Accessories etc – The Holiday Shopping List

JenEric Designs

Scarves, hats, hair clips, dice bags, and everything else crocheted a geek might want for the holidays.

Where to find them

coffee.jeneric-designs.ca

Shipping Deadline

December 11th

Sales

Free Shipping in Canada over $75 with code CANFREESHIP


Pastel Dreams Nikki

Selling creepy cute, pastel goth, and fairy kei products such as mask bundles, scrunchies, hair bows, dice bags, and much more! New products are created every month 🙂

Where to find them

http://pasteldreamsnikki.bigcartel.com/

Shipping Deadline

December 8th

Sales

Limited quantities of bundles available


The Holiday Shopping List

Find all your holiday gifts from local Canadian Artists.


Jewellery etc – The Holiday Shopping List


Float or Fly

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Handmade chain maille jewellery and holiday ornaments that are colourful and lightweight – a modern twist on a medieval artform.

Where to find them

https://www.floatorfly.com/

https://www.facebook.com/FloatOrFly/

https://www.instagram.com/floatorfly/

Shipping Deadline

December 4 (December 13 for local pickup/delivery in Ottawa)

Sales

Free local delivery on purchases of $20 or more, and use code HOLIDAYLIST for 15% off until December 13


Stitchnanigans

Geeky, nerdy and snarky cross stitches, patterns and kits.  Geeky cabuchon pendants as well!!

Where to find them

www.etsy.com/ca/shop/Stitchnanigans

www.instagram.com/stitchnanigansstitching

www.facebook.com/Stitchnanigans1

Shipping Deadline

Dec 5 Canada and US, Nov 15 international

Sales

10% off all cross stitch patterns, as well as all pendants, when purchased on Etsy. https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/Stitchnanigans?coupon=CON2020


The Holiday Shopping List

Find all your holiday gifts from local Canadian Artists.


Week 13 – Arthur Christmas

Although next Monday is still November, the rest of the week is in December, so we are starting Christmas activities! You may, of course, substitute your own personal holiday traditions in place of ours. I would love to hear about them!

Here is the link for the downloadable materials. (Again, please let me know if you have any problems so I can fix it!)

MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
Watch movieWrite letter to SantaGeographyBake cookiesFlex
Summary of the week

Daily details:

Dance

Ballet and martial arts on alternate days

Music

Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano

Crochet

The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho)

Basic Information

We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.

Printing words

Download materials

Counting objects/math-type activities

Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type – in download materials

Count and sort Christmas tags

Count and group Christmas tree decorations

Storytime

Activity

Write letter to Santa (link to letter template)

Geography – app, map, Atlas, activity

Bake cookies

Next week: A Very Merry Pooh Year!

Week 11 – Onward Results

Virtual school started off a little rough this week. Dragon told me her tummy hurt. I think it hurt because she was exhausted. It felt better by the time she had recess. She sang the Bonjour song, both while it played and then when her teacher asked her to sing it by herself. Then she was asked how many days in a week, but she wanted to list the days of the week, so that provided some confusion. She did not get the chance to say the months of the year this week. The teachers taught the students about the letter “L”. Dragon got to write in the chat any words that started with the letter “L”, which she was very excited about. She wrote “livre”. Then they were asked to make the letter with playdough, and then asked to make a word with playdough. Again, she made the word “livre”. She even got a little one-on-one time with the teacher when she was supposed to start recess, because she hadn’t finished and shown her word yet.

After lunch, they did some math. Dragon was able to count to 20 (with a little help for the numbers above 12 from the teachers). So guess what we’re working on this week? We also were introduced to addition of groups of 10, and addition of the under-10 numbers.

Dragon got to present twice this week – first thing in the morning, she presented her wand (baguette magique). She was asked about the colours on it, but she wasn’t feeling well and was tired, so her comprehension wasn’t really there yet. In the afternoon, she presented her family tree to the class. There was some confusion when the teacher asked her how many people were in her family, since her paternal grandparents are no longer with us. (It’s been over a decade, but that night, Dragon was very upset that she had never met them.)

The home school portion went well.

Dance

No martial arts again this week (seems to be a trend, but Éric has been busy with coffee roasting), but she did ballet 2-3 times this week.

Music

Her letters are doing well. She learned where the A and E are on the piano and on the staff. They did a review of the clapping and counting (success), and they tried clapping and counting with notes on the staff (limited success). She learned two new songs with using the two new notes. She practiced the two songs she sight-read last week.

We listened to French Christmas music this week.

Crochet

We did not crochet this week. I am crocheting baby octopuses for twin preemies.

Basic Information

Working on the days of the week verbally is going well. She remembers without prompting, and can tell me the day before and the day after any given day. The months of the year is also going excellently. On Friday, she was able to tell me all 12 months, with proper pronounciation. Prior to that, November and December had English pronounciations.

The saisons de l’année are going well. She’s got automne, hiver, and été, but still has trouble remembering printemps.

Printing words

Tracing letters went well on Wednesday. Printing went fairly well on Friday. She tried really hard to make the letters look the same as the traced ones. She tried to tell me that she had never printed letters without tracing them before. lol

Counting objects/math-type activities

She is doing much better with verbal counting. Her printing needs work on some numbers, but she is working hard. She can count to 14 in French, consistent 95% of the time. We are working on counting to 20. She can count to 12 no problem this week.

Patterns – her patterns have gotten more complex. She understands how to complete a pattern and how to define the first part (the repeating part).

Grouping dice – we used dice to make groups of objects to make it easier to count. But first we had to sort them into the different shapes.

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.

