Review: Moving with Words & Actions

Do you work with preschool or primary aged children?   If so, Shape America has come out with a really neat book for promoting physical literacy in children, from preschool through primary grades.  This book is called Moving with Words & Actions. 

Review: Way of the Warrior Kid

Written in the style of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Way of the Warrior Kid was an interesting read.  It was also thought provoking and I am going to have my 12 year old read it as well.  In fact, if I can wrap my brain around it, I'm going to see if I can turn it into a book study, with relevant scripture and such like to go along.

Watching a child go through a mental change in his outlook, training hard with his uncle and becoming the person he discovered that he truly was.  Way of the Warrior Kid: From Wimpy to Warrior the Navy Seal Way, speaks to how using the Navy Seal mind set works well for helping youth make incredible differences in their lives.

It's making choices and sticking with them...even when it's hard.

This book, oh.. it made me laugh.   The kid in the book, he's a delight, his honesty, his wanting to do what's right even though it goes against what he thinks, his fear, his desire to be like his uncle.  It's all there, right in front of us.   Able to watch him think, learn and develop more into the person he'll be as an adult. 

The images in the book brought Marc to life.

 You could just see his delight, his fear, his concerns,and his joy within them.
It was so good to see the metamorphosis...not only externally, but also internally. 

My Thoughts:
For parents who want to fight the laziness and apathy so prevalent in the younger generation, this book will be yet another tool in the arsenal of lighting a fire under our youth.  To get them up and active and realizing their part (taking ownership) in the battle to be better than what they currently are.  It was great to see the mentorship from Uncle Jake  with Marc.  Inspiring, challenging, encouraging, teaching...being right there pushing and helping a boy to make the right decisions.  Good stuff.

Way of the Warrior Kid
Jocko Willink
illustrator: Jon Bozak
Feiwel and Friends
192 pages
8-12 years.

Type: trade paperback

Reviewed for: Raincoast Books

Where can you find it?
Amazon.ca: Way of the Warrior Kid: From Wimpy to Warrior the Navy SEAL way: A Novel

Amazon.com:  Way of the Warrior Kid: From Wimpy to Warrior the Navy SEAL Way: A Novel

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This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites

Blogging the Alphabet: S is for Skating

Welcome to week S of blogging through the alphabet.  So glad that you can join Amanda and I.  I do hope you will join us by hopping in with a comment or blog post.  :)

Skating.     It's a part of life when you live in Canada.  When you have snow and cold and frozen water.. why not enjoy it eh?   We're aren't big into ice fishing, and I grew up skating on the family pond, so teaching our lad to skate seems a natural thing to do.

My hubby likes to skate as well so, he learned to skate. :)

 We started off using a skating aid.  I cannot tell you how much we liked this aid.  So many of the other ones we saw were these big bulky things that would never have fit in our car without be completely disassembled.  This one folded down flat and we could take it ANYWHERE.   The local park to skate on the small pad, the pond to skate on the hard frozen ice, the bigger city to skate on outdoor rink and also to local town arenas to join in the mom/tot/senior skate times.  It was GREAT.    

As time went on the lad learned to skate with just holding my hand.  I have to admit, I LOVE skating with my lad.  Even if he pulls me a bit off center (and I am NOT the world's best skater).   But we could skate together and ....

 He learned how to fall.  and then how to get up.    First one leg up, then the other.   We started with using mom as an aid, but now he can do it all on his own.     He skated, but he often complained, "can I stop now, do I have to do this mom?   Skating isn't fun, I don't like it".

Most of the time we chose just skate as a family, but one year to increase his confidence AND his love of skating (I really really wanted to foster that) we  decided to join in with our homeschool group at a group skate every Friday.   It costs more than the free skates we've been doing, but... this has the HUGE added side bonus.   He can skate with friends.  He liked it!  :)

Do you see the happy grin?  The lad no longer thinking...how long MUST I be on the ice.  He now thinks.. do I HAVE to get off?   This is fun skating with friends.

He can stop and talk with other parents and learning skating skills from them (for some reason he listens better to the Dad's saying, hey.. if you do this it works better).  I don't understand it, but I'll certainly take it!

Play tag is so much fun, and it's great to hear "Your boy is skating better Annette".   It is just so good to hear.  He's really seeing that skating IS fun and not just something your folks make you do.

