Miss Emerald has an Egg!

Our lovely Emerald and her handsome Sapphire have finally laid an egg. We have been watching all the mating and nesting behaviour and have been eagerly awaiting the first egg, so it was with great joy Mr11 ran down the hallway to share the good news first thing this morning.

Sapphire has been very vocal and active all over the neighborhood this morning , we think he must be telling everyone. Our birds have free access in and out of their cage, so he really can share his good news all over the neighborhood.
Mr7 also observed the kookaburra couple we have been watching in one of our trees and noticed the gentleman kooka feeding his lady this morning, just like Saph has been feeding Em this morning, so he has surmised they might have laid their first egg this morning as well.

This has of course interrupted our day and our chocolate study, we simply had to research every thing about lorikeet breeding and there are endless questions about kookaburra breeding still to be answered, but I have manged to lure the boys back to the table with a bowl of chocolate salad, this is a bit of a Rockpool tradition, and is basically a bowl with mixed pieces of block chocolate in it and it did the trick nicely and they are now writing up and drawing food webs.

Chocolate

It is the first day of term for NSW school students today, and it has been raining heavily for weeks, everything is wet and mushy, so it was a happy homeschool family who could stay at home today and watch the rain falling out our windows, although we did feel sorry for the kids trudging along to school whilst we were in our nice warm house and about to learn all about

C.H.O.C.O.L.A.T.E

I found a 12 lesson study guide at the Chocolate Exhibition at the Field Museum in Chicago complete with history, recipes and quotes.I added a couple of likely lads, and some lovely books from the libray and we are set and as chocolate comes from the rainforest, we have a sweet week of school this week.

We have been getting some lovely visitors from the rainforest as well
This friendly lady King Parrot, or Queen Parrot as the boys call her is almost eating out of my hand and she gets right into Emeralds cage, but only when our rowdy lorikeets are not home. I wonder if she might be an escaped pet she is so quiet and friendly.

I am having a lot of trouble getting to update this blog living here, the only internet connection I have is a very very slow dial up and it doesn't cope very well with pictures. So I am sorry but blogging will be very erratic here at the moment and so will visiting everyone elses blogs.

Rainforest Unit study planning stage

In this post I am going to store information for an upcoming unit study we will be doing, we are going to learn about rainforests- particularly Australian rainforests and flying foxes.

Rainforest Explorer contains a wealth of activities and resources about the Wet Tropics rainforests and their plants and animals. The library is packed with resources including rainforest videos, wildlife photos and activity sheets.

The many different activities are designed for use by both students and teachers. All activities are tailored to suit the Queensland school curriculum. There are also lots of great activities for after school or if your family plan to visit the rainforest.

You can browse through three different sections:

• Preparatory to Year 3
• Year 4 to Year 7
• Year 8 to Year 9.

A Wonderful Squidoo Lens on Rainforests

Homeschool Share have a lovely unit on The Great Kapok Tree

Drawing lessons rainforest animals

Gondwana Rainforest types of Australia

Enchanted learning
Rainforest
Bats

Bats- creatures of the night

Loads of Bat links

Stellaluna resources
In search of Stellalunas family
Homeschool share unit

Visiting Homeschool Family

Beaches to explore

Gardens to visit

Paths to follow

Rainforests to discover

Adventures to have

Friendships to build

lots of fun

beautiful weather

time to just be together

We have loved having our homeschool friends come to stay, and are looking forward to the next visit.

Sugar Cane Fire

We had great timing last night on our way home and passed a sugar cane field as the farmer was burning it.
The power of the fire was awesome
the roar of soundthe heat

Meanderings

This bridge can be seen from our new house and Mr11 has an ongoing love of bridges so he is thrilled to have this bridge in view when ever he wants to look.

It is called McFarlane Bridge and was opened in 1906 and the curved track for the counterweights was based on the work of 18th century French engineer B F de Belidor, all of this is fascinating stuff for my bridge loving history buff, but Mr7 and I are more interested in the pair of Brahmany Kites who nest up there in that purpose built nest cradle, you can see one perched on top of the big wheel and the other one in the nest, It will soon be spring and we will certainly be keeping an eye on what happens up there.

We are living in a sugar cane farming area here and the cane fields are bright green and vast, it is harvest time and on dusk the farmers burn the fields, creating an amazing orange glow, it is a brief burn though they are really only burning off all the blades of this giant grass to make the harvesting of the cane easier. We also have showers of black ashen grass blades, that are strangely beautiful (as pointed out by my friend Amala.)
The harvest machinery has been really interesting to the boys as well, loads of cane trucks rumble past on their way to and from the nearby sugar mill and the machinery in the fields as we drive by always starts a discussion.

We can see this boat from our home,
we live over there on the other side.

and this is a sunset last week, looking out our dining room window, it is very beautiful here.

Sadly we are unable to have ADSL broadband here and mobile wifi is patchy and slow so we are reduced to dial up and the slow uploading of pics.

