Life

Being homeschoolers we don't have Physical education classes.

We don't have a time set aside formally to learn a different sport
or physical activity each week.

We don't need too.

Every day we're getting out there.

Running.

Swimming.

Bikeriding.

Bushwalking.

Climbing.

Exploring our world and the capabilities of our own bodies.

We don't need formal lessons set aside for an hour a week or half
an hour a day to be taught how to use our own bodies.
We just need fresh air, freedom and Mumma Me
to encourage us, providing opportunities.

Every day in some way we're keeping active and making it a natural part of our lives.

Occasionally they mess up and have an accident but they recover well. Kangaroo was climbing today and fell, when he landed he yelled to Kookaburra, 'Look! I flew!'.

Kids are a scream.

In just 24 hrs...

under 8's day

we didn't make it past the emergency vehicles :D

One happy little Kangaroo driving the Ambulance

Paramedic Kangaroo and patient Kookaburra

Woohoo! The Fire Brigade!!! I hope that they're ready for the gazillion
questions coming their way.

Inside access to the Fire Engine.
These little boys are so excited!

One on one with Mr. Fire Brigade and what a gem of a man.

He answered the questions and show and told for quite a while.
Our boys always have another question up their sleeve
and they have no hesitation asking.

So that's the other side of the news!
Questions about the Channel 7 crew filming a segment
near the park we were visiting.
It's so much fun realizing what kids thought and then
seeing them realize what actually is.

Scootering and exploring.

I love the purple carpet the Jacaranda's drop every Spring.

Such happy kids.

They have done so much this week and have been incredibly active.

Seriously happier together this week :)

I Love this photo!!!
Kookaburra is so, so very happy here. My Beautiful Boy :)

Baking a cake.
Inspired by Junior Masterchef which we've started watching online.

We all enjoyed the results a little too much.

Kangaroo is 'hunting myself a plum bird'.

Playing cowboy with his op shop find.

Kangaroo didn't have to think too hard about parting
with his pocket money for his companion.
He's named 'Star Bright' named after the colts in the book
Farmer Boy and Kangaroo's bum has barely left the pony's saddle.

Beach fun last weekend was such a hit
that we're making it a Friday afternoon ritual.

Roll on Summer Sunshine :D

I'm really enjoying taking photo's of my boys at the moment.

Actually, I'm also having loads of fun just taking photo's.

Trying to capture all those special moments.

They do ask me to put the camera away and come play though.

With or without the camera I'm glad I'm not missing a thing.

I have been struggling a bit this week though.

Grumpy, irritable and even a bit angry - a nasty ball of tight horribleness sitting in the pit of my stomach gnawing my innards. I can't really figure out why. I suspect the source. So today I'm going to have some me time. I'm off to the beach with a beautiful, sweet friend and we're going Kayaking and then, just because I'm nuts and terrified of sharks, I thought it would terrifyingly hilarious to go to the shark show afterward. Hopefully it won't reinforce my fears too much but I think it will be crazy, scary, funny to see just how close to being shark bait we'd come.

I think I need to practice gratefulness too. Our life is so good.

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Just a little update. That shark show we were going to see was suitably terrifying and consequently there will be more visits to the pool this summer than the beach. Even though I look over my shoulder in the pool as well as the beach, I know in which I'm least likely to be consumed by such a savage killing machine.

:P

Just say YES :D

I can get pretty uptight! What's so wrong with eating his tea with chopsticks? Kangaroo is already a very messy eater so to throw chopsticks into the mix.... oh dear me!

Yesterday I read an article over at Science@home which has inspired me. The title Young Scientists - Doing Science with Babies, Toddlers and Kids written by science teacher Deb Hodgkin, pretty much sums up the content. It was a timely reminder and sweet relief to read. I needed a gentle prod to not be so rigid with lessons (um... and life too I guess :S) and to let go, to be okay with disastrous results and mess, after all I do have two very competent helpers. But most of all I need to remember that my boys have not been here before and they need to make mistakes and get things right for themselves. They aren't always learning when I just provide the answers.

Odonata: dragonflies and damselflies

According to the Australian Museum, this is a Dragonfly. A quick identifier is the fact the Dragonfly holds its wings out at rest whereas a Damselfly will hold theirs alongside their body at rest. Both belong to the order of Odonata.

For more beautiful Wordless Wednesday Posts visit

Faith Hope & a whole lotta Love :D!

