Our week of Learning - 22nd March

English: To learn more about St Patrick's Day, he did a comprehension booklet on Ireland and some of it's symbols.

Maths: We started our new Maths syllabus this week, so we went from having an hour or so of Maths once a week to 30 mins of maths every day. We did that Mon - Thurs, then just did some "fun maths" on Friday with the mini tutor tile system.

I started back in Year 1 MEP since there were some new concepts that we hadn't yet covered, and have just been picking out the worksheets I think he needs to do. So far I'm really happy with it - it seems to be a good mixture of mental maths and worksheets. It's more labour intensive for me - both in prep work and "teaching" while he's doing it, but the fact that it's challenging him makes it worthwhile.

I also started off a couple of lessons with some more hands-on stuff - I dealt out 20 random playing cards (A - 10) and then got him to make sets adding up to 10. He also used the "Logi Shape" system where you have to build a picture using the various shapes (logical thinking) - he's better at this than I am!



Science & Technology: Evaporated a salt water solution and made salt crystals - this was just a little detour, we hadn't planned on doing it! In our "push/pull" unit, we made parachutes out of fabric, paper, crepe paper & plastic, attached Lego men and timed how long it took them to reach the ground from off the kitchen table!


HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): Continuing on with our prehistoric man study, we read a book called "The Everyday life of an Ice Age Hunter" by Giovanni Caselli, looked at cave paintings in France and then made our own "cave" paintings.

Hand painting with sprayed paint

Billy's animal cave painting - it was supposed to be a bison but he decided it would be a rat instead! (Somehow I would be surprised if there was a "Rat Tribe"!)

Creative & Practical Arts: In drama class, they were acting out actions that others gave them - eg knitting, singing etc. We did our "Cave" painting as above. Plus of course, the West African drumming & dancing at the homeschool meeting.

LOTE (Languages other than English): He said last week that he wanted to learn Spanish again (we did a bit sporadically last year), so this week he practised the numbers 1-10 online at Online Free Spanish, and then matched the numbers cards I'd made with the spanish and english names.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Circus class, riding his scooter.

Life skills (cooking, gardening): Making his bed has now been added to his list of chores - I need to reinstate his chore chart as his bedroom has just been gradually sneaking back down-hill :(

Homeschool Day - Jamo Jamo West African Dance & Drumming

I haven't blogged much about our fortnightly homeschool days as separate posts lately, but they've still been going on quite successfully (apart from an odd disappointing behind-the-scenes back-stabbing, but hey, you get that!)

Anyway I had to post about the one we had on Monday. We'd booked a local drummer & dancer (originally from Senegal) to come and give us a workshop and it was sooo cool! We had over 50 kids turn up, so they had to take turns using the drums, but I don't think anyone minded. The amount of time they got each I think was quite adequate - apparently it was pretty hard on the hands :)


The artist, Fode Mane, was awesome! He taught without saying much at all, just by directing & showing the kids what he wanted them to do. He did speak for a little while, explaining about the drums and how they were used.

He started with the smaller kids - I think 7 and under, and taught them some simple rhythms. Then the next age group, and finally the older kids (and some brave mums!). With each successive group, his rhythms got more & more complex!

After everyone had had time using the drums, he then showed them how to do some West African dancing. The kids had an absolute blast doing it all!



More photos in the Photo Gallery at Homeschooling in the Hunter.

Menu Plan Monday - 16th Mar

Notes on last week's menu:
I did actually write a menu plan last week, so didn't get around to putting it on the computer. We had twice-baked potatoes one night for a change - Pete isn't much of a fan but I was happy with them. I also made gnocchi one night - very yummy but very time-consuming :(

To use up this week:
* roast pork

Menu Plan this week:

Monday - hamburgers & salad
Tuesday - steak & chips
Wednesday - frittata or quiche
Thursday - pork stir fry
Friday - pizza
Saturday - leftovers
Sunday - roast chicken dinner

For more exciting menu plan ideas, see Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.

Exploring our local area: Australian Reptile Park

Part way between Newcastle & Sydney is the Australian Reptile Park. It was opened in 1948 - and I had *never* been there! That probably has a lot to do with the fact that snakes give me the creeps and judging by the name, I thought it was all snakes & lizards.

We headed off to meet my Mum, sister & nieces there on Monday - and I was blown away by how good it was.

There were lots of reptiles - some out "wild" in the enclosures, and some safely behind glass cages. The Lost World of Reptiles exhibit was awesome - I loved the iguana!! (but didn't get a photo because my batteries were flat by then :( )

Lizards & turtles

Some sort of Australian lizard - I think it's an Eastern Water dragon

Some reptiles were unexpected!

