Our people our town

As part of oak meadow we have been looking at where people come from. The activity today was to walk around town and ask people if dd could take their photo and where they were born.
Dd loved it.
We have a good range...ds little mate was crossing the road with her mum. Born in our own town.
Opp. Shop lady born in Hokianga. Chemist lady born in small town Zimbabwe. Coffee man born in northshore. Hammer hardware born in London. Health shop born in Christchurch. Library born in Auckland.

We will keep going and plot these on maps. Also have photos of family too and where they were born.
Dd felt very proud doing this project.

This is a part of another project we have finished looking at people of the world. This was harder that I expected. We went to the library to look at as many books as we could of people's of the world. Was not many...? Humm we got out picture atlas which was good. But still not great.
Then Nanma and Granddad has a great find. National geographics.

Kids have been glued to them for days.

Chickens

Dd sold lavender at our local market till she had enough money to buy three little chicks and enough food to raise them till they could free range.
She was very disappointed that they would not sit on their eggs to produce more chicks.
We brought an incubator.
She chose 9 eggs waited a month and two hatched. Sadly butterfly died even though dd helped it a great deal.
Cornflower and later ds penguin have become beloved pets.
Now with much excitement dd found eggs in the 'babies' hutch.

Grade 1 oak meadow finished

Dd has finished her last lesson and is now on 'holiday'.
The feeling for me is great. I've kept a folder of all her work and looked back yesterday. So cool and lots of great memory's!

36 weekly lesson plans from OM at first were a bit daunting and it took me a while to find my rhythm...but it really zings...or as to quote Ken Robinson 'in the zone'.
I feel that oak meadow has a really been a great guide for us and works so well into our family, very outdoors and physical...we love the story's and the kind way of learning.

Have we changed our ideas?
I feel like we are always finding our way and the path might be a little different.
We have changed a little and a lot. Many things were not working the way we hoped and we were also getting very tired. So finding your values and ideas written down to use was just amazing.

We have grade 2 oak meadow. I also have the kindy curriculum to which is very exciting...and while ds is too young he's eager to follow dd. he's keen to count and learn sounds...sniff sniff...my baby.

So a weeks holiday then slowly ease back into it.
Will we stop learning...haha no..this morning we've already had story's and circle time...dd is keen to do some craft work this afternoon.

All good

Taking Care of animals

DS has a kind heart for animals. While walking at granny and grandpas past a dead rabbit he had to stop and morn and wanted to pat.
He's been taking care of our cat Griffin and this is a painting of the cat

Talk about the suborn answer

DD was making a weather chart. It was to last a week long. She filled out one day. Then gave up.
I could be the grumpy mother and push her to do it.
I left it on the work pin board for two weeks thinking it might get filled out.
No.
So we talked about it. At first DD said she just didn't want to do it.
Ok.
I asked would she finish it. She really didn't want to.
We talked a bit more...then it finally came down to the real reason.
It was boring!!!!
Ok
How was it boring?
"Mum we're in a drought! Every day is the same! No wind, no rain, and SUN!"
Great... we talked about the weather and how it is at the moment
Then I asked if she would like to do it in another season.
Yes

Sometimes finishing a project is hard. I always remember some unschoolers say they wish they had a bit more encouragement to finish their projects so I hope I've hit the right balance.

Reading

DD has made a bit of a leap.
She's gone from really struggling to sound out words to picking up the "little bear" books and reading them. She was so excited. We went on line once she'd finished the first chapter and ordered some more...she did all the typing ;-)

Nelson and back

Our friends finally decided to get married...in Nelson. So off we went. Our second wedding learning to travel light...yahoo. I read a post from another homeschooling family who only take one small bag each. It really works.

On the way home we did stumble a bit as DS came down with a cold so we tried to take as much as we could from his bag...then had to re-pack at boarding.

The kids were so excited about all the fruit growing in Nelson. They would call out the types of fruit we drove past.

The wedding was at 7am on the beach. Lol...they made sure the coffe man was there.

The kids were lucky to have their mates from home to play with too.