The Homeschool Mother's Journal - 23

In my life this week:
I completed the bedroom painting! I went with Dulux Cottontail (on Wombat Girl's advice).

I like the end result - cleaner, lighter and the room looks bigger. We moved the bed and I indulged in new sheets and quilt cover too! Will be going to buy new bedside lamps and hang some pictures soon.

I volunteered (because, yeah, I have so much free time!!) to help take local highschool students out on a fossil walk on the rock platforms near here. I had the Year 7 "enrichment" class and they were very interested and learnt a lot. Apparently the same could not be said for the senior Yr 11 Biology class...

Still running! Enjoying my "long" 5km runs (which are getting faster) and took my hubby out for his first run in two years (he kept up with me and I look a lot more like a beetroot than him, but he was huffing and puffing!).

In our homeschool this week:

My sister sent some souvenirs from Melbourne Aquarium. What were all these types of sharks?

Video Boy got out the Horrible Science Angry Animals book:

I knew that I had a book of sharks from when I was a kid, so I fished it out (and indeed, I got it for Christmas back in 1979 from Mum and Dad!!):

We collected casuarina pods and later the seeds fell out - we had a nice discussion about seed formation, dispersion (these are wind dispersed) and germination:

Video Boy spent some time researching what science experiments he would like to try and then carried out a few and was able to describe to me the science behind them:

Wombat Girl asked "can I help paint?" and my first instinct was NO!!!! But I said "yes" and she turned out to be a great helper:

Whitey got a new outfit, made from serviettes:

We played Set:

We played River Crossing:

Both kids got involved in story writing activities. Video Boy loved Comic Builder from Lego City and Wombat Girl is right into Word Tamer. Here is a sample of what she is working on:

Darkness had fell and disaster had struck. Shadows litteraly flowing everywhere. The Great Land of  Mistyc was being covered by a cloak of evil. It ran through the streams and plains, trickled though the forests and meadows, and sprinted through the swamps and deserts. Civilisations fought bravely but The Dark's power was growing. No one knew what or who was causing The Age of Darkness but everyone knew only one thing could stop it. Jewel Magic...

I am inspired by:

Reading through all the wonderful ideas at Joyfully Rejoycing.


A video to share:
Adora Svitak says kids' big dreams deserve high expectations, starting with grownups' willingness to learn from children as much as to teach:

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