Remembrance Day at the Zoo

Nothing too much has been going on here on the home front. Basically just doing his homeschooling everyday. Andrew's really learning a lot of new words now. Thanks to phonics. He is enjoying his new book Geronimo Stilten being read to him every night. He's still into watching Scooby, now he also likes to watch Garfield and The Winx Club.

Thurs was Remembrance Day so we went to a Veterns ceremony at Toronto Zoo. Another mom that also homeschools and has 3 young boys picked us up at my place. After the ceremony we went and looks at some of the animals. Andrew REALLY wanted to see the giraffes the most but of course I forgot tcharge my camera battery the night before and by the time we got to them the camera was dead. It was a nice day.

Stuff

Appointment #2 at the dentist office was today and it went great! Yay, well i won't say that it may be because he only got his teeth cleaned. Nope.

Home schooling is going wonderful. Andrew is learning to read phonically and is doing super amazing. I will sound out words and get him to write how he thinks it's spelled. He's usually right on. Math, he's learning to add still, but now with bigger numbers. Subtract. Greater and lesser. The ones the tenths place. He can count by 10's and 5's. And patterns. He's learning about how to use a map (Geography). Some science. And LOTS of art. I want to get him into swimming lessons and some sort of self defense class but i haven't figured out which one to go with yet. As for music i hope to get him into some local choir soon.

Health wise he's good. Still a fussy eater but were working on that still, sigh.

Don has had a very sore leg for about 2 months now. He went in to see the Dr about it. He ordered an Xray and ultrasound. He had the xray about 2 weeks ago, and the U/S last Fri. The tech girl said that she seen a cyst under both knee caps but the one that is really sore could quite possibly be sore because it looks like it may have erupted. We won't know anything more until our Dr gets back from his mini leave in the beginning of Aug. (his wife had a baby)...

Me.. Well, not so great. But not bad, i hope. I have been having this horrible on and off again pain in my left side for some time now. Dr did blood work and some of the stuff came back not that great. My white blood cell are low and some other crap but i forget. He told me to get it re-checked in 2 mths, if it was still low he would send me to a specialist. I got it re-checked and it was lower then before and i have become anemic. So he has set me up to see a Oncologist/hematologist on Oct 6th at our local hospital. I just hope it's not cancer.

Well that's about it.

WOW

Whoops, sorry for taking so long to post.

Compared to last month everything is pretty quiet. No visitors. No Christmas shopping. No wrapping either. No tree taking over the view. No fancy lights or decor. That's all gone for another year.

Sigh.

So then, what have we been doing?

We've been going to the Science center quite a lot. They have workshops for young children during the week. So i have been implementing that with Andrew's homeschooling. On the 7th, they had a work shop on Healthy Foods. Now Andrew will eat granola cereal with yogurt (i have only been trying to get him to eat that for years now), but oh well, at least now he'll eat it. Another thing to add to his VERY small list of things he'll eat. On the 8th they had a Optical Illusions workshop. On the 15th they had a Magnets workshop. On the 26th they had a Dinosaurs workshop. He really LOVED that one. He is starting to talk a lot and is very articulate in his speech. He'll talk for hrs about dinosaurs and Scooby Doo. He's actually got many of the workers there calling him by name now. They all really like him, you can really tell. He's got quite the magnetic appeal.

We've been doing more and more school work this month. He can count to 100. Printed his first sentence (by memory). I will post a picture of that. Learning how to read small sentences. He doesn't really like reading a whole lot so i think i will go slower on that and try not to push it, he'll be ready when he's ready. I don't want him to hate it. He's been learning about dinosaurs (since he likes them so much), i can't get over how much he already knows on them. He knows what a herbivore, meat eaters and omnivores are and which dinosaur eat what. And he knows almost all of the dinosaurs names. For science he is learning all about sound.

Art, he absolutely LOVES drawing. Everyday he sketches pictures of monsters and ghosts. And he's pretty good at it.

