Where have I been and what have I been doing????

Above is Jessica's girl, a Chihuahua X Papillon names Kelly.

And this is Mum and Josh's girl Tinkabelle or Tinka as we call her.

Well it has been a hard few weeks, I have been trying to decide if I am doing the right thing by my children with homeschooling, I have had a bit of a mental block, but then I look at Joshua and know there is no way he would survive in High School so i keep plodding on, perhaps I just needed a rest as I seem to be coming out of the other side of it, I took a lot on during the move and financially it really hurt, one thing I had promised Jessica was to have a puppy as she had given up a lot to move to Hamilton and so we started our hunt a few weeks ago and I am a big believer that the puppy will find you and so we enquired about a few and were turned down as due to financial circumstances we really needed to pay one off, we found one that we fell in love with but it seemed we were getting no reply from them, little did I know that they were replying but my emails have been playing up and not getting anything from these poor people, just when I finally relented and let Jessica look elsewhere and of course she found just what she wanted, we went and picked the wee pup up only to find when we got home that the owners of the other pup had contacted me, I had already given my heart to the dog on the internet so decided we would have 2 and so off we went to pick pup number 2 up. They are both great puppies and settled so well, I can't believe it, within hours they were snuggled up with the cats and made them selves at home, one of them is definitely Jessica's pup and the other has attached to me and I love it lol. Animals bring so much pleasure to people's lives.

Anyway back to homeschooling, we have done a few other bits and pieces this week and it has been decided that the kids just want to get school out of the way and have fun, by that they mean they want to do workbook style work for the main areas that i won't let them get away with and then projects for the rest or hands on learning, they have had enough of lapbooks and other things we have tried so I have decided to listen to them and have just about got it all worked out.
As of Monday we will be starting a new curriculum I have found [well new to me that is] called Connect the Thoughts. You can purchase it through CurrClick.

We are starting with Creative Writing I and of course there is a sale on at the moment which makes it all even cheaper, then we will move on to The Science basics and History, all we need to add are our Maths which we use Mammoth Maths and some fun projects, sounds easy to me, here's hoping it will all go smoothly lol.
Now that we have moved and the new term has started we have managed to get involved in some homeschool group activities and Jessica is loving it, she went to Gymnastics yesterday and today there is a craft afternoon we will go to, they also have swimming and an educational activity on Tuesdays that we will get involved into.

Well I think thats about it from me, I think my Brain Drain crisis is over for a little while anyway, not sure how long for and if we can keep up the momentum, but fingers crossed it all works out.

ANZAC Day 2008

In The Flanders Field.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae

We celebrated ANZAC Day today while watching the Wreath Laying and Making Anzac Biscuits and drinking Hot Chocolate.

I also had Jessica and Joshua write about what they thought Anzac Day was all about and then we discussed if they were right or not as well as looking up actual facts, dates etc.

Air Balloons Dawn Patrol

We woke up at 4.45am this morning to get ready to go to the Dawn Patrol for the Balloons over Waikato, we were a little unsure about going but it was well worth it.

Due to not having the best camera in the world it is not possible to get some great photo's but i did try, it was far better in person. Music was played and they turned on quite a show for us, several went up under darkness and a second lot went as dawn broke. it was VERY cold this morning we were frozen by the end of it all, I heard it was 5degrees, so pretty chilly.

The aim of the Balloons was to take of and hover around for 30 mins then try to land back in the same place they took off from, all sounded very easy to me but I guess not, as it would seem that it is hard to re land in the same spot and also you have to go with the wind so to hang around the same areas is also pretty difficult.

As daylight came so did more balloons, her is the Haunted house balloon.

And the Darth Vader balloon.

Here are all the balloons getting ready to take off.

This one here was actually trying to dip his basket into the water, but I just really like the reflection in the water so took the pic for that reason. This was the last sight of them for us as we headed home for a nice warm hot chocolate and some blankets and hot water bottles to warm up.
Well worth the early morning though!!!!

