Garden Stuff......things growing.......

Time for haircuts......

 Seed Collecting

 Herb cutting and drying

Untangling 

 Almost Eating

 Chamomile Peeking

 Fennel Creeping

 Seriously! A person could get lost in here...

See you on the other side!

Hugs and smoochies xoxox

End of November Learning Report.....

SCIENCE: (Which also includes literacy for English/Geography and some History! In typical Natural Learners fashion we often get sidetracked and follow our interests as we go!)

The Natural Environment: We started the next section of our Theme work which is all about OCEANOGRAPHY, Thus far the boys have learned about the different oceans of the world, made some colour keyed maps to show where they are.

The Ocean Shore: Creative Writing - A day at the Ocean Shore, Key words and their meanings.

Australian Rivers: Identified and located the main Rivers in Australia in an Atlas. Read various points about Rivers. Read and discussed the book "Living By A River" . Discussed and drew pictures on the white board about good and bad points if one were to build a dam on a River. Discussed a rivers eco-system and food chains. We also discussed a bit of Australias history and the uses of the Parramattta river, which led to discussions about early settlers, aboriginals and travel compared to today.

Went Fishing: Read about it here

Watched a documentary about Beavers and other baby animals surviving in the Wilderness.

We also looked up some information about Barn owls and looked for pictures of various owls to see what they looked like. Learned a bit about their feeding habits and nesting.

ENGLISH:

Reading: Currently reading together The Guardians of Ga'Hoole (The capture) and completing a series of comprehension questions for each chapter. We have completed 10 chapters so far.

Both boys have finished reading Wimpy Kid Diary No. 5 and Uk and Gluk (a book about cavemen, apparently Zak also learned to speak Caveman from this book...hmmmm!) They have read a huge pile of comic style chapter books borrowed from the library as well.

The boys have still been playing hangman on and off to practice spelling.  Completed some Vocabulary and of course the work relating to their Science theme work.

Word searches, find a words, missing words, Writing and Handwriting. 

PDHP:

Nippers:  Run/Swim/Run (Adem also finally did his AND had a turn on the nippers board, although he still will not join in on Wed afternoon training. Zak is still training and getting really confident on the boards, venturing further out to sea each time. They have also done some relays, sprints, flags and marathons on the beach.

Little Athletics: Zak is still going but is less keen than at the beginning. We are still encouraging him, but I think its the fact that it finishes so late that puts him off. He did the 800m marathon and said he finished although he walked a lot of the way.  He enjoys the long jump and discuss and shot put the most.

Beach Fitness: Both boys have been for some walks and the occasional run on the beach with dad. They have also been body surfing, body boarding and Zak had his first surf for the year last week.

Swimming Training: Tuesday nights. Both still going and enjoying this.

COMPUTERS:  I think Adem may have spent more time than normal on the computer the past couple of weeks, mainly as I have been out with Zak. Although we are trying to encourage him to do things other than gaming, he seems to spend most of the time playing adventure type games like Rohan or League of Legends. Yes initially they do learn quite a bit from these games but once they know the game and have learned it all, I kind of think its a bit of a waste of time. But thats just my opinion.

Creative ART: We drew Barn Owls with pastel Chalks and did some other drawings.


Life Skills: We did several cooking lessons. Adem learned to mow the lawn. Did some gardening and it seems we are learning to identify herbs by smell "Geez mum, have you been playing in the coriander?"

Relationships: We read a bible story about Jacob and Esau, discussed the relationships between brothers AND the story about The Little Soul and the Sun. We talked about what a soul is and what the boys thought of the story.

MATHS: 

Zak: Roman Numerals to 1,000, Problem solving on the board and patterns, Addition 1,000's , Addition and Subtraction using written formal algorithms to solve problems, Using Addition and Subtraction with numbers of different digits,  Money Multiplication,  Multiplication algorithms, 3 Digit multiplication.

Adem: Maths Online: Problem solving, looking for patterns, solving a simpler problem first, working backwards, Acting it out, Eliminating possibilities, Topic Test.

Numerous games of Spider Maths - Multiplication and Weigh to go. Also played a few maths games online that they found.

