A Net in Time

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Learning about Canada: Artic Tern

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This morning we were learning about some of the different animals of Canada using this book.

We learned about seals, walruses, a variety of birds, reindeer and so much more. 

I said to the lad “pick an animal and we’ll learn more about it”.

He picked the Artic Tern.

The Artic tern is a fascinating bird, did you know it flies an annual trip of 40,000 km, from it’s Artic Breeding grounds to wintering grounds in the Antarctic.

The Artic Tern is a medium sized bird. Newborns are gray or brown. Adults are gray to white in color during the
breeding season. Their beak and legs are red, and a black patch covers
the head and forehead. During the non-breeding season, the legs and beak
are black and the black patch of color on the head shrinks.

Artic Terns are a long-lived bird, living into their decades and don’t start to breed until 3 or 4 years old.

Artic Terns can moult so quickly that they can be flightless.  When they moult they tend to sit on blocks of ice near the water’s edge.

The downy young come in two colours, grey and brown, and colours can be mixed in a single hatching.



They normally eat fish and crustaceans, but will also eat insects.   They also will steal food from other birds by flying at them and startling them into dropping their catch.  

Anyways, that’s a lesson in the Artic Tern.    Ready for my boy to learn tomorrow.  🙂

C is for O Canada, a blogging through the alphabet post

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Welcome to week “C” of blogging through the alphabet.  I am so happy you are joining us today.

Today I am going to talk to you about our national anthem “O Canada”.   The C being the C from Canada or if you wish Chant National as it was originally known.  🙂

Did you know that O Canada was originally called “Chant national”?   Our anthem was written by Sir Adolphe-Basile Routhier, in Quebec City, with musical composter Calixa Lavallee.   Originally written in French, it was first performed on June 24, 1880.

It was sung widely in French but the English versions varied widely for quite a few years, partly due to the translation from French into English, until the version written in 1908 by Robert Stanley Weir became popular.  It is very similar to the verses we use today.

“O Canada” was approved as our national anthem on March 15, 1967, but the current version wasn’t officially approved until June 27, 1980 under the National Anthem Act.

Lyrics
O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land, glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee;
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada! Where pines and maples grow,
Great prairies spread and Lordly rivers flow!
How dear to us thy broad domain,
From East to Western sea!
The land of hope for all who toil,
The true North strong and free!
God keep our land, glorious and free.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!
O Canada! Beneath thy shining skies,
May Stalwart sons, and gentle maidens rise.
To keep thee steadfast thro’ the years,
From East to Western sea.
Our own beloved native land,
Our true North strong and free!
God keep our land, glorious and free.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!
Ruler supreme, who hearest humble prayer,
Hold our Dominion, in thy loving care.
Help us to find, O God, in thee,
A lasting rich reward.
As waiting for the better day,
We ever stand on guard.
God keep our land, glorious and free.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee!

I have to admit, most of the time we only sing the first verse, sometimes the second and very rarely the last two.  I don’t know why that is, but it is what it is eh?  🙂
But it’s our national song and we love it.  It’s easy to sing, rolls easily off the tongue, and inspires the lot of us to rise to our feet.  I’m assuming your national anthem helps you do that too!  🙂

So what do you think? Would you like to join us? You are very welcome.

Rules:
1. Linking time is Tuesday through Sunday.
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January Book Reads

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January was a good month.  It was .   It had it tough moments with the church closing, but overall.. a good month.  I am finally, for the most part, healthy.   Hubby had a good night of sleep (though needs many more).  We finally have SNOW again!!!!!   Perhaps hubby will be able to get away for a couple of nights of camping yet!!!  🙂

Anyways, we got some books read this month and I thought you might like to know about them.

Books that I read with my lad

World History Encyclopedia

This was a great book for us to read through.  One two-page spread per night, and we learned so much.  Tons of pictures, maps, artifacts and so much more. 

 
 

I love these 100 facts books.  This one was on World Wonders.  Again, we read a two page spread every night, and often paused to look things up that interested us.   It caused me to say “hey, I could do up a worksheet on that, or this would make a great ebook”.  🙂   But that will wait.

