life goes on ...

This week has been a really productive gardening week. We've planted lots of seeds, and lots of our seedlings are sprouting enthusiastically. Two trays of seedlings (rocket, mustard, and bok-choy) will all need to be planted out either this week end or next. I'm pleased to say that some of our crop specifically designed for fussy eaters has started growing. These include rock melon, watermelon, strawberry, and corn.

Stylish has been busily organising life around reptiles and frogs. She recently obtained her amphibian 1 license, and bought (using her own pocket money that she saved) two dwarf tree frogs. She intends to use them for breeding purposes and hopes to earn millions. She's very enterprising, in an 11yr old kinda way! Her next goal is her reptile license, and a blue tongue or a bearded dragon, but we'll wait until we get home from our xmas fishing/camping trip to start worrying about that.

the evidence

murdering point beach
Basil, the wild green tree frog - a BIG THRILL!Looking for frogs
Crocodile farm - don't ask me why that photo uploaded with weird light!?

Dream world, feeding kangaroos

I'm mad! 36 hours on a train with two kids ....

Our trip home from Cairns was remarkable! We had a 36hr train ride from Cairns to Brisbane, and another 15hrs from Brisbane to Sydney. I particularly enjoyed - and so did the kids - the stint to Brisbane. 

The journey must be at least 1000k. We were lucky enough to have a sleeping carriage to spread out in, with our own beds and a bathroom complete with a shower. On the train there was a dining carriage, and a carriage for entertainment and snack food as well. The kids thought that eating dinner at a table on a train was an extremely special event - they weren't wrong, but their excitement was very cute.

When it came time for bed Spikee was unable to sleep because he was so excited about having his own bed and a ladder up to it. He climbed up and down the ladder, insisted on having his photograph taken repeatedly, requested to brush his teeth a few times (you don't' often do that on a train), squealed about having hot chocolate from the cafe carriage, and then repeated the process. he eventually fell asleep beside me on my bed, at the bottom of the ladder. 

Stylish found the lights on the beds, the movies (in the cafe carriage) and the CONSTANT MOVEMENT to be the best thing. I enjoyed it all! Especially watching the kids lapping it up, and watching the landscape change from incredibly dense rainforest to yellow, dry bush land and paddocks.

It was an amazing trip. The trains made it even more so. Lots of people laughed at me for embarking on a 36hr train ride with two kids but I knew it would be great! Those who prefer plains are missing a hell of a lot!

not neglecting our blog - no really!

We're currently in far North Queensland!

We decided we had to escape winters clutches and as such, have headed pretty much all the way up Australia! We have succeeded, it's Summer here, although the locals say it's cold. 

We're spending our days doing touristy stuff, like going to Cairns Tropical Zoo, Hartley's crocodile farm, and Dream World as we went through Brisbane. Spikee has been loving all the crocodiles, and so have I! I think Stylish is impressed too but she maintains her uber cool heading for teenage disinterest level in public. Although she did accidentally crack a smile when they had their photo taken with a baby crocodile, and Spikee was mesmerised, and positively BEAMING in the photo!

At night the kids run rampage in the garden finding frogs, geckos and *shudder* cane toads. I always knew there were lots of cane toads but seeing them is really something else. They are as revolting as their pictures suggest, ugly, warty, and unfortunate looking creatures. Stylish is hell bent on seeing a green tree frog in the wild and the womyn we're staying with says that when it rains they climb on her windows, so we live in hope. I'd like to see one too, apparently they're huge!

A few more quiet days are coming up, we're going to go to the local beach tomorrow, but I hear you can't swim at this time of year coz there are sting rays in the water. And fresh water swimming is out of the question when you've seen some of the gigantic crocodiles we've seen the last few days. The purpose of our visit to the beach is to find fire wood so we can have a BBQ, but I' m not sure how Stylish will take the non swimming news.

de-schooled, or pretty darn near it!

Still no lists! 

I find myself unable to list all the ways my daughter has changed since leaving the institution. Our relationship is entirely different, and it's almost as if I have suddenly - over the course of nearl a year - acquired a new daughter! One of the interesting changes has been her interest in "girlyness" which has started to show lately. It's like she suddenly feels safe to be interested in the more socially conditioned interets of girls which she has always fought so hard to reject. For her recent 11th birthday she asked if she could get her ears pierced. She now has small purple stones in gold studs, and they're very pretty. Hearteningly though, she is not all consumed by her new "girlification", and the first set of earrings we bought her for when her ears have healed sufficiently, are small silver frog studs, they're very "her".

