B is for ..... Ball

Here is our lovely Meg~
She is super keen to play ball any time of the night or day.
She just loves to chase and fetch and Mr5 loves to chase her and throw the ball.

The boys thought we should post more pics of Emerald as a bathing beauty or maybe just pics of the boys but I thought it was time for Meg.

Parrot Toys

I love the fact that having a new pet to love
brings so many learning opportunities for the boys and for me.
They have observed parrots, in the wild and in books, and at the pet shops.
They have researched diet and behaviour, training and what will make Emerald happy.

They pick her special flowers and share their fruit with her, and if we see something she might like, they apply all of their persuasive powers to encourage me to see the necessity of Emerald having that item- lol.

.A few shots of her having a bath

In our cyber researching we have come across a couple of outstanding parrot resources.
The first one is The Parrot Rescue Centre These people are simply fabulous.

The Parrot Rescue Centre is dedicated in improving the lives of suffering, abused and unwanted pet parrots by providing an appropriate environment for their individual needs. One of our main aims is to educate as many people as possible on the correct diet, housing, enrichment and training of parrot

And the other great site is a super friendly and so informative bird forum - Smileys Birds Australia

With all of this inspirational research we have been inspired to make Emerald some new toys and have just placed an order for some nice bits and pieces from the Parrot Rescue Centre and will be on the look out for safe things to use.

A is for Absolutely Airborne

I have been pondering my blog a lot lately,
but life has been so busy that is all I have been doing with it!
I have been doing a lot of art - painting, drawing, sewing, toy making- busy busy busy.

I have also been looking around our local town to rent some studio space.
A good friend and I are really excited about this and trying to make it happen.

In the mean time I have an art and craft market coming up at the art club,
and that is why I have been so productive.

Anyway back to my blogging contemplations,
as I was driving home this morning I was thinking about what
I could photograph for my A is for... post
and look what I found when I got home!



Active adorable Aussies-
agile, acrobatic and also adventurous, apparently achieving amusing actions.

I just found out about a great photo meme at The Homeschool Post

Now when I figure it all out I will put the link in my side bar but in the meantime I will be posting photo's for all the letters of the alphabet, so keep an eye out for my
A is for ..... post

Now the Year Really Starts for Us.

Daddy started back at uni last week :-(

This will be his 4th and final year of his degree!
He has done so well at Uni, and when I remember how uncertain he was about starting, all of his doubts and questions- we are all very proud of Daddy.
We have been reminiscing, when he started Mr 10 was just 7 and our little Mr5 was only 2.
It is hard for us all with Daddy away Monday to Friday in the university term and especially for the boys, so last week Daddy took Mr5 up to Lismore with him for the first week of Uni and Mr10 is going tomorrow.

This is such a different experience for us all. Daddy rarely has the boys alone~ and never for long.


Mr5 had a fabulous time, Daddy is doing a science degree so Mr5 got to go into labs and look through microscopes and explore the wonderful library, he met lots of lovely people and saw things that amazed him but most of all he got to have Daddy - all to himself. They were together all day everyday just Mr5 and his idol. It was very special and Mr5 thinks He might like to do it again soon- but Daddy is thinking he needs to be studying not playing at the park.

It was lovely for me to have that time with Mr10 one on one as well.
He decided to camp in my room and sleep in my bed, it usually has the other three members of his family in it so he wanted to try it out for himself.

The first night we were here alone, we had an irate bull going berserk at the back fence for hours through the night and we were both terrified so it was lovely to be able to whisper to each other in the dark whilst we were wondering if that bull was going to come crashing into our home! We ended up being awake for hours and getting up for a cup of chai and just talking. We also went out for dinner one night for a lovely Thai meal and that was very special as well. We got lots of school work done, I have already forgotten how easy it is to just homeschool one. We both enjoyed our week very much.

Now I am looking forward to my week with Mr5.
Mr10 is so excited to be going away just with Daddy and to be able to go to uni.
I think we will have to find other opportunities for our boys to have this special time alone with Mum and Dad though, I have really seen how important it is for all of us.

Lemonade Award

I have been awarded a lemonade award!


Thanks Genie at Home is where the Heart is

It is an award for bloggers with great attitude and gratitude!

And I get to pick 10 recipients-

Alecat at Serenades and Solace

Pagan Rach at left of the middle

Keptwoman at Jumped the Ditch

The Magic Onions

Emma at Fly in Freedom

Naturewitch

The Golden Sun Family

Loopity Lou

David and Stephanie at Treading Lightly

and the lovely Majikfaerie

I love reading all of your blogs

Emerald

The newest member of our family is Mr10's cheeky baby rainbow lorikeet.
Her name is Emerald or Em or Emi.
She is funny and sweet and cute and we all adore her.

Here she is checking out the camera.


She joins in with the boys for floor play and has had us all in stitches, chasing Mr5 around the room. I am rather paranoid she will get walked on so I supervise them very well. The other day Mr5 leaped onto the lounge to escape her and she just leaped after him.


I dont know if this wrestling around on the floor like a dog, rooling on her back is normal behaviour for a tree living creature.


She loves all of us and has bonded really well. She has free access in and out or her cage when we are home through the day, and she knows her cage is her safe place she will choose to go there often throughout the day. We do lock her into her cage when we go out and at night.

Marblerun is a real hit, she intercepts the marbles and throws them onto the ground, much to the delight of our two boys who pick up the marbles and start all over again.


Marblerun has never been so much fun.
Emerald comes running as soon as she hears the sound of the marbles.

She likes lego and duplo as well and the boys built her a big parrot play park the other day and they had her chasing duplo cars and riding around on them, climbing through tunnels and over bridges.


Here she is learning her letters, just like Mr5.

