Life is a learning party!

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!

Trains, planes and automobiles!

Things have been a bit serious around here lately and so I've decided to have a break from my educational ponderings to share a few photographs with you ;-)

Trains.

Both Jen and Mikey (and Ray) love learning about different forms of transport. For a very long time Jenna has wanted to ride on a steam train. So when I saw an advert in our local newspaper for a ride on a steam train in Cape Town, we jumped at the opportunity!

The Atlantic Railway Association had organised a special day for displaying their trains along with some old motor vehicles and an old fashioned bus! Not only could we get a close up look at a steam train, but we all got to get on board and chug a little out of the station to get a feel for what it would have been like in the old days.

the red devil

just look at all that old wood work!

they just don't make 'em like they used to!

this was the train we got to squash into along with all the other enthusiastic steam train lovers

One day mommy, I'm gonna have a car like this!

dream big my boy!

Another highlight of the day was getting to ride on an old Beefeater Bus. We had a lovely little trip into town and around the waterfall in the center of Adderley Street. The kids and I didn't get to do the Fan Walk during the World Cup, so this was a little bonus for us getting to see the Soccer Fountain.

That's my "little" girl in the stroller-poor little chicken was still recovering from the flu so she needed her own means of transport to conserve her energy. Michael happily supplied the power behind her wheels.

Planes.

When Jenna was around 18 months we took her to her first airshow. She was still so sensitive to loud noises that she spent most of the time with a scowl on her face and her fingers in her ears!

During a creative spell recently she created a picture of the air show which prompted her into asking if she could go again. So Ray did some researching and discovered that sure enough there was going to be an air show again this year! After excitedly counting down the sleeps to the long awaited day it finally arrived.

We were shuttled, very kindly, by the fancy airforce taxis to the display area-no long walks and fights for parking for us ;-) Besides seeing different types of aeroplanes the kiddies got their first up close and personal looks at different army vehicles.

G.I Joe and Josephine on board a tank.

Inside an American Medic vehicle.

A brief look inside a Russian Helicopter.

And please, don't ask me to remember this huge air bus' name!

Unfortunately walking around all the displays meant we missed a lot of seeing the up close action of the airshow. When we tried to find a place to sit to view the take offs, landings and action stunts we found the crowds of people too much to infiltrate. So having been unsuccessful at getting beyond enemy lines we retreated back to the transport vehicles and watched the final stunts at the wheels of this huge truck!

Automobiles.

Every now and then Ray takes one of the kids on a Dad's Day out. Last week-end he took Michael to a Street Rod Car show.

A serious little boy discovers suped-up engines.....

taking a closer look inside.

Now that's more like it Dad-the Fast Cars!

His first official driving lesson.

After a lovely morning checking out all the big cars, Michael declared that the Drifter remote control cars were definitely the coolest! Boys and their toys!!!!

Our recent outing to Simon's Town.

We haven't been on an outing in a while-winter weather, winter illnesses and a need to stay indoors has kept us at home. So I thought that it would be good to get the kids out to continue our exploration of Simon's Town.

My plan was to visit the Heritage Museum but when we arrived at 10:00 we discovered that it only opened at 11:00. Not wanting to waste the opportunity of being out I decided to take my chances on visiting the Bronze Art Gallery just across the road. When we looked through the doors it looked like they had closed down as everything was grouped together in one corner and not displayed neatly on shelves. But, luckily for us, there was a lady working inside who opened the doors to let us in explaining that they no longer function as a gallery but they still create the bronze works there. And that's where our fun began!

I asked if we could do a behind the scenes tour and was surprisingly allowed to enter the workshop unassisted. We entered through large glass doors to the smell of melting wax and bunsen burner gas. As there was nobody to guide us I started asking questions of the ladies working at the workbenches. They seemed to be working with wax! Wasn't this a bronze sculpture house? After a few questions and photographs a very enthusiastic man decided he would give us our own special tour.

So here goes. I'm going to try to remember the whole tour for you:

The whole process starts with a sculpture. But not one of bronze. It can be wood, clay or any other medium which is easier to mould or carve. If the sculpture is a large one they "break" it into smaller parts.

This is a large sculpture (of a very thin Madiba) which they were supposed to use for the World Cup Soccer, but it hasn't made it to the bronzing stage.

After dismantling the original sculpture they make a rubber mould of it. These are moulds of smaller soccer sculptures.

The rubber mould is then filled with hot wax. When the hot wax is removed from the rubber it looks like the original art work, well mostly. If it doesn't this is where the bunsen burners and blades come into the process. Using a heated tool, workers neaten the wax works.

The wax statue is then taken to be dipped into another formula-which we were told is another type of wax.....

and is then covered in sand. This whole process is repeated around three times with different types of sands each time.

In between each dipping it is left to be dried by fans.

Once the sand is dry the "sand" statue is placed in a large sand pit. Now you have a hollow sand statue, lined with wax. Or so I understood?! The bronze is then heated in this large pot and poured into the hollow statue, melting the wax.

Our tour guide shortened the tour here. But basically there's a sandblasting procedure next, followed by a burning/colouring procedure. And the end result....

