Gratitude Journal - Cooking Up A Storm

This week I am grateful:

• This baby! It rocks! My new Thermomix, to be honest I am a little scared to really get in and get cooking (I'm not much of a cook) but it opens up a whole new world of possibilities for me.

Since Sunday I have made Sorbet, Butter, Vanilla Custard, Rice Pudding, Mashed Potato, Pumpkin Soup, Almond Biscuits, Chocolate Custard, Sheperds Pie and Hazelnut Choc Spread (aka Nutella)...with barely any effort at all.

• My new butcher, free range, pasture fed, preservative free and home delivered, who wouldn't love that.

• A quiet couple of hours when I need it most. The times the kids know that mum needs some 'space' they quietly play or entertain themselves so that mum can revive and refresh. Thank you my little guys. :)

Getting A New Look

It's very exciting around here at the moment because we are renovating, getting a face lift.

My blog has been bugging me for so long it was becoming really quite messy and cluttered, every time I found a new great blog I'd had to add it to my sidebar but arrggh!! it is getting overwhelming.

So please be patient whilst the work is being completed, it shouldn't be too much longer now. :)

Player of the Week

Soccer season is certainly in full swing this year and B is playing his first round of away games, now that he is in the under 9's league.

He is not an aggressive player by any means and does tend to hang around the edges a little but today he was in there, boots and all.

He is quite pleased with himself as he brought home the Player of the Week Trophy to proudly display here until next week's game.

Second season of soccer and it appears that he is still loving.

Bambino Academy: Shaving Cream, Digging, Hammering & Fun

C has been his very busy, very chatty self and is growing in leaps and bounds. We still aren't doing a great deal of 'formal' tot school time but he is thriving none the less. Having two older siblings with him is an amazing experience, not only for him and the olders but also for me to witness. Truly one of the great blessings of choosing the home school lifestyle.


Daddy brought home a surprise package of a 6 pack of shaving craem, yes a six pack! So two each and well as you can C see had a ball!

When it comes to hats and shoes he certainly isn't like most other kids, you know they generally never want to wear a hat or shoes, he loves them and will wear anyone's shoes if given the opportunity. K's are just about perfect as they are cool, cause they are bigger than his but at least he can still walk in them ;-)

He wouldn't allow this little sand digger to get the better of him, it really takes quite a bit of muscle power to get these things going.


He always chooses hammering from the shelves and loves this, although he particularly likes to have 'mummy do it' , I'm not sure if it is because I can make a louder noise or that I just get the little things hammered in faster than he does.

He loved this bean bag throwing exercise and did a pretty good job at it too.


This is actually the first time I showed him this activity. I picked up the set of 3 nesting containers from the thrift store. We need to do alot more work with these.


He has however mastered this little 3 piece puzzle, He really struggled with it the last time it was out, just over a month ago, but he put it together first go this time.


On the shelves above C's I have out a few things for the olders and he spotted these balance scales and he set about weighing crayons and cars.


I was very surprised when he chose this peg box, he normally doesn't like it but obviously something has happened over the last month as he has mastered this one now as well.

For more Toddler Activities be sure to visit:

Toddler Tuesday at One Hook Wonder
Tot Tuesday at Delicious Ambiguity
Tot School at 1+1+1=1

Home School Hop #10 - Favourite Subject

Theme: Your favourite subject to teach (or learn alongside) your children and why?

I'm sure we all have a favourite, share yours with us and why you love it so.

Fortnightly Hopping: Don't forget you now have 2 weeks to link up your posts.

Coming Theme: Family Pastimes.

Participation Rules

STOP: Please DO NOT add your link below unless you have a post published about the blog hop and the current theme, and the McLinky code showing in that post.

Please ensure you have linked directly to your blog hop post and that the title includes the words 'blog hop' somewhere. All links added are checked via McLinky and those without these details are removed immediately.

