Our Journey in Him

While we wait.......

2011-11-04T12:34:00.000-07:00

We're shifting gears and finding new truths about ourselves.

Discovering who we are without labels and expectations.

Enjoying just being.

Learning about waiting and believing.

Our Father's timing is perfect, after all.

And while we wait and rest in His Light......

I am discovering the beauty of my creator.

For He never meant for me to be like you,

He asked that I seek Him and His ways.

His Word came to set me free.

Somehow it feels like I've been set free from something......and yet everything has a purpose in my life.

You see, I'm still learning that when I look into His Light,

When I cease to compare,

when I stop looking for answers from others,

and when I keep looking to Him for the paths on which to journey,

they may seem to change often,

or sometimes just slightly,

but it's always exciting journeying with Him.

And as long as I keep holding His hand and looking into His face,

He will still be there guiding me, never leaving, never forsaking.

And in His freedom I can be truly free to be the me He created me to be.

A relaxed Nature Club.

2011-09-26T10:54:00.000-07:00

Although everyone in our Nature Club is very committed and nine times out of ten we have all four families there, last week found us having to change plans at short notice due to two families having other engagements.

So I thought it might be nice to take advantage of the great weather we had and we headed to Dale Brook Tidal pool to (hopefully) catch a glimpse of the whales in the bay.

WARNING: when heading towards Kalk Bay in a car, the entrance to the parking lot has changed it's position. Don't drive past it like me and end up having to park far away from your planned destination!

Hopefully the road works will soon be finished.

When we met our friends in the parking lot this was our view.

More evidence that spring has sprung.

Beautiful.

A short distance from this parking lot, heading back towards Cape Town, you will find some steps which lead to this beautiful treasure along our coast line.

Dale Brook Tidal pool.

Not too sure why I didn't pack in costumes that day.

I remembered everything but the costumes! Why is it always one thing that gets left behind?!

Not minding that they were without costumes the children quickly stripped down to their underwear and ran with squeals of delight towards the pool.

Our rocks are not white here in South Africa-these were probably painted during a spring low tide.

Although they are not natural they add to the beauty of the surroundings.

The water was cold and it was at quite a high level. You could just see the wall dividing the water in the pool from the vast expanse of sea beyond the wall.

It took me a while to catch this photo, and it still doesn't show you how awesome the waves were crashing over the pool wall.

The view towards Kalk Bay Harbour.

The view from the safety of the pool side.........she just can't wait to be big enough to join those three crazy kiddies playing in the water!

And then finally the view we all had been waiting for.

A Southern Right Whale waving it's flipper at us.

These whales return here every year at this time to give birth to their calves.

In fact, one had been spotted last week which had just given birth near this spot!

So after seeing what we had come to see and after a glorious time in the pool we headed off for some more exploring.

A quick stop to watch the road works. What fun for the big machine loving boys-we even got to see a digger which was precariously trying to balance on a mound of sand. It quickly let down it's stabiliser's to help it to balance, much to the delight of our boys.

Just opposite the Dale Brook pool you'll find the Shark Center.

I've wanted to pop in there for some time so I thought we'd do that on this particular day.

Inside a very friendly, shark loving guy invited us to look inside their fish or rather, shark tank.

We had fun finding some of the secrets hiding in the water.

Can you spy the shark's egg here? It's often called a mermaid's purse.

There are some lovely books and dvd's on sale there and they kindly offered for us to watch one of the dvd's in their upstairs room.

I'm not sure what this little man enjoyed more, the dvd or the plastic shark toys?

A lovely morning, once again, spent with our nature club friends.....well some of them.

No matter how small the group is it's still fun to get out into nature with our friends.

And the good news is we'll be returning to a nearby beach this week with everyone from the club.

Perhaps we'll be lucky enough to catch another glimpse of our whale friend!

Our nature fun for the day didn't end there though.

When we returned home we found a very nervous Charity who had had her own nature experience!

This little slug eater has probably been in our cupboard all winter.

(good thing we're busy doing spring cleaning!)

It was busy shedding it's skin when we found it.

And of course this little man was only too eager to adopt it.

It took a bit of convincing to get him to agree that we couldn't keep it as a pet!

This post features on the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers where South African home schoolers share experiences, ideas, philosophies and much more. You can join the carnival too by heading to the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers sign up page. In the meantime, head to SACH Carnival #8 - Co-ops and Support Groups for this week's carnival. We hope you enjoy the carnival as much as we have!

Revisiting the museum in Heritage week.

2011-09-26T05:26:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we celebrated Heritage Day here in South Africa.

Last week the Iziko Museums kindly opened their doors to the public allowing everyone free entry to any of their museums.

Feeling a little guilty that we hadn't been to many museums this year (what is it with this mother's guilt!?) I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to visit the Natural History Museum in Cape Town.

We'd been there two years ago when Michael was a two year old. So I knew this would be a totally different experience for both of the kids.

Of course Jenna, with her memory like an elephant, never forgot that it was the place we had seen the dinosaur displays. So she was super excited to return.

I love the road that leads you past the Company Gardens on you way to the museum. It's looking beautiful with all of the old oak trees dressed in their new green leaves.

On our previous visit the main attraction had been the dinosaurs and the whales.

As the kids had been quite a bit younger then we didn't walk through the whole museum.

Now that they're a bit older their concentration and interest can be held a bit longer.

So I decided we'd start at the bottom and work our way to the top.

Our first stop was the section which classically houses the "before white man" history.

It is filled with scenes about the Zulus, Bushmen and other African tribes which inhabited our beautiful land before it was discovered.

It was a wonderful, gentle way of teaching the kids about our land's history. Everything is laid out before them and they asked questions or I pointed out items which I thought they could relate to or would interest them.

Although admittedly I don't think that our museum has much of a wow factor. (I visited the Natural History Museum and Science Museum when I went to England and I still think this particular museum could be made more interactive for children.) It has improved since our last visit, so perhaps we'll catch up someday!

Of course the kids are non the wiser and so there were many oohs and aahs coming from them.

Especially in the Sea section.

I convinced Jenna to stand in the whale's mouth-but Michael was not keen on being swallowed up like Jonah!

I don't blame him when you see these creatures face to face they are rather overwhelming!

Listening to their sounds, in the whale sound box, was a little scary for them too, but they were very intrigued by that experience.

There was no convincing Mikey to enter these shark jaws!

But perhaps because he knows these are extinct, I finally managed to convince him to have a photo with the dinosaurs :-)

Sadly it seems we haven't had many dinosaurs discovered here in South Africa so there aren't many bones to see which is what Jenna was hoping for.

She had prepared a clipboard to take a long on which to record all of the dinosaurs and who had discovered them. We couldn't really find that specific info. Thankfully she wasn't put off by the lack of info and just simply enjoyed discovering each new display-even the gory ones!

We did get to see a poster explaining fossilisation, which tied in nicely with our recent visits to the wetlands and our lessons on sandstone and rock formation.

And we saw a short display by one of the museum aides who was demonstrating how they remove the bones from the hard rock.

After all of that learning it was time to get rid of some energy outdoors.

As Jen put it: Mom, I've had enough of this place, please can we leave now?

Time for learning done.........time for play to begin!

Does anybody know where all of the fish have gone to in the pond?

We shared our lunch with the friendly squirrels.........they come up very close to you.

Once Michael almost had one eating out of his hand.

After a walk through the gardens we passed the National Art Gallery.

I was surprised that the kids wanted to go inside and even more surprised to see that entrance was free that day as well!

My kids constantly amaze me simply by what grabs their interest.

Walking around the gallery Michael was intrigued by a photograph display and took himself off on his own guided tour.

Then we discovered Tretchikoff's art work .

They had a display case housing the original dress worn by the "blue faced Chinese lady".

We turned our art tour into a quick scavenger hunt as we walked through the halls of the gallery hunting for the painting in which the dress had been painted. Finding the painting was easy, but getting Jenna to agree that it was the same dress wasn't as easy. I guess she was right though-afterall, the original dress was blue not yellow. A classic opportunity for teaching an artist's license to interpret the world as he sees it!

And then they asked to watch the documentary on Tretchikoff's life........like I said, it amazes me what intrigues them. They sat as still as mice watching the movie, which I thought was totally above their level. Just goes to show we should never underestimate what our children are capable of or rule out the topics which would interest them!

So I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that after all of that culture and stillness that they would have needed to move.

But perhaps the bannisters of the art gallery are not the best place for children to climb?!

Perhaps that's why they created the interactive art work out doors where they found a place to use up some energy turning the wheels to make the little lion and man move?!

But before Michael decided to make that into a jungle gym too we used up that pent up energy with a long walk back to our car.

And when we got home this is what they got up to...........

Bushmen in their little skirts adorned with necklaces and armed with digging sticks. Oh and the panties on the head? That's supposed to be the short curly hair. (She doesn't have a black pair ;-)

I just love it when they recreate their learning experiences through creative play!

Thanks Iziko Museum for the inspiration.

Week-ends are for family.....and friends.

2011-09-25T14:22:00.000-07:00

I think we can definitely say our final good-byes to winter.....spring seems to have decided to stick around for at least four of the seven days in a week.

Saying good-bye to winter means we say good-bye to hockey for Ray and hello to cycling and training for the Argus Cycle race.

This year Ray decided to return to the hockey field after a little break.

Most week-ends the kids and I tried to tag along to watch.......or rather they would ride, make new friends or just explore the grounds while I sat huddled in the car trying to read or watch the game!

We all enjoyed these days. And although I will confess that I'm no more clued up on hockey rules than I was since he last played, our children's interest in ball sports has definitely grown.

Proving that it is often when we as parents share our love and interests with our children that their interests are ignited.

As crazy as it may sound we went swimming in winter, and that's only because

we were blessed with a week-end away with Ray's folks at Montague Springs.

I, who will admit to not being a water baby, was even tempted to enter into the warm baths.

Of course the kids and Ray spent most of their time in the warm water despite the icy cold air which wrapped around you when you eventually ventured out again.

I was amazed at how much the kid's swimming has progressed since last summer-I think this may just be the summer we will get to throw away all swimming aids.

Jenna even surprised us by going down the super tube, once ;-) Perhaps next time she'll convince Mikey!

Now I'm really looking forward to summer days filled with swimming.

That's the kids, not me by the way......yes, I really am that bad at getting into the pool!

At the start of spring we celebrated my neice's second birthday at the Barnyard.

And that is when Jenna got to ride on a pony for the second time in her life.

She was so excited to ride on the pony. Not once, not twice but three times-thanks Aunty Susan for organising extra tickets-you made her day!

While she waited in between rides Mikey and her had such fun in the carousel. They've wanted to have a carousel ride forever so lots of little wishes were answered that day.
Jenna's excitement about riding soon rubbed off on Mikey and after initially declining a ride he proudly mounted the little pony.....

To those who don't know him this may look like an unhappy scowl but actually it's his: I'm really proud-but-don't-want-to-show-it smirk........we just missed catching the toothy grin which followed. He couldn't hide his pride for long :-)

Winter has finally come to an end and, I may be a little too soon here, but I think I have smelt summer blooming already.

a surfer girl in the making

(thanks for the wet suit Rach!)

sandcastles are so much fun when built with your friends

Could that be because our week-ends are once again filled with braais and beaches with friends and family?

The Scout (Nature) club????

2011-09-25T11:07:00.000-07:00

This Nature Club happened a few weeks ago but I just have to share some of the pictures with you!

We drove around the coast, on the Scarborough side, to a picnic spot in a forest near Red Hill Pottery Studio-I hope those directions are clear enough for you, sorry I can't remember the name right now;-)

Underneath the shade of the tall pine trees our little nature clubbers got to practice some scouting survival skills.

First they had to collect kindling for a fire.

They soon discovered the pine needles and thought they would make great kindling.

(even though some of their collection was green-we left it up to nature to teach them what would happen when you put green leaves onto a fire).

And then they got to light the fire!

It was very interesting watching the experienced Daddy's-little-braai-helper's teach their friend's just how to do the job properly!

When the fire was all ablaze it was time to hunt for a sturdy stick and some more pine needles to use to create a broom. So off they went in search of sticks while I was left to man their fire.

Soon they were racing back to get their little hands busy broom making.

They learnt how to lash their leaves onto the stick to create the broom.

Lots of co-ordination needed here!

After successfully making their brooms they had great fun sweeping the site clean.

Then the big girls got rolls ready for lunch time because we were going to cook eggs on the fire in orange peels!

Yip, you read correctly.

Eggs cooked inside orange skins on the fire.

Want to know how?

First halve your orange.

Scoop out all the flesh.

Crack an egg into the "egg cup".

And then place your egg cup onto the coals.

Wait patiently while the egg cooks.

Patiently, I said, because it does take rather long!

And then if you're a real rough-it kind of kid you'll taste the egg-even if it is covered in ash and tastes a little like orange :-)

Needless to say, although it is a great idea if you're stuck out in the wild with a only few oranges and some eggs to eat, it probably wouldn't be recommended by my rough-it kind of kids.

They preferred the marshmallows of course, but not done in mom's experimental banana split style!

After learning all those survival skills it was time to relax under the trees and gaze up at the branches high above us.

Another wonderful morning spent with our friends perfecting our survival skills and enjoying nature.

How do you encourage creativity?

2011-09-22T05:54:00.000-07:00

Have you ever read about the Multiple Intelligence Theories?

I love that it smashes the theory of the old IQ tests and encourages you to see that people can be intelligent in different ways,

after all......

everyone of us was created to be different, weren't we?

When I look at my children and their unique personalities I stand in awe of how God created them so differently.

I used to feel guilty about not doing art projects with Jenna every week.

