Musing On The Mystery
Tomorrow is the start of Easter weekend.
I’ve not long finished a book (Sailing Between The Stars, by Steven James) One of the poems in it struck me as a good one to share today, a summary of the “why?” of Easter, of Jesus’ death and resurrection, of reconciliation with God… Happy Easter! 🙂
what a desperate time it was
in the days of the dragon’s curse
when the king’s refrain was as still as stone,
and all knew that soon, of course,
the land would ring with the wizard’s rhyme
and the venom of his verse.
what a terrible one he was
when i first met the son of the king.
with fire in his eyes and a bladed heart
and an ancient flute to bring
the tune of time to the throats of those
who had never learned to sing.
what a furious warring raged
when the prince went to battle the foe.
with velvet strength and a dagger of love
and his crimson blood to flow,
the day he died the moon stood still
and the shadows gnawed my soul.
what a terrifying sight to see
a prince once dead, now strong.
with glistening tears and outstretched wings
and a furious, glorious song.
a new day dawned and the wizard fell
and the dragon’s curse was gone.
(Photo by Arbyreed, used by permission)
A Few Cute Gifs :)
…just for a giggle..
Crawling lesson
Transformer?
Tired little hedgehog..
Good night! 🙂
Blogs For The Boys
As part of our school week, I thought it would be good for each of my boys to have their own blog. Biggest boy has had one for a while, although he hasn’t updated it much… hopefully that will change this year. Little Bean has just started his, but he seems to be enjoying it. Here’s the links so you can go and have a look –
I think the titles and taglines show how different they are – even though they like some of the same things! 🙂
Camp, Coffee and Child-Free Life
…not that we have a child-free life – we just have occasional glimpses of it!
Tonight, my littlest bean went off to his first camp.
He was fizzing with excitement, and I was happy to see him go off with his friends, hopefully to a weekend where he learns all sorts of new skills and gets to know his friends better. I still think of him as my Little Bean, but he’s nearly as tall as me!
Biggest Boy has his birthday party tomorrow – he’s a young man now. I haven’t thought of him as a little boy for a long time now…
The upshot of all this is that we can go off and have a coffee now and then (if we can afford it!), either when they’re both out, or briefly during the week when they’re at home. We couldn’t manage it tonight, but here’s some photos from our coffee date last week 🙂
Rainy Day Learning
Today is our half day/birthday celebrations for Biggest Boy. We usually do science lessons on a Wednesday, so that’s what was on the schedule today.
…only this is what today looks like…
This doesn’t stop us learning science (the boys are doing that at the moment), but it was an opportunity to drop everything, when the storm first hit, and get out the paper and pens. They found a space on their own, closed their eyes, and listened… opened them again and gazed… and then wrote something down. Two beautiful poems, both completely different – I have two completely different boys!
I love having the flexibility to just drop everything, if it seems appropriate – even though I’m naturally a “let’s make a plan” type of person. I’ve had to learn spontaneity (ha!) over the years. We still have plenty of time for what’s scheduled. It’s a laid back kind of day, so the boys are taking their time going through their workbook/textbook. I’m enjoying the frequent “Hey Mum – did you know…?” from both of them 🙂
Hope the sun shines on you today – metaphorically, if not literally!
Baking Day
Tomorrow is Biggest Boy’s birthday – he’ll be 16! We would normally have a full school day, but we’re going out for lunch, and will probably take our time…
Thought I’d try to fit a bit of Wednesday’s normal “classes” into today…
The boys usually do some cooking on a Wednesday afternoon. They’ve been doing dishes for the evening meal, but today we did some baking. Biggest Boy made cheese biscuits (basically – scones) and Littlest Bean made shortbread.
Both were very nice, and livened up our morning tea. Some of our available ingredients were not quite what the recipe needed, and our set of scales is a bit wobbly… consequently, we didn’t end up with perfect results (the shortbread wasn’t quite shortbread – I think it probably had too much butter. Still tasted very good!) Today was fun! Tomorrow should be too. 🙂
Meet The New Housemate…
Picked up a new boarder yesterday. He doesn’t eat much.
We haven’t decided what we’ll call him yet..
He’s not highly detailed, but there’s a basic idea of nerves, arteries and veins. He has a heart, and you can unclip the upper part of his skull to take the brain out. Cool!
In other news, there was extra origami making at the end of the week –
We have a noddy dog (two separate parts, so the head nods)
A laughing crow (flap the wings to make the beak open and close)
…and, finally, the parrot. It took a while, but we figured it out in the end – a triumph of perserverance! 🙂
This week should be fun…
Folding Paper And Skinning Eggs
We’ve been having a good year in homeschooling so far 🙂 . Last year felt like a bit of a write off – due to ill health and pockets of confusion, we didn’t get to do as much as I had hoped. The basic learning got done… but I felt I still would have got a failing grade as a teacher by the end of the year. I’ll let you in on a secret…
We’re not perfect…
(Shocking, I know 🙂 )
Every so often, I read homeschooling blogs. They’re great – you can pick up a lot of tips, and feel part of the greater “classroom”. Often, though, I end up feeling inadequate – my boys are lovely and, I think 😉 , quite intelligent. We’re not on track to great inventions and amazing masterpieces, though. We’re… average. Maybe even a bit more than…
So, I have to focus on what’s best for my family – their intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual health and growth.
I think we’re on track for that…
What have we been doing over this last week? There was a bit of origami..
Littlest bean made a puppy, biggest boy a cube, then
a sumo wrestler!
Littlest bean started a parrot. It’s not been finished yet…
He did finish a pencil portrait of me, done with his non-dominant hand –
🙂
In other news, we soaked two eggs in vinegar for a couple of days.
What happened?
Vinegar contains acetic acid (a weak acid), which reacts with the calcium carbonate in the eggshell, producing calcium acetate and carbon dioxide gas (that’s the little bubbles you’ll see). The membrane of the egg is left intact, allowing you to see the yolk inside. Cool!
Apparently the reaction is CaCO3+ 2H+ -> Ca+2 + H2O +CO2
It’s a little bit difficult to photograph…
Just as a warning – the egg will be more fragile than it was. Treat it gently, if you don’t want to have to hose off the back patio. And one small boy…
Back In The Swing
It’s been two weeks since we’ve been back off holidays – seems a lot longer…
We went to Caloundra for two weeks – beach, markets and quiet times together. Caught up with some friends, walked a bit more than I normally would, mostly just general unwinding. It’s a lot less expensive in the off season (when school goes back), so we’ve been trying to manage a getaway each year. It might seem like a waste of money, and it requires doing without during the year, but we find the school year starts off better when we can reset and recharge…
Glad we weren’t on the coast last week, with the weather being so bad. There were still days of rain and wind, but they were a good opportunity to take a quiet day. The photos below were taken on a very windy day, when the windsurfers were out in force – they even sailed through the air on occasion!
Our two weeks back have been mostly calm and we’re working well.
It should be a good year!