We are all enjoying this immensely, please play fairly as the majority of blog hoppers do! Thanks for participating, have fun!

PJ Science Week 2 - Gooey Jellyfish & Snow

This week the kids used the same solution that they used to make the Freaky Goo Worms but they also got to be a little creative with the solution and came up with Freaky Goo Jellyfish!

Neon coloured tentacles

A swirly rainbow body

Join them all together

And you have a Neon Freaky Goo Jellyfish.

They also did a couple of snow type experiments, we've used this snow material at home before so the feel of it wasn't new to my guys. Have a look at the expression on K's face though.

Professor Jellybean placed a small amount in their hands and added water and of course it exploded (grew) incredibly fast, K couldn't hold it all it was growing and spreading so fast. We've only ever done this in a tub, not held it in our hands as it absorbed the water so the feeling of that on her little fingers must of been fun.

Definitely another thumbs up for this week's round of PJ Science Fun.

Check out the other science fun posts.

Free Printable: Addition Number Facts Copywork Pages

This information has been moved. It can now be found here - ADDITION FACTS COPYWORK PRINTABLE

Australian Unschooling Retreat

Calling all Aussie homeschoolers/unschoolers!

The Australian Unschooling Conference Retreat is being held this September on the beautiful Gold Coast.

Hop on over for more details and to register your interest.

Australian Unschooling Conference Retreat

Gratitude Journal - Feeling Alive

This week I am grateful for:

• Feeling Alive, really alive! C is finally sleeping until at least 5 -6am.....yay to virtually a full night's sleep.

• My organic fruit and vegie boxes that I am now having home delivered. I always have fresh organic produce on hand and I haven't had to leave the house.

• My Brother doing well. His life has travelled the hard road for a long while now and it is finally looking like it is changing course.

These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things - Blog Hop

Tulips

and

Chocolates,

Coffee

and

Good Books,

Beaches

and

Forests,

My Family I Love Most,

These are a few of my favourite things!

Gateway Bridge Opening

Yesterday we went for a walk, a long walk, over a long and very high bridge. It was the offical opening of the 2nd Gateway Bridge in Brisbane. Yes we already have one but ou little city has outgrown that one and we have desperately needed another for a few years. Finally it is here.


None of these photo's are very good or exciting, too busy being bustled by crowds and watching out for the children to worry about photo's really. We drove and parked at a designated parking area and caught a free shuttle bus to the edge of the bridge.


Thankfully it was a cool, overcast day otherwise it would have be an awful walk in the heat. If you click on this image and enlarge it you can kinda see the huge sea of people making their way to the top. I believe they estimated to have 157 000 people walk the bridge, more than double than what they had anticipated. Even though there were alot of people there it was still a good walk, there was room and no one was being squished.


They had children's artwork lining the walls of bridge and many large poster type signs showing photo's of the work and giving small bits of information. This one has some statistics on the materials that I thought was quite interesting.


How far things have come. 4 years to complete the first bridge but only 2 years for the second one, that's not bad going.


Dad carried little C up and over the bridge in our Ergo so he had a great ride. Once we were headed down for the last time he got out and had a blast, jumping in every hole, looking over the fence (he obviously had to be lifted) every few metres or so. Hence it took us much longer to get down then it did to walk up, but that was what they day was all about...the kids.


Here's a much nicer shot of the bridge, just imagine a second identical bridge running right alongside.

Little C had a day of many firsts too, his first time in a bus, his first walk over a very large bridge (I think a first for all of us) and we also took a drive through Brisbane's new Clem 7 Tunnel, it goes under the Brisbane River, this was a first for all of the kids. So in one day we went over the river and under the river.

PJ Science Week 1- Freaky Goo Worms & Gooey Slime

A couple of the members of our house have taken up new professions the moment. They are pretty exciting professions too. Allow me to introduce you to them.