They have both been playing the playstation a bit as they got some new games. AND they watched a few movies with their sisters.

Went to the library to borrow books, Went to Kids HQ with the homeschool group.


And thats about it for what I managed to jot down in the diary! LOL  There is always lots of learning around here and lots of questions!

The Little Soul and The Sun

by Neale Donald Walsch,

Once upon no time, there was a little Soul who said to God, "I know who I am."

And God said, "That's wonderful! Who are you?"
...
And the Little Soul shouted, "I'm the Light!"

God smiled a big smile. "That's right!" God exclaimed. "You are the Light."

The Little Soul was so happy, for it had figured out what all the souls in the Kingdom were there to figure out.

"Wow," said the Little Soul, "this is really cool!"

But soon, knowing who it was was not enough. The Little Soul felt stirrings inside, and now wanted to be who it was. And so the Little Soul went back to God (which is not a bad idea for all souls who want to be Who They Really Are) and said,

"Hi, God! Now that I know Who I am, is it okay for me to be it?"

And God said, "You mean you want to be Who You Already Are?"

"Well," replied the Little Soul," it's one thing to know Who I Am, and another thing altogether to actually be it. I want to feel what it's like to be the Light!"

"But you already are the Light," God repeated, smiling again.

"Yes, but I want to see what that feels like!" cried the Little Soul.

"Well," said God with a chuckle, "I suppose I should have known. You always were the adventuresome one."

Then God's expression changed. "There's only one thing..."

"What?" asked the Little Soul.

"Well, there is nothing else but the Light. You see, I created nothing but what you are; and so, there is no easy way for you to experience yourself as Who You Are, since there is nothing that you are not."

"Huh?" said the Little Soul, who was now a little confused.

"Think of it this way," said God. "You are like a candle in the Sun. Oh, you're there all right. Along with a million, gazillion other candles who make up the Sun. And the sun would not be the Sun without you. Nay, it would be a sun without one of its candles...and that would not be the Sun at all; for it would not shine as brightly. Yet, how to know yourself as the Light when you are amidst the Light -that is the question."

"Well," the Little Soul perked up, "you're God. Think of something!"

Once more God smiled. "I already have," God said. "Since you cannot see yourself as the Light when you are in the Light, we'll surround you with darkness."

"What's darkness?" the Little Soul asked.

God replied, "It is that which you are not."

"Will I be afraid of the dark?" cried the Little Soul.

"Only if you choose to be," God answered. "There is nothing, really, to be afraid of, unless you decide that there is. You see, we are making it all up. We are pretending."

"Oh," said the Little Soul, and felt better already.

Then God explained that, in order to experience anything at all, the exact opposite of it will appear. "It is a great gift," God said, "because without it, you could not know what anything is like. You could not know Warm without Cold, Up without Down, Fast without Slow. You could not know Left without Right, Here without There, Now without Then."

"And so," God concluded, "when you are surrounded with darkness, do not shake your fist and raise your voice and curse the darkness. Rather be a Light unto the darkness, and don't be mad about it. Then you will know Who You Really Are, and all others will know, too. Let your Light shine so that everyone will know how special you are!"

"You mean it's okay to let others see how special I am?" asked the Little Soul.

"Of course!" God chuckled. "It's very okay! But remember,'special' does not mean 'better.' Everybody is special, each in their own way! Yet many others have forgotten that. They will see that it is okay for them to be special only when you see that it is okay for you to be special."

"Wow," said the Little Soul, dancing and skipping and laughing and jumping with joy. "I can be as special as I want to be!"

"Yes, and you can start right now," said God, who was dancing and skipping and laughing right along with the Little Soul.

"What part of special do you want to be?"

"What part of special?" the Little Soul repeated. "I don't understand."

"Well," God explained, "being the Light is being special, and being special has a lot of parts to it. It is special to be kind. It is special to be gentle. It is special to be creative. It is special to be patient. Can you think of any other ways it is special to be?"

The Little Soul sat quietly for a moment. "I can think of lots of ways to be special!" the Little Soul then exclaimed. "It is special to be helpful. It is special to be sharing. It is special to be friendly. It is special to be considerate of others!"

