Happy Thanksgiving 2014

Well it's Thanksgiving again. Weather wise, my favourite time of year is anytime it's nice enough to be outside without a sweater and little to no wind -wink-, generally that's July & August with snipits throughout the rest of the year. Holiday wise, my fav holidays are halloween and Christmas (for various reasons and i'll likely share in a blog when those times arrive).

But! Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart. I have fond fond fond fond memories of time with family during Thanksgiving and I remember specifically because I was born on Thanksgiving so my birthday often falls on the long weekend or a day before/after. This year it's actually on Tuesday coming, but it's still my birthday weekend. Over the years the Shideler's have grown into having a tradition to have bbq ribs for our thanksgiving dinner, and we have various Shideler's (extended family) join us for the event. This year we were welcomed by my entire immediate family and Aunt Ellen and Steven/Jai/Aidan/Aaron. It was a lovely time.

This year was strange for me because I was supposed to host dinner! (with our family dinner rotation it was actually my turn). I caught a cold on Wednesday of last week sadly though and by yesterday (Saturday) I was 100% the same condition I was during the week - not at all better. So with deep remorse I called my mom and discussed options with her, and we decided to just change the venue location to her house instead. I packed up all the food I had already purchased/prepared and Michael took it to her place (he was already heading to the south of calgary to meet his parents for the day). Anyways, so Sunday rolls around and i'm not really better, slightly improved so I went as a guest and helped as much as I could in the prep/cleanup as I could.

Outside of being sick it was LOVELY being with my family :) I LOVE being with family, there's nothing better! And I couldn't have planned a better menu haha! Ribs, potatoes, honey glazed carrots, greek salad, kale salad, homemade rolls, punch, apple crisp and ice cream and pumpkin pie. It was DIVINE.

And this week I hit 35 weeks, so me and my dad did our belly pose together while I was there (pic below), and I have also posted a picture of the group of us that went laser tagging in lieu of my birthday on Oct 3rd.

 (I realized I didn't put any makeup on or anything before we left so this is as 'eu naturel' as I come LOL) 

laser tag party with a bunch of my friends

Kindergarten Week 5

This week I upped my craft-ness for Logan - he has been craving crafts and activities so I figured I would do my best to make it happen for him. 

Otherwise a fairly basic week. We are working through all the subjects one day at a time. Logan's enjoyment of reading still astounds me each day we work on it. We are having a good ol' time!

Below is a picture of us focusing on shapes. Logan knows his basic shapes (Triangle, Circle, Square, Rectangle) so we added Hexagon, Pentagon, Octagon for a challenge (I can't remember if I blogged about this last Friday or if we did this Monday and I just added it to FB, oh well, sorry for the repeat). Anyways, I cut out large shapes and we proceeded to decorate them with markers and stickers and glitter! It's nice because whenever we see the shapes around our day to day life we now have a reference: "hey Logan, that stop sign has 8 sides - what else has 8 sides? an octopus? yes! that's right - just like our shapes. And we also made a 5 side pentagon and 6 side hexagon - do you remember? awesome!"

Our 'extracurricular' activity this week was going Bowling. Logan loves bowling - at least 6 frames, then he is done haha, but we had a fun time! (daddy was able to come too)

Today we went for a walk/park play with the kids I babysit on Thursdays. We collected leaves along the way and when we got back we made leaf wreaths (inspired by my nieces)

Pregnancy week 32

OSo we made it to the single digits. It's been a rough road in lots of ways. Yet, aside from the physical discomforts (baby is a STRONG little critter with its kicks and punches and of course the sciatic pain) the pregnancy is easier now than the first two trimesters. Don't get me wrong, i'm still looking VERY forward to getting this sucker out of me! but i'm at least not an emotionally miserable person at the moment.

Symptoms/stats:
-sciatic
-itch problem (I have been wheat free for over a week and it helps but not as much as I would have hoped/liked)
-acne cleared up mid 2nd trimester - finally get my nice pregnancy skin!
-weight gain at 36lbs (boo)
-baby is measuring exactly at 32 weeks
-baby is brutal inside me. literally beating me up all the time almost making me cry at moments at how much it can hurt
-energy is at a 6-7 out of 10
-little to no sympathy towards anyone - child or adult and little to no patience <- this particilar point is the hardest for me to cope with as i want to -care- but i just dont feel like it. Its a weird unknown emotion to me

That's all I can think of :)

Still hoping for a Halloween baby, and for all you haters out there I am FULLY aware that the baby will come when he/she is ready :P but for the sheer fun of it we are rooting for a H-ween child :)

Kindergarten week 4

This week was pretty lax for us. Our schedule I am learning will change every month. My no-school-Tuesdays is going to be adjusted and for October we have to take Carter to swimming twice a week for 3 weeks during a typical schooling time. But! even though we haven't always been able to school in the morning we have made the effort to catch it in the afternoon. Tho, I still prefer the morning just to 'getter-done'.

We did some minimal stuff this week. Focused mostly on reading/writing skills. Logan has added -g, -e, and -th to his repetoir. He can now sound out simple sentences such as "the cat" "the dog" "get the cat/dog" "mom met dad" "tom mad at sam", etc. He really has a knack for reading. We also did a vinegar/baking soda experiment, and did some painting throughout the week.