We read these three biographies and found them fascinating.  The smallest one was about Sojourner Truth… An interesting black lady with a strong will and mind.  Learned the importance of obedience, learned the importance of standing for what was right, a fervent fighter for freedom from slavery and women’s rights.  She was a speaker who travelled far and wide

Sharing: the story of the Mayo Clinic.  
This was a read that told us how the Mayo Clinic started and gave a reason for why the Mayo Brothers shared so easily with others.

Facing a Challenge: the story of Terry Fox.
My son never understood who Terry Fox was or why he’s so important, and now he does.  🙂   Fighting cancer, fighting to be who he thought he was, fighting to help others…his story continues to this day.

I read a variety of books for reviews:

Current Reads:
War Plan Red (review)
Dog in the cave (review)
The Overlook (for fun)
The nature book (with the lad)
Snakes (with the lad)
Bronze bow (with the lad)
Tirza (with the lad)
Nieces book that I can’t tell you anything about other than … IT”S GOOD.
Rainforest Journey (with the lad)

Reluctant Artist?? What do you do?

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It’s week five of the Virtual Curriculum Fair.   This week.. it’s all about art and beauty.  See in artistic forms of music, art, dance and whatever form that takes in your household.  
The VCF is hosted by Susan. 

Week One: A Time to be Encouraged.
Week Two: Language Arts: Our Style.
Week Three: Practical math.
Week Four: Exploring the World Starting with Canada.

Today my topic is: What to do with the reluctant artist?

I would never say that I am an artist, but I have birthed a lad who has creativity tied into his bones.   I’ve worked to bring that creativity into our schooling…and this year and finding myself tying it in however I can.

BUT in all his creativity he’s a rather deliberate lad.  He hates, absolutely HATES to waste his time.   Despises it with a passion… which sometimes creates a reluctant artist.. What’s a teacher to do?

Talk
1. Talk to your student.   You are looking for what is causing the reluctance. 
 a). The Style – realism vs abstract, 3-D vs 2-D etc.
 b). The Medium – painting vs drawing, colouring vs pastels, oils vs acrylics etc
 c).  The Topic – A river vs. mountains, a building vs a landscape etc

Discover
2. Discover what about the reluctance causes concern.
 a). Lack of confidence – has never used this medium/style/topic before and has no idea about how to use, approach or even if likes the idea.
 b). Medium not correct for the type of project – topic of discussion sometimes the student is correct!  And then changes can be made.   Or change the topic or style and suddenly the medium isn’t so bad.
 c). Fear of wasting time – This one is hard to get past, but I have a method that is proving to at least raise more curiousity and help!
 d). Dislike of style and not seeing the point of it – often a matter of showing the student a wide variety in the style until something appeals.   I saw this recently in my class on cubism… one student could not get a handle on it until he thought about doing shades of black!  It worked and turned out well.  
 e). Wants a different topic – Let them choose the topic if possible, it’s their art.  You can set the parameters and then let them choose what they can fit within that.
 f). Page size – could be too small, large, wide, narrow etc.   This is so easy to change, some students do their best work in miniature and other need to express themselves in wide open spaces.   It’s relative.

Action
3. Take Action.  
  a). Remember that beauty is in the eye of the beholder
  b). Learning new things is sometimes difficult.
  c). Sometimes helping someone with a new form of art takes away the pressure of wasting one’s time if it doesn’t work out.

Let me expand on the latter idea.
My son and I were going to create an abstract mountain art work but okay… it was MY idea to do an abstract mountain art work and my son stopped dead in his tracks.  All he could see was the potential of failure.

So after talking with him through all the different steps, it’s still all he could see was “it’s not going to turn out and I’ll have wasted all my time.”.

We decided that he could do his own thing (he wanted very much to do a pencil sketch with shading) and that I could do the abstract art.  We work side by side so he can see me work and I can see him.  It’s a great time to chat, provide encouragement and ask questions.  

So I sit beside him and I modge-podgy tissue paper to my page and I talk about how I am not sure if this colour goes there, or what do you think if I do this for the mountains, do you think making sticky-up flowers will work?  He starts off very hesitant at first, so I show him how to make flowers that can stick up off the page and how if I crinkle the tissue paper I give it more texture, and he watches and thinks.. and the next time I come back and talk he tears off a piece and says, “I think this colour would work there mom”.   

