Pegasus Flight School

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Kindergarten education through genre media

We have chosen to keep Pegasus home from Jr Kindergarten (Maternelle) this September. There are several reasons for this, but the main one is that I really want to give him the same learning opportunities that Dragon had when she went through this program. We have nothing but the highest respect for the teachers in the school system, but I’m really looking forward to spending this year with just Pegasus.

I have looked at the Ontario curriculum for Kindergarten and its overall expectations. You can see them here.

To this end, we will be following a home-based curriculum around a different movie each week. Pegasus helped me come up with the movies and ideas for the activities, and is super excited to do these.

I will be posting the weekly lessons here the week before, including any worksheets I plan on printing out.

When I was teaching Dragon, we watched the movie on Mondays. We are switching that to Tuesdays for family reasons.

Each day will include the following:

  • Dance (ballet and martial arts on alternate days)
  • Music (singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano, learning guitar)
  • Crochet on the project he is working on (currently he is making himself a poncho)
  • Basic Information about the days of the week and months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.
  • Printing words related to the movie of the week (English and French templates available here) (both in Word; if you want a different format, let me know and I’ll see what I can do) You will need the KG Primary Dots font in order to see these properly. The weekly words will be PDFs, so you don’t need the font for those, only if you want to make your own.
  • Counting objects/math-type activities related to the movie of the week, including printing numbers (templates available here) You will need the KG Primary Dots font in order to see the printing part properly. Again, the weekly worksheets will be PDFs, so you won’t need the font unless you choose to make your own.
  • Storytime
  • An activity outlined in the chart (subject to change)

We are start the 29th August in the French Public school system, so the August-September movies are:

  • Encanto (2021)
  • Tangled (2010)
  • Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie (2023)
  • Nimona (2023)
  • Moana (2016)

Tropes of Mystery of the Dancing Lights

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@ericdesmaraisauthor

“The Mystery of the Dancing Lights” is a YA summer camp timeloop mystery with a timely twist. Do you like summer camps, mysteries, and timeloops? This book has it all. Pre-order now! Physical Canadian indie bookstore: https://49thshelf.com/Books/T/The-Mystery-of-the-Dancing-Lights Physical Indigo: https://tinyurl.com/t5saszcf Ebook: https://books2read.com/u/bOe6ao #TheMysteryOfTheDancingLights #TMofDL #timeloop #book #YA #UrbanFantasy #SummerCamp #HiddenWorld #series #PressesRenaissancePress #Canadian #booktok

♬ original sound – Éric Desmarais

Every book utilizes tropes, even if it’s to subvert them, and Mystery of the Dancing Lights is no exception. This book covers: Dual POV, Young Adult, time loop mystery, detailed worldbuilding, summer camp, urban fantasy, Hidden magical world, and time travel.

The Mystery of the Dancing Lights by Éric Desmarais is available now!
Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version

What if Elizabeth had Instagram? (time loop edition)

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The Mystery of the Dancing Lights is set in 2015. If Elizabeth Coderre had an Instagram account, she might post something like this:

@ericdesmaraisauthor

“The Mystery of the Dancing Lights” is a YA summer camp timeloop mystery with a timely twist. Do you like summer camps, mysteries, and timeloops? This book has it all. Pre-order now! Physical Canadian indie bookstore: https://49thshelf.com/Books/T/The-Mystery-of-the-Dancing-Lights Physical Indigo: https://tinyurl.com/t5saszcf Ebook: https://books2read.com/u/bOe6ao #TheMysteryOfTheDancingLights #TMofDL #timeloop #book #YA #UrbanFantasy #SummerCamp #HiddenWorld #series #PressesRenaissancePress #Canadian #booktok

♬ original sound – Éric Desmarais

The Mystery of the Dancing Lights is a YA summer camp timeloop mystery with a timely twist.

Do you like summer camps, mysteries, and timeloops? This book has it all. Pre-order now!

#TheMysteryOfTheDancingLights#TMofDL#timeloop#book#YA#UrbanFantasy#SummerCamp#HiddenWorld#series#PressesRenaissancePress#Canadian#booktok

The Mystery of the Dancing Lights by Éric Desmarais is available now!
Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version

“Crushing It” Review 3

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Crushing It was sent out for reviews in May, and I’ve received some in return. Here’s one from bookstagrammer @JourneytoBiscovery:

Cover art by @pinkpiggy93 on Tumblr and Instagram

Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!

Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version

Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie – JenEric Movie Review

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How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2023 film Ladybug & Cat Noir: The Movie.

Note: I watched the English dub and have been a long time fan of the TV show.

Story

This was a simplified version of the show’s story with minor changes to make it fit in a movie format. Best to think of it as a alternate reality from the show if you’re a fan.

