Green Belt Test

At the end of October the boys did their green belt test for Tae Kwon Do. It was the largest group for testing I have seen! There were 26 students ranging in age from 6 to don't ask (some adults!) and that's not including the 4&5 year olds who tested before this group.

The kids did really well. They were nervous in the days leading up to testing, especially about the board breaking because they hadn't been given much opportunity to practice before the test, but they each managed to make it look easy! The videos for each of them are below. They were pleased to receive their green belts the next week as that was the goal they had set for themselves last winter - to be at the green belt level by the end of this year.

Matthew is in recovery mode at the moment due to landing a kick wrong at last Saturday's sport class. His big toe is still somewhat swollen and has turned from black and blue to yellow and green. He can walk and isn't in a lot of pain, but we've asked him to try to keep that foot on the ground for now. Easier said than done! He is so active that he found it hard even that first day keeping his foot elevated and iced. I've caught him a few times throwing kicks and jumping around. I think he'll survive!

Andrew's Garden

This photo is of the windowsill in Andrew's room. He has a number of different plants there - coriander, basil and oregano that the kids planted at The Book Club one night, grass (he keeps it trimmed using scissors), and I believe he also has an acorn, a maple key, mustard seed, and some beans that are in containers on a table near the window. These last ones haven't sprouted yet, though. I'm hoping he's this interested in helping in the garden this summer!!!

Piano Musings

At the start of January, Matthew told me he really, really did not want to take piano lessons any more. Not that he didn't like playing the piano, but he just didn't want the lessons right now. We decided that we wouldn't push it and I let K know that there would be only two students at our house. She understood and is using the extra half hour now to spend with Andrew each week because his grade 3 exam is coming up at the end of the month.

I was just thinking about this change in our household and have discovered something. Matthew is spending about the same, if not more, time at the piano. He plays his favourite music he learned in his lessons and he has been working away at another piece he loves that his brothers can play. They've helped him out with correcting the notes and even fingering and that piece has come along nicely. It sounds great! All this in two weeks, no stress attached! He and I agreed that we would sit together and I would help him whenever possible with the pieces he would like to learn on his own. But, no stress!

Since there are no longer two students for the Music for Young Children programme, K is concentrating on grade 1 pieces with Nicholas. He is thrilled and spends loads of time at the piano practicing and perfecting the assigned pieces. He is also continuing to work through the various other popular music books we have, picking and choosing what he feels like playing, reading the notes or figuring it out by ear and sometimes checking that against how the music reads. He hasn't opened the MYC book for weeks now (he spent the majority of his time over Christmas playing Christmas carols; most of them were not specifically taught but he taught himself), and is enjoying this challenge. I'm not sure what will become of the MYC programme around here since K was sure it would be helpful to both Nicholas and Matthew, but she was the one to drop it when Matthew was no longer interested. They had completed about a dozen MYC lessons out of the 40 or so that are listed in the back of the book. I'm not disappointed that Nicholas is finally being challenged, I just regret the $$$ spent on two MYC books that could have been better spent on something different for music!

Andrew's time has been spent on a lot of technique - scales, triads, clapping back patterns, sight reading. He is willingly going to practice these things on his own. He still enjoys sitting at the piano and playing just for the pure enjoyment of the music, going through his entire repertoire at times from the simplest to the most challenging pieces. He does spend a lot of time on his specific exam pieces. We have discussed future exams. He's not sure that he wants to do another one this year, although K is certain he could do his grade 6 exam in June of this year. I told him that taking exams are completely up to him, we're not going to force him to do them! He hasn't said he's nervous about this upcoming exam as a reason for not doing any others. He would just like to play to enjoy playing for a while. I can understand the need for that!

All in all, piano playing around here has become more enjoyable in the last several weeks and I have not had to remind anyone to practice. Interesting how things work out when something turns out to be a positive change!

Magic Time

Andrew received a great magic kit for Christmas. Since that day he has been putting together small magic shows for our family and friends. He loves performing and tries to put a bit of humour into his act. He sometimes gets one of his brothers to assist him and we sometimes have to put a restriction on Matthew's mouth because he gets carried away and wants to tell everyone how the trick is done! lol! There are over 200 tricks that the book in the kit describes. Andrew's goal is to master every one of them. Some of them are quite clever! I guess he'll be needing a fancy costume to really look the part!

Piano Update

I couldn't write yesterday since emotion was raw and I was too tense and frustrated about this; I'm sure my face was a stormcloud during the MYC lesson.

Yesterday's piano lessons were probably the least enjoyable of the bunch we've had so far this fall. Why? Because although K arrived early and spent an extra half hour with Nicholas she said she doesn't see the need for it. That she had spoken to her director and that person has told her not to give in with doing the MYC programme at the pace it's meant to go at because there will be gaps later on. Fine. I can see the logic in that. She says she has kids who have come from other teachers and there are definitely gaps in their learning so they are having to work on those things. She said that Andrew and Nicholas both have lots of gaps. I just about laughed right there. Guess who their teacher has been since they started piano lessons a few years ago?!

