Early morning sunrise and more!

Fina woke up really early on Monday morning (though the sun is also rising later!) and she saw a lovely sunrise. She ran downstairs to tell us about it. So her and I put on our boots and our coats and ran outside in the chilly air to marvel at God's beauty. We ran out to the north edge of town (which is about 350 metres from our front door!), where we could watch the spectacle from the field, unhindered by any buildings or trees. Fina said "I wish I was quick enough to paint this, but by the time I get out my paints, it will be gone!"

On Monday afternoon, we started our special study on moss (and lichen) at the forest. We're wondering why moss seems to grow on the upper side of the trees. Even with the slightest incline, the moss is on the upper part. It is so interesting!!! There is a lot of moss in our forest, and every day we get to observe and make notes on different types in different spots.

On Thursday, we hit 1000 hours outside. I've mentioned this challenge before. It is to encourage families to spend more time outside (and less time watching tv!). We started counting on April 1. The lovely weather of this last week has really helped! We are getting a proper fall, after the snow of the beginning of the month. I think this is the fastest we've hit our 1000 hours. It is really great for us to keep track of Fina's time outside. It actually encourages me to see those numbers grow.

We've been enjoying brush drawing outside without frozen hands!

It took all of her will not to jump into that lovely rushing water of the creek!

We are enjoying Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. It is fun for the three of us to take parts and do a read through. So much fun.

Fina is really enjoying our historical fiction selection, Jeremy's War 1812. Jeremy becomes a "batboy" for General Brock. It's a great story that really captures one's imagination. We are both enjoying it.

We are also enjoying our biography about Tecumseh. He was a fascinating man. The book is well written, moving between very technical and historical parts, as well as some more "human" stories from his life.

History is really coming together for us this term, for which I am very grateful.

A week of firsts!

We started our first Shakespeare play! With salmon and potatoes baking in the oven for supper, we read through Act I Scene i of Much Ado About Nothing. Fina did a great job, reading the parts of the Messenger and the Prince. Fina's homeschooling dad read Leonato, Benedick and others, and I read Beatrice, Hero, Claudio and others. It was really great! I had a serious "moment" while we were reading. It is just so incredible to think that my little one can read Shakespeare!!! I loved it!
We have really enjoyed the Joss Whedon movie version of it. Not at all appropriate for Fina, but fun for adults and for Whedon fans.

We also started up our piano lessons. We're having a great review after way too much time away from them. Fina really enjoys playing, which is so great!

Fina's homeschooling dad just started reading The Hobbit aloud to her. This is her first Tolkien experience ever. (She is a lover of C.S. Lewis. They have read through that series aloud together at least 4 times over the years. It's kind of their "thing.")

I was at the Charlotte Mason Living Retreat in Georgia on the weekend. It was so wonderful to see old friends, to meet many social-media friends I had never met "in real life" and to make so many new friends!

We've had our first couple of snows. It was not easy going to Georgia and then coming back to this! Fina is pleased. I'm needing a bit of time to adjust.

The ski goggles might have been a bit much!

The crab apple tree behind our house has all of its green leaves yet!

This rarely happens here - snow you can use for building!

We are really enjoying our biographies and historical fiction selections for this year. We are studying the 1800s for our history, so we are reading Canadian stories about that time period. Tecumseh by Luella Bruce Creighton (it is on of The Great Canadian Stories on loan to us from our friends), The Broken Blade by William Durbin (about a 13 year old that goes off to be a voyageur in 1800), Jeremy's War 1812 by John Ibbitson. We are also reading a biography about St Thérèse de Lisieux (from the Pauline Encounter the Saints series. Cute little books that are easy to get on Amazon). Am embarrassment of riches in the historical fiction / biography. Which is great, because we had had trouble with that in the past.

Our poet for the term is Wordsworth and we are enjoying those poems. Fina and I are reading E Nesbit's The Enchanted Castle as our read aloud. I'm having trouble getting into it, but she loves it.

