A Net in Time

Curriculum and book reviews, faith, homeschooling and more!

reading

Velveteen Rabbit, Cleaning and Reading

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The day started off with having breakfast before I did the bunny chores.   We had banana pancakes with syrup.    This gave the lad a chance to do reflex math while I toiled outside.  🙂    I came into the sounds of The Velveteen Rabbit playing.  🙂   When we went to the library yesterday we borrowed a copy of this book, so he’s been reminded of how much he enjoys this book/show.  🙂

Our plans for the day include working on our spider unit study, cleaning the living and dining rooms, and tidying up toys on the main floor of the house.

We’ll probably fit in our normal reading as well.

Today we learned about ground hogs (also known as woodchucks)  in the Ultimate Guide to wildlife in North America. 

Learning what they are called woodchucks led to the question of what does it mean to chuck wood mommy?   So I answered that and then he laughed at how they can climb trees to escape from their enemies.   The lad is well acquainted with woodchucks since we camped last summer at a place with a whole lot of woodchucks and he had fun chasing them from burrow to burrow.


Then off to read from “the Lamb”. Today we did chapter Eight.

Then we read from our world history book.   We are learning about pirates. We read three pages today, more than usual, but it was just very very interesting.



We learned about one guy who got his head cut off since he took two trips to find El Dorado and was unsuccessful and another guy who sailed around the world and about privateers.

We did one page out of the Dress the pirates.  The page we did fit in with the privateers.

We did two pages in this book.  We had only planned to do one but then looking ahead the lad found a page with a cat and a couple of naughty looking rats so OF COURSE we had to do that page as well!  🙂

We have started to go through this book called “the big book of questions and answers about Jesus.”

We did lesson three today.   it was on how Jesus was both God and man completely and it’s difficult to understand but means that Jesus was everything we are but so very much more PLUS he never ever did anything bad.
I need to post a pic of our blow up globe.  I LOVE IT.  It’s so immensely portable.  🙂  I love  that I can spin it in my hands and there is no weight but air.   It was also affordable.  🙂    But I digress.   We used our globe when we talked about pirates today.  One pirate sailed around the world collecting treasures.   We were able to trace his steps and the lad’s best guess was that it would have taken him at least 100 hours if not maybe more to do all that travelling.     He thought it interesting that pirates, if they worked for a king or queen were called privateers.

We have started an new art project.
We’ve taken a book called Imagine a Place

I got this book out for the pictures, I thought they would spawn conversation, but as I looked through it I got to thinking …wow.. what an interesting book.  I should be able to use this to work with the lad on imagining different things and just seeing how we can imagine different things perhaps even differently from the artist.

It was a great activity for us.    There are fourteen “imagine a place’s” in this book so we’ll be able to use it over the next three weeks as a regular activity to do. 

here’s what we came up with.

these are the words offered us:

Imagine a place…
where you bend and sway
leap and land,
right where a story begins.

 Mine was a long grass with insects leaping and landing.  The grass is being blown by the wind so is bending and swaying, the sky is turning dark and still the grass bends and sways and is filled with colours…just waiting for children to come running through it pell mell on the way home before the rains come.

   The lad’s dictation   ” there’s an island in the middle of the ocean, the waves are always crashing across the island. there are some lizards that can walk on water.   and for them to walk on the water means they have flaps on their feet that make bubbles and they require to be light, to make bubbles and also speed.   and nothing else.”

 This is the picture that we looked at after we finished our own drawings.  We found this picture quite interesting…how the rocks and children leaping from stone to stone turned into a castle/town that people could peer down into.   

and then we watched the Velveteen Rabbit again.  I like it, it’s a well done story. 🙂

I neglected to add that we played two games today.
Jenga (good for motor control, logic and just fun)
Catopoly – math skills, following rules, being a good sport and such like.