She will do one more extra lesson with Nicholas in two weeks and if he hasn't shown a huge improvement she won't do them any more. Huh? I'm wondering what kind of huge improvement she wants out of him since this was the first private lesson he's had in more than a month! The music she had him playing was all new to him...how can he do anything but improve before the next lesson?

Next was Andrew's lesson and although he has been practicing and practicing and practicing for hours, it wasn't good enough. Why? Because he didn't spend as much time on one particular piece out of the bunch that she had asked him to work on. He said right there that while he had practiced it, he probably didn't spend enough time on it, not as much as the others. Okay, but she didn't say anything about how everything else is sounding, just kept being very negative about what was not done. Oh, and the amount of time he should be practicing has now gone to five minutes in total for all his other pieces and the rest of the time should be spent on the last piece. We're still not sure exactly what theory he should be practicing. The best part was she told me, in front of all three kids, that she has told both boys that she was considering getting in her car and leaving and not coming back until they agree to work harder. Yikes. I felt my blood start to boil at that moment. I didn't know what to say. I was shocked that the effort they have put into their music over the last weeks is not good enough! Seriously, these kids have been doing even more time at the piano than ever before, including Matthew (and me for most of both Nick's and Matt's practices).

When we got to the MYC lesson, Andrew was asked to stay in again this week "because he doesn't know his notes well enough." As we're going through the beginning stuff, she's getting annoyed that they don't automatically know where notes are on the staff, where they are on the piano, without having to rely on placement of other notes in relation to the one they are being asked to point out. Matthew was really struggling with this one, while Nicholas was getting them right on his tin sheet (a metal sheet with a keyboard printed on one side and blank music staffs on the other on which they use magnets to place notes or identify keys) the majority of the time. She expected Matthew to know the difference between where high C is and where low C is, and other notes in between. Here's the interesting part though...she hadn't taught them this specifically!

She kept implying that it was my fault they didn't know these things. That they couldn't read music flawlessly, couldn't walk up to the piano and find a note without hesitating, didn't know where high notes were found or low notes, didn't correct her less than perfect drawing of the treble and bass clefs on a wipe off board (I'm actually serious about that last one, believe it or not...they've never been asked to draw one before - ever - yet she said they should have told her that they weren't perfect), that I don't spend time with them at the piano. I'm more than a little offended. I have put a lot of time and effort into teaching myself this stuff just so that I can help my kids! I spend time with them going through each piece she has asked them to do. I sit right beside them at the piano, pointing to the music to help them follow along. We practice where the notes are. I'm asking them to practice more than I think is necessary because she's the teacher and knows these things, right?

I've paid until the end of November, including the next extra lesson for Nicholas. I really don't know what we'll do after that. Sigh.

Friday Fun!

We had a fun time Friday afternoon carving the pumpkins. These were the three that grew in our garden which made it even better as far as the kids were concerned! Adrian took the boys around the neighbourhood and they came back with enough treats to last through to the new year. I stayed home and handed out treats, dressed in my pumpkin costume (forgot to get a pic of me!). In the space of two hours we only had thirty kids, which was surprising. Adrian said there were loads of them out there.

Yes, it really is the early morning hours that I am posting this. I read until 11:00pm, then Panda woke me up at shortly after 3:00am, desperate to go outside. I discovered that Adrian was already up! I went back to bed and tossed and turned until 4:00am when I decided I might as well come downstairs for a cup of tea and look over my notes for the youth group lessons this afternoon. So, here it is, an hour and a half before the kids need to be up to get ready to head to the gym for their Tae Kwon Do class and neither of us is able to sleep. I'm almost afraid to go back to bed now because I know that when 7:00am comes I'm not going to want to drag myself back out of bed! I'm hoping I'll be able to sneak in a nap this afternoon before all the kids arrive!

Piano Problems

Andrew's lessons seem to be going well. He's really been working on the five pieces for his grade 3 exam, which has been scheduled for late January. He spends hours practicing, but still his teacher is asking for more. One week she said he should be spending an hour and a half each day at the piano, the next week it was two hours, with nearly half of that time on theory. Last week she said minimum three hours per day, an hour of which should be on theory. I haven't checked his notebook for her notes from yesterday's lesson, but it seems to be increasing such a lot! For the theory he is not sure what she wants him to be doing and I really haven't any idea. I've been going through the book myself, but I'm a lot slower at it than he is! We decided he should clarify with K what exactly he should be doing to practice theory, but he has forgotten again this week. Yesterday they spent a lot of time on scales, which he has been working hard on.