She loves to create....... almost everyday there's some new project in the making.

Then I realised that I didn't have to teach her how to be creative, she already is.

All I had to do was expose,

provide and

encourage!

I may not be creative in the traditional sense of the word.......but I am a creative thinker.

Give me an organisational problem to solve and I'll do my best to find the most practical way to make it work.

So in our home creativity is not encouraged by regular art lessons by mom, and I no longer feel guilty about it!

At times it is encouraged out of a desire.....

She wanted a crown,

so she created one.

I make art and craft materials easily available to her so that when she feels inspired she can just create.

At times it starts off as creative play and then gets built on.....

a block t.v.

I make sure toys are easily accessible too. Sometimes it helps to leave toys, which are not regularly played with, in the place of favourite toys.

At times she expresses herself creatively through dance.......

and manages to convince her brother to dance a part in the Nutcracker Ballet with her.

I make sure there's a variety of music playing sometime during the day.

At times she gets inspired by dvd's she's watched.....

then out come the face paints and dress up clothes.

I recognise that she is a visual learner and that she also relaxes by watching dvd's. Buying a new dvd or borrowing from friends, makes sure she has time to unwind from all that creative thinking!

At times she just has a vision inspired by recyclables and it must be created now!

After all, every princess needs a castle doesn't she?!

I store boxes etc. and supply different materials for construction.......even though it takes up so much space and can sometimes be a fleeting idea ;-)

(recycled creations is not my idea of fun, but I've let go of my need to declutter and throw away for the sake of her creative expression)

The bonus side of her creativity is that it often involves team work to create.

The castle needed some colour.

At times she just loves to be outdoors in creation.....

and that's enough to inspire a little bit of creative play.

I've tried to encourage outdoor play and left my children to entertain themselves a lot........I've never wanted to hear: what can I do now mom?

At times the books she reads (or those which are read to her) inspire her to create.

I've shared my love of books with her by having reading times and books available around our home all the time.

{Jesus baptising men in the river-she drew this while we were reading Bible stories one morning.... just something she wanted to do}

At times she gets inspired by beauty she see's around her....

and so she plans,

and then she paints....

and draws.........a bird's view of it all.

I sometimes set up our dining table for painting time while I prepare supper.....it's a peaceful activity at the end of a busy day ;-)

We're all gifted in different ways.

When it comes to arts and crafts I'm not going to be the first mom to offer you ideas for creative activities to do with your children.....

but I will encourage you to use your gifts to discover your child's unique abilities,

because being creative isn't just about arts and crafts!

Trust in the Lord with all your heart.....

2011-09-19T13:48:00.000-07:00

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.

We are coming to the end of a beautiful season. One which I have been so blessed to walk through. I have so many good memories to treasure and many, many lessons have been learnt.

Saying good-bye to a time in your life is not easy. I've needed time to process. Time to know that we heard clearly.

And now my heart is filled with joy and peace. I know that our new path will have it's challenges, but I believe that it is one directed by the Lord.

I prayed and asked for clear guidance for He said.....

Proverbs 16 vs 3:Roll your works upon the Lord (commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and) so shall your plans be established and succeed.

And when I wrestled with what I heard I read.....

Proverbs 16 vs 9 A man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps and makes them sure!

And I was so thankful that I could rest in Him, trusting that He would indeed direct our steps and guide us to where He wants us to walk......

So we are stepping forward, in faith, leaning not on our own understanding but trusting Him with all our heart. Knowing that He holds us in the palm of His hand and that He will be our Shepherd, next year we will start a new journey with Jenna. Grade One in mainstream schooling........

A walk in the wetlands.

2011-08-04T07:00:00.000-07:00

Last week it was my turn to lead our nature walk. My focus has been the wetlands/vleis and rivers in our area. I've taken you to this wetland recently with my own children, now you can come along with our Nature Club friends too!

The last time I led Nature Club it was a rainy day. So we had to apply "rainy day procedure", where the mom who is leading for the week, has a back up plan for activities to do at home.

I had focused on the water cycle (after all it was rain that was causing us to be indoors).

We did a few simple experiments to learn about the water cycle. We also made our very simple rain gauge that week which we have been using to measure the very little rain fall we've been having this winter!

My aims when I go on a nature walk with my children are:

to notice any changes since our last visit to the area
point out any new nature finds like flowers that are blooming, birds, insects and animals ( I don't always know their names so this is where the other moms and field guides come in handy)
remind them of old "friends" they made on previous visits (this gives me a chance to see if they are remembering any nature finds we had previously)
sometimes I choose one focus point or mini-lesson to teach before hand-but I like to keep these as short as possible and as relevant to the kids as I can.
and most importantly: run around, play, jump and squeal in delight to be outdoors!

Because we were visiting the wetland and I had previously talked about the water cycle I wanted to continue on the same theme of water and how it always travels down hill till it arrives at the lowest possible point, the sea, dam or wetland.

We learnt that where the water gathers together like this it is called a pan.

And then we spent some time playing at the man made overflow pipes which helped us to discover that the water was moving out of this pan and into the next.

We discussed what they saw on top of the water and what they thought they would find underneath the surface?

Then they had fun filling bags with water to see what colour the water was.

We chatted about what could make the water this colour?

I just love to hear their ideas.

(Rocks, sand, dirty mountain water and algae!)

I love seeing how their little brains tick over and just how much of the world around them they already understand.

We smelt, felt and discussed the sounds water makes-a lovely opportunity to extend vocabulary while learning through the five senses. Finally we chatted about why it wouldn't be a good idea to taste it!

And no, it wasn't because smelly feet were in it ;-)

Sadly, these waters can get a little polluted with litter and animals and birds use it for bathing, amongst other things.

And then we went on to explore some more......

just where does all this water go to in the end?

We entered into territory previously unexplored and discovered these.....

sand dunes!

What fun!!! It was time for the run, jump and squeal with delight part of our nature walk.

Lessons over, or rather lessons postponed till next time ;-)

A quick pose beside the waters before heading on back to our picnic spot.

As we were discussing that water is always moving downhill I had asked the moms to bring corks with so that we could make very simple cork boats.

Initially when we arrived back at our picnic spot I thought that I wouldn't disturb the playful games the children had started.....

but soon someone asked for the corks and instead of me teaching them how to make boats it became a combined effort of ideas.

Let's cut it in half!

What will we use for a sail?

There are no more toothpicks what can we use now? Thorns!

These kids are creative I tell you!

Watching them float down the river brought great delight to all!
Isn't she a cutie pie?!?

And to end it all off we read a story about the journey of a brook.

This book is one from the science reader series I mentioned before. Natural science in a story form.

A morning filled with fun, relaxed learning and friends-just the way we like it!

And when they got home what did they do?

Created their own rivers of course, down the gentle slope of our garden.

I think she understood the concept.
Nothing teaches them better than nature and living books!

This post features on the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers where South African home schoolers share experiences, ideas, philosophies and much more. You can join the carnival too by heading to the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers sign up page. In the meantime, head to SACH for this week's carnival. We hope you enjoy the carnival as much as we have!

In pursuit of penguins.......

2011-08-03T07:24:00.000-07:00

Three Wednesday's ago ( my how time flies!) I was introduced to a whole new walk, it's a popular place for tourists but I'd never been there before....I'm so glad we've found it now, because we'll definitely be going back!

The walk starts at either Seaforth Beach or Boulders Beach just past Simon's Town, depending on your starting point.

(It's well sign posted, but I'm sorry I can't recall the name of the walk today-it has been three weeks you know! ;-)

It is a nicely sheltered walk, so even on a windy day if you're desperately needing to get the kids out to burn up some energy, I think it is worth the drive!

Our mommy-guide for the day was focusing on penguins-the main reason the tourists flock here!

Very soon after starting on the pathway we spotted our first penguins!

It is breeding season at the moment. Boulders Beach is home to a large penguin colony so there has been much care taken to protect these penguins and their chicks. Below you can see the numbered containers which they have placed there for the penguins to use for nesting.

But some of them still prefer to find their own little hidey-holes.

Laying on the eggs.

When we left the Seaforth parking lot it was windy and cold-but we were well protected between the shelter of the trees. The whole path is made of wooden slats, easy for moms with prams and busy bodies needing to run around to use up their boundless energy supply!

Some chicks had obviously hatched a while back as they are so big already, but still covered in downy feathers.

Between the gaps in the trees you get a glimpse every now and then of Boulders Beach. A beautiful, practically semi-private beach. I say this, because it is quite pricey to go as a family, as this is one of the few beaches in South Africa which you have to pay to enter. Yet another reason why I 'must' get that Wildcard! (a card which gives you great discounts into various scenic spots in Cape Town).

We didn't just find penguins, it's caterpillar season on our side of the world......all sorts of hairy caterpillars are being found, named and some are even finding there way onto our nature table at home too!

Every rock just needs to be climbed!

Even by the smallest of us.....

And if you're just too small to climb you can find a penguin!

After a lovely walk, where we spotted loads of penguins, we headed back to Seaforth Beach to chat about the different penguin types we have in our beautiful world and....

To create a penguin of our own. (They're all busy painting milk bottle penguins here, but I was so busy helping I didn't manage to get a photo of the end product!)

And after all of that learning there must also be time for a little fun in the sun, sea and sand!

Yes, it is supposed to be Winter here, but while the sun shines we make the most of heading out into nature to learn with our friends.

This post features on the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers where South African home schoolers share experiences, ideas, philosophies and much more. You can join the carnival too by heading to the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers sign up page. In the meantime, head to SACH Carnival #2 - Outings for this week's carnival. We hope you enjoy the carnival as much as we have!

I can officially call them kids!

2011-07-19T14:13:00.000-07:00

We're taking advantage of the great weather we're having here and heading for the mountains at every opportunity!

This was the view from our latest hike.

Can you see that little dark car parked in the shade under the trees?

That's ours!

Yes, we really climbed to the very top of the mountain-well almost!

This is the Steenberg Plateau Hike.

We don't use a hiking book as our guide-we follow our noses and choose hikes which we've passed by when driving on the roads in our area.

When we started the hike my first thought was: "Perhaps we should be consulting a hiker's guide! This route looks a little too challenging for our little hikers!"

But they proved me wrong!

We applied old lessons we've learnt about hiking with children and learnt a lot of new tricks too.....

#1. Share your love for God's creativity:

There were new Proteas to admire.

#2. Enjoy the spectacular views.

#3. Make up names for rock features: God's Dice

#4. Problem solve survival skills:
It's hot mommy!
What can we do, there's not much shade?
Snuggle up to low lying bushes.

#5. Renew relationships with old friends seen on previous hikes: Ericas.

#6. And when the going gets tough and the top just never seems to come-

the beach (way down there) becomes the goal, the reward for perseverance.

#7. Dad also tried distraction: Just look at that Kangaroo rock!

#8. And encouragement: Wow, we're so high now you can see Table Mountain peaking over the top of this mountain!

#9. And Mom (who was taking strain too), tried to distract dad from walking up so fast by getting him to take photos of all (read any!) beautiful flowers.

And eventually he was convinced to stop when his, "It's just over the next hill" was greeted with......

another hill?
No, mountain!!!!

So we sat in the shade of the only rock we could find and refreshed ourselves.

It had taken an hour and a half to reach this point with two little hikers who had clambered over every rock they could find-even though mom kept saying:
conserve your energy, (#10) find the easiest route!

Yes, there had been a little complaining about the heat.....

but never the difficulty of the climb.

So they can officially be called mountain goats (kids).

And when we turned around to head back home.....

I hobbled down the mountain side on wobbly legs,

while they merrily hopped from rock to rock!

Oh, to be young again!
(from bottom to top 1hour 30 min......from top to bottom 30 min!)

On shaky legs-I'm not kidding you, they're still sore today!-I propped myself against the sign at the start/end of the trail and asked Ray to take a picture from the bottom up so that I could get a perspective on just how high we'd hiked.

But this doesn't really give you a clear picture of where we got to.......

so when he was coming home from work on Monday he stopped and took this photo on the highway:

Do you see the ridge in the middle?
We hiked from the start of that to where the two points meet!
Pretty impressive hey?!

And I learnt my final hiking lesson for the day:

#11. Always consulting a guide limits spontaneity and the opportunity to learn valuable life lessons along the way.

And that folks, is your home schooling lesson for today!

A night out at the ballet!

2011-07-18T06:02:00.000-07:00

A few months ago when Jenna and I went to the UCT School of Ballet I noticed a poster advertising The Nutcracker Ballet.

I tucked that information away quietly in my memory for some special mother-daughter time.

I'm so glad I did!

And just for some extra special added memories, I invited her granny a long too.

We left Dad and Michael at home, something we hardly ever do, but they had an evening of lego building planned.......boys and their toys ;-)

We shared an early supper with Granny and Grandpa at their home and then it was time to dress up for the performance......

a very happy ballerina wearing her evening attire. (Thanks, Rachie!)

Granny and Grandpa recently returned from an overseas trip to the UK where they had bought Jenna a DVD of Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland dancing in The Nutcracker.

She has spent many afternoons on the couch watching them dance!

Ray's mom was so touched to have shared this first night at the ballet with her one and only grand daughter. They are regular visitors to the theatre, in fact Grandpa has acted on the very stage which we sat in front of!

So when I bought the tickets I asked their advice on which would be the best seats for us to sit in.

Front row seats-they're actually the cheapest and for little ones there's absolutely no obstruction to their view!

I'm so glad I took their advice, because they really were THE BEST seats in the house!

Not only could Jenna see every dancer (and their costumes) up close, but when the mice came out they mischievously headed straight towards her to tickle her toes!

