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.