Science.

This is an experiment that is part of the lesson we did on caves earlier this week. There are epsom salts dissolved in the water and it's all slowly dripping down the cotton to make a mineral deposit. This is day 2.

This is what it looks like today which is day 3, it's not all that clear in the photo but you can actually see crystals forming and the puddle is no longer growing because the edges have gone hard! We need to leave it and observe every day for 10 days so we're looking forward to seeing what the final result will look like!!

Jaden also started a 10 week science course today with about 18 other home schooled primary kids. They're looking at chemistry and today was about looking for changes and reactions when adding liquids to different powders.

In other news I am now famous.... ok not really but if you are a HEA member you'll see my family pic on the front page of the February newsletter. They did a little article on me cause I was the 1000th person to sign up. :-)

The top end.

So where in Australia are we 'travelling' at the the moment?? Kakadu and Arnhem Land with the help of the beautiful books above. We've been learning a lot about Aboriginal culture and about the nature of this part of Australia that we've never seen for ourselves.

We went on a nature walk to see what we could find in our own backyard, not quite as impressive as Kakadu but still nature all the same. One thing that did stand out was the different smells of different leaves. We had lavender, lemon verbena, rosemary and a geranium leaf, all with their own distinctive smells.

Jaden finished reading 'Tom Appleby, Convict Boy' and wrote up a fabulous book report about it. I was really impressed by how much history info sunk in by reading it as a novel through a convict's eyes. He kept coming out and saying "mum did you know..." and it was usually something we'd already talked about that had obviously gone in one ear and out the other, but through literature it stuck (yay for books!!!) He is now reading "The goat who sailed the world" also by Jackie French, about Captain Cook's travels. (He was meant to read that one first since Cook had to check Australia out before they actually sent the convicts here, but he'd left it a friends and we just got it back last week).

In science we're doing the unit on the lithosphere (the top 2 layers of the Earth), so since our next lesson is on caves we sat down to watch one of the 'Planet Earth' documentaries. It showed some amazing cave formations, one in the USA had spectacular crystal formations!! It's not open to the public and it took them years to get permission to film it. It took them days of crawling though to get to the 'chandeleir ballroom' which was breathtaking. Another cave in Borneo was much less impressive to me cause it was filled with the hugest pile of bat poo covered with crawling cockroaches, so gross!!!!! It always amazes me though seeing so much diversity and beauty on our planet how people could not see the hand of a Creator at the helm of it all and think it just evolved by random accident?????

Jaden is also excited that his science course starts this thursday. 10 weeks of chemistry with other home schooled kids, he's counting down the days (science is his fave!!) :-)

So what's everyone else been doing?

Out and About this week :-)

We had a lovely day getting out of the house today and meeting a new group of local home schoolers that I knew nothing about last year. We went out to Bents Basin for a swim and picnic. It was a really beautiful place, I'd never been there before. You can see Jaden in the corner there, he was looking for fish and trying to catch them with a small shovel (with no luck of course, not the best approach for fish catching LOL). He actually did quite well socialising. He went out with a couple of boys his age on a blow up mattress into the water, but once they went in for a swim he pulled back cause he doesn't have much confidence in the water and was not keen to swim in a place where you can't see the bottom and there are fish. Eventually some younger boys came and helped him with his 'fishing'. This group meet regularly at parks, playgrounds etc so it will be good to be able to meet up with them again.

Bethy had a lovely time exploring in the dirt and sand, especially trying to eat the leaves and twigs, she was one grubby bubby when we left!!!

We also got out of the house the other day and headed to our church playgroup. Bethy went exploring more than she has done there before and crawled all over the grass and into the sandpit and then ended up finding her way through this pop up tunnel. There's no stopping this active, curious little girl anymore :-)

Jaden had fun in the sandpit. He dug a big hole then got the 3 and 4 year olds to bury him. It was funny afterwards though when he was very wriggly cause there was sand in his pants LOL, needless to say he came home and had a shower!!

Patience!!!

