Homeschool | 1000 Fields of Roses

A Very Good Morning

We’ve been trying to connect with some homeschool groups lately, after years of not being connected. Today, that meant we went to the Autumn Fair, which was basically a buy and sell for the kids and parents – everything from second-hand toys and books to cupcakes and biscuits.
I’d seen the event listed, but didn’t really pay much attention… consequently we really only decided to go yesterday afternoon. Littlest Bean scrambled to get together some things, and ended up selling bags of Lego and old matchbox cars (he had stamps as well, but nobody bought those).

Here’s his table.

Here’s his excitement over having the chance to make some money. 🙂

In the end he made just over $30. He was very pleased…
It was a very good morning, not just because of the money. He got the chance to practise the details of buying and selling – sorting out a float, pricing for value as well as profit, interacting with customers. He also had the chance to know the thrill of putting something successful together in a small amount of time.
A good time was had by all!

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Homeschool

on August 25, 2015 at 10:20 pm Leave a Comment

Delicious!

Cooking day again. 🙂
Biggest Boy was inspired by Nigella Lawson to try an egg risotto. The boys had to write the recipe down while watching “Nigella Bites”, which sounds easier than it was…

Here it is – it was gorgeous!
I helped Littlest Bean to make a recipe from an old Coles free magazine called “Lemon Delicious”. It was the first time he’d tried separating an egg, and he did very well 🙂
The recipe was one of those puddings that separate as it cooks.

Perfect.

Yummy too…

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on August 19, 2015 at 10:30 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: lemon delicious, risotto

Weaving Our Lessons Together

I’ve been wanting to get the boys to do some weaving for a while. I’ve put it off, though, because I didn’t have the materials to build a “proper” loom. We had lots of cardboard around… so we built “adequate” looms. 🙂

Little Bean’s, nearly finished, with the cardboard shuttle. The loom is a strip of cardboard with slits cut at the ends to wind the warp around.

Biggest Boy’s – we needed something to push the weft closer together, but all I had was a nit comb…

Finished! 🙂
Next time we’ll allow a bit more room at the ends – it was a bit fiddly to tie the threads together. I think it worked well, though!

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on August 18, 2015 at 8:55 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: weaving

Pie, Tie-Dye And Yorkshire Pudding

It’s been a productive couple of days, with a couple of projects being finished off.
Dinner tonight was a bacon, potato, onion and cheese pie, made by the boys…

…with a try at Yorkshire pudding to follow.

It didn’t quite work out – perhaps there wasn’t enough air for it to puff up. It came out like a baked pancake, but was still nice with honey and cream. 🙂

Today, Littlest Bean finished his wooden raft.

He was very pleased (it actually floats!) His last raft was made of scrap metal, cardboard and tape. That didn’t do too well in water… He’s done a good job this time with sawing and putting all the bits of wood together.

Today we finished tie-dyeing out t-shirts, which we began yesterday. We met up with a homeschool group to learn about how to tie-dye, and this is how it went.

I didn’t use gloves…

Our shirts, twisted and dyed.

Biggest Boy wanted his shirt to look like gunshot wounds… I think he may have missed the peace, love and hippy vibe of the project.

Little Bean and I did spiral rainbows.

Lots of fun, and something I wouldn’t mind trying again! 🙂

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on August 12, 2015 at 8:04 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: tie dye

It’s The End Of The Week As We Know It

A while back I wrote about a game called “Exquisite Corpse”, where different people take it in turns to do a round robin of drawing or writing, on the same piece of paper, without seeing the work of the previous person.
They tend to be quite funny in the end…
Today, we did another writing piece – here it is! 😉

