Kancil Story Writing competition entry by Moomintroll

Kancil and the Banana Tree House

Once there was a Kancil - a small, smart and very fast mouse deer.  He was meditating under a banana tree. It was a lovely warm day and Kancil was relaxing after having a cucumber lunch from the farmer’s field.

Just then Mr. Tiger was standing a few yards in front of Kancil.  He was a bit nervous that a tiger was standing in front of him.

Mr. Tiger came closer and he said, “I’ve got you Kancil. You won’t get away now!”

Kancil replied, “If you eat me I will be turned into a little piece of cardboard by Prophet Suleiman for not taking care of his crunchy, tasty, luscious, succulent, mouth watering meat pie, in his banana tree house.”

Mr. Tiger said, “Where is this house?”

“Just behind me,” replied Kancil. “And this is the key,” he added, showing Mr. Tiger a small stick.

 “Let me in now!” roared Mr. Tiger. “If I can’t eat you then let me have that pie!”

“Ok, Ok, you can have the pie.”

Kancil gave him the key to the house and said “Go inside, lock yourself in so no one sees you eating the meat pie and throw the key out the window.  I’ll take the key into the forest and when you can’t see me anymore then you can start eating the meat pie.”

“Alright, alright! Just run away now Kancil.”

Then Mr. Tiger started climbing over the tree, looking for the key hole. When he got to the top of the tree he got stuck and all tangled up.

Kancil ran away giggling because there was no such thing as Kancil being turned into cardboard by the Prophet or a meat pie in the banana tree house.  He had tricked that silly Mr. Tiger into getting stuck in the banana tree!

The End.

MuBoMaStu

It's June already and winter is here at last. What better time for a new Brian St Learning Centre Learning Plan?  Winter is not my favourite time of year - it seems to bring out the worst in us - it's dark alot of the time, sometimes the sun barely breaks though the clouds, we're feeling lazy and unmotivated. All we want to do is sit in front of the heater, look at iPods and computers and eat all day long.  And we've all been sick. Blecchh!  
Well, as the saying goes "A change is as good as a holiday", so we've ditched the Table Time, the workbooks and the maths stuff and replaced it with MuBoMaStu:  Music, Books, Making Stuff.
The girls and I have spent most or our days playing piano, cornet and drums, reading books for the annual home ed readathon, and making things with our needles, hooks and rainbow looms.
Our first project was to yarn bomb the letterbox:

Ok, so I did do most of the crochet and knitting, but the girls helped dress the letterbox and the Snork Maiden crocheted alot of the metres of chain needed to wrap the curly metal bits. Plans are afoot for more yarnbombing.
Getting everyone reading again is proving difficult. I'm not sure why but it's like they've forgotten how or that they are out of practice. Signing up for the readathon has helped a little with motivation, and read alouds are a favourite once again.
We've also been watching alot of classic movies and docos which is a lovely way to while away a rainy afternoon. We started the BBC's The Human Body series  and  I plan to make Mondays 'Campfire Day' where we will watch and (hopefully) discuss a range of thoughtful short films from around the world via Campfire.
So, I think our new plan for the winter season should be a really relaxing yet re-energising time for all of us.

Last night was Just Brass' end of term concert. Both girls performed solos this time. The Snork Maiden even had her own backing band.

Passing notes

I remember when I was in grade 2. We were writing innocent jokes and messages, passing them around the class, trying to stifle our giggles. We thought we were so funny and clever, until we got caught and my best friend dobbed on the rest of us.  I spent all afternoon sitting outside the principal's office, my nose red from crying. He took pity on me as it was my first offence and I got off lightly. Other kids had to go home with red strap marks on their legs.  Such a shame, seeing as we were all having such fun. We certainly learnt a lesson that day, but I don't think it was the one that the teachers had in mind.
The students of the Brian St Learning Centre have started passing notes around too. One student in particular is obsessed with it. She just can't stop herself writing pages and pages of special notes to people. It is really wonderful to see her spontaneously working so hard and seeing her pride in herself. This is her note to me:

"I know how you are. You are good and happy. And the best thing of all is you."

I have a growing collection of these notes on my desk and I love to read through them when I'm feeling down. They never fail to cheer me up.

Other notes that have been passed around here lately are musical notes.  Both girls have joined Just Brass
- a local music initiative by the Salvation Army. We now have a percussionist and a cornet player in our midst.

I haven't filmed the Snork Maiden on the drums yet because she only has a rubber drum head to practice on at the moment. Once we get her a snare drum watch out!