I saw this on another blog and it just about sums up our day (or at least it would if we had a dog).... disobedience, attitude, lying... and a mother who is totally fed up right now and has yelled rather a lot today!!!!! May God grant me the strength and patience to actually want to be in the same room as my child!!!!!

The Lord's house!

This is me yesterday, at 25 1/2 weeks and feeling very tired!!! Looking back at belly photos with Bethany I wasn't this size until about 10 weeks later, so either my stomach has just stretched heaps because it just did this last year and never got a chance to recover in between, or this bub is bigger, either way I am starting to feel big, tired and unable to do as much anymore!

We had a great week last week but this week I feel like I have crashed and burned a little. I have been feeling overwhelmed and exhausted and like I have too much on my plate. I have already made plans to step back from all other ministry other than family after term 1, but I've been feeling like I may not last that long! Bethany had been sleeping through the night most of the time but for the past 6 nights in a row has decided she wants a bottle during the night again, which wasn't a big issue before, but at the moment I'm finding that really draining, especially nights like last night when she took a while to resettle then the bub inside started doing aerobics and it was 2 hours later before I got back to sleep :-(

I'm also finding Bethany a lot more work during the day now. She is turning into a true toddler with attitude and is into everything and needs constant amusement and isn't sleeping as much during the day anymore. All of this is perfectly normal but I am finding myself totally worn out by the end of the day, especially trying to juggle schoolwork around her (haven't even bothered trying to juggle housework, but will have to get to that at some point!).

The last 2 mornings as I have sat with God and told him how overwhelmed I feel He has led me to verses about the house belonging to God. Yesterday was in 2 Samuel 7 about God blessing the house of His servant, then today I had one of my old Bible college memory verses stuck in my head from Psalm 127:1 "unless the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it." (King James Version is how I remember it from college cause that's what we had to use). I think He is telling me that already I had lost focus on Him, that being tired is no reason to not spend time with Him, in face I need to do it more!!!! That He will give me the strength I need to do what He's asked of me, but I need to check with Him if it's what He's asked of me otherwise the 'labour' is in vain!!

There are things that God has asked of me that require some of my energy right now. The young women's home group I run which is starting back tonight is one of them. We meet fortnightly and that gives us 4 meetings this term which I feel is manageable and I love the girls, I had been worried though about stepping back at the end of the term and feeling like I was leaving them in the lurch, but someone approached me on Sunday and said God had laid it on their heart to take it over next term, yay!!! I love it when God just sorts it out :-)

The upcoming ladies camp is also something God has put on my heart, but God showed me I had let it become a burden instead of just resting in Him and letting Him lead me and I am feeling much more peaceful about that now. It's also worked out really well that I am not actually running anything once we get out there, the talks, the worship, the creative activities etc have all been put in others hands. I am the admin person and I am doing all the special touches of decorating etc before the ladies get there and for the special Sat night we have planned, but that's it, other than that I am free to just look after Bethany and enjoy the camp. This is such a relief cause the girls camp I did most of the talks etc and ran a small group plus all the admin and special touches and it was a lot of work, but God knows what I can handle right now and he has delegated to other capable hands, yay!!! :-)

There are other things I am organising over the next couple of months but they are family type things, like Bethany's birthday party, a friend's surprise baby shower, my own birthday etc, but I need to just simplify and ask for help when I need it.

What I can get rid of is lots of other busyness. This morning I rang and cancelled something I had on for tomorrow that I decided wasn't really important, and I have also cancelled Jaden's psycholgist appointment for this friday cause it would mean we were out nearly every day this week and I just can't do it, so I have decided to cut him back to monthly apointments as he is doing much better with what we have already implemented from the psychologist already and the expense is getting a bit much. That is one of the keys I think.... simplifiy, and ask God what is 'habit' and what is actually necessary, what can I let go and what do I need to devote my time and energy to???

