Fishtography

We have such amazing friends!!! This past weekend we were invited on a day long pontoon boat trip in the Big Rideau Lake. What a trip it was. The shot above perfectly captures my day long struggle with taking pictures or catching fish! My friend Todd (TCW Photography) so brilliantly dubbed what I was doing as Fishtography!

This post will be a photo post of our amazing day!

The Boat with Captain Todd and Ken

The Fishing.... oh this is my beloved tackle box. I have had it for over 18 yrs now and it holds a lot of memories of really fun days with friends.

Francine fishes with Sid. This woman is amazing!!! She pulled in fish after fish, after fish. She won the dollar for first caught and most caught but Siddy earned the dollar for biggest catch of the day!

That is the biggest Sunfish I have ever seen! (excluding the Atlantic perch which have big teeth!!!)

Another one for Siddy!

Mom got one too!

And the cutest fish of the day!

Next was the swimming! It was overcast and yucky when the day started but alas it ended with sunshine and swimming right off the boat!

Next I'll reflect ever so briefly on the learning....

Here are the Narrows, AKA Lock 35. Sid had never seen the locks in action so this was really interesting for her to sit and watch. We moored the boat and spent about an hour here having lunch and watching this amazing feat of engineering!

Back on the boat there was a quick lesson on navigation and chart reading followed by a lesson on the proper operation of the boat.

Lastly there are the loons and the photography

This guy with the broken bill swam with the boat with assistance of Ken at the helm while Todd, Frankie and I snapped picture after picture! What a beauty. I wonder how he broke the tip of his bill?

A beautiful display for the photogs

Mom and babe

And another territorial display by a male.

What an incredible day! Thank you so much my friends for inviting us on this amazing journey.

Nature Study Meets Art Class

I am not sure who enjoys homeschooling more! I have a strong belief in teaching by doing so when I want to show Sid something I usually do my own version of the work. I don't dumb it down to match hers, I research, I draw, I write and then we discuss our project. We compare, contrast and this way the learning is all disguised as fun and you know what? It is really fun!

Here is a project we did on Thursday. I sent Sid out to the yard and asked her to pick any flower and bring it in. She could choose from the garden or anywhere else, my only request was that she picked something that she liked and that stood out for her. She returned with a beautiful little red clover.

We took out the magnifying light and looked at the way it grew. We looked it up on the computer and found out that it is a Red Clover also known as Trifolium which is Latin for found in meadows. It has many medicinal uses and is the National flower of Dennmark and the state flower of Vermont! Who knew???

We wanted to capture its beauty before it wilted away so we set to sketching it.

Once satisfied with the sketches we pulled out the water colours and mixed reds and blues to create the right shade of purple then away we went.

This is my favourite kind of lesson. Painting, sketching, science, writing, vocabulary, math (we were counting a lot of little petals!!!), geography and on and on the list goes. All the while we laughed, shared thoughts and enjoyed each others company. As a bonus I uncovered a new talent for water colours. What an awesome medium. I wish there was more time in the week to explore painting :) I think I will have to keep bringing it back into our weekly lessons!

So much of our education takes place outdoors now that I really want to focus on nature study through sketching. I am going to try and work with Sid to do a sketch once or twice a week of something from the outdoors. It doesn't matter what it is. The content isn't important, as seen above, it is all about the process!

And to end our lovely week we got to spend our YHO Friday with some of our favorite Young Homeschooling friends!

Got Tractor?

Lying A Round

Sandbox Sanctuary

Playground Sentry

Forlorn

Rain in the forecast for tomorrow but hopefully a sunny day on Sunday will accommodate our boating / fishing day trip!

Happy Weekend

Summer Solstice and Long Term Plans

We celebrated the Summer Solstice with a nice day at home, lounging in the pool and making daisy chains! At Karate, the instructor bought all the kids ice cream and Popsicles for a treat and together they celebrated the official start of summer. Yippppeeeee

This past Monday, Sid's best Sister had a birthday. She is now 6! We helped her celebrate with a coooool nomad party in the woods. The kids built a shelter, hunted for bugs and game with their game bags and played like wild children for 3 hours! It was really special to share this day with so many friends and our other daughter Bella ;)

Bella with her very own Hedwig from Sid

The super yummy b-day cake made by Bella's Grandma

Our friends! Oh and Sid's future husband.

