Summer School Holidays: Week Seven ~ Photography, Games and Last Minute Planning

This was our last week of summer school holidays, and with a public holiday (Australia Day) smack in the middle of the week, we took the opportunity to relax and have as much fun as possible just chilling out and enjoying the last of our free time.

I spent some time this week working on my new Facebook Photography Challenge theme ~ food. I didn't want to go with the "typical" photos of food I was eating or preparing so I opted to photograph food that is growing in our garden. Our fig trees are actually suffering from all the rain we've had. The large tree is dropping fruit when it is super tiny and not the least bit ripe. Thankfully our smaller fig tree is fruiting, though it is a battle to get any of the fruit before the birds since we don't net the trees.

Munchkin requested some game playing time so I spent an afternoon playing three of his favourite card games with him.

More photography fun when I found this gorgeous skink hanging out in our backyard. I had a few minutes to play around with my settings before he got spooked (I crept a little too close) and scampered back to safety.

All three boys were allowed one hour of gaming computer time per weekday during the school holidays (double what they are allowed during the term) so they really enjoyed themselves. They often play online games with one or more of their homeschool friends or cousins.

The dragon fruit plant that has been growing in our garden for a couple of years has finally started flowering.

As I'm pretty nearly 100% recovered from my bout of COVID I'm adding healthy habits back into my life. Food is starting to taste as it should so I can once again enjoy delicious salads, and I stretched myself a bit and did a LOT of walking on Thursday when I had to run several errands. That was a bit more than I probably SHOULD be doing, but a rest day the next day had me feeling fine.

Some last minute school planning on the Friday and Saturday as I needed to get calendar pages (schedule) written up for Monkey and Munchkin and also get their math organized for the week.

While I worked on that, Munchkin kept me company and "fixed" some of his silly putty which had gone a bit sticky.

This is a light week for Munchkin, a few more activities will be added from week two.

Independent reading for Munchkin through this last week of holidays.

Summer School Holidays: Week Six ~ Isolation, Contactless Christmas Gifting, and School Planning

My isolation period continued until Wednesday morning (19th January) so for the first part of the week the boys continued to amuse themselves in the house with various activities... Everyone was super happy to have me out of the bedroom and back in the main house from Wednesday as they all missed cuddling and kissing me.

Monkey and Munchkin spent a good portion of one afternoon playing with the Magic Sand I bought YEARS ago... these are NOT good photos at all, but my main interest was documenting things, not worrying too much about the quality of the photos.

Munchkin is SUPER excited that this succulent that Monster's godmother gave him is producing a baby plant, so he asked me to photograph it and text the photo to Auntie L... again the quality of the photo is lacking, but we'll work on getting some better photos in the future.

Our local library is now suffering from similar staffing issues that the grocery stores are. The library staff are getting sick and they are unsure how long they will be able to stay open. I got a message that some reserves had arrived, and with that message, a notice that the opening hours were being drastically shortened and the branch could close (temporarily) with little or no notice. As there were still some books we needed for school, I walked up to the library as soon as I was out of isolation. Along with the school books, and a few fun reading books for Munchkin, I also picked up two new library books for myself. The book on the left corresponds with Monster's biology unit about cells for Term 1, and the book on the right is about intermittent fasting and drastic calorie reduction as a means of losing weight and controlling diabetes... both are VERY interesting reads so far!

My intention this year is to read at least ONE book per term that corresponds with something that Monster is studying that particular term... it is a fun little challenge I'm giving myself that I'm really looking forward to.

In normal times, we would get together with some dear friends during the first week of January to celebrate Christmas, New Year's, and my birthday. We spend a day at their house so the boys can enjoy their swimming pool while the adults chat, then we have a BBQ lunch/early dinner, followed by a birthday cake dessert, presents for everyone, and usually a card or board game. Sadly this year, due to the Omicron outbreak and me contracting COVID, an in-person get together is out of the question until late February or early March. So our dear friend did a contactless veranda drop of all the gifts and I photographed the opening of the presents since she couldn't stay to see what the boys thought of everything they received. She has a beautiful ability of always picking the most perfect gifts for everyone and each of the boys (and myself) were mightily blessed with all of her choices...

Munchkin enjoying having a good look at the silly putty kit that was one of his special gifts...

After my trip to the library to pick up reserves, our library bookshelf is full to overflowing... The top shelf is all our library books that we will use this first term of the new school year. Yes, I know that is a TREMENDOUS number of books for just ten weeks of school. However, I learned my lesson the hard way last year when I didn't reserve books early enough and we got stuck with online learning for all of Term 3 because the library was closed for 17 weeks. 

The bottom shelf is books we own that will also be used, but for the entire school year, not just this first term. The hallway is right next to our lounge room so all the books are in easy reach for read aloud time, or when a boy wants to relax on the lounge and read during their free time.

I felt well enough on Saturday afternoon to do some serious school planning finally. I sat down with my pad of paper, the curriculum content lists for each boy, and wrote out what each child would be studying for the first term of the school year. I kept it VERY simple this year, but this gave me the chance to see where we could overlap topics as both Monkey and Munchkin have similar science and geography content that can be studied together. As I worked out what we would be studying I also started pulling the first set of books off the library shelves and stacking them on the read aloud table...

The left photo is Monster's plan for the term and the right photo is Monkey's plan...

This photo is Munchkin's plan for Term 1

These are the non-fiction books we will be reading for Term 1...

This photo is our literature selections as well as longer chapter book non-fiction selections...

These are the books we read EVERY day regardless of what else happens... three chapters of the Bible, one story from the Book of Virtues, one story from the folk tales book, and the On This Day date that corresponds with the day... This reading is non-negotiable... we only skip it when I am incapable of reading.

Munchkin's independent reading for the week...