Playing in the rain

It's been rainy and miserable all day here. Not cold, but just damp and yuck.

This morning I suggested to the kids that we go puddle jumping today and that was met with huge excitement. So after lunch when the rain had eased to a light drizzle we donned raincoats and gumboots and headed out. They were quick to spot a few puddles.



We then wandered back past home and found no more puddles, so went back and got the car and went down to the beach for a while. I read a book while the kids played.


(Danielle making fire)

One day...one activity

Nathan received a Brain Box from one of my friends and what a hit it's been!

He played with it from the time he woke up this morning until the time he went to bed.

First up he worked methodically through all the pages making up the different circuits. Then later on started making up his own circuits. The kit even came with us when we went ot nannie and grampies for dinner.



Danielle made a "Danielle". She got me to come down to her bedroom to check it out. She figured if she shut the arms of the t-shirt in the drawer that it would hang in the right place and then filled it with scrunched up newspaper. And she's got a crown on her head.

More kitchen science

The day started off pretty gloomy and rainy so we got out some of our library books to look for some experiments that interested us.

We came across this one on reactions involving acids and alkalis.

First up we found an oxidised copper coin and put it in lemon juice to watch the acid react with the oxide and remove it.


We then found another acid/alkali experiment which used red cabbage (aha! yes we actually had one of those in the fridge!).

First Nathan chopped it up and we boiled it till the water turned purple. He then wanted to pop the thermometer into it and watched the temperature drop as it cooled.

We then lined up 3 glasses and poured a some of the purple liquid into each.

Into one glass he squeezed a lemon to see the acid reaction (the pink one).
Into one glass he dropped a lump of soap to see the alkali reaction (the green one).


And then my funny girl drank from the control glass and the acid reaction glass with a teaspoon lol.

Very cool!

We then raced out to meet the kids nannie and I bought them a decent winter duvet each since their old ones are falling to bits.

Home for lunch and a friend came over with her two little boys for the afternoon.

Lots of reading after dinner while waiting for dad to get home.

Tuesday and Wednesday...




Playing shop with "beans"

We met up with our unschooling group for a play at the beach and the park.

Today...


Back from the library

A lovely fairy

Putting together a new lego kit - he sat down and followed the instructions and completed all 3 models on his own.

Dressing up her baby for the first time on her own. The dolls dress is one that was mine and before me belonged to my mum (along with the stripey one behind her as well as another couple of dresses) - how cool is that? In fact all her dolls clothes are ones that belonged to either me or my mum.

Helping me make another batch of tomatoes for the freezer

A tea party with friends

Today...

Nathan wanted to do some large scale painting using some of the test pots from various projects from around our home. So he found some large wood panels for each of them and they spent a bit of time creating. Danielle was copying what Nathan was painting.

Then things temporarily turned to custard as Nathan was busy hacking away at the bushes with the hedge clippers and must have disturbed a wasp nest as he came away screaming and crying that he'd been stung. Then again. He and Simon came running upstairs and then Simon got stung. After retreating inside and applying all sorts of things and giving a few homeopathic remedies both ma boys came right 1.5hrs later.

This led on to checking out our Life Size Guide to Insects book which has been a goody over the past year. It's pitched at the perfect level for Nathan for identifying insects without too much text (there is an adult version which goes into greater detail that will be good when he is a little older).

The kids had the book out during the week too while they identified a few random bugs around the house.

After lunch Simon and the kids went for a bike ride...home in time for dinner, they then cleared out the car and had fun vaccuming it...they then sat down with some new workbooks I'd picked up that afternoon and then headed off for stories and bed.

Nathan cooks

Nathan asked if he could cook himself up some banana pancakes this evening. He's always been a keen kitchen helper but this evening must have realised that if he was hungry he knew what to do! So off he went to work and mashed up the banana, cracked in the egg, mixed it up, got out the pan and spatula, turned on the element and called out for me to come and watch.

We talked about how to see when the oil was hot enough in the pan to add in the mixture and off he went.

He spooned it in...

Flipped...

Flipped some more...

And served them up...

Identify these famous landmarks...

For some reason Nathan wanted to get out my yoga mat and put on my yoga DVD tonight. As he was waiting for it to start he started doing some poses and said to me "who am I?". Can you guess?




(our own local Statue of Mary)

After attempting to make playdough the other day (by using up various gluten free flours) and ending up with this...


Today, we tried again using up some different gluten free flours and ended up with this...




So from slime to fluffy bouncy balls lol.

This evening Nathan continued to work on a story that he's copying out of one of their picture books. It seems to be work in progress.

He's also been working on copying out one of his Tintin books and has done the cover page so far. I noticed the other day he was writing out numbers from 1-20 and after asking me how to write 13, he then decoded the rest of the numbers which until now I haven't noticed him do.

Chinese New Year Celebrations

Today we met up with friends in the city to go and watch the Chinese New Year parade. The weather was fantastic and the kids had a great time.




We then headed to the museum to see the Colossal Squid on display.

Kitchen Science

Today was a beautiful, hot, no wind day. We decided to go for a walk/ride down to one of the local playgrounds, so set out about 10.30am. Wow, it was too late and it was so hot. So after playing there for a while and Nathan rode over the bike jumps we made our way home in time for lunch.

During the afternoon the kids were hot and at a loss on what to do - there were no DVD's of interest to them so I asked Danielle if she wanted to get out one of her new activity books and sit down with me and do some. So while we were doing that Nathan came over and got out a colouring book, then both kids sat side by side and coloured a page each and then would turn over and repeat - that kept them happily busy for half an hour.

Danielle must have been rumaging through the pantry at some stage and I saw her sitting up at their activity table with a bag of dried kidney beans. Normally I wouldn't really let them use our food for play, but since we're on our new diet, legumes are not to be eaten. The beans are getting kind of old, so what the heck, they can do as they wish. I provided her with some jars and she sat there for ages sorting them out.

Nathan then wanted to get in on the action and asked for a glass of water to put a bunch into. I filled it almost to the top (about 2cm down). He sat there and plopped one in at a time. I asked if anything was happening to the height of the water and got a "nooooooo" (like, you are so dumb mum). After continuing he realised that yes it did raise the level of the water. (Just writing this out reminded me of a kids story when I was little, so after a phone call to my mum we figured out it was an Aesop Fable called The Crow and the Pitcher).

So eventually he realised that the beans were making the water level rise. Danielle came and joined us and wanted to try her own experiment.

Nathan then added some PVA glue and watched as it dispersed and dropped onto the beans. The we added a few drops of oil and then some food colouring. They were busy with their concoctions for ages.


They then sat down at the computer and Nathan played the Reader Rabbit Reading game as Danielle watched. Once the day had cooled off a little the kids went and bounced on the trampoline for a while.