Living With Fairies

Tying out a new Blog

2011-11-03T14:19:00.002+10:30

Hello to the 29 people who follow this blog. *waves*

I know I haven't posted in a looooooooooooong time...

Sorry.

I am going to start blogging on a new blog It's Elementary mainly about our homeschooling journey. I'd love it if you joined me...?

Rediscovering Christmas Bible Challenge

2010-11-23T13:42:00.001+10:30

This year I have been looking for ways to teach the girls about the ture meaning and reason for Christmas.

I came across a post on Welcome to Our Wonderland where she suggested the Rediscovering Christmas Bible Challenge.

Specifically we would be reading one chapter and the Gospel of Luke every day for the 24 days leading up to Christmas.

I think this will be a great thing to as a family. I am planning to do the reading in the evenings before the girls go to bed, so we (DH included) can enjoy the reading together.

If you would like to join in checkout Welcome to Our Wonderland for more info, and link up!

The post with the Dragon

2010-11-22T13:45:00.002+10:30

When Daniel had to go into work yesterday to do some stuff, he invited us all to go with him. Daniel is a computer technician at a local Christian school, so we had fun hanging out, playing on the computers and checking out their new library.

As I walked out of one of the class rooms a heard this little guy scurrying away.

A bearded dragon!

I ran back into the room to grab Georgia and Evie. Georgia is fascinated by Lizards at the moment.

Definitely the highlight on our day.

Stacking the Cards in My Favour!

2010-11-20T00:53:00.002+10:30

Christmas cards that is.

I am terrible at giving out Christmas cards. Honestly at least half of last years Christmas cards are still sitting on the shelf right there, 12 months later.

That is how bad I am at Christmas card sending.

This year however I am shooting for a 100% success rate. This year I am going with Shutterfly. Not just because it’s easy and I am almost guaranteed to be able to follow up on giving them out, but because they have an incredible range of Christmas photo cards available.

I love photo cards. They are personal, special and truly meaningful.

The available designs are super cute, for example;

So simple and sweet.

Who can pick just one?

In fact I don’t think it’s going to be easy to choose just one design.

And why stop at cards!? Why not grab a calendar for an easy gift?

Aww, I think DH may be finding one of these in his stocking, and maybe one for the girls grandmothers, and….

I just love the photo canvases

I can picture a whole wall of these. All different sizes.

Another reason I am loving Shutterfly for Christmas cards is because they are offering Bloggers 50 FREE cards. Merry Christmas!

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010

While we should have been doing ‘school work’…

2010-11-15T20:34:00.001+10:30

… we had a great time building card board doll houses.

A couple of small boxes, some scrapbook paper, and some toilet rolls, together with some school glue and a couple of hours spare time and you get something like this;

Trip to the Adelaide museum

2010-11-14T20:26:00.001+10:30

We decided fairly spontaneously to make a trip to the Adelaide museum. When we lived in the city we would visit the museum regularly but since moving to the country we haven’t been at all.

We had a really great day. Evie and Georgia were on their best behaviour the whole day. We spent hour walking around the museum and they didn’t complain even once. I am so proud.

Georgia has an interest (read: obsession!) with lizards at the moment so that was her favourite part. All around the museum Georgia kept telling me about the ‘alligator ride’, I kept telling her their were no rides here, just things to look at. Eventually I realised she meant to say ‘elevator’. Little cutie!

Evie loved seeing the whale skeletons, because we learnt about whales this week. She also like seeing the Egyptian mummies.

Everyone likes the stuffed animals, of course.

Afterwards we went to the tea shop for iced chocolates and chai (best chai EVER).

Need a Builder?

2010-11-12T20:11:00.002+10:30

…I have two.

Daniel had some scrap timber lying around from building the chicken coop. He said he didn’t need it so I found another use for it.

Evie is balancing out the sea-saw she made.

a fun little cubby

Going river rafting.

A full afternoon of out door play (a rare thing around here lately), you gotta love that!

A Fairy Home

2010-11-12T20:01:00.002+10:30

While visiting my parents the girls collected up a container full of twigs, pebbles, flowers and leaves and built little fairy gardens, beds and fire places.

This continued for about three more days at home. We added in some play dough to help hold things together and things got even more interesting.

It just goes to show that you don’t need expensive ‘things’ to entertain children, a few sticks and pebbles will do the job,

Tissue paper ball decorations

2010-09-22T18:05:00.001+09:30

I made these cute decorations for Evie’s birthday party. I followed a tutorial on Happy Together. I just love this blog for tutorials.

The tissue paper flowers looked great I got plenty of compliments on them. I am hanging them in the girls bedroom since its purple too. So they aren’t going to waste.

I got the tissue paper from Spotlight for 70 cents a packet and made two flowers per packet!

Six years flown by..

2010-09-20T16:54:00.001+09:30

It seems like just the other day that I held this tiny creature in my arms and wondered what on earth I was going to do with her

I love this photo, she is wishing so hard! My sassy, kooky, funny, clever adorable little girl!

Chocolate cake with fairies and flowers covered in gold dust.

Tinted white chocolate archway, and Evie’s name covered with gold dust.

Sorry, I got lost in the forest…

2010-09-20T15:59:00.002+09:30

I haven’t posted in a while, I find it hard to be motivated to post regularly. I am going to try to keep my posts short and sweet, to keep the pressure off a bit.

Here are some photos from a camping trip we took last weekend to a near .by forest.

Amazingly there was water in the creek, A LOT of water. In the 11 years we have used this camp site there has never been water in the creek. It was an incredible weekend.

We went ‘hunting’ aka finding kangaroo tracks and poos, looking at different fungus, loads of toadstools, throwing rocks in the creek, lighting a fire with a magnifying glass, and just having a ball!

It was a totally relaxing, enjoyable weekend in a beautiflu picturesk spot. We have never seen it so lush and green, and the creek amazing.

The Camp site

A walk up the track

a beautiful spot for a pose ;)

Throwing rocks in the water

Odd fungus, I though the one on the left looked like a burnt out Smurf house, lol

Crossing the creek

Trying to keep the girls still long enough for a photo

Water falls, the most relaxing sound to go to sleep to

Back across to river again

The campfire

Crafting a marshmallow roasting stick with her new pocket knife

Evie concentrating hard, Georgia likes her marshmallow raw.

Rugged up against to cold cold morning.

First Week of Sonlight

2010-07-15T12:31:00.002+09:30

With this being our first week using the new curriculum we have just been taking things easy and not trying to do too much at once.

I am working on getting into a routine so everything flows smoothly.

I printed out the spelling words and laminated them so Evie could trace the words and rub it off and practice it. I am going to ~~try to~~ post this as a downloadable document for anyone who would like to use it.

Spelling Words Week 1 Download

For a handwriting lesson I used the Week 1 memory verse. I used a dotted font and handwriting lines, to practice on. I then printed the lines on a pretty background paper for a ‘good copy’

I will also try to put this up here for download…

Memory Verse Handwriting page download

For the copy work in the Language Arts worksheet I printed lined paper and wrote out the sentence for her to copy.

I downloaded the lined paper from here.

A collage of season pictures. I printed off a page of clipart, and gave to the girls to sort into the right seasons and glue to a page.

Evie’s spelling words on the black board. She enjoyed doing this, I think she just likes to write really big. :)

Loving the Singapore Maths books too. I am really happy with how much Evie enjoys maths.

Evie often starts maths quizzes in the car. She will start by asking me a sum (“Mum, what is 4 +5”) I will answer and then it’s my turn to ask her. I hated maths in school, so I am really glad that she enjoys practicing something that is so necessary for life.

Our New Sonlight Curriculum

2010-07-14T22:29:00.002+09:30

We have spent sometime using mainly a natural learning ‘system’ if you can call it that. For this long it has been working for us.

Recently however Evie has wanted to do ‘school work’. This was extremely unexpected. I bought some simple work books for maths, reading, handwriting, and problem solving puzzles. Soon enough Georgia wanted to do ‘school’ to, so I got some books for her too.

We worked with these for a few weeks or so and I realised that we needed something more. I wanted to put in some history, bible study, geography. Before I knew it I was spending hours planning and didn’t seem to be getting any where.

That is when I found Sonlight. This is a complete curriculum, including planning timetables.

Sonlight is literature based learning, which suits my family just fine as we are all book worms.

I decided on the K level core package with the Singapore Maths program, and decided to make our own handwriting sheets using the weekly memory verse.

They arrived on Friday and I entertained myself all weekend by reading the paper work and sorting all the materials.

Look at all these lovely books.

I love them all. The girls were just as excited. Evie was begging me to start school work Friday afternoon. I let her start reading through the level 1 reader. I have to say I was impressed when she read the first five pages with relative ease.

I can’t wait to begin actually teaching and learning with these resources'.

The Aquaponics Experiment

2010-07-14T21:57:00.002+09:30

My dear husbands latest hobby is aquaponics. Aquaponics is a way of growing both plants and fish in one system. It is described as a symbiotic relationship between fish and plants where the fish help plants and the plants help fish.

Aquaponics doesn’t use chemicals, requires one tenth of the water needed for field plant production and only a fraction of the water that is used for fish culture.

The word aquaponics is a blend between aquaculture (fish farming) and hydroponics (growing plants in a chemical based liquid).

So having explained exactly what aquaponics is let me show you what we are doing with it.

