Day 2

Let them lead!

6th October 2021

Today Lincoln & Mila were keen to make some Ochre!

We had planned on doing it yesterday but ran out of time. We wanted to paint our faces with our spirit animal and act out our dreamtime stories, to finish off our little home school initiation.

Liam was home today and had the pleasure of being painted with Ochre! 😄

The kids decided his spirit animal was the crocodile because of his love of reptiles. (Yes, he was one of those kids growing up who had a pet snake. I married a pet snake guy!)

Lincoln the Wolf

Mila the Cat

Crocodile Man

Dreamtime Dance

After we were painted up, Mila wanted to dance out her dreamtime story. It was hilarious! Although she wouldn’t let me film it. 😞

Lincoln let out a wolf cry at the end of his dance, but again, I wasn’t allowed to film. Boo!

They wanted to know if Indigenous peoples painted their bodies too?….Good question! We went straight to YouTube to find out. We learnt that they do paint their bodies! They do this for 2 reasons, for camouflage, & to disguise their scent while hunting.

Check out this little video we watched on Ochre (http://thehomeschoolyear.com/Ochre), the kids got so much out of it.

Knock, knock!

Our plans were interrupted by Chris, who is an older guy, the founder of Steiner in Australia & who’s seen a lot. Sometimes he brings things over for the kids & today he delivered an old pulley. Random, I know.

They had SO MUCH FUN with that rusty old pulley!!

They pulled out a rock climbing harness & attached themselves to the pulley and took turns pulling themselves up to the ceiling and back down again.

You wouldn’t imagine, this would give them so much joy. They just loved doing this!! (No need for sound on this video, unless you want your ears to bleed! The pulley is in desperate need of some oil.)

I just love the look on her little face. 😍

Watch Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI9biqYgF3Q

They wanted to know more, so we settled back on the sofa & watched a YouTube video on Pulleys.

We learnt about the load, the effort & that the more pulleys you have the less effort you need to lift your load. Here’s the video we watched (http://thehomeschoolyear.com/Pulleys).

Lunchtime was much like yesterday, they played the soap & water game on the trampoline and giggled and ran & laughed for nearly an hour, then took a bath because they were cold and then sat themselves down to do English & Maths (which we had open on the table) all by themselves, without any prompting.

“We kind of couldn’t believe it happened. I know it’s early days, but is this for real? So far, the hardest thing about home schooling, is telling other parents that you home school!”

Next, Lincoln got out Dungeons & Dragons. (I never thought I would enjoy this game, but I’m always surprised by how much I do!)

In terms of learning, it’s such a creative game where you have to imagine everything. Of course Mila makes us act everything out. All of her attacks end with her saying ‘I’m going savage!!’ and throwing her crowbar.

So for us, the whole thing is like a mini play with leaps over the sofa, commando rolls & slow motion death scenes.

It was 2pm when we finished and Liam took them out to meet some friends. I work from home, so I used this block of time to to get some things done.

These days are just so lovely. Tiring!! That’s for sure, but really, really nice.

I was a stay at home mum for 6 years and those early years were so hard. I feel like you finally get through all of that baby stuff, the tantrums, carrying them around all day, the endless poop!

They finally start to get cool, and then you give them to school! 😕 It doesn’t make sense.

It feels so good to be with them all the time and the time we have is different.

They’re different. Maybe we’re different too.

They’re so relaxed, especially our boy. The day just kind of rolls on. They bicker & have their arguments from time to time, but not much & they make up lightning quick.

We planned to home school for a year. Hmmmm, but I don’t know. I can see it lasting longer.

Do you home school? How many years have you been home schooling? Tell me your secrets. What am I missing here? Are we in a honeymoon phase?

Will I be screaming into a pillow in a month?