We have twins!!!

baby guinea pig twins that is! gotcha!

For the past couple of years, Rebekah has been asking for a dog. She absolutely loves and adores all dogs and has done so since she was very young. Well, she's still young, just 5, but you get the drift...here she is at around 18 months with a family member's dog......















Anyway, we had been telling her that she would get one after we have another baby. Well, it's been a long wait and I was kind of thinking that maybe when she's six we'd get her one for her birthday whether or not she had a little sibling by then.

Well, last month we visited a friend who just recently got her son some guinea pigs. Rebekah just took to them and fell in love with them. She was then to get one of them "on loan" for six days from her friend but at the last moment he backed down. She was very disappointed to say the least. Anyway, in the same week, we heard of some baby guineas for sale from one of the mums in our home school group. Well, they couldn't have come at a better time - it didn't take Ron and I very long at all to decide to get them for Rebekah. She was over the moon! So, we picked last Saturday. She is absolutely besotted with them!


I didn't realise pets could have this effect, it's been a loooong time since I've had one. But really, it's like having a new baby (or in our case babies). I've seen a new side to Ron - I knew he was a softie but to see him just love these little creatures is amazing. Also, I have to be honest here, I was not too keen on cuddling them at first but it didn't take me long either and I must say we've all fallen in love with them! They are the cutest little things. Rebekah has named them "Claire" and "Annalise" :)

Here they are:

















They make a great first pet we were told, and so far this has definitely been the case. Easy and low maintenance!















Doesn't she look over the moon! She is truly learning what it means to "look after and care for" something / some one else. In her case being an only child (at the moment) I think it's been great for her to learn this:) She is learning responsibility, gentleness, care etc.....now how good is that!

A great day in our homeschooling life!

Today the sun was out and it wasn't too cold - about 18 degrees I would say. The perfect day to get out and enjoy nature after the rain of the past few days.
So, Rebekah and I went off to visit a reserve not far from our place. (Pictures following were taken at the same spot a few months ago)















We fed the ducks, strolled along the international gardens, picked up some fallen leaves of various beautiful autumn colours, stood up at the top of the waterfall (man made one but beautiful albeit) and enjoyed the scenic view down over the lakes and gardens. Rebekah even brought along a cursive writing book as she said she wants to play "going to university" and I could be the teacher seeing I would make a good one:) Thanks Rebekah!!!:) She even brought along her maginary friends - she had some new ones today (who's names I cannot remember!) oh actually, some of them were - Elessa, Ellen, oh, I can't remember the rest now, drats!
Anyway, you get the picture, they all came along on our "field trip" as she put it today. And yes, after she fed the ducks and played and we had our lunch, she did actually get her book out and start "writing" some words - she was copying the cursive writing into upper case letters - no she is not that advanced, we are still at upper case letters:)















Anyway, Charlotte Mason would have been so proud of me I reckon.

This is what she says "How much time daily in the open air should the children have? And how is it possible to secure this for them? In this time of extraordinary pressure, educational and social, perhaps a mothers first duty to her children is to secure for them a quiet growing time, a full six years of passive receptive life, the waking part of it spent for the most part out in the fresh air. And this, not for the gain in bodily health alone––body and soul, heart and mind, are nourished with food convenient for them when the children are let alone, let to live without friction and without stimulus amongst happy influences which incline them to be good."

She is so right about this. Every day I struggle to follow her wisdom - to let Rebekah just be - to get her outdoors as much as possible, to enoy nature etc etc. So much screams out at me that I need to be teaching her this or that! But as I've learnt to relax and not "force" academics on her, she has of her own volition wanted to learn things, like the scenario of taking her book out today. I certainly have not encouraged this! Wow, bring it on - a lifelong love of learning is what I am after for my daughter not academics just to pass a test!