March 2013 Learning

As always, there are many links in the sidebar that the kids access that aren't all listed here.

Danica

• Continuing ABC Mouse
• Animal Jam, EZTales, 
• Teach Your Monster To Read- Danica is really enjoying this free site we found.
• Danica came up with a plan for reading- she reads a book to me, then I read a book to her. These are just little beginner readers for her, and character trait books for me.
• Danica loves writing out word lists that she makes up on her own. Not all are real words, but she sounds them out, and asks me if they are words.
• Animal Planet Dogs- checking out bichons, poodles,(Chico) and goldendoodles (Daisy)
• This month we've had a four year old little girl stay with us, so Danica has had someone to play with...or fight with depending on her mood! They've had fun playing outside in the snow, painting, coloring, playing with barbies etc. Later in the month, we also added a three year old girl, which has given Danica opportunities for character building!
• Horrible Histories- Danica learned about pyramids and pharoah watching one of these. She showed me the shape of a pyramid using coins.
• While driving, Danica was telling me the different words for two, too, to. We talked about other words like write and right....and that right has different meanings- right there, that's right, right hand etc.
• Danica brought me her coins and wanted to know the value of each. We then talked about how many pennies in a nickel, nickles, in a dime, and what coins make up a quarter.
• We have a box of various flash cards. Danica picked out the ones for telling time and began going through them on her own.
• Youtube- My Little Pony/Transformers-Rescue Bots/Greatest Story Ever Told- Easter Story

Making Jillian Jiggs Wonderful Pigs

Sewing eyes and nose on pig

Fabric paint smile!

Cutting snow peas for soup

Danica working hard

Danica's not sure about this!

Making Fiddle Diddles with Dad

Danica's horse coloring and map

Danica dancing to Danny's Band In a Box music creation

Danica doing Math

Counting Coins

Danny

• Reading- White Fang/Heidi/Great Expectations/Huckleberry Finn/ Nasty Nature/ Sugar Creek Gang- The Treasure Hunt/Nancy Drew-The Triple Hoax/ A Light In The Castle/Danny Orlis- The Sacred Ruins/
• Drawing- watching Mark Crilly art videos online
• Started guitar lessons at Sprucewoods Community Hall, and is practicing daily at home. Dad decided to join him!

Danny Learning Guitar

Salad-made by Danny

  Jerry

• Reading- Royal Diaries- Marie Antoinette/Pierre Burton's Adventures In Canadian History- Trapped In the Arctic,Canada Under Siege, A Prairie Nightmare/ Doctor Proctors Fart Powder, FP-Bubbles In The Bathtub, FP-Who Cut the Cheese?
• Working through a math workbook
• Continuing to ride with Cameron
• Various History Videos Online
• Horrible Histories- History lessons made funny. Danny and Danica have been watching some of these too.
• Forgot to mention previously- Jerry does an exercise program- push ups, chin ups, sit ups etc. every day.
• Jerry went to the Brandon Career Symposium with Dana and Jason. He was most interested in the Military display, and the heavy equipment operator display. He was able to try out a miniature back hoe, and thinks it's something he might be interested in trying when he's older.
• Jerry had a sleep over at Jason's house, for a Minecraft party. He also plays online with Justin, Jason and Paul now and then.

Jerry at the Career Symposium

Computer

• Pyjama Sam - This is an old game that Justin used to play. Danica found it and has been enjoying learning about the weather.

Netflix

• Continuing Heartland Series
• Helicopter Canada- about 50 years old. In it's day, it was probably pretty good, but didn't hold anyone's interest!
• Vegucated- we watched most of this, but got bored. I think we've seen enough of these types of documentaries for a while!
• Arthur Series (science fiction)
• Zaboomafoo
• Ride the Divide- three cyclists attempt a 2,700 mile ride from Banff to the US/Mexico border (Danny watched this)
• A Team is the new favorite!

DVD's

• The Hobbitt (dad and the boys)

Games

• wii- Batman Lego, wii Fit, wii sports, 
• xBox- Minecraft- playing online with Paul and Jason, NHL 2012, Skyrim, Counter Strik

Family This 'n That

• Dad and the boys went to the theatre to see Oz The Great and Powerful
• We bought a new dog this month. His name is Chico, and he is a black miniature poodle. We are hoping that he and Daisy will have puppies together. We've been learning about dog reproduction and breeding. Daisy and chico 'tied' 3 times over a one week period...the first time happened unexpectedly on the deck on a very cold day! We found a canine pregnancy calendar online to know what signs to look for in Daisy at different stages of pregnancy.