So should you ever be up in our neck of the woods on a fine Winter's day, come join us in skating.  You'll meet a happy lad who actually LIKES skating now.  :)   It's just the finest thing. :)   Though lately, I have to admit, I don't skate much anymore.  I hurt my ankle badly two winters ago while skating and it took me much too long to recover.   I might get brave again next winter though.  :)
I keep wanting to skate on the Rideau Canal in Ottawa. 

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This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Team sports.... or individual... which works?

 I don't know if you are like me and not really into "doing phys ed", so while I understand the importance of getting busy physically it's not high on my list of priorities.  How is it for you?

I admittedly bought into the hype that children HAVE to take part in team sports because it's good for them. Don't get me wrong.. team sports are good for most kids, they really are! I felt like I was doing poorly by my lad if I didn't get him into a team sport.

Therefore I put some effort into getting my lad interested in doing some type of team sport.

We tried homeschool soccer.   And admittedly there were points of success, but also had points of extreme dismay in my lad.

We stuck it out for a couple of years and the final year for soccer had my lad more interested in the toads and frogs in the local pond more than the soccer... so we called it quits.  :)

Swimming worked a touch bit better, but not a whole lot.   Having ear troubles didn't help the matter at all.   The end result was that my lad does know how to keep himself afloat in the water and that's a good thing.  Perhaps with time he'll become a more proficient swimmer... but first to fix his ears!

Then we discovered that we had a local karate club so I sweet talked my cautious lad into doing a couple of trial classes.... and HE WAS HOOKED!    He likes karate so much that he's now has his orange belt and is looking forward to testing for his advanced orange belt.

Another love the lad has is archery!   He and his dad go out whenever they can.  A local fellow has a club with erratic lessons...but a willingness to let the boys go out and shoot arrows.

I have learned something important through all of this... my lad has a distinct fondness for individual based sports.  Where he can think his way through it, learning the steps in karate, perfecting his form in archery.  These things appeal to him.   Will he sometime down the road like team sports?   I don't know, I'll leave the door open for it though....but right now...  I have a boy having fun doing sports that he likes, and I call that...Phys Ed.  :)

For other posts on the general theme of health and physical education, check out Canadian Homeschool bloggers eh?   Post goes live on the 26th.

Also linking up here eh?

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time/

Spring Break - Cooking Fun!

This week my son has been in cooking class all week. He's been bringing home cookies and pie and just having a good deal of fun.

He's made cookies with brown beans in it (what a delight surprising mom and dad with the knowledge).

Chicken dinner with potatoes and veggies.
A variety of dips and learning to spiralize veggies.
Desserts.
Maple bacon and pancakes.

He's been simple delighted with everything that they have made and was so pleased they sent him home with a cookbook.

Now he has more ideas of things to cook!



Friday we started our six week co-op session for HOPE. Hubby is teaching a gym class.   We had the children play Hotdog, Around the World, and Everybody's It.  Hard to get pics of fast moving children.

 I am teaching a "Making Zentangles class".   I will be using this book as a base of reference.  You can find my review of it here.

Homeschooling, faith and more.
Draw & Discover - art book series - teaching vocabulary through creative expression
Be mindful Gog of Magog, God is going to use you - devotional on Genesis 38
Weather Assignments - a word prompt post
Recipe for Fish Chowder - good tasting soup
One People, One Shepherd, One God - devotional on Genesis 37
Igloos and Inukshuks - blogging the alphabet post
God's Holiness Made manifest - devotional on Genesis 38:1-24
The Unstoppable Power of a United Praying Family.  learning more about prayer
Friend...when and where.   A Five minute Friday word prompt post.
St. Patrick's Day Meal.   In Honour of St. Patrick.

Reviews
Draw & Discover. Art books for young children
Let's Explore mountains.  A great book to learn about mountains
Walking with the Waodani.   Unit study on the Waodani
Found: Psalm 23 - a board book for young children

Linking up at the following blogs this week: 

Homeschool Highlights.

Homeschool blog and Tell.

Weird Unsocialized Homeschoolers.

Homeschool Nook.

Family Friday Linkup.

