tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78965469173157639272024-03-13T12:09:49.062-07:00Quasior's Home SchoolWonders, fulfillment of promise and magic!Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.comBlogger209125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-36890898349602431822011-02-21T23:55:00.000-08:002011-02-21T23:55:29.681-08:00So we're officially back to study!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx0j9Ij7rqA7yypgS5Avw50el28GRUUl4sNvHQZJmU4xlVy9bstvmva4FTLGu5uAgVMHc1epmxhLv3Wv6CnRNm74utqOzunpyK6taAbUeMdB4faBXXb9LoOf89smA_QHOzcD0w1Twps4ib/s1600/Alfflove+2011winner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" j6="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhx0j9Ij7rqA7yypgS5Avw50el28GRUUl4sNvHQZJmU4xlVy9bstvmva4FTLGu5uAgVMHc1epmxhLv3Wv6CnRNm74utqOzunpyK6taAbUeMdB4faBXXb9LoOf89smA_QHOzcD0w1Twps4ib/s320/Alfflove+2011winner.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: large;"><strong>Times they are a changin'</strong></span></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strong><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia;">Well, this is new, the layout of blogger, and I must say I like it!!</span></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strong><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia;">Today was our official day back to study after a 3 month sabbatical. The children took it easy today, by writing, but it's going to be hard work all around this year. </span></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strong><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia;">I gave Dante and Kai a scenario to write about: You are a leader of a lion pride. You are tranquilised and wake up in a zoo. How are you feeling what do you see. Well, almost immediately, Dante turned on tears and didn't want to do any work at all. It took him in the end 5 hours to do one paragraph, once he finally realised we were not joking and we expected him to get over it and begin working. Kai, though not wanting to, did a good effort. </span></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strong><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia;">Labyrinth put on hysterics about not being able to find the book we brought for her as an easy getting her into the groove. I've written in my other blog about her learning disabilities? Well, basically she has GLD (Global Learning Delay or an IQ of 72), auditory processing disorder, and this is why her learning has been so slow and frustrating. She is now at school one day a week so she can access a speech pathologist and other specialists (if we can actually get her into one). It's all been a little, ah... problematic, to say the least.</span></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strong><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia;">Raven and Monika, as always, love to do their work and did a fantastic effort. Oozing pride.</span></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strong><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia;">I am also back at university, after sitting last semester out with major depression. Somehow I snapped back out of it and I am back to some decent semblance of my former self. The exciting part is I made up my own subject and I get to do it, only two other students were approved. I am going to write a hypertext narrative about trains and death. I am also doing German 101, as an easier subject, but I am keen to finally get qualified with it. And finally Film: Style and Story for a really really easy subject, however it got upgraded somehow I found out today. Whatever that means. And I'll have my degree by the end of this year, and I'm weighing up what to do next. I'll certainly have the numbers to get into honours, that might be fun OR really kick in my heels and be boring and have a post grad in education by the end of next year (you so can have a ed qualification in a year, I was shocked!)</span></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strong><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia;">Wouldn't that be a shocker for someone like me? Die hard homeschooler selling out to work in an enemy camp!! Well, I might for a while, but I would absolutely LOVE to work in alternative educational institions like Lambert, or Steiner, or even better found a FREE School! That would be really fantastic, and I am so excited. That would require money though, I imagine. However, I stumbled onto a near perfect building method, so it could be fairly cheap to make the structure at very least. Then grants and funding - but it usually comes with a price tag such as handing more control over to the funders. So really, not so much a sell out, so!</span></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strong><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia;">We also did the mentos/coke experiment with the children. That was interesting. We will let them do it themselves at a later date. Other changes to the homeschool: Raven is of age so he has to be officially working. Monika is easily up to his standard, not saying he isn't bright, not at all. He is. She just shines, she recognises whole words now, and can say for example (we were watching a documentary of David Attenborough <em>Life of Mammals</em>) and she comes out with "This is what was happening in America pre-dinosaurs, wasn't it?" This is typical for Monika. It might not have been totally accurate, but it still shows through.</span></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><strong><span style="color: #45818e; font-family: Georgia;">Oh, and my secret? I've become a witch. I have embraced my pagan heart, I've come home.</span></strong></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-76475102171927566652011-01-05T00:52:00.000-08:002011-01-05T01:00:01.711-08:00December 2010 Advent Calendar:<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8JB7DW0-nc5eFWBF-KvC9BpmZDAWsjYysjYOhg_lf4pjDh2w9Bb1m99WfZTTb6gyJf2KwDfheFNxP4O7bEp07_HSQCU2RykWllO-gef8V4eZjHmlwsxnw9rHiIg1IQgVd_6U1uf-jhclY/s1600/adventcalendar.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 315px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558622128895634274" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8JB7DW0-nc5eFWBF-KvC9BpmZDAWsjYysjYOhg_lf4pjDh2w9Bb1m99WfZTTb6gyJf2KwDfheFNxP4O7bEp07_HSQCU2RykWllO-gef8V4eZjHmlwsxnw9rHiIg1IQgVd_6U1uf-jhclY/s320/adventcalendar.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">This year I made this advent calendar, it was in the workings before I became a pagan. However, Andrew doesn't believe in my new beliefs, so we'll continue with Christmas next year, we'll just do both!! Every night we drew the appropriate number, it might have simply been a treat, I included Litha into it, or doing a fun activity like cooking, painting or writing letters to Santa. On the 24th, after nan and pop had come for dinner, we organised a treasure hunt to bring in the Christmas spirit of fun! Monika's clue was the fridge, where she found a little present full of chocolate and a clue addressed to Raven which led them to the bbq, then to Kai to the van, then to Dante to the big Tea Tree, and Labyrinth the the rabbit hutch, back inside to a present under the tree, which was a big box of lego to share!!! Q.</span>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-72312427571769331012011-01-05T00:22:00.000-08:002011-01-05T00:45:32.417-08:00Christmas 2010: We hope you had a great day!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1jpfshMymrKoksrNlcJnC1zdzpN1FwXMTEncGzPBGgMPlIxt3fgKYi3scnHQVoE-C3I7jicp6p0M1OBOqk8mQ5Z2LFb0otPXzuuFLB6HMh7B-ECjq3bfIR4kVCXE-oi1CO35DN52KGLO/s1600/nikatinkbed.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558618108616484290" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO1jpfshMymrKoksrNlcJnC1zdzpN1FwXMTEncGzPBGgMPlIxt3fgKYi3scnHQVoE-C3I7jicp6p0M1OBOqk8mQ5Z2LFb0otPXzuuFLB6HMh7B-ECjq3bfIR4kVCXE-oi1CO35DN52KGLO/s320/nikatinkbed.jpg" /></a> <span style="color:#009900;">Our beautiful Monika after the festivities Christmas night, all tucked in bed surrounded by Tinkerbell bedding!</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNziDWMCqa5JcxFca6H2RqWzeHWfQjml5X2cXYs0RbVSWi9ZhEqddlPXEM1RgPDDVgY85RWVhxsC3d9URfsEiRhJIpcehLwY23k0t6Zb1JA-WkktrCmvnp8ChcctYHZNaBMbqsWR0e-XcB/s1600/nika2.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558615664500819938" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNziDWMCqa5JcxFca6H2RqWzeHWfQjml5X2cXYs0RbVSWi9ZhEqddlPXEM1RgPDDVgY85RWVhxsC3d9URfsEiRhJIpcehLwY23k0t6Zb1JA-WkktrCmvnp8ChcctYHZNaBMbqsWR0e-XcB/s320/nika2.jpg" /></a> <span style="color:#ff0000;">We love Christmas here, I just wonder how to paganise it!!! Will celebrate Yule at the proper time next year... but for now: A very happy Monika with Dora doll, Tinkerbell dolls and bedding!</span><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchXa-w7IwoLVDxbMGejMvpzZtt9MqM0Z5siEyMYRdw0ZHcP06zkyEIF2nHXKEBT7UOY2WNj6Q-m8sFz2Fnp8wmVGdSgZl4eI3Xv2HyNdDiPLbLEYoy7SY0LfGkbV53T1w0W9cu2HYOdWe/s1600/nikaxmas.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558615657844744546" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhchXa-w7IwoLVDxbMGejMvpzZtt9MqM0Z5siEyMYRdw0ZHcP06zkyEIF2nHXKEBT7UOY2WNj6Q-m8sFz2Fnp8wmVGdSgZl4eI3Xv2HyNdDiPLbLEYoy7SY0LfGkbV53T1w0W9cu2HYOdWe/s320/nikaxmas.jpg" /></a> <span style="color:#006600;">A happy whole family with Nerf Guns and an ammo box full of fun foam bullets.</span><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimkakBVN3exMxd4f1W6wrrRAeeOYAr4Gstkhs30e8Fp2Yn9hCsDxZFEhJwMkzESYI3ay_nssM3XbkIT8y_1qRsE2PqSNGE8xrdfOVIPzzZi9aUBLyIvJ9KQJW0RRI8G_6FySufIXIn777B/s1600/nerfdom.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558615357379001394" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimkakBVN3exMxd4f1W6wrrRAeeOYAr4Gstkhs30e8Fp2Yn9hCsDxZFEhJwMkzESYI3ay_nssM3XbkIT8y_1qRsE2PqSNGE8xrdfOVIPzzZi9aUBLyIvJ9KQJW0RRI8G_6FySufIXIn777B/s320/nerfdom.jpg" /></a> <span style="color:#ff0000;">Labyrinth with a Silvermist doll, she also got a 14 pixel camera, and a Twilight Doona/Duvet cover.</span><br /><br /><div><span style="color:#009900;"></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd4MLPh5nvSrvMlB-zJx7taao_Bdm2hQTFXjEAq-S7NXWvnhsIJ1G_BCaGk841xXutbPEQJveBbpzGYODAWMSkRLzuMk1tUl3E5g5UytXTFF_MbHCFrZT5DPRDhYFpDHKwqbWZCOW5j2Ec/s1600/minxmas.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558615355004100290" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhd4MLPh5nvSrvMlB-zJx7taao_Bdm2hQTFXjEAq-S7NXWvnhsIJ1G_BCaGk841xXutbPEQJveBbpzGYODAWMSkRLzuMk1tUl3E5g5UytXTFF_MbHCFrZT5DPRDhYFpDHKwqbWZCOW5j2Ec/s320/minxmas.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsSlYnFo_kJFOMpM_AnjQd6LzjK90WVVdozcr8_3lLYjBE0IgqEvKeInYrMOA2faVgXm-A6-0JoflxauxWss6dm1gf8zQ7DXaTSk4Asnd_BFm7rdoPCqhtIhwXOqZ3wLpQZkrgMcP1xg-U/s1600/xmasboys.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558615346962401410" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsSlYnFo_kJFOMpM_AnjQd6LzjK90WVVdozcr8_3lLYjBE0IgqEvKeInYrMOA2faVgXm-A6-0JoflxauxWss6dm1gf8zQ7DXaTSk4Asnd_BFm7rdoPCqhtIhwXOqZ3wLpQZkrgMcP1xg-U/s320/xmasboys.jpg" /></a> <span style="color:#009900;">Boys will get into their toys and make such messes~!</span><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitXKKJf2a3YYopSJcKgOgFKGP0b-XHNCkG4WK0q9qyQLu9sPsR7Knxvp8Zdr12373s0Y6Sv-nX4Qf6Xh5SRKkuN_onhHsBhJRMumDCB63BGysPFekinhhgqxDhJF44Cf-YK_xQTJp5QEYW/s1600/xmaseve.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 314px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558615346918813810" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitXKKJf2a3YYopSJcKgOgFKGP0b-XHNCkG4WK0q9qyQLu9sPsR7Knxvp8Zdr12373s0Y6Sv-nX4Qf6Xh5SRKkuN_onhHsBhJRMumDCB63BGysPFekinhhgqxDhJF44Cf-YK_xQTJp5QEYW/s320/xmaseve.jpg" /></a> </div><br /><div><span style="color:#ff0000;">Above is the children on Christmas Eve, all excited for the big man in red to terrorise neighbourhoods everywhere!</span><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvXkfqK0jkT4C8QRPsoPsRlo2Cnhm3YP-xGDs0gzarNBHMS5_qiKPuaL6ZV4IXcAU9LO4_NfQZ3S1ZghGrlCnhW96fp-eGXZDg6URgs3TfpIAS0btp5xxArlXqcP8IyK22ocbDsySRQ1Sr/s1600/brinbed.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558615345243995378" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvXkfqK0jkT4C8QRPsoPsRlo2Cnhm3YP-xGDs0gzarNBHMS5_qiKPuaL6ZV4IXcAU9LO4_NfQZ3S1ZghGrlCnhW96fp-eGXZDg6URgs3TfpIAS0btp5xxArlXqcP8IyK22ocbDsySRQ1Sr/s320/brinbed.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="color:#009900;">Labyrinth's Doonah above, and below the boys have a new decor to their room: Dinosaurs!!</span><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdgGXrznA8a-sdLgCS4ozKOzAXtiJMjf3f393-rOPcAaJrhmECOJ54C_-lgyvWJ44wmosCO6j_CNtrr8vjuxJGGNkKu2MobuzT7B5YC9UTFTKCu2axkQowb2Ktqn5DrGsAmiD4PgE59hal/s1600/boyz.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558614761373169954" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdgGXrznA8a-sdLgCS4ozKOzAXtiJMjf3f393-rOPcAaJrhmECOJ54C_-lgyvWJ44wmosCO6j_CNtrr8vjuxJGGNkKu2MobuzT7B5YC9UTFTKCu2axkQowb2Ktqn5DrGsAmiD4PgE59hal/s320/boyz.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKOfzxpbjodv6A5-0d_WBbS7tMqqmAHy1wfy0x8ECU5hq-PdW7GRrk30FH_BPdDzdTEQgAgVkRNQN-0rG-UXe2e6dH5zLLGWEblOf_jdbH-jBywKRKNwDVOsQZKa2ga7Ka-CoPvhwDEks-/s1600/boyzroom.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558614757930755074" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKOfzxpbjodv6A5-0d_WBbS7tMqqmAHy1wfy0x8ECU5hq-PdW7GRrk30FH_BPdDzdTEQgAgVkRNQN-0rG-UXe2e6dH5zLLGWEblOf_jdbH-jBywKRKNwDVOsQZKa2ga7Ka-CoPvhwDEks-/s320/boyzroom.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXiNVS_Y_u1-vO9Qz9lVLVAW6qv6X15F1iJ7mKM86gDYm_TSdQC_qoC0ilOgfVtcjbjfmJCukLwacH33vd7jd476UasejRGrA10bbq2zm2XP17RG7zuvzLzHvNo2R3JL0O1rAa58viwfPa/s1600/boysxmas.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558614750936391074" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXiNVS_Y_u1-vO9Qz9lVLVAW6qv6X15F1iJ7mKM86gDYm_TSdQC_qoC0ilOgfVtcjbjfmJCukLwacH33vd7jd476UasejRGrA10bbq2zm2XP17RG7zuvzLzHvNo2R3JL0O1rAa58viwfPa/s320/boysxmas.jpg" /></a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><br /><span style="color:#ff0000;">On Christmas Eve we had my parents around for honey and herb glazed ham, (made by me - it was absolutely gorgeous thank you Matt Moran!), salad and new taties. Mum brought pav with home grown berries for dessert! For brekkie the children enjoyed gluten free lolli... I mean choc chip cookie cereal for breakfast (so sweet and soo sooo bad!) For lunch we had the ham, a roast turkey, and roasted lamb on the bbq. I got witchy stuff like books, candles, incense and wooden boxes for Christmas, while Andrew got lots of models... We had a great Christmas, I hope you all enjoyed Christmas too - but best of all the happiness the children all enjoyed was the best! OH! This was our first year of getting up before the children this year, YAY for us!!</span>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-53773745631206860952011-01-04T23:44:00.000-08:002011-01-05T00:19:41.582-08:00Litha: Our Summer Solstice!<span style="color:#339999;">Well, its that time of year again, ahhh... not for us! We are still celebrating Christmas this year, but we're incoporating the pagan holidays into the mix this year. So Litha, is of course, the celebration of the Sun, and in some ways pagan father's day. We celebrate and show gratitude for the sun, the God is in his prime and fatherhood. celebration of life when the Goddess is giving in all her abundance with the summer harvests, and as such a special day of having fun!</span><br /><p><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </p><p><span style="color:#339999;">This is the Sun Pinyata I made this year, in secret for a surprise for the children (and for all but two days, Andrew):</span></p><span style="color:#339999;">Inside was gold coins, representing the golden sun and the darkness it hides. </span><br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 304px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558607784624909410" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjozUbNqNyA2Tz0SzqcLN32Tuod2f1H-j0Vaeb8ZZYWKoZGF5NhMl3acrKs7sRVF973LrDfPrVDF7n3B88gbjbsRQeCqOv3XVNeUJ9N6YF9kb6rqyE8RjAf_kYhLmI3jGDKySJ4gxcWQBRC/s320/sunpinyata.jpg" /><br /> <span style="color:#339999;">This is the children lining up to do the Pinyata thing:</span><br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558607798101188146" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6e6rEl9RobUwXhJHAqf0OQi-4-cDKq64hKMAkdbTB53R4hUJUly9SlXFZAxed0XjdkceGPF5A37BQt5JoA7lHthOv1CoF71pGMJbw4EX2C5dhg8QeTsqfXqyhWD6kPSWH241L_rpL7P-b/s320/sunpinyataline.jpg" /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">Our humble Litha Feast:<br /></span><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558607794147368802" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwPyaKLbj1fk72Y7HV90H7L9D8EXMBAgR-gSUiaaJZXwNc-WGA7GCPjPtSgo9lHRK7IOvmomut7GpgtvTE80OWhsYuCIjHJ1j9Wg9yE_0nV-Lah9z-lXm8-WzlOG_vlNPrIvZwPS7mj6NO/s320/litha1.jpg" /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA5T79JQYswikwk3wgRX0jPYfR_NvtA5yQR34DUsjGvxq70jEz-euN9JPOnbSej2c_-UZWcRuXDVe2KLmm4bZ0h5-wnVZq1nwbKijtz9p-LmW9vCgrtE7-ebwv1vdkicVH4vL_z-OmuSb1/s1600/litha2.