Bit of a tree day with building little houses

DD with her beloved chicken which she has hand raised from two chickens which she saved up for and brought. 

This is Cornflower

 DS has grown so much its just amazing how much he has grown in confidence. The other day someone was asking in the shop how old he was and was he enjoying school..."I'm homeschooled!"

 DD checking out to see if anyone had moved in.

 Our little/large house on the hill

 Many years ago when I found this property my grandfather and I walked up the back here where there was nothing but steep grass...and now we've got a few trees coming back...here is young DS jumping down the hill which Grandpa Jim and I sat on in the rain and I thought...yup I could live here.

 The beginnings of a house which my two have been working on for ages.

Visiting One Tree Point Oil Refinery

A crazy rainy day which was lovely one moment and cold and blowy next.

We loved the visitors centre which has a few large models of the refinery and of the upper north island showing the pipe line to Auckland.

 

DD balances 

 We're hiding from the weather and rain ... building a little hut

 Watching some logs getting loaded

 Parents not all that keen on the moving pontoon with no handrails...DD tries to push the pontoon

A mud day

It was grey and horrible with rain throughout most of the day. So I looked in Maths in the Garden and came up with an idea...which got extended in so many different directions.

We used a few different soil samples and added water. Then shook them...then let them settle.

The water was the fun part.

And the mud

And the building

The three different soils. Potting mix from the shop. Our own clay and garden soil from DS's garden which we have worked on for a few years and have had the chickens on top of too.

 The cat was most interested today.

 DD was trying to call it dirt smoothy

 This is a hut that they had been working on with friends...which has now been taken apart and made again but higher up the hill.

 This is DS hut which he made for our running free rooster

 And of course once it had all been finished it became one big mud slide

Sewing for DS

A note from OM recommend sewing for helping with learning reading and writing.

I thought sewing how would I encourage my boy to do that.

The next morning while sitting in front of the fire he said to me

"Mum I want to do some sewing"

Me ... Double take and wondered if he'd been reading my emails.

Any way

We sat down and I cut out a few rounds with him...he's still not keen on the old cutting thing. I showed him once how to push the needle through...and how to push it back through on the other side and he was off.

He was very proud.

The other thing which is a change for DS is he's dragging round a few books which I HAVE to read...so while we're doing paintings of terrains with DD I'm reading "Slinky Malinky opened the door..."

Needle felting

I had this hidden away

It's MINE!

Sigh

She's doing better at it than me

Of course making a chicken.

DD has just brought her fluffy babies a rooster which we will be picking up today.

Oh goodness

;-)

Just a little bit of work on the abc and one days mess

 We had a great game with this hopscotch and the letter cookies. I tried the idea that OM suggested and make them out of clay or bees wax...just didn't work. But salt play dough was great.

 Making a puppet show...this has kind of stalled at the moment while other things happen. But as the weather is getting colder we'll need things to make inside.

 Art day

 Lego day

 School work

 Blocks and books

 We went to the honey centre with Dave and have also been learning about the number 6...and how they all slot together nicely.