In a nutshell...

Nathan pulled out the cuisenaire rods this morning and began organising them into recurring stripey patterns, progressing along in a long structure.

We then headed off to playcentre (Nathan was interested in mixing various paint colours together to get interesting results, Danielle spent ages washing dishes, I spent ages washing paint brushes and pots - it's actually my favourite tidy up job, and often everyone elses most despised). I collected up several bags of acorns from the ground with help from some of the kids to give to someone I know with pigs - apparently they love them!

After lunch Nathan played with lego - I'm starting to see how lego is tied in with math skills. He was working on different combinations of pieces to get his creation to work and add more stability. He's looking at his creations in more of a (not sure of the word: spacial awareness, 3D, cause and effect??) and ways of problem solving when things don't go right. So rather than giving up or simplifying his creation, he works on ways of making his original vision work.

He then asked me to print out some words for him to read (not sure where that came from, it's not something we "work" on or anything). So after clarifying what he was after, I hunted out a list of sight words for him and he confirmed that yes that was what he wanted, I read some out to him.

He then found some packets of math flash cards we had but not yet looked at and asked me to play with him with them. So I introduced him to what the idea was and using the cuisenaire rods still out on the floor as a means of helping with the sub sets and adding. He moved on after about 5mins.

We finished Charlotte's Web and one of the magic tree house books today and Nathan wanted to re-start from where we left off with The House at Pooh Corner.

Off to the zoo...

We went on a zoo visit today with our playcentre. It's been a few years since we've been, so it was a great opportunity to go along again. The bus trip into the city was a new experience for both kids too.

Tuesday

~ Playcentre morning - both kids were into art and collage today, Nathan was also into dressups and Danielle played with the baby dolls making them all "nu-nu" (nudey)
~ A whole box of matches have been struck, candles lit and candles blown out (he quickly worked out the rules of subtraction as the matches disappeared!).
~ Reading: The Magic Treehouse (Olympic Games), Charlotte's Web, various storybooks
~ While Danielle slept, Nathan did some DVD watching and computer play (starfall)
~ Nathan practiced writing while we were reading the magic treehouse (they have handwritten bits in them that seem to inspire him to want to copy out right there and then)
~ Nathan was my dinner helper tonight (he peeled a carrot and cut up the vegetables for our tacos)
~ Lego building (I noticed he was working on forming patterns and the combinations of smaller pieces required to equal a larger piece)
~ Trampoline bouncing
~ Danielle played with duplo and stacking boxes and organising things into boxes

The dare devil and the dreamer

The kids spent most of the day doing their own thing today - perhaps because both Simon and I were home? Danielle's going through a real "gotta hang out with daddy phase" so I think that accounts for a bit of it.

Simon was down in the garage this morning, so the kids set up a "camp site" outside.

Danielle helping wash dad's bike after his big ride yesterday.

Since reading The lion, the witch and the wardrobe, Nathan has wanted to make his own bow and arrow like Peter. So today Simon put one together for him.

This afternoon Nathan wanted to try flying by using a bag to break his fall - hmmm, let's just say we had a small discussion about why this experiment may not be successful from greater heights (which he wanted to do)!

The Eiffel Tower

Today Nathan was inspired by one of the Magic Tree House stories from a month ago. He was playing with his lego making steps and then decided it would become the Eiffel Tower. He discovered while making a long staircase that it needed supporting uprights to stop it from breaking up and was having other trouble getting things to stay put. It was the cause of a lot of frustration for him, so I became the builder and he designed and instructed me on what to do.

He wanted to look up a real picture of the Eiffel Tower and then determined how high the tower needed to be to be of similar proportions to the real deal. He wanted to know how many steps there were (the book talked of the kids walking up all the steps but we couldn't remember) - there are 1,665 in total.

Playing with fire

We went over to the kids nannie and grampies this afternoon and while there I asked grampie if we could use his camping thermette for the kids to have a go at discovering fire - to demystify it and learn about how to go about it safely. The kids have been right into lighting candles at dinner time and wanting to blow them out. Last winter Nathan was really interested in helping set the fireplace up, so I think this winter he'll be able to do it himself with a little help.