And when the final curtain had lowered and Mr. Drosselmeyer brought the toy nutcracker out, she got to shake his hand good-bye.

She sat through the entire performance in absolute awe of every dancer and costume, excitedly telling me the names to her favourite pieces of music or characters.

I was so impressed with her-perhaps I shouldn't fret so much about her moments of Starfall and DVD watching obsessions after all :-)

When the show was over she asked if we could go back stage to touch all of the beautiful costumes-she's such a lover of all things beautiful! But sadly that was one thing I couldn't organise for her.

As we were leaving we passed the steps to take you up onto the stage and I could see her feet were itching to walk up those stairs,

but they turned the stage lights off and all went dark telling us it was time to head to the exit doors......

until Granny asked the stage hand-who had peeked his head around the curtain to call up to the lighting guys- "Could we please take a photograph?"

With a quick direction from below the spotlights were turned on again and my little ballerina got to stand centre stage under the lights!

A late night for a little girl, but all well worth it to see the joy on my little ballerina's face as she fell asleep in the car seat beside me while I drove us home from her first night at the ballet.

Nature Club visits Arderne Gardens in Claremont.

2011-07-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

We sure do get around with our Nature Club!

Last Wednesday's meeting meant an early rise for our family. My kids impressed me by being dressed, ready and waiting in the car by 8:30. A little early, but I guess they were worried we'd miss the train.....which was leaving at 9:30!

The weather forecast the night before had read 25'C warm and sunny.......we left our sunny home in shorts and t-shirts to arrive at the foggy station!! Needless to say we huddled in a corner of the station waiting for all our friends to arrive.

The excitement caused by our friend's arrival and an eminent train ride, helped to fight off the cold.

On our last train trip this little man sat so still and clung to my arm....

but that didn't last long on THIS ride!

Let's just say-we pretty much had the carriage to ourselves, no one else seemed to want to join this excited group of children in our very noisy carriage.

We walked up from Harfield Station to the gardens in a little train of our own.

This is just the sweetest sight for me to see: Jenna and her friend.

A little more than 30 years ago his mommy and I started our schooling journey together (we ended matric together too). By the Lord's grace we found each other again and now we get to share our children's schooling journey together too!

Ok, before I get too emotional......on with this journey!

Arriving in the gardens the children discovered a bamboo "jungle".

Arderne Gardens houses "alien" plants to our country. There is a wonderful history to the gardens-which we learnt all about-but I won't share all the Garden's secrets with you......you'll have to go and explore for yourselves!

Ok, perhaps just one secret: it's open to the public for free!

(a donation box can be found near the entrance for those who'd like to support the group which maintains the gardens)

How many tree huggers can wrap around a tree?

Now this tree you really have to see for yourself! It's the largest fig tree in the Western Cape.

And it brought much delight to all of our little nature lovers!

Hoots of joy, from this little owlet.

Can you be a tall tree like me?

There are not only plants of all kinds but geese and ducks,

and owls live here too!

(This is an owl house, high up in a camphor tree)

There are lovely bridges to run over, which lead you to different parts of the garden, while you look out for Khoi fish swimming in the waters below you.

We found a whole lot of sawed down trees and tried to count how old the trees were before they were chopped down.

And after learning how to count tree rings we learnt that for each year a bamboo shoot grows you can count it's segments to discover it's age!

And after all that exploring we shared about our favourite tree and why we liked it.

Apparently even Squirrel Nutkin wanted to listen to all that we had learnt-it was fascinating stuff!

And after all that learning there must be time for play and picnics too........

and of course we had to head home....

eventually.......

but before home there was.....

another train ride!

It's such fun learning with our friends!!

Week-ends are for family.....

2011-07-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

It's been a while........too long actually!

Week-ends have been full of parties and rain and, well business.....

So when Sunday promised to be a glorious, sunny, winter's day I booked the afternoon for a family hike.

And we headed off to Boye's Drive to explore a hiking trail we'd spied while driving by on one of those busy days.

If my memory serves me correctly this walk is called Ou Kraal.

And this is what you get: spectacular views of False Bay and Kalk Bay Harbour.

I want our family to be an outdoor family. My dream is to one day do overnight hikes with our children. When we first started hiking I wondered if we'd ever reach that goal. Our hikes lasted 15 minutes tops in those days :-) Okay, truth be told they were very young then! And a two year old's legs can only go as far as they've been trained to walk.

Learning to walk at their pace and to lower my expectations of possible distances to be achieved was my first lesson.

The second: choose a hiking spot with lots of rocks!

It doesn't matter how steep the hill is, as long as they have rocks to clamber over like little mountain goats, up, up, up they'll go!

Children learn from our examples. If you love to be outdoors, they will too. If you enjoy hiking and are often overheard to proclaim: "Wow, what a spectacular view!",

You're sure to hear these very words echoed back at you!

This flower above is covering the mountainside as you drive over Ou Kaapse Weg. I'm not sure if it's a type of protea-perhaps one of my clever gardening friends can tell me :-)

Below is what it looks like on masse.

A carpet of yellow sunshine.

Jenna's favourite find of the day: dried up ferns. She loved the way they spiraled at the ends.

A leafless silhouette.

Another view of Kalk Bay Harbour.

Everyone enjoyed this walked. (Even Bunny!)

Jenna repeatedly said it was the funnest hike she's been on and when we suggested turning around to return home we had two very unhappy hikers on our hands.

Well, I guess it's better than hiking with two moaning hikers you constantly need to encourage to continue on up just one more hill!

Encouraging your children to enjoy a hike can be tiring.

I've learnt to share my joy of all the beauty around us, pointing out a beautiful flower,

{Watsonia}

ant's nest,

or reminding them of where we've made relationships with flowers elsewhere usually helps distract an unhappy ~~camper~~ hiker.

Erica's-we learnt their names for the first time at Silvermine Dam.

This is a type of Protea (I really need to get a flower guide!). Unfortunately we chopped off the top of the flower in the picture, but at the tip of the flower are beautiful furry, black petal tips. The children loved feeling their furriness!

On our way up the mountain we spotted a beautiful bird with long tail feathers.

But it flew away before we could get a good photo of it.

It has a very distinctive call, so as we walked along we listened carefully for it's call.

That was an added distraction for the children as we encouraged them to keep on heading down the path towards home.

Our good listening skills were rewarded when we spotted this one perched on top of some plants near the carpet of yellow we had passed on the way up.

Cape Sugarbird (male)

And our careful bird-spotter dad, spied this bird eating from the proteas.

{Can you see the black fury tips, on the flowers, here?}

A wonderful afternoon spent with the ones I love.......

doing what I love to do,

in the place I love best: outdoors!

The things they get up to.......

2011-07-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

She's been creating all sorts of homes for her hamster.....

and enjoyed designing her own space rocket with these sticky shapes.

I guess that's what happens when you've been reading every book on space which you can get your hands onto.

But I'm not too sure where this idea came from?

A reindeer pulling her sleigh, bells and all!

Oh, wait a minute! Could it be from watching her ballet christmas concert on dvd for the 100th time?

I know that his gymnastics lessons inspired this gymnastic display.....but the leotard is not part of his uniform. A big sister's influence I'd think! And yes, he does do that willingly-he just loves playing with his sister, even if it means wearing her leotard.

A bicycle and a boy.......they are never far apart!

If he's not riding up and down our road, he's on a dirt track riding through puddles,

and being every bit of the boy he is (without the leotard!)-no matter that the weather was freezing cold it was such fun getting mud trails up his back!

I love their individuality, creativity, spontaneity........

as challenging as they may be at times,

may it go on forever!

Cape Point Ostrich Farm Outing

2011-07-06T07:36:00.000-07:00

Our Nature Club visited the Cape Point Ostrich Farm today.

Sadly, I had to leave Jenna at home because she hasn't been feeling too well, but we had booked and I felt that I couldn't go back on my word.

So, leaving a her at home with a dvd to watch and promises that we'd return one day soon, Michael and I headed off for a morning together.

Upon arrival, they said we could have the tour for free as we were a "school"!

What a blessing!

The farm is situated close to the Cape Point Nature Reserve entrance.

WARNING: in this winter weather, even on a sunny day, the wind is icy cold there!

Pack in a warm jacket :-)

Our tour guide was wonderful with the children. She adapted to this lively bunch of home schoolers eager to see, touch and experience all that there was to experience.

And what a lot there was to learn!

But I must admit I feel a little like an ostrich today......bird of little brain with a short term memory span.

Let's see what I can remember:

The male and female share the egg hatching experience-dad's do the night shift! (Wouldn't that be bliss for us human moms?!)
Having a very small brain, mom unfortunately forgets she's laid an egg. So this is how the farm produces so many little chicks-after they remove the egg from mom, two days later she will lay a new one.
If you'd like egg for breakfast you'll need to invite a whole bunch of friends to join you (20 if I remember correctly) And if you'd like to have a soft boiled egg for breakfast mom will need to get up at 5:30 to have your egg ready by 7:30! Mmmmm, I think I'll stick to my regular eggs thank you. I am not a morning person.

As the farm is a breeding farm all eggs are hatched via incubation methods. Which means even the egg needs to be hatched by human hands with a little hammer. In the wild mom uses her breast bone to crack her little one free!

Ostrich leather is the second strongest leather in the world! (Kangaroo leather being the strongest) So if you've got the funds: investing in a leather wallet, for over R1 000, you could think of it as an investment for your grandchildren's children!
All of those little bumps that you see on ostrich leather are the holes where the feather's belonged.

Ostriches can't fly-you knew that-but did you know they can't jump either?

When an ostrich begins to lay her eggs, for the first few times, they start off small and come out filled with stones! After about the third egg laid you will be able to use them for breakfast.
Ostriches are herbivores: they eat only plants and stones (to help digest their food) and their egg shells for calcium....
oh, yes, and they eat their own poo.......collective chorus of yuck.......it is filled with the nutrients lacking from their plant diet.

All of the ostriches on the farm are hand reared. There are different pens all over the farm for the different aged chicks.

And that's about all I can remember!

But I think we'll be back soon for another lesson....

after all there's all this beautiful space to explore, while mom warms up with a warm cup of coffee.....

and I'll need to pluck up some courage to feed an ostrich like this brave girl!

Finding maths moments....

2011-07-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

You can find maths in many moments of your day....

Counting out pay for chores.

Learning to trade smaller coins for larger amounts.

Counting in 10's.
Laying it on a number block allows your child to see the number-helping with number recognition.

Adding up two or more smaller amounts to substitute for a larger coin.

Creative play can turn into a maths moment too.
If you join in you can inadvertently discover how much your child understands about numbers.

Here my children created a parking lot and roads with homes on a chalkboard.
I asked a few simple questions like: Is there a home for everyone? Do you need to draw more? How many more should you draw? And when we started to play we did a little problem solving: This car can fit six people in it and this one can fit in four. How many people went for a drive? Three got out at the shops. How many are left in the cars?

I don't like to go on with this type of "lesson" for long as I don't like to spoil the imaginative play which was the initial intention. You'll know just when to stop.......they get a little impatient waiting for you to finish your questioning!

Our Maths "read-aloud" at the moment is a book on measuring.......we got a little side tracked one morning after reading about arranging things of different lengths......

but it was a good derailing off the planned track!

All sorts of maths vocabulary was used.....halve your paper, squares, rectangles, triangles, short, taller, tallest....how many windows do you need for this building?

Lunch can turn into maths too.....longest to shortest, big and small, triangles, quarters.

(Know I don't do this all the time-just when the mood is right!)

Building lego according to a plan requires lots of maths.....

Counting the "dots" to figure out which piece you need. More? Less? Same as?

Can you count it in a quicker way than in ones? Count in two's or fives?

And of course sorting, matching and shape vocabulary gets used all the time!

Bible lessons can go off the rails too sometimes :-) ....counting fingers in tens or fives.

How many altogether?

Catching fish, if you roll the correct number on your dice you get to go fishing like the disciples.

Adding your totals with beans.

And when mom eventually gets around to bringing out those fingers puppets we sewed long ago......you can get a little crafty ~~with~~ maths too!

Sorting the eyes....

Finding pairs....matching one on one or counting in twos for the older crafty kids.

Sharing out the eyes so everyone gets the same amount....

and when mom eventually stops trying to make maths happen in every moment....

you might just find some time to get a little creative too!

Maths is more than exercises in a text book........it's an every moment in every day thing,

but you knew that didn't you?!

(I just needed the reminder, again!)

3 simple science experiments.

2011-07-02T12:24:00.000-07:00

Although I believe that hands on learning, is the best way for a child to learn in their early years, I have to be very honest with you and admit that I'm not the greatest at getting around to science experiments or arts and crafts. In fact, if I don't write it down as something to do, it probably won't get done! That's why I'm so thankful that Jenna has creative genes which means she initiates a lot of her own creative activities. But sometimes I get inspired and things happen spontaneously.....well, as spontaneous as I can be! :-)

I showed you these books recently on a previous post. They are Science read-alouds which read like a story. These are books in their Level Two series. In this level there is an added bonus: simple experiments are added to reinforce the learning that happened while reading the book. I'm learning to go with the flow more ;-) so when we read something in a book that suggests we can do a practical application, I jump up and gather the items together...........before the inspired moment fades away!

And this one was very easy to gather together.

(Just add a torch and a dark room too!)

The whole idea behind the experiment was to show how the one side of the moon always faces earth and the different phases of the moon.

Draw a circle around the orange.

On one half, add a cross.

Stick in the kebab stick.

Grab a torch and close the curtains in the room.

One person is the sun (holding the torch).

The person holding the orange (moon) is the earth.

Hold the moon above your head (earth) with the cross always facing towards you

and move around in a circle on the spot.

