Little bits

Our real lives are full of little bits of this and that… The witch and the cherry tree in Lego… all just because…..

two weeks out

We are so incredibly lucky! We got to spend two weeks totally out of our normal life volunteering for the Department of Conservation at a Lodge at Nydia bay. Only 5 hours of power a day, no cellphone reception… no roads, shops and not even many people! We got dropped there by boat with our…

Grrr

I wrote a whole post on my bossy child and I thought it morphed into an excellent discussion about people working together, group dynamics and the different roles different personalities take and how this is learned in childhood practice… but the computer swallowed it before I illustrated it with photos of my darling and I…

still filing

H is still following her filing schema.. But it is getting more complicated… or is it more recognisable. The library now has categories: making and doing, then alphabetical by author’s first name with a small non fiction bit at the end.. the chapter books are on a different shelf, also alphabetically by author’s first name,…

learning from your kids

I am starting, at 52, to enjoy Shakespeare after nearly 40 years of total aversion. Why? Because my child loves the language and the drama of it all. Weirdo. She is at the moment at the end of the table reciting from a book of Shakespeare’s poems and excerpts from plays… getting more and more…

learning for your kids

I have done role playing because I had friends who were really into it (and some still play) but I was really just a visitor – I turned up, played (and enjoyed my self) but I didn’t learn how to run a game, how to be the one responsible, how it all worked. I saw…

the Tests

I found some UK kids tests in my teachers college stuff, we must have been given them as a ‘this is kinda like a P.A.T test with out us giving you one’ thing. They are for year 5, level 3-5. I have taught in the UK but couldn’t tell you if that us the same…

random stuff of the week brought to you by rain

Rain, rain and more rain… It has rained every day for the last few weeks. Our garden is a bog, and a very muddy cold bog at that. We have been somewhat stuck inside – I know we could go brave the weather but neither of us want to…… So Helena has put her pile…

Playing school

It turns out homeschool kids play school. Helena plays it with her neighbors (7 and 4), her toys, and me!!! This has happened before. I go to bed to find a note on my pillow letting me know I have to sign up to some school like activity. I am currently not doing my Science…

the week that was

About an hour ago I was feeling totally successful. I felt we had accomplished a lot during the week. Our meeting on Monday was actually kinda fun – I went through the areas of the NZ curriculum (that I said I’d use in my homeschool application) and we thought about whether we had done something…