Aug. 22, 2008 - Use Reading to your advantage

Aug. 19, 2008 - Revised Post - Diamonds and Perfection

Last week one of the homeschoolers gave a short speech on Diamonds.  She actually had a $72,000 diamond with her to show us.  Just for proof – here I am.

Apparently this diamond has many flaws in it so a jeweler would recommend it to be in a necklace not a ring because people look closer at rings than they do necklaces!  Go figure!  I reckon I’d look pretty close at either if it cost $72,000!

We all enjoyed seeing such a huge diamond but there was a moral to the story.  If such a beautiful gem, and expensive gem can still have flaws then it kind of puts a different slant on perfection and value doesn’t it!

We need to see ourselves as gems, worth far more than $72,000 in God’s eyes, He sent His son to die for us – that is how much we are worth to Him (already, now, today!)

Thanks to Luke’s comments I am going to expand my thoughts on perfection, and write them a little less statically.

So often we live to a man-made standard of perfection, always striving to be good enough. Our actions will never be good enough to be right with God.  This is why Jesus came.

If we are to focus on our actions, what we don’t do, how we can’t do enough, we will be riddled with guilt.  Once again this is why Jesus came.  There is no guilt in Christ Jesus.

God desires our hearts.  He wants our worship, our love.  And yes once our hearts are full of love for Him we find that we want our actions to please Him too.  No longer is our life striving to please but rather an act of love and worship, strengthened by His grace and love for us.

In my previous post I did say “But nowhere does God require perfection”.  Let me expand because Matthew 5:48 does say, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

As women, as homeschool mums, homemakers, and wives we often look at our lives and see ourselves lacking.  We don’t keep a tidy house, our ironing is piling around us, meals aren’t what we desire, and are we doing enough with our children?  We have an ideal homeschool mum, wife, mother, haunting us in the back of our head.  It is that standard of perfection that God doesn’t require.  And yet so often it is that standard that we judge ourselves on.

As I researched the word perfect as used in the Bible I found that it was translated with a few different words - pure, without blemish, mature, blameless.  These words indicate a moral completeness, and Scripture is clear that this is made possible because of Jesus.

This morning I enjoyed the study of Matthew 5, in connection with the word perfect and there is so much more to be gleaned.  But my thoughts keep returning to the diamond.  The diamond was assessed as valuable even with the blemishes that the human eye could see.  The same goes for me and you – regardless of the human blemishes we can see, God sees us differently, He has made us perfect.

Aug. 18, 2008 - Bumping Up FIAR

I have tried to walk away from FIAR several times but I keep coming back.  The relational way lessons are taught and the good books are just too good to let go. 

My youngest two are 9 and 11 and I know they are supposedly beyond the FIAR ages but I am going to give “bumping up FIAR” a go.  My 9yo has some learning difficulties and his basic skills are at 6yo level (reading/writing) though his thinking skills are on target.  My 11yo though a competent reader isn’t comprehending non-fiction independently yet and therefore not ready for independent study.  So I want to do FIAR with them together.

Over the last 6 months we have dibbled and dabbled here and there and though they have been learning it hasn’t been a concentrated effort.  I want that to change.  This afternoon I made some decisions and planned our next unit.

1. I am going to start at FIAR Vol. 1 and do each book, unless there is a good reason for not doing it.  This will reduce my decision making.  Just do the next book on the list!
2. I want to make sure we do the activities that we didn’t do the last time (or two) around – ensuring that we do the “harder” lessons
3. Nomi needs opportunity to learn independent study skills – key words, summarizing, reading non-fiction, using various resources etc
4. Daniel needs a couple of independent activities that he can do at other times and yet enhance his FIAR studies
5. We will give lapbooking another try.  I am toying with the idea of making the lapbooks smaller – either ½ foolscap or A4 just so we aren’t faced with such a large area to fill.  Still thinking on this one.

Here are my notes for our lessons on The Story of Ping.  Some of these lessons come from the manual, some from online links and some from my head.