Botany Main Lesson

We are doing Botany at the moment for our main Lesson we decided to try and fit it in while the weather is still good so we can still get out and about to see Nature before Winter hits us. So we studied, the Parts of a plant.

Parts of a flower,

and wrote about what the Parts do and any other information that was relevant.

Number Jacks

There is a TV show on Sky Television called NumberJack's, well I think this must be our version of it, Jack has been trying to count and is asking questions about numbers so............

We made up this game jumping along the cushions and counting them as he went then to make it more difficult we would vary the numbers and ask him to jump on them, we also had him putting the corresponding number of beads on the number boards, he loved it and did it for ages.

What have we been up to.

So where have we been and what have we been up to, well we haven't been doing formal schoolwork for what feels like a really long time, mainly because we have been moving house, it was a move we have been wanting to do but didn't think it would ever happen then, suddenly everything fell into place and so we have moved a week ago and are settling in our new town.

Here are a few things that have been happening throughout the move, Jessica was missing our normal routines so started doing her own circle time with Jack and above is her centre piece.

Jack has been making music with anything and everything he can find. Go Jack!!!

What is this photo you may ask, well it is Jessica's very large guinea pig, she is VERY pregnant and we feel like we have been waiting forever for her to have these babies.

I took this photo of Jessica riding on her last day of riding before moving, she had a blast even though she was feeling sad.

Our new blackboard and one of the drawings done on it.
We are back to school on Monday so will post our progress as and when I can.

Reading prizes.

Here is Jessica with the prize she got from the library for reading a certain amount through the holidays, and luckily they are both books she hasn't read which is unusual.
Way to go Jessica!!!!

A Lesson in Sinking and Floating and Berries along the way!!!

We went for one of our many nature walks the other day and along the way ended up having a little lesson in sinking and floating, Jack was fascinated in things that may float or not, so we gathered a multitude of things, a stick, rock, grass, flower, feather etc along our travels.

Then threw them in one by one to see what would happen, Jack had such fun screaming and yelling this one floats mum!

We managed to make a meal out of the nature walk as well, as we gathered our fresh berries.

Although I think we would have had more berries if Jessica hadn't of been eating them lol.
YUMMY!

Still on our Main Lesson On Rome.

We are still working on our Main Lesson on Rome at the moment, the children enjoyed the Story of Romulus and Remus today, even Jack was fascinated with the pictures in the book, we then answered some questions and wrote about the story we had read.

Here is Jessica's drawing of the She Wolf and Romulus and Remus.

This is a lovely little book on Rome.
Our Main Lesson Work is coming along well.
We had a productive day today also managing to fit in a Window been fixed, Pamphlet deliveries for Joshua's Job, Grocery shopping, Library visit, and a visit to a friend that I had managed to forget her birthday yesterday so dropped of some muffins today.
Not bad for a day at home lol.

Out and about homeschooling today.

We went with the homeschooling group today for a trip to Mamaku Blue Winery, what a great time we had.

Here is a photo of all the blueberry tree's/bushes, they go for miles and miles we took about 5 photo's just to get most of them in so you can imagine how many there were.

We got to rideon the back of this great machine, it is a tractor with a blanket on it and a stream of trailors behind it, I was expecting a very bumpy ride but it was very, very comfy and I could have gone for a longer ride than it was.

Of course we got to pick some blueberries, and then we took them to the grading machines to see how well we had done. We ate more than we graded I think.

This is the harvesting machine, we were told that a row of blueberry tree's takes a lot of men [sorry can't remember how many] 9 hours to harvest but this machine takes 11 minutes, quite amazing and it has little fingers that kind of just vibrate and make the berries fall of the tree's.

And there's more........

Here is the grading table, quite clever, as the blueberries go down the table it only accepts the ones that are any good and the bad ones or mis shaped ones go down to the bottom. needless to say not many good ones came out of ours so we are not good pickers just eaters lol.

Here it was explained to us about making wine.

Then of course there is the blueberries, you can't go home without the blueberries.