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558607790976475570" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgA5T79JQYswikwk3wgRX0jPYfR_NvtA5yQR34DUsjGvxq70jEz-euN9JPOnbSej2c_-UZWcRuXDVe2KLmm4bZ0h5-wnVZq1nwbKijtz9p-LmW9vCgrtE7-ebwv1vdkicVH4vL_z-OmuSb1/s320/litha2.jpg" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">We had watermelon stars, and melonade, greek salad, sun cakes (they had chunks of chocolate through them see gold coins above, same concept), chargrilled corn, bbq meats, GF treats! The suncakes ended up being not as nice, I sourced those from the Circle Round: Raising Children In Goddess Traditions book by Starhawk, Diane Baker and Anne Hill. We also used their fairy money idea (good for hugs, kisses and time for activities one on one with mum or dad), gifting our representative father and the pinyata.</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div><span style="color:#339999;">After we sang and danced around the backyard and we had a really good evening, no I didn't stay up all night! Q.</span></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-85222592080702441942011-01-04T22:39:00.001-08:002011-01-05T00:22:08.583-08:00Rite of Passage: Labyrinth's Menarche<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3al4rzv8PaeAKM2AHnCJHxX2kH6X6iCo09lHbU78GpfkTIJOQnw7_o8gCrIx6RTTGaegxOQRuHeP4MugnXZhiCbeTrzDNmhivzhfbp5KyRIm7hK3GJ29SlIATvPQCx5epxPLieSTZsJyF/s1600/minmenarche3.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558614144571232690" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3al4rzv8PaeAKM2AHnCJHxX2kH6X6iCo09lHbU78GpfkTIJOQnw7_o8gCrIx6RTTGaegxOQRuHeP4MugnXZhiCbeTrzDNmhivzhfbp5KyRIm7hK3GJ29SlIATvPQCx5epxPLieSTZsJyF/s320/minmenarche3.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnYvHPb62zaPbTkLO-e70SucZAPzFIOrcFXearBc49_lbtQPuh-CfVmMiZ98lPT6HXi56m5QJPus5r47c5ecblZPDHKhOaNn2qUU_1dMlSimbQyZAgp137spAbOiaKqTvWxv6f7XGb0bo1/s1600/minmenarche2.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5558588231270739122" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnYvHPb62zaPbTkLO-e70SucZAPzFIOrcFXearBc49_lbtQPuh-CfVmMiZ98lPT6HXi56m5QJPus5r47c5ecblZPDHKhOaNn2qUU_1dMlSimbQyZAgp137spAbOiaKqTvWxv6f7XGb0bo1/s320/minmenarche2.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;">The stories of so many women I've talked to about their own menarches have been, quite frankly either terrorising for a young teen or just plain pathetic. Mine was just plain humiliating. I had a small bleed that lasted maybe a day or two. No one had explained a lot to me, just what I'd read in some 'not like reality' scientifically based puberty books I'd read when I was 5 or 6, so I wasn't expecting a little one to come, and then two weeks later a full on one to appear when I was in class with 30 other people! The blood had soaked through my school dress, and onto the seat. The class was the worst possible choice for such an incident - wood work. My teacher actually laughed along with all the other students. He was probably embaressed and didn't know how to react, but..!! My parents made me go back to school same day and face the humiliation that can only be dished out by pubestants penned into cages can. A girl who I thought was my friend actually threw tampons and pads at me in front of two grades worth of people.</span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;">Well needless to say, I want my daughters experience not to echo anything I had to experience, but be a beautiful, welcoming into the world of womanhood. I had been thinking about this for months actually, since Labyrinth had already started Thelarche I knew it was coming. I had guessed it might happen around Dantes birthday and had started to plan for it. I was never expecting it was going to happen roughly a week before Christmas!! (I had also begun preparations for Litha too - now that I'm pagan.)</span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;">So she told me that morning it had begun, she was excited about it, we'd actually discussed preforming a menarche ritual and having a lovely meal, I wanted it to be a party with other friends, but that wasn't to be. So, to begin with Labyrinth enjoyed a bath with rose petals through it, and some incense oils infused into the bath. I put around her white, pink and red candles. I left her to enjoy that (I was flat out working on the meal), then I painted her with the best thing I had - face paint! I made goddess symbols, spirals around her body, and I told her she had gone into the water innocent, now she rose as a full maiden. She wore red silk shirt (that went to her knees) for the rest of the night so some of the marks were visable. </span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;">I read her a dedication, invited the goddess and again welcomed Labyrinth to womanhood in front of the family, and we enjoyed non-alcholic red wine as a toast. We then ate a red meat roast with salad, with red onions, fetta, red lettuce and tomotoes and fetta. The colours of white. pink and red where echoed through out. I had prepared the cupcakes above, a beautiful red velvet cupcake I can't take credit for - it came from the Zombie Cupcake book by Zilly Rosen (totally recommended.) I just made red icing and put strawberries on top. We later gave her a gift, it was a doll, and a bouquet of red flowers. </span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;">Its a memory she can cherish forever, knowing she has parents that love her enough to try and make positive and lasting memories for her!</span></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-27714092160779570802010-11-21T02:52:00.000-08:002010-11-21T02:58:29.160-08:00I Thought I'd add this<span style="color:#339999;">I can't abide homeschool bashing by people who don't know what homeschooling is really about. I found such a thread on the new government site called "MySchool". I had to reply. (Here's the <a href="http://www.myschool.com.au/forum/topics/home-schooling">link</a>.)</span><br /><span style="color:#339999;"></span><br /><span style="color:#339999;">I'll put my words here though, in case they go missing...</span><br /><span style="color:#339999;">This seems to be a bit of an anti-homeschooling and a school bashing thread.</span><br /><span style="color:#339999;"></span><br /><span style="color:#339999;">Firstly, I homeschool my 5 children. I could never imagine sending them to school. Why? Because school has never and doesn't seem to have the ability to address the needs of all students. People forget that homeschooling existed BEFORE school was institutionalised, and it is very natural and a reasonable choice for a parent to make. Yes, orginally I had my daughter and son in school but I regret it. They picked up bad habits, and my daughter was bullied, 6 years on still not fully recovered. But I digress...<br /><br />Natural learning/unschooling is the term you are looking for Alana. This is a valid path, but one of many paths a parent who homeschols can make. There is also school at home, Charlotte Mason, Steiner, Ready to go Curriculum, Internet based, religious based and eclectic are all choices one can make.<br /><br />Obviously, you are all uninformed and making assumptions about something you really know nothing about. Alana, two homeschooled children do not represent the homeschooling community as a whole. Marion, sadly you have a picture of homeschooling that is lacking. Yes, the education system is failing, it is doomed to fail as is, or make children into mindless workers who don't think outside the box.<br /><br />Don't take my word for it read celebrated ex-teacher from New York John Gatto Taylor's criticism of modern schools<br />http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Taylor_Gatto<br /><br />Marion I'd also like to ask why you didn't tap into the huge homeschool communty of Qld? I've lived there and I know there are many homeschool activities and communities of varying styles all around, easy to google, find on Yahoo groups. Sure its lonely if you don't socialise, but the people are there if you want to meet them. When I was up there were two informal play groups meeting in North Brisbane, one of which met in various parks weekly and had a lending library and are so willing to help newcomers, very lovely community. Of course other groups run excersions and science classes and all kinds of interesting activities. Theres a Sunshine group, a christian group, Briby Island group that all meet and support one another, and that's just off the top of my head.<br /><br />Of homeschooling children I know they are beautiful and individual people, they aren't socially backward, some like to be introvert but that's natural in any setting, school or no. Homeschoolers tend to be more able to associate without barriers of sex and age, they are tolerant. School settings are the ones which I have found to be the unnatural setting, putting children same age together they tend to have some rather nasty interactions (rarely this happens with home educated children). Teenagers don't have the same peer pressure to conform or consume or go through fads.<br /><br />And Glenn, I'm not bashing the people involved in schooling, its just the system, the teachers themselves have been 'set up' to perform their roles and have been educated to think in one way. Teachers do seem to be critical of homeschooling (it is their means of income). I know a principal very well and he is open minded enough to 'wait and see' how my children turn out.<br /><br />I think the government/education system could do better by opening their minds. I rather like the model (I can't take credit, but I can't recall it's name) where its an open education system, where the teacher has a more facilitator role, its age open I believe, ie adults and children can learn in the same class. It onus is on the self, you go research and work on individual or group projects and learn what you need as you complete it, the teacher is a sounding board and various discussions are the means of communicating ideas. There is a communal learning space that is rather like a library with computers and there are spaces set aside for various activites cooking, science, technical learning like sewing/metal work/wood work etc. No one is forced to learn anything but encouraged to discover, naturally learn and to interact with others as they learn. I believe some split off and learn a trade (which they presumably have experience with already) at age 12, where they take an apprentiship.) Not unlike how it used to be in the past. The theory is one can base their natural predispositions into become really really good at one thing, something they can have real pleasure in and not worry too much about a shallow attempt to learn everything and come away not really being great at anything. </span>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-43430483378901995622010-11-19T03:18:00.000-08:002010-11-19T04:02:13.348-08:00An Explanation and an Apology.<span style="color:#339999;">Hey !</span><br /><span style="color:#339999;"></span><br /><span style="color:#339999;">I am sorry I haven't been around, I keep kicking myself, but there are some pretty good reasons.</span><br /><span style="color:#339999;"></span><br /><span style="color:#339999;">I will endeavour to change my wicked ways and keep up posting because I have enjoyed it in the past so much.</span><br /><span style="color:#339999;"></span><br /><span style="color:#339999;">Several things have prevented me from posting. My familie's health and my own. Yeah, sorry excuse maybe, but true nonetheless. I myself have been recently<em>ish </em>been diagnosed with <a href="http://www.sjogrens-guidebook.com/2009/landinge.php?gid=RH011&?a=a&assoc=Google&keyword=Sjogrens">Sjogren's Syndrome</a> of the secondary variety, something I've lived with literally for years and never knew that it wasn't normal. It's lovely to have some relief from that... It's obviously secondary to my primary condition of Coeliac's Disease. See my other blog <a href="http://quasiorsrecoveryfromsillyyaks.blogspot.com/">here</a>. That alone would not have stopped me from communicating in the intricate web of eminds.</span><br /><span style="color:#339999;"></span><br /><span style="color:#339999;">Labyrinth was recently diagnosed with two definitive problems: Universal Global Developmental Delay and Phonetic Processing Disorder. These do NOT complete the puzzle that is Labyrinth. She's had to take epilepsy tests twice now, and they are undertaking further genetic testing. If nothing shows then we'll be seeing her pediatrician late this month to see if she requires further testing, she does require further treatment, this is a known fact. The government now approve her for having a disability. This is going on while she is experiencing the pains of Thelarche, while she sometimes can seem still like a toddler. OK, this isn't Labyrinth's complete picture at all. She's off charts for her age with Bodily-Kinetic and Spatial (See Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences), considering she's got a small weight problem (which is now changing as she matures and is getting a little slimmer), its a little odd. Add to the fact she is ever hungry, cannot be filled up, only gets what the other children eat, plus is quite fit, her body does not 'fit' with her current energy levels/eating levels. </span><br /><span style="color:#339999;"></span><br /><span style="color:#339999;">I had to drop out of university this semester. This hit me like a bomb, I was aware of Labyrinth's symptoms, of course, but... I went from first stage depression (which I was only aware of for two weeks) to borderline third stage in under two weeks. I didn't even realise there were stages. I tried Cognitive Behaviour Therapy for those two weeks and was needing to be medicated very quickly before I completely lost it. </span><br /><span style="color:#339999;"></span><br /><span style="color:#339999;">That's the tip of the ice burg. Dante looks to have major childhood depression (worrying early, so he might develop bipolar as a teen - poor darling). Kai has become incontinent in his bowels. Monika and Raven have thier dietry issues. Then there is Andrew, he's suffering very badly from headaches, literally constant since early this year. He's got them except when hes asleep it just varies to what degree. Of the tests completed his MRI came back negative, but somewhere along the line he has had his nose broken with swollen sinuses, and he has badly impacted wisdoms. These wisdoms aren't painful at all, unless they are causing the headaches. If it's NOT these reasons they need to begin looking at other reasons, like environmental. He's convinced its not his nose, and doubts its his teeth as it's extremely rare for just headaches. Its making him depressed.</span><br /><span style="color:#339999;"></span><br /><span style="color:#339999;">I just want to move, the space is crushing my spirits, there isn't enough room to live here with 7 people, all wanting to pursue different avenues of interests. Argh... But the view is amazing. I need a sea change. We need a new car, preferably a Land Cruiser/Rover so we can have a trailer. </span><br /><span style="color:#339999;"></span><br /><span style="color:#339999;">I am having a change of religion too. Positives for another post thought, coming soon!</span>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-21424759632891781842010-05-23T02:29:00.001-07:002010-05-23T02:46:27.680-07:00Some photos I'd like to share:<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPA53hO-o0R56bCrmHk4a-Si1j2ko5ky4dnzhM5ZpEgUwUdVffvwXbpWT1GgoQkymITbP9VhUTfZLqTlqKY81WxbFH6fWZRHupdUAmelMFsr2GPutb23mA2_spOed87AdW3US2bmxnNW0S/s1600/qhs.