Exploring our local area: Camelot Lavender Farm

We went on a homeschool excursion on Monday to the Camelot Lavender Farm.  Which is actually a bit of a misnomer as its not a lavender farm anymore.  Apparently its being renamed to Camelot Heritage Gardens and Exotic animals or something.

So, no sweeping fields of lavender anymore.  But they did have some rare and endangered breeds of animals that we could see.

Anglo-nubian goats

Feeding the goats

The one on the left is an alpaca, the one on the right (the big one) is his baby - alpaca / llama cross!

Al the alpaca

Llamas

More llamas - they've been shorn hence the scraggy look!

Not exotic - a rescue donkey - althought they did have several hinnies in another paddock (offspring of a male horse and female donkey)

There were also endangered breeds of sheep (whose names escape me) and I think they also have some endangered breeds of pigs.

And another rare breed:

The 'I don't want my photo taken' Billy  :)  Notice the lavender in the background!

We also found out that you can only eat the English lavender - the rest have camphor in them.  Most of us had to buy a lavender chocolate just to test it out :)

After the lavender place, we headed back down to the river where we went a few weeks ago.  Unfortunately this time the weather was overcast and a bit cool - didn't stop some of the kids going for a swim though!

My camera battery had died by then, so just use your imagination!

Region Scouting Day

Today Billy went along to a Region Scouting event called GAS (Gather All Sections) - a day for Joeys, Cubs, Scouts, Venturers and Rovers from around our region.  Some packs will be camping overnight, but our pack just went along for the day.  It was held at Glenrock Scout camp - an area of the Glenrock Conservation Area that the Scouts own.  Its in a beautiful setting - it opens onto the beach, with a tidal lagoon running beside it and surrounded by bush.

And what a full-on day it was.

Candle-making

Inflatable slides

Giant Jenga

Giant checkers

Giant shoes - How am I supposed to walk in these?

Flying fox

Rock-climbing wall

Tired but happy boy!

There was also a mud course (what a shame we hadn't taken a spare set of clothes!), a rope bridge, bungee trampolining (luckily he didn't want to wait for this one - the wait was over an hour!), catapults and a few other activities that I can't remember.

Well done and thank you to all the leaders and volunteers that work their bums off to provide such fun for the kids!

A Day in my life - Oct 13

Its been years since I did a 'Day in the the life' post and I suddenly felt like it was time for another one.

Today was a fairly typical day.

I was up at 7, fed the cat & changed his litter, then sat down at the computer to read blogs, catch up on email etc.  I have a backlog of email to get through as I've been busy getting a client's website to her design.  I made myself some toast & a cup of tea and ate it at the computer.

Billy emerged about 8:30.  He's usually up before me, so a sleep-in was very unusual for him.  He's been having trouble falling asleep lately though and still getting up early, so I think he was catching up on missed sleep.  He headed for his computer and not long after was chatting to a friend on Skype while they both played on Minecraft.

Pete wandered out and headed for his computer to start work for the day.

I showered, tidied a bit around the house, made Billy some breakfast (bacon & cheese bun that we made yesterday), packed the dishwasher, washed up the remaining frypans etc and swept the kitchen floor. 

I also made some jelly for dessert and some more 'magic cordial' mix as we were running low.  While doing that, I also helped Billy with how he could add extra authors for a new blog he's setting up.

About 10:30 Billy switched the TV on for the school shows while I cut up some fruit & crackers for morning tea.  We caught the end of "Being Chinese", then watched "Behind the News" together.  Its a kid's current affairs show - discusses world events in easy to understand ways.  I learn heaps from it :)

I sat with Billy while he did some Khan Academy - today he chose to work on the number line lesson (using negative numbers) and reading tables.  Both were pretty easy for him - as long as he paid attention to what the question was actually asking!

Checked my email again while Billy went back to Minecraft.  He's busy designing a new 'skin' for his character - something that involves a lot of patience and a steady hand with a Paint type program.  You have to work at a pixel level to create the look you want.  He's checked out a library of skins that other people have uploaded to give him some ideas.

I gathered the books & CDs together to take back to the library later today. 

The weather was starting to look rather bleak, so I made toasted sandwiches for lunch - leftover roast pork, tomato & cheese for Pete and I, and plain cheese for Billy.  We watched an episode of 'Legend of the Seeker' while we ate - interrupted by a phone call from one of Pete's clients.  'Legend of the Seeker' is a fantasy series (with lots of sword fighting and nice chests!) based on a series of books by Terry Goodkind.

