Spring soccer has started for A12 and B8. They play twice a week and are on the same team this year. It is the last year for A12 in this particular league, which is probably not a bad thing. She is a head and shoulders taller than most players and is almost as tall as the coach. Even B8 who is playing in the age level above his own is not the shortest. Both children are enjoying the games and the team is improving every week. Last night A12 scored two goals.
The whole family have been playing tennis as often as we can. There are courts beside the soccer fields so we play during soccer and take turns to go and support the team. We have also been playing with Group of Four on Fridays after our Canadian geography lessons. We spent four weeks on Geography, starting with the big picture, which included provinces, territories, capitals, geographic regions, major rivers and lakes. We then narrowed in on Ontario, looking at waterways, cities and towns and climatic regions. To review and finish we played a game of Geography Jeopardy where the mum’s created answers and questions in all the catergories we had covered.
L and A after Stellae Boreales‘ last concert of the season, held at the National Gallery last weekend.
What a privilege it is to be a mother. A privilege, a responsibility, a joy. My family made Mothers’ Day very enjoyable for me today. There were lovely cards waiting for me this morning, plus a model of a boat at sea made by B8. This afternoon we played tennis together for an hour or so and then returned for a delicious dinner made by Andrew and A12. They had been watching Master Chef Australia and were inspired to create something from the ingredients available to them. We sat down to a beautifully presented meal of Spanish Meatballs with baked Acorn Squash in an Orange Capsicum, Lemon and Garlic sauce on the side. To drink we had an Iced Tea and Ginger ale mix. The flowers on the table were done by B8 and the clean up by L14. Perfect.
Last time I posted here I was telling you about Laura’s successful week at the Kiwanis Music Festival. The following week was busy for Alexandra as she first performed Fantasia on Greensleeves by Vaughan Williams and Csardas by Monti for her Concert Group class, then later in the week the first movement of a Dvorak Sonatina. Both performances went very well and we could the results of her hard work leading up to the Festival. She also competed in a sight reading class and with Stellae Boreales in an ensembles class. The weeks of the Kiwanis Festival are always busy but we enjoy the chance to hear some amazing musicians play.
After the festival ended practice energy was directed towards preparing for Stellae Boreales’ next concert which happened last night. It was a very successful concert, the group’s first sellout ever, but very different from any concert they have done before. Bows for Butterflies was a benefit concert and auction in support of youth treatment programs at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre (ROMHC). The concert was held in the Ballroom of the Brookstreet Hotel, a very classy Ottawa Hotel and attended by many prominent people in our community, including Daniel Alfredson, captain of Ottawa’s Hockey Team. The performances, which included a solo from Laura, went very well and the response to the music and the cause was very enthusiastic. At least $15,000 dollars was raised through ticket sales, auction and donations.
One more concert remains for the group this season and then another solo recital for the girls in June.
L14 had a very full but satisfying week at the Kiwanis Music Festival. This year she played Malaguena by Sarasate as the Grade 9 general piece and Romance in F major by Beethoven, Melodie by Tchaikovsky and Praeludium and Allegro by Kreisler for the Grade 9/10 Concert Group. It was very encouraging for her (and for Andrew and I) to hear the adjudicator’s comments which were quite different to last year’s reflecting the progress she has made over the past year.
On Friday she played a Vivaldi concerto for four violins with the senior performance group and received very encouraging comments and grade from the adjudicator. When he saw her later in the day for sight-reading and then at the evening competition, he mentioned again how much he enjoyed their performance.
A12 begins her week of competition tomorrow evening.
Our Canadian history studies have landed us in the 50’s and 60’s so I was intrigued to hear of a shop in the Byward Market which is displaying and selling a selection of clothes which belonged to Miss Canada 1954. We visited Victoire and had a little fun with some history which didn’t involve politics or battles.
Last Friday my children, along with six others participated in a History Fair. This is the third time we have been involved in one and every time I am impressed with the learning that happens as a result of all the research each child does. Participants pick their own Canadian History topic and can present it in whatever way they think appropriate.
L14 began researching the involvement of Canadian children on the home front during WWII. After reading from several books she changed her topic to the evacuated British children who were brought to Canada during WWII. She has been interested in this topic ever since she read Kit Pearson’s Guests of War trilogy. Over the weeks of preparation she worked quite independently but would sometimes talk to me about information she had read. I also joined her as she watched a video where former evacuees were interviewed about their experiences. It was hard to believe that some children as young as four and five were transported to Canada, expecting to be home within months but ending up here for years. Many children became closer to their foster families than their own parents. Siblings of big families could not always stay together so did not see each other or their parents for years.
A12 was inspired by a history lesson we did last year on the Klondike Gold rush. She chose to focus, not on the gold mining, but on the treacherous journey to get there. The journey had four main parts: the sea trip on over-crowded boats, the hazardous trek over the White Pass or equally difficult Chilkoot Pass. This trip straight up a snow covered mountain had to be repeated time after time as the miners carried their supplies in 50lb packs, then slid back down the mountain for another load! The next leg of the journey involved cutting down trees and building a boat, in order to complete the last part, the boat trip through rapids and canyons to Dawson City, the gateway to the Klondike. Not content with just researching and presenting her material on a display board, A12 made a miniature version of a miner’s required kit to show the range of the supplies that had to be purchased and transported by each miner.