Introduction:  Story Disks, maps, vocab, narrations,

Atlas work, non-fiction books

Make “About China” mini book

Maintain a Resource List (DM) / Bibliograph (NM)

Create a Lapbook cover (photocopy book cover)

Social Studies

Review:  Map, vocab, sequence of story

Read Ms.Frizzle’s Adventure to Imperial China

Discuss Culture

Compare Chinese culture with Australian

Chinese meal (possibly cooking)

Literature

Review:  Map, vocab, sequence of story

Choices Authors make – Fiction – stories using imaginations

List the things in this story that are true about China

Choices Authors make – Repetition

NM – Write a short story – possibly about an animal living on the Great Wall of China – and use repetition.

Art

Review Map, Vocab

Unity of Theme (as per manual)

NM – use this technique to illustrate her short story

Composition

Create a picture about China, ducks, boats (??) using a line of composition

DM – use magazine pictures/collage

NM – drawing

Science

Review Vocab

Read a book on Ducks – non-fiction

Review Animal Classification

DM – dictate – make a “What I know about Ducks” mini book

NM – keyword outline from non-fiction text on Ducks, rewrite (IEW lesson)

Independent activities for Daniel

• build a mud brick – using a popsicle stick mould – take photos
• Buoyancy experiment, observation and recording

This will cover 5-7 days lessons.  On the last day we will ensure our lapbooks are finished and head into the library to look for books for the next unit: Who Owns the Sun.

Aug. 16, 2008 - The story behind the photo - Nomi the Clown

Over the last few years we have seen Nomi blossom into a performer - she loves to make people laugh, she can mimic and her timing is hilarious.

Aug. 16, 2008 - My internet travels for the week

Here are some of the links (websites and blogs) that I have read, enjoyed and/or drawn from over the last week.  May you find something helpful in amongst the list.

Aussie Homeschooling

I have started to get involved with this Online Community – Aussie Homeschooling

 If you are an Aussie – I invite you to join in. 

Lapbooking – I’ve decided to give lapbooking a go again with my younger two children.  I’ve revived my page at  Lapbook Lessons online community to help me be motivated and connect with those mums who are experienced.  Lots of ideas, motivations, templates etc.  If you are interested in lapbooking – it is simple to join.

China / Olympics

I got some thoughts for our Geography/China scrapbook from Clickschooling

http://www.homefires.com/clickschool/archive.asp?d=2008/08/15

http://www.homefires.com/clickschool/archive.asp?d=2008/08/11

My Subscription to Laines Letters bounced (as per last week’s link)

So I have just book marked Laines Letters to remind myself to come back every so often for an encouragement.

Math drill sheets

Josh used these website to print out practice/drill sheets for a math concept he was struggling with.

I have given myself a new challenge – to learn digital scrapbooking.  I’d like to encourage my girls to learn and I do wonder if it won’t be something Daniel enjoys but I think I have to have a model in front of them first.  My goal is to scrap a few homeschool quotes from books that I am reading – not sure what photos I’ll use but I just want to play around for a bit.

Scrapbook to Learn got me going  (this group also covers lapbooks and notebooks so there is lots of creativity flying around)

I’m checking out ScrapbookMax 30day free trial  

Aug. 13, 2008 - a little boys quandry

When you get married – and you don’t have any kids – who does all the work?

Do you have a servant?   Or do you do all the work?"

The context of this question is that he had just been given 45min chore session!!

He finds it hard to understand that when there was no kids there wasn't this kind of mess!

Aug. 13, 2008 - Story writing and Book making

Daniel decided, at the last minute to write a crime story – where the police follow the clues and catch the bad man!

Naomi has included her love for adventure with dinosaurs for her story.

Jessica has written an historical-fiction story on Weetamoo (an Indian princess)

 Joshua has two stories to submit this year – one is Zoom Dog, he has published a few of these short stories on his blog, and the second is an animal story set in medieval times.

