Darling Son turns 5

Its amazing how fast time goes. Just the other day I was so tired sitting in the rocking chair thinking "ok I've got DS's best friend asleep here on my lap...I wonder where DS is?...Oh lol its DS I've got not best friend".

 While at Best Friends birthday DS got on BF's bike and just biked...wow. Ok time for a bike. DS was so blown away. Nana got this bike for him and he saw the card stuck to the handle bars and pulled it off 'read it' then asked where was the present? And couldn't believe it was the bike.

 DS with his little mates

 We're going on a treasure hunt for pirate treasure.

 They needed a little help

 to get the second clue

 it took them ages

 but finally they found it and got to the third spot and started digging.

Wonderful day and lovely kids

Kelly Tarltons

 This trip has been on my books for so long. First the homeschool group were going to do this so we held off to go with them. Then that fell through. So we waited to see if it would be rescheduled
No
So off we went on our own
WONDERFUL!!!

Ds found Poppa's old 'bike' (my grandfather used to work down south)

 Not sure how I feel about these poor Happy Feet behind glass

 The stingray pool with Harpuka

 Eeew yuck what is that...well lets look more closely

 Nemo Mum...they are so small...was Nemo really that small?

 We had the grandparents too

 Not sure if he was aloud to do that but he did anyway

 Maps and maps...as long as DS has one he's happy

History....of New Zealand and USA, Africa and UK

Goodness I've been looking through our next block of study and looking at what we're getting into.
In OM we'll be looking at United States.
So map outlines and where in relation do you live to the map equator and what are the resources and reasons for living there.
What were the pioneers like?
Where did they first settle?

And transfer that into New Zealand.
I'm pretty excited about this.
I've pulled out Michael Kings History of New Zealand
I've pulled out Judith Bassett, Keith Sinclair and Marcia Stenson's The story of New Zealand...which we have already been reading from.
I felt well maybe another book would be good...so I've looked at Margaret Mahy's Awesome Aotearoa....
http://www.bookish.co.nz/title/Awesome+Aotearoa/
http://blog.homeschoolingdownunder.com/reviews/awesome-aotearoa-by-margaret-mahy-a-book-review/

Hummmm....I don't know...there are a few reviews on this book. I've seen it myself and was semi interested but I think keeping it real would be best at the moment.

Lego and the second child

I had lego as a child...the truth I was a bit board of it.

Give me a pencil and paper

Our kids both have lego for their last birthdays.

Wow...so different!

Dd has Bagend from Lord of the Rings...very cool. She's just finished it tonight.

Ds has City garage and he has worked so hard today opening box and making 3 cars and most of 3 packet pretty much on his own...I just turned the pages and ocationaly pointed to the right coloured pile...two days past five years I think that's pretty cool.

In OM today was to talk about numbers for Ds...number shape and number corisponding with amounts...I think it was a little beneath him so we just worked on lego and he read numbers and counted.

Somthing I'm finding funny though. Dd is learning her times tables...and even though I don't think Ds is listening he sometimes chimes in with answers.

He's already got the hang of counting pretty much to 100

Sorry I'm amazed cause that came out of his own learning I had no part in it.

Birthday

Dd was shopping while I picked up a few things in the local health shop...she wanted to make candles for Dave's birthday. She remembers from the time we visited the Bee shop in Warkworth how she made candles...this time round she really concentrated well.

Kids made a great job on the brownie...which has 5 Silkie eggs in (the kids own chickens)

Play dough patterns

Ds who is growing so fast it make my head spin is so totally different from Dd. He needs his own activities and own space to feel his own accomplishments. He seems to have WAY more energy than a few months ago. So we are lucky that we have lots of space and time for him to burn off.

Sometimes I need to remember to use the good old tools to get things across. 

I thought I would introduce patterned to Dd while Ds could just experiment with shapes and colour. Well it ended up the other way around. Ds loved the idea of patterns and Dd was more interested in making the right colour for things.

 Ds worked in a flat environment...and things became the "Star Wars" space ships...we talked about seating arrangements. Ds loves R2D2 so the character had his own special seat...I asked what shape R2D2 was and the square seat quickly became a round one.

 Dd creating

times tables art

We have heaps of wood laying round from the next-door neighbours trees...we all had a great time dragging it home behind the truck. Its now chopped...and I had the idea of making the stumps into the suggested patterns to play with the times tables. 

What ever you do don't try and use a handsaw to cut a large log in halves while your not well and have two kids saying "what are you doing Mum...how long will you take?"...you may of already know that ;-)

 I only had enough energy to make one...but both found it fun and you could see the difference between the two with the colour choices and the use of numbers.