I'm not sure how much I should be pushing for him to spend time at the piano beyond what he is doing. Some days he'll be there for hours throughout the day. Other days he goes through each piece and the various scales a few times and is finished. This doesn't take him long...twenty minutes to half an hour tops. I want to encourage him, but don't want to nag. Most of his practicing is done without me saying anything to him, but I do remind him what was written in his notebook - the specifics he was to work on in the week. K would like him to play at an open house at her music studio next month. He enjoys playing for other people, so I think he would do well in that situation. It's just getting the polishing done!

Nicholas and Matthew have been doing the Music for Young Children classes for five weeks now. Wednesday night Nicholas was in tears about piano lessons. He said he doesn't like parts of the class involving the singing and moving around the room (Matthew isn't exactly crazy about it either) and that he feels the music he is playing is way too easy for him, that he isn't being challenged. Yikes! K had decided after we agreed to the MYC classes to do the Sunshines 2 programme with both boys, knowing that Matthew would be challenged and that it would be a good review for Nicholas. The problem is that he is resenting that review. He has gone from playing grade 1 and grade 3 level pieces to playing 3-note songs with a C-G or B-G bridge. K had said she would continue to challenge him with these other pieces each week, doing just a few minutes with him on them. That hasn't happened yet and he's really feeling it.

Now, the programme moves slowly and I know the reason is for the students to gain a mastery of where notes are on the piano and on the scales. Nicholas' sight-reading has improved a lot just in five weeks. But the way notes are introduced, with cute names for each one, is very much directed at much younger children. Matthew relates better to this than Nicholas, who is seeing this as a "babying" of the lessons and he resents that. He and I discussed the pros and cons of this programme for him and have decided to work together through some Christmas music as a challenge to him.

I spoke to K yesterday before their lesson and explained what he was feeling. She said she would come a bit earlier next week and spend some time with Nicholas to give him the challenge he needs. I'm hoping this is going to work out. He loves music and does enjoy playing the piano. Taking a break for 18 months has shown us that Nicholas is more mature in his approach to practicing; I just don't want this return to basics to leave a sour taste with him.

...And After

Here she is, the newly clipped Panda. She smells so nice right now and is soft as velvet! Andrew followed her around trying to get just the right photo of her...from all sides. So I chose just a few of the many pics we now have of Panda taken just this afternoon. After he got the dog shots Andrew played around with the video portion of the camera and has made several "documentaries" about our home. I haven't watched them yet, but there was much laughing when he showed them to his brothers. He has requested that when I download the photos from the camera I put his movies onto his screen for him to access easily. I'm not sure what exactly went on, but I recall them snickering about Matthew showing everyone the toilet in the downstairs bathroom. I think I may have to do some parental editing for suitable content before placing these on the computer!

Piano Practice

Andrew loves to practice piano and does with great frequency. The problem is that he practices the stuff he loves to play rather than the things he needs the repetition on. Last week, K made a little practice chart for me to sign each day and assigned him specific things to practice. With illness and being away for a good portion of the weekend days he didn't quite make it to the hour and a quarter per day she was suggesting. A couple of days it was more like ten minutes. By Monday afternoon he and I had a little discussion about the length of time and just what he was practicing. I reminded him of the written instructions she had left. He responded by having a terrible practice session, basically pounding the keys with a goofy look on his face that changed with the music. I didn't laugh although I really wanted to. He can be very dramatic and over the top at times. The session was terrible, he was making lots of mistakes and getting very mad at the piano, at me, at himself.

Tuesday I reminded him about practicing several times, very nicely. He finally decided to tackle it and did a shortened session. He did actually do the scales and technical stuff he was assigned as well as the portions of music he was to go over in the middle of a couple of pieces. Although he didn't spend long on it there was improvement and he was still doing it grudgingly because he didn't see a problem with one of the pieces where he loses tempo right in the middle because he's floundering for the right keys.

Wednesday I gave him one friendly reminder and told him I wasn't going to remind him again. He played for ten minutes and claimed he was done. I was going to ride the stationary bike in Adrian's study, beside the dining room where the piano is, so I suggested he show me his progress. While I rode the bike he did his scales then moved into the other pieces of music. I only rode the bike for seven minutes (that's another topic altogether, but I'm working my way up in minutes and my legs are balking at even this short time!). I mentioned this to him when I came out of the study and his response was surprise that that was all the time he'd been practicing. It felt like longer because he had "done everything" he was assigned.

He played one piece for his grade 3 exam through and it sounded lovely. The middle part that always gives him trouble flowed with the rest of the piece. I asked him if he found it easier now that he had gone over (and over and over) the middle part. He was very reluctant to answer me, but was grinning. That night he told Adrian how much easier it was to play Arabesque because of how much easier it was to get through the middle part.

