness, it wasn't a perfect, by-the-book Seder, and since it was geared toward a 5-yr-old it was toned down and shortened, but it was great!
Jaymi helped a lot with the setup. She set the table, put 12 glasses out for the 12 apostles, 1 for Jesus and one for Elijah the Prophet. she filled a bowl with salt & water, she gathered towels for us to wear (so that we could try to pretend we were dressed as they would have 2,000 years ago), she helped me make a Red Sea (with two red sheets), and she helped with the food placement.
We didn't do the prayers or songs, but we did all of the explanations, the different tastes of all of the foods we were supposed to have (with crackers instead of Matzah - it was too late to get Matzah) and we even did a bit of acting out the 10 plagues.
It was excellent! And Jaymi said that it was awesome :)

Obsessed with Time!

Jaymi has always loved time. She has been telling time on an analog clock for a long time now.
She knew the hours and half-hours when she was 4, and now she can completely tell time on an analog clock ... a feat that I have heard many 10-yr-olds nowadays cannot do!
She seems obsessed with it!
She is constantly telling us what time it is, asking how many minutes until something, and announcing when the clock is at 'funny times' (1:11, 2:22, etc. - even 9:11).
My sister-in-law gave her the perfect present at the end of last year - a watch! Not only any watch, but an analog watch, with cats all over it! She LOVES it! She wears it just about 24-hrs a day, and refers to it all the time!
Today as I was taking a shower before dinner, she announced the time, literally minute by minute, as I was in the shower.
[open the bathroom door] "5:01!" [close the bathroom door]
[open the bathroom door] "5:02!" [close the bathroom door]
and on, and on, and on.....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone! And Happy Birthday to my mom as well!!

This morning we all wore green, of course, and Jaymi ate a breakfast of...green eggs, green milk, a green quesadilla, and a green pear.
She had some Pistachio ice cream later in the day (her favourite flavour of ice cream).
We took our traditional picture of the three of us celebrating with a drink (Mark had green beer, I had a green Bailey's and Jaymi had a green smoothie - which she wanted in one of Daddy's Sleeman glasses).
Then for dinner I made a Jig's Dinner - corned beef and cabbage basically. A true Irish dinner.
Our discussions of St. Patrick's Day turned into a whole conversation (and a drawing) of our family culture, where the Irish comes from (Mark's side and mine) and what other cultures are in our families.

More History...

These are the books we have been working with this week. They're awesome books! I'm not thrilled with the Wright Brothers book but the rest are great.








During these subject-themed homeschooling weeks, Jaymi and have declared every Friday 'Cat Day'.
So each Friday we will work cats into the subject somehow. Yesterday we studied cats in history (both fictional and non-fictional).

Learning to Sew

You are looking the second item of clothing that Jaymi has made in her sewing class. She has had 3 classes so far and is doing very well. They work on surgers, and she has sewn a short-sleeved shirt, this long-sleeved shirt and she is almost finished a pair of pants as well.
She loves it!
She is the youngest in the class, by far (the other kids are somewhere between 10 and 13) and she cuts the pattern herself, cuts the material herself, pins the fabric to the pattern herself, sews with a bit of help (but not much) and trims the thread herself. The bigger kids do the ironing for her.
She is so proud of what she has made so far!

Our Hiatus is Over!

I know, I know...I haven't updated this in over a month! We were all sick for a while, and then we just got busy...then I worked for 1/2 hour on uploading a new entry, and mistakenly closed it down before it uploaded to the blogger. After that, I took a break - too frustrated to start all over again.
So here I go, with my first entry in over a month!

A few weeks ago, (after we all recovered from being sick) we began Art Week.
It was a week of trying out as many different types of art as we could fit in, as well as learning about art.

I made a 2-dimensional 'Art Week' sign which Jaymi had to colour each letter a different & creative way.
She did a bunch of Colour Wonder spray art.
She did 3-D paper beach scene.
She did fingerprint art.
She did sticker art.
She learned how to draw a face with more detail - doing her own self-portrait.
She learned about pointillism.
She made family popsicle stick puppets (and put on a show for me).
We also made a book that she dictated for me to write, and she drew accompanying pictures. She learned the term 'illustrator'.
There was a lot more that we meant to get to, but we ran out of time, and it was just time to move on for now.






















Next, we did Safety Week.
We studied Household Safety (sharp objects, electricity, water safety, heat),
Poison Safety,
Road Safety,
Stranger Safety,
Fire Safety,
Bike Safety,
Animal Safety,
and Car Safety.
We of course, played one of her favourite games, over and over, which is the firefighter game.


















This week is History Week, at Jaymi's request.
She is fascinated with true stories about people who actually existed!
So far, we have studied Louis Braille, Rosa Parks (and briefly discussed the Civil War), The Wright Brothers, Amelia Earhart, Terry Fox, Helen Keller, and her favourite one, Anne Frank.
We also made a very cool timeline that we have posted up in her bedroom. It gives her an idea of time frames, and when things happened in comparison to each other.
We have written dates like...our family's birthdates, her friend's birthdates, a couple of the wars we have studied, when the people mentioned above were born and died, when Canada became a country, when Mark & I met and married, when we moved, etc.
We also have put a word up on our History wall....'PERSISTENCE'.
All of the people we have studied this week, has a lot of that quality, and so does Jaymi. She knows that it's a great quality to have.