Meet Scientist B

And Scientist K

This week they concocted a batch of Freaky Goo Worms by mixing a seaweed protein with a calcium solution. It's the stuff that is in some of those gooey lollies and the worms really feel like a little gummi bear.

They also mixed up some colouring, glitter, PVA solution with a binding agent and hey Presto.....Gooey Slime!!

This was our first week with Professor Jellybean. She is coming along for the next 8 weeks to our homeschool network mornings to share her science fun with the kids. And fun it surely is! They all got kitted out with their lab gear and got down and dirty mixing up their experiments.

I don't have the exact ingredients as she didn't give them away but I am sure some googling will produce results. The slime is fabulous and those gooey worms, you need to remind yourself that they ARE NOT lollies hehehehe!

So ok we might be cheating a bit for Science Sunday, since we didn't actually do these at home but they were super fun and our budding little scientists are itching to see what they will come up with this week.

Check out the other Science Sunday fun Posts.

Home Library Size & Your Child's Education

Now I have some justification for our ever growing home library (dh are you reading this ;-) ). I've entered 370 odd books into my Library Thing collections and I am not even halfway there yet!

“Home library size has a very substantial effect on educational attainment, even adjusting for parents’ education, father’s occupational status and other family background characteristics,”

“Growing up in a home with 500 books would propel a child 3.2 years further in education, on average, than would growing up in a similar home with few or no books."

Read the entire article here >>> I found this article via Walk Beside Me, thanks for pointing it out.

Home School Hop #9

Theme: These are a few of my favourite things!

You know the song, I think we all know and love the song!

So it's your turn to share some of your favourite things. Your list may only include a few or it may be extensive, photo's would be lovely but certainly not neccessary.

What ARE your favourite things?

A Couple of Changes

Fortnightly Hopping: I have had a few suggestions to run the Blog Hop on fortnightly cycles, this was something I had considered in the beginning, so we are going to give it a try. This will allow participants plenty of time to link up their posts and to also hop on over and check out all of the great blogs that participate.

Thumbnails: I have tried the thumbnail Linky this time around. I have no idea how it works so we'll all be finding out together!

Coming Theme: Your favourite subject to teach (or learn with) your children and why? I will do my best to include the next theme so that if you wish to you can prepare for it.

Participation Rules

STOP: Please DO NOT add your link below unless you have a post published about the blog hop and the current theme, and the McLinky code showing in that post.

Please ensure you have linked directly to your blog hop post and that the title includes the words 'blog hop' somewhere. All links added are checked via McLinky and those without these details are removed immediately.

We are all enjoying this immensely, please play fairly as the majority of blog hoppers do! Thanks for participating, have fun!

Spreading Some Sunshine

The very lovely, very thoughtful Wendy from Faith's Firm Foundation passed on the Sunshine Award to me! Thank you Wendy.

Now the only reason I don't like receiving these awards is I found it so terribly difficult to pass them on to others, how do I only pick 12 when I have so many in my reader.

This time I am passing the Sunshine Award to the following 'Full of Sunshine' bloggers:

1. Walk Beside Me

2. The Wonder Years

3. Montessori For Everyone

4. What Did We Do All Day

5. Montgomery Academy

6. The Homeschool Den

7. Inspiration Surrounds Creativity Abounds

8. Delicious Ambiguity

9. Mouse Grows Mouse Learns

10. Children Grow ChildrenExplore Children Learn

11. Delightful Learning

12. One Hook Wonder

After this is passed on to YOU… Here’s how it works:

1. Put the logo on your blog and/or within your post.
2. Pass the award on to twelve bloggers.
3. Link to the nominees within your post.
4. Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and the link to the person from whom you received this award.

Thanks to all of you for spreading a little sunshine into the blogosphere. :)

I actually received a couple of awards duirng my recent break and I wanted to send out my apologies to those that passed them on as I haven't done anything with them and to be honest now I can't even remember who gave them to me.....but thank you so much anyway. :)