A World without walls
everyday life while homeschooling overseas
After the quails and the ducks, we got to hatch our chicks. Sadly, only one chick hatched! She was adorable, but she was LOUD! She was really lonely and loved having one of us around. If someone was sitting next to her cage, she was quiet and happy. We would reach out hands in, and she would climb in and snuggle up in our palms! Sometimes I would use a finger and pretend it was 'pecking' on the food and she would chase my finger and peck at the food. So cute! But, if I walked away, she would start to SCREECH!! And she screeched and screeched until someone came and sat by her. She was just SO LOUD!!! Peter found that if he set up a nice chair next to her cage, he could read and do some of his homework next to her so that she wouldn't scream. She just wanted someone nearby. We sent her back to the farm after only a few days because we felt like she just needed her family near her! After the chick lady picked her up, she sent us a picture of Chicken Nugget (that's what we named her) with all of her little chicken friends! We were happy. It's sad that our 'Egg-U-cation' is now over, but I think this was the BEST biology class we could've done!
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Just a few fun random school activities... A science experiment with Jell-O and pineapple (enzyme testing); LEGO Robotics class; a cooking channel pilot video; and the biggest MOC Andrew ever made! Fun times at our house. :) One of my favorite parts about homeschooling is discovering the world around us. It's been difficult to impossible to do during Covid time. Happily, we were able to join in with a small group of other teen homeschoolers and go to the Mine Museum. It was a FABULOUS field trip! We drove for about an hour to get there, which is a joy in and of itself because this place is so stunningly gorgeous! Once we arrived, we got to go through a little visitor's center and we saw a 'small' (huge, actually) mining truck. We got to ride a little train inside the mine and see (and hear) the drills that they used. The really cool part was when our guide turned off all the lights--it was PITCH BLACK in there! Crazy scary. I'd hate to be a miner! I have a lot of respect for those guys. We also examined some plants and looked at them through microscopes to see the effects of plants growing near copper mines. Really fascinating! After our tour of inside the mine, the kids all played a cooperative mine game where they ran their own mines. It looked like fun! Then we went and saw a really cool show called "BOOM!" I can't even describe it. I expected a movie, but when we went inside the actual mine building, there was no screen! The 'screen' ended up being on the back of some crates and there were lights all over and, well, it was VERY cool! Apparently it was designed by people who design the Disneyland rides! After the tour and the ride, we stopped off to pan for some gold! The kids found a lot of pyrite and some other gems. Luckily, the water is heated by solar panels, so it was somewhat warm. I was frozen solid--it was COLD! Regardless, it was all definitely worth the time and we're glad we went! Hands down, this was the BEST Halloween ever! Another LDS FS family sent me a message late on Friday evening asking if we were still in Vancouver and wanted to meet up to do some FOR REAL trick or treating! Um, YES! These kids were over the moon! They've never done house to house trick or treating in their lives before. Such a sad thing to miss! They all love dressing up so much, and have always loved Halloween. Not because of the ghosts and witches, but just because they like to dress up and get a lot of candy! Ha! We met up with this wonderful family of instant friends, and wandered around a neighborhood in North Vancouver. There were some pretty stellar house decorations, and there were groups of other kids wandering down the streets in costumes, too. It did my heart SO MUCH GOOD to see my kids wearing costumes and trick or treating together! They squealed and ran from house to house and got SO much candy!! As a matter of fact, Peter's bag got overfull and he had to use Devin's pockets and even his shoulder guards to hold the rest of it. We wandered down the streets and watched the kids yell 'Trick or Treat' at doors and at tables that were set up in driveways. We chuckled at the times where they all yelled 'Merry Christmas' instead of 'Happy Halloween'. The parents yelled 'Thank you' to the people giving out candy. I felt like a normal person. It was glorious. Apparently, another Vancouver tradition is to shoot off fireworks for Halloween! So here we are, wandering slowly down the streets and picking up candy from strangers, with amazing fireworks going off all around us. It literally brought tears to my eyes. I think it was a healing night for all of us. My kids got to do something they've never been able to do before--something that I think is taken for granted. We also were outside in the middle of fireworks displays and as we reminded ourselves that it was HAPPY fireworks, and not the MAS trying to hurt people, I think it helped us work through a little of our trauma. The kids came home, and immediately ran to their rooms so they could dump out their candy haul--then they started the sorting and trading, which is part of every Halloween Trick or Treating ritual. I've decided this is a naturally in-born human instinct, because I didn't tell my kids that it would be cool to go sort out their candy and maybe trade with each other (or give me all the candy they didn't want), they just did it naturally. My psychological mind enjoyed observing them and wondering about it. :) It was a most spectacular evening. We loved the creativity of the people giving out candy. There were some houses where candy was simply left in a container outside with a note telling them to take one or two. Some people handed it out with tongs. We especially loved the houses that had set up decorated PVC pipes as chutes and just sent the candy sailing down the pipe into their bags. Our favorite, though, was a house where they had set up a Hot Wheels track from the second floor window down to the front porch!! We laughed so much as the candy started to get stuck halfway down...and then the lady gave up using the track and decided just to throw the candy down at the kids! Hilarious and completely unforgettable!!!! I love the fall. I don't have words to describe how much I love it. It is magic to my soul. These pictures are my words, but even they are only tiny snapshots of the overwhelming beauty that is all around me. It's been 8 years since I've lived in a place with real fall. Oh, how I have missed it! I don't really want to ever live in a place without fall again.
