Backwoods Wife

Back to school for Mom, sort of...

Yesterday the Rosetta Stone French program that I ordered arrived.  I was so excited!  However, I had to wait until today to give it a try, we were hosting the book club that Dwayne is a member of last night.  (For anyone curious, the book they discussed last night was Broken Arrow: America's First Lost Nuclear Weapon.)  So far, I am really enjoying it!  Some of the basic French I learned at school is coming back to me and I am finding the program great for working on my (horrible) pronounciation.  I understand much more than I am able to speak, and largely because I know my pronounciation is way off.  I'm hoping that I will be able to catch up with Hendrik and maybe be able to speak French with friends and my Quebec family members.  Yay!  We purchased the Homeschool Edition with the girls in mind as well.  

I'm hoping Dwayne will take it up as well.  He actually has a far better French accent than I do, despite not being able to understand a thing that he is reading!  Haha!  It is always immensely entertaining to me when the kids ask him to read them French stories at bedtime.  I love it!

 

First Field Trip for Hendrik

Not too long ago Hendrik went on his first school field trip and, probably of more significance to him, his first school bus ride.  There was great excitement over that first bus trip.  The field trip was looked forward to as well, but the destination was somewhere we go fairly often as a family anyhow.  It was so sweet to watch him prepare for this event, his little backpack stuffed so full of the required gear that it almost pulled him over backwards.  He had a very good day, and I was glad to be able to make the dash into town to get a few photos of him with the bus!

 

 

 

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Next Trip Must-See: Natural History Museum

 

I am so wishing that I had had a bit more time to look around in the Natural History Museum.  I managed a troll through the gift shop and a VERY quick stroll through a couple of the large entrance halls as I only had 20 minutes before closing.  I saw some enormous dinosaur and whale fossils as well as some other smaller fossils which were mounted flat onto the walls.  

 

 

I managed to get a few steps into the bird exhibit before being told it was time to leave.  I HAD to get a picture of the dodo replicas.  (Dodos always make me think of the Caucus Race in "Alice in Wonderland".)  All I saw was really a tease.  The building itself is absolutely mammoth. (There are some photos here.)  It seems to take forever to drive past it, let alone see it from the inside with all of its marvellous distractions.  I'm putting a big star beside this museum for the next time I'm across the pond.  I think the kids and Dwayne would love it too!

 

This bird amused me - it looks grumpy and dignified at the same time.  I like it!

 

Hendrik's First Day of Kindergarten

Our little man started school today!  Time sure flies.  He started French immersion kindergarten this morning.  There was some definite nervousness last night but this morning he practically skipped to school beside me.  When asked at lunchtime how his morning in kindergarten was, he said, "It was good."  He was quite happy to go back in the afternoon.  Hooray!  We figured he would be fine once he got there as he is so social.  Here is a photo we took this morning in front of Mom and Dad's place before we headed off to school.