NEOLITHIC SCULPTURE

Today we reached the Neolithic era. What a productive era! agriculture, domestication of animals, the wheel, cooper, bread. So we made neolithic sculpture. It is an evolution of the Venus sculpture of the Cro-Magnon man.

These sculptures were representations of an Earth Mother goddess. The Women we are reading were pretty revered. They did the agricultural farming, invented bread and made the babies. The kids worked hard. SW however was less impressed. He is going through some preteen mood swings so we have sullen days and good days.

We also discussed shale and limestone in prep for our trip to the lake front on a fossil hunt. Wahtha discovered bees today and really liked it. The kids tried to convince him that bees were not friendly when chased. I was glad to see the bees considering that they are having population problems.

AFN supports Algonquins.

The AFN has written a letter declaring their support for the Algonquins. You can read it here

You may notice the letter is to the Algonquins and their Chiefs and citizens. One can only hope there is a copy sent to the government. Chiefs is vague (which chiefs?, recognized by who the government or the people?). No mention of the Heads of Family structure.

Unfortunately the letter references the UNs declaration of Indigenous rights. Which is a fantastic declaration. I am a big fan of it, but apparently the AFN failed to notice Canada's promise of nothing in reference to the declaration. Perhaps National Chief Shawn A-in-chut Atleo (or his letter writer) should read my blog post on the subject (http://inax5.blogspot.com/2010/03/canada-promises-nothing.html)

I am pleased of the support from a National political body that has the power to do nothing (although some people think it does) but I wish they spoke with a stronger voice, were more in-tune with the people, and would put their foot down more firmly.

Perhaps it would say more if they had representation in the AFN for all the non-treaty Algonquins. Cuz that people, is the actual issue. Way back in treaty signing days the majority of Algonquin chiefs refused to sign treaties, (much like the leader of my people Sitting Bull). So the government moved on with out treaty and took everything; Capitol Hill, Algonquin park, basically eastern Ontario. Now a few signed (Golden Lake). Most didn't. Now here we are generations later and the hereditary heads of family and their chiefs and citizens are fighting for recognition and land. And so it is that the AFN is writing a letter supporting their walk for this issue. So if they support all the Algonquins, do the Algonquin (leaders of those whose ancestors didn't sign treaty) have represented in the AFN? Nope. Lets start there, then get active and lobby the Parliament. The AFN might just be useful and have respect of the people if they did this. Or they can continue to be ever useless, and sometimes patsy.

DECADENT OREO ICE CREAM CAKE

Sunny Not loves Oreo Ice Cream cakes. Every year when I do her part for her friends, that is what she asks for. This year to save cash I thought I'd make it myself. I looked on-line and all the instructions did not impress me. Vanilla ice cream, cool whip, no wonder people spend $40 buying them.

So I decided to do it with my own instructions. Oh it was amazing, and rich and worth every penny. But it did not save me money (cost me more). So if you want to save money do not follow these instructions. If you want it to taste the best ever, then close your eyes at the checkout in the grocery store and follow along.

First buy a spring form pan or a lot of patience. I did not buy the pan, but will before next year. I used a foil pie plate. then when I was part way through I peeled off the sides of the pie plate.

Make sure you have all day, this takes a little over 4 hours.

INGREDIENTS
1 pack chocolate cookie crumb crust. (I used Presidents Choice from Lawblaws)
1 bag of oreo cookies
1/2 liter carton of whipping cream
1 container of oreo ice cream
1 jar of hot fudge (I used smuckers)
1 bottle of chocolate crackle (I used smuckers)
1/4 cup melted butter or margerine
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

PREP
with electric beaters mix (on high) chilled whipping cream in a chilled bowl until thickened enough that it holds some form. While mixing slowly pour in 1 cup of sugar. Keep mixing on high until it forms stiff peaks. Now add in 1/4 tsp cream of tartar and whip another minute or so. At this point your whipping cream is very thick and a little sweet. It will hold it's form just like a thick icing. Set aside in fridge.
Set aside 24 oreo cookies and smash the rest, set aside out of reach from children

INSTRUCTIONS

• Mix package of cookie crumb crust with 1/4 cup melted butter (if you are using a different brand then follow their instructions).
• press into bottom of pan.
• add a layer of chocolate fudge
  
• scoop out softened ice cream and smooth over cake
• freeze for 1.5 hours.
• add a layer of chocolate fudge
• freeze for 0.5 hours
• add half the 1/3 the whipping cream
• drizzle on a layer of chocolate crackle (thickly)
  
• freeze for 1 hour.
• remove from pie plate or spring form pan
• add remaining 2/3 whipping cream to top and sides.
• drizzle on chocolate crackly (decoratively)
• add candles now!
  