My plan was to get the kids to spend one week writing and one week publishing but plans always unravel!  Here we are the day before we intend to hand the books in and we are still madly editing, doing artwork, formatting and printing!!  Maybe next year will be less stressful!

There are a lot of skills that the children improve on, year after year, with this project

1.       Writing skills – I have seen the children progress from simple stories to stories with complex plots or unique voice.    We don’t focus on creative writing in our “school” time – I believe the children write good stories because they have read good stories.  Read more about the nature of Counterfeit Literature

2.  Artwork – over the years the children have used different techniques to illustrate their stories – pencil drawing, paintings, photography, models, clip art, collage

3. Technology / publishing – I have encouraged the children to use the computer as much as they want to in making their books.  The benefits of having their book on computer is that it can be reproduced many times, shared with grandparents and friends.  They have used Word Processor, Publisher, scanners, printers, digital cameras and photocopiers. Oddly enough things always go wrong when you use technology, so there is always has an aspect of problem solving attached – how are we going to solve this difficulty.

4. Working to a deadline – this is real life training.  If they don’t allow enough time at the beginning of the project they will always be rushing, pushing the deadline, if they do manage their time, then there is time to put polish on a project and be relaxed.

Publishing your own works is a great learning opportunity.  Other publishing ideas that fit family life

• Publish a Collection of your children’s stories into one book
• Publish a series of notebook pages on one topic – My book on Africa for example
• Publish your own recipe book
• Publish a book of quotes, devotional thoughts, memory verses

Read other ideas for finding a purpose for writing in your lifestyle.

Aug. 8, 2008 - Another discussion on Productive Time

I initially started calling the afternoons Productive Free Time to counteract the children’s expectation that they could waste away their time, because it was their free time.   By introducing the word “productive” my hopes were to teach them that they always had the responsibility of using their time wisely.

We have come to the place to drop the word “free” altogether.  Some people may think this is just playing word games but I have found a direct link to the language we use and the attitudes displayed.  After talking it through with my children they felt that it wasn’t “free” time, it had a purpose.  The purpose was to be productive.  I couldn’t agree more!

Though they wanted to know “What are we producing?”  Knowledge, skills, habits and relationships.   Once they had this short list in front of them, and maybe I had never clarified it so simply before, they were able to see the purpose and scope for such a block of time.

Years back, I had kept the word “free” in there because I wanted this time slot of our day to be driven by the children, their interests, passions, and inclinations.  This was a time where I inspired them to run with wherever their imaginations took them as opposed to requiring them to do what I felt was important.  This still is my intention.

As a result of this small change to our vocab we also introduced the word “recreation”.  Once again I think this word has a clearer intention than the word “free”.  The purpose for recreation time is to recreate, to refresh and renew, but there is the hint of creation in the word too – which means to make, no idleness happening here.  Idleness will lead to trouble and should be avoided, even if you have the free time to wallow in! 

The other issue we addressed is the balance between Productive time and Recreational time.   Our children have very little recreational time throughout the week but most of Saturday and  Sunday afternoon is theirs to spend as they like.  The funny thing is, the more they spend in productive time, the more that directs their choices for their recreational time!

Aug. 8, 2008 - Have you read “Parsley Rabbit’s Book about Books?”

We are very fortunate to have a library that is very proactive in promoting books, authors, illustrators and artists in general.  We have a steady stream of visiting authors throughout the year and though they come mainly in connection with the school, the library generally extends the invitation to the homeschoolers.  

I guess the highlight for us has been that Joshua was invited to spend a 1 hour with Mark Greenwood one-on-one.  Mark was so very encouraging to Joshua with his writing, and even remembered Josh a couple of years later.  As a parent you certainly appreciate adults who give themselves to your children like this.

Anyway last weekend the library was promoting “Books Alive – 50 Books you can’t put down!”.  The weekend’s activities were focused around the children’s picture book Parsley Rabbit’s Book about Books.  Both author, Frances Watts and illustrator, David Legge were there to talk to the children.