I keep meaning to take a photo of our gardening but just haven't gotten around to it. Suffice it to say the veggie garden is coming along ok. We've only killed the bok-choy so far, everything else is alive and well. 

We will go to the museum tomorrow. it is Stylish's Grandma's birthday, my mother, and although she's dead, I think she'd like to think of us going to the museum on her birthday. No doubt photos will follow so I must make sure to take some of the garden before updating! it's not a spectacular project, but it's satisfying nonetheless.

a busy home day

Today we're going to plant our seedlings in milk crate pots. They're outgrown their current baby pots. We have brussel sprouts, leeks, bok choy, and lettuces. We also have herbs, but they're alright where they are for the time being.

I found a 5 minute gardening book at vinnies, and so we're following the instructions in it. We'll layer news paper, mulch, and compost in the boxes and stick our baby plants in. 

This is all in keeping with our sustainable living projects, we're growing some of our own veg, and using compost and news papers to support the project. 

Stay tuned for pics of our gardening exploits.

our pantry science experiments!

We have been doing some simple science experiments lately. We tested alkaline and acids using purple cabbage water, bi-carb soda, and vinegar. It's like litmus paper, but more fun!

How to do it!

Boil some purple cabbage in a saucepan. Strain the water into a clear jar.

Add some bi-carb soda. This is an alkaline - or base, neutral - substance so it causes the purple water to change to pink.

Add some vinegar (make sure the container is over a bowl because the reaction of the bi-carb and vinegar can get exciting) and the water will change to blue! That's because vinegar is an acid!

We also made a compass using basic household equipment!

All you need is a round cork - the sort found in the top of jars, not bottles - a magnet, some sticky tape, and a needle, a bowl large enough to fit the cork in, and water.

What to do .....

Stroke the magnet in one direction down the needle for three to five minutes.

Use a small bit of sticky tape to stick it to the top of the cork.

Place the cork in the bowl of water and watch the needle spin until the end faces due north!

This shows the properties of magnetism and how they interact with the earth. it's pretty amazing if I do say so myself.

 

This is the quilt made from $5 second hand material.

Social Awareness strikes when you least expect it!

Stylish has FINALLY DEVELOPED SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS! It came out of the blue - or maybe not. I have been working on it for some time. She is now happy to buy second hand items, and is even starting to get into scouring second hand shops for useful items (either toys, clothes, or RAT paraphernalia - *snicker*)

She spent an hour googling mac donalds the other day and learning about their appalling farming habits, and their appalling FOOD, and how their farming and production impacts  the carbon footprint on our planet. I'd like to thank the museum trip for that actually. We went and saw that exhibition again and she read it all again and had a great time playing on the political game table where you balance a governments finances, popularity, and green policy all against each other and try to stay in power.

Her latest thing has been RAT WELFARE. She wanted a new pet rat and I said no because we have two already.  I said she could get one if she could find an animal shelter with one - anything to avoid arguing - and I figured it would be hard to do *chalked up as a bad decision*. She not only found rat welfare homes, but she found a rat, and we brought her home today. All our rats are currently settling in with each other. 

My father seems to be coming around to the idea of home school - and yet still struggling with it. He has been asking questions about HSC, and is willing to help us pay for a trip to Cairns for edumacational purposes, but today when he saw us with the rats he remarked "she could be at school, instead she's at home playing with rats". I ignored it coz I thought it was funny.

We have been attending a local homeschool group and Stylish has been having a wonderful time playing with other children who have freaky parents like me. Spikee has also been enjoying the local groups and there are some kids his age there for him to play with as well. The hardest bit of it is that it happens on our usual shopping day so I need to go shopping later, and then I'm dragging a finicky toddler about trying to shop. But I'm really enjoying the whole picnic in the park, let the kids run amok thing and so are the kids.

I have spoken to some other mothers at the group about what they have done for re registration purposes. It all sounds relatively easy when I hear it expressed in their terms, but I'm still having a mental block over it. All I need to do is make a scrap book with samples of her work in it. Sounds simple - no? . NO! I clearly find it very complicated or I'd bloody well DO IT and stop worrying about it! And something interesting that one of them told me is that she was due for re-rego last October and they haven't contacted her yet!? That hardly helps me with my bid to re register, if anything it makes me relaxed and ambivalent - oh well.

an update - lest May slip away without one

May has come and nearly gone and little has happened. Well lots has happened but most people think nothing has happened because we're not in a school! Stylish has been playing her internet game,Spikee has been doing puzzles, and I have been longing to sew MORE than I do.

