Day 11

19 October 2021

A Morning In The Garden

After all my blah blah blah about consciously trying to be freer & let them lead home school like an unschooling pro, we did quite a lot today.

We are moving away from the ‘designated home school space’ more and more and I think this is helping with the ‘we have to work now’ attitude, towards learning.

Linc & I took his Language/Arts book to the garden.

His comprehension work told a story about how books used to be very rare as printing presses hadn’t been invented & were owned only by the wealthy.

Special books were ‘illuminated’ by monks and their assistants, who would grind up rocks and plants to make colours.

He was pretty engaged and enjoyed the comprehension exercise that followed.

He then had to study a 400-year-old painting of a girl reading a letter & write her an imaginary letter.

He asked her if she wanted to meet him at the skatepark on Sunday. 🤣😍😍😍

After that he practised his skateboard tricks & I went to find Mila to work on her Language/Arts book.

Trampolines are the best place to practice throwing your board around.

The next Andy Anderson!

Mila working on her handwriting. She has improved by leaps & bounds since home schooling.

Pepe & His Crew

After English we took Pepe for a run.

We are getting so good at recognising dog breeds. Both the kids really love this time with the dogs. It’s therapeutic for them for sure.

They know all the dogs by name, all the breeds, & they happily chat with their adult owners & run around with the dogs getting tonnes & tonnes of cuddles.

In the short time we’ve been home schooling & going to the dog park I have watched them become more and more comfortable around adults.

(Every time I see the dogs running around, I’m thankful that my tongue is not so long that it hangs out of my mouth!!)

Ew!

Mila giving it her all.

Lincoln in his happy place.

Dog pack – Bellamy, Bambi, Millie & Pepe.

Watch Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0Mm8Mu_VAw

Look at him go!!!

The Frog Pond!

It’s official.

We’re building a frog pond.

We came home for lunch & watched a video about ‘how to build a frog pond’ (http://thehomeschoolyear.com/Frog%20Pond) by The Pond Digger.

It’s a 6-part series & we were so inspired afterwards!

We sat eating our toasted sandwiches with cashew cheese in dead silence as we watched the frog pond come to life.

We learnt what an amphibian was & how lots of frogs are endangered!

The quietest lunch of all time.

And might I just say, another home school lunch eaten in full!

Tiddalick

We decided Tiddalick needs to be in his natural habitat & so we are continuing our mural along the whole back fence and we’ll get started immediately.

First we need to outline our design with chalk & then get to work.

The Pet Store

After lunch we did some maths and then headed to town to do the recycling and spend our cash! $$

Recycling day is extremely exciting!!

On the way we decided we should stop off at the pet store to see if they sold frogs.

They didn’t.

But we did see the cutest little puppies, and mini lop bunnies, & all kids of things that held our attention for 30 minutes.

(Yes, they did ask me if they could buy at least 7 or 8 different animals)

I said no.

This little guy was sold. Obviously! Look at him!!

We thought, we might be able to manage a Seahorse at some stage.

I married a reptile man & had a reptile son. I know for a fact that at some stage in my life, I will own one of these.

And probably one of these.

These fish darted left and right when you moved your finger around. The kids got a kick out of this.

This is one of my favourites. One day, I will swim with a giant sea turtle & be in heaven.

Recycle Time

When you’re a kid you don’t have a lot of avenues to make cash.

Other than chores, recycling is really all you’ve got.

So, nanna collects bottles for us & Dad does his bit too. 😉

Today, they made $7 each!

Soooo much money. 😂

Lincoln went straight to the sushi bar & bought 2 long sushi rolls & Mila went straight to Boost Juice.

Happy, happy, kids.

They love putting the bottles & cans down the shoot and get cross if one finishes first and begins taking from their crate.

Mila explaining to the Boost man what she wants, and that she cannot exceed her budget. 😂

Money Maths

Usually, we would be finished our day by now. It was 3pm when we got home, but we had new play money and so they wanted to play ‘canteen’.

One person is the canteen worker and the other is buying treats.

They hand over the note and the other has to give the correct change.

It is SO good for learning money and practising quick adding & subtracting.

The canteen game.

A Moment With Linc

It was time for the afternoon street session with the neighbourhood kids, & just like that he was gone.

My heart was racing but I managed to get a hold of myself.

Mila and I followed 10 minutes after to see if he was ok and then she decided she wanted to stay and play too!

“No Mila. You’re only 8!”

She put up a good fight and I was just too tired to negotiate in 7 different languages, and so I left her there!

To be fair, we do know 2 of the families that live in the street and their kids, and they all play together and each family sticks a head out a window every now and again to check they’re all ok.

But still!

I checked on them one more time and told them 5 more minutes until they had to be home.

I was sitting in the middle of the never ending pile of laundry when I heard them come through the side gate.

Lincoln walked in first, smiling and came straight to me and threw his tiny arms around my neck and covered me in kisses.

Something triggered & I started to cry. (Gosh I must be tired!)

I said, “It’s so hard being a mama”

He looked at me, smiled so proudly and said,

“It’s ok, I’m growing up Mum.”

We fell backwards into the dog bed & then he picked up & went off.

I was in tears in the dog bed right as Liam walked in from work.

It wasn’t my most attractive look.