Yup totally clear and concise that title is… anyway!

On the suggestion of a good friend due to mass mosquito annoyance I decided I would love a bat house. How better to expedite this than to do a BAT UNIT that ends with Daddy and kids making one such thing? Yup totally being devious here! Enter the book Stellaluna. And all the resources here in. Which I will now share with you!!

First of all the book – Stellaluna… check it out HERE. Now onto the fun stuff. I managed to find a free lapbook on Homeschool Share HERE, and more helpful pages:

• Teachers Pay Teachers thanks to Promoting Success HERE
• About.com finger puppet craft HERE
• KidsSoup.com printable for counting HERE
• Classroom Fun has some resources HERE
• Little Miss Glamour Goes to Kindergarten has some helpful printables HERE
• For the pages I printed off on Education.com you can check my collection HERE
• We also used EnchantedLearning HERE
• And of course Activity Village, they are our go to place for printables HERE
• First Grade Wow has a fun printable HERE

For Halloween we really just went with the flow. Trick or treating… decorating for the season… We watched Room on the Broom of course. And of course, read the book HERE. I have a Halloween collection on Education.com HERE that you can check out. Oh and of course, Activity Village – HERE.

We had a few bat books we used for our unit!

• Bats by Michael George
• What’s Awake? Bats by Patricia Whitehouse
• We Both Read About Bats by Sindy McKay
• When I lived with Bats by Faith McNulty
• Outside and Inside Bats by Sandra Markle

I let Emanuel and Trinity assemble their lapbook as they pleased with minimal interference. It was a great wrap up on a unit they got really interested in! Seriously, there are so many interesting bats out there – our favourites were the fruit bat and the bumblebee bat.

We did a mini unit on Owls right after to continue our nocturnal animals/Halloween theme. You can check out my Education.com collection HERE. And of course, go to Activity Village for their printouts HERE. We had a few interesting books:

• National Geographic Kids Owls by Laura Marsh
• Owls by Josh Gregory
• Snowy Owls by Ruth Owen
• And a lovely story called Owl Babies by Martin Waddell

We printed out all the fun and interesting pages we could find and worked on a full on folder of interesting owl facts.

Of course all of this culminated in HALLOWEEN and COSTUMES! So enjoy the images! This year Zander was a wizard, Gavin a pirate, Emanuel a Storm Trooper (he demanded the light saber), Trinity Dorothy off of the Wizard of Oz and Miss Echo the Queen of Hearts thank to costume components from Aunty Shandai.

We trick or treated with our homeschool buddies for the first time! And did quite nicely.

All in all, a great Halloween!

Sometimes we are surprised when one of these pops up, October 23rd, 2016 marks a couple rather important and amazing milestones… first of all – Ken is now 39! Where has the time gone? I am so grateful to his parents for creating such an amazing individual way back in ’77. One year from 40 and creeping up on 20 years since I became friends with him. Life has taken us all over the place in reality and in growth and I am so in love with him.

The second milestone was the one that sort of crept up on us. This is the very first year, the very first birthday for Ken that we have celebrated together and had the firm knowledge that he is truly on the road to healthy. The first birthday completely unshadowed by active thoughts and concerns of depression looming over us. And that is a HUGE milestone.

We are able to look at today as a total celebration, as a reaffirmation that not only is it another year along our journey but it is another year of Ken embracing joy, potential and affirmation. We have moved beyond the circled wagons and the fear of regression and were able to sit back today and really enjoy a Ken focus day.

Which of course meant lots of sitting around and, well, gaming… or in my case, sitting around and crocheting while reading manga. To see a real smile on Ken’s face, true emotions shining out, well… my heart was full.

The 23rd marked, for us, proof of progress. A day full of moments where we are able to feel the positive effect of all the work, all the sweat and tears and careful planning and discussion that our path has brought us through. It is the fact that we can celebrate a milestone together that reminds me of how close I could have come to losing him. How precious it is that his wish to be healthy coincides with our love and wish for him to always be here with us.

Depression will never be out of our life completely. A part of me is always going to watch for signs in Ken, worry that this is something that my kids could in turn develop and need support through. This is the reality for us, for myself. And I am ok with that. With a bit of diligence and open hearted honesty here, maybe in watching out for my family I can help watch out for others? I would love to hear that there were other people out there who are also reaching unexpected milestones. 

So October 23rd, 2016 is proof positive that we are on our way. Up and down, whatever is thrown at us, that day, those moments, the laughter and the quiet peaceful together time is in my heart to remind me of our success.

I hope that everyone reading this is able to find some milestones to celebrate. As always, I like to think we are in this together. Feel free to comment or share below. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KEN!

November isn’t nearly so busy up in Canada… this American Thanksgiving thing takes getting used to and we have not gotten there yet. I am not a Black Friday shopping person… that is WAY too close to Christmas for my comfort. BUT we do try to cover something about it each year in our homeschool curriculum.

What is funny is that when I do these blog entries looking back at these months long gone I try to think about the month before I look at the pictures on the camera and our phone… November… well beyond Thanksgiving… well I drew a total blank… November, fall, I am pretty sure Nana and Baba took a trip… maybe… crochet, I know I did a lot of that (but when don’t I?)… we had to have homeschooled… crafted some I am sure… but concrete things… well darn you November, you just didn’t stick on the brain!

These flew off to Canada for a group of little girls to enjoy.

Oh wait! Remembrance Day… I mean Veteran’s Day… Though I wear my poppy and called it the former… don’t forget that. We did a mini unit on it that month. I do love the In Flander’s Fields poem (and not just because a Canadian wrote it).

Let’s see… we played in the snow… at the end of the month.

We did Home Depot.

We were thankful with our gratitude turkey feathers.

Echo got her inner artist going.

Trinity and Emanuel helped me make handmade Christmas cards.

We managed to make it to a craft at the Lakeshore educational store. 

We started our Christmas decorating with a mini tree in the basement. 

And put the large one up in the dining area for a lovely Christmas glow.

We made a trip to the Lego store at Mall of America. The kids love playing with the blocks they have out for use. 

Of course we set up our advent calendars. Echo got her very own paper chain countdown that she helped me put together.

We had company over. Cousin Robbie one night, the Schwartz family another.

We made a visit over to Robbie’s house too where Aunty Judy introduced us to their turtle.

And had a homeschool field trip to a newspaper for the twins! 

Of course we did some shopping and with decorations at Walmart and cute little ones at Sam’s.. I took pictures. I think all in all we did good last November!!