November 14 - 21

It's sometimes hard to know when to introduce a new skill to a child because although they may show interest it doesn't mean that they are mentally prepared for it.  I think R started Headsprout a bit too early. What started out as fun games gradually became information overload and the poor girl just gave up.  We've not looked at a Headsprout episode or reader for three months.
In that time however, we've read many books together and R has been intensely playing Scribblenauts on her DS (which involves typing in names of things/people to use in the game).  Today I picked out a Headsprout reader at random and she read happily read it with hardly any hesitations or mistakes.
All I can say is "Yay for unschooling!"
Here are some other wise words from clever people:

“Study without desire spoils the memory, and it retains nothing that it takes in.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

“Education is hanging around until you’ve caught on.” ~ Robert Frost

“All I am saying ... can be summed up in two words: Trust Children. Nothing could be more simple, or more difficult. Difficult because to trust children we must first learn to trust ourselves, and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted.” ~ John Holt 

Now, on to last week's happenings...

It was a fairly quiet week. The girls had the usual ballet, brownies and gymnastics. H hurt her back jumping into the foam pit so had to go for a proper back massage to get her well enough for the ballet dress rehearsals that have started.  We had a public transport adventure to the zoo and gamelan practice then finished off with a pizza night at Belle Rose Pizza in Chadstone.

We've rediscovered the joy of felting thanks to H who was off quietly in the kitchen felting a family of little people as a present for a cousin. I've begun a felted ball garland for the christmas tree.

Yesterday an early bike ride put us all in a good mood so we had a game of Swing Maths (mental maths done whilst swinging at the park) and Blackout Poetry which is a fun way to mix poetry with art. I found it at this great blog - go check it out!  I'll post a photo when H has finished hers.

new baboon enclosure

penguin feeding time

Moorhen mums and babies

 

Nov 3 - 13

As the months fly by I find that we are unschooling more and more.  Even though we tell each other that we do want to learn languages and history and maths and science (and we really do!), whenever I get out the books or worksheets it all seems so boring and contrived and irrelevant to what's going on in our lives.
So whilst the books were sitting neglected and gathering dust these past ten days, we've been doing this:
 
1. Botany Scavenger Hunt.
Whilst taking a lovely, wet, early morning walk in a local park H and R hunted for interesting leaf shapes, flowers and seed pods. A very gentle and enjoyable introduction to Botany.

2. Caring for Cookie.
R found this little one in our garden while out on a treasure hunt. She certainly found a treasure!  Apparently possums often reject their joeys if they are stressed or sick and this was the second joey found in our garden. The first was even smaller and was already dead when P and the girls found it two weeks ago.  This one - we named him Cookie- was still alive but oh so cold.  He was tiny (only 6 cm long), hairless and very underdeveloped.  We took him inside and wrapped him in a woollen beanie, bought some native animal baby formula and fed him for almost two days before he slipped away. This is a terrible photo but it was dark and P and I were bleary eyed from waking every two hours to feed him and to reheat the heat packs.
When we fed him his little paws would curl around our fingers, his tiny mouth opening, searching for some milk from the syringe. Cookie was precious indeed.

3. Enjoying each other and their babies.
I'm not sure if it was due to caring for Cookie or not, but suddenly both girls started acting very maternal towards their baby dolls again. H and I looked on as R gave birth to her baby Poppy, and special beds were made up for the new arrivals. The girls took loads of photos of themselves with their daughters.  I love that they have the same eye colour as their babies.
Of course all this play acting led to many questions about babies and childbirth, the most important one being "Does it hurt?"

 

4. Recycling Crayons.

We had a big clean up yesterday and I found a forgotten box of old crayons that nobody ever used. We broke them up, melted them down and made cool multicoloured crayons.

The big clean up resulted in the girls now having their own rooms once again. H immediately got busy setting up her Sylvannian families in their new digs on top of her desk,

..while R made the most of her new play area on the now empty top bunk.  Today they both spent most of the day up there using it as a gymnastic apparatus (climbing up, jumping off, timing each other) before it transformed into a restaurant.

The dogs love the new arrangement too and had a sleepover on the futon last night.

Oct 10 - Nov 2

H turned 9 last month. We celebrated at the local Mexican restaurant for dinner followed by cake at home. It was a nice quiet end to a busy day of family visits, art class and ballet.

The Sound of Music season was a hit with full houses each night.  After the last performance we jumped into Manuel and drove to Bendigo for the night.  The next day we explored and shopped, then enjoyed a concert by Bendigo Concert Band in the afternoon.

All the good weather we've had lately had put ideas of the beach into R's head, so off we went to Rickett's Point for some rockpooling and adventuring.  Whilst there we met a grandmother and her grandkids catching crabs and fish with nets and pieces of bacon on a string. Will have to remember that for future trips!

Tube worm cases

Neptune's necklace everywhere

sea monkey

Snail's eye view

contemplation

The girls started a gymnastics class this term.  They are both really enjoying it and have alot of fun hanging, climbing, jumping, swinging, rolling, stretching and somersaulting around the courses. With gym, cardio and ballet (and lots of extra ballet rehearsals for the coming concert) H and R are burning off loads of energy and keeping fit. I'm exhausted just watching them.

At home we've done lots of painting and drawing, and making presents for people.

H and I finished off The Elements and have begun learning about photosynthesis with this fun game. R plays too but often doesn't have the stamina to finish.  We also found an online game called CellCraft which is a great way to explore how cells and organelles are formed and what their functions are.

Other things the girls have enjoyed lately are filling in times tables charts, practicing drawing various 3D shapes, continuing with Song School Latin (up to chapter 10) and H writes in her journal most mornings.

Cornfield by R