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474398042328719474" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPA53hO-o0R56bCrmHk4a-Si1j2ko5ky4dnzhM5ZpEgUwUdVffvwXbpWT1GgoQkymITbP9VhUTfZLqTlqKY81WxbFH6fWZRHupdUAmelMFsr2GPutb23mA2_spOed87AdW3US2bmxnNW0S/s320/qhs.JPG" /></a><br /><div><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf-MG4n9AaukCye8DbY7M7Nq4aSZEg1QCt83NQi_8o-MrJzy7HcVMjrI-dySdYuB4ckD1vCAhJ75q3tCdnpQPciY6760fa6tSMrWcSl7ryOPk6arveJZqOVAHNwZP9E3rMNR-0WvkNADuj/s1600/qhs1.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474396684905065698" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf-MG4n9AaukCye8DbY7M7Nq4aSZEg1QCt83NQi_8o-MrJzy7HcVMjrI-dySdYuB4ckD1vCAhJ75q3tCdnpQPciY6760fa6tSMrWcSl7ryOPk6arveJZqOVAHNwZP9E3rMNR-0WvkNADuj/s320/qhs1.JPG" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">The above are some pictures of our darling Monika, and below, gee how she's grown the darling!</span><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK6934Loub8_JvNJMnHOkAcNwOvh1nQ_KB4xlFzdr5mysVanxP_aFdfd_l6kDHDy6jP3KmGxOd2tAakDmNN8UxIk8x9Bl-MPvfx6Lm1L6vTw1mTTN9FHJDMslpYqTlltCD8uOKTKeBf1ue/s1600/qhs2.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474395729167822322" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK6934Loub8_JvNJMnHOkAcNwOvh1nQ_KB4xlFzdr5mysVanxP_aFdfd_l6kDHDy6jP3KmGxOd2tAakDmNN8UxIk8x9Bl-MPvfx6Lm1L6vTw1mTTN9FHJDMslpYqTlltCD8uOKTKeBf1ue/s320/qhs2.JPG" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">Here we have the lovely Ella and Monika, sweet cousins together.</span> <div><span style="color:#339999;"> They ended up lovely friends after the initial visit.</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRohbUaJIiL6Dl28fYbSIJg_5jMNoEscXx9c4TeT3C3pgIXcjHqfmZL8vBLDKKfjiYx-BvIRSld6MGr2038CKBHl2cWhm5bCG_4ZApmhSZp2A2YWnXHZA4PcBBrC45rNJpYhxuCqWKFmbe/s1600/qhs3.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474395728098697138" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRohbUaJIiL6Dl28fYbSIJg_5jMNoEscXx9c4TeT3C3pgIXcjHqfmZL8vBLDKKfjiYx-BvIRSld6MGr2038CKBHl2cWhm5bCG_4ZApmhSZp2A2YWnXHZA4PcBBrC45rNJpYhxuCqWKFmbe/s320/qhs3.JPG" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">And here are my children and Michelles together.</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZvAcQR6z_OzFYU_Wurz4ndQgbnSfBZfh8HBsed0x_R6i5jZIs-nJUaGcFZU83J2aMdsybM0kG3SzXWqqzgZXe0P6Ujh8dnH-XESZoztp4J1306xjSut-He7mtZKYPsVUPCBpoqD3k1FHO/s1600/qhs4.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474395719930791666" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZvAcQR6z_OzFYU_Wurz4ndQgbnSfBZfh8HBsed0x_R6i5jZIs-nJUaGcFZU83J2aMdsybM0kG3SzXWqqzgZXe0P6Ujh8dnH-XESZoztp4J1306xjSut-He7mtZKYPsVUPCBpoqD3k1FHO/s320/qhs4.JPG" /></a><span style="color:#339999;">A very nice shot of Dante.</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizbtSQ7THymboPnSlv74L5vgq2N4wKsuU7TaR-dPkRoDGSL6GgEsdaeNB8KTlG1WU5MC_3NCKJU-S33A3ACC8RLDkw_idgNo3Q__xqUlJsRyzfOFz16U6zpNXxxgjrvOpDXEjsswZFEl-t/s1600/qhs5.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474395718158279394" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizbtSQ7THymboPnSlv74L5vgq2N4wKsuU7TaR-dPkRoDGSL6GgEsdaeNB8KTlG1WU5MC_3NCKJU-S33A3ACC8RLDkw_idgNo3Q__xqUlJsRyzfOFz16U6zpNXxxgjrvOpDXEjsswZFEl-t/s320/qhs5.JPG" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">And another very great shot of little Eric.</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibTml4440DT8uPAgco_ObrAmcMAQFUKWj755ZjlwGyIxAYpkf4MXX_T6B7s8l9dgtyV1MJsIU9u9h5FpitS0zPXYaObhawNadEthcXKQsz55MbuvpkkV3iGYtfKBKwVWRc5-KFbaZaJF8k/s1600/qhs6.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474395706875901666" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibTml4440DT8uPAgco_ObrAmcMAQFUKWj755ZjlwGyIxAYpkf4MXX_T6B7s8l9dgtyV1MJsIU9u9h5FpitS0zPXYaObhawNadEthcXKQsz55MbuvpkkV3iGYtfKBKwVWRc5-KFbaZaJF8k/s320/qhs6.JPG" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">Just thought I'd share some strange little details about Monika. She resembles her grandfather very closely, she began life with black hair and very near black eyes, they have mellowed a little. They were both born on the 20th of September and they both can have their way no matter what!</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-88859824788854493802010-05-23T00:10:00.000-07:002010-05-23T01:02:25.709-07:00Mother's Day, my birthday and our homeschool month!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi33vlQFY4MDWNe0zLHTdLGxvD_7cD0936NOTfUIEyYfN5eQAL9aNW99gAOSRXVL3sAklMEVZgULhAr3GYI840acqGRKwbvJQ5JmiYRNpyEEQ5bu5n242kQoQwqpK9EGdT6_0qKWVO1S1IJ/s1600/H4P-1.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474360503623436994" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi33vlQFY4MDWNe0zLHTdLGxvD_7cD0936NOTfUIEyYfN5eQAL9aNW99gAOSRXVL3sAklMEVZgULhAr3GYI840acqGRKwbvJQ5JmiYRNpyEEQ5bu5n242kQoQwqpK9EGdT6_0qKWVO1S1IJ/s320/H4P-1.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3i1Gdv1fKIYss8jRZwr7K8gImrAruhOAbB7sxyRYtHFx_YPoEa65mmgpPreg_8l6NxA6PuABXZOA1Iv77kJq4pTPaRc4simlBzY5ZHwWHEqnCWhUjA7LFNAH2doSYp2lD_BD99oF_hblg/s1600/!BepCMcQBGk~%24(KGrHqQH-DwErf1b1,FbBK-FuuF1H!~~_35.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 300px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 256px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474360492890664802" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3i1Gdv1fKIYss8jRZwr7K8gImrAruhOAbB7sxyRYtHFx_YPoEa65mmgpPreg_8l6NxA6PuABXZOA1Iv77kJq4pTPaRc4simlBzY5ZHwWHEqnCWhUjA7LFNAH2doSYp2lD_BD99oF_hblg/s320/!BepCMcQBGk~%24(KGrHqQH-DwErf1b1,FbBK-FuuF1H!~~_35.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ePUri8AeDp3lvIElgKCe09468nxkjTfFXn23aZ74WJF-0gaqpI5ab_x_M4bqGcg-N-4wRWR-jLf1xtA1PnhLQt_5i4CRc8v5n0wKyVffVsmeuC3OqqQcF2kaxbTVVwXbYUWCTVNgq5iT/s1600/mcups_measuring_cups.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 313px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5474360487587880418" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0ePUri8AeDp3lvIElgKCe09468nxkjTfFXn23aZ74WJF-0gaqpI5ab_x_M4bqGcg-N-4wRWR-jLf1xtA1PnhLQt_5i4CRc8v5n0wKyVffVsmeuC3OqqQcF2kaxbTVVwXbYUWCTVNgq5iT/s320/mcups_measuring_cups.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;">Above are a few of my gifts, these were what I recieved for Mother's Day. I'm Babushka Doll mad. When I was growing up we loved visting a certain older couple who used to fill me up on wonderful stories of their lives in old Europe before immigrating to Australia, and these Bubushka Dolls sat on her mantle, some from 'the old country', some Inga had collected over the years. They used to fascinate me, just as much as the stories they told. I remember Villy being very surprised when I told him the story he was 'reading' to me had different words than the printed ones! Yeah I was a nerd who could read before I set foot in school.</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div><span style="color:#339999;">The teapot is such an awesome replacement for the second tea pot the darlings have smashed over the last few months. It's really nice Hello Kitty kind, the plastic seems sturdy though I'd prefer no plastic, and the glass mouldings and the strainer is just perfect. I mean that, it doesn't let any real residue through!</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div><span style="color:#339999;">The stamp is a present I brought for myself, I've wanted a Raven stamp like forever and this happened to be going cheap on Ebay, so I thought I'd snap it up. I can certainly add it to Raven's scrap pages, I want more of them, can't ever have enough stamps I'm afraid. Ahhh, the Scrapper's Lament.</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div><span style="color:#339999;">I did get some more scrapbook project boxes, a table I can set up in front of the telly to scrap on (hell, nothing expensive), a new tool tote and a scrapbook bag. I'm actually downsizing. I'll be putting four project boxes together and doing them on the couch (with new table) or at the kitchen table, and getting a tall boy for sensible storage for clothes as opposed to taking over my bedroom with scrap storage and desks....at least that's the theory. My mum brought me Cadbury Chocolate (plain which is Gluten Free) and a purple skirt. She gave Michelles children an Ocean candle to give me. She's getting better at guessing what I'll like as an adult. Andrew keeps ribbing me about the Independance Day Boardgame she gave me the year they met him (we were already married! That was a story I might deluge one day).</span></div><div> </div><div><span style="color:#339999;">Andrew and I have struck a more structured homeschool, we do four lessons a day, and by god he's taking half of them! We evenly divided up the lessons, giving ourselves a day off a week, plus a weekend which for us in Friday/Saturday (we never school on Friday's anyway because it's pay day and we're oftten busy). Sundays are English creative writing, Blogging (for the children and me - find them in the About Me link), Maths and Japanese. Mondays are Art apreciation, German and double science. Tuesday is English Grammar, Craft or Cooking, Maths and IT (they're building web pages atm), </span> <span style="color:#339999;">Wednesday is Music, Craft or Cooking, and our playdate with other homeschoolers, this would also be the time for trips to museums and art galleries etc, and Thursdays are English, Reading aloud, Maths, Watching language shows like Muzzy or Japanese Anime. The lessons are done in a fashion that we either take all morning or all afternoon which has left me time to pursue my dream of losing weight, getting fit and doing my university work in the daytime! This was all good in theory till I pushed myself too hard and pulled a muscle in my lower back, and I was doing so well! I might have taken nearly 5 months but I've lost a dress size.</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div><span style="color:#339999;">Tuesday's lessons haven't happened yet, it turned into a playdate with their cousins from Perth, my sister Michelle who is now a doctor brought the beautiful bright cousins over to play! Ella also visited on Thursday and we ate tea at my Mum's where they were staying. Michelle was attending a Women's Health Conference (she was doing it for some kind of credit? on her medical knowledge somehow). So this week with me injuring my back on my birthday and Michelle and her children, I've been flat out busy (as has the rest of the family). We've not been able to go to a homeschool playdate since last week, but it's only one week and they got to spend a day with the cousins who they really get along well with.</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div><span style="color:#339999;">There are fewer knots and bruising on my back today, but yesterday was painful! I brought some Solopas from the Chinese Emporium which help amazingly, Andrew slathered my back with Arnica and Comfrey mix (which was for my broken arm long time since). I had a long bath with a little Monika intruding for a bath at the end - hey she can have a bath now and she doesn't suffer from eczma anymore.</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div><span style="color:#339999;">Finally, we spent four and one half hours with a the very Dr Donahue at the hospital on Friday, which is all about finding the results to the children's various illnesses, all of which I will blog on my other blog <a href="http://quasiorsrecoveryfromsillyyaks.blogspot.com/">Quasior's Recovery From Silly Yaks</a>. He accepts I am a celiac, and Raven is too! After all this time it's nice to have a doctor agree with me. I will be joining the Tassie branch of <a href="http://www.coeliacsociety.com.au/">Coeliac Australia</a> soon. </span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div><span style="color:#339999;">That's about all for now in our little corner of the world. I'm sorry I've been absent so much, I've just been crazy busy, Q. I will add in photos of more scrapping soon.</span></div></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-12355635974113558002010-04-27T22:09:00.000-07:002010-04-27T23:02:21.245-07:00I know, I know<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-y8ZBWCxArDpCKlA_xlFyDKr43_h5RpN07izetNuVPHkTcgD7Xy6XhebELqX4TYwN2nbcJHXcty7pvfNnXEORmAQm7v8EQPRMk6lqsVZWiPJo4UQKdMKmFkQH82_uhruks7sFNU3CrVUN/s1600/dkandr.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465063735320051986" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-y8ZBWCxArDpCKlA_xlFyDKr43_h5RpN07izetNuVPHkTcgD7Xy6XhebELqX4TYwN2nbcJHXcty7pvfNnXEORmAQm7v8EQPRMk6lqsVZWiPJo4UQKdMKmFkQH82_uhruks7sFNU3CrVUN/s320/dkandr.jpg" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">Above: Dante and Kai have painted Wall-E, and Raven has done a night time Plants Vs Zombies painting. Below: Labyrinth had done a still life of our fruit bowl, and Monika has done a wonderful colourful picture!</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcC3Uol_14CzRKhljiD6t5VoNM6L-nyYMD3jhQF5CMpr7wLVmSK6AonO5KxPWoJL2mtBTrY_CdPnf3Ps9zz2nsU5qXavPHqItqolFMR3eFLL-z3KsHFWXNiee6J8gEvqd5xuF7iauYipwq/s1600/landm.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5465063731445969826" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcC3Uol_14CzRKhljiD6t5VoNM6L-nyYMD3jhQF5CMpr7wLVmSK6AonO5KxPWoJL2mtBTrY_CdPnf3Ps9zz2nsU5qXavPHqItqolFMR3eFLL-z3KsHFWXNiee6J8gEvqd5xuF7iauYipwq/s320/landm.jpg" /></a><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;">It's way past due for blogging, and I apologise but I have been super busy... </span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div><span style="color:#339999;">I've been to Armidale for a Residential School for Intro to Preformance and Presentation (Drama), that was fun and a big stretch for me as I haven't preformed on stage for a long, long time. I've been doing my best to get fit, keep the studies up, both the children's and mine, and get on top of all my other needs... basically this came not quite last as my scrapping has that honour. Yes, I'm pining for the time I can sit down and just do some fun stuff for me.</span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;">Last week on Thursday I got all my mid semester essays in, a week since getting back in the state, I had three assignments due on Wed/Thurs last week, one was fun, that was a workbook for my drama subject which meant designing a stage and drawing up a scene ready for designers/actors to go. The other two essays for the same subject (which could have been a great subject) Reading Pop Culture, which was about Steve Irwin and Micheal Jackson. I mean come on, it could have been Princess Diana - I figured I'd do the lesser two of three evils...</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div><span style="color:#339999;">I've also been sick, trying to get the children prepped for a mini gluten challenge (which all the details will be on the other<a href="http://quasiorsrecoveryfromsillyyaks.blogspot.com/"> blog</a>.) I've also got my Mental Health First Aid certificate, my Mother has had complications from a bowel operation, Andrew has been recovering from a nasty foot injury from Dante's birthday. On the up and up now personally for health, which got a huge boost from my four day Res School, which was quite physical. I've barely had time to scatch!</span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;">During this time the lessons haven't exactly been um... consistant. However, they have made huge bounds in reading/writing and maths, which are the subjects we have been mostly concentrating on while I've been otherwise occupied. Monika and Raven have been learning the phonic alphabet, learning new dancing song combos like Incy Wincy Spider etc.</span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;">About a week before going to Armidale, we went on a homeschool excursion to the Molesworth Enviroment Centre, learning about Aboriginal history right in the area with a bushwalk and building temporary huts, complete with mini lecture to begin. They have had lots of play and they chat online with cousins, so they haven't been lacking for social contact. </span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;">Naturally, they have had access to painting/drawing. We've also been enjoying the interactive WII that has been brought so I can do cheap Yoga, I get the WII Fit tomorrow, we got it on special, it beats paying for the gym. We also do SingStar which has substitured for music lessons for now. Dante has been getting into modelling, we keep fish, still eating out of our garden but it will have to be settled for the winter months coming up... </span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#3366ff;">Current Books:</span></div><div><span style="color:#3366ff;"></span> </div><div><span style="color:#3366ff;">Labyrinth: <em>W.I.T.C.H</em>. no 3</span></div><div><span style="color:#3366ff;">Dante: <em>The Spiderwick Chronicles - The Field Guide</em> aka no1</span></div><div><span style="color:#3366ff;">Kai: The Strange Museum - <em>The Royal Switch</em></span></div><div><span style="color:#3366ff;">Raven & Monika: <em>If you're happy and you know it</em> - song'n'action book.