Aussie Pumpkin Patch

More Bookshelves

2012-02-01T00:00:00.000+11:00

Remember the bookcases I was building? I finally picked up the rest of the supplies to finish them off & now all our books are in their proper places. This has been a really simple and reasonably fun project. I like keeping all our books with like topics on the same shelf, all though I've yet to resort to the Dewey Decimal system. All though, I did contemplate it a few times.. Don't judge me, I'm just being honest here people!

I put up six more shelves to finish off the space I had intended for this purpose. It was just right to get all our notebooks, lapbooks, teacher manuals, & Five In A Row books back on the shelves where we could easily access them. Can you see our small pile of Spy Science stuff under the shelf above? We'll be using that very soon, the boys are super excited! Across the top of the shelves I either have plastic tubs. There's one tub for each child which will hold the books I want them to read over the school year. Another tub will hold our read alouds, & the remaining tubs will holds books we'll be reading during the course of the school year. The rest of the shelves are organised by topic. Laugh if you must, but I promise I can find any of our books in a very short amount of time this way.

I built a shorter shelf on this side wall because of the light switch. It's for an outside light that we don't use very often at this point, but I still don't like covering them up. This top shelf might change to hold more books we'll be using this year, but for now it holds our sticker maker {we love this machine} & Jayden's incredible marble maze that he was given for Christmas. It's so much fun to grab a marble and watch it run it's course when you're suppose to be getting coloured pencils, notebooks, or even if you're just passing through the room.

The school room is nearly complete now. Just waiting on finding a few posters I'd like to hang up on the walls & possibly a bulletin/white board over the boys desks. I really like the way the room has come together, & I especially like my bookshelves!

A Day At The Beach

2012-01-31T00:00:00.000+11:00

Last week the boys and I decided it was time to check another item off our Summer Bucket List, so we ran around in a flurry of excitement and packed up to spend the day at the beach. We took our quilt, snacks, books, boogie boards, & our hover craft. It's seriously fun, and if you ever have the opportunity to use one you should!

Despite the picture, the water was relatively calm and still. Which was nice, but we prefer to ride the waves. We go out as far as the kids can swim and then jump on the boards when a wave comes our way and ride it back to shore. This day we spent more time learning the "proper way to effectively splash people" & throwing Mermaid Hair at each other {seaweed}.

I flipped my board flower side up because a stinking saw fly was after me. I was trying to distract it long enough to squash it. Mission accomplished, & I knocked out a few of her fellow companions. Yeah, we had a quick science lesson on the beach that A, saw flies that cut us are female, and B, saw flies hurt because they don't have a needle nose like a mossie, instead they have a serrated beak. And frankly, knowing that makes it hurt even more!

The seagulls came to visit us as soon as we pulled out the watermelon. I refused to share on principle that they didn't eat the saw flies that kept trying to eat me! The Seagulls were unimpressed and screamed at me, so I screamed back and they flew away. My children found it funny, most likely because we were the only persons on this particular strip of beach.

Around the time Mr S was suppose to meet us at the beach the boys decided to build a sandcastle to knock off yet another bucket list item. They wanted a massive moat though and got really carried away digging the whole end dug so deep they hit water which caused a lot of laughter amongst them.

Morgan used the sand from the hole they dug to make this large lego head man. He was about to add facial features to it when I jumped up screaming, "Save our stuff!!" We'd waited about two minutes too long to move closer to shore and the incoming tide hit our quilt which had books upon it at the time. There was a quick mad scramble as we moved managing to keep everything but the quilt dry.

It was a beautiful day, and we quite enjoyed ourselves even if we didn't get much wave riding in. We're looking forward to spending an entire weekend, soonish, at the beach on our next camping event of the summer.

Lego Books

2012-01-30T00:00:00.000+11:00

My children own a lot of lego. No, make that a ton of lego. Seriously. They quickly outgrew the little plastic lego box that they received with a small set, and moved up to a basket. That was quickly outgrown and replaced with a plastic piggy toybox, which was also outgrown & replaced with half a clam sandbox/swimming pool which is currently full to the max.

The problem is, all that lego often came with a booklet of instructions on how to assemble the kits. There's much pouring over the booklets and assembling that happens when lego sets are first purchased. Then the books were put in a rubbermaid box and often pulled out to get ideas for how to build the item again, or build a duplicate, or, or, or.. Needless to say lego may be well built but the booklets aren't. I can't tell you how many times a child has come to me asking if I've seen the other half of their booklet. Or just page 10. Or the cover. Or.. Or.. Or.. And, if they aren't asking me, I'm asking them.. "Why is there a lego booklet cover on your bed?" "Why on earth are there lego booklets all over under the beds?" "There's a lego booklet jammed in the vacuum and I'm going to scream!" You're getting the point here, right?

Over our summer break I've been finishing unpacking a few last boxes, as well as organizing and decorating our humble abode. I started with the boys rooms and when I got to Morgan's, I decided to yank out the box of Lego booklets. I just couldn't take it anymore! I told him to put the box in my bedroom and when I had a spare lifetime I'd find all the booklets on the computer. He kinda chuckled and said, "But you'll do it sooner then that right?" Uh, yeah, sure.. I put the task off for a couple of weeks as I busied myself with other things. I mean look at that booklet, they all looked like that! Except for the half million that had the number ripped off and I had to sort through the scraps to match them up.. I'm not joking here, people!

After scaring our gardner half to death when I jumped up from the table and screamed, "I FOUND it guys!!" at the very moment he was about to knock on my door I managed to locate every single stinking number on every stinking booklet that was in the box! It didn't take as horribly long as I expected it to, but it was no easy task either. Some of the lego structures they have came with multiple books, so I made sure to mark that on my paper. I also, for what ever reason, felt the need to mark the Bionicle figures and Lego Hero figures as such on my paper.

Then the real fun began.. I went to Lego.com and typed in the booklet numbers and waited to see what it would find. For the most part it had very little trouble finding what I wanted. The biggest task was all the clicking it took to get there.

First you type in the booklet number. Then you click on the item it pops up if it's what you want. Then you select the size booklet you want to save and then you wait for the pdf version of it to download. Honestly, most downloaded pretty quickly, & the ones that didn't were weirdly small booklets! Save it to your computer, I created a special file on our desktop for it, and then throw the booklet away. No, really throw the book away!

I was really glad that I marked down which booklets were for bionicles because for whatever reason Lego.com couldn't/wouldn't bring up those books! So, I used Brickfactory which still had direct links to those booklets. So simple! Now when we obtain new lego we'll put it together and then immediately download the instruction booklet and reycle the one that came with the kit. Not only are all the instruction books on the computer, they are also on our ipad, and burned to disc. So hopefully we've got it covered. Either way, I'm just really glad there are no more creepy messes of booklets hiding under the kids beds!

Times Alive, A Review

2012-01-29T12:00:00.000+11:00

Our latest review is up over at The Curriculum Choice. It's another rave, from us, about the Times Alive! Programme. Many of you will all ready know that we truly love{d} the programme and have benefited from it greatly.

If you're looking for a fun way to help your child/student learn their tougher multiplication facts you might want to check out this fun programme which is currently on special for 50% off the normal price until the end of the month!

2012 School Planner..

2012-01-28T21:47:00.000+11:00

I decided the new school year called for a new planner. I know we shared a terrific one last year and we fully enjoyed using it the past year and a half, but I like to change things up every now and again.

So, I decided to create a really simple planner for the new school year this summer. I made a really simple cover as well & then used our binding machine to bind the whole thing together. I went with spiral binding because I'm really low on the click binders and don't have the right size for such a large book anyway.

It really was a simple thing to put together, except that I ran out of ink and had to dash out for more. Then, when I got the whole thing bound up I realized I'd forgotten to print on the backside of a few pages. I still need to remove the binding and reprint those pages, but our printed decided it hated the new ink cartridge and I'm waiting for the replacement one to show up in the mail courtesy of Epson.

The actual cover is just a tree and the year on it. Nothing fancy at all. I'm thinking of using our planner as our journal this year to see how that goes after reading a really interesting article here about planning. We'll see how we like it compared to our normal journal.

The fanciest part of this planner is the table of contents which I made just for fun. All though, I think in the end, I have a few page numbers off, but since I didn't number the pages inside I don't think it really matters. I even cheated this year and snagged a freebie calendar. There's many to be had, but I liked this one.

I included our annual checklist of things the boys will aim to accomplish. Honestly, some of it I know for a fact we will most likely not get to {like ancients in regards to history because we're focusing mainly on US history this year}, but that's okay I put it on the list anyway. Each boy has one page, front and back, that we tick off as we go along. We create our lists from this book.

I included another set of read aloud lists too. We generally have 3 tentative lists each year. One is for audio books, one is for Aussie read alouds, & the final list is just general read alouds or ones that are included with our curriculum for the year. I often have a list of books I want to read to the kids. I divide it up between audio and read aloud based on what I own and what I can obtain easily. Our Aussie list is often left blank and is filled in as we read over the year. We may pick books that are classics here, something fun we find at the library, or books that are truly Australian but fit into the time period we are currently learning about.

I also have a monthly calendar in there, again I cheated and used someone elses. I really wanted to use the ones put out by Anything But Perfect because I really loved the color and cuteness, but it wasn't to be. She wasn't done with the years worth and I really needed to get mine bound up, plus I really wanted portrait view not landscape, so I went with these instead.

I don't know about your house, but in our house the #1 time killer on a school day around here is lunch time. Seriously, what's up with that? If I plan leftovers you can bet someone ate them without my knowledge. If I plan sandwiches you can be sure we're out of bread. If I plan nothing children revolt. I just can't win! So, I was delighted to have this little planner to jot down a months worth of lunches. Weird, maybe but I'm hoping to stock the freezer monthly with lunches incase we're mysteriously out of bread or leftovers. It was a freebie from here.

This school year we'll be using Sonlight Core E, and I decide to go with a planner page the reflects the Sonlight Schedule pages in the cores. I know that might seem a little silly because I'll have that plan to follow, but we have a vast amount of other topics to cover in a week. On top of that if we're using our planner as our journal then it's equally important that everything is jotted down in one place.

Each planning page has a front and a back. I've put one page in per week per student to keep track of each child's individual accomplishments. I probably didn't need to go to that extent because in general my boys do the same level/subjects for everything but math and language arts, but I really felt their own personal records was important. We'll see how it all goes for us this year.

You've probably all ready noticed, but I'm a planner. So I included a page for any notes I have for each child for next year's school. If I come across a book or bit of curriculum I think will better suit a child I now have the space to make a note of it so as we get closer to the time for ordering new school stuff I can actually remember what I needed. On the backside of this page is a book wish list, which is basically a lined page with Book Wish List written across the top. Again, just a spot to jot down books as we stumble across them.

Gotta love the title on these blank note pages. Seriously, every time I see "& other important things" I laugh. I need blank space to keep track of things. Ideas I stumble upon, those last minute ideas you get that you must write somewhere where it won't get lost, & stuff like that. Yeah, some of these pages are all ready being filled up with things like that..

I stumbled up this Reading Response Journal some time ago and wanted to pop it in my notebook instead of making it a notebook for the kids. I thought the prompts would make great discussion points as we read our books Sonlight books this year, they'd also give me great ideas for questions to ask my kids about the books they are reading, & they just make general great starting points for narration ideas. It's a free download from here.

Computer Malfunction

2012-01-24T13:47:00.000+11:00

Last week, after checking various things on the internet I felt something on the base of my computer and upon flipping it over found the the rubber on the bottom of my Macbook was warped and melted.

I sent Mr S some nifty pictures via my mobile phone & his reply was rather expected: "What happened??!!" Of course I had absolutely no idea, & still don't! The next question was, "Are you okay?" Because, of course the term melted implies that one has been burnt.

I was not burnt however which is the oddest part about the entire situation. I then rang Apple Australia to find out what my next move was and, after spending five minutes convincing the woman I was no way harmed, it was just the computer and I needed it fixed pronto because my recipes, school plans, writings, and a billion other things are all inside of it! After another five minutes she told me I could take it to a place reasonably local & then attempted to give me instructions by saying silly things like, "It's by the lighthouse."

To which I really wanted to say, "No, it's not by a lighthouse, it's by the ANZAC clock, across from the vets office, & directly next door to the Footy shop." Instead, I told her not to fuss I knew exactly where it was and that I'd take it over that day. And I did. They assured me it would be a really quick turn around and the logest part would be awaiting Apple sending them the rubber base.

I was also, once again, asked if I was okay. Then, once we sorted out the case # one very charming and helpful little boy scribbled out on my paper {he saw me writing more and didn't want me to get mixed up.. he saw the error of his way when the color clearly left my face and I wailed, "Oh no that was the most important thing on my paper! He also hid in the corner of the shop near the cases for fear they'd guess he was the child who scribbled it out!} I was once again informed that this was a quick turn around, and further more it was very common in the white Macbooks.

However, once they flipped mine over there were shocked at how bad it was. Apparently while it's normal for the rubber to come away it's not normal to bubble up as much as it did. Unfortunately their, "quick turn around time" has gone as long as six days and counting. Here's hoping that when I finally have a computer again it doesn't have a huge bubble on the bottom of it.

Too Good Not to Share

2012-01-14T18:43:00.000+11:00

I spotted a 111 page free download, over on Teachers Pay Teachers, of the 50 Nifty United States! How cool is that? There's notebooking pages, graphics, resources, and more. Did I mention it was free?

You absolutely must race over to Pink & Green Mamma and check out the Life-Sized Body Maps her kids made. It is so amazingly awesome! Seriously. My Jayden will adore making one of these. Biology is on the table for science next year, and even if it wasn't we'd probably make one of these anyway.

A Day Out

2012-01-13T00:00:00.000+11:00

Last year our local home education group had a trip lined up to go to the science museum before the museum moved across town. We were psyched and ready to go try our hand at learning about the world of spies! My kids were running on high for a week leading up to this outing, and then the morning came and Jayden was sick! I'm not talking a few sniffles, I'm talking a "two ton headache" in his words.

He cried when he tried to sit up that morning. Walking from his room to the table was completely out. It took us ten minutes to get him in an upright position and calm him down so we could give him some medicine. When I had to break the news to them that we weren't going to the museum, there were more tears.

So we decided we'd go later in the year before the exhibit was taken down. In November a cousin came into town and I told the three boys I'd take them to the museum. We set the date, but the day before we were suppose to go our card broke down going 110 on the highway. It was an interesting experience only trumped by my poor bil who got stuck coming back to a house that was in dire need of groceries and had to attempt to feed three starving boys who were dead set on having chocolate cream pie. Needless to say, there was much disappointment over not going to the museum because I didn't think the kids were up for the hour walk across town!

The Monday after we officially finished school we were going to go again, but as you've probably guessed something else came up and we couldn't make it! We were beyond frustrated at this point and never made it until the schools were officially out as well. Not a huge deal, we had the science museum to ourselves.. yeah, the spy exhibit had been taken down after hours the night before! We'd missed it by 1 day. I think I was more upset then the kids were. Unfortunately, I think our museum was the very last one to get the exhibit so we can't even hit another museum to check it out either!!

The museum was in the process of setting up whatever was coming next, which I believe is a "lay-over" exhibit, small bits and pieces from many they've had over the years as they prepare for something new to come. It was pretty empty, but the guy in charge encouraged the boys to come in anyway and go to town with whatever they wanted. He told them to go ahead and put the igloo together, and they didn't waste a moment taking him up on that offer.

The director then pulled a bench up for me to sit on, perhaps I looked tired. So I sat there, to please him, and let the boys work methodically in putting the igloo back together with the help of a few pesky penguins. The boys actually discussed the situation together and decided the best thing to do was to put the blocks of "ice" in piles according to their numbers to make assembly easier.

Mamma penguin joined me, but I admit her chick stole the show. We actually had one of these chinstrap penguins wash up on the beach by our old house before. It was the one day I didn't have the camera with me too. There was much shock over the entire situation, but by the time I dragged the boys back down the tide had pulled it out.

Seriously adorable though, right? The boys managed to reassemble the igloo and only had to back up slightly when they had a few "ice blocks" that weren't sitting on it right thus causing the last few pieces not to go back together right.

After we checked out all the maps, because honestly there was very little else to do, we tried on costumes. Morgan wouldn't put the belly of that dinosaur costume on, but Jayden had the whole ensemble on much to the delight of the half dozen people putting up the new exhibits. After that we moved around the hall to Jungle Gyms. Did you know that they are now in the same building? Along with a new rock climbing wall & a laser tag game. Jungle Gyms was horribly hot and stuffy and by the time their lunch arrived they were ready to go home. Here's hoping the next exhibit is really good and we actually make it on time!

Christmas Eve {2011} In Pictures

2012-01-11T00:00:00.000+11:00

Christmas Eve can be one of the roughest days with the excitement of the boys at an all time high, so it's been traditional when we celebrate Christmas at our house to keep the boys really busy on Christmas Eve. Finish off last minute gifts for people.. special dinner and a movie, open an early Christmas present & then to spend the evening as soon as the sun starts setting admiring Christmas lights. We usually get home well after bedtime and the kids gleefully climb into bed with the knowledge that if they sleep too long I'll pry them out of the bed when my eyes flutter open.. except most of the time I rarely sleep on Christmas Eve because I can't wait to see the kids open their stuff in the morning!

We use to live on the same road as this house, and we'd gleefully watch from November onward as the family would set up one or two items until low and behold they were all up! One day on our walk the fellow switched it all on in the middle of the day for us. If the kids lost track of how many days until Christmas they'd ask to walk past the house. We could even see this place from our second story. Therefore it was no surprise that it was top most on our houses to go check out!

One of the new items was this picture prop! None of us hesitated to jump behind it and have our photo taken, all though it was down low for children and my knee nearly went out when it was my turn.

Nana sat on the Christmas Throne instead. Each year the current year is on a laminated sheet above this chair so when you look back over your pictures you'll know which year your photo was taken in. This couple really go all out!

This is the entrance to the front of their house!! Basically from November through December they can't use it. The boys adore seeing the Christmas tree they set up each year, and somewhere in a storage unit in the US, we actually own one of those funny little snowmen!

This jolly Santa Clause talks to you. Not in the normal way, but the fellow who lives here will hide back somewhere and speak through a pipe that makes it look like Santa is talking. It's always so much fun to see newcomers jump back in shock that Santa not only spoke to them but could answer their questions!