American alligator - *squirm*

Galapagos tortoise - feeding time!

Galapagos tortoise - so ugly, they're cute!

But there were also lots of "cute" (and smelly) Australian animals:

Dingo - Australian native dog

Koala with baby

Wombat

Rock Wallaby

Tasmanian devil - aggressive & very smelly!

Another koala!

Emu having a feed

and some beautiful bush to walk through as well.

Some sort of native flower - can't remember what but it was pretty!

It was well worth a visit - we'll be back!

Our week of Learning - 15th March

We had a mid-term break this week so we didn't have any formal lessons. We certainly have been busy though!

English: Lots of reading and a trip to the library, plus he did some of a grammar CD because he wanted to.

Maths: We've been playing lots of games - noughts & crosses (tic-tac-toe) & checkers plus a game of subtraction dominoes (that was tough even for me lol!). He's also been playing around with codes, and learnt to do kid's Sudoku.

Science & Technology: Lots of Magnetix play. We discussed making salt by evaporating salt water and have plans to do an experiment about it soon.



HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): We went to the Australian Reptile park and saw lots of fauna & flora. He also watched a documentary on sharks, and part of one on Japan. He played a bit of Become a History Explorer CD game.

Creative & Practical Arts: Photography at the Reptile Park. Paper weaving. Drama class.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Circus class, and 3 lots of playgrounds with friends - playgrounds & scooter riding!

Life skills (cooking, gardening): Cutting up fruit to make "fruit rockets" (bits of fresh fruit on a skewer).

Even without lessons, he's still learnt a lot. I really like the idea of natural learning / unschooling, but I feel more "in control" when we have some structure. It was very good to have a break though with such a busy week.

I think I'm back...

What an ordeal!!

I started reinstalling Windows on Friday night (about 9pm) after I'd made sure I'd backed up everything I could possibly think of!

I was probably about 2/3 of the way through installing & reloading everything by 3pm Saturday when I realised that I couldn't run any of the websites that I develop on my local machine. A huge issue! 2 hours, much Googling and many attempts to fix it later, I gave up and started installing Windows - again!!!!

Its now about 11am on Sunday and fingers crossed that I am all back.. Everything seems to be installed and working ok. I'm sure I'll find stuff that I've forgotten to install - probably just as I go to use it - but I should be able to get back into my work and online world now :)

Sick Computer :(

My computer is sick... It started last Sunday morning when it had problems starting up. I've spent far too many hours trying to fix it - at the moment the majority of the functions are working but enough aren't (like my wireless network connection) to think that a drastic rebuild is the only solution..

So that's my job for the weekend :( I guess looking on the bright side it will be a chance to clear out all of the unused programs that have crept onto my machine in the last 3 years. And a fantastic way to check if I really am backing up all the stuff I need to be. *gulp*

I'll be able to access email on another computer, and hopefully will be back in the world of blog very soon!

Grocery Challenge Wk 4 and 5 of 6

The Challenge: To only spend $25 / week on groceries for the next 6 weeks.

The Result (Wk 4):

I wasn't supposed to spend any money this week at all, since I doubled-up last week. I couldn't resist the siren call of the ice-cream truck though :( (Or more to the point, the nagging of the child who heard the ice-cream truck!)
Spent $6 - tub of ice-cream, $4.70 - eggs

The Result (Wk 5):

Well, the peasants are revolting... I've decided to cut the challenge short. The immediate aim - to get us over a shortfall in the bank account - has been met, and I'm getting the vibe that I need to spend again!! At the end of this week I'll go back to "normal" spending. I might need to do another smaller challenge in a month or so - it depends if clients start paying their bills!

Spent $29.95 at Aldi - Eggs, cereal, cheese, salad veges, potatoes, bread.

Total Spent:

Groceries: $133.80 / 5 weeks = $26.76 average / week. Pretty good!

I have $100 in the "butcher" envelope ready to stock up on meat.

It's been a valuable exercise, it achieved it's aim, but now it's time to start restocking on staples - and add a few luxuries back in for the poor family members :)

Our week of Learning - 8th March

English: He practised the letters 'i' & 'j' in handwriting. We had Book Day at our homeschooling group where each kid presented a display on their favourite book. We had some very creative entries - it was great to see. There are photos if anyone wants to see.

We've started reading books from the NSW Premier's Reading Challenge Booklist.

We also started on grammar with nouns & verbs.