Naomi particularly enjoyed speaking to David Legge and watching him draw from scratch.  He talked about starting off drawing the block shapes that represented the object, sketching with a pencil, lightly till you got the right shape, not using an eraser.  He also demonstrated how he got figures looking real – he did the action himself and observed where his body parts were and then drew it accordingly.  All of these lessons were very timely for Nomi, our artist, to listen to.

The other very exciting aspect was that he introduced Nomi to the computer for art – he actually used computer software and a drawing tablet/stylus for the art in Parsley Rabbit….

This book is absolutely wonderful.  It shows the children all the different aspects of a book – from end papers to publishing details, it talks about how books can look different and be read in different places.  It is really about enjoying a book.  It was a timely story actually as we are in the middle of a unit, make your own books, for a competition sponsored by the library.
 

I have read it to the children this week, around the dinner table.  They all were enthralled and was sorry Daddy missed out!

Aug. 8, 2008 - The story behind the photos - Jess teaching Character

We were very proud of Jess, not just that she could teach the lesson - she has done Character First for many years and she has internalised many of the lessons, but that she was prepared to step out on a limb and fill in a gap - to us that is a very important aspect of Christian Service.  Availability!

Aug. 8, 2008 - My internet travels for the week

Here is a list of blogs, articles and websites that have either encouraged me this week, or helped me with the task at hand.

Robyn at Heart of Wisdom wrote Discover the Biggest mistake made by Homeschoolers.  Too many homeschoolers make the mistake I made in my first years homeschooling–setting aside Bible time for academics–putting trust in the wrong foundation!

Though I know putting Bible first is important, and we make this a practice, it is always good to be reminded of the importance, and to check how things are really going on in your home.

Though I have done with this blending activity with Daniel I sure wished I had seen this idea several months ago.  So if you are starting to blend, starting learning to read lessons check out this idea..  

Through one of the homeschool mums at The Homeschool Lounge I rediscovered Laine's Letters.  Many years I was regularly encouraged by these emails.  I have subscribed again and look forward to the regular encouragement.   You can view back issues online. 

Talking of The Homeschool Lounge – this is the place for Homeschool Mums!  To date there are 4000 mums, all involved in forums and discussion groups.  There is also the opportunity to create your own little Nook, a place to jot notes about your thoughts, your day, your learning ... whatever!  The Homeschool Lounge is especially designed for Homeschool Mums to find support and encouragement – so why don’t you head on over and check us out.  You’ll find me here..  

This week I’ve started thinking about Christmas.  I’ve bought a few gifts and when I came across this ideaI earmarked it immediately!  My children have started their gift giving list so they can start making gifts for their family and friends.

I have been reminded of The Rebelution through a few different friends this week, online and IRL, so I re-visited their blog and was reminded how powerful this blog is.  These boys have a mission!  I have printed out the latest article with plan to read it to my kids over dinner – to challenge them “What will you do to change the world today?”   I plan to do this regularly with different articles that come through the blog.  I have also bought their book so when that arrives we will all go through that together.

Live life with your Kids!

Lifestyle Homeschool

Aug. 4, 2008 - Daniel’s Testimony

Sunday morning was the combined Church Service out in the Park – lots of people!  As a part of the children’s talk Daniel was asked to give his testimony.  He did so well.  He spoke clearly and wasn’t scared of the microphone.

He said….

I am a Christian.

When asked what that means he said….

When Gods lives in your heart and changes your life.

Amen!

Aug. 4, 2008 - Brother and Sister time

Saturday morning our plans kept changing – go to town, stay at home, go to town!  I ended up going to town to take Nomi into the library to meet up with an author and illustrator.  I was under the impression the session was for lower primary/preschool kids so we didn’t intend to stay.  Once we met these people though we changed our mind.  I am so glad we did. More on that later.

But meanwhile back at home Jess had agreed to keeping Daniel at home with her.  Often I don’t ask the kids, I just expect them to look after each other if I have to go out but Saturday morning I knew Jess was looking forward to some down time and having Daniel at home as well would change the dynamics of that.  She was more than happy to do that.