</span></div><div><span style="color:#3366ff;">Me: Sookie Stackhouse Books, Rereading No.1 <em>Dead Until Dark</em>- I've read up to No. 9 (Andrew's and my Anniversary present to each other - Yeah we had one of those on the 7th of April, it was our 12th!)</span></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-26186820607391469592010-03-20T16:06:00.001-07:002010-03-20T17:19:25.856-07:00A week that seemed like a month...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvyXYixy1cYV5IFC17FazLFuAfKS1t6Wk0lehUWHkZ5pCcKPMajxOubKmaajBs4fzIGOgHKGEJJiqeCixMC77fQBKM_WN1w832hu6BnK_9749lc9puh7Sd911plmhQzjrMUI99OHxocEQ-/s1600-h/raven.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450861479876635634" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvyXYixy1cYV5IFC17FazLFuAfKS1t6Wk0lehUWHkZ5pCcKPMajxOubKmaajBs4fzIGOgHKGEJJiqeCixMC77fQBKM_WN1w832hu6BnK_9749lc9puh7Sd911plmhQzjrMUI99OHxocEQ-/s320/raven.JPG" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">Raven's picture of Eric, that's after a family vote we decided to call our kitten.</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9aYaf893gAfjoYJEdrBazfVOIUiWKwdY1LwLEKEJe3jm025V6awDMJzajMvuUbFfU6zoNv0d_mBGk7pYbIpn2WGaALFzdm6TeQkQbh2GIr6qVAslNYWdl0_h8YblMhYeXjjO83KHpAfGO/s1600-h/rainbow.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450861469542146498" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9aYaf893gAfjoYJEdrBazfVOIUiWKwdY1LwLEKEJe3jm025V6awDMJzajMvuUbFfU6zoNv0d_mBGk7pYbIpn2WGaALFzdm6TeQkQbh2GIr6qVAslNYWdl0_h8YblMhYeXjjO83KHpAfGO/s320/rainbow.jpg" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">Above: Our primary and secondary colour lesson. Below: cute Kai!</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-VwO3jpDT3mbdUx227lNCZ4HjQyIYO50ogpnRDfW4OsSLrd_LzfSnZ1VYJJmfs7xa1XRgBH3C-3MxOgbc71RISjbZ8NPoiR18xTWJTIcJzUlefnITZGMTERxtT8-QD_34_xZRXr7vJm0A/s1600-h/DSC02304_resize.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 238px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450856686715763058" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-VwO3jpDT3mbdUx227lNCZ4HjQyIYO50ogpnRDfW4OsSLrd_LzfSnZ1VYJJmfs7xa1XRgBH3C-3MxOgbc71RISjbZ8NPoiR18xTWJTIcJzUlefnITZGMTERxtT8-QD_34_xZRXr7vJm0A/s320/DSC02304_resize.JPG" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">Dante's birthday on the 19th - below is the RC Smasher Destroyer, one of his favourite presents...</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWThbccEIk2y92QZ1nHvGjMBLByTdbCTTm5-x5HjiPj_0GuHs-yq7kinwV47NhArwV8ao_KXdQcYhfjPo_FU-a920bvYDbAbNC292XmsBeIh00PtRB99g8-azq22U0ODzXo7ie0_JTM1R9/s1600-h/DSC02302_resize.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450856670203890258" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWThbccEIk2y92QZ1nHvGjMBLByTdbCTTm5-x5HjiPj_0GuHs-yq7kinwV47NhArwV8ao_KXdQcYhfjPo_FU-a920bvYDbAbNC292XmsBeIh00PtRB99g8-azq22U0ODzXo7ie0_JTM1R9/s320/DSC02302_resize.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEionvjBF5FuuFFGzPImH9F72UypLjCU9-1ChxLGNE_chW-UUIZDPFiqiZi6JCsStnQ7bMhj5_UWpxtOTrMkB0nkfAGiw2CwcE6PxXHSqQEsYTPoafYzcBwAdoaYwRCg7f_M97TnJORdvIri/s1600-h/DSC02300_resize.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450856654913231682" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEionvjBF5FuuFFGzPImH9F72UypLjCU9-1ChxLGNE_chW-UUIZDPFiqiZi6JCsStnQ7bMhj5_UWpxtOTrMkB0nkfAGiw2CwcE6PxXHSqQEsYTPoafYzcBwAdoaYwRCg7f_M97TnJORdvIri/s320/DSC02300_resize.JPG" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">Above is Dante's Transformer - it transforms into a tank. Below Labyrinth and Monika all dessed up and read to go to a birthday party.</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIoKfpFszY0bQnN1IolgWvLeBM2dhyphenhyphenLoR4PUHA2EDbcCzMt0d5f4na9jQBt4m-NOxe_Uxoq7XNjnkPhFjxLWfmih0BISxRlhXNEc7AYIx4ltGhFp-u6aIFwpx2G1TYAFKRpaJxMboa7XwF/s1600-h/DSC02294_resize.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5450856643210643010" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIoKfpFszY0bQnN1IolgWvLeBM2dhyphenhyphenLoR4PUHA2EDbcCzMt0d5f4na9jQBt4m-NOxe_Uxoq7XNjnkPhFjxLWfmih0BISxRlhXNEc7AYIx4ltGhFp-u6aIFwpx2G1TYAFKRpaJxMboa7XwF/s320/DSC02294_resize.JPG" /></a></div></div></div></div></div><br /><p><span style="color:#339999;">So this week there was 3 birthday parties involving our children, and one birthday - Dantes! We've also been very busy doing a whole lot more. I'll begin with the parties first. Monika's <a href="http://quasior.blogspot.com/2010/01/2-little-fairies-tend-flowers.html">lovely fairy friend </a>turned 3 and had a tea party at Kingston Beach. Unfortunately Monika was unable to enjoy herself too much as she has been suffering even worse of late with her diahhrea. I'll be blogging about that in my other <a href="http://quasiorsrecoveryfromsillyyaks.blogspot.com/">blog</a>. That and the lovely early autumn warmth had us leaving early. I only took the time out to go put my free spotlight $10 voucher to good use - I brought choc making moulds for Easter this year because of all the allergy/intolerance in the children means it's safer to make our own - and hopefully cheaper too... and to exchange some clothes for Labyrinth. Monika slept a lot in our travels and over the next couple of days enjoyed hydrolyte icy poles. </span></p><p><span style="color:#339999;">Next party was for thier cousin George (My sister Tania's lad) who was turning 4 - a HJs pirate party. There isn't a single food on their menu that's GF, so master Raven had a LegsNBreast chicken and chips meal - but they managed to contaminate it and got him and me sick for the evening/next day. Never going back there! But at the time it was a good evening for them, and I reaquainted with many mormon people including my brother and sister-in-law, whom I never see because I don't believe in it anymore - and purely business when it comes to Michael's Mob... how enlightening and such a sense of freedom I have that I'm definately not giving up now. But it was nice to see them. George has grown tall and thin!</span></p><p><span style="color:#339999;">Friday, the day of birth for two cousins, Dante and Micheal's son Rueben. Ironic in a way as I had two friends who were inseperable long ago in a past life by those names. Dante was born 12.5 hours before! Anway, it was a day of shinanigans. Firstly the timing was off with appointments for me to take back and get another sleep apnoea machine, put off so much we couldn't get a parking spot near the pool on the domain so we went to Glenorchy Pool, it was booked out by a high school.... so we gave him his first present, the RC ship pictured above. He had a great time playing with that until a change over of batteries and lack of connection seen Andrew diving into the highly polluted water to retrive said ship only to rip a sizably deep gash into the sole of his foot. It bled for a long long time and so we went straight home to lunch and phoning around Doctors... so it was a huge boring wait before being seen and being told that it couldn't be stitched with a high likelihood of infection, most of the gunk taken out, script in hand and off to Rueben's Mini-Golf party. Dante over ate on the sweets and made himself ill, he came home to Kai who was also under the weather with high temps and a sore neck (a few moments of menigitous concern - but then his temp fell as quickly as it came. Cupcakes were his birthday cake of choice with underwater animal lollies. He felt a little sad and ripped off, but he'll have an unbirthday to make up for it later. As with all birthday traditions the birthday boy gave a small gift to each sibling - it really does work as an antidote to sibling rivalry! This is what was given:</span></p><p><span style="color:#339999;">Labyrinth - A new dress Kai - A model tank Raven - Transformer ship Monika - a Littlest Pet Shop Monkey Plushie (he had his eyes on that gift for weeks! Monika and her Monkeys!)</span></p><p><span style="color:#339999;">So some of the lessons we've squeezed in are: The primary and secondary colours, and how to make them, making and decorating cupcakes, gardening, <a href="http://www.mathsonline.com.au/">McDonalds math</a> (it's pretty good for free), singing, parts of speech, 3 lessons of Japanese, a lesson of Spanish, Monster's We Met Documentary, some new books, reading aloud/chapter books, PE, forming an argument, and drawing.</span></p>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-6126134938472388402010-03-13T01:54:00.000-08:002010-03-13T02:12:24.667-08:00The Annual Home Education Picnic and A New Addition To Our Family!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTO-wBFiCH5n7DDIIYkDdnrc132NI2k9IgsiFB3tJbESxxTCPkf82QWC3e76VeO6xfL582Mc1YyELE_21V-PouAnRt6UtPevZrfKzETpwrH1Daj0RxEm-PW9txLOpDNRJKa72T6vm_ACvf/s1600-h/5.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448055271903781234" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTO-wBFiCH5n7DDIIYkDdnrc132NI2k9IgsiFB3tJbESxxTCPkf82QWC3e76VeO6xfL582Mc1YyELE_21V-PouAnRt6UtPevZrfKzETpwrH1Daj0RxEm-PW9txLOpDNRJKa72T6vm_ACvf/s320/5.JPG" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">Above is the new addition to our family, as yet unnamed The Cat is asleep with Monika. He's a pretty lad, isn't he? We did it the responsible, and ultimately the less expensive in the end way. He's had his vaccinations, vet checks, a voucher for desexing, and microchip all for $130. He has blended into our family rather nicely. He's got a very sweet nature, and of course lots of kitten energy when he's not asleep! We brought him from the Cat Centre having decided very early on we didn't want to buy kittens from pet stores, who are pretty irresponsible when it comes to cat/dogs.</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh3YuvDcoAHXfWzA-OigWxxRYpQa4iWXYCAC09dmY4BpEqjBSU0tRERHaXA91GfAh45sZ8JwoC3cA4TTVaeiKfjVrzG_hQlzu3Li32CX3z3BijXP2dRqU7Sffhq4l4kBiMAbAzeM7XxpaP/s1600-h/4.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448055266283885682" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh3YuvDcoAHXfWzA-OigWxxRYpQa4iWXYCAC09dmY4BpEqjBSU0tRERHaXA91GfAh45sZ8JwoC3cA4TTVaeiKfjVrzG_hQlzu3Li32CX3z3BijXP2dRqU7Sffhq4l4kBiMAbAzeM7XxpaP/s320/4.JPG" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">OK these are the only photos we have of our picnic at Ross with the other registrared home edders from around the state. Really shouldn't have went along, but I didn't want to disappoint the children, they still had a good time, I made muffins the day before. I was unwell that day and hid most of the time in the car. </span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19qgnyrzasVqCF1tgAeifmf8YHYdKZvSOF83qWMfwz9SIihdw22AhAB7FTlLy7SY0qIWLeFIENfe_Uw0Xc-JQ2pjdK-8_V5NX1EbMlwVitl5HFjvRRLc55cEWhXyAG8b9d0qyUVXRKDPj/s1600-h/3.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448055260030404178" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj19qgnyrzasVqCF1tgAeifmf8YHYdKZvSOF83qWMfwz9SIihdw22AhAB7FTlLy7SY0qIWLeFIENfe_Uw0Xc-JQ2pjdK-8_V5NX1EbMlwVitl5HFjvRRLc55cEWhXyAG8b9d0qyUVXRKDPj/s320/3.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAb5jMx3hQ_JH4YZ5f0HoZfIIeSEiDlPv_3FQKeEL5UEpt4eD1dv-5YTIOX9UQ9TaYdBPeSweyIrQMUnNCfxOHaVHtO3bn1V7qajapdujZcJmaVjV31o-cdx9FdRygx0oudL5CVMF5zuO-/s1600-h/2.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448055254561972434" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAb5jMx3hQ_JH4YZ5f0HoZfIIeSEiDlPv_3FQKeEL5UEpt4eD1dv-5YTIOX9UQ9TaYdBPeSweyIrQMUnNCfxOHaVHtO3bn1V7qajapdujZcJmaVjV31o-cdx9FdRygx0oudL5CVMF5zuO-/s320/2.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiVYJgnvXwaPL83L3LFxlik79rJ2XQsoebi7epNaDQyZQuXeCqMhyZU1W1JgSSBpVA4BBdneiarjxeRzSal1diMZkn5OgmN4tFyVD2GKlM6yf6g9fdUIFcJWVcw_rfWeaN9w-XWGxoB_WH/s1600-h/1.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 238px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5448055244040714930" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiVYJgnvXwaPL83L3LFxlik79rJ2XQsoebi7epNaDQyZQuXeCqMhyZU1W1JgSSBpVA4BBdneiarjxeRzSal1diMZkn5OgmN4tFyVD2GKlM6yf6g9fdUIFcJWVcw_rfWeaN9w-XWGxoB_WH/s320/1.JPG" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">Last night was the first night I had with the Sleep Apnea machine... and wow what a difference one night makes !! I got about twice as much as I usually get done, I didn't have to wait the obligatory 4 or so hours to wake up properly. Really. I have a nickname "Zombie". So a four hour time slot where I was already fairly awake makes a huge difference! The experience was slightly uncomfortable for a while, and about twice the pressure was literally painful, but it's an easy thing to just turn it off and back on again and it resets itself. Its the machine that reads my responses so they know what settings it needs when I get my own machine later on next week. I think it is going to be great, as I felt like my lungs hadn't opened up that much since probably before Raven was born and I got asthma - so it might do even more things for me. They told me I was moderate to severe, having 31 small sleep apnea's an hour, thats about every two minutes! I think I've got a bit of work to do, but I'm going to be healthy soon! I feel like I might be a real human at some point this year, won't that be different? Anyways, things are looking great here at the moment, until next time, Q.</span></div></div></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-88570535183179880862010-03-11T02:19:00.001-08:002010-03-11T02:44:28.526-08:00Hand Art<img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 233px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447319293659836738" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheS-bg6Qmq5-NbIshCpFnk28TAmU7ZLeQGIvCEs_iyU8STS3Y5PFxAB8REmFctyb19Tzh80PzoF9QTxkRkahVXSSgbU-pu7MLoYWYeUf5pXRiasxlJEzoOEk4FaXYXUQYVIo3YUw26TXa5/s320/kai1.jpg" /> <span style="color:#339999;">Kai felt rather inspired by the Rainbow Serpent Aboriginal art he did last week, and today he drew the above picture. Its a hand drawing with his favourite animal, the elephant, at a watering hole. I was so impressed I used it for inspiration to get the children to all do an ink print of thier own hands and see what might emerge. I was happy with the results!</span><br /><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 233px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447325138237054562" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMbRUfHRBKoI7Vz4TH9j66tfxxdpYn-bp-pwQjTXvfGxTtxADxELgyfHUMfna-74-IVnb2OMIwmSJZo29PI1ckZPAJyC2Kmz34ZEhqWTgNlv6a7lt_X3_Nq75EUnfp2DpRuik9qFmHXVDp/s320/raven.jpg" /><br /><br /><div><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 233px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447320545146967090" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM3LGSpMvTku_xMEmm44TeJV-GWdRXYR5uPBX2ZbTx9eXgbBh9mQuoLRq99e2MkSjuQTNRDAESwlfX8msIFvcHXUkCM6yaFfI5zMpt8uAnZI0TgxuUWuf408T0POv27Z3A09PiYydO355w/s320/monika.jpg" /><span style="color:#339999;">Above top is Raven's Raven. He chose the black ink, and he knew what he was going to create before he began. So cute! Below Raven's is Monika's face. There are distinct eyes in there, and an oval face too, with a wide smiling mouth! She had a lot of fun creating this.</span><br /><br /><div><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMczefP8vuFhAhAxRmFvj_i4u71xuxajkHwMGq2EQV4qf3HBHDysvh1DlvEayONROpm1_ktoFcQkOSHHs4Qb2MEDWrgHACu3CApjyngNCLesJN_3iaJ2UqfO0rtl-r-6iuwAJQtoLvNBFT/s1600-h/labyrinth.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 233px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447319039276677202" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMczefP8vuFhAhAxRmFvj_i4u71xuxajkHwMGq2EQV4qf3HBHDysvh1DlvEayONROpm1_ktoFcQkOSHHs4Qb2MEDWrgHACu3CApjyngNCLesJN_3iaJ2UqfO0rtl-r-6iuwAJQtoLvNBFT/s320/labyrinth.jpg" /></a><span style="color:#339999;">Above is Labyrinth's Jelly Fish. I love her interpretation! Her colour choice is also very pretty and suits her subject matter. Below is Kai's man in chicken suit. He has put baby chicks around the man too. At first he thought he had done it wrong, but then Andrew gave him some inspirational humour to work with, and it was OK. I think he did a wonderful job. </span><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-3p8TzibS8RS5W6wdcEHNh1VsCu1AV3HAkHW9gRChPWtoKodzuKFRss5OeGrpQ-MBf2bL312GUnciwcct8pWhleEhGySOV-Dq8grAu0CNdb0cyQVRvGRFD2aGNWZa4cLjCQ-9RcDbJi7r/s1600-h/kai2.