• Blog,  Blogging - Daybook

    My Daybook: 12th December, 2016

    Outside my window… it’s a quiet summer morning, I’m up early before my family arises as it’s the only time I can concentrate when writing 🙂  Temperature is predicated to rise to 35C/95F today so enjoying the cool of the morning   I am thankful… for my husband, this man, this life, so blessed to be married to my soulmate. We celebrated our Wedding Anniversary this week, twenty four years of married life, we’ve packed so much living into these years, it’s been an adventure. Giving thanks to Our Heavenly Father I am thinking… Christmas shopping; shopping for eleven children, my husband, a couple of sibs and grandmothers takes time. I’ve done…

  • Blog,  Home Education,  Home Education - Art & Craft,  Home Education - Curriculum Reviews,  Learning

    How Artventure Nurtures Talent

    *Disclosure: We received a subscription for this program in exchange for our honest review. This post contains affiliate links. All opinions expressed in this post are our own based on our family’s experience regards the program and service. Nurturing creativity is valued in our home, various resources are always accessible and when the desire to create is present, time to do so is made available. Formal lessons with an art teacher are an experience in our distant past. Since then any teaching has come from our many ‘how to’ books. So when references to Artventure began surfacing on social media we were intrigued. Our thoughts were that undertaking art lessons online might bring…

  • Blog,  Book Reviews,  Books - Faith,  Books - Fiction,  Books - Fiction Catholic

    7 Catholic Fiction Books For 7 – 12 Year Olds

    Our home bulges with literally thousands of books, many of which have been gifted from my homeschooling mother’s collection and many from local book sales in which children’s books are free! We are extremely blessed to own many treasures but the one genre we’ve had to consciously seek out and purchase books for is, Catholic Fiction.  Whilst we’ve plenty of saints and spiritual books, novels written by Catholic authors in which our Catholic Faith is seamlessly interwoven are few. Filling this gap has been a challenge as the prices are high and finding Catholic authors is difficult. Over several years we have slowly built our collection, gifting our children with Catholic…

  • Blog,  Home Education,  Home Education - Maths,  Learning

    How To Create Your Own Multiplication Chart

    It has been our experience that when a child hits a ‘road block’ with maths the reason can often be traced back to not knowing their multiplication tables thoroughly enough. To this end, chanting multiplication tables has been added to the daily memorisation list this year. However I’ve been frustrated by the fact we haven’t had a wall chart, we’ve had wall charts from time to time in the past but they tend to fall down and become damaged. Reflecting that our phonics chart is still in good condition nine years later I determined to make a similar multiplication chart.   Providentially we already had a blank canvas, measuring and dividing the…

  • Blog,  Book Reviews,  Home Education,  Home Education - Language Arts,  Home Education - Leaping into Literature,  Learning

    Diving Deep: Leaping into Literature

    We started strong this week with our Leaping into Literature, only to take a deeper dive when a beloved family ritual, The Bookworm made a reappearance. Instantly an intense book reading marathon engulfing the entire family ‘sprang up,’ therefore the time I’d normally devote to reading picture books was derailed into librarian tasks. I’ll explain our Bookworm ritual in further detail later this week so stay tuned. All the picture books in our family library are grouped into theme boxes; animals, Australian, history, geography etc, this week and last we have predominately focused on animals, hence why all the books in the following list are centered around this one topic. Recall the…

  • Blog,  Blogging - Daybook

    My Daybook: 10th November, 2016

    Outside my window… it’s a cooler evening, the hot ‘bushfire winds’ from earlier in the week have been broken by fierce thunderstorms I am thankful… to have been able to enjoy the gift of motherhood, I’m most conscious that many women/couples suffer from fertility issues and so I never, ever take this gift for granted I am thinking… about the American election results, so stunned and yet not. Reading around, ‘listening’ to the average American it appears the votes weren’t necessarily a vote for Trump but more a vote against Clinton, a groundswell reaction against corruption. Fascinating Learning all the time… we began our annual bookfeast last week with Leaping into Literature,…

  • Blog,  Book Reviews,  Home Education,  Home Education - Language Arts,  Home Education - Leaping into Literature,  Learning

    A Firm Tradition, Our Fourth Year: Leaping into Literature

    Hard to believe it’s Term 4 already! For the past three years Term 4 for us has included our annual tradition; Leaping into Literature where we immerse ourselves in reading through a huge slew of picture books and the older children have time to dive into towering piles of novels. This year however I’d made the decision we would miss Leaping into Literature to continue ‘slogging away’ at Language Arts as I felt ‘pressured’ because my goals for Language Arts haven’t been meet. However it appears that once a tradition is set, it just can’t be unbroken, so we’re Leaping into Literature after all 🙂 We’re a few weeks late beginning the bookfest, but…

  • Blog,  Extensions,  Extensions - Kitchen

    Kitchen Reveal

    It’s time for the great Kitchen Reveal 🙂 To be honest I’ve been waiting for it all to be ‘perfect and complete’ but as it’s still not I believe you’ve all patiently waited long enough. When I recall what my kitchen was and gaze upon what it is now, well it’s just too incredible for words.  Some days I just stand looking and smiling, then become inspired and become creative trying new recipes, it has that effect on me much to my family’s pleasure. Let’s take a tour around the room. All cupboards under the benchtop are drawers (except for below the sink). There are three drawers on two sides…

  • Blog,  Blogging - Daybook

    My Daybook: 6th October, 2016

    Outside my window… it’s promising to be a beautiful Spring day, my favourite season of the year I am thankful… for small but steady signs of improved health with a loved one. It’s been a long, hard journey but we’re inching forward I am thinking… about hosting a High Tea party. I often meet interesting women whom I’d like to know more, but in our busy lives today there aren’t many opportunities to stop and pause, relationships take time. So I’m thinking one big party could kickstart/deepen some friendships.  A Mother/Daughter/Grandaughter High Tea seems rather appealing.  First though we need to undertake a massive cleanup around here, the building supplies on our…