Unschooled: A very full spring and some catching up

Walking up to our local water fall. Really got the kids back into the idea of being outside after winter. DS has been really getting into minecraft and often wants to be home in time for his 'time' after lunch on the computer. BUT lol...this day was the first of many which he was begging to stay here and throw just one more stone...or look at just one more tree. We came home with pockets full of rocks and sticks...wonderful.

As I have often raved about our lovely little town a few of the local Mum's band together to create a camp. One Mum is just SOOOOOO full of love and excitement and she just has so many wonderful ideas and energy.
Sadly DS caught tummy bug and has been out for the whole camp and a week afterwards...and Dave and I have managed to get it too...yuck!
But he still had an amazing time.

My two here with some of DS's friends waiting for their go.

DS has been watching some of the fathers go down (who are much larger than DS) so he's been copying them...very cute

Some of the children have pet animals which needed to be feed so they had to come to camp too. DS just loves Snowy the lamb...Tintin and Snowy are some of DS's fav books.

DD and a few of her friends spent ages on this slide. Fathers helping the kids down "FASTER!"

The kids had

Both kids LOVE circus school. Their teacher is amazing and so unschooling in his ideas (though he doesn't know it). There is lots of movement and trust in these exercises. The last term they worked with fire which was amazing to see a 5 year old do. They worked on some yoga/trapeze work DD loved this as we got to be with the collage kids.
This last term they have been working on a show to fund raise for a wonderful woman of our community who has had a stroke. The kids were clowns and after reading they decided to be Thing 1 and Thing 2.

The H/S group went to the native bird recovery. DD was totally taken with the idea of having all these amazing cages with the sick birds and nursing them back to health. She asked Dave if she could do this....

DD was unwell on this day but she really wanted to pat the Kiwi

Making a hot air ballon....DD googled it and asked others lots of questions. She tried very hard but no lift...she's back to the drawing board.

H/S art day at our place. Ara's little mate and her had a lovely time with out their little brothers.

Winter holiday away to Taupo. We popped in to see the bees...both kids love the bee places we visit and often ask if we can have bees...its on the list of to dos but as I'm allergic I need a bit more thought.

The falls with Granddad

Taupo hot pools were AMAZING...whangarei you've got some learning from these guys. The pools here were so lovely and clean and the kids could go down the slide as many times as they like without adults and DS could go too at 5.

We did the first part of the Tongarero Crossing to the first hut. SNOW!!! 40mins walk carrying their lunch and change of clothes.

We had to make a snowman on the front deck. Was a team effort and we even had a carrot (purple one from the markets) as a nose.

As DD had been studying foot prints with Oak Meadow this year she was keen to look for any animals...and starting making her own tracks. We didn't see many animals/birds

This trip really completed the loop for DD's learning about Biome, animals and plants of different climate zones. She pointed out this many times in the car. We looked at many different types of plants while down in the snow seeing the leaf colour size and shape very different from home.

Hot pools again.

Both our kids love chess and took over the Taupo chess board which everyone watched.

DS loves working in the rice with his letters and numbers. This term I've noticed a large change in his motor skills since playing minecraft. He can really hold his pencil well and form good letters. He's gone from putting a lot of his letters backwards to round the right way.

The cousins visited again from London. This was an unexpected surprise and really great!!! They love minecraft too. We had a lovely catch up with them.

In Oak Meadow the kids choose a tree each and follow it.
This is DD's tree which is her birth tree

This is DS's birth tree too.

DS got into sewing

H/S group here for the day. Lots of sliding. Lego. Soccor. Food. Reading about minecraft....oh Lol i can't get away from it. We've got 4 books on minecraft and we had about 2-3 kids per book just quietly studying them together.

DS with our cat...Griffin has to be into everything we do.

DS working on his Jolly Phonics...this curriculum has really helped our kids get a good start to reading.

In the process of building a frontier house/pa house...this didn't get very far. It was very cold and wet outside and they really didn't want to get any more

DS with his mate at gym

Garden walks in the morning...you have to have a cartwheel

Prickel discovery

Playing in the mud

Swinging in the trees down the back of our property

They just had to climb the tree that the cat climbed...DD got right to the top.

DD is so proud! Finally babies. Here she is with her Silkie Rooster Ron (Harry Potter's best mate).

Morning Dance...gym...crazy stuff. I'm having to pull them back a little as they are close to hurting themselves and as I don't know much about gym...bit scary. They love their gym class down the road but really want a more tailored class to just floor tumbling.

Back to our waterfall again...they really wanted to know how to skip stones...we tried a lot DD got one skip...DS was just learning how to get it in the water without hitting anyone else.

The kids hanging out with their HS buddies at the pool...they talked minecraft for about 2 hours...snore

Back on camp again...DS still not feeling great and a bit miffed that he got put in the "Babies group" where all the other kids his age were...once we got to the morning tea spot he asked for Dave who was with the bigger kids...then he just took off looking for him. We had a great time running through the bush. Both my kids found it very hard to be a part of a large slow moving group with lots of rules.

DS reconnected with a little mate from Playcentre. They played with trains just about all day. An amazing time.

There were times when the whole group of kids came together to do activities. One evening they had to make teams and build a mural out of natural things. DD's group was the Super Secret Survivors...humm...you can guess who was the ring leader there DD's fav books Enid Bylton and Bear Grills.

Also on camp a birthday. So the idea was to build huts in the bush have party games and eat cake in your huts...I think the cake was left for the birds and the children had so much fun just building.

Camp skit night. Very unstructured. LOL