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New Zealand Home Educators
Feb. 13, 2008
So why is it that although I feel like we are doing nothing and going nowhere we are actually always busy, lol, here is a few snippets of what we have been up to.
Above is a Cockatoo named Pip she was 6 weeks old when we got her and we were hand feeding her, I have never really been a bird person but thought well it would be a good experience for the children, so we started out with good intentions but it didn't work out for me and I have had to accept I am just a cat person. We had a friend who wanted her if we didn't so she has packed her bags and moved on, although while we had her we learnt several things,
- she could be heard about 1 kilometere away
- She drove us mad and cried like a baby when not getting attention or was hungry
- It was just like having a baby all over again, they need feeding, regular rest times and they poo and spit their food EVERYWHERE!
- I learned that my nerves were not very good with all the noise and we all knew how to block our ears and keep all the windows and doors shut in the middle of summer in case the neighbors heard her.
So she has now moved in with my friend and the peace and tranquility has returned. LOL. 
Next the children had their Grandfather come foe a visit, this is my Ex Husbands father and he lives inAustralia so the children haven't seen him for about 3 years, Jack was only a few weeks old when they last saw each other. So they had a few hours together as he passed through town.
Yes this is my little BOY JACK, Jessica has decided that he makes a lovely little girl and keeps dressing him up as one, unfortunately he loves to do it, so here is reading for a grand ball!!! It has to stop I think gone too far.
And then there is Mila, she is our new arrival, yes I have just got the bird out of the house and now we have another cat, we have been looking for a while and it had to be the perfect cat as we didn't want to upset my gorgeous Siamese Lily, but when we saw her on the internet I knew we had to have her, she is a few days older than my Lily but is a Siamese as well and so far so good, we have only had her a few hours and she is already snuggled up in bed with Jack how cool is that.
And just in case you were wondering YES we have been doing schoolwork, her they are studying away, although we are having problems at the moment keeping Jack occupied while the kids work, so I am working on little things for him to do as he doesn't play with toys anymore I find he just wants to be doing things like the big kids.
So there you have it a little bit of what we have been up to!!
To keep Jack's mind of his sore head the other day we took him to the local Dinosaur park.
It took him a while before he would go near them but once he realised they were fake he was ok and wouldn't stop touching them.
He was quite worried about the egg in the middle of the dinosaurs though, he thought they might attack it.
So where have we been and what have we been doing, well as you can see by the photo above, Jack has been n the wars and giving his mum a real fright. Last Saturday night I let him go have one more jump on the Trampoline before he went to bed, then all of a sudden I heard screaming, not from Jack but from Jessica, I got to the door to see blood everywhere, I still didn't worry too much as he does get nose bleeds and had, had one earlier that day. But on closer inspection it was not to be a nose bleed, but his head cut really deep, although I didn't realise how bad until the bleeding slowed down, it was a mad rush to the doctors to reveal it was deep enough to be in to the Skull, so 3 Stitches later, some glue and butterfly stitches and we were sent home with a child on head injury watch and not to be allowed t do anything for 3 weeks, Yeah Right!!!!!
Here he is 5 days later, bandages off, stitches due out and a cheeky grin on his face and of course a new wound on his chin where his teeth went through his chin on falling the other day, he has never had so many accidents as he has had this week. But on his recent trip to the doctors [not the A&E we went to the other day] I was told that the whole town was talking about little Jack as one of the bravest little boys they had, had for a while as he had laid there and had all his stitches down without making a peep.
So he is on the road to recovery now and on the go again, 3 weeks rest I don't think so!!!
I do have to say though in my own defense of this dreaded day, I am so upset with myself over it all, I spent a lot of money buying a Trampoline with good padding and a safety net around it so that he would hopefully be safe, just to have this happen, we have old rusty tramps with no pads or nets before and never had a problem.
We watched this bird for ages today at Rainbow Springs, we are not sure what he was doing.
BUT he continued and continued to do the same thing over and over again, he was rubbing his beak up and down the strands of grass.
We watched for ages and when we left he was still doing it. Perhaps it is a boredom thing, but he definitely kept the visitors intrigued.
 The things you see when out and about.
Sorry the photo's are not great my batteries were flat and the flash was not wanting to work but I hope you can see just how big this EEL really is.
I am not a fan of EEL's but he always fascinates us when we go to visit our favourite place So we thought we would share him with you this time.
Rainbow Springs
 It is Sunday morning and normally my catch up morning, the children normally play or read while I catch up on cleaning the house, washing, paperwork, bill paying etc etc.