"Yes!" God agreed, "and you can be all of those things, or any part of special you wish to be, at any moment. That's what it means to be the Light."

"I know what I want to be, I know what I want to be!" the Little Soul announced with great excitement. "I want to be the part of special called 'forgiving'. Isn't it special to be forgiving?"

"Oh, yes," God assured the Little Soul. "That is very special."

"Okay," said the Little Soul. "That's what I want to be. I want to be forgiving. I want to experience myself as that."

"Good," said God, "but there's one thing you should know."

The Little Soul was becoming a bit impatient now. It always seemed as though there were some complication.

"What is it?" the Little Soul sighed.

"There is no one to forgive."

"No one?" The Little Soul could hardly believe what had been said.

"No one!" God repeated. "Everything I have made is perfect. There is not a single soul in all creation less perfect than you. Look around you."

It was then that the Little Soul realized a large crowd had gathered. Souls had come from far and wide ~ from all over the Kingdom ~ for the word had gone forth that the Little Soul was having this extraordinary conversation with God, and everyone wanted to hear what they were saying. Looking at the countless other souls gathered there, the Little Soul had to agree. None appeared less wonderful, less magnificent, or less perfect than the Little Soul itself. Such was the wonder of the souls gathered around, and so bright was their Light, that the Little Soul could scarcely gaze upon them.

"Who, then, to forgive?" asked God.

"Boy, this is going to be no fun at all!" grumbled the Little Soul. "I wanted to experience myself as One Who Forgives. I wanted to know what that part of special felt like."

And the Little Soul learned what it must feel like to be sad. But just then a Friendly Soul stepped forward from the crowd.

"Not to worry, Little Soul," the Friendly Soul said, "I will help you."

"You will?" the Little Soul brightened. "But what can you do?"

"Why, I can give you someone to forgive!"

"You can?"

"Certainly!" chirped the Friendly Soul. "I can come into your next lifetime and do something for you to forgive."

"But why? Why would you do that?" the Little Soul asked. "You, who are a Being of such utter perfection! You, who vibrate with such a speed that it creates a Light so bright that I can hardly gaze upon you! What could cause you to want to slow down your vibration to such a speed that your bright Light would become dark and dense? What could cause you ~ who are so light that you dance upon the stars and move through the Kingdom with the speed of your thought--to come into my life and make yourself so heavy that you could do this bad thing?"

"Simple," the Friendly Soul said. "I would do it because I love you."

The Little Soul seemed surprised at the answer.

"Don't be so amazed," said the Friendly Soul, "you have done the same thing for me. Don't you remember? Oh, we have danced together, you and I, many times. Through the eons and across all the ages have we danced. Across all time and in many places have we played together. You just don't remember."

"We have both been All Of It. We have been the Up and the Down of it, the Left and the Right of it. We have been the Here and the There of it, the Now and the Then of it. We have been the male and the female, the good and the bad; we have both been the victim and the villain of it."

"Thus have we come together, you and I, many times before; each bringing to the other the exact and perfect opportunity to Express and to Experience Who We Really Are. And so," the Friendly Soul explained further, "I will come into your next lifetime and be the 'bad one' this time. I will do something really terrible, and then you can experience yourself as the One Who Forgives.

"But what will you do?" the Little Soul asked, just a little nervously, "that will be so terrible?"

"Oh," replied the Friendly Soul with a twinkle, "we'll think of something."

Then the Friendly Soul seemed to turn serious, and said in a quiet voice, "You are right about one thing, you know."

"What is that?" the Little Soul wanted to know.

"I will have to slow down my vibration and become very heavy to do this not-so-nice thing. I will have to pretend to be something very unlike myself. And so, I have but one favour to ask of you in return."

"Oh, anything, anything!" cried the Little Soul, and began to dance and sing, "I get to be forgiving, I get to be forgiving!"

Then the Little Soul saw that the Friendly Soul was remaining very quiet.

"What is it?" the Little Soul asked. "What can I do for you? You are such an angel to be willing to do this for me!"