Maths: One of the reasons I wanted to homeschool was so that Billy could work at his own pace, rather than the pace of the class. I wanted the flexibility of doing different subjects at different levels, depending on his needs, and not making him go over & over stuff he already knew..... So why was I making him go unit by unit through a Maths book that he was clearly past?! I think it's from my years of being schooled - I have an obsession to 'fill in all the blanks'!

I finally came to my senses! When I looked through the rest of his Yr 1 Maths book (another 15 or so units), there was NOTHING that he didn't already know quite well. I randomly picked a few things out that were more advanced and asked him to tell me the answer - no problems at all. So I gave him a grading test for NSW Yr 1 & 2 that I found online. He got 9 / 12. Of the 3 he got wrong, 1 was because he wasn't concentrating (he added rather than subtracted - I got him to look at it again after I'd marked it and he got it right). The other 2 were Base 10 representations of numbers which isn't in the Yr 1 book so we haven't covered it... Hmm, my mind was made up and we moved onto the Yr 2 book.

However, looking through the Yr 2 book there is still a lot of repetition of things he already knows. I'd decided to just pick and choose as we go along, when serendipitously I came across Suji's Funschooling.net blog which really resonated with me. We seem to have very similar boys! From there I found a link to a curriculum at MEP which looks far better for us. It will be more challenging for him. Every week seems to introduce new material and there is less repetition. I'll intersperse it with other materials if he needs more practice on an area. I've downloaded the year 2 books, and will see how it goes. I'm quite excited about it!

Science & Technology: Push / pull unit: We did experiments comparing the weight of objects in air vs water, and how you can make something float by changing it's shape (using modelling clay).

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): Out came the clay! We made some people & pots for our stone age diorama, then went looking around the yard to find rocks & sticks to make some tools. We've been using a book called "Step into the Stone Age" as reference.


Creative & Practical Arts: Drama class. Playing with clay.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Circus class.

Life skills (cooking, gardening): He did some sewing - he's working on making himself a pincushion.

*********

I've decided we'll take a mid-term break next week and just unschool apart from the normal drama & circus classes. We've been going for 8 weeks since we started mid-January, we have 3 social activities planned somehow and I just feel like a break!

Tag - Tree of Happiness

Luci tagged me some time back with the Tree of Happiness:

The idea of this tag is to list 6 things that make you happy and then tag others with it and spread the love!

In no particular order, here are mine:
1. Family
2. A few quality real life friends who actually understand me - and still talk to me :)
3. A great lot of online friends
4. The freedom to live our life as we want to
5. A good book and peace & quiet to read it (very rare for the 2nd part!)
6. Good food

If you want to do it, consider yourself tagged!

Sunday - a day of reflection and planning

You may have noticed that I tend to do a flurry of posts on Sundays. Sundays have turned into my planning day - my day to reflect on the week just finishing, and plan for the week ahead.

Reflection of the week includes:
- wrapping up what we did for the week in school, and doing any record-keeping
- doing any financial record-keeping and balancing

Planning includes:
- menu planning for the week ahead,
- writing a shopping list if needed,
- working out what we're going to do in each subject for the school week ahead,
- doing any cooking or baking ahead of time,
- working out what activities we all have on, and making lists of anything that needs to be done while out or in preparation,
- working out what paid work has to be done, and sometimes writing quotes or invoicing,
- sometimes writing a couple of blog posts (like this one!) and scheduling it to post sometime in the week ahead,
- making sure work clothes & sports uniforms are washed & ironed.

Having my week planned out like that frees me up to just do it without thinking too much through the week. I know what I have to do, where I have to be and what I need to take with me.

My Sunday is certainly not a day of rest, but it's vital to make my week go better.

Menu Plan Monday - 2nd Mar

Notes on last week's menu:

To use up this week:

Menu Plan this week:

Monday - ham & cheese quesadillas
Tuesday - spag bol
Wednesday - bahama-mama pork chops & rice
Thursday - pepper steak & veges
Friday - pizza
Saturday - leftovers
Sunday - BBQ - steak & sausages

For more exciting menu plan ideas, see Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.

Grocery Challenge Wk 3 of 6

The Challenge: To only spend $25 / week on groceries for the next 6 weeks.

The Result (Wk 3):

Shopping weekly makes it really hard to be cost-effective, so I grabbed next week's money as well. So no spending at all next week!

Spent $50.85 - chicken pieces, milk, bread, flour, butter, cream, cheese, eggs, potatoes, apples, tomatoes, lettuce, & donuts (donuts?! How did that sneak into essentials??! lol)

Balance:

Groceries: $7.70+$50-$50.85=$6.85
"Stash": $100
Meat money: $40

Our week of Learning - 1st March

English: He practised the letters 'g' & 'h' in handwriting, made a poster about Pancake Day and a display about his favourite book 'The Cat in the Hat Comes Back' (to be presented at the Homeschooling Book Day tomorrow).