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 233px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447319033409362498" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-3p8TzibS8RS5W6wdcEHNh1VsCu1AV3HAkHW9gRChPWtoKodzuKFRss5OeGrpQ-MBf2bL312GUnciwcct8pWhleEhGySOV-Dq8grAu0CNdb0cyQVRvGRFD2aGNWZa4cLjCQ-9RcDbJi7r/s320/kai2.jpg" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinq019Oz8zfuNr7kApa_wd-5DH0RupZDH9-RiCgguJKd0T04CZ0nfZ_gognBl8CCwXSDkEtSBqbcrKC7CayIZFXbnwLHbY4zGXT0XfN7OZCES7vnZ9Qrg5NV4wFolCHJDeVuuI-b8fyLG1/s1600-h/dante.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 233px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5447319022725173138" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinq019Oz8zfuNr7kApa_wd-5DH0RupZDH9-RiCgguJKd0T04CZ0nfZ_gognBl8CCwXSDkEtSBqbcrKC7CayIZFXbnwLHbY4zGXT0XfN7OZCES7vnZ9Qrg5NV4wFolCHJDeVuuI-b8fyLG1/s320/dante.jpg" /></a><span style="color:#339999;"> <span style="color:#339999;">Last, but by no means least</span> is Dante's Rooster with baby chick. It is very much the way he is with Monika, he really loves and looks out for her, almost parental in his relationship. This picture he made was great. I was so pleased with how organic it all was, a natural progression, and they really enjoyed doing the art activity.</span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;">We have been studying <em>Monsters We Met</em> a BBC documentary series. So far we've covered the first two in the series, and they've been making a 'natural' science journal, where they draw a picture of a chosen animal from the episode, and write a few sentences about the animal. We've covered a few so far: Demon Duck of Doom, Red Kangaroo, Caribou, Saber-tooth Cat, the Woolley Mammoth and the Devil Dragon. I've been grabbing various information sheets and pictures of each off several sites and printing them off. They read aloud to each other a paragraph from each animal - such information as diet or anatomy, and we talk a little about what they've learnt. Much like what we've done with the <em>Life On Land</em> series. We will be completing the Dragon Myth lapbook and unit shortly and revisiting and making a lap book about Greek Myth next. It's been great discovering different cultures with them, and we have been discussing Aborigines a lot in the last week or two. That will be nicely highlighted with an Aboriginal excersion that's been organised by a fellow homeschooling mum.</span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span></div><br /><div><span style="color:#339999;">I might not be so tired after tomorrow. I finally get my sleep apnea machine and might have some good sleep so not be so dopey. One of the benefits will hopefully mean more bloggin! And lots more other kinds of things. We have also done music lessons, language, reading, writing, lots of other natural learning.</span></div></div></div></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-32982050372413908462010-03-03T16:14:00.000-08:002010-03-03T16:48:18.910-08:00The Rainbow Serpent<img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 208px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444566222245338594" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1VHnRigtagetC1ygdrrrnQGIZQg25CvhH0FruLAjLtOYL-oqlw6qjhnVjEzgABQWFnFG5ekCI23EXIV340NQEGUCAASb_PrKNLR6cmQSXF-A3lWM47uUTQupI3lrwFCzOEaIBc1m_Hg89/s320/ravenRSwritinh.jpg" /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoEGW0KkKxtSTobvuaNsJHI7NCARMZYeiZ03gZ4h5Zu2QJX9OFH6HUuIHUWShvKdAu9iRAzoV3fwN5EEvHMEpMbA5Pl8nUI64lFSCP4toUC9Uv47Oin9m8RJ_9jc6TvbE-50gFUp7JCkfT/s1600-h/ravenRS.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 229px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444565981871466722" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoEGW0KkKxtSTobvuaNsJHI7NCARMZYeiZ03gZ4h5Zu2QJX9OFH6HUuIHUWShvKdAu9iRAzoV3fwN5EEvHMEpMbA5Pl8nUI64lFSCP4toUC9Uv47Oin9m8RJ_9jc6TvbE-50gFUp7JCkfT/s320/ravenRS.jpg" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">Raven's drawing and writing above on The Rainbow Serpent, below is Monika's drawing.</span> <div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYclZGeFWyl9wbtNH1kgG8xyhgup0bIppmfUQ0foOT-lB8qYeDd80npGchfGQhZWwPOgOquvEy1DG6qZOtnrrWS4KITHMufU00OETHR802XhiihKfuSwDWeB9N1atQSyIncEXQwGlEXkb9/s1600-h/monikasRS.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 142px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444565977394255874" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYclZGeFWyl9wbtNH1kgG8xyhgup0bIppmfUQ0foOT-lB8qYeDd80npGchfGQhZWwPOgOquvEy1DG6qZOtnrrWS4KITHMufU00OETHR802XhiihKfuSwDWeB9N1atQSyIncEXQwGlEXkb9/s320/monikasRS.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuteR8nRcfZKNEy5wF-Y_xDiAAMPtXIbYJlSLRqmMhFMrI1PQmQCgLIIE1ZxzkrwnC6efdYNpF2pllzpwl1t4y3uaaj7WFh3ng4Ww9_nmH0xjW56qczXza3glX2Keqjnnf-6aeGWCNweYJ/s1600-h/KaisRS.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 233px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444565965683281954" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuteR8nRcfZKNEy5wF-Y_xDiAAMPtXIbYJlSLRqmMhFMrI1PQmQCgLIIE1ZxzkrwnC6efdYNpF2pllzpwl1t4y3uaaj7WFh3ng4Ww9_nmH0xjW56qczXza3glX2Keqjnnf-6aeGWCNweYJ/s320/KaisRS.jpg" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">Above is Kai's interpretation, below is Dante's drawing. I am very pleased with Kai's - he seemed to transform the ideas of the Rainbow Serpent and Aboriginal art into something rather personal. Dante's done some wonderful interpreting himself, with rock art drawings and waterholes too!</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaD54bb2A9XbUYNwYhj10K0d14uDikylI_wvDAS50wNDKCiEjsOZpYKU_1AETEDZUgig8AMfI95PIu80wNI40QdWePgSIpNS1FCtCD_oZGYe_BTF6vcc51STy5copGvmbQAjG4nTnEBTm3/s1600-h/DanteRS.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 221px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444565957645574578" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaD54bb2A9XbUYNwYhj10K0d14uDikylI_wvDAS50wNDKCiEjsOZpYKU_1AETEDZUgig8AMfI95PIu80wNI40QdWePgSIpNS1FCtCD_oZGYe_BTF6vcc51STy5copGvmbQAjG4nTnEBTm3/s320/DanteRS.jpg" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkt5iM-TgHpzZhU2SAYFICc5I8Cu6pkFBzgI2xmR_Xr9qZOcuclBVWEoufUeCp5XjRqnga77VAg6Cgrvm340suxGmsfgnpiQcJoJcecDRjAjoFHK3p7ZBu5u2KiIALsTtC2tBHjhceeh2q/s1600-h/BrinRS.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 233px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5444565951094154418" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkt5iM-TgHpzZhU2SAYFICc5I8Cu6pkFBzgI2xmR_Xr9qZOcuclBVWEoufUeCp5XjRqnga77VAg6Cgrvm340suxGmsfgnpiQcJoJcecDRjAjoFHK3p7ZBu5u2KiIALsTtC2tBHjhceeh2q/s320/BrinRS.jpg" /></a> <span style="color:#339999;">Above Labyrinth has drawn the Rainbow Serpent into a water hole, surrounded by trees, animals and people. Aboriginal dreamtime talk of how one must be respectful of the Rainbow Serpent while he is present. He can make the day turn out well or bad, accordingly to the behaviour of the people.</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div><span style="color:#339999;">I encouraged the older three to write a poem about the Rainbow Serpent from our readings and the video presentation we were able to find. Labyrinth decided to go alone, whilst the boys worked together. This is Labyrinth's Poem:</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">The Rainbow Serpent</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">The Rainbow Serpent</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">Goes across the land</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">River to River</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">If happy he stays</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">If mad he goes</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">And if he's not mad he'll stay there</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">Because he is happy.</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="color:#339999;">The boys came up with this together:</span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">The Rainbow Serpent</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">The Rainbow Serpent</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">Crawls across the land</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">Shaping it as if it were a sculpture</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">He jumps from a water hole to another</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;">He never dies, he leaves a rainbow in the sky!</span></div><div align="center"><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="color:#339999;">We've been madly working on finishing off our dragon myth unit, completing bits and pieces and working on our overall unit presentation which is a scrapbook file book (it needs to be ready by Saturday so I can have it presentable at the statewide home education picnic).</span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="color:#339999;">Just our happenings in brief: We've been doing lessons everyday but one a week, we've been learning about myth, language, math, art (including painting and modeling), reading of course, cooking, walking, lots of science, our garden is growing!! We've been enjoying basil, tomato, cauliflower, brocolli, lettuce, a few berries that aren't gotten by birds (raspberries/blackberries/strawberries) and peas. We're waiting on spring onion, pumpkins, zuchhini, capsicum and more of the above - oh and kale!</span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="color:#339999;">More to come I know I need to be doing more blogs! I'm getting worse = zombie, but hopefully that will turn around when I get this sleep apnoea machine on Thursday. I will do a final post of the Dragons, with pics of the scrapbook file. Until next time then, Q.</span></div></div></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-59586406000600129112010-01-14T21:59:00.000-08:002010-01-14T22:07:06.672-08:002 Little Fairies tend the Flowers....<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ-gNppUx3mYWn4sbQuUoEKBHxgw3FBKSr3ova-2DvnH68kHbLnnPknkuWE940Y2onfX_s4kaQyljZ2GRQFNJ4qw6TIVbsj_N13hBdVAaemb1BeI9iRbP_wiQ5i4gU0PRPP0-vyVfrlS_f/s1600-h/DSC01913_resize.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426843252311140434" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ-gNppUx3mYWn4sbQuUoEKBHxgw3FBKSr3ova-2DvnH68kHbLnnPknkuWE940Y2onfX_s4kaQyljZ2GRQFNJ4qw6TIVbsj_N13hBdVAaemb1BeI9iRbP_wiQ5i4gU0PRPP0-vyVfrlS_f/s320/DSC01913_resize.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrGKfErW5NqcU2oaikLgG3iSUkTIrAo3cUFQ8jA6Q4dwly-cTGOLJ5tcOP4ZHC5EkRh1GUUS7BjeXJNkbjQeeQvLxGOdVYxVtlQcTN5OqMcW1L9hzWeNuuw7Ae4FxEi8zSqYgxrDr7HGw8/s1600-h/DSC01911_resize.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426843248132330050" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrGKfErW5NqcU2oaikLgG3iSUkTIrAo3cUFQ8jA6Q4dwly-cTGOLJ5tcOP4ZHC5EkRh1GUUS7BjeXJNkbjQeeQvLxGOdVYxVtlQcTN5OqMcW1L9hzWeNuuw7Ae4FxEi8zSqYgxrDr7HGw8/s320/DSC01911_resize.JPG" /></a> <span style="color:#993399;">My daughter, Monika, and a friends daughter play fairies in her garden, they are tending the gardens... It was so cute I had to break the silence, I've been way too slack. I've actually been enjoying my holidays! I've read the Twilight Saga, almost finished my Halloween off the page album, which I'll post pics of on here soon. Yes, I feel incredibly guilty that I've not done anything so I'll have to begin posting again!</span><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7DK9pyLfh7EvCEJu3C0aDYeJq2W4HPDBF1H5bEA9-K5i5r-X1p34sU8ztTdMuRxUnrUUsQizrssp0epYUvba08XZ3SHjKDglN1-TT5RtbUe0nXb7qzBd0jmuanWxhLGtmJnz0IKrX8UWS/s1600-h/DSC01910_resize.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426842894611650002" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7DK9pyLfh7EvCEJu3C0aDYeJq2W4HPDBF1H5bEA9-K5i5r-X1p34sU8ztTdMuRxUnrUUsQizrssp0epYUvba08XZ3SHjKDglN1-TT5RtbUe0nXb7qzBd0jmuanWxhLGtmJnz0IKrX8UWS/s320/DSC01910_resize.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2tHA-1oeSaDxPqIEM_4wT_ucvyPlYYuLj2XYNgvELFTO6WrC5a6J9V5oHiEGazxhKUztMAwp4-xWaoFU92sqcDCi0Om-2fIXU16mLqh-ULDYxLSd5PN1RtMLGfz4FvWhmTmnBEz7rtBAM/s1600-h/DSC01907_resize.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426842892157693426" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2tHA-1oeSaDxPqIEM_4wT_ucvyPlYYuLj2XYNgvELFTO6WrC5a6J9V5oHiEGazxhKUztMAwp4-xWaoFU92sqcDCi0Om-2fIXU16mLqh-ULDYxLSd5PN1RtMLGfz4FvWhmTmnBEz7rtBAM/s320/DSC01907_resize.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7d4QKqy6bQ9rLWmyE-ovXox6VPI-U7bRW1ZO5XInwvrQ3-8gtUf3z5AoNqTr87xOz9FCpDMmQ5M0voYCNgimBoI2IoPW6FwQl7a3h_ZtAP5u1pxJDiE-1AjnqSrhRumLGz9o5LAfFblec/s1600-h/DSC01906_resize.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426842888402729650" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7d4QKqy6bQ9rLWmyE-ovXox6VPI-U7bRW1ZO5XInwvrQ3-8gtUf3z5AoNqTr87xOz9FCpDMmQ5M0voYCNgimBoI2IoPW6FwQl7a3h_ZtAP5u1pxJDiE-1AjnqSrhRumLGz9o5LAfFblec/s320/DSC01906_resize.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrld2IZSKYA33FJQy2WardcsFIZCbNXYP6hLBmmiedDx_DlBb6vwlDsydmJaFiusSnThqQkFKu-pYNLRDjNxSIeJmKxeXzWrKkE2Naig6njNlie01aO-iH0v-mWQU07D1wg9w0Y7T23GH_/s1600-h/DSC01905_resize.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 240px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426842883544008178" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrld2IZSKYA33FJQy2WardcsFIZCbNXYP6hLBmmiedDx_DlBb6vwlDsydmJaFiusSnThqQkFKu-pYNLRDjNxSIeJmKxeXzWrKkE2Naig6njNlie01aO-iH0v-mWQU07D1wg9w0Y7T23GH_/s320/DSC01905_resize.JPG" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJTWZ-KLTVJXNtdnAQeKj5wXfS1hlnjBhbCS_-zXx6jyoibjyYubQ9WlvnD9QyAaPWUy76RzdCa-fhMt_0d-Bv1bVrwuyF_UC2DXQerNJFvE1Pm1Hc-Q9Ag9wVunK3tU4NPzCkB_iJYg6j/s1600-h/DSC01904_resize.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 320px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5426842874309782242" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJTWZ-KLTVJXNtdnAQeKj5wXfS1hlnjBhbCS_-zXx6jyoibjyYubQ9WlvnD9QyAaPWUy76RzdCa-fhMt_0d-Bv1bVrwuyF_UC2DXQerNJFvE1Pm1Hc-Q9Ag9wVunK3tU4NPzCkB_iJYg6j/s320/DSC01904_resize.JPG" /></a> </div></div></div></div></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-67190258772029967402009-12-19T22:24:00.000-08:002009-12-20T04:39:02.482-08:00Who Killed Dave?<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi1qRf6ahH3ivIitrwMGxY3R8DSKMmwr2sDdS-l0YNldfU4ah39Ywe7lvGZqzTAMrCNOdjB78AK-_LeLrGmhPa7sem4s74NwCamuywVkpljbZDIPSbQwmil6GnkSI_Oz71SSD8AQPc3ebx/s1600-h/who_killed_dave_smallester.png"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 104px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 158px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5417201217371895474" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhi1qRf6ahH3ivIitrwMGxY3R8DSKMmwr2sDdS-l0YNldfU4ah39Ywe7lvGZqzTAMrCNOdjB78AK-_LeLrGmhPa7sem4s74NwCamuywVkpljbZDIPSbQwmil6GnkSI_Oz71SSD8AQPc3ebx/s320/who_killed_dave_smallester.png" /></a><em> </em><span style="color:#339999;"><em>Who Killed Dave? you'll never guess</em> By Linda Cockburn.</span></div><p><span style="color:#339999;">In the beginning, I noticed the clunkiness of the character introductions above the story itself. I am cool with this, many great writers have clunky debut novels so I was not put off (read: Neil Gaiman, Kim Wilkins). There was quite a few characters, many of which had a large amount of backstory which was needed, and as a result this made for a clumsy beginning. I need not have worried because Cockburn's story has indeed been told well. The plot and the story flowed naturally and very nearly told itself. </span></p><p><span style="color:#339999;">It was narrated by a psychic woman in her late twenties, Robyn, who has some connection with everyone living in her street, Kaos Court. She was totally believable, as her version of the events of a short week is told as she experiences them, interwoven with her personal insights, recollections and reflections of the residents and people connected with her story. As the events happen, almost unbelievably so as so many things happening at once; but builds itself to a natural peak. Dave is hated by everybody in the street for varying reasons, and his death is as bad as his life to the residents of Kaos Court, all of which have motivations to want him dead. </span></p><p><span style="color:#339999;">The humour is natural, I would compare it to <em>ZigZag St</em> by Nick Earls. I found it much more belly aching than <em>ZigZag St</em>, the fumbling romances are much better played out in <em>Dave</em> and the sequence of events lead to a much more enjoyable read. I know many people love<em> ZigZag</em>, and if they do they should really give <em>Who Killed Dave?