Yesterday's lesson sounded like it went well and I overheard K telling Andrew how much better the music was sounding, all around. He came out of it very pleased and was eager to practice in the afternoon after we delivered the papers.

I don't want to constantly nag at him to practice. I'd like him to see for himself the personal rewards that come from it. That going over difficult parts repeatedly isn't just some mind-numbing task, there's a purpose to it and the end result shows how much time you've put into it. He enjoys playing, he's pretty good and he knows it, but there are certain pieces he picks up on and wants to play to the exclusion of all others. Unfortunately, they aren't always the ones he's picked to do for his exam. How much do I remind before it's a waste of time taking the lessons at all? It's not that he doesn't practice, he just doesn't always do the stuff he's asked to do by his teacher. Sigh. I hate feeling like the bad guy for reminding him of his commitments.

Schedule Went Out the Window!

This week has been a very laid-back one so far. Andrew had a bit of a cold last week which he kindly passed on to his brothers. Andrew's still got a cough and is needing his puffer at night. Sunday morning Matthew mentioned he wasn't feeling that great, mostly his head. Through the day he was fine, then just slumped by late afternoon. Monday he felt fine and insisted on going to Tae Kwon Do. When we got home, the boys had a snack and we read for a bit (we're reading "The Invention of Hugo Cabret" by Brian Selznick right now). Within half an hour, Nicholas was saying he wasn't feeling well.

Monday night I was up with Matthew and we ended up sleeping in the family room on the couches there. Adrian was up with Nicholas through the night and Panda, the little monkey, decided to take my place in bed beside Adrian!

Nicholas stayed in his jammies all day yesterday and barely ate anything until dinner time. We got some reading done, but no math, no chemistry, no physics, nothing else! Andrew put in some time at the piano and read on his own most of the day. Oh, and there were Star Trek videos playing in the basement for a couple of hours in the morning.

This morning everyone is feeling better, but it seems that they all feel worse by the evening and through the night. Ugh! I need a nap already!

Ahhhh, Tuesday

Tuesday morning we did a combined chemistry and physics lesson since there is overlap between the two texts on the subject of matter. We painted our styrofoam balls and left them to dry while we took off for a few hours to McGowan Falls.

Adrian hadn't been there before so we packed a picnic lunch, brought Panda along, too. Andrew got into swim gear before we left so that he could catch fish in the river. He managed to catch several of them in buckets. Nicholas even caught one with his cupped hands! That one must have been dying though because it spent a lot of time fluttering near the surface of the water in the bucket.

After lunch we took a walk along one of the trails. It looks like the rain we had from Hurricane Ivan a couple of weeks ago washed out parts of the trail and the Conservation Authority has been working to fix it up again. The walk was nice, lots of wildflowers out in the bushes and there are beautiful tall cedars lining portions of the trail. Panda was a bit of a pain, wanting to run ahead with the boys. She also loved the water and took every opportunity to be in it. So much for a nice clean-smelling dog!

Adrian and I look kind of angry in the photo that Nicholas took for us. That wasn't the case...the sun was so bright it was hard to see without squinting. My eyes were watering because I had just taken off my sunglasses!

There are lots of places for the kids to climb up and down rocks near the river's edge right by the upper falls. We walked nearly to the lower falls - we could see it and it wasn't that far away, but by then we were hot and tired and ready to head for home.

Glorious Evening!

Thursday evening was gorgeous! One ash tree in our yard has turned brilliant yellow. The oak hasn't done much yet, other than dropping acorns all over which the boys have been collecting (I'm not sure why!). The maples on our property are not the kind that turn beautiful fall colours. They kind of go a dingy dark green and drop to the ground. However, around town there are many that have a lovely red colour already. I need to remember to take the camera with me the next time we go out to do the papers near the pool.

Nicholas and Matthew spent some time outside practising their Tae Kwon Do moves. Their instructor can go into a full splits and do push ups in that position so all three boys have been doing their best to do the splits. They have learned their first pattern this week as well, which is necessary for them to know for their yellow belt testing. We found a website that has videos of each of the patterns, along with a written list of the steps. They have been eagerly studying this and Nicholas can do the pattern from memory now. This week they've also learned in class how to count to five in Korean. Andrew has made himself a little booklet of Korean words and has been studying them. They are totally fascinated by the language and are soaking up the new words.

Thursday, Piano Day

Thursdays have quickly become the day that not much in the way of bookwork gets done. The morning passes with chores mostly completed before our piano teacher arrives. Andrew gets his math done on his own sometime during the day, usually in the morning. I sit with Matthew to do his math while Nicholas has his piano lesson, then with Nicholas for math while Andrew has his lesson. Next week that will change when we start the Music for Young Children programme with Nicholas and Matthew. The teacher, K, has requested that I stay in for that hour and take part with the kids. She says it's a fun time and the kids will really have their theory reinforced in creative ways. I'm all for creative learning so we'll see how it goes!