For a beginning experimental set up, we have connected a grow bed to our goldfish tank in the corner of our kitchen. No, seriously…

We have a UV light.

The tank filter pumps water up into the grow bed and an auto siphon (that’s the white pipe there at the back) drains the grow bed back into the tank when it reaches a certain level.

This is a pretty small grow bed so we have only planted a couple of lettuce seeds and basil and parsley.

This is day 1, planting the seeds.

On day 4, we have 5 little lettuce seedlings.

On day 6 they are an inch tall.

This is day 8.

Sadly four of these seedling did not survive an encounter with Georgia that left the floor covered in fish water and four seedling up rooted.

But also on day 8 I noticed the first basil or parsley( I’m not sure which) seedling.

I was really surprised at how quickly the seedlings have sprouted. The lettuce packet said the seeds should sprout in about 10 days and the herbs usually take 25 to 30 days.

I can’t wait to start harvesting these little guys.

For more information on aquaponics check out this site Practical Aquaponics For Everyone

The Chattering Ballerina

2010-07-06T12:55:00.003+09:30

Evie is so adorable in her ballet uniform. She just loves going to ballet, her teacher is fantastic and very patient with so many little girls (and a boy) in the class.

Parents are not allowed in the class but once or twice a term we are allowed to an open class. The parents all gaze at their child like they are the most highly celebrated prima-ballerina ever to dance at the Opera House, me included.

Although I sigh and chuckle a great deal too because it’s my daughter who is saying “Mrs Champion, this is happy music”, “Mrs Champion, I LOVE this exercise!”, “Mrs Champion, are my toes pointy enough?”, all through the lesson.

Because we home school, ballet is the only ‘class’ type environment that she has experienced. It’s hard to explain to her that there are times when you shouldn’t talk during a lesson.

All the other children seem so shy compared to Evie that I sometimes wonder if it is because we homeschool, or is she just naturally a chatterbox.

The (very few) homeschoolers that we have met in person seem similar to Evie and Georgia in that they will speak with adults in a grown up manner. Non-homeschoolers are always surprised by how grown-up Evie sounds, I have gotten this comment since Evie was 3 or 4 years old.

I’d love to hear of other homeschoolers experience. Do homeschooled children speak in a more adult manner, in general? How do your homeschooled children behave when they are in a ‘class’ environment?

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-07-05T15:07:00.002+09:30

This is shockingly out of character for me but I am actually posting for MTM on a Monday!

If there is a thunderstorm tonight, it will be because of this.

It would be because Evie decided to make her and Georgia’s lunch, all by herself!

Evie served jam sandwiches (don’t worry I scraped off a little of that butter), corn chips with hommus, grapes, and strawberries.

I have no photo of the complete lunch because they were whisked away and eaten before I had the chance.

Join up with Muffin Tin Monday at Muffin Tin Mom.

It’s MY time!

2010-06-29T14:14:00.002+09:30

Yes that is the theme for the latest Homeschool Blog Hop.

How do you as a busy mum, find some time for you?
What's your sanctuary?
Your place?
Your thing?

I snatch time for myself when ever I can. 5 or 10 minutes here or there does wonders for me.

Free style crafting

I blog, edit photos (of our homeschooling lol), craft, sewing, knitting and watching a movie, reading.

Dress ups and dancing

One of the things that I ~~like~~ need to do each day is read. I sit down with the girls at breakfast and lunch and I will read a chapter (or two) of whatever I am reading at the time. I will still chat and answer questions with the girls but mostly I like to sit and read. They will finish lunch, put their dishes on the sink and go play and I will sit and read till I’m done. I sometimes feel really lazy because I may sit and read for a good long while, but it’s nice to have that relaxation in the middle of the day.

Building with Lego

I often find that other mums ~~think I’m weird~~ wonder how I manage being around my children all the time. They are mums who dread school holidays because their children will be home all the time, and “the could never homeschool and have their children home all the time!”

Puppy hair styling

I really don’t mind being with my girls all the time, I have never done it any other way, and I wouldn’t want to send them away every day. I do actually want them with me. This does of course mean that I never shop alone, the only books I get to look at in the library are picture books, I don’t get to go to the gym every day, the last time I went to the hair dresser was when Georgia cut off all her hair, I only know what day it is when I get to see Play School. To some mothers this sort of restriction must seem horrifying but I truly don’t mind it.

Using my phone to take freaky self portraits

That’s just the way roll!

Performing songs with wooden-knife-microphones

But honestly I do get plenty of time to myself. The girls are really independent and will play together for ages with out needing me. If I really wanted I could ignore them for most of the day (and not even have to turn on the tv) and they’d only bother me when they get hungry! lol!

Building a tent and making ‘camp food’

Shocking!!

I hate a post with out pictures so I included photos of the girls entertaining themselves while I was; off having my nails done (aka painting my own nails in the bathroom, lunching with the girls (aka texting my sister while eating an apple), working out at the gym (aka folding washing), taking a gourmet cooking lesson (aka making tea)

Creation themed MTM

2010-06-29T12:31:00.001+09:30

There are no themes for MTM at the moment, Michelle decided to take a break. While it is fun to just throw stuff in the tin for lunch, it is also really great to be able to back up a lesson with something that the children can see, touch and figure out, and if they can eat it too… Yay!

So this muffin tin meal is a Creation theme, we did a recap on Creation this week because the girls loved it so much the first time.

Here is what we had

Light and Dark – chocolate

Oceans – water to drink

Plants – Strawberry tulips

Sun, moon and stars – Jatz moon, cheese star, bread and tomato sauce sun

Sea creatures and birds – Fritz duck and banana dolphin

Animals and people – bread and honey rabbit and fritz person

Rest – honey sandwich ‘bed’

A close up of the banana dolphin. Georgia got really excited about this little guy. It did turn out pretty cute. ;)

I had fun thinking this MTM up.

If you’d like to join head on over to Muffin Tin Mom and link up!

Bird Nest Craft

2010-06-25T12:18:00.001+09:30

We have been learning a bit about birds lately, we’ve looked at lifecycles, native birds, made bird feeders.

Today we made nests.

I gave the girls a paper bowl each and put out some scraps of crape paper streamers, fake feathers, pipe cleaners, cellophane, and curling ribbon.

The girls enjoyed gluing the bits into the bowl to make a good nest.

When Evie was finished she wanted to make a bird to go in the nest too. We cut a circle and she added some wings and googly eyes and a beak cut from a patty-pan.

Georgia wanted to make a bat instead of a bird though… I’m not sure why. She seems fascinated with bats at the moment.

Our First Eggs

2010-06-22T20:45:00.001+09:30

It has been months now since we brought home our chickens, and we have been waiting with baited breath for our first eggs for the entire time.

And here they are.

So two of my girls are laying. Hopefully the others are not far behind.

A Big Girl Now

2010-06-22T20:41:00.001+09:30

Its hard to believe that Georgia has just turned 4. She still seems so little to me, and yet she is so grown up… *sniff*

She is such a smart sassy ~~little~~ big girl. She is utterly adorable, I am so proud of her.

I made this dress for her because she was so excited to be 4! and wanted to have a special birthday dress. I think this little dress makes her look so grown up, it was very sophisticated on her. She loved it so much she was willing to pose for photos – which never happens!

Happy Birthday Georgia!

Bird Feeders

2010-06-22T11:39:00.003+09:30

We made bird feeders as part of learning about birds this week.

All we did was smear peonut butter on pinecones and then roll them in bird seed.

The girls enjoyed this and we ended up with about 10 bird feeders because they just wanted to keep going.

Geography - Australia

2010-06-06T13:44:00.003+09:30

Because Evie has been asking to do 'school work' lately I decided that learning about Australia would be a good place to start with geography.

We began with a world map and coloured Australia, then labeled an Australian map with the state names, and coloured an Australian flag. We also talked about why the Australian flag looks the way it does, the union jack comes from England the Southern Cross and the seven pointed star.

We also marked our town on a South Australian map and then added the town where my Evie's and Georgia's Aunt (my sister) lives.

We have since added the animal (wombat) and flower (black eyed pea) symbols for South Australia and the Coat of Arms.

A little kniting

2010-06-03T13:52:00.003+09:30

Sorry I've not posted in so long.
It's been really hecktic around here lately.
I have been sick (I currently have my second flu in two months :( ) I have been working on my studys ( Cert. 3 in child care) and having to do work placement at a kiny and day care as a part of the course.
On top of that Evie has asked me to organise to do a bit of 'school work' each day. I've kind of been making it up as I go along. A bit of reading / writing and math each day and then a bit of either geography, health, or science depending on which day and how much time we want to spend.
The planning has been fun but time consuming and I am soaking up resources from all the blogs and sites I read to fill out the lessons. I can't say how much I love those homeschool mums who put in the time to design so much cool stuff for their own family and then put it up for others to use for free. Im so greatful for that.
I am hoping to post more regularly again now my schedule has slackened a little bit, so I'll just leave you with a photo of the jumber I knit for Georgia. I modified the pattern from Tiki, the Oriental Lilly I love this pattern and I've knit the proper version before but didn't have enough wool to make it longer or even long sleves this time but I love this short sleeve jumper.

Muffing Tin Monday: No theme

2010-05-11T15:22:00.004+09:30

This is my first MTM in ages so I wish it was more interesting, but considering that I haven't even blogged in over a month, beggars can't be choosers. ;p

The girls had cherry tomatoes and olives, banana yogurt cake, vanilla yogurt, yoyo biscuit with vegemite, fruit (apple or banana) and a chocolate egg.

