Term Two: Week Three ~ Nature Walk and LOTS of Drawing

Week three and we are starting to find our groove.  The weather is cooling off quickly and we are enjoying less rain and more cool sunny days, so time to make the most of it and get outside.

The Munchkin and I enjoyed playing a game of Quirkle. 

Monster and Monkey worked through a drawing lesson online one afternoon. 

Monkey has discovered a real talent and passion in drawing and is allowed to use my mobile/cell phone when his schoolwork is finished.  He loads a How to Draw website, picks an animal he wants to draw, and away he goes. 

Here are some of his beautiful creations from this week. 

I suddenly remembered that my best friend had some time ago shown me a different way to walk from her house to mine, yet I had never shown the boys.  So we took off one afternoon and enjoyed a really long walk.  The first thing we found was what we assume is a tiny bug (brown thing at the top of the foam) making all this spit like looking foam on this plant.  We have NO idea what it is... must remember to try to find out. 

We had to be on the lookout for Orb Weaving spiders as they were EVERYWHERE. A bit part of the reason why this walk took so long is because we kept finding more and more spiders and stopping to photograph them. 

Rest assured I did not have to get this close to this gorgeous spider to take the photo. It is times like this when I LOVE my zoom lens!! 

As our walk was coming to a close we found this spiky caterpillar. We'd never seen any caterpillar like this before so we spent a good bit of time observing him. 

We fed the ducks some grapes... 

And ended our afternoon looking for tiny mud crabs and were rewarded by finding this gorgeous fellow.  We will be making many more trips out on this path again in the very near future. 

Monster spends a good portion of his written work part of his day tackling his math unit. He is rather proud of himself though, as he still consistently scores better than I do. 

Monkey spent a portion of one afternoon creating some new game with the Qwirkle pieces. 

Monkey also spent another day creating and photographing this fabulous Lego battle. 

 Left: Premier's Reaching Challenge selection for Monster

Right: Read aloud selection for Monkey

 A couple of the picture books Munchkin enjoyed this week.

 Left: Ancient History read aloud for Monster

Right: Premier's Reading Challenge book for Monkey

Term Two: Week Two ~ May the Fourth

We started our book work this week, I just didn't photograph any of it! But the boys did enjoy a Light Saber fight with our co-op friends. Fitting since Thursday was Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) 

We also got the rare opportunity to see almost the whole leaf curling spider within the leaf. They almost NEVER show their bodies (we only ever see their legs sticking out the bottom of the leaf) so we were all really excited with this find. 

 Read alouds for Munchkin. The book on the left isn't high quality, but it is cute. The book on the right is an old favourite of all the boys, so we had to borrow it again.

The older boys spent the week reading more Minecraft Zombie books. 

 Monkey enjoyed this beautiful book about Bilbies as part of his Premier's Reading Challenge reading, and in the evening we finished this wonderful Usborne book about all different science topics.

Finally, in honour of ANZAC day last week, Monster insisted that his read aloud for this week be about WWI - thus postponing our ancient history studies a bit.

Term Two: Week One ~ Natural Learning, ANZAC Day, and Outdoor Fun

The first week of the term was a short week with a pupil free day on Monday (the older boys attended an all day Lego event while Munchkin and I enjoyed a day at home together) and then ANZAC day on Tuesday so we focused on natural learning.

What better way to start off the new term then with new Legos to build. Munchkin enjoyed building new Lego sets that he received from his friends for his birthday. 

 Friday we were able to join our homeschool group at a lovely park that has a new and improved playground, and water to play in.  The boys were in HEAVEN.

As we left in the afternoon, Munchkin and Monkey both took one last turn on the Flying Fox!  

Our book selection for the week...

The book on the left was a GREAT read aloud I did with Monster.

The book on the right was read to all three boys and we enjoyed learning more about coasts. 

 All three boys enjoy ANY books about lizards and reptiles so the Creatures Close Up was a fantastic book.  Also the book on the right is the new Jackie French picture book and the boys LOVED this cute little book.

 More reading aloud about extreme and dangerous animals... and Monkey's read aloud chapter book.  I have really enjoyed reading the Henry Huggins series aloud to him as I never finished the whole series when I was a child.

 Two adorable picture books I read aloud to Munchkin... OH NO Little Dragon is a favourite that we borrow ANY time he finds it at the library, and I suspect Piranhas Don't Eat Bananas will become a new favourite.

 The older boys have found this Minecraft Zombie series (which they are loving) and the following books are the ANZAC books we read.  Midnight was a wonderful book about a horse that had a primary role in the war.  Mark Greenwood is a wonderful author and we devour any books we find written by him...

Top Left: Another wonderful Mark Greenwood book about Simpson and His Donkey, Top Right: An amazing book about how people in Australia helped to rebuild a city in France that was devastated by the war.  And finally, a wonderful Jackie French book about how Australia has celebrated ANZAC Day throughout history. 

 Finally a history read aloud Monster and I finished (LEFT) and a book that Monkey read on his own.  The drawing part was too difficult for him, but he enjoyed the information in the book about the various different ocean animals.