And can't forget...

The Leaning Tower of Pisa from a few days back.

A burst of creativity...

And then Nathan discovered that felts and crayons did something interesting when combined together...

He then made up several card games for us all to play.

Ah, I can feel the winter weather settling in (even though we've had really mild weather the past few days) and with it our interests and activities changing as we become more inside-focused.

I got out our Family Math book and found an activity that looked like it could be interesting to both kids. So they helped me make the "fractions kit". First I used some water colours to paint up the strips of paper since we didn't have any coloured paper on hand. They then wanted to help me write up the fractions.

In the meanwhile we'd been boiling up some left over purple cabbage so we could repeat the base/acid experiment that we did last year. One jar had a spoonful of baking soda in it, another jar had some vinegar in

it and the third jar was the plain cabbage water and was our indicator. I then ladeled on some water and we

saw the cool colour changes occur.

Nathan then found his dictionary and wanted to look up words he knew. I've really noticed his fluency has taken off recently and he really seems to enjoy reading whatever he can whereever he is. He hasn't discovered a love for reading fiction yet, but seeking "information" is certainly of interest.

After lunch the sun continued to shine so we decided to go for a walk up to the beach.

Danielle's collection of pumice found in a huge pile of driftwood (not sure that I've noticed pumice down this way before?). Maybe I am just looking at the beach with fresh eyes.

Nathan then decided to make a boat from a piece of pumice. Success! Then a shower came through, so off home again.

We decided to have a game using the fraction pieces.

Danielle wanted a game too after seeing what Nathan was up to.

Nathan then felt insired to make his own board game. Complete with "go back 3 spaces" or "move forward 4 spaces" or "go back to start" and a big set of chomping jaws that ate your piece if you landed on that spot and were out of the game. He decided to modify it when his sister landed on the spot and didn't take so kindly to being eliminated lol.

We had frozen the remaining blue cabbage water into ice cubes along with the pink vinegar water. I popped a blue one into a glass of water for Danielle who sat and observed the colour leaking out into her drink before finishing it up. The rest are in the freezer still for another day.

Danielle then wanted to make her boardgame for her and Nathan to play.

Throughout the day there were more Maori myths, watching a DVD of Nim's Island, played with Knex, listening to CD's in their rooms...

Today's Lego construction was of Big Ben (the Great Clock of Westminster). Was interesting reading! I didn't know that Big Ben was the nickname for the original bell within the tower, not originally the tower itself, nor did I know that the clock had a name other than Big Ben. So there ya go!

Nathan was playing with his calculator again and interested in the division button. We got out the cuisenaire rods and I showed him how it actually worked using dividing by 2 as the first example. Then I got him to figure out what would happen with odd numbers needing dividing into 2 etc and then gave him other examples of division (by 3 or 4) and then would flip them around to multiplication.

Danielle came to me with a book today and wanted to sound out all the letters of words as I read them out to her.

We read a few more of the Maori myths.

Baked muffins for afternoon tea.

Watched a few DVDs

Bounced on the tramp

Danielle's picture she copied off a label.

Nathan's Statue of Liberty that we built together this morning.

Wax eyes/silver eyes visiting our birdfeeder that Nathan made at his Keas on Monday.

Off for a walk and play at the park this afternoon.

More reading of Maori mythology - the kids are really into these stories, and I've been enjoying hearing them again since I haven't heard them since my own childhood.

Nathan discovered his calculator and was having a play around with numbers and trying to understand the logic.

rain, rain, rain, sunshine, rain, rain, rain

It's been a case of enjoying the outdoors on the non-rainy days while we can, and hunkering down and enjoying the inside together time the rest of the time.

We settled down in front of the fire this morning to read up about the coming Winter Solstice and Matariki and to make plans for our feast and what seasonal decorations we'd put up. The kids were then inspired to make some drawings about the seasons (and Nathan wanted to add a poem to his).

We did reading on Maori mythology and a bit from Story of the World.

After lunch, the rain stopped and the sun came out, so off outside we went. The kids were investigating under the stones for what little creatures were hiding. They then disappeared around the side of the house to dig a few holes where I'd removed some leaves to add as mulch to the garden. Then the rain came back about 1/2 hr later (which was perfect timing as it was pretty cold out there).

Back inside for a snack. Danielle had found a few activities in our Earthwise book that she wanted to do again (we did these last year).

The previous week was a collection of inside and out...

Nathan's right into Monopoly at the moment, so we've had a few games of that. Daneille's discovered a few more of our games that she enjoys. Nathan's been continuing to play and figure out numbers and how they all work together. Danielle's been playing on the computer with a reading CD-Rom we have.

We've been doing a bit of kitchen science again...revisiting a few old favourites, and a discovering a few new ones.

Danielle's book of animal portraits. These little fellas have really been a favourite in this house for many years now.

A walk down to the park

(you'd think this kid thinks it's summer still!)

We've had SO much rain it's really kept us inside a lot.

But we've managed to venture out a few times. As soon as I saw a blue sky we were down having a lovely walk by the river with a friend for a few hours. I got to have a natter with my friend and the kids got to burn off all their energy.

Drinking morning dew from the nasturtium leaves.

Yesterday we went to visit a friend who has recently moved and got so play and see some new sights.

In between the sunny days we've played games, written stories, been to the library, read books, watched DVDs, played old playstation games, starfall...

Nathan's been getting the Cadoo game out most days and challenges whoever is willing to have a game. Danielle's started dancing classes and is enjoying them.