The girls also did some grape necklaces, which is Georgia's favourite thing to do. She LOVES grapes, and walking around the house eating grapes of a necklace is just awesome in her eyes.

Also great for those fine motor skills (mwahahahaha, if only she knew!)

Join in on MTM over at The Muffin Tin Mum

(Un)Clean Fun Friday

2010-04-23T11:00:00.000+09:30

Mess is always fun, at least that was the theory behind today's activity.

I planned to make pizza for tea and the girls were restless while I was trying to get the dough for the bases put together. Georgia decided that she wanted to help, knowing that she usually just ends up paddling in the flour, I decided to let her do just that.

I gave her a tray filled with flour. I may be nuts but...

Evie wanted one to.

They played, made sandcastles, caves, told stories and drew pictures in the flour for ages.

Beware if you want to try this at home, this is not something to do if you don't like to have flour on the floor, cupboards, sink, pot plants not to mention the children. lol.

But they did have fun. Which proved my theory.

Noah's Ark Lapbook

2010-04-22T15:53:00.000+09:30

This week Evie and Georgia made Noah's Ark lapbooks. I arranged a separate one for Georgia because she has been showing some interest in what Evie has been doing.

Evie's lapbook included a rainbow to colour, some handwriting worksheets, a Noah mini book, a maze, a colour mini book with words for her to trace, a water cycle wheel, number matching arks which we also used to count by 2's, and some tracing lines, find-a-letter.

Georgia's lapbook had sequencing rainbows, tracing lines, a rainbow to colour, find-a-letter.

We did some colour mixing with food colours. We started with red, blue and yellow, I gave the girls some ice cube containers and measuring spoons to scoop the colours with. The are always amazed at the different colours they can make with different combinations and amounts of colours.

I got all the printables from DLTK, Everything Preschool , Lapbook Lessons.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-21T21:55:00.002+09:30

Mufin Tin Monday- Left Overs Rock

2010-04-21T09:29:00.003+09:30

This weeks theme is leftovers. Not something that is greeted with much enthusiasm in this house by anyone but me. ;) However at least one child enjoyed her lunch, while the other one only ate the fruit.
We had left over Tuna Mornay with left over bread roll toasted-cheese-sandwich and banana or olives.

I wrote on Georgia's banana, I love how it turns up in the banana skin it gets darker the longer you leave it. I often do this for Daniel's work lunch too, who knows what the other guys at work think about the love notes I write on his food. lol .

I know it's late but....

2010-04-20T14:00:00.008+09:30

Though that I'd share some photos from our Easter weekend.

We took a trip to Innes National Park in the very south of South Australia.

The plan was to leave in the early hours of Friday morning and hope to get there before all the camp sites were taken.

We were lucky enough not to miss out entirely, most of the sites were full, we got into the Steinhouse bay campground. The ground was hard as rock and we bent half our tent pegs trying to hammer them in.

The wind was so intense that it was only the ropes holding the tent up the entire time. The wind kept up the entire day and night and was probably worse on Saturday.

There was no water available, all the rain water tanks were empty because there were so many people camping. Luckily we had bought plenty with us.

We all didn't sleep well Friday night due to the wind noise. We soldiered on and were determined to go places and have fun.

We visited Browns Beach were we had a lot of fun climbing on the rocks and looking for interesting shells and creatures. We climbed into a little cave and followed emu tracks along the beach.

For lunch we picnicked on Pondalowie Bay beach, and enjoyed a couple of hours relief from the wind. We ate and watched surfers, made sandcastles and checked out a ship wreck on the beach.

We decided against staying for an extra night and packed up and went home Saturday afternoon. We arrived home to gorgeous sunshine and not a breath of wind.

On Sunday we had an Easter egg hunt, and cleaned up and recuperated from the camping trip.

While we enjoyed our weekend I doubt we will be returning to this park anytime soon, and never again on a long weekend. The whole park was over populated and noisy (teenagers blaring car stereos), not at all the restful retreat to nature that we were looking forward to.

Easter / Resurection activities

2010-04-07T16:06:00.005+09:30

I kept our Easter activities quite simple because we were pretty busy in the lead up to the Easter weekend camping trip.

We made a simple lapbook after reading the story of the resurrection (am I the only one who can't read this story with out crying? Pathetic? Doesn't make the lesson easy anyway! ).

I included in the lapbook a maze, mini book, a picture with a verse 'He has risen' Evie made a little angel that pops out of the cave, and a hand writing sheet.

We also did some egg counting games with a File folder printables from File folder Fun and an adorable build a bunny game from Homeschool Creations (don't have a photo but it was fun and really cute).

We also took these games camping with us to do together in the evening. They were fantastic to have with us as they were small and flat, and didn't take up much space.

Cupcake Beanie

2010-03-28T10:58:00.004+10:30

Knitting is a funny thing. Once you start, it's kind of hard to stop. And like chocolate you get cravings at the oddest times.
In the middle of January's 45C heat, I knit these cupcake beanies. Aren't they adorable?
I got Georgia to try hers on and then she didn't want to take it off, even in the paddle pool.
I found the pattern on Ravelry by Sheeps Clothing, I'd love to share it with you but for some reason the link isn't working at the moment.

The pattern is very simple, it was my first beanie and it just flew off my needles.
I made two 'strawberry' ones for the girls and one little chocolate one for my nephew who is due to be born around the end of next month. I have knit heaps for him, I can't wait!

Here and There in Cambodia

2010-03-27T15:18:00.002+10:30

Reading through the news paper at my mum's house today I came across an article about a family who moved from Adelaide to Cambodia with their four kids. You can read the whole article here .
Veronica and Stephen and their four children moved to Cambodia from Adelaide seven months ago and are living in paradise in a Cambodian villiage.
They are running a business producing clothing made by local women, and using the income to support people in need in Cambodia.
I am simply itching to buy one of their Marley Pouches for my sisters baby. The design is so original and beautiful and such gorgeous fabrics. And it is of course such a good cause.
Please hop on over and check out Veronica's blog Here and There in Cambodia

Colour sorting / Matching Printable

2010-03-25T16:33:00.003+10:30

While on the Homeschool Hop yesterday, I came across this great sorting game. I followed the links to Homeschool Creations and down loaded the printable cards.
We played with these for about an hour today, the kids had fun.

The Magic of The Faraway Tree - or - Chewy Caramels

2010-03-24T20:22:00.000+10:30

We are currently reading the Magic Faraway Tree books Written by Enid Blyton. Evie LOVES these stories and we read at least one chapter a day.
In the first book, the children must pay 'Moon Face' with a bag of toffee in order to use his slide down the tree.
I though it would be exciting to make our own chewy toffees.

Needles to say this was a popular idea. I know for a fact that Georgia ate more than she asked me for because I kept catching her putting her wrappers in the bin (bless her)

Wrapping the toffee was fun to. =)
Sadly, I didn't note the site where I pulled the recipe so I can't link to it. It is a full page of writing and I can't be bothered typing it up tonight. But if anyone is interested I am happy to share the recipe.
The ingredients include, cream, condensed milk, light corn syrup, water, sugar and butter. The recipe involves boiling sugar and measuring temperature with a candy thermometre. Evie was really interested in how the temperatures changed, Georgia was interested in when she could eat it.

The toffee was AMAZING. Sweet, chewy, delicious flavour. A 20x20cm pan worth, lasted two days. I did foist them onto as many people as possible... why should it only be my butt that suffers?! Not one person refused a second toffee, I take this as a good sign.

Homeschool Hop - State Requirements

2010-03-24T13:10:00.006+10:30

At the moment we are unregistered homeschoolers, we are not required to register until Evie is 6 so we have a few more months yet (thank goodness).

I find the whole approval process very daunting. Although having read some of the posts in the Hop already I feel much better about it all and I am now grateful for how relaxed our system is.

In South Australia, homeschoolers are required to fill out a form detailing curriculum in each area of learning (maths, science, English, social studies etc). This is adaptable to various learning styles from natural learning to a more 'school at home' style.

Following this a representative visits the home to interview the family.

As I understand it people are then given approval (or not) for 6-18 month period before having another interview.

My knowledge of the process is fairly vague and abstract having not actually gone through all the hoops yet.

It is my dream to live in Victoria where there is no approval process at all. One simply signs a form stating that you intend to homeschool and you promise to cover all the learning areas. Then you can simply get on with the job with out having to prove yourself or submit to interviews and judgment. Now that is a system I could love.

Photos are from a holiday along the River Murray where we visited one of the first prisons in Australia. The last picture is taken from my parents-in -laws back yard, fronting right onto the river, it's just beautiful.

Birthday flowers

2010-03-23T20:11:00.002+10:30

I made these flower hair clips for a friend of mine for her birthday. They were really simple to make, just a small amount of fabric and a self-covering button, some felt and a hair clip.
I found the tutorial on Crochet and Sweet Simple Things.

I just clipped the hair clips on to a hand made card. She loved them...

Muffin Tin Moday: No theme

2010-03-22T14:31:00.005+10:30

To be perfectly honest almost every day is Muffin Tin Monday in our house. I find it so simple to pop a selection of foods into a muffin tin for the girls lunches. I try for as much variety as possible and covering as many food groups as possible. A MT lunch is almost always appreciated and gobbled up.

