A few Saturday moments

One baby praying mantis on the computer is kinda strange.

Two baby praying mantis' on the computer is looking a bit suspicious.

Six baby praying mantis' on the computer is extremely interesting and amusing!

No idea where they kept popping out of, but happened over the space of about 3 hrs and just as we'd take one outside another would appear (we had 3 at once at one stage). When we went in close to investigate they came running over and peered at us in a fighting position. When Nathan danced to the music they moved from side to side lol.

After discovering the mouse hole yesterday next to the computer and the praying mantis' today it's all a little weird.

We copied an idea of Steph's Ordinary Life Magic and made crayon shavings with the pencil sharpeners and rolled clean jars in them. The sun was not warm enough to melt the wax onto the glasses so I popped them into the oven...oops, shouldn't get on the computer for 20mins though since they only needed a few. Fortunately they were saved and didn't set the smoke alarm off.



Before shots - forgot to get the afters.

Nathan's had an interest in Mt Everest for a couple of years now and today I was able to tell him another interesting fact that Mt Everest continues to grow about 6cm every year. We did a bit of googling and found out about the several ways that mountains are measured (from the base to the peak (for those that start under the ocean), from sea level to the peak or from the centre of the earth to the peak) - and there is a difference between the tallest and the highest mountain. Interesting.

He then got out his book on trains and we had a good look through that for a while. He's fascinated with the high speed trains that travel through Europe.

Nathan disappeared down to his room this afternoon and came out with the 3 paper airplanes that the Dangerous Book for Boys had instructions for folding.

This afternoon was spent in the sandpit again while I planted out a couple of grape vines which the kids helped me with.

Thursday was a bit of a social day with two lots of visitors. We then made a Mexican dinner from our library cookbook (nothing really too unusual since we have various meals like this anyway). Nathan helped to make the guacamole.

We discovered this cool little hole in the side of a pot plant - super weird, we reckon a mouse must have burrowed this out, but no sign of it...eek. There was like a little ramp scuffed out all around the plant before going down into the hole with soil piled up around it and over the side.


Today was a bit of a mixed bag of activities...with spring just around the corner next week with it has come the seasonal winds. Urgh, I despise the wind and can't bear to be out in it, it does my head in. Fortunately the kids don't mind and spend time outside happily.

It started off with paper aeroplanes being sent to me with messages written on them and I'd send back messages. He then started to write in hieroglyphs.

Nathan wanted to prepare lunch, so off he went and boiled eggs, grated cheese, cut open an avocado and opened the tin of salmon. We discussed time when timing how long the eggs needed to be cooked for. He told me he felt like an adult making lunch.

Nathan told me a story this morning ("with a sad start and a happy ending" that he wanted me to write down). We were able to discuss words that could make the story more interesting in place or commonly used words. Danielle then had me write down a story that she told me.

I read some more of Story of the World to Nathan this morning that went on to discuss how traders used the rivers and seas to transport goods between countries. It inspired Nathan to draw a plan and then for the two of them to build some countries in the sandpit along with India and rivers and seas connecting them for his boat to travel down.


I then took down the pea plants that needed transplanting into the garden - they have outgrown their pots really and were starting to attach to each other.

I noticed the first self-sown calendula flower had opened as well.

They then popped Nim's Island on in the afternoon but took a break to wander around the garden with me collecting young Spring dandelion leaves and sweet violet leaves to dry.

They got out the magnetix this morning and Nathan made these glasses for Danielle.

We continued to read a bunch of our library books today - read about whales and then another book on the Titanic. This led to many conversations...what SOS means and how we can make the signals using light, what it looks like in its ...---... form and what that sounds like. Nathan was enthralled with looking at the letter and number codes all written out. We then got out some torches and made our own signals.

We then had conversations about the media and how they can often report things incorrectly, or omit information or skew information completely which is what happened after the Titanic went down and how this still happens today in regards to all sorts of information that is passed on.

It also came up about how most people who died in the water wasn't from drowning but from the cold - and this tied in with him asking me yesterday about people climbing Mt Everest (now that's a conversation that's been going on and comes and goes for over a year now) who can die from hypothermia. He sure does like to delve into the morbid topics...

We talked about the role of scientists and researchers in their search for "facts" and how different words can change the meaning ie using the word "might" and "may" doesn't mean something is fact.

We then discussed how lessons can be learned after errors happen and how that can help us ensure similar things don't occur again by making improvements to how we do things.

I took these photo's a few days back when we decided to check out the frozen flowers. I thought some coloured water could make things interesting and then the kids got into experimenting at the different colour combinations.




Seems food initiates a lot of coversations around here for chatting and talking maths in all shapes and forms - whether in measuring ingredients, cutting pizza slices or taking the temperature of water coming to the boil.

