'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!

Library Garage Sale

Burnie library had a garage sale today and we managed to score heaps of stuff... books, shelving, easel, a table & 2 chairs (more homeschooling work space for the kids!), 4 nice bowls, a little basket for the kids' toys, and some old kitchen stuff (old-style potato masher and 2 x pizza cutters) for the boys to use as playdough tools.

I am slowly getting organised for the official start of homeschooling next year. I've finished the program outline that I have to submit for registration (will go over it a few times again and then send it in another week or 2). Am also working on putting together unit studies and gathering resources, getting the practical stuff together etc. Very exciting but a little scary at the same time!

Natural Learning

Shmoo's first go at writing sentences: 'frog on a log' and 'fat cat' (on a mat). When we push him he digs his heels in and often refuses to do things. When we provide him with opportunities and encouragement and let him just 'be' he will often do things on his own, and do them quite well too.

The Bean learning to drive LOL

Updates

Don't know why but I haven't been able to get the blog to load for days. In the last few days we have:

- Had another paed appt for Shmoo. Usual paed was away so we had a fill-in. Upped Shmoo's meds to 1/2 a tablet 3 times per day. And he agreed that we were doing the right thing by keeping Shmoo out of undies and pants as much as possible (at home) to try and break the behavioural pattern. (Oh how I hate the walk from the Specialists Clinics to the pharmacy, going past the day surgery and operating theatres... flashbacks to my D&Cs every time. Ugh).

- Taken advantage of the nice, warm weather and had a nice afternoon at the beach in Penguin, exploring the rock pools at low tide.

- Over a few days, tried both Loo and Beanie on cheese. Both seemed to do okay, although hard to tell with Beanie as he didn't seem to like it and so didn't eat much.

- Beanie is very confident at sitting independently and also at standing holding on to things (sometimes only with one hand to steady himself, no more wobbly legs!). He has also made some small attempts at cruising!

- Shmoo is doing so well at swimming... huge improvements. He is now happy to wear his goggles and he will even put his face in the water and blow bubbles. So awesome to see him kicking around the pool holding on to a pool noodle and trying to coordinate all the things he has to do.

- We've also done a lot of 'nature studies', aka digging in the dirt. Shmoo that is. Loo doesn't like getting his hands dirty and is petrified of bugs. Shmoo, on the other hand, loves all things nature and has no problems making friends with worms, snails, millipedes or slaters.

- Baby wearing. Thank goodness for the Storch. I'd never get anything done otherwise. I even managed to get the bathroom, toilet & laundry cleaned the other day whilst he napped on my back.

- The boys are loving the activity trays and I've been having fun trying crafty things like using rubbing alcohol and food dye to colour pasta.

- Homeschool preparation. Trying to get our program organised and outline ready to submit with the registration form.

Cooking. As usual, always lots of cooking!