</em> a go because there is a similar tone of humour to both. In my opinion though, <em>Who Killed Dave?</em> is a much better story though (even though <em>ZigZag</em> is based on a true story - and they say truth is stranger than fiction!).</span></p><p><span style="color:#339999;">Her discriptions are hilarious, her insights marvelous. I recommend this book to anyone with a sense of humour! Julie Hyatt-Harris.</span></p><p></p><div align="left"><br /></div><div align="center"></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-15886688535020503792009-11-29T16:33:00.001-08:002009-11-29T16:48:11.259-08:00This is what the children have been modeling!<span style="color:#339999;"><span style="font-size:130%;">As this is what my husband is doing I was going to just put it in as a guest blog. On second thoughts I'll be just posting links. Rather than</span> <span style="font-size:130%;">trying to capture all the pictures and uploading again (the words are easy, it's a simple cut and paste but all the pics - and there is rather a lot) I'll just put a permanent link on a side bar, and put a link in right here. I'll mention if there is anything you should check out in my general posts.</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;"></span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">You can find his "posts" (it is actually a thread dedicated to it in one of his modelling forums) right <a href="http://cs.finescale.com/forums/1224723/ShowPost.aspx">here.</a> All excepting Monika are working on models, its one of Andrew's hobbies and they are all interested in doing it so he has come to the party and sharing his knowledge/talents with them, which is all good. Hope you enjoy, Q.</span>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-42504281353994213392009-11-28T15:03:00.000-08:002009-11-28T15:22:25.366-08:00Dragons Are Good!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy5LXDqqnhfBEasollZezr0C3FabobQyVE3ml2yFMNSCxY2Xczv97AItyoYTr1dz5S4paPbVdlKdnTgTIEgKPLZ4RVjvv5EWpO6LBa4rMnPF4xzn6l6mXIlUjzj1JK9ScaqDvXUuEwj9IM/s1600/ravenasiandragon.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409294781064305378" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 233px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy5LXDqqnhfBEasollZezr0C3FabobQyVE3ml2yFMNSCxY2Xczv97AItyoYTr1dz5S4paPbVdlKdnTgTIEgKPLZ4RVjvv5EWpO6LBa4rMnPF4xzn6l6mXIlUjzj1JK9ScaqDvXUuEwj9IM/s320/ravenasiandragon.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG3QXKFccwmrL9qJwUSo051IbTMdC2eZxs7UQEHEDhC5A9yNnCuQcHMu2KcEYL9srrZeYcxfJZcFxDw8p9X_42zVWpsZpxAjfVswRKUbpgZhztRlmby8189-f_p79gfJIylLPX5SwtkXNR/s1600/monikaasiandragon.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409294778134515666" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 233px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjG3QXKFccwmrL9qJwUSo051IbTMdC2eZxs7UQEHEDhC5A9yNnCuQcHMu2KcEYL9srrZeYcxfJZcFxDw8p9X_42zVWpsZpxAjfVswRKUbpgZhztRlmby8189-f_p79gfJIylLPX5SwtkXNR/s320/monikaasiandragon.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsEjczdWDOaogjxFOdkejDKU_dwNHW1ZUt5ITk3Q_ZyniOxUo-GWpqgjwtoCW3gVXB6Txvvx1yu8LtNZCPYeN9BIaOBOM9x59PZsc5Fk7of85NiyRH2C8ZLVNKfkd2swAad3AgZ36dQkCx/s1600/labyrinthasiandragon.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409294769328586930" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 233px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsEjczdWDOaogjxFOdkejDKU_dwNHW1ZUt5ITk3Q_ZyniOxUo-GWpqgjwtoCW3gVXB6Txvvx1yu8LtNZCPYeN9BIaOBOM9x59PZsc5Fk7of85NiyRH2C8ZLVNKfkd2swAad3AgZ36dQkCx/s320/labyrinthasiandragon.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="color:#339999;">We studied Asian Dragon myths in the last week. I accessed some myth stories <a href="http://www.newton.k12.ma.us/Angier/DimSum/Chinese%20Folktales.html">here</a>, and we then coloured in these Asian dragons in the colours of <em>The Four Dragons</em>. Obviously there are five children and no one wanted to miss out so Monika's dragon is an added bonus. Its a shame that you can't see what the images really look like! We did this in stages, we first used water colour pencils, then painted water into them, added highlighting markers in silver in some, gold paint in others, then we put a shimmer paint over the top of the dragon's bodys. They are really very iridescent! Anyways, Raven did the Black Dragon at top (by choice - they all chose which dragon to do from the story), next is Monika's lively dragon, followed by the Pearl Dragon by Labyrinth. Below is the Yellow Dragon by Kai and lastly but not least is Dante's Red Dragon.</span><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho3A47D91nRqE95vxWXdgRyjK4kryukI-xmuX0r3yoqWHYEz7k7xSyr5H7xDZ_akoOk-Hd2odgywPsBrgiifAe7VZBw6hweLI9NwgxjDcdnVuq-ZSLevTgzZuOIgQ7QG4EvO5z-_PXD8la/s1600/kaiasiandragon.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409294765545684386" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 233px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho3A47D91nRqE95vxWXdgRyjK4kryukI-xmuX0r3yoqWHYEz7k7xSyr5H7xDZ_akoOk-Hd2odgywPsBrgiifAe7VZBw6hweLI9NwgxjDcdnVuq-ZSLevTgzZuOIgQ7QG4EvO5z-_PXD8la/s320/kaiasiandragon.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtHreM2-c5EFkKv8GYbuXHOM9nhD3Ra4aYUPawI66BlBJOaQPDRU0OZHgJ2IunGaG-Ke9VF6VciFH18JlJOBnI039gA8Aa1P4wNiPQOE02ODjkzbF8s1JscHrMHhLTqx97433ep7jNg3W0/s1600/danteasiandragon.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409294760810440882" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 233px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtHreM2-c5EFkKv8GYbuXHOM9nhD3Ra4aYUPawI66BlBJOaQPDRU0OZHgJ2IunGaG-Ke9VF6VciFH18JlJOBnI039gA8Aa1P4wNiPQOE02ODjkzbF8s1JscHrMHhLTqx97433ep7jNg3W0/s320/danteasiandragon.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4hxPS9iKRpO_Dzddb3IytxO3f_sNV1m4_K9lK0jn0BMW_wrY6m0lzmL9EBKgUDoIAiXGFIH5kXs76HhlOLKuNRsHm6BwW7AWOFUHtcCrPGSlwpnMaexN0lqejzyrEQ20V5QvlkUhqN-cg/s1600/ravenhouse.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409294552737164594" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 233px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4hxPS9iKRpO_Dzddb3IytxO3f_sNV1m4_K9lK0jn0BMW_wrY6m0lzmL9EBKgUDoIAiXGFIH5kXs76HhlOLKuNRsHm6BwW7AWOFUHtcCrPGSlwpnMaexN0lqejzyrEQ20V5QvlkUhqN-cg/s320/ravenhouse.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="color:#339999;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Above is Raven's picture of a man outside his house with a dog, and Monika's picture below.</span><br /></span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIPyIeaJXRlMNCkVA4p8ndNqpXRrKXvCOderRMebkQxG5NNdKZtKKOrWxyydA2zEFDCQDHyVOzd92d_BgSIVCeEm5xwO7inTpuEriSG8CH0VS41xc0UCeIJFFXS5B76AAnMaY9aZOAj75Y/s1600/monikapic.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409294543294937634" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 233px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIPyIeaJXRlMNCkVA4p8ndNqpXRrKXvCOderRMebkQxG5NNdKZtKKOrWxyydA2zEFDCQDHyVOzd92d_BgSIVCeEm5xwO7inTpuEriSG8CH0VS41xc0UCeIJFFXS5B76AAnMaY9aZOAj75Y/s320/monikapic.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">These are the big three's western dragons. Labyrinth has gone for a firey dragon perched on mountaintop, while Kai's is up to some practical cooking of birds before consumption.</span><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4k3028MFg2TVRXnYSMqHOoaIPy7QFtfCKQAHKbn9FEbgYjVLjn-tXosMYHzJk9u-oyWAfP34lWvh8NHRjc0h41SqNYEUQGjJIScUZiKrAWlLKfeujxOlS8rGA4_QgeVQyl6hfeppVWKe/s1600/labyrinthwestdragon.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409294537759794754" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 233px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgp4k3028MFg2TVRXnYSMqHOoaIPy7QFtfCKQAHKbn9FEbgYjVLjn-tXosMYHzJk9u-oyWAfP34lWvh8NHRjc0h41SqNYEUQGjJIScUZiKrAWlLKfeujxOlS8rGA4_QgeVQyl6hfeppVWKe/s320/labyrinthwestdragon.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCvDa7FQv2xe6f8OYkdLCTOMz-qr8bkCHh2Zs5cXzzz_4dHSEMcbxnsqsetzfN99L1SaZkYEnQpruvwoHXUXE0nm51BSF0v9RjGggyR3cfv1PQlo3L66suAT2AvvT8wjYzrVwZZj3VVFOW/s1600/kaiwestdragon.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409294526390173874" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 233px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCvDa7FQv2xe6f8OYkdLCTOMz-qr8bkCHh2Zs5cXzzz_4dHSEMcbxnsqsetzfN99L1SaZkYEnQpruvwoHXUXE0nm51BSF0v9RjGggyR3cfv1PQlo3L66suAT2AvvT8wjYzrVwZZj3VVFOW/s320/kaiwestdragon.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="color:#339999;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Dante has opted for a free standing dragon, which had much more detail before he 'coloured' it in! But still great! While we haven't looked at any more myths from the west, yet, we will this following week, and hopefully be making little FIMO dragons too. We did rewatch the Mockumentary <a href="http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/dragons/">Dragons: A Fantasy Made Real</a>. It is amazing and well worth a watch!</span><br /></span><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgawI1lnFffZEM0VIn_1PaQf7QKe-NPR4f79Z4EM5seSl5jVm_nBjMaVcjxYJhrB8veMbX5nHAlezqOAacv4ObP8cTZPL5RBp9vdFsBIRWbF-pzroq8iP9O9H6pxiJaSf_oyjEHjMXjeNIh/s1600/dantewestdragon.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409294522100778578" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 233px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgawI1lnFffZEM0VIn_1PaQf7QKe-NPR4f79Z4EM5seSl5jVm_nBjMaVcjxYJhrB8veMbX5nHAlezqOAacv4ObP8cTZPL5RBp9vdFsBIRWbF-pzroq8iP9O9H6pxiJaSf_oyjEHjMXjeNIh/s320/dantewestdragon.jpg" border="0" /></a></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-63102581152712849982009-11-27T20:39:00.000-08:002009-11-27T21:01:33.506-08:00Dragons and Flightless Birds!<span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;"></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcA5-oz8cXOBr6sRm9LxZ-8xzaiiJEjif3ZdxnAlE-JLtDJCM3pEpQ_WcnK4e8m2iFsFoaZ2bz2s3N_Kzltp4l-6ex7CeVqB-aoep4kZ_Fj6KhuwfPJDQ3E1ugwgAngpWDk8bvksJN4t6L/s1600/labyrinthsmoa.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409010659592970082" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 233px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcA5-oz8cXOBr6sRm9LxZ-8xzaiiJEjif3ZdxnAlE-JLtDJCM3pEpQ_WcnK4e8m2iFsFoaZ2bz2s3N_Kzltp4l-6ex7CeVqB-aoep4kZ_Fj6KhuwfPJDQ3E1ugwgAngpWDk8bvksJN4t6L/s320/labyrinthsmoa.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">Labyrinth was rather taken by the Moa, which she has drawn above. Below is Kai's Kiwi picture, he loves them too. Dante far below is amazed by the Kakapo!</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-X9UT8f-n8R2snEIJhoxCbYjOmaqq5iIw3aYK9dCBm__K6o5ApmzFS4lgpa0GmXDbAZ2M1BtfYvBqP0MfxazrSANOf-5cn8p3jGaKrsxU0sSHNu2B9zBqsLcfXhZuo1OgrtzEDTAn3MQ4/s1600/kaiskiwi.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409010653967243122" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 233px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-X9UT8f-n8R2snEIJhoxCbYjOmaqq5iIw3aYK9dCBm__K6o5ApmzFS4lgpa0GmXDbAZ2M1BtfYvBqP0MfxazrSANOf-5cn8p3jGaKrsxU0sSHNu2B9zBqsLcfXhZuo1OgrtzEDTAn3MQ4/s320/kaiskiwi.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU-d13jseEQCaxdAfuQYR1glvdAsvwWvm-fnoZ4yHzVMoDguH3YuRYaamCs50MDqLhg7K6Myybcauo9ptepMLRQ6xXsawq8KNTOPaSXqiEh_Wu7AIZZ9MyaVWWe-elLFxt216OZ1i6gDhN/s1600/danteskakopo.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5409010649477434306" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 249px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU-d13jseEQCaxdAfuQYR1glvdAsvwWvm-fnoZ4yHzVMoDguH3YuRYaamCs50MDqLhg7K6Myybcauo9ptepMLRQ6xXsawq8KNTOPaSXqiEh_Wu7AIZZ9MyaVWWe-elLFxt216OZ1i6gDhN/s320/danteskakopo.jpg" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">Yes, we've been studying dragons again, or rather, we haven't stopped! At the request of the children, we have decided to interlace the Life On Earth series with stories of myth and legend. So we are. So we are watching the next series, Life of Birds. It's fantastic! We've watched one so far, which focuses on birds in New Zealand, quite remarkable and interesting ~ and they say animals in Australia are wierd and strange! So, we did some worksheets that looked a bit more in depth of the above birds, and some worksheets too.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">As for dragons, a later post will be dedicated to those.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">Other things we've been doing: going to homeschool picnics/get together in the park, maths, drawing, gardening (we've harvested some lettuce and will harvest some Kale today to put in mashed potato!), english grammar (covered nouns, pronouns and adjectives - may not look like much but it includes all the little things like superlative and comparative adjectives, and the four types of pronouns! We go over and over them so they don't forget), they've started learning Japanese formally, they already use spanish, sign language and a touch of environmental. Other non formal learning goes on all the time, naturally, like cooking, fixing things, going to the library - the boys have discovered comic books, its great. Labyrinth had discovered anime comics a long, long time ago! We still read to them everyday, they read to each other and to themselves. Currently Dante and Kai are reading books on militaria, while Labyrinth is reading Coraline and anime still. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">We've been going on walks to, along the foreshore tracks that have been made this year. Its a lovely walk, right along the Derwent River, its been really cleaned up and we see many native birds, such as black swans, sea hawks and harriers. We even caught an echidna baby living in our hedge and getting into our vegie garden to hunt out bugs! We have a variety of birdlife living around here, some in our roof, and we've noticed big bumble bees are currently hanging around the tea tree in our front yard, close to our front door - have they moved in?</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">I've been flat out really, I had one day off after getting in my last assignment, but I've been doing a fair bit of organising and cleaning (boring), have lots of scrapping to catch up on and applied for Advanced Standing finally.</span></div><div> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">In our immediate future for home edding, we are looking forward to stopping for a holiday soon! We are tying up loose ends, like finishing off our Dragon Myth unit, and doing some fun Christmas activities as well. We will go to about 5 Christmas parties, two of which are homeschool ones (with any luck our family one won't clash), and one of our own to officially end the school year, which has never been done here before, usually we just keep going til Christmas and then have a few weeks off. I'll be posting a bit of scrapping and holiday news over the hols, and anything remarkable that happens, but we're still at it for another week and a half. I just want a holiday!</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">Until next time, Q.</span><br /><br /><br /></div><div></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-63221984638402135582009-11-02T03:07:00.000-08:002009-11-02T03:25:46.069-08:00~BOO~<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6YLa7ykM-k76cgA6HXfIQRFSAYqk0kuGy1OdOq651Hu0zR6_Qsv9QJYnTNS45p4EzrkG0ZFOvT03xK3aH1pFWJmSphY988Sr1wZT6OCpht3giIq-uAK_CI-1bExx2S7IU7py8afgZvF3V/s1600-h/56.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399462997101875922" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6YLa7ykM-k76cgA6HXfIQRFSAYqk0kuGy1OdOq651Hu0zR6_Qsv9QJYnTNS45p4EzrkG0ZFOvT03xK3aH1pFWJmSphY988Sr1wZT6OCpht3giIq-uAK_CI-1bExx2S7IU7py8afgZvF3V/s320/56.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-nenJNfglt3O6lrkoTs0hGXaQIKWWoGkdEhFOS11Y_K1O-eRhrkzqLRtZurxPzuwR-VcX4Arujps84PiTGE89xfU3pwwMjolcKqPjA4pZo3a5nAK45gP_oGk2bcCdeSXj6u8EnZh58D3/s1600-h/4.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399462994928660690" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1-nenJNfglt3O6lrkoTs0hGXaQIKWWoGkdEhFOS11Y_K1O-eRhrkzqLRtZurxPzuwR-VcX4Arujps84PiTGE89xfU3pwwMjolcKqPjA4pZo3a5nAK45gP_oGk2bcCdeSXj6u8EnZh58D3/s320/4.