Our Excursion to the Dam

Ross River Dam


On the way to the viewing platform


The roar of the water


The open gates


Saharna on the viewing platform ~ enjoying the spray of the water


The Ross River

Our homeschool group's theme for this term is water. Quite appropriate as it is Townsville's wet season. Our first excursion was to the Ross River Dam. It was a very hot and humid morning after all the rain, but well worth the visit as the dam was at full capacity and they had to open up the gates for the overflow to go into the Ross River.

Art on Canvas

Pernella has discovered painting on canvas

Her tree frog


African animals


Our new budding artist


Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.
Pablo Picasso

Let them eat cake....

Home economics the home school way!



Pernella was very excited to make her very first cake all by herself ~
A chocolate one of course.
She did a wonderful job.



It turned into an impromptu maths lesson as we discussed weighing & measuring ingredients, temperatures and time.



Time in not how long the cake took to bake but how quickly they ate it.

I love the wet season...

I love this time of the year...
rain,
rain
and then
more rain... perfect!

It always amazes me each year what a few days of rain does to our garden ~

This is taken from the back of our garden. This easement runs along side of our home and when the rains come we suddenly have river views from our windows...


This photo is from the front of the garden




The other side of our home


The front garden ~


and of course this is what you can do when you suddenly have a river appear overnight in your garden ~



boat rides courtesy of Daddy ~ big grin

Happy New Year 2010

Last year went too quick ~ big grin! So this year I have decided to be more diligent in keeping everyone up to date with our family. Here are some 'highlights' from the last couple of months.

Pernella & Charlie's graduation ceremony with the awards they got. Even though we homeschool, Groves who we are registered with, hold an end of year graduation service here in Townsville.




Our new addition to the family... our beautiful new daughter, Molly.




Christmas Day





Little man's 8th birthday

Take me to your leader...

I just have to laugh at the things Lola gets up too...

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!)

Basket Case....

I love using baskets around my home. Ideal for keeping items that we are using in one place and I think they look nice too.

This basket on Saharna's desk has all her readers for this term in it.


This is MY 'quiet corner! In my basket you will find my Bible, prayer journel, note book, pens, highlighter, a couple of my devotional books and some other book I am reading.


This is our nature basket with all the items we keep in there. Our reference books, magnifying glasses, binoculars, compuss and our nature journals.


I even have a basket for our baby girl. I keep her books in there and some toys. We use this basket for her when we are homeschooling.


Last basket is for all our library books. (So I know where to find them when it comes time to take them back...smile!)

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.

A brand New School Year...

Well not to miss out on the obligatory 'first day of school photo'... here it is…


Ahhh my studious children…
(what you don’t realise is that the intensity on their face is not them concentrating on the work at hand... Oh no it’s a race for them to finish their work in the vain hope that Mum will let them play the play station!)

Lots and lots of Bubbles

We had our first Creation Science club meeting last week. The theme for the morning was on Bubbles. A general chat about what is a bubble, what makes a bubble, how do bubbles get their colours etc, etc... Who knew there was so much to learn about bubbles.

Then came the fun part - making bubbles...







I think my two have forgotten all the 'scientific stuff' and are now just interested in my bottle of 'Morning Fresh detergent' sitting on my window sill!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

When I was a little girl, we use to make paper chains to hang around the room at Christmas. I thought the kids would like to do this so I gathered them all together and away they went...



Roshana had more fun playing with them!



The end result, hanging behind our Christmas tree.

Another craft we did one afternoon was to paint each kids hand gold, then I pressed it to paper. I then cut around the hand, wrote their name and year behind it. Then I laminated it, punched a hole at the top and threaded ribbon through it. A lovely keepsake.

Our Jesse Tree

Christmas always seems rushed and busy and its so easy to lose our focus on the true meaning of Christmas ~ God’s plan of salvation for mankind with Jesus, His son’s birth. This year I decided that we would have a Jesse tree.

The idea of the Jesse Tree comes from Isaiah 11:1-9, where God promises a discouraged nation that the glory they remember from David’s time will come again. They will have another king from Jesse’s family, in whose reign the whole earth will know God. As a Christian, we see that promise fulfilled in Jesus, and so we use a Jesse Tree and decorate it with reminders of how God prepared the world for that kingdom.


I purchased the Jesse Tree download by Ann Voskamp titled ‘A glorious coming, The Jesse tree, celebration of Advent. It comes with all the devotions and ornaments ready to print off. I printed ours off and laminated them and punched holes in the top, then threaded ribbon to hang them. I found a good branch in the back yard and the children and I painted it gold. We then put it in a plant pot and put it on display in our lounge room.

We started on the 30th November and each morning or evening read a scripture verse and devotion for that day and then hung the ornament on the branch. This is done right up to Christmas day. It is amazing to see how God’s plan has unfolded since the creation of the world and how we now wait for Christ’s glorious return.

Egyptian Masks

The children really enjoyed making these masks as part of their Egyptian lapbook we are currently working on.