Once a week though I make a lunch for the MTM theme and try to have something a bit different and exciting (with varying success =) ).

Today I made a MT Meal with pink foods for something different.

Yogurt with raspberry sauce

Strawberries

Banana with pink sprinkles

Rabbit shaped strawberry jam sandwiches

And and Yoyo biscuit with butter and their names written in glitter writing icing

As you could probably guess Evie and Georgia both loved having their name on a
biscuit. They both ate the entire meal, this is great because Georgia has been very resistant to eating just lately.
Next weeks theme is blue, so come and join in at Muffin Tin Mom

Creation Lap Book

2010-03-18T19:52:00.003+10:30

Following a conversation with Evie about where 'everything came from' and her absolute wonder at my answer 'God made everything' and her total fascination with what heaven might be like (and where?) and what God looks like (this is a very important issue) I decided it might be fun to try to make a few lap books about bible stories.
This is new for us, our first lap book but it wont be the last because Evie loved it. Georgia had her own little task which she loved too.
We got all the lap book printable's for free from Creation Crafts and some from DLTK.

We read the creation story from our children's bible, and Evie was really excited to start.
First we glued a label on the front cover of the file folder.
Next Evie coloured a picture of a girl with a label 'God made Me' which she read out (her reading is getting better). Can you tell from the picture that we cut fabric and glued it to the picture for clothes, the picture has the same fabric for a skirt that Evie does (I had left over from when I sewed the skirt) Evie loved this

Next Evie coloured the hands holding the world and we glued it so that it would pop up when the folder opened. We also covered the hands with gold glitter so they would look more like God's hands (Evie's idea).
I folded a little book with the creation story which we read and stapled to the folder.
The sequence cards had dotted words for Evie to trace to write Day 1, Day 2 ect. so she got the practice her writing, letters and numbers. =)
The wheel has the illustrations and descriptions of the days of creation, we secured this with a split pin so it would turn.
Georgia coloured her own little person and was careful to make it look just like her; 'gold' hair, brown eyes, etc. She loves to colour in and she is pretty good at it I think.

Rainy Day

2010-03-16T12:33:00.004+10:30

Autumn is obviously here because our weather is completely messed up. On day it's 36+ degrees C and the next its 20C and pouring with rain.

On the day that it poured with rain I decided the day wasn't good for much but cuddling on the couch.

To keep us entertained I crochet some lovely little slippers based on a pattern from Good Knits that I found via Ravelry.

I am a very new crochet-er and these were too too simple to figure out. I made both pairs in the morning while watching Master Chef on DVD. I made the toe section a bit higher so that they wouldn't need the strap and would cover the foot a bit more. I put little tassels on Georgia's slipped which she liked but Evie wasn't impressed with the little flowers I crocheted to put on the toe she we took them off.

I altered the size of the pattern to fit the girls feet, just by trying on as I went along.

They are both so happy with their little slippers, and were skating around on the tiled floor pretending to be ice skating all morning.

Muffin Tin Monday: Green

2010-03-15T16:32:00.003+10:30

This weeks MTM theme was green.
Sadly two of our favourite foods are green - kiwi fruit and grapes... and there was none in the fridge!! Shocking!
We did have yogurt (with some green food colouring), which according the Georgia is the most amazing thing ever! She was really excited.

Also green olives, cucumber, sweet gherkins, pesto on bread, and avocado.
And because I knew that they might not (totally wont) try the cucumber and gherkin I added some banana and a shortbread biscuit too.
I was right they wouldn't try the cucumber or gherkin, but Evie and Georgia were both really interested that they were the same fruit even though they looked totally different.

Homeschool Blog Hop: 10 Random Questions

2010-03-15T16:17:00.005+10:30

This weeks theme for the Homeschool bloghop in 10 Random Questions.
Here they are with my answers. I can't wait to read the other posts.

1. What time is it right now? 3.17pm

2. What are you wearing? Purple tank-top and blue camouflage shorts... it looks better than it sounds.

3. What is your mood? Happy, but exasperated.

4. What is one thing your children learned today? When I say that is hard to ride a scooter on a gravel foot path, I am right.

5. What did you (or are having) for dinner? Probably steak with vegies

6. What's one book you are currently reading? I am reading Book 3 of The Belgariad for the millionth time =)

7. What behaviour (in people) is the most common but also the rudest? Lack of respect, I can't stand it!

8. What can you see out of your nearest window right now? A fence, how exciting is that?!

9. What are you currently praying for? Nothing in particular, just hoping for smooth sailing.

10. What is your favourite hot beverage? Milo, mmmm.

Check out the other posts for the blog hop below.

I'm FIRST! Woooot.

Inspiration Drawing

2010-03-11T20:06:00.000+10:30

Today Evie spent about 3 hours listening to music, mostly just one song 'Heaven Is a Place On Earth' by Belinda Carlisle. Luckily I like the song too or it would have been really annoying. ;)
After the first few run throughs I gave her some paper and pens and suggested that she draw what the song made her think of. She then sat happily for 3 hours drawing and singing along to the (same) song.

Homeschool Blog hop Theme: What's Your Style?

2010-03-11T16:54:00.003+10:30

Our homeschooing style has been evolving since our children were babies. We have always tried to give the girls a lot of positive stimulation and really encourage them to learn as much as possible.
I attempted for a brief time, to introduce some work books, but this effort bombed out, big time. The first day was great, Evie was really into it and fascinated by everything. The second day she wanted it over asap so she could go and play. The third day I caught myself attempting to bribe and threaten her into doing her 'school work'.
When I realised what I was doing I had to take a step back and really question what I was doing. On the third day of 'school' I was already getting stressed about it, pressuring Evie to do the work. Both of us were frustrated at the others behaviour.
This had to stop. I put the books on the shelf thinking that we may get them down later when she's 'ready'. The books have never come off the shelf again.
I have gone back to the way we started out learning from the day they were born. The girls do whatever interests them, I gently lead them, answer questions, supply information and materials and generally let them soak up information with out me trying to drive it into them. That is what works for us.

MTM Yellow!

2010-03-10T19:52:00.007+10:30

The theme for Muffin Tin Monday this week is the colour Yellow.
Yellow is Georgia's favorite colour but not an easy colour when it comes to food that both the girls will eat.
My decision therefore was to have a muffin tin breakfast. Boiled eggs and toast soldiers. This was a hit.

Today photo taken by Evie, very abstract shot.
If you want to check out other MTM's or join in, visit The Muffin Tin Mom.

Homeschool Blog Hop Theme #4

2010-03-03T17:14:00.006+10:30

I have seen the Homeschool Blog Hop posts on a few blogs that I real lately, and I really love reading other peoples experiances with homeschooling.
Actually I enjoy it so much I thought I'd join in.
This weeks theme is actually just blog hopping.
So I am off to check out all the other Blog Hoppers blogs.
If you would like to join in come to Our Worldwide Classroom

Good bye Summer

2010-03-02T17:36:00.005+10:30

Summer is over. Too sad, but true. Summer is my favourite season, swimming at the breach or the pool, fishing, playing under the sprinkler in the back yard, eating ice cream, camping - what is not to love?!

But here comes Autumn, here that means wind, and LOTS of it. The heat is easing, goodbye to 40 degree days, hello 25 degrees.

Cold weather has its advantages, baking, wood fires, camping, snuggling, soup, hot chocolate.

But Summer is my favourite.

This weekend we ended Summer with what may well be our last trip to the pool. This Summer has been one big swimming lesson for Evie, although she refuses to be 'taught'. When ever anyone offered to help her or show her how to do anything she says 'no thanks, I'm fine'. She is so stubbornly independent. She has learned how to breaststroke, under water (hence the goggles) because she couldn't float yet to swim with her head above water. In the last week she figured out how to float on her back and she can manage a short swim with her head above the water. What is amazing about Evie is that she figures it all out herself, from watching others and through trial and error. She is really amazing.

Georgia takes to water like a duck, not surprising since she was born underwater. She loves the pool. At the start of the summer she wouldn't go in the water with out her floaty ring but she gradually got more comfortable and loved walking around in the pool with out it, but still using it to float around and do a little doggy paddle.

Daniel took us fishing on the last day of summer. It blew a gale and was actually a bit cold but we had a fun morning.

We didn't catch anything, the purpose of the trip was really just to give Evie some practice at casting her rod before we go camping at Easter. She loves to fish and was really thrilled to get out there.

Georgia just wanted to pat the bait worm and climb over the rocks, she really enjoyed having her own rod to hold though, especially because it's pink and the reel has lights.

We had a good morning, even if it was almost windy enough to blow us right off the rocks.

This is Evie casting her own line out, she is just dying to go some where to actually catch something.

MTM Something a little different

2010-03-02T13:30:00.003+10:30

I did something a little different this week for MTM.

I made it for myself.

The girls decided they would have boiled eggs and toast soldiers for lunch today (fair enough) and I felt like having something different.

Here is my lunch;

Dill pickles

Chilli pickled onions

Cheese

Carrot sticks

French onions dip

Lemon yogurt

And some Kabana in the middle

My lunch was fantastic, and it may just happen more often.

Something else that will (I hope) be happening more often is me, posting. I have been slack of late and now I'm suffering from blog-neglect-induced-guilt.

Be usre to check out other MTMs over at the Muffin Tin Mum.