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCbYResmzygFy5TdEdy4Hln81RDzZpLhVUzXntLTqIg3qAkIVx5wh2-r6KKmhUSyARrIe-cpRs6iVByvIbED2q53fsFji-pq33VR_zzafnZbFYN9X5_QRhM4vXXe8SHoErLkInWRO-I7xi/s1600-h/3.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399462992142522962" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCbYResmzygFy5TdEdy4Hln81RDzZpLhVUzXntLTqIg3qAkIVx5wh2-r6KKmhUSyARrIe-cpRs6iVByvIbED2q53fsFji-pq33VR_zzafnZbFYN9X5_QRhM4vXXe8SHoErLkInWRO-I7xi/s320/3.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPqibj6Ced8HUmtF0BQWxx37TW6bIs4ClGbyN4CoSMfA7nS_Pi6IQvoc9iueir9v03b7XFwL4T31PIFsyzAOv1MgUfmB3l4NKwVKgtC0u9AvmNss3IhyRmi1fC3ZHxlCjnICAwARAMl4n4/s1600-h/2.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399462980752368674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPqibj6Ced8HUmtF0BQWxx37TW6bIs4ClGbyN4CoSMfA7nS_Pi6IQvoc9iueir9v03b7XFwL4T31PIFsyzAOv1MgUfmB3l4NKwVKgtC0u9AvmNss3IhyRmi1fC3ZHxlCjnICAwARAMl4n4/s320/2.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GfF5D4uhhbyKwQK_SU-WmRzOuF_0QV4Njl92Lab8W0E6IbQ6QeDPY1skYdzNqFN6Rw-BM0kXNPVsXKjCOR8aGEVVXlaYytKYAEoNAtT7uQjj1M3b3y3LKp9w4-hB9mbcSScTk-VERFMj/s1600-h/1.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399462979314148130" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GfF5D4uhhbyKwQK_SU-WmRzOuF_0QV4Njl92Lab8W0E6IbQ6QeDPY1skYdzNqFN6Rw-BM0kXNPVsXKjCOR8aGEVVXlaYytKYAEoNAtT7uQjj1M3b3y3LKp9w4-hB9mbcSScTk-VERFMj/s320/1.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdMBk5vFOSLUkYUcOqNzRGV86aulz7K7zM_k2ydzJ1oMS6P0CepsKcpS4LICTqS-LOr8_PATIEQuydB-VcXd3gB-3_ZHnnRVzqnBDs1Lpydqnie92bUMWaSD8eWKBJuV0kteZ_wh_wEvLH/s1600-h/6.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399462051000411074" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdMBk5vFOSLUkYUcOqNzRGV86aulz7K7zM_k2ydzJ1oMS6P0CepsKcpS4LICTqS-LOr8_PATIEQuydB-VcXd3gB-3_ZHnnRVzqnBDs1Lpydqnie92bUMWaSD8eWKBJuV0kteZ_wh_wEvLH/s320/6.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLckm7lIqy5vhf4P8YaJX3XIwqIs5kulbv0sFhQBFKsEd6HQlqsGJEeOif1hJKD_A8vkMFb2wMLlV_uKkerEcDys5wg1ibljnkYgXwE-_vvEu9aKXGNKEnkbO4XXww7Cxci8h8-PdyT42W/s1600-h/7.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399462043819314754" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLckm7lIqy5vhf4P8YaJX3XIwqIs5kulbv0sFhQBFKsEd6HQlqsGJEeOif1hJKD_A8vkMFb2wMLlV_uKkerEcDys5wg1ibljnkYgXwE-_vvEu9aKXGNKEnkbO4XXww7Cxci8h8-PdyT42W/s320/7.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqIjhqvVpT_7H52O534ja2HzbCvt9T5k1KizqxpEeQoQPQS8bgipa51g-8BgJ4o-vJPVuoittJL4_sK_YRw-GDKORaVBgBY81OCE33WfESZ6AAt2RuzqUUt4kvFfP7e-5y-r6e-ET3KK2w/s1600-h/8.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399462038366715522" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqIjhqvVpT_7H52O534ja2HzbCvt9T5k1KizqxpEeQoQPQS8bgipa51g-8BgJ4o-vJPVuoittJL4_sK_YRw-GDKORaVBgBY81OCE33WfESZ6AAt2RuzqUUt4kvFfP7e-5y-r6e-ET3KK2w/s320/8.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div align="center"><span style="font-size:180%;color:#ff6600;">Its Halloween ~ Trick or Treat?</span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff6600;">Oh, we do love our Scaries in this family, and what better time of year to get your freak on than Halloween! This Halloween wasn't about parties though, we had a quiet one as all of our other ideas fizzed out, unfortunately. Not to be perturbed, we decided to go Trick Or Treating, and have ourselves our Pizza night and a little party too. I haven't been wonderful lately as I've had more and more headaches and pain. I'll put that in the other blog. Teeth are wonderfully painful at times.</span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff6600;">So here we have our Princess Monika first up, she's our resident fairy, Labyrinth wanted to be a witch, Dante is the swamp monster again, Raven is Batman and Kai our resident zombie, and there they are all together just before we went Trick Or Treating. It was indeed surprising how well that went, lots of people were impressed by them dressing up, one woman who had no treats gave them money~ how that made them pleased!</span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff6600;">The second last picture is them over the 'loot' as they called it. There is quite a bit of Gluten Free there, so Raven was indeed happy. The last is of their pizzas. Raven ate the most I've ever, ever seen him eat, hell he ate more that I did that night (and he was in pain thought he was going to be sick after). His appetite is certainly improved greatly since going GF. And no, they didn't get to eat all that, they ate two little lollies and one big one, and we'll spread it out as far as we can.</span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff6600;"></span></div><div align="left"><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ff6600;">We had a wonderful time, everyone enjoyed themselves, and Diego soundtrack in German is so Rammstein !! We let them watch Halloween goodness all night after that, and had some spooky dancing after. Q.</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-69277815903731169842009-10-28T05:11:00.000-07:002009-10-31T23:41:50.192-07:00Who Do? ZooDoo!<div><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397624511370160946" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSW_NknbBxXXvKjMCC6nFvWIF1H8Rd_6zugJX2z_3OWzVoA1BAL4sJciOnltvBD5CRCcPkRr5EtmqXIJWFdjFXdHZBO7h_1_6p2o4uN4tmCriVMxm2O1KiXp0mYFNl5jGeUUzy1LtYpYHR/s320/1.JPG" border="0" /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-OpDInE-lKVIH9Qd7KLF-ANyZtlIlLTi_7v16LdfOK3fFPuSBafhtN4pF3lLdITOZwc9XUwil8WHPFdN0KJ8Mk7YzOOpP59DhvY57MRR9CD35jMur2aYNIjN8Hv0xEDyBzeFgsVw_uIf/s1600-h/3.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397624524331799426" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK-OpDInE-lKVIH9Qd7KLF-ANyZtlIlLTi_7v16LdfOK3fFPuSBafhtN4pF3lLdITOZwc9XUwil8WHPFdN0KJ8Mk7YzOOpP59DhvY57MRR9CD35jMur2aYNIjN8Hv0xEDyBzeFgsVw_uIf/s320/3.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNd7jvBg007hM_UUi-3jxe6Mz6W5MVSIexg5v6y_26GuIlQZhk_wQL39PsoNVmpYcgCTfRQpnL2_MHrFj_V-L3dOoYebfiCvGKKCRjBb3WHDSM5xndpVgR3wLMICIxQukbl06_oVfEk48g/s1600-h/2.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5397624516560571410" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNd7jvBg007hM_UUi-3jxe6Mz6W5MVSIexg5v6y_26GuIlQZhk_wQL39PsoNVmpYcgCTfRQpnL2_MHrFj_V-L3dOoYebfiCvGKKCRjBb3WHDSM5xndpVgR3wLMICIxQukbl06_oVfEk48g/s320/2.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5399014306652450130" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf5mGR0imXOBfBpqEoA-N2xfB-ue9cBTZ-IdU7xjxcdCYgyYAFNCTBMpPt3yUSxoIxvPmg1bPXFScEy0OrfHD2XQlBnui3b2QX5eNpvU66cBSFiUlG5C1az6xn9vWwhKG3vT2sQiioLIiU/s320/zoodooloo.jpg" border="0" /><br /><span style="color:#339999;">I have been unexcusably slack on this blog, and I apologise, and will be slack over the next week to 9 days as I have my three final assignments for uni due and I haven't begun a single one. I am crazy but somehow I always seem to pull it off with decent if not good results. I have been reading all the set texts though so maybe it is a little OK in regards to Uni. For this blog though, I have been naughty. I have got a lot of housework done, managed to complete one scrapbook page (which I won't share due to it being a bit personal) and begun another. And we've had a wonderful Halloween as well as going to ZooDoo on Tuesday.</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;">I've admittedly questioned my decision to stick by Andrew and his mental illness, and this of late has had some bearing on my stress levels. He has in the last 3 weeks gone completely of his meds, gone back onto one of them and completely withdrawn from that and begun a heavy dose of Lithium. This has been a very difficult time as he's not so much been depressed (he hasn't), he's had one single symptom - incredible irritability. The normal children playing noises was enough for an explosion.</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;">So, I very nearly had enough, was just about ready to clear off but he went to the GP now he's on Lith and he's doing much much better. He didn't go on the slow approach about it either, he copped the harsh physical side effects to get better faster probably because he knew how I was feeling about the episode. But two of the best memories of our married lives happened this week, one being ZooDoo, and the other was Halloween yesterday. Just a simple family day but a good one. I'll put a post up especially on that later.</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;">We loved ZooDoo, we were taken by the baby Marmoset with mum, the Tigers and Lions were sleepy of course, but it was nice to see them, the baby animal nursery was sweet as the children interacted nicely with goats/sheep/guinea pigs etc but the younger two enjoyed the native Australian animal area much more. They were shy to begin with. </span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;">The tour was good too, but Raven was quite freaked out by the Emu who snatched his food bag right out of his hand and it made him nervous of the whole lot after that - especially the Ostriches which were surprisingly quite gentle.</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;">The black swans can be found and enjoyed right out our window, so they weren't very special to us, but we loved the albino and coloured peacocks (there were even matching peahens for both!) Peacocks are lovely as they embody my favourite colours of purple and turquoise, so beautiful.</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;">It was really a great day, but I'll be looking forward to a return visit when they have the lizard enclosure up and running. The children got a token stuffed toy of course: Monika a monkey (she loves them), Raven a Koala (he became quite taken with the Koala there, so passive and sweet - I think it was the only animal he touched whilst we were there), Kai got an echidna (he loves the oddest beasts, his all time favourite is an elephant because he thinks they are cute. As an aside it is the strangest thing I've ever seen given away on freecycle - an elephant - true!), Dante got a Tassie Tiger and Labyrinth got a Kangaroo with a Joey in its pouch (she's obsessed with baby this or that, scary).</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;">We took along our own BBQ. As you may be aware I have to eat Gluten Free as I'm a Coeliac, you can see the dramas of that in my other <a href="http://quasiorsrecoveryfromsillyyaks.blogspot.com/">blog</a>. I am only really recently diagnosed by diet and blood, relatively speaking, and Raven shows the classic symptoms/appearance and has the double DNA markers so he's GF too. So I made our own burgers, which I'll probably post the recipe on the other blog as I do quite a few of the recipes we make in the other blog also (however I must warn I update that even less).</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;">All of the children have already blogged on ZooDoo (go into profiles and those links are there) to those blogs.</span></div><div><span style="color:#339999;">I have to go as Monika is crying and won't hop off my lap... but one last thing, I included the ZooDooLoo as I was so impressed by it, I love Jasmine, was quite something as an outside toilet, it rekindled my desire to build my own home on a farm. Thats it for now, Q.</span><br /></div><div></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-72227601874704448122009-10-18T16:29:00.000-07:002009-10-18T17:31:14.504-07:00Crazy last two weeks!<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-4b6HGto_0A6WzpI4F6wNJbJu7f5E-iCqNh9t2zuZMEX1ANe9fOFruvCYqaauCA8fyIAfgVKc713qHn_rwzwFPWayWecSAG0uBf35zp6cupQExHcJOQ2MW19GD-o4uS7ThfJr6cToyvTm/s1600-h/monikapic.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394094857142518370" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 233px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-4b6HGto_0A6WzpI4F6wNJbJu7f5E-iCqNh9t2zuZMEX1ANe9fOFruvCYqaauCA8fyIAfgVKc713qHn_rwzwFPWayWecSAG0uBf35zp6cupQExHcJOQ2MW19GD-o4uS7ThfJr6cToyvTm/s320/monikapic.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="color:#339999;">These two pictures are what Raven and Monika get up to. They are most of the way through the first workbook of Reading eggs, and they love it. above is Monika's and below is a particularly good example of how well Raven can write, albeit a poor scan.</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNRn1XodrCV811D8gMhtqmtg_VldhvTzMtZCNRc5Fm37AK0P04qJCki_me5yW5M__WD3QsXjEM-QHeds8SKcw_2bFFvIXnL53a0RvOqh3HPYr2Tfjbbw5LK0fR-RxleQ20-iCTLmryKby/s1600-h/ravenpic.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394094847003874002" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 225px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbNRn1XodrCV811D8gMhtqmtg_VldhvTzMtZCNRc5Fm37AK0P04qJCki_me5yW5M__WD3QsXjEM-QHeds8SKcw_2bFFvIXnL53a0RvOqh3HPYr2Tfjbbw5LK0fR-RxleQ20-iCTLmryKby/s320/ravenpic.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqzy2bCu7WtosA4TGMrZLlU2MoAo-oQmfzlia9eASFvdKJfixzsDMp4ibxEu3br4a-uljcpeEhe4G_Us4rXZAky3wxdBf9O_9WUv2f6cvUpugGjtnclswsNoIgOmNVLItMk5W8IbW7IpRL/s1600-h/dantepic2.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394094845848817330" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 233px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqzy2bCu7WtosA4TGMrZLlU2MoAo-oQmfzlia9eASFvdKJfixzsDMp4ibxEu3br4a-uljcpeEhe4G_Us4rXZAky3wxdBf9O_9WUv2f6cvUpugGjtnclswsNoIgOmNVLItMk5W8IbW7IpRL/s320/dantepic2.jpg" border="0" /></a><span style="color:#339999;">Above, Dante's picture... I'll let you the reader decide what he's trying to say (in other words I'm still confused). The picture below is Labyrinth's trippy cat.</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKB-LGBzo8GCQ1chYXbJ-05t4VhPZmkUBK-2gGTNfelwYb7oQI_cjqfnukn9s2rMvW50Mi9qPEcuBg3P_dSpb6qQimza_Gjxk2ctHWXzSfmV-iZLzONLmDuQmHy-XcOfKNoiF6HBz2g_uw/s1600-h/labyrinthpic.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394094833446349506" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 233px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKB-LGBzo8GCQ1chYXbJ-05t4VhPZmkUBK-2gGTNfelwYb7oQI_cjqfnukn9s2rMvW50Mi9qPEcuBg3P_dSpb6qQimza_Gjxk2ctHWXzSfmV-iZLzONLmDuQmHy-XcOfKNoiF6HBz2g_uw/s320/labyrinthpic.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit-M6lNt_hj4RrjVRCWpABHAJaC08y-ihGnzfns3HOIBSuCf31YrLOVYgyqWES8ZMWqwh0ajna3ZWSfuqhp4xgdWmnvbB6sSK2fwtqAZEYGfLqDRd9trcfCIF4ub8tY8jDAc4L7FmQEqV8/s1600-h/Monika.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5394094829719286274" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 224px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 203px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit-M6lNt_hj4RrjVRCWpABHAJaC08y-ihGnzfns3HOIBSuCf31YrLOVYgyqWES8ZMWqwh0ajna3ZWSfuqhp4xgdWmnvbB6sSK2fwtqAZEYGfLqDRd9trcfCIF4ub8tY8jDAc4L7FmQEqV8/s320/Monika.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">This is so cute I had to share. She's changing so very fast! I wish I could remember to be more snap happy, but with everything that's been going on its been a bit difficult!</span></div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;"></span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;"></span><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">So this has been our fortnight, we've completely rearranged the whole house, reorganised and reshuffled everything, so far its on a whole been working.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">I have my study in the master bedroom whilst Andrew has his in the loungeroom. This has not been ideal for Andrew as the children like to try and use his computer etc while he and I are still asleep! Solution? We're going to have to lock them out and give them a new TV for the boys room. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">Yep, that's right the boys have a room, and the girls have a room, both have functioning computers and desks to work at. Friday we'll have a set top box in the boy's room so they can have access to TV in those very wee hours of the morning.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">Other than that, we've cleaned out the kitchen/laundry/bathroom. All the bookshelves are now at maximum so we need another of those. No nook and cranny has been left undone... OK we still need to clean out the fridge/main food cupboard then well be done.