These fellow sing and dance in unison, and as you can see the new marketing scheme by the Coke-A-Cola company paid off! Comet and Prance had their own cans incase they felt a little run down after a night of singing carols to the neighborhood! There's even a beautiful Nativity set up each year, in fact the stable stays up year round. In fact it's the first part of the display the boys and I check out each year, and I love their adoration at seeing the inclusion of wisemen this year. However, Mr S was in charge of the camera and he took great liberties while we were busy caught up looking at that part of the display to take photos of the rest of it, and it appears we missed out on the nativity section!

Next it was off to town to check out the various business displays. Most weren't that great at night to be honest, but one lone restaurant had a beautiful Christmas Village lit up and on display. The boys ooed and ahhed over every little piece and the longer we stayed the more we saw.

Their nativity was absolutely beautiful. All though the freaky deer in the background was a tad weird!

We stopped by several more spots on the way home closer to our own neighborhood and one that we can see from the lounge room window of our new home. Then the boys trundled off to bed so I could fill stockings up, all though the boys filled mine {snowman} before trundling off to bed. I was delighted to see the pomegranate in there! Mind you I told them for about a month I had hoped to find one in my stocking for Christmas..

Then I moved furniture so that we could get around the gifts in the morning, and moved the big ones from behind the curtain to under the tree. Bet you'll never guess what's in those large packages under the tree! The snowman bag has Jayden's homemade Bubble Kit in it, the golden wrapped one has Super Farmer in it, the box with the green bow is a cornflake box we emptied out to wrap up a video game in. Mr S seriously thought we'd tricked him with a whole box of cornflakes chuckled and said, "Nice one guys!" and laid it aside. We had to insist he open the box of cornflakes for a prize inside! As for that other giant oddly wrapped package. It has a miniature coffee cup in it. That's right, it holds less then 1/4 cup of liquids. Morgan really wanted to trick Mr S and he pulled that one off!

Super Farmer Game

2012-01-10T00:00:00.000+11:00

Each year for Christmas it's tradition for the guys to find a new game under the Christmas Tree with their names on it. I tend to be picky about the games I purchase because games here are really pricey! This year, though, I went with a few ideas in mind and not only didn't I find what I was after I didn't find much of anything to take it's place either.

While debating if I would settle or not I spotted the game Super Farmer in the shop I was in. I really liked it, but there wasn't much information on the box other then to tell me the game was created during WWII I found that tidbit intriguing as we'll be studying this very time period this year in school! The box also stated that it was most likely the first time the 20 sided dice was used in a game. So the idea formed to buy one game this year for the whole family. Not what I had in mind originally, but it worked and I'm glad I did it. This game has been so much fun for our family!!

It game with four board games, one for each player. I was a little annoyed three of our game boards were slightly warped in a bend, but they all played fine which matters the most. However, I was sorely tempted to call the store and notify them considering the price they sell their games for! Anyway, the game boards are all the same, and the object is to build your farm up of the exact animals listed in the pyramid. You can only get them buy specific means though!

You build your farm by rolling pairs of animals & trading! The dice have animals on every side and if you roll two matching animals you get to collect the animal token. However, if you roll 1 bunny and have one bunny token on your board then you can still collect a bunny token. Pretty cool, and keeps little ones happier too! Basically for every 2 like animals you roll/have you get 1 token which means my guys get to work on some pretty sneaky division skills while playing this game..

The downside is the tricky fox {orange} and miserable wolf {blue} If you roll either of those you lose animals! The fox is naughty and eats your bunnies up, and the wold is cruel and eats all your animals. There are varying rules for quicker play, and we like to use those ones as it helps keep the game moving and encourages our youngest to stick with the game.

There are some saving graces to wolves and foxes though! They come in the form of these nifty farm dogs. The little ones protect you against foxes & the bigger ones protect you against wolves. As you can see, there's enough little dogs for everyone, but that's not the case for the bigger ones!!

This game kept us really busy this weekend with at least four rounds happening! Jayden's really good at this game, but has little strategy to winning. Morgan attempts a strategy but falls prey to wolves and foxes. I can't confess to having a strategy either, but in one game I rolled the wolf every other turn! Sooo frustrating.

The only major downside is that the wolf and horse look pretty similar! They are different and after a few rounds some of us had no issues telling them apart, especially when you remember they are on differing dice. You see, there's only one horse on the dice so basically you need to trade up to get one for your farm! Same is true of the cow!!

I love that the history of this game is right in the rules too! While the boys are aware there's history to this game, I think they'll appreciate it more after their studies in the coming school year. In fact, I won't be one little bit surprised if the Professor lands upon our timeline before the year's end!

Check out the original playing pieces!! Every time I see that picture I think that the game tokens should be made from wood. I don't know why, but it's what I think when I see it. Needless to say the family really loves the game we picked this year. As for where to purchase it.. I purchased it from a crazy local shop that sells a bit of everything.. It looks like Fishpond use to sell it & that Presents of Mind still does. Unfortunately, I purchased the one and only copy in the local shop & I've no idea if they'll get another one. If you're in the US I believe Board Game Geek sells them.

School Room Make Over

2012-01-09T21:03:00.000+11:00

Despite popular belief I have not vanished from the face of the earth, or this blog. Nope, I've been up to my eyeballs in a remodeling, or is that redecorating, scheme?

See, when we first moved into our home it was a matter of "put stuff in the best place and move onward!" kinda thing. Each room was set up to the best of our ability and we carried on with life as if nothing had happened.

My first major project this summer has been reorganising certain rooms. The idea was that I wanted to get the school room rearranged & in order to do so had to get the kids rooms up to spec. Weird, but true because I was playing a game known around here as "the bookcase shuffle". Our school room had 6 bookcases in it and we still had a major overflow of books, to say nothing of what we have in the states! Rather then keep overflowing cases that weren't handling the task I decided to try an idea that a friend up the road uses!

However, to get to that point I had to shuffle bookcases around! It was all going really well until the moment when a child squealed, "MOM I'm stuck!!" and I managed to drop a full loaded cabinet on my big toe. Yeah, as it turns out the child was not screaming for me as much as his lego man was screaming for it's Mamma, my toe on the other hand is still bruised!

Here's a better picture of our nearly finished project, and by we I merely mean my big toe and I! My friend used planks of wood as long as her room and bricks, both of which I thought were incredibly clever, but I had to revise that idea for a couple of reasons.. One, no one in town knew what I wanted when I said I wanted a brick. I joketh not, it got so bad I called Mr S at work and when he said hello I merely uttered, "What on earth do you call those orange oblong type things most people build chimneys out of but some people put in their gardens for one reason or another?" Yeah, Mr S thought the heat was getting to me.. Anyway, I went for shorter planks of wood I could fit in the car and garden/fence posts to hold my shelves up with! I also didn't stack my shelves as high so the kids could easily reach the shelves, I didn't want to risk them climbing on shelves for a favourite book.

The small bookcase in the previous picture & the {excuse the grainy picture} lapbook area in the above photo will continue the shelving unit around when I make another trip to the hardware store. Can I just say that the only thing the guys who run the timber shed find funnier them a woman coming in to get wood is one who speaks with a funny accent? At one point I told the boys they'd have to wait while I put on my boy clothes so the guys would take me more seriously next time. I'm nerdy like that.

That lovely blue cabinet up there is the one I dropped on my foot, my fil made that and he made everything "to last".. heavy. Big. Sturdy. It's loaded with our art supplies! I went buy the local tip, which has a recycling shop, to see if they had any bricks. That was a no-go, but they did have some school desks which they sold me for $5 each. They also sold me a futon couch/bed for $15 for the office, and 2 scooters for $5. I even scored some awesome new chairs for our patio, but I'm getting side tracked.. The boys each now have their own little desk to work out, plus we still have the main table. I know, I know.. why the desks, you homeschool!!?? Yeah, well my charming lefty bumps elbows with my charming righty and regardless of how I put them around the table it causes tears. I figured small desks would solve that issue! Plus, it's nicer for them to have their own little "place" to work on their independent work.

And there's our maps. I still need to get an Australia map, I'm aiming for this one, but we'll see. That hallway runs from one end of the house to the other, literally. I also had it cram packed with books, book cases, and so on which is why I reacted so quickly when a child shouted out that he was "stuck". And yes, those are backpacks on my kids chairs at the table. We keep the school items we use daily for each child in their own bookbag. It makes taking school to the park or the library for a change of scenery or extra special fun quick and simple! And I gotta say, there's nothing quite like turning your kids lose at the park when there's an entire school of them there all ready. True story. Some day, I'll share that funny story, because it's totally worth it!

A Flag & A Story

2012-01-04T00:00:00.000+11:00

This picture has a funny story behind it! I'm always raving to my mother-in-law about these brilliant little hooks and tape that I get to hang stuff up in our rentals. I love them. You probably can't see it in the picture, but I've got two tiny hooks hanging up on the wall which holds our art string. There's a larger hook at the top of that wall which a ring of the flag is in.

See, while pulling out our Australia Day decorations I found our Australian Flag and considering we don't have a pole here or deck to hang it on like at the last place I figured I'd put it in the school room. Only even on the ladder I couldn't reach the space I wanted it hung in, so I enlisted Mr S to help me. Only he couldn't quite reach either.

So being the thinker that I am I suggested we drag the kitchen table up to that wall, put the ladder on top and he, or I, could scramble up it to hang up the flag. He laughed. I fetched the table. He climbed the ladder. One side of the flag is on a hook, the other is pinned up. This year we wrap up US history with a sprinkling of Aussie history, next year we do an indepth Geography study. At which time I'll put up more hooks and the rest of our world flags. For now the rest of that blank space is being saved for a poster of US Presidents & Aussie Prime ministers..

As for that fire alarm, don't ask me how on earth anyone has ever checked it's batteries. There is one thing I've come to conclude about this house we're in. It's really simple. Giants build it. No, really. Half the time I can't even reach light bulbs while standing on a ladder. I'm not exactly short either...

Christmas Goodies Part Three

2012-01-03T00:00:00.001+11:00

The boys have been dying to make a GingerBread House, but I've always managed to put them off. Not because I don't want to be bothered with it, but with the inability to eat sugary items it would make decorating it hard. This year, however, Kmart had some kits. I figured we'd use it and just enjoy looking at the house. In other words, I quickly snuck it out of the house on Boxing Day and no one was the wiser.. Next year, I'm thinking we'll make one from scratch that's totally sugar-free. I'll have to be on the lookout for the decorations throughout the year though..

The boys each decorated one side of the house & half the roof. Jayden chose to decorate the back of the house & the snowman out front of it. Morgan decorated the front of the house, the Christmas tree & the little Gingerbread man.

I love the way he put the candies around the roof to look like lights. I think next year we'll make smaller ones so each person can decorate their own little place. It makes for a great distraction on Christmas Eve!

Morgan's side & roof. He was going for the whole roof covered in lights much like a neighbor does. Seriously, the first time our neighbors house was lit up with their Christmas lights we honestly thought it was on fire!

The white chocolate squares were suppose to be covered in sprinkles for lights inside the house, but our icing was melting due to the heat and it took a while for it to crust up and get thick. The boys didn't seem to mind though..

Tada! I love the gumdrop effect on the front of the house and the candies on the tree to look like lights. Yes, that's a gummie ice cream cone our Gingerbread man is holding, it is summer here after all! No, those are not big shoes by his feet, they are suppose to be stepping stone freckles. This project really kept the kids good and busy on Christmas Eve and they both really got into. I think it'll become a new Christmas Eve Tradition!

2011/12 NewYears Eve & Day In Pictures

2012-01-02T00:00:00.003+11:00

We did our annual count down bags again.

Bag #1 was Sugar-Free Dairy-Free Fudgsicles, they were so tasty!

Mixing up donuts for his new donut machine; he loves to cook and does very well with it!

Mr S couldn't resist snapping this photo, think he had too much flour on his hands?

Bag #2 was make donuts for the new machine; They got a so-so rating compared to our once a year yeasted ones.

They looked nice though! We rolled them in Xylitol & cinnamon

Mr Potato Head made a few appearances throughout the night.. Bag #3 was a board game we never got to, Bag #4 was pizza and a video; Bag #5 was Wii time,

Bag #6 was head into town for a 9:30 firework show. All the glowing lights there were floating lanterns that took to the sea as the tide came in, the picture doesn't do it justice.

The fireworks were slightly delayed, but we enjoyed watching the ferry run; it ran until 1230 am!

Then the sky lit up, one loved them, one hated the noise; & if you know the boys you will guess the wrong way round!

They were gorgeous, but then it's been about 5+ years since we've seen a firework show..

So great seeing them over the water too

Extra Large party poppers, they were soooo cool! You just pushed the button on the side and they burst open with heaps of fun confetti and curly ribbon. The backyard never saw it coming..

Nana did a medium one, all the shine is the fun stuff inside! Very cool they were!

Our last back had sparklers as well as the crazy huge party poppers in it. The guys went crazy with them.

Happy New Year!!

We had our annual New Year pancakes on New Year's Day for breakfast.

Christmas Goodies Part Two

2012-01-01T00:00:00.000+11:00

Morgan wanted to make some goodies for Christmas as well, & his idea was chocolate covered pretzels. He fondly remembers buying Flipz at times in the shops in the states, something you can't do here. However, he's fully aware you can make your own.

Personally, I prefer to do pretzels rods, but you can't get the nice big pretzels rods here. So we went for the normal pretzels shape.

It's a relatively easy thing to do, all though quite messy unless you're using the rods. Unfortunately, this recipe contains typical forms of cane sugar, but you can easily substitute the regular sugar for either your favorite sugar-free chocolate or unsweetened chocolate sweetened up with your favorite sweetener. We went with Cadbury Dark Chocolate as these were mainly for giving away.

I had him melt his chocolate in the microwave, which is much quicker. I think, though, that you get a runnier chocolate if you do it on the stove top.. I might be wrong, but it's my theory and I'm sticking with it! After melting the chocolate we mixed in half the packet of pretzels gently folded them in the chocolate and then plucked out the pretzels one by one and laid them on baking sheets coated with baking paper. A bit tedious, but we didn't want them all stuck together in one solid lump!

We melted a small bit of white chocolate and he drizzled it over his many trays of chocolate covered pretzels. {He works much better with crowded counter tops then I do!} After that he played musical baking trays in the freezer space we had. We'd put one in each freezer and leave them there for about 5-10 minutes. Just long enough to solidify the white chocolate which was taking forever in the heat we had that day!

Tada, they look a bit wiggy here, but once you pull them off the sheets and drop them in containers they look very pretty! I gave him some paper sandwich bags {Aussie style} with a plastic bag lining it {incase the receiver let the chocolate melt I figured it would be easier to get the chocolate off the plastic then the paper}. He filled two different bags up & had enough left over to share amongst all of us!

A finished parcel. We folded the end over and he used some Christmas tape we had on hand to seal it off. Then we put initials, in tape, on the bag so he knew which one to give to which family member. We had an N for Nana and an M for an Uncle. There's rumours of making more when we get together with cousins. If you're living in a warm area I'd store them in the fridge just to be safe!

Christmas Goodies Part One

2011-12-31T10:04:00.000+11:00

This Christmas we made a variety of goodies again, but not our normal goodies which we're planning to make next month for a family get together we'll be having. Then again, with the beautiful summer heat we're having we might change our minds.

I stumbled upon a recipe for Peppermint Whoopie Pies which I knew Mr S would love. I squirrelled the recipe away and then made some fun milk container type boxes to put them in. I just googled the pattern and then printed it out and enlarged it by hand onto stiffer paper. I had to tape two 12x12 sheets of paper together in order to make them.

I also chose to cut out a rectangular chunk of the front of the carton and added some clear cellophane which I'd purchased for a previous project by accident. This stuff has come in very handy over the years!

Then I remembered I had some nifty wood scrapbooking decorations that I bought years ago when we lived in the states. I pulled those out and glued them to the front of the boxes. I made two like this for Mr S & his mum. Then I made another 5 that were made the same way but without the extra wooden decoration on the front. The ones without the decoration became the homes of carmel apples that I also dipped in chocolate & Mr S gave them out to his workmates.

As for the pies.. I used the chocolate cookie recipe and swapped the sugar for coconut sugar. The filling I changed entirely, thanks to experimenting with some oatmeal cream pies that I'd made earlier this year:

Cream Filling

2 egg whites

1/2 c Xylitol

1/2 t cream of tartar

1/4 t peppermint extract

In a double boiler {I just use a pyrex bowl on top of a pan of simmering water}, add egg whites, xylitol and cream of tartar and heat over simmering water. Whisking frequently, heat until egg whites become very frothy and xylitol is dissolved. Carefully add egg mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer, or mix in pyrex bowl. Mix on high speed for several minutes until egg mixture will hold stiff peaks and is light in texture. Carefully fold in peppermint until incorporated. Add filling to cookie and then top with another cookie, roll the edges through crushed candy cane.

New Year Devotionals

2011-12-30T08:00:00.000+11:00

For Christmas we often give the boys a couple of standard gifts. I decided it would be equally fun to give them a couple of standard gifts on New Year's Eve in their activity bags. Simple things that would help them in the New Year.

Last year, for instance, after we rang the New Year in we all grabbed our nifty new calendars and hung them in their proper places on the walls.

This year, instead of giving the boys their calendars for Christmas I've kept them hidden away to hand out on New Year's Eve! However, I also decided to order them each a devotional. Something simple that they could read on their own each morning when they got up.

Sounds simple, I know, but it wasn't! I knew which one I wanted for each child and wouldn't you know every store I tried either had one or not the other. The only way I could, for certain, get them both for a while was through a US store, and I knew they'd never arrive on time. I did a little more research and discovered that if I swapped Jayden's title with another similar one I could order them from Koorong. Only, I made this discover with about 2 days to go before the Christmas weekend arrived. Needless to say I asked for quicker shipping on the two items. Oh my goodness was it quick, but check out the packing!!

First the crazy things came in a plastic quick mailer. Then it was wrapped in brown paper and every inch of it was covered in packing tape. Seriously, for a minute I was like, "Boys check this out, this is exactly what it looked like when we lived in American and Grandpa use to package things up for Nana to send to us!" I couldn't even find a place to lift the tape so had to carefully cut the brown paper for fear of damaging my books! Then, after all the careful cutting I found the books wrapped in several inches of bubble wrap..

At least my books arrived, completely undamaged! I've always had good service from Koorong, but man I think this takes the cake on quick shipping, they arrived the following day! As for what I picked, I snagged Jesus Calling for Morgan, & 365 Bedtime Devos for Boys. I had wanted to get Jayden 365 Devos for Boys, but it isn't quite released here yet, plus, once I peeked inside of it some of the devotions are the same as the book above.