MTM Dr Seuss

2010-02-03T15:33:00.004+10:30

Since I was a kids I have been a big fan of Dr Seuss (who hasn't?!) and I thrilled to bits the my kids love the stories too.

Georgia's favourite is Horton Hears a Who, and since this weeks theme for MTM was Dr Seuss, that is what we had for lunch on Monday (yes I actually had an MTM on a Monday, YAY).

For lunch the girls had;

Strawberry 'clover' with a grape 'speck'

Couscous for the pile of clovers 'Vlad' hides Horton's spec in

Strawberry yogurt 'swamp'

Peanut butter sandwich 'trees' of the jungle

Rice cakes and vegemite 'mountains'

and lastly a big glass of 'beezlenut oil' aka apple and cranberry juice

I didn't get to do the shopping that I had intended to do before lunch so it was just what we had on hand so it is very simple but it made a big impression and they ate it all. This is success!

My Little Animal Rescuer

2010-02-01T10:10:00.005+10:30

I probably should stop being surprised by the creativity that Evie shows me each day. After all she comes up with so many ideas to make or design things. Her little inventions are lined up along our shelves, and her art work is everywhere.
Georgia tags along enjoying whatever activity Evie dreams up for them to do, while I try to keep up with the speed of these ideas and translate Evie's ideas into something that we can achieve with the contents of the craft cupboard. It still makes me laugh when she thinks up something completely unexpected.

Luckily for me today's design was simple; an Animal Rescuer badge ala Diago the Animal Rescuer. What could be easier than a slip of paper and a paper clip?

Evie and Georgia both play the online games featuring the character (we don't watch tv) and love 'rescuing' the animals.

Georgia would much rather be the animal, in today's case a baby jaguar who gets into trouble and needs to be 'rescued' by Evie the Animal Rescuer.

Last week she also made a Animal Rescuer Guide Book like the one that Diago carries. It is a little stapled together notebook and she has made pictures of what Diago has inside his book. She is showing a picture of a key board and a video window.

And of course a baby Jaguar trapped in a washing basket...

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-01-24T15:30:00.001+10:30

This week I am determined to be on time for MTM so here I am tying it up on Sunday afternoon.

The theme this week was ABC's/123's, I didn't follow this theme however through lack of inspiration and any pantry supplies even remotely resembling the theme. lol.

However we had a lovely MTM filled with;

yogurt (cucumber for Evie and strawberry for Georgia, their favorites),

some beetroot (new to both the girls, both refused to try it. Sigh, maybe next time)

Sliced turkey

cheese on a biscuit

Vegemite on biscuits

and Grapes.

I have been trying to get the girls to try new foods more often, that's why I put the beetroot in there. Sometimes this works, sometimes not... like today.

Muffin Tin Monday/ Wednesday

2010-01-13T19:55:00.004+10:30

Here I am with a MTM on Wednesday... again. This is becoming a habit.

Today Miss Georgia and I were alone together, Evie having had a sleepover at her grandparents house.

I kept it simple with her favourite things that just happen to all be red; strawberry, red grapes, star shaped strawberry jam sandwich, as well as some apple which neither of the girls will eat but I though it was worth a try (fail).

More Baby Craft

2010-01-13T16:14:00.000+10:30

My husband gave me the book Crafty Minx by Kelly Doust for Christmas along with a KitchenAid mixer (isn't he fantastic, I love them) so I have been happily figuring out what projects I can make and for whom.

I my last post I mentioned that my sister is having a baby in April, so this gives me so many reasons to sew, knit, and anything else I can think of. there is a cute little project in the book of door stops made out of scrap fabric sewn into a 'brick' shape and filled with rice. I was inspired to make some soft cubes with a bell inside for baby 'Bean' to play with when he arrives (and grows a bit).

I followed the instructions in the book except I cut six squares 12.5cm high to make a cube instead of a rectangle. I stuffed it with pillow filling and put a small bell in the middle.

This is a cute way to use scrap fabric.

The little duck is a free tutorial from Nosey Nest, there are some seriously cute patterns over there. Little Bean just might be getting a Dragon softie as well ;) .
The duckie was so easy, I made him from yellow fleece with denim wings and beak. He has a little bell too.

A 'Big' dress.

2010-01-12T20:04:00.000+10:30

Ever since I made this dress Georgia has barely taken it off to be washed. She just loves her 'big' dress. There is something about wearing a long swirly dress that she really loves.

In order to give the first dress a break I did a little re-fashion on an a women's tiered skirt.

I cut off the waist band cut off some of the width of the skirt and made a gusset for elastic, added some straps and a ruffle and buttons to the front.

This dress is even bigger than the first since it reaches her ankles, and she loves it just as much. And of course she looks adorable in it too!

A day in our 'Unschool'

2010-01-11T19:16:00.002+10:30

You know sometimes it's hard to remember all the 'learning' that happens through the day especially if your unschooling long term.

Play and learning blend into one activity.

Children hammering shapes onto a cork board to make interesting pictures becomes a geometry lesson, hammering and holding the nail improves dexterity, maths is incorporated by considering shape, sizes and colours.

Playing with little plastic animals becomes a science lesson when learning how to tell animals apart and what they're names are, where they are from and what they eat. Geography is involved when looking on a map to find where elephants are native to. Grouping animals by species and ordering them by size is basic maths. Making up spontanious songs about each animal is both Engligh and music lesson.

Having some spare boxes around after Christmas brings the opportunity to turn them int cars. Using a paper plate for a steering wheel, talking about saftey features like headlights, seat belts, breaks and indicators and building them into the box car. Decorating them with crayons, pipe-cleaner arial, glueing on felt balls. Something like this can stretch into a two or three day long project.

Playing a word and picture matching game can quickly turn into word building with magnetic letters. Sorting cards by sound, grouping the letters to make them easier to find.

Phew, busy day.

Enough about me...

2010-01-10T17:02:00.000+10:30

it's time I posted about what the children have been up to.

We got out some chalk while playing outside and come up with this game.

Throwing bean bags into the target for a score of either 1, 2 or 3. Evie is really accurate. Georgia tries to throw REALLY hard but doesnt' get the distance (really cute though) towards the end she was getting more accurate and even got a bullseye or two.

The girls wanted to trace their silohette and then they decorated them like aliens and robots.

We played a lilly-pad-frog-hopping game which was fun. Hopping from one side of the pond to the other.

I really am a Crafty Minx...

2010-01-09T16:34:00.000+10:30

... because I can't stop making things from this book.

In fact I even hunted up the blog.

My newest project is a feeding pillow from The Crafty Minx for my sister to use when her baby is born. Can you see a theme in my recent craft projects?

I made the pillow itself from PUL (polyurethanelaminate) so it will be water proof and cleanable.

I made a cotton and denim removable cover with a velcro closure and a loop on one end so it can be hung up for storage.

I love that the instructions in this book are so easy to follow. Now to find a reason to make something else. Hmm what shall it be..?

Having a baby...

2010-01-08T14:01:00.000+10:30

No not me, my sister is.
The little 'Bean' is due to arrive in April so I have been happily knitting a little jumpsuit for him.
The pattern is from Boho Baby Knits: Groovy Patterns for Cool Tots.

The suit body is knit in the round and the sleves are knit flat. I love kitting on circular needles seemless projects just seem so much simpler.

I changed the colours to what I had in my stash from the Bendigo Wool Mill.

I also added a hole in the leg section for a seatbelt buckle to go through so my sister doesn't have to remove the suit when Bean goes in the car.I still have the sleves to finish and join on but they should be finished very shortly.

My Little Pony

2010-01-07T20:33:00.000+10:30

The school where my dad works has a little farm area with a miniature pony that the students care for. A little while ago they found out she was pregnant, and a little while after that she had a little pony-foal.

We went to visit one weekend, and the foal is so adorable, barely up to my knees, and galloping around the yard.
The girls were fascinated and wanted to bring both the pony's home until I pointed out the rather large pile of pony poo waiting to be used on the school vegie garden. My girls do not fancy the idea of cleaning up poo (thank goodness).

We watched the pony gallop around, trip over it's own hooves and play about in the dirt. We fed the mother pony some carrots and watched the foal feed from it's mother.
This was a lovely life lesson.

A little sunshine

2010-01-07T19:51:00.000+10:30

These sunflowers have been growing in our front yard for about two months.

These monsters are almost 2 metres tall, the heads of the flowers are bigger than mine.

People knock on our front door to ask about them - I am not kidding.

We got an anonamous thank you note in our letter box, thanking us for planting such beautiful flowers.

Evie and Georgia are amazed by them. They helped plant these tiny seeds and they grew into such masive flowers and are now filled with seeds. The wonder of nature is so beautiful.

A Sunshine Award

2010-01-07T11:36:00.004+10:30

I am very excited today because I received a blog award from Trudie at Fun With Little Mouse and this means that I get to pass the award on to 10 of my own favorite blogs.

The rules for accepting this award are:

Put the logo on your blog.
Pass the award on to 10 bloggers.
Link the nominees within your post.
Let the nominees know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

So without further ado, here are the blogs that I have chosen since they always manage to bring a little 'Sunshine' to my day!

It really did take me ages to shorten the list to just 10, be sure to check out these great blogs as well as Trudie's lovely blog!

