We had a much quieter week this week.  We laid off the formal stuff a little to give the kids a much needed refresher after the last 3 weeks of hustle and bustle.  We still made it to swimming on Tuesday, A to Zoo on Wednesday and dancing on Thursday so were out and about plenty.

Swimming is going really well for Xavier.  He started the year VERY scared of water, wont go under the shower, hates the hose and never liked the pool.  He has now come around a bit and whilst he wont put his face in or get it wet he is making some real progress each week which I am so pleased about.

A to Zoo was fab again this week.  The facilitator beefed it up a little and the kids learnt  more about the animal of the week.  This week it was the rhinoceros.  Perth Zoo has two rhino's Memphis and Bakarrie both boys.  Memphis is Bakarrie's father.  Next week we will be looking at the Cheetah which has Ethany very excited!

Perth Zoo does a wonderful job of making the environment inviting for the native bird life of the area that are free to come and go.  Whilst there we saw the Australian White Ibis (on top of the wall).

We also saw some Rainbow Lorikeets who were just gorgeous having a bath in a waterfall.  There must have been about a dozen of them.  I couldn't get a pic because the sun was right behind them but they are a truly beautiful bird.

The highlight of our day was watching Tricia the elephant walk right past us, less than 2m away.  The kids were in awe.

Xavier has been on a school work spree completing a 2 page spread of Before the Code everyday this week and also a lesson from 100 Easy Lessons.  Ethany has been working hard too moving into Explode the Code book 2 along with all our normal work.  We didn't 'row' a book this week but got into plenty of puzzles and games instead.  Nothing wrong with 'fun' education ;-)

This week  I set about making us a 'Memory Bank' al-la Simply Charolette Mason.  I am also building a 'Phonics Centre' and will post more when it is complete.  I have been having a major internal battle about scheduling and what to do when etc.  I have decided that for the benefit of sanity I am going to do away with grades/levels completely and work from the kids individual birthdays.  So this year Xavier will be working on 3-4 because he is 3 and Ethany will be working on 4-5 because she is 4 but once she turns 5 in July she will go to 5-6 and Xavier wont move on until his birthday next year.  Maybe a more complicated view for some but it will simplify things for me.  I have been doing plenty of planning for 5-6 in terms of what we will actually do now I just need to work our some sort of schedule.  I'm not very good with schedules but I do need some sort of guide to keep me moving forward and on track so we will see what I come up with.

Amber 

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Yet again, another busy week.  Our friends return to their country home this weekend so things will go back to normal next week.  We have however had an awesome time with them over the last 3 weeks and will be sad to see them go!

This week we completed the post test for Explode the Code Book 1.  Ethany has progressed so well in this book and I have been blown away by her dictation ability in the post test. 

Xavier started Explode the Code Book A at his request.  I am just going to take it very slowly.  He is a very fickle little guy!  He also started 100 Easy Lessons, again at his request and managed to complete 2 lessons for the week.

We have not done heaps of reading this week because we just have not been home :-)  Ethany has completed a few more lessons in 100 Easy Lessons and has listened to 3 audio books, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, The Fairy Charm by Emily Rodda (this was a compilation of 3 books) and Fairy Dust by Gwyneth Rees.  She listened to these during all our travel time.  She loved them!  The Fairy Charm was a really beautiful girly story and Charlie & the Chocolate Factory is such a classic.

We managed to finish rowing The Story of Ping this week.  We conducted a flotation experiment with general household items.

I pulled out the MUS blocks this week and we played 'banking', which I invented on the spot, shhh!  Basically I give her a bunch of units then she takes them to the bank and changes them for the larger blocks.  So if I give her 12 units then she changes for 1 ten and 1 two, you get the idea.  Next week we will work on changing other blocks.  She has the concepts of addition (no regrouping) down really well so time to work towards regrouping.

I also pulled out some patterning tasks and Ethany worked well transferring the 2D pic to the 3D real life model.  A couple of times she got it backwards but by pack away time she really had the hang of it.

Xavier had to be in on it too, so i gave him some beetles to build.

 We got along to the Zoo twice this week, once for A to Zoo which has it's very own blog post and once just to kill some time whilst up in Perth.  On our second trip we enjoyed an icecream whilst watching the Australian Pelicans prene themselves and have a wash.

Before heading to the zoo for the second time we hit Kings Park quickly as I have been wanting (since it opened) to walk over the new bridge.  This week we did although I don't think the kids really got what the fuss was about.

Just by the new bridge at Kings Park is a Boab tree.