She loves the firetruck-

She has a big plastic tub in her cage and that is her swimming pool, she gets in there everyday, squarks and screeches and splashes to her hearts content with an engrossed audience laughing at her every dive, splash and shake she loves water- on a hot day Mr10 will mist her with a water spray and she enjoys that as well.



We feed her lots of flowers and fruit as well as special lorikeet foods, luckily Mr10 and I planted lots of grevilleas and callistemons when we first moved here almost 10 years ago, and he happily goes out every morning to pick her a flower or two.

We also have a growing collection of toys of her very own that we rotate through her cage and around the room for her to play with, she has lots of plastic bottle tops, to toss and to wrestle and to wear on her head. Mr5 made her some nice toys using pipe cleaners and plastic beads.

Back to School

It is our first full week of homeschooling this week. What with last weeks public holiday and our "Not Back to School Pool Party". We are all well rested and keen to be getting on with all the plans we have made together.

Yesterday Mr10 was unwell so we missed our normal planned Monday and stayed home.


In this pic you can see Mr10 trying to use his left hand and also his swollen right hand.
We were doing T t t for turtle and Mr10 was illustrating one for Mr5.

Unfortunately Mr10 was stung on the wrist by a paper wasp on Sunday and still has a swollen hand. He has not really been able to do much, but has been reading, sleeping and building things with Lego. He has also been helping me start to teach Mr5. It has been interesting for him to be in that role and I caught him using a couple of my most common phrases- LOL.
"Shh and listen"
and
"Please stop being silly"

Mostly though Mr 5 and I have had the luxury of whole mornings 1 on 1.
We worked on his phonics, today's letter was 'i' so we did his Jolly Phonics workbook.


Then we worked on his letter book page. We looked through a magazine for i's and talked about the different fonts we found again- he is having a bit of trouble with all the different fonts, we have covered the letters s, a, t and now i and I have actually been surprised in the variations - its another one of those things I am aware off but don't really pay that much attention too, but can certainly add to the confusion of a young learner. We found some images of i words- an igloo and some insects. And stuck on the favourites- the foam sticker letters.

I am doing a double page for each letter and we are displaying them for a while then they will be bound into his very own letter book. We are using cardboard folder divider. I wanted to find some A4 cardboard but could not locate any so we picked up 6 packs of 5 dividers and then Mr5 and I marbled them one sunny day.


And then we did some letter writing on the white board.

But we still needed to do with this keen little man
"No Mummy, we are not finished I can't read everything yet"


So I made up some instant pudding.
Now I am unfamiliar with this product but read about it on a lovely blog I recently visited where a mum used it for tactile letter learning and I thought it might be an idea that appealed to my boy(s) lol. It was a hit, it was sweet and squishy and fun. Mr10 joined in and wrote letters into his plate for Mr5 to copy and identify the sound-


This is great I could wash up before mid afternoon- why have I not got onto the idea of Mr10 doing some of Mr5s teaching before?

It led to an interesting discussion, Mr5 has recently asked me why we don't eat artificial flavourings and colourings because apparently He "Loves Them!" so I should be buying him lollies and soft drinks and mostly the blue rainbow ice cream at the ice cream shop. After Mr5 had tasted the pudding a few times he asked if it had artificials in it, Mr10 answered," Probably mate it is very processed I will go and have a look". So they got the pack and saw numbers listed in the ingredients, Mr5 decided he didn't like artificials after all.
I thought they would end up eating the pudding, but once they were finished writing and playing in it, they put it into the chook bucket.
Next time I won't use 700ml milk, I will make it up with water.

Next we did some Maths. We have just started Math-U-See and Mr5 loves it. He talks right back to Steve on the DVD and then gets out the blocks and does his worksheets and asks to do more and more lessons- I am limiting him to 2 a day, I don't want to wear out his enthusiasm.


We then went out to check the mail and sweep the verandah and just had to do a bit more writing, letters and numbers- our dog Reiley thought they looked so good he had to lie on them!

The Name Game

I have just started following Annes blog at http://flyinfreedom.blogspot.com/ and she had this little game. So here goes-

The Name Game. Use the first letter of your name to answer the questions. Your answers need to be real places, names and things. Nothing made up :-> (You cannot use your name for #3 boy/girl "name" question.)


1. What is your name: Louise

2. A 4 Letter Word: Love

3. A Boys Name: Louis

4. A Girls Name: Lara

5. An Occupation: Leopard keeper

6. A Color: Lilac, Lavender and Lemon

7. Something you wear: Lip balm

8. A Beverage: Lemonade

9. A Food: Lasagne

10. Something found in the bathroom: Light switch

11. A place: Lamington NP

12. A Reason for being late: Lost keys

13. Something you shout: (pick up the) LEGO (off the floor)

So who's next?

The Not Back to School Pool Party

The Clarence Valley Homeschoolers and Natural Learners

held a Not Back to School Pool Party yesterday


I know I am feeling it in the muscles after running up those stairs far too many times with Mr5 Untill he was happy to go with his brother and then a lovely homeschooler called Grace.




There was a good turnout a dozen families or more and we must have had over 40 kids!
We also held a planning meeting- in the baby wading pool- now that is a great place for a meeting! We are planning on a whole lot of activities in a co-op type set up.
We will all meet at a hall, 2 Mums will do pre school stuff with the under 5's then the rest of the kids will sort into 2 age groups >10< and have a choice of different activities- tennis, cooking, paper mache, car maintenance, handcrafts, drama etc. It sounds like it will be a great and busy term and I really need to make the extra trip into town for the boys to get that regular contact with other kids.

We met some new homeschoolers and Mr10 made a new friend.
A great day was had by all and people want to make it an annual event!