One night last week while we were lying in bed before he fell asleep he asked me, mommy, how long did it take for me to come out of my egg? I'm like what??????? Then it dawned on me that he thought he was hatched out of an egg like dinosaurs did.. LOL, too cute.

He's got his first loose tooth. And WON'T stop wiggling it. Another excitement for Andrew.

All in all, he's still the greatest kid in the universe.


Always trying to scare me:


His first sentence... I spoke the words out loud and he wrote what i was saying.


His first loose tooth.

Andrew's Sick and Other Little Updates

Yup, my poor little guy has been fevered all day. Not eating. And very clingy. I will take him in to one of the emergency walk in flu clinic tomorrow to see if he's got H1N1. I'm pretty sure i have been fighting with it all week, it started Tuesday morning, all day Wed, most of Thursday, today i have actually been feeling much better. And thank goodness because i don't know how i would have been able to hold him all day if i were sick like i was.

Here are some pictures from last Sunday. Because of me being so sick i couldn't get to it till today. And other random pictures from the week :)Yup, my poor little guy has been fevered all day. Not eating. And very clingy. I will take him in to one of the emergency walk in flu clinic tomorrow to see if he's got H1N1. I'm pretty sure i have been fighting with it all week, it started Tuesday morning, all day Wed, most of Thursday, today i have actually been feeling much better. And thank goodness because i don't know how i would have been able to hold him all day if i were sick like i was.

Royal Canadian Agricultural Show




How are these for size?





Now you must admit this is cute. They didn't even know eachother.

Homeschooling Weekly Gathering

This morning Don, Andrew and I were sitting at the kitchen table eating breakfast. Every Monday some of the homeschoolers in Toronto meet up at a community center. This week Don decided to join us just to see what it is all about. Andrew looked up at Don and said Daddy there are 2 categories at the meet up place. Don says oh ya, and Andrew replied, yup, one side is where all the kids play and the other side is where all the old ladies sit... I was so shocked...

Yesterday

I went out to a homeschooling gathering on Queen St. There were lots of kids there. The kids played in the playground and the parents (the ones that could go) sat at a table and conversed about up coming events that are going on around the city and other things related to homeschooling. All the kids were so nice to eachother and so well mannered. It did not matter the age of the child everyone was included in the fun. There was a mom there holding her newborn, she had six children. 5 boys and 1 girl. All the kids had hair down to their waists. Here is a picture of one of her sons, he was so flipping adorable. I am so happy that i made it out to it, even though i'm extremely shy, i will be going to more of them. I was also really shocked to hear that a lot of the moms were also very shy. I asked Andrew if he would like to have hair that long and he said his friend Ethan would make fun of him :(

Splash Pad, Science Center and the Forest

It's been a pretty busy week here on the home front. I have been trying to do more things with Andrew because of the crappy weather we have been getting this summer and summer approaching near the end. I know once the colder weather sets in, he will be stuck indoors most of the time. So better enjoy what little we have left outdoors.

Monday, we didn't do a whole lot, went outside for some sunshine and a walk but that's about it.

Tuesday we went to a splash pad for the day with his friends Ethan and Sheridan and their moms. We were suppose to go to Ontario Place but it was going to rain so we decided to stay close. But were going to go tomorrow for the afternoon.

Yesterday I took him to the science center, we saw the snake and lizard exhibit, he liked that. Then we went out in the back of the building and went on a nature walk.

Here are some pictures from the past week.















He is playing a water organ here. The sound of this big is so amazing



And one last one. After the science center we went to the park. It was a good day.

Toronto EMS Ambulance Tour at the Science Center

hToday we went to the Science Center to learn about the Toronto EMS Ambulance services and what they do. First we took a tour inside a real ambulance bus, it's a bus that's been converted into an ambulance for large scale assessments and care, like when there is multiple people needing care from vehicle accidence, building fires, etc. Then he learned how Toronto EMS Paramedics and Dispatchers handle emergencies and try out equipment they use every day. He learned how dispatchers speak in over 90 languages and how Safe City Mikey defibrillators save lives! After that he went to story time and then played some. Then we went to the park and met Ethan and Sue and played there for a while.