I sewed a quilt cover from $5 second hand material bought from vinnies, and Spikee loves it. And Stylish is really starting to understand the whole sweat shop thing, and when we're opping - or Op Shopping - she is always reading labels and telling me that the people who made this item are exploited because they were in a factory in China! That's sucha  huge step for her, I'm so proud.

She is also starting to understand my refusal to purchase slave chocolate. AT this point she is moaning about it lots, and trying to cajole me into forgetting about it. For example, a muffin she wanted had a sliver of mars bar on top of it, and I said she had to get another one, so she did - but she protested.

We've had a couple of trips to the museum - on week ends! And it reminded me of one of the best reasons to homeschool ... venues like the museum are EMPTY on week ends! We're also heading for Queensland in July, and I'm going to book my trip some time next week! YAY!!!! Stylish is very keen on seeing green tree frogs while we're there.

a trip to the museum

We went to the Australian Museum for the day yesterday. They currently have an exhibition called "WHEN MAMMOTHS ROAMED" showing so we went to check it out. It was fantastic!!!! I'm really interested in pre-history stuff like that so I was in my element, and I think the kids accidentally enjoyed themselves too - possibly feeding off my enthusiasm. Naturally I took plenty of photos. Stylish really did absorb a lot

They had a mammoth with lots of windows over various parts of it, labeled. And underneath the sliding window it showed what that body part was used for. I must say that I found this part really interesting, and very timely! We've been talking lots about using the whole animal that you kill, rather than just eating the "nice" bits and throwing the rest away. And the mammoth exhibit really highlighted this to her.

Spikee loved the dine-dongs (AKA dinosaurs) and talked late into the night about the movie they have where a big dinosaur eats a little dinosaur. He also loved the play area for 0-5's with a fantastic wooden tree house and lots of little wooden animals and people. Owing to the fact that we visited on a weekday (one of the many advantages of homeschooling) the play area was deserted! So he had it all to himself. He really loved looking at the big mammoths in the exhibit too, so I took his photo with the little one, I also took a photo of the tree house.

The other exhibition we saw was a climate change one. I was looking at one part of it when I noticed that I had lost Stylish ... I found her READING EVERYTHING SHE COULD! She has NEVER read anything at the museum! She loves the drawers of insects and bugs in the Discovery room, and always pores over them reading their names and taking notes about them, but actually reading an exhibit is a first for her! She must have read every word IN it, and was really interested in it all. There was an interactive table with a game on it where you select a country, and are given various environmental problems for different areas (logging, agriculture, waste management etc) and multiple choices to make into policies. Then you get to see how it impacts on that country's financial situation, and the popularity of the government, as well as the environment. She spent ages doing that. it was very well done, and quite funny, but it really got her grey matter into gear!

new musical beginnings!

Stylish has begin learning to play the recorder! She is learning to play 'Mary had a little lamb'. This is somewhat hindered by the enthusiasm of Spikee! So today we bought him his own tambourine and maracas, but he still wants the recorder! I think we'll wait til next time he's asleep and we're both energetic and wide awake, then give it a real whack.

ANZAC DAY 09

As a typically pacifist day - despite this being ANZAC day - we started out to do family things. We had a free pass to the Sydney Aquarium so we decided to cash it it and enjoy a day underwater! We do intend to bake ANZAC biscuits and discuss war at a later date - Stylish is quite interested in the wars to date.

The chidlers had the most wonderful - and accidentally edumacational - day! We spent the day cruising around the aquarium mesmerised by the amazing display they have going at the moment. The Dugongs are so wonderful I could hardly drag myself away from them. The kids ofcourse, enjoyed the SHARKS (*snicker*) although Spikee was a bit worried about them at first (*snicker*). 

At the end of the day we went to Darling Harbour for something to eat. The kids had ice-cream and I had chicken (in keeping with the low carb diet). Then we caught the monorail to the city and a bus home! A very busy and fun filled day was had by all!

computer battles

Lately there have been a few battles over computer time and how things are getting done - or not. Today after a discussion we have agreed that she will be permitted two hours on the computer each day. 1hr in the morning and 1hr at night. She will self police it using the microwave timer. We will see how it goes. Owing to the fact that it was negotiated by her and not just imposed upon her I'm hoping she will stick to it, but being her age does make these things complex to say the least!

