Earth Painting - 24 June 2010

A great homeschool activity and a lot of fun (and mess)...

We made our own natural paints using two types of soil, charcoal & turmeric.

Charlie pounding the charcoal with a mortar and pestle




Great earth shades of different textures & colours











Some of the finished masterpieces


These paintings led into great discussions of Indians, Aboriginals & American Indians paintings. How these different cultures all used natural resources around them to create beautiful works of art.

The Worm Farm...

This year our homeschool group split the term's up into themes and this Term's theme was 'Earth'... so last week at our homeschool meeting Dianne (A homeschool Mum) organised lots of science stations with different activities based around earth and water (Water was the theme for last term). To finish the morning off each family got to make a worm farm - simply using a large glass jar, layers of sand & soil and mesh for the top - oh and of course worms. To say Pernella was excited is an understatement!



My girl is just crazy about creepy crawlies!



These worms will be great in my vegetable garden once we get it up and running...





So this week there has been lots of observing of our new pet's, feeding them and researching about looking after worms on the internet. This weekend Pernella and Charlie are going to be making a larger worm farm using an old fish tank we have.
Don't you just love nature!

Have a look at some other entries at We Made It!!! Friday Showcase!!!
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Look at all the Fishes...

For our end of Term 1 excursion, our homeschool group went along to Reef HQ. Pernella & Charlie love going there and it was Lola's first time to see all the fishes - and she loved it! I think we will need to buy an annual pass now...



'Big fish Mummy'




Old fashioned Diving Helmet




I can hear the sea in my shell










May was the month Lola's 'I Can Do' activities was going to focus on Under the Sea but I am a bit behind so March, April and May's activities all are running into one - smile... Now if I can only get her away from the Wiggles DVD's long enough to watch Nemo.

Homeschooling is so tough

To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment. ~ Jane Austen

For those of you who do not know what verdure means, simply put it is the greenness, especially of fresh, flourishing vegetation. (ok I admit I looked it up!)

Inborn sense of wonder

"If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder... he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement and mystery of the world we live in."

~ Rachel Carson, The Sense of Wonder.

Oh we do love to live beside the seaside, oh we do love to live beside the sea..

Pictures of our family trying out their new fishing rods. These were taken at the beach near our house. I was kept busy chasing Lola to make sure she didn't go swimming in the sea!

Just going fish'n....

Hubby, Pernella & Charlie have started fishing! These pictures are of Charlie's first fish that he caught. Very proud moment. Unfortunately
Pernella's got away...
They had an excellent time at the beach and among all the fisherman that were there, they were the only ones to come home with a catch.

Our Beach at Sunrise

Every couple of weeks Hubby gets up very early on a Saturday morning and takes Pernella & Charlie to our beach. They watch the sunrise, look in rock pools, walk, talk and collect shells.
Just spending time together.

“I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” C.S. Lewis


From the rising of the SUN unto the going down of the same the LORD's name is to be praised. Psalms 113:3

What's in the toolbox???

Charlie wondered into the house very calm and said in a 'matter of fact' voice.. "Mum there's a snake in my toolbox". At first I thought he was joking as he disappeared outside again but then I told hubby to quickly go outside and see what was happening. Sure enough we had a snake in the tool box. We had the local snakeman 'Dave' pop over to see what kind of snake it was. Just for your information Australia has 8 of the world’s 10 deadliest land snakes and in Townsville we seem to have most of the 8 living here - big grin... Anyway it turned out to be a common tree snake having a rest after consuming the tree frogs which inhabit our back verandah.

Nature study up close (too close in my opinion!)

Getting the snake out of the tool box so Dave could see what type of snake it was.

Dave held the snake so that the kids could have a good look at it. Then he took the snake far, far away...

Collecting Leaves

Our June nature study was spent learning about leaves. We printed out a illustration of a leaf from enchanted learning. We coloured, labelled the parts of the leaf and then spent some time learning them and stuck it into our notebook. We went outdoors in our garden looking for various types of leaves. The children collected a few samples to use for their art work. They took some time to properly look at the leaves, even using a magnifying glass to study them closer. Then they compared colours, texture, shapes and smells of their collected leaves.



We watched the tuitional on handbook of nature study to learn some tips on drawing leaves.



Pernella & Charlie chose a few leaves to do some leaf rubbings in their nature journals using crayons. They painted a nature scene, then they sketched some leaves and used pastels to colour and shade them in. The children did some beautiful work.




Later back in doors we spent some time looking in the 'encyclopedia of discovery on nature' about incredible plants and lastly found a Bible verse that mentions trees and wrote it in their journal for copywork.

Nature Study at our beach

We go to the beach regularly & it is a great place to do an impromptu nature study. Here are some photos of Pernella and Charlie looking for snails and crabs while the tide is out. If they had their way they would be at the beach this very moment – big grin!



If we give our children regular opportunities to get in touch with God’s creation, a habit is formed which will be a source of delight throughout their lives. (Karen Andreola, A Charlotte Mason companion pg 253)<