3-D Maps Review

2011-12-29T12:02:00.000+11:00

I've mentioned this book here a few times in the past, but I wrote a slightly more detailed review of Interactive 3-D maps for American History over on the Curriculum Choice!

I've had a lot of questions about our year with Winter Promise, so I've written a detailed review about that curriculum as well & you'll find it up over there sometime next month. I'll let you know when it's up, but in the mean time there's a lot of fun reviews over there written by many other talented homeschool Mammas you can read.

If you missed it, I did a detailed review of our year with Teaching Textbooks last month that you can read if you're interested.

The Curriculum Choice has also undergone a face lift & a few updates as it recently changed ownership. If you haven't checked it out recently you really should!

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T00:00:00.001+11:00

Papercraft

2011-12-23T12:29:00.000+11:00

Morgan loves to draw, color, cut, & fiddle. He's often lying on the floor while I'm reading aloud and can be found doing anyone of those things. During our final week of school he was lying on the floor supposedly coloring a map for his Timeline Notebook while I read. We got so caught up in the book we read the entire book & when I finally put it down and took a long drink of water Morgan walks up and says, "Check this out!"

What I was looking at were the above items he made out of paper. A pencil, pencil sharpener, & a pair of scissors. Believe or or not the pencil fits perfectly into the funny little pencil sharpener. He was very proud of his perfect detail on the pencil and I was pretty impressed with the handles on the scissors. So much so that the items are still laying up on a shelf because no one can bring themselves to throw them out.

Cupcake Kit

2011-12-22T21:23:00.000+11:00

Jayden has a real think for cupcakes lately and I thought it would be fun to put together a cupcake kit for him. Gathering supplies wasn't hard, but packaging them up was another story. I couldn't find a box that would work so I ended up cutting some cardboard we had laying around into the box I wanted. That included cutting out the "window" in the front of the box so I could tape some clear cellophane on.

I actually purchased the cellophane ages ago by accident. I know it's a weird accident to make, but I honestly thought I'd grabbed a package of silver wrapping paper. Imagine the shock I had when I got home, but it's come in very handy for several projects ever since. The cupcake on the front of the box isn't too great looking in the photo, but once the glue finished drying it was much nicer.

Here's the contents that are in his box which were obtained from a variety of places. Believe it or not the little wooden spoon cost me the most money! There are measuring spoons & measuring cups, an egg timer, silicone spatula, basting brush, wooden spoon, various cupcake papers, sprinkles in varying colors, & edible Thomas train images. I'm not sure you can see the later because they are under the sprinkles. I debated getting a cute set of silicone muffin cups, some little bug shaped ones, Jayden had spotted in town earlier this week, but it completely slipped my mind when I picked up the colored ones. Hopefully he won't mind too much. I figured the whole kit will go really well with his nifty cookbook.

Great Minds Think Alike

2011-12-18T11:22:00.000+11:00

Mr S and I have always thought, on most topics, very much alike. Conversations usually start with, "I was thinking it might be fun to ..." followed by, "What?! No way I was thinking the same thing!" That's not to say we always think exactly alike and always agree on every subject. I for one feel the hamper is the best place for dirty socks while he feels the floor is best. I find that cleaning up is a bit more relaxing where as he finds kicking back with a good movie is a better choice. However, the first time we realised just how much we thought alike was a few years ago on Valentine's Day. It's traditional for me to hide his card in some place I know he's likely to sit on it the following morning, it's equally traditional for him to put a card on my pillow sometime after I've woken up and left the room. That particular day I found my card and as I opened it was horror struck that Mr S had somehow gotten the cards mixed up and given me the card I'd actually picked for him. He was in the kitchen having the same horrific thought as he opened the envelope I left on his chair for him. Yep, we bought identical cards at different times! We laughed for days about it and still do when the story is brought up.

Yes, perhaps cheesy to some, but it really does make us laugh. We've since learned to pick cards that either say "wife" or "husband" on them or are totally blank or make up our own. I, for instance, bought him one this year that was so me to him despite being an engagement card that I bought it anyway and scratched out the engagement part and fixed it up so it fit what I needed.

For the past three years we've both been trying to hunt down a croquette set for our family. We both love the game and in the US, thanks to my sister, we owned a set. Our Kmart had sets in a few years ago, and at the time we purchased a different outdoor game instead, and of course since then they've never had one again!

Yes, my mil was sporting a broken foot the day these arrived..

During Black Friday sales in the US some Aussie stores decided to have heavy discounts on things too & I got a lot of emails from places I've shopped with online. One such place was offering a nice wooden croquette set on sale with free shipping! I mentioned it to Mr S and then an hour later disappeared to order him a set. Only hang up, Mr S had ordered one for me shortly after I showed him the email. If that wasn't funny enough, they both arrived on the same day in the exact same wrapping. Oh well, double the fun now!

Caterpillars

2011-12-14T00:00:00.000+11:00

Last week the boys and I went for a walk on a trail nearby our home, halfway around the loop the boys decided they needed a break. They'd worn sweats instead of shorts and were hot. While waiting on the bench Jayden decided he'd check out the sign to see what it said. He was reading away and then comes back and declares, "Nothing to worry about there. It only says Don't feed the caterpillars!"

I laughed myself silly before I could correct him. The sign actually says:

"Cycle-Walking Track

'Don River Circuit'"

He got as far as the "don" and saw the c and figured we weren't permitted to feed the caterpillars, but what caterpillars I'm still not sure of. For everything that we did see, caterpillars weren't amongst them!

A Day Out

2011-12-13T00:00:00.000+11:00

Last week Mr S's daily carpool wasn't running in the morning & he needed a lift to work. The boys and I have "go to" bags that we can grab full of our school supplies, & that particular morning we snatched them up and headed to the quaint little beach town up the road where Mr S works.

After we dropped him off we walked the beach for a little while, and then sat down to read what was our current read aloud. The boys were so engrossed in the story when two dogs bounded up both boys jumped a mile which excited the dogs.

Once the sun had us well heated {someone didn't put the sunscreen back in the main go-to bag} we headed towards shade in the very tiny park above the beach. There we finished reading through our books for the day and then got side tracked chasing down the cutest baby grasshopper you've ever seen. Well, except that you haven't seen it because the crazy little jumper wouldn't hold still long enough for a photo and so I have nothing to show you, but anyway I digress..

The boys asked if they could swing before we left and I said sure. They were taking turns pushing each other and enjoying their morning brake when a train sounded. The only way into this small town is over a set of train tracks so I looked up and said, "Jayden I can see the train from here." The look on his face above was his reaction when he looked up and saw it.

He's always, always, always been a huge train fan. He has heaps upon heaps of Thomas trains both in the US and in Australia. He despises building on a table with them because a good train track must run through just about every room of the house so he has significant opportunity to trip all of his family members. Our very first house in Tassie was right across the street from a train track, and he'd climb up into the window and stand on tip-toe each and every time he heard that whistle go. He'd be mid conversation with someone and if he heard the whistle off he'd trot. Use to crack us up to no end while mystifying company he was in mid chat to. Jayden recently told me he's a bit big for Thomas trains and I could probably put them away now, but please don't get rid of them.

I asked him if he'd like me to get rid of the Thomas videos too then & he was quite decided that I most certainly shouldn't do that either. The trains are up on the top shelf of the closet for now & the movies haven't budged. He did, however, cry when I gave away his Thomas rain slicker even though it was too small for him. Being 8 and wearing a size 12 because you're so tall means you

Summer Reading

2011-12-12T00:00:00.000+11:00

Our Summer Reading List 2011/2012

1. Blackwater Creek

2. The Wizard Of Oz

3. Freedom Crossing

4. Spy Dog Series {2-4}

5. The Gold Miner's Rescue

6. The Mysterious Benedict Society

7. The Voyage Of Patience Goodspeed

Summer Fun Ahead

2011-12-11T00:00:00.004+11:00

We'll have plenty of non "formal" school time to fill if we take a summer break this year, and a great way to fill it was to ask the kids for some things they wanted to do this summer. Of course, I knew swimming and hanging at the beach would be pretty high on their list, but there were also a few requests that surprised me. For instance, Jayden's goal for the summer was for Mom to read him the rest of his Spy Dog books. The child can read like you wouldn't believe, but still prefers me to read chapter books to him. I'm cool with that and look forward to finding out about L.A.R.A.'s next adventures.

Morgan decided he'd love for me to read the second Harry Potter book to him. He too can read very well, but prefers to hear me read to him. Frankly, I think Jim Dale does an amazing job with these books as audios, but I don't mind indulging my kids either.

Of course I participated in things on the list from practical like having the boys read a book each day {I'm planning on setting up our own home summer reading programme as the one at the library here is a wee bit flaky..} & the Learn Something new today. I'm debating working through an art book with them, but we might swap it for science so to keep the path open I made it vauge. Who knows, it might turn out to be something totally different then either of those!

Both boys have been dying to learn how to whistle very loudly with your fingers in your mouth. It's something I've never been able to conquer but can kill ear drums with a normal whistle. Needless to say we're determined to learn to whistle with our fingers this summer.

I contributed turning the back yard into a movie theatre, something I've been researching and planning for a while now. If all goes as we hope we'll be inviting friends and family around to join us! Hopefully I can keep mozzies away because nothing quite ruins fun like those big blood sucking varmints!

We also included some of our summer traditions like having an Australia Day Party with family & going camping down at Bakers Beach. I snuck things in that will make great boredom busters like blowing big bubbles {Jayden's getting a bubble kit for Christmas} & play in the sprinklers {Jayden's also getting a slip-n-slide for Christmas from his Nana}. Looks like we'll be having a rather adventurous summer.

You can get the paper/background here. It's a free download! I electronically added text to it and then printed it out to hang on our bulletin board. Easy peasy. It'll be fun to stick it in an album later with photos of all the fun things we did.

School Wrap Up

2011-12-10T09:23:00.000+11:00

This school year has been quite the adventure! We used a new curriculum this year and there was a lot of excitement and nervousness over it. Everyone was excited about it, but I confess to a little bit of nervousness in regards to changing from our former curriculum. The nervousness was a waste of time because we throughly enjoyed ourselves this year.

Despite several moves {not just our own, but family members}, and other hiccups that can naturally occur during a year we were able to always pick right up where we left off. In the past we've always followed a 3-6 week on rotation with a 1-2 week off one. This year we didn't seem to follow that, all though we did enjoy time off for spring break, camping, and out of town company.

The past month or so we've been quickly racing to the finish line. I was so torn on permitting the boys to keep up their galloping pace and finish or hold them back and leave some to pick up with when we regrouped after Christmas break. In fact, I probably put way too much consideration into this and in the end stopped fussing over it as we galloped to the close.

We learned a great many things that caused the boys to say, "Really?" and others that wowed me as Morgan sat there and retold some amazing information to his younger brother. I mean seriously, when on earth did I teach him about the Trail of Tears, or did he read a book about this on his own? I've no idea, but there he sat retelling tales to his brother. There were a lot of mixed feelings about the Native American happenings, but Jaydens one main question was always, "Is this one still alive?"

We read about the Erie Canal and made a pop-up book depicting the scene from the first trip made down the entire length. The boys were amazed I'd written on it, and in horror that I could still remember & sing Low Bridge Everybody Down.

We learned about the Oregon trail & only briefly touched on The Mormon Trail. We googled up some pictures of names etched in Chimney Rock, wagon ruts, and some of the remains of old forts along the way. Thanks to the book On To Oregon, which didn't last long in our sidebar because we simply devoured the book, we felt like we were actually right there on the trail. Did you know that the majority of the people who went along that trail at first did so, once again, to defeat the British? We learned that both British and the US had steaks in the west as both claimed land. It was then decided that whomever could have the most people there by a specific time frame would get official rights to it. American's weren't about to give up the land they'd fought so hard for that quickly and off many of them set.

We learned about some rather amazing mountain men who came off as quite fearless, and while he's not on the page above we even covered Kit Carson. However, I think the one mountain man that will ever remained embedded in the minds of my children will be John Colter. We read about him in various books and each time we filled in a bit more of his story. One account told us he'd saved his own life by running naked from a tribe of Indians. We actually found another source that could give us more detail and as it turned out he had to literally race for his life, because whomever won the race got to live and whomever lost was to be killed. Not once did Colter do this but twice!! His stories really are quite interesting to read.

We read about the Alamo, something my boys truly won't be forgetting as I had their wrapped attention as I read them Susanna Of The Alamo. Mind you, I think they thought, at first, that it was suppose to be about Custer & his last stand, but the story of Susanna was so action filled and amazing they didn't complain afterwards that it wasn't the story there were expecting.

We learned about the underground railroad and read as William & Callie raced towards freedom. The boys were really impressed to be learn that one slave managed to escape to freedom thanks to mailing himself express mail in a wooden crate! It took him two days to reach his destination, but we had a great laugh imagining the looks on people's faces when they opened up that crate! We found Fredrick Douglass' boldness quite amazing as well, & we're intrigued by the Missouri Compromise considering the emancipation proclamation hadn't happened yet. {In short the government wanted to keep the amount of free states vs slave states equal so no one had more balance or power over another, this effected states joining the union!}

Our notebooks are full to bursting now & the boys have had so much fun all ready going back over what they've learned. They are eagerly waiting to start up again in 2012 when we will finally reach the Civil War, one of the few wars they know very little about and can't wait to find out about. We've had such a fun year, but are looking forward to our summer break!

Saturday Entertainment

2011-12-08T17:25:00.000+11:00

Excuse one of my toilets on the web for all to see, but this story is so funny I can't let it slip by. This past weekend was a bit dull around here. Mr S was hit with a fever and the chills and felt miserable & the boys and I were trying to "let our hair down" after a week packed to the brim with school and school projects as we rush to the end of the school year.

Anyway, at one point after tripping over the umpteenth pile of lego the kids had out I stalked off to the small bathroom near my room. As I walked in this balloon greeted me! Complete with ugly smile {or is that a screaming face?} and huge eyes. I stood there laughing, & then grabbed the camera to snap a photo. Then, being sure the kids were still distracted with heaps of lego I ran the entire length of house and chucked him on the toilet by the kids room.

A few hours later when I returned to my bathroom the crazy balloon was back!! Only, this time he had a top hat on. Apparently he was taking his toiletry habits to a whole new level with that top hat! I had to dash back down the hallway but decided to chuck him the shower the kids use instead of putting him back on the toilet. I wondered if it would take them longer to find.

By the following morning it was back in my bathroom, without a top hat, but still grinning {or screaming} like a fool! He ended meeting his demise when I intentionally popped him after I found him laying on the school table. I figured any balloon naughty enough to hang out on toilet seats really wasn't great for keeping around, but he certainly did bring us some entertainment and laughter on a rather dull weekend!

Advent Calendar

2011-12-07T00:00:00.000+11:00

My boys have always asked for one of those $1 advent calendars with the perforated doors at the local shops. I've always told them no because it only has chocolate inside. Not that there's anything wrong with chocolate, but when you have a child who can't have sugar there's no point in having the items in the home.

I debated trying to make one with little things inside of it for them, but couldn't quite figure out how I'd make the whole thing work. Then one day the boys came rushing in with an ad {we get junk mail at our new house} and were enjoying looking through it. I spotted Disney Advent calendars that didn't have sweets in them! By the time we got to the shop there was only Cars & Princesses left, so we came home with one Cars calendar and the boys take turns opening it up.

Honestly, it's not the greatest thing out there, it's really not! However, I can't wait to take the whole thing apart so I can make one for next year that will be worth opening every day! And yes, I know I could have easily slipped surprises and treats in the reindeer calendar, but the boys really wanted the surprise and pleasure of opening up the little cardboard calendar. I suspect their excitement was stemming from the book The Christmas Mystery.

The little boy in the book opens his "magic" calendar every day and finds a bit of a hidden story inside along with a little picture. It caused enough of a stir last year that both the boys requested it this year too! I suppose I really should buy the book so someone else from our local library can have a read of it during the Christmas season..

Planner Sale

2011-12-06T21:43:00.000+11:00

I forgot to mention that all Aussie Pumpkin Patch products are on sale up to 50% off, from now until Dec 19th {US Time, so that's the 20th in Australia}. In fact there's quite a few products on sale from lapbooks to unit studies and just about everything in between right now over at Currclick. If there was something on your wish list you might want to check and see if it's on sale!

Maximum Orginization

2011-12-02T00:00:00.000+11:00

Our boys are big lego collectors. It was actually Morgan who started the entire Lego phase. He's always loved taking things apart and the challenge of putting them back together. With Lego, this child can come up with anything and build it and make it look exactly as it should.

I'm telling you, this child is a genius when it comes to the came Creationary, he can look at the card and knock it out in a matter of seconds and we all know what it's meant to be. Just don't ask most of the rest of us to try this because as easy as he makes it look we stink.. royally! at it.

The boys usually save their own money up for lego, and that giant kiddie wading pool/sandbox is full of all their lego. All though, that picture was taken last year and the pool is now full to the rim and all most overflowing. I joketh not. Sorting out lego to build specific things {we have a rubbermaid box full of manuals} can be a bit harder for them.

Enter, The Head. Seriously, this is a lego sorter. You pop the round knob at the top off and pour lego in. Put the knob back on and shake. The pieces fall through the "sifter" until the holes are too small. You open it up and pieces are sorted by size. Easy Peasy. All though I confess to growing wearisome of the noise in the old house with wood floors. The sound echoed all over! My kids use the The Head to sort pieces for building specific things, but also for their favourite game which is Trading Post. They load up with all sorts of cool bits and bobs and trade back and forth to make the neatest little lego men they can come up with. It keeps them busy for hours!

My sister-in-law gave Morgan this nifty hot wheels box a couple of years ago. Morgan is much like myself in that he likes to organize his things, the more compartments & pockets the better it is. So this box was a huge hit, except in all the time he's owned it I think it's only had HotWheels in it for maybe a week. It's now his Lego Treasure Trove, and heaven help the person who spills it because tears will fly.

Take a closer look!! Each compartment holds something specific to building a mini fig! From the top left you've got two compartments of heads, two compartments of hats and/or headgear, one compartment of extras that you stick on the neck of lego men {life vests, shoulder pads, armour, etc.} three compartments of upper torsos with a couple of random heads three compartments of legs with two overflowing upper torsos in them, one compartment of swords, axes, & other weapons. One compartment full of skeleton objects, one compartment full of handcuffs and other small weapons including fire/flames, and a third compartment full of odd extras like snowboards, fire hoses, & crossbows.. When we're all really good he lets us choose something from each category to make nifty little mini figs. Then he loans us a Ninjago spinner {top picture, red circle thing next to ninja cards} and we get to test and see how balanced our mini fig is.

