Posts filed under 'daily journal'
That is a huge stack of Valentines my children made this past week. We signed up for a swap with a number of families who also use Oak Meadow curriculum.
There were A LOT of families. Fuss and Bug decided they wanted each child to have their own. Then Fuss became completely disillusioned when he realised he didn’t have the time, resources or energy to send each one an entire fully-rendered scene. Basically he wanted to send each of the 94 children on the list a storyboard. A complex storyboard.
He decided if that was not to be, he would not participate at all and stomped off with his markers. So, Bug had to completely the monumental task. Which she did. Without complaint and while smiling the entire time. Phew. I thought I was going to end up making 94 Valentines.
Tonight is Valentine’s and my husband took me out to see Avatar. I was really keen to see it based on all the reviews. I usually like to wait for them to come to the movie network, since I pay for that and would like to make it worth paying for. Actually, I pay less per month for that than for one movie ticket.
I felt that Avatar needed to be viewed in 3D on a large screen. I believe I was correct, however I didn’t really like the movie. I was upset by the gratuitous violence and just generally completely overstimulated.
We came home after to relieve the sitter. She was planning to go out with her family and we had to see a later movie than we anticipated since the one we wanted to see was sold out. Sold out 9 weeks after coming to theaters. What an accomplishment.
So, once home, Colin took our sitter home and then went to pick up dinner. Taking a three-year-old along to pick up dinner seems to do wonders.
I thought that was about the cutest pizza I’ve ever seen!
I’m now off to bed to read a book and see if I can wind down from the wild ride that was Avatar.
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
February 14th, 2010
I had some major clean up to do, so I turned Fuss and Bug loose on some crafting materials. I did let them use the beeswax which was a treat. Due to expense I usually like to monitor this activity, but I just really needed a minute and they love it so much. Fuss made this beautiful cornucopia of white chocolate (one of his absolute favourite things).
Once I was finished, I sat down with them and we made paper snowflakes which was very appropriate since it was totally snowing outside!
Fuss put an outline where he wanted to cut and made the snowflake as symmetrical as possible. This, by the way, was the first time he pick up and used a writing utensil properly on his own. That was a thrill. He usually rests the pencil on his ring finger rather then the middle one.
He then cut around his outline. I’m not entirely convinced that using scissors with your eyes closed is a hot idea, but they were kid’s scissors.
And Fuss with his final product. He made several of them and hung them around his nature table. It looks as lovely in there as it does outside.
We do this every year and it’s one of my favourite activities.
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
January 15th, 2010
Today (I wrote this on Tuesday) was the first day of school, or the not-back-to-school day for us homeschoolers!
Many were heading to the museums because they are always so empty on the first day of school, but with summer weather just starting here (it would seem), I couldn’t bear to be indoors. The friend I always spend the first day of school with was also feeling outdoors-y, so we headed to a natural conservation park and had a wonderful day.
We started with coffees and the little shop around the corner from the park entrance and then it was all play the rest of the day!
The kids spend the first half playing in the river. They sailed boats and caught crayfish.
No worries - this little guy had lunch with us and the headed straight back into the river.
After lunch (during which the kids generally ran themselves ragged in the field), we went on a hike. It was beautiful!
This is Fuss at the beginning of the trail we chose.
We crossed a suspension bridge over the waterfall and it was spectacular, but I’m afraid of heights, so I had to put on a brave face that was not reflective of what I was feeling inside! Of course, the kids just bounded across. On the right hand side of the photo is a little cave the kids hung out in. It’s very very dark, quite cool and more than a little creepy.
This fountain was nicely placed. Right in the middle of the hike. The water was clear and cool, so the kids waded through to cool themselves off.
Finally, there was a hint of things to come:
Beautiful as this appropriately-placed leaf was, I’m keen to enjoy the warm weather for just a while longer….
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
September 11th, 2009
I just spent Friday night and all day Saturday at the Gateway Conference at our local Waldorf school. It was fabulous. Such an energizing and inspiring weekend.
The keynote speaker was a man by the name of Kim John Payne, an Australian now living in New York. He’s been working on research with two other people, looking into stress as the leading factor in add, adhd and all the ‘d’ disorders as he calls them.
At the start of his career, he worked with youth in Jakarta as well as street gang kids in Australia and found that they all suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Once he became a Waldorf therapist, he found that many of the children brought to him for counselling were coming to him as a last resort. They were typically severe behaviour problems and had been labelled with one of the ‘d’s. What Mr. Payne found was that these children were suffering the same symptoms as the children in severely stressful situations.
