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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

language arts, social science, reading

These are the books we've read aloud this year. We're currently working on "The Secret Garden."
-Charlotte's Web
-The Princess and the Goblins
-James and the Giant Peach