"Of course this Friendly Soul is an angel!" God interrupted. "Everyone is! Always remember: I have sent you nothing but angels."

And so the Little Soul wanted more than ever to grant the Friendly Soul's request. "What can I do for you?" the Little Soul asked again.

"In the moment that I strike you and smite you," the Friendly Soul replied, "in the moment that I do the worst to you that you could possible imagine ~ in that very moment..."

"Yes?" the Little Soul interrupted, "yes...?""Remember Who I Really Am."

"Oh, I will!" cried the Little Soul, "I promise! I will always remember you as I see you right here, right now!"

"Good," said the Friendly Soul, "because, you see, I will have been pretending so hard, I will have forgotten myself. And if you do not remember me as I really am, I may not be able to remember for a very long time. And if I forget Who I Am, you may even forget Who You Are, and we will both be lost. Then we will need another soul to come along and remind us both of Who We Are."

"No, we won't!" the Little Soul promised again. "I will remember you! And I will thank you for bringing me this gift ~ the chance to experience myself as Who I Am.

" And so, the agreement was made. And the Little Soul went forth into a new lifetime, excited to be the Light, which was very special, and excited to be that part of special called Forgiveness.

And the Little Soul waited anxiously to be able to experience itself as Forgiveness, and to thank whatever other soul made it possible. And at all the moments in that new lifetime, whenever a new soul appeared on the scene, whether that new soul brought joy or sadness--and especially if it brought sadness--the Little Soul thought of what God had said.

"Always remember," God had smiled, "I have sent you nothing but angels."

(Many thanks to Alyson from Sacred Journey of the Soul 2) 

For those of you who struggle with my way of thinking! Much LOVE,

 

HUGS AND SMOOCHIES XOXOXOX

Dear Anonymous..

First of all, I would like to thank you for your concern regarding my previous post about the children fishing OR more so about the fact that you find our groups "teaching" methods "shameful". I am replying here rather than in the comments, as I feel if you feel this way, maybe others do too.

Just a few points for you to consider before assuming too much from a poetic post  just scratching the surface of a long  kids day out.....

* We were NOT "teaching" them anything....they were pursuing their own learning in a manner that most of them are accustomed to......with the freedom to explore the experience in their own way, unhindered by others "telling" them what to do! It may seem a little strange to some, especially those with the thoughts of children should just do what they are told.  For us, its simply our way of life and I am not going to apologize for that. Not to say that we do not teach them to follow rules, we just explain in more depth why those rules are there before expecting them to just agree.

* The boys tell me that while they thought one of the fish might be a bit small, it was already dead, the other was bigger than two hands put together so they thought it was big enough.

* We (the adults) did not even know the children had caught any fish until they were already extremely dead! There was no saving them! Believe me, I would have preferred they had caught nothing as I would rather starve than kill an animal. As anyone around here would vouch for, I am constantly saving bugs and spiders from under their shoes! The 3 older boys all aged 11 were fishing on an island on the other side of the bridge.

* On the day, there was a discussion with the boys about fish size as although I personally know nothing about how big they need to be, I felt they were a little on the small side. It was thought that one of them just scraped by but the other as you say WAS too small. Unfortunately as they were already dead it made no difference whether or not they were thrown back.

* It was decided jointly by all adults that since the fish were already dead, the children might as well finish the job and clean them etc. The reason for this being that if they were to take up fishing they had to be prepared to do even the "dirty" jobs.

* I did on the day request that in future, if there was any doubt that they should throw the fish straight back in. I also had a longer talk with my own child in the privacy of our own home,  in more depth about why we should not keep small fish. He is planning to research a bit more before going out again. And will go out with his Uncle or Grandad so he can learn from them.


Now to answer your questions more directly........

You do know those fish were illegal size to keep?.



No I did not know it was illegal........but I do now......thank you.


Shameful teaching kids that its ok to kill undersize fish .

Yes that would be shameful, but I don't believe this statement is very fair. Actually I found it a little hurtful. Perhaps if you had worded it "It would be a shame to teach children to kill under sized fish" but it seems you are implying my actions were shameful when I in fact did not act in that way at all.