BUT today Jessica and Jack had different ideas, they have already played dress ups and been outside till I had to bring them in for fear of the neighbours waking up, so as a last resort for a quiet life/morning they are now making a collage while Joshua age 14 is still sleeping the morning away, what a difference a couple of years in age can do.
Jessica and Jack are camping out, well they were the other day lol.
They decided to build a hut, it started out very small.
Then got bigger and bigger, unfortunately they built it outside on the deck and it started to rain.
I gues there were a few holes and cracks around but managed to stay in it all day until the roof caved in under the pressure of the rain.
They had food out there and event he cats decided it was a good place to settle down and sleep.
 OK so we are not DIRTY people BUT we do have a problem with clutter, well should I say my kids do. I HATE CLUTTER!!!!!!
So we had a big cleanup in our house, every room got a make over in the holidays.
Here is the kitchen before.
Then the kitchen after, everything put away, neat and tidy, everything now has a home.
Then we have the dining are, which is also our schoolroom, I am so fed up of seeing all the art supplies, books etc in our open plan lounge/dining area, so they have all gone.
This is the before shot.
Then this is after all the clutter was cleared away, we have done a lot of trips to the rubbish tip as well lol.
So far so good!
 This great man Sir Edmund Hillary, a GREAT KIWI man has died at the age of 88.
He passed away at 9am this morning in Auckland New Zealand.
He was a wonderful, wonderful man and did great things for New Zealand.
R.I.P
You can find out more about his life here
, KG, ONZ, KBE ( 20 July 1919 – 11 January 2008) [1][2] was a New Zealand mountaineer and explorer. On 29 May 1953, he and Sherpa mountaineer Tenzing Norgay became the first climbers known to have reached the summit of Mount Everest. They were part of the ninth British expedition to Everest, led by John Hunt.
Well today is my birthday, I think when you get to my age it is just another day however the kids don't feel that way, they were way more excited than I was lol.
Jessica woke me with a cup of tea in bed and although it was lovely, Jack was still asleep and I treasure the time when he is asleep to sleep myself, so it took all I had not to be grumpy this morning, but I held it together and we had chocolates that were wrapped up from Xmas for my birthday for breakfast in bed lol.
I have had a lazy morning, we should really be doing school but it is 10am and I am still sitting here in my dressing gown, so perhaps it won't happen or maybe we can go do some Nature studies outside and have a picnic at the same time.
So with that I had better go and get dressed and liven the old body up.
Jack loves the idea of catching fish so we managed to buy him a really cheap plastic fishing rod and fish. I managed to learn a lesson as well that the cheapest present was the best, we spent a grand total of $2.99 NZ on the rod and yet bought him a Wooden Garage for $80NZ, the garage was falling apart by Boxing day and had to be taken back for a refund as we decided not to replace it, whereas the cheap fishing rod is still going strong and no need to have to replace it.
Well we are off to a fairly good start, we are easing ourselves in gently and thought I would just start this week of with a fun Lapbook, so we are doing CHOCOLATE yummy!!!!!!
Jack of course had to make his own lapbook and was most eager for school to be underway again, he couldn't wait to get everything out and get moving with it all.
We went to the library and got out some resources on Chocolate and of course there will be some fun things to do and make in this project.
There is a great chocolate site here
I will post more as I find them and show some pics of the lapbooks as we go along.
So 2008 is here and I made some decisions about our lives and things I wanted to happen for our family.
- Sort out our financial problems.
- Organize our day better and keep to some kind of structure.
- Keep the house tidy and keep on top of the clutter.
- Look after myself better and loose some weight.
- Not let the little things worry me.
So I have started on the list and doing well so far, I have opened a bank account and started a savings plan towards emergencies, Xmas and Birthdays. I have been going through each room and having a de-clutter, so that is going well, I went for a job interview today and got the job on the spot, so I start on Monday, the Routine thing will have to happen then as well because I will somehow now have to fit in, looking after the children, homeschooling, cleaning the house, keeping up with the garden as well as working and SLEEP somewhere along the way as well. Hopefully it will all fall into place and then i can work on the rest of the list.
OH and I nearly forgot I also signed up to purchase a Exercise/diet regime this morning, so that should be arriving sometime next week and of course I will have to find time to do it. LOL.
WISH ME LUCK!
Below are some ways for creatively displaying your children's work.
Stand Up Books
These books are similar to the old fashioned, stand up greeting
cards which are regaining popularity. This method also requires a
short piece of writing.