Maths: Leap into Maths Yr 1 workbook - Unit 21 & 22. I'm having quite tiresome discussions in my head about the best way for us to be doing Maths.

Science & Technology: Water force - recorded observations of what types of things would sink & float in water. Investigated how to make a sinking object float. Investigated which was lighter - water or air.



HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): We finished watching Walking with Caveman, and began making a cave out of salt dough as the start of our Stone Age diorama.

Creative & Practical Arts: Drama class - they're working on acting out emotions. He also spent quite a while at home practising 'When the Saints go Marching in' on his keyboard.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Circus class. Jumping on the trampoline, lots of running around.

Life skills (cooking, gardening): We made pancakes for Pancake Tuesday - he did all of the weighing and measuring. I also started teaching him to knit (not for the faint-hearted!!).

Because that's the way we've always done it...

I've heard a story several times that sticks in my mind about a lady who cuts the end off the piece of meat before roasting it. One day her daughter asked her why she did it - "because my mother always did". So she rang her mother to find our why she did - "because my pan was too small"... So for years she'd been cutting the ends off the meat, because "that's how it was done"..

I've been on a 'quest' lately (inspired by my friend Helen on the other side of the world who doesn't have a blog that I can link to even though she should!! *hint hint*) to look at how I do things and see if I can improve or simplify things.

Sometimes it's as simple as moving things into a different place - putting most used things in a place where they are most accessible for example. I had one cupboard that the microwave stuff always fell out of when I was reaching for other things - I don't have a microwave atm, and while I have no plans for another one, I don't want to throw away what I have just in case. So duh - move the microwave stuff to the back. Done!

I had another epiphany today. My current routine is to fold the clothes at the clothesline (except when it's really windy or about to rain), then bring them in to the kitchen table, sort them into piles by owner, and then take those piles into the appropriate room to put away. Well, that's the plan - more often than not, the piles stay on the kitchen table for a few days until I get around to it. Today, instead of sorting at the table, I sorted on our bed. I didn't even need to create piles for Pete & I - I could turn around and put the clothes straight away. Then a stop at the towel cupboard at the hall, and into Billy's bedroom to put his clothes away. I think it will work well.

It's just little things - but they all help simplify my routines, and give me more time, a cleaner house & indirectly more money.

Quote from the backseat..

"I'm so thirsty! My mouth is as dry as a hot summer's day in Egypt!"

????!!

Weather Unit - Science

In case anyone is interested, here is what we covered in our science Weather Unit. (Even if you're not interested, it helps with my record-keeping!)

1. Weather observation
• Record the weather each day for 1 month – ie sunny, cloudy, rainy
• Make a chart to summarise the weather for the month.
• Identify suitable clothes for different weather - Cut out pictures from magazines to show what you would wear when the weather is hot, cold & rainy. (PDHPE)

2. Wind
• Make a wind sock to measure direction. Use compass to read direction.

3. Clouds
• Learn about stratus, cirrus & cumulus clouds
i. Use digital camera to take photos of each type of cloud
ii. make a clouds poster
• Make clouds in a bottle (http://www.weatherwizkids.com/cloud1.htm)
• Make fog (http://www.weatherwizkids.com/fog.htm)

4. Precipitation
• Learn about the types of precipitation (http://www.bom.gov.au/info/weatherkit/section2/precip.shtml)
• Use website to make a snow flake (http://snowflakes.lookandfeel.com/)
• Make a snow flake using paper cutting (symmetry)
• Make a rain gauge

5. Temperature
• Record the temperature at several points throughout the day using a thermometer.
• Discuss when water boils & freezes

6. General
• Practice spelling weather-related words
• Write a weather-related acrostic poem

As we were driving along the other day, Billy looked up and said - "hey, look at the cirrus clouds" - so I guess something sank in from all of it :)

Arrrrggghhh!

While I'm extremely pleased Billy can think & reason for himself and doesn't accept what he is told without questions, my goodness it is tiring to be on the receiving end of it 24/7!!!!

Menu Plan Monday - 23rd Feb

Notes on last week's menu:
* We didn't get to the orange chicken stir fry this week - it was late by the time we got home from circus and I didn't feel like being adventurous. I ended up just seasoning the chicken and pan-frying, throwing in some carrots and frozen cauliflower, and serving it with rice. I must remember that Thursdays are late home & to plan something simple.

To use up this week:

Menu Plan this week:

Fairly plain & simple this week - we have quite a busy one.

