Cake For Breakfast

If you notice weird things or whatnot, just ignore it and continue on I’m in the middle (up to my elbows in fact) of changing the entire blog and domain and even the name…LOL So if it all looks weird around here, that’s why!!

Carry on!!

I realized we did a LOT this year!! Countless more things than I posted, so much in fact, I can’t remember it all!! I’ve always wanted to be one of those people that journal or keep a diary or write down all the neat stuff for posterity. Don’t get me wrong, I try, I just never ever seem to be able to do it. I will say though, I HAVE kept all four kids’ baby books up-to-date! Which counts for something I’d bet!! I hope…..

But maybe it’s something I can attempt next year….or now I guess I used to send out a weekly email when the kids were little, and, when I only had two Or maybe it was three, I can’t remember now. Just a quick heads up from us, but even now I can’t seem to do that.

Ah well, maybe next year…LOL But the thing is. Though I don’t remember all the little nitty gritty details about who read what or said what or learned what at what point in time, I remember the feelings and memories and the kids have that knowledge they can claim as their own. That has to count for something I’d think.

To make a Gingerbread House!!!

The kids had never made one before. Though I can slap a gourmet meal together, I am soooo not a baker. I can do the stuff in a box but I really don’t enjoy “baking”. So we’ve never tackled a Gingerbread House before. But we found the coolest little kit at the grocery store and spur-of-the-moment brought it home. Aren’t the best things like that at times??

The kids had such a blast, and what got me is how patient they were for it to dry. We had to wait an hour between the decorating and putting the sides on and then wait another hour before putting the roof on. And all four kids happily waited. All ran off and did other stuff while waiting. Pretty cool.

I did however, screw it up a bit…*oops* I though the sides were the roof pieces and so the kids decorated the roof pieces as side pieces…..so we have a really cute roof now

Here’s the pictures. Just click on the thumbnail to view a larger image!!

Sunday, November 19, 2006

A fairly positive spin on video-gaming!! We were actually joking about putting Sophia and Max in the next LAN BF2 competition here because they have better scores at 4 (she was three at the time) and almost 7 than a lot of the bottom ranked players here One way to pay their way through life I’d say; doing what you love!!

Young Pro Video Gamers Gross 6-figures

I could totally see Max doing something like that!!!

And I found this article about the guy featured in the Yahoo piece, Tom Taylor. It’s his “job”

Pro Gamer says it’s not all fun and games

Via Joanne, I read this wonderful explanation for what Unschooling is.

Kelly Lovejoy, coordinator for the Live and Learn Unschooling Conference posted this on an unschooling e-mail list I’m a member of. She was answering someone’s question, which was “What exactly is unschooling? I thought it was another name for homeschooling”.

“All poodles are dogs, but not all dogs are poodles.

All unschooling is homeschooling, but all homeschooling isn’t unschooling.

Unschooling is legally a type of homeschooling.

Unschoolers don’t “school-at-home” nor do we gives tests or grades.

Unschooling accepts all learning as valid. Everything is connected. You never know when one thing will lead to or connect with another! Unschoolers know they *do* and will keep searching for those connections.

Unschooling is natural learning. Humans are hard-wired to learn-we crave it and seek it out. When you believe that, you’re half-way to understanding how it works.

Unschooling is understanding the difference between teaching and learning. That’s a HUGE hurdle to overcome before you can “get” unschooling. (I can *teach* you everything *I* know about unschooling, but unless you’re willing to *learn* it, I’m wasting my time and your time.)

All children can unschool.
Many parents can’t.

Unschooling requires a “paradigm shift” to make it work. And it works best when you (the parent) are an active learner. And curious and thoughtful and enthusiastic and interested and interesting.

It’s about trust and respect and patience.

It helps if you can step OUT of the box. If you’re OK going against the flow and standing up for yourself (or at least your child).”

There you have it…unschooling.

Thank you Joanne for sharing it And Kelly for posting such a great reply!!

See, if you’re not from here, you have to understand why this is weird. Usually, by this time of year, we’ve had enough cold weather to start to freeze the river solid. There’s usually ice along the banks and starting to form across the river. Last year was the first year we didn’t have a frozen solid river until very late in the winter. Something like January or February, but even so, we had ice start to form in November and melt. What’s weird today, is that we’ve had 30mm of rain in the last couple days (that’s 2″) and it’s been over 10C (50ish F) for the last week or so. So all the ice upriver has apparently started to melt, and make its way downriver, past our house. Which doesn’t happen in November It does happen in April….LOL It was the weirdest thing to look outside today and see big chunks of ice float by. What’s more weird, there’s a flood watch in effect. Not that they think it’ll flood, but it’s out there to keep your eye on. In fact, the EMO head told the farmers to get their cows off the islands in the middle of the river.