Since you did not even bother to sign your name, I have to wonder if you even know me at all? I think it is a shame when one cannot voice their feeling, thoughts and opinions without doing it anonymously.  Just so you know, I would not hold it against you personally. Each and everyone of us is entitled to their opinions, we are not always going to agree on things but thats okay. The world would be a pretty boring place if we did. There would be nothing left to learn now would there?

This post was not meant in any way to be "defensive" either, just to let you know a little more about what actually went on. And hopefully, to put your mind at rest. Children like grown ups sometimes make mistakes! Our children learned some valuable lessons that day! I am sorry I did not convey all that in the post. I preferred to take the good things from the day instead.

Much LOVE, PEACE and Happiness to you! 

I welcome and respect your feelings.

Thank you.

Namaste xox

A little more crochet....

Well I finally finished my square! Oh hang on! Thats a triangle!

Here it is......Nice and big....and snuggly warm.........

All folded and ready to go off to its new home.......

And today I have been making little shoes or bootees.......

Very easy pattern, but not sure I like the way it joins so am thinking of adjusting it a little later on. They are very tiny and cute.....

 Hugs and Smoochies xoxoxox

Fishing with Northern Lakes Natural Learners...

It was such a lovely day!
With the sun shining bright..
Northern Lakes Natural Learners
Came out in full flight!

A bunch of young boys 

and just one little girl

Thought that it was high time

They gave fishing a whirl........

Now if they asked their mums

how to get the job done,

They may have laughed a lot

But I'm sure they'd have fun...

You need water Nessie!

Thankfully, they took the whole 

thing in their stride 

While they checked out the lake

And took note of the tide...

The little ones were ready,

They knew what to do

They grabbled them some rods

And some fishing nets too

NOTE: THIS IS HOW YOU CATCH A FISH PEOPLE! YOU MUST STAND JUST RIGHT!

And they scooped 

And they fished 

And they swam

And they swished.....

Content that they'd bring in the haul

that they wished!

The big ones thought

of another idea

They bagged them some prawns

And took off without fear

They went to the island

(over the other side)

They thought, they'd have more luck

If they could just hide!

And lo and behold

2 fish grabbed their line

They raced back to gloat

So proud, they did fine..

But wait!

Who will clean them?

And gut them? Not me!

A job for my friends! 

Just you wait and see.....

Mr C had a knife 

A nice clean kill

He had it all sorted..

It seemed such a thrill...

Cal found it harder 

And squirmed a wee bit

But to give him due credit...

He had lots of grit...

Fish are quite slippery

Its really NOT fun..

But if you close your eyes...

It is easy for SOME....

With the fish finally gutted

It was time for a clean

They kind of got grassy 

If you know what I mean...

Then Rory came running

He caught something too..

It was some sort of muscle,

clam or pippy? Who knew? 

Then off to the barbie

In true Aussie fashion

The kids were excited..

And the fish copped a bashin...

As they sizzled and sighed

By now faced with their fate

The kids were contented 

The fish took their bait..

And while the learning was endless

But a bit hard for some

Baby K was contented chomping

cookies baked by mum....

Another great day, 

filled with learning and friends...

And that my dear readers 

is where this post ends!

Hugs and Smoochies everyone xoxoxox

And HAPPY THANKS GIVING TO all my friends in the USA!!

Reading and drawing..."The Capture".........

Last week while browsing the book club catalogue, Zak came across a book about the movie "Guardians of Ga'Hoole. He remembered having seen the previews and was quite keen to get this book. I pointed out that we in fact had several of the books from this series on our book shelves. He begged to differ in his usual fashion, so I pulled them out to show him and of course all other reading was dropped for now while we began the first book "The Capture" as a joint reading effort. (This means, Mum gets to read out loud while everyone else listens and does what ever else take their fancy at the time!)

Of course because we actually wanted to hear the story right now, mum was co-erced into reading 9 whole chapters in a row! Needless to say, I was a bit hoarse by the end of it.  Now, I don't mind reading to the boys but since they are highly capable of reading to themselves, I was a bit peeved at the thought of starting yet another book while we still had three others on the go. I much prefer to finish one at a time, thank you very much!

