Preschool - W Day

Yesterday's Preschool was "W" day at our house. I was watching my friend's daughter for the day, so we ended up with 6 kids.

Here is what we did:

LEARNING: We learned about 4 different kinds of whales (blue whale, orca whale, beluga whale, humpback whale)

We went "Whale Watching". I had some hidden pictures of whales around the room and they took turns finding a whale and telling what kind of whale it was.

SONG: Baby Beluga by Raffi - We made wands using straws and had baby beluga whales taped to the ends of the wands. They made the belugas swim and dance to the music.

ACTIVITY: We did some W actions, kind of like charades.

walking

washing windows

whistling

waving or waves in the ocean

pulling a wagon

wiggles!

blowing in the wind

STORY BOOK: Where the Wild Things Are

SNACK: watermelon, walnuts, worms (gummy worms), water

CRAFT: gluing seeds onto watermelons

GAME: Whales & Fishies - One child starts off as the whale in the middle of the room. The rest are fish, and they have to cross the ocean without getting eaten (tagged) by the whale. If the whale eats you, you become a whale too. Once all the fish have been eaten, start again with a different whale.

(Optional activity - Window Writers. The Crayola markers that you can draw and erase on windows. Nathan and Samantha did this later in the day, but it wasn't part of our preschool.)

Preschool books - they are getting better at writing their letters!

Last we had a water station. I filled some plastic tubs with water and had measuring cups, spoons, and other tools to play with in the water.

Congrats, Meaghan!

My friend Meaghan Smith won a JUNO Award last night!! I'm so so so happy and excited for her!

She is a super talented musician and artist, and she won the award for New Artist of the Year.

If you aren't familiar with Meaghan, you should check out her adorable bio on YouTube.

Or go straight to her website (meaghansmith.com).

I am going to see her perform at a House Concert this week while she is in town and I can't wait!

I Spoke Too Early... (Hello Again, Ridiculously Prolonged Winter)

As I sit here sipping a cup of hot camomile tea, in my warm pants and hoodie, occasionally glancing out the window at the snow covered ground, remembering the last time the school bus was cancelled for our kids due to snow and ice - wait a second, that was this past WEDNESDAY! - I thought it would be the perfect time to share some more photos of our Florida trip.

Our favourite family activity of the week was definitely swimming.

We had a pool at the villa where we stayed, and it was heated for the week, so that we could swim outside anytime, day or night, and it felt like a warm bath.

Our kids haven't been in swimming lessons for a few years now, but it was very encouraging to see their progress in one short week.

Samantha has always loved the water is a pretty good swimmer.

Brett and JD went from slightly apprehensive to deep end divers of golf balls in a matter of days.

Nathan is the one that worried Scott and I the most because he became nearly fearless in his swimming abilities pretty early in the week. He would go under the water and try to swim across the pool to us, or from us back to the steps. By the end of the week we had to keep him in a life jacket at all times.

Clara refused to even step foot into her swim suit for the first couple of days. She would sit in her towel and watch the rest of us swim from a lounge chair.

Next she started running around the pool, throwing the golf balls in for the big kids.

Then she decided Boots needed to swim, so she threw him in too.

Finally she decided she would go in the hot tub end of the pool, where she could stand up around the edge. She called it her "bath".

Our last night in Florida we went to Heather & Pete's for a final swim and BBQ with the cousins and Kim & Patrick.

Uncle Peter had the kids jumping off his shoulders, and even Clara decided to leave her "bath" and try out the big pool.

Samantha's Photography Assignment

For a class Photography Assignment, Samantha had to take several photos of one subject, showing different angles and criteria.

She chose Clara as her subject, which I thought was quite risky considering the girl doesn't hold still for a nanosecond.

But Samantha was smart and started out with some sleeping shots.

The next ones were a little more difficult, and there were a lot of blurry shots that were weeded out.

Here are some of the other shots she submitted.

Clara - I mean our puppy dog - loves to lick cheeks.

Then the puppy had to stop and show me the boo-boo on her foot.