And it wouldn't have been a fulfilled trip without cup of tea and a blueberry muffin.
A lovely day out.

A morning of freedom and Puddle jumping.

We have had a couple of days of raining on and off so feel like we have been house bound for the last few days, so it was time to blow of the cobwebs today, we went for a walk to the lake to look for things for our nature table.

Along the way what should we find but puddles and of course a certain little boy couldn't help but jump in them.

and jump, and jump he did lol.

Then we carried on to the lake and noticed how much erosion had happened since we were here last, we were quite amazed by it all, the last time we were down here only a few days ago the sandy part of the beach was in a straight line and we were sitting on it, it is now looking really bad. So our learning for today was about what is happening to our planet and how things are changing in our lifetime.

Then we went and played by this old storm water pipe, it has a hole in it about half way up and if you can see in the distance Jessica is waiting for the treasures to arrive, Jack was mailing her little treasures through the hole, like leaves, flowers of different colours and feathers from the seagulls, he learnt about what floated and what didn't, things like the pumice he tried didn't float.
Then it was home again for lunch, again we only planned to be out for a half hour and was out nearly all morning.

Jessica and the gnomes

Jessica decided to spend most of today making gnomes so after our nature walk this morning that is just what she did.

She used shortened pegs to make them, so wood work was a part of the day to saw all the pgs down to size.

And here are the first 2 sorry the flash doesn't make them come out too well.

Friday's work is full of fun.

Heads down and working hard, the children are loving their schoolwork this year I have had no complaints from them, no one saying "I don't want to do it" We made Fraction mobiles today, and they both enjoyed doing it.

Here is Jessica with her colourful fraction mobile, we started with a rectangle and then cut it into halves, quarters etc and she had to make each side balance.

Then we did some handwork, Jessica is making a felt Horse, she enjoyed doing it and was so proud of it in the end, Joshua made a dog but hadn't finished due to a lost needle and not been able to find anymore so he has some weekend work to be done.

Eat your fractions!!!

Of course you can't study fractions without eating them in the form of PIZZA that is, the children thought it was great to be allowed to have pizza as a lesson.
What ever makes it sink in I think!!!

More Fractions Work

We have been doing more work on fractions, we took lots of circles and squares and divided them into different fractions, then labeled and decorated them, it is finally sinking in with my son, I know he is 14 but he couldn't grasp the concept so thought I would keep working on it until he got it as there is no point moving on.

More of our decorated fractions. I have only shown Jessica's work because Joshua is a little embarrassed to show his so thought it best to not push the issue.

Our first day back in Rhythm.

We started of with a fairly relaxed start to the day after our morning circle we did some painting, everyone decided to have a bright cheery painting today since the sun was shining.

Next we did some lessons on Fractions, I know you are thinking they are too old for Fractions but last year we found we were struggling with them so I have decided to focus on it for a while to get them comfortable with them again. We only do math and our main lesson so didn't spend too long on it.

Here are the apples we used to make, a whole, then 2 halves and then quarters, and of course it was about morning tea time so we had...............you guessed it, apples!

Next they wrote their findings Jessica's is on the right and Joshua's on the left.

Next we moved on to our main lesson for the next few weeks and that is Rome.
We read about Rome and talked about where it was, we looked in the atlas and on the world map and studied the country and it's surroundings. Then we drew a map and colored it in and made a key for some of the things we found. Then we wrote up the answers to 2 things,

1. Who were the Romans?
2. What was the Roman Empire?

We will continue with this lesson tomorrow.

We went to the library in the afternoon, and to run some errands. We got books out on Rome to help with our studies tomorrow.
That was about it for today, we were quite late home and then the rush was on for dinner and did a little reading after dinner before bed.

First Main Lesson Block for 2008 - ROME

So here is some of what we will be covering in our first Main Lesson of the year, we have already touched on this subject before but I felt it was rushed and we didn't go into it deep enough as none of it really stuck with the children so we will look at it with more depth now.

