March Activities

Well, March was a pretty good month.  Summer made a hasty exit, and autumn has been preparing us for cooler weather to come.

Kite flying is a must-do activity for young ones.  The light breezes we have had, have been perfect for kites.

These kites are easy, fun and guarenteed to work even with little to no wind!
(Supermarket bags and string)

Run like the wind!

And a real kite too.  They loved it.

This boy LOVES his learning boxes.  He even asks to do them on the weekends.

My giant sunflowers were ready to harvest.  The boys had a great time getting all the seeds off the flower heads.  I have lots of seeds for next year and because you can only plant so many sunflowers the chickens and ducks enjoyed some seed treats.

Team work.

Cooking lunch.  Pretty girl.

For one of our Friday movie and pizza nights we were treated to wild goat meat and mozzarella pizza.  J951 recently went bow hunting and brought home a wild goat!  We have had roasted goat leg and this delicious pizza.  Not only was he the hunter, but also the cook!

My baby chickens are getting big now.  Titus Jnr on the left is the first to greet me at the gate.  Lily and Cuddles are very curious and love to eat from my hand.  Cuddles has no personal space and often tries to peck my teeth out!  So I have learnt not to smile at her too long!

I was given 3 new hens.  They are so, so cute.  They are Lavender Asian Langshan Bantams, tiny little ladies and so pretty.  I have named them Amethyst, Periwinkle, and Violet.  

March 17th is St. Patricks Day.  We are not particularly Irish, although I am sure we would both trace some family to Ireland if we tried.  However, we took the day to learn a little about St. Patrick and about Ireland.  As with all learning, food is a must if at all possible.  There is no better way to remember things than with food!

Our delicious Full Irish Breakfast.  I even found Irish sausages at the butcher!

The children filling up for the day ahead on breakfast.

Dinner

We even had serviettes with shamrock napkin rings and a candle table centrepiece.

Often I find these 2 snuggled up together when I check on them before heading to bed.

Arrow found a survival book in the learning box one morning.  He decided, after flicking through the pages, that he would build a shelter.  Here it is...

Big enough for two.

"Campfire" with some furry friends.

 I was given some organic apples.  Sounds fancy doesn't it.  Really they are just regular old fashioned apples from someones back yard who didn't spray them or anything!
So I am busy stewing the big ones, and finely chopping the smallest and not so good ones for Apple Cider Vinegar making.

And meanwhile the children are eating a lot of apples when they get hungry...which seems to be often!

~Lorna

Night of the Moonjellies - FIAR

Pre-warning - lots of photos below! 

Last week for our learning we read Night of the Moonjellies  by Mark Shasha.  It is a book suggested in the Five In A Row Curriculum that we use.  A lovely, rich story that is based on an actual day the author experienced as a young boy.

To hear it read online *listen here*

*Five In A Row*

 We did some activities each day.  The girls did a mapping exercise where they received a map of the United States of America with the names of the New England states.  They had to find the names on a map in an atlas and colour them in on their own map sheet.  We chatted briefly about why they are called New England states and a small smattering of history.

They also wrote a short story of their own, reflecting on an event in their own lives.  

Extra reading was books about the sea as the story is set in a coastal town and "moon jellies" are little sea creatures.

Busy Reading

I found some amazing little resources on *homeschool share* for this book. 

This game has cards with questions on them about the story.  If they weren't paying attention, they couldn't answer!  Nothing like a spot of sibling competition to up the concentration!

Math word problems - keeping it relevant.

Butterfly took Blossom and Crystal for a little art lesson using oil pastels.  We talked about colours to show moods and oil pastels to give texture to the picture.

Science covered the Aquatic Biome

As we talked about the aquatic biome regions we used stickers to help us remember them.

 This is our jellyfish in a bottle.  

Quite simply a piece of plastic in a bottle of coloured water = Fun.

Years ago when I did this book with my older children, J951 collected me as much sea glass as he could find.  It was nice to have some on hand to show the younger children, especially now we don't live very close to a beach, as we used to do.

To end our week we organised to have dinner at a diner...at home.  This was so much fun, and something the children will not forget!

On the HomeSchoolShare website there was a page to create a Restaurant Menu.  This is what Blossom and Crystal came up with.

The girls set up the outdoor diner.  It looked so amazing.

Crystal took the orders while Butterfly and Blossom were the waitresses.  We used play money to buy our meals.

The boys waiting for their food.

The waitresses doing a fabulous job.

The indoor table.

The waitresses served each other.

 Dessert was cute.  Beach Sand Buckets - a layer of ice cream, chocolate mousse, crumbled biscuit, jelly pieces and a chocolate shell.

Side View

 At the end of the story the boy has melon and chamomile tea just before falling asleep.  So we did too.

Such a lot of fun!

~Lorna

The Story In The Carols

I don't like to leave things unfinished.  This post will, for me, just tie it all up neatly.  

This December was unexpectedly harder for me.  This is why the posts just quietly stopped. 

But we didn't stop.  My Christmas enthusiasm was carried by my children, one in particular, who continued to celebrate and make memories even on the days when I couldn't.  

And that for me was a gift; knowing that they have caught, and cherish our traditions of the past years.  

This was my present from Butterfly... She gets it :)

We attended a Christmas parade with friends.

Crystal and Butterfly with Friend #1

Blossom and Crystal with Friend #2

Arrow and Cedar watching the bikes.

We finished our Story Beads.  I managed to finally find the crotchet cotton I wanted to use, rather than wool.  

Butterfly set up little things around the house to add to the festive feel.

*Broken Glass Jelly*

It's No Fairy Tale

For a few months a little group of home educated children practiced a play written by a home educated young lady.  Butterfly, Blossom, and Crystal were all a part of the production.

They were very privileged to be able to record their little show at a radio station and have it aired just before Christmas.  This was a really neat experience.

Listening carefully to the radio man.

Blossom speaking her lines.

Butterfly speaking her lines.

Crystal speaking her lines.

The choir

Butterfly sang a duet

Crystal surprised us by singing a solo like an angel!

She is a natural.

The group performed the play at our local home educators end of year break up.

Centre of photo Blossom, Butterfly, Crystal

Crystal singing her solo

Butterfly dancing

Butterfly singing her duet

Blossom and Crystal dancing

Blossom and Crystal dancing

To listen to the radio broadcast online  *It's No Fairy Tale*

Blossom speaking @ 1:37
Butterfly's duet @ 4:39
Butterfly speaking @ 7:07
Crystal's solo @ 7:53
Crystal speaking @ 9:00

Merry Christmas

~Lorna