Another Day.......

New Haircut

2009-01-02T03:08:00.000-08:00

Belated Merry Christmas to everyone. I have some Christmas posts to catch up on, but first I thought I would post some pics of Liana's new hair cut.

She has very thick hair and hates having it brushed and put up every day, so it was time for a change. Here are the before and after photos.

End of Year Ballet Demo

2008-12-14T04:37:00.000-08:00

On Saturday was Liana's last day of ballet for the year. That means I get 6 weeks of not having to try and tie the silly ribbons on her ballet shoes that I cut too short..sigh..I hate tying ballet shoes!!!!!

Anyway, that aside we got have a once a term look at what she actually does for half and hour every Saturday morning.

The photos are not so great as the sun was shining in through the window behind her but you still get the idea, and just you Mum, because you couldn't come, I've included some video footage.

So now we just have our Caroling excursion on Wednesday and our Kindy party Thursday and we are done with all activities until swimming lessons in January - YAY!

Tot School

2008-12-10T19:49:00.000-08:00

So I haven't posted a tot school post for a while and this one is quite late, but we are still going strong. We have been doing lots this week between Christmas activities, montessori activities and cooking we have plenty of pictures to show!

We have done plenty of building with the big blocks from the resource centre.

MAking Christmas stockings

Nativity sets

I have seen this bead bouquet activity on several sites and just had to try it. Both kids pick this one several times a day.

Lacing is still popular, although Liam still thinks he just threads one hole and then he is done!

I introduce colouring mixing with the eye dropper this week. Liana really enjoyed making and discovering new colours. Liam enjoyed dumping all of the colours into one cup.

Cooking is always a favourite.

And lastly, playing on the bouncy castle. We don't have any nice flat grassy area big enough at this new place to set it up outside, but the lounge room with its high ceilings works perfectly.

For more tot school posts check here.

Ballerina

2008-11-24T02:37:00.000-08:00

Well we are nearly finished our first term of ballet and Liana still loves it. Unfortunately, her wonderful teacher, Miss Mel is leaving at the end of the year.

Liana had her first performance at the local arts festival the other week. I think she did great especially considering she only had two lessons to learn the dance in!!

Here are some photos of the big day. Liana is the second from the right with the purple wings!!

What Happens When You Leave a 2 Year Old Alone for 5 minutes?

2008-11-22T02:31:00.000-08:00

...he paints himself of course!!

We had just had a bath and put our p.j's on. I was sitting down brushing his sister's hair and thought he was playing in the games room. No, he decided to grab a chair, open the craft cupboard, get the yellow paint our and paint his tummy. What else would you do????

Thankfully, it was only himself he painted. He thought it was very funny until he realised he would have to have a shower to get clean.

We Must Be Doing Something Right!

2008-11-16T22:28:00.000-08:00

You have to love a picture of a little one falling asleep with a book in their hands.

Notice the nice ripped off piece of wallpaper in the background...hmmmmm......

You Know it's Time for New Dress-ups When.....

2008-11-11T00:50:00.000-08:00

...your little boy wants to dress up and he can only choose between being a ballerina, a princess or a fairy!!!!

In my defence, up until this week he has had absolutely no interest in playing dress-ups. However, suddenly he has decided that it is fun. So today we had ballerina Liam complete with ballet shoes and then Fairy Liam.

He dressed himself in the fairy outfit and ran out all excited to announce to me, "Look Mummy, I booful!" How could you not love that?

So, any suggestions for easy to make, cheap boys dressups??

So here are some photos of my booful boy and his big sister. I must say I do question his choice of accessories. I don't know if a wrench and drill really work with choice of clothing!!!!

Our First Montessori-ish Day

2008-11-03T02:39:00.000-08:00

I say Montessori-ish because we are by no means true montessori sttyle. what I have done is taken the bits of this philosophy and many of the activities and changed other bits and pieces to meet our needs. Today was our first day using this new structure and I must say it was a success!!!

