TJ's Pontoon Boat Blog Post

My project started when I wanted to build a boat.  I was just floating McDonald's boxes in a garbage can full of water and then I wanted to make a boat.  First I tried doing a plastic container and then I thought it was too tippy. 

Then I thought of a wider base.   I looked up boat bases (you can find out more about hull designs here).  I wanted to make first a flat hull and then mommy told me those kind of bases are meant mostly for sitting around or going slow.  So then I found out about another one that you can put a motor on.  It has two v-shaped things on the side so water can run through the middle.  I heard that a pontoon boat is really steady so I picked that.

 These pictures show what happened with my boat.  First I tested it and I found out it leaned on the sides.  I moved around my passengers it made it level out.  I was going to add a bag of weights, but found just moving the passengers worked too.

Here is my final design and a picture of a real pontoon boat.  I was really interested in who invented pontoon boats.  Mommy read my his story which you can find here.

I kinda had fun with this project.  I look forward to doing other projects.

What Happened to the Alphabet posts???

What happened to the Alphabet Adventure posts???  

SUMMER happened

We have been to a few local beaches.  The boys have discovered boating at the cottage.  We get together regularly with my sister and the cousins are having so much fun.  Our gardens and veggies are a source of food, work and joy!

Playgrounds are frequented often.  TJ has really become a little monkey.  More fun with cousins as we discovered bubble snakes.  The boys have the time to explore their own interests.  Here they are making potions and concoctions with all sorts of kitchen items.  Imaginations have run wild as the boys pretend to fish among other adventures they've invented.

 We walk often in the forest, to the park and in the nature reserves.  Often times some stuffed friends will be join us.  We visit grandparents and love building connections.  The boys just loved their visit to Story Book Park in Owen Sound.  MJ has be exploring "floating and sinking" along with just playing with the hose.  TJ has built a forrest stick cottage and invites us over for parties that he hosts.

My sister and I put on a mini carnival for the kids complete with face painting, play dough, puppet show and make your own pinata!!  W also have one daycare child with us all summer.  We've had this little girl for two years now and the boys just love having her over each day.  We go to the library each week, read lots, play hard and are having a great time.  Oh yea, we also got the new truck labeled!!

What about school??  Well at first I was stressed that we weren't doing our regular school work as I had planed it.  But then I realized that we are doing each of the letters again in the fall.  Summer is a time for being outdoors, using the imagination and connecting with others.  We are going to use the rest of our summer for messy crafts (I can't stand to do them inside in the winter), along with some wood working.  We are going to spend as much time as we can with our friends and cousins before school starts.  We are also learning all the time!  So for us, school never ends....

Stay tuned for TJ's first blog post ever!  He took on his own little project to build a toy boat, it led him to learn more about pontoon boats and he wants to share his discoveries with you.

Outdoor Play Spaces and our Gardens

It is about time I updated you all on our outdoor spaces.  Now I hope this doesn't come off as boasting.  I just wanted to give a tour of the yard.  It looks like it's going to be a big post with lots of pictures.  I'll be showing you our most recent round of musical rooms shortly (once I tidy enough for photos).

Being outside is very important to us, and for the boys.  They spend time (as much as we can) outside every day year round.  In the front yard we have a rope swing that often has either the button swing or the handle bars.  I still remember the baby swing being up, my how time flies.  Attached to this tree is a rope that serves as a net for badminton and to hold up any tents, along with being a clothes line for wet swim shorts.  At the base of this tree is the fairy house.  This year it is called the outdoor super fun house, or something like that as the boys aren't as much into fairies any more.  Instead we brought out all the Playmobil and set it up around the base of the tree.

The front yard also has a large sandbox with pulleys in the rafters.  It has been used so much over the years.  One year we asked all our family to contribute towards my hubby building this as a joint birthday gift for the boys.  Thank you all!!

The new shed is just wonderful for storing all the toys and garden equipment.  We used to have toys piled all over or hidden behind bushes.  We have balls, rackets, bubbles, skipping ropes, bikes, scooters...

Next to the shed is the swing set.  The slide was removed when we moved it from the backyard as it was cracked.  It could be better secured into the ground, but has seen much use.  I'm so thrilled my sister and brother-in-law gave it to us.  It was in their backyard when they bought their house.

Across the laneway is a wonderful area.  We have a balance beam, tree stumps, a tree sump table, outdoor play kitchen, rope bridge and climber.  Last year we tried to put in a garden but it was too shady.  The rhubarb is still happy here so we have left it and care for it and some potatoes.  The forest is part of a provincial trail.  We love walking along all the trails right out our front door.  The boys also have made stick houses and climb on fallen trees.  One tree is their pet "tiger/lion" that they feed.

