Wildflowers

Our love of being outdoors seems to have naturally led to an interest in wildflowers. We have been trying to learn the names of the different ones we see on our hikes and more recently reading tales and folklore about the flowers.
some links
to identify local wildflowers or here
on our wishlist is this book
this site is helpful as you can identify ontario flowers by colour

Some of the things we are doing/will do with the wildflowers are
*make our own dye for playdough/material
*press them in our flower press
*colour the ones we find in our Dover wildflower coloring book
*we started a list of flowers we have seen and would like to see
*use borax to dry them and make seasonal wreaths/decorations/crafts
*draw them in our nature notebooks

In his own time

These past two days Elias went to his first summer camp. It was a program run through our Civic Museum, each day based on a slightly different topic. Thursday the topic was blacksmith and metal work, Friday was on Pioneer Animals. Over the two days he sawed wood himself, came in third in a scavenger hunt, made a sachet, participated in games, made butter, held a chicken, help catch a runaway chicken (which I am sure the museum neighbours appreciated), watch a blacksmith make a fence and decorative hooks, learned about eggs, made friends and had fun. The first day Elias went because the topic sounded interesting and he has been curious about camp in general (not that this camp is really like most typical camps- yeah for that ). Despite not knowing anyone he went. He came home thrilled, wanting to go again. He amazes me.
People often comment on Elias being shy. While he definitely takes longer than his siblings to feel people, I don't believe it is because he is so much shy as he is just slower in processing the information. He lets how he feels about people and situations sit longer before jumping into a relationship. When he connects or reaches out to someone or thing its because he genuinely wants to. Similarly his affection is not readily handed out, but it is a precious gift knowing so much thought and time went into it. So here he went off to camp, having thought long and hard before going and thoroughly enjoying his experience. I am so glad he is able to take the time he needs to make a decision.

Cicada

While visiting friends today one of the kids spotted this large insect on a stump. It was probably about 4-5 inches long and had beautiful green irridescent wings. It stayed completely still on the log despite the kids using it as a stepping stool. Our guess was it was a cicada bug, which I find incredibly fascinating. They live underground for approximately 15 years, then they crawl out onto the base of a tree where they come out of their shell. They live out in the open for a fairly short time, until the cold weather I believe. Which makes seeing one even more exciting. They make a loud buzzing noise which sounds similar to a high pitched saw, a common Ontario noise. Some information can be found here.

Toads

Amazingly we have found baby toads on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday in our garden. I thought it was perhaps the same toad, but the kids were sure to pay attention to detail and note the differences. There is no doubt they are cute.

Bountiful Beautiful Garden

Okay maybe bountiful is pushing it, but there is not doubt it is sweet to have produce appear in our garden. We are celebrating our own raspberry picking, ripening peppers and lots of onions. The squash are coming along and will be ready in late August (said with confidence!). The corn, tomatoes and beans, none of which got much care and as a result haven't done very well. Those raspberries on our cereal in the morning have been worth it!

Life at a Summer Pace

Snap shots of our weekend, which was relaxing. We did some visiting with friends, played at parks, went swimming, listened to music and enjoyed our slow pace. Oh, and it wouldn't be a good weekend without the cat dressed in spy wear!

Friday Poem

Popcorn Pete

This is the story of Popcorn Peter
Who took all the popcorn
From the movie theater
He took it home
Hid it under his bed
Then ate and ate
Until his face got red
His cheeks began to puff and swell
What would happen?
No one could tell...
Suddenly there was
This loud KABOOM!
And we all ran up
To Peter's room
Like a piece of popcorn
He popped, popped away
He popped back into
Yesterday.

By Sheree Fitch
we love this poet/author's work. I had the joy to meet her in person during an International Women's day Conference in New Brunswick a life time ago. This poem is in a book; Share a Tale; Canadian Stories to Tell to Children and Young Adults, was found on a discount rake and has been a family treasury. It is filled with short stories and poems, each a delight. We often read from this book at tea time.

Time to slow down

While rushing(as usual) out of the house for an appointment we noticed a ginger coloured cat on the porch of our neighbours house. Our cat Mozart has escaped out of the house before so it wasn't a huge surprise to see him out today. I pulled back in the driveway, positioned the kids each armed with cat treats around the cat and we proceeded to call and attempt to lure the cat home. After of about 20 mins of looking like fools, Elias commented on how big the cats ears are, much bigger than Mozarts whose ears suffered frost bite before we got him and are therefore very small. Thank goodness for observant children- we almost had another cat!!! Time to slow down.

Who permitted it??????

Despite my pleading requests, my foot stomping and my insistence; Elias is growing up at a heartbreaking rate. I loaded these pictures up today and a totally awed and the boy he has grown into. When I look into his beautiful eyes I can still see that baby who loved to be held, the toddler who cautiously explored by my side, the newly big brother to one than two, the boy who taught himself to ride a bike, who likes to sit on knees.....it just happens so fast- too fast. I pray my memory holds each of these moments always. (until the potion to stop growth is made in the least!)

