Shalom indeed. Greetings. Peace. Very, very happy day! Our internet is baaaaack!!
It is fairly late at night already, so I think tonight I'll just upload lots of the photos I've taken in the last 4 weeks - many of them of my favourite subject, the children of course :) - and catch up on the more literary posts I have sitting in my head in the coming days.
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4 weeks ago the summer holidays ended, and the school / work year began.
First lesson for 2010! My sweet second-grader.
Heading out for nature study, 3 students with 3 clipboards in hand.
The two boys ditched theirs fairly quickly, but Saraya completed her discovery sheet and we all had fun searching for cicadas in the trees around the dam.
This is the children quite a way away from the house (that's our side neighbour in the distance); I am standing on the verandah and have the camera fully zoomed in. What are they doing? Working on our fun "mud patch" of course!!! Shovels, diggers, buckets, lots of little tiny toys, teapots, saucepans, bore water running ...... and MUD.
And this was how they looked an hour or so later. I had to clean the bath after I had cleaned them!
I still think they're adorable, even covered in mud.
But they're not allowed to paint themselves in mud again without asking first. :|
Saraya's history course required her to try making Adam and Eve out of playdough - to see how difficult it is to make people from scratch. And of course these ones don't even breathe, or have skin or hair or internal organs. She found it amusing that she had to take a bit of Adam's rib out to make Eve!
This is a really tricky puzzle - which Elijah completed independently during his rest time. He was SO excited he came rushing into my bedroom to tell me!!
We made a musical hopscotch to help learn the names of the notes on the piano.
We learned about octaves. And what comes before / after any given note.
The children really liked this activity. They keep asking to do it again.
I have started teaching both the older children piano. This is absolutely delightful fun - when William isn't trying to "help". Which he most often does. I'm thinking we may do piano lessons on weekends.
We've baked cookies (and numerous other things....)
The horse and two ponies who live in the paddock behind our house have been coming up to the fence, much to the children's excitement! It's good. It's like having horses without actually having to look after them. :)
Something new we're discovering about Will - he loves anything with a motor. He wanders out at random times and just sits on the ride-on mower, pretending to drive it. Complete with sound effects.
We've had fun doing some hands-on learning as well as book work ...... this picture is our little ice-creation after learning about the Ice Age. We were learning how the ice created bridges between some countries / islands. The lego men were explorers!
We made a mini greenhouse to demonstrate evaporation / condensation.
Can you see Saraya? In the distance? On her bike? In her undies?
Yep, that's her. And if you come visit you're bound to find her, just like that at some point on any given day. She's loving riding her bike!!! Such freedom!
William has taken a real interest in duplo play lately. Here he and Elijah are working on a construction together.
Sitting in the car on our way to the children's first dance class for 2010. So nice they can dance in the same class!! It's going well so far.
We found an idea for handmade bookmarks in one of Saraya's craft books. Both the older children made one for my Mum as a birthday gift. I was really proud of their efforts!
I did help Elijah a little bit drawing his whale. But the colouring is all his own.
As is her want, Saraya used all her free time for the remainder of that day to continue making bookmarks ....... lots and lots of them. Most of them she's planning as gifts for various friends. Oh boy that girl loves to craft!
We baked a cake for Mum's birthday - and had a great weekend away by the way!
Elijah has taken a real interest in letters / word formation recently. Here he is building words with our duplo letter blocks. Fun!
This is often how our table looks by lunchtime during the week. Hmmm. There's always lots going on. Great that with 3 of us tidying up it only takes a few minutes even though it looks bad!
I found this sweet boy sitting in my laundry basket after I had just loaded the laundry into the machine. Yes, he still loves his bottle. Very, very much....
I also notice that I've written a very homeschooling-focused post. I promise I've got lots of other things I want to share - it just so happens that most (okay, all..) of my photos are of the children doing something. So nice to be able to blog again. To share, to write again! Can't wait to catch up on all that lost time!!
Blessings! xx
11 comments:
Glad to see you back! And I love all your sweet pictures.
;-)
I love all your pictures...I need to run and go teach our homeschool.
I missed you Saminda!
Kimmie
Saminda!!!!
It's so wonderful to have you back! I loved seeing the photos of your adorable children, give them all big hugs from me! <3
I can't wait to hear more about life for you, with the kids, the new house, everything! I hope you've had a wonderful few weeks, and it certainly looks like you have.
Enjoy those precious blessings, and you're in my heart and prayers!
-Linden
WOW! Neat, Saminda...looks like a lot of fun & learning going on! :)
Welcome back! Thank you for all the lovely, fun, interesting photos. Love the new look of the blog too. It is refreshing to me, as we are still experiencing winter and the blahs that come with it. Saraya reminds me of someone from Little House on the Prairie in her first lesson pictures. She seems to have matured some in her appearance in the last 4 weeks. And goodness does Elijah ever look like a blond version of his dad. Ah and little Will, the cherub, cute as ever.
I love that you seem to be a relaxed mom who doesn't get worked up over messy children, "proper" attire, etc.
Hugs dear friend. So happy to know that we will be seeing, reading, and hearing more from the Ferns!
Welcome back!
Welcome back Saminda!
What a wonderful time you have enjoyed over the last month. My dining room table looks just like yours does by lunchtime too! And I'm sure you will be cleaning up those lovely children and your bath often. On one occasion, not long after we had moved here my children were caked in dirt and our neighbour turned up to say hello - a very sophisticated lady she was too and my mud caked children ran over to meet her and say hello. I was just mortified and she turned to me, smiled and said 'Dirty children are happy children'. I just loved her from that moment and I have never forgotten her words. I repeat them often especially when I see photographs of homeschool families or Victorian images of children in pristine white dresses and shirts with not a hair out of place or one of those super organized homeschool rooms with children working quietly from a neat stack of workbooks. I do think your children are going to have so much fun as you continue to homeschool in this way ... you will be amazed at what they learn and remember in years to come. My 17 year old still remembers our first unit study on the 5 senses from when he was 6 and the activities we did! He recently answered a question on a tv quiz show about the bones in the ear and said he remembered the names from when we made a model of the ear all those years ago! So expect them to remember learning about evaporation and the ice age in years to come!
that table is a familiar scene in our house as well.
nice to see you back!
Hello you - welcome back and all that jazz!!
Hope you get a chance today to catch up on all your reading and writing! See you soon sweet friend.
I will echo everyone else and say it's good to have you back blogging again! Photos are always so nice, and aloow us blogging snoops to get a better insight into your life ;-)! Oh and I have to say, that my first thought on seeing Elijah was how he had changed and how he resembled Stu too!
Wow, thanks so much everyone for your sweet comments!! So nice.
Laura, I hugged the children and they were glad to hear from you. Me too!
Amy and Amy and Sarah and Kimmie and Karen and Ann and Tamra and Helen and Jen, thank you! :) It IS nice to be back. :)
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