St Lucia's Day

We celebrated St Lucia's Day in December. The boys and I made cinnamon rolls and Gideon carried the candle and we brought Daddy breakfast in bed. Then we read up on the history of St Lucia's Day. Gideon loved that he was the oldest and got to carry the candle, and he thought the history of the day was very interesting, especially when I told him that our family had come from Sweden a long time ago.

Daily physical activity

Gideon spends a minimum of 30 minutes per day of physical activity (usually more like five or six hours). He's five, and he's only aloud to watch movies if he's sick, so he tends to be pretty active.

Learning about diabetes

Aunty Rebekah has diabetes, and she and Gideon have had several discussions about what diabetes is and what it does in your body. She has also shown Gideon how her insulin pump works and explained how she has to prick her finger to test her blood. Gideon now often will come up to her when she's eating and tells her, "you have to remember to take your insulin, Aunty!"

Healthy foods

We discuss as a family healthy versus unhealthy eating habits, how exercise makes your body strong, and how our bodies need sleep to grow. Gideon can recognize "healthy" foods versus "sometimes" foods, and will often say when we eat a dessert or a treat, "This is just a sometimes, food, isn't it, mommy? If I eat it all the time, it will make my body sick."

"When I'm feeling" books

We have been reading books about emotions and healthy ways to deal with them with Gideon. We also talk about appropriate ways and inappropriate ways to respond when he is angry or upset. Gideon asks to read the books often, and he is learning to recognize appropriate and inappropriate ways to deal with his emotion.

Word cards

Gideon likes to read through his word cards. He read through the entire bag of 50+ words and sounds in less than 20 minutes.

Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons

Gideon has been working through the book with Jake. He is currently on lesson 66. He loves reading lessons and will ask for them when we forget, because he says that once he learns reading and math, he can learn anything.

Reflex math game

Gideon likes to play reflex on his iPad. He doesn't add and subtract quickly, but he can do the rules ( e.g. a number - the same number = 0) really quickly, almost as fast as Jake.

Connect the dots

Gideon loves doing connect the dot games. He does games with numbered dots up to 50. He has learned to recognize numbers up to 50 because of that, and is learning to count up to 100.

Childcraft encyclopedias

We read and discuss the Childcraft encyclopedias about the ocean, animals, and dinosaurs. Gideon loves reading the sections on owls and on deep sea animals. He asks questions about herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores, and about ecosystems. He likes carnivores the best.

Drumheller museum

We visited the Drumheller museum and looked at the dinosaur bones. He asked lots of questions about the plesiosaurus and was very interested in the process of fossilization. We also discussed how dinosaur fossils are discovered and preserved and were able to watch archeologists working to clean dinosaur bones. We also discussed evolution, and how animals can change over time.

Classical music

Aunty Rebekah has been introducing Gideon to various types of classical music. They play games such as interpreting the music by having Gideon dance the way that the music makes him feel. Gideon is very good at recognizing and interpreting the emotions in the music.

Music lessons

Aunt Rebekah has been giving Gideon music lessons. She began by testing his ability to hear tones and keep rhythms. She plays games with him to teach him rhythm and tones, such as keeping rhythm with her and singing things high and low. Gideon does not have great aural recognition yet, but is working on developing that.

catch

Jake has been working with Gideon to teach him how to catch. Gideon has been improving immensely and now can catch balls and other object that are tossed to him (which is a great improvement). He is also practicing his throw and has developed very good aim.

Skating

Gideon is learning to ice skate (weather permitting). He is still learning, but can now move around the ice without help or support.

Skiing

Gideon has been learning to cross-country ski. He loves it, and whenever it is not chinooking, he begs to go skiing. He has learned to go down hills, to go up hills, and is improving his speed on the flat.

Going to work with mom

Gideon was able to come to the office with me a couple of different days. He was able to observe me and the other lawyer and the administrative assistants working and he thought it was very interesting. His favourite part, though, was playing with the other lawyer's little girl, who was also at work those days.

Owls in the Family

We read Farley Mowat's "Owls in the Family" aloud as a family. Gideon loved the book, and he especially liked the owl Wol. He thought the story of Wol teasing the Mowat family dog was hilarious.

A Child's History of the World

We started reading A Child's History of the World with Gideon. We have talked about nomadic people and the fertile crescent. Gideon was very interested in how children lived back in those days, and he thought it was really funny that people didn't take baths like we do today. He also liked to hear about the Egyptian myths.

Hovercraft

Gideon and Jake and their Aunt Rebekah constructed a remote control hovercraft out of balsam wood and propellers. Gideon was very interested in how it worked, and we talked about lift and pressure and the mechanics of how the hovercraft is able to "float" on a cushion of air. We talked about how the propeller had to go really fast to move enough air, because air is so light and the hovercraft is much heavier. Gideon loved driving it around after it was built. We also talked about how the remote control worked off of electricity, and he thought the idea of radio waves telling the hovercraft how to move was pretty neat.

Wildcraft board game

We often play Wildcraft, a cooperative board game where the players learn about herbs and their uses an cooperation skills. While we played, we would introduce math skills by letting the boys to spin the wheel to find out how many squares to advance, then asking them to double that number to find out how far they could actually go. They would then count out the squares they had to move (from 2 to 12). Gideon was soon doubling numbers up to 6+6 in his head without counting on his fingers.

Life of Fred

We started going through the Life of Fred math textbooks. Gideon enjoyed the stories and the problems. He likes doing math anyways, though, even without the stories.

Calgary Science Centre

We took Gideon to the Calgary Science Centre. We learned how cartoons and movies were made, about air pressure, music, and pulleys. We talked about how you could use pulleys to leverage your strength, and Gideon thought it was pretty cool that he could be stronger than his dad.

We also used about inertia and momentum and velocity. Gideon had a lot of fun putting different size and shaped object on the spinning wheel and watching how long they could stay on.

Calgary Zoo

We have taken Gideon to the Calgary Zoo several times. He watched the zookeepers take the King penguins on a walk. We talked about the four different kinds of penguins and their different habitats. Gideon asked what a habitat was, and we explained that it was a place where an animal lives. Gideon asked if our house was our habitat.
We also visited the North America exhibit, and talked about bison and how the female bison looked different from the male bison. We also visited the wolf exhibit, and Gideon asked why wolves were so mean. We talked about how they were not vicious animals, but rather wild animals. We also visited several other exhibits, including the otters, the snow leopard, the monkeys, the giraffes, the hippos, the komodo dragons, and others.