If I want this to be His house then I need to listen to what He is saying and not make everyone in my house miserable because I have taken on too much and am tired and cranky!! I was also going to a ladies Bible study as well as playgroup during the week and I have cut out the ladies group for now, it clashes with something Jaden is booked into that starts in a couple of weeks anyway. It seemed strange to me that God would ask me to give up a Bible study but I can see that I have let those ladies become a crutch that I lean on and that God wants me to spend more time with just Him and me, so we will just be doing playgroup (the weeks it doesn't clash with some home schooling things we are doing up the mountains).

So that's where I'm at, learning to listen to God's voice, rest when I need it, say no when I need to and to focus even small daily decisions on God because this is His house and he knows what we need!!!

Australian book traveller and other things....

This is the 3D rainbow Jaden made today. We've been doing a devotional time each morning but once a week we will be doing a more involved Bible lesson going chronologically through the Bible. We did actually start it last year but only got through 3 lessons, so today was Noah's ark. I got out some coloured paper after the lesson for Jaden to make a rainbow to put in his Bible folder but he declared that it had to be 3D, so he sticky taped together a whole bunch of toilet rolls from our useful box, then cut strips of paper to make the colours, pretty clever I thought!

This is from Jaden's handwriting book today, he did absolutely beautiful work!! I think the fact that Brett bought some ice cream last night and I told Jaden he could have some if he did nice work in his handwriting book helped the cause a bit, gotta love it when rewards (or bribery) works. :-)

These are the books we're using at the moment to start our 'Australian book traveller' journey. It's got 10 units and I am planning on getting through 3 this term. The first one is an overview of Australia's history and during that to look more closely at early naval exploration of Australia, and also at the creation of Canberra as our nations' capital. Each unit covers a different state of Australia and uses story books as the main texts, in conjunction with 'our sunburnt country' history novel pictured above. We aren't even half way through our book for this unit yet as 'The Australia book' goes from the white people finding Australia up to post World War 2, so that's a lot of reading aloud!!!! It will take us at least another week to get through it.

The program comes with some sample notebooking pages and we have been using these this week to look at naval exploration. I have been so impressed with the amount of work we have covered, Jaden seems to have gotten over his fear of writing and is doing really well. This is the title page that he decided should be done in the colours of the Aborignal flag since they were already here while white people didn't even know this place existed. Gotta love it when you realise your children have taken on board some of your own passions!!! We'll be doing work on Aboriginal life and culture with unit 2 using lots of beautiful books, which also coincides with a course Jaden is booked into on Aboriginal culture that includes storytelling, arts and crafts and Aboriginal dance

Early Spanish and Dutch exploration. (Jaden was most amused that the Spanish guy thought he found Australia but was actually in Vanuatu!)

Another dutchman and some pirates. Jaden thought it was funny that the men who found Tasmania thought giants lived there because they saw climbing notches on trees that were very far apart, when all they had to do was look at the other side of the tree to see they actually wound around it, silly white people LOL.

Captain Cook.

An imaginary journal entry for Captain Cook on seeing the east coast of Australia and pictures of what the Endeavour looked like. I can't believe how much he did in week 1!

Plus there were our 2 science lessons, spelling, our devotions and another page of handwriting. I am so proud of my boy!!!!! (if you're wondering why maths is absent it's because we don't have our stuff yet. The math u see website wasn't working for most of the holidays and when it finally came back online I had needed to use the money for something else, so we're waiting for the next pay to get our maths curriculum).

Jaden has also been doing his own reading about Australia's history thanks to Jackie French. He did start 'The goat who sailed the world' about a goat the sailed with Captain Cook, but he left it at a friend's and we haven't had a chance to get it back yet. So for the past 2 days he has been reading about a young London chimney sweep who became a convict through pickpocketing. He will then go back to the goat, followed by another Jackie French book 'The camel who crossed Australia' (he travelled with Burke and Wills) and Jaden has already informed me that means next in line is 'The donkey who carried the wounded' about Simpson's donkey at Gallipoli. I am very excited about children's books making history come alive in such an accesible way, and I especially love that my son is enjoying history as much as I do!! :-)

Who laid the foundations of the Earth?

