Holiday - Day Three

This morning we went for a walk at the Laurentian Conservation Area.  It was a glorious morning and a little spice was added to the walk by this sign in the car park.

No need for us to worry as the kids are so loud that there is never any wildlife within a 5 mile radius wherever we go.

The walk was more of a scramble with lots of rocks to climb over so no one complained about being bored for a change.  We went through a lovely stand of birch trees.

And I saw wild blueberries and something that definitely looked like bear scat.  No moose yet but the lake was really pretty and amazingly tranquil considering we were inside the city limits.

Holiday - Day Two

I'm not going to write much (again) as having such a relaxing holiday that am completely cream crackered.

Today we went to Science North.  We really, really went to Science North and were there for about 6 hours.  There were 4 floors of exhibits with live creatures, science demonstrations, movie presentations and all sorts.  Rose's favourite part was pressing a button that made a model of a man fart and Jacob liked the old fashioned typewriter (???).

Rose held a cockroach.

And Jacob was captured by Jabba the Hutt and frozen in carbonite.

I lay on a bed of nails, yes I really did and I was wearing a dress so no protective denim.  I also learned first hand that porcupines smell like armpits and that butterflies tickle when they land on your leg.  I saw a live (fat) beaver.

And a moose in a tutu.

And that's all I can remember right now.  Hope we have a less educational day tomorrow so I don't wipe out anymore memory cells.

Holiday Week - Day One

Guess, what?  We're in Sudbury for a short post house buying break.  

Yesterday we drove up to Parry Sound so we could do a cruise round the 30,000 Islands in Geogian Bay.  The scenery up here is unique and inspired many of the paintings of the Group of Seven and Tom Thompson, I think The Jack Pine may have been painted here.  If you are not familiar with these Canadian painters, particularly Tom Thompson you should look them up, we might do some interpretations in between packing next week.

So I'll stop rambling and put up a couple of pictures.

Not seen any moose or bears so far but it's early days.  Shall be sure to take a selfie if i do.

Pluto Day

I've been quite interested in the New Horizons mission out to Pluto so we had an impromptu space day.

We got out Jacob's solar system model and tried to explain about the planets to Rose, I think she got it but you never can tell.  We looked up how big Pluto is, did you know that it's diameter is less than half the size of Canada from east to west.  And I tried to look it up in The Wonders of the Solar System but it's not in, what's with that Brian? I've got to say I was disappointed.

So my big question is, what is the ginormous heart shaped thing that you can see on all the pictures they're putting out?  The most accepted answer at the moment seems to be the remains of a collision basin but as I thought that was a bit dull I challenged the kids to come up with another explanation together and present it.

They spent quite a while on this, came up with an illustrated story and made power point display animations.  As I can't upload them here I'm just putting in the pictures with captions.  Enjoy.

That was Rose's.  Here's Jacob's version.

Water Week Two - Two

Forgive spelling mistakes on this one but I'm blogging sans reading glasses.

Quiet day on the camp front as groceries needed buying and phone calls needed making and Skype needed to be attended to.  Jacob did some more work on his droplet dash get round the water cycle video game and I can finally reveal the answer to Rose's Who Am I quiz...

It's a horse of course!

Water Week Two

I know I promised to reveal the answer to Rose's 'Who Am I?' Animal quiz last Friday but the picture remains half coloured and it's the summer holidays so you'll have to wait I'm afraid.  Some good answers from people so far though.

On Friday we were distracted by numerous swim sessions and invitations to play, swimming probably ought to count toward water and Rose has watched Teen Beach Movie 2 about 10 times over the weekend which she would definitely argue counts as a water related activity.

Anyway, at this mornings weekly planning meeting we decided to do some more water this week.  Jacob suggested that as today's activity we pour water down the marble run and see what happens.  To try to make this appear to be educational we wrote down some predictions on what would happen and how water would behave differently to marbles.  The idea was too observe the outcome, this lasted about 10 seconds before the goal became how much can you splash your sibling while trying to appear not to.

We did do a bit of observing and Rose was correct when she said some of the water would fall out, there was some debate about whether the water went faster than the marbles, We could have done with Brian Cox on hand as I expect there is some physics and gravity explanation that would clear this up.  Also would have been fun to see him have to deal with the kids getting his feet wet on purpose.

We also went to the library to get last weeks reading signed off and pick out prizes.  Here's Rose putting her new earbuds to good use - hurray! No more Jonny Test theme tune.