Because of all the new activities today was a lot of me demonstrating an activity to Liana then one to Liam, then back to Liana, the.....well you get the idea but both of the children worked really well on their activities and even Liam soon learned the idea of having to complete his activity, pack it up and put it away before moving on to another.

The good thing about the kids wanting to just do each activity one after another was that I could see what worked, what didn't and what I needed to change. I had to alter a few activities on the spot becasue they were either too easy or way too hard and I learned that flour is not a good option for the letter tracing tray. I quickly changed that to rice!

I forgot about the camera until about half way through, but as they worked on their activities for 1.5 hours I still got a few good shots. Liana worked solid this whole time and I had to make her stop for lunch. Liam worked on and off stopping to go and play with his trains every now and then and then coming back for more.

So I officially call today a success and am looking forward to tomorrow. Here are a few photos of some of our activities today.

Tot School

2008-11-02T19:59:00.000-08:00

Our theme for Tot School last week was red. We went on a scavenger hunt around the house to collect as many red things as we could find. Picked out all the red blocks, made red jelly and ate red sausages, tomatoes and strawberries for lunch. We made a "What is Red?" mini book that Liam loved and carried around and read to everyone all week. We also did a red collage and of course painted with red!! I kept forgetting to take photos so only have a few to share this week.

Making a red collage....

Our red painting started like this....

Then moved to this......

Then this....

And finally, this!

Check here to see what others have done for Tot School this week.

Montessori

2008-10-28T03:32:00.000-07:00

So after much thought and lots of googling and reading, I have found that I am heading back towards the place I began my homeschool journey - Montesorri. I have decided to change my plan and head away from the classical road and back towards a lot of the Montessori ideas and activities. I am slowly converting our games room and making and printing off all the materials I saved back when I first decided to homeschool 2+ years ago.

Tonight the kids spotted one of the activities I was preparing and were busting to have a go, so I let them at it! They played with it for over 30 mins before I insisted the have a shower and go to bed. You can see the response I got from Liam at this suggestion. I think this activity is going to be a winner.

The idea is to use the tongs to place a marble in each section of the ice cube tray. We then moved onto 2 in each. It is amazing how many times they wanted to repeat this. Great for fine motor, hand eye co-ordination and 1 to 1 correspondence.

The Mosquitos are Here

2008-10-15T04:18:00.000-07:00

Well,there are definitely some parts of spring I don't like - and mosquitos are one of them!! They are here in full force already. I have a feeling we are going to have a plague of them around hereby summer.....sigh.

I wouldn't mind so much except that poor Liana is so sensitive to them and for some reason she has very tasty blood! If you see a mosquito land on her you can literally watch as she swells up in a couple of minutes.

Last night a mozzie must have made its way into her room. She was wearing long p.js so I guess the only place left was her face. This is what she looked like 24 hours later and after several doses of antihistamine......

So today I went and bought a mosquito net canopy for her room. Not that it will help when she is outside. I wonder if I can keep her in her room until summer is over???????

Nature on Our Doorstep

2008-10-07T03:32:00.000-07:00

I love living in the hills. It is so different to where we were before. The kids are loving it and we don't need to go any further than our own yard for our nature studies!!

This is what Paul found when he opened the front door yesterday....

and then the dog discovered another in the back yard. We have nicknamed them Bob - short for Bobtails. Creative I know, but hey, it works.

Then today we opened the front door again to find our newest friend.

This little one who we have nicknamed Maggie has been hanging around for a while (well, we think it is the same one) but we fed her today and she kept coming back all day for more. She is not timid at all, even taking food right out of my hand and almost following me inside! We will leave some mince out for her tomorrow and see if she returns.

Tot School

2008-10-05T22:27:00.000-07:00

This week it is school holidays so all our normal activities like ballet, latin etc are on break instead we have had swimming lessons every morning at 8:20am - what was I thinking!!!!!!!

