Ballet

Maya and Norah are enjoying their Dance Foundation Class.  They are learning some ballet, tap, and hip hop.

Reading Reading Reading

Maya's world has opened up to her in so many new ways with her reading really taking off.  She can be found many times throughout the day reading a book or reading Eleah or Norah a book. Some of her favourite things to read have been books about  birth, rock books, Charlotte's web, Joke books and whatever the latest books we have from the library.  We practice reading together and she has moved away from sounding out words to just memorizing and reading them.  Very Exciting for her and for all of us to watch her reading grow! 
Maya also ejoys listening to recorded stories.  Every morning she listens to a Magic Tree House or Beverly Clearly book while colouring a new picture or practicing printing. 

Aquarium & Science World

We have enjoyed some trips to the Aquarium and Science World.  Maya given the choice will always choose Science World.  This year Science World has become much more interesting to Maya as she can now read a lot of the displays.  We have been trying to practice our map reading at both places to navigate the various displays.

Sewing

Maya initiated her own sewing to fix a hole in her pants.  She used her own sewing kit

Maplewood Farm

We took Eleah to Maplewood Farm for the first time.  All three girls really loved feeding the bunnies.  They liked the lettuce the most!

Rocks

We set up a rock display with Story books, factual books, rocks, photos, dictionary etc.  Maya picked out the books she was interested in reading together.  She like the factual books the most.  This lead us to do a rock experiment together about how sedimentary rocks are formed.  We also did made homemade volcanoes to see how volcanic rocks are formed.  Maya was so intrigued by this all she wrote a poem about rocks and then took a trip to the library to take more books out about rocks!

UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

We played a flashcard game together where Maya and Norah had to guess what "Rights, Wants and Needs" are for every child int he world based on the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.  Maya found it really interesting and since this activity has been educating Daddy about it.

Neighbourhood Mapping

 Here the girls got to lay out our neighbourhood streets and landmarks. 

 They travelled around the neighbourhood visiting stores, churches, playgrounds and neighbours.  As Maya moved her photos around the map, she commented on the direction she needed to travel: North, East, South, West!

Art

 Both Maya and Norah continue to enjoy doing art.  Above is some bead art we did and below Maya conducted her own lesson to show Norah and I how to make Chinese New Year Fans.  Maya enjoys colouring and creating her own drawings every morning.

Poems

Maya has been enjoying doing some creative writing which she likes to refer to as her poems.  Here is one about Eleah . . . one of her favourite people.

Around the world and Teeth

 Maya has been enjoying looking at World Maps.  We read the book "Throw your tooth on the Roof".  It is a book about what children around the world do when they loose a tooth.  We then looked on the Map to try to locate some of the countries we read about.

Moving our Bodies

 We have been enjoying Skating together on Thursdays at Brittania Communtiy Centre.

Maya and Norah also go swimming once a week with Daddy.  Maya also continues to go to Cirkids once a week for 2 hours.

Storytelling

Maya, Norah and I used some picture cards to tell stories to each other.  We each would take a card and add to the story we built together.

Christmas!

 We went to the German Christmas Market this year.  We went on the carousel, ate warm chocolate cones, and visited Santa Claus.

 We also made beeswax candles with our friends Katie, Zoe and Jenn.  We made the candles to give away for Christmas presents.

 Christmas Eve the girls slept in front of the tree in hopes to see Santa!

Letter Writing

 Maya wrote a letter to our Mayor Gregor Robertson to thank him for the new playground on Commercial Drive and to ask him to find homes for homeless people.  We are still waiting his reply . . .

 A letter to Kathi who went away for a whole month!