Fun times at home!!!

I just wanted to share about some of the really cool stuff the blossoms have been doing around here.

A couple of weeks ago, Dad was busy watching the cricket on television for the afternoon, so the kids spent the afternoon outside playing.  They played their own game of cricket as well, which seemed like a great deal of fun.

As it got closer to dinner time, they decided they wanted a picnic outside, so they went out and set up where they were going to have it.  While they were outside doing that, Dad decided that we would surprise them by putting their dinner into little paper parcels (like at the fish and chip shop).  So we told them not to come inside and that we would take dinner out to them.  So we put their sausages and some homemade wedges in the parcels, added a couple of different dips (tomato sauce and sour cream), and a couple of bits of bread each. 

The tray of food all ready to go.

Dad taking dinner out to them.  They were in their pj's because it was a pj picnic.

After dinner, Shakayla made this teepee.  The idea for this came from having read The Indian in the Cupboard for schoolwork.  

It was really great to see their imaginations growing, and also seeing their learning come out in their play.


Fast forward now to this last Saturday.  After having a bit of a rough day on Friday, I decided that Saturday would be a fun day for us all.  Dad was working so it was just the blossoms and I.  The three big kids and I all chose two things to do during the day. 

We started off with one of Shakayla's ideas.  It was to make miniature gardens on lids from icecream containers.

Shakayla's masterpiece.

James and I worked together to create this piece of magnificence.

Bethany did this wonder, which incidently is portrayal of Spud's (a dearly departed pet fish) grave, and the edge of the garden in which he was buried, and then the lawn.  It is amazing that they still talk about that fish, because it has been dead for at least two years.

So after the garden creations, we set out for a walk on the farm as one of Beth's choices.  We had to find things that began with K and P.  Now this turned out to be a really fun time because it is really hard to find anything walking up the driveway as we did.  We managed to find a few things legimately but some we used a little imagination for, like the petrified wood I found with my friends, the slaters on it who were incidently called Peter, Paul, Pauline, Paula and Pippi.  We even resorted to naming some of the calves in the paddock alongside the driveway.

When we got home, Shakayla and the kids made a teddy bear's picnic for lunch, including honey sandwiches.  So off we all went and sat outside with all the stuffed toys and shared our lunch with them.

Then we played a board game that Beth had chosen to play which was quite a lot of fun, especially when someone ended up having to wait multiple turns before they could move themselves again.  This was followed by a new card game that I had stashed away in the cupboard, called Archealogy.  Well, this turned out to be a hit with us all.  It was great fun, so next time you're visiting ask us if we can play.

After sitting down for awhile playing the games, we ended up going out and having a game of cricket because it was J's choice.  After that, some gingernut cookies were made, although some ended up burnt.  This was also J's choice. 

My final choice was to make sushi.  So that proved lots of fun as always, but most of all provided us with a very delicious dinner.  We ended our day watching a movie on TV called Like Mike 2.  Nana and Grandad have the first one on DVD so it was good to see this one too.

Overall, it was a fabulous day, and one we will repeat but obviously with different things.  However, I think this coming Saturday may end up getting filled up with the jobs I wanted to do last Saturday.

Unit 2 & 3 - LHTHG - 27/03/12 - 9/03/12

UNIT 2

In Unit 2, James and I learnt alot about Noah and the flood.  It was a great week.  James is really starting to listen and also remember what we have already learnt about.

J was pretending here to be in the garden of Eden.  I was asking him to do things in and out of the garden.  The garden was inside the square.  Here he was asked to walk around the edge of the garden.  This was great for him as he had to listen carefully and follow the instructions.

J is displaying his art work here.  He coloured the page with bright colours and then together we coloured over it in black.  Then I etched the shape of the heart out and he etched the inside of the heart.  It didn't quite show the beautiful colours that he had used, but I think the quality of the crayons may have had something to do with it.

This is the four children dancing to J's music.  His music is of the memory verse for the week.  For some reason they all come running when they hear it on and start to dance together.  It just brings such joy to them all.

J had to make a boat out of foil and pretended it was Noah's boat.  Then he had to add things until it sank.

As you can see it took some sinking.  We ended up having to make some quite vigorous waves to get it to go down.

And it finally began to go.  What a great demonstration of how Noah's ark was built so well to hold its precious cargo.

UNIT 3

During Unit 3, we learnt about the Tower of Babel, and the languages getting confused and the people moving to different parts of the world.

Here J is pretending to pack like the people did at the Tower of Babel.  He did a great job folding his clothes and putting them in his bag.