The sun shines their light directly onto the orange, also while standing still in one spot.

And that is how I finally understood about the phases of the moon and how it is possible that we see only one side of the moon.

{I'm not sure if Mikey learnt anything, but he did have great fun with the torch.

And Jenna, well, she's far cleverer than her mom, she had understood the phases of the moon already and tells me just when they're about to happen when we're doing our calendar time. But who said this home schooling thing was only for the children anyway?!}

And just to impress you some more.....I even planned to do some experiments!

As we've also been learning about the phases of water we did a few experiments with water.

Pour a little water into an ice tray,

explain a little about the term liquid (runny stuff)

and predict what will happen when a liquid

goes into the freezer......

add food colouring,

stir it up a little and place it in the freezer.

Once it hardens take it out and explain the term solid.

Then take the ice blocks out and allow them to melt together becoming a liquid again.

Added bonus: A colour mixing lesson.

But that was a simple one-probably something they knew already as they love playing with ice so much and had recently had a wonderful hail experience!

So I planned for another one!

Do all liquids mix together?

Add a little juice to water-what happens?

What will happen if I add oil to water?

It's going to mix Mommy!

Aaaah, just wait and see....

Stir it up....and look what happens!

Wow! It floats!!!

Not all liquid mixes together.... but wait there's more.

What if you add a little dishwashing liquid?

It turns green?

It's gone!

It's mixed together!!!

And then of course my little scientists have to take it one step further....

What happens if we mix them all together?

Oily juice!!!

Proof that both spontaneity and planning can make great home schooling moments!

Ok, I've learnt my lesson(s)....

how about you?

This post features on the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers where South African home schoolers share experiences, ideas, philosophies and much more. You can join the carnival too by heading to the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers sign up page. In the meantime, head to SACH for this week's carnival. We hope you enjoy the carnival as much as we have!

A free snake show!

2011-07-01T07:44:00.000-07:00

Last year's snake birthday party has stirred up a love of reptiles in our home. So when our Nature Club heard of a free snake show at our nearby snake park (Imhoff) we jumped at the opportunity to get another hands-on experience! This time there were more little creatures to be introduced to like this little tortoise....

Two intrigued, but cautious little ladies, meet a baby chameleon.

Apparently when they are little they are brown in colour and may get confused with how to adapt to their surroundings, so they usually spend their early days on the branches or trunks of trees. So imagine how confused he was with all that pink!?! No wonder he looks like he's heading towards the fur.

A special treat! Face painting was offered at a reduced price by the resident face paint artist. The lady who did this artistic work is available for parties. She said that usually the party face painting is more elaborate-well, these faces were so happy with their end product-if this isn't elaborate imagine what the party product looks like?

The snake boys.

Loving every moment of their experience, even if they do look a little pensive!

These are corn snakes. They are not indigenous to South Africa, but are often kept as pets here as they are such docile creatures. We were told that they are used in the corn fields in America to capture the rodents which come to eat the maize.

The snake handler also told us that they are not venomous snakes. They are constrictors-which means they would wrap themselves around their prey before squashing it to death..... like this?!?

Hmmmm, I think we may just have to rethink the "snake-for-a-pet request!" That's a valid excuse for me to use isn't it? I'm going to have to have a good one as this little man has declared he would like a boa constrictor for his pet one day! Aaah, boys.....they definitely spice up our lives don't they moms?!?

After all that scaly reptilian fun one of the restaurants supplied the children with cupcakes to decorate with towers of sweet treats!

Unfortunately Blogger doesn't want to load some our delicious, creative samples but I assure you we have creativity in our midst. One of our fellow home schoolers won first prize for his creation. Like I said on the day: Some things just run in the blood ;-)

One very chuffed snake boy! (For the record: This is his "I'm pleased as punch"face!)

After the rain had cleared we headed down to the farm animals. A favourite outing for my kids. (If any of their grandparents are looking after them for the day, this is always their first suggestion for their destination.)

And this is who we found....

an adorable little piglet!

This little one is only two weeks old but boy was he claiming his territory already! He had us in fits of giggles with his antics. The peacocks and chickens didn't stand a chance with him. He kept on running at them as if to say: Hey outta my way buster, this is my home!

Another wonderful morning shared with our friends in one of our favourite locations.

Only the brave hearted will walk in this weather!

2011-06-29T11:57:00.000-07:00

I'm so blessed to have the friends I do.

If I didn't then I wouldn't have been crazy enough to brave the weather to walk along the Slangkop Lighthouse boardwalk on a freezing cold day!

I would have missed the wind whipping up the waves.

And this little man wouldn't have found the perfect spot to hide from the wind....

And when they were sufficiently frozen these little ones wouldn't have had fun painting on their rocks they found while out walking......

pictures of lighthouses.....

and ladybugs.

And I would have been oh so sad to have missed out on those scrumptious pancakes piled on the plate....

Ooooops, they were there just a second ago!

Well, I guess that's what happens when you take a bunch of crazy Nature Clubbers out on a walk in icy weather......

empty plates, but hearts and homes filled up with love!

(Thank you, my crazy friend-who loves hiking in sleet rain and icy wind-for letting us share in your love of all things beautiful, especially the beauty of an icy windswept day. I just love how we learn from each other!)

What to do on a rainy day?

2011-06-29T10:00:00.000-07:00

As part of our Nature Club two weeks back we discussed the rain cycle and did a few experiments showing how water is in the air around us. How it cools when it reaches a cold area and how it rises and evaporates when heated. We also made some very simple rain gauges. So imagine the excitement when a few mornings later, while eating breakfast, we experienced a spectacular symphony of rain sounds on our metal roof!

And this is what we opened the door up to...........a carpet of hail stones!

Our front verandah was quickly covered with little stones-the biggest we've ever seen!

And this is what happened to our front lawn.....

They bounced off the trampoline....

and ran down the gutter to form piles of ice!

Which had to be collected of course!

Ooooooo, just look mommy!!!!

We lay them out on a baking sheet to look a little closer at these amazing ice stones! It looked like sago pudding, but not as warm.....brrrrrrrr. The closest we'll ever get to experiencing snow in our front garden!

And then of course the hunt was on to see who could collect the most.....

so that it could go into the freezer of course!

And then after all that rain we took the opportunity to measure the rainfall which had collected in our rain gauges.

Making maths meaningful ..... counting in fives. Each line is marked off in 5 mm measurements. Real life maths....the way I like doing it best! I must admit that this simple activity has helped me to understand the weather sites I visit. Now that I've seen and experienced how much 15 mm of rain is, I'm far more prepared to head outdoors for the day when I see a prediction of 5 or 10 mm. I now know it may rain, but not for long! Yes, I did realise that it wouldn't rain much on those days before, but now that I've seen it, it has been put into perspective so much better! I really must be a visual-kinesthetic learner :-)

Recording skills-learning about measuring in mm, number recognition and writing practice.

Recording the weather for the day....drawing all those hailstones took forever!!!

And then we did a creative activity.....bead threading to decorate our winter trees. We started this little project three years ago when I was missing the beautiful green leaves on the tree which grows just outside our "dining room" window. Every year we add a different string of beads.

A little bit of sorting..... and counting and sharing.

(I just love it when Maths happens naturally!)

Discovering shapes within a pile of beads.....that's my little designer with her creative eye always on the look out for all things beautiful.

More maths....creating repetitive patterns with the beads.

And a little fine motor skill practice. Amazing to see how he has progressed in a year-he never threads beads on his own initiative. Proof that maturity plays a big role in readiness, and not repeated practice of a similar exercise. Last year this skill was way beyond his concentration and physical ability. This year I left him alone completely and he threaded his very own string of beads for the first time!

A little bit of outdoor time between the rainfall. Climbing up our bare winter tree to add her string of beads to our growing collection.

The best picture I could get to show you of the three different strings we've done. Blue beads, drift wood and shells we collected from our Durban holiday and our newly threaded red string. Next year I think we'll try adding some mirrors for some sparkle. Perhaps I'm turning into a glitzy girl after all :-)

To end off the rainy day indoors we pasted together our fire station lap books. I know, I know! That outing was ages ago...... putting it together had been on my to do list for a while-I was just waiting for a rainy day!

Our first lap book: after putting it off for a while (are you noticing a trend here?) I finally took the leap and chose a very simple one I could work on with both of my kids. Sometimes finding activities which appeal to both of them can be a challenge.....how do you moms of three or more do it?!

A very busy rainy day filled with lots of incidental learning.

The books in my basket.....

2011-06-26T06:01:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd show you what books I keep in my little basket of tricks....

It is my aim to read from these books sometime during the day.....sometimes we fit them into our school plan as a way to break up activities.....or sometimes we just snuggle together to read them. And if I'm perfectly honest....sometimes we don't get to them at all.

These are our Bible Time books. We have a whole lot of different children's Bibles which we usually read from cover to cover-when one is finished we begin the next one. We used to only read from a children's Bible but this year I've wanted to introduce Bible study-so I chose these as we already had them on our book shelf. The Prayers and Devotions book co-ordinate together to follow stories in the Bible and they have discussions, stories, songs, rhymes etc. which relate to the story or lesson being taught-very simple stuff, but it's been a nice gentle introduction for us to doing Bible study together. We read the Bible story first and then on the following days we read from the Prayers book followed by the Devotions book the following day.

When it comes to choosing literature I want to expose our children to, my basket includes: A poetry book or fables/short story book for Jenna and a Nursery Rhyme book for Michael. I believe in letting them listen to a variety of styles of literature. Poems expose them to wonderful descriptive words and interesting vocabulary which often challenges their understanding and in turn extends their vocabulary. Nursery rhymes are wonderful for teaching rhyming words incidentally and building auditory memory skills. {I'm not 100% sure, but I think the repetitive reading of our nursery rhyme collections is what gave Jenna the confidence to attempt reading on her own. I used to find her "reading" these books on her bed in the morning before I discovered she could read.}

Fables and short stories usually have good moral lessons to teach. As they are short, I've used them as an introduction to narrating skills for Jenna. It's so sweet to hear her repeat what I have read in the exact same expressive tones I've used.... or it can be a great tool for working on her concentration skills-sometimes she can be a little distracted by the world around her!

For second language learning, I believe in the total immersion theory: learn a language by interacting with someone who speaks it fluently in natural day to day activities. But as we don't have a Xhosa or Afrikaans speaking friend to play with at the moment we're using literature as the next best resource. Because they've shown an interest in Afrikaans I chose it as our second language to begin with. I would love for my children to learn to speak Xhosa too but the few times they've been exposed to it they've shown no interest, so I'll wait a while for that one. We use either a picture dictionary to discuss the vocabulary in the picture (it's all about hearing the language at this stage), a rhyme book or a short picture book with repetitive vocabulary.

As a gentle exposure to letters and the sounds they make we use picture dictionaries, alphabet books or a Letterland book we're borrowing from a friend. Michael loves the Letterland characters. I never used them for Jenna, but he's a different learner to her!

For Maths I like to read books which teach maths concepts through stories. Unfortunately I haven't found many at our library so at the moment I'm using books which I have on our bookshelf-they're not teaching concepts through a story but they've managed to keep the children's attention for now. We also take out a lot of counting books or early maths concepts books from our library.

At the beginning of the year I decided that I would like Jenna to read aloud to me on a more consistent basis. Before, I would just hear her read if she incidentally read something to me. Not really knowing what she was capable of reading I decided to start her off with a series which I knew used sight words rather than phonics (because she is a sight word reader). I wanted her to feel confident and capable of reading what I gave her so I started with the introduction books and we've moved on from there. When she was in the habit of reading to us at story time I started introducing books from a Phonics reading scheme too. Other readers we've used are from the Dorling Kindersley Reader range-they are usually information books covering a topic which interests her. All of these books we have sourced at our library. Below are some examples of some of the books we've used.

Just a side note on these Readers: Read at Home is a sight word reader series-Jenna loved reading this series and Michael loved listening to her read them! Spilt Milk is from the Reading Corner Series-not my favourite, definitely wouldn't have been Charlotte Mason's choice, but it served it's purpose: giving her a broad reading experience rather than pushing on in levels too quickly. I feel it's important for her to feel confident to read and to have a reading experience which she enjoys. I didn't take a photo of the Phonics readers we used-but if you're ever looking for one they have a monkey on the spine ;-) Of course there are many other readers at the library which we could use, these are just a few we've used so far.

When it comes to factual learning (history, geography and science) I've chosen to follow our children's interests at the moment. So as Jenna expressed a desire for becoming an astronaut one day ;-) we've been reading all sorts about Space. Although I agree with Charlotte Mason's use of Living Books to explore a topic, I have found that sourcing Living Books which read as a story is not very easy in this age group. So we have begged and borrowed books (but not stolen) from friends who have books on space. I find home schoolers generally have a love of books and choose great books to expose their children to new information. I also have a few books on our book shelf which I'm learning to look through before heading off to the library!

Books from friends and our book shelf-Jenna loved the Magic School Bus series (also probably not a classic Charlotte Mason choice, but I figure if it grabs their interest, use it!)

These two books are from our library. I found them after borrowing The Planets in Our Solar System from a friend using Love to Learn. They are probably the closest to a living book one can find on this topic in our library. They also have experiment ideas in them which help make the information become more understandable for kinesthetic and visual learners.

And lastly we end the day at bed time with read-a-louds. (These are also books we beg, borrow, but don't steal or have bought second hand) This year I started reading chapter books at bed time for Jenna. Just a chapter or two every night. Pictured above are a few of the books we've read. Others are: My Father's Dragon, The Box Car Children and Fantastic Mr. Fox. Jenna has loved these. It has been interesting to see how Michael reacts to the stories too as it takes a lot for a wiggly little four year old to lie still to listen to and understand some of the stories we've read. He amazes me sometimes with the details he remembers!
Of course this doesn't mean we have forgotten about picture books...... I think those will be in our library basket and our on book shelves for a long time still. But that is something they share with Daddy after supper, as he needs some cuddle time too!

