Dreaded worksheets.

Yes, we did the dreadful worksheets today, the kids do so love them. Even Raven insists on doing it, even though he's only two... I've gotten out of it because we've been so busy this last week. But, here we are, and they are asking for them again. To make it a bit more interesting there was some cutting and pasting, and a science worksheet relating to the gardening they did afterwards. And they took turns reading the letter (as in a written letter between friends)/proper nouns worksheet.

Kai is extending himself and easily keeping up to the other two's level. Dante seemed a bit slower about it, until half way through he caught on. Labyrinth went through and did it all while she waited for the boys. So, really, she is streaking ahead and I'll probably give her extra stuff to do later on. Raven loves cut and paste, so he did two today, one was colour in shapes, cut them out and put them on a flag. He told me what the shapes were before and after colouring them, so its in there. These are the results.

Labyrinth:

Dante:


Kai:

Raven:

A Question of Genetics

Now, I'm not expert on genetics, and I welcome anyone who has a clue to say their thoughts on it. But I was taught in high school brown eyes are dominant and not always but often be the colour if of the parents was brown eyed and the other blue eyed. Well, my husband has the classic blue eyes, but are sometimes grey... I have an unusual type of brown eye, but they are still brown. So here is the equation:

+

=

A couple more oddities. Kai and Dante pictured first and second, had blue eyes, but they are now hazel tending to green and grey sometimes. Labyrinth and Raven are both blue, but Raven's are paler, Labyrinth is more vivid, despite how they translated. Monika, being number 5, is our only brown, tending to black. My eyes must be recessive, as they are so light, maybe?

Some Random Art

Dante and His Assortment of Dinosaurs:

Raven's Lines:

Labyrinth's Cat House. It reads: Night Time. It is time for rain and Bed. A Wrath of Swans, By Labyrinth. It has one adult, and two sets of cygnets. This is because we have been observing the Black Swans that inhabit the River Derwent, outside of our home. (See Sunset image above). They have actually got larger cygnets from last years clutch, and some have bred again or instead a month or so ago, so they are tiny fluffy cygnets. The children are keen to watch them grow, and recently we got an rare experience of watching two adult swans feed their young clutch of cygnets.

Happy Gun Toting People Everywhere, by Kai.

Writing and Art

As part of our learning, I wrote down that sentence that does every letter...
A quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.
They then copied the writing (so I could see how well they are writing each individual letter and in general (no lines) and then I asked them to draw what they thought the sentence meant.

This is Labyrinth's (she decided that a wall needed to be drawn as well):
This is Dante's and he can do so much better, but he wasn't into it and it shows:
However, current appraisal I might revise that and say its pretty good actually. Last, but certainly not least, is Kai's, remembering he is much younger than the other two I really thought he put some good effort into it:

Who ever said life should be dull and boring?

Here we have them in their new pajamas - all chosen by each child. We have two Batmans, one Dora the Explorer Fan, and a Panda girl. Monika didn't get new PJs, she got new winter outfits.

So what if Raven is a boy who likes Dora, he still deserves to get stuff to wear anyway! Pink is OK for BOYS!

This is Monika, with her new toy which she adores. We were given this as a gift and its very nearly brand new: (apparently as a child I loved mine too, I've always wanted one for my children, so probably Lucky Last has one.)

I should post a video of young Monika bouncing away... she looks so cute like a puppet - adorable. Dante said she looked like she was tap dancing!

Osirus is Returned to Mother Goddess

We buried Osirus, our albino budgie who died of a broken neck (he should be given a Darwinism Award), yesterday (Sunday).

Here is a drawing Labyrinth did of him in the coffin.

Our burial rite was simply said:

We thank the Mother Goddess

For letting us know and love Osirus, so briefly

Please take him back to your breast

And allow Your Blessing to enrich the resting place

And allow this rose to flourish.

(all of the children then wanted to say goodbye, and that they loved him.)

The Rose will be pure white, just like he was, so we can remember him.

Friday and Saturday Shopping

Nothing exciting really. The children now have another series of Ben Ten, which has a little something for each of the big 3 and nothing for the youngest two. Dante just likes it (most likely because one of the 10 thingys is like an amphibious creature, Labyrinth loves the witch and wants to be one (score!), and its got lots of fighting in it for Kai.

Young Raven is our resident muso. He can sing very beautifully, he loves to tinker around on the keyboard, and he likes the guitar (if only he could get at it more often, thinks he). Monika is too young to tell yet, but she is smart. 7 months and shes mastered crawling for a couple of weeks now she is moving on to pulling herself up on furniture.

Just in case anyone is thinking was Monika named after a wonderful friend I once had, the answer is no. Andrew named her, I gave her middle name to her, Belatrix. Its a compound name that one, without all the American compound yuckies about it like, dare I say it my neice is called Kristie-Lee. Nah, Belatrix is Beatrix and Bella combined. I had to make it a single L because that means "Beautiful White Warrioress". Thing is, she was named to contrast Raven. Raven is albino, category 2, which means he has some of the characteristics of a cat 1 albino, excepting he has a splash of colour in eyes and hair, but he carries some of the inherent risks, such as those beautiful blue eyes could become cancerous or he could become blind if he is exposed to too much sunlight. So here is Raven (obviously a black bird), contrasting with a white warrioress in Monika who is our only dark haired child, and the only child who has brown eyes, but they are so dark they are nearly black. So, it is a paradox, really.