• freeze for 1 hour
• put 12 oreo cookies around the out side edge
• cover top off cake with crushed oreos
• place remaining oreos up right around outer top edge of cake and one in the middle
• freeze until you serve (at least 1 hour)

NOTE follow my freezing instructions (even for whipping cream) if you want it to look tidier then mine. I re3alized this part way through that it took anout an hour for the whipping cream to freeze

GEOLOGY MUSEUM

But First
It has been a few days since I posted. we have been busy and out and going all week. But since I was not feeling well at the start of the week, being busy each day wore me out. I was so exhausted I went to sleep early then my usual. One night I fell asleep shortly after Indy. I knew enough to drink the tea we use for medicine, but apparently didn't know enough to get more sleep...luckily our bodies will force the issue if needed. We would tell our kids to sleep, and stay in bed. We would make sure the kids were quiet (er), for our husbands to get some extra sleep, but do it for ourselves? It is so hard for us Women. It means giving up control and that we don't do easily.

And Back To Our Trip
On Wednesday we went to the Miller Geology Museum at Queens U, after spending the morning downtown. Mostly in the books store and art store. About halfway through the trip Indy was done so he and I played in the sand where you can dig for fossils. I trusted Runner with my camera (cell phone) and he took some pics while in the lab learning how to identify minerals.

It was a nice visit (other then cranky toddler). The rocks, minerals, and gems on display are beautiful. The giant piece of salt was amazing to the kids. Seeing platinum and gold impressed them and the geodes (especially the big one) wowed them. I think everyone is amazed by geodes. Ko-Ko wants to smash open all rocks in case she finds one. Runner liked asking & (especially) answering questions about fossils. They recently learned to identify the different types of fossils. Best of all, Ko-Ko and Runner are now interested in geology. Yeah for me cuz I love the subject. I think we will take a trip to the water front and look for some fossils in the limestone (apparently we have a good and easy to find supply around here).

OUR VOLCANO

Today we started a unit on volcanoes and section on the volcanic activity in Iceland. Part of it was building a volcano. It got the kids interested.

We built a playdough volcano around a water bottle. We lerned some things,

• homemade playdough is moist, soft, and slides. Use plasticine, clay or store playdough.
  
• The instructions we have are only enough for a water bottle, not a pop bottle.
• Runner has good ideas, orange crush is a good lava (instead of water with red food colouring.
• One 2 liter bottle of pop, gives several eruptions.

The kids learned that taking it outside is a good idea. They thought I was lucky tht I took it outside...aparently they need to learn that often I just know what I am doing :)
It was good to start the day building it. Indy helped by pouring the ingredients into the mixing bowl. Waiting for their friends to get home from PS made them very productive and put on a good show that all their friends like...with comments like "Wow, your school is fun" Runner wants to build bigger one showing the ring of fire and volcanic hotspots.with smaller volcanoes that can all erupt...Dad needs to help I think.

VENUS SCULPTURES

You Couldn't Do This In Public School

But First...Today we read some stories of the Greek Gods and Goddess' SW retold us the story he read about Arachne and Athena. He told it with great detail. Ko-Ko told us of Pandora and her box. She did very well. Considering she only learned to read in the past yer since I pulled her out (at age 8 in school she couldn't read at all). I am very impressed that she showed such good comprehension. Runner read about how the Greek gods came to be from Uranus to Cronos to Zeus. He is getting better at retelling but struggles with the idea of "in your own words"

We built a volcano, read some about them and started our timeline of the volcnic eruption going on in Iceland. I will post this later after we erupt it.

We did some math quizes (just a few) and then read some more from "Cartoon History Of The Universe". We went from Cro-Magnon art to the last ice-age. I explained about iceage and glacial age scientifically vs how people use the term ice-age. Then we had a good discusion on early art (the Venus Sculpture). How it my have represented a Goddess Figure, fertility charm or early playboy. Then I got out the plasticine nd we each made our own. Ko-Ko started out embarrassed. The Boys though tht art of Naked breasts was not allowed in school.
I told him we cn at home cuz I say so, it's better then writing about Venus scultpures and that schools don't do it cue the kids would all break out in hysterics.

Ko-Ko's closely resembles the original. SW's is very impressive when you consider he hates art cu z he has an ASD that interferes with visual learning. Guess sculpture is more touch and feel. Runners is detailed, not able to grasp the idea of some abstract. We did these outside as today is a beautiful day.