Pop up Books
The popular method of folding and cutting so that opening pages
causes part of the page to move or poke out in an unexpected manner
might be an interesting way to reinforce a concept.
Accordion Books
Accordion books and expandable cards are one of the simpler of these
projects. A long stiff paper is carefully folded in accordion style
with the front and back pages covered and decorated. A ribbon or
string is wrapped around it or tied on both sides to hold the cover
closed.
Bound books
Students might enjoy binding their papers together as a book. They
can use a simplified craft approach or the more complicated method
used in libraries to preserve old treasures.
Tabbed Books
Many students rarely see tabbed books and may enjoy the idea of
indexing their work.
Miniature Books
Tiny books with pages measuring around 2 1/2" square may capture the
fancy of some, especially when students see the prices of the little
masterpieces. Be sure to check enlarged photos showing the details
of unusual constructions.
Scrolls
Printouts of student writing in old fashioned fonts can be glued to
long sheets of paper rolled on wooden dowels so that they resemble
ancient scrolls.
Banners and Large Posters
Perhaps having some of the appeal of graffiti, banners and giant
poster displays may interest some of your students.
Mobiles
Students could display separate paragraphs of a piece and relat the
levels and/or motion of the mobile to concepts within the piece. The
diagram for a Solar System Mobile may be helpful for students making
their first mobile.
Collage
The students writing could be glued to a poster along with pictures
and three dimensional objects.
Thematic Framing
The piece is glued to a backing and framed or with pictures or three
dimensional objects related to concepts within the piece.
Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring not even a mouse...............
It was so peaceful last night after everyone had gone to bed, I was more organised than in past years and nearly all the presents were wrapped, so just a matter of laying it all out, a quick tidy up and a chance for mum to sit down and have a ponder about the past year and the year to come. There will be a hint of sorrow in the air with my brother's death this year but hopefully mum will be able to put it aside for a while and have some fun.
Then the ripping began, it is amazing, it took weeks to buy the presents, hours to wrap them and only minutes to devour them.
Jack was fairly slow at ripping though and the other's had finished when he was still on his second, all be it that they had less to unwrap this year due to the fact that they had their big present which was a bike each.
Jessica on her new bike, the only stipulation was it had to have blue on it. It look way too big for her but she will grow.
Joshua is happy to have his bike and be mobile again.
So I think we have some happy campers here to day and long may the happiness last, or should i say the peace and quiet. Jack and I have both been blessed with colds for Xmas it is a bit of a family tradition for Xmas to have a cold, so thought I would keep it up, both my parents in the UK have one as well, so we are doing well.
MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone that reads my blog.
Well last night was Christmas eve for us in New Zealand, we went for our normal traditional tour around town, we started of with dinner out, a treat in itself for us, then we drove around all the houses with Christmas lights, there was some beautiful sights, unfortunately my camera died just after the first couple of shots so had to use the old camera. {sorry it didn't come out very well]
After the Christmas lights we treated ourselves, to Ice cream sundaes, and a hot chocolate for mum.
We got home around 10.30 and I had some very eager children to go to bed, with out a peep to await what would happen next.
We have been making mini Xmas puddings, you start with a Mallowpuff biscuit, melt come white chocolate and dip the top of the biscuit in it to make it look like custard running down the sides, then add on top a Jaffa lolly for the holly berry and 2 spearmint leaves for the holly leaves.
Here we have a pile of them that we have made.
Then we put them into little packages and made them look festive and delivered them to all our friends. It was so much fun and very fun eating the left overs.
OK i am here again, I wanted to answer a question someone asked on my blog and that is about our school year next year and what we might be learning.
Firstly I haven't done much planning as yet but intend to start as soon as Christmas is over, in fact I have been known to plan on Christmas day and I know that sounds weird but it is a day where all 3 children will be fully engrossed in their gifts this gives me time to catch up on a few things.
Anyway, we homeschool from the beginning of February through to December here in NZ. and we have 4 terms in total. At the end of each term there will be 2 weeks holiday. We used to school all year round but I think it became too much for me, so now we do take the holidays and it is a time for me to recharge my batteries and catch up on things around the house.
As for what we will be learning, well I want to work on New Zealand History and Geography next year, so that will be a big chunk of the year taken up. We will continue on our writing journey and Reading, writing, and maths each day. Art I am not sure what as yet. Joshua is doing a computer course at home, which involves how to build a computer, so he is looking forward to that, Jessica will be doing a computer course as well but it will be on things like, how to use the computer for email, internet, word pad, publisher, excell etc.