Stylish hasn't seen her father since early last December and she is starting to get very angry at him. last at the wind down stage of our big argument she screamed at me "my grandma is dead and my father has abandoned me". Then the argument was over, she just wanted to talk about that stuff instead of how awful I am and how I apparently hate her - very normal topics for someone her age me thinks! Yesterday when I was out she tried to phone him but his phone was switched off, when I got home she was in a RAGE, and it wasn't until she said that I realised what the underlying problem was, and no it wasn't a computer game on the internet. I now have her on a substantial dose of "Sturts Desert Pea" Bush Flower Remedy which is for deep seated grief. After the argument she shared some poems with me - on the condition that I didn't laugh. She's written some lovely poetry and I'll ask her if I can publish one of them here later.

2nd hand shopping

We decided to go second hand shopping today. Stylish is having some hormonal outbursts so she decided that she wasn't going to join us. So Spikee and I caught a bus to a really great local shopping centre with three second hand shops. I found lots of scrap material and brought it all home, and I'll have a look at it later to see what can be done with it. Stylish is going to make herself a hat out of some of the stuff we already have so I'll be sure to take lots of photos.

I also found a book about a teenage girl who finds out that she is pregnant. I thought owing to her age that she might like something with that sort of thing in it. Who knows. I'm sure that when I give it to her she will roll her eyes and look bored, then groan "muuuuuuum, why would I want THAT?" before stomping off to go have a look at it in private. 

I've been reading a book on teenagers, and whilst she is hardly a teenager she is certainly hormonal! Some of the outbursts are quite notable, it's comforting to read a book about it and know that it's not me, it's her. The book was called "BEFORE YOUR TEENAGERS DRIVE YOU CRAZY, READ THIS" and whilst I can't say I agree with everything the author says I certainly learnt a whole lot and enjoyed reading it to boot. He is a really funny author.

the week so far

Today I made up the all important, highly anticipated maths test for Stylish. She got everything right except one question which I rubbed out and she tried again, so she fixed it. Now she's so excited coz she's never had 100% in a maths test - none of in this house have for that matter! We finally got around to chucking out the previous text book (well we still have it but ...) and buying a new one. She has completed three units in it already and spent the whole time screaming "MUM I DID IT" which was so wonderful to watch. When she had questions about certain things she googled them on the laptop at the table where she was sitting. So satisfying to see learning take place, SELF DRIVEN LEARNING!!!

We decided to go out for the afternoon and have a baby cino - or coffee - depending on personal taste. I gave Stylish free range of the butcher and asked her to choose some meat. She decided to get FISH instead which is a surprise coz she normally isn't that into fish. We have yet to see what she'll do with it but I'll be sure to update!

autumn, maths, and cake baking

Today it rained all day. I can feel autumn is in the air, it's getting chillier. We still haven't broken out the jumpers, but I did make a huge vegetable bake for dinner instead of the usual salad. 

This afternoon I have Stylish a whole page of maths revision questions. She completed them all in no time, and self corrected them using a calculator. She was very pleased with herself when she discovered that she had answered every question correctly. Amusingly the update on her blog says something about how she's enjoying maths now - although I wouldn't quote her on that if I didn't want a frog in my bed. 

After dinner I wrote a list for Stylish to complete this week, concentrating on the things I wrote up last night. While I was doing that she came to me and said that she wanted to make some biscuits. I explained to her the difference between a cake batter and a biscuit batter and she changed her mind, deciding to bake a cake. I set her loose in the kitchen and away she went! The only help she required was with sugar, I told her to add a little bit more owing to the fact that sugar mysteriously vanishes when you bake it( there's a science lesson in there somewhere I'm sure of it!).  She created her own recipe using all the right ingredients, she didn't measure anything, and then she baked it to perfection. I am amazed at what a fantastic cake it turned out to be! But I'm not amazed at the same time. She is un-learning beautifully it would seem!

the struggle with maths .....

Owing to the fact that there have been no lists lately, and I'm starting to panic about how much work we will have to show in our bid for re-rego - the bane of my existence - we have pepped up our maths efforts. There have been some really basic things giving Stylish trouble and I want them ironed out ASAP. 

I have been writing some sums in her work book and sitting down with her while she completes them. They are all long multiplication, division, changing fractions, percentages, decimals, and basic subtraction with borrowing. 

She hated it at first, but three days into the plan she is competently completing all the work and discussing further sums of a similar nature, which demonstrates her clear development in this area. And she is even saying that "maths isn't that bad" which I take as another SIGN from above. I think I will need to buy another text book for her as the one we have been working with is really poorly set out, has no practical structure for development of strategies, and is very VERY badly written, so badly that our maths tutor is unable to understand some of the questions in it - and she knows what she's doing even if we don't!  

