Yesterday = my BEST tantrum yet!!

Yes it was one of those frustrated filled, red face, hair pulling out tantrums which ended up with "ALL LAPTOPS, IPODS HERE NOW"

(no chance of a please in that teeth clenched sentence).

After a week of kids fighting, the boy regularly asking to go on  minecraft, router playing up, countless updating and backing up needed to be done by me..... yesterday Itunes crashed AGAIN. All I wanted to do was load an audiobook onto Mollies ipod but no it wouldn't work.

After 1 hour of trying and failing with tension mounting I exploded!

There was silence in the house, no one was game to speak, everyone quietly gathered up their equipment and put it in the computer room cupboard, we all looked at each and we felt a collective weight lifted from us....we felt total FREEDOM!!!

No hint of an exaggeration, within 5 minutes, the  kids were outside on their bikes. By the end of the day the kids had enjoyed drawing, puzzles, more bike riding, played badminton, helped with dinner, helped with household chores...ALL without one fight, whinge, moan.

Today the kids wanted to get up early to have a tennis practice and now are back on their bikes playing their timed lap game around the house.

If you asked me last week if we were a technology lead family I would have answered a definite NO. I didn't think it consumed our lives, we had usage rules but somehow those rules became hazy and what ended up happening was, we were addicted...minecraft, movie making, facebook, emailing, forums, shopping, checking stuff. I admit, there was learning involved ie new skills, researching, homeschooling stuff but goodness, what happened to going to the library!! 

It is naive to think that the equipment will stay in the cupboard for ever but I have given us this week off. Television at night is fine, I will need a little computer time for emailing, blogging, bill paying but once that is done, it goes off.

Together as a family we will slowly introduce it back into our lives but for now FREEDOM!!

It has been a real learning experience for the kids as well as me. Until I removed it, we just didn't realise how addicted we were.

To be honest, I have done this before so the transition into a technology free life was easy for the kids, they knew what to do but the first time was totally different. There was a detoxing period and it got ugly!!

Boredom, anger, whinging but after a couple days we moved through it. It was definitely worth it!

I wanted to share this just in case it rings true to another family. We have our kids for such a small amount of time, lets turn the technology off and enjoyed them! 

Oh timer has gone off....I have a banana cake and jam drops in the oven, a gorgeous pink quilt to finished for my niece and the floor to clean

Back to real life and loving it!!

This week project

This week the kids planned, priced and prepared a meal for us.

First up was Lucas!

He made spaghetti and meatballs and for dessert apple crumble.  

Price was $22.50 for both courses

(with leftovers)

Mollie made sushi and for dessert blueberry pie. 

Price $30.00

(smoked salmon and avocado on the sushi, nothing but the best)

with leftovers.

All was very yummy! 

You know, I really like this project idea ;)

Bartering over the fence.

Nothing better then sharing excess produce with the neighbours. Our fresh eggs for their eggplants and limes....yumm!!!

Homeschooling with the chickens

Literacy work from the chook run!

Not sure how much 'formal learning' got done, but it looks like heaps of fun.

We had our first chicken death last week. I was hanging out the washing and noticed all the hens in the corner of the coop..including the new ones. This was very unusual behaviour, normally they are out in the run scratching around and exploring.

I went down to the run and there was one of the older and much loved girls, dead in the corner. Dave thought it was a hawk and two hours later it was confirmed as it came back for another go the chickens.

Luckily we had them locked up in the coop. 

For a couple days, we took turn on guard duty.

The kids did their work form the run

I did my knitting / crocheting from the run

They have settled back into their old routine (a bit of a pecking after a re shuffle) and the hawk hasn't come back. We are lucky to have had them for 2 years without an incident.

Chickens are the most relaxing pets to have. I spend a good 40 minutes sitting and watching them. They are THE best pets.

The would come up for a pat, go and dust bath, have something to eat, lay an egg. All while I sat and watched them.

All is calm in the coop now, and we are still getting 4 -5 eggs a day.

Good girls :) 

A little update!

Our little corner of the blog world has been a little quiet. Why?

This ballerina has been enjoying the local eisteddfods 

We have been sewing some very special presents

A quilt

And a thankyou pressie!

Our first market!!

And we welcomed some new cuties into our flock...

We hand raised 4 chickies but ended up with two roosters. We rehomed the roosters to lovely family. The two hens are in with the girls and other than a little pecking, all is going well.

And some more news - next year is our year of travelling YAY!!

We are going on another big holiday overseas, so lots of planning, organsing, researching is happening here atm.

Bloglovin!!

I would love it if you followed me over to Bloglovin'

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Thankyou kindly!

I have been a little slacko in the blog department but I have heaps to share!!

Yet another craft - drawing!

Yep, portrait drawing, that I mostly do while the kids are doing their work. They are independant learners which leaves me free to do my own thing and drawing keeps me closeby for questions!

 

I have been studying portrait drawing from dvds, you tube, and books. I am still very much in the beginning stage.This is supposed to be my niece but no, it doesn't look anything like her lol.
Lucas reckons it is too good not to finish so he suggested calling her Elizabeth. (not my neices name lol).

I will finish Elizabeth, hair to go..scary!

