Grass collecting and measurement and money learning

Lawnmowing season.  I came up with a great way to keep the children busy and teach them measurement and money skills too.  They bagged up the mowed grass to be stored for the guineapigs, weighed it and recorded how much each bag weighed.  Each 100g worth 10cents.  A little incentive can really get them active and with some natural learning thrown in too.

 A visiting abdims stork enjoying the mowed grass.

 Cups of cocoa after grass collecting and weighing!

 Pink hibiscus flowering.

Enjoying a Greek feast after completing Ancient Greece learning.

Small things

Our days have been cooler and rainy.  We need that rain.  All our vegetables are growing so well.  My herb gardens are coming along so nicely now and we have planted more fruit trees.  Our guinea fowls are laying and we have stuck some eggs under our broody hen and keeping fingers crossed for baby guinea fowls!  The weather has had been really knitting away.  I finished knitting Jedi a jersey all in Zimbabwe local cotton.  It is so soft!

 

Picture of a giraffe drawn for me by Noah.  Such a beautiful, special giraffe!

 And flowers picked for me by little Jedi.

 This is a mantis the boys discovered.  It looks like lichen.  Look at it's egg case in front of it.

Did I mention that our car caught fire a while back very suddenly, unexpectedly and with all of us in the car.  Luckily none of us were hurt.  We managed to put out the fire very quickly.  A shock though!  Anyway we are still without a car and there is no public transport here.  Lots of our days are spent at home for now and I find I am savouring them.  Precious, slow time to fit in all the things we want to do and quality time together.  Me and the children.

Sol's reading has improved tremendously over this time as he has had that time to read.  He has really developed a love for reading now and is reading novels or should I saw devouring novels.  I am almost running out of books for him!  I am so happy that I let him learn to read slowly in his own time.  As with lots of boys he was never very interested in reading and I never pushed him.  He only really wanted to read when he was about 10.  Before that he was just reading a few words here and there.  Now, within that year (he is 11 now) he has really wanted to read and it has simply happened - naturally!  Those earlier years he immersed himself with playing and exploring and making things and being outside insect hunting, boy things.   Now he has added reading to his interests - in his own time - how he laughs and thoroughly loves what he is reading!  He has become a very strong reader. All just as it should be.
Our Christmas tree is still up.  We can't bear to part with it so will keep it for a few days longer.

A Beautiful Day!

Our Sol is reading! He picked up a book this morning - a Dr Suess book - and away he goes! I shall always remember this memorable day. The sparkle in his eyes! His joy!



Last week, we finished off a block on the lower case letters and the sounds of the letters. I knitted Sol a golden unicorn to present to him at the end of our adventure. He is called Sunbeam and he helped save the kingdom from a tribe of terrible trolls by using his warm energy of sun and love.