rainy day........

Here's where I found Little Possum on a rainy day...... Looking very comfortable with her snack table and blanket

I had a closer look to see what had attracted her to the front door..

turns out it was a mini weather station, measuring rainfall.

Thankfully Little Possum is very happy with her own "BlackBerry" still... but I suspect it won't be long until she like many of her peers will want to gadget up.

our freecycle treasure

Found among the gumtrees in our garden:

It doesn't look very flash. A little weather-worn, the green/white stripes not as bright as they once were. This is one of our Freecycle finds. We thought we were getting just a straight -forward hammock, but we got so much more! It may look like a hammock.... but it's actually a lava-boat, where the kids float around on a dangerous sea of lava, swaying precariously trying to avoid accidentally falling in.

Covered with blankets it makes a fantastic base for the Turtle/Possum club:

And then the blankets are put on top of the hammock, and it becomes a spaceship, a boat for exploring, or simply a place to relax and have a little snooze on a pleasant school holiday afternoon:

And then the blankets are all taken away and it takes on its disguise as a hammock again. Until next time... who knows what it'll become then?

Kitchen chemistry experiment

Turtle had a science project for school which required demonstrating a reaction using kitchen "chemicals". We figured there'd be quite a few vinegar/bicarb soda volcanoes, so we thought we'd try something different. We settled on making a "Acid or Base?" demonstration:

First we needed a reliable indicator - the water from boiling red cabbage is perfect:

Our test substances:

Vinegar turned the indicator pink=acid Bicarb soda: blue/green = base

I, at least, was happy to see that our washing up liquid was neutral... must be better for my hands :)

lemon - no surprises there.... beautiful, pink colour.

Turtle documented the experiment, took photos and later repeated it in front of his class.

buddy numbers make number buddies!

Here is what Little Possum and I get up to make learning maths a little more fun. One pack of cards is all we need.

Here we are learning buddy numbers, adding up to 10. Remove all facecards and 10's. We put the cards in rows like solitaire. LP has to find the buddy number pairs from the top row and then we see how many pairs we can make. (for the more advanced maths brains in the household we keep the facecards, raise the goal number and encourage using combinations of several cards to add up to the goal number).

Variations on snap.... if you can add up the values of the cards you get to keep the pair. There is also the basic "war" card game where you each put down a card and whoever has the highetst value wins the pair. Good way to learn number values for the beginner maths brain (like myself)

and then the rain came!

"Childhood is that wonderful time of life when all you need to do to lose weight is to take a bath"

NN

A bath was certainly needed after this little event.... The photo quality is poor as the daylight was waning and the battery in my camera gave out after this one shot.

After a very hot day the thunderclouds rolled in and along with the electrical storm came the torrential downpour. The children wasted no time, but hurried outside to play in the mud. Even the Wii could not compete with the mudpuddles around the side of the house.

"the world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful" e.e. cummings

building a city...

"We all need empty hours in our lives or we will have no time to create or dream"

Robert Coles, Am. psychologist

This is why we love school holidays, lots of unscheduled time to do just that - create and dream.
Yesterday Turtle and Little Possum went to work building bridges out of mud. The mud was mixed in the wheelbarrow until the right texture was achieved (I'm glad we've hidden our bags of cement...).

Once the basic infrastructure like roads and bridges were in place, the rest of the city took shape:

At the back the Centrepoint Tower with a fountain in front. Various other building and factories, and last, but not least the War Memorial (see? it's not just an upturned bowl with a toy soldier on the top.......)

our new fancy...... Nancy

Little Possum made a new literary friend today - "Fancy Nancy" has found her way to our bookshelf complete with glitter. We love Nancy and her fancy ways.... there's a girl who knows how to accessorise and to add a little sparkle to her day! I am reminded of the little adage "There will always be something in life for the person who can bring her sandwich outside and call it a picnic".

As soon as we finished reading the book, LP created "The Fancy Club" and I was invited to the inaugural meeting.

LP was chairperson and was giving a little lecture on what it means to be fancy. It is an exhaustive list covering everything from clothes to manners..... e.g. being kind, being honest, not poking people while at the table and (this is my favourite) not picking snot out of your nose and eating it (ok - do I need to point out that I meant this was my favourite item on the list, and not my favourite pastime?..........)

even Horsey the hobby-horse dressed up and looked very fancy indeed wearing LP's silk flower girl dress.

