The Lighting of a Fire

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Trip to the Sugar Bush

Spring has finally arrived! With the running of the sap, our homeschool groupdecided to take a trip to the sugar bush to see how maple syrup is made. We had a great time and, as you can see, all wore our very best clothes!

The owner of the sugar bush very kindly sent us home with a 20L pail of sap. After boiling it down for a couple of days (Yes! DAYS!!) we were rewarded with 500ml of maple syrup. Yummy! And so much better than store bought; I don't even like maple syrup and yet still thought our pancakes that Sunday morning were the best I had ever had!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Homeschool:1 - Blog:0

I've been so busy homeschooling that I've neglected to blog about it! However, today we received our Moving Beyond the Page curriculum for next year and we're both super excited!!

Here are our Moving Beyond the Page Box Day photos. I ordered the complete 8-10 curriculum, including books and manipulatives, and there was so much included in our order that I needed help to carry the boxes from the post office to the car! CKW is excited with all the science, especially the manipulatives, so as soon as we finish up our last 7-9 unit (Iggie's House) we're good to go.

Here is the 8-10 Complete Curriculum. Student NOT included!

Concept 1: Interdependence
Dirt and Plants
Native Americans
Ecosystems and Ecology

Concept 2: Force and Power

Magnetism and Electricity

The Power of the People

Forces of Nature

Concept 3: Similarities and Differences

Africa and Asia

Rocks and Minerals

Europe

Concept 4: Exploration and Survival

Animal Adaptations

Early Explorers

Work, Tools, and Simple Machines

We LOVE this curriculum! Tonnes of books, lots of projects, skip the worksheets and busywork... Moving Beyond the Page truly makes learning FUN!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Long Tailed Weasel

WARNING! GRAPHIC PHOTOS

CKW went out to the back hay barn this morning to feed the ponies and immediately came running back to the house, shouting at the top of his lungs! My first thought was that something had happened to one of the ponies overnight, or perhaps one of our barn cats, but nope - he had found a dead animal in the hay barn. Not wanting to trudge out through four plus feet of snow, I gave him the camera and told him to take a few pics and then we'd have a look at them. This is what he came back with:

Obviously our barn cats are doing a great job! We weren't quite sure what type of weasel this was, so onto the internet we went. Turns out it was a Long Tailed Weasel showing it's winter colouration. Such a beautiful animal in life; we both shed a few tears over this little one...