Yep, he mashed his love of lego {he's actually written to the Lego company to request a job} & his need to organise to a whole new level here.. if only he could apply that to his bedroom to it'd be even more amazing!

PS: If anyone is collecting the nifty little MiniFig series that Lego has out right now and has doubles of certain ones they'd like to trade he'd be really keen to hear from you. He likes to spend his money on those as well and was desperate to land an Artist from Series 4, but it never happened. He has quite a few doubles of various ones from all of the series he'd love to trade off for ones he doesn't have.

Cupcakes

2011-11-30T00:00:00.001+11:00

A few weeks ago now, my boys were treated to a cupcake each at a local cafe. They were very excited but really struggled to make a choice from all the colorful concoctions before them. Once they made up their minds they ate their sandwiches and then dug into the cupcakes.

Neither of them could finish the cupcakes though because they found them too sweet, especially the icing. This is what comes of not eating sugar around here on a normal basis.

However, Jayden was really taken by the whole cupcake thing and wanted to know if we could make cupcakes around the house that would taste even better. I told him I was certain we could.

I decided to hunt down a cupcake book, and I'm telling you it wasn't easy! Most cupcake books were made based on how you decorated the finished product and that was completely useless for us as most of that involved a lot of sugary candies we can't eat.

I was eventually torn between two choices and had it narrowed down when I caught reviews that weren't of the greatest. That's the problem with reviews, if only the dissatisfied customers leave a review then you're not so certain about making the purchase! In the end I decided against both and then stumbled across The Sweet Little Book Of Cupcake. It's seriously tiny!

It turns out the book is full of recipes from a little bakery in Boston. The recipes do use sugar, but are easily adaptable to our non-sugary choices. The toppings on the cupcake aren't based on candy decorations but different icings, another thing we can easily alter. And the selection inside are quite tasty sounding. I'm quite intrigued by the Chocolate Pomegranate while Jayden is much more eager to try the Molasses Gingerbread cupcakes. I think his choice has something to do with the gingerbread cupcake pan he bought me for my birthday, but that's okay.

The book is broken down by seasonal cupcakes {think fruity for summer, chocolatey and warm for winter, etc.} and then you go to the back of the book to find the actual recipes which are mixed and matched throughout the book with the icing & filling recipes. Jayden all ready knows about the little book, but I'm planning to get him a few goodies to make the recipes with for Christmas. I'm just glad he wasn't freaked by the pink color of the book!

FIAR Ornament Exchange: 2011

2011-11-28T22:22:00.000+11:00

For the past several years my boys have enjoyed participating in a homeschool ornament swap. It's one based on the curriculum we use to use, which is based on books we still love pulling off the shelf to read.

Some years we make one ornament and some years we make two. It depends on time and if the boys are each up to making their own. Their first year they each made an ornament because when I signed them up they both had different opinions on what to make. In subsequent years they've teamed up a little bit better and agreed.

Last year I half volunteered & was half given the duty of organizing the big swap. So this year while putting the lists together I was one person short for keeping the lists even & decided to let the boys be on separate lists again.

I wasn't sure how this would work out because last year we had an amazing ornament planned. It can be tricky to pick just the right one because we need one that's flat and can go through the mail inside a Christmas card or else we pay a fortune in shipping! But, we also want it to represent a book we love. Last year's amazing ornament fell flat. We just could not get the drill bit I needed to help the kids. I tried substituting and it just didn't work as it should have. We made a very late and last minute change and the boys made wooden soldiers {which were anything but flat!} from the Revolutionary War based on the book Paul Revere's Ride.

At the beginning of the year we decided if we couldn't find the drill bit we'd make a different ornament, we even had a basic idea! The only downer was we couldn't quite figure out exactly how to carry it through. So when I asked the boys about changing their minds and coming up with their own thing there was some slight hesitation. I reminded them of all the wonderful books we'd read and of course Jayden was very keen to do something with Peter Rabbit which must be one of his most very favourite books in all the world.

We made a few prototypes until we found something that made everyone say, "Oh how cute!" and then we went with it. It was pretty simple with just cutting, pasting, and laminating. I like for the boys to do the majority of the work themselves so keeping it simple is a big thing too. Jayden was able to do all the pasting {despite his glue fear} & all the laminating. I helped him with the cutting. He helped punch holes and I tied the knots in the string & he trimmed them. I did the extra flowers because they were horribly fiddly but just made it look nice. We made 12 in the end. One to keep, one for his US grandparents, & 10 for homeschoolers. He's very excited to see what they send him, & he's really hoping that anyone who gets a Peter really loves Peter as much as he does. He's slightly worried because we gave 10 of the peter lettuces yellow middles and then we ran out of that paper! I subbed it for blue and we kept one blue and are passing the other to his grandparents. Funny thing is, in the end we loved the blue better then the yellow.

Morgan's was a wee bit trickier. He really wanted to stick with one of the two original ideas, and I agreed that they were fantastic and perhaps we could finalize them for next year and/or the year after. But for now he really needed to get going because his ornaments were due out on Saturday and he hadn't even begun them. He was thrown because he loves each and every one of the books we've read. I tried encouraging him with books he'd loved more then others. I reread many of them with him and we oohed and ahhed over all of them, but I think it only added to his confusion.

Then I reminded him of a common thread in all the books and how they each took place somewhere in the world and we'd traced their location on the map. He's a big map guy! We decided to go with paper globes. We tried a few prototypes of this ornament too, surely we aren't the only ones? It's actually made from 7 circles that we glued together to make the 3D effect. We put a ribbon down the middle {can you read it? It says, 'Are we there yet?'} and attached a few beads for color. There's another 12 of these too. One for us, one for his US grandparents, and 10 for the other homeschoolers. Such a fun Christmas tradition, we might all be sad when we feel too grown up for it!

Arm River 2011

2011-11-28T00:00:00.000+11:00

Earlier this month we had our annual camping trip in the middle of no where exactly where we like it! Our family always heads out a day earlier then everyone else which has it's ups and downs. This year we were a little leery at being the first family to arrive because there'd been some reported issues at the camp where we stay.

The previous group had spotted a small snake making an escape from the bathrooms & complained of rat problems. Forestry Tasmania had sent someone out to deal with the problem, but apparently the rat was proving a tricky little blighter to deal with.

We however, had absolutely no issues spotting it the minute our gang pulled up. There it was haphazardly ambling around by the drain. Our dog jumped out of the car and went after it. We knew the rat was most likely poisoned because Forestry had warned us about it, thus preventing us from allowing the dog to deal with the pesky critter.

We decided to throw a bin over it, only because I refused to release my largest bowl to do the job. We then had to add the piece of wood up against the bin because half it's tail was still sticking out and we knew a certain little boy would freak if he saw it. Despite popular belief amongst Forestry I did not smack the rat with a bin and put us all out of our misery. No, I stood atop a picnic table and shouted to Mr S to, "Hurry up and slam that bin down on top of the rat so it can't wander off on us! Don't worry I'm sure he won't bite you he's half dead anyway. No, I will not come down and help you it's creeping me out being this far away!" Moral support and all that ya know..

If a picture is worth a thousand words this one might be worth two. The boys uncle explained to them how to make rude noises with their legs, armpits, & hands. The boys practiced daily to be ready for this years family camp trip so that as soon as their unsuspecting uncle curled up to go to sleep they could make these unseemly noises. And I was laughing so hard while shinning a light on them to snap a picture this is what I got!

It gets funnier.. {I resorted to auto flash} Morgan was demonstrating for me the difference between realism and fakeness depending upon which part of your body you blow on. Apparently the fattier part of your thigh gives the most realistic sounds. Seriously, they had this down to a science.. Mr S attempted to try this but nearly fell out of his bunk.

The following evening we passed word around camp amongst cousins that as soon as Nana turned out the light in the bunk house and said her goodnights we'd all start snoring. Only, my darling sons decided that once the snoring fest ended and laughter died down they'd add a few gassy sounds to the mix. Their female cousins were not to be outdone and joined suit as well as an uncle. It was all fun and games until our dog actually made a very rude stench in our room and I bellowed, "Oh my goodness that was a real one, open the window before I suffocate!" My boys then squealed, "MOM!! You're suppose to FAKE it!" Yeah, there were more twitters and squeals from the other bunk rooms until I loudly stated it was the dog. Who, out of total embarrassment, fled from our room into the cousin's room.. That only lasted about a second when they all squealed that he was quite stinky too..

Don't let that cute and innocent face fool you! That dog caused the entire bunk house to wretch.. had to be chased down to relinquish a wallaby leg he found.. bled all over the floor when a leech dropped off of him.. and then came home and slept for two straight days to make up for all the running he did.

There was heaps of bocce ball playing with wild new, "we're standing in the bush let's be crazy" kinda rules. We had to throw balls with eyes closed, while standing on one foot, while hanging upside down, before the jack was thrown, while the jack was being thrown, with our feet.. I'm pretty sure if it was imaginable we tried it. And that doesn't even account for the most hideously uneven, hole infested, rock festered ground we were playing on. It put a whole new meaning to the game.

There was a lot of Nerf Gun action too. No one was safe because everyone was a target at some point. Rumour has it we lost over 100 darts, but gained a frizbee. I'm not sure that really evens it out any, but you had to be as careful about getting hit with Frisbees as you did with nerf bullets.

And then there was the annual treasure hunt, which this year consisted of far too many clues! Our favorite was the one that led everyone down to the arm of the river only for them to realize the clue was actually attached to the arm of my shirt. The treasure was a rubbermaid box full of lollies, sparklers, and glow sticks a well deserved prize after over an hour of clue finding!

Last year's stump was thought to be holding another clue this year, but they were a little off course. It only took them another ten minutes or so to find the correct stump. Probably funnier to those of us who had all ready counted and surveyed all the stumps in the area.

Yep, that's me pretending to hold a tree up. Bad joke, I know.. We had our annual hike and got just past the halfway mark when it started to rain us which was just moments before it started to thunder. Did I mention Jayden is petrified of thunder still? I'm talking deer in the headlights kinda scared. He tottered on between two uncles for another 4 claps of thunder before breaking down and screaming loud enough to scare the bejeepers out of them. It was not the best hike ever, but I'm pretty sure it's going down as most memorable. The trail was horribly muddy. It was ankle deep at one point, I've got the socks to prove that one. Not to mention completely washed out in some parts with ankle deep mud to boot! My brother-in-law was helping Jayden down when Jayden slid, followed by his Uncle. Seeing their folly I decided to crab walk down the hill to avoid sinking my rump in the mud, but when my hand got stuck I slid down anyway and was dubbed Mud Monster for the remainder of our camp trip.. possibly because I had no more clean pants to put on.

Of course no trip is complete without a bonfire {Mr S has those pictures on his camera} and getting something stuck on the roof. We made it until thirty minutes before we were about to leave. Last year's recycled ladder was still hanging around, all though considerably more water logged and rotted.

However, it was this contraption they went with to rescue the frisbee. It took a lot more moral support then it did objects to reach their chosen destination, probably not one of the most memorable rescues, but certainly going down as one of the more ingenious ideas. Way to go Jai!

There was also the awarding of the annual banana trophy, a cheap and hideous trophy someone's bound to be stuck with for a year. I'm not sure if it's an honor or not to get stuck with the thing, but it sure does bring about a lot of laughter. All in all, another great year in the middle of no where which is bound to be somewhere. We're really looking forward to next year!

He is coming..

2011-11-27T00:00:00.000+11:00

The boys have been excitedly counting down to Advent. They really adore using our homemade Jesse Tree, a tradition I'm so glad we decided to pursue. Two of our buttons popped off and need sewing back on, but that will only take a moment. In the mean time it's al ready hung on the wall and waiting for tomorrow's devotion.

The same annual heated discussion was had as we hung it up, "I want to be the one to put the star on!" It has nothing to do with it being the last ornament, but everything to do with it being on the white button. Someone always gives up a turn at hanging an ornament just so they up their odds of being the one to deal with the star. It really makes me laugh because it does stay reasonably civil.

Me, I'm more interested in knowing exactly when the year slipped away. I'm pretty certain yesterday was July and the day before that was January. I always find myself wondering this when Thanksgiving rounds the corner. It's not that I don't enjoy the end of the year holidays, I do, I'm just always surprised they arrived so quickly!

The end of the year didn't entirely sneak up on me, I had the foresight {this year} to order Bartholomew's Passage well enough in advanced. There's much excitement at reading this story. We've read Jotham's Journey two years in a row. Last year we also read The Christmas Mystery & the boys adored it, they are hoping to check it out of the library again this year and reread it.

After reading a review about Christmas Carols For a Kid's Heart we snatched this book up to add to our Christmas collection. The boys know a few Christmas songs, but I thought this would be an amazingly fun way to learn more and the stories behind them. I'm looking forward to it's arrival, because unfortunately I ordered it a wee bit later then I should have.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-26T00:29:00.001+11:00

Dear Mom, Dad, & Everyone Else,

While most of the world will wonder why I'd be wishing you a Happy Thanksgiving a day late, I know you're celebrating a day late and won't mind. We always celebrate a "day late" around here which is the one time of year I feel behind compared to those of you in the Northern Hemisphere. Weird, huh?

We survived finding a turkey this year, and I promise it's no comparison to any Tom Turkey we've ever had to clear two shelves in the fridge for and require help carrying in from the car. I'm beginning to think those US turkeys might have been on steroids, but then again I'm pretty sure the wild turkeys in your back yard were bigger then the one I found this year. While it's lack of size caused much teasing and chiding from me, the turkey got the last laugh when it took all of three hours to roast it start to finish.

I've gone yet another year without viewing a parade of football on Thanksgiving, but the end result is always the same as your charming son-in-law always reminds me. Santa is the last float in the parade, and the home teams generally lose in the football. All though I confess to actually suggesting we turn on the television and look for a Thanksgiving Special this year. Yeah, that brought on a lot of laughter!

You can rest assured that we managed the corn pudding, the cranberry sauce {I managed with dried cranberries again}, & Buddy's Fruit Salad {all though i was a rebel and used cherries & knew she'd be jealous that I found seedless grapes at this time of year.. it made me laugh}. Of course I would have totally freaked most of you out when I served raisin bread stuffing, but I promise it was really good. I skipped the mashed potatoes, I know completely unThanksgiving "ish" of me especially since I subbed it with coleslaw that I didn't even make someone else did! And the rolls, I'm sorry there were no rolls! And, as long as we're discussing food I just realized that the beans I steamed are still sitting in the microwave where they were cooked!

You'll all be happy to know we wrapped our evening up with a Christmas movie, not that any were showing on the tv, but that didn't stop us. We pulled one out of our stash and popped it on. No, you guys can stop squirming I promise it wasn't It's A Wonderful Life, but I must say it's been a while since I've viewed that one. In fact, I don't think the boys ever have.. It might be best not to mention this to Charlie because he might beg the movie shop to take their copy and hide it.

We hope you all have an amazing and lovely Thanksgiving. Hand out an extra round of hugs and kisses for Uncle D and tell him we miss him heaps and pray for him often and that we hope he has a great time being back home for a while. Then when you're done sit on him until he gives you a postal address we can send him a package to. If that yeilds no results I suggest you grab Miss B and hold her for ransom until he fesses up, but don't tell him it was my idea!

Don't stuff yourselves too much on the main course, you are having desert right? You really must try cranberry ice cream it was a huge success here! It was weird, I didn't even make apple pie, or pumpkin, but I did make cranberry ice cream. Perhaps not the most normal, but it sure was tasty!

Lots of Love,

All of us

A Welcomed Finish

2011-11-25T22:02:00.000+11:00

I missed an awful lot of sleep and sweated a whole lot in hopes of meeting my goals for Nano this year. There were quite a few days when I just didn't think I'd make. November has been an incredibly busy month for us between moves, visitors, school, and life in general.

Last night I was holding pretty steady in the 48,000+ area, when Mr S leaned over and asked me if I was sleep typing. I was. I can easily type with my eyes closed or while watching someone or something else, so apparently dosing off didn't make too much of a difference all though I had a lot of .... 's happening.

I am delighted to have met the goal and put the story I'm working on on the back burner for now! It's kept me extremely busy, but I'm so going to enjoy sleeping at rising at normal hours again. This may have been the hardest year I've had yet!

A Funny Story

2011-11-17T20:26:00.000+11:00

On Wednesday we were enroute to a relatives home for dinner after hanging out at the beach in the rain waiting for Mr S and his brother to finish at work.

We're cruising down the highway when my car conked out. Literally. It clunked and I saw several lights pop on and had just enough time to get to the shoulder before a few large trucks flew by. Mr S & his brother got out and finished pushing us out of harms way.

It was a long night as we waited for roadside assistance, then a taxi to haul three-quarters of us back home. Then a tow truck to haul the rest of us and Old Blue back to the house. My poor bil had been trying to order the kids pizza but apparently the website didn't recognise our address as "real" and he failed quite miserably at the whole thing. It was a bad day to break down because I was in dire need of a grocery store trip.

So along comes ten o clock at night and the pizza man finally shows up. We indulged while watching a Mr Bean cartoon and we washed it all down with chocolate cream pie. That pie was a story in and of itself, and the short version is that I stole another bil's chocolate pie at our family camp out because I told him that Australian pie crust is woefully pitiful compare to American. In order to prove my point I'd made a homemade chocolate cream pie to take along on our adventure.

Wondering what a huge watermelon has to do with this story? I'm getting there.. The following morning I was racing around packing lunches & trying to find something for dinner when I remembered our local grocery stores all have home delivery now. That morning I placed an order for all the things that had been on my shopping list with our local Woolies. Our order was set to arrive the following morning between 730 and 1030.

It arrived just before 9 am and while unpacking it and making sure all my items were accounted for I pulled out my bananas. They've recently dropped dramatically in price and I ordered some. Only, my first clue I'd miscalculated weights was when I pulled out two large fingers of bananas. No biggie, it's been months since we've had bananas on hand daily, and it showed because by the time Mr S got home from work there were three, yes three bananas left.