Monday - hamburgers
Tuesday - steak & salad / veges depending on weather
Wednesday - tacos
Thursday - chicken laksa
Friday - grilled fish & veges
Saturday - out at a 50th party
Sunday - roast chicken & veges

For more exciting menu plan ideas, see Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.

Recipe: Chocolate snowballs & condensed milk

The recipe is based on one from the weetbix site - http://www.weetbix.com.au/recipes/double-chocolate-balls.aspx

8 Weet-Bix, crushed (I used Aldi brand ones and had to use a few more to get the right consistency - maybe they are smaller?)
½ cup coconut
2 tablespoons cocoa
395g can sweetened condensed milk

1. Place all ingredients, except some of the coconut in a large bowl. Mix well.
2. Form mixture into 30 balls and toss in coconut. (Forming in balls works better if your hands are wet)
3. Refrigerate until firm. Eat!

If you don't keep condensed milk in the pantry, you can make your own! (I got this from the Simple Savings site)

1 cup (250 mL) of water
2 cups (500 g) of sugar
2 cups (500 g) of powdered milk
6 tbsp butter

Place all ingredients in the blender / food processor and let it blend for 2 minutes.

Keep it refrigerated. Makes the equivalent to two tins and can be used in any recipe that calls for it. (Or just eat it with a spoon lol!)

Grocery Challenge Wk 2 of 6

The Challenge: To only spend $25 / week on groceries for the next 6 weeks.

The Result (Wk 2):

Spent $14.60 on cheese, bread & a bottle of pepsi for the invalid on Sunday.
Spent $8.95 on noodles, bread & butter on Thursday.

Balance:

Groceries: $6.25+$25=$31.25-$14.60-$8.95=$7.70 (into change jar)
"Stash": $100
Meat money: $20

Our week of Learning - 22nd Feb

English: He practised the letters 'e' & 'f' in handwriting.

Maths: Leap into Maths Yr 1 workbook - Unit 20, as well working with balancing scales to measure weights of lots of things.

Science & Technology: Lots of science this week. Wednesday he finished off the weather unit by learning how to read a thermometer and recording the temperature every hour between 9am and 6pm. On Friday he started the new "Push/Pull" unit by doing experiments with a hair dryer & ping pong balls (air force).


HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): No formal history this week.

Creative & Practical Arts: Drama class. We also had an art day at our homeschool meeting so he got to do lots of arty things like making marbled paper, drawing a still-life, wet painting & more.


PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Circus class, plus he has been doing lots of practice at home. He mastered spinning the hoop around his wrist this week - a small step, but one he's very proud of!

Life skills (cooking, gardening): He learnt the necessary skill of making chocolate snowballs :) (Recipe to follow).

Paying it forward

Last year I was a very pleased recipient of Lisa @ The Tin House's Pay It Forward challenge. I've finally gotten around to reciprocating.

"This is how it goes : it's the Pay It Forward exchange, based on the concept of the movie "Pay It Forward", where acts of kindness are done without expecting anything in return, just passing it on, hoping that the recipients will do the same and pay it forward, like a never ending chain of kindness...

I will make and send a handmade gift for the first 3 Aussie friends who post a comment to this post, requesting to join this exchange, and promising to pay it forward to 3 other persons, etc....

I don't know what my 3 gifts will be, and I can't make them in the next few weeks, but I can promise I will send them within the next 6 months . (I hope!)

What YOU have to do in return then, is pay it forward by making the same announcement and promise on YOUR blog."

So if you're an Aussie reader (sorry to any overseas readers - postage is a killer!) and you'd like to receive a handmade gift from me (bearing in mind that I am a beginner knitter & sewer lol!) and are willing to pay it forward yourself, leave a comment with your email in the form keztol at hotmail dot com so the nasty spambots don't see it.

Look what I made!!

I finished this dishcloth / face washer a couple of weeks ago and haven't posted about it yet. It's not perfect, but it's pretty special to me! It's the first thing I've made following a pattern that's more complicated than "knit x rows" :)

I used this waffle pattern I found, and made it out of cotton. It's so soft. I can see myself making a few of these!

Menu Plan Monday - 16th Feb

Notes on last week's menu:
* Thursday's spag bol was shifted to Saturday night.
* Homemade fish fingers went over well (basically just cut the fish into fingers, crumb with egg & breadcrumbs & cook in the oven).

To use up this week:

Menu Plan this week:

Monday - fried rice
Tuesday - pork chops & ?? (DH cooking)
Wednesday - shepherd's pie
Thursday - orange chicken stir fry
Friday - steak & veges
Saturday - leftovers
Sunday - steak with mushroom & onion gravy & veges

For more exciting menu plan ideas, see Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.