Today homeschooling

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well..our day started off with the lad waking me up.
We had breakfast, cared for the bunnies and the chicken.  .. yes we have a chicken!   It’s a hen that eats her eggs and she’s going to be lunch for us when I’m feeling up to making her lunch for us.   But that might take a good week yet.

My brain was VERY sluggish today so we didn’t do a whole lot for a fair bit.
I had a treasure hunt at the lad’s instigation.
Then we read some fascinating information out of this book called “tell me about the world”.


just love this book.  It’s starts off with a question… for instance “is it true that a cow has four stomachs”.   So I give the lad a chance to tell me what he knows.  I tell him what I think.  And then we read a blub that tells us if we are right or not.   We were both wrong on this one.  One stomach, four sections.  (go figure).

We then read a story out of “50 magical stories”.  This book is made the same folks who did the 10 minute stories.

Today’s story was about the crab that played with the sea.   the boy said “i liked some of it but not all of it mommy”.

 He read a book over at Starfall.   he had a lot of fun with the one book he read.
We took a walk over at Morrison Dam.  Just a short walk as I didn’t have the energy for a long one.  We talked about beaver dams and moss.   He did some of the exercise trail stuff with his dad.   We took some moss home to grow under the tree in the backyard.  

Oh.. I almost forgot.  We watched a video from Aurora on lights and such like.  We did some experiments with making a microscope using two magnifying glasses.  we used these to discover that Canadian money has stories/poems/etc written on them.. and  carefully examined a $20 American bill as well.  If we can find an American Penny we want to see if we can find the man in the building.

Oh.. the lad is taking an interest in learning about the rabbits.  This morning he wanted to know how I knew if a rabbit was ready to breed or not.  So I showed him a rabbit ready to breed and one who wasn’t.  I also talked with him about other signs that a rabbit uses.   Being growly, digging in her food dish, and such like.  he was quite interested.  He also wanted to know how I knew if a boy bunny wanted to make babies… and so I said okay buddy.. watch and see what happens.   “HE FELLED OFF HER MOMMY!”   yes buddy, did he make a noise?  “YES!”  good.. he wants to be a daddy then.  
He’s been learning what to watch for in the baby bunnies.. for full tummies, activity when touched, and such like.   So it’s good.  Nice to see him learning and asking questions.   The weather’s been so nice so we’ve been taking time outside to play and be archaelogists and alien hunters.  He has infinitely more energy than his mommy but we’re working at it. 🙂  In time health will be better!

we may end up making bunny bait for Easter/Hope days.

Reading, Comprehension, and Science

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We did a great deal of reading today.
We read a new book, called “bad kitty gets a bath”.  This is just a fun book.  I got it to encourage the boy child in his interest for reading. he can read the simple words of kitty, bath, cat, hate etc.  Today we finished it, and then later in they day I spotted him looking through it very carefully.

It’s just a fun read for a child.  It also has a remarkable number of good scientific facts in it as well.  Always a bonus.

We continued reading The ultimate guide to wildlife in North America.  We’ll read a page most every day.  Today we learned about the star-nosed mole.  The picture in the book didn’t show eyes on it so we looked up whether they had eyes and they do indeed! 

In the fall when we went to the creation seminar in Kitchener we had picked up this book called “the lamb” by John R. Cross. It’s the story of the bible for children – with comprehension questions. 10 easy lessons. We are up to Lesson Three in the book.  It’s a good read.
Today we went to kids Art where we did the The Craziest Art Lesson Ever!
This is what we came up with:

Start your crazy art project by drawing a picture of a
giant lizard with a shirt on its head. Make your drawing with three
crayons and a black feltpen. Then crumple your drawing paper into a ball
the size of a camera lense and stomp on it with your feet for one
hundred minutes. Now your drawing is well crushed, so unfold it quickly
and spread it out on the worktable. Tape down the edges with melted
chocolate . Mix up a big batch of paint in a ziploc using two cups of
water and a spoonful of sandwich . Spread lots of this yellow paint onto
your drawing with a wrench and let it dry for a hour . Hang your
beautiful work of art in the living room until it is discovered by
Children’s Museum . Suddenly you will be a famous artist, become a
regular guest on Knight Rider and make lots of money painting portraits
of Captain Pichard surrounded by lemmings . 