So, just to make sure I was not wasting my breath, I  went ahead and decided to make this book a focus of some actual "school work!" I found a great comprehension pack online for the book and printed it all out and the next day we began. We went over two chapters at a time and answered the questions together. We also found some Word Scrambles and Find a words on topic and printed them out too.

Today, we decided to have a go at drawing some "Soren" (the main character) pictures using pastel chalks. Soren is a barn owl for those not familiar with the story. We made lots of mess but had fun.......Here are our efforts..............

I am not allowed to tell you whose is whose, because one certain young man thinks he is not good at drawing! I think they did a brilliant job! And as you can see the other young man put far more effort into layers of chalk, but then, he loves creative art, the other one does not! 

I am trying to drag the reading out  a little on this one as you see, I seem to have number 1, 5, 6 and 7 but none in between! Looks like a trip to Scholastics is in order to try and score the rest! Lucky for me, there is a sale coming up very soon! hehe!

Have a great day everyone!

Hugs and Smoochies xoxoxox

Ahhhh.....just another lovely day down here......

A bit of rain, a bit of sunshine! A bit of learning! A bit of walking, hugging, crying, laughing, more hugging, cooking, gardening, teaching, loving, organising (home school folks.... they are not into organisation at all...hmmmmmm....too bad they are organised now! hehe!) laughing, planting, digging, playing, drawing, swimming, surfing, eating, listening, more hugging, cleaning! WASHING!!!!!! (Pssst...I think they all just ran away!)

Catch you tomorrow lovely ones!

HUGS AND SMOOCHIES XOXOXOXXO

Crochet News.......

And another finished project.........A beret for TC.......

I found this on Ravelry the other day and thought I would have a go at it.

It was quite quick to whip up and easy to learn the cluster stitch. My only problem with  the pattern was that it only called for only one row of single crochet on the decrease round and then was ended. It turned out far bigger than it should of and I ended up going around twice more with the same amount of decrease's. It actually looked better with these extra rows though. This of course was probably my fault as I did not use the correct wool. I wanted to make it for TC to go with her birthday scarf and so I used the left over DK cotton blend.

Her dad says it looks like a tea cozy or a shower cap......but she loves it! What would guys know anyway? You can get the pattern for free from Lion Brand Knits.

The Learning Report.....Mid November

Wow! How time flies! Just a quick report as to the sort of learning we have been up to....

MATHS: Adem is tackling problem solving of all types. He uses Maths Online, watching a lesson and then completing the tasks. He is going really well with this and loves the freedom it gives him to choose his own learning pace.

Zak has been learning about Roman Numerals, Gathering data,  Tally marks, Drawing Graphs using his Tally marks and various keys, 3D shapes and objects. He also spent a day learning all about circles!

Both boys have been playing math games together. Spider maths and Weigh to go mainly as well as a couple of online games to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. And we have been measuring things (as you do!).

PDHP: 

Little Athletics: Zak has been going to little athletics and has thus far learned discuss, shot put, javelin, hurdles, long jump AND has endured some quite long runs. Last week he managed to do the 800metres! Wow! I can't run that far. He is doing really really well! 

NIPPERS....Our future Life Savers!

Nippers: Last week the kids had a surf rescue day at Nippers where they got to take turns with Jet Ski rescues and had rides in the rubber duckies. As you can imagine, a good time was had by all despite the rough conditions that day. They also learned how to signal each other from the water to shore and resuscitation procedures.

This week they did basic beach and surf activities, including using the nipper boards which thus far Adem has shied away from. He was very surprised to learn that he rather enjoyed his time on the boards. His age manager was able to entice him to give it a go which was great! Zak has been taking part in training on a Wednesday afternoon for weeks so is really confident now! He loves the boards! I am hoping now that Adem will join in on this each week now as well.

OK! Its not cold! Just swim out there to those cans and come back...I'll wait here!

Last week's training came with a thunder storm!