Our week of Learning - 15th Feb

English: He practised the letter 'd' in handwriting, and did some find-a-words & crosswords with a "show" theme, as he was off to the regional show with his grandparents later in the week.

Maths: Leap into Maths Yr 1 workbook - Unit 19, as well as some show theme maths worksheets.

Science & Technology: He used the camera, Windows Movie Maker & his lego pieces to make a movie called 'Fire'. I'll post a link when it gets uploaded to the kid's video site we use. He's also been using a couple of different card-making programs to make cards for people.

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): It turns out that the episode of 'Walking with Cavemen' that they showed on TV as episode 1 was actually episode 2!! So this week we watched episode 1!

Creative & Practical Arts: Drama class. He made chocolates for Valentine's Day for his cousins and grandparents.


PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Circus class again - he seemed a lot more settled this week, and spent more time on individual equipment rather than flitting between everything.

Life skills (cooking, gardening): Nothing major this week.

Grocery Challenge Wk 1 of 6

The Challenge: To only spend $25 / week on groceries for the next 6 weeks.

The Result (Wk 1):

I was doing quite well in the start of the week - spent $18.75 on fruit, eggs & bread at the fruit shop on Tuesday.

Things fell off on Thursday though. Pete had to go into day surgery for a (relatively) minor procedure - we dropped him at 2pm and were told to pick him up at 5:30 on our way home from circus class. We got back - and he was still sitting there waiting to go in! He finally went in about five minutes later, and we were told to come back in another 2 hours!!! I had packed a few snacks in case we had to wait for 30mins or so, but 2 hours!!

It wasn't practical to go home, so we headed off to the nearest food court to get some tea. By the time Pete got out of recovery, it was after 8pm and he'd had nothing to eat since 8am but the small sandwich post-op. Needless to say, he was starving, so more take-away on the way home.. So for the night, we didn't get much change out of $40. Oh, and I was feeling stressed so I bought Billy an activity book to do that he didn't need, and didn't even use. It all came out of some "emergency money" I'd stashed away, but still..

The rest of the week went better.

Balance:

Groceries: $25-$18.75 = $6.25
"Stash": $150-$50 = $100

A Day in My Life - Feb 14th

Welcome to Saturday 14th Feb. We don't do Valentine's Day so there's nothing special going on here..

We're child free this morning (Billy is having a sleepover at his Ma's) so I could have a bit of a sleep in. Got up about 8am into a blissfully quiet house.

I curled up on the lounge in my pyjamas with my book and listened to the sound of the rain on the roof. Got up to make myself some breakfast and a cup of tea and went back to my book!

Finished my book about 9am, switched the computer on and answered some emails.

About 9:30 I went out into the kitchen to do the dishes as quietly as possible (DH was still asleep).

Back on the computer about 10am and started doing some research for the homeschooling group.

10:30 finally got to have a shower once Pete woke up, and put a load of clothes on to wash. A bit of tidying, a bit of time on the PC.

11:30 Clothes in the dryer, made up some of the now-famous One Hour French bread. Still waiting for MIL to drop B off. As much as enjoy the time to myself, I don't settle until he's back home...

12 My MIL & SIL dropped Billy off and visited for a while. Once they left we had lunch and watched an episode of Robin Hood. Did the folding and ironing, got a few things ready for our meeting on Monday, and then sat down (3pm) with a cup of tea.

Paid some bills, and balanced our accounts. Answered some work emails, and tried to schedule some new work along with existing clients.

Cooked & ate tea (spag bol + I used the rest of the bread I made for lunch for garlic bread). Played around with a design I had in mind for a new client (I don't normally do paid work on the weekend but when inspiration strikes .. lol)

I downloaded a free yoga class from yogadownload.com (thanks to Libby for the heads up), then played around putting it and some music onto my new phone. Put Billy to bed during this time - listened to his stories of what he'd been up to at the regional show last night.

I went off to my room and did my yoga download - good thing I downloaded the gentle beginner's one - it's been a long time since I've done a proper yoga routine!!

Went to bed where I tossed and turned for quite a while - I'm not sure if it was doing the yoga straight before bed, or that my mind just wouldn't turn off.

For more "Day in my Life" stories check out Jenny's blog.

Evacuation folder

The devastation of the fires in Victoria has really made me think about our vulnerability here. The current death toll stands at 173 with 750 houses lost. It's shocking, scary and indescribable.

Our house is on the outer suburbs of our town. While we're not surrounded by trees, the bush isn't too far away. Seeing how quickly and ferociously the fire has swept through Victoria has spurred me to think about what would happen here.

