July

Language Arts-  Journal writing.
Starting our "Writing with Ease" curriculum.  It includes 2 copywork portions and 2 narration/copywork portions each week.

Caileigh's proud moment was reading Black Stallion by Walter Farley.  She took four days and felt so proud when she was finished.  She wrote a small book report on it and is excited to get back to the library and read the next book in the series!

Aiden has discovered a Star Wars chapter book series and has read the first 2 books.  He also wrote a book report on his book.

Math-  Aiden working on multiplication tables and reviewing past concepts.  
Caileigh reviewing addition and subtraction.  Slowly moving ahead with Singapore 1B.

Science- The kids found 7 caterpillars outside and put them into a jar.  6 of them formed chrysalisses and we are now waiting for them to emerge as butterflies. We did give 2 away to a friend so he can enjoy watching this process too. We even got to watch one caterpillar transform from a caterpillar to the chrysalis.  It was such a fascinating process to watch!  There are 4 more chrysalises that we found outside and we are keeping our eyes on those.

Aiden has been collecting rocks from outside and smashing them with a hammer to see if they are geodes.

 During our reading of "The Magic School Bus Water Cycle", Aiden became interested in the city waterworks.  He created a lego model of what he thought it would be like.  He used rice, instead of alum.   He had fun experimenting with different models and how they worked to push the water through.

Aiden, Caileigh and their friend Max, conducted an experiment to see how a water filtration system works using a kit from Green Science.  They mixed dirt, oil and water together and then poured it into the top of the filtration system.  The water passed through gravel, sand, carbon and finally a paper filter.  it was fascinating to see how clean the water came out.

Health and Career  We talked about ways we can help to keep our community clean. We read a Berenstain Bears book on the environment and became familiar with the terms ecology, conservation, and recycle. I put winter gloves on the kids and we walked up and down the road picking up litter.  The kids really enjoyed seeing who could get the fullest bag.  We also had to stop and investigate every bee and ant hill along the way!

We have been learning about bicycle road safety.  Both Aiden and Caileigh have become proficient with riding their bikes from our house, down the main roads to Sepa Lake, around the lake and home.  We work on staying close to the shoulder of the road, remaining single file.  Using the ICBC road safety curriculum, also learning about road signs, arm signals and other important road safety facts.

 It has been a great summer activity to make his trek several times a week.  A great workout for me too as I jog behind them with the little 3.

With all the physical activity this summer, there has been a lot of discussion about taking care of our bodies.  At breakfast the other morning, we talked about how we need to put good food into our bodies to provide the fuel we need to be active. We talked about how good food is a wonderful privilege and all things can be enjoyed in moderation.

 We talked about how water keeps us hydrated and allows us to keep moving and keep our minds fresh.  We briefly discussed the process of how food goes in, and out.  Both Aiden and Caileigh have mentioned that they would like to learn more about our human body.

Once a week, on the child's specific day, each child is responsible for making and serving breakfast.  A favorite is baked oatmeal and the kids have fun coming up with different additions like raisins, blueberries or chocolate chips!  Although I am present in the kitchen during preparation, the kids are responsible for reading the recipe, putting the items together and then cleaning up.  On each child's particular day, they are also my lunch and dinner helper and will be available for helping with preparation and serving.

Fine Arts  We painted rocks to decorate our rock garden.

We are working on a project of flower pounding for the fall fair.  I'll show a picture when the project is complete.

Caileigh is working on an embroidery project.

We used special paper that produces pictures using the sun.  It was really interesting.

We worked on a two part art project from Art with Mrs. Brown.  During the first part, we discussed different facial expressions.  We talked about why it is important to be able to read people's facial expressions.  It can help us to be more aware of how other people are feeling.  We can be a good friend by being aware of other's feelings.  The kid's then drew different suns showing different facial expressions.  We colored them in with pastels using warm colors.  The kids then painted the background using water color paints in cool colors.

{Caileigh's}

{Aiden's{

{June/July has been full of visits from friends and family!}

Friends that we are sad to see moving on but always so excited to see and spend time with.

Friends made during our time spent in Prince Rupert.  Aiden's first ever buddy, Max and his two brothers Marty and Jaxon.  A great big group of bike riders enjoying Sepa lake!

A lesson on caregiving.  Aiden and Brody decided to give Caileigh and Maddison spa treatments. They washed their feet, moisturized their skin, washed and brushed their hair, and painted their nails.  It was amazing to see such active busy boys taking the time to care for their sisters!

We started geocaching.  We have been having so much learning to read a GPS system and then following it to the destination and finding our prize.  We have been talking about ways to keep the environment clean and trash free while venturing down trails. "Cache In, Trash Out".  We have been having discussions about maps, longitude, latitude, etc.  This has been a fun, active way to spend time together as a family and with friends.  One day we drove down to Clinton and went to different caches that discuss the history of the places we visited.  We went to the cemetary, 70 mile roadhouse, museum, etc.

The kids had fun selling lemonade at their first ever stand!  Over breakfast, we sat down and planned out everything we would need to make the stand.  We went shopping, got all the materials together and then the kids set up.  They spent two hours selling and although there were times of no business, they kept their positive attitudes.  Aiden added up the coins and they ended up making $7.10, even though they only charged 25cents a glass and had 7 customers!  I think we had some super generous customers.  They bought slush puppies for everyone and are giving the rest to their sponsor child.  A super fun summer activity!