Nathan's becoming a keen and confident reader and sat and read for 15mins and got halfway through The Cat in the Hat. Danielle proudly told her speech therapist this morning that "Natey's been reading Cat in the Hat to me, it's written by Dr Suess!".

Watching: The Wizard of Oz.

Getting all excited over the vege box that was delivered.

Meeting with friends and forming a tribe, collecting wild weeds for food, making tools and furniture.

New books from the library: Nathan's requests included Mountains, Rain Forests, the Water Cycle, Wahine disaster and Praying mantis' (after our encounters during the week). Danielle just grabs random books of all types - love these, as we end up with books that I might not otherwise I have chosen or thought of. I got a sideways look from the librarian when my card went over its limit - so I instructed Nathan to hand his over to get the rest of the books out lol.

Continuing on with the domino theme using the library's cushions in the kid area.

Waiting for me while I chose some adult books.

Discovering new words from an interesting story with lovely descriptive language: ravine, abyss, gargoyles, meddling, apprentice, cauldron and hue to name a few.

Grocery shopping - seems to always motivate Nathan to write up a list of items to ensure nothing he wants gets forgotten. He then wanted to read out the items for buying from my list - only problem that the way I write a list isn't logical so it frustrated him that he couldn't just run his finger down the list telling me what to buy since we weren't in the right department at the time!

Helping me chop up some plantain and pouring in the apple cider vinegar to make a tincture.


We were checking out an awesome huge full moon tonight, with a beautiful clear sky (there will be a frost overnight) - shame I don't possess the photography skills to take a good shot or one that does it justice though! It was amazing watching it pop up from behind the hill and in a matter of a couple of minutes it had come up completely.

I was on the phone to a friend this morning, after finishing I wandered past Nathan's room and saw one child doing some copy-writing from a Thomas the Tank Engine book and the other playing with little puzzles and letter cards.


Danielle then wanted to write me a "message". She told me what she wanted to write, and I after dictating the first few words (the letters she knows) she wanted me to write the rest for her to copy.

The wind had dropped down to just a breeze today after a few very blustery ones, so after lunch we walked down to the park with our ball for a kick around.


Danielle spotted some Toi toi that she is obsessed with at the moment (as my bag shows by always having a few feathery grassy things in it).

I love seeing the little things that kids do that as an adult you just don't think of - I noticed Danielle opening and closing her mouth into the wind. She told me she was catching the wind - so I had to try it myself and yep! it felt quite nice lol!!

Reading: Cat in the Hat, Mother Goose stories and Magic School Bus book about butterflies.

Circus science

We made some juggling balls from balloons and rice today. We discovered that Yes you do need to put the rice into a bottle first and that just trying to fill the balloon using a funnel will not work. I used this tutorial.


Then in came the roller blades and roller skates.

And the inner boots of the roller blades are good for checking out friction too...

Then the kids got out the hoola hoops.


That then turned into spinning them and observing what happened and then compared the wooden floor to the carpet.

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.