Part two of our great Biology bird hatching project: Ducks!! These little guys were so adorable! All three of them hatched within minutes of each other and were bestest buddies. We named them Squeezie, Big Foot, and George. They made HUGE messes in their cage because they adored their water bottle--they would dive in head first and then splash it all over the place! Within minutes of every cage cleaning, their cage looked as if I hadn't done a thing! Ha! But they were adorable, and their little squeaks were so endearing. They were much larger than the quails, so we didn't keep them long, but they were sure interesting to watch!
Buying our new car was the COOLEST experience! We decided that we needed to get another car, mostly because we don't all fit in the Fiat. The Fiat is so great for within the city, as it's small and fits in tiny spaces, but it only fits 5 people. So we started looking for a new car. However, the best part was that it was only Devin and the kids that picked the car out! I stayed home and studied, and they went to many different car lots and did lots of test driving and research in order to find the best car. They didn't tell me ANYTHING at all about what they were looking at so that what they ended up with would be a total surprise! I loved it so much! :) I got LOTS of extra studying in (which is great because Psych 201 is KILLING ME!!!) while they all worked together to find our family car! :) The big unveiling came when we went on our camping trip--While I was picking up Claire from theatre and the boys from frisbee, Josh and Devin were packing the new van for our campout! Neat! So the first time I saw it was when I got into it for a weekend trip! It was the BEST! It's a great car--a Pacifica--it is so smooth and so comfy and has an incredible sound system!! WIN! But the part I loved the most was watching Devin and the kids have SO much fun trying to keep a secret from me! They worked hard together and everyone came to a consensus. It was a great learning experience. Insane!!! All of the smoke from the wildfires from California, Oregon, and Washington has been blown up our way, and our air quality is the #1 worst in the WORLD!!! Worse than Beijing and New Delhi!! It's hard to breathe and hard to see and we're not supposed to go outside! Everything is being canceled because the air is so bad and we can't see hardly anything out the windows! CRAZY! Andrew and I were doing karate, and I started to cough and couldn't stop--I felt like I was a smoker! I hope it goes away soon--it's so sad! It makes me feel even worse for the people who live near all of the wildfires, because it must be even worse than this! Wow. This is pretty much the Best. Cake. Ever. It was a mango mousse with a raspberry something-or-other on top. SO YUMMY!! But the best part about this cake? Not only was it gluten free, but it was a COMPLETE surprise! Devin found a gluten free shop and ordered me two birthday cakes! The other cake is almond flour, and also SO yummy! Here the funny story. One day, I decided to go for a walk. I wanted to figure out where Gastown was and where the sword-fighting place was. As I walked out of my house and neared the consulate, I realized that it was 4:30 and Devin was probably done with work! I thought it would be fun to call him and see if he was done with work and wanted to walk with me. :) When I called him, he told me that he was already home, and I was so surprised that I hadn't seen him! How did we miss each other? Only later did I find out that I HAD passed by Devin--I actually almost bumped into him, but I was looking down and DIDN'T SEE HIM!! He was actually on the phone talking to the cake place, so he didn't want me to hear what was going on and get suspicious, so he said nothing at all! I didn't find this out until my birthday, when he gave me the cakes, and it honestly made me so delighted! I LOVE surprises SO MUCH! I thought it was hilarious that I didn't see him AND that he knew how important surprises are to me. I'll never forget it! |
Who Am I?
As a Stay At Home Mom of 4 wonderful children, I have the amazing opportunity not only to home school them, but to do so in many different places! I am married to the most amazingly wonderful (and handsome) man in the whole world! Together, we seek out, every day, that Joy in the Journey that makes life exciting! Archives
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Emily's books
by Dan Brown
I like that the plot twists and turns a lot...and it makes you think. However, I don't appreciate Dan Brown's endings in his books. I find the endings incongruent with the rest of his stories--why make it a romance for the last chapter...
by Shannon Hale
I loved this book. I'm a sucker for fairy tales/fantasy. This was so well written! I can't wait to read all the rest of her books!
by Shannon Hale
I'm reading this one again. I liked it the first time I read it. I'm still liking it for the second time around. I like all of Shannon Hales' books.
**Still lots of fun the second time around! I do like this book for a comfortable...
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