Basically our fire plan is to get out - we wouldn't want to stay with the house if at all possible. We do need to talk about what to do if we were forced to stay and where we would go if we did evacuate (in case we were separated).

I've started to make up a fire evacuation folder that could be grabbed on the way out of the door. Currently it has our insurance policies, DVDs with our digital photos, and keys to our safe. I want to include bank account, superannuation, credit card details, addresses & phone nos of loved ones. I'll have a list of stuff to grab if there is time (in order of importance).

I think I should also have an emergency box (first aid kit, torches, radio etc) & go bag with snacks, water, change of clothes etc.

Do you have something like this in place? What do you have in yours?

Menu Plan Monday - 9th January

Notes on last week's menu:
* Both new recipes (thai beef salad & the orange honey cashew chicken) were very nice.
* We didn't do the spag bol because it was too hot. I think we had cold meat & salad instead.
* Friday night we had a blackout as I started to cook tea, so I ended up cooking the fish on the BBQ and having salad with it.

To use up this week:
* Zucchini

Menu Plan this week:

Monday - steak sandwiches with caramelised onions
Tuesday - no idea at this stage - I have to go to work that night so has to be something DH can prepare
Wednesday - homemade fish fingers & veges
Thursday - spaghetti bolognaise
Friday - chicken curry
Saturday - leftovers
Sunday - pizza

For more exciting menu plan ideas, see Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.

Freezer inventory & grocery challenge

Apologies for the flurry of posts this afternoon!

I decided what better thing to do on a 40 deg day but a freezer inventory and re-org! I had to work fast though to avoid everything thawing..

This is what I have in my freezer & the number of portions (after I tossed the unrecognisable or badly freezer-bitten stuff):

Meat

• steak - 14
  
• mince - 10
  
• chicken - 4
• chicken wings - 1
  
• sausages - 10
  
• pork chops - 2
  
• fish - 3
• bacon
• bacon pieces (use for pizzas & flavouring)
• salami (handful - use for flavouring)
• ham
  
• devon
  

Frozen Veges

• celery
• mushrooms
• capsicum
• broccoli
• cauliflower
• peas
• carrots
• chillis
• mashed pumpkin (use for scones / bread)
  

Frozen Fruit

• bagfull of bananas (to make bread or muffins)
• 2 apples (cook for crumble etc)
• tinned pineapple - 3
• tinned fruit salad - 1
• coconut cream - 1
  

Prepared Meals / Sides / Other stuff

• cooked snags - 1
• cooked snag & onion casserole - 1
• pizza dough - 1
• couscous - 1
• tomato soup - 2
• chicken stock - 5
• shortcrust pastry - 3 or 4 sheets
  

There are at least 6 weeks worth of meals there (along with stuff from the pantry), so how's about a challenge?

I'm going to keep shopping to a minimum for the next 6 weeks. I'll try to keep it to fresh fruit & veges, and staples like eggs, milk, cheese, bread etc. Hmm, can I sneak ice-cream into staples??!

So the money I save doesn't just disappear I'll put some figures on it.

Normal grocery shopping budget is $95/week. If I allow $25/week for purchases, that should be $70/week I save - or $420 over the time.

• I have a higher than normal water bill due in a couple of weeks, so $70 will go to that.
• I'll put aside $20/week to go to restock on meat at the end of the 6 weeks - $120.
• That will leave $230 to go into savings.
  

I'll report in each week - Anyone want to join in?

Our week of learning - 8th Feb

We had such a busy week this week. Monday our homeschooling get-together started up again with an Australia Day theme, Tuesday we had drama class, Wednesday we went up to visit Mum & Dad, my sister & nieces as they were home from holidays, Thursday was circus class, Friday I had to go and see a client (which means B comes too) - so despite my good intentions of only being out 3 days / week, we were out every day! I'm tired...

English: He practised the letter 'c' in handwriting, and wrote an acrostic poem about weather. (Acrostic poems are ones where the first letter of each line form a word).

Wind makes me
Excited
And
Thunder makes me
Hide under my bed.
Every time lightning strikes I
Roar!

Maths: Leap into Maths Yr 1 workbook - Unit 18.

Science & Technology: He played a DK computer CD called 'Become a Science Explorer'. We had other things planned but it was too hot and we were too exhausted, so we substituted. I love the flexibility :)

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): We watched the first episode of 'Walking with Cavemen' - in fact Billy watched it a 2nd time just because he enjoyed it! So there's been lots of cavemen discussions going on around here! I've requested the DVD from the library as for some reason the tv is showing episode 4 this week, not episode 2!!