Needless, to say we spend the rest of the day with tired kids and tired mum so we haven't done a whole lot of planned learning. There has still been plenty of things going on though.

I made Liam his first tot book from here he carried it around with him everywhere for the first couple of days and shows it to everyone he sees. I think it is safe to say he likes it!

We have also done lots of playing with playdoh using the new mats I printed and laminated. Here the kids are making faces for their people.

To check out what others are doing for tot school, click here.

Liana-isms!

2008-10-05T02:14:00.001-07:00

Everyday I look at my little girl and realise she is not so little anymore. She will be 5 in January - how did that happen?? The baby toys have gone, the nappies are now a distant memory she is reading and writing and coming out with information that I don't even know. Then every now and then she will say one of those cute little words that she hasn't quite gotten the hang of and I resist the urge to correct her and just enjoy those last few baby things.

Here are some of the few remaining Liana-isms that I hope stay for a while longer!!
poofrints - footprints
squashed lemons - lemon squash
badulk - adult
rainbrella - umbrella

I know there are more but can't remember them now. I will add them as I remember or hear them.

Tot School

2008-09-28T23:04:00.000-07:00

It's that time of week again. We did sooooo much this week that I didn't have time to get photos of everything, but we had a great time. We went to the zoo, which was a bit disappointing as we went to check out the Australian animals and the reptile house, fairy penguins and several others were closed for renovations...sigh...Never mind we'll just have to go back another day.

We also visited Kalamunda History Village. All the photos for that are in the post below.

Our theme for Tot school this week was combined with Liana's Five in a Row book - Katy no Pocket. So we did all things kangaroo!!

We learned how far kangaroos can jump and then tried to see if we could jump that far.

We tried carrying around all our baby animals in our pockets just like Katy did!

We did some kangaroo crafts. Although Liam was more interested in how high he could stack his crayons.

We played some games with the tool cards from the story. We named them, matched them, hid them and then carried them around for the rest of the day. Liam likes his tools even when they are just pictures!

And then our little chef cooked us dinner....

To see what others have done this week for Tot School, check here.

Kalamunda History Village

2008-09-26T06:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to Kalamunda History Village with our homeschool kindy group. It rained the entire time we were there but it was such a great day. I can't wait to go back on a dry day so we can stay and do some more exploring. I barely saw Liana while we were there because she adopted our tour guide and her umbrella and stuck to her like glue the whole time!! Even Liam enjoyed it because there was an old steam train and some tools and tractors - what more could a boy want?.

Here are some of the higlights of the day:

Handwashing, wringing and ironing the clothes.

Stencilling labels for fruit boxes.

Washing dishes

Grinding wheat

Checking out the machinery and fire truck

School time. The kids loooooved this part. You can tell they are homeschooled, I think they would've sat in those desks all day. They especially liked trying their hand at writing with an ink pot and pen.

Playing some "olden days" games

And Liam's all time favourite........

The old steam train.

At this point it was pouring with rain and the train was not undercover, but there was no way Liam was going to miss out on driving the train, after all, he had been waiting all morning!! I had to stand in the rain to get these photos and by the time I managed to drag the kids off we were all soaking wet. Needless to say, at that point we headed home!

TOT SCHOOL

2008-09-22T05:13:00.000-07:00

This week our theme was Humpty Dumpty. Apart from singing the nursery rhyme waaaay too many times we also acted it our with our plastic eggs and block walls. We cooked eggs for breakfast with toast soldiers, looked at different animals that come out of eggs and did some Humpty crafts.

We also did some cooking..........

......and played with the playdoh. Liana decided to make Jesus on the cross and then proceeded to tell us that we couldn't "smoosh"it but had to keep it forever and ever and Liam, well he's still trying to see if he can get away with eating the stuff, sigh.

To see what others have done for Tot School this week, click here

Our Week With Ping

2008-09-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

These last 2 weeks we have been reading The Story About Ping for our FIAR book. This is such a cute story and we had so much fun.

