It has been so long since I've been here.  It has been such a cold winter and we have endured many ills.  What we didn't receive in this area was much rain.  It is VERY dry, the crops seem to be going backwards and things look very grim for the farmers.

Please pray for rain!!  It is so desperately needed!

Jane

A while ago we organised with a local artist to have a once a week session with her so that ds could do "messy art stuff", something that we do not seem to get around to. The lady who is doing this with us loves working with children and loves making a mess so it is a perfect combination. On Thursday ds had his first session here at our home. I was banished as the goal of the session was to make me something for Mother's Day, so I spent two hours NOT looking at what was happening on the kitchen table. The result is hidden somewhere in the house until tomorrow.

Ds would like to tell everyone about our day so far. So over to him - It was really cold this morning, so I stayed in bed reading my NIrV bible. Mum decided that I had to get out of bed at 8.30, so I reluctantly got up and we had our breakfast. I had yummy porridge. I then hurried off to get dressed and put on lots of clothes. After I did my chores we settled down on the lounge with all our bible reference books and explored the life of Joseph. I made a page for my bible folder and then we went and got some wood from the shed for the fire. After morning tea I did my maths and then we worked on grammar which is not my favourite subject. I did my spelling and worked on a vocabulary sheet. We had lunch of mushrooms on toast and I also had two slices of peanut butter toast and a glass of apple and strawberry juice. We read another chapter of "Farmer Boy" and then I snuggled down on the lounge with a "Tin Tin" book. I love all the Tin Tin and Asterix books and borrow a few everytime we go to the library. Mum said that we had to do our entry on our blog and I volunteered. That's all I have done today so far. Well, I guess it is back to me now as ds has gone back to the lounge with his Tin Tin book and I know I will not get much more sense out of him until he has finished it. As I look at ds lying on the lounge I am thankful that he has this opportunity to take time in the day to just read if he wants to. It is days such as this where if we feel we don't want to be pressured to stick to a time table then we do not. It has taken the lounge room a long time to warm up so that we are not shivering and ds has worked on the coffee table today. He has decided now that the weather is colder that he will do his work sitting on the lounge, close to the combustion heater. Isn't it wonderful that homeschooling can afford such opportunities to be flexible! Where we live has been in the grip of drought for such a long time and with the cold weather has come some much welcomed rain. The farmers are all preparing the paddocks ready to plant and the district is buzzing with the activity. Everybody is busy! We are also grateful for the rain and now one of our tanks is nearly half full. It is a blessing to be able to turn on the tap and not worry quite so much that we were nearly out of water. We have two tanks and one we were using for water that was carted in from town and that one was nearly empty too. We switched between the tanks according to what we were using the water for and reserved the disgusting town water for bathing and laundry, attempting to preserve the rainwater for drinking and cooking. We are praying for much more rain so that both tanks will fill. However we are not the only ones praying for more rain, more importantly the farmers need more rain and all the other people in the area also need the rain to fill their tanks. Some time ago a long range weather forcaster was heard to predict a wet winter and spring for us and I do hope that he is right. A break in the drought is desperately needed not only in this particular region but right across Australia. Jane

When I began this blog I had grand plans to make daily entries and to turn it into a record of our learning for our friends and family. Well, I am gald that I didn't announce that in the first post!!! Those dear friends who know me well would have rolled around on the floor at such an announcement. So why do I make it now? I have a burning desire to conquer the disorganisation in our lives, so by making a public announcement about doing something every day seals that desire in concrete, so for anybody who is reading this blog, if you happen to see a day go by from now on that is missing an entry, then please don't hesitate to pull me up on my slackness. I not only would be deserving of it, but probably need it. I have tried many varied way to try and create some order in the chaos. Flylady (http://www.flylady.com) looked promising for a while. Different email groups seemed to help on a short term basis, but always I managed to slip back into what some could term 'slovenly ways'. I make lists of things to do and promptly loose them. Some days seem to disappear in a haze of chaos!! So where does schoolwork fit into this chaos? I am lucky that ds is fairly self motivated. He is the one who motivates me. I thank the Lord for this child who is able to undertake at least some of his learning in this way.

Hello, After reading countless blogs by so many wonderful and talented people I have decided to join the craze. We are a family homeschooling in what Australian's call 'the bush' and no, that doesn't mean we are living in a bush :-)....we are living in a rural location that has - well basically no facilities. Our nearest shop is 12 kilometres away and whilst it is grandly labelled as a 'supermarket' most people would probably think of it as more of a corner store. We love it here as it is quiet and peaceful and whilst I was born and bred in Sydney I could not imagine ever returning to that thriving and noisy metropolis. We are homeschooling using a rather ecclectic mix of Charlotte Mason and Montessori ideas. Our 'schoolroom' is our whole house and yard but usually we do most of our activities in our combined kitchen/dining/lounge room. We have our own library mostly within what was a bedroom, but we have so many books that they have spilled out into every other room in the house. enough for now Jane