Now on to the back yard.  Back here each boy has his own garden.  TJ and I built his together and he picked out all the plants.  There are a few potatoes in he it again this year.  He is so proud of his garden.  MJ wanted a garden too so he has taken over one of the side flower beds.  He's added his own plants, potatoes and decorations.  I help them both with weeding and watering if it's been a while.

We have a trampoline and lots of water toys in the back.  The water table, sprinkler, kiddie pool and slip-n-slide are mostly used here near the hose connection and sun.

We haven't been in the rocky part near the cliff much this year.  Mostly because there are so many fallen tree branches from the winter storms in the way.  We also know that our friendly groundhogs live there and we don't want to disturb them.  In the past they were too shy because of our neighbour's dog.  But he passed away and they are out all the time enjoying our clover.  I know we have lots of raspberries down there so we'll venture down there next week for some picking.

Vegetable gardens are so much fun for us.  We are caring for our veggies more than half the year from early spring to late fall.  In the past we only had a plot at the community garden up the street.  Last year not much happened at the house because the garden was too shady near the forest.  This year we tried an unused sunny slope.  This is our viney patch!!  We have pumpkins, squash, zucchini, cucumber, potato, tomato, sunflowers, mint, and beans.  So far there are a few zucchinis almost ready to harvest, two baby pumpkins and so cherry tomatoes starting to grow.

We just love to visit our community garden plot.  We are so blessed that the church up the street opened this opportunity to everyone.  We have had our plot for three years now.  Everyone knows my hard working boys.  They help to fill the plots with dirt each spring and close down the beds in the late fall.  They plant with me, water the veggies, snack on the produce and play in the dirt piles.  We have met so many lovely people too. This year I'm trying out squarefoot gardening and doing a bit of succession planting in there too.  I will likely rearrange where I plant things next year, but it is going well.  Anything we tried to transplant early on didn't take, but all is well now.  We started planting at the end of april so our peas are huge and some carrots should be ready soon.  I have lettuce to share (Please take some!!!) and the radishes have already be eaten and enjoyed.  Often we will come and garden then go across the street to the playground.  It was a wonderful experience for our daycare children too when we did that.

So there you have it, the outside tour of our home.  In writing this all down I've fallen more in love with our location.  The view is breathtaking!  In the backyard you can see from Toronto around and over to Hamilton.  We appear to be in the country, yet we are actually on the boarder of two cities.  Yes we have more work to do: grass, deck, fixing water drainage issues, front porch, much needed sheds and garage space... but we are getting there one project at a time.

Alphabet Adventures E-H

This summer we are working through the alphabet.  These past two weeks we have been doing the letters E - H.  You can read more about the letters A-D here.

I'll admit we've gotten a little off track recently.  The weather has been great and there are so many fun places to go.  We are still bringing in each letter into our day, but now as deeply as I had originally planed.  Luckily we are actually focusing on them throughout the year with our fairy tale stories and activities.

E - When discussing the letter E we made letters out of all sorts of objects.  Then the boys spelled their names.  It was interesting to notice that TJ on his own wrote his name backwards, MJ and I worked together so his name was mostly the right way round.

F - for the letter F we made lots of sounds, played games to think of words that started with F.  TJ and I also came up with a words that started with each letter of the alphabet.

TJ has been keeping up with his workbook, but his alphabet book is getting a bit behind, along with the stories and movements (basically we've been sort of doing circle time in the car).

We did find an amazing library book, several great letter ones.  Alphabet Everywhere by Kaufman shows photos of each letter from the alphabet found in nature or the city.  For example A is the side shot of a ladder, D is the shape of a mall door handle, J is an umbrella handle, F is part of a fence.... I'm feeling inspired to do something similar.

G - this letter has been a tricky one for TJ when writing on his own.  He tends to write is upside down so it looks more like an "e".

H - for the letter H the boys drew on the chalk board.  The were a bit better about writing in their workbooks. MJ is so excited to have a big kid book like his brother (I got one of those all-in-one school work books from the book store).  TJ tried sounding out more words while we were reading.

Oh we also started piano with the boys.  We are using some books my sister found on Amazon.  She is a music teacher and is also introducing the piano to her daughter.  It's cute that all the cousins are doing the same thing.  Our music book has Mozart Mouse and Beethoven Bear who introduce the different musical concepts to the kids.  The boys loved it.