Here he is with his finished bag.  He was really proud of how well he had done.  I do think though the size of the bag was a bit of a hindrance but at the time I couldn't find anything smaller.

James has been working really hard with all of his work.  He is beginning to read, using a programme called The Reading Lesson.  It is wonderful to see him blending words with me and working out what they are saying.

He is also making some great connections between the different books we are reading.  He really is enjoying listening to 'The Adventures of Reddy Fox' by Thornton Burgess.  During this unit, Reddy Fox got a little too confident and ended up getting shot by Farmer Brown's boy.  This was something that really grabbed J's attention, as he knows his Dad goes out with the shot gun to shoot rabbits and possoms on the farm.

This was a science experiment, which involved smelling different herbs and spices.  He was wondering what to start with.

He worked out that the scent on the cotton ball matched the thyme in the packet, and thought himself pretty smart.

Here he is thinking very carefully about whether this smell matched the one in the spice packet.  Eli was trying very hard to join in.

This was J's artwork for the week.  I wrote his name on the black paper with a white crayon.  He then used a nail and hammer and hammered the holes in it.  He then chose a yellow piece of paper to put behind it.  It looks really effective with the sunlight directly behind it.  He also added his own drawings to the front of it.

 Over all, we had a fabulous two weeks.  He really enjoyed it and learnt a great deal.

Unit 4 & 5 - Preparing - 27/02/12 - 9/03/12

Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks.  We have been fairly busy with our day to day things with extra curriculars added in and our first homeschool group of the year, not to mention a birthday party thrown in, and harvest on the farm happening whenever it can.

I thought I would just pop in a bit of Beth's cursive work she is doing.  Her handwriting is really coming along this year, considerably tidier than last year.  She has also found she really loves doing cursive so much so that some days she does it in her free time.

UNIT 4

During Unit 4, the girls were learning about the Climate Changes, so we finished reading Life in the Great Ice Age.  Quite a fascinating book to read.  Very interesting to see a viewpoint of people who lived in caves in the Northern Hemisphere.

Here the girls are working on their project of making a model of the map of that era.  They made it with air dry clay which they managed to keep pliable after the project finished and are now slowly making small things from it and drying them.  I thought it was very wise of them to use it twice.

The girls working on labelling their toothpicks to place on their maps.

Shakayla's finished map, including the great wall of ice.

Beth's finished map, including the great wall of ice but missing one label which decided to fall off.  Never mind.

We began reading A Child's History of the World this week, and began talking about the different cultures, languages and foods that were in the world then, and also in the world today.

Our poem of the week was "To Any Great Reader" by Robert Louis Stevenson.  The girls did some creative writing and retold the poem in their own words.

They also finished memorising the rest of Psalm 1.  It really was a joy to have discussions with them about this psalm.  It not only taught them something, but I too learned quite a bit.

For their science project this week, they made a cactus each out of playdough and used toothpicks as spines.  They had to work out how the spines help to keep the cactus cool.

Shakayla's cactus.

Elias playing with the playdough too.  How could we leave him out.

So, all in all a great week.


UNIT 5

This turned out to be a bit of an interesting week.  It was a week learning about the Egyptian Civilizations.  The week started out on a bit of a sad note as I and a couple of the blossoms had headcolds.  So we started off slower than usual.  Partway through day 2 of the week, things went from bad to worse.  It was then I realised I really needed to slow Beth down so that she would learn completely and not be dragged along with Shakayla, so she is now going at half pace, so has only finished half of week 5.  So from here on in, I will be blogging for Shakayla and Bethany seperately.

Anyway, it was a great week of learning.  Shakayla learnt a great deal about the Egyptian Civilizations.  Together the girls learnt about hieroglyphics and the project of the week involved making a cartouche of the lady Pharoah Hatshepsut's name. 

Here the girls are making their own air dry clay.  I think the interesting looks on their faces were due to J's speech therapist coming in.

Here is Shakayla's finished cartouche, which fell apart a little, and didn't quite work the way it was meant too with the etchings not coming out as clearly as they should.

You can see the etchings a little better in this photo.

All in all, she had a great week and is really enjoying working a little more independently now.

Unit 1 - Little Hearts for His Glory - 6/2/12 and 20/2/12 - 24/2/12

Well, after much anticipation, James' LHFHG package finally arrived in the post.  Then we got a start on the 6th.  Obviously due to my little stay in the hospital, we didn't get past day 1.  However this week, we finished the unit and have been having a blast.  What a wonderful programme, and so perfect for my lovely boy.