Andrew has the "homework" of doing his scales and triads for about half an hour a day. The rest of his suggested practise time (an hour and fifteen minutes in total, so 45 minutes) he is to spend on his grade 3 pieces. K has asked him to concentrate on the middle bars of one piece because while he plays the first part really well, he slows down the pace and stumbles a bit in the middle. He really wants to polish this piece for his exam so he has been working at it, along with the other pieces on his practise list.

Nicholas is coming along really well! It's amazing what a difference a break of 18 months has done for him. He is picking up pieces quickly and thoroughly enjoying them. It's lovely hearing him play the same pieces that Andrew was playing at the same level and K is careful to include new pieces that Andrew did not play so that they are for Nicholas alone. He really likes that! It's hard for him not to compare what he's doing to what Andrew is doing and has in the past just given up altogether. We're encouraging him to keep going because his practising is really showing the rewards!

Thursday afternoons we spend doing the two newspaper routes the kids have. There are two newspapers offered freely each week. They have one route with each paper. One is close to the pool and is fairly quick to do. The other one is even closer and is just as quick to finish. That one has to be done on Thursdays, but the other one we have until Friday to do. We just find it makes more sense to do them both on Thursdays.

Every other week recently we've also had catalogues to deliver at another area of town. That one is a little more tedious because it's further away and they are not delivered to every house, just the ones who have requested the catalogue. I end up driving the kids for most of this route because it should take less time. Thursday we were a bit frazzled by a sudden need for a bathroom break after finishing the second paper route so we didn't continue on to do the catalogues.

We did them Friday morning instead. It took nearly two hours and I was admittedly very frustrated with the slow pace. The kids were arguing about who had to close the van door (of all the silly things to choose to argue over!), who got to take a catalogue to which house and consequently, the stop I had planned on the way home to pick up some groceries was cancelled. There was no way I was going into the store with all three of them in a prickly mood. I took just Matthew with me later in the afternoon and it was much more enjoyable!

Tossing Wood

I thought about titling this 'Stacking Wood' but there really wasn't any stacking involved! We went to Adrian's Mum & Dad's the other night for dinner and afterwards the boys got to work loading the trailer with wood to go to camp. They love stacking wood and are usually eager to help out. Even Andrew got to work, although I suspect the fact that Grandma and Grandpa had offered them cash to do the job helped a lot in how much effort he put into it! lol! This wood was leftover from when they had a wood-burning furnace in the basement. That has since been replaced by a propane one and although we used some of the wood in our own woodstove at home last winter, much of it was falling apart from having sat for four years. This was decomposer heaven, for sure!

Matthew has a good arm and had no trouble tossing even the large pieces of wood into the trailer. He's small but mighty! It was funny to hear the kids talking about what they were uncovering, the closer they got to the damp bottom of the pile. There were so many different types of bugs and spiders and we heard a running commentary along the way. They remembered our study of food webs from last spring and were happily exchanging thoughts on what role each bug took. They uncovered woodlice, ants, millipedes, centipedes, various other ones that they knew the names for and I don't remember, plus a number of trap-door spiders and other types of spiders. Grandma and I superved with nice cups of tea in hand!

Nicholas is not all that fond of bugs but did the work without any problem until he uncovered a spider, then another. Spiders are without a doubt his least favourite creepy-crawly. He said to us, "We should change this from 'wood stacking' to 'spider whacking' because there are certainly enough spiders to make it a good game!"

They made good time and had one pile of wood loaded into the trailer. That was all that would fit, so we'll go back next week to load the other one. They were rewarded, not only with money, but with a splash in the hot tub, too. I'm not sure which they considered the better reward!

So far this week...

We've actually done well so far this week at sticking to a semi-structured day. It just hasn't been at the times I thought it would be. Yesterday was the first day of the women's Bible study I host so the boys were left to entertain themselves from 10:00am to about noon. They are fine doing this and generally there isn't any trouble, other than the possibility of me having to remind them to lower their voices in the basement, which is directly underneath the family room where the study takes place. The ceiling isn't finished in the basement so noise travels rather easily between the two rooms. We had a small group yesterday, five ladies including me, but we made our way through the first part and had a good discussion. We're studying the book of Philippians for the next two months.

The kids retreated to the basement to play. They put a DVD on and watched it for a while. Andrew took the laptop down with him to write his second issue of "Creature Corner," a newsletter dedicated to giving information about creatures found in games like Runescape and D&D (Andrew came across some old Dungeons and Dragons books Adrian had and has been reading through them to find cool creatures), along with creatures he has made up himself. He played around with different settings using Word and created some cool titles using the word art function. He was pleased with the results of his second edition and considers it much more professtional looking because of the colour used than his first black and white edition.

