One Hundred Days of School

The first Friday of February marked the 100th day of school. As a teacher, this is a great sign that the year is half way done!!

In many primary classes, students count the days of school as a part of their math program. They look at patterns in a hundreds chart and use it to count by twos, fives and tens. They mark every day with a straw (or something similar) and then every ten days they bundle them together to make a group of ten. This is a great way to practice tens and ones. In my classroom, I like to take it one step further by relating it to money. Each day is a penny and then as the days pass, we trade in for nickels, dimes, quarters and finally a loonie on the one hundredth day of school. This way students can see the worth of one dime, for example, is equal to that of ten pennies. Kids are learners...they often think having all those pennies is worth way more than a small dime...simply because there are more of them!

So back to the purpose of this posting...
Liam and Luke both had homework assignments to mark the 100th day of school. Liam had to collect 100 objects and group them in some way. He had a clever idea (with the help of his Mom...to collect 100 items that Grace could choke on! He then grouped them by 5's and labelled according to categories like: money, game pieces, food etc.) Luke had to build a free-standing structure with 100 popsicle sticks. Here are their final products.

Music Cards

Who knew that a music card would be hours of fun? Well, Grace knows. Forget the toys and bring on the music cards! She loves them and bops to the various beats. Luckily I've kept most of them - so on a boring afternoon I can pull out some fun Halloween, Easter, Christmas or Birthday tunes. I'll download a YouTube video of Grace with one of the cards. Quite funny! And this is what she will do for twenty minutes at time!

Note: adorable red shoes we got for $2.75 at our local consignment shop. This is really the only age you can buy used shoes that are still in perfect condition. Grace has an excellent shoe collection!

GO CANADA GO!

We are enjoying many late nights watching the Olympics in Vancouver. Liam and Luke are really into it this year. Luke's favourite sport is the skeleton and Liam really loves the speed and figure skating.

Last night we watched the Canadian men kick butt against the Russians in hockey and tonight the women will prevail! During the games, Grace and her brothers were playing a little hockey in the living room. Grace was using a mini Toronto Marlies stick. Who says you can't play hockey before you can walk?

Big Girl!

Do you know that jingle "I'm a big kid now!" from some diaper commercial? That is what Luke has been singing to Grace lately.

The other day Grace had her first chocolate chip cookie, ate pizza in the "big girl" chair with her brothers, did a little walking, put on a bow on her doll, read some of her CHIRP magazine and played a little D.S.

Snow

Finally it looks like we'll be having some accumulating snow. The weather has been so dry that I've been able to ride everyday to work. It was really dry this morning, but the flakes started to swirl around at about 2:00 p.m. Liam took these pictures as I walked the boys home from school.

Vitamin D?

Does Grace need to go to Florida soon? Dan caught her trying to get some Vitamin D. Hopefully she'll be able to wear her new sunsuit and her new swimsuit in Naples in a few short weeks.

Happy Valentine's Day! Happy Birthday! Happy Family Day!

We spent Liam's 9th Birthday/Valentine's Day/Family Day weekend at the cottage. Tim, Anna, Peter and Emma came up to enjoy the snow and we even convinced Aunt Kathy to come up on Sunday for Liam's requested turkey dinner complete with warm chocolate cakes and key lime pie. (Note: we got the PC ready-carve turkey with gravy - highly recommended!) I really can't believe that my baby is NINE years old! He is looking so grown up these days. Liam has a Webkinz party planned for his school friends at the end of the month.

There was nothing nicer than the children being able to play in the snow and then to drive home to a snow-free city. This has been the best winter ever! Hardly any snow and when we do get some - it melts soon after...

Grace's Party!

We had a little family party for Grace today. Well, little turns big when you have lots of family! Grace wasn't too overwhelmed by all the people and enjoyed her balloons and white cake.

Grace wore the dress I knit her. The colour matches her eyes beautifully! Too bad it is already small on her. I guess I'm learning my lesson - that it takes a long time to finish a knitting project when you have 3 kids so always make things a size bigger! I started this in August...

Grace is not quite walking yet. She is standing alone for about 10 seconds or so but those feet are glued to the floor. She happily walks if you hold her hand but not quite ready for going solo.

Grace's First Birthday!

This evening we had a small chocolate cake to celebrate Grace's real birthday. She was in bed by 7:30 and I went off to my hockey game. Her birthday party is on Saturday.

I can't believe she is one year old already. What a wonderful year we've had! But where did the time go? Part of me wishes to do it all over again (minus the 14 week recovery pain and a year of sleepless nights) but I also love it as she gets older too...In fact, I've been saying this all along with the boys and I still haven't reached an age I dislike or like less than the previous.

Hanging on the bathroom wall we have a photo of each boy in the bath after eating their first birthday cakes - so here's the one of Grace!

Have I mentioned that Grace is a super fast stair climber? She is really quick on her feet! She also has two new teeth on the top - they are just in so you can't really see them next to the two big ones but they have been affecting her sleep again...