~ We had a spare glass of water if required
~ Grampy supplied us with his water fire extinguisher
~ We talked about striking the match away from us and best technique for getting it to light (after me holding his hand a few times he was amping to give it a go himself)
~ How to build a fire that was going to stay going - it took a few trials!
~ And what happened with the thermette when the fire got hot enough - we could boil the water around the sides (the inside is hollow like a chimney)
~ How he is to only light a fire with an adult, but is free to ask when he wants to do it

The time just shoots by

Whenever I think "tomorrow I'll get out x,y,z for the kids to have a play with" coz they seemed interested or when they get bored I will have a few things up my sleeve to pull out for them it just never seems to eventuate. Before I know it, the day has gone, the kids have been busy, I've done my things I want to do and they're in bed fast asleep.

Every day upon waking, Nathan asks me what we're going to do that day. I just don't generally have plans like that except for playcentre days or days we've pre-arranged to meet with friends, and it's not a question I really want to start the day with.

I usually ask him what he wants to do - today he suggested going out and getting ice cream and a play in the playground - it was 8.30am. So, yeah, why not.

In the meantime, Danielle went off drawing different versions of these interesting figures and has been for a few weeks now.

So, at 10am we decided to pop out for ice cream (afterall, the nutritional value of ice cream at 10am is no different to ice cream at 3pm lol). On the way, we went past the library and switched some books for some new ones. After a few hours of playing they were ready to head home for lunch.

After lunch Danielle wanted to wash her baby doll again, so I set her up.

While I was hanging up some washing Nathan wanted me to help him set up some paints to paint rocks. So he went off and sourced a few large stones while I rounded up the rest of the things for the two of them. I could hear him chatting about colours he was discovering while mixing them up. Danielle's all about the red paint first up at the moment whenever she paints.

We were invited over to some friends this afternoon, so dinner was prepared before leaving - Danielle decided to help me out today (but I think she consumed half the tomatoes instead while loading the veges into the casserole dish).

We came home for some reading, dad got home for dinner with us, we all went down to the garden to water it and let the chickens out before heading in for bath, stories and bed.

Thursday

Well today was meant to be a playcentre day, but we decided not to go. Instead we mooched around the house this morning: Danielle wanted to give one of her dolls a bath (so a bowl of warm soapy water and a facecloth did the trick), the kids got all excited as usual when the vege box was delivered and had fun filling up the fruit bowls and fridge with fresh stuff, the box (as usual) was instantly transformed with a pair of scissors - today it became a flying cat which then fell to bits and was converted into a flying mat that travelled to India, made lunch (with special requests from Nathan for cauliflower that had arrived in the box - blech lol) and did a house tidy up in preparation for a couple of unschooling friends coming over.

So the kids played and entertained themselves for a few hours playing in the sandpit with loads of water, duplo building, eating watermelon and muffins, bounced on the trampoline and general busyness.

After a bath and dinner, Nathan discovered some tools that were left out by grampy who came to fix our washing machine. I discovered him dismantling my fence around the porch - so reminder to self to get out some things for him to work on tomorrow. He then found a piece of rope in the toolbox and proceeded to tie it in knots - so we got out the knot book grampy had lent us and he asked me to tie some of the knots. Then he just wanted me to tie random knots for him to unravel - the bigger the better.

They then lined up a bunch of chairs and stools against the couch to make steps up, laid a yoga mat across the top and rolled the ball down and climbed up and over leaping onto a pile of cushions.

Off to bed with heaps of stories, more Charlotte's web, a few chapters of another Magic Tree House book and out like a light.

Oh, the pain...

Well, that's what happened to me when I decided to have a ride on Nathan's new scooter this morning. I was zooming down the hallway and the muscles in my back/shoulders went ping. Silly mummy.

However, we were still able to go out and meet up with friends down at one of the local parks. The kids swam in the paddling pool there, played in the playground, wandered around the miniature railway tracks and then they wanted to go down to the beach next to the playground for a splash around. So a few fun-filled hours were had by all.

This afternoon was me spent lying down with a headache from the tension but I was able to read books, answer Nathan's writing questions and help him fulfill his need to draw road signs. They played with playdough, dressed up in their matching capes and raced around, played in the sandpit and bounced on the tramp.

Our day in pictures

It was a playcentre day this morning - there was plenty of climbing and imaginative play going on for both kids today.

While Danielle napped during the middle of the day, Nathan made this. He hasn't had the train track out for a while, nor the blocks. But he loves using them together. These stacked up block creations have been made over the past year and were a real source of frustration at times getting them strategically placed with the track balanced on top, but now he's quite a whizz at constructing it. It started off with just the blocks and a "train garage", then he decided it could have track coming out of it and away it went. Note the platform of people under the garage lol. Oh, and he told me the loop was the shape of a pear.