For a while now Nathan has been querying about how the waste water from our house gets cleaned and recycled back into our homes, so that will be something that will continue to be discussed and learnt about.

Simon's going to jack up with his workmate to have the kids in to watch and help build a bicycle and will talk to all his riding mates and set up some visits with them in their places of work (some have interesting professions!).

We were unfortunate enough last week to have a bad car accident right outside our house that required me to call 111 (but fortunately no bad injuries). So with full emergency services right outside our house it made for interesting watching for Nathan who watched the tow trucks taking the cars away, the road being washed and covered with sand and all the other goings-on.

This afternoon we had a friend over to play, so the kids spent ages out on the trampoline and in the sandpit (Nathan came inside and collected some vinegar, baking soda and red food colouring to make volcanoes).

Some lovely Danielle conversations and questions:

An out of the blue question while reading a story "Where does ear wax come from?"

While watching the TV yesterday she was pondering to herself how the people get in the TV. Later on I saw her peering in the slots at the side and came out and announced "there are no people in the TV, just the engine". That satisfied her curiosity lol.

A few days back went to our latest favourite playground and took a little bush walk and discovered a lovely sloping hill that the kids wanted to roll down. Well, it sure was fun, but as Nathan discovered there *is* such a thing as too much of a good thing. He ended up with a *very* seedy tummy that was emptied upon arriving back home. Just looking at the pictures made him feel sick again lol.


Nathan's really picking up the pace on reading and has been enjoying reading early readers to us and figuring out words that he's not familiar with. I realised that he was getting confused over his b and d (he never used to get them muddled) so we worked on little rhymes and a "picture" on how to form them so it might jog his memory (for b he says "bat and ball" and imagines the stick as the bat and the circle as the ball and for d he says "daddy the diver - circle for the mask, up and down for snorkle"). He said he didn't realise they were different till we drew them next to each other.

We went to the library yesterday and grabbed a random bunch of books on Mexico (including some kids recipe books), the Titanic, craft and drawing books as well as some chapter books. I spoke to the librarian who gives advice on book choices for kids and she was fantastic with suggestions for my practical boy who is not into "silly" stories such as the popular Aussie Bites. We came home with some Magic School Bus chapter books that both kids enjoy listening to. I also found an abridged fully illustrated version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe to read them. Not as good as the full book which Nathan and I read last year, but enjoyed by both. We've spent a lot of time sitting out on the porch in the late morning sun producing all that good Vitamin D.

Nathan's Castle

Down in the garden this afternoon we discovered a couple of dandelions (woohoo, finally, I've only been finding the "imposters" up till now) and the kids collected a variety of flowers and we decided to freeze them to playing with tomorrow.

(you can see red cup marks around Danielle's cheeks - we juiced some beetroot, apple and carrots for an afternoon snack - yum, yum).

While I was weeding they were "making a surprise" for me up on the higher level. I was then invited up to check it out and they'd made a path all the way across the lawn, in front of the garage and a little bridge had been constructed.

Nathan continued on with "making a surprise" in his bedroom this afternoon.

Saturday

This morning we went for a walk to the Russian Festival that we'd been talking about all week.

It turned out to not really have too many interesting things for the kids (it was a fundraiser and all the cool things were paid extras and bit on the $$ side IMO) and mostly just food tables set up. They must have saved all the costumes, dancing and music for the show later in the day - it was a shame I think as far as educating the general public. But anyway, we did go and watch a little puppet show that was put on for kids.

I think they were more interested in the piece of string one of them found on the side of the road and squabbled and negotiated over that while we walked there...

Later in the day they decided to do their own puppet show and found all the finger puppets and little toys. They decided on a storyline first and who was going to do what and then acted it out. It was complete with different voices.

Then the performance was all on...

They first moved onto dressups. Nathan would appear dressed in a fairy outfit and I'd ask where Nathan had gone so he said he'd go and get him, race back, get changed back into his clothes and reappear, I'd then ask where Princess Nathan had gone and repeat about 10 times lol.

They then started acting out a little red riding hood scene where I was meant to be the big bad wolf (I guess they see that for real on occasion lol) so I suited the role quite nicely and the other one of them was the grandmother. Cute.

Then out came the juggling sticks for a few tricks.

The rest of the afternoon was spent down in the sandpit playing in the new sand that Simon had bought home last night (where *does* sand disappear to?!) followed by a game of Blokus.

My computer time this morning was cut short with Nathan bringing over one of his workbooks to do some work in.

We then spent some time out on the porch reading some more of our library books. One of them was on looking after small animals and had a section on observing earthworms which the kids were keen to try out. So off they ran to try and find some worms (after taking down a wet, opaque (to protect the worms from the UV rays) plastic cup to bring some back for observing). Alas, they were sad because they only found an old potato and I was getting busy on preparing lunch.

Huts, houses and rocket ships have been built out of couch cushions.