Happy New Year

2010-01-06T12:13:00.004+10:30

Hello 2010! I really hope this year is a great one for everyone. So far it is looking great for us. Daniel is starting a new job in February so we are getting a substantial pay rise. As well I will be starting work as a Familiy Day Care provider so finantially at least this year is looking hopeful.

We are all happy and healthy for that we are greatful.

This year will also see the arrival of my sisters first baby, I have already made a few things for the baby and I have big plans yet.

These are a few photos of our New Years Eve and Day.

New Years Eve ready to walk to the park for the 9.30pm fireworks.

The rest of the photos are taken in Walleroo (South Australia) where my parents hire a unit every New Year.

Muffin Tin Monday - No Theme

2010-01-06T11:51:00.004+10:30

Welcome to the first MTM for the year. No theme for this week so Evie and Georgie chose to have what they call a 'pirate lunch'. They call it that because they get to wear blindfolds, and then they get to guess what each food is using touch and taste. This is their favourite way to have MTM's and today the both ate everything! Evie even had seconds, and I was worried I gave them too much...

We had (top left) home grown strawberries, grapes, mini Jatz, camembert cheese, semi-sweet chocolate, strawberry yogurt stick and a butterfly jam sandwich.

Five french Hens

2009-12-30T11:50:00.003+10:30

Okay so in the song it's only four french hens (you 12 Days Of Christmas ;) ) but my true love gave me five, he just loves me that much!

The breed is Faverolle, they are the cutest little chickens ever. They are still quite flighty and scared of people, but they are only 14 weeks old at this point.

The girls love them. We have been feeding them wheat and pellets as well as kitchen scraps and they have grown so much in the three weeks we've had them.

We can't wait to be getting our own eggs, but that might be a few months down the track yet.

Christmas Story and Craft

2009-12-16T16:23:00.000+10:30

Reading the Christmas story has become a yearly tradition for us. This year however I wanted to make it more memorable for the girls.

We read the story from our child's King James illustrated bible (the most accurate version I have found) Evie was really interested so I'm thrilled already.

Afterwards I suggested we could make our own stars just like the ones the wise men followed to Bethlehem. This was a hit, we cut the shapes out and then Evie and Georgia covered them in glitter glue, Georgia really got a kick out of the glitter glue.

This is technically our first Bible lesson, we talk about God often as a family but rarely have I been able to incorporate this type of lesson into our day, I think this is a really great step.

MTM : Christmas Stories

2009-12-15T10:25:00.004+10:30

This weeks theme for Muffin Tin Monday is Christmas stories. I had quite a few ideas but limited resources (shopping day is imminent. ;) ) I decided to have baby Jesus because we have been talking about how Christmas is the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus. This morning we read the story of Rudoff so I included this too.

What we had; Father Christmas chocolate, two Rudoff sandwiches (triangles of bread with french onion dip, olives, red leichester cheese and pretzels), yogurt, and baby Jesus (cold meat wrapped in bread).

The girls enjoyed their lunch Evie especially, when she decided that she was 'going to eat baby Jesus first', I didn't know what to say. Maybe Jesus just isn't a great snack after all. lol.

Kid Safe Snow Globes

2009-12-14T16:01:00.002+10:30

This craft was inspired by my children's desire (obsession) with snow globes. They seem to be everywhere at the moment. Last year the girls had a small one each, but sadly, they were carried everywhere and played with at every opportunity, and they were broken. It was a sad day.

This year when the girls started asking to buy every snow globe we saw, I decided we would try to make some at home.

We started off digging out some plastic jars, then hunting for some suitably sized Christmas figurines. Both the girls decided to have a reindeer.

I glued the reindeer into the lids of the jars, filled the jar with water and (way too much) glitter.

The result is pretty cute and most importantly satisfied the craving.

I offered to cover the lid with some pretty Christmas ribbon but this idea was quickly stomped on by the short people, so if they look plain - don't blame me :p .

Christmas Gift Tags

2009-12-12T15:31:00.002+10:30

Obviously when you wrap gifts in hand decorated paper you just can't go whacking on store bought labels.

With this in mind Evie and I made up some gift tags for our prezzies.

I drew simple pictures (star, tree, bell, gift etc) with a wax candle and Evie and Georgia painted over it with water paints. Couldn't be simpler.

Making the world...

2009-12-11T16:47:00.001+10:30

...out of paper, to stick on the wall in the family room.

I kid you not. Of her own design Evie created this apple/orange tree, moon, sun, clouds and a strawberry bush to display in our family room, it's pretty cute. The kids spent about an hour putting it all together, Georgia cut out some of the apples and stuck them on with blue-tack, Evie did the rest.

It looks really great on the wall actually, maybe we should have this more often.

This was followed by playing with playdough 'in the shade on the tree', where the fairies got stuck in the mud and needed to be rescued by Bob the builder and his machines.

My Favourite Things

2009-12-10T14:39:00.006+10:30

Something I have always wanted to do with the girls is print our own Christmas wrapping paper. This year, finally, I got our gear organised and did it. Yay!

We had a blast doing this. I cut stampers from potato's, star shaped, and filled a paint tray with red paint. Evie and Georgia went nuts with the stampers, and of course Evie ended up just finger painting and hand printing, Georgia would NOT even consider that as it would mean getting paint on her hands (*gasp*).

We ended up with some really cute looking wrapping paper, so I went whole hog and tied the gifts with string. So now I have a whole pile of brown paper packages tied up with sting (get it?) under our Christmas tree.

Warning: If your going to do this out side, make sure to have lots of paper weights (e.g. Dad's old work boots) handy, because this is not a wind friendly project

Colour Mixing

2009-11-23T20:38:00.003+10:30

One day last week Evie went to stay with my mum for a few hours. Georgia gets a bit bored without Evie and probably a bit lonely too. They are together all the time and they are so close as to be inseparable, so Georgia is pretty sad when her big sister is not around.

It was when Georgia was feeling down and asking when Evie was going to be home that I thought of doing this little activity with her. I was making tea so I just set her up at the sink where she could play away.

I got three medicine cups and filled them with water and added some food colouring (red, yellow and blue). I gave her a chocolate mould with different shaped holes and a spoon to scoop the colours into the holes.

She was busy and happy and excited mixing the colours, emptying and starting over again for 40minutes or so. Georgia was really impressed with mixing the colours together and finding out what happens. She mixed blue and red a dozen times over and still squealed with delight when she made purple. She was so cute to watch.

I got the idea from My Montessori Journey, she has so many fantastic ideas that I want to try them all.

Animals in the tent

2009-11-17T15:21:00.001+10:30

As a very small child I had a tin of plastic animal and (gasp) cowboys and indians (shocking I know) I have passed this tin on to my children, and I am really proud that it comes out almost everyday and gets used it so many different ways. Here is one way and this is another...

Georgia wanted to play in a tent today and brought the animals with her. She actually sorted them into types of animals (kangaroos, dinosours, rinos, cows etc) then ofcourse they all made friends and had adventures together.

MTM : Thankful Theme

2009-11-16T14:25:00.004+10:30

This Mondays MTM theme is Foods Your Child is Thankful For. I don't know if my children are thankful for any foods (certainly not lunch yesterday, that they didn't touch) except maybe chocolate, so I used foods that I am thankful that they (occasionally) almost always eat.

Some cheesy teddy bead shaped pasta
Some watermellon and kiwi fruit
A small packet of dried berries and
A chocolate and sprinkle covered banana for dessert.

The MTM was a hit, except Georgia didn't eat any
of the pasta *shrug* can't please 'em all. I'm just thankful she ate the fruit.
To see the other great MTMs visit Muffin Tin Mom

2009-11-15T14:51:00.001+10:30

I saw this vid on Homemade Montessori it is so cute and the girls are so into learning about their bodies I just know they'll love it.

The song words are;
Tarsals
Tibia
Fibula
Patella
Femur
Pelvis
Ribs
Sternum
Carpal
Ulna
Radius
Humerus
Hey! Kiss My
Cranium

What we do all day

2009-11-13T14:10:00.005+10:30

I set up a bit of an activity table in our 'work room' this week, it worked out so well that I will try to keep updating it with new things to do.

Today's lunch included a chocolate coated banana

This is a Magnet activity. I filled a tin with some magnetic and some noon-magnetic thing from around the house, and a couple of magnets glued to sticks with a sheet of paper to sort them on.

This activity was Evie's idea, we made snowflakes, raindrops and clouds. The girls bedroom and playroom doorway are now decorated with them.

We bought some paper doll books, these have been brought out a lot in the last few days.

A couple of maths worksheets. It is much easier to get Evie to do worksheets if they are not in the book... go figure.

A printed map of Australia and some puzzle pieces

Some egg shaped word and picture matching puzzles. I got these from My Montessori Journey

they were a big his with Evie and she managed it all very well. I was surprised at how well she sounded out the letters and put them together to find out the word.

Evie also made some stencils out of A4 paper and painted them onto a big sheet, this was also her idea and she did all the planning for it.

Georgia did painting as well and some counting games with dice, her favorite thing this week was the magnetic tray.

Bowling

2009-11-13T12:16:00.004+10:30

Evie has been asking for ages to go bowling, like every time we drive by - which is a lot okay. Our free time never seems to coincide with the alley's opening times so we don't get to go a lot.

While Daniel was on a holiday from work we made of point of going as a family (with a couple of friends).

Daniel won (duh) Evie and Georgia came 2ND and 3rd (they had bumpers though) and I came last (sob, my attention was obviously elsewhere).