When we came home – 3 hour later it was very quiet and Jess and Daniel didn’t greet us at the door as I would have expected.  I walked into the kitchen and there they were – sitting on the floor licking a mixing bowl!

Apparently Daniel was getting floating around so Jess offered to do some cooking with him.  I was so proud of her!

So dessert was choc chip – actually Extra Choc Chip muffins!

Peter commended them both – Jess for her generosity and Daniel for finding (thanks to Jess) something productive to do with his time – a lesson he surely needs practice in.

Aug. 3, 2008 - Heart to Heart at our Co-op

We have 3 sections of our monthly co-op meeting

1. Oral Presentations – Show ‘n Tell for the younger kids, Report or Speech for the older ones.
2. Character Instruction – we divide into two groups to focus on a concept and then come together to learn a poem about the applications of the trait.
3. One hour where the kids either experience or learn something –sometimes in age-based groups, sometimes all together.

My favourite part of the co-op is the conversation I get to have with the older group as we discuss the Character trait.  I use questions to prompt discussions and scenarios, often they suggest, to help them see the point of my lesson.

This month our character trait was self control, and my lesson was on the need for self control when we feel angry.  I wanted them to know two main points

1. There is no grading scale for anger – you can kick and slam the door or you can say sharp words in frustration – it is all an expression of anger.
2. Anger doesn’t solve anything – though we can use it to recognize there is a problem

I used my Character Notes for my background notes.  

Jul. 31, 2008 - my social day

Today has been a fantastic day - I have spent the day talking to people - really - the whole day!!

I left at 8.00am this morning to drop Jess off at Mainly Music, caught up with my friend MG.  Ran around town (well in the car, that is!!) doing a few chores.  By 9.30 I was done and settled into a coffee shop, laptop opened ready to do an hour or so of work when a friend dropped by and joined me.  So I visited with her for over an hour.  By this time another friend who I had arranged to meet there at 11.00 arrived and we talked for 1.5 hours.  Our chatting was cut short cause I had to go and pick Jess up from her music instructor.  We stayed there an extra 1/2 hour talking!  Raced home - via the shops and post office.  Once we got home and everything unpacked I told the kids I was going to sit down and get some computer work done and there was a knock on the door.  Our minister dropped in for a quick visit.  After he left I settled in once again, I think I got as far as making myself a cuppa, and the phone rang.  I had a big long talk to my friend who also homeschools.  I had to cut this conversation short since my neighbour and friend called in the check on Nomi's artwork (she herself is an artist and encourages Nomi in any pieces she is working on).  We of course, sat down and talked till 5.45pm!!!!  So much for the lovingly cooked evening meal!

So here I am, after dinner, blogging about my day, before I get into all the things I was supposed to do today!  Ahhh....  but what a fun day it has been.

Jul. 30, 2008 - Do I or Don't I?

For some reason it seems much more "acceptable" to post a picture of the biology lesson after the event than of the initial event.  The kids were fascinated especially by all the dirt in its insides.  Oh the joys of having a vet for a father!

My daughter, Jessica hasn't been so reluctant to tell the details!

Jul. 30, 2008 - Teaching to Cook

Each week as I do my menu plan I check to see who is my "Cooks Helper".  Cooks Helper generally helps with the evening meal but I will start calling on that person any time throughout  the day if I need some food preparation done.

I have used the parts to whole method with teaching my kids to cook.  I have taught them various methods / technique without getting them to cook a whole meal.  This has meant that I show them something, talk about what I'm doing and yet aren't slowed down by teaching them to cook.  eg, they learn to peel vegetables but may not actually learn how to cook a vegetable soup.    Later on when they have good knife control they may chop the veggies.  Each time they are with me I talk about what I am doing and why so they are learning about saute-ing the onions, about bringing things to the boil, and eventually they can put it all together and cook a soup!   I have done this with both baking and cooking.

The benefits of teaching this way has been, for me, that they can learn cooking on the run.  I don't have to set aside time to teach them cooking, they learn by observing me - I guess it is discipleship in the kichen!