We read this book as a literary dip in the water, but we will definately read more of Fancy Nancy!

talents

Doodlebug's class held a marketday fundraiser for an Indian orphanage this week. It was the final stage of a project the class has been working on this term based on the parable of the talents. Each child that wished to participate was given a dollar coin. They had to come up with an idea to raise money using their dollar coin as the "start up capital".

Doodlebug wanted to sell muffins, and so with his dollar he purchased the ingredients from me for a tray of muffins. With the proceeds of the muffin sale, he bought materials to make more things to sell at his marketstall. He sold chocolate fudge and pet rocks.

The pet rocks caused him some concern when I raised the idea..... after all they are "quite old" - "They've been around since you were little, Mummy" (gee, thanks....), but he decided to try a few. He wished he'd made more now, they sold like the proverbial hotcakes. Mostly to girls apparently. Who knows....maybe we have started a new trend?

I don't know the total of how much the class raised in total, but Doodlebug made about $30. I think he used his "talent" well.

Kids unplugged.....

I love it when the kids are unplugged from TV and other electronic gadgetry, and just let their imaginations go. Sometimes it gets noisy, most of the time it gets messy, but all of the time they are having such fun! I imagine the synapses in their brains hooking up and firing. Wonderful stuff:

Turtle and Little Possum found my chalks and wanted to try them out on some artwork of their own.

Doodlebug was doing some important construction work, and I was glad to find him taking health and safety guidelines seriously....... all appropriate protective gear used!

This may just look like a bit of a mess, but under these blankets is a maze of tunnels and rooms. Could be a special spaceship, or a secret spybase..... it's a multi purpose design!

FHE - a crafty one

last night's FHE was a messy one - it was wonderful!! We had made monsterheads to collect treats in on Hallowe'en and the evening was spent painting while we chatted about school, global warming and whatever else the children wanted to talk about. I love to hear what they are thinking about and wondering about.

getting ready to make papier mache

3 eggs drying off overnight

grrrrrrrrrowl!

painting, mixing colours... (how many shades of browny purple can we achieve?)

a school of fish.......

Turtle and Doodlebug both had a week off from homework last week. The teachers decided to let them off for the first week of term. It was a relief..... for me..... my boys do not enjoy it and I do not enjoy making them do it. All in all I think homework causes some stress around here.

However.... some things can be made more fun... like maths, spelling and reading. Meet our school of fish:

This is just a variation on the ever popular fishing game. Fishing rods made out of dowels, string for a line, magnet for "bait". I laminated the fish because they spend a lot of time on the floor, and I thought they might last a little longer that way. With the paperclips on them, the fish are easily caught.

We have maths fish and word fish. The maths fish have basic addition and subtraction for LP and multiplication for the boys. I will be adding some division fish soon, too.

The word fish I laminated plain, and I have stuck the words on with BluTack. This way we can accommodate spelling and sight word lists as they change. the Times Table doesn't really change... :)

The rules are simple. In order to keep the fish(count it as your catch...), you have to give the correct answer to the equation. The boys - ever competitive - want to see who can get the most fish. LP just likes to play and count....

The word fish are the most versatile. LP and I vary the games that we play with our wordfish:

• Reading the word on the fish that you catch.
• Spelling the word,
• Using the word in a sentence,
• Finding words that rhyme with your word or
• Finding an opposite to your word.

The fish can also be used for learning basic grammar. When all the fish have been caught, they are sorted into 3 piles: Verbs, adjectives and nouns.

(we have to put the rod down in order to have full use of all counting fingers.....)

A quiet Sunday afternoon

LP wanted to learn how to knit, but I thought that was a tall order for the time we had available, so I taught her weaving instead. I was inspired by this post featured on Crafty Crow.... initially I wanted to go into the garden to find some sticks but since it's been raining all sticks would be wet. We improvised and I used a photoframe as a makeshift loom instead. Pretty soon Turtle wanted to join in the fun as well. Here they both are hard at work....

Holiday Fun - Playdough morning

LP's caterpillar - complete with bug-eyes
Turtle opted for some sort of mask/beard combo
And this is LP's model of me.... complete with bellybutton and a bust that defies gravity.

priceless artwork

pink glitter pen is LP's favourite choice of medium

Here's Turtle's Battle of the foods..... Healthy vs Unhealthy

Doodlebug depicts "Ginga the Ninja" with his sidekicks "Lolli the Pop" and "Candy the Cane" defending Gingerbread Valley against the approaching M&M army...

I love the kids' imaginations and I love their artwork and treasure it.