Cooling Off

2009-11-13T10:46:00.003+10:30

I mentioned in my last MTM post that the weather here has been quite warm (40C or more, thats about 105F) for just over two weeks now. It is above average for November and came as a bit of a shock since the week before the heat started we were hovering between 28-35C which was rather nice.

Of course the only thing to do is get in some water (and turn on the aircon ;) ) so thats what we did.

11am 11th November: Rememberance Day

2009-11-11T11:00:00.000+10:30

In Australia Remembrance Day is always observed on 11 November, although the day is not a public holiday. Services are held at 11am at war memorials and schools in suburbs and towns across the country, at which "Last Post" is sounded by a bugler and a one-minute silence is observed.

They shall not grow old as we who are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them. Lest we forget

MTM : No Theme

2009-11-11T10:49:00.000+10:30

There was no theme for Muffin Tin Monday this week, it always seems harder to think of foods to have in muffins with out a theme... what's with that?

We had watermelon and cheese flowers, strawberries, toast and egg flowers and a boiled egg butterfly and an apple smiley face.

The way the weather is going at the moment next MTM might just be a selection of ice cream. With the coolest day this week being 41C (that's 105.8) the kids main diet has been homemade juice ice blocks, they are lovin' it!

If you haven't already head over to Muffin Tin Mum To see all the other MTM's for this week.

Summer Wardrobe :’wrap’ dress

2009-11-07T11:55:00.000+10:30

This dress is another addition to Evie and Georgia's summer wardrobe. The pattern was from New Look 6688 again, the fabric is some thrifted fabric that I got for $2.50 for about 4 metres. I made two dresses Evie's has blue rickrack though.

I don't think I will be making this pattern again with out changing the position of the zipper. The zipper in under the left arm hole and does nothing to widen the dress to help get it on or off and it's too difficult to bother with when a zip in the back would be so much more practical and simple to do.

This little bandana and flour I made to cover up the hair incident until we got to the hairdressers. I got the tutorial for the flowers from Sew Ritzy Titzy it's a great little tut, and so easy to do that I have made flowers for all the outfits I have sew for the girls so far out of matching scraps.

10 second craft

2009-11-05T11:40:00.000+10:30

There are times, when you have kids (and homeschooling), that you just can't drop everything your doing (or planned) when the kids get bored or if yours are like mine; want to make something.

So I try to have a little mental list of things that are quick and easy to make and don't take much prep or cleaning up. Sometimes these activites are a really big hit (sometimes not but they do acheive their purpose) and today was one of those days.

This activity the kids made themselves after I had explained what to do and then just ran away with it (and I got stuff done *gasp*).

It doesn't get simpler than rolling a piece of card into a cone and using it for a megaphone or for listening.

The girls were so excited that their voices could sound so loud (becasue they need help with that -riiiiiight) and they could also here very quiet sounds more clearly.

This fit into a senses theme that we were doing at the time also.

MTM: Outer Space

2009-11-03T11:03:00.000+10:30

This weeks theme for Muffin Tin Monday over at Her Cup Overflowerth, was outerspace.

I think this has been the funnest theme yet. The girls really got into it and we have done a few space related activities that I will try to blog later on.

For lunch we had a banana and strawberry rocket ship, cheese stars, olive aliens, saultana and chocolate chip metors and a yoyo biscut and cheese cake UFO.

There were so many great ideas on the blog list over at Her Cup Over Floweth so go over and check them out if you haven't already.

Summer Wardrobe Refashions

2009-10-29T14:07:00.000+10:30

I have been determined to make a good portion of the girls (and mine) clothes for summer this year. I have been so tired of all the usual stuff in shops, everything in pink or purple, very boring.

I have been hunting around op-shops or garage sales for fabric and have had some great successes. Metres of fabric for a couple of dollars - yes thank you.

Refashioning is also a great way to sew up some clothes for the kids, I haven't tried any for me yet, but you know how it goes, kids come first then mummy, so I may get some new clothes some time in the future... probably. ;)

I love the freedom of sewing with thrifted fabric or refashioning clothes. It takes so much pressure off becuase I am using $2 worth of fabric instead of $30 or more.

I also have a huge stash now, I am putting a stop to anymore fabric buys until I get through most of the fabric I have.

Here are some of my creations to date. I'm sorry the photos aren't better but my models were in bed for most of these photos.

I picked up this fabric at Lincraft for $3, the skirts are a simple two-rectanges-and-some-elastic skirt, so easy to make.

This skirt for Evie (looks much nicer in person) is from a dress I bought that just didn't seem to be made correctly (what's with that??). I cut it off added some elastic, tada a skirt!

This is my first attempt at a shired dress. I started off with the fabric a little too narrow so it's small but still fits Georgia, she loves it because it's strawberries.

My second attempt at shiring turned out much better. I got two of these outfits out of a length the I picked up from the op-shop for $1.50.

Some more simple skirts, pink and green floral is from a garage sale for about 20c (!!) and the pink is from lincraft for $6 I made two skirts from that ;) this one has a lace edge the other for Georgia has a rikrak trim.

A hair cut - and a few tears

2009-10-29T03:30:00.000+10:30

Isn't it amazing what kids can learn to do in just a few minutes of activity.

Today more than ever before I am astounded by what Georgia can do when she puts her mind to it.

For instance this...

in a matter of minutes.

After a many tears (from me) and a trip to the hairdressers Georgia has gone from lovely curly piggy-tails to this...

Sob sniff. She loves her "beautiful new hair cut", and I admit that she looks adorable with short hair but *waaaa* I loved her piggy-tails.

I am just thankfull that despite a couple of near misses she didn't actually cut skin, just two or three bald spots... *sniff*

MTM - (not the theme) Mini Pancakes

2009-10-27T17:18:00.000+10:30

This weeks theme for MTM over at Her Cup Overfloweth is Fall / Halloween... it's a pretty warm Spring time here in Aus though so we kind of free styled the theme this week.

We had mini pancakes for breakfast, each with a different topping ; honey, golden syrup, strawberry jam and butter.

Pancakes are a breakfast favourite for my kids, so I try to make them as healthy as possible. I use my own recipe to make them as nutritious as I can as well as low in fat and sugar ('cause I eat them too and I love my jeans).

Healthy Pancakes

2cups Plain flour (half wholemeal opt.)

1tbs Baking powder

1tsp Baking soda

1 egg

80g silken tufu

2 1/2 cups milk (juice or yogurt can be used)

1tbs vanilla

Stir together dry ingredients in large bowl

In a separate bowl whisk together tofu, egg and milk. whisk until there are no lumps of tofu left.

Add wet ingredients to dry whisk together, let mixture rest for 20min or so.

Cook in frying pan till brown on both sides.

I use tofu as a butter replacement, there is no taste to it, and you don't lose the tenderness of the pancake. I usually use at least half wholemeal flour too for a fibre boost, and sometimes I sub in some natural oat bran. You may need extra liquid or less flour if using wholemeal or oat bran to get the thickness you like.

You can make them even more healthy by using low/non fat yogurt or juice instead of milk, you can add fruit like bananas, grated apple or rasberries. You can add nuts or spices. The options are endless, I can never get bored of pancakes.

Get on over to Her Cup Overfloweth to check other MTMs for this week

10 minute 2 cent craft

2009-10-17T11:52:00.000+10:30

I am in the middle of a sewing project at the moment but took five minutes off to do a little craft with Evie.

The girls are camping in the garden today, and you simply can not camp with out a camp fire.

A couple of minutes later and we built this out of toilet rolls, shoe box lid, red and orange paper and some craft glue. Add on some spray adhesive and some garden dirt and you've got a great little camp fire to cozy up next to.

Wordless Wednesday - Smelters Picnic

2009-10-15T16:26:00.000+10:30

Pirate lunch

2009-10-12T16:11:00.001+10:30

This week's muffin tin we strayed from the theme and went for a 'game' lunch instead. Labelled a pirate lunch because we used our pirate bandanas from the dress up box for blindfolds.

We are focusing on senses at the moment so I prepared the lunch in secret and blindfolded the girls and had them guess by taste and smell and touch, what they were eating.

They had tones of fun with this lunch, and they learned a lot about using our senses and explaining what their thinking.

They ate; camembert cheese, meat ball, strawberry, banana, and some bread with nutella and vegimite to spread over it.
After lunch we played a pirate version of Blind Man's Bluff with the Pirate who is blindfolded having to use their hearing to chase the other players (all saying 'ahrrr') and touch to guess who it is.

This was a very fun game even for Daddy who learned how to play to.

Completed project

2009-10-12T14:23:00.001+10:30

As part of the girls spring/summer wardrobe I had planned to make them 'dressed-up' dresses for when we are going out (it does happen...sometimes). I bought the fabric for the dresses ages ago when Spotlight near us was having a sale. There was a whole table of fabric for $1 a metre (*sigh* that was a good day).

The pattern was a gift from my mum; NewLook 6688. Very cute looking on the packet, and labelled 'easy'. It turned out cute, but it wasn't easy. I had to get a zip lesson from my mum because the instructions were so vague and confusing.

All in all I am happy with the results, so are Evie and Georgie, I had them try the dresses on so I could fix the straps and they are still wearing them even though it's really cold today and they should be in pants and skivvies. Lol.

