Friday, January 30, 2015

Week One ~ A Short (but NOT sweet) Week

Our first week of the term did not go quite as I planned!
Thank goodness I had suggested to the boys that we ease back into things with lots of read alouds and some fun activities while we got used to being back on a more structured routine.

 We were greeted with torrential rain first thing in the morning so the entire house was dark and grey.  That killed my idea for doing "first day of school" photos outside in the sunshine.
Below is what I was able to get with my compact camera and the indoor conditions.

 Munchkin - age 2 years, 9 months

 Monkey - age 5.5 years

 Monster - age 8 years

 Monster requested a plants unit study with a focus on carniverous plants and we are all excited about what we will learn.  I found a cool set of pots at St Vincent de Paul that the boys got to decorate and we will plant some snap dragons in them and watch them grow.

 We are ALWAYS interested in dangerous animals (Australian or not) and all three boys LOVE to learn about the ocean and its inhabitants.
Our read aloud selections for the week.

 Munchkin tried out a paint with water book that my mum sent the boys.
He hasn't quite got the hang of it but he is slowly catching on to how to "make" the paint!

 Sadly the not sweet portion of our week was when Munchkin woke up vomiting just after midnight Wednesday night/Thursday morning... and got sick at regular intervals until 3:30am. It was school as usual for the big boys on Thursday and since daddy was working from home, Munchkin got a special treat... he spent part of the day sitting at my computer watching YouTube videos (nursery Rhymes and Fireman Sam) while I did some one-on-one work with the big boys.


The writing assignment for the week was a long overdue thank you note they both owed someone for a belated Christmas gift they had received.



Finally, Monster requested that we put together the Map of the World puzzle that my sister sent him several years ago!  It is a GREAT puzzle with STACKS of information on it and we LOVE putting it together.

And NO we haven't given up on our Elephants in Namibia puzzle... we simply transferred it to a large piece of cardboard and stored it under a chest of drawers to continue working on (well I will) since I refuse to give up on it!

So that was our first short week... not great but not horrible either! :-)

Sunday, January 25, 2015

Summer School Holidays...

We had an absolutely wonderful summer school holidays... mostly spent relaxing and enjoying time together as a family and time to just relax and do whatever we felt like doing.
Here is a MASSIVE photo dump to give you a peek into all our fun...




 Checking out the Christmas lights in the city...

 Christmas morning photo shoot to model the annual Christmas t-shirts!



 Capturing the joy of opening gifts...




The chance to enjoy those presents straight away...








 A beautiful boxing day spent flying a kite at the park
(while mummy experimented with her Christmas present ~ a digital SLR camera)

 We sneaked in looking at neighbourhood Christmas lights on Boxing Day night!





 Mummy enjoyed taking photos of flowers... LOTS and LOTS of photos of flowers...




 Teaching Monkey how to ride the flying fox...

 Monkey faced his fears and bravely hung on all the way to the end...



 New Years Eve Day was a great time to decorate the gingerbread train...

 ... check out spiders



 ... have a water fight

 ... and do a bit of bird watching!!

 There were thank you notes to write...


books to read...


 and puzzles to put together!


We learned about sea monsters... and Monkey did some drawings!


 We are down to just sand and sky on our Elephants of Namibia puzzle but I refuse to give up!


The boys enjoyed time at the park and a chance to swim in a friends pool.


 There was Bingo with their favourite librarian...

 and my 40th birthday!!


a craft day...



a magic show...



and an afternoon of play dough fun at our local library!






 Followed by a fun and games day with our favourite librarian and another library.



And we finished off with Munchkin mastering one of his harder puzzles and putting it together almost entirely by himself... and Monster shocking me by decided to write a book in capital and lowercase letters for the first time ever!
(Those of you who follow our home school journey closely know what a HUGE deal this is)

So there you have it... our summer holidays!
I'm looking forward to all the learning and wonderful experiences the 2015 school year has to offer our family!