When Danielle woke, we filled the paddling pool up and Danielle discovered she could make the boat move around with the hose.

Nathan then asked to make some gluten free playdough since I'd asked him not to play with it at playcentre this morning after last weeks tummy ache.


Gluten free playdough (non-cook recipe)
1/2 cup rice flour
1/2 cup corn flour
1/2 cup salt
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1 cup boiling water
Add to the water: 1 teaspoon cooking oil, a few drops of food colouring

Mix all dry ingredients together, add boiling water with added ingredients and stir until it blends into a ball. Put onto a bench sprinkled with rice flour and knead till no longer sticky. Add extra corn flour and rice flour till you get doughy yet not sticky dough (usually an extra 1/2 cup of rice flour and 1/2 cup of corn flour are required for this process).

When dad got home, we went down and watered the garden, let the chickens out, bounced on the tramp, then the kids asked if they could make some muffins with him. So instead of their usual toast before bed, they munched on muffins instead (and I had to evict the crumbs from the bed - ick!). We continued on reading Charlotte's Web and had a small intermission while Nathan decided to have me write out a bunch of words (it started with Templeton and then moved on to the other key characters and themes in the book).

Monday

We decided this morning that we'd go out and collect pine cones from a local mountain bike park to use in our fire this winter since Simon has Monday's off. We discovered masses of blackberry bushes - got quite a few, but not enough to take home to make jam or anything. Afterwards, we went off to a nearby BMX park for a ride around.

While I was on the phone sorting out my loss on internet connection this morning, the kids had made up a game which seemed to come from The Magic Treehouse books. They would stand on my rolled out yoga mat and Nathan would say "I want to go there!" (while pointing to his palm) and they would travel off to England, India and the Artic (and fortunately their clothes changed into warm jackets).

I was tidying up the kids activity table last night and came across a bunch of drawings. These kind of represent where each of them is at.

Danielle does heaps of these. Little squiggles around the outside of paper and in lines (I think they represent letters, coz she did it one day telling me it was her name).

Nathan has progressed in the last 6mths into drawing scenes and occasionally decides to colour them in. He also uses different colours instead of a single colour for each picture.

This morning Nathan was singing "heads, shoulders, knees and toes" and a while later he was over at their table drawing. He came over with it and was asking what other body parts he could add to his picture - so we came up with a few other ideas. This picture wasn't of a person, but all their body parts just placed on the page. He then got out his Body book and found a few more things he wanted to add.

Danielle's right into putting things into things at the moment. She loves to put things to bed and spends ages playing with her dollshouse and the duplo in this way.

Charlotte's Web is our latest book.

This was a creation Nathan made at the beach a few weeks back. It was a day where the tide was in right in up to the stop bank (it seems whenever we go to this particular beach access the tide is in, so the kids always play this game), so we played up on the stones with the beach debris. He really likes creating a mini "camping" scene with a teepee, log for sitting on, fire and spit for hanging his meat to cook and a couple of trees.

Just a small recap on today

Millions of questions from Nathan "what would happen if...". I rarely get "why" questions anymore, but boy, I get a heap of the above version. Sometimes I think he actually wants to know the answer and other times I think he's just making conversation.

Danielle was trying out her cutting skills today - she still does it the two-handed way (and oops, Nathan had left a favourite picture on the play table upside down and she cut it up).

We visited the kids grandparents and we went to a playground across the road with a flying-fox, a stream and a cool bridge through some bush.

Nathan stepped outside the door and asked "why can we hear the sea from our house?" - we've had a bit of stormy weather including a waterspout last night (a tornado over the sea) just down the road from us, so the ocean is all rough and very loud from our house still.

The kids cracked the eggs to make their scrambled eggs for lunch.

We bought a gift for a wee friends birthday party tomorrow. Danielle's finally realising that her friends can receive a cute wee gift that she also loves - we've bought two little girls the same teeny tiny baby doll (fits in the palm of a 3yr olds hand) that she got for Christmas for her dollshouse set. The first one we bought she didn't understand about gifting, but this one she was all for.

Heaps of books were read again today.