I found on a personal level I feel like I can't keep up with Logan's demand for activities. He wants to CRAFT and make things and do EXPERIMENTS all the time and I didn't really have a lot planned for this week. I have a ton of material for things, but I don't want to have it all finished by November lol! Trying to pace ourselves. I need to work on some simple paper crafts on a more regular basis because thats what he's interested in right now. I haven't found the happy medium yet is I guess what i'm saying. Pinterest is awesome but it's also exhausting as there is so many things we could do.

Otherwise week 4 a success! I've adjusted a few of his workbooks - put one away as it was conflicting with another book - they certainly are both great books, just not meant to be done simultaneously! As for the curriculum I purchased, I have a few books that I will definetly use again, and then a few that I won't buy again (as the one specifically is too American).

Anyways, Bly family homeschoolers are truckin' along! :)

(And Carter is enjoying his Joyschool on Fridays)

Kindergarten week 3

Well this was a fun week! We did our first field trip - we went to the telus spark science center. I arranged for carter to stay with my mom so Logan and I could "dig deep" into the world of science. It was really fun!! Im sure Logan doesnt remmeber much, but when something has come up in convo he has been like "we saw that at the science center with the <something> exhibit" so all in all.very successful and very fun! Prob do a yearly trip :)

Logans phonics and reading skills are coming along very quickly - im super impressed with the book we are using "The Reading lesson". His new list of words he can sound out all by himself are: at, sat, cat, rat, mat, am, sam, ram, mom, dad, sad, mad, cot, dot.

Otherwise we did regular math - just starting to get into new material - to this point its been mostly review. We made a family tree and a picture family timeline and tho he kinda already knew aboit it, we are mastering our NSEW directions. Frankly i still struggle with them to this day - id say we probably are at the same level here LOL

The game Logic Street is a fab game! Its a pattern/thinking game and logan loves it and so do I! It was a great investment. Other games weve played this week are Brain Box and with Tegu blocks. We also made a family tree which logan amazed me with his cutting skills. Good week so far

Still.avg about an hour a day. Sometimes 45 mins, sometimes a little longer. We also have been faithful in sticking to our schedule of morning school and I keep my phone upstairs as to not be interruptes. We did one afternoon this week which wasnt my fav but we did it! 

Pic: one is the dome show and one is playing.at one of the exhibits

Kindergarten Week 2

This week has been just as positive and just as fun as last week! We did Math & Science Monday - since it was our first math lesson it was mostly things logan knew already (like recognizing and writing his #s), then a little bit of review Tuesday. Wednesday however was a fabulous day. We did Language Arts and the phonics book we have has us already sounding out words such as AT, CAT, SAT, COT, TAC, SOC (the letters being learned are sounds for C O S A T). Listening to Logan sound out and read a simple sentence like "a cat sat" on week 2 of our schooling adventure was SO rewarding to me :) - by the end he was a little agitated and what I've chosen to do (without his knowing it) is when he is agitated we continue on for about 5 more minutes so he learns to work through the problem and that I won't just 'give up' upon feeling frustrated. It has been a great patience strengthener for me :) Then today we did ART. We did Drawing (in a Usborne book that teaches how to draw things), we did mazes, and we did painting. Today specifically we opened up his school painting kit. I explained to him that -this- kit was for school and we wouldn't only do one project per week out of it. At the end of the 'lesson' then he was welcome to free play and paint what he wants on a different piece of paper. He learned that Blue and Yellow make green - and then proceeded to mix the colors, and then the picture that goes with it has a bunch of white areas meant specifically for the color green - so he completed the picture. It was a really neat little project and he mentioned through the day that blue and yellow make green in various conversations.

Tomorrow we have a really cool history and geography lesson to work through :) I wish I had a printer at work because we are supposed to make a picture timeline - but all of my pictures are now in photobooks so 1. it's already in a timeline essentially, and 2. we can no longer take pics out of an album to create the line.... oh well, we will make due and I've made note to do this again when we buy our new printer.

Woohoo for homeschooling! I am SO converted and loving everything about it! I have to bite my tongue now when I talk to people who are -sending- their kids to school LOL isn't that funny?

First week of homeschooling

So we did three days of school for our first week and it's been AWESOME! Logan has loved everything about it and so have I. We have done about an hour a day, which seems to be ample at this point. I have even done well to leave my phone upstairs while we school. It takes me about 20 mins to 'prep' the night before - basically I just read the lessons ahead so that if I need to do any prep work I'm ready and not scrambling while Logan waits.  I have turned my Bowen room into a homeschool room because I decided I did -not- want to have HS stuff all over my kitchen table. I already hate clearing lego and 3 meals a day and coloring, etc off the table - adding to that would probably drive me crazy! Logan loves sitting down here at 'his desk' and Carter has done well so far to just play nearby.

Carter I have arranged for him to be in a Joyschool group (like Logan did) and it starts next week. After Christmas is over I will probably start working on a page or two of workbooks with him. He is quite immature academically at this point so I don't want to start him yet on things like that.

Anyways, today we made a catapult as our craft: http://frugalfun4boys.com/2010/08/16/marshmallow-catapult/

And I have also attached a questionaire we did on Logan's 'first day' (I am going to get a picture printed and put it at the bottom but our printer is on the fritz) Sorry its sideways! I couldn't figure out how to rotate it :)

I am hopeful that we continue on this path of love and excitement for HS - I know we will have our days, but for now Logan is soaking up everything he learns. I am also practicing patience :) I have to say I feel like i'm being a better mother this week because we have been working together so well and communicating/spending more time -together- AH! I just can't wait for this school year to really get rolling and get past the 'honeymoon' phase of the beginning lol so I can give a true opinion! hehe

Wish us Luck!