So that ticks off two subjects - English (written expression) and Music.  Oh, and maths too from working out all those tricky drum rhythms and timings.
We've had a change to our PE program. Goodbye Kids Cardio after five happy years and hello to tennis at Silver Grove.  J is a great teacher who fits in tennis classes for home educated kids between his regular classes for preschoolers.  The girls are really enjoying the lessons and have made some new friends too, so that's a bonus.

Moomintroll had her first ballet exam this week. She was in a line of three girls, so had to do many of the exercises and dances on her own (usually they are done in pairs). It didn't seem to bother her though, and she enjoyed the experience.  Now they are setting their sights on the final performance for the year and she is beside herself knowing that she'll be dancing in The 12 Dancing Princesses.  The Snork Maiden may be an Outlandish Creature in a ballet inspired by William Morris' writings.  Did you know that besides being an amazing artist he was also a writer?  I didn't.  I consulted Mr. Wikipedia and discovered that Morris was so prolific and famous as a writer that he was a huge influence on C.S Lewis, James Joyce and J.R.R Tolkien!  There you go, you learn something new everyday.  I have downloaded three of his books from Project Gutenberg and can't wait to begin reading.  What I'm really looking forward to though is the set design for the Morris ballet. Mr H from the girls' ballet school is a superb artist and creates wonderful sets. His Medieval Scene backdrop a few years back was amazing.

one of my favourite Morris designs - The Strawberry Thief

Term 1 wrap up

The end of first term is nigh, so before we leave on our very well deserved holiday to Heron Island, here's a record of what the girls have been up to.


Sport - Ballet, Gymnastics, Kids Cardio, Circus classes.

Music - Choir, Piano lessons, attending concert band rehearsals, concerts and citizenship ceremonies.

Personal Development - Girl Guides.

LOTE - Latin, learning phrases and words relating to the countries studied in our Around the World unit.

Art - Artist Trading Card swap with fellow homeschoolers, batik making.

History - Brief histories of the countries studied in our Around the World unit; Indigenous study (tool making, edible plants, culture and music); Horrible Histories books/DVD; French Revolution video from Khan Academy.

Geography - Around the World unit; preparation for our trip to Heron Island, Qld.

Science - Crystal growing; Tadpole watch; Saturday Science sessions; Rockpool study; marine life study; growing pumpkins; dog, rabbit and guinea pig care; "Hands in the Dirt" excursion involving planting seeds, grasses, analysing compost, identifying animals under a microscope.

English - Shakespeare (H); Headsprout (R); library days; H is writing her own Mr. Men story; writing and performing original plays; atttending a performance of Hamlet; research skills for Around the World project.

Maths - Smartkiddies website; Cool maths games; math workbooks; Pi Day; selling raffle tickets at band concert.

*Around the World countries studied were South Korea, Mexico, Canada and Mauritius.

...and all done in our pajamas! (well, most of it anyway).

a bucketful of egg cases(?) need help identifying these!

investigating at Rickett's Point

snail trail

common sea star

crab shell lineup

Stage 1 of batik making using flour paste instead of wax. Instructions here.

 

Crystal making using Borax, food colouring and boiling water:

 

Torn paper craft:

Hands in the Dirt excursion:

planting Lomandra

Circus time.  R is working towards her Level 1 certificate:

The Doctor is changing daily now.  One day he sprouted a front leg.  The next day the second one popped out:

We will most likely release him back to the creek where we found him at the end of this week.

Bits and Pieces

This week we had a great day out at Funfields with a bunch of other homeschoolers.  We had the whole park to ourselves and made some lovely new friends so it was well worth the 75 minute drive in peak hour both ways!
Our last library day was almost two weeks ago. This is what we've been reading lately:

Very funny and rude!  Reading this lead to learning about Chaucer's life and times.

R really enjoyed this but H has resisted reading it so far as she seems to have an aversion to the word brumbies for some reason...

R very proudly reads this to everyone on her own.

H's bedtime reading

Ahh, Horrible Histories. How boring life is without you..

 

 Absolutely hilarious and highly recommended for everyone

I've stumbled upon some useful links. With a huge range of international information, activities and crafts InCulture Parent is brilliant.  Another is Education.com and I've used it alot over the last two weeks for fun maths worksheets, colouring pages, and paper dolls from around the world.

Our Tadpole Watch is in its fourth week now. The Doctor is getting nice and fat. It shouldn't be long before he starts sprouting his forelegs.

R began her circus classes this week.  She tumbled, balanced, devil sticked and hula hooped her way through the hour and greatly enjoyed it all. 

Here she is fully dressed for her first ballet class.  She's growing up, my little girl.

H started up her piano lessons again this week after a six month break and we've joined up with the home ed choir again too. 

The pigs and buns are sweltering in the heat. Their enclosure is full of holes dug by Nutmeg to escape the heat. But they are happy and slowly eating up all the dandelions in Mitcham.