Lammas day

Im going to try bang this bread. If DD8 can get enough courage to get some eggs off of Penguin chicken...lol might just have to brave it me self.

gluten free honey oat bread

We'll also make normal mummy bread too to keep the masses happy

Up date:
Lol I crashed and burned with no energy....so I only made "Lammas bread" as it's now called. No photos as once it came out of the oven we devoured it!!
Ds5 was a no go but that's not surprising as he's not keen on anything. We all loved it....great toasted!

Chicken tractor

www.omlet.co.uk
Building a chicken tractor has always been a challenge here.
Wind proof
Rain proof
Cat proof

This looks great..maybe plan b for future designs?

Evenings photos last day of January 2015

Dave and I have worked hard on the middle garden. I long to move in with all that stuff that's growing slightly longer and not everyday use.

Yes the zucchini are here because of space...and they are right on the end of the hose.

Trying corn in the middle garden...not sure yet.

Dd8's red chicken cornflower and ds5's Cochin penguin and my black Orpington queen b.

Looking across the way to our friends house.

Very proud to say we've planted these.

Looking back at our house

Home Ed field trip to start the year

We love the beach gatherings we have. All of our kids are happy in the water luckily most of them are almost to the point where we can watch from the dry.

Parents keep to the shade and less sand but very close to see what our kids are up to

 The littles are playing it safe in the shade where we can see them.

 The bigger kids head out with their boards

But soon realise that jumping is far better than boards. Thanks Diana for a wonderful photo xxx

Gardening after Auckland trip

We all like to unwind after a long field trip.

The Griffin cat

I love cats.

This is my Griff boy. He's about 9 years old. He's in pretty good nick even though he's had a few scrapes as cats go.

He loves hanging out with the kids...he's here in our reading nook

Some days he'll stay with us and sleep...but most of the time he's an outdoor cat

He will take up most of the bed at times

Interesting ideas

http://holidayinsights.com

I've used this site for so many things.
what is the birth stone?
What do I give for anniversary gifts
and of course what could we do this day....

Something on a stick day was great!

This years read aloud

Lol ... Pretty heavy on the mice...ds5 is also reading "red wall" for bedtime

Change a childhood change the world

http://upliftconnect.com/violence-preventable-brain-disorder/

Years ago I brought Robins book Parenting for a peaceful world...wow!

This is a great overview of his work.

Love it

Clay work 30 January

Drawing your family

Dd8 is very keen to get into this idea. Really wants to use her new coloured pencils (next level in drawing).

Ds5 not keen at all as he can see what dd8 is doing...still has not changed since playcentre where he would not paint in front of others.

So a ruler and lines it is.

Follow on:

Do more drawing and art work to build confidence.

Maybe put each child at opposit ends of the table.

Have a get together art day

More creative messy play 

Slowly easing back into routine

We had our first circle time this year yesterday....oh how the kids have missed that good start to the day.

Computer club yesterday was great

Today I'll add a bit more structure.

I'm not saying we'll do everything in this list or to the times but if we start becoming aware of things then the routine slowly becomes well routine and then peace comes too.

Computer club January

A pretty intense day today dd8 has been working with her little friend on a maze. Very cool!

Ds5 who is pretty hard to work with some days found his way onto the hour of code web site again...oh it was excitement for about 1.5hrs! He was so into it!!

I tell you my brain was mush but he was so quick picking stuff up that I nor his teacher could see.

Loved the idea of copy and paste lol.

But as this program was for MUCH older kids it did towards the end get a bit too hard...he can only count to 20 some times and he's pretty good with letter sounds and simple words but really I needed a lot more than he's got yet.

I played the game Dd8 had been working on ...oh my goodness how does she understand it all.

She mostly worked on her own today very well to...didn't see her for hours.

Auckland art gallery light show

Your never sure how the kids are going to be on a field trip

This is pretty cool. 

We couldn't take any photos in the exhibition but the kids loved it. 

One room was an optical illusion which was kind of lost on the kids cause they couldn't touch it feel it experience so there for how was it not real.

An expihibet of fireworks like lights captivated ds5 and he was really wanting to know how to make it. He's keen for his next computer club meeting as he has lots of ideas and questions.

Then we've moved onto a Lego exhibition

Of course Ds5 is the only one who made Minecraft characters Zombi and Enermen.

Sign!

 Nanma is into helping out

 But Mum how do they get yellow if they only have three lights and one of them is not yellow. DD8 pondering art and light.

Followed up by lunch in the park...looking at all the old trees and how they have moved the pavement.

Clay bowls

Last years circus school Christmas float was "cave man" theme.

Dd8 was really excited and very into it even though she is one of the youngest in the class.

There were many after school dates to make the float and put together costumes. 

Dd8 was so excited to make her own cave dwelling in the back of a HUGE trailor. She created her own home.

While the end of year school work came to a close she chose to make some amazing bowls for display and use in theme.

She spent two days worth of art time to make three bowls each developing on the theme set out in her school books from Oak Meadow.

But she extended it and made them bigger and stronger.

As her bowls grew in size they started to collapse under the weight. As she didn't have weeks to do this project she opted to use a kitchen mixing bowl to hold the clay in place while drying.

She remembered back to when we did mask making last term and placed tissue paper between the clay and bowl "so it doesn't stick mum"

This bowl was her first attempt and it sagged a bit but we worked it up into a pouring bowl.

The second bowl she had the idea down but with typical 8 year old patents she didn't want to smooth the joins together.

Beans fail!

I thought I could bottle some...no!

All the lids have popped but the screw top...humm would this mean they are ok? Would this mean tomatoes would be better in this jars?

Sorting out the Nature table - Seasonal ideas for NZ

I'm a bit new to all this idea but it really makes it easy to sort holidays and activities and base Home ed on. I've used a few sites to help me learn about these old things.

http://www.wycksted.co.nz/default.aspx?page=information

Bit of a interesting site and I like some ideas like the food colours and activities.

http://spheresoflight.com.au/index.php?page=sabbat

This is for NZ times and seasons...its all a bit topsy turvy being on the other side of the world

Places to order

officecentre.co.nz index cards boxes

I've been using a house cleaning system which relies on these cards. They are not so easy to find nowadays but I'm keen to give this place a go

I've also been using this website for a lot of check lists and ideas too

Alejandra.tv

The stationary!!! I love stationary...as of late Ive been using this website
enymeeny.co.nz
been really good delivery to my door and all sorts of things from clay to soccer balls to paint to great paper

Appletons

http://www.chooks.co.nz

I love this website. I've still to order anything but I'm sure we'll get there

Ladder building

Such an industrious morning. They started out with minecraft till breakfast. They started a movie but feeding chickens was more fun and we lost them outside for an hour or so before I went to check.

They made their own ladder to get up in the "special tree" (it's got a flattish area to sit in) I hope all Dave's tools get back in the right places.

Then they have been working on a pulley system to get their "blacksmiths tools" up in the tree...water and all.

Ds5 is working on his own projects throwing into a bucket.

Tools of the trade

Great sleepover!