As for other subjects - which I personally enjoy more, as does Stylish, she is coming along well with them all! Her English is well beyond her years, her writing is exceptional for someone at her age and stage. I have published some examples here, but will endeavour to post more soon, as they get typed up on the computer. Her reading is more competent that many children twice her age, and many the same age for that matter. 

Science I think we can do more on. We haven't done very many experiments which I know she loves, and they look good for rego too. I think I will research some easy to do at home kitchen pantry type experiments, both the kids will love that.

Art isn't something Stylish is terribly interested in and I don't really care. I encourage the odd activity, like the recycled frog or some drawing but that's ok, nothing to panic about. The recycled frog is completed by the way. And it looks wonderful! Even Stylish is happy with it, she has been playing with it a lot lately. Which is both a sign of her pride in her own work, and her de-schooling. The frog is not exactly something that other little girls would play with - let alone create for themselves! I'm a very proud mummy.

History is still something that holds little interest for Stylish. There is an exhibition at the Australian Museum that opened a couple of days ago, about The time of the Mammoths, I will take her to see that. She has always had an interest in dinosaurs, maybe mammoths are the next stage, and given that humans were around in those prehistoric times it will easily fit into some type of historical edubabble for re-rego.

Music and languages ... little development on those fronts. Which is fine for re-rego because many schools offer no language or music lessons. We have been given a German text book called the "First 100 Words" that I will help her do some work in this week. As for music, I think her Aunty will help her with some music lessons when she is feeling more up to it, and it really wouldn't be hard for me to teach her some recorder playing.

So now I have worked out a bit of a list of TO DO's for the coming week or two. And I also have some more ideas about what I think I need to cover before re-rego comes up with OBoS.

• more reading 
• more effort on times tables and basic maths 
• some more drawing - maybe a painting or clay sculpture
• some science experiments
• a trip to the museum to see the prehistoric exibit
• german book
• recorder lessons

It's good to have a semi plan!!!

Easter arrives!

It is the Easter long week end. We decided to take the small folk to the show. it was the same as it is every year except more expensive because we didn't get in for free this year. To save on cost we took the most fantastic picnic lunch of roasted cajun tuna, chicken, tomato cucumber salad, tofu and bean salad, boiled eggs, and a large thermos of real coffee. There could be no denying that the best thing about the show was our picnic. Although the kids have their own ideas about that ......

Stylish had her own pocket money to spend, and her grandpa gave her another $50. She managed to spend all $75 of it on total rubbish (which I breathed deeply through - it's her money right?). She went on about six rides that were the gut heaving, brain shaking type, and she bought a Scooby Doo show bag. 

Spikee went on a train ride - twice. And Stylish accompanied him on it. He tasted his first fairy floss, and you could just see his small mind wondering where all that sugary goodness was disappearing too when he put it in his mouth, it was really cute to watch. He got to see some horses, something we dont' see much of living in the middle of a big city as you can imagine! He got a couple of show bags courtesy of his indulgent father, one was a sesame street one and the other was the cars one (it's his favourite movie). And admittedly they're pretty good, but they're still made in China, plastic crap unfortunately.

The grown ups enjoyed watching the small folk frolicking around together. We had a glass of bubbly in the foodie hall, and bought some amazing Indian spices (korma, vindaloo, and a southern one) and we got some extremely hot chili sauces, a bottle of Ned Kelly's wine spritzer, which is really mulled wine with a bad name. It tastes AMAZING! And we also got some beautiful lemon myrtle soaps. I love the foodie hall!

All in all it was a lovely family outing!I think I'll go and have a glass of mulled wine ala Ned ... I mean wine Spritzer!

the week gone by......

There have been no lists of late. The week off was clearly enjoyable, it has extended!

I intended to do a mini list for her last week because it helps keep her off her internet game but that never happened. My sister has just had a stillbirth. 

Stylish wrote a beautiful poem to read at the wake. She also wrote a lovely acrostic poem when James died, and it was read at his funeral.

R oisin means little rose

O n Thursday night she was born at home

I n our dreams she lives forever

S he is playing with my brother James

I wish I could teach her about frogs

N ever forget us little rose

J ames was a very special baby

A s I laid my hand on his hand tears welled in my eyes

M y dear little brother whom I will never get to know

E veryday I think about him and when I first saw him

S o special, like he was the only drop of water in the whole world