Playing in the rain

It's been rainy and miserable all day here. Not cold, but just damp and yuck.

This morning I suggested to the kids that we go puddle jumping today and that was met with huge excitement. So after lunch when the rain had eased to a light drizzle we donned raincoats and gumboots and headed out. They were quick to spot a few puddles.



We then wandered back past home and found no more puddles, so went back and got the car and went down to the beach for a while. I read a book while the kids played.


(Danielle making fire)

One day...one activity

Nathan received a Brain Box from one of my friends and what a hit it's been!

He played with it from the time he woke up this morning until the time he went to bed.

First up he worked methodically through all the pages making up the different circuits. Then later on started making up his own circuits. The kit even came with us when we went ot nannie and grampies for dinner.



Danielle made a "Danielle". She got me to come down to her bedroom to check it out. She figured if she shut the arms of the t-shirt in the drawer that it would hang in the right place and then filled it with scrunched up newspaper. And she's got a crown on her head.

More kitchen science

The day started off pretty gloomy and rainy so we got out some of our library books to look for some experiments that interested us.

We came across this one on reactions involving acids and alkalis.

First up we found an oxidised copper coin and put it in lemon juice to watch the acid react with the oxide and remove it.


We then found another acid/alkali experiment which used red cabbage (aha! yes we actually had one of those in the fridge!).

First Nathan chopped it up and we boiled it till the water turned purple. He then wanted to pop the thermometer into it and watched the temperature drop as it cooled.

We then lined up 3 glasses and poured a some of the purple liquid into each.

Into one glass he squeezed a lemon to see the acid reaction (the pink one).
Into one glass he dropped a lump of soap to see the alkali reaction (the green one).


And then my funny girl drank from the control glass and the acid reaction glass with a teaspoon lol.

Very cool!

We then raced out to meet the kids nannie and I bought them a decent winter duvet each since their old ones are falling to bits.

Home for lunch and a friend came over with her two little boys for the afternoon.

Lots of reading after dinner while waiting for dad to get home.

Tuesday and Wednesday...




Playing shop with "beans"

We met up with our unschooling group for a play at the beach and the park.

Today...


Back from the library

A lovely fairy

Putting together a new lego kit - he sat down and followed the instructions and completed all 3 models on his own.

Dressing up her baby for the first time on her own. The dolls dress is one that was mine and before me belonged to my mum (along with the stripey one behind her as well as another couple of dresses) - how cool is that? In fact all her dolls clothes are ones that belonged to either me or my mum.

Helping me make another batch of tomatoes for the freezer

A tea party with friends

Today...

Nathan wanted to do some large scale painting using some of the test pots from various projects from around our home. So he found some large wood panels for each of them and they spent a bit of time creating. Danielle was copying what Nathan was painting.

Then things temporarily turned to custard as Nathan was busy hacking away at the bushes with the hedge clippers and must have disturbed a wasp nest as he came away screaming and crying that he'd been stung. Then again. He and Simon came running upstairs and then Simon got stung. After retreating inside and applying all sorts of things and giving a few homeopathic remedies both ma boys came right 1.5hrs later.

This led on to checking out our Life Size Guide to Insects book which has been a goody over the past year. It's pitched at the perfect level for Nathan for identifying insects without too much text (there is an adult version which goes into greater detail that will be good when he is a little older).

The kids had the book out during the week too while they identified a few random bugs around the house.

After lunch Simon and the kids went for a bike ride...home in time for dinner, they then cleared out the car and had fun vaccuming it...they then sat down with some new workbooks I'd picked up that afternoon and then headed off for stories and bed.

Nathan cooks

Nathan asked if he could cook himself up some banana pancakes this evening. He's always been a keen kitchen helper but this evening must have realised that if he was hungry he knew what to do! So off he went to work and mashed up the banana, cracked in the egg, mixed it up, got out the pan and spatula, turned on the element and called out for me to come and watch.

We talked about how to see when the oil was hot enough in the pan to add in the mixture and off he went.

He spooned it in...

Flipped...

Flipped some more...

And served them up...

Identify these famous landmarks...

For some reason Nathan wanted to get out my yoga mat and put on my yoga DVD tonight. As he was waiting for it to start he started doing some poses and said to me "who am I?". Can you guess?




(our own local Statue of Mary)