Bird Crafts

We sat out in the sunshine today and made a bird garland.


We used recycled cerial packets and painted them as some of our favourite birds.


Hung them on the fence to dry.


Strung them together ready to hang in our school space.


We made some rather wild looking felt birds as well- Mr6 has named them
Clover and Coral

Saturday

The boys and I headed off to the markets this morning and bought some divine fair trade organic chocolate- it is so good we ate it before we could take any pics.
The lovely people who make it are calling themselves Nutopia
and we tried the truffles- mmmm to die for,
the macadamia chocolate spread- yummmm
and the dark chocolate with macadamias- yumm.
We also bought lots of lovely fruit and vegies
and some onion and thyme relish I can't wait to try.


Then we headed into town to pick up the parrot books I ordered in at the library and we went for a wander along the riverfront.


I headed in this direction because I really wanted to get some sketches and some photos of this old building- it is the back of the sheriffs office and the front is still in use.


But this side is so beautifully old and crumbly- there are ferns growing out of the walls and a beautiful climbing fig is slowly covering them up.


There is an old fire place

and the floor is old bricks layed in a herringbone pattern.


The sandstone is all hand hewn.
I wonder what it was, it is in the area of the old police station and the court house.
I will have to research it now.
I love it and it is inspiring my next art work.

Ready to Fly

We are all ready to start our birds unit.


The lapbooks are made-
all ready to be filled with mini books
I use the project books so the boys can add lots of work.


Previous experience has taught us they need to be reinforced, and covered in contact so they can withstand all the experiences they will be subject to over the coming months and in the future.

The boys love to get their lapbooks out to look at them long after they have moved on to learning something new. They also love to show them to visitors.

These are some of our books we will be using

Plus lots more books from the library and of course the Internet.

Bird Unit Study

We are all a little bit bird crazy around here since Miss Emerald has stolen our hearts, and she has inspired such love and caring in the boys, they are so much more aware of all the bird in our environment and they are so full of questions- endless questions lol.

That led to the boys requesting we do a unit study on birds- Australian native birds.
They let me know all the things they wanted us to learn- and which particular birds we would be studying and whilst the parade of beautiful visitors to the bird feeder in the garden inspired us all I planned our next terms work.


We will be studying a different bird species each week- starting with parrots , then we will look at storks and cranes, kookaburras and kingfishers, raptors, owls, seabirds, showstoppers- lyrebirds and bower birds, little birds- wrens and finches etc, pelicans and winding up with pigeons and doves.


We will be using our trusty field guide- Simpson and Days- Birds of Australia.
Steve Parish's - Amazing Facts about Australian Birds
Gramercy Press- The World Atlas of Birds
Readers Digest Pathfinders - Birds
A well loved stack of Nation Geographic Magazines , I have gone through our shelf and pulled out all the relevant issues, and also some Australian geograhic's as well.
For specific information on the birds we will visit the fantastic Birds in Backyards website.


I have also planned in a lot of field work
- bird watching in various habitats
- surveying how many and exactly who visits our yard
- researching and making more bird feeders to support local native birds in our area
- researching and planting out specific trees to help our feathered friends.

Other planned acivities include
origami and writing haiku with storks and cranes
Johnathon Livingstone Seagull with waterbirds
needlefelting a little bird
lots of art activities
a canoe trip

Lemon Harvest

Our little one has been unwell.
So we have been eating lots of vitamin C in our foods.


And as lemons have plenty of vitamin C, he harvested some-
a whole basket full.


So we have been enjoying lots of delicious lemon recipes.

Birdboy

Mr10 is a budding young artist~


He has recently been inspired


to do a pastel


a combination of himself and his beloved Emerald


The result-


Birdboy

A Winter Walk

Our river is slowly dropping after the floods and is almost at the regular level, although it has altered the landscape down there so much it is hard to tell.

The boat ramp is still there but the road leading up to it is washed away and all the surrounding land so it is just out there in the river now. Many trees have gone and many more a re damaged, it is a bit of a moonscape, and the river itself has altered its course a little bit, there are new meanders and eddies that are appearing as the water level drops.


The whole area is covered in a slick layer of sticky clay with sand covering a lot of it but is still slippery underneath and the boys have both had a few muddy outcomes.

These boys love to get down there and run and jump and leap around the place.


Mr10 is having a ball, Mr6 is not that well so he is much calmer than his big brother on this occasion.



What a team!

Radiant Suns

For my radiant sons- lunch

Harvest

Mr6 was at a lose end today, I was busy doing some maths with Mr10 and he was finished, so he went out for a wander. A few minutes later he returned bearing an enormous sweet potato and was so excited he was jumping up and down. "Look what I found" he said as he dropped a big muddy tuber onto our table covered in maths sheets -

Mr10 jumped up to go and see and I followed with a basket.
When I got there they were leaping around in the sweet potato bed with exclamations like-


"I love gardening"


"This is the best day in my life"
(Mr6 is saying this one most days :-) )

"How did these get here?"

"You and Mum planted them"

"No, they were little ones"


These sweet potatoes are huge- the basket was soon swamped so we got the wheel barrow- not nearly as pretty in a photo though.

We have yet to dig the bed over, these ones were all on the surface, just under the mulch layer, the smaller ones came out as the big ones were being discovered.

Now to peruse some sweet potato recipes.
Mr6 has already asked for sweet potato soup, we are having a lot of soup lately, a big pot is usually in the slow cooker and it lasts a couple of days or longer.

Meeting the Nine Modern Day Muses

Jennifer over at Dreamlife Studios is starting a creative muse workshop today.

It is week one are we are meeting
Aha-phrodite
(I love it already)
The Muse of paying attention and possibilities.

Aha- phrodite can help us to be more aware and focused on our ideas- to bring our visions to reality. The trick is to make sure we are paying attention and being aware of this moment and all the possibilities it holds. To notice them so we can manifest them.

Where is my Aha-phrodite energy -

I am really working on doing a lot of art at the moment.

I am noticing what is around me, most of the time and using it to inspire my creative efforts.

I am trying to inspire my boys to express their own creativity.

I am working on my goal of selling my artwork.

Jennifer has some great affirmations I must write out and she also has a lovely simple ritual to invoke this Muse within ourselves. You can have a look at her inspiring blog at the above link