Nathan is still right into his numbers - today he was writing some numbers - not something he's done a lot of until now either. He still doesn't recognise all numbers by sight, but decided to work on the number 7 today as we were reading one of his chapter books (a good thing with the Magic Tree House books being so short is that we get the regular exposure to the chapter numbers) - so got up midway through the story to work on it. He then moved on to writing the rest of the numbers out. He took notice of a few large numbers in his book today as well 1000, 4000 etc were mentioned as part of the story.

Nathan peeled the kumara for tonights roast dinner.

Danielle's growing vocabulary is really blowing me away. I couldn't possibly keep up with the new additions and the clarity of the sounds. Guess the glue ear has finally cleared.

No TV, DVD, computer or playstation today aside from a little morning TV. I don't limit these things really, but I do find it interesting how some days neither child gravatates towards it during the rest of the day.

A marked improvement...

Yes, today I felt in a better space to deal with what came at me.

We started off with some friends coming over this morning.

After they left we sat down for some reading time. The kids really enjoy it and instigate it as a way of reconnecting and resting. So we had a mixture of books that Danielle enjoys, and then read one of Nathan's chapter books.

They then decided to watch a video with a couple of Hans Christian Andersen fairytales on it while I prepared lunch. They've had them for years and used to watch them daily, but they haven't been out for many months.

We then headed off to do our grocery shopping. Nathan announced to me today that he wanted to help get the things. He usually does anyway lol, but for some reason he decided to approach it with intent. I also decided for the first time to show him about the prices on things with his newfound interest in numbers and will slowly introduce him to price comparison and the way the numbers are displayed to show $ and cents.

The kids chose a bag of sweets as their treat today. They ate what they wanted on the way home and then Nathan announced he wanted to save the rest for tomorrow. Since Danielle still seemed to be intent on eating, I suggested that we divide the rest in half. Fine. So we split the 10 lollies into 2 piles and Nathan put his into a container. He then went about wanting to keep eating the other 5 - but no, those were his sisters. Hmmm, a dilemma. There was a bit of explaining about what he'd chosen to do, he was free to eat the ones he'd saved. No, he wanted to save them and put them in his room. Only problem was a few hours later when Danielle came out chewing on a lollie - oh oh! I had forgotten to directly let her know that those ones weren't hers. OK, chalk that up to experience and move on and remember to inform Danielle next time. Nathan was promised a bit of chocolate from mum and dad's stash tomorrow to make up for the loss that occurred. All was well. And he still has one lollie saved for tomorrow. Phew!

After the kids put away the groceries, I decided to sort out Danielle's wardrobe as I had acquired a storage hanging thing that I thought would make it easier for arranged her winter clothes and playcentre clothes into. The kids had a heap of fun trying on bigger clothes as well as some fleece sleepsuits that Nathan wore a few years ago that Danielle will wear this winter.

The kids instigated a game this afternoon where one of them was a deer and the other was shooting it. I'm kind of still uncomfortable with gun play - but hey, it seems to have come from out of nowhere - well of course it hasn't, it's in the books we read (namely, Little House in the Big Woods). I guess it's almost instinctive to do it since guns/weapons and killing for food is so much in our history it's unavoidable (not to mention the meat that we eat, that Nathan is fully aware of where it came from!). We don't have toy guns in the house, but hey it seems a finger does the same job.

Hit and miss

Yesterday was one of the more ho-hum days. Started off with Playcentre all morning - both kids were off doing their own thing and have realised I've hit a place at playcentre where I am no longer needed by Danielle as she has really found her own feet and niche there (I'm just loving seeing her making friends, being completely comfortable with the other parents, her confidence in making requests and "knowing" the place is just fantastic) and yet she is not quite ready for me to leave her there - so I was a bit in limbo since it wasn't my duty day.

The afternoon was a bit of a miss - both kids were tired, I was tired (an active brain during my sleep meant I felt like it was one of those nights where you just dream all night - weird) and together, that's not such a good combo. A bit of a cranky mummy, kids that are less than enthusiastic about doing anything to help themselves...

We went down to the library in the afternoon and got out some more Magic Tree House books - that was a quick trip coz Nathan complained of a tummy-ache (and that had me worrying about allowing him to play with the playdough in the morning at playcentre when usually he doesn't - and although he tried his best not to touch it and washed his hands afterwards (he is gluten intolerant) I still had an attack of the guilts). A lemonade ice block on the way home was welcomed though.

