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.....