H is for... Hockey

I decided at least a week ago that I wanted to share about hockey for the letter H, but I'm late in getting it done... partly because we've been spending a bit more time watching hockey now!  For anyone not aware - the Stanley Cup playoffs recently began.

So, anyway... H is for Hockey.  And that matters here because we are all hockey fans.

I grew up in Calgary, so I've been a Flames fan for all those years, even when there wasn't a lot to cheer about.  My other favorite team, for no particular reason, has been the St Louis Blues.  I have never even been to St Louis.  It worked out okay for me when my favorite player went from Calgary to St Louis though, at least I could still cheer for his team.  I hate when a player I really like gets traded to a team that I cannot bring myself to cheer for.  Ugh.  DH has been a Montreal Canadiens fan since he was a little boy.  Made for a couple of tense years in 1986 and 1989 when the Flames and Canadiens met in the Stanley Cup Finals!  But our marriage survived!

Kennady is named for her dad's favorite hockey team.  True story.  She is Kennady Anne, which sounds VERY much like Canadien when you say it with the proper French accent. (Can I just say how happy I am that DH doesn't cheer for the Devils??  Yeah.  Guess we probably wouldn't have named a kid for that team anyway.) So far she has been very obliging and cheers for her daddy's team.  Unlike the boys.  Harrison decided to cheer for the Buffalo Sabres - none of us know why.  (When he was younger, I think he just delighted in cheering for the arch-rivals of his parents' teams, because it happened when it came to football and baseball too.  He can be ornery.)  Spencer cheers for the Anaheim Ducks.  Again - not sure why.  Landon cheers for the Detroit Redwings.  At least that we can understand and don't object to it.  LOL  And finally, we've found a couple of teams we can all cheer for - the Hershey Bears in the AHL, and the Washington Capitals.  Since we live in the area, we can cheer for the home teams, and we are lucky enough to actually know one of the players now with the Caps.  It is pretty weird to see a guy playing in the NHL, and I knew him when he was two years old.  And I try not to think about how old it makes me feel.  LOL

On some of our trips to southern Ontario, we try to make time for a visit to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.  

A highlight from our last visit to the HHOF was seeing the drum set Neil Peart used to record the new Hockey Night in Canada theme song:

Pictures with the Stanley Cup (notice how mine - the first two - are actually better quality than the one I PAID for...)

 

 

 This is from inside the hall where the trophies are - it used to be a bank building.

Our love of hockey once prompted us to stop at the Zamboni plant and ask if they did tours!  They didn't offer a tour, but the guy was really friendly and invited us all to come in and see their showroom and spent about an hour explaining the history of the Zamboni company and how those very nifty machines actually work!   (Blog entry here.) One thing I find pretty cool is that my boys have learned a lot of math, geography, history, science, and even art, as a result of their interest in hockey.  Math is important in things like figuring out the league standings, Goals Against Average, players' +/- ratings, shot percentage, penalty killing percentage... and the list goes on.  Geography comes into play because of the divisions and watching teams as they go on road trips.  On their own, they have learned about the history of the teams and how they were named, when the teams came into the league, and all kinds of things. There's a lot of physics to learn about in hockey! When Harrison did a Graphic Design course, he did a project that tracked the evolution of several teams' logos as the design went through changes over the years and evaluated the changes.  He still follows an interesting blog (so do I, just not as closely) called Icethetics, which is devoted to the discussion of the logos and uniforms of hockey teams.  Spencer often chooses a hockey theme to complete his art projects as well.  So you see, it's all educational!

       

Now, if you'll excuse me, there's a hockey game on, and I need to go watch...

Do you have a favorite team or sport that you can incorporate into your homeschool?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

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