A Winter Solstice Walk.

2011-06-24T05:42:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday evening we joined a few friends to celebrate the Winter Solstice. I needed to look that up on the internet (Geography was not my favourite subject at school!) One site says it is the start of Winter! Are they serious?! Is it only just the start?! I think I prefer the other explanation I found: the longest night and shortest day. Which means the days are getting longer......and to me that sounds like we're heading towards summer :-) Ok, it's a bit of a long shot, but a girl can dream right?!

Anyway, back to our celebration....

We made lanterns............. by making colourful pages covered in crayon patterns,

and then we rubbed artist's turpentine all over the crayon, which made it smudge like this....

after which we coated the back of our page with sunflower oil, which makes it look translucent when a candle is placed inside the lantern.

And after a bit of cutting and gluing, wire bending and sand filling we had these beautiful lanterns. (Sorry I whizzed through that process without any pictures....it was a very hands-on experience for us moms!)

Our creative hostess then told the children a story and taught them a song, which they all sang as they walked out the door to find their lanterns waiting for them, lit, inside the spiral.

After they each received their lantern it was time to go on our walk, welcoming the Winter season in....or the start to the days becoming longer, if you prefer to look at it that way ;-)

Appropriately walking into the sun.....

but, by the end of our walk, when the sun had set, we had a beautiful sight for all the neighbours to see as we walked by.

And to end it off: warm winter soup, hot chocolate and stories to listen to. A wonderful way to make winter a more exciting event for those of us who don't enjoy this cold season we're apparently just beginning!

Finding time to get outdoors in winter.

2011-06-23T10:14:00.000-07:00

It's winter now. Getting out for time in nature is a bit more sporadic so when it's a sunny day we take advantage of it and head out doors. Last Friday was a beautiful sunny day, just perfect for duck spotting....

Welcome to Glencairn Conservation Area.

As part of our Nature Club this year we've decided to focus on four different areas: sea, forest/trees, fynbos (indigenous plants) and wetlands/rivers. The moms take it in turns to lead the nature walk, rotating the venue each week. At times it means organising a back up plan at our homes which focuses on anything to do with nature using experiments, crafts, researching skills etc. My focus area is the Glencairn Wetlands/Rivers. Nature Club hasn't been there for a while, last Wednesday we were rained out, so I decided it would be a good place for the kids and I to visit on our own. I'm so glad we did, because look what we found:

Four little fluffy Egyptian Goslings swimming behind their mommy.

I think this is an African Black Duck.

A Common Moorhen.

I expected this little one to have webbed feet as it was such a fast swimmer, but it doesn't! It's legs are almost luminous green in colour!

This looks like an African Darter. We often see them sunning themselves in the middle of the vlei.

My little animal whisperer having a conversation with the African Black Duck.

We love these stepping stones. They were placed here by local residents who work together to maintain the vlei area. During winter the water floods over the vlei and widens the Else River which flows into the sea at Glencairn Beach. It's very exciting to cross over when the water is flowing!

On this day it became a lesson about putting others first....it's wonderful to be in front and be the leader, but so difficult to be last!

Quiet time to contemplate.....

Jenna was so desperate to feed the birds, she bit up her apple and threw pieces into the water....what a squabble ensued!

We can't wait to go back with our Nature Club friends, we'll have to remember to pack in some old bread though !

Making Maths Moments.

2011-06-22T14:19:00.000-07:00

A friend asked me today how I do Maths at home. I was stumped.... how do I explain what we do? I'm not very consistent about teaching maths....most of our maths happens through day to day experiences, not seat work.

I'm still battling with my teacher conscience and the reality which I see playing out in front of me daily: do I follow a progressive curriculum or do I let the learning happen naturally?

I loved teaching Maths at school. I used a problem solving method which, in theory, is taught through real life experiences....... make maths relevant.....make it relate to what you're learning....let the learner discover their own method of solving a problem. However, there was always a progressive curriculum you needed to complete within a year......I'm not so sure there is really a need to tick off every progressive step anymore.

But I do believe in making Maths relevant. Using materials which we use in everyday life, like a calendar.

Charlotte Mason speaks of a Calendar of Firsts in her Nature Study notes. (The idea is to record when one sees something in nature for the first time in a season and as the years go by you add your finds to it.)

With this idea in mind I introduced the calendar to my kids this year....maybe one day we'll get to that Calendar of Firsts, but in the mean time this is what we do....

record the weather, birthdays and special events....(the kids do the drawings most days)

Maths? Yip, data handling. And a whole lot more....

Number recognition/concept: find the day/date, what came before, after?

Time: what day is it? what is the date? which month are we in? (Sometimes we even sing a days of the week/months of the year song-with actions!!) Which season? What day will it be tomorrow? Yesterday? Today?

Which month came before? Will come after?

Counting: How many days in the week/month? How many have we had? How many are left? Counting forwards, backwards, from a number. Introducing ordinal numbers (first, second etc.)

Jenna has been interested in Afrikaans lately so we've also used the calendar to learn the days of the week, months and counting in afrikaans.

You could also use it for:

making a graph of the different weather types-a simple picture graph or bar graph.
counting in 2's and 5's (seven's if you're adventurous)
recognising odd and even numbers
how many sleeps till? since?

As you can see we haven't been very fancy with colours-I'm not a frills kinda gal-but I do get bored with the same old, same old so next month I think we'll colour code the weather types. A step up in recording and data handling skills ;-)

We've also, just this week, started another calendar on which we are recording the daily rainfall. I'm thinking of using it for:

comparing numbers (more, less, same as)
problem solving (adding totals, how much more rain fell on...?)

This is probably one of our more consistent activities we do daily..... nothing fancy, but a whole lot Foundation Phase maths, and it doesn't take more than 15 minutes. Which is great because that means on good weather days we can head out the door a lot quicker!

Thoughts that run around in my head....

2011-06-17T04:15:00.000-07:00

Knowledge of the world is not a yard stick by which I'd like my children to be measured or assessed....

Geography, history and science are interesting facts to read about, but they don't teach my children where their true identity and purpose lies.

What I do wish for them, or rather hope for them, is that they would have roots which go down deep. That when the stormy times in life come they would know who to lean on, not what to lean on....

And in the good times they'll know who is really worthy of all praise.....

That they will know that when they are thirsty for knowledge there is only one teacher that they need to turn to.

And that He is always willing to quench their thirst.

After a week-end at my first CHE Winter Workshop I'm feeling a little restless again....

Am I really listening to My teacher?

Am I really following His lead?

Routines are easy for me. Lists to tick off make me feel my work has been done. But is it really what works for us as a family? Am I doing what works for me....or everyone?

How do we as home school parents break away from the fears? (because if I'm really honest that's what they are) The what if's? The comparisons?

Why is it so difficult for me to feel ok when I'm feeling different from the norm?

I don't have the answers....yet....but I do know that I believe in a God who asks me to not be like those of this world....

And when I'm sitting with my children doing our devotions book and we read: "Learn from me" Matthew 11:29, I'm reminded again of the one thing He has said for me to do....follow Him and He will show me what we need to learn.

Because for us, this home school thing isn't about what I teach my children but rather it is about how we learn together, our relationships. It isn't about knowing all the facts but rather it is about learning to be in relationship with the One who caused all those facts to be put into place in the first place.

The moments I love the most.

2011-06-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

Although we're following more of a school routine this year, well most days, these are the moments I love the most:

When she designs her own garlands, bracelets and outfits. I love her creativity. To others her dress sense may seem different but I love that she has the freedom to "design" her own outfits and has a definite reason for each design..... who knows, perhaps someday she will become a designer who cooks food in space. Well, at least that's what she said she wanted to be when she turned six.

Or when she sees something her friends have made at their home and she comes home and tries to work out how to make her own one....

and then teaches her little brother to make one too. Isn't that what all designer's do? "Steal" with their eyes and then go and teach their apprentices?

When he recreates what he has heard read at Bible time on his own initiative: Jesus on the cross (the sword) with the soldiers standing around him.

Or when she insists that she must have her "time to be alone with God" to read her Bible and he joins her with his own little Bible to tell his own stories.

When I decide to skip school plans and ask if they'd like to join me in making lunch and supper for the day. And when they enthusiastically join in-no negotiations needed-and then real life lessons are learnt.

When he sits quietly entertaining himself for at least ten minutes....

leaving her to create on her own for a while-sometimes big sisters need a break from being the teacher too.

....and finally, a Nature Club Walk!

2011-06-13T06:02:00.000-07:00

Our Nature Club had a wonderful morning at the Silvermine Dam last Wednesday when all the little ones became fisher folk for the morning.

Carla is looking quite serious here, but actually she has all the children captivated as she's about to take her Googly Fynbos finding eyes out her pocket to start the hunt for Fynbos.

The view of the dam.

This is an awesome place to visit. We started off here and walked around the dam to a sheltered spot way over there on the other side. Can you see it? It's just between those low bright green bushes.
Along the way the children spotted King Proteas, Ericas and lots of Restio reeds. These are pictures of different King Proteas we found: the top one is already dying but the bottom picture is a new bud about to bloom. I never used to appreciate our natural flora before-spending more time around and in it has definitely helped me to appreciate it more. I'm falling in love with the beauty of these plants more and more everyday.

As you walk along the path you pass some very interesting spots for having braais. Some are right on the rock ledges just hanging over the dam!

Crossing the bridge we checked for any fish-but alas, I think the choppy wind was keeping them from surfacing in the cold weather.

This was an interesting find: an ant nest in the trees! There were actually three of them filled with busy little ants going about their hard work.

We thought these were Red Hot Pokers-they look so much like the aloes which also flower at this time of year. Nature providing us once again with those all important skills of discriminating similarities and differences. No worksheets needed here-just good visual skills!

Once we found our sheltered spot we all settled down to listen to the story of Jesus and the Miraculous Catch of Fish. Amazingly the fish we were hoping to catch are called Tilapia-according to internet sources it was the same fish that the disciples caught and the same fish that had the tax money in its belly!

And then it was time to fill up our buckets and wait patiently to catch a fish!

A little bit of bread throwing to attract the fish.

When you're too little to wait patiently for That One Big Catch you must find other fun ways to entertain yourself. Water play-the best fun ever!

And if catching a fish is taking a little longer than you expected you can always get innovative and use the fishing nets as jump poles.

But what a great reward it was when that first (or those first) two fish were caught in one swoop of the net!

Soon everyone else was on a roll scooping them out of the water. With shouts of: I've got one! floating across the dam.

This sweetie pie is never going to miss out on a learning moment-but when you've had a hard morning's work exploring all sorts, a snug spot in prime view position, is the best place to be!

Absolute delight! The wonder of discovery-such a blessing to be able to share these learning moments with all of the special children in our group.

And when you didn't have the patience to catch one of your own, you can always become the teacher of those younger than you. Look Deeky, this is how you must hold it-very carefully, see?

I know that Nature Journals are intended to be drawn in on location, but we find that it's rather difficult to sit still and quietly draw when you've got all that nature to explore and your friends to share it with. So if Jenna is interested in drawing in her journal when we get home again she either draws a treasure she was able to bring back with her or we find a picture to copy. My goal, at the moment, is rather that I encourage a love for nature and an understanding of journalling her finds and thoughts. This is her entry from our fishing experience:

She draws first and then we discuss what she wants me to write for her about the experience.

Out and about in Nature with the whole family.

2011-06-12T03:35:00.000-07:00

Our week-ends have been busy lately. Or it's been raining so we haven't had much time to get out on family walks. But two week-ends ago we took the gap between rain showers and discovered a new nature treasure just around a the corner from us-Sand dunes. I knew they were there but I didn't know how to get to them. And then we happened upon them quite by chance. Along the dirt road behind the Silverglades Sport's Fields there's a trail that leads to this......

Jenna loved climbing to the very top and rolling down again!

It's like we're walking on the moon mom! Except of course for the wind which can have this effect on nature:

(Ooops, I should have rotated that one!)

One bonus of having Ray with us is that he captures the photos I just can't seem to take! Must be that artistic eye.

This was named The Fort,

which was great fun for all

yes, even I ran down it!

It was windy in some spots and sheltered in others, cold too. A light rain started to fall as we made our way home but despite all the "bad" weather we all had a blast!

There once was a little girl who wanted to be a ballerina.....

2011-06-11T02:04:00.000-07:00

So her mommy and granny took her along to the UCT Ballet School open day.....

Where she became a swan for the morning....

who was inspired by the Swan Princess...

(Can you spot her? Sorry I didn't have a bird's eye view)

in awe of the swan like movements of the other ballerinas.....

and entertained by the Irish dancers.

In the end after seeing the Spanish Dancers, Swan Lake Classical Ballerinas, Contemporary Ballerinas and the Irish Dancers she declared: I liked the Swan's best, mommy!

Who knows, my little cygnet.....perhaps one day you'll get to spread your wings and fly! Set the barre high and you may just find yourself standing in first position in that exact same spot a few years from now!

Nature Walks around our area.

2011-06-10T00:49:00.000-07:00

In the mornings after chores and breakfast, we usually try to head out for a walk (or ride for the kids), depending on the weather, as it's Winter here of course! Last week we spent most of our mornings checking on the rivers and the canal to see if they are flowing yet. It's been raining quite a bit-but not enough to make a river flow.

Last year we spotted a crab here. So every time we return there is always a hunt for a crab! No luck this time though.

