This year I seem to have watched, and reviewed, 53 films. Not bad. Below is a list of them in decending star order. Within each catergory they are in alphabetical order.
This week was Meet the Teacher (vitually, of course) and I discovered that I was not letting Dragon be independant enough. So I taught her how to use the track pad on the keyboard so that she can turn on and off the microphone by herself. This is good – it means I can sit with my laptop or crochet and I don’t have to pay attention as much (only to what time we need to return). Also, starting next week, they will be doing small groups, which will allow her to (hopefully) talk more French. We’ll see how that goes. The homeschool portion was a little more relaxed this week, for some reason. Maybe she’s getting faster at doing her work?
Dance
No martial arts this week, but she did ballet 2-3 times this week.
Music
In order to prepare for piano this week, we practiced the alphabet forwards and backwards A-G.
She had her second lesson on Saturday. They reviewed whole notes and half notes, and learned about quarter notes and eighth notes. She practiced the tune that she learned last week, and then tried to play it as all half notes – she did it perfectly! Then my mom taught her a bit of chopsticks. She had lots of fun with that.
We listened to a bunch of French music. Coeur de Pirate was the favourite yet again and I am thrilled because it is a beautiful album.
Crochet
We managed to get a few more stitches in on Wednesday.
Basic Information
We played with the days of the week (four times) and the months of the year (once). It’s going to be a pretty steep learning curve, I think. She’s able to separate the days of the week into English and French. She can now list off the days of the week in French if I prompt with the first day (L for…?). Still a work in progress, especially for the months. I think it’s intimidating to have twelve pieces of paper in front of her rather than only seven.
Printing words
The words were much shorter this week, and she remembered that broom was balai from Monday to Friday. I was impressed.
Tracing
Printing – she had problems with “un balai” but eventually got it
Counting objects/math-type activities
I feel like we’re going backwards with the printing of numbers, which is weird. But she’s getting better at counting to dix – she still forgets sept, but we’re working on it.
Counting
Numbers
Storytime
We read a couple small books together.
Activity
Draw a monster mask – definitely a highlight for Dragon. She wanted a scary mask, picked this grotesque one, and was very pleased with herself when she coloured it. She also cut it out by herself (minus the eyes, which I did for her). I don’t know if I should be encouraging her to colour in the blank spaces more or not…. She’s happy with it, and that’s what matters?
Write a short Halloween script (2 days: writing + storyboarding) – we wrote a very short descriptive script (I wrote it because she had so many ideas too quickly and couldn’t get them down fast enough. They were all her ideas, though.), then I explained how to storyboard and she sketched it out, and then she wrote the dialogue for each step of the script so that we could know what was going on in the stop-motion video, which we will be doing next week.
Original script
Script after re-writes to make it more Halloween-y
Storyboard
Writing the dialogue
Writing the dialogue – she wrote each sentence (there are 4) in English and then in French
Example of a series of stop-motion images, not put into video form:
My Dragon LOVES Halloween, so we’ll be watching Halloween movies all month! I didn’t watch this movie until I was already an adult, so there’s no nostalgia for me, but it’s super cute and Dragon loves it.
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
There are how many children in the family? How many girls? How many boys?
It takes just under three hours to drive between Seattle, Washington and Portland, Oregon, but I decided to combine that area together, because I am Canadian, and that’s short – it’s longer than that from Ottawa to Toronto!
Seattle, WA
There are a lot of geeky things to do and see in Seattle! The EMP Museum should be top of your list, though, and there’s an exhibit going on right now (it will be closed Oct 5 – 16) that I would love to see: Fantasy: Worlds of Myth and Magic. There are numerous authors, film makers, and others who have been inducted into their Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame. The museum itself is, to quote directly, “…a leading-edge nonprofit museum, dedicated to the ideas and risk-taking that fuel contemporary popular culture.” Tickets are approximately $22/adult (prices may change).
From my research, there are many bars and shops that have pin ball games, arcade games, table top board games, and/or card games available to play while you drink a pint. Here is a list of some places you can check out, and here is a list of more! I do have to warn you: the AFK Tavern is located in Everett, thirty minutes North of Seattle. The reviews vary between 3 to 4.5 stars out of 5. Food can get expensive, but they have drinks like Polyjuice Potion…I mean, come on!
Lastly, I want to talk to you about the views you can see from some of the tallest buildings in Seattle. There are two options: The Space Needle and The Sky View Observatory. They each have their pros and cons. The Space Needle is a two minute walk from the EMP Museum, so it would be easy to see both in one day. However, The Sky View Observatory, which is located in the Columbia Center, is a short nine minute drive away, so it’s not unreasonable to visit it either. They are approximately equal in price (around $13-15/adult), and they both have a restaurant on the observation deck. The Sky View Observatory has two pros that The Space Needle does not. One, you can take a picture of The Space Needle, and two, it is much higher: soaring at 902 feet compared to 520 feet. Either way, you are in for a spectacular view!
St Helen’s, OR
St Helen’s in Oregon dedicates October to Halloweentown. Image from their Facebook page.
Did you know that Halloweentown was filmed in St Helen’s, Oregon? I didn’t, until a Facebook post popped up a couple of months ago, and I found out that the entire month of October is dedicated to Halloweentown in this city. How incredibly cool is that?
Portland, OR
There is a pretty awesome arcade that becomes a bar after five pm: Ground Kontrol. They have their own version of Geeks Who Drink! Super fun game.
There are some great bookstores and comic book shops in the Portland area, which are always fun to check out!
The Portland Geek Community is also super organized when it comes to their online community. They have a website for all the events that go on in the city, and a Geek Council!
There are tons of events that happen throughout the year that are rather…unique…in Portland. So if you find yourself in the Northwest, check out the possible events that could be happening in the area!
There is so much to do and see in the Seattle/Portland area! If you are interested in going, contact me Jennifer Desmarais through AJ Travel. jenniferd@ajtravel.ca