After lunch we got the book work out of the way. Matthew was very reluctant to get going with math, telling me it was too hard, but all that was needed was a bit of confidence boosting. He knew what he was doing. Nicholas was very much the same and felt he needed me to sit with him while he did his exercise. Again, it was a confidence boost that was needed. They both tend to second-guess themselves with math and don't have the same intuitiveness that Andrew does. They really need to do each step of the problem whereas Andrew can do the steps in his head and just write down the final answer.

Matthew was in for the chemistry experiment (separating a salt/sand mixture), then all three boys helped prepare dinner. They enjoyed Tae Kwon Do last night, learning a few more new moves. Easily the favourite is the front jump kick (or whatever it's called!). They've been practising all day today!

Today was a bit slower. Matthew and Nicholas have both had colds for a few days and today they just seemed to be a bit slow off the start. Nicholas actually slept in until 10:00am! Definitely not feeling the greatest. This is my child who routinely wakes up at the first sign of light. He still wakes up very early (6:00am, give or take half an hour), but will read until there are signs of life from the rest of us. Sleeping in for Nicholas is 7:00am. While he was sleeping the others got their math done and I got the next activities for physics sorted out.

We've been reading a book about tsunamis which has tied in with our study of Hawaii. It was interesting to find out that since records have been kept in Hawaii, there have been 95 tsunamis, an average of about one every other year. There was a bad one on April 1, 1946 that took the lives of many children who were delightedly checking out the ocean floor that appeared as the water drew back before the first giant waves hit. It must have been frightening! Hawaii is of interest to the boys because Grandma and Grandpa have just returned from a trip to Hawaii. We're eager to see their photos!

Adrian wanted to know if I mentioned here that he cut the grass after dinner tonight, after working a ten hour shift at work. I hadn't yet, so I figured I should. I should also mention that I was planning on cutting the grass tomorrow, but he beat me to it. Again. He's so good to me!

Youth Outdoors Day

Today we were up bright and early (ugh...I had about five hours sleep last night after having a terrible time getting to sleep) to go to the Youth Outdoors Day held at Luther Marsh. We've never been before so we weren't sure what to expect. The day was very overcast, but the rain held off and it was quite humid. When we arrived, a little late admittedly (have I mentioned before I am not a morning person?!), there was a canine demo going on. This was showing how the Ministry of Natural Resources train dogs for conservation enforcement. What we saw of it was pretty cool. The rest of the morning was spent going in rotation to five other demonstrations.

The first one we saw was of pointer dogs. The Brittany Spaniels were gorgeous and fun to watch. It was amazing to see the dog moving back and forth in front of the trainer as they walked through the field, then suddenly come to a point when it smelled a bird. These dogs are trained to stay on point until the hunter flushes out the bird and takes a shot. They do not chase the game. The hunter invests hours and hours of training in his dogs and they take a few years to reach the point of being a great hunting dog.

The second stop was a black powder demonstration where we saw three different types of guns being displayed, including how they are loaded and fired. Matthew loved the modern one, which was sleek and black, but my favourite was the Kentucky long barrel. The man showing it had ordered it as a kit and spent ten months putting it together. He even did the carving and metal work on it. It was a piece of art!

Next we headed to the bird banding demo and this one everyone loved! The man doing the demo said he is one of only 100 people in Canada with his particular bird banding license and there are very strict regulations involved in applying for a license. He had some black, misty looking nets set up in the field where he was catching the birds. The ones we saw today were small birds (and I cannot remember the names), but he has banded large birds, too. Together, these 100 bird banders band about 300,000 birds a year! Incredible! He showed everyone the tools he uses, the different sizes of bands, how to hold a bird so it will be calm, how to actually band a bird and release it. He let various kids hold the birds and a couple of them got to try their hand at banding, too. Andrew, Nicholas and I were all allowed to hold one of the birds. Matthew was offered the chance, but he was reluctant to do it and declined.

Fourth on our trek (and it was a bit of a hike between stations) was the falconry demonstration. Gorgeous birds! We saw a goshawk and a couple of harris hawks. In the afternoon we headed back to speak to the man with the harris hawks. His hawks are a part of his family and stay in the house. They are quite social and the male even considers the family dog to be another "bird" in his family. They hunt together!

Our last stop this morning was the retriever demonstration. The two black labs we saw obviously love what they've been trained to do and are very devoted to their masters. The two men showed how they would train a puppy, then how an adult would behave during a hunt. The difference with these dogs is that they actually will flush the game in order for the hunters to shoot. Once the bird is down the dogs wait for the command to retrieve. They use the dog's name as the command in order to avoid confusion during a hunt.