What Mr. Payne found was the by simplifying the environment, many of the children improved dramatically.
I urge anyone who has the opportunity to hear Mr. Payne speak on Simplicity Parenting to do so. Alternatively, he has his speech on cd available on his website. Although I found it very inspiring, it’s not anything that those in the Waldorf community don’t already know. He presents it in first a shocking way, and then inspires parents to action. He, talks about ’soul fever’ and likens it to a real fever which was an amazing visual for me.
Saturday morning and afternoon had breakout sessions that were of value. However, I really think that hearing Payne speak was the highlight. Although we don’t have behavioural issues here, we can make these simple changes (simple only because we are already on the path of which he speaks) and have a better rhythm and flow in the house. Colin came as well and I think it really solidified for him what I’ve been saying all along. Particularly about tv being brain poison (Payne’s term). He’s also really keen to get rid of all the toys and get down to bare bones creative toys.
So, with Payne’s humour and awesome insight, I am going to make the changes he recommends and I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
April 20th, 2008
So, its 11:15 and Fuss is still running around the kitchen like a crazy man. I’m trying to clean up and watch a few webisodes of The Scrapbook Lounge. I get to a point where he can be up but I will no longer interact with him. It would not appear that I can be boring enough for him, he continues to want to ‘be with me’.
So tonight, after I’d started my non-interaction technique, he asks me if I’m afraid of the dark. ‘No’ I answered with no small hint of cross-ness.
However, thinking about it, I AM afraid of the dark. I hate it. So does Bug and apparently so does Fuss.
When we were in England for the summer of 06, we stayed at a 400-year-old thatch-roof cottage. It was in a tiny village with neighbours, but it was miles before even a glimpse of a shop or pub. It was very dark at night.
I slept with all the bedroom lights on!
Colin thought I was totally nuts, but I was frightened. Mostly fine with the lights on, not so good in the dark. Okay - even with the lights on I waited for morning with great anticipation!
Even in my own home I either fall asleep with a light or the tv on. If it’s totally dark, my mind starts to wander and I don’t like where it goes. Self doubt, curiosities about my health, etc…all creep in.
So, I lied to my son! However, perhaps this is one area that protecting a child from adult insecurities is not necessarily a bad thing. But, perhaps I wont be so flippant the next time he mentions that monster under his bed, because the monster is under mine as well!
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
January 22nd, 2008
Ah! The holidays are over.
I so look forward to the holidays and they are always nice, particularly on years like this one when my husband has a large chunk of time off. However, by the end of it, I’m looking forward to getting back to the kid’s and my normal routine. Well, whatever that is. But I do find that C being home really affects Fuss’s sleeping - he went to bed, reluctantly at 2am a couple of nights ago.
The holidays were very good for my guys. Bug got a doll she’d been coveting in a baby sort of way. It was hanging out of her stocking and when she woke up, came downstairs and saw it, she yelled ‘baby!’ It was very cute. She carries it all around and if she comes up to me and I’m not looking she calls out ‘I ga [got] baby!’. All my reservations and hesitations I had when considering buying her a doll melt when I see those two together.
And, here’s where the ’some assembly required’ comes in.
Yep - that’s right. All Fuss wanted from Santa was a fish. So, what are you going to do? The only thing Santa can’t bring? I’m not mean enough for that so now we have another pet. His name is George and Fuss loves him. Sweet.
Although, setting up this ****** tank at midnight and then one, and then two on Christmas eve was not sweet. We had no idea what exactly was necessary in setting up a tank, and the Santa logistic made it impossible to do at any other time. Of course, the kids got up earlier than usual, so we were working on only a few hours of sleep for Christmas day which is hosted for the entire family at my house.
I need a vacation from the holidays.
Enjoying the New Year’s journey, Amanda
January 2nd, 2008
While riding to music this morning (which was way too long of a ride), I was bombarded with 1000 unanswerable questions. Of course, we were at Starbucks yesterday and it was all done up for Christmas. I guess that got a tiny 4-year-old brain going. Or, not so tiny.