Then we went to Yoghurtys because we've never been there before and it seemed like a good idea as its 30 degrees right now.  (For Brits its a self serve frozen yoghurt place).  Shame I did not take my camera so you could observe Rose drinking frozen yoghurt from the pot and see the sprinkles and toppings fest Jacob had going in his.

Water - Day Four

Today we did some watery painting.  Nothing very educational there, just mucking about with paint.  To fit in with a watery theme we thinned the paint and wet the paper to see what effects we could get.  I suggested dropping paint off spoons and blowing it with straws but it turned into a bit of a Jackson Pollock splatathon.

By the time we'd finished we'd got some lovely paintings and Rose had transformed herself into a living art piece.

 Here are our finished canvases.

Jacob has finished 'Catch the Capital' to friends and family quality so email us if you would like a copy.  Next he's working on a game where you have to be a droplet surviving the water cycle.

Rose has a What Am I? Quiz for you...

I am brown and yellow with 4 legs.

I live in a farm.

I eat hay.

People ride on my back.

What am I?

Please send your guesses and she will reveal the answer tomorrow.

Water - Day Two and Three

There has definitely been less enthusiasm this week so we've been taking things easy.

Yesterday we set up the solar still, same as last time magically turning salt water into fresh water.  Here are R and J testing that the water was salty.

And here is the still all set up and ready to go.

And here is a bunch of condensed water on the cling film proving that it works.

Rose has written up the experiment in her folder and Jacob has now pretty much finished 'Catch the Capital' and has come up with a water droplet game but not started it yet.

Most of that was yesterday when Rose also had a bath and claimed that was a water week activity too.  Today I planned to do some painting but we ran into Rose's friend in the park and ended up spending 3 hours at their house.  Painting can wait for tomorrow, no deadlines here so that's ok.

Week Two - Water

This will not be a long post, I'm tired so it wouldn't be happening at all if I didn't think that with no post you'd assume I've given up already.

So this week we're looking at water, specifically I think we might focus on the water cycle but we'll also do some other stuff too.  At our planning meeting this morning there were groans over resurrecting the solar still so I'd better find some more fun stuff to do, also need to come up with a watery craft, any suggestions gratefully received.  If the weather holds we might take a trip up to the meromictic lake and if it rains we'll just stay at home and look at the water precipitating outside our windows.

Today we held our planning meeting (at which Rose said she knows all about 'evacuation' because they did rain at school) and went to the library for reading scheme prizes and resource books.  While we were at the community centre we also went swimming which fit in nicely as a Day One activity and got everybody exercised properly when it's too hot for playgrounds.

Canada - Round Up

Thought I'd better summarize or something before we start on our next exciting topic.

Our goals last week were largely based around keeping busy and Jacob learning the provinces and capitals and by and large we achieved both.  Jacob's video game isn't finished yet but he's still up for plugging away at it and he's pretty much got all his facts straight from building the code and his electronics game.

Rose has become slightly obsessed with researching Canadian wildlife and has now produced sheets about all the animals on her survey and the common loon and is half way through the moose.

On Friday We tried out a light resist printing method on t-shirts (without a great deal of success) using the instructions on the Craftiments website (see last post).

Here we have painted on wet shirts and put pressed maple leaves on the wet paint.  The paint that is covered should magically disappear and leave white maple leaf shapes.

Here are the shirts now.

As you can see it didn't really work, I think the paint wasn't thin enough and the shirts weren't wet enough but I like the patterns the kids made so I'll probably appliqué a couple of leaves on later.

See you next week.

Canada - Day Five

We'll start today with a Ta Da moment.  Drumroll please.  The most popular of Rose's choice of Canadian Wildlife is... the Golden Eagle, although it was close and Teddy had to cast the decisive vote in the end.  Thank you for all your votes and here is Rose with the results.

In case anyone doesn't know about Golden Eagles Rose compiled some useful information.

Fact sheets about the other animals and the Loon are also available on request.

Unfortunately Jacob hit a stumbling block with the 'Catch the Capital' game but I think we've come up with some compromises and it should be available next week.  In the meantime here is his test your knowledge circuit board put together with kitchen foil and electrical tape.  Jacob doubted my ingenuity and electrical skills but It works and is very annoying as he's got it set up so that an alarm goes off every time you match the correct province and capital.

We also tried out sun printing t-shirts with mixed results.  They are fixing in the drier right now so I'll update you with them tomorrow.

