offtoissaquah.com

Aoife turns 9!!

utahfeminist — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:53:31 +0000

It hardly seems possible, but Aoife turned 9 today. She was very excited about her birthday and had been counting down the days for the last couple of weeks. We had a lovely day, the only downside was that Martin was in Vancouver so missed her birthday, but technology helped with that.

Aoife got up [...]

From Private Eye

martin — Fri, 11 May 2012 18:07:02 +0000

Football in the rain

martin — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:14:44 +0000

Aoife continues to play football (soccer, the round ball) every week. Every season (Spring or Fall/Autumn) it’s luck of the draw which team she’s on.

This year Aoife has continued to show a preference for goalkeeping. She’s actually pretty good – being tall and long limbed – and she’s got a good awareness of the [...]

Classroom City – Part Four – the product

martin — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:37:58 +0000

Aoife decided that she wanted to sell key rings (key chains) – they are really popular as bag decorations.

We looked at the options – and Aoife decided to go for a high quality, long lasting product – that would sell for a premium price.

Aoife worked out how many people might want to buy [...]

Science Fair 2012

martin — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 04:00:28 +0000

Science Fair rolled around again in late March – and again Aoife thought of her Science or Technology project that she wanted to do.

As before (worms and archaeology) Aoife decided to shun the norms. In her own words “I don’t want to make a vinegar and baking powder volcano, I don’t want [...]

Classroom City – Part Three – making the office/store

martin — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 23:08:15 +0000

As mentioned earlier we arranged boxes for the class. Once the “jobs” in Classroom City had been determined it was time to cut and decorate the boxes.

Aoife decided that she wanted an English Castle theme for her box – so we set to work making a castle. We ended up with “wallpaper”, roses [...]

Classroom City – Part Two – elections

martin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 18:07:46 +0000

At the heart of the Classroom City project is showing leadership and also promoting teamwork. To this end every class member has a “role” – from Mayor and members of the City Council, to Bank President and Bank Tellers, to Police Chief and Fire Chief. There is even a Postmaster!

Aoife decided early on that [...]

Classroom City – Part One – boxes

martin — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:39:13 +0000

Aoife’s class have been working up to a special class project for the last few months.

“Classroom City” is designed to teach the kids about citizenship, leadership, commerce and teamwork – and it ties in with all of the academic themes from the year.

Each person in the class has an “office/shop” that is made [...]

My accent!!

utahfeminist — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:57:04 +0000

After nearly ten years in the states I still have an English accent. I don’t see why I wouldn’t. However, it means I have had almost ten years of people commenting on my accent and sometimes it gets a little old. Most of the time people just comment on my accent and ask where I [...]

Apologies for the lack of blogs!

utahfeminist — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:29:08 +0000

I can’t believe how long it has been since I have blogged. I just don’t seem to get the time any more. I blame a combination of a lot of things, but am going to try and get caught up. Keep your fingers crossed!

First planting

martin — Sun, 04 Mar 2012 05:31:47 +0000

The first warmer and dry weekend day in a long time – and that means time to get cracking in the garden.

The lawn is a continuing saga – no sun, too much rain – and it’s currently full of moss and lichen. We need to decide what to do. My pragmatic side says rake [...]

Multicultural night at Apollo

martin — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:39:10 +0000

(or food from many countries)

The Apollo Elementary multicultural night was rescheduled to last Friday due to the snow and ice storm a few weeks ago.

We took along our many “British things” and had a display board with some British cultural icons displayed on it.

We had great fun offering up Cadbury’s Chocolate Fingers [...]

Harvesting rain water

martin — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 01:16:11 +0000

Finally I got round to building the rainwater collection system. We have two enormous barrels at the side of the house that will hold over 400 litres (100 gallons) of rainwater.

Hugo had great fun helping with the assembly.

Hiking Tiger Mountain

martin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:13:54 +0000

Finally, after almost four years of living here, I finally managed to get out and hike up Tiger Mountain which is right behind the house.

To put it into perspective – Tiger Mountain is one of the Issaquah Alps – and it’s not particularly high compared to other peaks in the area. At over [...]

Revising quadrilaterals

martin — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:03:05 +0000

There will be a test.