I was walking down the lane on a cold and windy morning. I was unhappy, for the sun did not shine down on me as I would have liked it to. Cupcakes are very sweet, so I think everyone should have a chance to try them. My thoughts turn towards partying and celebration – perhaps there should be fireworks?
At the very least, a great bouquet of sunflowers! After all they were his favourite food. Of course he could always eat a bunch of grass. It is obvious that he had a strange diet. He would drive to the shopping centre to get some milk for breakfast the next morning.
He ran into an old friend who was waiting for the New Year. There are some that consider that a party is not a party without a karaoke machine but I, myself, would prefer cake, coffee and lots of chocolate. With the possibility of a tiara for each guest, and lots of sparkles.
Bat-a-bing bat-a-boom – we had a party. Everyone was required to have a pompadour and bring a plate of food. I should have been more specific because I said to “bring a plate”. Unfortunately this meant that most people just brought a plate.
Suddenly the cake exploded. In a rush I decided to go and explore space. The question was, where do I start? I could explore Mars. I could explore Jupiter. I could explore the planet of the chickens or just stay on Earth and play video games, but I am more for adventure so why don’t I go to space or I could even dance the tango, or perform a slow, sedate pavane. Waltzing is optional, but everyone must employ their fans frequently in a complicated series of signals and responses.
Also, there should be lemonade. But that had probably been blown up too. It was a great mess I had gotten myself into but I was happy to have gotten out of it.
Well, I’m off to find some beer.

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on July 31, 2015 at 4:23 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: exquisite corpse, having fun :), writing exercises

Say Cheese :)

Cheesecake Day today!

Got the boys to make the simplest of cheesecakes (cream cheese, sugar, milk, lemon juice, vanilla extract and an egg mixed together, on a base of crushed ginger biscuits mixed with melted butter). I whipped up some strawberries with a bit of sugar to make it a bit syrupy, and we had a sweet afternoon tea…

Yum! 🙂

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Homeschool

on July 30, 2015 at 5:54 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: cheesecake

Garfield Would Be Pleased…

Apparently, today is Lasagne Day (possibly only in the U.S.)…
We usually do some cooking with the boys on Wednesday, so –

🙂

Tomorrow is Cheesecake Day…

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Homeschool

on July 29, 2015 at 8:21 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: lasagne

Running Fine

…or walking!
Yesterday I was able to get to Park to Park, and even did the Family Challenge (walk). I paid for it a bit in the afternoon, but doing OK today…

Last week, both the boys were sick, so we didn’t think we’d get there yesterday. We all did, although Biggest Boy is still a little fragile today. School last week was either sporadic or non-existent (Little Bean was better overall, if still sniffly and grumpy). Today we managed a fairly full day. Here’s to a productive week! 🙂

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Homeschool

on July 27, 2015 at 3:56 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: park to park

Brightly In The Clouds

It’s been cold, hasn’t it?
Sunshine, mostly, but with a bit of gloom as well… Here’s some flowers to brighten things up a bit.

School’s back – we’ve been doing our reading, riting and ‘rithmatic, and I’ve been reading aloud to the boys. We’re going through Charles and Mary Lamb’s Tales From Shakespeare. So far I’ve read them summaries of The Winter’s Tale, Much Ado About Nothing and As You Like It. There’s a fair bit of giggling so far, as well as disbelief of the storylines (biggest boy’s frequent refrain is, “But things just don’t happen like that!”) but they’re enjoying it.
I’m studying again – Western Herbalism – and equal parts excited and terrified. Lots to learn…
I just wish I could get my toes warm at some point during the day – it’s a bit distracting to have constant iceblocks!
Warm days are coming again, and the sun will shine on us all… 🙂

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on July 16, 2015 at 7:31 pm Leave a Comment
Tags: Shakespeare

The Cases Are In!

🙂

The boys finished the bookcases before term finished, but it’s taken this long to get them in place because our house is… not exactly level…
They measured exactly – but just on one side of the shelf the bookcases were going under. The shelf (or perhaps the floor?) is not as level as we thought. No problem – Dad to the rescue! He deconstructed the tops and shave a few mm off. 🙂
Here they are. I’ve relocated some of our most used books, and will fine tune the redistribution soon…