Oh yeah, did I mention that?? We have these little teeny islands in the middle of the river all up and down the river. Right across from our house is one of these, and from time to time you can see cattle grazing there. Yes, I do live in a city, but it’s a city of contradictions But they’re telling farmers to move the cattle off the islands since they could get stranded out there…The idea of cattle out grazing on the islands in November just strikes me as so funny.

BUT……

This is starting to look like it’s going to be another winter we don’t need studded snow tires, or chains to get up driveways, or snowplows or closed grocery stores due to blizzards Which, is so up my alley. But it’s still weird to see floating ice

and I almost felt bummed because of it. I’m one of those severely twisted people who LIKES shopping at the mall during the holidays. I LIKE the muzak, I like lugging stuffed bags through packed stores, I like the decorations and the smells and the noise and the frenzy. I LIKE trying to figure out what to get the kids and running around the day before catching up loose ends. See, slightly sick and twisted.

Last year however, Andrew did the Xmas shopping. At least the major part of it. We bought one big family gift for the four kids and then little odds and ends as well. I did the odds and ends, but he did the major gift and set it up etc. So I sort of missed out on the whole holiday shopping thing last year, but on the other hand was pretty impressed at how smooth and easy the holiday was since we had bought most of it at the beginning of December.

This year we’ve been racking our heads to figure out the “perfect” gift. And, since the kids got a gaming system last year and the new system we all want is WAAAAAYYYYYYY out of our price range, we’re really stuck for ideas, which is such a bizarre thing I know. You’d think four kids would have mondo shopping lists for Xmas wishes. But not these four. For weeks now we’ve all been trying to come up with anything they really want, and we haven’t come up with anything.

Until we finally figured out what we’d do. We’d get a second family TV (we’re a one TV family and with four kids and two parents, just doesn’t cut it anymore). Great, but where the heck do you hide a TV for 6 weeks?? LOL And then, we were going to get it today and realized the sale is over. And then more fell through and more and more and it’s looking like maybe fate is giving us a sign that THAT TV is NOT what we are going to be getting.

So I was on a real roll…I thought even before both boys had their birthday’s I’d be done the freaking out part about what to get them for Xmas and I could freak out about what to get them for their birthdays instead. Um, no. LOL

True, we’ll probably end up getting some sort of TV setup for them as well as “little” gifts for them, but man, I was sort of stoked to think that before it was even the middle of November I was done Ah well…..I still have 6 weeks, right??

Yup, it’s still raining We’re up to 13C (55F) as of right now, which is so not the normal temperatures for here at this time of year We’re about 10 degrees Celsius over normal and loving it. But the rain leaves a little to be desired since we can’t get out and about as easy to enjoy the temperatures. So, we have the windows open and the heat turned down and the kids have been doing all sorts of projects for the last few days. Different ones than usual.

Azura and Brandon decided they were going to make cardboard box houses. Azura set off to have everything planned out; Brandon started cutting. Azura had to convert centimetres into inches and then back; for what purpose, I have no idea, but she wanted to and apparently needed to for her design. Then she decided instead, to make an underwater diorama sort of thing with one of those really cool pasta boxes that have the clear fronts? In one of those. So she’s been spending a bunch of time figuring out what kind of ocean scene she wants, and what kind of ocean life works with it. I figure the rain has something to do with the idea of the ocean

It seems like we’ve been answering 10000 and 1 questions from Sophia about arithmetic lately. She’s really big on numerancy right now. 1+1=2. 3+4= 7. That sort of thing. LOVES IT! So she’ll come up with all these numbers and get us to add them up (or subtract them too) and thinks it’s the coolest thing. Then, and this I just love, she runs off and does it with the calculator and seems to get the biggest kick when we’re right Total techno kid for sure. She’s also started writing her name, which is so neat since she’s the only kid of the four that really dislikes anything artsy. So no drawing or colouring or writing or scribbling…she just doesn’t do it and doesn’t enjoy it. She does like to paint but it’s rare and not for long. So the writing thing is so neat and she does it totally accurately too. The “S” in her name she has a bit of trouble with, which is totally understandable. I was so surprised a couple of days ago when she walked over with a “note” she wrote and I could read it Of course, since she’s super musically inclined I figure that’s her creative bent where the other kids have a more colouring style of art.

True, I want the rain to end so we can enjoy the weirdly warm weather, but it’s sort of nice to have that homey, warm, fall day feeling to the day before the snow comes!

We honestly think Sophia will end up doing something in the drama, music, dance, singing sort of area. She is almost possessed with an uncanny sense of music and dance and the child can sing in tune, which is pretty impressive for being just barely four. I FINALLY got a video of her singing her favourite song, and it looks like she’s channeling Gene Simmons while she’s doing it I love this!!! She’s such a fun kid….

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