We made our own Wise Eyed boat for our family of rubber ducks, played with ducks and boats in our sensory tub, went to the lake to look for Ping and then had a picnic with the swans instead and painted with the feathers we found there.

We also learned about China because that is where Ping lived. We found out what our name was in Chinese and how to write it, tried to copy the numbers 1-10 in Chinese, found China on the map and coloured in a Chinese flag. This weekend we are going to try our some chopsticks when we have Chinese for Grandad's birthday.

Here is a look at some of the fun things we did this week!

TOT SCHOOL

2008-09-15T03:20:00.000-07:00

Our theme for Tot School this week was ducks. Liana and I were reading Ping for our FIAR book so it tied in perfectly. Unfortunately we were too busy to get many photos. By the time I thought about it we were on to something else. So what did we do....

WEll, we hatched ducks out of plastic eggs, glued feathers onto duck pictures, learned about the letter d. Sang and acted out duck rhymes and songs, had rubber ducks and water for our sensory table, painted with feathers and went for a trip to a duck pond to find some ducks.

Here are some photos of our feather painting and trip to the lake.

Click here to see what other people have done for tot school this week.

Little Ballerina

2008-09-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

So, Liana has been desperate to start ballet for the last 6 months. No idea where she got this obsession from. We have never talked about or watched any ballet. Anyway, the dress ups were no longer enough, it had to be "real ballet". So last week she had her first class and absolutely loved it. I'm still undecided if this is a good or bad thing!!!!!. Her first words when she came out of the class were, "I looooove Miss Mel, can we do this every day?" and all week, "Is it Saturday today, Mama?"

So $140 later here she is in all her pink glory, minus the ribbons on the shoes that I am yet to sew on!!!

OOPS!!!! Can't figure out to turn them around, but you get the general idea!!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

2008-09-09T22:21:00.001-07:00

I'm Back!!

2008-09-09T21:51:00.000-07:00

Not that I ever really went away. I have had heaps to blog about, but I just hate blogging without photos to go with it. Unfortunately, the cord to download my pics from the camera died and then got lost hence, no posts. But, hubby has promised to pick up a card reader on his way home form work tonight so I can blog to my hearts content. Be prepared for an onslaught of photos!!!!

So, what is new you ask?? Well here is a preview.....Liana had her first solo violin recital where she played Twinkle Twinkle. We have video footage to download cause I know you all are dying to hear a 4 year old play Twinkle on her violin!!! She also started ballet and has been very busy creating some great lapbooks with our FIAR books.

We have started Totschool with Liam. Click here to find out more. This week we have been learning about ducks. He has also started having violin lessons with Liana's teacher. He's not quite ready for a real violin yet, although he thinks he is, so for now he has to be happy with the cardboard one!!

We have moved house. We are gradually moving up into the hills. We are on a 1/2 acre bush block across the road from National Park. The kids call the backyard their forest. We've had roos in the front garden and possums in the tree. The house needs a lot of work but the setting is beautiful.

So that is a brief update. Stay tuned for many, many, photos!!

Nature Journals

2008-07-09T02:44:00.000-07:00

Our homeschooling tends to be a mix of classical and Charlotte Mason Styles. One element that I have been trying to incorporate regularly is our nature journal. Liana loves going on nature walks and collecting things to put in her nature journal. I am trying to be more consistent with this and do it once a week. At the moment it is more sporadic!

Here are some of Liana's journal entries from this year. She chooses what to put in her journal and then attempts to draw it or make a rubbing. All these drawing are her own work. Occasionally I will help her with something she is really stuck on. Then I ask her what she would like me to write about her find. This is normally along the lines of "It is beautiful. It is precious. I love it." We are slowly working on actually getting a description or some information about the topic, but for now I write whatever she may say!!!

Best Friends

2008-06-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been a while since I posted on this blog but htere is nothing like cute photos to inspire me back into blogging!