I felt less than inspired to cook dinner.

After dinner we went down to feed the chickens, let them out for a run around, collected an egg, some corn, some tomatoes and basil while the kids bounced on the tramp and went on the swings. We got the cuisenaire rods out as Nathan was wanting me to write out big numbers again, so I thought I would introduce the idea that they have value in a counting/physical sense too. We mostly just played with patterns the blocks made and that each rod is made up of single units. He likes to make cubes.

Simon was going out for a training bike ride straight after work again so there was no respite and I got sprung by a friends hubby at 7pm by popping in unexpectedly to pick something up while I was cranky at the kids on tidying up the house before bed! The shame with an extememly messy house, dinner dishes/food still all over the table/kitchen and crying children and yelling mother. Arghhh. I didn't think I'd worry about that stuff - but to be caught out on a bad day just didn't need to happen.

One of the not so good days. At least it rained over night which means I don't need to water the garden today.

Anyway, today will be a good one hehe.

The easy flow of our days

I am constantly amazed (yet not) at the way our days just normally flow and fill themselves out without effort.

As usual, it started off with a bit of TV and Nathan reading his First Reader book again while waiting for breakfast. While I was off down in one of the other rooms I returned to the TV turned off, Nathan in dress ups (a pirate today) and he was in his room playing with his dominoes. He invited me to join him in making a snake to knock down. We then moved on to playing a game.

Danielle then joined us and she pulled some books out for me to read to her (and she is at the point of filling in a lot of the words of her favourite stories). While she was sorting out what books to read, Nathan's Bad Jelly The Witch fell out on the floor. After stories were read, Nathan was inspired to bring some paper and the same coloured pencils as were used on the cover page of Bad Jelly the Witch. He requested I write out all the words on the page. Even though he's been right into writing lately, I could tell this wasn't his focus for today, and if I were to encourage him to write it himself he would lose his desire and the rest of whatever he was wanting to do would dissipate. So he directed, and I did it. He then copied the picture from the cover page and then flipped it over and coped the next page's illustration as well.

He's been aware lately that when people grow up they get a job to earn money. I let him know that being an author or illustrator were what some people did for a job.

He then wanted me to write out the entire book onto about 20 pieces of paper - I drew the line (hehe) at that! I suggested he try some copy typing on the computer which he did for a few minutes and then just played around with the way the letters and spaces and lines worked on there.

Since being right into playing Spiro on the playstation over the past 6mths he's gone through a range of skills and interests and focuses. Lately he has been really noticing the words and numbers appearing on the screen and asks me what they all say. Last week he was wanting me to say all the numbers as he retrieved treasure - it was probably his first introduction to "big" numbers aside from road speed signs. I'd just count up (in 2's, 5,s etc) as he scored. I noticed a couple of days ago he was chanting to himself 63, 64, 65, 66 - seems he's figured the code out on his own. Then today we were chatting and laughing over all our corn cobbs we'd collected yesterday he was saying "I want to eat 102" and I'd come back with another number which he'd then repeat. After I'd gotten to about my 10th new number he changed the sequence and chose his own "new" number and was off and away with building a larger number.

As I was preparing lunch he bought me a piece of paper from yesterday that he'd written one of his made up words and asked me to say it. I attempted it which he found amusing. I then explained that words needed vowels for them to be pronouncable - I made an attempt at explaining that but not sure it made sense - but no worries, I'm sure it will present itself again some time.

Nathan then vacuumed the house as we were having a friend over to play in the afternoon, the kids made more things from lego and after their friend had gone he vacuumed again (half the sandpit came inside) and helped me chop up veges for dinner.

I couldn't plan this day if I tried.

Tuesday

We had playcentre this morning (the map from the previous day came with us). On the way there Nathan was observing the roadworks with the Stop/Go signs, and upon arriving there he set about making his own sign. He cut it out, wrote on the words (copied from a play sign) and taped on handles. Danielle was happy doing a lot of painting, dressing up, the confidence course and both kids played in the sandpit with water for quite a while.

This afternoon they spent quite a while constructing things with the lego. One of the constructions was a house on wheels that flew - he listed off a bunch of countries that it would fly to. He then got out his globe and we flew around the world some more.

Nathan went off and was doing some more writing - at the moment he's right into making up his own words from random letters and likes to get me to try and pronounce them, then was making up a picture of the word. I noticed too his letters are now sitting within the lines - not something I've pointed out to him.