Time Spent

Time spent swimming, splashing, jumping over and over again into the cold, calm water off of the dock.
Time spent changing in and out of wet, freezing swim suits as quickly as possible to avoid the hungry mosquitos.
Time spent snuggled in pj's on the couch reading books with friends.
Time spent listening to giggling over shared jokes, planning traps to capture forest creatures, to loons in the early hours of the morning.
Time spent snacking around the table, cracking peanuts for us and the chipmunks, enjoying cappucino first thing in the morning.
Time spent creating pictures together out of blocks, drawing make believe worlds on paper and whispering secrets into teddy bear ears.
Time spent canoeing to the lily pad pond, adventures on paddle boats, exploring new islands and being encouraged to swim further, jump bigger.
Time spent watching the rain fall, listening to the sprinkle on water and trees, swimming under it's shower.
Time spent with friends of all ages, with swallowtail butterflies, stars behind clouds only to be imagined, bats in the shutters, brothers and sisters, and mummy.
Time spent at the cottage, time extremely well spent.

Cottage Life

A good friend invited us to their family cottage this week. Despite the weather being overcast and drizzly we had a great time both in and outdoors. The kids loved jumping off the dock into the deep cold water. The canoe and the paddle b0at where huge hits, taking them to magical places across the lake. It was great to spend a chunk of time with friends that we often only get to see for a day at a time. We all agreed while driving home that if we won the lottery we would buy a cottage !!!

Splish Splash

It was great to finish a busy weekend with a friend's birthday party relaxing at a splash pad....cake and splashing water seem a perfect combination!

Friday Poem

Lord Neptune

Build me a castle,
the young boy cried,
as he tapped his father's knee.
But make it tall
and make it wide,
with a King's throne just for me.

An echo drifted on the wind,
sand deep and wild and free;
Oh you can be king of the castle
but I am lord of the sea.

Give me your spade
the father cried;
let's see what we can do!
We'll make it wide
so it holds the tide,
with a fine throne just for you.

He dug deep down
in the firm damp sand,
for the tide was falling fast.
The moat was deep,
the ramparts high,
and the turrets tall and vast.

Now I am king,
the young boy cried,
and this in my golden throne!
I rule the sands;
I rule the seas;
I am lord of all lands, alone!

The sand king ruled
from his golden court
and it seemed the wind had died;
But at dusk his throne
sank gently down
in Neptune's rolling tide.

And an echo rose upon the wind,
sang deep and wild and free:
Oh you may be king of the castle,
but I am lord of the sea.

Judith Nicholls
(one of our favorite poets)

Oceans

We have been doing some fun things around the topic of oceans. Today we looked through books about coral reefs. The kids drew pictures of their own interesting coral reefs, painted them with glue and then covered them in colored sand. They were beautiful.
Things I have learned about oceans;
1. An adult elephant can fit on the tounge of an adult blue whale. The Blue Whale's heart is the size of a small car. A nursing blue whale drinks 50 gallons (200 litres) of milk a day.

2. That 90 % of all volcanic activity occurs in the ocean.

3. If the ocean's total salt content were dried, it would cover the continents to a depth of 5 feet.

4.The largest waterfall is under water, in the Denmark Strait and falls down 2.2 miles.

5.One swallow of seawater contains millions of bacteria cells, hundreds of thousands of phytoplankton and tens of thousands of zooplankton

6. Less than 10% of the cean has been explored by humans.

7. The average temperature of the oceans is 2 degrees C

8. Many sharks give live birth to their young, which is called vivipary- rival siblings sometimes eat each other before they are born

9. Each year 3x's as much garbage is dumped in the world's oceans as the weight of fish caught.

10. The swordfish and marlin are the world's fastest fishing, able to reach speeds of 121 miles an hour.

this information has been read about in different books, websites, movies, while we have been exploring oceans- one interesting ocean facts site was this

Peas in the Pot

We have fresh peas from the market, still in their shell. Ben enjoyed spending a good part of his afternoon shucking them. Its so great to have summer produce here! We are still hoping our peas in the garden will surprise us and pull through.

Five Little Peas
Five little peas in a pea-pod pressed,
One grew, two grew, and so did the rest;
They grew....and grew...and did not stop,
Until one day the pod went......POP!

Summer Lovin'

We have been enjoying our evenings; the light lasting so long. Our time at the park with Dad is great. It is such a contrast from the dark months during which it feels as though there is barely time for supper and stories before bed. Summer nights really have been dreamy.

Summer School???

My kids don't view most of the things we do as educational or part of school, they see them more as part of our daily life. We explore things (ie.oceans currently) because some has an interest or a question they want to figure out. Today was a prime example. We went down town on the bus, during which time we discussed how many wheels a bus has and how many different ways we could make the number 12. There was an advertisement in the bus for ESP's, which led to a discussion of secondary education, the cost and different ways of funding the tuition.
The bus ride was taking us to the local civic museum; a place we often visit with our pass. We spent a lot of our time using a set of logs to build a log cabin, talking about pioneers, what we learned from Little House on the Prairie about building a log cabin, whether we would like to be pioneers. Another large chunk of our time was spent building a map of the world puzzle that contained 252 huge pieces. The flags of the different countries were on the map, leading us to a discussion about how Canada chose it's flag, what a flag is used for, what a symbol is, coat of arms, and being patriotic. We picked different wild flowers while waiting for the bus ride home and looked them up in our wildflower book.
Later on we were at the library and the librarian (who knows we homeschool) asked if we would be doing 'school' during the summer. Ben responded that "we don't do school at any time during the year, the summer is the same as the other times, like today we just did fun stuff like the museum". Which is true. Our learning isn't seasonal, it also doesn't look like school. Its fun stuff right now and we are all okay with that.