mini mocha: February 2011

Distance Education Activity Day

Today we went to our activity day and did some music, science and learning how to play table tennis!

An introductory style music lesson, with some singing.
A forensic science lesson complete with fingerprinting and DNA sampling.
We used the powder from the ash on the balloons for dusting our fingerprints...

How to play table tennis was lots of fun, even when you can only just reach above the table.

"Can we get a table to play again mum?"

Saturday in review

This is what H decided to do to help him remember the day we had today.
Each letter stands for something we did. He did it all by himself too!
H is for H.......
S for Saturday
C for cookies (jam drops he made)
M for Max who came to play
S for swim in the pool
P for Penny who also came to play
P for play
C for custard cakes that M and P made
J for J.....
M for mums
T for Thomas trains
U for UNO game
E for eating
B for ball (he played with Mustard)
M for Mustard the dog
L for Lego
F for fruit salad
P for pirate ship play
L for lying down
C for I cant remember!

Mr Hairy Peary

Mr Happy Appy

Friday Art and Craft

Bird by H. Reminds me of the Kiwi a little.

Baking owl. Paper patchwork (very calming for the mind).

G is for girl by H.

My First Quilt - Finished

Overall I am happy with it.

I used a mixture of fabrics, all cotton and some organic bamboo mixes. Some were new tea towels I had purchased over the years, others samples of bamboo fabrics.

I used natural cotton quilting thread and a pre cut single bed size piece of batting. The backing is a white cotton single flat sheet.

The binding was made from 3 inch wide scraps of the quilt, which I finished off by hand sewing the back...

Wow this took a while!
The corners, I attempted to mitre, but they are less than perfect. This is the best one...

I like the colours and it feels nice, so I would say it was a good first attempt!

I think I will wait a few months to do the next one for H...a lime green and chocolate coloured one I think!
I can't wait to see Margaret's quilt, it is going to be super!

Nice things

Writing paper set from O-check.
Scissors from Paris!

Revision Today

Mondays are a good day for revision me thinks and a cooking class...

It seems after the weekend it always takes a day to get the mind working again, so revision is a good way to go.
Baking is also nice. Today we made gluten free almond, banana and pear friands. The boys mix, weigh, sift, read the recipe and taste test too.

Cursive for J.

Sight words for H.

He loves, loves,loves cutting, so I get him to cut the words out and he doesn't realise he is learning the words at the same time. He also gets to put his favourite green crayon on the words he knows.

That was Monday.

My First Quilt - Machine Quilting

Wow, the walking foot certainly does make a difference (on my cheap as chips sewing machine) and I am now finished (well I think finished).

I made the binding from scraps and I am hand sewing it on as we speak. If I don't get this finished quickly it won't get done at all, so I am racing ahead of schedule.
I used this tutorial from Oh Fransson for making the binding and attaching it. It has great tips for beginners, but I still managed to mess up the corners! Better luck on quilt number two. Too much rushing me thinks, lots to do, but more on that later.
Hopefully some photos of the finished quilt in a day or two.

My First Quilt - Pinning

After spending an enormous amount of time lining the three layers (top, batting and baking) I safety pinned all of them together at each intersection.

On with the quilting!
I will be using a walking foot for this, as my machine would not handle this bulk very well at all.

Brunch at Bumbles

Budds Beach - a lovely spot behind the racing Surfers Strip...

My First Quilt - Starting to Sew

Starting to sew the rows together and ironing the seams open for less bulk.
My cutting has not been perfect ; my fabrics are not all the same thickness and some are quite stretchy (in technical terms), so I am expecting a few minor issues with putting all the rows together.
But I will get to that problem when it arises and hope for the best!

E is for Elephant

Today we looked at the "e" as in elephant and did great work with our maths books...

Mustard did a great job too of lazying around.

Home Education- So Far

We seem to have a pattern emerging now, 3 weeks in to our Home Education.
Wake up 6.30, read books, tidy rooms, get dressed by 7.30, eat breakfast and be ready for working at 8.30.
Nothing rushed, which is a nice change and most days we are finished by 12.30.
H and J start learning together, H loves it and gets straight to work, some days so fast I have to find extra work for him. J on the other hand loves certain subjects or parts of subjects. Loves Science and Social Studies, and Reading the novels but is not too keen on doing the things he thinks he knows already, or those things not presented in an interesting way. He changes with the weather! Some days he will get 10 pages of maths done in 10 mins and other days he decides he would rather be doing science.
That is the good thing about Home Education, you can just go with what is interesting for the child at that particular moment and do the other bits later.
J made a comment at the end of yesterday "I learned something today. It is better just to get in and do it!" Finally he got it for himself.
We have spent the last two weeks talking about how there are some tasks that may be hard or boring but need to be done, like washing dishes! "What would happen if I just decided not to do the dishes because I didn't like the job?" I said. "The reward comes when you complete the job and see a nice clean bench. We clean the playroom so we can have a space to play and find our things in the right place.There will always be tough jobs or things you don't like doing, but you need to find a way to get them done and try and make those jobs pleasant. Completing these jobs well can be more rewarding than tasks you find easy or enjoyable!"
The message is getting through slowly.
Rewards
I use stickers everyday, I have a folder full of different ones they can choose from.
On special days when they have tried extra hard they get to watch a DVD if they ask for it.
I have said they can choose a special reward when they each collect 10 stars for their great efforts at completing the tests at the end of each book. They both decided on Dreamworld, which they have asked to do for a few years now. So far we are half way, next time I will make it 20 stars I think!
One big positive we have experienced from Home Educating is that the boys are enjoying each others company a lot more, probably because J is not tired from the long day at and travelling to and from school. Really nice to see...