1Our favourite Maths program is expanding to include the primary grades. Grades 4 to 6. Exciting news is this to be released for Term 4. Only two weeks away! Don’t forget for Australians this is free! And for all homeschoolers there is a discount of 40%. 2School holidays start today, a two week break. I’ll be pulling my ‘Project Manager’s hat’ on to start the building happening. 3I’m trying to be a little more organised regards lesson preparation.I know many have long raved about Dawn’s File Crate System but it all sounded too overwhelming for me. It has taken me all this time to come to terms with trialing it…

1Yesterday PC’s brother Chris turned 30th. Happy Birthday Uncle Chris:) 2 Wednesday, the East Coast of Australia was blanketed by a dust storm. We could feel dirt, we could smell dirt, we could taste dirt. 3I took advantage of the sale at Knowledge Quest and purchased both of Ann Voskamp’s Child’s Geogrpahy books for half price! These books are recommended for the Serendipity Geography. *Sale ends tomorrow. 4We’re trialing a new lesson tracking sheet, not too sure if it will change anything. I guess I have to be firmer regards reward systems, I find it all so hard, its not really my nature to be ‘consistently firm’ on this topic.…

1My brother Callan(19) and his mate Ben were staying for a few days this week. Having a very small house we installed them in a tent. Well they left the fly open during the night and Callan woke up to see 3 chooks in the tent, one on his bag, one on the end of his bed and the other on Ben’s chest. He softly calls out to Ben to wake up. Imagine poor Ben’s fright to wake up with a chook that close to his face! Callan laughed and laughed as Ben ran in fright from the tent. (I do believe the tent was zipped the next night;) 2For…

1 We are drawing to the close of soccer season with this weekend being the second last round of games. Although chances are Einstein’s team will make it to the finals. Our oldest two have both refereed as well as played this season which has added another dimension. Truthfully I’m ready for the season’s conclusion. Don’t get me wrong, soccer has been a blessing in many ways for our family over the last nine years but by this time of the year I am tired. 2 We have decided on plans for Koala’s 16th party location. Let’s just say she is literally jumping out of her skin and is sooo…

1Jem is now waving goodbye! and the last couple of weeks he has surprised us with bursting into tears when his big siblings leave for soccer. He has also mastered the concept of turning and sliding backwards off the bed. Too fast, too fast. 2This week the children have been focused on Lego in a big way. Their creations are pretty terrific and of course take hours to build. We were blessed a couple of Christmases back to buy a huge lot of lego on ebay. Actually this is where we purchased a bulk lot of K’nex too. We’ve never regretted those purchases; have you noticed though how much harder…

1The architect has already drawn up plans; we met with him this morning and made several alterations. It’s all coming along nicely, this will be a big house! I’m getting very excited. 2The boys have been busy practicing out on the golf course range again:) I do so love the freedom that this land gives them. 3The LOTR game is still going strong, even the younger ones have now joined in. The co-operation and imagination that has created this game amazes me. Whilst the LOTR game is raging in the carport the littles have been playing with Farm Animals. This involves setting up bags of blocks and animals. Yes they…

1Jem is walking! only ten months old and he is walking!! Eight babies and he is the first one to walk before 12 months old. He is totally balanced, walking everywhere; rarely does he crawl at all. Whilst I’m being a proud mama, I’ll you about last night; as we have no bath tub he sits in a plastic tub at the bottom of the shower, last night as I was adjusting the spray he walked over to the tub in the corner of the room and started dragging it towards the shower! How amazing is that? Okay I’ll stop now;) 2Our boys are once again playing their homemade Lord…

1Our holidays draw to a close on Monday and so our rhythm will once again change. I’ve enjoyed having the time to create and cook. I’m planning to make more time for these activities even during term time. Since I set up a fabric basket Michelangelo, Princess and Jelly Bean have been busy creating.2Grandma came for a visit during the second week of the holidays. Just in time to enjoy the craft fest going on and to share skills with the ‘createes.’ 3The children were given a set of golf sticks from their ‘Timba’ and Uncle C. Our paddock now sports a driving range. Very impressive. 4I’ve been busy planning…

1We are on Term end holidays here at present and the children are enjoying a couple of different activities. Yesterday saw them attending ‘Knights Club’. Remember our Medieval Day? Knights Club was run by the same gentleman and saw the children spending the morning jousting and battling. They have come home begging to join the fencing club. 2Whilst the older children were at Knight Club, the younger children and I went op-shopping. I like to treat myself to this outing in the holidays if I can. We had a lovely morning finding books, and clothes and even some ‘dress ups.’ Amazingly, the day before I had assigned Pygmalion and A…