Sitting at the table after having dinner, Nathan was gazing at the candle which he'd just blown out and said "hey, that looks like a question mark!". And true enough, the wick was that shape. I mentioned question marks to him last week when we were reading one of his books.

He's been reading one of his early reader books from the library - but is it because he can or because he's got a great memory? Guess it doesn't really matter.

When we went away a month ago to the organic festival, I bought him some juggling sticks, so today both kids were trying out their skills (Nathan was dressed as a seal while doing that ;)).


Oh, and Peter Pan was watched again, as well as some bouncing on the tramp, checking out the vege garden and harvesting the corn from one of the patches, and a bit of tidying up the house at the end of the day.

Another seemingly ordinary day

Nathan wanted me to help him draw a map on how to get down to one of the large shopping areas today (we were going to buy him a replacement soccer ball that he received for Christmas but went missing the next day!). So I drew it out and he instructed me on what to add to his picure. I love how all the important things in our life were included...dad's work, our house, the beach, some local shops, his friends house, nannie and grampies (only they were too far away to fit on the map). He then wanted me to draw our country flag on there too which he added embelishments to. He loves maps and usually draws his own, but for some reason wanted my input with this one.

Danielle *loved* the new ball and spent ages with me as we threw it back and forwards to each other all the while counting to 20 (she added in a few numbers she knew...1,2,3,5,6,8) and then asked for more over and over about 20 times lol.

We also got the kids a pack of marbles each (which I then made a little cloth bag for them each). Danielle spent a while rolling hers down the wooden-floored hallway. She came to me to let me know one had gone underneath the cabinet. Instead of my usual mode of fixing the problem by retrieving it for her, I asked her what might be useful to get it out. It was interesting to see her immediately suggest a pen which was lying on the floor. So we tried that - not long enough. Then she picked up a sales receipt lying on the floor (see the theme lol) - but no, too floppy. Then she tried the mattress air-pump (...on the floor) - too wide and the hose was too wiggly. So I suggested the ruler which was a success.

The evening was finished with me reading one of Nathan's other library books to him - Usborne's World Religions. An interesting introductory book with a great range of pictures. His focus was on the costumes and festivals.

A mixed bag weekend

Yesterday morning started off with a party for a little friend of ours and then we went off camping for the night with some friends. The kids had a great time with their wee 2yr old friend and kept themselves all happily amused. I was really encouraged that Danielle was comfortable going off with the other kids and their friends dad down to the playground without me. She has never done this before without a family member, but was totally happy and confident to do that. It's a big breakthrough for her to be ok about it. She's also starting to take herself off to the toilet on her own (despite being out of nappies for months, I have had to suggest/take her there for all of that time - yay, another little step towards independence). Her talking is coming along as well, and now expressing herself well, as well as engaging us in her conversations and is seeking to learn and ask about things - another step forwards!

Back to camping...once dinner was done, Nathan was off riding around the campground on his bike (glad we took that with us!) while Danielle came and snuggled up with me on my lap and nodded off to sleep about 8pm. I was able to transfer her to our friends bed (they had a cabin whereas we were tenting). Much later on, Nathan finally decided at 9.45pm that he was zonked and had done enough riding in the dark and climbed into his sleeping bag and went to sleep on Simon's lap (we were sitting out on the grass outside of the cabin) until we all wandered off to bed about 11pm.

This morning was spent down at the beach, Nathan was on his boogie board and trying out his newfound frisbee skills.

Back home around lunchtime had us all shattered, so a trip down to the video shop and we got out Peter Pan which Nathan really enjoyed.

Nathan then brought some pens and paper over to me to help him with doing some writing. He wanted to copy words from one of our library books.

The kids helped me make dinner (it was pizza and movie night) by opening up the can of tomatoes before being bored with that idea. I asked Nathan to pour half the can into the pot and his eye was spot on!

At bedtime we finished off our latest Magic Tree House book on Leonardo da vinci which led to a few questions about his flying machine, inventors, Mona Lisa, Italy and the year Leonardo was born.

A frequent question around here

We've been getting this a bit lately, at least once a week at the moment.

"How old are you?"
"I'm four!"
"Oh, so you'll be off to school soon?"
"Yep...oh, actually, I'm going to be learning at home with mum"
"Ohhhh, OK".

That usually has people moving on pretty quickly.

