sing for joy!

We have been enjoying some precious times singing songs together in the evenings as a family. I find it leaves me with such a sweet taste in my mouth at the end of the day... We take turns choosing a hymn and hey, let's be honest, we are not musicians (to say the least) but the words are so true and so precious that they linger. I love to wake up with the words still spinning around in my head.

On a more 'schooly' note - here is one of the projects Joshua has begun. We have been learning
bits and bobs about Aviation. I must say I am learning a lot too - as I really don't know much about planes at all.

That Crazy Homeschool Family

We had some fun mucking around together today. For some reason Joshua wanted to wear his funny glasses all day - kept leaving them places and went looking for them before he did his work.

So what exactly does the "average" homeschooler look like? Does he wear big goofy glasses and eat organic, homemade hommus??


And what on earth would the mother of such a child look like? Does she also wear big, goofy glasses and homemade jewlery (made from foam stars her children make her).... I guess the answer must be YES!


And is the child's father a recluse who spends his every waking hour thinking of scientific inventions... or does he romp around on the floor with his little squirts?

Perhaps I am just in a wacky mood today! I do have those crazy days (ahhh... let's be honest - I have quite a crazy streak you know - or did you?)

I actually happen to be quite relieved today that my curriculum planning has met with the aproval from the Home Ed. department and I now have the thumbs up to be doing what I have been doing all along in one form or another... homeschooling.

Time alone with our Master

Here is something beautiful I came across in my recent reading from a book by one of my favourite authors, Elizabeth George "Life Management for Busy Women - living out God's Plan with Passion and Purpose":

Rules for Daily Life

Begin the day with God

Kneel down to Him in prayer;

Lift up thy heart to His abode,

And seek His love to share

Open the book of God
And read a portion there;

That it may hallow all thy thoughts,

And sweeten all thy care.

Go through the day with God

Whate'er thy work may be;

Where'er thou art - at home, abroad,

He still is near to thee.

Converse in mind with God

Thy spirit heavenward raise:

Acknowledge every good bestowed,

And offer grateful praise.

Conclude the day with God

Thy sins to Him confess;

Trust in the Lord's atoning blood,

And plead His righteousness.

Lie down at night with God

Who gives His servants sleep;

And when thou tread'st the vale of death,

He will thee guard and keep.

I had some special time today with Rosa - just showing her picture cards and letting her romp all over me on the bed. It was lovely just to have a quiet moment with her alone while Owen was at Prep. and Joshua working on the computer. Each of the children really respond to time spent with them alone - where they can have my undivided attention for even a short while. I am the same - reminds me that God, too wants our undivided attention - to commune with Him - and Him alone each day.

The circus (but not the one at our house)

It has been a fairly 'normal' (hmm... not sure there is a 'normal') day.... I am beginning to think it was actually not normal at all - in that nothing popped up throughout the day - things went rather smoothly :)... We walked Owen up to his Prep. class. Josh on scooter - Owen wishing he was... They all received their usual very vocal "Hello!" from our boys. Josh likes to share all that is happening in his life and today his thoughts have been constantly on the circus at the end of the street that he is dying to go to. Owen raced outdoors for his free play time and spotted some little bikes. Joshua was a bit surprised that one of the substitute teachers thought he was a student there (I guess they don't usually come across school aged kids who are not at school)
When we picked Owen up later Joshua raced ahead to the gate and I heard him get a few questions about what he had learned for the day (nothing like a bit of a check up to see iffin' is really gettin' an edukashun! And of course it just happens that he can't remember anything he has learned at all!)

David took the boys this evening to the circus - much to the extreme delight of our boys - particularly Josh. They came home late and had so many stories to tell. Owen kept talking about dogs (and cows - I had to remind him that they weren't cows - they were actually Alpacas - he is not convinced yet!). I am sure tomorrow I will spend a good part of the day hearing more about their adventures. When I tucked Josh into bed tonight he was trying to balance his stuffed toy dog on his finger.... I can feel a Joshua circus show coming on!

Perseverance

I spent some time today reading through some library books on flight with Joshua. I was amazed after reading about the Wright brothers (managed to invent a plane that stayed up for initial 12 seconds!) at just what perseverance they had. Their first plane crashed and required some time to repair. Their second plane (flyer II) got caught in a gust of wind and crashed beyond repair. They didn't give up or even consider a holiday - they just kept perfecting it and persevering in order to create a more effective plane. Not only that but when they did succeed in flying their first plane it didn't even make headlines in their local (country) paper ! They didn't appear to be phased but kept working on their plane and after perfecting their craft (could now fly 30min. they couldn't even talk the US army into buying their idea as a helpful tool during enemy attacks)... Now these two guys, Orville and Wilbur had incredible perseverance! Here's a verse that encourages me to persevere in tough times...

