First Aid

The three bigger boys recently did a St.  John's first aid course, organised by the homeschool group.

  

 

And then we did a trip over to Devonport and the boys and I visited the library while The OH ran some errands...

  

Reading

Gotta love the different reading preferences...

 Loo Bear with 'Spies', 'Hannibal' and a book about monsters and mythical creatures.

vs.

 Shmoo Bear with Dyson vacuum cleaner catalogues and a dictionary.

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell

Based on a true story. Roy and Silo, two male penguins at New York's Central Park Zoo, fall in love and are given an egg to rase: little Tango.

Such a beautiful book!

'Mommy, Mama, and Me' and 'Daddy, Papa, and Me' by Leslea Newman

Mommy, Mama, and Me and Daddy, Papa, and Me - by Leslea Newman 

We love these board books. Now that we live in a fairly conservative part of the country, all the other families we know are traditional mum, dad and kids... Those are the families typically portrayed in the media as well.

Of course, the boys know that families come in all different shapes and sizes but it's nice to have simple children's books that show different types of families doing normal, everyday things.

 

Learning Happens

The two older boys have needed a little nudge as far as maths goes so we dug out some of the textbooks and they've been enjoying doing a few pages of 'homework' every now and then. Shmoo's getting his maths mojo back and spent a good bit of time this morning creating and solving sums.

Shmoo was then keen to discuss Drosera (sundew plants) and that led to the ecosystem and how everything is connected. We then noted how the lovely sunflowers friends gave us yesterday were turning to follow the morning sun and talked about why that was and what plants need to grow.

Somehow the discussion moved on to space and the planets, gravity, astronauts, and space exploration disasters.

He then had a look through our book on Australian insects and spiders and we discussed the difference between 'venomous' and 'poisonous'.

Afterwards he chose a library picture book about a friendly spider and asked to read it aloud to me.

For dinner we made our own little pizzas and the boys had fun shaping and topping their own creations. (Okay, we let the breadmaker make the dough. Between my carpal tunnel syndrome and The OH's ASD-related food issues, it's the easiest way!)

That's how learning happens here. :)

A Lovely Day at the Park

Great weather and great friends...

Yummy food to share...

Bird watching, duck feeding, boat watching...

A wonderful, relaxing day :)

   

And home, late in the afternoon, where Shmoo's interest was piqued by a textbook on inorganic chemistry that he found stashed away on one of our bookshelves. He spent quite a bit of time poring over the periodic table and discussing the elements with The OH, fascinated with the diagrams of the various molecular structures in the book.

Read. Learn. Teach.

Book - 'How Much Can a Bare Bear Bear?' by Brian P Cleary

Among our recent arrivals we've gotten a few of the Words are Categorical series by Brian P Cleary, including How Much can a Bare Bear Bear?: What Are Homonyms and Homophones? as well as How long or How Wide? which is part of the Math is Categorical series by the same author. We generally don't 'do' textbooks as such but I ordered these as they looked like rhyme-y fun books that the boys would be into and I like leaving stuff like this lying around for the kids to stumble across in their own time. I had a read through them all when they arrived the other week and then stashed them away on a shelf without mentioning them to the boys.

The other day Shmoo Bear proudly presented us with a series of carefully labelled drawings. After the appropriate admiration of the artwork, The OH got Shmoo to explain all the fine details of his drawings and they went through the couple of spelling errors that he'd made. One of the words that he'd had difficulty with was 'plane' and that led to a discussion about homophones and homonyms. Shmoo and I made up a list of all the ones we could think of (and, like any 7 year old, he had a good giggle when he thought of we and wee). I then casually mentioned that one of the new books on the shelf had lots of homophones and homonyms in it and both Shmoo and Loo excitedly ran to explore. It will probably be another year or two before Loo really grasps the concept of homophones, synonyms, verbs, adjectives and the like but he still really enjoyed the flowing rhyme of the books and the illustrations. Both of the boys have been back to the bookshelf several times to explore the new books. ;)

And we've had fun listening out for homophones and homonyms in everyday life since, particularly in the kids' favourite Peter Combe CDs. Gotta love those Aussie classics! :)

Book - 'Mama's Milk' by Michael Elsohn Ross (Spanish Edition)

Breastfeeding has always been the norm in our household so it's great to find picture books that normalise breastfeeding as well. I was thrilled to recently come across the Spanish edition of Mama's Milk by Michael Elsohn Ross. I thought it looked like the kind of book that would fit in perfectly here. :)

The beautiful illustrations depict all kinds of mammals - from humans to elephants, whales and more - feeding their infants the way nature intended. Each page of this particular edition has both the English text plus the Spanish translation underneath. A brief nursing-related fact for each species is included at the end of the book (also in both English and Spanish).

