Saturday, June 25, 2011

The Homeschool Mother's Journal - 17


In my life this week…
Been burning stuff! I got a new brazier (fire pit) and it was a nice night, so we gathered wood left over from various building projects and sat around, listening to music on the iPod, drinking wine (not the kids!). A very nice night.

Been skiing! We promised Wombat Girl that we would go skiing this year and so we snuck in a couple of days down at Perisher, staying at the Station, before it got too expensive (it's early season here). It snowed at Jindabyne, which is pretty cold!
Look Mum, it's snowing!

Frozen water is a novelty for us!
Been moving! Not us (thank goodness) - my Mum is moving (happily) into a retirement village and I helped pack up and move her. Love her new unit and I hope she'll be very happy there. Good to spend time with my brother too!
In our homeschool this week…
We have been on a P.E. excursion to the snow! Well, if they can do it at high school, why not homeschool? It's been a couple of years since the kids went skiing. Video Boy tried to take up where he left off - at reasonably high speed and not turning much. He paid the price in a couple of crashes and lost confidence! I hung out with him the rest of the day and we worked on our turns and controlling speed and he is a much happier and more confident skier now.

Wombat Girl was a little more controlled and worked hard up and down the mountain with her dad. It wore her out though!

The weather closed in during the afternoon and by after lunch it was a fog-out, with gusts of high winds and flurries of snow. Two wet and cold and tired children (snow was pretty wet) do not make for fun skiing, so after the tears appeared, we pulled the pin.
The next day's forecast was for a severe weather warning, wind gusts of up to 120km, snow.  So we decided not to ski, because it didn't sound like much fun. We spent the day around Jindabyne and Cooma - we went to the National Parks Visitor Centre and the Snowy Hydro display - so we had some good educational moments!

Model of the Snowy Mountains Hydroelectric Scheme
Cooma
Time to go home via Canberra's CSIRO Discovery Centre, which we enjoyed - lots of interactive energy, water and environment displays. Wombat Girl loved the microscopes! We have one at home, but it's a toy really, so might have to invest in one.
Kinetic to electrical to light to electric to mechanical to chemical  energy!

I "heart" you!

How much water do we use?

Microscopes!
Not much else happening educationally because I've been helping mum move - back into it next week!
I am inspired by…
Australia's amazing landscapes - from beaches to alpine wilderness!
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
While we were in Jindabyne, we went to see my cousin, who is a ski instructor, his wife, two girls and their newly built house. The kids were excited to meet other kids who were actually their relatives and it was great to catch up and see the new house in real life!

My favourite thing this week was…
Not injuring myself skiing! But goodness me - my calves were sore after that one day!
A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
Did you know that the narwhal is a whale with a long tusk that lives in Arctic waters and whose name originates from the norse "nar" which means corpse because of its habit of swimming on its back and its grey colouring? Me neither, until a few minutes ago when the kids told me...

3 comments:

  1. What a fun holiday you had! I think it's good you guys took it easy at the snow—I once skiied too long and too hard and ended up needing to have a knee reconstruction. Ouch!
    Your kids look so happy. How fun to have so many different types of adventures, too. Not just the snow, but Canberra too, and a visit with family. Lovely, Ingi.

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  2. We did have a lovely time! And we will have to compare scars - I had a reconstruction after a ski trip too!! This is getting spooky!

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  3. I've got an idea as to what I can get you for your next ski trip (and for your birthday too) :P

    ReplyDelete

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