Liam and Jack have been best buddies since the day we brought Jack home. I quite often find them cuddled up together on the lounge and more than once have had to kick Jack off his bed at night!

Liam must really love Jack because he doesn't share his blankie with anyone but was quite happy to use it as a blanket to keep Jack warm the other day

Looking for a Reason to Homeschool??

2008-05-10T07:08:00.000-07:00

We Have a New Puppy!!!!!!!

2008-04-28T05:53:00.000-07:00

We had to get rid of our dog because she was getting jealous of the kids and had taken a nip at them a few times. Being such a big strong dog we just couldn't risk it. Luckily we found her a nice child free home where she would get all the attention she needed.

So......now we have a brand new puppy!!!!!!!!!!! He is sooooooo cute. Liana has named him Jack. He is an American/english staffy mix and the most placid puppy I have ever had.

The kids just adore him and he is keeping me company while Paul is working. Although he does have to kick him off the bed when he gets home!

Jack has taken a real liking to Liam. Not sure why as Liam jus wants to sit on him all the time. Maybe it is because he is small too and reminds him of another puppy. He is certainly as unpredictable!!

Here are a few photos and I am sure there will be many more to follow!!!

How Not to Play Hide and Seek....

2008-04-28T05:35:00.000-07:00

My poor baby was staying over at her Nanna's having a great time playing hide and seek with her Aunty and her neighbours. Unfortunately Nanna has a lot of stuff under her bed!!!! Liana didn't quite make it under the bed but instead managed to hit her head on the corner of an open drawer. OUCH!!!!!

A few hours later and some purple glue, care of the doctor, she was back home. Liana had a great time being the centre of attention while the doctor glued her back together. (What a great invention that glue is. So much easier than having to try and stitch a 4 year olds head!!) Meanwhile I was waiting at home with Liam pacing the floor imagining some huge gash in hear head and Nanna was stressing out about how daddy would react!!

Here is the patient in all her glory. She loooooooves bandaids and bandages so has just loved wearing this all week!!!

Oh, and I had to include the cooking photo just because!

What About Liam??

2008-04-17T05:51:00.000-07:00

Well given that he is only just two and a boy, any attempt to have him sit still for more than 5 secs ends in disaster. That being said we have started using the preparatory "curriculum" from Letter of the week. It is simple, it is fast and best of all it is free. Each week we learn a letter, number, colour or shape, a nursery rhyme and have a different theme. We have also added a bible verse written to music from hubbards cupboard. So far we have done this for 2 weeks. Amazingly Liam now correctly identifies A and B. He can say both nursery rhymes, sings both bible verses and actually sits still long enough for us to add the new "thing" to his poster every morning during circle time. It is quite cute watching Liana trying to revise his poster with him during the day while they are playing. iN fact I think she makes a better teacher than me. Liam is so eager to please his big sister that he answers all her questions and does pretty much whatever she asks...as long as it doesn't take any longer than 2 minutes!!

Here is a picture of our learning poster for this week and our activity for the letter B.

Our week with Angus Lost

2008-04-17T05:09:00.000-07:00

Well, actually it has been more like 3 weeks..sigh...Not much happening here lately. Although in our defence it is school holidays at the moment. anyway we slowly rowed Angus Lost and eventually finished our lapbook. While we were reading this book we looked at lots of different types of dos which was great as we are in the process of getting rid of our grumpy dog that has decided she doesn't like children and purchasing a new one. So everytiome Liana saw a cute dog she ecided that was the one for us! We also looked at different types of caves and cave life. Now off to decide what to row next. Hmmmmmm....I think we will try The Runaway Bunny.

Teddy Bears Picnic

2008-04-15T22:48:00.001-07:00

For our final week of kindy for the term we had a Teddy Bears' Picnic. It was such a fun day. We made clothes for our teddies, decorated teddy cupcakes, made teddy race cars and painted plaster teddies. Then we read the story Going on a Bear Hunt and had our own bear hunt. The highlight of the day was the teddy bears' picnic where we got to eat all of our sugary teddy bear creations!!!