Then I unpacked the watermelon. I stood there and laughed. Watermelon is not generally sold whole in our area, that was hard to get use to at first. In the states you buy a whole watermelon and take it home and cut it as desired. Here you buy chunks of melon and pay by the kilo. While it seems odd, it's actually assuring you get a decent bit of melon! Anyway, I looked at the list thinking, "Wow, I didn't think a melon was only 3 kilos." Yeah, apparently I hadn't said 3 kilos, I'd said 5. Good thing we like melon!!

It gets funnier.. I wanted some jalepeno peppers, the masses are screaming for mexican and I needed one for the recipe I intended to make. Only, I have no idea how much one little pepper weighs. I do know that I generally pay between 20 and 40 some odd cents for them. So, I told them I wanted a quarter kilo because I wasn't thinking mathematically and didn't think to write an eighth of a kilo. I have a bag full of jalepenos out there! I kid you not & that bag smelled hot too. Lesson learned!

I have to confess though, shopping online with Woolies was pretty painless. They did forget two items I ordered but I just rang the number on my order sheet {the driver left me with another copy} and they quickly refunded the money for those two items. The prices vary for delivery depending on how much you order, and the more you order the cheaper it is! Perfect when you've got no car.

Government Branches

2011-11-09T10:58:00.000+11:00

As part of our Revolutionary War review wrap up we read the book How The U.S. Government Works. Government, regardless of the country, can be a tough topic for kids to fully understand. The U.S. Government is no different & while this book did a reasonable job at breaking it down for them there were still some confused looks across the table when we tried to recap things.

I decided a notebooking pages clearly in order, because sometimes writing it all down on a paper can really help them realize just how much they know. I actually found one that broke the three branches down very mildly for kids and it's available over at Treehouse Kids. It's not free, but the meagre .99 they asked for it was very reasonable and saved me a bit of time.

The page gave the boys the opportunity to write down very simple responses for each branch. We did consider making a poster that expanded upon which people are included in each branch, but considering both boys were fighting colds, I had a birthday cake to make, & camp packing to do we've left it for now.

I will give the book credit that it gave very clear posters/pictures inside of it to help the kids understand who was who within each branch. However, eyes glazed over when terms like Department of... were used. So I broke it down a bit more and said things like, "Police men, Teachers, Garbage Men, etc." All in all, not a bad little book for explaining how they are all meant to work together.

Library Kit

2011-11-06T22:59:00.002+11:00

This afternoon was incredibly warm and the guys were all busy with.. guy stuff.. So, I decided to work on another "kit" I had planned for Morgan for Christmas.

It's been our tradition for a while to get the boys at least one book for Christmas. Last year Morgan got three books in one from the Humphrey Hamster series.

Morgan also loves playing library. He's been doing that since he was quite little, but as he gets older the game gets a bit more extravagant. Last time he played, he set up shop in the middle of the doorway to our guest room/library and no one was allowed in or out without a library card and book in hand. Jayden was a willing sport and played the game with him for hours as they took turns being librarian.

I spotted a few kits online, including some you could purchase. I wasn't really interested in purchasing something so simple that had consumables in it knowing that they could easily be used up and money wouldn't have been well spent. There are also quite a few out there that are printable, but most of them are meant for ladies and are a tad grown up and florally. So I came up with my own idea. First I grabbed another empty case we had laying around. Morgan use to receive a science experiment kit each Christmas and/or birthday and now that some of them are completely used up I've got extra cases that I've been saving for these crafts.

First I made some library cards up. This wasn't necessary because there are heaps out there to print even for kids! A simple google search will probably bring them up, that's how I found them. Anyway, I went the route of quickly making some. I had intentions of putting writing on the back too, but opted to keep things more simple. I originally even had each card with a different number on each card, but during my various editing process with lots of cutting and pasting that didn't make it to the final cut.

Next, I printed out heaps of bookplates. Again, these were scavenged off the next over time. I'd actually intended to make this for Morgan last year, but never got to it so I had some things saved up for the project. There are heaps here but I adore the Pigeon one by Mo Willems. Then again we are pretty big Pigeon fans. There's a few made by Mike Inkpen in there and then some cute random ones. Each time I tried to pick out a favorite I'd find another too ooh & ahh over. I might just have to print some more out for myself. I think Morgan will love putting these in his own books, and while they aren't sticker and require glue if you have a Xyron Sticker Maker you can turn them into stickers.

I also whipped up more library pockets. I made doubles of most paper by simply folding the paper in half, tracing the pattern, and then cutting out two at a time. There's no adhesive on the back of these either, again glue or the Xyron, just depends on if we have sticker paper in the house or not for the sticker maker. I really don't mind him putting these in his own books, and wouldn't mind them being in mine. In fact, somewhere I have a bookplate that is a library check-out card and each time a friend borrows the book they sign it and then say if they liked it or not on that card! I think that's a really cute idea too, but just not what I had in mind for my boy. Instead, I have some library cards that I purchased years ago in America for a scrapbooking project that I pulled out for him. Again, you can find printables online, but since I had some premade I just stuffed them in the box.

This little book is known as a book of lists. It was a freebie I found online and adorably cute and small and just the right size! I stuck it in the box so he can note down when a book is "due" or who checked out what if he wants. I was originally going to purchase one of those fun little date stamps {the ones you turn to make whatever date you want}, but decided this would be a cheaper {free} idea! I may still pick up a stamp down the line, but for now I like that this whole kit went together for absolutely nothing because I had everything laying around the house.

There was a bit of headroom left in the box and caused the items to spill a bit, so I found a mini pen with gobs of different colors and tucked that in as well as this chubby orange notebook. It worked to keep everything in place when the box was closed and tipped and turned!

Then I whipped up a couple of labels while the intended receiver of this gift decided to sit down right next to the printer to learn how to play a game! I set his brother on duty of catching the paper before Morgan saw it. I glued both labels over the original science experiment labels and then tucked the whole kit away to the top shelf of my closet. I know it seems a little early to be thinking about Christmas, but I have quite a few homemade things for the boys and needed a good sized jump start. Best part, this kit cost us nothing to make because we had everything we needed around the house! I love that, and I love that he'll love this kit. I just hope he lets me play library and doesn't make me pay for a library card!

Notes:
Here are a few links to some of the things I've mentioned in this post:
Book Of Lists {there's a video there if you are unfamiliar with putting this type of book together}
Free Library Cards
Free Bookplates Galore*
Free Library pockets & Check out Cards
Free Printable Kit For Kids from About.com
Girly/Ladies Library Kit {I might make this for me & a friend or two..}

*Be sure to use the buttons on the top left hand side to find even more bookplates in varying sizes. I'm not sure that all my bookplates came from there, but a good percentage of them did.

Sugar-Free PB Cups

2011-11-06T00:00:00.001+11:00

If you can excuse the blurry photo you'll see a peanut butter cup. Mr S was sick this weekend with a cold & sleeping in. The boys and I were sitting around the table debating what to do when I remembered there was chocolate in the pantry and I'd just restocked on the only decent tasting peanut butter that doesn't have sugar in it in our area. I jumped up and said, "Let's make candy."

The boys were far more interested in playing lego and had no idea what I was talking about so I set about the task myself.

Last week I'd picked up a bar of sugar-free chocolate from the local health food store. It did have artificial sugar in it vs a natural sugar. Normally we avoid these things, but on occasion we succumb. This particular bar {sorry no photo} was Swiss chocolate and I was in shock that it was sugar-free. Thus it landed in my basket.

Anyway, all I did was break the chocolate into small pieces and melt it in the microwave. This took a bit of time and a lot of stirring. Probably for the best because despite the call of lego I had the boys empty the dishwasher before running off for the day. I also melted peanut butter, about a tablespoons worth. I just put it in a bowl and heated it in the microwave until it was very runny. Then I poured a thin layer of chocolate in the bottom of a mini muffin pan, topped it with a generous scoop of the peanut butter, & topped it with more chocolate.

I put it in the fridge to harden while I cleaned up the kitchen & exercised. I know, the irony of exercising while candy hardens in the fridge is a bit much, but that's the way things roll around here. After it was hardened I popped them out of the pan and the boys indulged, as you can tell by the above photo!

The boys thought they were awesome, and this is one of their favorite "candies", all though they rarely ever get to have them from the shop. I confess to trying one, and they weren't bad. I'm not sure they tasted exactly as I recall a Reece's tasting, but I can't even remember the last time I ate one so you never know! I'm considering trying it again and adding a few things to the peanut butter, just for fun. We'll see. My idea was to try this recipe on the kids and make a few for them for Christmas.

Pen Pal Kit

2011-11-05T21:52:00.000+11:00

This year Morgan has picked up a few pen pals this year & I thought it would be fun to throw together a pen pal kit for him for Christmas.

I spotted one over at Eighteen25 that came with it's own printable & it was close to what I was after, but honestly I wanted one for him to store all the bits and pieces for writing letters instead of him mailing a kit out to his pen pals.

Don't get me wrong, it would be really fun to post one to each of his pen pals, but that wasn't my original goal. So I took their idea and turned it into something that would work for me. The only thing I forgot was a "Keep Out" sign on the craft room door. Thus Morgan walked in while I was working on it and I belly flopped on top of the whole project and screamed, "OUT!! OUT NOW!" much to his horror.

When you open the lid this is the inside of the lid. I used my library pocket pattern to trace onto some cute scrapbooking paper I had stored away. Once pocket holds stickers to decorate letters & envelopes, or to simply stick in his letter and send to his pen friend. The other side holds index cards with the addresses of his penpals. And no, he doesn't have a dozen pen pals, I put extra cards in there incase he wants to add a friend or family members address to his stash.

In the bottom of the box we have envelopes. Rather then buy fancy stationary for him I just printed some little images on the corner of a bunch of envelopes. I think I ended up printing out something like 30 all up; six of each kind. I also had some others with the little boy and dog on it that I printed out that had one of those speaking bubbles that says, "A Note From Morgan."

I used a funband to keep them all in a neat pile inside the box. I figured otherwise he'll open it, spill them all over and then cram them in the box causing them to get bent. They'd still be useable, but he'd probably ask me to print out new ones instead. And no, I didn't put the postcode box on there, that's standard around here.

I also dug out a packet of Veggie Tale note cards I picked up ages ago. I think we found them at an op shop, completely unused! I tend to have cards and bits tucked away to send to someone eventually, and this pack was just the perfect size to fit into his little kit.

I threw in two pads of writing paper we picked up at the cheap store. I actually stocked up when I spotted them so he could send some of them to his penfriends, but I figured I'd stick a couple in his box. I might change them out if I find different ones, or simply add them to the box. The idea though, was that this box went together really quickly for nothing. I know he'll love it.

I rounded up a few writing supplies and put them in there too. I did purchase the mini correction tape for him as we were out and he does enjoy using it instead of having to start all over again. So much so that he's been known to glue snippets of paper over mistakes he's made so that he can keep going and "no one will know". What he doesn't know is that the pack came with 3, so I have a few extras hidden away incase he runs out. He'll be happy to see the blue ben with the Jelly Baby on it. I picked up two back when the JDRF was selling them.

And there it is all packed up and ready to go! I'd like to take some blank labels I have and make him some address labels to go with it, and I might see about picking him up a packet of stamps. The problem with stamps is that when you mail your letters internationally it's a bit harder to know how many stamps you'll need. The balls on the right hand side are gumballs. He's not a big gum chewer, but he does enjoy the occasional gum ball, I thought it would be fun to include some! The kit is now hidden away in the top of my closet, and this officially kicks off the beginning of Christmas gift making. I have quite a few more "kits" I am excited to get started on and squirrel away before Christmas.

ipad Cover

2011-11-03T21:54:00.000+11:00

A while back I mentioned that my husband bought me an ipad for all the ebook school manuals and books that we have. It is not my preferred way to read books, but sure does save heaps on printing out 200+ manuals!

I've used it, as I might have mentioned before, for purchasing manuals that would cost too much to have shipped to me. I also use it for various studies or books that are only sold as ebooks.

One of the items I use on it daily is our Grapevine Bible, I can enlarge the page so that the kids only see the part I want them to be working on.

However, I really wanted a stand for our ipad and a case. Unfortunately some of the cases out there that fit what I was looking for were pretty stinking expensive! I'm always shocked by how much things like that cost after you've paid for the actual item. While searching around I actually found a pattern for an ipad cover that fit what I wanted over on SewSpoiled's Etsy Shop.

I ran a trial sew with the pattern and was a bit disappointed to find that it was too small! The pattern does come in two sizes for the original ipad and the newer ipad, but I used the appropriate size & verified that it was printed properly. Thus my ipad doesn't quite fit into it as it should {see picture above}. I plan to try again cutting the pattern a bit larger and trying again. If you do make the pattern you absolutely do need all the supportive bits called for in the pattern. As in, interfacing, wood, and the other bits. Without it the case doesn't stay propped open on it's own as it should.

Humor Me

2011-11-01T22:12:00.000+11:00

So, you'll have to humor me for the day. I spent the better half of the afternoon sitting outback on the patio watching children jump on the trampoline, birds fly amuck while, and writing.. Or is it typing/keyboarding these days? I dunno, anyway clearly I was on a writing streak for Day One of Nano.

In fact, I suddenly checked the clock and realized Mr S's carpool was late & that I needed to work double time to get dinner going. Good thing Mr S was late, right?!

To top things off, the crazy Nano website has me registered in Tasmania which means I had to start on my Nov 1. No biggie, I'm happy with that, but their website won't let anyone upload their words or claim prizes until it rolls over to that date in the US. Which means, after an hour or more of writing I had to wait until later this evening to update my word count.

The writing programme I use keeps track of that for me, but you still have to verify through the Nano website. One year I barely squeaked in because the former programme I was using said I had my limit met {50,000} only to discover I was a few hundred short according to the judge. Not fun.

Anyway, so this evening when dinner was done and cleaned up, we got chased by wicked mad lapwings at the park, & laughed our way through an episode of Dirty Jobs & Horrible Histories I was finally able to upload my word count for the day. I all ready knew what that was, but I found it very fun to notice that if I continued this pace I'd finish on.. my birthday!

Not that I expect to write five and a half thousand words each day, but still it made me laugh and I had to share it. In fact, if I manage to write that many words each day I'll be pretty impressed. I've been working, mentally, on this story for over a year now and I keep hitting ~~road blocks~~ writer's block at the same point each and every time! This is the first time I've started typing it, so who knows maybe I'll overcome it.

NaNoWriMo 2011

2011-10-31T00:00:00.000+11:00

I know it's totally silly and geeky, but I love this time of year. November has always been a favorite month of mine when we lived in the US. I love the Autumn weather and colors, I love the pumpkins, & Thanksgiving. Since discovering NaNo, there's just one more thing to love about November! Of course my family will say that it's also the month of my birthday which makes it pretty cool too..

This year, though, I didn't think I could participate in Nano. I mean, it was on my list and I really wanted to do it, but the our big move came up and I had this senior blonde moment as a friend use to call it and thought Nano started in October. I mean it was a major moment because the No in Nano does stand, after all, for November!

Thanks to a few, much more with it, homeschooling friends around the globe I was quickly brought up to date on the whole No stands for November. I'm so glad that those who also play along in this crazy event are much more with it then I was, because man I was feeling really bummed out that I couldn't participate!

So, for those of you in the dark, Nano starts on November 1st in your own country. When you register you can select your country from a drop down box, and generally your time/region. Unless you live in Tasmania. Then you get lumped into this funny odd box known as Everywhere Else. Gotta love it!

I am determined, this year, to bend and shape my characters into submission fitting them within the covers of my novel, instead of permitting them to climb out and ride on the spine. Really, you'd think they'd have more respect then that, but there must be a lot more value in the old saying, "The pen is mightier then the sword." or something like that.

How about you, are you Nanoing?

Revolutionary War Review

2011-10-30T21:33:00.000+11:00

We wrapped up week 13 of our studies last week, which also brought the US Colonial period to an end for us. Next up is the Revolutionary War, & considering we spent six weeks studying it last week no one was too keen to spend another six weeks studying the same material this week. Instead, we've decided to consolidate six weeks into one week. I know it sounds like a lot, but it's not really.

Instead of using the designated text {which we loved}, we're pulling out a few other resources we didn't get to last time. We've also decided to watch all 40 short episodes of Liberty's Kids in one week. Or maybe that's more of a challenge for us, I'm not sure yet.

We will still use some of the same lapbooking pieces just so the boys can each have their own set tucked away in their timeline notebooks. We're adding a few new ones too, in place of a couple of the ones we used last time.

All in all, should be a fun, all be it, busy week ahead! The boys are both looking forward to it after wrapping up our last read aloud Regina Silsby's Secret War, which was just fantastic. It was a slower start and I wasn't completely sure about it, but the boys were swept away and delighted from start to finish.

Birthday Cake

2011-10-26T00:00:00.001+11:00

How's that for a birthday cake? Can you say sugar-high? I spotted this cake floating around the internet and was looking for a great excuse to try making it, my sister-in-law's birthday seemed the perfect excuse! It's actually a round chocolate cake covered in chocolate icing & then we put kit-kat around it and filled the remaining space between the top of the cake and the top of the kit-kats with Smarties. Not exactly sugar-free for the topping, but it was an amazing site to be behold. I dug out the candles from Morgan's birthday and popped it in the candy and the colors were a perfect match!

Wanna know how many bags of Smarties are in there? Four. No, really. It took us 3.25 of the family sized kit-kat bars to cover that crazy cake too. The best part? Deciding how to slice the monstrosity! In the end we scraped the Smarties off the top and put them in two bowls, pried off a few kit-kat to access the cake, & then tricked everyone who'd not been present for the ideal by telling them we'd all ready eaten all the candy. Cruel, I know! Fun cake, even if it was difficult to slice..

Appliqued T-Shirts

2011-10-25T00:00:00.000+11:00

Have you tried to pick out boys clothing lately? It's pretty bad unless you want to dress your child in punk or goth, neither of which will I do. Believe it or not, this also really limits the shirts I can or will purchase for my children. Shirts are loaded with rude words and graphic pictures these days, and when you have an 8 year old who is tall enough to wear size 10 and 12 clothing it makes it even harder!

Late this winter I spotter some plain colored v-neck t-shirts in the boys department of Kmart for $2. I snatched quite a few up for each child and decided I’d appliqué them for the upcoming warmer weather.

The fun part is deciding what to put on each shirt which isn’t too hard for Jayden. He’s still very happy with kiddie type designs and is pleased as punch when I list off ideas like silly monsters with crazy eyes, mustaches, or even cowboys. Morgan is a bit tricker because he prefers things a bit more grownup these days.