Well anyways... shopping. Its just been boring excepting for adding to our Paludarium, which I'll take a pic of and post tommorrow. We brought a casket for our albino budgie who broke his neck in his enthusiastic carryings on. We also brought a white rose, no flowers, that we will put above his grave in memorium of him. We might not have had him long, but we had all grown attached. It was Labyrinth's idea to bury him in a casket, and they all wrote a message to be buried in with him. (God, I don't know how I would have managed the last couple of days if it wasn't for my anti-depressants). Other than that, we brought a trio of Apistogramma Cacatoid (Cockatoo Cichlid), as per requirements for the breed, one male to two females. And a Firemouth cichlid. Lots of potting mix for our garden, and a few other things for the garden like Rose food. Remarkably cheap really. The lighting today stung. The lighting is for the Paludariums aquatic and semi-aquatic plants. $70! That is four lamps and the correct spectrum globe to create "daylight", an optimum enviroment for the plants to grow and have great viewing of the tank's inhabitants.

Scarily enough, we've inspired my neice Kayla, to get a fish tank for her birthday. In a 1 foot by 1 1/2 footer tank she's squeezed in (by the recommendations of some unscrupulous pet shop assistant) 18 fish. Two goldfish and a half dozen guppies is all I know so far. Either way, by now I reckon she's lost half the fish anyway. It should be criminally punished. They all went into an uncycled tank. They do this for newbies at fish keeping who don't bother researching stuff so they HAVE to return to BUY MORE! Even Dante, who is 7, knows better than that! (And has done since he was 4). He knows how to maintain a fish tank at optimum levels (so fish wouldn't die or have ammonia spikes) but he lacks the strength to carry large buckets of water around otherwise he'd be doing all the maintenance to the tanks, if he wanted to anyway (which he does).
Happy Birthday Kayla!

Today we had an interesting talk in the van, the children and I. Dante tells me he is filling out an application to work at Bunnings! I say, "what?" and he repeats it. He tells me they all want to start working, stupidly asking why, he tells me "because I want to earn money." Of course he does! Kai and Labyrinth both heartily agree they want to do the same. He brings me up a form he has so dilegently been walking on entitled "customer feedback". Oh, so cute. So I tell them, I'm sorry but you aren't old enough to work there. "Oh, why not?" is chorused throught the car. And I explain about children and working laws, and I tell them but there isn't a reason in the world that you can't start up your own business. Lots of home edding students come to this conclusion pretty early, around 12, but noth 8, 7, and 5! By this time Andrew's arrived back at the car and he is included in the conversation. He tells them they are allowed to busk at Salamanca and the city for money for free! They just have to practice their instruments and get really good at it so people will want to pay to listen. They've noticed lots of buskers and are now very keyed up to learn their guitars and drums and keyboards! Then Kai asked me, "what if I just wanted to draw pictures, could I make money from that?" I tell him, of course, lots of people are artists and get paid to sell thier art. He wasn't sure he wanted to give them up though! CUTE!

That is a big step for children really, but not for our children (or possibly other homeschooled kids) because since the introduction of pocket money and such for housework and school work (they get a bonus $10 for every level they complete or something amazing is achieved that takes time and effort) they have been seeking out new ways of making money. Even Raven works his butt off so he can have extra treats and money (but secretly I think he does it because he likes doing stuff to help - the toddler age).

Still looking for decent music tutors for Rave and Dante. Just looking for an organic approach to teaching an instrument really... and flexible to work with young children. I didn't think that would be a huge ask.

Labyrinth is not settled really. Fashion designer, rock star, nurse, vet, all of these and more she is interested in. I think she'll settle on something when she really attaches herself to something and goes in deep. Hell, she is only 8! Dante is keen to work with fish/scuba diving and has done since he was what? 2! Kai is mad keen on being a soldier, but he really is too smart for it, and too lazy, lets be honest. He shirks whenever he can get away with it. However, he really is coming along with his drawing. To direct this army obsession, we are putting him into a martial arts class (and Labyrinth and Dante too). Raven is most definately a smart young man, but he's learning things in a strange order. When he was 1 and 1 1/2 he could sing his alphabet, numbers up to twenty, but here he is at 2 3/4 and he's only learning shape and colour. He knows what a lot of animals are, and what noises they make, and whether they live in the water, farm or jungle. He loves making music, he is very dextrous but only very recently has he been interested in making marks on paper (unlike Dante who was drawing fish and humanoid images by then.) Monika of course, can win anybodies heart with her smiles and chatter. She can say Dad Dad, Dande, but no Mama or mum mums yet! :( At least she's talking though. She has tried but it hasn't worked yet. Andrew had to have at least one to say Daddee first, all the rest of them have been Mumma. 4 out of 5 isnt a bad score, if only a bit unusual.

Oh, we also visited my brother's new home. Its got enough bedrooms for each of his 5 kids. He seems happy enough in his new job, I guess. He's flat out and exhausted, and same with his wife. I hope this house brings them a happier environment.

Well, loving life, but sad too. This has been a great learning time for the children. I am also glad to report Dante needs no glasses, just need to catch him when he can be bothered learning before I bother trying him at reading lessons. A bit like Labyrinth really, except he hates disappointing me, she doesn't give a rats.

Well, enough blabbering. My leg is aching because it does sometimes, and if I don't do something about it soon I'll be in agony and won't even be able to think good enough to find some drugs. OK somewhat of an exaggeration.

Sweet dreams, Quasior.