Something like this! Fascinating for me, think we lost the kids at the sand covering stage-but they still enjoyed all the business and interesting new apparatus to look at.

By this time it was close to 11:00 so we walked on over to the Heritage Museum. This museum was created in the memory of the Muslim community which had been forcibly removed in the early 70's. I never knew that the original Simon's Town community had consisted of mainly Muslims and I'd never learnt about the fact that this community had also been forcibly removed. We had always only heard about the District Six community being removed. This is why I love visiting museums-I hated learning History at school-but learning South African history right here on my doorstep makes History so much more interesting!

The museum is small but it is filled with memorabilia from bygone days. Photographs of the Muslim community cover the walls. There's a traditional eats table filled with examples of typical Malay foods.

And lots of old kitchen utensils to look at and learn how people from the past lived.

Jenna enjoyed looking at the Bridal gowns in both Bridal rooms where there are examples of wedding attire for children too.

Michael was sure that granny had one of these-no she doesn't use it still, it's just on display in her hallway.

The owner of the house is very keen to share his memories with you as he guides you through the rooms. He enjoyed showing the kids the old games he played.

Can you believe that this old newspaper kite would survive the Simon's Town winds?

Jen's highlight was seeing this doll all dressed up in it's finery-this is how Muslim babies are dressed for their dedication ceremony.

We enjoyed this museum, although it was small, it was interesting to get a peek into the history of another culture. A lovely morning spent covering History and Art in one outing!

A few more reasons....

When Charity and her family moved in we cleared out our shed so they would have a place to sleep. But all that stuff had to go somewhere and the only space available was the children's outside play room-cum school room. For a while that room couldn't be used for anything-there was a lot to sort through!

This gave me a little time to finally sort through 10 years of teaching equipment which had been out of sight (but not out of mind) in the shed. Looking through old worksheets, posters and work cards has given me lots of inspiration for teaching Jenna. I've been looking at a lot of my old teaching resources through new eyes: how to use them in a less time consuming way? Was this activity really just a "keep 'em busy" worksheet or a useful learning tool? Did I really need to keep it all? Parting with apparatus and posters which took me hours to make is not as easy. I'm hoping I'll be able to find a use for most of it with at least one of my kids!

This brings me to our fourth reason: schools are full of busy work-work which is designed to keep a child working while the teacher can teach other children or get on with admin. While I fully accept and understand the reason for this when one is in a classroom teaching 35 children, I also see it as wasted time in the big scheme of things. I remember those days when I walked out of school at the end of the day and thought: Wow, this must have been a beautiful day! Wish I had experienced it.

Not much time is spent outdoors when you're at school. A lot of time is spent (especially in the early years) doing a keep busy activity, waiting to be taught. While I recognise that this will still happen in a home situation, it certainly doesn't need to take so long when you only have a few siblings to wait for. Reason number four: less time spent schooling means more time outdoors, playing or persuing your own interests-just what I believe children in the early years need to spend most of their time doing!

painting outdoors in the sunshine

Michael has started labeling/naming his pictures: The forest

Sorting through my teaching crates is taking a looooooooong time! After a while Jenna started asking: When are we going to start school mom? I had told her we could start with school-like activities when the room was sorted again. So I had to put a stop to my sorting. I was spending more time with worksheets than with my children. Some much needed mom and kids time was called for! As I still think Jen and Mikey need time to play I'm not planning to spend everyday schooling. We have a flexible three day plan which allows us to fit in free-play days, nature walks, outings and visiting grannies and grandpa. Reason number five: We can choose when to do school or not, allowing us to fit in other important activities like building family relationships or exploring the our world.

Bags packed by Jen, waiting for school to start now the room can be used!

Although I fully believe in integrated ages for learning (allowing for younger children to learn from older and vice versa) one of the reasons I've been holding back on following a daily school routine or teaching for long periods of time: I have a VERY busy 3 year old boy! :-) Michael moves non-stop! Even in his sleep! When he was a baby at sitting stage, he had a habit of flicking his fingers at a rapid pace. He was a happy little boy who watched all from a far, while he was still seated, excitedly flicking his little fingers!! While Jen likes to sit quietly creating, he loves to move. (The only way I've found to get him to concentrate for long periods is to introduce him to Lego.) Figuring out how to do activities with Jenna and not to leave Michael out has been challenging. But we're learning. I still think it's not necessary for him to be doing any formal work. It seems he's the extrovert in our family who loves to have someone within sight when he plays. This means if Jen and I are busy I need to find something to occupy him. We try to include him as much as we can, but I really don't think it's important for him to be learning his ABC's and 1,2,3's in a formal way right now. Reasons number six, seven and eight: 6) home schooling allows for individual attention to teach new concepts when your child is ready, 7) it also allows for interaction between ages and sibling bonding, 8) you can adapt your teaching to the learner's style of learning, personality and interests.

learning my numbers through play

making use of some of moms old teaching equipment

I am almost finished going through the first two crates-three more to go! Perhaps by next January, when Jenna's official Grade R year should begin, I will finally be all sorted! You think?!