hayeschooling: 2011-10-23

geocaching!

what is funner than treasure hunts? NOTHING! geocaching is relatively new to us but it is sooooo fun. well. we are getting better at it. haye hated it for awhile because derek and i are really no good at it...but we are learning. this cache was one of the first ones we actually found that we could trade items in. haye traded a fishing lure for a dinosaur or something.

and then the homeschool group got together and went on a really awesome outing to find 3 geocaches that one of the parents hid. it was really fun for everyone involved, especially the older kids who were learning how to read a compass. the younger kids had fun too. haye and ben had fun playing made-up games like dirt darts. :P

the homeschool community here is huge! we love being a part of it :)

lego club!

the library has been hosting lego club for homeschoolers once a month and it has been really fun for haye. we are starting to see familiar faces the more we get out and do things, and haye is making some homeschooling friends. this was our second time going and the kids had to make a tall tower and then build something spooky. haye made an island with a sanctuary on it. the first time they made a tall tower and then built something that goes. haye built a museum. it had a car statue in it though. ;)

the pumpkin patch

we went on a fieldtrip with a local homeschool group to the pumpkin patch and it was a great time. the kids got to go on a hay ride and check out the pumpkin patch and the fields, eat cookies and drink juice, go in a huge corn maze, pet some animals, learn about the life cycle of a pumpkin, pick out a pumpkin to bring home and best of all, play with a pumpkin slingshot. it was a beautiful day and it was nice to get out and meet some moms that are like-minded!

snails everywhere!

so we WERE just taking a break from schoolwork and were going back inside to do math but then the kids that live in our co-op were collecting snails and i decided it was more important to go on a snail hunt than anything else. we hunted for almost two hours and at one point there were about 10 of us walking around and each kid had at least 2 big snails. it was a great time.

meet larry.

monster art!

my bestie, beks, came over and brought with her a fun paper craft book. she spent an hour setting this dude up with haye. his name is oogabooga.

love that kid

fire safety awareness!

we went to fire safety awareness at haye's umbrella school and it was pretty fun for the kids. they loved being able to go in the fire truck! they also "escaped from a burning house" (which was a trailer full of smoke). i asked haye what he learned afterwards and he said NOTHING! but i reminded him that i learned that our noses go to sleep when we do and that's why we need to sleep with our doors shut and he said "oh yeah. and also to slide out of bed and crawl down the stairs!" so yes, he was listening. :P

we made a fire plan, a safe meeting place, and checked all our smoke detectors too.

moth life cycle

last week in science we learned about a moth life cycle. sometimes it's amazing to me how much haye retains when i don't think he's actually paying attention or even listening, but when i asked him a few days later what the 3 stages where he remembered them all. see how this science curriculum is laid out? the grade 1s are supposed to be able to follow along with their finger and say the words that are in blue with help. haye reads every word (sometimes he needs a bit of help with a couple but they are quickly added to the exponentially growing list of words he recognizes). i've noticed a huge improvement in his writing skills over the past month as well!

calgary zoo!

a couple weeks ago we went to the zoo and learned lots about animal homes which fit well with our science curriculum. it was a really fun experience for haye! his favourite part was the japanese macaques. here's a thousand pictures.