Swimming training happens every Tuesday night for an hour! Also part of Nippers and at the local Swimming pool. They both enjoy this training, my only gripe is that it is late and they never want to go to bed that night!

We have also been learning a bit about controlling our eating habits. Although the whole family seems to have gained a bit of weight, the boys especially have piled on weight which is not good considering we have such a healthy outlook on what we eat. It comes down to now learning about quantities I guess and keeping up that exercise!

Oh and Zak went to a Tai Kwon Do lesson with one of his friends. 

ENGLISH: The boys discovered some old Vocabulary books amongst the shelves and have been having fun with those. Especially the similes! Zaks book seems to have pages and pages of them and as he was struggling with some of the answers (they were hard!) we all joined in and made a game of it.  They also did some reading and comprehension. And they have both taken to writing a little something each day in their blank books! Yay! Never thought they would do that without prompting but they did!

They have also been playing "hangman" a lot and today Adem was getting cheeky and picking big words like Rhombold and Truckage for Zak to guess. He then thankfully opened the dictionary and read out the meanings to his poor little brother who was unsure that these were actually real words!

Both boys have been writing comic strips a bit in the fashion of the Wimpy kid diaries. 

READING:  There has been quite a bit of reading going on. They were a little excited to learn that we DO have the Guardians of Ga'hoole on our book shelf. So that is their next choice of reading together. Right after we finish Ulysses Moore (book 4). Adem is chugging his way slowly through A boy, a bubble and a whole lot of trouble. He might actually finish it if he stops reading other books in between! They both tend to go back to their favourites and read them over and over so finishing a new book can sometimes prove a challenge, especially with the longer chapter books.

SCIENCE: YAY! We finally finished the last of our Meteorolgy section of our Theme unit work. (This unit also covered Geography and English tasks) It was a bit slow going due to us being out and about so much. While it was fun and interesting, Zak found the language a bit beyond him so was getting a bit fed up with it all. Of course the introduction of the weather cock really helped! We had a whole 80mm of rain last weekend! The crazy weather we have been having has been very helpful in this learning endeavour!

For the last part of the unit, the boys learned about the atmospheric layers around the earth. They named them, drew them with compasses and then labelled using key colours. The challenge at the end was to reproduce their works in another medium. Zak opted to paint his and Adem drew circles on different coloured papers, layering them on cardboard again using the colour key to identify each layer.

Practical: We made wind socks and put the Weather cock together!

Adem also did some work on Electricity and how switches work. Zak did some work with Reptiles and Amphibians.

We all learned a bit about Rainbow Lorikeets   (see story here)

They spent some time building vehichles out of K'nex, making things that work together and are a bit more mechanical than your basic stuff.

We all watched a documentary about DNA and the awful story of a mother who was told her kids were not hers! Yikes! It was a little scary but it turned out that she had been a twin and absorbed her own twin in utero so the kids had the twins DNA instead of hers!

COMPUTER: As I may have mentioned before, we have a two hour limit on computer time now due to someone spending far too much time stuck to his chair. It is working out quite well for the most part, he will however try to push his luck on occasion. Of course doing his Maths Online is permitted and any other research needed for his learning. The two hours is his own choice which usually means playing online games such as LOL or Rohan. This week he has also spent some time learning to set out documents with Open Office AND creating some games.

Zak has been having a wonderful time with MY camera! I normally let him play with the small camera but as the battery has not been charged he has been using my Nikon. I am thinking it may be time to get him a small camera of his own before he kills mine. He tends to get a little excited at times and I fear for its safety! 

OUTINGS: Not that there is much time with all the sports going on but we did manage a few trips to the beach purely for pleasure. We did have a visit from three different sets of homeschool friends. The boys also went to the movies to see Resident Evil (I opted to give that one a miss). We met up with our homeschool group at a park one day. Zak went for a sleepover at a friends and then we had a couple of kids sleepover here too! We went to a birthday party. Oh and we had another birthday here too! Adem is now officially a teenager! Yikes!

Well, thats about all I can remember off the top of my head! Happy Learning everyone! Have a wonderful, fun filled week! Hugs and smoochies xoxoxoxoxoxox