Billy worked on his blog, skyped friends, watched YouTube videos, played Minecraft and worked on a new website he's creating, while I put the finishing touches (I hope!) on a client's website.  Then I caught up on reading a couple of lectures I'd missed on the writing course I'm doing, sent in one assignment and thought about the other one while I did some ironing.

After a search through the house to find Billy's gi, we headed out to dragons with a stop at the library on the way.  Somehow we ended up borrowing more books than we returned! 

Dragons went well.  I help out teaching the little ones and white belts, so I'm not sure what Billy was doing during class.  I had a couple of little preschoolers that were a challenge to keep focused but we made it through!

We came home, I cooked dinner (sausages, mash & veges) and we watched Ramsey's Best Restaurant and started watching the new Grand Designs.  I did some stuff on my laptop while I was watching - made a few more changes for the client, read some blogs, typed up this post. 

Billy went off to bed about 8:45pm - Pete read some of a sci-fi book to him that they're reading together, then I read a chapter of the next Deltora Quest book to him and tucked him in.  Bedtime always takes a long time!

I made myself a cup of chai tea and sat down to watch the end of Grand Designs (we'd taped it when we put Billy to bed), and send some emails.  I helped Pete with an issue with one of his websites before calling it a night.

Its 11pm, I'm just about to pack up, turn the dishwasher on and head to bed.  Quite late to bed for me tonight.

And now I'll leave you with a random cute cat photo to finish :)

 

School holidays

We learn year round, so we don't really take holidays as such.  The school holidays though provide a nice break from the routine of external classes.

Billy has done some weather observations.  He made a rain gauge and a windsock, and is taking daily weather readings of temperature, cloud cover, wind speed & direction, and rainfall.

We went to see a local production of Roald Dahl's "Fantastic Mr Fox" that one of his friends was in. 

He had a couple of playdates with friends, as well as playing with the neighbourhood kids more.  Being school holidays, "schooled" kids had more time on their computers, so he spent a lot of time playing Minecraft and Portal 2 with them over the internet.

We had a b'day party for his cousins where he got to meet his newest baby cousin, eat cake, play soccer and rough-house with his boy cousins and uncle.

We also had another party where he discovered the "joy" of karaoke. 

 Dragons continued through the holidays - he earnt his 100 badge for 100 hours of training.

We've been watching Harry Potter and the Philospher's Stone on DVD, listening to Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets on audio book, watching Legend of the Seeker, and reading Deltora Quest (just about to finish reading City of the Rats).  It's all pretty magical at the moment :)

So now holidays are over, and its back to routine. Inspired by the warmer weather and by some reading I've been doing, I'm planning to get out and do different things more this term rather than getting stuck in the day-to-day rut.

Still writing

I haven't posted about writing since the conference but I am still slowly working away at it.

I set up my netbook in the spare room, and for a few weeks got into a lovely habit of writing every morning, averaging around 500 words / day.  Then something happened.  I can't remember what, but I had a really busy week so the routine was broken.  I tried to start again, then we had a few weeks of really cold weather - and it was really cold in the spare room - so I stopped again.

So at the moment, I'm not writing every day, but instead grab a couple of hours each week to lock myself away and do some writing or editing.

I'm now up to 9,600 words on my women's fiction (working title "Sisters").

At our last face-to-face writer's group meeting, we brainstormed some possible plot paths for Sisters, and some fantastic ideas came out of it.  Now I have all these ideas swirling around in my head, and I'm not sure which way to go.  I've signed up to an online Plotting course for October - hopefully that will help me work out what to do!

I also now have 2 critique partners - one is a friend of mine in our face-to-face writer's group, and the other found me through the critique partner matching scheme run by RWA.  So far so good - even though we all write in different sub-genres, they've both had some valuable input into my wip, and hopefully I've managed to add some useful comments to theirs.

I'm giving Sisters one final edit and then entering it in the RWA STALI (Single Title and Loving It) competition this week.  Hopefully I'll get some valuable feedback - and even more hopefully it will do well in the scoring :)

Term 3 Wrap-up

Term 3 has drawn to a close.  Its never a favourite term of mine; I always feel like we hibernate and don't achieve much.  So its a surprise to tally things up and look at what learning has been going on.

