money money money… sea treasure! (weekend school)

Helena and her friend collected 185 sand dollars… independently while spending hours out on the sea on boogie boards while their adults watched from a considerable distance and let them do science. We counted them We watched them We talked about the small area they got them from, so how many are there… millions? We…

the card industry… (26.10.18)

Someone else’s ideas We got some paint colour samples on those little cards and I made the comment that Helena “better DO something with them”… a friend of mine said she used them to make cards. Helena leapt on this idea. These are all for sale…  I can get them for a special discount (the…

Thanks Mr Pound (21.10.18)

We visited the Wellington City Art Gallery and saw Patrick Pound’s On Reflection. Helena’s first response was “this is boring” I think brought on by thinking about the cafe later on and knowing about the drawing station that she has always liked visiting…. after a few drawings approach number two, this time maybe she was…

a normal day (20.09.18)

Some context: I leave Helena to do what she will with her day. I am attempting to see what she will independently do. I don’t tell her this but after a while every time the alarm goes she says “ask me what I’m doing mummy”… I want to know how long she sustains a period…

it’s all about the process but I wish I had cleaners….

the table we eat all our meals at between meals….. the bedroom floor… the desk that can’t be used due to the mess created while using it…. Last week our virtue was cleanliness (partly a er sort of joke…) but the house was somewhat cleaner for that week. It is a hard road to navigate…

four out of five isn’t bad (14.09.18)

it says – Read books go to the library play do the garden Happy Fish printing Today I said we really should finish up stuff however Helena wanted me to read to her so I said “put it on a list” and went and got dressed… then I came out to find this and weirdly…

you can’t escape the wheels of commerce (09.18)

We went tramping, which is a many hours walk up a big hill carrying everything you need… all to stay in a nice one room hut with no electricity, or kitchen and an outside loo with a spectacular view (“you care about views Mummy, I don’t”). I often wonder why people go tramping, especially with…

writing week (27-31.08.18) with no slapping

For some reason this week Helena did some writing… was she not worried about details, that first time perfection? She did have something to say, and has rather enjoyed the re-reading and likes reading it to me. It says – “I thought this in the night and thought Mum would like it so I waited…

Thursday am (30.08.18)

Setting: a house, our house Plot: I was making the babies food – they are all babies who have lost their Mums in the war and some of them are injured (Florence Nightingale is this weeks person to study).  for instance Panda is short but the person who shot their mum was walking which means…

THE famous five… and a wee Rebel girls rant

Enid Blyton wrote 21 Famous Five books… I don’t have to look that up, I just ask Helena. We are on book 14, we missed one, and had to get the library to order one because it wasn’t at either of the libraries we belong to. We may not have to read the last one…