Happy Australia Day!

At our (very small, rural) town's Australia Day celebrations...

 

The 3 Legged Race. Shmoo and Loo had lots of fun despite initially heading off before the official 'go', falling over lots, and trying to go in the opposite direction to each other.

Loo loved the jumping castle.

 

Shmoo, always wary of new experiences, preferred to make a daisy (dandelion) chain.

The Gumboot Throwing Competition.

The OH having a go at the gumboot toss.

Tug of war

Sleepy Bean

   

Making a salt dough map of Australia...

Making beads for Lughnasadh next week (and a snail!).

Update

Have our friends staying with us again :)

So far, so good as far as homeschooling goes. Still trying to figure out a record system that works for us but I'm getting there!

At the moment we're taking an eclectic approach leaning towards natural learning so the best part of the day is spent doing what we did before we were 'officially' homeschooling. We've added in Steiner-inspired morning and evening circles, a daily poetry reading and discussion, plus a couple of other little things but there is still...

Lots of 'playing' and making the most of our Montessori-inspired activity trays (^ maths, patterns, colours, counting, fine motor skills... see, I'm getting the hang of this record keeping business!).

Reading - still a daily activity.

Nature watching - this little fellow sat on the fence outside our kitchen window, and to Shmoo's delight, occasionally perched on the window itself and tap-tap-tapped on the glass.

Drawing - still doing heaps of that. His drawing has come such a long way in the past year!

We've now thrown in a little bookwork for Literacy & Numeracy. (^^ Gotta love those SmartPal sleeves - will be able to reuse the workbooks! We use them with whiteboard crayons.)

Doing a few more 'experiments'...

And 'projects'.

 

Shmoo does quite well despite having a little brother who bounces around like Hammy from 'Over the Hedge'... And aforementioned little brother likes to wear silly things on his head like puppets and undies... And a baby brother who is getting old enough, tall enough and curious enough to, at times, be quite annoying to his biggest brother.

Busy, busy, busy!

We have had friends staying with us again (they've been pretty unlucky in the last few months and need a place to stay) so that on top of homeschooling and every day life means things have been extra busy!

I am trying to ease us into a new daily rhythm to make homeschooling a bit easier. At least Shmoo is very enthusiastic about his 'homeschool work' (bookwork) and weather recording; as well as loving our Steiner-inspired morning circle routine. I am trying to get over the idea that I have to get everything perfect right from the very start (it doesn't have to be *perfect*, right?!?) The actual homeschooling work isn't too difficult, we're starting slowly and adding stuff in as we adjust (although I do have a new appreciation for the management skills of homeschooling large families, particularly those with babies/toddlers as well as older children!) but I'm finding I'm getting caught up in the little things. Do I really have to record everything we do every day and how long we do it for? And I'm struggling to breakdown the natural learning stuff into separate KLAs. I guess it's just going to take some time to get a feel for it?!

Shmoo had another paed appointment today. Nothing new. We're upping the Ditropan to 1 tablet twice a day and keeping on with the 'no pants' thing whilst at home. Next appointment in 3 months.

Loo's starting to frustrate us with the toilet training thing as well. We know he can do it, and mostly he's not too bad but he has this incredible stubborn/contrary streak. If we in any way suggest that he might need to go to the toilet he will flat out deny that he needs to go (even if he is hopping around, squirming with his legs crossed). Then he'll do a last minute mad dash to the toilet when he starts to leak *sigh*. Never mind. I'm sure he'll get there.

Hm. What else? We have started planning Beanie's first birthday party. He is 11 months old now!! Can't believe he is nearly 1! Almost a year since we had the most amazing birthing experience ever! The Bean is starting to make attempts at talking. Of course, he says the usual dada and mama, not sure if he's saying it in context yet, but he definitely tries to say 'meow' in context! He's also getting a bit closer to walking independently. He has, on a few occasions, taken a step or 2 between the furniture. It's lovely watching him grow and seeing how his little personality is developing.

Hello 2011

The goals for this year: home, health and family.

Home - Getting it organised inside and out. Get a good veg & herb garden set up.

Health - To keep my thyroid under control and to get (back) into the Primal way of eating.

Family - To gently work our way through our first year of official homeschooling. And, hopefully, see baby #4 on the way...

Oh Look...

It's New Year's Eve. Happy New Year's too then :) We are having a completely average, quiet night. And seeing as our homeschooling registration officially kicks in as of tomorrow, I am browsing books at Chariot Press (and really must suss out how that educational tax refund thingy works).

Provisional Registration

Woohoo! We're officially registered (provisionally) to homeschool. Got a letter from THEAC today saying that our application and program outline has been reviewed and accepted! The letter says that we'll be contacted early next year to arrange a monitoring visit around March.

Homeschool Registration Update

Got a letter back from THEAC today saying that they received the application and that we should hear back from them 'prior to, or following, the next Council meeting on 17th February, 2011'. Um, 'prior to or following'... vague much? LOL So they'll get back in contact with us sometime in the future. From what I've heard from other Tas homeschoolers that's all fairly standard though... things run a bit slower down here!

Homeschool Registration...

I sent in the application form, outline of our proposed program, and copy of Shmoo's birth certificate yesterday. Makes it feel like it's all officially underway! I stressed out about the outline for ages... I've been collecting and writing up stuff for the last couple of years and then I got the home ed info pack and they only wanted 2 pages max. on very specific subjects - literacy, numeracy, ICT, career planning, socialisation and not much else! Apparently registering in Tas is easier than in other states, which is reassuring. Still feel a bit nervous about it though!

'Tis the Season

Can't believe how quickly this year has gone by! Christmas is just around the corner!! Thankfully I've had the boys' main presents stashed away since the start of the year (train sets for the big boys; wooden bug-themed shape sorter for the Bean) and their stocking pressies 'from Santa' are organised too. Have just gotten all their birthday presents ordered for next year too... how organised am I this year?!

Today we made heart and star shaped Christmas tree ornaments out of salt dough (gifts for the rellies). Was our first go at working with salt dough and I guess I didn't roll it out as thin as I should have (was about 1/2-3/4 of a cm thickness)... but nothing that a good 6 or so hours in the oven couldn't fix!! They seem okay now, nice and solid (but SO not a good day to have the oven on for all that time - it was really hot!). Shmoo & Loo kept staring into the oven, asking 'Are they cooked yet!?!'. The boys will paint the ornaments tomorrow and then we'll get some ribbon hang them with on the w/end. I wonder how long salt dough will last, if I should put a layer of varnish or whatever over them??

I am having a go at making my own vanilla essence/extract too - just vanilla beans and vodka. I love vanilla! We'll see how it turns out in a couple of months.

Hoping to make it to the next homeschooling group meet on Thursday and someone from our community has offered to take us for a ride on her school bus on Friday so the boys are really excited about going on a bus (they have only been on a bus once before, about 2 years ago in Melbourne, and Shmoo was terrified back then!).

Imaginarium Visit

We went to the Imaginarium Science Centre today with our Home Ed group to see the sports exhibit. No photos though as I forgot to take the camera! Shmoo and Loo loved it and had lots of fun - doing things like seeing how fast they could run/throw and kick a ball/press a button etc. They could have easily stayed there for much longer than the 1.5 hours allotted.

Hopefully the Imaginarium will be just as good when it moves to its new location in December!