J has really enjoyed jumping, leaping, crawling, hopping, stomping, bouncing and waddling this week along to our rhyme called 'God's Creation'.  What a wonderful way to learn the names of the seven continents, but what excited me most was the recognition when we saw, in History for Little Pilgrims, a map with the seven continents shown.  However, I'm not sure whether the recognition was mine, or J's.

He has memorised Matthew 19:14 this week too.  Carrie has put such fun ways into HOD to help them memorise the verses by doing physical activities, including throwing socks into a basket.  He hasn't got the words down pat, but that doesn't surprise me with my boy, but he has done a really great job.  I also love that his music CD matches his memory verse so it is another way for him to hear it.

He has really been enjoying storytime and hearing about Reddy Fox and his adventures.  We really enjoyed discussing how Reddy is getting to bold and is going to find himself in some big trouble.  He liked writing Reddy a letter to warn him not to be so bold.  Most of all, I think the idea of someone waiting with a shotgun hidden behind a tree has really got his attention, because he knows how his Dad goes out with the gun onto the farm and shoots the bunnies and possoms.

This is James' letter to Reddy.  If you can't read it, it says, Dear Reddy Fox, You need to stop getting so bold because Bowser the Hound will get you.  From James.

James really loved doing his art project this week.  He had to make a collage and then cut out a cross that I had drawn and then he stuck his cross on top.  Of course, I got distracted and started doing something with the girls and he got tired of gluing small pieces on for the collage so started gluing large pieces to it.  I did encourage him to add some smaller black pieces.  But all in all, he had fun.

He was so proud of his hard work.  He loves being creative and having something to show for it.

Overall, J and I had a fantastic time.  I am really looking forward to next week and the rest of the year.  I can see him making great leaps and bounds this year.

J's speech therapist came out on Tuesday morning and gave us some great work to do to help J with the sound 'd'.  What fun we are having.  She gave us a set of  'd' cards, and for the last two days we have played 'Go Fish'.  He beat me both days, today by a huge margin.  Never mind, the joy and delight in his face at beating the pants off me was worth it.

Unit 3 - Preparing - 6/2/12 then 20/2/2012 to 23/02/12

Well, this turned out to be a unit that took a great deal of time.  Fortunately, it wasn't due to us dragging it out.  I all of a sudden, after finishing school on the 6th of Feb, ended up having and excursion to the local hospital via an ambulance ride.  Definately not in my plans.  However, God had other ideas, and I ended up having surgery two days later and finally got home to my family on the 11th.  I gave myself and the children a whole week of recovering from the ordeal and finally got back into the groove this week.

Heart of Dakota Preparing did it again and provided us with a week full of fun and blessing.  The girls have really been enjoying learning their memory passage and it is just wonderful to see them beginning to think a little deeper about the passage each week.  Their actions make it so easy for them to memorise.

We have been mainly reading Life in the Great Ice Age.  It has really been interesting to think about how these people lived, but also to delve into the tools they used, they way the cooked and how they passed on their stories.  It has really made me realise that these people probably were just as intelligent as people today, despite most people of today thinking they were of lesser intelligence.

The girls are enjoying their independent science.  It is wonderful to see them learning about the natural world.  Science has been the one of the things I have never been consistent on.  I love that not only are they reading about the Artic Tundra, but they are making notebook pages, orally narrating, answering questions and doing an experiment weekly.

Independent history is another hit.  Shakayla in particular is loving the Draw and Write through History book.  She is very much a creative and artistic person.  It is a bit more of a struggle for Bethany, but my precious girl has been concentrating very hard and is producing some lovely pictures now.

We have started the year using a grammar programme free off the internet, but I am starting to get very frustrated with it, especially as we had used Susan Wise Bauer's First Language Lessons 2 and 4, last year and loved that.  So, I took the plunge and ordered Rod and Staff English 3 and 5 yesterday for them.  I'm sure it will be a far better fit for us.

The history project for the week was making a cave painting.  This was a little disjointed because of the unexpected break.  Bethany left her paper in the tea for too long and it ripped.  By the time we got back to it, she had thrown her piece away, so thankfully Shakayla was gracious and we cut her piece into two.  She obviously got the bigger piece though.  They have done a cracker of a job on them.  I was really impressed with their diligence.

Bethany peaking out from behind her painting.  I helped her trace the bull, but she painted it and then she did the mammoth all on her own.  She is doing such a great job, and is really perservering with her art.

