Digging Deeper

We went to the Royal Alberta Museum this week with a group of home educators.

We had booklets given to us designed to slow the kids down, to dig a little deeper, to ask questions, to make guesses, and to find answers.

At first the booklets were received with disappointment and distress. But then the boys both got pretty into it.

"This is pretty interesting stuff!" they said.

Toviel was a little overwhelmed, so I spent the majority of my time with him, looking deeper into some of the things he already knew. 

Elijah ended up on his own, and when I found him. He was in the bug room, both totally fascinated and disgusted with the spiders.

Toviel oo-ed and ah-ed over the rocks and minerals. I have an inkling to find some mineral and rock kits to explore. Rocks are really fascinating!

Then on to the dinosaur room, Toviel learned a bit about his favorite dinosaur that is at this particular museum, the drameosaur.

In the Aboriginal exhibit, we talked about the early days of the aboriginal people, mostly about how they survived. Elijah teared up when we discussed how reliant the people were on the bison. It is hard for him to imagine that anyone could hunt and kill such a majestic creature.

Here Toviel is making observations on the Trumpeter Swan diorama, noting differences between them and other swans of Alberta. I learned stuff too. He pointed out that they made a mistake in the diorama. I was confused, but after he explained it, he makes total sense and I agree with him. They have a baby swan in the water, and it looks like that swan is swimming, but the water all around it is completely still. No ripples or little wake. He thinks of things like that a lot....very physics-minded.

We saw a short 20-30 minute presentation on rattlesnakes and it was pretty engaging and interesting.

It was refreshing to me to see my boys slowing down, observing, asking questions and finding delight and satisfaction in it.

Family Day Fun

This past Monday was family day. Because the biting wind had died down, we decided some outdoor fun was in order.

A community just north of us a dozen blocks or so had a great (free!) event going on, so we went.

The first stop was the petting zoo.

Elijah loved the pig. He kept going back to it and petting it. Toviel liked all the rabbits. They weren't as content to stay put when they were getting pet.

These hens standing on a donkey cracked me up! They stay on the donkey's back because the ground was too cold for their feet.

Free hot chocolate! Free cookies and brownie bites! Free hot dogs! It was amazing that everything was free.

Free sleigh ride!

On the sleigh. 

After we finished here we went to a church carnival not too far away. It was all inside the church: inflatable jumpy castles, another petting zoo, carnival games, a big slide, glow-in-the-dark maze, shooting gallery, concession areas, puppet shows with a magician vantriliquist, karaoke...lots of things. We could not stay for long. The event was so well attended that we all felt squished and overwhelmed by the crowds and noise.

Edmonton takes family day seriously! We also passed a city park that had more free food!

Some Nice, Light Reading

Toviel is reading a big, fat, 300+ page book about spy stuff. It cracks me up that he is pouring over this book, bookmarking certain pages that really inspire him...

...like this section, which tells how to prepare yourself in case you get caught spying. Tove thinks it's hilarious.

February 4, 2014

Yesterday we finished making our Valentine mailboxes to hang outside our rooms to get / give each other little notes and cards.

Toviel loves to check his every day and put little notes in everyone's mailboxes.

Elijah is hoping to collect a ton of cards and is saving them all to open on Valentine's Day.

We went to the Royal Alberta Museum today. We caught a presentation on coyotes, and we were the only ones present for it. The boys were hesitant to commit to any sort of presentation and their questions about it were "How long is it?" and, "Can we leave if we want to?" It was only 20 minutes. An easy commitment. And in the end Tove said, "I actually quite liked that. It wasn't too bad at all." It was a gentle lecture. :)

After we came home, I read several chapters in an abridged version of Gulliver's Travels to the boys. I started reading it last night and will probably end up finishing it before Friday. 

For supper tonight we decided to eat popcorn and watch some Shakespeare Animated Tales.

We watched Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, The Twelfth Night, and Taming of the Shrew.  After each one we discussed them and compared them to other stories we knew. Toviel was disturbed by Macbeth, and I should have known better. Before we went to bed, he requested I find a book with all Shakespeare's plays in it, and maybe an app that tells us more about Shakespeare and his works.

I am discovering that while Elijah likes to play all day, every day, and can create anything exciting in his mind, Toviel is often feeling bored with all the play and has a desire for different things. He needs more exposure to things and has this thirst to learn more, while it seems Elijah wants to create original ideas and play and read. He can play and play and play and play. He can outplay anyone I know!

February 2, 2014 - Ice on Whyte

This afternoon we went to the Ice on Whyte Festival. We went last year and had so much fun. But this year, with Elijah just getting over the stomach flu and with the biting wind, we could have done without.

But, we went anyways. It was either that or stay home and play video games and watch movies. Cris and I opted for the fresh air option.

The ice and snow sculptures were very well done as usual.

In celebration of Chinese Lunar New Year and this year being the Year of the Horse, this snow sculpture was created:

They had 7 ice slides in all. The big one had a long, winding line up that was moving painfully slow, so we didn't even go on that one. We went on the small ones:

We were only at the festival for a little over an hour. At the end, Elijah was in tears - so cold, so tired and weak, and we were all cold. We stopped off at Bliss Cupcakes on our way home and treated ourselves to 2-for-1 cupcakes. This was my first cupcake from a specialty cupcake cafe. It was really delicious.

Elijah and Toviel played with K'nex, Toviel built more things with his Snap Circuits, and they both played on the computers in the evening while we had a friend over for supper and dessert.

Feb. 1, 2014

Last night Elijah threw up about 10 times. We had some big messes to clean up after midnight. Poor guy. Oh man....I really hate carpet.

Today we had opportunity to go to the Ice on Whyte Festival or the Chinese New Year events going on in Chinatown, but instead we are hanging out at home. It's really cold outside anyways. The wind is biting, so being inside at home is nice.

Cris and Toviel are working on some Snap Circuits. Elijah is resting. The vomiting has stopped and he is keeping his popsicle down. He is listening to music right now, and we are going to watch some BBC Planet Earth videos.