Today was our shower day, which meant finding a local community centre for a swim and shower. It’s also a great way to break up the routine of driving and sightseeing.
After today, our plan was to reach Montreal by early evening. Let’s see how that worked out.
Video to come!
Morning
After breakfast each morning, Ethan has been helping out by drying the dishes. He’s always asking if he can help with different tasks. This is something that’s been happening much more so on the road trip than at home.
Once he was done, he got back to reading Harry Potter. He’s now on the fourth book and is really enjoying it.
Yesterday, we snagged a bunch of Canada 150 stickers and asked Ethan to stick one onto Juju Jr. It looks good just below our Walmart smiley face.
We let Ethan do things on his own and without direction from us as much as possible. We feel that this helps build his self esteem because he can do things independently. Even if he does something and fails, it’s fine, because it’s all learning.
Before heading to the pool for our swim and shower, Dong Eun prepared the egg salad for lunch.
Pool time…
We found a pool nearby that was also close to the way out of Ottawa. That’s something we try to do to save time and gas. If something is too far off our route, we don’t go. This tactic has worked well, so far.
Pools in Ontario have an interesting policy… If a child is between 7-11 years old, they must do a swim test if they want to play in the water unsupervised. If they don’t do the test, or don’t pass, someone over 14 must be within arms reach of the child at all times.
However, the tests have been different at the two pools we’ve been to. The first pool required swimming the length of the pool and also treading water for 60 seconds. At the pool we visited today, they only required swimming for 25m.
Ethan didn’t want to do the swim test, but eventually, he wanted to play more on his own so he decided to do the test. I knew he could do it, and he did, so he was rewarded with a different colour wristband and wouldn’t have to do the test at this pool again. Right. If we go to another pool in Ontario, he’ll have to retake the test.
At the pool, there was another family there. I was pulling Ethan in a chain of floaties and she wanted to join him.
So I ended up pulling both kids around while chatting with the father. He was on a 3 month parental leave and today was his last day. It was nice chatting with him and hearing about life in Ottawa.
Afternoon
After swimming, Dong Eun prepared egg salad sandwiches for lunch. We were pretty hungry after playing in the pool and Ethan ate one whole sandwich. We thought he’d have only half, but like I mentioned before, his appetite has grown significantly since we started having more meat.
It was time to head over to the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum to check out some planes. The building was quite impressive. The lobby has a Snowbird hanging upside down, which looked very cool. And much bigger than I expected.
Ethan loves airplanes and space so we thought he’d really enjoy this place.
There was a tour that Dong Eun and Ethan joined. On the tour was a French speaking couple, so the tour guide did part of the tour in both languages (until the couple left) and Ethan keenly listened and said he heard “trois” and “quatre.”
Hearing French spoken in context is a great way for Ethan to pick up some French. We’ll see how it goes when we get to Quebec.
One cool thing about the museum was the scavenger hunt. Kids have to find the names of different aircraft by identifying them by their nose cones. All museums should have activities for children, as it makes them a more enjoyable place for everyone in the family.
Once Ethan and Dong Eun were done with the aviation and space museum, it was time to leave Ottawa and make our way to Montreal. We wanted to get an earlier start because we had to get to IKEA for dinner. We missed it before and weren’t going to miss it again.
On the way, the skies were cloudy but there was this very cool line separating the clouds.
Evening
Success! We made it to IKEA in time for dinner. It was neat for all of us to see the usual IKEA signage in French. And even cooler that the meatballs come with a Swedish flag.
And they’re still offering frozen yogurt with the kid’s meals, so Ethan got to have a special treat. However, the frozen yogurt gave him a tummy ache and he wasn’t feeling too good the rest of the night. But it didn’t stop him from reading more Harry Potter.
He was playing with his Kindle and found a way to balance it on the table. He’s constantly looking at his environment and finding ways to play and experiment.
Ethan needs to do a reading and math assessment since he’s in Grade 4. So he started working on the assessment tonight.
Once IKEA closed, we went over to the Walmart where we’ll be camping out. Most Walmarts in the Montreal area don’t allow overnight parking, so our choices were slightly limited. After we set up for bed, Ethan worked on his bullet journal, making modifications and filling in some of the information.
So Ottawa was quite nice and enjoyable. Now we’ll see what Montreal has to offer.
If you’re just reading this blog for the first time, we are a family of three traveling across Canada (and likely beyond) in a 1994 VW Westfalia camper van called Juju Jr. Our son Ethan, age 9, is unschooling and so we want him to learn from being on the road and traveling. So he’s also now a roadschooler and we are documenting the trip and his learning on this blog.
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