The morning started off with us observing how our house was colder inside than it was outside! It was a gorgeously sunny day outside. So we did comparisons of the rooms - the main living room/kitchen which gets no sun in winter was at 12 degrees, the bedrooms that get almost an entire day of sun right from sun-up during winter was at 19 degrees and then outside on the sunny side of the house was 15 degrees. So, although we're as well insulated as we can be, it was good to check out why that might be (and seems there was not enough latent heat to warm those cold rooms since the air was below zero overnight and as the outside warmed up due to the sun, it wasn't able to penetrate through those walls on the sunless side of the house and heat it, therefore the outside was able to warm faster than the inside areas with no sun). Haha.We don't heat our house overnight hence the low morning temperature, and then with a sunny day like that I'm reluctant to light the fire early since I know the warmth will soon travel through the house from the sunny rooms. Consequently, we had the door open all morning to let all the warmth in!

The vege box arrived and Danielle raced off with the box to make a shop.

She then disappeared outside to build a bed and play in the sun for a while.

Nathan wanted to play Set with me again and then played some more solitaire and then started to build his helicopter from the Lego.

Danielle was inspired by a morning TV show to make a snow globe. So after determining that we had everything she needed we set to work.

Off to the library after lunch. So, then some fiction reading on Leonardo da vinci, a story of children in ancient Egypt, a story about the adventures of a little polar bear (Danielle's favourite animal) and carrying on with our story of Shakespeare's life.

Danielle's "sunflower".

Nathan then put together the world map floor puzzle we have so we could look at where all the countries were that we had just read about.

Watching a documentary about Storm Chasers and extreme weather experts.

Lately the kids have been thinking about and asking about our trip to Australia which is happening at the end of September. Today we made a couple of calendar pages to help with the count-down as well as showing upcoming birthdays. Danielle made August and Nathan made September.

Nathan made a dog that has been played with all day in various games.

After lunch there was bouncing on the trampoline.

Then we all washed the windows.

Nathan and I played Set and then snap.

Danielle wanted to play Guess Who with me. Then we moved on and played Junior Scrabble while Nathan played Solitaire on the computer.

Saturday...

Yesterday we set off early and picked up Nannie to make our way to the Zealandia wildlife sanctuary. Was a lovely day out weather-wise and we wandered the many bush tracks checking out the different birds and sights. The exhibition was really neat with plenty for the kids to check out including a mechanical Moa. After having now visited both, I personally prefer our little local bird sanctuary for its wider range of birds (and a few other animals) and is just as lovely a setting albeit smaller.

Nannie and grampie then came over for dinner. I was discussing how to go about baking a potato in the hot embers of the fire while trying to maintain enough fire to continue heating the house (my last attempt saw our potato turn to ash lol). Mmmmm...

Sunday...

A slow start just pottering around home (Simon works on Saturdays, so this is our first "weekend" day as a family).

Nathan had out his calculator and was playing around with the numbers again. He called out "hey mum! did you know that 987654321 divided by 987654321 is 1?!" So we had a wee chat about numbers divided by themselves will always equal 1 and then continued to test that theory for himself using numbers he was more familiar with (I suspect he didn't realise or didn't think of) his 987654321 as being a whole number, rather, was seeing it as a bunch of individual numbers punched into the calculator.

Simon then took the kids out riding on their bikes and all came home completely muddy lol!

The afternoon was spent watching a few DVDs.

Hmmm, last few days...

Finger painting pictures on hands...

Talking about oxymorons...

A visit to the library and the supermarket...

Nathan wrote a thank you letter to his grandad for his belated birthday present...

Danielle was asking Nathan if he could curl his tongue - he couldn't (yet I can) and we discussed how this is an inherited genetic trait. This led on to looking at what other traits can be inherited. We got several books out of the library today to go through and might sift through the photo albums tomorrow and look for similarities throughout the generations.

Nathan chose a book on caves - after having gone caving 2 winters ago with Nannie and Grampie, this is a topic he occasionally comes back to.

We looked at how the cave fish and several other creatures have no need for eyes since they live in the dark. This lead to a discussion touching on evolution or regressive evolution.

Yesterday Nathan got out a pack of "maths" games. These are games that my mum bought me and my brother when we were kids. Urgh, I must have bad memories of them, because I cringe and try and avoid playing them as much as possible. Nathan, really seems to like them though! So I pulled myself together and had a game with him. This one is a multiplication game (you need to multiply the two dice together) and he seems to have really grasped the concept of figuring out and breaking down numbers. Some he was even starting to remember after having rolled the same combination several times.

Danielle wanted to make a bed for her baby. So we found an old shoebox which she went off and decorated. I then helped her contruct the shade bit to go over the top and she was happy.

We had morning tea the Mediterranean food warehouse this morning. The kids spent a bit of time watching the screen with photo's of Italy on it. Then ooohed and ahhhhed over the different foods in the shop. After thanking the woman for her fluffy, Danielle wanted to know how to say "thank you" in Maori (Kia ora - hmmm, kinda knew that but also didn't since I associated it mainly with Hello or acknowledging someone).

