Once more unto the breach, dear friends...

It's the beginning of the academic year here, and with the daddy and biggest sister in the house trotting off to their respective schools, I thought it was time for us to get into a bit of a rhythm again too.

We start each year with a little celebration, including some little gifts in lieu of new school bags etc -

The kids each got a new Suzy's World DVD (they love Suzy Cato, and when I spotted these for $5ea I couldn't resist. I know they'll be watched over, and over, and over again. And you really can't beat her baked beans digestive system demonstration....!), Eli got a new pack of dry erase/whiteboard crayons, and "I Can Read With My Eyes Shut" by Dr Suess, Lexi got a pencil case with some pencils, eraser, and pencil sharpener, and Maia got a fabulous set of fabric alphabet letters, by my clever friend Monique of Neak Designs (who doesn't have a website, but you can see some of her things here on Facebook)

Maia isn't the only one who loves them!

and any excuse for cake, even better when they can make it themselves with minimal input from me!

 they used this easy recipe from Annabel Langbein

The rest of the week we had a gradual introduction to our usual stuff, the kids made cards - Eli made one for his dad, Lexi made one for her penpal -

Lexi made us pikelets for lunch - 

 (for international types, pikelets are a bit like a small pancake or flapjack, but also a little different in a way that I can't quite work out. Anyway, very tasty with cream & jam, or maple syrup)

They started some copywork to help with their handwriting, taken from Eli's new book -

 Lexi made a pinwheel from our Discovery Box, which she is going to pop onto DIY.org too

(incidentally, if you haven't discovered DIY.org yet, you really should go check it out! It challenges kids & teens to try new skills, create, and invent. It's fabulous.)

Lexi taught Maia to play "Hoses & Ladders" - courtesy of fire safety themed book covering from the NZ Fire Service -

and we went with some friends to explore one of our city's newest attractions for kids, the Splash Pad at Potters Park in Balmoral -

 we pretty much had it to ourselves since everyone else was in school, which is definitely one of the perks of this lifestyle!

Just a couple..

We're big library fans.

Tomorrow is our weekly library day, so today when we found ourselves next door to a library...

...we just got a few things.

The Official Movie Guide to the Hobbit, Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them (Lexi needs it to locate the goblins in our house apparently), a fictional account of the life of Boudica, a DVD of the BBC series of The Silver Chair, CDs of Anne of Green Gables, Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, How to Cheat A Dragon's Curse (from the How To Train Your Dragon series, and read by David Tennant!), and The Knight's Tales; The Adventures of Sir Lancelot the Great, Sit Givret the Short, Sir Gawain the True, and Sir Balin the Ill-Fated.

And also a Power Rangers book, something about Disney Princesses, and The Best of Batman DVD, proving you can't win them all.

August 2013

August was a busy month, with me feeling more organised & capable than I have in a long time. (I find newborns much easier than pregnancy!) The kids have really been getting into the rhythm of regular-ish 'school' days, and are finally beginning to grasp the idea that if they concentrate & co-operate we can get more fun stuff done!

Eli has just started on grade 1 of the Light Blue series of Math Mammoth, and Lexi is whizzing through grade 2 - 

Lexi was reading about how the footprints of dinosaurs & other creatures became like solid rocks as muddy areas dried up, so we recreated it first in playdough -

then in salt dough -

(which after 8 hours in a low-heat oven, and over 2 weeks later is STILL not dry! It's only 5mm thick!)

We've started using some of the Brave Writer materials for our literacy work, here they're illustrating their copywork from 'Hop on Pop' -

Lexi made a playdough ring wraith, complete with black horse, from Lord of the Rings -

Leo's been practising his cuteness and neck control -

Eli had fun doing playdough numbers -

Maia is just sweet -

Lexi is learning to play my 1998 vintage copy of Sim Safari -

(it's actually rather good, apart from not being able to rotate buildings or the map. Fantastic for learning about food webs though!)

And she just received her first four badges from the St John Youth Penguin programme!

Once again courtesy of our friend Mr Spangler, this is what is currently sitting on our kitchen bench....

July 2013

With the new baby a couple of weeks old already, and daddy back at school, July meant us getting back into our activities too!

We cleared all of the weeds out of one of our vegie beds, and planted strawberries instead -

Inspired by Steve Spangler, we had a science day -

(it didn't pop, but it did deflate quite quickly!)

Maia liked the balloon rocket

and the parachutes....

well, I wouldn't want to jump out of a plane with one!

We did the ol' 'trace around yourself' thing -

mostly as a writing exercise, rather than biology...

(apparently Eli has a hcamots)

the ubiquitous maths -

and Maia worked on becoming even more doggedly independent -

March 2013

I don't know about anyone else, but this was always my favourite use for cuisinaire rods -

We discovered an out-of-the-way playground that had interesting pulley systems in a sandpit -

and big logs to balance on -

Lexi started working through Delia Smith's online cookery school -

starting with a classic sponge cake -

more of our usual business at home -

and we finally got to check out the amazing new playground at Tui Glen -

(spot the Lexi!)