More photos below.....

Teddy Bears' Picnic

2008-04-15T22:33:00.000-07:00

Homeschool Kindy Group

2008-04-15T22:20:00.000-07:00

Last term a group of homeschool mums decided to start a kindy for our little ones. We have been meeting once a week for the kids to play and create together. Liam and Liana absolutely love this part of their week. I think Liana's favourite part of the day is definitely circle time singing!! Here are a few pics of some of the activities we have been doing.

Play With Me

2008-03-23T19:52:00.001-07:00

Last week for our FIAR title we read Play With Me. This is such a cute book!! We learned heaps about different types of animals and started an animal classification chart. Liana can tell you the difference between mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects!!!!

I am amazed at how much Liana is learning with these simple picture books. It is great. I would thoroughly recommend Before Five in a Row and Five in a Row to anyone with little ones, even if they are not homeschooling. It is a great opportunity for some extra cuddle time and you never know, you may even find yourself learning a thing or two!!

Here are some photos of our finished lapbook for this week.

Artist Study

2008-03-16T22:33:00.000-07:00

This term we embarked on our first attempt at an artist study. We are looking at Vincent Van Gogh for term 1. We began the term by reading Camille and the Sunflowers and looking at a book of Van Gogh's paintings. Our plan is pretty much the same every week. On Monday I put up a new print on Liana's pin up board. When she notices it we talk about what we see, what she likes and anything relevant to the painting including the name and who painted it (Van Gogh). We continue this through the week and then on Friday we either paint a black and white copy of the painting or attempt to reproduce it on our own. So far we have looked at the portraits of Camille and the Postman Roulin and then painted pictures of our family. Next was the Olive trees with a black and white reproduction and then our own version of Vase with 14 Sunflowers.

I must say I am pretty impressed with how she is doing so far and she is so proud to show everyone her version of the pictures.

The Birthday Photos!

2008-03-16T22:21:00.001-07:00

Happy Birthday Little Man!!

2008-03-08T05:57:00.000-08:00

Today my baby turned 2!!! A bittersweet day. My little man is growing up but he will always be my baby. We had a Thomas the Tank Engine Fest with Thomas toys and Thomas cake. Liam had an absolute blast as did Liana. To celebrate we went to an indoor playground designed for 0-6 years old with 2 of friends and their little ones. I will post some photos of the birthday boy tomorrow once I dig the camera out of the birthday stuff!!!! But for now here are some pictures of my baby and the boy he is becoming.

Homeschooling

2008-03-03T00:38:00.000-08:00

This year Liana is 4, so if we were sending her to school she would be in Kindy. So we are now officially (although we don't need to register for another 2 years) homeschooling. I thought I would post what we are doing for "school" this term.
FIAR: Our main curriculum is Five in a Row. We are just finishing up BFIAR and hope to start FIAR in a couple of months.

Bible: Joyful Heart Character from hubbardscupboard.org. We are also using her memory verse program. I love this website, I have used her 2 year old and 3 year old programs with Liana for the last couple of years and they are great.

Reading: Sight word booklets from hubbardscupboard.org. Reading lessons from readinglesson.com. We are just beginning blending sounds and cvc words.

Maths: hmmmmm, well, um, we are just learning naturally. Counting, measuring etc.

Artist Study: This term we are studying Vincent Van Gogh. So far we have looked at his pictures of the Roulin Family and painted our own family pictures. This week we are looking at The Olive Trees.

Music: Liana is still learning Suzuki Violin. Our composer this term is Bach. We are listening to the classical Kids CDs. Liam is also in the Suzuki Early childhood class and will start coming to Liana's violin classes to watch towards the end of the year.

Latin: We are part of a class called Kinderclassics which is for 3 to 6 year olds. It introduces the children to Latin through classics. Last term we read Aesop's Fables. This term we have been learning about Romulus and Remus. The children play games and sing songs and learn basic Latin words. Lots of fun!!