Reader Rabbit CD Rom has been played by Nathan and Danielle went onto the Starfall site but quickly got inspired to build a hut under the dining table so went off to do that instead.

Nathan found a dead beetle on his bedroom floor and found his bug catcher to observe it through the microscope. He then got out his Life-Size Guide to Insects and together we worked through the pages to find the one we were after. Ah, it was the Shield bug and being winter it even matched the colour in the book. The photo's in the book are perfect - the bug in the book really was life-size lol. As he was looking at it through the microscope he was talking about the different parts and colours and went off to draw one.

After lunch I recalled that there were some seals making their way down the coast that had been spotted at our local beach, so we went for a wander up there to see if there were any hanging around still. But no, they must have moved on. The day was gorgeous and really quite warm (even I was in a tank top and that rarely happens lol) and the kids were keen to try the water since it's been several months since it was warm enough to do so.









Upon returning home and having had a shower, we went out to find some worms to look at. We then tranferred them into a glass jar to get a good look. We shone a torch underneath them and you could see their food and dirt moving around inside them. Pretty cool. They were then put back outside.

This morning we made a trip down the line to a park I hadn't taken the kids to for ages (in fact I don't know if Danielle's ever been?). We took the bikes and had a wander around the lagoon, the playground, investigated the miniature traintrack and the many little bridges and islands. (Looks like Danielle's bike seat needs to go higher!).


This afternoon the kids got out their activity books for a while, we then did a bit of baking together and then played Monopoly.

Nathan found our Vin Fiz book and wanted to re-read it. Danielle sat with us and listened in too.

A morning on the water...

We joined nannie and grampy (and their dog) this morning for a paddle on the local river.

This was Nathan's first time paddling the sea-kayak on his own instead of being a passenger in the canoe. Danielle enjoyed her ride with grampy and the dog.

I was the stern steerer in the Canadian canoe, with my mum in the front and I'd say we covered more river and used more energy than anyone else due to my lack of steering skills lol! I think I finally got myself sussed right at the end. Ah well, I'll be good for next time hehe.

A week of pics...

I've been without my regular computer (until this afternoon) and my old one had 5 keys that wouldn't work, so was very frustrating constructing things to type and copying and pasting the missing letters into place if I wanted to make sense! So here I am back again.

Saturday
For Imbolc "new beginnings" (half way between mid-winter and Spring equinox as the ground is warming and awakening) we made some homemade musical instruments and decorated candles with flowers from the garden.




Sunday
A day in the garden helping out.

Monday
Off for a spot of mini-golf and a visit to a little museum nearby with a display on Fiji as well as old-time equipment.



Tuesday
A cold and wintery day followed a gorgeous one the day before. I found some old rice in the cupboard that I used to make "rice paste" for papier mache, so decided to pour some into trays for the kids and see what they did with it. It became birthday cakes, then some was poured into the mortar for an attempted grind.


All week
There have been some elaborate constructions. I don't really recall our traintrack being used as part of a "train phase", but it sure has had it's uses for constructing towns and zoos, complete with rivers, houses, shops etc.


The dominoes have been out again as well.

Danielle's been getting into it too.

I found another pyramid this morning

Friday
Then we had a Russian Food day. We picked up a library book last week with a few simple Russian recipes in it so the kids were keen to make a few. (And how neat it was that all the ideas fitted in with our current dietary needs lol). I was pleasantly surprised to open the local paper and see that there is going to be a Russian Festival just around the corner from us next weekend so we might go along to that and check out things for real.

Lunch was potato pancakes with cream and fruit puree (unusual combination, but hey, it was tasty and gone in about 30seconds!)

Danielle preferred just the cream...

Dinner was beef stir fried with prunes, mashed potato (and I added pumpkin), stir fry of cabbage, onion and carrot with lemon juice and honey.

All week
We've watched out seeds "rumble" through the surface of the soil in our seed trays that are in my bedroom and seen the amazing growth from day to day. I was telling Nathan about the time-lapse videos that get made to observe the growth of a plant in fast motion. He decided to draw some pictures showing the stages of plant growth over about 6 stages.
Thursday
Nathan got out some large dice a few days back and wanted me to roll them for him. He then added what was rolled together and hopped for the number given. Danielle then wanted to join in. Nathan then decided to write out the problems on some paper while Danielle rolled, added and jumped.

Saturday
Today we went to visit nannie and grampy. The kids had a play on nannie's Wii Fit - they like the running and the hula hoop. Nathan figured he could cheat the system on the running one by just moving his arms instead of running lol.
All week
Many chalk drawings and hopscotch drawn outside, board games, jigsaw puzzles, sandpit play, racing around the garden, bathing their soft toys, trampolining, playgrounds, ice cream outings, reading books, DVDs, crawling races up and down the hallway (a bit of Brain Gym), music and dancing.