Our ever increasing resources

I've been on a buying splurge recently (mostly picked up second hand - yay!). I've really been mindful of having on hand various reference type books on many topics (a children's picture dictionary, history, general books on facts/inventions/people) and buying kids classics as I see them. Both kids love to just pick one out of the bookcase and have a flick through and look at all the pictures. Nathan then asks about what interests him.

Games - I've recently been purchasing games for Nathan in the "next" age up range and he received a few for Christmas to add to our existing collection.

Pentominoes
Dominoes
Geoboard
Shapes game
Jigsaw puzzles
Whoosit
Junior Scrabble
Card games: fish, old maid
Where in the world is Carmen San diego (geography)
Let's Shop (trading, buying, selling)
Harvest Time (a gardening game that includes seasons)
Connect Four

Other things we have that are around to be used as wanted and get used frequently (some things like the train track and wooden blocks might not get touched for a few months and then when they do get them out that's all that gets played with for a week).

Cuisenaire rods
Art supplies (glue, paint, paper, crayons/pencils, pencil sharpeners, brushes, rulers)
Train track
Wooden blocks
Lego
Duplo
Magnetix
Dress ups
Dollshouse
Kitchen set
Bikes/trikes
Stacking boxes
Stopwatch
Tape measure
Digital camera
Globe
Linking spelling cards
Trampoline
Swing and hammock
Balls and frisbee
Sandpit
Paddling pool

And then there are the many daily life things that we do...

Looking after the garden, taking care of our dog and chickens, cooking meals and baking, helping out around the house, visiting friends and family, playing at the park and the beach, attend playcentre a few times a week and heaps of other things.

Reading...and then watching

A few months back we read The Lion, the witch and the wardrobe.

I wasn't too sure at the time whether Nathan was that interested in listening to me read it. I didn't receive many questions nor much feedback about it. I thought perhaps it was a bit too old for him with some of the concepts (and the fact that we are not Christian meant that I wasn't able to relate the story back the bible since he doesn't know a lot about that at the moment - except for the "old book" that's on our bookshelf). The language was a little more advanced that usual, but he didn't question me.

However, we decided to get the movie version "Narnia" out last weekend and did a homemade-pizza-in-front-of-a-movie-night. I was interested to note that he was able to recall what was coming up next and looked forward to the story unfolding (as well as what special items Peter, Susan and Lucy received). So while he may not have appeared to have absorbed the story - it seems he did.

After the movie was over he was watching the "making of the movie" scene and I explained that the people were actors and those were their jobs. He then wanted to make a movie so we got our my digital camera and made a few short clips.

Discussions were also had about WWII (why kids were sent out to the country, where were the dads, why the mums stayed in the city) - I don't recall the book focusing so much on the story being set during WWII, but the movie has a reasonably graphic night scene with aeroplanes bombing the children's house.

Interestingly as well, the movie was watched every day for about 3 days and hasn't been touched since (well, it seems I've spoken too soon as since I'm sitting here quietly typing this up he's popped the DVD in the player lol).

The list of chapter books we've read is growing...

Wow, it's been a long time since I blogged. However, I've committed to restarting this blog as we travel on our journey.

Nathan is LOVING chapter books still. He can't get enough of me reading them to him. I've really noticed his vocabulary increasing and shows a real interest in the meaning of words he doesn't know. We most read them at bedtime for about 1/2hr or so. Sometimes during the day if he asks me and usually it's when he wants a bit of rest time and I see him gazing off as he listens.

We've read quite a few of the Magic Treehouse books. These are a fantastic little read which take about 1-1.5hrs to get through - a great introduction to many different topics. Each story covers a place/person/time in history. Some are more fantasy based, but none the less, they keep his attention captured and asking plenty of questions while a story is told. They involve a brother and sister who travel on adventures via a magic treehouse. We've read of dinosaurs, Leonardo da Vinci in Italy, knights and castles, Pompeii and the volcano, Native Americans and buffalo, mummies and Egypt, a visit to the moon, inventors and the World's Fair in Paris.

What I have found with reading books to Nathan is that *I* really need to enjoy reading them to him as well. Give me a book I'm not enthused about and I really don't feel the love - and isn't that the point of unschooling? People will learn when their interest is captured - you could go through the motions of trying to learn something, but if you don't have an interest I can't see a lot of long term learning going on (nor the love of learning being kept alive).