Busy, busy!

So much has been happening, and I haven't been keeping up with my blogging.
Sorry about that!

Let's see...





Jaymi went camping during the long weekend, with her Sparks unit. It was for two nights, and she had a fantastic time. She didn't miss us at all! She earned 2 badges, made lots of crafts, ate lots of treats, stayed up too late, and opened up a bit with her Sparks friends and leaders.
It was beautiful weather for it too! They got to use a Slip N Slide the whole time.
A week later was her last Sparks meeting. She got to bring one of her best friends to it, and again, had a great time, earning two more badges.
So...no more Sparks until next year, when she will begin her second year, as a senior Spark.

A few weeks ago, Jaymi greeted me when I picked her up from kindergarten, by showing me that she can now tie her own shoelaces by herself! We have worked on it before, but she always gets frustrated and gives up. But I guess what I have taught her has stayed with her, because she has practiced on her own. I have always tried to make sure that she wore laced shoes, all of her life, to see us constantly tying the laces. In school, all of her classmates wear velcro shoes, but we have always sent her in laced shoes. I don't want her to be one of the many 10...11...yr-olds who still cannot tie their own shoes.
So, I was SO proud of her for this accomplishment! And she reminded me that I had promised her that when she first did it on her own, I would take her out for ice cream. So I did.

Jaymi has a new interest, thanks to Gramma...Sudoku :)
She really likes it, and actually understands it and is pretty good at it!
I bought a Sudoku board game that she loves to play. I had to learn it - she actually taught me!


















We got a Scholastic order form home a few weeks and she begged me to order a Garfield Typing tutor CD-ROM. It arrived a few days ago, and yesterday I started it up. It's awesome...watching her with her fingers on the correct keys, doing the typing lessons and games!


Jaymi has been learning about gardening a bit, and she made a grass head pot. She drew a face on the pot, put dirt in the pot, planted grass seed and watered it, and now we are waiting for the grass to grow.
We also planted a heartnut tree. It's a tree that will (eventually) grow walnut-like nuts in the shape of a heart.
Fun!



















I still have to write about our money study, Ireland study coming up, Hawaii & volcanoes, photography and poppies. Stay tuned in - I will write again soon!

Kindergardeners :)

Kindergardeners :)
Originally uploaded by CrzysChick

Last week Jaymi's kindergarten class went on a field trip to a garden place. They got to tour around the different gardens, learn about flowers & plants, pump some water, plant a bean seed, and learn about how plants are used for medicine, cooking & household uses.
It was a very cool place!

Sewing Class

Sewing Class
Originally uploaded by CrzysChick

Jaymi has been taking a sewing class this year - she's had 6 classes so far. She has made 2 shirts, a pair of pants and a blanket.
There are about 5 or 6 people in the class, but they're all between 10 and 13 years old, and she's 5.
She's doing so well! She knows how to cut the patterns, cut the fabric, pin, she sews (with someone right there with her, helping with corners and stuff like that), and she trims the thread. It was so cute to see her last week, sewing all by herself!
The teacher has even put a phone book underneath the foot pedal so that she can reach it.

Word of the Day

A while ago, at the Great Canadian Superstore (our local big box grocery store) I found this little flip chart with a word for each day of the year. It has the pronunciation, the description, a picture and a sentence, on each page.
We started using it recently, reading about the word and having a little contest in our family. We try to see who can use the new word the most (in context) during the day.
Jaymi loves it! She is always fascinated with words and loves to spell the words and try to be the one to use the word all day.
So far, we have done the following words:
Drowsy,
magnificent,
fraud,
injury, just to name a few.

Big Presentation

During the month of April, Jaymi's kindergarten class had to prepare and present a project about an animal. It was their big chance to learn about resources get to know how to put together a presentation, and get a chance to get up in front of the class and speak.






Jaymi chose turtles for the topic.
She worked so hard - it took her 4 hours to begin and complete the project. I tried to get her to take a break but she wouldn't. She is so proud of herself.
I gave her a notebook & pencil, and one of our laptops, and provided her with a few website URLs to look up, and she actually took her own notes and pretty much did the project herself.
We are so proud of her.