I'm glad I decided to get Mama's Milk. Not only does it normalise breastfeeding but it's also a great way to spark the kids' interest in mammals and biology as well as foreign languages.

[If it seems like we've had a sudden influx of books arriving lately it's because me + FTB lump sum payment + Fishpond = crazy book buying ;) ]

Books - The Red Beast and Autistic Planet

We had 2 books arrive in the mail today... The Red Beast: Controlling Anger in Children With Asperger's Syndrome by KI Al-ghani and Autistic Planet by Jennifer Elder.

We've borrowed The Red Beast out from the library on a couple of occasions before and it's been helpful for both Shmoo and Loo (and me... must get around to organising a safe area/sensory zone for meltdown recoveries!).

Autistic Planet is lovely as well. Beautiful illustrations. It doesn't so much explain what autism is but it's great for starting up discussions with the kids about the little quirks that those with an ASD often have.

Both books are 'school' based, particularly The Red Beast, but the it's easy enough to extrapolate to any social situation.

Ah, books, wonderful books...

Oh My...

Education Tax Refund + online stocktake sales = book heaven

Can be tricky sifting through all the Christian based stuff but we found some fantastic books. Can't wait for our order to arrive... the boys will be thrilled!

Loving all the new books at our public library...
Such a great resource. We came home with 30+
books and a few DVDs today.

Shmoo Bear experimenting with oil pastels.

We love our library. All three of the boys have always enjoyed books and reading. They were most upset when I said that we couldn't borrow any more books today and they'd have to wait until we returned some books on Monday. They'd already borrowed enough books and a few DVDs to max out 4 library cards. Yep, that's 60 items!

Ever since ANZAC Day, Shmoo has been curious about military vehicles and weaponry, so today he chose a huge pile of books, mainly about tanks and fighter planes. Loo, as usual, wanted every single book about dinosaurs :)

The Human Body

Last year we bought the boys an awesome book about the human body - See Inside: Human Body. Big book, clear pictures, and it even has acetate overlays so you can see the different layers of the body.Shmoo and Loo love the book and periodically get it down to pore over, completely fascinated by all the bits that make up our bodies.

Yesterday morning they were excitedly showing me me various pages, reading aloud and asking me questions. We talked about muscles, veins, lungs, kidneys, reproduction, the brain, bones and the heart. When they got to the heart, I asked Shmoo if he remembered what the heart did. Even though he knows that I know he knows the correct answer, he did his usual "I don't know, I can't remember!" 8-| So I asked Loo. He pondered the question thoughtfully for a minute and said "It pumps, like this..." and thumped his hand against his chest. Just as I was starting to think "Yay, he remembers!", Loo continued talking, saying "...when you love somebody". Awwwww. Cute. Not quite the answer I was hoping for, but cute all the same. =))

Then for dinner we had a roast leg of lamb. It led to continued discussion about veins as well as bones. They were intrigued by the ball and socket joint of the lamb bone and spent a good deal of time fitting them together and examining the range of movement. Shmoo asked some more in-depth questions and was quite curious about cartilage and bone marrow.

Books

While we were in Cairns we visited some awesome shops and I found some great books for the boys. I highly recommend these books...

'Do Dogs Dream?' and 'Why is the Sky Blue?' by Geraldine Taylor (lift-the-flap and pull-the-tab books that explore the natural world)

'Earth Child 2000: Earth Science for Young Children. Games, Stories, Activities, and Experiments' by Kathryn Sheehan and Mary Waidner. (This book almost has a Steiner and natural learning feel to it).

'All I See is Part of Me' by Chara M. Curtis. "In a journey that carries the reader far beyond the printed page, a child discovers his common link with all of Life. Inspired by Sister Star, he finds the light within his heart and as his vision expands, he sees that same light in all other things."

'You, Me & the Rainbow' by Petrea King. "Have you ever been wrapped in a rainbow? Mariah has. Every night her mother wraps her in all the colours of the rainbow and they enter an enchanting world of ducklings, dolphins, tiny frogs, tasty cherries, sunsets, twinkling stars and violets. Float away with Mariah into the magic of You, Me & the Rainbow."