Caz
Zucchini!!! Can ya see it?? It's an itty bitty golden zucchini :D
The boys showing off their finger puppets. They got this great little kit for Solstice and had fun making them with dad.

Our tomato plants :D Mr 4 was kind enough to stand in for scale reference lol. They were planted about 3-4weeks ago and are going great guns. The kids really enjoy helping take care of our little veggie patch.


Caz

So with resettling into a routine etc, we've been pretty slack getting started with actual 'schoolwork'. The kids are chomping at the bit to get started, but I've been preoccupied getting all their paperwork in order for the school of distance ed. that we're working with this year. I'm up to the point of writing up the brief program discription needed by the school.. which is basically a list of resources and other things you plan to do and/or use to achieve the outcomes necessary by the end of the year. Not a big undertaking really.. except for the art outcomes.. haven't worked out wtf I'm doing for those yet! But despite this I'll be getting the year underway tomorrow :D

We have cousin Lynda & her son Xavier up this week as well.. Xav has just started prep and he's going to join us for 'lessons' a couple of days while they're up. Hopefully it doesn't ruin him for school hehehe. He's going to join us for our nature study presentation on thursday which should be tons of fun since it's on BUGS! And the kids get to build their own bug catchers so they can examine assorted creepy crawlies they find in the garden. Big fun :D

My plans for this week are:

Monday, Wednesday, Friday:
Mr 7: Math U see, Handwriting, read his science info and do a worksheet.
Mr4: Counting 1-10 book, Headsprout phonics, 'rice writing'
Together: baking (monday), Painting (wednesday), gardening (friday)

Tuesday: PARK DAY ftw! We'll head out from home around lunch time and probably be there
till 3 or 4pm. In the morning we'll read Mr 7s science stuff for the week and maybe
do one of the worksheets but for the most part Tuesdays are a wash ;)

Thursday: Together: Nature study presentation! I described this above, the kids really
enjoyed the one we had this company put on last term so I'm sure this will be a big hit
as well. Then we'll hang out at the park for a while I'm sure :)

Due to my time away in December, I haven't gotten all our supplies & resources purchased yet so the science, social studies & art are a bit slack yet. But we'll have tonnes of time to catch that up as I get the materials in.

Here are a few piccies of what we have been up to lately! OR not.. one of these days maybe I'll figure this stupid blog out but not tonight.. it stuck my photos up at the top and made a bloody friggin mess of my ENTIRE post *grumble*
Caz
It's been nearly a month since I returned home and made my last post on here. Since then we've spent a lot of time trying to settle in to a normal routine.. getting there slowly! The little guys & I have spent time in the garden planting new veggies (when it hasn't been pissing down rain anyway) and we had a great combination Frodos' birthday/Australia day bbq at the IL's house complete with sack races & egg & spoon races hehehe.

Jonathan is doing SO much better now. I've been updating HIS site, but have forgotten to update here (www.caringbridge.org/visit/jonathanbuckhalter ) He's moved to the best rehab hospital pretty much in the US, he's trache free, talking (able to answer his own phone now yay!) and walking a bit with therapy. The walking is painful for him though, they took the casts off both his legs in the last couple of days and he's really feeling it poor guy :( He wants OUT of that wheelchair though so he's soldiering on! I call & talk to him EVERY day... we sorta run out of things to say but I talk to him about anything & everything and he appreciates the company immensely. He's so bored and lonely and can't wait until he's able to go home.

Back here at home, we're attempting to get our year of homeschooling up and running. We're using a school of distance ed this year.. it's a bit different than typical ones though, as there is no prescribed curriculum. It uses an 'outcomes based' approach and basically we are free to choose whatever programs (or indeed even none at all!) to use as long as each term we can show that more objectives are being acheived. I'm thinking it won't be hard.. I had over half of Samwises' objectives for prep ticked off as already being met.. and Frodo is at least on track (grades 1-3 are grouped into one list that kids must meet before the end of grade 3/age 8) if not a little ahead of the game. I'm sure I'll have lots of interesting and amusing hs posts/pics through the year :D

And hopefully it won't even take me a month to post them lol.