Jerry, Danica and Danny, Daisy and Chico

Danny with Chico and Daisy

Danica and Chico

Danny and Mom bathed and blow dried Chico

If all goes well- puppies will arrive May long weekend

Danny and Danica enjoying the sun on Easter Sunday!

Brian practicing his guitar

Brian at Westman Jam

Magic Box For Percent

Years ago, I learned this simple method of calculating percent. 

The visual aspect makes it so easy to understand!

Designing Your Own Learning

I liked this so much I decided to post it here, and see if this is something the boys might be interested in incorporating here.

Conception To Birth

Worth saving to watch again.

February 2013 Learning

Danica

• Progressing quickly through ABC Mouse
• Loves animal Jam!
• Favorite book- The Wonderful Pigs of Jillian Jiggs. As soon as we have the required materials, we're going to make some pigs.
• Coloring, drawing
• Leapster
• Danica has been using our tub as a swimming pool,  practicing  going under water to get over her fears, in preparation for summer! She's also learning about water currents by floating bottles   round and round the tub.
• An example of a conversation with Danica...While setting up a video game she said "Great!" then said, "I meant that the good way, not the bad way." Then went on to explain what she meant by that. I told her that when you use it 'the bad way' that is being sarcastic....adding to her already amazing vocabulary and comprehension.

Sweet note from Danica

On Wii Fit

Working on a puzzle...I do the border, Danica does the rest.

Danny

• Reading- Continuing in Childhood of Famous Americans Series: Albert Einstein, Buffalo Bill, George Washington, Henry Ford/ Cool Technology Encyclopedia/Swiss Family Robinson/Paul Harvey's For What It's Worth/Charle Brown/Danny Orlis and the Strange Forest Fires/Worst Case Scenario/Flubber/
• Drawing
• Attended the Westman Jam with his dad Feb. 24th

Westman Jam

Danny decorated his own birthday cake!

Feb 13th, Danny's 11th birthday

Danny making Kraft Dinner

Jerry

• Reading- Cool Technology Encyclopedia/ Success Magazine/Royal Diaries- Victoria, Anastasia/
• Canadian Curriculum workbook
• Continuing his riding and working with Cameron
• Jerry spent two days at his friend's house....for Matt's birthday, and took a trip to the Winnipeg Airport.
• Earlier in the winter, Jerry helped Cameron skin a coyote. The saved and cleaned the skull, which Jerry brought home and decorate. He also saved the teeth. Fun stuff!

Painted coyote skull

Necklace from coyote teeth

Justin is taking advantage of an opportunity to go to Alberta and work with his older brother, siding houses. The original plan was for him to go in June, but Lorne's helper on the job quit unexpectedly, moving the date up several months!
Justin will continue to work on his films and maintain his Youtube channel and FB pages while in Alberta.

He had to make one last video before leaving Manitoba!

Leaving on the train

Netflix

• Zaboomafoo
• Wonders of the Industrial World- The Panama Canal, The Line, The Hoover Dam
• Super Size Me-The results of living on a diet of MacDonalds for one month; with negative results to his health
• Fat Head- A guy goes on a fast food diet, with positive results to his health; opposite findings to Super Size me...which is what he set out to do.
• Vegucated- Three people go on a vegan diet for 6 weeks, with positive results to their health...which is what they set out to do. What we learned from these three documentaries was that you can't believe everything you see on a documentary. It seems that people are able to find statistics and studies to back up whatever they set out to prove, very much like people who pick and choose scriptures to prove their own theology. The one conclusion we can come to is that a balanced diet is best...high in protein (from whatever source) and fruit and veggies, lower in carbohydrates....and we all need to exercise! 
• The Blue Planet
• Walking With Monsters
• Walking On Water surfing
• Being Elmo- The story of the man who plays Sesame Street's Elmo. Even Justin enjoyed this one!
• Turtle- The Incredible Journey
• Grossology- Who knew a gross cartoon could be so educational?
• The Greatest Movie Ever Made- about advertising in movies
• The Art Of Flight- Snowboarders travel to various locations around the world
• Touching the Void- a mountain climber falls into a crevice and breaks his leg, but manages to climb out
• Heartland Series- has become a family favorite! It's a fictional story about a horse ranch in Alberta that works with troubled horses, helping them to heal. Of course, Jerry and Danica both love horses, and jerry spends lots of time working with them across the road.                     *Note- we noticed Tim Bits and Tim Hortons coffee in the movie - an example of product placement advertising. We talked about how Justin could use this type of advertising on his short films. This ties in with the documentary on advertising.                                                   We  googled the  Heartland Website to find out more about the series and the location where they shoot it. With Justin and Lorne (and family) living in Alberta, it makes it even  more interesting. 