The sculptures are shown in the following order starting with Ko-Ko, then SW, Runner & lastly, myself.

VOLCANOES

With what is going on in Iceland the grown-ups in the house asked if the kids would be learning about it. I was already on it. I finished last night a small unit study on volcanoes. There first bit is mostly info, pics and links. I have links to videos on you tube, a quiz page and to news sites for following the latest on the volcano. I also have pages for recording what is happening as well as writing bout the bigger stories. So it will be more of a current events project in the end...which is good. We talked today about volcanic winter. Maybe I should have included more on this as they were very interested. Or maybe we will follow up with a unit about volcanic winter and similar meteorological events. There is of course the baking soda volcano. I'll post pics as soon as we do it. We took bit of a walk to register Ko-KO for her gymnastics Gala. On the way back we stopped for fries. I'm including a pic of Ko-Ko climbing a stop sign on the way home (she's a bit of a monkey) and a link to our volcano unit. One link direct to the PDF and one to the website where I keep all the links to my PDF files.

WEBSITE http://inasnativehomeschoolunitstudies.webs.com/assignmentshandouts.htm
VOLCANO PDF https://acrobat.com/#d=5FdSHX2hll90Qrwl0oYDEA

VISITORS ARE COMING!

Some Of Our Favorite Visitors (hope Tracy comes soon).

Aunty Lisa and Cody are coming I was hoping to visit them, maybe this time next month. Lisa's visit will be short. Cody will be here for about a month. The kids will have a great time with Cody here. A young man in his 20's who kids love and he loves kids. I am excited. It will also be great to Nature walk with them as thier expertise is greater then mine in this area. And Lisa makes me feel so strong after a good visit.

It is so great to have visitors. It is funny that good visitors worry about staying to long or being a burden but having them so builds you up.

We thought they were coming next Monday (grandma Claus had a communication issue) That whole "next Monday thing" Is that the one about to happen or the one in a week? I think everyone translate its different.

Sunny Not turned 14 today. I worked all day. But my sis brought her and Ko-Ko to he movies so I saw her. We are celebrating next weekend. It is hard to imagine she is 14. In september she will be in highschool. I have a grade 8 prom dress to make. We are going to make it look like the one Alice ears in the ne Alice in wonderland movie while she is in the Red Queens Court, except different colours. Same shape. It will be blue, and in satin and tule. I also foresee ans animal print. You'll all have to stick around to see.

Also I will be up late tonight working on a unit on the volcano.

Have a great week all!

The Elements Song

THE ELEMENTS SONG, OTHER SONGS AND OUR DAY
We had a pretty good day today. We started with the regular getting ready routine. During which I searced you tube for the element song as recommended by Aunty Claus. I have it posted below. Well I couldn't help but notice all the other cool learning songs. (which I will add at the bottom). Then we went to get Ko-Ko's friend a birthday gift. We went to Arden's, tons of girl stuff super cheap, all the bangles, necklaces, hair stuff and handbags they could ever want. Then we went to the pet store to finish our unit on pets. We found out how much for start up, for the pets, monthly costs (food, bedding, snacks, toys, etc). They were also able to tell us what to expect vet wise. I can tell you I am 99% sure the fish will win. Then we went for lunch and to the book store (of course). We bought "Odysseus, escaping Poseidon's curse" & "Olympians Zeus, King of the Gods" both are graphic novels. Indy picked out a truck book. We always travel on the bus and by foot. So I took pictures of that today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0zION8xjbM&feature=fvw

(you tube video meet the elements by they might me giants

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUzTQWn-wfE&feature=related

you tube video the atom song)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJvAL-iiLnQ&feature=related

(you tube, glucose song)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JH96P4Lpobc&feature=related

(you tube Carbon is a girls best friend)

(

ENNIT AMAZING? !

I can hardly believe it, even now as the days end comes nearer...

...OK I'll fill in some background first. One of the many things I like about homeschooling is getting up at 8:30 with the kids and getting ready for the day without running around crazy yelling "eat faster" (yep, HS parents, thats what our mornings were like in the old PS days).

However Ko-Ko doesn't focus well in the afternoon so we still have to get our schooling started in the morning and be done by 1-ish at the latest. Also neither Ko-Ko or I concentrate well in mess or clutter (we are easily distracted) so we need to tidy first.