In the end we decided on the following designs for Jayden: Silly monster, cookie monster, cowboy, & an Angry Bird. Morgan: Angry Bird, neck tie, lizard, & a Pokemon.

Despite using Cars material Morgan was pretty keen on his neck-tie shirt, all though I'm pretty certain I sewed slightly off kilter. No one else seemed to notice though so no biggie.

One of the tricks to appliquéing directly onto the t-shirt is to use a bit of interfacing under the design so that the sewing doesn't pucker up. I tend to have interfacing on hand and just cut a piece of it and pin or iron {sometimes both} to the inside of the t-shirt.

Then I turn the t-shirt right side out and adhere my design down. I prefer to use Heat & Bond because I feel it holds everything in place better then the visoflex, but either will work. The safety pins that you see are helping to hold the interfacing in place while I sew the appliqué down. I really love that crazy spotted monster!

After you've sewn it down just trim the excess interfacing. I use a seam ripper to poke a hole in the bigger sections of interfacing on my designs. This helps keep the shirt lighter in the summer. Just be careful that when you poke the hole you aren't going through the t-shirt!!

I didn't clear out the horns or eye area because I wasn't into all the fiddly bit considering I couldn't find my smaller scissors. But just removing the excess on the outside and some of the inside reduces the weight. I trimmed the outer area with my normal sewing scissors, again being careful not to trim into the t-shirt.

Trim any threads, shake it out and you're done! I used a satin stitch around the appliqué because I like the finished look. It's just a really tight zig-zag. You have to adjust the width and length of your zig-zag stitch until you get it where you are happy with it. I usually practice on scrap and avoid satin stitching around pupils or other small round areas. For the black pupils above I just did a normal straight stitch to make sure they didn't fall off.

I had to make my own pattern for the crazy Angry Bird t-shirt the boys wanted. It really wasn't too difficult because there's plenty of free coloring sheets out there you can convert into a simple pattern. My machine was hating the cheap black thread I had, so I only finished one of them. I need to get better thread and a new pack of needles before attempting the other one. Three t-shirts down 5 more to go!

12 Years Ago..

2011-10-24T00:21:00.005+11:00

Twelve years ago I was reciting my marriage vows standing next to a tall lanky fellow from Australia. His side of the garden had more guests on it then my side & I was terrified the preacher would mistakingly call him Kenneth again.

Thinking back on it, it’s funny to me now. The excitement, the nerves, the calamities. The desperation for a drink when you’re all ready in your wedding dress and everyone is terrified you’ll spill on it. My cousin’s panic that she’d need a band-aid for her belly button because at 7 months it was becoming an outie. My soon to be niece shivering like mad because it turned out to be the coldest day of the month! The delayed start as we waited on out of town guests to find their way {they showed up as we were leaving and my parents threw in the wedding tape for them to watch..}

If I stood there now watching myself get married I wonder what I’d think, would I still find it amusing? Would I warn myself that my brother-in-law is hiding a three pound sack of birdseed behind his back and I’ll spend the first three months of my married life picking it out of my hair, ears, clothes, and car?

Mostly, I think I’d tell myself that it in twelve years time everyone will still laugh about the frigid weather. That my husband’s Granny will never forget us because she’ll remember freezing her toes off at our outdoor ceremony.

I’d warn myself that my husband will not sleep through tornado season for the next eight years of his life. I’d warn myself that I won’t either because he’ll insist we all sleep in the hallway or the bathtub or some other absurd spot that is most certainly not comfy but gives him enormous peace of mind that we’re safe.

I’d tell myself that no matter how scary the INS people look and no matter what big terms they like to throw around, I can provide them with enough paperwork to scare them not to mention repaper their office walls.

I’d warn myself that morning sickness doesn’t last just for the morning, but all day long; & it’s worth it. I’d tell myself to believe every granny and mother of grown children I pass, because children really do grow too fast.

I’d warn myself that once we no longer live in tornado valley we still won’t sleep through wind or thunder storms because our children will now feel the need to snuggle up in bed with us.

I’d suggest that I start working on cork clothing to protect myself against the flies in Australia. I’d have cornered the market by now! I’d probably suggest that I take out stock in bug repellant while I was at it because I’d know the size and speed of an Aussie mozzie.

I’d tell myself to not plan much for Saturday mornings because we’ll be too busy being horribly lazy with silly games, skyping family, and refusing to get out of bed before 10 in the winter. I’d remind myself not to feel guilty for it because I know the kids will cherish those memories.

I’d tell myself that the most traumatic thing to happen isn’t losing your wedding band in the grass, having a bad hair day, or losing your job. It’s losing your child, but I’d assure myself that I’d make it through and eventually smile again.

I’d let myself know that it’s best to always carry my mobile phone so that my husband doesn’t spend the entire hour I’m out walking every morning panicking about my safety.

I’d remind myself that if my husband does the dishes it’s his way of saying, “I love you.” and there’s no need to sweat the fact that the trash bin is overflowing. After all, it’s only trash!

I’d tell myself that there’s no need to sweat post pregnancy stretch marks or wrinkles of any kind because my husband never fails to tell me I’m beautiful and amazing even when I think I look like I’ve been plowed over by a Mac Truck.

I’m pretty sure the me from twelve years ago would nod politely and smile and then laugh because I’d think the me from now was completely crazy, but I’d learn soon enough that she was right..

SpellWell Review

2011-10-23T18:07:00.001+11:00

I disclosed earlier this year that we chose to use a spelling programme with our kids this year. I finally wrote a review on the programme & shared it over on The Curriculum Choice.

The child that was not using a spelling curriculum this year actually asked me to purchase him a spelling book too because he thinks it looks like that much fun.

That was a real shocker for me, and I'm not sure if it's as much that he thinks it would be heaps of fun as much as he knows his brother enjoys it and he'd like to try his hand at it too. Either way, considering the extreme affordability with this programme I'm quite happy to oblige him.

Anyway, if you're interested in seeing how it's used or what it looks like you can check it out over here. I'm going to be honest and just say we love this programme!

Another Planner

2011-10-19T00:00:00.000+11:00

It would be completely fair to say I might have an addiction to planners. Both homemade and store bought. I've actually be working on designing a planner that's small enough to carry around with me. Not that we go that many places, but I've lost a few too many Dr & Dentist appointment times and only remember when they give you their 24 hour reminder call. I hate that.

The problem with designing a small planner was how was I going to bind it up. I've bound smaller things and merely cut down the ProClick spines before, but that wasn't really the route I wanted to go this time.

I considered buying a planner just for the planner itself and then filling it with my pages. In fact, I picked up a super cheap one off ebay only to realize that I should have considered the need for a special hole punch too.

During my wanderings I spotted iHanna's idea to make your own from a normal notebook. This is possible in Australia where two ring notebooks abound, but it was a little trickier to find anything that wasn't a d-ring. I hate d-ring notebooks, I know people love them and they are suppose to be all the rage, but I don't. Every d-ring notebook we have has caused torn papers, so I'm not a fan.

Remember a couple of years back when I did the Harry Potter unit with the boys? I'd picked them each up an HP notebook from a local shop on the marked down table. One of those was still floating around and happened to have 2 circle rings that were placed on the spine of the notebook. After a bit of measuring & locating a utility knife I finally got mine cut to size. I went with a slightly bigger size then the original tutorial & keep debating resizing it, but for now I'm good with it.

Due to making mine a little bigger covering the outside of it was a wee bit trickier because I was determined to use some paper I'd cut for another project. Had I been using full sized 12x12 pieces it might have been a wee bit easier, I'm not sure. When I was done I covered the whole thing in contact paper on the outside, and then glued a piece of paper on the inside covers . I made the bookmark from an old plastic notebook that was hanging around and put the funny pumpkin on there, the dots at the top were a rub-on that I had. Then I was able to create all my dividers from scrapbook paper and some cards that my family has sent to me.

Believe it or not, I've saved each card my family has sent me in a little plastic box. the idea was to use the pictures and some of the sayings for scrapbooking projects. And yes, I've saved just about every card my husband has given me, and my children. {But, we tend to only give cards on birthdays & anniversaries, all though Mom sticks a card in most of the packages she sends.} I only ended up using cards from my family in the planner. On a few of them I even cut out some of the personal handwriting, either because it was funny or sweet or both.

I'd tell you that the above house shaped card is my favorite just because of it's shape, but then I'd see another card in my stash and say that one was my favorite so I'll just say that I really loved the house card because it was so cute & doesn't it make the perfect divider for housing my addresses?

This card surprised me when it arrived in the mail last year & totally cracked me up too. My "little" brother sent it to me after a chat we'd had a few weeks earlier about how he use to tease me unmercifully as kids about how he was really older just because his birthday was in October. I was silly enough to think he might be right and would go wailing off to Mom about it. Now, every time I jot a birthday done in my planner I'm going to laugh myself silly over it.

I put the cards on the front of the dividers and on the back I either put the handwritten notes and/or the insert from the card. This particular divider is a pocket to hold important receipts and what not. The other half of the picture is slightly blurry because it's a plastic pocket holding blu-tac. We survive on blu-tac around here and when we moved and couldn't find our packet of it I rushed out to buy a brand new packet of it, and within hours it was literally missing. We called in a major search party for it to no avail and had to go back to town for more! I procured a small piece incase the second packet jumped ship!

All in all, I'm quite happy with it. I may, or may not, cut down the size of it at some point, but for now I need to fill it up with the mini planner I've been working on over the past few months and give the thing a proper test run! My only major complaint with it would have to be the two rings though. I'm not a fan of two ring notebooks merely because I feel they hold the middle of your paper in place but don't hold the ends, we'll see how it goes though!

Nature Finds

2011-10-18T00:00:00.000+11:00

Check out the feather we spotted on our nature walk the other day! To read more about it you can do so here.

Winter Promise 12 Weeks Later

2011-10-17T00:00:00.000+11:00

I have to admit that while Winter Promise has it's flaws we've really enjoyed the majority of our journey over the past 12 weeks.

Thus far we've covered Explorers, Native American, Colonists, & everything in between. Which, granted, isn't much, but we've enjoyed it all the same. You should have seen the look of surprise on my kids faces when they found out pirates aren't just for storybooks!

We're nearing the end with Colonists and about to have a very mini brush up on the Revolutionary War. We don't intend to stay the full six weeks in this particular topic because we studied it for 5+ weeks last year and it's still reasonably fresh on the boys minds.

However, a quick brush up, reading of some new books, a couple of our old favorites, & adding some notebooking pages to our timeline notebook are on the agenda. I'm really looking forward to the two latest books we'll be digging into as well!

George Washington For Kids is loaded with information, crafts & recipes and I know the kids will enjoy it. There's an entire series of these books that I've heard many good things about from several other homeschoolers, but this is our first time personally using them.

I've been dying to read Regina Silsby's Secret War since it came in the mail! I mean like really eager! I love historical fiction, and I've had to resist the urge to read some of the books that come because I love not knowing what's going to happen so that when the kids pester me over it I can honestly admit that I don't know. It also makes theorising with them much more fun too!

The only book I regret doing that with was an Audio we borrowed from our library that was on our my list of read-alouds this year called Stop The Train! It was a delightful story and wonderfully done, but there were two instances in the book when I think the author could have refrained from choice words. I was also unimpressed with the mocking of the Mormon religion. Regardless of my own religious choices, I strongly disagree with mocking anyone else's choice. The overall story & the pictures painted were amazing though. Had I read it aloud myself I would have given a miss to the choice words, but we would have missed the true attitude of some of the characters as the actress portrayed them.

Having said that, this was not a book suggested by Winter Promise, it was merely a book on my list to read with the kids. While it had parts we disagreed with in it, it also gave us the opportunity to discuss appropriate ways to treat people who may believe different then you do.

As much as we've truly enjoyed our ride, thus far, with Winter Promise and intend to follow it through we do intend to switch to Sonlight for the second half of American History. After much exploration we {The principle & I} decided that we really liked the book selections for our children better from Sonlight for that year.

I'm a big planner and like to know where I'm going and what I'm doing which means I have school tentatively planned through the end of Morgan's highschool year{s} {Remember that's only grade 10 in Tassie} & they will most likely revolve around the remaining Sonlight cores. I have certain topics I want to cover with him before his time at home is over {because it's still up in the air as to going to college or staying home for grades 11 & 12 and a choice we very well may leave up to him..} & interestingly enough Sonlight's Cores hit on all of them. We're looking very forward to the journey.

A Spy Hole

2011-10-16T00:00:00.000+11:00

I looked at our current house three times before signing lease papers. And, while that does seem excessive it's not the point of this post one little bit!

The real point is that freaky picture to the left! Do you know what my children said each time I came to check the house out? "Mom, we have to rent this house it has a SPY hole!" "Mom, we'll know if it's a stranger at the door, and we can ask everyone to give passwords before letting them in." "We need this house!"

It's something they raved and raved about and were just delighted to out to use. I was a bit more worried about what the password was going to be! The sad truth is, that when we moved in I hung things up to make it more homey. But, I have to be careful where I hang things until I get the green light that I put nails in the walls. Low and behold while cleaning the front door off I noticed a tiny hole in the door, from a tack, and decided to hang a plaque we'd been given there. The crazy plaque is just long enough that we can't use the peep hole!

That was okay until I spotted this little scene in the lounge room. You see, we live not far from Mr S's current employer and they carpool together! It's so nice. Only, when they come home at night sometimes they sit in the car for ages chattering away like a couple of silly girls. The night I took this photo was no different and I spotted Jayden and his shadow staring out the window.

Their plan had been to lock the front door and peep through the spy hole to check out who was there as a joke, only the dog not being able to speak and the boy being so excited totally forgot that the mother had hung a plaque on the door. The dog remained in this very position with his head between the blind slats while the boy had a near break down. I suggested he climb up and peer out the window of the door and demand to know who was knocking on the door. I told him it was just as safe as having access to the peep hole and I'd uncover it for him the following afternoon. {He didn't want me to uncover it right then because they Daddy would know he was up to no good!}

And so he agreed, except that even standing on top of the fullest beanbag he couldn't quite reach the window. It didn't, however, stop him from demanding a password. The wrong one was given. Demanding to know who it was. Demanding real proof that, "You are really Daddy and not a cyborg pretending to be my Dad!" Heaven help us all..

The funniest part, for me, was that Jayden ran off completely forgetting to unlock the door! Apparently he'd gone to snag his Narnia sword and Starwars gun to have a few defences just in case it was a cyborg and not his father, you know cause that's bound to happen, right? The dog, however took over at the door and thus Morgan, in complete confusion climbed up stares out the peep hole and says, "I can't see anything Jayden, maybe it is a cyborg!" To which their father says, "I can see you through the window, and I am not a cyborg." Morgan's response? "Oh yeah? Then what's the password?" "Open the door and let me in!!"

Recess

2011-10-15T00:00:00.000+11:00

What do homeschoolers do for recess, which is often better known as free time?

They work on their bubble blowing skills.

Some work on blowing big bubbles.

Some work on blowing small bubbles.

Some work on catching bubbles without popping them.

Some work on trying to touch them without popping them.

Some give their teachers death stares while chasing bubbles down.

And it's all fun and games until seat work beckons them back again.. or the bubbles cause the neighbors dog to yap uncontrollably you decide to give it a rest for a while.. or you run out of bubble solution..

Colonial LIfe

2011-10-14T00:00:00.000+11:00

Despite our big move school has carried on. We took a two week holiday {give or take a few days} in order to pack and then unpack, but we were able to keep right on reading a lot of our selected titles.

This week has been a slow introduction back into our studies, and it's mostly revolved around notebooking that various things we've been learning about over the past few weeks.

For now, most of our notebooking selections have come from the Homeschool In The Woods Colonial Pack. It's another amazing product from this company and we've truly enjoyed using it. We've only got a week or so left of it!

We made a paper/notebooked version of Nine Men's Morris. It actually came with little bitty heads to cut out to use for playing pieces, but we decided that was a tad tedious and pulled out some playing pieces to use in stead. There were many rounds of this played as we each attempted to battle our way to the end. When we read that the game was played as long ago as Ancient Egypt there was discussion of, "Do you think Moses or Joseph or maybe even Jesus played this game?"

A few weeks ago we learned about the various houses typically seen in Colonial times. Even more interesting we learned how each house became common and why. As it turns out, most houses were determined by the different ethnic backgrounds. The boys made pop-up booklets for each house!

We've learned about a lot of influential people, times, and items in the leading of colonists & their religions making it to America. We created a timeline of these people and items which turned out to be awkward to keep in our notebook in the way it was meant to be, so we folded it up {per instructions} and then put it inside a sheet protector! Easy peasy.

We also learned about 8 different "bees" Colonists use to have. Did you think those were just for quilting? As it turns out they weren't! They had a "bee" for everything from apple picking & hay making down to sewing and taffy making. We really love these funny little books that you just keep twisting and unfolding. They store neatly in a provided pocket {pie shaped} but we found in the notebook they needed a paperclip to keep them from puffing out too much.

We also learned all about how the Colonial kitchen was run. It was quite the feat to keep everything balance and cooking at the same time! We really enjoyed checking out the tools and equipment used by colonists as well. Some things, like an apple peeler, haven't changed much either which surprised us. This little cookery book was a bit to heavy to glue down so we created a pocket page and stuck it inside.

This was a fun page! It was a little bit time consuming, but well worth it. Bear in mind we had to create 2x4 of these pages though.. The idea was to tape down 4 pieces of acetate, we chose to use some clear plastic covers from our ProClick merely because it's what we had on hand and I couldn't locate my acetate stash. Anyway, once you have four pieces taped down on various sides it creates a flip book. Then you glue various layers of clothing to your people and you can see what each layer looked like. We did this for a Man, Woman, Girl, and Boy. The boy also had a toddler to look after, but the toddler didn't come with layers.

This page, while simple really intrigued the boys. Each picture is an artefact dug up from around George Washington's plantation! We guess most of them correct, but the second from the bottom on the left we were way off on! The best part of this page was a few days after moving into our new place we were completely worn out after a day of packing and Mr S and his brother had nipped off to get pizzas for tea. When I flipped on the tv there was a history show where the people were digging for artefacts where the mysterious first colony vanished from. Not only were the boys familiar with the "story" they were so taken by watching how artefacts are dug up that they wouldn't let anyone pop on the planned movie. Interestingly enough they actually dug in a new place {the people on the show} and started finding more signs of the lost colony. Which really disappointed my boys because they'd tried a viking dig for about 5 minutes at the last house and found nothing. So now Morgan's right back to being desperate to help on a real archaeologist dig.