Both kids are still doing swimming lessons and loving it.

Phew!!! That looks like a lot but really most "subjects" only consists of about 10 minutes a day.

Liam is tagging along for the ride. I may start doing some of Hubbards Cupboard Bible Rhyme prog for 2 year old during the year. But at this point he is sooo not ready for anything structured.

Anyway, that is what our homeschool looks like this year. Will share some of our BFIAR lapbooks later.

Liana's 4th Birthday

2008-03-03T00:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally got around to it. It is only 2 months after her birthday, but better late than never!! Liana had a great time at her party. She loooooved her princes dress and castle cake. the kids were all wonderful and everyone enjoyed playing and making and eating! So here are some pictures of the "GREEN PRINCESS PARTY" with the birthday girl and a few of her friends.

Birthday Blues (or greens in this case!)

2007-12-26T01:33:00.000-08:00

So Christmas is over and I am already planning Liana's birthday. In fact, I sat down on Christmas night after Paul had gone to work and made up party invitations.....sigh.... 2 weeks to go. Oh, I just loooove having her birthday so close to Christmas.

Anyway, Miss Muffet has requested a green princess party - interesting combination don't you think? Have you ever tried finding a green princess dress?? Don't bother unless you plan on paying in excess of $80AU for a custom one. So I resorted to looking for green fairy dresses on e-bay. Given that we only had 2 weeks I figured I should only buy from our state. Anyway I found two YAY!!!!!! But wait, when I showed Liana she quickly announced that they weren't green???????? They were dark green and she wants light green....sigh....so its back to the drawing board.

Now don't even get me starte don the birthday cake!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!!!

Blueberries for Sal

2007-12-16T01:22:00.000-08:00

We have just finished rowing Blueberries for Sal by RobertMcCloskey. I looove this book. Liana never grew tired of hearing it and there were so many great things to do that we ended up rowing it for 2 weeks!

Here are some photos of the lapbook we made for this book. First is the open lapbook. Then we have a minit book on ways fruits grow. Next is cards for what bears eat. Then we have a sorting booklet for Sal, Little Bear or both. The basket shows different foods we can cook using blueberries. We made blueberry muffins and blueberry pancakes and ate lots of blueberries on their own!!! YUM!!! The last photo shows the life cycle of a blueberry bush.

We also did a blueberry painting and played lots of maths games using the blueberry and number cards.

Next up I think we will row Goodnight Moon.

Christmas Photos

2007-12-15T19:39:00.000-08:00

We've just had some Christmas photos done by a friend of ours. Thought I would share a few of the cuter ones!

1 Corinthians 13 (sort of!!)

2007-12-05T19:56:00.000-08:00

I love this Christmas version of 1 Corinthians 13. I've read it on several blogs so thought I would post it too!

If I decorate my house perfectly with plaid bows, strands of twinkling lights, and shiny glass balls but do not show love to my family, I'm just another decorator.
.
If I slave away in the kitchen, baking dozens of Christmas cookies, preparing gourmet meals, and arranging a beautifully adorned table at mealtime but do not show love to my family, I'm just another cook.
.
If I work at the soup kitchen, carol in the nursing home, and give all that I have to charity but do not show love to my family, it profits me nothing.
.
If I trim the spruce with shimmering angels and crocheted snowflakes, attend a myriad of holiday parties, and sing in the choir's cantata but do not focus on Christ, I have missed the point.
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Love stops the cooking to hug the child.
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Love sets aside the decorating to kiss the husband.
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Love is kind, though harried and tired.
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Love doesn't envy another's home that has coordinated Christmas china and table linens.
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Love doesn't yell at the kids to get out of the way.
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Love doesn't give only to those who are able to give in return but rejoices in giving to those who can't.
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Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
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Love never fails.
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Video games will break, pearl necklaces will be lost, golf clubs will rust. But giving the gift of love will endure.