Nothing else has been planned as yet so will be working out the finer details over the Christmas break, but I hope that gives you an insight into what we will be getting up to.
I was playing with my new Camera last night and this was the sunset over Lake Rotorua.
I cannot believe my little boy/baby is having his 3rd birthday, he also couldn't believe the day had actually finally arrived, he has managed to get through his sister's birthday and his brothers and then had to wait 6 weeks for his own it was tough. Money was tight so we just baked a Chocolate cake which he loved, the candles and balloons was the most exciting part.
And he got his bike which I had bought earlier in the year, he loves it and it will last him a while. I had worked myself up badly this year wondering how we were going to afford all 3 kids birthdays and then Xmas as well but in actual fact he was happy with the balloons, cake and candles, so I need not have worried.
My mum send him a little digger truck that has the name Jack so he loved that all the way from England, but again he just loved the fact that he got mail, as parents we put ourselves under so much stress to get it all right when we should loosen up and not worry.
So now Xmas in a week or so and then nothing for while, I will be able to breath again lol.
We went to the Scented garden a few days ago, it is a lovely place to go and such a great idea.
Everything in the garden is like a spiral to walk around and everything is smelly for the blind people to go and enjoy.
Not the best photo with the sun on it but you get the idea of what is there.
 Although is is made to be a smelly garden for the blind I found it to be visually very pretty as well and of course another excuse for a photo opportunity.
I didn't realise I had been away and neglecting my blog for so long, I am really sorry, we have had a few things happening around here, the first one been we had the car broken into as everyone knows, so we just got over that and got the letter we had all been dreading and that is for the Review, for people not in New Zealand, when you have a review it is a reviewer from the Ministry of Education that comes around and examines what you have been up to, I thought it was a very scary experience but found it to be very valuable, so we had to make sure all our books were up to date and tidy, although there wasn't much there that had to be done, I am so glad that we do DO schoolwork or I am not sure what we would have had to talk about for 2 1/4 hours, Jessica enjoyed the experience and Joshua was terrified that he would be sent back to school. I am glad it is over but also glad to be told we are doing well and that both children are receiving a good education, after all I am not out to ruin their education am I!!!!
Needless to say Joshua's few days of wanting to go back to school were short lived, he now feels home is the better and by far easier place to be, and now the review is out of the way he can get on with all the things kids should be doing and we can all enjoy life.
So what else have we been up to, well Jack had his 3rd birthday the other day, that was fun although we didn't have a party or anything, we have been enjoying the sunshine and the lovely Spring we have been having, the house has been getting a Spring clean which has been nice, now I just have the garden to do before Xmas.
We are now in holiday mode around here so there will not be much on the schooling side on here for a few weeks, children here don't go back to public school until February next year however we will be starting back in January as we would like to get a head start and not feel like we can't have days off here and there, so I now have my planning to do for the year ahead and Xmas to get ready for.
On the personal front I have been having struggles both financially and personally, single parenting has its moments of joy but also its moments of hardship. I have had a few rough weeks dealing with the stress of the review and no one to say it will be ok, then financially trying to find the money for Xmas etc as well as new resources for next year, I have got to the stage and age of the children that I am not sure if we can keep homeschooling without a curriculum, but I think we will at least be starting the year off that way.
OK that is enough of my moaning, I am off to clean the house up and get some washing done, and all those other duties a mum has to do, then off to do a little window shopping. Hope everyone is well and hope I haven't lost all the people that read my blog, hope to see you back here real soon.
I got some little boats for Jack the other day from the $2 shop, the idea was that they were just for paddling pool, but Jessica had the idea that we would take them down to the lake.
We picked the windiest day possible so Jessica tied a rope to them and threw them into the water, they then spent the next 45 mins throwing and retrieving them from the blustery lake, Jessica can't wait to go back so must have been fun.
So we started the day of wuite normally today, the kids did their maths and then Jessica made a castle for the little bag or army men I managed to get for 50c, we had decided if the weather was fine today we would go out for a picnic because it would have been my dear brother's 24th birthday and rather than sit at home thinking about the bad things we would get out and have a bit of fun and though about the day.
So off we toddled, packed a picnic and headed for some fun in the sun. We had been at this gorgeous little beach for about 1/2 an hour when we hear a lot of very loud banging, sounded like gunshots and screaming and yelling, so we sat huddled on the beach terrified wondering what to do, I knew we couldn't go back to the car park where the car was as that is where the noise was coming from so we sat scared until the noise subsided, then crept back through the bush walkway trying to keep a 2 year old quiet, which is not easy lol..... we got to the car to find.........
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