What was Santa’s name before he became Santa Claus? How does the Easter Bunny get into the house? What if we made a warren in our front tree - would the Easter Bunny come and live with us? If the Easter Bunny is, in fact, a bunny, how does he read the list we make for him? Why don’t we make a list for the Easter Bunny? Since he’s a bunny, how does he know to get out of the house? How does he carry all the baskets? Does he have extra arms? Why does Santa wear a hat? Why the big puffy boots? Does he take his boots and hat off when he goes inside at his own house? Does Santa sleep all year? How do the reindeer fly? Well, they can’t all be magic, so if they are not magic, how do they fly? Not everything is magic, Mum!!! How old was Kris Kringle when he knew he was magic? When did he decide to become Santa Claus? What did he have to do to be Santa? What do the reindeer do all year? I could go on……this was for the entire 35 minute ride. ~sigh~
It’s one thing if the questions are answerable, but another when I have no clue!
It’s Vetran’s Day on Sunday. I don’t think we’ll attend any festivities - the kids are too young to understand, but we’ll be wearing our poppies as we have been all month!
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
November 9th, 2007
For 18 months I have been worried about my daughter. She seemed completely incapable of being interested in books. She would run from the room when I read to her brother, she would shake her head violently when I sat down to read to her and it just didn’t look good. Being a voracious reader myself, I don’t know how to relate to someone in the house who doesn’t read, like, um….my husband? That, plus I also said I would never married someone unless they were also a musician, but it seems to be working despite lacking those two major components.
The Bug has suddenly developed a passion for reading. A passion. She runs to me at full speed (I spend most of my day sitting on the floor) with a book in her hand screaming as loudly as she can - have I ever talked about how noisy The Bug is? She’s just a really loud kid. So screaming is just out of control loud. She is so excited about books that she spends a good part of her day screaming about them. When I’m not reading to her, she flips through them herself and points at things she recognizes, particularly bugs. Again, she does this with a great amount of noise.
So, I’ve got my wish of a tiny reader, however it came with a great deal of cacophony.
And….the pirate lapbook is finished. As soon as I figure out how to put photos on my blog, I’ll have them here for you to see!
Enjoying the noisy journey, Amanda
October 18th, 2007
Yesterday we took advantage of the holiday and went for a nice long walk in one of our local parks. It was a beautiful day, but a bit too hot - in October, imagine! The park’s path runs along the Humber River. We stopped to watch some fly fishermen and Fuss wanted to hop right into the water to help them. We walked a bit further where there is a tiny waterfall. Here the fish make valient attempt to swim upstream. We sat for about 10 mintues, during which time, about 4 of them succeeded, to great cheers from the crowd gathered to watch.
Then, last night as we were all getting ready for bed, I heard water just pouring down. I said to Colin that I was so surpised that it had started raining since I had just been outside and it didn’t seem about to rain. I walked to the back door to have a look, because really it had to be just coming down, but the sound beconed me from the basement! I went a couple of steps and saw water pouring from one of the lights recessed into the ceiling! Similar to the salmon’s waterfall.
We put a bucket underneath, turned off the water at the main and went to bed - hoping for the best. We seemed to make it through the night and the plumber arrived promptly at 9am. He worked until 3! 3!!! Amazing. And spendy. He was here so long, I even served him lunch.
So, Colin’s holiday was full of fun things to do, none of which we actually did. Today took the cake, though. His last day of holidays spent with a plumber.
Luckily he was a very friendly plumber since Fuss had tonnes of questions and advice.
Enjoying the (now dry) journey, Amanda
October 17th, 2007
I’ve just finished cleaning up from Thanksgiving dinner. We always have lots of family and I love seeing my chidren interact with their relatives. We get so mired in the everyday that it’s really nice to step back and see the big picture. There are more people than just me, for my children to learn from.
My cousin is in the military, so he didn’t make it home, but Fuss really loves talking to him about aeroplanes, my cousin’s passion, and all things ’soldier’. My other cousin is a musician, so he now gets out my guitar and plays for a bit. He plays electric at home, so his mother loves to hear him play not quite so loudly. Fuss thinks he’s cool.
Uncle Donny is into motorcycles - so is Fuss, so there is a lot of conversation going on there!
My brother and his wife didn’t make it, and Fuss was so incredibly disappointed. He had a slight meltdown as he watched his father take the places away and rearrange the table. We’ll have to have them over in the next few weeks to make up for it.
So, as much as it’s a day for cooking and cleaning for me, it’s an evening to relax and watch Fuss learn from those around us. Oh, and to watch The Bug EAT!
Enjoying the journey, Amanda
October 8th, 2007
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