Romans 2v58
58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Owen had a lovely play today with his dear cousin, Matthias. Matthias was having some special time with Grandma who decided to use the stroller and drop in for a visit (now even Grandma comments about how unusual that is for her - she hates walking with a passion!) It was lovely having them over. I hope he recovered ok from the enormous cuddles Owen dished out when he arrived!

lions, monkeys and banana cake (for my little cheeky monkeys)

Joshua has been dying to go and investigate a circus that has just set up camp at the end of our street. After his art lesson yesterday I decided it was a perfect opportunity for some outdoor time. Joshua took his kite along too, so we had a nosy around the circus and the off he went to enjoy running around with his kite. We discovered what a risk taker our little Rosa is when we put her on the slide. She kept signing "more" and would go down on her own - head first almost every time!

At the circus camp we discovered some lions, monkeys, shorn alpacas and geese all caged in (thankfully - those big king of the jungles looked like they might eat Rosa in one little gulp!)

I spent some time early this morning turning some very ripe bananas into banana cake. So here are all the pictures step by step. Owen went and grabbed his boardmaker picture of "eat" and came over to express exactly what he had in mind with that banana cake in sight! I couldn't resist the opportunity for a photo!

hmmm - need to learn how to rearrange photos in right order - sorry

back to school after big party weekend

Rosa had her big party over the weekend. It was so lovely to have family and friends together. The kids romped around in the back yard and we adults managed to catch up in between nappy changes, checking on kids, etc.

David preached at our local church on Sunday too. He went over and over his notes and I caught a photo of him revising one last time on the staircase before leaving for the service. He preached from 1 Thessalonians (broad overview) and was encouraging believers to really persevere in their faith and to watch their lives and doctrine closely. I would have loved to have been in the service but thought that if I was then no one else might hear it at all for my noisy little Rosa! The pastor kindly sat near the boys so I could be out with Rosa. I did strain to hear the service from the back room but was thankful that David had 'practised' his sermon on me already at home. I think he did a fantastic job of presenting God's Word (though of course I cannot claim to be free from bias!)

Uncle

Samuel was very helpful in testing Joshua on his spelling words and reading to him. It is great to see Joshua with an Uncle who loves the Lord and who loves to play with him, is happy to swing him the way he likes on the swing outside (really high so that he almost touches the neighbours fence:) and who is not too big to get down on his belly so he can crawl inside his special cubby (with very small opening!)

Take a look at our stage 3 "Take N' Go" restaurant! Owen thought the mats were just as fun!

Sambo and Valentines Day

It has been a drizzly, indoor sort of day. We have continued to enjoy our reading of Jim Elliot book together. Josh read a bit and I read a bit and we made our way through a chapter discussing the challenges Jim faced deciding where to focus his life and where to serve the Lord. He was very passionate about sharing the gospel and used as many opportunities as he could. He also had missions constantly at the back of his mind - ie. at one stage his brother and sister-in-law asked if he could help build their house and he was keen, knowing that building skills might later help him in his mission work...

In the afternoon we headed to a Bunnings craft activity. My friend, Susan, kindly organised this activity with the staff at Bunnings. They were happy to cater for some home schooling families and so the first session today was related to Valentines Day.

My brother, Sam is here with us for a couple of days. He came down to attend a work conference. The conference is now finished so he is having a couple of days with us - much to the special delight of the boys! Joshua waited out by the gate to see him arrive. When he did arrive, Joshua heroically offered to carry his luggage and then ended up falling over from the weight of it as he was trying to load it onto his bike.... I was inside and happened to glance out the window. Honestly it was quite commical!

My Time (well kind of)

Today I went up to Owen's ECIP for my first session of 'My Time' which is a government initiative to help parents of Special needs kids to learn some skills/talk to other parents, etc. A couple of teacher Aides mind the children during this time. I really enjoyed it, we had some help making and laminating little pictures to help us communicate with our kids. They use a program called "boardmaker" which has little simbols/pictures of various things like household routines (brushing teeth, etc.) I made a little strip of pictures to put in the car to help Owen when we go out. I find it quite a challenge just getting him into the car. He tends to just wander and get distracted on a toy on the floor of the car, etc.

Joshua took along his school work and complete with some classical Chopin music on a little MP4 player (he calls Chopin "Cho-pin") he managed to write out his spelling words, do a tad of maths and even joined in for a little bit of outdoor play and singing a frog song!