These were things we did on two different days. The barn is full of things colonists would have used, grown, or had on their farms. If you swing the barn upward there's a pocket inside full of the various little things. The minit book above it is all the information we learned about flax, and really it was very interesting. We even had a book with photographs of the tools they used to harvest the flax in an effort to make linen. We also learned where the terms linsey-woolsey & homespun came from which was extremely fun for me was I'd just been reading a fictional Civil War trilogy where the term "homespun" came up a lot. The boys always find it fun when I share that kind of thing with them.

Needless to say, our timeline notebooks are getting extremely full, and the boys really enjoy flipping back through them and checking out all the things they've learned.

Mail Center

2011-10-12T22:01:00.001+11:00

In our last house things were pretty centrally located, and dropping mail on the counter or Mr S's desk for him was pretty easy. We've got a different set up in the new place and that made dropping mail anywhere a bit more difficult. I was thinking how it would be grand to have a place near the door for it when I remembered seeing a few floating around the internet.

The best part of this craft was that I had all the supplies on hand, and with a little recycling there was no need to pick up anything other then glue sticks. I actually had glue sticks, but they were the big ones for the glue gun that blew up last year while the boys were making Christmas ornaments.

And yes, it really blew up with a bang and a pop and everything. In fact, there was even smoke. I had to brave spiders and lizards to go flip the switches in the fuse box to get the power back up and running. Apparently the new glue gun came with glue sticks and I didn't bother to get additional. Whoops.

Anyway, I used the instructions which can be found here, all though I did debate this one. I'm also going to state that I didn't follow the instructions exactly. For instance, I had stiff interfacing that was iron-on, but not double sided. I ironed it on to one side and then used my quilting adhesive to stick it to the second side. If you're doing like the tutorial and sew a ribbon across the top it will hold for sure, but honestly I don't think the adhesive will give because it's not like I'm throwing the mail sorter in the washer. The adhesive stays until it's washed

I also had to adjust the pattern sizes {slightly} because my canvas was longer but slimmer. And, my staple gun was MIA so instead I used thumb tacks. It all worked.

A local store sells canvases pretty inexpensively and we usually have a few on hand. The one I used was actually an old one Jayden had attempted to paint when he was only 4. I asked him if I could have it for my craft and his response was, "It wasn't one of my better pieces." Yes, I laughed.

I thought the very top of it needed something in the empty space and I was looking through the ribbon and found sticky ribbon, you know the kind with tape on the back of it, that matched the colors of the fabric. I think I paid $2 for it ages ago and only used a small piece then. I even had those funky chipboard letters. I was keen to leave them off, but Mr S was certain we needed it up there. You know, in case anyone breaks in and wonders where we keep our mail. Because everyone needs to steal a Dick Smith or Coles flyer, right?

The little metal words were in my stash too. They mean absolutely nothing in regards to the mail, but Mr S thought they looked good on there so I hot glued them on. That's right, I cheated and used the glue gun. I was actually going to use some various postage stamp buttons I had, but Mr S felt the metal things were better.

My mil had the Aussie material in her stash and gave it to me a while back. I was going to make throws for the couch with it, but it was the only big enough chunk in my stash to get three matching pockets on my canvas. My canvas was a bit taller and thinner then the one in the original tutorial, so I added a third pocket. Right now we have "junk mail", "our mail", "mil's mail", so three pockets is perfect.

Our New Abode

2011-10-09T22:00:00.000+11:00

I know family is dying to see pictures of the new place, so I snapped a few to share. Mind you, we're not completely unpacked yet. In fact, the office is so unpacked {Sorry Mr S.} that I refused to snap a photo of it or the small hall it shares with the craft room because the unpacked boxes and "stuff" seem to have oozed over into the hallway.

The picture to the left is actually what I can see from my bedroom window. I opened the blind the other morning and was looking to see if it was going to rain or not when I spotted a lorikeet in the purple tree there. I called out to Mr S, who was still have asleep, that there was a lorikeet in the tree. His response? "You've got to be kidding me!"

Remember the lorikeet that found it's way on our deck? After searching for his owner for 2.5 months we finally took the fellow to the local RSPCA. There were many tears shed over the whole thing, but we really didn't have the time to give him the attention he truly needed. It was sad because he was such a funny character, but he'd also taken to biting people, pulling hair {yes really!}, and screaming if he didn't have his way. When we last saw him the folks at the local RSPCA were laughing themselves silly trying to get him in a giant cage with plenty of wildflowers to enjoy. We all half expected the crazy thing to have escaped and been out in the tree, however when we opened the door to get a closer look it flew off, followed by a mate.

I'm starting at the far end of the house, and thanks to the lack of lighting and my refusal to use the flash the above picture is rather grainy. Oh well. It's the new craft room which is also suppose to be the guest room, but we had a slight issue with the bed. For one thing, the room is more rectangular then square so there wasn't enough room for a deep freeze, sewing table, and large bed without bumping your shins upon something. We're thinking a hide-a-bed {bed in a couch} might be the root to go..

Love my sewing table? Me too. My father-in-law made it many moons ago and a friend refinished it. It's a beautiful size for swing a quilt on or other sewing projects. I have many up my sleeve for Christmas. And yes, that's my niece's quilt on the table, yes the one I rushed to finish before she was born. We had two adorable outfits for her, but we've delayed getting them mailed so long we've decided to get her something a wee bit bigger. Her Mamma might prefer that considering the boys picked out the most hilarious Wonder Woman outfit I've ever seen. And yes, I bought it, but it was on the clearance shelf for only a couple of dollars so I figured even if her Mamma hated it it was no biggie.

I don't know why I took a picture of a hallway, but I did. As you can see the dog was promptly ignoring me, which is okay because I was ignoring him since he's not suppose to be in the house anyway. Check out his fancy crossed feet will ya? Behind me {not pictures obviously} is my insanely TINY laundry room, seriously I've had smaller, but only because they were closets. Clearly the builder of this home didn't have a large family sized washer. There's also a bathroom down there.. which is missing a shower head and has a giant door that needs to be put back on it's tracks so I completely refused to take photos. There's also a triangular closet down there that I keep smacking myself in the face with every time I open it. The light was terrible or I would have shown you exactly why I hit myself in the face with it..

First room up the hall is Morgan's. Yep, the boys went for separate rooms this time. Funny part? They still sleep in the same room. We'll be swapping this bed out for a bunk bed down the road so they can sleep in either room, and so we'll have a little extra space for company. You can just spot the edge of the giant clam sandbox that holds the legos these kids have. Oh, and that door, in the upper right hand corner, just more proof the builder loved his triangles. Seriously, another triangular closet. They aren't great for storing square things in..

Different view, same room. If you enlarge the picture you might be able to check out the quilt on the end of his bed. It's a Bottle Quilt. My mother-in-law has made one for each of her grandchildren. They are downright adorable! I have high hopes of snagging her pattern one day and making one with the various nature material we have around here and sending one to a niece or two. They really are sweet quilts.

Next room is Jayden's. Don't ask me why I snapped a photo before reminding him that we do not store clean laundry on the floor, so just pretend it's not laying there. There are no triangular closets in this room, which I'm very happy about but the crazy closet doors open in such a way I can't properly access the middle of the closet. When I lamented to Mr S he informed me that was normal. I have to say that none of our closets in America or Australia have ever had this problem before..

Check out his curtains? He informed me that he might be big now, but he still needed his Peter Rabbit curtains because Peter is a bunny and he loves bunnies. We found these curtains in an op-shop a while back and they've been hanging in his room ever since. He adores Peter Rabbit and at the ripe old age of four wowed and aunt, a handful of cousins, and an uncle when he sat there and "read" the book word perfect. Which caused a lot of giggling on the part of those of us who knew he'd memorised the story. We have a few wild bunnies that sneak into our garden and he's dubbed them Peter.

The lounge room from the hall/school area. No we do not school in the hall, you'll understand in a minutes. Yes the dog is still ignoring me, the feeling was mutual because I didn't even realize he was in the photo, Ha! And, because I know someone's going to ask, yes that's a Banana In Pyjamas book end which we use for a door stop. For one thing, the boys have really out grown good old B1 & B2, but for another it makes a lousy book end, but an awesome door stop.

Same room, different angle. My children had no idea what I was doing because watching tv is a new thing to them, or at least the movie they checked out of the library. Why yes, I do have pictures on the wall thanks for asking! I informed the house that I was hanging photos this day because the blank walls were killing me, because we don't have permission to put nails in the walls yet I had to hunt around for holes all ready in the walls.

While hanging these pictures I up I noticed that each picture of Morgan vertical & each picture of Jayden was horizontal. Funny part, it's pretty standard for other photos we have of them too! I stood there laughing until Mr S came to see what was up, apparently he'd all ready made the connection. And just for a fun fact, that green sayings that looks crooked but I promise isn't, is held up by velcro. Seriously! It's this awesome stuff that comes up and down easily but holds up really well. I love it! It's a renter's dream come true.

The embroidered wedding pieces my mom did for us actually had holes for nails all ready {thus the non-even placement on the wall}, but I was a wild child and stuck tacks to hang up the boys handprints. I've taken to leaving the newest handprints up on the wall each year and packing the older ones away for the Christmas Tree. We make then annually & have since Morgan was 2, all though we missed one year due to not being able to find white glue! In case your wondering, there's no glare on the first photo because the glass broke in that frame ages ago, someone closed a door and the thing fell off the wall and shattered. I was too cheap to replace the glass.

Our dining room, and yes it really does have pink carpet. I'm guessing that whatever person carpeted the dining room didn't have children, otherwise it wouldn't have carpet. And yes, we do have bright orange chairs, but at least they wash off really easy!

Our kitchen, and the only fault with the kitchen is that it has one, yes one, electrical outlet on the countertop for appliances. See my yogurt maker? The outlet is behind there and because the phone has to be plugged in there {only one phone jack in the house} I only have one outlet for appliances. Upside, the fridge has it's own outlet where it is, and so does the microwave in it's little niche. Seriously tempted to keep the toaster over the breakfast bar in the dining area.

School Area, if you look towards the left of the photo you'll see the strip of hall that runs up and down the long hallway, thus why I said earlier I was in the hall/school. Our table is still messy with posters to hang up because I ran out of the nifty poster tape which is also a renters delight. It's super heavy duty double stick stuff which can hold up a world map without letting it droop in the summer, but comes down very easily when you need to move house. As for our printer, it's still homeless at the moment. Thankfully it's a wireless printer so we can stash it anywhere, I love that!

This is the view from the backdoor which is in the school room area. Don't ask me why there's one single trampoline leg laying there, maybe a child is trying to drop a hint that we need to get it put together for him. There's actually a wonderfully good sized area towards the left for having a nifty veggie patch in this summer, we can't wait! Downside is we'll have to rabbit proof that area or we'll end up feeding bunnies instead of people. That small patch on the bottom left would make a great herb garden, but again bunnies..

Did you notice the gate in the fence in the last picture? It leads to a reserve where we've spotted the rabbit warren, and the whole big family of rabbits! We also spotted various birds {and a few leftover egg shells}, not to mention a protected water area which had some lovely water fowl in it. It'll make a lovely place for nature activities.

A Top Hat

2011-10-09T08:54:00.000+11:00

Last year for Christmas Jayden requested nothing more then a top hat and a fancy suit. Thanks to an amazing friend we had the suit taken care of no problem, but finding a top hat proved to be a little bit trickier. In the end, we did indeed find him one and despite it being one of those flimsy party store type hats he's taken great care of it.

While packing up the house I stumbled upon it in a very odd location & when Jayden spotted it his face lit up. Apparently he'd forgotten where he'd stashed it last and was delighted to have it back.

In fact, it kept him busy during many hours of packing. Swing riding wasn't complete without his special hat, nor was bird watching, dog chasing, or hide and seek playing. However, he wasn't limited to those typical activities either.

Jimmy was given a face {and a hat} which was only outdone when Mr S's real Uncle Jimmy rang. There was much squealing and giggling as the boys exclaimed, "Jimmy?! It's really Jimmy?" Which was followed up by endless rounds of giggling. I'm not sure Uncle Jimmy understand why he's such a celebrity, but anyway..

There was also much posing and begging for photos to be taken. I think this was his "serious" mode. Slightly less serious looking then the day his cousin said they should play wedding. There were no top hats that day, but Jayden was young enough she convinced him to wear her fancy gloves, play high heals, and a string of her toy pearls. I'm pretty sure we have a photo of that stashed away somewhere too!

There was also dressing up Mr Sparrow {who's really a kookaburra} for a special tea party he was going to. The tea party consisted of having his feathers brushed with my only brush & then sitting upon the fence to see if Mommy & Daddy blackbird would like to join him.

More picture posing. He's sucking on his bottom lip in an attempt not to giggle. Can you see the smile starting at the corner of his mouth? It makes me think of the kiss that was always hidden on Mrs Darling's lips in Peter Pan.

Then there was this, which absolutely freaked me out! I was upstairs packing and lugged a big old desk downstairs and out the door and caught the shape of a person out of the corner of my eye. Very nearly dropped the desk before muttering something like, "Hello?" thinking the gardner had turned up and I hadn't known. Once I put the desk down and turned around I couldn't stop laughing.

A Mouse

2011-10-08T00:00:00.001+11:00

As you might well remember we had some mouse issues in the old house, and I admit the thought of not having to deal with the mice next winter excited me when Mr S announced that we needed to move. However, the infestation we had this past winter made me dread the thought of unpacking the "creepy" closet as it became dubbed.

After much loathing and griping and a serious pep talk I braved it and dashed up stairs to that icky closet and began packing. My mother-in-law, who was staying with us, was kindly sewing up some curtains I'd taken down a week earlier and dismantled and happened to be in the adjoining room.

Once I finished packing the entire room I walked into the sewing area and said, "Well, the good news is we're all packed up. The bad news is I did find a mouse." My poor mother-in-law nearly flew out of her chair before I produced the mouse I'd found:

That's right, I stumbled upon one of these crazy toys and couldn't resist a good joke about it. When Mr S came home that evening I proudly declared that I had, all on my own, gutted it up and packed up the creepy closet. There was much hooraying and thumping on the backs happening before I declared, "But I didn't find a mouse in it."

"Really? Did you scream?"
"Yes, and no I didn't .. this time."
"Where was it?"
"On the game shelf, eating a piece of cheese."
"Really!! Eating cheese!!"
"Yep, just sitting there as pretty as you please nibbling on some cheese and not at all offended that I walked in to it's lair."
"Unbelievable!"

As this point we're all laughing, including Mr S because the thought of the mouse sitting there nibbling a block of cheese tickled him pink to no end. I then stood up produced the mouse from my pocket. And there was much more laughing.

Moving House

2011-10-07T12:14:00.000+11:00

The past week and a half have been a frenzy of packing, taping, & stacking boxes. Loading them on a variety of moving vehicles & then repeating the process in reverse at the new location. In which time I had plenty of time to reflect on moving.

And, my reflecting led me to conclude that moving must be some absurd form of self torture. There's the house hunting in hopes of finding something that fits your needs, the hunt for boxes {because I'm too cheap to pay for them}, the tangle of tape as you attempt to seal boxes, the lost marker so no one marks boxes, and then the stacking and moving of boxes just so you can repeat the whole process on the other side. Who on earth thought this sick game up anyway??

I have to admit though, that after moving across the world I've got packing down to a pretty good art now. I'm not one of those half hearted packers who takes months to pack a house. In fact, I had our house packed in days, thanks to the help of a couple of little boys who are real troopers when it came to lugging boxes of books, toys, and other "stuff" up and down our steps. All 12 of them, and yes I know exactly how many stairs were in the old house because I had to pay the carpet cleaner $2 per stair to clean those things!

There was also a lot of mad dashing around town while I begged every store I could think of for boxes. Did you know that most stores crush up boxes these days and won't let you have them once they do? Did you also know that if you rush into a store you frequent and greet them with, "Please, can I have those boxes you just put outside?" They will give you funny looks while happily permitting you to take the boxes. And, your husband is bound to think you've officially flipped your lid when you slam on breaks dash out of the car and race the trash man to snag boxes from the local primary school. But, rest assured I didn't fork out a dime for boxes, which made all the mad dashing and racing worth it.

Be forewarned that when you pull out pet carries to transfer small pets to new homes your children will become overly giddy thinking you're trundling off to the RSPCA to bring home a lovely new bundle of fur or feathers. Seriously. The guinea pigs who will have to ride in it will also add their squeals of distaste when you chuck them in without so much as a slice of carrot too.

Lego. That's a sentence right? Seriously, we have a lot of lego that normally resides in half of one of those turtle/clam sandboxes. Packing it was a chore, but one I moved out of the way relatively quickly. My first huge box home I loudly announced over the picnic breakfast on the lounge floor that today I was packing lego. Oh the horror until I said one small sentence, "Well, if I pack it now little chance of it getting lost in transit." There were some really eager hands waiting to help me pack up those pesky chunks of plastic.

I'm not kidding when I said it was a huge box! Unfortunately, I still tripped on lego while I finished packing and cleaning. I found lego in the car, the vacuum, the back of the moving truck, the tupperware box, the book boxes, and one morning after the boys could no longer await me unpacking it I tripped over it when I got out of bed too. Oh how I loathe and love lego, are you with me on that one?

The boys are eager to check out the reserve behind our house, and I'm hoping the water way back there will have some tadpoles for keeping an eye on this summer. Maybe even a swan or too. And while we don't have any nesting blackbirds, we did spot two rainbow lorikeets yesterday! I miss the view from the old house, I miss walking on the beach each day, but I welcome the new adventures ahead.

Special

2011-09-24T08:16:00.000+10:00

Incase you missed it on facebook.. Currclick is currently offering our Homeschool Book Of Days & our Homeschool Planner for 50% off right now, Enjoy!

Nature Freebie!

2011-09-22T06:52:00.000+10:00

For more info on how to snag these freebies, check out this blog post! Don't delay, it might be a limited time offer!

We're Moving..

2011-09-21T19:58:00.000+10:00

We're in the process of moving house, we're not actually moving far but you'd never know it from the looks of our home. I have more piles of boxes then any sane person should really have, and when I sent a child down the hall with another one there were many cries of, "But this stack is all ready too full!" And to think, I haven't even packed a single box upstairs!

I have a week {or just under} to finish packing our house and scrub the crazy thing down before I turn over keys. Can we say frazzled? That's me.

Clearly we won't be blogging much around here until things are settled down a bit, hopefully that won't be too far away because really I do love my sanity!