Yes, at the party, Sidney asked her friend Huwyl if he would marry her. He said "YES! I would love to get married to you!" So that is it then. All plans are made we can all rest. Sid says not to worry, they aren't going to get married until she is 20.

Today, Huwyl and his mom and brother invited us out with the dogs to visit their property that they are currently building their dream house on. What an incredible piece of land and a beautiful life they are setting up for themselves. I feel so privileged to have seen it from the start.

The kids played in the freshly mowed fields (way to go Stephen, I did gasp in awe!) for an hour and a half and the dogs ran themselves ragged. 95 acres is a lot of space to explore.

Run, Groovy's Gonna Getcha!

Little Nierin is growing like a weed.

Sid and the guy she is going to marry in 15 years. He is so sweet, bright, witty, sensitive and wonderful. Regardless of the proposal, these two are becoming good friends who share a lot of interest and enjoy each others company.

Here Huwyl is saying "...and this one is a buttercup but I forget what this one is called cause sometimes my brain is a bit like a sausage." ROFLOL Oh and picture it with his adorably cute English accent!

Huwyls bouquet of flowers, chosen and arranged all by himself.

Even the little guy is super cute! He deserves a little kiss too!

Undivided attention

This shot highlights my very favourite part of the morning. The kids were discussing how when they got married they would live here and have cows, chickens, goats, sheep. Then Huwyl pipes up and says "YA and when my Mum and Dad are dead, all this will be ours!!!" Oh did we laugh. Emma suggested that they could live there without anyone having to die.

This is the long walk back to the cars. Toddlers and dogs wiped out from running and playing and Sid and Huwyl with their futures set.

Thank you my friends for the lovely time on YOUR wonderful land!

Summer Solstice Aboriginal Arts Fest in Ottawa

This past weekend was the Summer Solstice Aboriginal Arts Festival in Ottawa. There were many artisans, dancers and activities all for free! Ken was playing with The Andy Mason band on Saturday around 4:00 then again with Aurora Finkle at 7:00. Sid and I went after her drama play to cheer Daddy on. It was great for her to get to see him on stage. Usually dad plays in clubs long after bedtime so this was a special treat. He wasn't doing his originals this time, they were playing Andy's originals in a Native talent competition. They tied for first but the votes went to crowd reaction and the other first place contestant was a dancer coming back after just having a baby and she won. In the Andy Mason Band, Ken is doing backups and lead guitar and Dave Finkle plays bass. Here are the clips of their two songs. Enjoy!

Sid and Bella make special appearances :)


With Aurora Finkle, Dave plays guitar and Ken plays Bass :)

Sean Harris and Andy Mason shown above also participate in Ken's band when he does his original material and Andy plays with Seans Band Deja Vu. Andy also played with Dave Finkle with Aurora.

So to put it mildly, these are all very talented musicians who swap places, can all play any instrument and are in many different incantations of bands. Oh to be that talented!

Here Sid dances with a kitten while Dad played bass :)

Bella and Sid cannot help but dance!

LOL I was NEVER that kid :)

Sid loved having Bella join us for the day. They keep each other company and have so much fun just being together.

We went to watch the Pow Wow and the competitive dancing but the girls couldn't see. Super dad here holds both of them!!!!

Proud kids with Daddy.

The event took place on the war museum grounds. I couldn't resist this pic :)

Right before the Pow Wow, the girls did their final play in Drama. It was very cute! A lot more complicated than the last one with lots of moving around the stage.

Here they pose with their certificates and their teacher Miss Kristy. Good job girls!

Best Sisters!!!!

And finally a note about Karate! Wow she loves it and is moving along really quickly. Here she demonstrates her back round house with hook kick. She is about 2 inches from doing the full splits too. YIKES!

Here Sigung demonstrates the back roundhouse with a hook. He told her "DONT MOVE" she didn't but boy did she look worried. It all ended well.

Have a great week everyone!