• Blog

    Correcting and improving

    July 15, 2021 - By 

    The Wright brothers, Orville and Willbur, enjoyed important discoveries and success in early aviation. They pioneered the airplane. I was very impressed with two elements of their story. This is my focus for this blog entry. The method they used to study aerodynamics. Their unique approach to the problem of flight. Let’s start! 1. Method The Wright brothers built a wind tunnel in their bicycle shop. They methodically tested dozens of wing shapes and designs, and diligently calculated lift and drag, to understand the performance of each wing. Their careful and unsparing work revealed a treasure trove of important data,…

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    Intriguing salmon

    May 31, 2019 - By 

    Tina : Salmon can live both in rivers and in the ocean. That is special! That means they adjust themselves for the differences in water quality. But… Why do they return to the river where they were born? Joshua : I don’t know the answer, let’s research it together. Searching… Searching… Searching… Joshua : Scientists don’t know the answer yet either. Which means that your question is at the very forefront of modern science today. Such a good question! Can you keep watchful for the answer to this question consider the  newest research together with scientists? Tina : Yup, I…

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    A Friendship and a Lesson in Evaluating Information

    April 30, 2019 - By 

    One story in the book The Sextant by David Barrie, especially captivated me. The qualities of the two principal men in particular deserve mention. Do you notice any additional character traits that you admire? Joshua : Would you like to know about another two friends? Tina : Yes! Who are they? Joshua : They are two Englishmen. One is named Sir Ernest Shackleton and the other is Frank Worsley. Tina : Those are nice names. How did they become friends? Joshua : They liked each other when they met in London, England, in the spring of 1914, but they really…

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    Our Spring Project

    March 29, 2019 - By 

    Something for children. This is a spring project that we enjoyed with our children. It is fascinating to see a bean sprout and grow. 1. Soak the seeds overnight (one of our beans sprouted a small root right away). 2. Put the seeds in moist soil, in a clear container, at the edge. 3. Watch the roots grow (you will see the taproot followed by the lateral roots). 4. See the stem grow. 5. See the leaves grow. 6. When the plants get mature enough put them outside. 7. Enjoy the beans in late summer and fall.

  • Blog

    Sound Effects

    February 26, 2019 - By 

    BBC Sound Effects is one of my favourite websites. The website says: These 16,000 BBC Sound Effects are made available by the BBC in WAV format to download for use under the terms of the RemArc Licence. The Sound Effects are BBC copyright, but they may be used for personal, educational or research purposes, as detailed in the license. For commercial use, you can license sound effects. Just to whet your appetite, these are a few of the samples from the site that I really liked. BBC Sound Effects : Waterfalls You can enjoy the powerfull and soothing sound of surging water.…

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    Fonts

    January 31, 2019 - By 

    With this post I’m glad to share my exploration in the font woodlot. I focused on some hand written and rounded or children friendly fonts this time with my mug in hand. Most of these fonts are free for personal use, for other use to click the images and check the link in the font space pages. 1. DK Grumpy Tiger font – Created by David Kerkhoff 2. In Blossom Vintage font – Created by madeDeduk 3. Marker Brush font – Created by Nirvana Visual 4. Hug Me Tight font – Created by Misti’s Fonts 5. Connie font – Created…

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    The Great Stone House

    December 4, 2018 - By 

    May you enjoy a short discussion, based on four chapters of Farley Mowat’s Lost in the Barrens: No Man’s Land, The Rapid, Alone n the Wilderness, The Great Stone House. Joshua : Two boys. Jamie was from Toronto. Awasin lives in northern Canada. Tina : How did they become friends? Joshua : Jamie moved to northern Canada. The two became neighbours, then friends. As they played and worked together, Jamie learned a lot from Awasin. When they were on a hunt with a group, they were assigned to stay behind with two other men. Jamie and Awasin became impatient and left. First,…

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    Leaving Toronto for northern Canada in the 1940s

    November 1, 2018 - By 

    I enjoyed my first book review here. Now, I am enjoying the book Lost In The Barrens by Farley Mowat, published by McClelland & Stewart. Jamie was a young person who left Toronto “to take up a new life in the subarctic forests of northern Canada.” He met his uncle, Angus, who was confident that Jamie would love his new rugged life, and he was proved correct, as Jamie became fascinated by the country from the very first few weeks of travelling in it. I like how their meeting is described, especially what Aungus said to the young man: “I’m thinking you’ll…

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    Date Format

    October 31, 2018 - By 

      The following tables are for a developer’s reference, to show the Date Format in Swift 4.   Using dateStyle and timeStyle properties let formatter = DateFormatter() formatter.dateStyle = .full formatter.timeStyle = .full let dateString = formatter.string(from: Date()) Tuesday, October 30, 2018 at 9:48:38 PM Pacific Daylight Time     Using format strings let formatter = DateFormatter() formatter.dateFormat = "y, M, d, E, h:m:s, a" let dateString = formatter.string(from: Date()) 2018, 10, 30, Tue, 9:54:37, PM