Henri loves the Christmas season. One of the highlights is going to the local tree farm to get our Christmas tree. It is such a fun family activity which includes a wagon ride and a walk through the rows of of trees to choose the 'perfect tree' while enjoying the fresh country air and lovely fragrance of the evergreens. This year, Henri wanted complete ownership of the process, from picking the tree, cutting it (with some help), carrying it back to the car and decorating it. He was quite pleased with the result.

Changing Education Paradigms

Below is a short video by Sir Ken Robinson about the future of education I found very interesting.

Swimming Lessons

Henri has always loved water/pools/beaches/lakes, as long as his feet could touch the bottom (since he couldn't swim). After a first negative experience, he had no further interest in group swimming lessons. We found a local private swimming instructor this year who offered lessons at her home which Henri enjoyed but he didn't have enough time to make much progress since the summer was almost over. We discovered through the homeschool group that there were private lessons offered at the university so we signed him up in September. Henri had his last swimming lesson of the semester on Thursday morning. He was quite proud to get his Red Cross Level 4 badge and certificate. The two main criteria are; ability to swim 25 meters and surface support in deep water for 45 seconds. I was impressed since he could hardly swim at all when he started in September. He found the lessons very tiring but also rewarding. I signed him up for the winter semester on Friday.

Brott Music Festival

On Tuesday we went to the Hamilton Place concert hall to attend the annual Brott Music Festival Student Education performance. Judging by the number of school buses lining up the surrounding streets, it seemed like every primary-grade level student in Hamilton was also there. It was a great format to initiate students' education/interest about famous composers (Beethoven, Mozart), musical instruments (percussion, wind) etc. using a mix of celebrity performers, story-telling and visual arts. Suffice it to say that it was spectacular enough to keep the attention span of several hundred 6 to 8 year-olds in check during a 'classical music concert' for 60 minutes! Henri was impressed after the concert and wondered how many years the musicians must have practiced to play so well. (Henri started taking piano lessons 4 weeks ago.) He told his aunt that he really enjoyed the performance when we stopped by for a short visit to play with his cousins after the concert.

Sunday Afternoon Bonfire

Henri was happy to see his cousins during a short visit on Sunday when they came over for a family portrait session. It was a chilly November afternoon, but thankfully the bonfire helped to keep us warm.

Breakfast With Santa

This is a popular annual event in our town which takes place in the local high school's cafeteria. After breakfast, Henri enjoyed doing a craft, decorating a gingerbread cookie and of course getting a close look at the star of the show, Santa himself.

Changing Seasons

The recent windy/cold spell convinced us that we couldn't delay any longer the unpleasant task of dismantling the trampoline before winter since our feet were frozen after just a few minutes of jumping. Henri soon perked up though at the thought of all the fun winter things he is looking forward to such as playing in the snow, Christmas, his birthday, etc. Although it's still a bit early, he insisted on getting started with Christmas decorating, beginning with ornaments he selected and bought with his own money and then proceeded to with meticulously arrange in his 'fort' in our backyard.

Annual Checkup

Henri may have an interest in science, but he loves his cats... Not surprisingly, he enjoyed every minute of this week's annual checkup for his cats Tommy and Pinky. The cats cooperated, but were somewhat less enthusiastic. I pointed out how the vet studied science for many years in order to become a vet. The vet was impressed with Henri's curiosity and pertinent questions throughout each step of the examination. He patiently answered each of Henri's questions in layman's terms and acknowledged his compassion for his pets while re-enforcing the importance of math and science if he had any interest in pursuing a similar career path.

French Fries Science Experiment

While I was catching up on bookkeeping work at home on Sunday, Henri went shopping with his mom and stopped for lunch at McDonald's, so I asked them to bring me back an order of fries. Henri loves science experiments these days. I know this one has been done before on TV and documentaries, but I thought it might be interesting to try it for ourselves. Typically, the regular fries get mouldy quite quickly while the McDonald's fries somehow remain intact for months. I have seen this test done in open-air plates and in enclosed jars. In order to prevent potentially unpleasant odours, I opted for the jar method. I placed the Golden Arches fries in one jar and sacrificed (in the name of science) some of my own delicious home-made Yukon Gold fries in the other jar. As the experiment unfolds, it should provide opportunities to explore a wide variety of topics such as agriculture, mould, nutrition (food groups, carbs, preservatives, balanced diet), etc. I will take photos and add them to this post as needed.

Day 1


Day 5
Some micro-organisms have apparently taken a liking to my Yukon Gold fries. No activity yet on the Golden Arches fries' side.


Day 6
The condensation in the right jar was obstructing our view so we decided to partially remove both lids for about 6 hours. The left jar smelled like freshly bought McDonald's fries. The odour on the right side, although not offensive, smelled a bit like a damp basement. I took this photo at the end of the day.

Christmas Window Wonderland

Our small town's business owners' association organizes a very popular event each year to help put local shoppers in the festive Christmas spirit. They decorate their storefront windows, make arrangements for a visit from Santa, horse-drawn wagon rides, the official lighting of the town's Christmas tree, free snacks/treats, Christmas carolers and more. I was there on assignment, taking photos for our local paper (which I can't include here until after they have been published). I couldn't focus solely on Henri's perspective for photos of this event but thankfully, Henri bumped into some of his friends, which made the evening even more enjoyable for him.



Santa offering a candy cane to Henri

Ontario Science Centre

Henri has recently demonstrated a keen interest in science. Melissa had a day off on Thursday so we decided to go for a day-trip to visit the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. We left after breakfast and returned back home just in time for Henri's bedtime. Despite spending over six hours in the sprawling complex discovering and exploring as many of the exhibits and presentations as we could, I still felt like we were often rushed and only getting a high-level overview of each section. It was a fascinating day, definitely worth another visit next time we have a chance. Below are a dozen photos, which only portray a mere glimpse of what Henri explored during the day.






Hair-raising Van De Graaff generator experiment








Model of the robot-astronaut (Robonaut) which will be delivered to the International Space Station aboard space shuttle Discovery this month. It will be the first permanent robotic resident of the space station.




Henri learned how to spell his name in Morse code at the amateur/ham radio station


Henri was fascinated by a stone/fragment which was brought back from the moon.


Henri riding the air-propelled astronaut-chair




Human body puzzle