They put a thing on Andrew's thumb to measure his oxygen level and heart rate.




Andrew dancing!

The Fire Station

Andrew and I went on a field trip to a fire station with a bunch of other kids his age today. He had a BLAST. He really liked the water hose that they let the kids use (but of course). And when he didn't have the hose he decided that it would be fun to be at the other end of it, well, after that ALL of the kids decided it would be fun as well. Silly guy! The firemen had to leave in the middle of the class though because they actually had an emergency to attend to. After that we went to St Lawrence Market and then we walk all the way to Dundas Square (very.long.walk). We had a blast. By the time we made it home it was 9pm.

Flower Power

hAndrew planted flowers today. Not too sure what will become of it but he had a great time doing it and making a huge mess in the process.

Food Drive

I forgot to post this last week. Andrew did his first volunteer work. It was for a food bank here in Toronto. Him, and another woman from our building and i went to 6 floors in our building. There are 44 floors times 2 buildings. His job was to knock on the doors, mine was to take the bags of food and put them into the cart and Stacey's was to push the cart. This will be the first of many volunteer work that he will be doing throughout his childhood. Many people talk about doing good in the world, i want to teach him to DO good.

This is the way Andrew likes to pose in front of the camera lately.


Andrew and the Stacey after the drive.

Way too Long

Wow, i didn't realise it's been so long since i have wrote an entry.
I guess it's because there's not too much to write about.
hmmm let me think.
Since i last wrote: Andrew had yet again another virus, this one was a cold virus. He has a fever for 2 days, low grade, and really congested and coughed a lot. That lasted for a week. Don and I were able to escape that one :)

Last weekend we went to Kitchener for my nieces 25th birthday gathering, i have some pics i'll will post of that. So we spent Saturday night at my sister Tammy's place and Sunday night we went to my dads place, my nieces Jessica, Natyya and Melissa stayed with us there. Monday and Tues night we slept at my sister Judy's place. Wednesday she and her girls drove us home and stayed the night until Thursday. Christina came here on Saturday and spent the night. I guess we have been busy.

So here we are, Tues afternoon, Andrew and I did some home learning today. He knows how to write his numbers from 0 to 10, and is learning to do some addition and subtraction. He practices writing his name and did some coloring. After that we made some flowers to decorate the place a bit.

Cards, Clowns and Other Things

Today was a very productive day here. Andrew made a clown out of a coat hanger, he traced his hands and feet, painted them, i cut and tapes it up. Oh and he also made the face and hat.

After that we played domino's on the floor, and sequencing with 5 pictures, he had to put them into the right order and tell a story.

He's getting really good at his penmanship, he knows how to right the numbers from 1 - 10. He's also doing simple adding and subtracting from 1 - 10....

His potato plant is growing fast!

Family Day at the Science Center

Today in Canada is family day so we decided to take Andrew to the science center for a few hours. It was PACKED, it seems that everyone else thought it would be a great way to spend the day with their families as well.... They had an extra exhibit for the day run by K-Nex, the boys had a great time building things. Well, i should say especially Don. It was good that he finally got out of the house and outdoors, that hasn't been happening too often lately, but brrrrr was it ever cold out on the way home.

Here's their creation that they built together, Don called it "The Virus"...




He had a blast with this spiral lights that were being projected from the ceiling, whenever you stamp on them the spirals move. Not a very clear image because i couldn't use the flash.


And a few others that caught my eye!




Ok, Don really loved this one, it is really bizarre how he died tho, what it his fate? It's about a Muslim named Al-Jahiz, he lived from 776-868


Just outside of the building. (yes we did out his coat on right after these shots)