Amazon.ca: Zentangle: The inspiring and mindful drawing workbook with over 70 practice tiles

Amazon.com: Zentangle: The inspiring and mindful drawing workbook with over 70 practice tiles

This post may contain affiliate links - using affiliate links from A Net in Time helps fuel this blog and our homeschool - thank you! ©2006-2017 A Net In Time. All rights reserved. All text, photographs, artwork, and other content may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without the written consent of the author. A Net In Time

Today homeschooling

well..our day started off with the lad waking me up.
We had breakfast, cared for the bunnies and the chicken.  .. yes we have a chicken!   It's a hen that eats her eggs and she's going to be lunch for us when I'm feeling up to making her lunch for us.   But that might take a good week yet.

My brain was VERY sluggish today so we didn't do a whole lot for a fair bit.
I had a treasure hunt at the lad's instigation.
Then we read some fascinating information out of this book called "tell me about the world".

just love this book.  It's starts off with a question... for instance "is it true that a cow has four stomachs".   So I give the lad a chance to tell me what he knows.  I tell him what I think.  And then we read a blub that tells us if we are right or not.   We were both wrong on this one.  One stomach, four sections.  (go figure).

We then read a story out of "50 magical stories".  This book is made the same folks who did the 10 minute stories.

Today's story was about the crab that played with the sea.   the boy said "i liked some of it but not all of it mommy".

 He read a book over at Starfall.   he had a lot of fun with the one book he read.

We took a walk over at Morrison Dam.  Just a short walk as I didn't have the energy for a long one.  We talked about beaver dams and moss.   He did some of the exercise trail stuff with his dad.   We took some moss home to grow under the tree in the backyard.  

Oh.. I almost forgot.  We watched a video from Aurora on lights and such like.  We did some experiments with making a microscope using two magnifying glasses.  we used these to discover that Canadian money has stories/poems/etc written on them.. and  carefully examined a $20 American bill as well.  If we can find an American Penny we want to see if we can find the man in the building.

Oh.. the lad is taking an interest in learning about the rabbits.  This morning he wanted to know how I knew if a rabbit was ready to breed or not.  So I showed him a rabbit ready to breed and one who wasn't.  I also talked with him about other signs that a rabbit uses.   Being growly, digging in her food dish, and such like.  he was quite interested.  He also wanted to know how I knew if a boy bunny wanted to make babies... and so I said okay buddy.. watch and see what happens.   "HE FELLED OFF HER MOMMY!"   yes buddy, did he make a noise?  "YES!"  good.. he wants to be a daddy then.  

He's been learning what to watch for in the baby bunnies.. for full tummies, activity when touched, and such like.   So it's good.  Nice to see him learning and asking questions.   The weather's been so nice so we've been taking time outside to play and be archaelogists and alien hunters.  He has infinitely more energy than his mommy but we're working at it. :)  In time health will be better!

we may end up making bunny bait for Easter/Hope days.

Science

Today was a typical Tuesday....a boy who wanted to play and spend time with mom and dad instead of do school so... we did a science day.  Often we do art/science/reading... but today we focused on Science.

We started off the day watching a video about Bugs of the rainforest.

It was quite fascinating following the lives of a praying mantis and a butterfly.   Neat to see how it all works together.

We took a break and set up on Triops tank.  We had started this on Saturday by bringing in some ice from the backyard to melt, we sifted it on Sunday, were stymied by it on Monday as the tank wasn't getting warm enough, but today it finally got warm enough so.. we laid out triops eggs.

This page here has some rearing suggestions.   Hopefully it will work out.  The kit we bought has enough eggs to try this three times so hopefully we'll get it right eventually.   They hatch apparently in 20 hours so hopefully tomorrow morning we'll have some baby triops.

Then we watched a Life video.  We didn't watch the whole thing

Always interesting to watch these animal videos.

The lad did get in some math work using reflexmath.   I still think we got a good deal on this math program.   He likes it, he learns from it so life is good.

In the afternoon we went skating at the local arena.   A good time was had by all.  :)

plans change

Our plans for the day changed

We had planned to go to Dairy days with the homeschool group.  But it was cancelled due to weather issues

So this morning we went skating.
Then played lego.  We built, we discussed, we had fun.

Then we set off to work with our Spiders Unit Study.

The lad's question of the day was Where do spiders go in the winter?  the answer from here.