So the mornings goal is to start our school day by 9:30...reality we start around 10 or 10:30 (I have trouble admitting this, not sure I have before). We get less done then planned. So I noticed the rush rush coming back. I do not like being rushed so I have sacrificed our 8:30 wake up time. 7:45 is the new time.

IT WORKED!

We have started by 9:30 2 days in a row! So, you see, it's amazing ennit? And we are back to slowly but surely getting ready. It's my preferred state. At powwows when everyone is laxing in their lawnchairs with coffee, tea or pop in the morning, I start getting me and the 5 kids all ready and dressed for powwow, slowly but surly. And you know what I do round later in the morning, early afternoon when the MC is announcing the start time and everyone is rushing around getting dressed? Laxing in my lawn chair with my prime spot round the circle picked out. That way I start dancing all calm, or as calm as the kids let me be ;) So I am taking my day the same way, get ready slowly but surly, just starting when we have time to do that properly.

trip to the peniteniary museum

Can You Lock Them Up Please?
Today after our lessons we went on a field trip with two other families in our homeschool group. The field trip was to the penitentiary museum. learned about when the Kingston Pen was built (1833 - 1834) and it's youngest prisioners (a 7 yr old boy and 9 yr old girl). We learned about when P4W was built (1930's) and they mentioned the riot that eventually ended it all (I remember that). We learned about the building the museum is in, how it was once the warden house and that the prisioners built it.

The Kingston Pen has never been added to (that surprised me), although the outside walls have been rebuilt, and the inside re-done. We saw prison and guard uniforms. Weapons the prisoners made inside, including a crossbow, gun and a cannon! We aw how a guy escaped the Milhaven Pen inside of meal trays with the center cut out except the top and bottom. and how he lashed them together. He had to lose about 20 - 30 lbs to fit, and he was taken out with the dirty trays (which were washed off site).

We saw all the terrible punishments The kids were able to get inside two of them. One held you place stockade style with a bucket around your head. Over top was a bucket with a spout that emptied into the one around your head. Another was an upright coffin that they locked people in for 15 min - 9 hrs. We saw a mock up of a current cell and the old ones. There kids also took pictures of themselves in front of cell pars, that were mounted over a mirror so it looked like you were looking at yourself in a cell.

We saw a model of one of The Native healing lodges that our people can go to to heal from the trouble they suffer when they walk a negative path. We saw the hobby crafts the inmates in the prisons have made, including several Native crafts including baby moccasins. We heard music from the old bands they had that had a weekly radio showthrough the local station. We saw them talk about the P4W baseball team that my husband and some others from the Native Friendship Center used to go play against when my husband was in his teens. Mostly we learned how much we value the freedom that we do have.

Tomorrow the kids will be filling out a field trip report. I hope when we talk about it they can see that the history of prisons is not all black and white. I felt some sympathy looking at all that we saw there.

We finished up the day with some playtime at the harb our by the docks, until a city worker thought it was to dangerous for us to have our kids near the water and had us leave the docks (the water was crystal clear, never seen lake Ontario like that) so we continued to the nearby playground, it was a lovely afternoon

IT'S TRIBAL

My toddler, is an artist. I think they all are, just sometimes they forget. Each of my children has gone through a stage of decorating themselves with markers. My dear husband is not a fan.
DH: "are you letting them go out like that?"
ME: "ah, yeah"
I think it would be hypocritical to get upset about it. My husband and I both have tattoos, our whole family on his side does except for his brothers wife (one of those little blue eyed mall types). Whose to say one type of body art is better then another? And the older kids all love the stick on tattoos. It's so natural for them to draw on themselves. People all over the planet have been tattooing for thousands of years, it's very tribal. I think it's a natural form of artistic expression, that was only quashed by the era of assiilation as europeans christianized the world. But nothing ever managed to eraticate it. People will always be drawn to this art. So yes I let Indy colour his boy. He is so intent while doing it, like a master on his newest master piece, and so pleased when he is done, who could squash that?

AND LATER
We walked around the nieghbourbhood a little, got the new cookie dough drumsticks (YUM!) and looked at the suburban version of nature. saw some bees and a little brown butterfly with white trim amoungst someones garden flowers. We will have to name and identify it later.

