NEW MEMBER OF THE FAMILY

6.00am this morning

This morning we were greeted to a new member of the family, proud mum Lisa gave birth to a little lamb overnight in the torrential rain and wind ... as Steve says perfect lambing weather!  We had thought Mable would deliver first as she has looked very pregnant with a large udder and I couldn't even tell if Lisa was pregnant although Granny and Steve were sure she was. 

We moved them up the hill and Steve put in a shelter to protect them from the wind

Mum and Baby ... ohhhh

Given that Mable and Lisa are both orphans and hand-reared and going to be first time Mum's I was very worried about their quality of mothering ... lets just say they are very needy sheep.  However, it our delight Lisa has been very protective of her little offspring and shows all the signs of being a great parent!  Thank god!  We do have milk on standby for the lambs just in case we have issues!  It was so lovely to see the little lamb bleat and Lisa respond back and make sure it was OK.

Now if only we could get rid of this weather so the little thing can have a good start to its life!

BAD JELLY THE WITCH

I am a firm believer in knowing the story before you take children to an artistic performance of something, whether it is the ballet, opera, a play, or any other art strand.  So today the children watched Bad Jelly the Witch, which I had ordered from the Library.  Unfortunately all the Bad Jelly books were issued so we had to settle for the DVD.  No matter, a lesson in better planning for me :) Anyway, this morning the kids watched the movie of the story and then set to writing about what they had just viewed.  It turned out well, I decided I wanted them to write about the story straight after they had finished watching it so the story would be reinforced into their memory banks!  Here's hoping anyway!  All this preparation is of course for a reason ... on the last day of term (next Friday) we are going to The Pumphouse in Takapuna to see the play Bad Jelly the Witch and so they can get as much out of it as possible I thought some prep work was in order!

A CLOSER LOOK AT ELECTRICITY

If you don't have a brain box, go find one and buy it.  We have had a brain box and they are the best thing whether for fun, learning, real FUN, or just entertainment they are brilliant, so GOOD we purchased another one!  We had our first box given to Ben about 3 years ago and it has had a lot of use, and now I find I can use it for physics too ... it truly is the gift that keeps on giving (which reminds me I must blog about our playhouse that IS the gift that continues to keep on giving in so many ways).

Today we conquered electricity and the elements you need to make some thing go ... very cool and it was fantastic to use the brain boxes to illustrate each point.  The kids were then given free range to create a circuit that would make something go and the circuit would require a breaker (switch).  I didn't let them have the batteries because I wanted them to make sure they thought about all the elements they required to power something and then when they thought they had it sussed they could come to me and we would test it by putting the batteries in.  Ben overloaded his circuit and had to go and modify the specification down to something less OTT (typical boy!), Polly had to change hers too has her elements didn't add up, but on the second go they both got it done, Polly a red light and Ben the fan and a lamp going.  

Well Done you Guys!

ITS BEEN A LITTLE WHILE

Yip, its been a while, since I blogged! One week and no updates on the kids education, what has happened I hear you ask .... well we took a mid semester break for a couple of days (Tuesday and Wednesday) then on Thursday we had loads of school work I wanted to get done before the kids did the grocery shopping on Friday!  Love that my children are great shoppers at such a tender age, puts me to shame but if they are better with money than I am who will complain!  We are now putting all of their budget savings into a christmas club card so just before christmas the kids can go a bit mad and have a spend up at the grocery store buying their favourites with all the money they have saved over the next few months ... they thoroughly love this idea, I can only imagine what we will be living off during that week before Christmas!

ADVICE FROM THE KIDS

THIS WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE INTERESTING ......

I decided I would as the kids (yes, ask the kids .. yikes) about the things they really enjoyed in the timetable this term, things they would like to include for the next term, any changes they would like to see, and outsourced things they would like to include for term four.  There are the surprising results!

Things they LIKE

Spelling each morning (I know ... right!)
Handwriting (what!)
Science (saw that coming a mile away)
Visual Sequencing (have loved it right from the beginning)
Baking (who doesn't!)
Famous New Zealanders (social studies topic this term, totally rapt about their enthusiasm for this!)

Things they want to CHANGE

More art (fair enough)
More trips (who doesn't!)
Time for working on their Cub and Kea Badges (very responsible)
More fun things (aye yeah, we all do my lovely)
More science (again could see this coming from a mile away)
Baking every week (again who doesn't)
Athletics hour down at Rautawhiri (this has come as a great surprise)
Computer time for each child (definitely)
A change to the good behaviour crosses, they want computer time at the end of each week instead of the treat at the end of term (impressive, I can definitely go with this)
1 and 1/4 hour for Lunch (... ok .... needs some timetable thought)
Start school earlier (REALLY ... ARE YOU SERIOUS .... this is one item that surprisingly needs some consideration, we start at 9.15 which seems a good time as none of us are really morning people apart from Daddy and he doesn't count for this one and I rely on the time before school starts to do ALL my jobs ... thinking required!)

Things they want to do OUTSIDE HOME ACTIVITIES

POLLYANNA
long jump (really)
Swimming (no surprise here people)
Keas (again no surprise)
Tennis (not sure if this is because Ben brought it up or there is interest here)

BENJAMIN
Tennis (ok)
Swimming (really is anyone surprised)
Cubs (loves it)
Discus (really ... surprising but so was the stipulation that came with it, Mum I want you to teach me because the Athletics Club (our local one) is boring and all you do is wait and then get to throw it once ... now this I can attest to, the local athletics club is a victim of its own success and is now so big, the kids generally just spend most of the evening waiting and little time doing athletics.  This also might be a really good time to get Myra involved as an ex-athlete).

At the end of all this discussion, I suggested to the kids I may not be able to fit all of this excitement into our school day, to which I had a chorus of .... we can make our day a little bit longer mum ..... YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SERIOUS :)  Kids that want to make their school day longer, honestly when do you tell them that too much learning is not a good thing! 

A PILE OF MARKING ... YIKES

I have a pile of english marking to do today, phonics, handwriting, and all the work they did this morning for their english unit work on fairy tales and narrative writing.

They were really on task today because I cracked the whip a bit as we need to finish school slightly early so we can get Pollyanna a new pair of sneakers, which we did successfully, she went from a size 11 to a size 13.  I can't believe how fast she is growing!  It was then off to drama lessons which the kids really enjoyed today, thankfully .... Ben didn't enjoy the last couple of lessons and I was worrying about how he would get through the rest of the term.  This has been a good education in actually finding something that Ben hasn't liked participating in!