Spiders, sea monkeys and stuff...

Dante and Daddy caught the first bug to go into the bug catcher today, a baby huntsman, its still a decent size though! He is a bit of a strange boy, observing it and saying his good nights to it before bed.

The sea monkeys are growing so they are easily visable now, so I'll grab another pic of them for the blog tommorrow. I'll also get a pic of Labyrinth's new boots. They are hardy little buggers, as well as being ugly! Raven is constantly colouring in, mostly right in door ways laying down, cute! We did some archery yesterday, and it was nice to see I haven't lost anything for the somewhat large break and my little finger! We also did a walk around the fore shore and collected rocks for fishtanks and enjoyed the scenery as much as the glare would allow, and it FELT GOOD! I wanted to do more walking but Rave wasn't up to it, he's only little!

My finger has only my stitches on now (butterfly), which means it's a little more flexible. Andrew has been quite depressed too...

I've got some more plants for the paludarium! A Maidenhair plant which will hang in a basket and kind of flow around, and another Jasmine plant, which we discovered was actually an offcut (our original one for the paludarium was most definately a juvenile plant.

And today (19th) is my birthday. I'm going to bed now, while Andrew is still doing water changes and other things to fish tanks (cultivation, aquascaping more and water changes).

More tommorrow! Q.

The Dreaded Work Sheet Monster

Yes, today we resorted to the "boring" worksheets. To my surprise they all enjoyed them and want to do more lessons. That's great! Labyrinth and Dante did identifying a sentence, they all did a phonics lesson, Kai did Adam Ant "A" worksheet from the mentor writing series, and Raven did a work sheet on colours and shape identification.

Earlier in the day we did our usual "hooked on phonics" and Labyrinth is really wanting to plod on ahead, while Dante is soaring, and Kai is getting it very slowly but he is getting it. Maths today (taught by Andrew) consisted of addition and subtraction (1-12 kinds) and he worked with them until the concept clicked. *lightbulb* Labyrinth is doing fantastically with writing, she has the motivation now. Dante lacks the motivation, but he is still achieving, and Kai hates it so we're doing a new approach (ie the Adam Ant worksheets).

We cooked a Chocolate Fudge Cake, which can be found here. The children loved it, we will do the muffins next time, we just need more muffin pans. We only have one. Labyrinth and I have also taken up knitting (its that Steiner thing - they should know how to do practical things!)

We did our afternoon archery lessons, and the children rode bikes, played on the trampoline and ran around heartily. So, I guess that's PE. Monika is having a lovely time learning how to rock back and forth on her knees and hands (but when will the next step happen??) And we played a Ravensburger game called "Labyrinth Jnr" for the life of me I find it a bit difficult (:rolleyes:), but its a good thinking game, really, and if they get it, it might actually click in my head too.

I guess those "boring" worksheets may just be what I need to get them motivated with writing.
We have to fill in the paper work to have Kai officially added to our "homeschool".

All in all we really got along with our work famously today, and that is what it is all about :D, Q.

Medieval Fun Day!

Today was a fun day! After chores anyway...

Andrew and the children made bread and soup, and Nanny and Poppy came to visit for lunch. It was herbed beautifully, and they made them into animal shapes. Heres a pic:

Aren't they beautiful? And they tasted devine too... Dante made a fish of course, Raven made a curled up snake, Kai made a snake stretched out and Labyrinth made a teddy bear. Cute.

After lunch Andrew made a hunting arrow head while the children and I learnt to knit with Nanny and Poppy's help. Labyrinth gets it OK, but Dante, Kai and Raven need to learn by themselves I think. That's OK because I've finally got the hang of a very simple purl stitch (I think its called). Now I appreciate all the old ladies at church who make knitted items like dresses for babies. I'm not a natural, but I can do it finally!

Later in the afternoon we headed outside and tried "rabbit" hunting. We were using an old rabbit soft toy, but the arrow head and the poundage of the bow were not enough to pierce its thick hide!

We naturally did the reading lessons, which I'm happy to say is really coming along beautifully.

So, all in all it was a successful Medieval day, Q.