Nathan's continued to build, disassemble and rebuild his huge crane Lego kit that arrived yesterday and then moved on to a few new creations using the unique pieces of this set.

Danielle spent the afternoon in some imaginative game chirping and chatting to herself as she played.

Yesterday Danielle was looking at one of the library books she chose on colours and the different colour combinations. It's been a while since we had the poster paints out (the water colours are much easier to use and clean up!) so I suggested that we get them out today to have a play without interruption or trying to squeeze it in amongst other things.

Danielle's vege garden

Discovering sea creatures, building trees and food for the chunky animals, buying and selling with Let's Shop.

Nathan has discovered Solitaire on my computer a few days ago, so today showed him the "traditional" way with the actual cards.

Well, since I last wrote about Danielle getting to grips with riding the bike over the previous week, she has now started riding! Simon took her down to the park with some tennis courts over the weekend and on her 2nd attempt she zoomed off and was riding on her own. Still needs assistance with starting and stopping but was thrilled with herself to be to do it.

Building with dominos with dad...

After having been to the pantomime last week, Nathan was busy this morning constructing a stage set and backdrop to put on a puppet show for us. It's work in progress...

Later on we looked over a couple of our library books.

One had an example of a family tree in it so we started to look at one of ours (going back to my grandmother on my mum's side).

Danielle then got really enthused to do her own versions.

Nathan then had an Aha! moment where he realised that his Dangerous Book for Boys had a bunch of family trees in them and had fleetingly wondered what they all were over the last few years...

The afternoon had us walking down to Keas with Nathan (back after the school holidays). Nathan scootered there, and Danielle scootered home.

After returning from Keas, Nathan was very excited to receive a belated birthday present that had gotten lost in the post...more Lego! lol.

Hmmm, where have we been?

We had a bit of a sicky day earlier in the week which saw me and Nathan snoozing in front of the fire most of the day and Danielle just pottering around doing her own thing (which is actually a bit strange to see, but it also gives me more of a glimpse of who she is when she's not attached to Nathan).

Yesterday we went to our first pantomime to see Aladdin. Both kids really enjoyed it. Danielle loved all the music and dancing and found it quite funny. Nathan definitely liked it, but more from a "technical" point of view I think (ie this being the form of entertainment before TVs, how the actors played out the story by using such a small space/doors/lighting, interaction with the crowd etc).

We then were able to catch up with friends on the way home for a quick play. Yay for the beautiful weather we've continued to have - so the kids all played out in the street with bats and balls for an hour before heading on home.

Today they started off with them turning the lounge into a house made from dining chairs, sheets, blankets, pillows, cushions etc.

Then Nathan was showing me some miming that he saw on a TV show once. So we youtubed a few and quite enjoyed this one.

Nathan then wanted to make some movies on the digital camera. I thought I'd share one with his house tour... the house is in the state of mess before I'd done any morning chores and the set up of the "house" in the lounge (and therefore dining chairs missing from the table and pillows missing off beds...). And that's his puppy dog Danielle on the floor panting and yapping...

This afternoon Danielle got out the little 12" bike that was Nathan's once upon a time (she's actually a bit tall for it now). She's not really been interested in wanting to learn to ride the bike before, but has really taken to the running/balance bike over the past 6mths. I think with the confidence she's gained from using that has led her to giving the bike a go. Once she figured out where to have the peddle positioned to get herself going (and coasting along for a metre or so) and realising that it was meant to have wobble and require balance she was getting herself started on her own with perseverance (and a bit of frustration). I imagine that she'll pop her other foot up on the other peddle when the time feels right (the bike doesn't have training wheels to rely on).

Late afternoon we went over to Grampie's as he was was having a concrete truck arrive to pour some concrete into their driveway. So that kept them interested for a while (and Nathan continuing to video anything and everything).

Danielle assisted me with cooking dinner tonight...only with a twist to the usual help she gives me. I got out and lined up all the ingredients for our dinner (nachos) and asked her how she thought we'd need to make it with what we had. Was an interesting little exercise chatting about the whys and whats rather than me just subconsciously cooking the meal and getting her to chop or stir while chatting about random things. She's not a huge questioner (and when paired with Nathan who is very much into questioning, she seems to go with the flow and is quite content to just hang out), so it was a gentle way of having her engage with me and thinking about the process that we were going through.

Just gotta get it down to keep track of the questions for me to follow up on...

~Submarines and questions around that
~"What are the seven seas?" - well, that one's proven to not be a straightforward question and definitely worth investigating further (and included a discussion from me on the value of researching and critical thinking in regards to the various answers provided and not just "believing" the first answer you come across - more specifically to the question "how many seas are there?").
~ ponds vs lakes
~ recorder
~ spinning colour wheel


This morning we had visitors, so there was a bit of crazy inside play since it was raining and cold outside.

Then it was off to do the grocery shopping and home again for a late lunch.