Activity

Make a pop-up diorama – Apparently Dragon was expecting it to “pop!” and was very disappointed that it didn’t. Personally, I was disappointed in how the glue came through the paper, making it blotchy. She doesn’t seem to mind so I haven’t pointed it out to her. I coloured for the first time in a while at the same time as she did, and OMG I didn’t realize how much it hurts to colour after a while! I will definitely bear that in mind next time she says her hand hurts!

Make a dungeon maze – initially I had this as a drawing activity on paper, but then I remembered that we actually have dungeon tiles for D&D, so I changed my mind and had her use them like a puzzle. She was thoroughly entranced by all the different pieces and enjoyed this activity a lot.

Plan a menu for the Manticore’s restaurant – She wrote the menu on paper first, and then I had her type it up on the computer. It was excellent practice for her to use the keyboard, and excellent practice in patience for me! She came up with a breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert item (one each). We only wrote this in English. Her restaurant’s name is FOOD. She was very disappointed that we wouldn’t be making the items to give out to people. Link to PDF of resturant menu.

Books – The Holiday Shopping List

Éric Desmarais Author

Adventure, magic, fantasy, and friendship. Books for young adults and the young at heart.

Where to find them

https://renaissance-107765.square.site/s/search?q=Eric%20Desmarais  (HOLIDAY15 for 15% off)

https://www.EricDesmarais.ca

https://Coffee.Jeneric-designs.ca

Shipping Deadline

December 11th

Sales

Free Shipping in Canada over $75 with code CANFREESHIP


Mirror World Publishing

An Independent Canadian Press of Escapism Fiction for all ages! We publish paperbacks and ebooks in science fiction, fantasy, romance, and adventure as well as children’s books and some art books.

Where to find them

http://www.mirrorworldpublishing.com

http://www.mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com

Shipping Deadline

Varies by location and product

Sales

Use discount code BUNDLE at checkout when you buy a paperback to get 50% off a second paperback! https://mirror-world-publishing.myshopify.com/discount/BUNDLE?redirect=%2Fcollections%2Fpaperback

Or for Ebooks, Use code: BOGO at check out to Buy one, Get one


Renaissance Press

We sell books by diverse Canadian Voices

Where to find them

pressesrenaissancepress.ca

Shipping Deadline

December 10th

Sales

HOLIDAY15 for 15% off between November 1st and December 10th


The Holiday Shopping List

Find all your holiday gifts from local Canadian Artists.


Extra Large Coffee News

Hello Coffee Lovers,

Earlier this season we debuted, silently, on our site, our new Decaf coffee.

Now we’ve also added a new size: Extra Large! It equals 1 pound of coffee and it’s going to cost you $26.

Both Decaf and Extra Large are available right now!


The Holiday Shopping List

Find all your holiday gifts from local Canadian Artists.


Drinks – The Holiday Shopping List

JenEric Coffee

Fresh roasted, fair trade, flavoured coffee with geeky themes.

Where to find them

coffee.jeneric-designs.ca

Shipping Deadline

December 11th

Sales

Free Shipping in Canada over $75 with code CANFREESHIP


Thésaurus Tea

Thésaurus Tea is blended with dainty claws by a geeky dinosaur, and then steeped in fandom! While we have all the usual classic blends (and more!) that one might expect of any tea shop, we also host an ever-growing list of original teas based on popular s

Where to find them

http://www.thesaurustea.com/

Shipping Deadline

Canada December 15th

Sales

Coupon Code JenEric before you check out to get 10% off between November 1-December 15


The Holiday Shopping List

Find all your holiday gifts from local Canadian Artists.


The Wedding Planner – JenEric Movie Reviews

How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2001 movie The Wedding Planner.

Story

I’m not sure what was going on in the early 2000’s that this was considered a romantic comedy. There was very little comedy and very little romance. The most jaded love story I’ve ever seen. It’s interesting that it has a similar love story to Enchanted but a completely different feel.

It’s the early 2000s but the amount of sexism, ableism, and racism is disturbing.

Score: 0

Characters

Jennifer Lopez manages to make a narcissistic, vapid, and whiny character be sympathetic. Beyond that I disliked almost everyone in this movie. I hated that she suddenly stopped caring about her career the minute a pretty boy blinked at her, I cringed at the love story, I yelled at the screen about how disrespectful her father was, and overall wished I could slap some sense into everyone.

Also can we talk about the inherent racism of making Lopez an Italian? I’m all for casting anyone in any role but it would have taken 2 lines to make her mixed race Italian-Latina.

Score: 0

Dialogue

The movie is pretty standard dialogue for it’s time and avoids a lot of slang by being mostly about rich people. There are a few lines by McConaughey that should be uncomfortable but he manages to make almost sweet. This is massive feat considering the dialogue is terrible.

Score: 0

Visuals and Music

The movie was well shot. It had solid angles and the locations are beautiful. They didn’t try to use any weird colour filters and let the beauty of the locations and the clothing shine through. I feel like they could have increased the saturation a little.

The music was well done, adding emotion and guidance where the movie lacked any idea whether you should be cooing or screaming in horror.

Score: 1

Fun

I like my romantic comedies with more comedy and more sweetness. I don’t like to cringe and I really don’t like it when a powerful career woman is made out to only be the product of a loveless life.

Score: 0

Overall

This type of movie is the reason rom-coms started to die out. It’s jaded, creepy, and overall offensive. The main actors are fantastic at what they do and manage to make the characters almost likeable but the writing gets in the way.

This is the kind of movie that would be fun to watch without dialogue where you make up your own story.

Final score: 1 star out of 5