A Beautiful Blogger Award

Thank you my lovely friend Alecat from Serenades and Solace for awarding me as a beautiful blogger- I am honoured.

The regulations state the recipient of the beautiful blogger award must:
*Add a link and a note of thanks to the person giving the award,
*Pass the award onto the most beautiful blogs you love
*Share 7 things about yourself.


Blogging is such a peculiar pastime, I often feel like I am sitting here in my pj's and jotting down my thoughts or our days homeschool adventures and it is quite a solo experience, but when I read all of your lovely comments or am given an award or as has occasionally happened I meet a reader in real life I realise how nice that feedback is, how lovely to have others interested in what the boys and I are doing and even inspired by our activities. So thank you Alecat for your award and for sharing all you do on your lovely blog, I am often inspired by what you and Maestro and Mariposa are doing and it has been a lovely journey we have travelled together as we have developed our friendship online.

There are many beautiful Blogs that I love.
Here are 7.
Joannes beautiful photographs at Framed are a rare but special treat.

Moonbindery is a very talented and inspiring maker of hand made books.

Monika and her Bohemian Shadows is a delight, I enjoy her art, her thoughts and the inspirations she shares.

India Flint is an incredibly talented artist who does magic with natural dyes, her beautiful blog is not all those who wander are lost

I love to read what Ariad and her gorgeous kids are up to at Rainbow Love Farm

Kez's blog is another great blog I enjoy as a peek into anothers homeschool.

And the last but certainly not least beautiful blog I will share today is Barnacle Goose Paperwork's another fabulously talented artist writer and bookmaker.

And 7 things about me.

~I have just moved into a beautiful warm house with stunning river views and I am so happy about that. I have a drafting table and some shelf space permanently devoted to my art space- yay!

~After years and years without a bath tub I am having 4 or 5 long soaks in the tub each week. I take something to read and a cuppa and lie back in the warm and fragrant bubbles and R E L A X ahhh

~Some of my best friends live in my computer, I am a member of The Rockpool Homeschool forum and Milliandes art community for women and both of these online communities are wonderful safe supportive places than nourish me and many many other women. I feel blessed to have these communities in my life.

~I love to cook and to experiment with new recipes, we have been eating lots of fish from the local co op and I want to make a nice fish curry in the next few days.

~ I have a huge colony of red headed flying foxes living in some remnant rain forest near my home and I love them. I love the musky animal smell and the noises and the thousands of bats that flow through the sky just after sunset, and I love the ones that get in my garden and wake me at night, their cheerful chatter delights me, just don't tell the locals ; )

~I have pulled a muscle in my b.. last night at scouts, my gluteus maximus I think it is called and am hobbling around, but it was a great reason for a soak in the bath today. I hope it does not take too long to heal.

~I adore my kids and love our homeschooling lifestyle. I love seeing them learn, develop and grow.

~I am preparing a body of work and a portfolio to apply to a local art gallery to be an exhibiting artist in their gallery.

Long Absence

We have moved to a new home and a have a new fig tree that I will need to post pictures of here, but I have been unable to get the internet connected at our new house yet and so have not been able to do much blogging!

Our new home is further down on the Mighty Clarence river and we have wonderful river views, we have a beautiful house with a lovely warm fire and a bath tub that Mr7 is enjoying most evenings and Mr11 and I are using often as well. A lovely big veranda where Emerald now reigns and all the opportunities that living in town offers.

Mr11 has started rowing with the rowing club and had a great time, he is also enjoying his increased independence and often walks, skateboards or rides his bike into town, both boys are starting at scouts tonight and we are already on friendly terms with the staff at the local library- they have the internet so we are dropping in fairly often.

Hopefully we will be back online soon.

Farewell our lovely Reiley Dog

Our lovely Reiley dog

We fare welled another courageous canine friend today companion of many an adventure

supreme athlete

friend and guardian to two beautiful little boys

active homeschool membertireless, loyal and lovingwatcher of rising flood waters in pouring raincompanion and confidant.

We will all miss you lovely fellow,
Your barks will no longer guard our flocks at night,
Your tail will no longer greet us after we have been apart,
and your steady presence will no longer guide and protect us.

Farewell Reiley dog.

2010 Clarence Valley Home Educators Sports Carnival

A good crowd attended our annual sports day and despite the rain we had families from Ballina, Lennox Heads, and Coffs Harbour as well as our local families.The intermediate long distance runners seconds after the start,and coming in for the finish after 2 laps.The littlies long distance, just after the start.Mr7 came in 2ndoff to the recording tentMr 11 doing discusMr7 showing his style in the littlies javelinMr 11s winning long jumpMr7s discuss throwLong JumpThe Red Rangers lining up for the team relayMr 7 with the batonGreat leadership by our team captainMr 11 enjoying the relay

the competition was tough in the tug of war

The house cup
what a lovely trophy

The victorious Green Team after the presentation and victory lap.

lots of fun was had by all, new friends made and another successful day thank you to the wonderful people who organise this each year.