First Day Back (April 28)

We have survived the first day of Term 2!!!!  Only 49 school days left till holidays  :)

Ready for Term 2 (April 27)

Well the littlies school area is all neat and organised ready to go tomorrow. I wonder how long it will look like this for?

Easter (April 9)

It's Easter time at our house! Slightly different this year as we are now completely sugar,dairy and grain free. We have never bought eggs for own children but they always receive from family and friends so it will be our first Easter without chocolate. While the kids aren't completely convinced this is a good idea I am loving the fact that our focus is more on what Easter is truly about and less on everything else that we are bombarded with at Easter. I will confess we have found some yummy sounding sugar free hot cross bun and chocolate fudge recipes that I am keen to try out this week though 

Our favourite resources for Easter this year are our resurrection eggshttp://fhdphotos.com/holidays/easter/resurrection-eggs-for-easter-do-it-yourself-versions-to-tell-the-2014.html and accompanying story, Benjamin's Box http://www.amazon.com/Benjamins-Box-Story-Resurrection-Eggs/dp/0310715059 and our favourite Easter read aloud Amon's Adventure http://www.amazon.com/Amons-Adventure-Family-Story-Easter/dp/0825441714

For the littlies we are trying out A Sense of the Resurrection from O Amanda. http://ohamanda.com/a-sense-of-the-resurrection-an-easter-experience-for-families/ We have her Christmas equivalent and have loved using it and so far we are enjoying this one too. We have read about the triumphant entry and made noise makers from tin cans to praise Jesus and about the lady who poured perfume on Jesus' feet and made essential oil diffusers for the house.

Here is a look at these and some other things we have started for our Easter celebration week....or two!

Decorating our tins to make a wind chime to praise Jesus.

Still not quite got the idea of NOT trying to eat the paint!

J for Jesus

Checking out the Resurrection eggs.

The finished wind chime, although it is more of a clang than a chime!

Easter egg painting.

Blueberries For Sal (April 1)

Today was blueberry day for playgroup! We read Blueberries For Sal to a very distracted audience and then we cooked some yummy (and very healthy) coconut flour blueberry muffins.

We also made some paper blueberry pies and painted and played all morning!

Making Blueberry Muffins

Playdough time!

Finding Bears in the Rice Box

Our Blueberry Pies

Yummy Muffins ready to eat!

Yum!!!

The big kids are great at helping the little ones on our mini ropes course.

I is for Insects (March 23)

This week we learned the letter i for insects and read about Moses and the plagues. We went on a bug hunt which then turned into a lizard hunt and we caught 5 geckos!

We had a break from most of our theme work this week and just focussed on our core subjects for Liana and Liam and spent the rest of the time visiting playgrounds, beaches, family and just playing outside before the last of the sunny weather disappears. Although I'm pretty sure its not going to start raining anytime soon!

Sorting our insects into groups.

Copying and finishing patterns.

Practicing our writing in the sand tray.

Reading our letter i book.

Samuel the vet!

Nathanael in the rice pit.

A rare moment when both the little ones are playing nicely in the same room!!!

Roll a bug game to practice our numbers. 

 

At the playground

My munchkins. 

We're Going on a Bear Hunt (March 11)

Today was Bear hunt day for our playgroup. We had lots of messy fun! the older girls set up an outdoor hunt for the littlies, complete with snowstorm and mud!

Making binoculars to help find the bears!


Finding the bears in the rice tub.


Thick, oozy mud and a big, dark forest.
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A deep, cold river complete with frozen fish!




Ready to go through the long wavy grass to find a bear.


Nothing like get your feet dirty in the mud.
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Through the river to clean our feet.


A not so big, dark forest!


A whirling, swirling snowstorm that ended up covering the entire front yard!

 

Quick, back to the house to escape those bears.


Nathanael got stuck in the river!

Arches and Aqueducts (March 10)

Monday morning Science fun! We are learning about Roman arches and aqueducts. We built straight bridges and arched bridges to see which were stronger. Then Liam and Liana experimented with building longer bridges using the arched design.
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Our straight bridge complete with soldiers and a court jester. Not very Roman but they didn't seem to mind!


It only held seven coins, I mean soldiers, before it collapsed.


Our arched design.
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This one was much stronger!

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Liam's design!