Ontario adventures (including the ROM)

Over the last few weeks, Fina and I had a nice trip (some business, some leisure) visiting our family in Ontario.

Before we went, she watercolour painted these for her cousins and grandparents.

We love this polar bear RCMP at our airport.

While we were in Ontario, we did some nature study about this Honey Locust (and many other things).

Fina always loves the ROM.

the subway station at the ROM

We found this cool exhibit with lots of paintings by Norval Morrisseau (the painter of Fina's favourite painting from the WAG, from when she was little)

One of Norval Morrisseau's painting

We went to the Chrysanthemum Show, which is always fun to see!

We visited Parliament Hill and learned a lot about our government. We were able to attend Question Period and saw our Prime Ministers and MPs "collaborate." We were unable to get any pics of that, as we had to go through security and had to check our devices. Security is taken very seriously at Parliament Hill.

Centere Block

The East Block (our library has a flag that flew there)

The Rotunda

Grandma taught Fina how to knit! She really enjoyed that.

Fina climbed grandma's fir tree.

And, later, nonna's maple tree

She planted one of the seeds/beans from the Honey Locust, and, within a few weeks, we had this!

We finished reading Clyde Robert Bulla's A Lion to Guard Us as part of our historical fiction. The story is really captivating and both Fina and I enjoyed it!

We took advantage and had both sets of grandparents tell Fina a bit about their lives, when they were kids, looking through photo albums etc.

As of October 31, we completed our third year of the 1000HoursOutside challenge. Fina hit 1338.5 hours outside from November 1 2016. (On Oct 31 2016, she was at 1384 and in 2015, she hit 1084). I'm not going to keep track anymore. I think we've got it!

And we came home to this!

We did our lessons today. Fina did two drawing lessons with chalk pastels. And some watercolour painting "from her imagination" as well.

reeds

poppy

We started reading through Shakespeare's Twelfth Night (we saw that play a few months ago).  We listened to an audio version. I think I might alternate the audio version with my reading aloud.

While we were away, I picked up a bunch of books at a big used book sale. I found three of the McGuffey Eclectic Primer Reading Series, so she started reading one of those today.

Spring becoming summer!

Dear blog readers!

It has been a very busy couple of months. I will just give you a glimpse at the things that have been occupying our time.

• Fina had her tonsils out
• We had visitors from out of town (my dad, sister and baby niece)
• We have spent a lot of time outside
• We went to see "Romeo and Juliet" put on by Shakespeare In The Ruins at one of our favourite spots. It was just wonderful!
• Fina has continued with her piano lessons, nature study, reading aloud and being real aloud to. Every day learning and living life without the lesson structure
• Fina and I built a raised garden bed in our yard and we also planted a big plot at one of our friend's houses. We have really been enjoying gardening! We started most things from seed and it has been incredible to watch these little seedlings sprouting up. We even harvested our first radishes already. "This is what radishes are supposed to taste like" she said with glee!
• I had the opportunity of attending a big Charlotte Mason homeschooling conference in the States in June. I met many wonderful people (online friends who I now got to meet in person!) Fina and Fina's homeschooling dad had a fun time while I was gone. And it was just an incredible experience for me.

Enjoy a look at our days!

To give you some weather context, these were on April 12

And this is April 16 (Easter)

Then April 21. We took the kids to play in the muddy banks of the creek.

And back to snow on April 22!

We had a lovely visit. Fina so enjoyed having her baby cousin here for a few weeks.

Hospital prep. They have this wonderful tour they give to kids before the surgery. It really helped calm Fina's fears.

Here is Fina driving herself away to the OR.

We got to see some deer up close at one of favourite spots, Bois des esprits.

Rome and Juliet was just so wonderful! It was outside at the monastery ruins. They gave us lawn chairs, which we had to move around from scene to scene. It was just great!

Here is some garden box and garden progression. Enjoy!

Fina also went bike riding with nonno, which was so much fun!

And if you ever go to Kentucky, try out this great pop (soda). Yummy!