We live on the flat parts of our area, but there are some hills too as it's right alongside a mountain. Jenna and Michael are still learning how to navigate the steeper ones-sometimes it's just easier to get off and push!

Michael spotted this "strong tree mommy-it's pushing up the bricks!"

Of course, going up hills means you have to come down again.....and when you don't have great brakes you have to make a plan.....

Or you could end up in the restios!

But if you have great brakes, you have to wait patiently at the bottom of the hill for everyone else to catch up.

Some mornings we go on a litter walk-Jenna's idea-it's amazing how much is thrown into the bushes! We find all sorts, sometimes some are worth taking home too!

We've lived in this particular area for just over 3 years now and we walk most days, weather permitting. I've learnt so much from just walking around and observing the seasonal changes. I had no interest in Geography at school and although I studied Biology and Science I can't say that much of it made sense to me. But being outdoors and experiencing the seasonal changes in these past three years, my interest in my world has grown so much. Facts I tried to understand in Standard six and seven Geography are actually beginning to make sense now! Nature Walks are one of our most natural ways of learning.

The aloes are beginning to flower. Our beautiful winter flowers.

Rain puddles are such fun to ride through, again and again and again!

A field of aloes!!!

And then at the end of our road we have a Nature Reserve-it's not a big one, and as you can see it's right in the middle of a built up area. This particular morning we spotted Springbucks and Ostriches up close for the first time. We usually only get to see the Springbucks up on the mountain side far away in the distance-so this was a super treat!

And then it seemed like all the wildlife came out on display for us. Here are two of the male peacocks we spotted.

And over head our resident heron flew over. He comes and sits on our neighbour's roof sometimes.

And just as we were about to leave we saw these little buck. I think they're Klipspringers, but they weren't close enough for us to get a good look.

We love being out in nature. I love the relaxed way in which we can learn about the world around us in our own time.

A quick peek at maths in our home.

2011-06-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

Pocket money....so many lessons to be learnt....

We set up a chore system after which the kids get paid for their chores and can spend their money on anything they desire. We've started off with a very low payment per chore-we'll give them a raise soon ;-) They have little sense of the value of money and not much knowledge of the coins or notes-evidence that mom uses the credit card too much ;-) . It's made shopping trips very interesting!

As I didn't have the coins on hand we substituted beans for coins and got an added lesson in counting. Michael's concept of numbers and his counting ability have grown so much. At the beginning of the year he could count to six.... now he get's to twenty most days. There are so many little lessons which can come out at payment time: counting, making up groups of a number, matching one to one....

or in Jenna's case counting in groups of five. I had been really hesitant to teach her counting in 5's, 10's and 2's as I couldn't find any practical way to relate it to her life so that it would make sense to her. As soon as we started pocket money it became a natural exercise.

Lapbooks.....I thought we'd give these a try! So before our visit to the Fire Station I found a Fire Station lapbook online at HomeSchoolCreations. We found different ways of using the ideas in the lapbook-making it seem more like a game than school work.

Matching number symbols to dot "fire dogs".....

using beans (again!) to match one to one to the dalmation's dots.....

identifying a number mommy calls out and counting out the number.

I believe counting is really important to develop number concept. So we count a lot! We use all different types of counters (beans, plastic stars, acorns, cars, legos, bottle tops) and these counting frames are great for counting out a number and then dividing it into different groups of 10, 5, 2, 4. This is a good foundation to multiplication later.... How many groups of 10 make forty? How many groups of 5 make forty? etc.

I try to keep maths as practical and hands on as possible. This does mean though, that at times Jenna has to play games at Michael's level-but that's what makes it more fun for them....

The lapbook had a repetitive pattern activity in it and I wasn't sure if Michael would understand the concept. So we played at making different patterns. First copying mine and then extending mine and then creating their own.

Doing a lapbook resulted in LOTS of cutting. Something Michael doesn't really sit down to do on his own. So it ended up being fine motor and hand-eye co-ordination experience for him too!

Before we made a pattern in our lapbook there was even a bit of sorting to do....not a difficult task but an easy way to see if he understands the words-put the same pictures together-for developing sorting vocabulary.

We also like playing maths games on the computer. This is a Gold Star maths CD I use with Michael and if we're not out of internet time Jenna and I spend time on the IXL maths site.

Jenna still likes to have pretty books to work in-I think if I had to choose her learning style it would be Visual-so I found these Numeracy and Literacy books by Smart-Kids. They're one of the more interesting workbooks I've found and plus they're South African. I still like the way Maths was taught at schools here and for the moment I'm finding using the CAPS curriculum statement as a guide line along with a few tips from Ruth Beechick to be the way we're going for now.
So when I do problem solving with Jenna, Michael usually plays with a maths game that he can do on his own. (I think this is called Geo-Stacks in the Smile catalogue-I bought it second hand long ago in my early days of teaching ;-) Then she can work in her Maths book while I play computer games with Mikey.

Learning at our home has been a lot more structured this year..... but there are days when I say: let's throw out the routine and we may just spend time in the kitchen bringing maths to life by making soup and chicken pie for supper.

How many stars can you fit on your dough? Which is the best way to layout your girls to save dough?

Oops! That reminds me-I need to go switch the oven on otherwise THAT pie won't get eaten tonight!

In the blink of an eye!

2011-05-17T12:17:00.000-07:00

In the blink of an eye she has turned 6

and suddenly has an interest in using the camera to take random shots of things she loves.

They went with dad to the harbour for a Dad's morning.

He has an interest in building with blocks of all types....

and then he turned four and dad built him a lego helicopter from his favourite blocks.

She took more random photos of "things" she loves.

We were visited by ransacking baboons and we've quickly learned how to defend ourselves: the spray of a hose pipe works wonders!

We experimented in all sorts of areas of life.... including science.

She took more random photos of that which she loves....including him.

We added a new member to the family-Jenna's new love, Cutie.

She discovered a different beat to dance to as she boogied to the soundtrack from the Jungle Book.

We delighted in finding tiny frogs on a Sunday morning family hike,

and hunted for easter eggs in our garden with our home church children.

They enjoyed one of many parties in The Birthday Season in Sherwood Forest with Robin Hood.

(are all children born so close to one another?)

We hunted for chestnuts with our Nature Club friends....

and then built a fire at Wynberg Park and made own sausage in a roll....

while watching the chestnuts roast! Yum!

And then just in case building a fire put any ideas into the heads.... we visited the fire station for some safety tips!

In the blink of an eye we have journeyed through five months....there's so much more to share but my time is rather limited nowadays. After all there's been ballet and music (Jenna), birdie ball which was swopped for gymnastics (Mikey), sewing classes and netball (those are for mom), Nature Club and lessons shared with friends.... and that's in between the daily living and learning at home.

Entering into a new season.....

2011-05-17T05:55:00.000-07:00

The start to this week has been tough, to be perfectly honest it has been horrible. I had an awesome week-end spending time in the Lord's presence at a church conference on Saturday and returning as a family to attend church on the Sunday-an all new experience for us. We were so blessed by the time spent in corporate worship with fellow believers.

And then Monday hit! BAM!!! I woke late-feeling tired and very uninspired to do school. (We have been following a gentle school routine this year) Thinking I had no time to start the day in the Word, ignoring His gentle whispers to leave my plans for the day, I climbed out of bed and into a battlefield....and lost every one of the battles my very determined six year old fired at me.

You're lovesick a friend told me.... yes I am.... all I want is to be so fully immersed into His presence like I was on the week-end. And when He whispered: take it slowly, spend time with me, I made the wrong choice. I chose fear: What if they never learn to do their chores without a fuss? What if they always choose to be disrespectful? What if I don't set a school routine in place and they never learn anything?!

Tuesday. A new day. New mercies? Yes.... always, but I didn't hold onto them, instead I gave them away.... we were battling again.....

I needed to get out, away before I turned our home into another battlefield.

And so I walked.... and talked... and cried..... and questioned. I knew I had to return, but I was still too angry, too disappointed. He put His finger upon an old wound. The reason for my fears. Things I haven't let go of, yet. Things I know, only in time, that He will help restore and heal to their fullest purpose.

Turning back I still felt like I wasn't ready to go home.... they are only children and they don't really know what feelings get stirred up inside their complexed mommy's heart.... how could I return if I couldn't face them with arms of love?

Along the roadside I started to notice the aloe and protea bushes were getting their buds. These are the indigenous flowers which bloom in winter. Aloes have a fiery red flower-a beautiful sight on a winter morning. Proteas are hardy flowers: their beauty has grown on me and it brings me great joy to spy their bushes on the mountainside as we drive over to visit family.

As I walked I noticed more aloes and more protea bushes filled with buds. And I felt like the Lord was saying: People usually see Winter as a dormant stage of life, a time when nothing of beauty grows-but look at these flowers you have grown to love and look forward to seeing in winter, they are hardy and filled with colour which always lifts your spirit when you see them. There are times when it seems like you're going through a winter in your life, remember these buds: they are a promise that good will grow from experiences you have.

You are entering a new season now.... don't forget to look at new experiences as buds which can grow into beauty. Give them time.... give yourself time........ to grow and blossom into that fiery beautiful flower which will bring joy to those who see it.

We're perfectly forgiven.....

2011-03-05T07:25:00.000-08:00

I made this vase in pottery lessons last year. It's not beautiful, but I made it.... so I love it.....

To make it you lay two separate slabs of clay over another perfectly rounded bowl which was worked on a potter's wheel.

After that you scrape the edges with a sharp tool and wet it with water until you have a mushy, messy surface.

The mushy clay edges are then laid on top of one another and you use a tool to smooth the outside edges until the join disappears.

After this you make a small hole at the top into which you blow air and the shape takes on a perfectly rounded form.

The lip is added on later. Also using a tool, water and scraping of the surface.

Afterwards it was glazed and put into the kiln to seal the colouring onto the surface.

Two weeks ago Michael was sitting at my feet rolling it around-gently-threatening to break it. He wasn't happy about something I had asked him to do and he was letting me know by taking something precious of mine and threatening to destroy it.

I knew I had to remain calm. I knew fighting it out of his hands would end up with a broken vase. I knew I had to wait patiently for whatever the outcome would be.....

I could tell by his tone that he was only threatening.....testing to see who had the power?! I waited calmly.....and then asked him to return it to it's place. Testing his boundaries.... testing the strength of the vase he dropped it from a very low height.

He was shocked........to regretful tears.

I reached down to him and gently took his hand. Knowing he had learnt a lesson I held him and then led him gently to his room for bed time. I wasn't angry.....

In fact I had great peace that the lesson learnt was one of such importance to him.......

I never knew it would be for me too.......

A night or two later I was woken in the night and couldn't get back to sleep. I've had times like this before. Times when I lay there and think..... or times when I lay and listen....

HE spoke to me about HIS Love and how, because HE loved me first, I can receive HIS forgiveness and HIS perfect Love too. HE told me about the way in which HE sees me, clothed in HIS royal robes. And that because of these new robes I no longer have to see myself through the worn out tattered rags of my past (old thoughts/habits/experiences which labeled me). I'm LOVED just as I am, because HE made me. I'm PERFECTLY made in HIS eyes.

And, if I continue to choose to wear those rags and lies from the past it is so difficult for HIS Love to shine through me.... it's there, but it's covered by untruths from the past. All I have to do is believe HIM who says I am HIS BEAUTIFUL BRIDE.

And then HE said: See others as I see you! FORGIVEN AND PERFECTLY MADE.

We glued the vase back together again.....

But there's a crack... and a little piece missing.....and I love it even more now because of it's uniqueness.

There was more to learn.....

Later that week I had to look at Ray through those eyes of Love which the Lord had taught me about.....

And HE said: It's like your marriage....Like you were formed from my perfect form.... so is Ray. I have joined you together in perfect unity. My tools are sharp and sometimes it gets messy, but you are joined together! Sometimes Satan comes along and tries to break that perfect unity.... he tempts you to sin. It's how you choose to react that shines MY light and LOVE to others. And look, do you see that crack, do you see that hole? It's there, but you still love that vase just because you created it.... I love you(and him) like that too, trespasses and all.....BECAUSE I created you!

And then HE whispered for the last time:Forgive others because I forgave you.

MATTHEW 6:15 But if you do not forgive others their trespasses (their reckless and willful sins, leaving them and letting go, and giving up resentment) neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses.

I guess it's time for an update!

2011-03-03T11:24:00.000-08:00

It's March! Already?! In the past, flipping over the March page on our calendar would have felt like the year was already racing away from me. This year it feels like the year is still new.... like so much lies ahead and it will be good!

Our December holiday was an awesome holiday for our family. It's the time of year when Ray gets a full month's leave and we get to have him around 24/7. I was really looking forward to the holiday. We hadn't planned to do much-one camping trip-and LOTS of family time!

Our camping trip turned out to be quite an adventure: we got stuck on a dirt road in the middle of no where with a broken radiator in a 47' C heat wave! But the Lord is SO good-wish I could tell you the whole story-He provided us with help, a pool, a roof over our heads and transport back into the nearest town to get our car into a garage.

our little safe haven for the hottest night of the year!

the pool was the coolest place to be-and it felt like a bath!

And we still ended up going camping!! At Jenna's suggestion we returned to a nearby campsite which we'd taken the kids to on our first camping trip with them. Perfect place-under pine trees, with a swimming pool and a family of German tourists for our children to play with..... a lot better than the ±45'C place we'd left behind.

putting up the tent is a man's job!

snuggling up for bedtime stories

two little happy campers using our make shift spoons-we forgot the cutlery at home!!!

