April 2013

We joined a homeschool co-op in the first term, so Lexi could do sports and Kapa Haka. But in the meantime, I had two little ones to amuse there, since the drive home was too long to make it worth it..

Luckily the adjoining library encourages play -

and we can watch the sports group -

or run around outside.

Eli discovered one evening that a hidden bonus of having a large family is that an 18-pack of toilet paper makes a great construction toy -

And every family needs a Super Hero day once in a while, right?

More baking with Delia Smith -

And Lexi had an end-of-term performance with her Kapa Haka group -

*Last* October through December review

So clearly I'm never going to be a daily blogger, or even monthly evidently, so here's a brief highlights reel of the last few months of last year.

Painting. Lay down a big piece of butchers paper, strip off the toddler since no painting smock is going to sufficiently protect clothes, and away you go!

A visit to Stardome, our lovely local-ish planetarium!

It was Maia's first visit, and she was a bit.. uncertain.. about the reclined seats.

Lexi liked the poster of an upcoming (at the time!) show -

If you didn't just hear the first few notes of music in your head, I'm amazed.

We discovered a short bush trail near our house, where a little bit of 'pruning' had been done!

And when the school kids are away, mine will play...

This is a percussion wall that the students made at Paul's school!

The kids are huge fans of Jonathan Bird's Blue World webisodes, so Lexi made her own Jonathan Bird, complete with underwater camera, from Playmobil -

Maths. Yeah we do that too, can't escape it.

Lexi exploring Stellarium. It's a free planetarium program, I highly recommend it!

Lexi writing a letter, in a tutu, as you do.

Xmas meant a visit to Motat one evening when they had the Victorian Village lit up, and the printing room was open -

The kids got to make a selection of little souvenirs, and through some magical process that I still don't understand, the colour of the ink changed - to either black, red, or silver - despite no obvious variation in printing method

And we finished the year with a spot of camping -

albeit on Nana & Granddad's lawn.

Lexi's picks

Lexi spent the afternoon playing on the Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra site. It's a great website, if a little video heavy, and a nice introduction to the instrument families, how different instruments work, and their various quirks and traits. After a few non-starters previously, this afternoon she took to it immediately, and insisted on finishing the whole thing (with a major meltdown when I commandeered the computer & she thought I had lost all her progress!).

Lexi also tried this out today, it's a free fractions simulation made by the University of Colorado. I love it when people go to the trouble to do this sort of thing then make it freely available to all kids! You can use them online or download them too.

She liked the Matching Game and Build a Fraction. She's never done any fraction work before (apart from baking!) so it was interesting to see how quickly she caught onto the concept while playing with this.

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