 

Quote of the year!!

"Creativity is contagious, pass it on"

by Albert Eintein.

This quote is going on our wall!!

Lucas project: Minerals of the World

Here is Lucas'science project for this term. We works on it for 2 lessons a week. 

On completion, we will print it out and bind it as a resource for him to keep.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Minerals of the World and their Metals

Pick 5 metals from the list below: 

* Coal (organic, non metal)                         
* Nickel

* Copper                                            

* Silver

* Aluminium                       

* Chromium

* Steel                              

* Uranium

* Lead

* Zinc
* Gold

Questions:

What is the mineral ?

Where is it found in Australia ?

What it is used for ?

What is the process of mining the mineral ?

Where is it found in the world ?

Any interesting facts about the mineral?

Answer the questions above using a variety of resources.

Note what resources you used on the conclusion of the project.

Include drawings and tables in your project to make it interesting

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Happy to share!!

Happy snapshot

What is making me smile right now. These gorgeous ladies, my spotty teacup and  my tie dyed sewing mat.

Our Homeschooling resources!

Here is a little insight into our homeschooling life!

I use a variety of resources to keep the kids interested. These are what we are using at the moment. 

For Maths we use

http://www.studyladder.com.au/

Lucas is very maths focused so he likes this site particulary. I also have used maths cd roms in the past, workbooks and study guides from newsagents, & education bookshops.

They both cook, Lucas likes measuring, building, designing things with lego and his nxt robot.

* There are lots of maths games online. When Mollie was learning her times tables she played http://www.multiplication.com/games

English 

http://www.literacyplanet.com/

Kids like this website, they also have naplan workbooks. They always have a story writing project on the go and usually a science type project.

Also we have a few books from http://www.homeschooling.com.au/.

They are very good.

We go to the library alot and the kids loves audiobooks. The usually listen to audiobooks while playing in their rooms.

We play alot of games, including ones I have made. 

* as well as maths, Lucas LOVES science - physics, chemistry. 

We highly recommend the book series Basher Science from Book Depository. They are easy for the kids to read and understand. Lucas is loving the physics and periodic table ones at the moment. 

Mollie loves her Rocks and Minerals book.

There are alot of fun websites out there now, and also apps.

We also watch documentarys together, history timelines, nature walks, drawing together, Lucas build things with Dave, vegy gardening.

As well as their sports.

I tend to give things a break for a few weeks and find something else for them if they are getting a little bored or uninspired.

Our History timeline

Our year long project.

I found these history timeline headings online which I printed out, laminated and stuck up in the hallway.

During the year, the kids will be adding post it notes of events in history.

Mollie has written our names in Hieroglyphics

And here Lucas has made a document listing all the English Kings and Queens. 

That post it note is when William Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet (Mollies note). 

 We haven't quite decided what we will do with them all at the end of the year...maybe made it into a book. Not many blank walls left in our house.

And because I love it when they help each other.

Terrible photo, but you get the idea!!

Random Act of Kindness 2

While Mollie was at dancing this afternoon Lucas and I tackled the mammoth job of cleaning Mollies sewing table!

Mollies turn!

Random Acts of Kindness

I have started this with the  kids

 Today I cleaned Lucas' desk, left the fairy and a note.

Now it is his turn.

 

Love a rainbow ME!

I wear them, I crochet them!

This is my fav rainbow skirt, and my rainbow crochet blanket.

We love our softies

Softies!!

Our house is covered in them. The kids cupboards are overflowing with them, I have them scattered around the house on top of bookcases, on my bedside table.

They are just delightful aren't they! Especially handmade ones :)

Dee Dee the Dolphin (Melly and Me Pattern)

Clucky (Melly and Me pattern)

Made by Mollie!

She is very proud of her Dolphin.

Hide that dryer!

We have a dryer that hardly ever gets used, but is still handy.

Ugly AS though!! Not anymore (Dave just shakes his head now) 

I used some of my hand dyed homespun and an embrodiery file from Emblibary.

Makes the kids smile when they are cleaning their teeth in our combination second bathroom / laundry.

We like to draw ALOT

We LOVE our art supplies, pencils, paint, textas, watercolour - if it is an art item we have it.

As a family we spend a part of each day drawing. Mollie loves sketching real life things, Lucas like drawing structures and transport, I just love drawing.

My lastest drawing is over on the left side there, a Babshuka Doll set.

If we draw down the back, we always have company. 

                                 

Want to get started with drawing with your kids? Here are some suggestions

• Art journals - love them here. You can buy them from art suppliers, newsagent. Such a nice way to record art work.
• Good quality pencils are a must!! Cheap pencils don't have the strength of colour and children really loose interest fast if their artwork isn't lovely and bright on their paper.
• Get out into nature to sketch - parks, beaches, backyards.
• Set aside 10 minutes a day to draw with your  kids. Think positive, and have a go!
• Drawing from photos - magazines, fav books, photo albums. Great way to practice.

I would love to see a world with LESS colouring in books and more art journals!!

hand dyed cotton crochet

Loving this photo atm, BUT it wasn't meant to post lol.
Just playing round with my blog to jazz it up a bit!!