This boab tree is special because it was transplanted from the Kimberley (the far north of Western Australia) and was then put on a truck and travelled thousands of kilometers to be replanted in Kings Park.  Only recently they were able to label the transplant a success when the boab grew its first new shoots since the move.

I hope you enjoyed a good week too :-)

Amber 

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OK, I just have to confess that I love the convenience of 'spray & wipe' type products for the kitchen.  I have for a while been testing out various environmentally friendly ones and looking for 'the one' that matches the quality of the non-enviro-friendly ones.  The search is over, I have finally found it!

I am just LOVING Enviro Clean's Vigor All Purpose Cleaner which I purchased from Gardners Direct.  It is so easy to use and really works well.  I purchased the 1L bottle because I was a little sceptical, to date I have been very disappointed with other enviro-friendly 'spray & wipes' on the market.  They have left nasty residues or just not cleaned at all.  This stuff is different and truly packs a punch!

I took one of my old 'spray & wipe' bottles and put in 1 cap full of Vigor and topped up with water then gave it a shake to make sure it was diluted properly then I attacked my stove top.  I had deliberately left it for several days without cleaning because I wanted to give this new product a true test.  It worked wonders.  I sprayed on, left on whilst I wiped down the table and bench tops and when I returned I simply wiped off the stove top and EVERYTHING came off.   I was stunned and amazed, infact I called Russell into the kitchen to check it out.

Since that moment I have been using it on everything and have never been disappointed.  Truly I can't recommend this product highly enough, it is wonderful even on the toughest stuff. 

(Please note I have no financial interest in Enviro Clean or Gardeners Direct, simply providing a review of a product I love.)

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This is a really common question for us so I thought I would share our experience.

I took Ethany for her 3 year old check up with our Child Health Nurse.  Living in a small community we knew the CHN and she was a lovely, welcoming person.  Ethany did well with all of the instructions given, BUT she failed the eye test from a distance.  We thought she must have been distracted as I had Xavier with me and he is a busy boy.  We made another time to retest the following fortnight.

The next clinic day I arranged a friend to mind Xavier and took Ethany along.  She failed yet again which resulted in our CHN recommended we see our GP to get a referral to an Opthamologist as she had failed quite badly :-(  We were all quite upset and arranged to see a GP in a nearby town the following day.  To make matters worse Russell came home with a horror story from a guy he works with whose little girl lost an an eye recently with a similar thing, had a 3yo check up, had a problem with vision test, had eye removed due to tumor.  We were horrified at what might happen.

The GP we saw referred us on to a Pediatric Opthamologist  in Perth.  I rang and made an appointment then we waited.

Russell took Ethany along to the appointment where she had to have eye drops put in so the Dr could look inside her eye.  This was not pleasant!  His conclusion was that should would need glasses of +5.50 for both eyes and as her left eye was weak she would also need to wear a patch for about 3 hours per day.  We were gutted by pleased that there was no tumor or other nasty.

I took Ethany to the optical disperser and let her pick out her own frames hoping this would give her some ownership over her glasses.  Over the next week whilst waiting for the glasses to be made we prepared her for what was ahead.  We made pirate patches and had a pirate party to help make her feel OK about the patch.

We collected the glasses from the optical dispenser and I made a big mistake!  No one said to me her script is really strong wait till she is home to put them on or anything like that.  We were in a shopping centre, I said you need to wear glasses now so pop them on and off we went.  She was completely overwhelmed!!  She had been looking at everything really small all her life.  All of a sudden everything was really big.  She complained like mad!

Since that moment we have good and bad times about glasses.  She regularly says I hope at the  next visit to the Dr they say I don't have to wear glasses anymore.  Getting her to wear the patch is a struggle because she really can not see properly with it on so it frustrates her.  She walks into things, can't read or look at picture books, can't draw, it really effects her.

After 18m seeing the same Dr we have requested a second opinion from a new Dr to see if there is anything we can do differently as the patching has not made any difference to the sight in the weak eye so far.

My darling daughter, her patch glasses and her Daddy.

 This was taken a few days after she got her glasses.  'Percy' is now the right way up.

We had no idea that Ethany had any problems with her eyes.  If it wasn't for our CHN visit we would still be clueless and probably wondering why she had really poor fine motor skills.  I would urge everyone, please see your CHN for the 3yo check up.  Even if you don't like your CHN or agree with anything they say your child deserves to see and hear and this 3yo screening can provide invaluable early intervention!!

Amber 

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Yet another busy week here whilst we still have friends in Perth on holiday, but we did achieve a lot!