For example, if two hunters and two dogs are out together and they both use the command "fetch," both dogs would go running after the same bird. Using the dog's name means that the dog is waiting for its own command before it will move. One part of the demo involved simulating a duck hunt where three birds went down. They used decoys and training bumpers instead of real ducks and there was a fourth one hidden across the pond to simulate a wounded bird that the dog didn't see fall. When released, the dog retrieved one "bird" after another, each time bringing it back to the hunter and waiting for the command to go for the next one. It was amazing to watch how closely the dog and the hunter work together to find that last bird. The hunter stood on one side of the pond and directed the dog using a whistle and hand signals.

Lunch was provided for everyone and during the lunch break they did the various draws for prizes. Andrew was thrilled to win a tactical vest (what he'll use it for I have no idea, but he thought it was cool anyway). Adults were included in their own set of draws and we won a bbq tool set. After lunch the kids all made their way to different stations to try out various activities and have their cards stamped. At the end of the day they could show their stamped card to claim a door prize. Every registered child received a prize. There were sleeping bags, tents, tackle boxes, bags of goodies and more, all donated by many different sponsors. Andrew and Nicholas came away with a little bag each, filled with things like whistles, fishing bait, computer fishing game, and a bunch of other stuff. That was on top of the bags each kid received on registration that had a water bottle in it.

Some of the stations they had set up were camping, fly fishing, wildflowers, bird house building, owl pellets, GPS use, wood carving, trapping, target shooting, archery, and butterfly tagging. Below, Matthew is holding a newly tagged monarch butterfly. He released it moments after this photo was taken and the man assured him that this butterfly would be heading to Mexico.

I was amazed at how much time and effort was put into making this a really fun, interesting day for the kids. I saw kids everywhere with smiles on their faces, paying close attention to what the demo leaders were saying, asking great questions and listening closely to the answers. Oh, and the most amazing part? The entire day was free of charge. Yep, it was all set up for the youth and run by volunteers and didn't cost the kids anything to attend. Our boys have already asked to go back next year. I think next time, however, I'll try to get a little more sleep the night before and hope the ground is dry so we can sit during some of the morning demos. Standing for more three and a half hours then spending the afternoon walking around just about crippled me (and Adrian!).

Piano Surprise

Thursday morning was a bit of a rush to get going...Matthew was up at 5:00am with a bad dream. Not wanting to wake Adrian before he had to be up I went and cuddled up with Matthew in his bed. Adrian came in shortly before 5:30am and told me to take Matthew to our room where we'd have more space (and a comfier bed!). Matthew and I were still awake at that point so we went. By six we were back to sleep. Imagine my shock when we woke up at 8:30am!!! Andrew and Nicholas were already downstairs eating breakfast and reading. Normally sleeping in a bit is no big deal around here. I mean, sleeping in is anything from 7:30am on. But, today our piano teacher was coming and I had lots to do first!

I hadn't even cleared the dining room table of all my scrapbooking stuff from Wednesday afternoon. K arrived a bit early, but by then I was okay, having done the mad scramble of herding the kids along to finish breakfast and chores and get dressed. I even managed a quick shower. It's a good thing we didn't have to leave the house!

We are really blessed to have our piano teacher willing to come to our home. She lives in a nearby town and is willing to make the journey once a week. She has suggested a Music for Young Children programme for Nicholas and Matthew, with additional individual pieces suited to each of them. I'm not sure how Nicholas is going to like this, but he has decided to give it a try. The programme looks okay and prepares the kids for Royal Conservatory Grade 1 exams. They progress at their own pace (hmmm, that's probably what makes it attractive to me). It's the price of the books I was not ready for. We've agreed to hold this off until October so that we have a chance to recover from all the expenditures we've recently had.

Nicholas has remembered a fair amount, having last taken a lesson eighteen months ago. He found it a little slow going to begin, but is confident he'll pick it up again. He'd like to be able to do his Grade 1 exam sometime in the next year. He has occasionally gone to the piano and done a bit of practicing, but not on any sort of regular basis.

Andrew has spent semi-regular time at the piano since their last lessons. He enjoys the piano, enjoys trying newer, more complex pieces and even composing some of his own music. He really, really wanted me to get K back to teach him. After hearing him play she has decided she wants to polish his Grade 3 pieces and register him for his Grade 3 exam. She said he's definitely ready for it. He did the Grade 1 exam in January of 2007. She'd like to push him to do even more challenging pieces and he is excited about that. I'm just happy he didn't backslide with not having lessons for the last year and a half! That was really a surprise to us!

Both Andrew and Nicholas have been taking turns at the piano since yesterday morning, keen to practice the new stuff and brush up on the old.

Another Busy Day

One of these days I might feel like we actually accomplished something grand! lol! This morning was chemistry, complete with our first experiment. Now, I'm not really expecting Matthew to take notes and be totally enthralled by everything being read for chemistry and physics, but I did think that he'd at least be in the same room taking it in by some form. He has an amazing ability to absorb information while busily doing something else. He sometimes will stop us to ask a question that shows he's obviously been listening though it doesn't often appear so. Today he chose to not even be in the kitchen with us so he missed the experiment. No biggie, but I admit, I was disappointed in his lack of enthusiasm.

