Tomorrow from 10am – 5pm est, we will be participating in Virtual NerdCon.
Virtual Nerdcon is a nerdy convention hosted in an ACTUAL virtual world! You can customize your avatar, make friends, and shop from actual booths! It has all of your favourite nerdy hobbies and interests for you to shop from AND you can support small businesses! Best part is, you technically don’t even have to get out of bed!
Date: July 10th Time: 10am – 5pm EST Price: $1 CAD/ticket
All proceeds from ticket sales are going to helping Native Women in the community through the charity Native Womens Wilderness.
Native Women’s Wilderness was created to bring Native women together to share our stories, support each other, and learn from one another as we endeavor to explore and celebrate the wilderness and our native lands.
It has been a year (39 weeks) of teaching my Dragon. It has been rewarding, exhilarating, and exhausting. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the teachers who do this every year with 20+ students.
Things I learned this year:
I have no patience when she doesn’t try
She knows how to push my buttons
I don’t have to do everything by myself
I know a least a little bit about a lot of different topics
When she tries, she learns really well
She has great ideas
She really enjoys creating
She’s good at math when she focusses
I forgot about the crochet portion a LOT
I’m incredibly proud of my Dragon
Things my Dragon learned this year:
How to print all the letters in small caps (she already knew caps)
How to play with playdough
The sound of each letter
How to count to 100 by 10’s
How to count to 100
What a pattern is and how to make one
A few French words
The days of the week
The months of the year
The seasons of the year
How to brainstorm a story, storyboard it, write dialogue, and then put it all together
How a stop-motion movie works and created two
How to draw from reference
How to measure baking ingredients
How to measure something with a ruler
How to raise her hand and wait for her turn (in virtual school)
How to turn on and off camera and microphone in a video conference
How to navigate to the chat and click on a link
She learned to read music – the 9 notes around middle C
The values of whole, half, quarter and eighth notes
Can clap and count a line of music using those notes
Completed several finger exercises and the value of practicing them
How to play chopsticks
Overall, I would call this year of Junior Kindergarten/Maternelle successful, even though the hard part, the learning French part, didn’t go as well as I had hoped.
The important thing was that she had fun, and she tells me that she did. She also wants to make another book and another movie during the summer, so we’ll see how that goes.
I’m so very proud of how well my Dragon did this year.
I’ve been thinking about you and despite the fact that you will probably not read this, I wanted you to know. I think of the good times and the bad. The things we did when no one was watching and the things we did in full view.
Some of you I’ve lost track of, some I see on facebook, and some I know exactly where you are buried.
To those that I see online, but either am not friends with or don’t interact with, know that I see your updates; smile at your happiness and frown at your sadness.
To those I have lost track of, know that I think of you from time to time. I wonder where you are and I wish you well.
Many of you are lost because of time and my inability to consistently upkeep a friendship. I know I’m terrible at the little things that strengthen friendships. For those of you in this category, I hope you know I’m sorry.
More than a few I’ve lost because we fought. Either a little stupid thing or something bigger. I know that I have grown and that I know many times it was my fault. For the times that it wasn’t my fault and was yours, I forgive you and hope you have done the same.
For those who I and the world have lost. I hope you understand that you affected my life, you did some good, even it was just a nice gesture or a smile.
Last and saddest, to all the friends I will lose, I’m sorry and I hope that when you think of me you have fond memories or weird ones. I most certainly have them for you.
To all the friends I have lost or will lose: I love you and miss you.
Today we’re talking about the 1994 film The Lion King.
Story
The story is an extremely simple retelling of Hamlet with a little less brooding. It’s iconic and still believable. It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good.
Score: 0.5
Characters
The characters are fun and have believable arcs. I find it extremely strange that Simba and Nala have separate voice and song actors. I have also always found Simba miscast at both ages.
Score: 0.5
Dialogue
The dialogue is extremely clever and the one liners are part of any Disney fans vocabulary. There’s little dialogue in the movie that doesn’t have more than one meaning and that’s a lot of fun.
Score: 1
Visuals and Music
The movie is beautiful and the animation, especially right at the beginning, is spectacular.
I’ve seen the shows at Disney and heard parts of the Broadway play. Both are a little richer and cleaner. However, the music in this is wonderful. The opening song is one of my favourite opening sequences.
Score: 1
Fun
Older Disney movies are hard for me to judge the fun factor because they are so enmeshed with nostalgia. However, my kids were glued to the screen and my four year old gasped in all the right places.
Score: 1
Overall
Other than a few awkward jokes (and some miscasting in my opinion) the movie has aged extremely well and is worth watching just for the opening sequence. This is a movie that all ages will and have loved.
I got my second vaccine two days ago and I’m still really tired and I have some brain fog (Possibly the kid’s fault and not the vaccine). So what I’m about to say might be a little wordy.
There’s something that’s always eluded me and confused me. The sense of Cultural and National Pride. It’s always seemed a little creepy, cult like, and arbitrary. Don’t get me wrong I’m happy to live in a place that the government isn’t going to kill me for my sexuality. I’m happy to have lived in a place that gave me the opportunities to be able to provide for my family even though I was raised by a single mother of lower income.
But the flag waving and inability to criticize our history has always made me uncomfortable. My mother taught me about residential schools when I was young. I learned more about them in my university Canadian Literature class. It’s not something most people knew or investigated and I’ll be the first to admit it’s something that’s hard (emotionally; the info is easy to find) to learn about.
