A snack in the park...

Flying-foxing...


Building a dam...

Finding leaf skeletons...

Checking out new insects...

Finding a boggy, muddy, mess to stomp in...

Listening to the vibrations from the flying fox wire being transferred...

This morning we got outside. I had some work I wanted to do in the garden so while I moved a bunch of branches and swept the driveway of all the mulch and bark, the kids decided some of the branches looked like "horses" so rode around for a while and brushed and fed their horses.

I then decided to dig over a garden bed in preparation for making a bean tepee in a few months time. I then constructed the tepee from the bamboo poles that were lying around from a previous tepee.

The kids were busy in the sandpit making a water collection system that dammed and then would supply the house. It then turned into a mud-mountain that then bacame a mud-oven for cooking meatballs.

After lunch and watching a video I started reading an abridged version of A Midsummer Nights Dream from one of our books. We only got through the first two pages before Nathan leapt up and wanted to copy out the story. So spent half an hour copy writing and illustrating a few paragraphs.

We then got out our Earthwise book to check out the winter activities but got distracted by the picture of a woven branch in the spring section which was another version of ones I'd read about here. We just used a variety of craft materials and the odd leaf and flower.

Then we moved on to another idea I'd picked up here and here. Danielle didn't want to do it initially but while sitting on my lap as I did it she was keen to have a go. This was fun and super easy for the kids and especially using the tapestry needles which aren't sharp (just as well for receiving hand me down crafting materials from my nana because I wouldn't normally have had these on hand...).


Both kids have been busy working in their new workbooks that nannie bought them a few days back.

A few extra pictures...

The other day Nathan was preparing the mud for making mud bricks back in ancient Egypt times.

And a pic of our nature table at the moment. A collection of birds nests, acorns, bricks found in the river over summer, a cool little pumpkin that arrived in our vege box and little pottery dish with some semi-precious stones.

The mama behind the blog with her newly trimmed (as in trimmed after not being cut for 18mths) long hair.

Nathan's been building quite a few Lego "solar powered" devices lately - a cell phone, computer and radio.

Questions...

Why is our Vitamin C salty?

Why is a Christian called a Christian?

How does that rough bit on the matchbox make the match light?

How was this rug made?

Where do the pegs belong (ok that that was a husband question - not enough clothes washing done by him I suspect!)?

Today we had a discussion about different gasses (including what things require gas to work) and how certain processes convert the gasses - ie breathing or plant photosynthesis.

We also explored our own bookshelves and discovered some books that contained further information about Native Americans and Egyptians.

It was discovered if you make chocolate ice blocks using your chocolate milk tipped into a teaspoon and frozen that your lip will stick to it.

The kids wanted to play "school" again today and asked me, as their teacher what they would learn. Wondering if they actually wanted me to come up with plans for learning on a more permanent basis I asked Nathan and he replied "no! we're just playing a game!". LOL. He wanted to write down lower case and upper case letters - since this is something he's been doing for a long time I asked him if he wanted to learn another style of writing? So I showed him what cursive writing was and he copied them out next to the printed letters. I then wrote a sentence in cursive (the old quick brown fox...) and he was able to pick out of the letters (I did need to google afterwards to check that I had shown him the correct formation of some of the fancier ones since I was going from memory from almost 30yrs ago when I learnt them!). I tend to write in a half/half printing-cursive these days.

Our day started off with Nathan creating a "longhouse" out of couch cushions. He arranged the roof so there was a hole for the smoke to go through. He then gathered some sticks and some stones to make his fire. I asked him if he wanted to look up some different Native American costumes that we could put together from what we have.


Mid-morning we headed out to get our windscreen fixed and Nathan was asking the man behind the counter how they fixed the chip in the glass.

We continued to read The Indian in the Cupboard and various other books.

Over the past few days...

More lego creations were made

Some painting was done

Board games played - Let's shop and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego

Card games - snap

Dominoes (with a bit of construction in there)

Magic tricks

Looking after her puppy (he's actually a polar bear) - feeding him, bandaging up his injured leg, putting him down for a sleep, cuddling him when he cries.

A handmade traintrack with train

Books have been read to me and books written

The pyramids

Nathan got around to building his pyramids during the week. He asked me to start him off on one and then he worked at building the other small ones. I found myself wanting to construct my own - and not a child in sight while I was. Pretty relaxing really lol.


Our current chapter book is The Indian in the Cupboard. Interestingly, I'm reading an historical novel at the moment that is based on life of the Native American's and the settlers. We were both able to google what a Longhouse looked like for our own interests!

Survival skills

This morning Nathan spent a bit of time creating a "first aid kit" (we've had use for ours a wee bit in the past few weeks). He made quite a few cut outs of various items and had them all collected in a container and began administering first aid - it came with manuka honey for wounds, plasters, bandages, homeopathic remedies and chicken soup.

I then got out one of our library books that Danielle had chosen on Survival. We decided to go for a bush walk (around our garden) and practice our survival skills. We started by packing our day-pack with first aid kit (with survival blanket), food, compass, rope, small mirror for signalling, magnifying glass, matches, tarpaulin, pocket knife and water.

The kids made maps.

Sheltering from the storm...

Finding a clearing to set up camp...

Constructing the shelter, making a fire, and gathering wild foods...

Some friendly chickens wandered into camp for a sunbathe and dusting...

Nathan then decided to try out his pocket knife on some whittling...

And we were rescued and off home for lunch.

Nathan then spent a good portion of the afternoon continuing to whittle.

Wednesday

Yesterday the kids were enjoying the spring-like day (I'm sure it was just teasing us and that August will bring plenty more icy cold days). The day started off with a visit to the paediatrician, then over to grampies for lunch and a spa. Then popping into the library on the way home.

Enjoying the late afternoon outside, Nathan made a board game with many instructions.


Building a house...

Danielle was a bee collecting pollen from flowers...

Domino Boy

Last week Nathan was stacking all the videos, DVDs and cases like dominos. I then showed him some Domino Competitions on YouTube and he set to creating his own using his two sets of dominos. He spent hours over the next few days perfecting his creations and learning about what was going to work, how to get them to go up hill (if he stuck playdough onto the traintrack tunnel in "steps" they could kind of work), how tight to make them go around corners and how closely spaced he could go without them taking out the rest when they started to fall.

Mid-Winter

Well, we've been away for 3 days having a bit of a mid-winter holiday (actually our 9th wedding anniversary). We headed directly across the country from our lovely coast on the West to the lovely coast on the East to a place we hadn't been before. The weather was wild and stormy but there were enough dry spells to get out and enjoy ourselves the same as if it has been sunny weather anyway! We stayed in a cosy little cottage on a large sheep station right next to the beach.

The afternoon that we arrived (it was about a 3hr drive) we went to investigate the rest of the homestead.

This little miss is totally happy anywhere where there are flowers...

The owner initially came over to us and said if the kids were bored there was a playground down in the village, but when I explained (asked) if they were ok rearranging old bits of wood from her garden for their imaginative play she laughed and said go for it! Fortunately she also didn't mind the kids racing around in the puddles on her front lawn.


Then back inside for a nice hot bath.

The next day we headed up the coast a bit to Castlepoint to check out the lighthouse. Unfortunately the weather was crazy and wild with the waves crashing over the rock wall so didn't venture across the estuary (also weren't sure which was the tide was going!) and instead headed into the forest.






On the way home we looped around past Stonehenge Aotearoa but didn't stop in but instead took a walk up to a spooky looking abandoned house up on the hill opposite. We weren't the only people checking it out.