Creative & Practical Arts: Drama started back with lots of new kids in the class. I think there are 16 in the class now - I pity the teacher :) (I think she has an assistant now to help out)

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Circus class started! They started off as a group doing work with hula hoops (round the waist & wrist) and then moved on to balancing - I expected balancing would be on beams - but no, it was on each other's backs!! Then for the rest of the time they could go and do whatever activity they wanted out of what the instructor had - unicycle, juggling, spinning plates, diablo, devil sticks, not sure what else. They could just swap between them whenever they wanted. The only things with restrictions were the "high" stuff - trapeze, rope & pole - Billy did have a go at the rope under supervision.

Basically apart from being unco like me, and having very little strength, he had a good time. John (the teacher) told me afterwards (in a nice way) that he has a problem with listening & following instructions (like that's news to me!), so he won't be allowed on the trapeze until he can listen because of safety issues.

In an effort to get fit& strong for circus class and Auskick, Billy has developed an exercise chart with Pete and he marks it off each day - too cute! He's doing squats, jogging around our yard (bit hot for that atm), sit ups and bench presses with the hand weights.

Life skills (cooking, gardening): He cooked more scrambled eggs - this time completely by himself, even serving it out. They were pretty tasty too! It's been too hot to do much else in the kitchen or garden.

Sixth photo tag

Libby tagged me (*ahem* a week or so ago) with the 'sixth photo' tag. The rules are simple:

* Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.
* Go to the 6th Folder, then pick the 6th picture in that folder.
* Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture.
* Tag 6 other people that you know or don’t know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them.

Here's mine:


This photo was taken at a play cafe when a few local mums got together back in 2006. The boys (Billy at the back) are about to dive into the ball pit - always a fun occupation!

So now, over to you.. I won't tag anyone but if you want to do it, leave me a comment to say you will.

(And I know I have several other tags to get to - I'm slack!!)

Our week of learning - 2 Feb

Last week we were pretty much back into school but our external activities hadn't started - this is the first full on week!

I've succumbed and set up a weekly routine for our school work - it felt too much like school to me so I'd resisted, but I think we will both benefit from the routine (as long as it's still flexible!). Basically I've allocated a subject to each morning (an hour or so), with the external activities (this term drama & circus class) in the afternoons.

English: He started writing a script for a play - it's an ongoing project! He did the letter 'b' in handwriting. I've also been teaching him how to use the dictionary (a kid's one) to look up words he wants to spell - in an attempt to save my sanity!

I'm an avid reader so I was so pleased to see him pick up a book and sit down and read it to himself this week. Finally I think he's feeling confident enough about his reading that he is enjoying reading a book.

Maths: Leap into Maths Yr 1 workbook - Unit 17.

Science & Technology: He's discovered Publisher and has been busy creating newsletters, business cards etc!

In our Weather unit we made a wind sock, learnt about the points on the compass and how to read one, and checked several times through the day to see which way the wind was coming from.




HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): We discussed the rise of the mammals and the ice-age. I'm having to rethink the way I was doing history - it wasn't holding his interest at all and he was getting very reluctant to do it (declaring 'History is boring' - *gasp* - it wounded my history-loving heart!!). He did enjoy the dinosaur lapbook though. So not so much of the book, and more hands-on from now on - and in impeccable timing 'Walking with Caveman' started tonight on TV so I got Pete to tape it ready for history this week.

Creative & Practical Arts: No lessons last week. There's been lots of imaginative play, finger puppets etc etc though.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): It's been too hot to be active!

Life skills (cooking, gardening): I've incorporated this into our routine as well, inspired by Stephanie Alexander's book. No gardening this week, but he made a salad pretty much by himself - washed & tore the lettuce, chopped cucumber etc. I just need to make sure I don't try to incorporate it when I'm short of time!! He also made scrambled eggs under supervision.

Menu Plan Monday - 2nd Feb

Notes on last week's menu:
* Didn't get to the freezer meal as it has been HOT and they are mainly stew type things.
* I ended up grocery shopping on Friday just because I won't have time next week, but we managed the 'hardship' of doing without stuff quite well.

To use up this week:
* Zucchini

Menu Plan this week:

* I'm going for mainly cooler things or quick cooking things this week as the forecast is for another hot week.

Monday - thai beef salad
Tuesday - spag bol (sauce in freezer, just need to reheat & cook pasta)
Wednesday - Orange honey cashew chicken
Thursday - steak & salad
Friday - Grilled fish with zucchini agrodolce (Stephanie Alexander book)
Saturday - leftovers
Sunday - marinated chicken wings

For more exciting menu plan ideas, see Organizing Junkie's Menu Plan Monday.