Eventually they have to give it a go themselves.   I am best not to be in the kitchen at this time.  I have never shared my kitchen very well (My poor mother I am sure received some lip over this in my early teen years.)  But I have had various situations since I left home where I have had to get over this - having children has been one of them!

The other teaching method I use to teach them cooking - especially baking - has been bulk cooking.  I cook one, you cook one.  The benefits of this is that my hands are busy and I don't take over and I am busy looking after my own mess so I don't worry/nag about theirs!

So today Cooks Helper was Jessica.  She learnt to roast a chook and vegetables.  She did all the chopping.  She then learnt to make a custard.  I made the tabouli salad (she can already do that).  We discussed the thing about cooking a whole meal where you have to do the recipes that need the longest preparation/cooking first and then work your way up to the simplest recipe.    Next time Jess is Cooks Helper she will do a roast chicken meal without my help.

Jul. 29, 2008 - Chook Eggs and decluttering

Jul. 28, 2008 - Our Camping Trip to the Bungle Bungles

The Bungle Bungles is place of unique rock formations, gorges, chasms and rocky domes.  These domes are known for their “beehive” like structure and colour.  The strong orange/red is well known around the Kimberley and yet the distinctive stripe, layer after layer of orange/red and then black make the Bungle Bungles an incredible natural sight.

Pausing for a quick look down Picannanny Creek - which we didn't do.

We walked through the domes you can see behind us.

Peter flew myself and my parents over the Bungles a few years back – this is a popular tourist attraction.  We have been waiting till our children were old enough and strong enough to enjoy the walks before we came in on foot.  I am glad we waited.

Unfortunately we arrived in the dark, not really allowing enough time to travel.  It was a good test for family teamwork – setting up camp in the dark.  Our first assignment was to find out – by the stars – east/west.  Surprise surprise I was the one who was the most accurate.

Pete has been thinking about our camp set up for a long time – trying to make the most of his knowledge of the sun and wind.  It still needs a little tuning – but really if we had arrived in daylight he would have been spot on!  Camp consists of a large tent, two small popup tents for the kids, a trailer which holds the esky and water, a table for the kitchen and a table for activities, and camp chairs for us to move around as we desire.  Pete set it up so that the trailer held up a tarp over a “living area” making extra shade for us.    It may not look at tidy as some camps but we are a family of 6 (most campers are couples)  and it is very comfortable for us – and it works!

walking into the Domes (the most well known rock formation of the Bungles)

This was our first time camping in a camping ground, or a National Park.  When we go camping we usually go bush – to one of the cattle stations where Pete has seen a water hole or someplace recommended to us by the Station locals.  So the restrictions of a National Park camping ground were a bit of a new curve for us.  Namely, limited fire.  We are camp fire people.  Morning, noon and night!  But not in National Park where wood may well be the home of some little critter.  They supply limited firewood for communal fires.  This meant we couldn’t huddle around the fire to get warm.  Thankfully we bought hot water bottles with us and they were topped up morning and night to huddle to instead of the traditional campfire.  Not quite the same atmosphere but we were able to keep warm.

Though it wasn’t as cold as it could have been we find anything lower than 21 degrees challenging!  So it was challenging!  My M-I-L chuckled a few years back when I asked her to buy and send up 6 hot water bottles but they have certainly been well used. I think the next acquisition, in preparation for our next camping trip, will be beanies.  I know, they are not the highest fashion statement but I believe they will help us keep warm. 

Echidna Chasm - very tall, very narrow!

Beautiful variations in the colour in the rocks

We waited till the sun came overhead and shone into the chasm.  Beautiful.

One aspect of coming down to the Bungles was for a family rest.  It has been a very busy time for all of us and we needed time to recharge and regroup.  So we haven’t done the tourist thing all day.  We considered what we wanted to see, what walks we wanted to go on and planned one activity a day.  The rest of the day was for resting, reading, talking and playing games.  This is way the big table is so important to our family for camping – we gather around it and do our thing.  It was great to see Daniel with pen and paper out trying to write words just for the fun of it!