Danielle "Nannying"

And just for posterity's sake - the laden Lego mat. Nathan's more into making his own creations rather than wanting to keep the kits separated out. He does like to occasionally rebuild something after the initial "build", but generally likes to tinker around with his own designs. It's all stored in that upturned basket right to the brim. The mat is a new addition when we realised it was taking a long time gathering it all up by hand!

Then there was a bit of crafting, board games, reading books, music playing, making newspapers with articles and drawings...

Learning to play the recorder...I found a book at the library yesterday that I thought Nathan might be interested in. So we got out the recorder and I introduced him to musical notes and reading music. Danielle then wanted to have a little play, so Nathan spent a bit of time with her while I was cooking dinner to show her where to put her fingers.

Read through more library books...human rights, a family living in Japan, crime and punishment through the ages...

Dancing to music...I noticed Danielle choreographing a dance to Kung Fu Fighting so we all got silly and added in different moves. Then did a bit of googling to see what dances have been performed by kids. Both are enthused on putting together a performance lol.

Playing Snakes and Ladders and Blokus.

Danielle's decided she wants to be a Nanny when she grows up - so spent ages looking after her young charges today ensuring they were fed, played with, had stories read to them and put down for sleeps. Cute.

Nathan's decided he wants to be a police detective and figure out crime scenes. One of his questions the other day was whether sometimes people get put in prison when they are not meant to be there. So he wants to make sure that doesn't happen.

He also questioned why he needed to be unloading the dishwasher again...hmmm, just checking his human rights I guess lol.

Danielle's recently had a fascination with drawing posters with directions, or things that our family tends to "do and not do", treasure maps for me to hunt out things she's hidden, creating roads from all our DVDs and videos (drives me nuts, but hey...) to then drive cars around.

Last weekend was a bit of a fun-filled one playing with various friends, the kids stayed overnight with their nannie and grampy as well as packing in a few park visits with the scooters followed by ice cream.

Nathan's been playing with the video function on his digital camera, and then I discovered the webcam programme on the computer so we spent a bit of time having a play and a laugh with that.

And before I know it...

...we have leapt into a whole new topic of learning without me really noticing.

It's funny...we just amble along at our regular "just doing" kind of pace and up pop the odd question "what do prison cells look like mum?"..."do prisoners get lots to eat?"..."do the bad ones not get any food?"..."what clothes do they wear?"..."what do they sleep on?"...modern day prisoners vs olden day prisoners etc. Maybe a month back, Nathan had been on a visit with his Keas group to the local Police station (just a little place with a few holding cells) so I suspect this was around the time that the questions really started. And then of course there are always some accompanying Lego creations (in this instance, a few days worth of prisoner cells with bars and windows and prisoners inside with their bed, toilet and food).

So I answer as I can and google what I can over the many weeks that these questions come up (it can be one question once a week and then a flurry of questions on one day and then nothing for another week). It finally starts to take off and I realise that there is a real interest going on and how can I take it further?
This is how it happened with both the Titanic and Pompeii and his focus got really quite intense and came to a peak and it was like he finally was satisfied with what he wanted to know and the questions stopped dead in their tracks.

As we were at the library today I wandered the aisles looking for some books on prisons and prisoners/criminals for Nathan. I eventually went and asked the children's librarian for a bit of assistance. I then was telling her that he wanted to know why really bad prisoners still got food or plenty of food (not that we've ever equated behaviour to receiving meals or not!) and that I'd explained that prisoners are still humans who require to be treated well and looked after. So we found some books on Human Rights.

I looked over one of the these books this evening and really like one of them and can see that it is pitched at the right level for Nathan (maybe for Danielle too, but I'm not sure she'd really understand all of it, and quite possibly not what she is interested in at the moment anyhow). Sure will lead to plenty more discussion I can see.

We Are All Born Free: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures

Homophones

Nathan has really discovered a love of words and word play. Over the past few months he'll randomly say things like "there is a deer (as in an animal) and dear (as in something costs a lot)" or "there is too (as in I want to come too) or two (as in counting two) and to (as in I will bring this to you)". He'll spend ages playing this game with us all and I'll add in extra ones that he might not have thought of like "dare". He then asks for them to be spelt out for him and in a few weeks the game might evolve to "there is too (as in I want to come too and is spelt t-o-o) or two (as in counting two and is spelt t-w-o) and to (as in I will bring this to you and is spelt t-o)." Today's new one popped up as know/no.

It's funny, because just tonight I realised that homophones we have here in NZ won't always be the same as in other countries around the world! (As we often similarly find out when reading some poetry and the poems don't rhyme in NZ English). For example as I was googling, I came across do/due/dew as being a homophone. It certainly isn't with the way I say it. Due and dew are the same but do is not.

Winter? Really?

After sitting in the morning sun reading more creation stories and more on evolution we decided to get out and enjoy the gorgeous weather. So off to the park with the scooters for some riding around on the skateboard ramps that we had to ourselves. Then off to the dairy for ice cream. After arriving back home for a recharge and watching Neverending Story we were back outside to continue enjoying the beautiful sunshine until the sun dipped behind the hill in front of us.