For the Love of Learning

 We've been chugging along merrily in our school books.  Our school morning starts with singing our memory work - we've been following Coaldale Christain School - bellowing out the national anthem and reciting the books of the Bible.  Then comes Math and Explode the Code, copywork, journaling, science or whatever happens to float our boat that day.  Dad comes in the house for coffee at 10 am which means a break for all, time to get the wiggles out and fill those hungry (again) tummies!
October has Thanksgiving in it which is an excellent time to cultivate an attitude of gratitude and focus on the gifts we've been given (Thanks Ann Voskamp for changing 'the world' with your book 1000 Gifts! Haven't read it? Better get on that...it's been on the New York Times Bestseller list for 60 weeks straight!).  We did this each evening by hanging a leaf with something we were thankful for on the tree I put on the bulletin board.  I love what the kids came up with.  Even Rowan was insistent about putting that tape on the back of his leaf and picking a spot on the tree to hang it. He came up with his own answers too, which were usually things he loved that day like his toy truck or driving in the truck with Daddy.   

With the arrival of October 31st, we did some reading and learning about Martin Luther.  Which of course leads to all those other questions... What is a monk? Why would someone ever be a monk?  Why would people ever not like someone just because he wanted to believe only what the Bible said?  ...we took alot of detours, which made things quite complex. So we'll do more on it next year.
November is a long dull month on average so we decided to do a project on Canada.  What a great place to start eh?  ;)   A trip to the library brought home many fantastic resources, and we had alot of fun making some crafts to go with the things we learned about, including the flag and other symbols of Canada.  We dug in depth into Ontario and Alberta and mapped the country out according to province/territory, mountain ranges, natural resources and different animals.  It was the highlight of every day.  After going over the two official languages I was later testing Tristan and asked him what the two official languages of Canada were. He replied "english and...." so I helped out by saying "Frrrr..." He exclaimed "FRISIAN!"  Ahh.  A son to make his father proud;))    I guess he hears more Frisian then French here, so what do you expect, right?

(Tristan)

(Seth)

Experimenting with circles

Watercolour pencils (I think I have to get in on these. Super Fun!)

 And last but not least we had company from Alma Ontario yesterday which was really enjoyed by Andy and myself.  It was a family friend, Mr J. Post. Thank-You so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to drive out to Purple Springs! He came loaded down with gifts from not only him and his wife but also Beppe, aka Mem.  It was like an early birthday for all of us!  So last night the kids went to bed late as we indulged and played the new games they received.   We were spoiled, and greatly enjoyed it:) 
Thank-You from all of us!

"Hockey, hockey and moooore, hockey!"

A good neighbour here called us up a couple Friday evenings ago asking if we wanted to put our kids on the Taber Christian Pond Hockey Team - his boys were too old for the younger team and they had equipment they were willing to give away. 
Andy and I thought about it over night and decided to give it a try, much to the kids extreme happiness.  Although we both do not want to be duffle bag totin' hockey parents, we were pleased with the description of this team, Christian, Parent run, non-competitive and no traveling (always the same arena).  And compared to the Coaldale kids team, which is early in the mornings on Thursdays, this was much better for us, 3:30 Saturday afternoons. 
I don't have real great pictures since Seth can't contain his excitement long enough for me to get a steady shot, and Tristan has to get on that ice.  It's way too adorable to watch, and to see them try so hard.  Seth gets right in there, skating madly after the puck, even managing to score on the first game! *Cheers!!!* Tristan is such a little squirt, and he's still learning how to skate but he is so intent on doing well that he manages to follow the puck around without falling. All the kids are between the ages of 5 - 9, some decent skaters and others laying on the ice not even bothering to get up.
These boys are so tired afterwards they can hardly hold up their heads in the big helmets, but are already saying they can't wait till next week.  
So far, so good:)

Fall, officially over.

Fall is over! We know that now. It's white outside, and cold. Minus 10 on the thermometer feeling like -20. Yesterday was still a beautiful day, all week was nice actually but we knew winter was coming so we cleaned up the last of the garden, cut down some weeds and carved pumpkins before they collapsed from the cold and the melted mush needs to get thrown in the compost, only good for fertilizer.   And as you'll see, when one wants to pose for a picture... naturally the other two need their turn too. :)

Andy recruited Seth and Tristan to jump on the weeds in the hopes more would fit in the back of the truck. After I saw this I requested they wear their helmets...just a tad dangerous in my eyes! 

Pumpkin carver 1

Pumpkin carver 2

Poser 1

Poser 2

Poser 3 :-D