Changing our Morning Chaos into.....

a time when we connect and are enriched.

For months our morning rhythm had been lacking a little glue. The 'something' that would bring my boys and I together a little more than a bowl of cereal at the kitchen table after chores. So I searched the Homeschool Mummy Blogger World for a solution and what I found has been so simple and has made such a marvelous difference to us. Drum roll please...... introducing........

'The Morning Basket'!

I wish I remembered whose blog it was that I first came across this idea so I could give credit where it is due, but unfortunately, I'm so sorry, I don't! Regardless, I still want to share what gets our brains warmed up for the morning. What gets us chatting and in sync with each other. Before we had The Morning Basket we usually shared a book over brekky but this idea has provided us a sense of structure and purpose and somewhere to go once we complete a book.

So this is how it works. I usually finish my cereal first and then I read while my boys are still slowly consuming theirs. We have a Poetry selection.....



followed by a character enrichment type of book....




By this time Kookaburra has finished his cereal and is ready to take his turn reading aloud. Kookaburra has been a very reluctant reader but taking turns and looking upon the reading aloud as sharing a story rather than practicing has made a lovely difference to his outlook on reading. Whilst Kookaburra still rarely goes and reads a book for himself, he is very willing and even Happy to take his turn reading aloud. I've thought that perhaps because we read aloud so often through out our day that maybe Kookaburra has less of an inclination for personal reading because for the moment he's satisfied with what we're doing.

Kookaburra reads a story from his children's Bible.....



followed by his own poetry selection.....




after Kookaburra's readings we end our Morning Basket with a Narration selection which both my boys generally participate in.....




Finally we close with a prayer.

By about half seven we're all finished and my boys are at a lose end and usually want to draw, build lego and sometimes squabble. To help me out and allow me some time to get the rest of my chores done and prepare for our day, I've been playing audio books which they listen too whilst (supposedly) doing a quite activity. Our current selection is The Cat of Bubastes by G A Henty (which is free!!!! Thanks Librivox :D).

The Morning Basket has made a great difference to our morning. At the start of our day my boys and I are gathered together at the breakfast table learning, laughing and chatting. It has been a wonderful way to help set the tone for the day. We are enjoying being together and are establishing our rhythm right from the very start.

The Composer is DEAD!!!!!

Morbid book title hey?!

Actually, it's correct title is

Lemony Snicket The Composer is Dead.

Normally I would be The Last Person *said with loads of emphasis* to bring this material to my boys based on the title alone. But on this occasion I have relented because of a great experience we had in relation to this very cool book.

We first encountered The Composer is Dead as a performance when we attended The Out Of The Box Festival about midway through this year. Out of the Box is an amazingly, awesome, fun, biannual festival for children eight years and younger, produced by the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in Brisbane. When I was completing my booking form I was under strict instructions by the Fantastic Mr E, for two performances and two workshops ONLY! Wonderful, but the Pressure! The title threw me but after reading numerous reviews and pondering the value of the performance as opposed to others, I decided to chance it. I figured we could always walk out if it wasn't for our little family - no worries, we have done it before ;) Well , as the show began the word MURDER rang out so heavily and often that I wasn't sure if the journey was going to be worth it, (our boys didn't know what that word meant but in due course they figured it out from the context) but fortunately for all of us, Mr E stayed my hand and we remained for the entire excellent, entertaining and educational performance. We learned all about the orchestra in a style which portrayed the instruments as having distinct personalities as a detective investigated each instrumental group for its possible involvement in the Composers Death. We loved the show. We gained so much from the performance and realized that the educational intent used its slightly morbid vehicle to really entertain and enrich us, it's absolutely captivated audience.

Now to the book. Last week we made it to the library and there before us is this book by the same title as the performance we had viewed earlier this year. Duh! I hadn't realized that the performance was straight from a book of the same title. I grabbed it and yabbered excitedly to my boys about it, who then in turn yabbered and nagged me piteously all the way home and then continued mercilessly until the book was read. It (thankfully :D) comes with a CD with music and the narrative too.

In order to maximize the opportunity of having this book with us, I did a little Googling and found a lesson plan and video's to compliment it and have turned The Composer is Dead, into a study for this week. Not too intense, just a gentle extension on what my little men are already enjoying. The video's are below and are great to enjoy if you can't access the book, but if like me, the grim vehicle for story telling makes you balk, preview and weigh up the benefits and negatives. Hopefully someone out there likes Lemony Snicket The Composer is Dead (or possibly loves it!) almost as much as we do.