After that was done we headed out to the shops to pick up some things we'll be needing for the various experiments. We never made it out yesterday because of a number of incidents with a rather impulsive 7yo.

The trip took a bit longer than I anticipated. One of the disadvantages of living a half hour drive from any large stores is not being able to just pop out to pick something up. I have to plan our trips carefully, complete with list and this time there were some items added to the list along the way. Andrew and Nicholas both needed some trackpants for Tae Kwon Do because they actually do not have any! I was surprised going through their clothes on Monday that they didn't have any, either of them. Shocking considering Andrew lived in trackpants until he was about seven or eight years old! Anyway, I remembered this on the way to the stores. Good thing I remembered! Uniforms for Tae Kwon Do are optional until they are ready for testing which probably won't be until November. That gives us a bit more time to save the $$$ for three uniforms.

We got home, put everything away and the kids went off to play. My friend, J, arrived and we retreated to the dining room to scrapbook for a couple of hours. My big accomplishment this afternoon was to put additional page protectors in Andrew's album and insert several pages I had done in the spring. J got one page done. She and I had a nice visit though and I got to cuddle with baby J. She's almost 13 months old now and her entire face lights up when she smiles!

Nicholas helped make dinner - a new chicken pot pie recipe which turned out great! He loves to cook and helps quite frequently. Adrian called to let me know he was going to be late home so the boys and I wandered over to Tae Kwon Do and he met us there part way through the practice.

Matthew ended up with a couple of push ups tonight for not paying attention to the instructor. I heard a couple of dads comment on how good his push ups are. It made me giggle a bit because Matthew and Nicholas have been doing their own version of "training" all summer and push ups are a regular part of it. Matthew can do a fantastic push up!

So, another day and only a wee bit of "structure." I don't expect it to improve tomorrow since the boys have newspapers and catalogues to deliver.

Tuesday Strike Two

This morning we got through physics, but the kids haven't finished their chores. Andrew is supposedly doing his math right now. The other two are supposedly doing their chores. We have to head out to the shops this afternoon to pick some things up, so that will be most of the afternoon killed without doing any bookwork because by the time we get home it will be time to start dinner. French will be very limited today.

Our First Bookish Day

Today did not start out well at all. This morning I woke up to the sound of Panda heaving. Since she was on my bed at the time I very quickly threw back the covers, grabbed her collar and encouraged her to get to the bathroom where she threw up a lovely puddle of bile. I never would have got her to the front door in time! Andrew took her outside while I cleaned the bathroom floor. Definitely not a good start to my day - I am not a happy morning person at the best of times.

The boys requested more structure this year so that they could see for themselves the progress they were making. I suspect part of that has to do with conversations their schooled friends have had with them about what "unit" they were on in math or science or history, etc. When asked, my kids couldn't say for certain they were "doing" a particular unit and were not easily able to get the concept across to their friends about what "unit" a particular activity was part of. We tend to lean towards an unschooling approach, so I hadn't really thought of this before.

This morning I tried to initiate the structure they had asked for. It was met rather unenthusiastically by Andrew and Nicholas (who were the ones making the request in the first place). We managed to do a chemistry lesson in more time than I had originally thought it would take. Geography was a total letdown. My Nick was absolutely not having any part of taking it in, preferring to be distracted by Matthew's antics beside him. (I admit, the book I had chosen was not exactly what I thought it would be so I'm hoping the other ones we have on order from the library prove to be a little more captivating.)

After lunch we had to head out the door for an impromptu dentist appointment (we were on the cancellation list and got a call first thing in the morning). We stopped at the library on the way home to see if any of our books were in and came home with a bag full of different ones (the holds had only just arrived and were being unpacked while we were there).

Math was a no-go for the younger two, while Andrew did complete one lesson from his book. We had previously reached an agreement that I would remind him to do one lesson per day. Nicholas has been unenthusiastic about math for months now so I need to find something new for him, just haven't figured out what that is going to be yet. He hasn't had a particular math programme for the last year, doing bits and pieces of math from a variety of workbooks as the mood struck him, which was not often at all.

The rest of the afternoon was spent between getting dinner ready, fielding phone calls and making a list of supplies needed for our chemistry and physics experiments. The kids played. When their friends got home from school they played outside with them. After dinner we dashed out the door to check out a Tae Kwon Do class which the boys have all decided to join (Adrian nearly had heart failure when he found out the cost!).

The evening was spent watching a Bill Nye DVD from the library, then reading out loud (historical fiction I had taken from the library for Matthew, but the others enjoyed listening, too) before bed.

I have no idea how the rest of our week is going to go.