Lego Party

Happy 4th Birthday MJ

Wow I can't believe my little guy is growing so quickly. My wonderful little boy always has a smile to share.  He adores tractors (wants to grow up to be a farmer), and is always building something.  He has a great imagination and is full of energy!

MJ's actual birthday celebration

On MJ's actual birthday he woke up to a great surprise of Lego, including motors, and gears to go along with it.  After playing Lego for a while we joined my mom, sister and her children at a playground/splash park for the afternoon.  We had a wonderful time.  For dinner MJ chose Ikea.  He loved his new robot sweater, he even makes the buttons do things.

We had toyed with the idea of doing a construction theme for his birthday, but then he became Lego obsessed so here we are with an awesome Lego theme for my 4 year olds birthday!!!

Lego party decorations

There were so many ideas on Pintrest.  I used some Lego colouring pages to help me out.  In the goody bags were some Lego type blocks I found at the dollar store.

Lego party food

The food was mostly appetizers and platters,  I used some organizing bins as trays along with Mega Block cutlery holder.  McDonalds Lego cups worked our great for drinks.

Lego Party activities

For the activities the children mostly played in the yard and on the trampoline.  I wrote a story about a Lego farmer and his friends building things.  Then the children went off on a scavenger hunt around the property for Mega Blocks, then build a unique creation with them.  Later we also played pass the parcel (the prize was Lego type candy).  As you can see the cake was mini loafs pieced together.

We had a wonderful time and are so thankful for everyone coming to spend the afternoon with us.  The generous gifts were much loved.  And now they boys are finally (hopefully) asleep.

Our Alphabet Adventures A-D

This year TJ asked me to teach him his alphabet.  Now, he already can recognize the letters and can write most of them just from life, playing, stories, media, asking questions and trying it out.  We hadn't yet taken time to formally teach the alphabet though.  In traditional Waldorf schools children would be doing this in grade one when they are around age 7, but being at home and knowing this particular child I felt he was ready now at age 6 for the formal intro.

Modelling letter A, TJ and MJ's chalk practice.

We are taking the summer to really engage with each letter, the sounds and how it looks.  Both boys are participating, MJ is working on recognition.  He is now finding letters all over the place, even making his own from sticks and things.

Mommy's chalk drawing for letter B, drawing letters in the sand

We are using Earth Schooling along with Fairy Mail.  For each letter of the alphabet we have some poems and form the letter in the air while reciting it.  We do lots of movement and yoga for each letter, form the letter using found objects and model each letter.  There are stories that correspond to each letter and we also draw pictures of object that start with the letter.  Sign language is included along with lots of writing practice.  Every few days TJ adds a new page to create his own alphabet book.

TJ's best C, using our bodies to make the letter C

In the fall when his curriculum brings up the alphabet letters again we will be focusing on writing the lowercase letters that he finds more difficult at this point.  We'll also work on reading and his artwork for the book he is making.  It'll be a year in the making but one I know he'll treasure.

Letter practice in a workbook, using wand to draw letters and recite poems, Big boy lost his first tooth!

End of May activities

We have been very busy recently.  The weather has been great for getting outside, exploring and having fun.  Of course blogging gets set aside most days for office work, lesson planing, and being out with the boys.

The boys have been using scraps of wood left over from our shed project to build their own wild creations.  TJ made a garage, bench and bike jump.  Not sure what MJ's things are.  They also used the wood to make dams while playing with the hose.

TJ participated in his very first literature fair.  He created a folder project on the book "Curious George" then shared with with a group of homeschooler s.  He was very well spoken and learned a lot!

Mommy has a also had a little time to be crafty.  I have decided to close down my online crafting business to focus on our family, homeschooling and running the office for our electrical/fire protection company.  I was able to manage a few last projects.  I made myself a shirt, a fully reversible doll carrier, and a large quilt made of baby receiving blanket.

TJ's been getting more brave and adventurous.  He is usually on wheels of some sort.  His bike, scooter and skateboard are all getting lots of use.  MJ always has some Lego creation in his hands, or bed.  He is getting more confident on his bicycle too.

 We were so excited to attend a really fun event call "Touch-a-truck".  The fair ground was litterally covered in dozens of different trucks, tractors, etc.  Children got to climb inside and ask questions.  My boys had huge smiles as they tried out every truck they could find.

Hurray we have a shed!!!  I know it needs a door, but finally all our toys and gardening equipment is off the lawn and into this lovely shed that daddy built.  The boys had fun "helping" too.

Stay tuned as we start our adventure with the alphabet.  Over the next the next three months we will be learning, drawing, writing, creating and exploring each letter of the alphabet.