And after some time we get this:

It’s not done yet, the lad and I are currently discussing if I should cut out a picture of a canoe for the lake or do abstract drops of colour.   We’ve talked about the pros and cons off adding birds, or how to add texture to a tree trunk and how to make clouds seem more real.  And through it all we look at pictures of the Canadian Rockies and see what they are like and the animals that live on them and what not.  We learn, we talk and we complete “what might be a waste of time”.    Over time you see, tissue paper art, of an abstract nature is not as weird or unknown and just maybe someday a lad might take a chance on doing something different with his art that’s a bit out of his way of thinking… and that’s a good thing.  For now.. he’s helping, he’s talking art and helping me see what works and what doesn’t.   The fluffy clouds…. I started…he finished.  The tree trunk I did.. but he made the branches.  We discussed how to give the tree trunk texture and depth…our first method didn’t work, so we tried another.

Is it great, out of this world art?   I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter.  What matters is this… it’s fun, and we’re both learning a ton!  🙂

If you need inspiration to do art with your students, check out my art series that you can find here and here. 

Now I invite you to visit my fellow homeschool bloggers who are talking about seeking beauty in their homeschools:

Links will all be live by Monday at 12 noon EST.

A Good Full Week Reviewed Jan 22-28

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Monday

history, bible, math (multiplying decimals), astronomy copywork, game at gramma’s, reading,  A quiet day, shorter than planned, but good

Tuesday

For Grammar, we used the story that he is writing. It’s good for him to see why and how his edits are necessary.
Started Math Mammoth, pay attention a review is on the way!
Science (made a bone)  See this site.    I can’t say the lad was highly enthused with this activity, but he did learn a lot about the structure of the bone.  

History, bible, astronomy (what do you remember about the asteroid belt)
Watched video on bone structure  and found a page where we could label the parts of the bone.

Wednesday: 
Foodbank, art, Canada learning about the MacKenzie river, being amazed at the caribou.  
My son and I watched a few different videos about the MacKenzie river which is Canada’s largest river.  He was stunned by how wide it is.

Thursday
A good day filled with Art, Science, History, bible, math and all sorts of schooling stuff.  🙂

While the lad worked on his schooling, I worked on laundry and cleaning the dining room/living room   Moving furniture and organizing…man the old papers that got tossed!   It was so good but also SO exhausting.   

I managed to get outside to take pictures of my bunnies so I could update my rabbitry website so that was great.  

Friday
Today we had three things in school we wanted to work on.
1. Art (didn’t make it this far as the robotic hand took longer than anticipated)
2. Science: Icebergs, we were learning about icebergs and my lad asked this question “do icebergs melt faster in salt water or fresh water?”    So we thought we’d test out the theory.   Some elves came along for the joy of cold weather!  🙂

3. STEM Science: Robotic Hand

 All in all it was a great week, with learning and growing together.

 Over the course of the week I made progress with my art project.   It’s a bit wet here yet, but I have a tree in the foreground and white fluffy clouds!!! 

My lad keeps telling me how much he likes what I am doing. He gives me helpful advice and helped with cutting out the limbs for the tree.   I wanted to clip the overhanging tree branches but the lad forbade me saying “I like it mom, it makes the tree stick out more”.  He thinks I should add a few green leaves to the tree, but my original plan was to just have a stark tree overshading the foreground, but “mom, it will look dead if you do that.  Dead trees don’t have interesting bark!!!”.   

So what do YOU think????

Homeschooling
Stem: Robotic Hand . Where we make a robotic hand.
Art Series: the Incredible Art Department.  An online free art lesson resource.
26 reasons to love homeschooling. An alphabet of reasons.
B is for Beavers.   A ABC blogging post
Exploring the World Starting with Canada.   A Virtual Curriculum Fair Post

Faith and Life
Poem: Control.  Word prompt post
Pride the Downfall of Egypt.  Devotions from Ezekiel 32.
Connections and Gratitude, Jan 25. Posts and things I am grateful for.
How do we bear one anothers burdens.   Sermon based on mental illness. 
Behold, Assyria like a cedar in Lebanon.  Devotions on Ezekiel 31.
Recipe: Lemon Cinnamon Cookies.
Hymn Study: Precious Lord, Take My Hand.
On Whom Do you Rely?   Closing service at our church

Reviews:
 The Playbook.  Using sports to teach character and life issues.