The descriptions and explanations seem fairly straightforward for those who don’t know the show.

The story, however, was very reductive and about the same as any other teen superhero story.

It did flow well and end well so I’ll give it credit for that.

Score: 0.5

Characters

The characters were fun but unfortunately fairly shallow. Marinette was well developed and definitely the star, but Adrien was underdeveloped and bland.

The secondary characters felt underused and I’m not sure a casual audience would care about them.

The changes to Marinette and Gabriel were effective in making the story more believable.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

The dialogue was quippy and funny, showing that despite the changes, the writers and actors were comfortable with the characters.

There are a few deep lines and what dialogue there is it’s well used.

I feel like the movie could have used more dialogue and less singing.

Score: 0.5

Visuals and Music

The movie was colourful, well animated, and pretty. The action was engaging and often well balanced with humour.

The music was lovely, although the transition from voice actor to singing voice was a little jarring with Marinette and Adrien.

Music, like action scenes, should be developing character and plot in a way that can’t be done otherwise. The songs need to be catchy and do all that. The song were catchy, but only did minor developments. The time could have been better used to develop the characters with dialogue.

Score: 0.5

Fun

We’ve now watched all four seasons available in Canada and we warned the kids in advance that this was a different story. They’ve seen enough Cinderella versions to get that idea. There were a few moments where they would ask why the characters weren’t doing what they would do in the show, but overall they seemed to love it. Lots of giggles in the opening scene with the gargoyle.

The adults enjoyed it as well. This was fun and low angst.

Score: 1

Overall

A fun movie which suffers from watering down the world for a new audience and trying to force the story into a standard superhero format. Despite being an easy watch, its secondary characters are as forgettable as the songs.

Final Score: 3 Stars out of 5

The science behind Crushing It

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Crushing It

Probably one of the biggest hurdles I had in writing this book was the science. Writing it clearly enough that readers could follow along, but not get bogged down by the science, was hard.

I think my favourite science part was the obstacle course ice breaker in the March Break camp. I had a lot of fun planning that out, and I even made the modified version of it that we recorded for the cover reveal video. My eldest and her friend completed it together.

The STEM competition was more difficult, mostly because I had to make it more advanced. I discussed the five different sections with Éric beforehand, finally deciding on optics, electronics, programming (part 1 & 2), construction, and mystery.

A bit of background on me: I have a Bachelor of Science, so I took many many post-secondary science classes. Do I remember them? Not in the slightest.

However, I do remember how to research for them. Mostly.

Éric (a huge science nerd) was a huge help with all of it, but especially the optics and mystery.

My mom (has her masters in computer science) and sister (has her bachelors in a information technology) were invaluable for the programming section. I was able to suggest solutions and they would explain why they would or wouldn’t work. Most of that discussion went into the book.

Overall, I had a lot of fun writing the science of the book, and I hope you have fun and learn a little while reading it. This is not a science book, but I tried to make it as accurate as possible.

Cover art by @pinkpiggy93 on Tumblr and Instagram

Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!

Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version

Mini MSN Chats 4-5

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Crushing It

Here follows the accounts of 2003-version MSN chats between Tommy and Carter, set in the middle of “Crushing It” as they navigate their long-distance relationship.

MSN chat #4.1
MSN chat #4.2
MSN chat #5
Cover art by @pinkpiggy93 on Tumblr and Instagram

Crushing It by Jen Desmarais is available now!

Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version

What if Elizabeth had Instagram? (time travel edition)

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The Mystery of the Dancing Lights is set in 2015. If Elizabeth Coderre had an Instagram account, she might post something like this:

@ericdesmaraisauthor

“The Mystery of the Dancing Lights” is a YA summer camp timeloop mystery with a timely twist. Do you like summer camps, mysteries, and timeloops? This book has it all. Pre-order now! Physical: https://49thshelf.com/Books/T/The-Mystery-of-the-Dancing-Lights Ebook: coming soon #TheMysteryOfTheDancingLights #TMofDL #timeloop #book #YA #UrbanFantasy #SummerCamp #HiddenWorld #series #PressesRenaissancePress #Canadian #booktok

♬ original sound – Éric Desmarais
The Mystery of the Dancing Lights is a YA summer camp timeloop mystery with a timely twist.

Do you like summer camps, mysteries, and timeloops? This book has it all. Pre-order now!

#TheMysteryOfTheDancingLights #TMofDL #timeloop #book #YA #UrbanFantasy #SummerCamp #HiddenWorld #series #PressesRenaissancePress #Canadian #booktok

The Mystery of the Dancing Lights by Éric Desmarais is available now!
Physical from Canadian indie bookstores, physical from Indigo, electronic version