Now if only I can remember these things when Liana empties the flour all over Liam when we are cooking....sigh

A Star Is Born!!!

2007-12-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Liana has been learning Suzuki violin this year and today had her very first performance, a christmas concert. I was worried how she would go as she is not always co-operative in lessons, especially the group lessons. I needn't have worried though. The only problem we had was keeping her off the stage when she wasn't performing!!! She had an absolute ball.

At the end of the concert the littlies played bells while the older children played Christmas carols. Liana was VERY enthusiastic about her bell playing to the point where she was even standing up playing solo while all the others were sitting quietly during the slower carols.

The photos are not great as the lighting was bad but you get the idea. I will post some better video footage when we buy a lead for out new camcorder - YAY!!! Another new toy.

Just Like Daddy!

2007-11-25T20:28:00.000-08:00

A subscription to the local toy library has been the best investment in toys this year. The kids love going and choosing new toys every few weeks and deal with having to return them far better than I had imagined. Our latest acquisition was this awesome fire engine. Liam would spend all day in it if he could. I think he has seen his Dad talking on the mobile in the car waaaay too often though!!!

Corduroy

2007-11-25T16:50:00.000-08:00

We have been having a great time using Before Five in a Row and making lapbooks for each title. We have just finished a fortnight of rowing Corduroy. We even managed to find a video of the story to watch at the end. I have posted some photos of our lapbook so you can see some of the things we have done.
The first pics are of the cover and open lapbook.

Next photos are show the minit books we made for our Bible verse, button patterns and F is for Friend.

There Were Ten In the Bed...

2007-11-23T03:55:00.000-08:00

Well, I have finally got back to my blog.....and figured out how to download the photos for my first entry. It's about time!!!!

Tonight I went to check on Liana and found her in bed with all her teddies and dolls lined up in a row. All carefully covered and on pillows. If you count them, there are 10 in the bed - hence the title.

I had to include a photo of Liam asleep too. Just so he didn't feel left out!

I am determined to keep up with my blog this time. I have lots of photos to post and will include some of the lapbooks that Liana and I have made while reading out BFIAR books. We just finished one on Corduroy so I will post some pics of that tomorrow.

My Baby is Growing Up!

2007-08-24T06:48:00.000-07:00

Well, my little baby really isn't a baby anymore!! She had her first night away from us on Wednesday. We planned for her to stay the night at her Nanna's but really no-one thought she would last. We were expecting (and kind of hoping secretly I think) to have to go and rescue her at bedtime or in the middle of the night at least. But, no, she surprised us all and went to bed and slept through til 7am!!!! She woke up quite happy and didn't even want mum and dad then. When we went to pick her up she was sooo excited. I think it was more traumatic for us than it was for her! She really isn't a baby anymore.

What We Are Learning.

2007-08-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't figured out how to get our pictures on the previous post yet. Need to find the software to download them off my phone first!

So, what have we been learning this week? We are reading "The Carrot Seed" as part of our BFIAR journey. So yesterday, after reading it we planted sunflower seeds in the garden and then setup a little jar with cotton wool and a variety of other seeds so Liana can watch them grow.

Liam is talking up a storm at the moment. Can't understand a huge amount of what he is saying but these words are VERY clear: dog, cat, duck, car, keys, mum, dad, no, drink and his favourite - I want that!

Waterfalls

2007-08-10T02:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I've had this blog for about a month and am yet to post so I thought I'd better start now or I never will!! So here it is my first entry.

We've been having quite a bit of rain the last couple of weeks, which we desperately need, but isn't great when you are stuck at home with two kids. Yesterday was a beautiful day so we all went for a nature walk (ala Charlotte Mason) We went to the waterfalls not far from us and had a little hike along the creek it empties into. Jsut beautiful with all the recent rain we've had. The kids had a blast and I think Liana would've stayed there all day. I think we will make this the first entry into our new Natural Journal for Liana.

Now to see if I can post some pictures from the day.