Listening to Dad reading the German version of Beauty and the Beast-yes, they do love stories that much they'll even listen to them in a foreign language!

playing a German version of Duck, Duck, Goose

I loved the simplicity of our holiday and thoroughly enjoyed just sitting back and taking it a day at a time. Coming back home again was an awakening to the fact that although we as a family tend to live a quiet lifestyle, even the business of managing our home and the possessions we have can add complications and stress to our lives.

we ended off our camping with a visit to Butterfly World-WOW!

I found it really difficult getting back into daily routine when Ray went back to work. It had been so good to spend everyday together as a family taking it a day at a time. It took me a while to get over my "I wish you could be with us all the time" blues. It has been a desire of mine for a while that Ray would be able to work from home-yes, I know that it would mean he couldn't be with us 24/7 in reality-but I find it difficult at times that his work life seems so separate from mine and the kid's daily life of being with each other 24/7. My heart's desire is that we could all be together: working together, living together, learning together! But this is a desire which I will have to continue to pray about for confirmation and acceptance of the Lord's will and not mine ;-)

the view from Peer's Cave into Fish Hoek Valley

So picking myself up and getting on with life I started to research extra-murals for the kids for the year. Jenna is continuing with ballet and has started an Introduction to Music course (which she LOVES!). Michael had said he'd like to play soccer-but we decided it's a little too soon for that, so we decided on Ball Skills for him. Both Jenna's music and Michael's Ball Skills lessons took me back to my old work place. This was an interesting experience. Walking through the school passages left me with old feelings which in the past I would have pushed down and tried to deny. The beginning of the year at any school is such an exciting time for me. New beginnings, new faces, new friendships all fill me up with the anticipation for exciting things which lie ahead. Admitting it to myself was good though, I realised that I still love to see children learning together and I still love to be involved in that learning experience. Now I get to do it with my own children!

Last year Ray and I chatted a lot about how we (as individuals) learn and what we think is important in life to learn. I had thought that he would want a more structured learning environment for our kids, but it turns out he's more relaxed than me about their learning experiences. (Proving, yet again,that it's so important to talk about these things :-) We came to the conclusion that for now, we want our children to learn about what interests them and that it is our job to expose them to a variety of experiences within our capabilities and resources. We both have found that we learn best when we have initiated the learning ie. it has come from our desire. We also discussed that knowledge doesn't need to come in a sequential order at a specific age-we are learning new things everyday ourselves, things we had "learnt" at school, but weren't interested in or ready to understand.

So this meant that I did a lot of rethinking of how I needed to and wanted to approach learning in our home.

However, while I believe that you don't need to follow a structured curriculum to learn, I discovered that I needed some kind of structure to force me, to do more exposing.

Once I had admitted to myself that I felt like I wasn't doing enough exposing I had to consider what I thought was important for me to expose the kids to now. I had loved the freedom my children had to play and be outdoors last year, but I was starting to feel I needed to be a little bit more hands on with them. Last year we had focused on creative play, reading good literature and Bible stories and reading books on topics which interested them. This year things have been slightly different.

I chose to start the year off slowly-I wasn't prepared to start a full blown daily routine from day one. I also know that following a schedule doesn't suit me-and following the same schedule everyday absolutely bores me to the point of giving up on doing anything at all! I'm a contradiction in myself-I like flexible routine!

hiding in the rocks at Peer's Cave

So for a few weeks we only had the goal of doing a Bible time in the morning. I introduced memory verses this year - something I personally wanted to work at. And to appeal to Michael's need to move and Jen's desire to praise and worship we sing together in the morning too. We're also using a calendar to record the weather on etc. At the start of this easing in time we also settled into our afternoon extra-mural routines.

She even has to wear a dress to climb mountains-such a princess!

Our Co-op did some expanding and rethinking this year too. We're continuing our Nature Walk Co-ops. Besides adding a few more families to the group we've chosen four types of locations to visit in a rotation basis. Sea, forest, wetlands/river, and our own private gardens. We're very relaxed about the learning that happens. Our main aim is to encourage a love for nature by spending time in it and sharing that experience with other special people in our lives. And of course it's a bonus when one of the kids pulls out their nature journal and spontaneously starts to draw! It has been such a blessing to grow our relationships with our friends in this relaxed way-for the moms and the children too!

Looking over towards Ou Kaapse Weg from Peer's Cave.

Being in nature is something we love doing as a family too. This year we have started hiking together. As often as we have been able to we have headed out on mountain walks on the week-ends. We're slowly exploring the walks that are nearest to us. This time is turning into a special family time as we have time to talk to each other and enjoy doing something together outdoors, a place we all love to be!

we had front row seats on a rock climbing lesson

When we had settled into the Bible routine and afternoon activities I started to re-introduce the school-like lessons Jenna had asked for last year. I will admit that this was more of my need this year than hers. A little to do with the lack of exposure thing-Jen has a sense for numbers but I felt like I wasn't exposing her to enough use of numbers. As I didn't want to do Maths everyday I also thought we'd work at her handwriting and phonics.

The amazing thing is even Michael is enjoying these times now-last year when I had tried a more structured unit study approach it had really been a challenge. So we aim for two/three mornings in the week of Writing/Maths/Phonics. In this time we also do finger rhymes and counting. We start off counting etc. together and then I usually work with Jen for around 15 minutes while Mikey plays with fine motor/maths/readiness activities and then we swop over and Mikey gets to play with mom's school things too. He is surprising me so much! However, it is not my aim to do much with him-more to spend time doing fun activities together, when I see his enthusiasm wavering we quit while it's still going well.

My next aim is to do more Art, Crafts, Baking, Science Experiments, Music and Movement with them. This usually happens after they've had a play time after our structured time together. But sometimes mom forgets or they're playing a wonderful imaginary game I just don't have the heart to stop :-)

Fitting in a story time during the day was a challenge. Besides bed time stories where Dad reads their Bible and picture books to them and I read a read aloud chapter book, we always used to have a story time before rest time. Afternoon activities seem to fall where our rest times usually do and as Michael doesn't usually need a nap anymore rest times were becoming few and far between. I use this time as our time to read poems, information books, afrikaans picture dictionaries and for Jenna to read to us. It took a while, but we have finally fitted it back in again, most days!

So as you can see daily life has changed a lot for us this year. I still want our learning to be relaxed though and if we wake up in the morning and everyone needs a play day, a play day it will be! And yes, moms need play days too!

A quick catch up! Well, as quick as I can get!!!

2010-12-05T03:38:00.000-08:00

How do you catch up with what's happening in your life when you haven't been around for a while? So much has happened. You know me, I can't do the short version! Well, I suppose I could if I tried....

volcano science experiments: bicarb and vinegar eruptions

the science of sound:it moves!

Here goes: Why have I not been around? A few reasons...

1) Ray's month or so of illness went from flu, to glandular fever to food poisoning to gall stones....to an operating table to remove a gall bladder and bigger than hazelnut sized gall stones. {He didn't really have food poisoning, it was the toxins from the infection} Through the whole operation experience we knew that the Lord was right by our side and it was a peace-filled time. Afterwards though, things fell apart a bit. So I've been learning a lot about the need for calm after the storms! It's so easy for me to rush in and try to take control of things again instead of resting in and waiting on the Lord for the next step. I feel like He's been saying: wait, let's do things slowly, just take it one step at a time, everything will get back into order again. Unfortunately I didn't seek Him first after Ray was finally back home, well again, and I tried to make things feel *normal* by following a set routine. Routine is important, but it isn't what should rule me, it isn't what should make me feel secure. I do find this tough though, seeking Him first. Although, in the past, I have learnt that routines don't need to rule us, I'm still learning that seeking Him first is most important! I'm hoping that this is starting to sink in to the deepest parts of me.

beauty on our mountain walks

he just loves creatures especially the small ones

learning about water currents and force is child's play!

2) In the midst of all this I used the computer as an escape pod and a research tool. Using it as a research tool isn't bad in itself. I learnt a lot more about healthy living styles and eating habits (one of my interest areas). But using it to escape from life, or more specifically, to escape from spending time with the Lord, ends up in me being like a dry well with very little life to share with my children when they most need me. So when Jenna stood next to me at the computer and said: "Mommy, you're spending too much time on the computer, you should be doing something with us, like teaching us!" I took that as my cue to shut down for a while and limit my computer time.

life is full of adventures on dad's new motorbike

3) After a recent home schooler's park day which had a few older children at it, Jenna asked me: Mom what does it mean to be home schooled? What?! Haven't we be doing this your whole life? What am I doing wrong that you don't get what we've been up to all this time? (I've always told her we can learn from our life experiences, books etc. and the interests we have. And believe me she's definitely done that!) And that's when I realised: she's wondering about all those older kids we saw at the park! Was she thinking home schooling was just for little kids like her? (Our usual park group has mainly under six year olds.) Or was she actually thinking-like most of our population-that school is just something you have to do when you're older? So that night I decided we needed to chat a little about it at bed time. And we came to the conclusion that she wanted to do school like activities again. So I told her I didn't think it was important for me to teach her to read-she'd done that herself already and ultimately I really want her to understand that she has the ability to teach herself many things using various resources. And I said I had been thinking about doing some number work with her and writing to help her to write some of her letters correctly which I had noticed she was forming incorrectly. And that's what we've agreed to do. On alternate days we spend ± 30 min doing Writing/Copy work (which actually means writing the words for a story she drew) or 30 min doing Maths (estimation, counting and number concept development). And if I'm really organised we may just do some Science experiments, crafts or play games! It's been going well. Some mornings Michael even gets involved. And some mornings she just says I'd like to play first mom and then we do school later! Or not :-)

Frank, our cat, is our hunter! A little mole who we rescued and relocated later to a nearby field.

we've eaten broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, strawberries, carrots and tomatoes from our garden

4) While Ray was sick (and the kids too at times) we sort of fell off the socialisation circuit. Now, while I believe that it is not important to run around to every activity to ensure that my children are getting socialised, I also realise that isolation is not healthy too! This was emphasised for me when we started to try to get out into the world again to socialise. My children, who are mostly very happy to go off to play on their own at a social event, became unusually clingy! Realising I needed to be patient with them, I remained near enough for them to see me and feel safe. After two or three social events I could see their usual exploring, assertive selves coming back and since then we've been trying to catch up with all those we didn't see while going through this "sick time". Admittedly though, too much socialising is draining for me so next week we'll be staying at home, well mostly ;-)

A Nature Walk around our area turned into a litter hunt upon my little nature lover's requests.

5) As Christmas is here we've also taken the time to make our first Jesse Tree Advent calendar. I'm really enjoying how it helps me to focus on the real Gift of Christmas! Of course this all took time and was a good way of keeping me away from the computer-that is after I had done all the research again!

Jen just loves bringing beauty into the home and often makes her own flower arrangements-setting an example for me to follow!

Ok, so this post hasn't been a short one-promise, I tried-I haven't even caught you up on our co-op nature walks we started or the home school picnic we had with the dads or our family mountain walk which we're trying to do more regularly.... oh well, I guess that's what happens when your life is full of learning, there's just so little time for recording it while you're living it ;-) Chat soon!

A (Thurs)day in our life....

2010-11-11T06:49:00.000-08:00

5:50 I wake to Michael's moaning. I get up to pull the blankets back over his cold body and return to bed.

Last night was a late night for all. Granny and grandpa visited. We put the kids to bed at 9:00 and Ray and I still took time to sit and chat and then catch up on house chores.

6:15 Ray gets up to get ready for work. I drift in and out of sleep as I listen to his morning sounds.

6:45 He comes in to kiss me good-bye and I hold on a little longer, loving him. He walks out...

Jenna calls out. She wants to say good-bye, but he didn't hear, so I get up to call him before he leaves. She loves to say good-bye to him in the mornings. I slip back into my warm bed.

He has blessed us.... remembering how much we miss him if he doesn't stop to say good-bye.

6:55 I'm reading from Streams of Refreshment. I lay there loving Him. I read from my Bible. I'm following a year plan-not too concerned if it's completed within a year or not. I just need a list to tick off. :-) I hear that Jen is up and she comes to tell me she's done her chores.

She has blessed me.... no continual reminders to make her bed this morning.

7:30 Jenna is playing with her doll's house. I go to ask her to play quietly as Michael is still sleeping. I guiltily climb back beneath the covers telling myself I really should be getting up, we have visitors coming today.

8:00 Michael cries out again. I get up. "I had a bad dream mommy." I hold him and climb into his bed for a cuddle. We lay there in the quiet until Jenna's sounds alert him to the fact that someone else is up. He gets out of bed and joins her in her room. Our day has officially begun.....

8:15 I start to make our bed. The children come in asking for breakfast. I walk with them to the kitchen. Jenna notices the breakfasts on the table (I like to set it out the night before), "It's not an oats day mommy"-we follow a meal plan. Oats is her least favourite breakfast and we have agreed she will eat it once a week. I reassure her that today she can have Pronutro and fruit. It's our cereal day today. I remember to put a worship CD on.

8:30 We give thanks, then chat about our plans for the day. I remind them they need to get ready quickly as friends will be coming later. We talk a little about how to be a friend and how to react if someone makes us angry, something we are working on with Michael.

Their breakfast is finished, they leave me to go and do their chores. Jen packs away cutlery. Mikey packs away cereals and opens curtains.

8:45 I help Mikey make his bed and choose his clothes. He chooses all red today. I leave him to dress himself and go to remind Jenna to finish dressing. I find her putting on her roller blades and remind her about washing up and brushing her hair. Michael comes out of his room, proud of having successfully dressed himself.

He blesses me... my little man is growing more confident in his own abilities everyday.

9:00 They see Ticha outside in the garden. He's home today and is doing a little weeding. They go out to ride on the road while he works on the verge. I take the opportunity to jump in the shower.