Today we did our second science lesson for the year on the Earth. Each unit has memory verses and today's was Job 38:4-5 "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements?" I love that Jaden is learning not just about the world but about who created it at the same time!!! Above are some facts that he learnt today about Earth revolving and rotating, it's measurements etc. His handwriting needs a lot of work but I was impressed that he sat down and wrote so much without compaining since he would never write at all if he could get away with it.

We then moved on to the structure of the inside of the Earth. The diagram on the left was coloured by me to avoid the colouring dramas we had on day 1. I coloured each layer as we talked about what it was called and what it's made of and Jaden then did all the labelling. He then coloured all the circles on the other page (without complaining), cut them out and put them together to show the layers of Earth. It was then time for the more practical fun he had been waiting for... play doh.

We made different colours and he put them together to make the Earth.

We then cut a section out with dental floss and here you have an inside view of our planet :-)

And here is what happens when you hand mix the colour through play doh and don't have any gloves LOL

Multitasking not quite working LOL

This is my little bubba at dinnertime today. We were out this afternoon for my hospital appointment and then didn't end up making it home till 5pm so Bethany was one very tired little girl. I fed her (as you can tell by the food all over her, she likes to grab the bowl and fingerpaint LOL), then I started dinner while she was just sitting in the highchair with her sippy cup. She got whingey so I gave her the dummy and was planning to get the spag sauce simmering then I would bath her, get her bottle and put her to bed, but I turned around after a couple of minutes and found this sleeping beauty. One cute, grubby, worn out little princess :-)

I eventually got her out, cleaned her up with a washer, got her ready for bed and gave her a bottle (she cried the whole time till she got the bottle poor overtired chickie), washing the dinner out of her hair properly will have to wait till the morning!!

shaky start!

Well today was day 1 of school for 2010 and let's just say it went rather less than smoothly to begin with. We did a devotion which was on God making us so we are 'fearfully and wonderfully made', then proceeded on to our first science lesson from 'Christian Kids explore Earth and Space". It was on God creating the earth and we read the passage and talked about what God made on each day, then it was time to label contintents, oceans and the equator on a map. Seems so simple, until I asked Jaden to colour in the map before we glued it in his science book.

He scribbled all over the map in texta and you couldn't even actually see the map anymore. I got cranky that he had just wrecked his work and photocopied another map for him to start again. He then burst into tears that I thought his work was terrible and declared that colouring in was too hard (bet no-one's ever heard that from a 10 1/2 year old before) and stormed off to his room. At this point I was thinking 'what on earth am I doing this for, I could've just dropped him off at school up the road, why oh why am I making my life more complicated!!!' But of course if you ask a question you usually get an answer and that little voice was there... 'I asked you to do this, ask me for help.' So I took a deep breath and prayed and then went to retreive the sulking child. We sat and talked about the way we should be treating each other and I acknowledged that I know he does find fine motor things hard and that I need to be more patient, but he has done much neater colouring than that in the past and he agreed he certainly didn't give me his best. So we wrote up a contract.

Mummy agrees to:
help Jaden
not yell
be patient

Jaden agrees to:
listen
do what he's asked
do his best work

it is signed by both of us and on the wall now, so we can stop and remind ourselves of how we are supposed to be behaving. We then prayed together and once calm was restored he redid the map. I declared school done for the day after that, quite enough drama for our first day back and I have my antenatal clinic appt soon anyway.

In the middle of all of this I had an 11 month old baby crying because she was in the loungeroom and wasn't impressed that we weren't. She could see us and she had all her toys, but she is often less than impressed if no-one is playng with her. So I resorted to TV and put Hi 5 on which she actually sat and watched for about 5 mins before she started attacking the buttons on the TV. Juggling school work around her is going to be tricky I think but we are just going to have to be fexible. We started at 8am when she'd gone back to bed (cause she was up at 5am) and when she woke up I sat her in the highchair with some food for a little while, but eventually she wanted out. I think it would've all been timed ok if the schoolwork had gone more smoothly, but we'll just have to see how we go.

So a bit of a bumpy start but I'm happy with how both Jaden and I handled it and am hopeful for better days ahead!!! :-)