Pattern – gift, free
Fabric – two metres each with lining - $4
Ribbon trim - $1
Zip – from op-shop 10c each – 20c
Tule – on hand leftover from tutu – free
So, all up it cost $5.20 for two formal dresses. Not bad.

Tootoo cute!

2009-10-10T18:29:00.000+10:30

Last week my girls were lucky enough to get to go and see The Fairies on stage.

It's a musical performace, and the kids are encouraged to get up and dance and sing along.

Naturally an appropriate outfit is needed for such an important public appearance.

Wings? Certainly.

Wand? For sure.

Dress? Nooo, something better...

Tutu? OMG for sure!

I saw a tutorial a while ago here at Lost In Stash it was so easy and quick.

They are in the dress up box now, and come out when ever the need to be a balerina comes over them.

2009-09-28T20:21:00.000+09:30

I made a point of recording some of our 'learning' this week. I tried to keep the camera close all the time so I could quickly snap a photo of whatever was going on at the time.

The one that is tough about natural learning is the record keeping, and every now and then I have a little freak out because I just can't tell if we are learning or not. Taking photos of all these little thing really helped me pay more attention to what we are doing each day and take note of all the educational stuff.

These photos aren't everything we did because somethimes I just didn't get the camera out quick enough.

Planing seeds in the front garden, baking cookies and carrot cakes, a matching game

Making steamed buns, found a red back spider (she was huge) this brought on a huge discussion of spiders, building a rocket out of a bottle and paper, playing monopoly.

Leapster games, lacing cards.

We also did some other gardening, painting, reading looking at these photos I think we had a pretty productive week. I think I'll be doing this project again ;)

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-09-28T19:46:00.000+09:30

It's Monday again (where does the weekend go?!) so that mean it's time for MTM. No theme this week.

It was Evie's idea to make traffic lights this week. She chose watermellon, rockmellon and cucumber to be the different colours of the lights. I scooped out balls of mellon and cut up the cucumber and Evie stuck them onto toothpicks in the 'correct order'. Georgie was not feeling well today so she didn't feel up to helping out, and she only ate the watermellon.

I also made a little chocolate fondue to dip the fruit in, and lastly some mini cheese.

Cruise on over to Her Cup Overfloweth to check out other MTM's or to join in.

Refashion - T-shirt into childs shorts

2009-09-26T16:43:00.000+09:30

While I was cleaning out my wardrobe in an effort to get it all ready for warmer weather I hit on a great idea to make some shorts for the girls out of old t-shirts..

I have turned out a few pairs now and I love how simple it is. 15 minutes from shirt to shorts.

I thought I'd make a little tutorial because I haven't seen a tutorial for kids shorts yet and it's just too fun and easy not to share it.

This is my first tutorial of any kind so please let me know if I am not explaining something well enough or if I need more pictures. Any feed back is very welcome and I'd love to see the finished product if you give it a go.

You will need

Elastic measured to fit child's waist

T-shirt

Coordinating thread

I added a length or rickrack to the bottom edge before I began, just for fun and 'cause I can.

1. Starting from the bottom of the tshirt measure up your desired length plus 3cm for the elastic casing.

2. Fold in half so t-shirt seams are together, cut a half-U-shape from the folded edge. You can use existing clothing for a template or just eye-ball it – I used a hands length (tips to wrist) and about three fingers wide.

Open the shirt out flat again and you’ll have a wide U-shape, this is the crotch seam.

3. Turn fabric right sides together and sew around the U-shape

4. Cut the side seams of the shirt.

5. With the shorts laying flat take the top right side and turn it to the left and take the bottom left side and turn it to the right side of the shorts. You should now have two 'legs' looking like this.

Basically the front panel of the shirt becomes the left leg and the back section becomes the right leg.

6. With right sides together sew the side seams, make sure the bottom edges are level.

7. Next is the casing. Fold the waist edge over by 5mm and then 25mm, sew around the waist leaving a gap at the back to pull the elastic through.

8. Last step is to pull your elastic through the gusset and sew the ends together using a zigzag stitch.

There. Your shorts are finished!

I hope your children like them as much as mine do. ;)

King Me?

2009-09-22T13:26:00.000+09:30

I am always on the look out for new ways or things to craft, I have a huge list of tutorials all sorted and labled in my favorites list.
This Checker board project from I Heart Linen is from that list, and I have been dying to make it for ages. Evie's 5th birthday seemed like a great excuse.
I followed the instructions for construction but instead of linen I used some heavy denim and a cute pattern fabric from my stash. I didn't use batting because the denim made it so sitff and strong any way.
I added a pocket to the back to store the buttons in and a hair band to the edge so the board could be folded and put in my bag for when we go out and the kids might get bored and just for easy storage.
My squares and not so neat and pretty as the origional but they're not too bad for a first bit a patchworking.
Evie loves it, we have played a few times and she is getting the hang of the rules quite well. I love to play checkers too so its great for both of us.

Wild weather

2009-09-21T15:03:00.000+09:30

This is a photo of our weather at 2pm today. The sky was so dark and brown that we had to turn on lights to see, it was really dark. Five minutes after I took this photo the wind really picked up and it started to thunder and rain, horizontally.
An hour later the wind is gone, the sun is out and the clouds are no longer muddy brown.
Pretty impressive.

MTM - Childrens Literature

2009-09-21T14:41:00.000+09:30

This weeks MTM theme was Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs/Children's Literature.
Since we don't have Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs book in our collection we went with a never fail favorite, Charlie and Lola.
Of course I Will Not Ever Never Eat A Tomato.
We had a variety of foods that Lola does and does not like and made up funny names for them just like Charlie does in the story.
Lola does not like Cheese, eggs, sausages, oranges or bananas but she's loves pink milk and jelly.
Naturally the pink milk and jelly were a big hit here to but the only item to really not be appreciated was the sausage, so I think todays muffin tin went quite well.
Check out the other MTM's or join and add your own at Her Cup Overfloweth

Muffin tin monday - Apples

2009-09-16T20:13:00.000+09:30

Apples are a tough sell in this household, Evie wont touch 'em. Okay, she'll touch 'em, chop 'em, peel 'em, cook 'em, but no way will she eat 'em! Georgie on the other hand will only eat them with the peel off and not if they are cut or other wise tampered with.

In order to make a tricky MTM theme work for us I thought of making muffin sized apple pies. We had a lot of fun making them.

Both girls helped with the pastry until Georgie got bored and decided the strawberries looked tastier. Evie soldiered on helping piece together the pie bases patching cracks and having a nibble when she thought I wasn't looking.

Evie gave peeling an apple a go, did mighty well for a first try. Georgia occupied herself by taking one bite out of each apple "just tasting dem", well at least we know they're good apples now!

They were both really surprised to see the star inside the apple. Does anyone remember the story about that? It has something to do wtih the apple being a house of something? I remember my grandfather telling me the story but I don't remember how it went.

The pies turned out delicious, Evie didn't eat any, Georgie ate half. Oh well, at least Daniel will be happy that there is leftovers for lunch tomorrow, he's always saying he wants to have MTlunch too...

To see other MTM posts go to Her Cup Overfloweth, there are loads of fantastic ideas to throw in a muffin tin.

School Today

2009-09-15T22:04:00.000+09:30

Evie remains fascinated by the fact that other kids go to school and we do not.

I suppose it is sort of confusing for her since we are the only homeschooling family that she knows.

There are so many types of media out there talking about school, on kids tv shows, movies and books.

Evie is at the age when the only thing people we meet when we are out can think of to say is "do you go to school yet?" It is all I can do not to groan out loud, in the past I have simply said no, not yet. Now though I have begun to tell everyone that we are homeschooling.

I have not had any negative comments (yet) but I have had a lot of questions and I think I will have to practice answering them so I don't sound so stupid trying to answer them.

Today it got to the point where Evie was actually complaining that she wants to go to school. Oh no! How do I deal with this?!

I decided to give the girls a bit of a 'school at home' experience. I set up two old school desks in our work room ( where we normally do craft or use the computer ) gave them a tin each with their supplies ( pens pencils, glue, scissors etc ) and gave Evie the work books that I purchased months ago that she got bored of after two days. Georgia happily sat and coloured/cut up paper. They called me 'Teacher' and put up their hands to talk, cute.

This picture is from several hours after bed time, it looked a lot more fun at about 2pm with paper and books flying everywhere.

They worked away for a while before Georgia declared 'I berry tired mummy' and Evie decided it was snack time. Then they ended up here;

'School' work is okay I guess, so long as it says fun for them. Then the natural learning tools really do pay off.

Hopscotch

2009-09-15T12:55:00.000+09:30

Nothing like an impromptu game of hopscotch. Evie drew out the numbers herself, very well actually, I was impressed.

They played hopping in the squares for about 15 minutes, I think that's a record.

Muffin Tin Monday

2009-09-09T15:11:00.000+09:30

I went AWOL from MTM last week, we did have a MTlunch I just didn't post it, or anything else last week actually.

This time however, I am in the game.

No offical theme for MTM this week, but just for fun we chose our own theme - our current obsession; Ninja Turtles. Oh know, wierd, but still they love them.

So... Pizza, duh, what else would giant mutant turtles eat?

Purple cake, for Donatello

Red (cranberry) pears, for Raphael

Blue Jelly Slice, for Leonardo

and Orange mandrine for Michealangelo.

I hope I've spelt those names right.;)

To find out more about MTM go here, to see all this weeks MT's go here.