Nestled on the St. Lawrence River in Eastern Ontario, Upper Canada Village represents a busy community in the 1860’s. We visit it every few years with a whole group of homeschoolers, and each year something else stands out. One year it was the ripe pears falling from the trees, one year it was being handed […]
Outings
Rain, Fog, and Floating Down the River
So far, this week has been all about water. Not only pool water, but mostly water from the sky, and even river water. We’ve had slow rain, heavy rain, and a cloud burst (> 1.5″ of water in 10 minutes!), as well as mist, fog, and humidity so high my husband feels he should be sprouting mushrooms. Our […]
Field Trip: Heritage Mica Festival
We visited a mine. The Silver Queen Mica Mine was just as in all those wonderful story books, but, fortunately, not so deep. The walls were oozing wet and it was very cold and dark and exciting and full of puddles. This mine, at Murphy’s Point Provincial Park, produced a lot of mica. Because the crystals form […]
Whales Tohora: Thoughts about Whales and Ultimate Reality
No photography, no eating, no drinking, and no swearing. That notice was posted throughout the Whales Tohora exhibit which included skeletons of stranded whales donated by the Maori of New Zealand. The Maori had requested that, in keeping with their spiritual practices, there would be no photography or swearing in the exhibition. I had not ever […]
Field Trip: Van Gogh Up Close
One rainy day last week, we visited the Van Gogh Up Close exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada. What a treat! Even though we have books with reproductions of Van Gogh’s paintings, and even though every single one of his works is available online, there is nothing like actually seeing the real paintings. We […]