Still not sure if it's for your family and would like to read some other reviews? Visit The Children's Book Review to help you in your decision :).

Psst.... if you do watch the video, just hang on long enough to get past the little intro for the story to begin :D

The Apprentice

Active Listening

From

The Complete Secrets of Happy Children
by Steve Bidduluph

This then is active listening. In such cases parents are far from silent: they are interested, and show it by confirming their child's feelings and thoughts and by helping the child to think it through.

Using this approach:


* parents rarely give remedies or attempt to rescue..... - unless this is clearly necessary;


* they rarely advise..... - unless the child really needs information;


* they rarely distract the child from the problem..... - unless the child is a chronic whinger!

.........

Many parents have found active listening a great relief. They don't have to keep their child forever happy and they don't have to solve the child's problems for him. With active listening they can help the child, while leaving the responsibility, and pleasure, of a solution to the child. The trick is to ask yourself, 'Could my child benefit, in the long run, from solving this problem himself?' You can offer time, clarity and understanding so that a problem can be turned into a learning experience.

Sometimes parents must intervene...... become involved and defend their children's rights because children are powerless to defend themselves. In some cases, kids do NOT want our help - just our support. To get involved would be the wrong thing....

'Just listening' is a powerful medicine. If we can hold back from putting instant band-aids on every hurt, we can enter the deeper world of our children.


Sound advice I'm trying to remember :)

Grumble, Grumble

My big boy has been a little not himself this week.

Lovely as a Peach to myself and Dadda, guests and friends But.......

not to Little Kangaroo :(

Kookaburra has had a lot to say to Kangaroo this week, not too nicely either. He has also barely played with Kangaroo, often brushing him off and preferring the solitude of the hammock looking out into the garden or crouched over his Lego. I've dwelt on this little, well actually I'll be truthful, huge problem for a few days and I'm certain that the source of sourness may be very simple.

Its not a huge leap to figure that all it may be is my Kookaburra and I need to make contact more frequently. A hand on his shoulder, a ruff of his thick mane, a tight squeeze to tell him how much I Love Him and the slow tickle on his back to tell him he's worth my time.

As babes I suckled them and met our our Little People eye to eye. As Toddlers, they graced my knees and we rubbed noses frequently followed by secret whisperings and of course I told them constantly how gorgeous they were and how we Love, Love, Loved them. Our delicious toddlers have grown to be chubby preschoolers and this is where I think I see the divide.

In our family, while Kookaburra sits on the other side of our kitchen table with his lesson work spread around him, preschooler Kangaroo sits upon my knee to learn his letters and numbers. During the day Little Kangaroo will be the one curled up in my lap for story time. Whilst all this attention is being lavished upon the baby of the family, definitely not quite as much is happening for my big boy who lately may not be enjoying being quite so big.

Not only is he not receiving the same level of physical contact as given to Kangaroo, but he has further salt in his wounds. Kookaburra has chores which are a lot comparatively to Kangaroo, but of course he is older so therefor he should. Kookaburra is more likely to have a reprimand or harsh words from myself than his baby brother will. Kookaburra is older and has more Lesson Work, Chores to complete and other responsibilities and expectations that we're unconscious of. I'm sure he feels this difference between himself and his brother heavily. Even though he is older, Kookaburra is still only little and would see himself as being equal to Kangaroo and feel these differences as being unfair even if he understands it logically.

I'm sure I remember being upset by similar circumstances when I was the Older Kid in the Family.

So this is the problem.....

Kookaburra needs more gentle and tender, heartfelt and loving, genuine physical contact......

I need to heal the divide between Kookaburra and Kangaroo and unite them in their brotherhood and friendship.......

Too Easy :D

It isn't hard around here to find time for a cuddle and a chat.

As for healing that divide....

That was the reason for our trip to the Beach today!

They look so Happy :D

A shared experience.

So much fun and laughter.

Keeping them united in brotherhood and friendship will take more than one afternoon at the beach. This is going to take many, many afternoons of play. Beach, park , bush and at home. More often with me than I have been too! Reading with them both in my lap. Singing on both their beds at night. Spontaneous and Frequent cuddles. More present, active listening on my part. I need to keep to the forefront of my mind that it's how we spend our family time and the quality of our family's relationships that's going to make the real difference in our boys lives.