This was a hoot and immediately the lad wanted to do it again. 🙂  so here we go….

 Start your crazy art project by drawing a picture of a
giant Alligator with a pants on its head. Make your drawing with 144
crayons and a green feltpen. Then crumple your drawing paper into a ball
the size of a cd and stomp on it with your feet for 100 minutes. Now
your drawing is well crushed, so unfold it quickly and spread it out on
the worktable. Tape down the edges with mactac . Mix up a big batch of
paint in a jar using two cups of vinegar and a spoonful of aero bar .
Spread lots of this yellow paint onto your drawing with a screwdriver
and let it dry for a a million years . Hang your beautiful work of art
in the green room until it is discovered by Toronto Children’s Museum .
Suddenly you will be a famous artist, become a regular guest on Monk and
make lots of money painting portraits of Adrian Monk surrounded by
lizards .

we had fun discovering new books over at We Give Books. 
Since we’ve been reading in our world history book about knights and castles I picked up a book at mastermind toys the other day about knights!  it’s a sticker book and the lad is having fun reviewing what he’s learning while dressing the knights and telling me what is happening in the book.  today we learned abit about the crusades, I find this a sad time in history so I didn’t get into a lot of detail with this six year old.  But he did learn the basics…the British went to fight against the Arab Muslims over the city of Jerusalem.

And then we headed off to look again at the junior science kit we started yesterday at Gramma’s.  Yesterday we dug up fool’s gold and then did some tests on a variety of rocks to test hardness, and other stuff that I can’t recall at this exact moment.   Today we’ll see about making some crystals and digging a geome (I think).

Reading, knots, and more

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This day being one of continued pain, and foggy-headedness due to pain meds, and being a typical Tuesday of “I WANT TO PLAY MOMMY!” (late Monday nite returns do this to a boy child), we did computer work, reading, some play, and art.  If I get myself mentally together we will do some science/practical math later on.


Today we started off our homeschooling day with Suessville.  My lad isn’t really into some of Dr. Suess books (strongly dislikes the cat in the hat), but he likes some of it.   Some of the activity pages are definitely below where he is at, but he enjoyed problem solving with the games and going through some of the worksheets with me.

We then got inspired by these in my son’s words “remote control alien ships”. 🙂

you can read more about it here. 

That video led us to this one, were being Canadian. … watching robots play hockey is just a given.:)

Caused lots of questions to be asked which is always a good thing in our household. 🙂
on to some reading.
We continued reading about Knights and Castles in our world history book.
We read a new book, called “bad kitty gets a bath”.  This is just a fun book.  I got it to encourage the boy child in his interest for reading.  he can read the simple words of kitty, bath, cat, hate etc.  

It’s just a fun read for a child.  It also has a remarkable number of good scientific facts in it as well.  Always a bonus.
We started a new book called The ultimate guide to wildlife in North America.  We’ll read a page most every day.  Today we learned about the virginia opossum and I told the lad how one day I found one.  Thought it was dead, poked it, picked it up and what not and decided that yes indeed it was dead, came back five minutes later and it was gone, and how another time my dog trapped one under an old stump and it hissed and growled at us.   Fun to share those stories.
In the fall when we went to the creation seminar in Kitchener we had picked up this book called “the lamb” by John R. Cross. It’s the story of the bible for children. 10 easy lessons. We started that book this morning.  It’s a good read.

I had the lad learn how to do a simple overhand knot, and I showed him how to make a slip knot and then tied him up.   This helped him learn the importance of tying knots.  He will need to continue to practice though. 🙂

our plans this week

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homeschooling this week will be focusing on cleaning our house, bookwork, and stuff planned.