• The Roman world and it's first settlers.
• The work of Ancient Romans.
• Transportation.
• Architecture and engineering.
• Government.
• The people of Ancient Rome.
• Daily life, clothing, food, housing etc.
• Religion.
• Recreation.
• Roman Arms and Armour.

Roman Biographies;

Julius Caesar
Caligula
Gaius Octavius Thurinus
Marcus Aurillies
Hadrian
Justinian

Roman Buildings;

The Pantheon
The Colosseum
Roman Theater
The Roman Forum
The Forum
Roman Walls
Roman Baths
Catacombs.

Thats just to start us off I will post more as we go and will show pics of the children's work as we do it, it feels good to be getting back into a Rhythm again after a long break.

My School Year Plan Finally.

OK I know I am a little late as the school year here in New Zealand started about 2 weeks ago but for some reason we were not ready, we tried to get in the swing of things but no way was anything going to flow just yet, then all of a sudden my brain kicked in again I think it was on over load and is feeling better and full of ideas again, i have decided to go with a plan other wise it is too easy for me to stray of onto other things then feel like we are getting nowhere.
So here is what i have put together with a lot of family consultations.
We are going to work on a month by month basis as then we can have a few days of here and there as things crop up and we need to have a day off here and there.

• March - History Rome.
• April - Literature.
• May - Science Geology.
• June - History Rome part 2.
• July - World Geography.
• August - Mathematics.
• September - Drawing, Painting, Handwork etc.
• October - Science Botany.
• November - Home Economics ???
• December - Holiday Traditions.
  

I am still working on exactly what we will do for each one of these and been the first Main Lesson Block is Rome I already have that prepared and will reveal what we are doing in my next post. We are going to make the main focus of our schoolwork our Main Lesson Block and the only other subject we will do is maths, most other subjects are covered in the main lesson anyway and the ERO reviewer in December was quite happy with what we were doing so less is more as the saying goes.

More of family life!!!

So why is it that although I feel like we are doing nothing and going nowhere we are actually always busy, lol, here is a few snippets of what we have been up to.

Above is a Cockatoo named Pip she was 6 weeks old when we got her and we were hand feeding her, I have never really been a bird person but thought well it would be a good experience for the children, so we started out with good intentions but it didn't work out for me and I have had to accept I am just a cat person. We had a friend who wanted her if we didn't so she has packed her bags and moved on, although while we had her we learnt several things,

1. she could be heard about 1 kilometere away
2. She drove us mad and cried like a baby when not getting attention or was hungry
3. It was just like having a baby all over again, they need feeding, regular rest times and they poo and spit their food EVERYWHERE!
4. I learned that my nerves were not very good with all the noise and we all knew how to block our ears and keep all the windows and doors shut in the middle of summer in case the neighbors heard her.

So she has now moved in with my friend and the peace and tranquility has returned. LOL.

Next the children had their Grandfather come foe a visit, this is my Ex Husbands father and he lives inAustralia so the children haven't seen him for about 3 years, Jack was only a few weeks old when they last saw each other. So they had a few hours together as he passed through town.

Yes this is my little BOY JACK, Jessica has decided that he makes a lovely little girl and keeps dressing him up as one, unfortunately he loves to do it, so here is reading for a grand ball!!! It has to stop I think gone too far.

And then there is Mila, she is our new arrival, yes I have just got the bird out of the house and now we have another cat, we have been looking for a while and it had to be the perfect cat as we didn't want to upset my gorgeous Siamese Lily, but when we saw her on the internet I knew we had to have her, she is a few days older than my Lily but is a Siamese as well and so far so good, we have only had her a few hours and she is already snuggled up in bed with Jack how cool is that.

And just in case you were wondering YES we have been doing schoolwork, her they are studying away, although we are having problems at the moment keeping Jack occupied while the kids work, so I am working on little things for him to do as he doesn't play with toys anymore I find he just wants to be doing things like the big kids.

So there you have it a little bit of what we have been up to!!