Linking up at the following:

Homeschool Highlights.
Family Friday Link Ups:
Weekly Wraps Up.
Homeschool blog and tell.
 

STEM: Robot Hand

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My lad and I have been working our way through the Human Body using God’s Design Curriculum.  We are currently working through the lesson on Bones.   We’ve been supplementing as we work our way through as it’s good to take rabbit trails as we study things. 

As we were studying the bones and learning how muscles are attached to the bones using tendons, the lad looked at his hands and feet and said “mom, are those my muscles that stick out when I move my fingers and my toes or they tendons?”  I told him the lines you see are your tendons…but they help your muscles to work.  He was FASCINATED.  

To that end we found this video to help us understand how the muscles of the hand work.  It was a bit longer then what we wanted but gave us a ton of information.

 The muscles of the hand are so intricately put together its definitely God’s Design.  

To help us further understand how muscles work we thought we’d put together a robotic hand.   We found one on Mystery Science that looked doable.  We liked how it showed the finger curl but disliked how it worked/didn’t work as a whole unit.
On a positive note, it has the lad looking for a version that he thinks will work better!  🙂  He’s been scouring youtube videos for the rest of the afternoon, rejecting various ones.  He did find one using black tubes with wire that he thinks will work pretty good, just need to find the components… but he’s continuing to look in case he find something better. 
I am thrilled that my lad’s disappointment with this project hasn’t stopped his enthusiasm to learn and to find something he really thinks will work well.  I really hope he finds something, but in the meantime, he’ll be learning and that is a good thing.

Blog Tour: The Playbook by Kwame Alexander

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 Remember I told you I was going to be part of a blog tour?   Well, today is my day to talk to you about this interesting book.  The Playbook: 52 rules to aim, shoot and score in this game called life. It has been written by Kwame Alexander.

Kwame Alexander is a poet, educator, New York Times Bestselling author
of 21 books, and recipient of the 2015 Newbery Medal for his novel, The
Crossover.   He as founded two organizations, Book-in-a-Day and LEAP for
Ghana.   He is a literacy advocate and regularly travels to promote literacy.  He has served as Bank Street College of Education’s first
writer-in-residence.  You can learn more about Kwame here.

If you are interested here is a link to interview and a reading from his previous book, Booked.

52 Rules.   Broken into four quarters: Grit, Motivation, Passion (halftime), Focus and Teamwork.   Each section is broken into training and words of encouragement from a variety of athletes that span all sports: basketball, Olympians and more.  Even quotes from Nobel Prize winners and poets. 

Rule 30 “There is not single formula for winning but you must have a game plan”.
Rule 16 “You may not be a starter but always be star in your mind ready to shine at any time”
Rule 42 “Be unselfish, share the ball, work together, win together”.

Filled with stories from his life and the lives of  athletes, this book is bound to appeal to the athletes among us, from children up to adults,though it is geared to youth aged 10-12.  There is much wisdom to be gained in the reading of this book, all from a sports mindset. 

I have to admit, I loved the graphics in this book.   Being a non-sports minded person sometimes I got a bit lost in the jargon, but I enjoyed the set up of this book, how it was divided into quarters, covered half time and was simply filled with encouragement for the young athlete to be a person of character as they play the game, whatever game that might be.  To see the character encouraged in the larger realm of life as well.

I can so easily see this book becoming the basis of teaching in a sports camp, or used by a coach with his team.  
 

The Playbook: 52 Rules to aim, shoot, and score in this game called life.
Author: Kwame Alexander
Illustrator: Thai Neave
Pages: 176
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Ages: 10-12 years old.
Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Here is Kwame at a Time for Kids interview.

Here is Kwame at an awards banquet, for the 2015 Newberry Award. He is so excited in this video. 
It’s just fun to see.   It’s for a different book, but matters not. 
Shows he has some fun and style in writing.

Other people participating in the blog tour can be found here:
The Book Wars.
Lost in Great Book.
Cherry Blossoms and Maple Syrup.
Fab Book Reviews.