9:20 Charity does not come in on Thursdays so it is up to me to straighten up the house before our guests arrive. I check the menu plan for tonight's supper and take out the necessary goods.

10:00 Our friends arrive, my children excitedly go to greet them. I self-consciously finish cleaning the counters while saying hello to their mom. Should have gotten up a little earlier!

10:30 The plumber arrives to fix our leaking toilet. Michael spends some time showing him his tool kit. The children play in the garden on the trampoline and swings. They have a snack-picnic in the back garden and they even go for a quick dip in the pool. New friendships are growing around us as their mom and I spend two hours encouraging one another with what the Lord has been teaching us.

She blesses me with the truth that she shares... later on in the day I will remember her words.

12:00 We say good-bye to our friends and get ready for lunch. I ask the kids to tidy away the toys they have played with while I prepare the food. Michael willingly tackles the outside toys. No convincing needed today. Jenna is tired and needs a little guidance. I go to her and encourage her to pick up toys. Seeing that she is helping now I leave her to go and find Michael who has disappeared.

He blesses me... I find him in his room packing away his toys on his own initiative, no arguments today. You're such a helpful boy!

12:15 Their baked potatoe, droe wors and salad lunch is gobbled down while I enjoy the leftovers from last nights supper. Yum, creamy haddock pasta. We chat about their new friendship and how their play time went while classical music plays gently in the background.

I am blessed to hear Jenna remembered to be patient with the younger boy.... she chose to patiently remind him not to hit instead of reacting in anger.

12:40 I start the dishes while Jen finishes eating. Michael goes off to play. He finds a snap game and asks if we can play. I promise we will do so after rest time. Jen finishes off, clears the table and wipes it off while giving me sound cleaning advice for the future. Michael needs me in the bathroom. I go to help. I return to a little girl washing the dishes. Michael asks if he can help too, she let's him do the last few dishes.

I bless her with a kiss and a cuddle because she has blessed me.

1:00 We snuggle on the couch to read stories. We read a book about the Seashore and a folktale from a Children's Collection of stories book. Today story time is short I can see they are tired. I suggest a sleep for rest time today.

1:30 Everyone is tucked in bed. I lay down to rest. The 5:50 wake up call has beat me regardless of how long I lay in bed this morning. I fall asleep...

He blesses me with rest.....

3:00 I'm woken by a cat scratching at the window. I get up and wake the kids. Get a snack ready and tell Mikey to get the Snap game. I put on a blues CD to match the rainy weather outside. We drink tea and play snap. Michael is learning how to play and he is eager to snap a pair.

His joy and her patience with his eagerness to grab the cards bless me....they are learning to love.

3:40 We prepare supper together. This is becoming a more regular habit and I can see that they are learning to handle their different roles quite efficiently. Jenna is confidently chopping beans in her new creative style.

They bless me... supper prep is quick and easy today because of our teamwork.

4:00 I put on the Jungle Book 2 DVD and they settle on the couch with their blankets to watch. I tell them I'll be in the outside room checking e-mails. I catch up on the outside world via the internet and start to type a little of this post.

5:15 Ray arrives home. Michael puts on his rain jacket and goes out to greet him. Afterwards he insists that his jacket should be hung besides dad's on the door. Ray comes to say hello-he knows where to find me. It is good to see him again.

5:30 We go back into the house. The DVD is finished and the kids are building bunk beds in Michael's cupboard. We take the opportunity to catch up on our day and I fill him in on supper details and sleep times as I must soon leave for pilates.

5:40 I'm dressed to go. I haven't been very consistent with pilates lately due to all the illness in our home. I have to motivate myself to go. Giving loves and kisses to all I walk out into the rain.

I am blessed to have a husband who willingly allows me to leave at the start of the night time routine.

6:00 My body survives pilates. In fact I am quite impressed that I can keep up with all the stretching and toning exercises.... I'll feel it in two days time probably.

7:20 I return home to find the kids in the bath and Ray watching the weather. They're up to mischief and I get annoyed that he hasn't calmed them down. I'm reminded of what my friend shared with me this morning, but I still let my annoyance turn to anger. My flesh is winning. I eat supper alone at the table having said words I can't take back.

I am blessing nobody now.....

7:30 Ray gets them out the bath and dressed and they come through to the lounge. Michael asks for some of my food and I share a few mouthfuls. He leaves and goes to ask Ray if he can play a game of Tortie. They all play together while I finish off supper. Michael's ability to recognise numbers is improving. I go to sit beside Ray knowing I need to apologise and fighting with my conscience. I say sorry and he quietly accepts it.

Jenna asks to play Go Fish with the Animal Snap Cards. We play together as a family. Michael renames it Go Hunt!

8:00 Teeth are brushed and I read stories and the Bible to Michael while Ray reads to Jen. Separate story times gives time for one-on-one bonding. They both ask for water as we tuck them in and say prayers.

8:30 I get in the shower after asking Ray if he'd make the Raisin bread for the morning.

8:40 He gets ready to shower. I ask if he's angry. He's tired and quiet, he reassures me that he isn't. I ask what he'll be doing tonight... is it ok if I finish a blog post? He'll read or watch t.v. I leave to finish up this post.

We missed our Bible time this morning. Our story time was shorter and we didn't go for our Nature Walk but I'm happy with what we have done today.

I have counted many blessings....

Smiling at the Storms.

2010-11-08T05:14:00.000-08:00

I grew up in a dysfunctional home.

My dad was a Bipolar disorder sufferer. His mental health was hardly ever stable for more than 6 months at a time. My mom worked most of her married life just to keep us out of debt caused by Dad's excessive spending during his manic times. (Manic Depressives/Bipolar Disorder patients can be compulsive spenders as well as extremely generous givers of their money during *high* moments).

I only realised recently, that although our experience was not your normal, happy suburban family story, as a young child I just accepted it as normal. I don't really remember thinking "we're not normal" until in my early teens.

However, although I may not have realised it as a young child, experiences shape you and some can scar you.

I've never been one to believe in the popular phrase "children are so resilient". It may seem at the time that they bounce back into life and carry on as if nothing unusual has happened, but trust me, if you look closely you'll see the negative effects of stressful times acted out in their daily behaviour. It may come soon after or it may come later in their teen or adult life, but unfortunately it does come....

Like it or not I have to admit that what I experienced as a child influences so much of how I handled life, it still does.....

The good news is: I'm now a daughter of Christ, adopted into His family where I now believe that as the Potter, My Shepherd and my Healer, He can restore the years which the locusts stole away as a child. He can apply the healing balm.

I refuse to believe that "a leopard can't change her spots", especially when she has Christ as her Redeemer. I choose to believe that with Christ in me He can change me to be more and more like Him.

Unfortunately though, as a result of my childhood experiences my knee jerk reaction to stressful moments has always been: Why me? Why this? Why now? When will it stop? Instead of having peace and joy I choose to get angry at yet another tough moment to endure-does life always have to be this tough?

Our last three to four months have been filled with sickness. After a winter of a terrible flu for the kids-which we seriously thought was whooping cough for Jenna- it hit Ray (who never gets sick) and finally myself. Having just recovered from that Jen went down with high temps which lasted 6 days followed by Ray getting hit with similar symptoms but worse results: glandular fever which had him flat on his back for a week with blurred vision from conjuctivitus. Michael followed next-confused by the temperatures and hallucinations and nightmares caused by the temps-he was extremely difficult to calm at night, thankfully his high temps lasted for a shorter period.

I'm not a great nurse. Whiny children who needed me within their sight 24/7 and a husband who couldn't breathe or sleep peacefully really tested my servant heart and patience. (I haven't handled sleep deprivation very well in the past). Normally I would have gotten impatient, lost my cool and I would have just wanted it all to STOP! But while we went through this storm I felt the Lord saying: I'm with you in this storm, smile! What? You've got to be kidding? Smile? Not me Lord, I'm better at moaning and complaining and wondering what on earth have I done wrong to deserve this? But repeatedly He said: With me in your boat you can smile in the storm. And so I did. And we survived. And we learnt many important lessons. My children learnt about putting other's needs before their own. And I learnt to look for the blessings in the midst of the storm.

A week after everyone was fully recovered I was going through another storm: the emotional after shock of a sick home. In this storm I didn't smile. I got angry. Why does *this* have to happen now? Haven't I had enough? My eyes and ears were closed and although I had just been through a storm where I had been continuously reminded that the Lord is always with us I thought: I'd take control again. I literally tried to row my own boat. Our routine had been lost while going through the sick times and instead of lovingly trying to lead our little sheep back to greener pastures while listening to My Shepherd's voice, I tried to control them.

The result: tantrums and tears.

I thought I was loosing my children's hearts.

After a very hectic tantrum session with Michael (who has a will of iron) I lay on his bed trying to calm him. And I didn't know how to! In desperation I prayed -yes, it does take a while for me to realise who actually needs to row our boat!

That's when I realised, he was struggling because he had never before experienced his mommy or daddy being so sick. His little world had been rocked so much He didn't know how to express it. Being defiant and angry is his way of expressing his confusion. (Something he obviously learnt from his mommy)

Going against every parenting book I've ever read, I felt I needed to tell him: I love you! Instead of trying to win the battle by controlling him, I had to listen to that small still voice telling me to love him. And so, lying there with a little angry boy, kicking and screaming and trying his best to hurt me I started to repeat: I love you Michael! to him. Eventually I could see his face calming and he stopped and lay peacefully beside me.

And the storm stopped.

Yes, the Lord had taken us through the sick storm and I'd learnt a little more about having peace within a storm, but I hadn't remembered that even after the storm I still needed to continue to rest in Him! Trying to take back control instead of resting in Him and following His lead I had almost plunged our family into an even bigger storm.

I'm sharing this today because I want to remember that it is always important to seek the Lord first and to remember that even in the storms there are blessings to be thankful for.

Does this mean that I will always ride the storms with a smile? Most likely not. Life's not perfect. I'm not perfect. I'm learning to accept that now.

And when I forget that, please remind me: His grace means that even when I kick and scream and throw a tantrum, He never ever stops loving me in the midst of the storm!

Life is a learning party!

2010-10-16T12:40:00.000-07:00

Realising that learning takes place all the time is one of the mindset changes you learn to make as a home schooling parent. Our children learn while they're doing the shopping with us, while they go on mountain walks, while they set the table for supper time and even when they go to parties!

At a recent birthday party we attended we were entertained and taught all about snakes by Sean the Snake Man. A while back Jenna had seen a picture of one of her friends with a snake around her neck. Ever since then she has wanted to do that too. Seeing as mommy was dragging her feet in taking her to the snake park she was very excited to hear she'd have to wait no longer when we were invited to a snake theme party!

Now if you're squeamish about snakes (like me) be warned there are pictures here that may just make you sssssshhhhiver.......

This is the Cape Cobra. When Sean took the Cobra out I was wondering if I'd heard him correctly. I've only seen pictures of cobras with their hoods flared out. Where was this one's? Well, not only our kids learn everyday, but so do we! The typical Cobra picture you see in a book is of a cobra giving you a warning: Don't come near! If they're relaxed and happy, there's no hood! It's a good thing I know this now as just the other day our neighbour found one in her garden and had to call the Snake Park to come and remove it!

This is the Black Boomslang (Tree Snake-literal translation)-apparently one of the most venomous snakes around. She likes to tie herself into knots, this is meant to help her hold onto branches when she is in a tree.

At first Sean tried to convince us that this rather large snake was also harmful to us, but then he let us know that in fact she is just a young mole snake. Now if she's a young mole snake just how big does an adult mole snake grow to?! And yes, we have found these in our garden too! Or rather, I should say our cats have found them.

Do you recognise this stripey fella? I mean the colourful one by the way! Yip, that's my little man who jumped right up and volunteered himself as the first candidate to hold a snake. Guess that's what you get when your mommy keeps on insisting "You're the Bravest Little Man I Know!" Sorry I have to admit I didn't get the snake's name-too busy reeling at the shock of my little man about to hold a snake! :-) Perhaps one of you know?

And if that was a little too squeamish for you, just take a look at this little lady's necklaces!

And she just stood there and giggled gleefully! The innocence of youth!!

We've been reading through the Creation Story in Genesis again and we'd recently read about how God says to the snake: You'll crawl on your belly from now on. Well this got me thinking why did He say that? I think I got my answer: This creature looks like a snake.....or is it a lizard? She has snake like features, but she has legs! Sean said that she was (scientific) proof that once upon a time, long, long ago snakes had legs. This reminded me of what we'd read and I'm wondering if that is why God said that snakes would forever more have to crawl on their bellies? Perhaps they all really did have legs long ago. {Sorry I missed her name too-my only excuse is I wasn't standing near enough. Reptiles creep me out!}

And then it was our friend James' turn to be brave! Here he is with an iguana on his back!

Everybody (including Jenna) feeling his scaly skin.

After that it was time to get the really loooooooong snake out. He had everyone stand in a line.

With arms outstretched, waiting patiently for ........

Monty, the Python! Look at him! He's so long and fat!

And this is where I decided to get brave.... I knew I had to overcome my fears...... so I stepped a little closer..... reached out....... and touched him! And it actually wasn't too bad. He felt warm, soft and smooth. Nothing like I had imagined. See, I can be brave too......

But not this brave! (So proud of himself!)

And definitely not brave enough to actually look at him when he's in my hands!

Probably a little more uncertain like Rachie-but even she is braver than me!!!

If I am to be perfectly honest though, I preferred to look at the beautiful view!

In the end a wonderful time was had by all! Jenna had a dream come true, mom overcame her fear (even if it was just a little step) and the birthday boy had an awesome party filled with lots of fun and learning too!