Maths:

Billy's been doing a mixture of Khan Academy, Skwirk & Mathletics (year 4 level).  Topics covered have included:  3 digit addition and subtraction, symmetry, probability, word problems, angles and co-ordinates.

He's also been using Timez Attack to practice his times tables, watching Cyberchase for exposure to new mathematical concepts and general 'living maths' practice like mental arithmetic and calculations, handling money (including manning a stall at the Ugandan Fundraiser), measuring etc.

He also learnt more about codes and encoded & decoded messages.



English: 

Reading both for pleasure and towards the Premier's Reading Challenge.

He completed the Premier's Reading Challenge (Yr 3-4 level) reading 20 books from the 3-4, 5-6 and 7-9 book lists.

He's been writing stories as the plots for his computer games.

He memorised a poem ("Extra, extra" by Colin McNaughton) for his drama performance.


Science & Technology:


Watching Mythbusters, Backyard Science, Blast Lab, Our Animals and Series 1 of Richard Hammond's Engineering Connections (Airbus A380, Taipei 101, Super Rig).

Creating video tutorials of how to use Minecraft and RPG Game Maker, trailers and vlogs.

Creating games using RPG Game Maker, and setting up Minecraft servers and talking other kids through doing the same, and creating custom maps and worlds in Minecraft.

Hands-on interactive science at Supernova (Newcastle Museum) and Scienceworks (Melbourne).

Seeing how engines worked at the Spotswood Pumping station and the Maitland Steamsheds.

Learning about pulleys, electrical circuits and levers.

Watching the development of tadpoles in our pond.

Learning some basic animation techniques using Adobe Flash and made a banner ad for his website.



HSIE:


Watching the kid's current affairs show Behind the News, as well as "For the Juniors".

Exploring local history at the Newcastle Museum

Learning about Ancient Greek gods.

Visit to the Goat Soap Lady.

Listened to the book "My Place" by Sally Morgan about the discovery of her Aborginal heritage.



Creative Arts:

Weekly drama class - his class performed a series of poems in a public concert.

This is Billy being a paper boy in his performance of "Extra Extra" by Colin McNaughton.

He attended an 8 week photography course at a local photography studio.

We had a trip to the Maitland Art Gallery.


PDHPE:

Archery - our end of term activity this term was archery bowling.




AFL training & games.  The season has now ended. 

Martial Arts- he graded up to Orange Belt black tip at his recent grading.

Visited the Sports Museum in Melbourne.

Now that AFL has finished, he's been encouraged to participate in daily exercise or movement - eg kicking the ball around outside, playing Wii Fit.  We've also had discussions about nutrition and healthy lifestyles.

Learning basic first aid and discussions about the importance of hygiene in disease prevention.

Community:

Took part in a fundraiser day for Ugandan orphans.

Took part in Disability Awareness activities - discussing disabilities, playing vision impaired soccer, typing shoelaces with no thumbs, opening a box of smarties with one hand etc.

Was involved in packing shoeboxes to send to underprivileged countries as part of Operation Christmas Child. 

Doorknocked to raise money for the Heart Foundation.

Exploring our local area: Clarencetown

About 30 mins away from us is the little town of Clarencetown.  Its not really somewhere we've been to much, but we headed off there today when one of the homeschool mums organised an excursion.

After meeting in a carpark, we headed off to visit The Goat Soap Lady.

She showed us her soaps and explained how she made them - I treated myself by buying some soaps and lotion.

We also got to feel the angora wool.

Christine (the Goat Soap Lady) was generous enough to make the kids some vanilla slice (using goats milk) and gave us all a taste of fresh, cold goats milk.

And we got to pat and feed the goats.

After that, we headed back down to a park on the Williams River for an enjoyable few hours...

Time to eat and chat..

Time to climb trees and make forts..

Time to swim and paddle..

We were planning on heading out for a bush walk after the picnic, but it was a warm day, and everyone was far too content doing what they were doing.  There's always next time!

Maitland Art Gallery

We haven't been to our local art gallery for a while, so we were overdue for a visit.  We popped in for a quick look around this morning on our way to archery.

Among the exhibitions to catch our eye were:

A photography exhibition by Sean Roche

Aboriginal Art

A walk-in camera obscura where you could 'spy' on the people in the cafe!

This is a permanent exhibition and Billy's favourite - its a giant wooden 'pin sculpture' that you can manipulate to make any picture you want.