While everyone rushed home to watch the finale of Master Chef....

Our church meets on a Sunday afternoon, so last night, while everyone was rushing off home to watch the finals of Master Chef (:)) we rushed off home to watch the debate between Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott!

Boring some might say, but this excites us around here:)

Ron and his family are so into politics that on his frequent phone calls to them (they live interstate) politics is sure to rear it's head into their conversations!
Being married almost 16 years to him, I've become quite interested in it too!
In fact being able to understand and follow politics has enabled me to better obey the scriptures about praying for our leaders and those in government.

Rebekah also watched the debate with us, as did she watch the world soccer cup with Ron, even waking up early some mornings with him:) I was wondering how much of it (the debate) she truly understood but it's funny, she was pretty attentive almost the whole time!
We then got her to bed and watched some of the finals of the Master Chef show....but boy I was glad she was in bed because I don't think I would have liked her seeing some of those commercials they aired in the breaks!
I know some of my friends and family watch it with their kids, I need to ask them what they do when the commercials come on.
With us usually when we say "close your eyes" Rebekah knows it's because we don't want her to watch / see something inappropriate either on a billboard or tv etc. Not that we watch commercial television much around here, it's usually the ABC.

Talking about the ABC, Rebekah watches an hour of TV each day - that is her allotted time, and she usually watches half an hour in the morning and half an hour in the evening. She only watches the kids programs on the ABC, in fact she doesn't even know that there are other kids shows on other channels, shhh...it's a secret:) She has no idea that hi-five is on channel nine! I've kept that a secret from her for two reasons, one is I don't personally like that show and secondly I don't want her influenced by the commercials that come on!

I have read about the damages of TV to young ones etc and while I agree that too much TV is not good for their little brains or bodies, I find that I need this break from her during the day.

A lot of people would think that having an only child is easy and yes, while they are right in some aspects, I find that our relationship is also more intense as we are usually home by ourselves for about 12 hours in the day while Ron is at work! Just the two of us:) I wouldn't have it any other way but I've had to come to peace about this situation of letting her watch TV so I can have a break during the day.

I know some families have no TV at all and while ideally I would like Rebekah to not watch TV this is what we've come to do in our home:)
What do you all do?

Our "school holidays"

I put school holidays in quote because even though we never planned to have holidays when the schools did, we've definitely been on holidays, especially this past week!
I started year 1 in March so our breaks have not lined up with the school terms. I am now rethinking how we will go from here. You see, Rebekah has many friends that go to school and so she's been doing a lot of this:






































as well as going to a great bookfair! Yes, we went there two days in a row because it's just so "awesome" in Rebekah's new lingo!
We still have more playdates planned for early next week so it will be a few days before we get back into "school" again! Not that we mind too much:)

Here's a picture of some great bargains we scooped up recently:


















Hopefully my next post will be about what we do around here for "school", it's been a long time coming I know:)

Spreading the love of a fruit....

My lovely blog-y Amanda just posted on her blog about a type of bean she has recently tried and loves. It spurred me on to post about this fruit that I fell in love with a few years ago and been meaning to tell you all about for a while!

One of my friends from church introduced me to them a few years ago and I just love it! I have even been known to pay upto $1.50 for a single one at times! (I wouldn't even pay that for a mango and I absolutely love mangoes - like most other people!)

I can't tell you that it tastes something like a cross between a mango and an apple or anything like that, I'm just not that "tuned" in to tell you that nor articulate enough to explain the taste to you so you'll just have to go out and buy one for yourself if you want to taste it to see what you think! All I can say is that it is absolutely yummy, and that it is quite sweet. I love it both when it is just ripe and also when it is over ripe and very soft and mushy!

It only comes out in autumn (though I have seen it at my local Coles even recently albeit at a very expensive price which I am not willing to pay!)

So, what is it? Have you heard or seen of this fruit before:














It's a Persimmon!

So, have you had one of these before? Let me know, if you did and if you like it?

You can read more here about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persimmon

One word of caution: do buy them from a fruit shop or supermarket as I did buy them once at a fair from a farmer (a whole bagful) and had to throw them all out when I got home and tried them, as they were just terrible - very stringy or something and not sweet at all.

Look forward to hearing all your thoughts on this!

Do you love this piece of music or is it just me?:)

In the last few few weeks, I've been listening to a cd of Rebekah's called "Ballet music" (another $1 bargain at a used book sale:)).
It has some great selections of music that my aspiring ballerina loves to dance to (all day if she can!) including this one that was love at first sight/ sound for me:

"Saint-Saens Carnival of the animals - Swan"

You can listen it to it here on you tube:



My dad was a cellist and so was his dad....this maybe why I love it!
I love hearing the cello. It is one of my favourite instruments to listen to!
In our previous church we had a girl who sometimes played the "cello" in the worship band. It often brought tears to my eyes when she played....I think it brings back memories of my dad....My hope is I will see him again one day (he died when I was 18).
Sadly, I did not inherit the "music" gene! But I have a strong sense that Rebekah has, as she loves, just LOVES, all things musical and is actually a quick learner on her recorder (that Ron's teaching her to play, not me:))

What do you think of this piece, do you like it? if not, what's your favourite music / musical instrument?