What did we find..

2011-09-19T21:34:00.001+10:00

Wonder what was in this nest? Check it out here.

Father's Day In Pictures

2011-09-18T20:48:00.000+10:00

We woke up the Saturday before Father's Day {Sept. 7} to two very excited little boys who were tired of having presents hidden in their closets. So, they'd woken up with the decision to hide the presents around the house and have Daddy find them.

It was incredibly funny because Mr S was enjoying not getting out of bed and the boys kept popping the door open and saying things like, "Aren't you excited? It's Father's Day! Get up! We're waiting!" Finally they came in and announced, very loudly, "We've hidden your presents because you've taken so long and now you'll have to find them!"

When Mr S finally made it to the living room he was greeted by Jayden hiding a giggle and trying very hard not to look at the place he'd hidden his package.

After the giggling finally settled down enough they informed Mr S that they were celebrating Father's Day early, and so Mr S obliging spent the next 10 minutes looking for presents.

Jayden hid his present in the oven, and much to Nana's relief it was discovered before anyone switched it on. Of course Jayden was utterly shocked that it was discovered so quickly, but equally delighted.

And what could possibly be in the package causing so much glee? It was not the croquette set he'd so desperately wanted to buy that's for sure. Apparently our town no longer sells them, and he had grand plans of making one until I told him that he could not snatch up any more of my hangers or I'd have to start flinging clean clothes upon the floor. I know, I know.. I should have let him..

There was very nearly heart failure as the prize was attempted to be removed from the box. There was also much squealing and hand wrenching in attempts not to snatch it up and use it before Mr S had a chance.

That's right folks, after years of being the target for the boys Nerf weapons, Mr S now gets to fight back! And there was much squealing and gigling! Mr S's even came with a clip that holds 6, which seemed really fancy until you realise it's the only way the weapon holds any bullets at all.

This crazy thing caused a lot of commotion as it took Mr S a while to work out how it worked. It is scary that I had a no issues in that department? In fact, I was found, at one point, flying across the yard chasing the boys down after their lovely "sneak attack on Mom while she's trying to make breakfast!" They decided it might be better, after that, to sneak up on their Nana instead.

What do you think Morgan picked out? What could possibly make Mr S laugh so hard he was nearly doubled up on the floor? What could it be that Morgan was so certain Daddy had always wanted because Daddy once said, "That'd be so funny!"

That's right, a drinking hat. Complete with two tins of Lemon-Lime solo. And can I just advise anyone who ever has a child buy them one.. Don't drink one can of anything with that crazy gizmo. Especially not if your wife is sitting next to you because she will wear the drink as it leaks out the hose, and if she tries to clamp off the house you will not be able to stop drinking on the other end. It was quite a trick to figure out and the cause of much laughter.

Homeschool Meme

2011-09-14T11:08:00.000+10:00

I'm clearly out of the loop because I had no idea there was a homeschool meme going around until the lovely Gae over at Cherished Hearts At Home told me I'd been tagged! Then, while blog hopping this morning I stumbled upon another blog that had also been tagged in the meme and had answered the same questions. Here's the nine questions and my answers:

1. One homeschool book you've enjoyed?

There a few I really do enjoy, but one I open up quite a bit would be Rebecca Rupp's Homelearning Year By Year as well as her The Complete Home Learning Source Book. Both are a wealth of information, especially for those who homeschool in the US, but I don't think one is limited by that either. I don't live in the US, and find both books really helpful in regards to wonderful resources to use, fun ideas, games, videos, etc. While I may not read them on a daily basis, I enjoy having them and do pull them out each time we embark on a new study.

2. One Resources You Wouldn't Be Without?

Oh my, there are so many "things" we use on a daily basis around here in our little school, but honestly I'd probably be in a real pickle without my books A Collection Of Math Lessons. When I can see a child struggling with a concept, when I want to introduce a concept in a fun way, when I need a new game to play with them.. basically anything mathy I need more info on I can whip out these books and find what I'm looking for. Don't tell Mr S, but I could easily ditch all the other math helps we have and be just fine with this little set!

3. One Resources You Wish You'd Never Bought?

I could name a couple to be honest! However, top of the list, hands down, would have to be Math Mammoth books. I know a lot of homeschoolers really rave about the curriculum, but it was not a good fit for our family. Nope, not for us. Understand, that it doesn't mean it's a poor product, it merely means it was not for us.

4. One Resources You Enjoyed Last Year?

Okay, this is a hard question. We school from January - December. We're all ready 98 days into our new school year, yes really. So I really hard to think hard about what I bought last year and I'm really coming up with nothing. BUT, we really have enjoyed our Grapevine Bible lessons. My boys beg for more of this. In fact, we love it so much I recently wrote a review about this curriculum! Having said that reminds me we bought the Scripture Adventure Easter Adventure last year too and we really enjoyed that as well!

5. One Resources You Will Be Using Next Year?

Well... I've actually had this under wraps for a while and was planning a blog post about it, but we will be switching to Sonlight next year. We have enjoyed our time with Winters Promise, and the book selections have been fun as we've plowed our way through them. However, for a variety of reasons we are switching to Sonlight next year and will, most likely, remain there for the duration. I'll explain better about this in another post, because I'm afraid I might get carried away if I started now!

6. One Resource You Would Like To Buy?

Well, I have quite a few of the Apologia Science books on my list right now. We've decided we need to beef science up around here and when I asked the boys which branch of science they wanted to study they were torn between Biology & Zoology. Of course, once I purchased zoology {but found out I have to wait an extra few weeks for the jr notebook for my younger student} the boys said they would love to do Biology first. So I'd definitely say Apologia science & their accompanying journals.

7. One Resource You Wish Existed?

Okay, so in a dream world there'd be a huge library that actually had every book I needed/wanted and I could pop in anytime and not have to worry about finding the book because it would actually be where it belongs. Aside from that, I really wish my area home educational group had a co-op. Nothing fancy at all, but I'd love that experience for my children. Growing up my parents actually lead a small homeschool group and thanks to that my siblings and I experienced mini science fairs, putting on productions {music & drama}, speaking in front of an audience, organised excursions, and so on.

I've honestly considered contacting a few families to see if they want to do a few of these things together, but I'll admit I'm not sure I'm up to the task of being chief organizer. For now, the boys and I are considering asking one or two families if they'd like to start a book club with us. Of course, that was before we found out we have to move..

8. One Homeschool Catalog You Enjoy Reading?

I confess I never get any. It's true, I don't. I heard wonderful things about the Winter Promise & Sonlight catalogs and decided to sign up for a copy each. My WP catalog never arrived and the SL catalog apparently changed it's layout this year and I didn't see anything special about it. That, in fact, was the first {and probably last} homeschool catalog I've ever received.

9. One Homeschooling Website you Use Regularly?

Hmm, well if message boards count I frequent a couple of those each week. I read a couple of blogs regularly, & I will confess that we use to use Homeschool Share very frequently, but haven't as much this past year. I also frequent The Curriculum Choice.

Tag 6 Other Homeschoolers:

Oo, I always hesitate at the tagging part of memes! I do, I really do.. let's see, in no particular order:

1. Nadene over at Practical Pages. I really love her practical advise & her free notebooking/lapboking pages. She's also in the Southern Hemisphere so she's probably not starting a new school term right now, but anyway..

2. Cindy over at Our Journey Westward. I always enjoy checking out the fun she and her kids are having. Plus, anyone who takes a stand against magazines with less then desireable photos on them in the checkout lines catches my attention!

3. Michele over at My Blessings From Above. Another fun homeschooling family, always up to fun things! My boys are totally smitten with her boys {via photos} because her son's are from S. Korea which is on Morgan's "bucket" list of places to visit. He's in total awe.

4. Tracey over at Horsing Around At Home. I've been watching Tracey's blog since she started. I'm eager to try her rock recipes with the boys as we continue our rock exploration!

5. Jen over at Jen's Little Things. Next time I'm in the states I'm going to just make one of those surprise visits to Jen's place so I can go on some of the spectacular field trips she goes on. Seriously. It looks like a lot of fun!

6. Jennifer over at Adventures in Unsell Land! Not only do they get up to some really fun stuff, you can check out her family's adventures with Apologia Science {I mentioned it above} to see why it looks so amazing. And, you really must read back through her blog and find the picture of her husband doing Wii Dance with her daughters. I laughed myself silly for days.

Spring Cleaning

2011-09-12T19:15:00.000+10:00

Spring has officially sprung here and with it has come spring cleaning chores. Our windows are covered with grime from the winter and we've been busily cleaning it all off. Mr S took pity on me earlier this afternoon and climbed up on the outside windows to clean them. I'd resorted to a long handled broom wrapped in paper towel. Our windows are low to the ground inside {all most floor level} but outside they are actually up quite high. I'd have snapped a photo of him balancing on that brick ledge, but I was too busy making sure he didn't slip.

{after}

Our back garden has been quite a mess too, and we've had someone in to help us get it back under control. So there's been much overseeing of that as well as chasing spiders out of the curtains & enjoying every moment of warm and sunshine we could!

{after}

Walking down this path this winter was pretty impossible as we dodged all sorts of plants attempting to poke and pull us. The fellows who've been clearing things out have done an amazing job!

{after}

This was the garden Mr S had the chair in he climbed up on to reach the windows. The window in the far back was the one he found me trying to scrub with my broom wrapped in papertowel. It did a fairly decent job considering I couldn't reach even standing on a chair!

Wondering just how bad our garden was? Here's a small picture {unedited} of the final section that still needs to be worked on. Can't wait for the final section to be done, especially since it's the closest to my laundry area. If you need a good gardener we'd be happy to pass on the info.

We Remember

2011-09-11T00:00:00.003+10:00

A moment in time that changed our lives forever. We won't forget. We remembered in our own way, and shared a little more with the boys. Someday they'll know it all, but not this day. We prayed for uncles and cousins off fighting, we cried for losses, & were grateful for the blessings we have. Patriot Day: Lest we forget what we have, Lest we forget what was given, Lest we forget why, Lest we forget..

Fractions

2011-09-09T12:35:00.000+10:00

We’re starting with fractions again around here for the younger crowd. It’s funny really, that just when you think you’ve finished teaching a topic you suddenly find yourself teaching it again. While we’ve been using Teaching Textbooks for math around here, we’re still enjoying living math lessons as well.

I keep a close eye on what the boys are learning and how they are scoring on their lessons. If I see an area where they score poorly consistently or they ask me lots of questions about then I find extras for us to do in that area in order for me to be certain, and them to be confident, in what is being learned.

So, I find myself with a mini list of things I want to work with Jayden on. Very mini, for that matter, because he really does very well for himself. One of the items on my list is fractions.

I confess, the first resource I always turn to is my books from A Collection Of Math Lessons. I know it’s weird, but I really love those books! In fact, we have a daily session of reading around here where the boys are required to read for 20 minutes from books I’ve assigned them. This week Morgan was reading about Daniel Boone, Jayden was reading a beginner’s chapter book, and I was sitting there curled up with a math book. Morgan looks up, clears his throat and says, “I really don’t feel like you’re reading when I see that you have a math book in your hand Mom.” I kid you not!

I also pulled out Apple Fractions. Have you seen this book? It’s beautifully illustrated, and very fun to read. The entire concept is fractions, obviously, but it also lightly touches on things like numerator, denominator, & improper fractions. Just enough so that he understood exactly what those things meant without having to poor over gobs of math problems.

I also took liberties with the text and anytime it deviated from the theme of apples I’d end that page with, “Anyway, let’s get back to the apples!” or something of that nature. He raved about the book to Morgan & then later to Mr S and confessed to both of them that it was so funny I should read it again. Then he asked me to specifically read a page where it said “now back to the apples!” I had to hide a snicker.

After finishing the book I thought it would have been wonderful to have a matching notebooking page, I’ll have to work on that this week. In the mean time I gave him a page full of squares and we broke them down
into all sorts of fun fractions.

I also picked up Spaghetti & Meatballs For All as I have a lesson planned for this book as well, all based on fractions. Anything involving spaghetti is sure to please in this house with the boys.

We also watched an episode of Cyberchase involving fractions, per his request. Yeah, I know I’m raising geeks who ask for math cartoons, it could be worse I suppose.. {follow the link & you'll see the other parts of the episode..}

We’ve also got a few fractions games, mostly homemade, that we’ll be pulling out to use. I’m also thinking that since Morgan has covered radius and diameter I should make them an apple pie & let him cover that & Jayden cover fractions all with the pie. You know, if I can keep them eating it before we use it for a math lesson.

It should be a fun math month!

Funny Faces

2011-09-07T19:24:00.000+10:00

L-R: Morgan, Damien, Kendra

See, Jayden isn't the only one who makes hideously naughty faces for the camera. All though I have to say that's not the my worst camera face. I'm pretty sure there's a few floating around here my tongue is sticking out, I'm in a child sized knight mask, and other such hideous things..

It's just that he does it so much better then the rest of us! And yes, my child is wearing a barrette in his hair. He needs a haircut, but when I have time he doesn't..

Math Journals

2011-09-05T00:00:00.000+10:00

We're still having fun with our Math Journals on a near daily basis around here. We've gotten into a simple, effective, and fun routine with them, and it's often how we start out day.

The page to the left if one both boys do, all though honestly it's very below Morgan and he doesn't need to do it. He hasn't complained about it though so I've not told him to drop it, and since I've not come up with a flashier daily page for him we carry on..

I did not create the page to the left, all though I think it's awesome. Mrs. Carroll from her Teacher's Pay Teacher's store. It is geared for the younger crowd, which works very well for Jayden. It let's him brush up on lots of skills each day, & repetition is a good thing at this age.

The page has them writing the date both ways {digits only/digits & words}, works on number words, telling time, greater then & less then, tally marks, place value, money, & more. For us, it also includes working on rounding.

Because we don't have pennies here the boys have to round up or down to figure out how much money to put in the piggy bank. Again, it's all just great review for Morgan, but it's perfect for Jayden. The first time we did one of these pages it probably took us about 20-30 minutes to talk it through so he new what to do with it, but now they can both do it in a matter of minutes with out much help. The teacher who made it designed it for her classroom so we've edited a few things. For instance, we don't have a pattern of the day so we skip it, all though sometimes the boys like to make up their own pattern. I often pull from the date to tell the kids a time. Sometimes I give time down to the minute, sometimes not.

We also have a math jar, which I seem to have lost my photo of. It's basically an empty glass jar with a lid. Inside are word problems. I have one for each child, and each day they pull out a word problem read it over and solve it. The idea is that they solve it in their journal. First they solve it mathematically, then they write down why they chose to solve it the way they did.

Most of our word problems now come from the these three Scholastic books. I've picked them up at different sales and they each have a range of problems inside of them. Every Day Of The School Year Math Problems has a large variety of problems from simplistic word problems to actual challenges. There's an entire break down in the front on how to get the most from the book, and I have to say that's a really good section to read through because there's just so much in the book! 5-Minute Math Problems Of The Day has problems broken down by topic which is quick and simple if you're working on a specific thing and want a daily problem {or more} to go along with it. 200 Super-Fun Super-Fast, Math Story Problems has something written for each day of every month! The really fun thing about this is you can also pick it up one month at a time from Scholastic's e-store. Funtastic!

The fun thing about the math notebook/journal bits I picked up from TPT is that it came with lots of other goodies in for littles. Jayden loves having those handy in his notebook. Days of the week, months of the year, number words, hundreds chart, and on goes the list. I love all those little bits for him! One of the handy pages inside was meant specifically for solving math problems on, the boys generally use this page, specifically, for solving their word problem of the day! We've also used plain A4 paper, graph paper, or even typical lined school paper. I just liked the way this page was broken down with defined space for writing and drawing.

The boys also have notebooking pages in their math journals. Yep, you read that right. When the boys learn a new concept we don't just define the word in their journal, but sometimes they'll want to make a notebooking page for the new topic. The page above is one Jayden made after learning about horizontal, vertical, and oblique lines. He knew what he wanted on the paper and asked me to write it for him. He used a ruler to make his lines, and then thought of letters that fit the term which we also added. He asked me to write bubble words at the top which he colored in and then added the lines at the side. He pulls this page out if he has a "blank moment" when trying to remember which directional line is which. All in all, our math journals seem to get a pretty good workout!

Bible Funnies

2011-09-03T23:24:00.000+10:00

We're still enjoying Grapevine Bible NT, and this week we were learning about Jesus praying in Gethsemane. Jayden was so proud of his little picture of Jesus being very excited about the apple tree he was praying under. It seemed oh so cute until he said, "Oh, maybe I shouldn't have drawn apples since Eve ate one when she shouldn't have." I very nearly fell out of my chair from laughing!

I'd barely recouped when I looked over at Morgan's paper and asked why on earth Jesus had such funky hair. His reply was very matter of fact, "Mom! It's not his hair, he's doing the Robot Dance." I landed on the floor.

Aussie Pumpkin Patch

More Bookshelves

A Day At The Beach

Lego Books

Times Alive, A Review

2012 School Planner..

Computer Malfunction

Too Good Not to Share

A Day Out

More Summer Reading

Christmas Eve {2011} In Pictures

Super Farmer Game

School Room Make Over

A Flag & A Story

Christmas Goodies Part Three

2011/12 NewYears Eve & Day In Pictures

Christmas Goodies Part Two

Christmas Goodies Part One

New Year Devotionals

3-D Maps Review

Merry Christmas

Papercraft

Cupcake Kit

Great Minds Think Alike

Caterpillars

A Day Out

Summer Reading

Summer Fun Ahead

School Wrap Up

Saturday Entertainment

Advent Calendar

Planner Sale

Maximum Orginization

Cupcakes

FIAR Ornament Exchange: 2011

Arm River 2011

He is coming..

Happy Thanksgiving

A Welcomed Finish

A Funny Story

Government Branches

Library Kit

Sugar-Free PB Cups

Pen Pal Kit

ipad Cover

Humor Me

NaNoWriMo 2011

Revolutionary War Review

Birthday Cake

Appliqued T-Shirts

12 Years Ago..

SpellWell Review

Another Planner

Nature Finds

Winter Promise 12 Weeks Later

A Spy Hole

Recess

Colonial LIfe

Mail Center

Our New Abode

A Top Hat

A Mouse

Moving House

Special

Nature Freebie!

We're Moving..

What did we find..

Father's Day In Pictures

Homeschool Meme

Spring Cleaning

We Remember

Fractions

Funny Faces

Math Journals

Bible Funnies