Peter has taught the kids ‘500’ (a card game) which took up a couple of hours.  Good character training too – more for the instructor I think!! 

We met one camping family – they moved in to the campsite next to ours for a couple of nights. (Not many people stay four nights like we did).  We had a good squiz through their camper trailer as we have been toying with the idea of getting one ourselves.    Their young boy and Daniel spent one afternoon together.  He taught Daniel to kick, catch and handball a football.  We really should have packed a bat and ball.   Daniel did quite well considering he has never had instruction before. 

Heading into Mini Palms Chasm.

This walk was a bit more steep/climb but still very doable.

It was also a new experience to be camping for 4 nights.  Planning the food was a bit of a challenge – what would last, how much would we need.  I packed too much food and not enough nibbles/snacks.  But our meals were delicious.

Sunday Dinner – while everyone set up camp I cooked sausages and we just had sausages and bread – nothing fancy – just get it done and lets go to bed!

Monday

Breakfast – cooked breakfast – eggs, bacon, onion, mushrooms with toast.  Pete did this on the open fire/BBQ

Lunch – ham and salad rollups (using Mountain bread)

Dinner – steak, veggie stirfry – Pete did the steak on the fire, I did the stirfry on the gas stove.  Dessert was canned peaches – was going to have cream (long life) but I forgot to serve it!

Tuesday

Breakfast – Left over sausages and steak, Porridge, Weetbix

Lunch – Tuna and salad rollups (using Mountain bread)

Dinner – Platter dinner – cheeses, muscles, crackers, dips, veggie sticks (Carrot, cucumber, snowpeas), I had sun dried tomato but forgot to put it out.  Dessert was chocolate pudding (canned – which we heated up in boiling water) and custard.

Wednesday

Breakfast – cooked breakfast on BBQ again – eggs, bacon, onion, tomato with toast.  By this stage bread is on rations so those still hungry fill up on weetbix.

Lunch – Spaghetti/Baked Beans sandwhiches – fill up on weetbix!

Dinner – Tuna Mornay. This meal needed creative thought.  I had forgotten about a colander to strain the rice so at last minute remembered the absorption method (which my kids hadn’t heard of and thought it meant overcooked rice! LOL) so that bit went well.  But by the time it came to making the white sauce we had run out of gas so it was back to the BBQ with saucepan.  It worked out really well and everyone loved it!  It was like comfort food when everyone was so cold.  Dessert was just custard – I had planned fruit cake and custard but we left the fruit cake at home!

Thursday

Breakfast – this was going to be bacon and eggs but since we had run out of bread I decided to make an omlette using minute noodles.  Boiled the big pot on the open fire/BBQ and cooked the noodles.  Scooped them into the frypan and tossed with scrambled eggs/milk.  While this gently cooked on the side of the fire Pete cooked our last pack of bacon.  This was a delicious meal and one we will do again – whether we have bread or not!

Straight after breakfast we took down camp.  It took us about 1 hour in the dark to set up (Pete and Josh actually did the tarp/shade the next day) and it took us 2 hours to pack up.  We were pretty happy with that.

Yet another type of rock formation and colour

The drive home was quite different, scenery wise, since we had driven into the park in the dark. 

We got  home, rested in soul but not so in body.  Camping is hard work but very enjoyable.  I’m glad we spaced out the walks and took it easy.  It meant the time away was as much about family time as it was about seeing the Bungle Bungles. 

Jul. 26, 2008 - Our Creative Projects at the Show

Joshua's catapult

Jessica's embroidery for which she received a first

Nomi made this bear and received first place - truly well earnt!

I don't have a close up of an individual project of Daniels but here is his collection!

Over the last 9 months or so we have  met with a few other homeschool girls regularly and learnt applique and quilting.  We call this time Keepers, or our Creative Club.  The girls worked hard to complete their quilts for the Show. 

Each of the quilts were different in some way -
but all the same colour scheme and pattern.