Dinosaurs Galore!!!

To keep Jack's mind of his sore head the other day we took him to the local Dinosaur park.

It took him a while before he would go near them but once he realised they were fake he was ok and wouldn't stop touching them.

He was quite worried about the egg in the middle of the dinosaurs though, he thought they might attack it.

Where have we been????

So where have we been and what have we been doing, well as you can see by the photo above, Jack has been n the wars and giving his mum a real fright. Last Saturday night I let him go have one more jump on the Trampoline before he went to bed, then all of a sudden I heard screaming, not from Jack but from Jessica, I got to the door to see blood everywhere, I still didn't worry too much as he does get nose bleeds and had, had one earlier that day. But on closer inspection it was not to be a nose bleed, but his head cut really deep, although I didn't realise how bad until the bleeding slowed down, it was a mad rush to the doctors to reveal it was deep enough to be in to the Skull, so 3 Stitches later, some glue and butterfly stitches and we were sent home with a child on head injury watch and not to be allowed t do anything for 3 weeks, Yeah Right!!!!!

Here he is 5 days later, bandages off, stitches due out and a cheeky grin on his face and of course a new wound on his chin where his teeth went through his chin on falling the other day, he has never had so many accidents as he has had this week. But on his recent trip to the doctors [not the A&E we went to the other day] I was told that the whole town was talking about little Jack as one of the bravest little boys they had, had for a while as he had laid there and had all his stitches down without making a peep.
So he is on the road to recovery now and on the go again, 3 weeks rest I don't think so!!!
I do have to say though in my own defense of this dreaded day, I am so upset with myself over it all, I spent a lot of money buying a Trampoline with good padding and a safety net around it so that he would hopefully be safe, just to have this happen, we have old rusty tramps with no pads or nets before and never had a problem.

What is this bird doing???????

We watched this bird for ages today at Rainbow Springs, we are not sure what he was doing.













BUT he continued and continued to do the same thing over and over again, he was rubbing his beak up and down the strands of grass.

We watched for ages and when we left he was still doing it. Perhaps it is a boredom thing, but he definitely kept the visitors intrigued.

The biggest EEL I have ever seen.

The things you see when out and about.
Sorry the photo's are not great my batteries were flat and the flash was not wanting to work but I hope you can see just how big this EEL really is.

I am not a fan of EEL's but he always fascinates us when we go to visit our favourite place So we thought we would share him with you this time.
Rainbow Springs

Sunday Collage making.

It is Sunday morning and normally my catch up morning, the children normally play or read while I catch up on cleaning the house, washing, paperwork, bill paying etc etc.
BUT today Jessica and Jack had different ideas, they have already played dress ups and been outside till I had to bring them in for fear of the neighbours waking up, so as a last resort for a quiet life/morning they are now making a collage while Joshua age 14 is still sleeping the morning away, what a difference a couple of years in age can do.

Yummy Chocolate

The children have nearly finished their lapbooks, there is a few more bits and pieces to put in and a bit of decorating but most of the hard work is finished.

They actually didn't enjoy this subject as much as I thought they would, they were both pleased when I agreed to move on next week to a new project. But it was just something fun to start the new school year off.

These are chocolate scones and boy are they yummy, I managed to get a photo of the last 3 before they were all gone lol.
Here are some links that we used to research.

Cadbury Chocolate
The History of Chocolate

The Field Museum: Chocolate, The Exhibition

Chocolate Corner

Manufacturing Chocolate From Seed to Sweet (Interactive!)

Hershey Factory Tour: Video

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Activities

Hershey's Virtual Pumpkin Decorator

Hut for a day.

Jessica and Jack are camping out, well they were the other day lol.
They decided to build a hut, it started out very small.

Then got bigger and bigger, unfortunately they built it outside on the deck and it started to rain.
I gues there were a few holes and cracks around but managed to stay in it all day until the roof caved in under the pressure of the rain.

They had food out there and event he cats decided it was a good place to settle down and sleep.