For instance, gymnastics and swimming are planned events.
We also will be volunteering at the Christmas bureau two days.
and hopefully on Friday visiting friends.

We are doing daily advent readings. We are using this guide.
If interested in getting, click the picture.

We’ll be doing our normal reading.

10 minute stories

He really liked today’s story. It was well written and inspired thought and brought a smile to his face. Giant birds flying! 🙂

World History

We are into Roman history now. We continue to learn about gladiators. Today he learned how gladiators usually fought to the death. his response.. “IF I were there mommy I throw down giant cages down that could catch them so they couldn’t get out and hurt each other mommy.”

Today a good day

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Today was a good day.

Didn’t exactly go homeschooling wise as I thought it might.

On Wednesday mornings I have bible study so hubby dear usually gets the lad busy with book work. but this morning hubby’s brain was fried so that didn’t go over.

Over lunch therefore, we did our normal reading.

10 minute stories

He liked today’s story. I shortened it here and there as it was quite wordy and that NEVER goes over well with the lad. But it was a good story about a firebird, a grey wolf and a boy who had to learn how to listen well.

World History

We are into Roman history now. We are learning about gladiators.

I had gotten the lad onto reflexmath before I headed out to bible study. The lad enjoys this program.

So after I got back from my stuff I got the lad busy with Studyladder. We did math, music, and something else that right now I can’t remember.

This afternoon we played a game with dad. Catopoly
We had a lot of fun playing it. So much nicer playing games with a lad who is willing to follow the rules of the game.

oh..I’m trying to work home-making skills into our week… today it was cleaning the upstairs bathroom. I set the boy at the task of cleaning the bathtub. He did a decent job for a six year old doing a job for the first time. he did an EXCELLENT job of having a bath so he could clean his toys up really really well. 🙂

Then peter rabbit videos were the thing to watch, followed by supper and children’s club at the baptist church. They are learning the fruits of the spirit there. What I know most is how much the lad enjoys attending. 🙂

Playing and Doing Homeschool

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Our Tuesday generally consist of play, homeschool, play, homeschool and so forth. I normally throw in doing dishes, laundry, and so forth.

We mix it up with some computer time, science time, art work etc. It’s usually a very enjoyable day.

Today we did two lessons in Reading Kingdom. Reading Kingdom uses a whole word approach, I tend to be more of phonetics person, but I see no harm in learning a different way. I figure a varied approach is not always a bad thing. There are good and bad points to each way of learning how to read. We are currently doing a trial period to see how it goes.

We then did two lessons from Head of the Class. This is their kindergarten page. One where I wanted him to do a simple exercise but had to look at the first letter in order to figure out what colour he had to do. For a younger child I would have read the word, but I wanted the lad to sound it out and then make his decision. He did fairly well. It’s called Colours. Then I was wanting to do something kinda artsy cause well.. he’s that type of child. So I saw this one called Stitch and Sew. I expected it to be the normal yarn/shoelace around a pattern…but it was actual needle and thread sewing. The boy was QUITE pleased with himself and showed off his art work to dad. “I did it myself daddy”. I helped for the first bit and around the tricky bits, and we didn’t do the heart as shown in the video..we did a cat. The lad was quite very pleased with himself, and I have to admit, I was quite pleased as well. We talked about the parts of a needle, the thread, I tied in the bible verse about the camel going through the eye of the needle and so forth.

Then we played for a while. ended up going for a walk instead of reading and then cleaning the kitchen. on our walk we met the dirties, They make you act like dirt until
someone uses a machine to make you human again.
Here is the lad being dirt.

The lad also wanted to do his make a pizza program as well. and then we watched the spy next door and played doctor at the same time with a bunch of sick stuffies. 🙂 Always an interesting day in the life here. 🙂

just before bed he had fun making leaf creations. He made all sorts of interesting creatures, learning to resize, rotate and just exercise his creative intelligence.