Helping B8 with his project was a bit of a stretch for me. I had been reading to him about Canada’s involvement in the D-Day landing on Juno Beach. He was very intersted and thought he could make a model showing where the tanks and troops came ashore, etc. Then out of the blue he changed his mind and wanted learn about WW2 tanks only! As the project has to be Canadian history I explained that he would have to concentrate on Canadian tanks. I tried for several days to steer him back to Juno, but couldn’t budge him. So we started at the War Museum, where we talked to a veteran who was volunteering in the LeBreton gallery where all the tanks and armoured vehicles are dispayed. He took us to the four main tanks used by the Canadians in WWII and told us a little about each one. Of the four we saw, B8 chose to research the Sherman M4, the Churchill and the Valentine. He enjoyed learning about the specifications and uses of the three tanks and finding our where they had been instrument in allied victories and where they had failed. I certainly know more about tanks now than I ever did before!
At the fair all three children presented with confidence and I was pleased to see the improvement from last year. All the projects presented were fascinating from the history of the Heintzman Piano company to the history of the national anthem “O Canada”. I learnt about Adelaide Hoodless, who described herself as a “domestic crusader” and decided that next time I have to write down “occupation” on a form, that is what I am going to write! There was a beautiful diorama of a Mi’kmaq wigwam and surrounding hunting ground and an informative project about an orphan who came to Canada as a ‘home child” in the 1930’s. I forgot the camera that day but I hope to post some photos that a friend took.
On the heels of our stock market unit we decided to do a novel study with group of four. One of the mums found the perfect book which just happens to be funny, appropriate for the 8-12 year old age group, appealing to boys and girls, not too long and related to the stock market.
Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen is about a twelve year old boy facing a long summer with little money and no firm plans. His grandmother, an unusual woman, gives him her late husband’s ride-on lawn mower. Understandably Lawn Boy is a little bemused by his grandma’s gift but investigates the machine only to find that, despite its age, it works fine. He sets off down the street on his birthday gift and within minutes has the beginnings of a summer job.
He finds out, as he picks up client after client, that the previous lawn cutter was involved in a neighbourhood scandal so there is plenty of work for him. One of his first clients, Arnold, offers him an unusual deal, promising to pay him in shares, not cash. He tells Lawn Boy he will buy shares for him and then sell and re-invest in whatever companies look promising. Lawn Boy agrees, deciding that all he has to lose is the $40 fee.
The business grows beyond what Lawn Boy can handle and Arnold comes to his aid with suggestions and a partner. Lawn Boy’s business and his stock portfolio grow without his parents’ knowledge. There are encounters with a prize fighter and a local thug, also without his parents’ knowledge. As Lawn Boy’s circumstances become more and more complicated he tries to explain them to his parents, but it is only when someone’s life is in danger that he finally spills the whole story!
All the children in Group of Four enjoyed the book and wanted to know why they couldn’t make money in the same amounts that Lawn Boy was raking it in. We did some predicting along the way, but no-one even came close to guessing all the twists and turns. Each child took a chapter and converted it into a comic strip page, picking out the main events of the chapter and reading through the descriptions before drawing. As most of the group are willing to act whenever given the chance, we gave out a couple of scripts taken directly from the book with narration removed.
Both weeks of the novel study we started with a story building activity, where the story was started by one child and then passed on to the next who took it wherever they liked and so on around the circle. The first time we did it with no parameters and the second week the characters and setting were given. The story made much more sense the second week, but was not as funny! To make the most of the children’s enthusiasm for making money we asked them all to think of a job they could do in their own community and make posters advertising their services. We’ll see if anything comes of their ideas.
In past novel studies we have given the children an open-ended creative project to complete over a couple of weeks, then present to the group at the end of the unit. I am always impressed with the variety and quality of the projects. This time was no different. One of the girls decorated a t-shirt with the word “POW” on the front and “Pinch your head” on the back! (You will need to read the book to find out why) Another made a movie with playmobil people playing the characters. B8 made a lego model of Lawn Boy on his mower halfway around the yard of a lego house. There was also a poster and a very detailed 3D bookmark.
I am always on the lookout for new authors, so this introduction to Gary Paulsen has been great. Paulsen has written a great many books for children, often with boys as the main character. I’m sure we will be reading more.
As you know a fair amount of practising goes on here. L14, finished with her exam, is now preparing for the Kiwanis Music Festival which occurs in April. Last year L competed in the Grade 8 class and then performed the same pieces for her Suzuki book 8 graduation, again in China and then continued to practise them for her exam in January. To say that she is pleased to be playing all new repetoire is an understatement.
A12 is also preparing new pieces for Kiwanis. She chose to learn Csardas by Monti, which I have been hoping one of them would play. Both girls have had a few performances lately, solo and together. Along with their friends H & P they have been asked to provide music for a wedding in July.
Andrew’s evenings are filled with practices of one kind or another. He continues to play on worship teams at church but is also practising with a band for a benefit concert on April 11th. The band is made up of local musicians and led by singer/songwriter Dave Byron. The benefit is for Empathy House, a long-term residential treatment facility for women with substance addiction.
Last Saturday night the youth at our church hosted a rock concert by Manic Drive. L and A both attended and had a great time. Four of our youth, including L opened for the band with a couple of worship songs. Apparently the church was rocking literally, windows were shaking and walls vibrating!
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