I wasn’t surprised by the first discoveries, I was numb. I’m still a little numb, because we’re going to find more and, horrifically, there will be those we don’t find. These deaths are horrible, but it’s important to remember that they are just the tip of the iceberg. When the investigation is over, the news will scream a number and say how terrible it is, but they won’t add those that killed themselves after attending the schools, those that suffered from untreated PTSD, or those that died of disease or poor living conditions afterwards.
There are still thousands of missing or murdered indigenous women, thousands of people on reserves don’t have clean drinking water, the Canadian government is still fighting Indigenous servitors in court, and people are still arguing that it’s the Indigenous community’s fault.
Yesterday, my family and I wore orange (well I wore black because I don’t have orange, but I’ll fix that for September.)
It’s a big thing and as a regular Canadian with little to no real power, it’s easy to feel utterly powerless. There are things you can do however. They aren’t all easy, but they are necessary for us to grow and improve this country.
The most important thing to do is to Listen to the Indigenous community and fight the urge to be defensive or argue.
The next thing you should do is Learn. Go read the Truth and Reconciliation report, read books and stories by native authors, find out whose land you live on, and keep your mind open. If the communities near you have open houses or events open to you, you should consider participating.
Next thing is absolutely the easiest and that’s to shop Indigenous for Indigenous goods. It might save you a few minutes to order a dream-catcher or orange shirt from amazon/walmart, but that gives amazon/walmart money not the Indigenous artists that need it.
I admit I still have a lot to learn and a lot to do, but together with respect we can learn and improve our country and our world.
The two protagonists of Assassins! Accidental Matchmakers are Kennedy Fairfield and Jason Johnson.
Kennedy Fairfield
Appearance inspired by Olivia Holt
Age: 22
Date of Birth: July 11, 1980
Appearance: Long blonde hair, green eyes, tall, white
Job: Currently working in sales at Discreet Frills, a boutique lingerie store. Looking for work in her field of Agricultural Science
Parents: Lilah and Gerard Fairfield live on a farm in Parry Sound, Ontario
Siblings: Older brother Phillip, married and has one son (15 months old). Twin older sisters Eliza and MacKenzie. Younger brother Tommy
Jason Johnson
Appearance inspired by a young Jason Momoa
Age: 25
Date of Birth: November 8, 1976
Appearance: Shaggy dark hair, hazel eyes, tall, golden brown skin
Job: Owner and operator of a pizza restaurant The Hawaiian. Head of the Oldtown Council. Aka the Westmeath Phantom, a vigilante with the power to manipulate and control shadows
Parents: Hammond and Monique Johnson, deceased.
Sibling: Younger sister Zoe is married to Gabrielle and they have one daughter Brooke (15 months old)
There was a magic broom that people could pose with a little further away from the main statue. I wanted to put the TARDIS in one of the buckets, but it was full of rainwater.
Virtual school was a little different this last week – they had a virtual graduation ceremony for all the kids first thing in the morning. The teachers showed each student’s diploma and the kids all clapped for each other. It was really cute (and very loud).
They listened to a couple stories, danced a lot, and did some crafts (made a puppy origami and a graduation hat). Overall, it was a good day.
When we signed off for the last time, Dragon burst into tears because she already missed her teachers. Poor kid.
She did ballet 2 times this week, once with her Aunt leading the “class.”
Music
Piano: she practiced her finger exercises every day this week. Lesson: She’s been visibly getting better at her finger exercises. They added another finger exercise. They did the Frogs perfectly in time. It will not need to be played again. Then they did the Raindrops and Bells, which she did very well but needs to work on the counting. She did the Kitten page under duress (Dragon didn’t want to do it at first) but she had no problem with the notes but needs to work on the timing. Then they tried a new piece, Summer Showers, which had a more complicated note pattern, and she had very little trouble with it. Then they played chopsticks.
We have a French playlist that I can play through the Google mini, with a variety of artists. Dragon has mentioned that she really likes Coeur de Pirate. So do I.
Crochet
We did not do any crochet this week. The shawl was not completed this year.
Basic Information
We are working on yesterday (hier) and tomorrow (demain) around any given day. The months of the year is going well. We’re working on the month before and after any given month. That’s coming slowly.
The saisons de l’année are all memorized. We’re working on how each of them feel and the types of things we can do during each of them.
When I ask her “combien” for any of the above, she responds in complete sentences.
Printing words
Printing went very well this week. She drew a person fishing next to a tree. On the tree is a ladybug, a worm, and an ant. On the other side of the tree is grass and a lake. There is a bird in the sky with the sun.
Counting objects/math-type activities
She had no problems with the counting worksheet. She counted by 10s to 100 and counted up to 70.
Math was a mixed bag this week. The first worksheet went very well. The second was a little more complicated (I shouldn’t have included 20-4). She had no problem with either pattern.
Storytime
We read stories from the teacher’s outline that was sent to us on Monday. She enjoyed that, and we will continue to do it next week.
We watched Raiponce in French on Disney Plus, one episode a day. Dragon is enjoying it immensely, and is even recognizing some words!
Activity
Table settings – Dragon learned about basic, casual, and formal table settings. As she pointed out, she already knows how to set the table (basic).
Make grey stuff – Dragon made a savoury and a sweet grey stuff.
The savoury was a mushroom paté. A black truffle cheese was added to ours – I do not recommend it. Link to recipe.
The sweet was a pudding, modified to not have any chocolate. We used black icing instead. It was delicious. Link to recipe.
Make bookmark – Dragon made bookmarks for all her teachers, including her Sunday school teacher and her Grannie, who was teaching her piano.
And that’s a wrap for the 2020-2021 school year! Congratulations, Dragon, on completing your Junior Kindergarten/Maternelle!