Shakayla was very proud of her efforts, particularly her mammoth which she copied, and it looked very similar to the picture she copied from.

Shakayla is reading The Indian in the Cupboard, and Bethany is reading Stuart Little for our literature study.  We are using Drawn into the Heart of Reading to help us delve deeper into these stories and to do some character studies.  We are currently doing the adventure genre.  It is proving to be an enjoyable part to our schooling.  The girls are both really enjoying the books, but most of it, it is a delight to see them discuss with me the characters they are reading about, and comparing the book characters with people in the bible.

Beth really did a great job of her picture.  She was having to help Stuart resolve his issues with Snowbell the cat, so her picture is of her role playing with Stuart so he is ready to discuss it with Snowbell.

Shakayla also was helping resolve issues within The Indian in the Cupboard.  She was helping Little Bull and Boone to discuss what was happening, so they could become friends.

The growth in my girls abilities have grown in three short units of using this programme.  I look forward with such joy.  Shakayla has been looking ahead and tells me the things she is looking forward to doing in coming units.

Unit 1 and 2 - Preparing - 23/1/12 - 4/2/12

Well, it has been a busy couple of weeks, with the second week being considerably trickier as I got sick, but the most wonderful thing is that HOD is all laid out for us to work through so everything still got done.  I am really thankful that God led us to this curriculum, as I know during the tougher times it will still get done.

First of all, I will explain a little about HOD Preparing.  This is a curriculum based on Charlotte Mason methods, which includes short lessons, living books, narration, dictation and quick hands on activities.  The author of HOD, Carrie Austin, has created a wonderfully laid out programme that means the children get to do their math, grammar, reading, poetry, creative writing, narration, dictation, history, science, art projects, drawing and a multitude of other things sprinkled throughout the year.

I haven't taken as many photos as I would like but I hope over the course of the year the different aspects of what they are doing will be photographed and blogged about.

HOD Preparing covers History from Creation through to about the 1970's.  It is designed to just be an overview, as the next four guides, each covering a year, do a more indepth study of the different time periods.  We are planning to move Shakayla to the second guide out of those four in the middle of this year as this is where her skills place her best, but due to finances we have had to delay till then.

UNIT 1

So our first unit involved reading some passages from Genesis along with the beginning of a wonderful book called Grandpa's Box.  We really enjoyed the readings from these.  We learnt how the bible is demonstrating the war between God and Satan, and are looking forward to learning more about this from this book.  It is amazing how someone else's perspective on something we already know about has changed the way we are viewing the bible.  From this the girls made a shield of faith as we were discussing armour and protection during war times.

The girls also did science independently.  Currently they are reading One Small Square: Artic Tundra and they either do an oral narration, a notebook page, answer a series of five questions or do a science experiment.  It is great learning for them, as it is in lovely small bits.

Overall it was a great first week, full of hard work, fun and laughter.  Here are a few photos of the children dying after being hurt during a sword fight.  This happened during the time the girls were doing their vocabulary words, and rival I think was one of the words, which sparked this display off.

Yes, we are slightly mad and a little dramatic at times.

UNIT 2

Well, our second week didn't start quite the way we had hoped.  I became sick on Saturday night and was still not right by Monday morning.  By Thursday I decided to head to the dr, which was quite a good thing as what I thought it was, it wasn't.  It is something else which will quite likely result in surgery in the near future.  

Anyway, at the end of Unit 1, we started reading a book called The True Story of Noah's Ark and so we finished that during Unit 2.  What a beautiful story.  The author really captures what it must have been like for Noah and his family.  It was a very eye opening story for the girls.

We began reading LIfe in the Great Ice Age, which is the story of a young boy of cave man times.  It is very interesting reading how the people possibly lived back then.  We are really enjoying all the books that have been selected for this programme.  It is truely bringing history alive for us.

The girls project this week involved two activities.  One was doing a collage of warm and cool colours and the other was a two day event with painting either a cool or a warm background.  The following day they had to mix colours to paint a rainbow over their backgrounds.  James also joined in on this activity which was great.  He loved it.

Bethany's collage

Shakayla still working away

Shakayla's finished collage

Such diligent workers

Bethany hiding, but a beautiful painting none the less

James very proud of his effort

We really enjoyed this week, and the girls are really loving singing along to their CD with Psalm 1 on it.  Here they are doing some actions to it.  They have memorised Psalm 1:1-3 so far and when they have memorised all six verses they are going to perform their dance for Dad.

Such concentration on what they are doing