Dvds

• Storm Stories-  stories of surviving various storms; tornadoes, floods, landslides, hurricanes, ice storms, 

Games

• XBox- Minecraft, MW3, NHL 2013, Skyrim, Counter Strike Go, Halo 4,
• Wii- Wii Fit, Wii Sports (various), Tony Hawk Downhill Jam, Super Smash Bros, Legend of Zelda, Mario Super Sluggers,
• Play Station 2- Incredibles, Sly Cooper 3, 
• PC- Deer Hunter 5, Age Of Empires,  Sitting Ducks,

Family This 'n That

Wheat Kings Game-Danny and Harley

Foster Family Bowling Party

Jerry Entertaining his niece and sister

Justin and nephew, Reid, playing piano

Danica and Danny building a snow fort

January 2013 Learning

Danica

• Began working her way through abcmouse.com. Much of it is review for her, but she's enjoying it. She does lessons on learning pathways to earn tickets, which are used to purchase things such as hamsters and supplies!
• Various video links in sidebar
• Books- too many to list
• Adventure In Odessey- listens to stories most nights
• Art and Crafts
• Microsoft paint

Made Barbi sock dresses

Playing Guess Who

Painting

Danica taking a rest from skating

Danny

• Drawing -  links to tutorials are on the sidebar. Danny spends hours drawing
• Reading - The Boxcar Children: # 9 Mountain Top Mystery, # 10 Schoolhouse Mystery, # 11 Caboose Mystery, # 16 Mystery In the Sand, # 35 The Mystery At the Dog Show, #112 The Ghost in the First Row, #13 Snowbound Mystery, #30 The Disappearing Friend Mystery, Childhood of Famous Americans Series (again): Mary Todd Lincoln, Clara Barton, Sacagawea, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Alva edison
• Writing- working on a story, dreams of publishing one day
• Science- video links on sidebar, especially likes How It's Made
• Band In a Box, Music Composing software- Danny and Mom both enjoy this.
• Guitar - working on some callouses! Watching Jean Welles Worship Guitar Class
• Lego

Drawing With Tutorial

  

Danny's Artwork

 

Jerry

• Horseback Riding, and working with neighbour dragging in trees with the horses
• Wiring plugins in the basement
• Helping with drywall
• Reading- The Royal Diaries- Mary Queen of Scots, Queen Elizabeth, Hockey Night In Canada 60 Seasons
• History and science - video links are on sidebar Jerry is especially interested in anything related to the military

Riding with Cameron

Justin

• More volunteer camera work for WCG (Westman Communications Group)- AAA hockey, basketball, 
• He continues to maintain his Youtube Channel, Facebook pages- Videography, Music, and his blog. Some income is generated through advertising on his videos. (minimal at present, but a start)
• Had Business cards designed
• Writing, directing and filming videos
• Much time is spent watching tutorials, learning different special effects editing techniques.
• Piano
• Guitar
• Planning Recording Studio
• Building Minecraft suit for upcoming video
• Helping with drywall

NetFlix

• Dora, Diego - Danica
• Zaboomafo - Danny and Danica
• Sherlock - Mom & Dad, Jerry and Danny all enjoy this one. We also watched Young Sherlock. We talked about how the tv shows and movies have taken bits and pieces of the original Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and woven them into new stories. They had already watched many of the old black and white ones on dvd.
• Murder, She wrote
• Surviving Disasters Series
• Seven Wonders Of the Industrial World- The Great Ship, The Brooklyn Bridge, The Bell Lighthouse, The Sewer King,
• Various other movies and cartoons

Games

• XBox- Minecraft, MW3, NHL 2013, Skyrim, Counter Strike Go, Halo 4,
• Wii- Wii Fit, Wii Sports (various), Legend of Zelda, Mario Super Sluggers,
• Play Station 2- Incredibles, Sly Cooper 3, 
• PC- Deer Hunter 5, Ratatoulle, 3D Home, Sitting Ducks, 

Family This 'n That



Hockey! Standing for O Canada, Season Opener!


 

Danny working hard to clear the ice!

Master Chief- Justin created on Minecraft

Frozen ice balls from water balloons

Childcare!

Deer watching every day!