SALMON ARE SACRED

The following is copy and pasted from Native American Homeschoolers, which is (as the name suggests) a yahoo group for Native Homeschoolers.

http://www.salmonaresacred.org/organizeattend-supporting-event

Exceptional Organizers and Attendees

Molina Dawson - Kingcome Village
�I, for one, am not going to just sit around and watch while our
Indigenous wildlife slowly gets picked off, only to bere placed by a
bunch of freaky farm fish!� - Molina Dawson
Fourteen year old daughter Ogwila'ogwa (Molina Dawson) from Kingcome
Village is pledging to join the walk from Port McNeill to Victoria in
support of eliminating fish farms from our BC waters. She raising all
her own funds to be able to attend the Migration. You can donate to
Molina's Migration efforts here. For more information, you can contact
Molina's parents.

Laterra Lawson - Tofino
Laterra is home schooled and a member of the Tlaoquiaht First Nation.

�My name is Laterra Lawson I am 11 years old, I would like to join
the walk for wild salmon leaving from Tofino to Victoria.�

click on link for more...

http://www.salmonaresacred.org/organizeattend-supporting-event

WOO - HOO!

MY BOOKS ARRIVE FROM AMAZON.COM

My latest order from Amazon.com was the next cartoon history of the universe (vol 8 - 13). Plus several Basher books. Click to see them here

The periodic table: Elements with style. (poster of periodic table)
of
Rocks & Minerals : A Gem of a Book. (poster of Mohs scale)

Physics: Why Matter Matters.

Biology: Life as we know It. (poster of body and systems)

Astronomy: Out of This World. (poster of solar system)

Actually some how I ended up with two astronomy books. I could return it , but I think my brother the ( science teacher) would like it.

They are funny, the information is complete and compact and the pictures are funny and a useful memory tool. I so recomend it. Runner was looking through the astronomy book.
Runner: Is it a chapter book?
Me: No
Runner: IS it a school book?
Me: yep
Runner: are we doing it today?
Me: No, but you can read it in your spare time today
Runner: OK!

Yeah, that doesn't happen with text books.

We are going to do an element a week from the periodic table. I made a work sheet for us to fill out each time. https://acrobat.com/#d=yx75y6YMK0dNPodQojY0FQ

IMPATIENCE, MY MAJOR FLAW

Impatience. It is one of those flaws I know about, struggle with and still get tripped by over & over & over.

I bake, for fun. Half my cakes lose a piece of the bottom to the pan, then I carefully get the lump out, place it back and carry on. Not because I don't butter the pan. Cuz I am to impatient to let it cool.

Today I made lemon squares. and since they finished as supper ended I thought I'd take them out of the pan right away.

What was I thinking? It fell apart. I put it all on a tray and told the children to grab a spoon or fork and have at it. It tasted good and the kids liked digging in like that. I, however, was disappointed in myself. Maybe posting it here will be the reminder I need.

NATURE WALK

OUR WALK ALONG OUR SECTION OF THE LITTLE CAT.
I made field study pages for the kids in PDF to print and put in duo tangs. So today we started. On the edge of our subdivision (inside the city) is a important water shed so there is no development along this water shed....very close to it however. So we walked our section. It was kinda cool to see nature in the city. Our subdivision isn't downtown, its on the edge. Everything east of us is downtown. Everything west of us is suburbs. We have never been along this before, although I have been to other parts of this watershed. I am excited to walk this in the summer. I know sweetgrass grows along this watershed, I can smell it. I have never been able to get access to it though, perhaps in this section though. We took Ko-ko's friend with us, Sunny Not didn't come, she is on a sleepover. We did take Indy (but won't next time). We found a path eventually and followed it. It brought us to our city's main st, near KFC so we stopped there for a late lunch and then headed home. It was a good afternoon.

Ground plants are nice and green

The orange in the water is a plant.

Snake. Ko-Ko's friend picked this up, dropped the poor thing in fear and tried again.
The snake swam away (smart choice). Still I'm impressed that the young girl so
wanted to hold something she was afraid of.

SW & Indy heading to the stream. Indy didn't like heading down the slopes near the edges, especially after I slipped on mun and slide down hitting the edge of the water.

SW crossing the stream to the island, which he loves.

New green leaves.

Fur from an animal, we think it was attacked because on one piece we could see the skin,
now weathered. We had a good talk about if it was squirrel or rabbit. It's rabbit.

First flower.

Seed pods. There was not a lot of diversity here. 2 types of trees, 2 types of shrubs,
although there was more diversity in the ground plants.

Summer or Winter? Runner & SW have different perspectives in how to dress
for the early spring season.

A rotting log. Wonder what we will find living in it later this year.

Milk Pod. Will have to remember to come see these in summer too.

Garbage in case you forgot we were in the city. The kids thought
we could take it home and fix it.

Where the path ended.

Ko-Ko & Indy find dandelions on the way home.