Ethany finished all her +1 math problems in the Kumon Grade 1 Addition book and has made a start on +2.  I provide her with an abacus but most of the time she is completing these mentally.  When I ask her how she says she has apples on her computer in her head and she counts them.  It's working for her for now and she is getting 95 to 100% on every page.

She has this week finished all but the post test in Explode the Code Book 1.  I just need some down time to give her the test.  She REALLY has not enjoyed working through this book.  I have moments where I think it is moving too slow for her and moments when I think maybe too much writing and moments when I think it's the lack of colour for my visual child.  Who knows!!  Towards the end of the book she has finally stopped complaining and has got on with it colouring as she goes.  She has been writing beautifully and only made 1 mistake for the entire book.  It does work so we will be on to Book 2 once it arrived in the mail and hopefully the complaints are behind us.

I have decided to race through the last few lessons in 100 Easy Lessons at 2 per day because she is reading so beautifully already.  I could put it aside and not complete it but as this is the very first thing we started when we began formal homeschooling I really want to complete it.  That's the focus for the next 2 weeks.  Completing it with Ethany because Xavier is busting to get started!

Queens Language Lessons is going fine.  The lessons are quite light so we have been completing 2 lessons most days unless it's copywork.  We are really enjoying the picture study and narration.

We have moved on to the 2 syllable words in Websters and so far so good.  She is doing a wonderful job. 

Ethany's handwriting has all of a sudden improved out of sight.  We don't have a handwriting program so rely on copywork on the main part.  I always sit with her to provide encouragement on correct formation if required.  We also practice 1 letter that doesn't look too flash at the end.  For a 4 1/2 year old, left hander with poor vision she is turning out some really nice work.  Wonders never cease to amaze!

We continued working on The Story of Ping this week.  Ethany provided an excellent narration which I may post separately.  We also made a river and put all our ducks on.  Well, at least I thought it had all the ducks but I did discover 2 under the table when cleaning up at the end of the day.

To finish off our week we attended a picnic at King's Park with a huge bunch of other homeschoolers.  It was wonderful and gave me the opportunity to catch up with a couple of Mum's I don't often get to see.  We were quite early so enjoyed exploring whilst the park was quiet.

Pacific Black Duck and her ducklings

 We did also see some Australian Wood Ducks but the picture I took was very poor.  The Pacific Black Ducks are very common to the lakes and wetland areas in Perth.  I grew up calling these Dilly Ducks.  My Mum actually had one as a pet when she was a child living in the country.  This mother duck was lovely and came close to the kids keeping her ducklings altogether.  She hoped out of the lake at one point which sparked some mass hysteria from the ducklings who all called madly for her.  She did come back and appeared to tell them all off sternly before hopping back in.  They then went hunting and the kids were amazed to see the little ducklings completely submerge themselves and swim under the water looking for food.

Take care

Amber 

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Once upon a time there was a beautiful young duck named Ping.  Ping tried not to be last.  Everyday he tried to stay nearest to his mother but one day he was trying to get a little fish but he did not hear the call, "La-la-la-la-lei".  He knew he would be last so he hid in the grass.

Splash, Ping was surrounded by dark fishing birds.  They had rings of metal around their necks so tight that they could never swallow the fish they were catching.

One day he did not hear the call again and he was surrounded by boats so he set off to look for the wise-eyed boat.  He was attracted by cake crumbs, rice cake crumbs and while he ate these cake crumbs he came nearer and nearer to a house boat.  Splash there was a little boy with a barrel on his back.  "There", said Ping and he snatched at the rice cake.  "Ooo, ahh", the little boy said.  Then his mother, his father, his sister and his brother pulled him up from the Yangtze river.  His father said "Ooooh", a duck dinner has come to us and his mother said, "I will cook him with rice at sunset tonight".  The boy said "No" my duck is to beautiful to eat.

Ping found himself in a basket and he could not see.  Then the little oy lifted the basket off Ping and then he let Ping off the house boat.  Ping slipped into the yellow water of the Yangtze river.

He hears the call "la-la-la-la-lei" and there was the wise-eyed boat which was his home.  Ping neared the shore but he saw his mother, his father and his uncles and aunts crossing the bridge.  Then he saw his 42 cousins crossing the bridge, then he saw the last cousin crossing the bridge he knew he had to hurry.  Nearer and nearer he came to the shore and he knew he would be last, so he hurried and hurried but he was too late, there was the spank on his back.  But then he was back at last with his mother, his father, his 42 cousins.

This is the end.

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