Canada - Day Four

Again we have been thwarted by the weather, tomorrow there is a big fat sunshine prediction so maybe we'll get our t-shirts printed then.

Instead we made a solar s'more oven out of a shoe box, see Craftiments instructions.  Here is Rose painting the outside of an old shoebox black to try to absorb as much of the sun's heat as possible.

And here we are setting it up in the sun on the deck.  Put a graham cracker on a plate, put some chocolate on that, top with a marshmallow and leave in the oven in the sun.

The chocolate melted after about 10 minutes in the oven but the marshmallow didn't really soften up so it was a bit difficult to eat.  Here is Jacob bravely making an attempt.

I think it would probably have worked just as well if we'd left it on a plate with no oven but that would have been much less trouble so that's no good.

We also completed Rose's animal chart and Jacob made his Capitals circuit board but things got a bit crazy at the end of the day so photos will have to wait until tomorrow.

Canada - Day Three

Happy Canada Day.

Quick history lesson for non Canadians... Canada Day commemorates the enactment of the British North America Act or Constitution Act on July 1st 1867 which United three colonies of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and the United Province of Canada into a single country called Canada.  Essentially its Canada's birthday.

Today's Camp Kirstin activity was going to the Canada day celebrations on the Burlington waterfront.  I was amazed by the number of patriotic people who showed up in red, you can kind of tell even from this distant picture of the crowd.

We watched some First Nations dancers.  This guys outfit or 'regalia' was fab and there was a hoop dancing lady who was so amazing I was unable to take pictures.

I ate a pulled pork sandwich that was so hot it made my nose run and I spilled it down my shirt.  The kids were much more Canadian (and a lot tidier which doesn't happen often) and had hot dogs.

Tomorrow we will get on with some proper activities and the results of Rose's Animal survey may be available.  Anyone who hasn't voted for either the arctic fox, wolf, cougar or golden eagle has until tomorrow when the polls will be closed.

Canada - Day Two

We were supposed to print our own t-shirts today but we need direct sunlight and the weather wasn't cooperating.

Didn't stop Nanaimo Bar production though.  For English people a Nanaimo bar is a Canadian desert/cake bar with 3 layers, typically it has a biscuity base, a gooey centre and chocolate topping.  It is named after the town of Nanaimo on the West Coast but according to Wikapedia its origins are questionable.  Our UK equivalent would be Millionaire's Shortbread.  We went for a minty variation. Here is Rose hard at work making them.

And although he got bored of making them Jacob didn't object to eating them.

Week One - Canada

Wednesday July 1st is Canada Day so we decided to spend this week thinking about Canadian stuff.  We won't do all the same things this year but will split our topics into some projects that we do together and some stuff for the kids separately.

For our working together Canada projects we are going to print our own Canada Day T-shirts using a light resist method and make chocolate mint Nanaimo bars.

Jacob's challenge this week is to learn the Provinces and Territories of Canada and the capital cities of each.  I can't believe he doesn't know this already but as he proved at the weekend (Mum, is Sudbury in Edmonton?) he really doesn't have a clue.  In order to try to get them into his head we might try to build a circuit board of provinces and Cities and Jacob will produce a video game called 'Catch the Capital', if it gets finished it will be available for download on Friday.

Rose is very interested in animals right now so she has chosen her four favourites from her Canadian wildlife books and will read and write about them and draw them.  She is also conducting a survey of which is the most popular so if you have chance to drop us a line please let her know whether you prefer the Wolf, Arctic Fox, Cougar or Golden Eagle.

Today we had a planning meeting, went to the library and generally did a bunch of research and shopping for Nanaimo bar ingredients so I might just post a pic of them both with their fancy Camp Kirstin folders if I can get them to pose.

For now that's it, let's see how long we last, hurray for Summer!

Return of Camp Kirstin

Well Hello there, bet you didn't think you'd see me on this blog again.

I'll jump straight in with the explanations.  The kids broke up for summer last Thursday and due to someone deciding to stretch the unfeasibly long summer vacation to utterly ridiculous lengths they don't go back to school until September 8th, yes, SEPTEMBER 8TH, really, SEPTEMBER 8TH.  Whoever decided on that didn't have children, that's over 10 weeks.

Anyway, I'm rambling with panic.  I have them both in real camp for a week but in order for us all to stay sane I decided that a summer (or as long as we can manage) of activities based on something is the only way.  It will also get Jacob off video games and keep Rose going with her reading and writing.

So, deep breaths.....