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">As for homeschooling. well for a week that didn't get done, but I did use it to organise the homeschooling much better in anticipation of the THEAC (Tasmanian Home Education Advisory Council) visitation last Wednesday. Well that didn't happen. I was glutened that morning and feeling rather worse for wear, and the inspector was ill too. So it's been put off until tomorrow. We've done weeding and kept the watering up to the garden as needed. We've got Raven on a dairy free gluten free diet and keeping a food diary up to keep on an eye on progress/problems. More on that in the other <a href="http://http//quasiorsrecoveryfromsillyyaks.blogspot.com/">blog</a>.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">In the last week we've been back at normal schooling again. This is our daily routine:</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">Writing, Reading a chapter from a chapter book and reading aloud to the youngest two, Mavis teaches Typing, Clue Finders (for spelling/eng comp etc) and Volcanic Panic/Garfield for Math. That's our morning. About once a week we do a written draft and they blog it, they all have their own active blogs now but only have a couple of posts each. We also do IT lessons, science, cooking, and they see the glenorchy homeschoolers on Fridays for a play in the park. We are still doing our mythical creatures, but I'm going to intersperse that with continuing our units on Life On Earth now that we seem to be going so well. So, that's once a week, as is mythical creatures. Last week we attempted to make dragons from air drying clay, unsuccessfully - so I'll get some Fimo on Friday.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">I'm rather pleased that all is going so well, we seem to slowly be overcoming some reluctance (translation: slow writing - hell I know it isn't stimulating but they know good things happen ie they get to play PS3 or surf the net if they get it done well and quickly).</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">I'll update the blog much more regularly.. there is always something though isn't there? I've got my three final assessments due back at UNE in the next half month so I've actually whenI've got a spare minute been frantically reading to try and keep up! I've read <em>The Changeling</em> by M Mahey, followed by Goldman's <em>Princess Bride, </em>oh such torture, not. I'm loving it, <em>Charlotte's Web</em> is next! But then I've got to go read all the boring academic papers to accompany it... so over that part... but the great news is... next year I'm stopping Uni to write novels and children's books. One of my assignments came back which was a book proposal (genuine one that I intend to do next year, testing the waters so to speak), and I got one mark shy of a HD. Why wasn't it a HD? Because I didn't quote enough of the boring academics (although I included all the readings I had to do anyway). So what! I'm very aware that the overall consensus that the writers who write children's books say about academic writers... and I am a writer not an academic I suppose. (They basically say that its the academic's domain and they have no real interest in it BTW ~ I'll add here my bit... the academics are just making a living squabbling over sucessful writers).</span></div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;"></span></div><div> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">So that's it for now, long I know but I had a bit to catch up on. Q.</span> <div><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><div></div></div></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-25408811263493690442009-10-06T04:52:00.000-07:002009-10-06T05:12:34.312-07:00There be dragons in these here parts...and Elmer too.<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG5ZDwE4itbgv40U6HiRV_F9DnXHwBxvjzBLxkye2kr9b9yp_y1eHXygIiQH64UZsiPh8lNzT5Xvz0VkTZdoNG1cmM55JYGx_WZgnHUGqpPt6wMKSd-OSz-CXu9B2oxIkdA3OARzduMsYl/s1600-h/5.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389454392331643490" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG5ZDwE4itbgv40U6HiRV_F9DnXHwBxvjzBLxkye2kr9b9yp_y1eHXygIiQH64UZsiPh8lNzT5Xvz0VkTZdoNG1cmM55JYGx_WZgnHUGqpPt6wMKSd-OSz-CXu9B2oxIkdA3OARzduMsYl/s320/5.JPG" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">Above Monika is enjoying Elmer in the Snow with Mummy - pure joy.</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCEL9VKs3sqINr_4hAkAMi2XsV1CkgiT4XeJ4rZ98gTsFSib0IFg7Y6NwLfZxX_JzuHo_9bKRFxPv4U9CQ18XROaYeANReUbYcD6-8XsolSdbVFMsKcxLG3ucqJ3uYwAsmIV9xB-BgaSqz/s1600-h/4.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389454385609589346" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCEL9VKs3sqINr_4hAkAMi2XsV1CkgiT4XeJ4rZ98gTsFSib0IFg7Y6NwLfZxX_JzuHo_9bKRFxPv4U9CQ18XROaYeANReUbYcD6-8XsolSdbVFMsKcxLG3ucqJ3uYwAsmIV9xB-BgaSqz/s320/4.JPG" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">These are the pictures of dragons the children drew today. To help them have a really good go at it (instead of just slacking off about it) I was naughty and made it into a bit of a competition. Basically what I wanted from them was to push themselves just a little bit, and these were the results. Andrew and I decided that Kai above won the little competition. I was going to give him and all the runners up (ie the rest of the children a chupa chub each) and the winner, Kai, to recieve a chupa chub and some time on the PS3. He shows his generous heart by sharing his time playing a multi player game with all the children. I was so pleased it worked out well and everybody was really happy, so I didn't get the guilts up about making it competitive - even though in this particular case the end did indeed justify the means - everyone ended up happy.</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJoPjirUxdp7F1BRlyg8qm21Zl_Yq13kwGilsHVfqXjVm90bIKtIpPzXAyAvqPTvmxxIqOMTHNX5kY_ZmlGN7IVgPd7sWpR_wIc4mbztG3CiO9XO_RPb639InJNgVBJaRIECpOWNG0IjB/s1600-h/3.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389454379320002066" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVJoPjirUxdp7F1BRlyg8qm21Zl_Yq13kwGilsHVfqXjVm90bIKtIpPzXAyAvqPTvmxxIqOMTHNX5kY_ZmlGN7IVgPd7sWpR_wIc4mbztG3CiO9XO_RPb639InJNgVBJaRIECpOWNG0IjB/s320/3.JPG" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">So next runner up was Raven, he did a good effort but in drawing but lost his edge when it came to putting time into colouring it, Labyrinth next, with her very colourful and creative nose diving dragon, and Dante who usually leads the way didn't seem to have his heart in it at all, unfortunately.</span><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNN2TiA7C8ekSmfpgBtRieDiS7XHVq3kegXHPGWMGHjpnJYvP9nnwtG8dg-2Jp5MBVhjVomv7BoX7hY6dYT6-SugtzsNEUnGw2Qy6PJjg5ti0jNCK_3aXo3yjnNh5a8pF0mIHRUkpGr3yb/s1600-h/2.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389454370665101618" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNN2TiA7C8ekSmfpgBtRieDiS7XHVq3kegXHPGWMGHjpnJYvP9nnwtG8dg-2Jp5MBVhjVomv7BoX7hY6dYT6-SugtzsNEUnGw2Qy6PJjg5ti0jNCK_3aXo3yjnNh5a8pF0mIHRUkpGr3yb/s320/2.JPG" border="0" /></a><br /><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRzi7Q7d8odZHl3BG6qJuhMdQ0cn9gRfsBwXxxZqfqd8Cvh5qtSuPLIPNWXWnON59H29tAOkR8IbDrhIPlUS4Fy4SHV9CosHtKOpJrXqYtwoziuBGjoAdWGPVB5CTHzsV4a3PXpwFuWs9m/s1600-h/1.JPG"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5389454363791286674" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 240px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRzi7Q7d8odZHl3BG6qJuhMdQ0cn9gRfsBwXxxZqfqd8Cvh5qtSuPLIPNWXWnON59H29tAOkR8IbDrhIPlUS4Fy4SHV9CosHtKOpJrXqYtwoziuBGjoAdWGPVB5CTHzsV4a3PXpwFuWs9m/s320/1.JPG" border="0" /></a> <span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">Motivating them has been challenging of late. They do their standard lessons mostly happily, they just don't like doing extras (which they view the myth lessons to be). We will be doing clay dragons on Thursday, with any luck the weather will be beautiful tomorrow and we'll be spending some of the day with fellow homeschoolers in a park.</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">Backtracking a bit, I thought I might add in Sunday. Sunday was fantastic, we went to the local fair in Blackman's Bay to be with some friends. It was a nice hot day too. We didn't really want to spend a heap of money on the one train ride or the jumping castle, it would have cost $15 for all the children to have a bounce for ten or so minutes. Not bleeding likely. But we did fill a bag with toys for $5 - building duplo blocks, a complete wooden Thomas the Tank Engine puzzle, and a soft toy each, a box of Yowie bugs cost $2 and a large stack of books for $4. Was very pleased. Then we spent some time with our lovely friends Jess and Jade, and their children Jaz and Theo. We had a great time chatting, and her mother and psuedo sis in law Charlotte was there too for a while with their son Noah - I haven't seen Charlotte in years, same with Jess' mum. Also tried out SingStar which is a positive for Christmas. </span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;"></span> </div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#339999;">Still haven't decided on housing options yet. Can't seem to think how we could make this space work with seven, five of which are growing at a phenomenal rate. Raven is now Gluten Free, which I'll have to update the Quasior's Recovery From Silly Yaks soon to explain all that. That is all for now, Q.</span></div></div></div></div>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-58946744422761795482009-10-02T21:53:00.000-07:002009-10-03T03:08:30.888-07:00Garden Of Earthy Delights... err... I WIsh,,, cont.<span style="font-family:'Courier New',Courier,monospace;color:#408080;">Our Garden is becoming something more now...</span><br /><br /><img title="" src="http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg156/Quasior_photos/Blog%20Garden%201/1.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img title="" src="http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg156/Quasior_photos/Blog%20Garden%201/10.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img title="" src="http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg156/Quasior_photos/Blog%20Garden%201/11.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img title="" src="http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg156/Quasior_photos/Blog%20Garden%201/12.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img title="" src="http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg156/Quasior_photos/Blog%20Garden%201/13.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img title="" src="http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg156/Quasior_photos/Blog%20Garden%201/14.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img title="" src="http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg156/Quasior_photos/Blog%20Garden%201/15.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img title="" src="http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg156/Quasior_photos/Blog%20Garden%201/16.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img title="" src="http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg156/Quasior_photos/Blog%20Garden%201/6.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><img title="" src="http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg156/Quasior_photos/Blog%20Garden%201/9.jpg" border="0" /><br /><br /><span style="font-family:'Courier New',Courier,monospace;color:#408080;">So this is how our Garden is Growing! We have salad and stir fry vegies like lettuce and Pak Choy, Cauliflower and Brocolli, Capsicum, Beans, Peas, Zuchinni, Tomato, Basil, Spinach, Raspberries, Blackberries, Strawberries, Kale for starters. We've all enjoyed the garden so much we've all been a bit tempted to stay put, after all we've been offered to buy the place. But really we haven't come to a decsion, we know we don't want to settle here, but we're keen to get a start, and it might take a while before we've got the money to get our own property. I might have an issue with unsteady electricity too, if I do indeed have sleep apnea on top of everything else. That and we all share one bedroom right now, and if we all had a bedroom each we would have to have our studiy spaces (computers and books) in each room. That would equal much sacrifice - is it worth it? Also I'm keen to get out on the farm so more things get established earlier, like fruit/nut trees. Sure we could have them in pot plants for three years and have the money that we make from selling this house to help set us up a bit. Plus experience from making this house work. Well, we have a lot to weigh up. One really, really good thing that was a deal breaker for us and one where we were keen to go get a property in Victoria was the homeschooling/ our kids getting good friends debate. Well, thats no longer a concern, they are making more friends now and they can see them up to twice a week when we all have our get togethers. Much to consider, but right now I'm keen on our little garden, Q.</span>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7896546917315763927.post-11335141159185449362009-09-30T03:43:00.000-07:002009-09-30T04:04:27.598-07:00Dragons: Myth or Real?<div align="center"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaEfTZK9xJwNTrOXT0-Gwk4xQShvofAow0kccY8sptL7jwdXTbWTVq_29ZeF65yR6kOb0sKt4H2CyNtVjeAb859M2o2wr2QhyphenhyphenSTECh-MDdAa83OWPDoJEn4xHR1GTGgN44K_FiqoOKGLGH/s1600-h/DragonCorpse.jpg"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 180px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5387210298357988290" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgaEfTZK9xJwNTrOXT0-Gwk4xQShvofAow0kccY8sptL7jwdXTbWTVq_29ZeF65yR6kOb0sKt4H2CyNtVjeAb859M2o2wr2QhyphenhyphenSTECh-MDdAa83OWPDoJEn4xHR1GTGgN44K_FiqoOKGLGH/s320/DragonCorpse.jpg" /></a> <span style="color:#6600cc;">Is this myth or real?</span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#339999;">This is the question posed to my children today. We watched the mockumentary entitled <em>The Last Dragon a.k.a Dragon's World: A Fantasy Made Real. </em>It fell so well into learning about myth and legend, and when Andrew discovered it, it definately made its way into our learning environment.</span></div><div align="left"><span style="color:#339999;"></span> </div><div align="left"><span style="color:#339999;">Done so well, my children very nearly believed it was true, the eldest two were skeptical originally, which is good. However it even made me really <em>wish </em>it was true. How wonderfully made! Find the wiki <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Dragon_(2004_TV_series)">here</a> and the official site<a href="http://animal.discovery.com/convergence/dragons/"> here</a> which includes a lot of learning and thinking information. </span></div><p><span style="color:#339999;">While the sun has shined, we've been very busy in our garden, which unfortunately meant I didn't get any photos yet - but as soon as I don't have dirt all over my hands/grass through my hair/and the sun is still shining I'll get pics up. I'm really pleased about how we are progressing! We've got real gardens with real plants growing, some of them are th*s big!</span></p><p><span style="color:#339999;">Every time I tell the children a mythological story, I get them to retell it in some way. I'll have to get some examples up about that too. Unfortunately so much has been happening and I haven't been keeping up to it on here! Really attempting to do well at Uni has something to do with it, that is changing though. I'm getting real serious and am putting Uni off next year to concentrate on writing a novel/children's books/poetry.</span></p><p><span style="color:#339999;">The children are coming along very nicely, and there is a the official <a href="http://www.theac.org.au/">THEAC</a> (Tassie Home Schooling) picnic coming up on the weekend too. With any luck we will get there, but Andrew doesn't sound enthused about it, unfortunately.</span></p><p><span style="color:#339999;">Raven is a smarty pants, he can write really well, he is beginning to read, but oh so lazy. It's unfortunate. He wrote for me "A Bug" today and wouldn't write any more. The big three are slowly working through their writing workbooks, we have a routine now - chores/maths/writing/english/computing/typing/reading lessons daily as a standard, plus we have myth lessons. Although we've taken off the last couple of days to work outside and the children have been helping or playing, as they will.</span></p><p><span style="color:#339999;">I hope there may be some readers still out there! Q.</span></p>Quasior (A. Harris)http://www.blogger.com/profile/18381443647543142787noreply@blogger.com0