Did you ever wonder where all the spiders go in the winter?  (Excluding those little rascals you still find occasionally in your house!)  Do they die?  Do they hibernate? Do they just hide somewhere where you don’t see all of them?
Different types of spiders handle the winter months differently.  There are those spiders that like to come on in and dwell with us in our nice warm homes.  Others, however, will die in the winter but leave their egg sacs well protected to hatch out the next spring.  Some actually do prepare for winter by weaving a web under loose bark or building overhangs where they are insulated from the cold

This of course inspired a game in a young lad's mind.  Let's pretend to be spiders trying to get to winter safety without being caught by an enemy.  so we played a few rounds of this.

today we learned about the lifecycle of a spider.

We talked about how spiders are both prey and predator and the lad made the observation that this happens alot with animals..but it doesn't happen with robots (because nothing eats robots).

we read the story by Eileen Snyder called   The Little Old Lady Who Liked Spiders

So then the above game became can you avoid the lizards who just might eat spiders?   So we played that was well.

I expect that soon my voice will be back to normal and we can get back to our regular reading times.

Skating, Spiders and Open Houses

We did our normal reading
10 minute stories

Today's story was about sea babies and was somewhat ... odd.  that would be a good word.  :)

World History

We continue to learn about Knights and Castles.

Then off to go skating with a friend.  We had fun, this was followed by lunch and a sword fight interspersed with lego and playing with baby guinea pigs. :)

 after our company left we learned a bit more about spiders!

Brown recluse spider and black widow in hand.

we also learned a surprising fact about tarantulas. We also took some time to play with a robotic bug and learned that it can break out of popsicle houses and that given sufficient time can get out of any maze we were able to build for it.

Later this afternoon we have an open house to go to.   So all in all a busy day.

that worked well

went to the Stratford library to do our schooling before heading off to swimming.

I think I shall do that more often. Getting out work done at the library means less distractions.

means I have to be better organized, but better organized, and having better schooling done over a shorter period of time sounds like an excellent idea to me. :)

We did art and science today at the library. A good thing that! We first did some book work though, then played art and language skills on a computer, and some science as well on the computer. Then we started doing our Christmas cards... excellent way to practice our spelling!

He has watched the rescuers a fair bit lately so the golden eagle and the boy riding the figure prominently. :)

building Christmas cards... stickers, drawing and writing. It's all good.

Then off to lunch at boston pizza, and then over to the YMCA for swimming lessons.

the lad in the blue head band. :)

Then home again.

Played a game before bed (connect four) and played a construction game as well.

Today we....

We started off with our normal daily readings out of

10 minute stories

The lad didn't appear to be impressed... was off playing and chatting while he listened. Some stories keep him glued to the chair.

World History

We are into Roman history now. It's just fascinating reading tidbits about ancient history. Today we learned what good builders and architects they were.

Then we went with reflexmath. The lad enjoys this program.

Then upstairs to do a snowman search and find. This gives us a chance to talk and read a page in a large floor puzzle book. We talk about different ways to hold a pencil crayon to get different effects, and the lad has fun searching out the hidden objects.

A fellow homeschooler over at Learning To Homeschool gave me this idea. To have a daily word to learn. I asked her how she came up with them and she said just words they come across as they read or talk. Since that's too "iffy" for me I decided to use this

Children's Illustrated Dictionary.

Today's word was Abacus: a frame with beads that slide along wires, used for counting.

I read another chapter out of First Language Lessons, Levels 1&2

We read a few poems out of a book until we found one that made us both think of a picture in our heads, so we drew. This also gave us an opportunity to talk about the different ways one can hold a drawing implement in order to achieve different effects.

I'll try to post pics of what we did later today.

now off to swimming lessons, and then the library afterwards if it's still open upon our return. :)

coin soccer

coin soccer

i think making this with the lad next year might be a good idea. :)

Gymnastics

The lad enjoys going to gymnastics. When told he was going to gymnastics today I got a very enthusiastic "YIPPEE" complete with disappointment that we were going to Wal-mart first. We were half an hour early for gymnastics so needed to find someway to keep ourselves busy. :)

He had a good time today and did his first completely unassisted back flip through the rings today. :)

We got him signed up and paid for a new session starting in January. He'll be with a different group of children this time, the 6-8 year olds, but his coach says he's ready to be with them. He listens well and can complete most of what is asked for.

I'm glad that he has fun, I'm thrilled that he's learning new things, and I'm pleased that he has such a positive attitude to learning from a person different than mommy.