Slim pickings and other things...

How are you all doing in this chilly weather? I've got three layers of clothes, two pairs of socks and slippers on at the moment but I still need the heating on! It's absolutely freezing at our place!

This morning Rebekah was looking for a phone that she plays with, my old mobile phone to be precise! Who wants a toy phone when you can have the real thing! I had to help as she couldn't find it among her myriad of toy boxes and shelves! I being ever so opportunistic thought I'd try to "cull" some of her toys. My serious attempts in the past haven't gone very far as she unfortunately seems to be a hoarder! Well, after I successfully talked her into parting with some of her toys, this is what we came up with:




















4 measly items!

I suppose it's better than nothing:)


Yesterday we saw "Toy story 3" at the movies in 3D, woohoo! I've told you before I've had a deprived childhood, well, I've not told you that I think I've also had a a deprived adulthood because this is my first ever 3D movie in my whole life! :) It was GREAT. I was a bit apprehensive of the 3D factor at first as I've heard people say it gives them a headache, makes them nauseous etc but thankfully I didn't experience any of that. Now..... I've heard that they're making 3D tv's, hmmm, not sure about that though, I think I'd rather have the novelty factor at the movies than in my home everyday. What do you think?

And in other news, we've successfully finished term 1 of year 1 with Rebekah doing very well with her end of term exams. I should really post about our curriculum shouldn't I, I'll try to soon....

In the subject of "handicrafts" though, I must say, we are not doing too well:( Charlotte Mason will definitely not be proud of me in this subject! Just take a look at our project below. I thought we'd start off with something small, well, it's still very small:).....the picture of what it should like is on the right and our attempts on the left (which we've been working on for more than a year) (insert embarassed grin here)! Is there any hope?





















Well, I'm not one to give up too quickly, so we persevere.....I'll definitely show it to you when it's completed. I promise!

The best toys came cheap!

Rebekah asked me the other day to get out her set of mega blocks that I bought when she was much littler and had packed away because she had grown out of it! Or so I thought! Anyway, while she was having so much fun playing with them the other day it occurred to me how a lot of the toys she loves to play with didn't cost much at all! She has toys ranging in price from $1 or to $100 and yet who would have known that these things I picked up for next to nothing give her the most fun!

Aforementioned mega blocks set cost me $1 on ebay:



























This toy piano cost me $2 at a garage sale:
























And this keyboard set me back by a whole $5 at an op shop!!!























The above two provide Rebekah with endless music making fun!

Who would have thought.....

Spontaneous nature study and education

I was feeling like a hen in a coop waiting to be let out after all the rain we've had and also being under the weather a bit (both Rebekah and I) of late!
So at the first glimpse of sunshine yesterday morning we seized the opportunity to head out to one of our nearby nature reserves.




















It turned out to be a very educational morning (though I didn't plan for it to be that way!)

For instance on the drive there, we were listening to the classical radio station and a piece of music we recognised came on, so we spent some time trying to guess the composer. I don't actually think that either Rebekah or I got it right but we tried never the less:)

(On a side note, we recently flew down to Melbourne for a wedding and guess what Rebekah listened to on the plane - the classical channel - she went through a few of the channels they had and chose that herself - she actually loves classical music, hallelujah!)

Anyway, back to my day yesterday:

This nature reserve has a lake with ducks and up until a couple of years ago, a duck was a duck to me.
I did not realise that there were so many "types" of ducks with their own separate names...I know, I'm a city born and bred, nature ignorant person.
My favourite I think is a "chestnut teal".


Anyway, Rebekah was having so much fun feeding the ducks when I decided to get out our field guide for birds (which I always carry in our outdoors bag) and try to identify some of the ducks we saw in the pond.
I didn't manage to get pictures of them all but here's some pics I took.









































We then collected some feathers and thanks to Anna Botsford Comstock, I am now learning that ducks have different types of feathers on their body that serve different functions. We collected some to take home and study.

We then did some tree climbing after lunch and yes with Rebekah being an only child, I have to "join in" on Rebekah's play many times, so don't laugh:





































We then observed some of the fallen leaves and as we headed back to the car after a couple of hours, Rebekah said to me that we should have "drawn" something in our nature journals!


Then later at home, Rebekah called me to our back yard to check out some "cute little creatures" that were swimming in a unused pot of water.
I told her they were some type of worms!

This morning she went out to our back yard again to check out the worms and I decided to use the opportunity to actually find out what they were.






















Turns out that these little "worms" that I would have previously called them and even referred to them as late as this morning are actually young mosquitoes...once again Anna and her "Handbook of Nature Study" came to the rescue and we spent some time observing and learning about Mosquitoes. The wonders of nature are truly amazing if we just have our eyes opened to observe them.

Rebekah then proceeded to get out her "Christian liberty nature reader" and found a chapter on "mosquitoes" which she read herself. She then proceeded to tell me why the little wigglers or larvae stick their tails up at the surface of the water...it's because they have little hairs at the end of their tails that they breathe with.

So, there you go....all of this education happened spontaneously with Rebekah and this city girl is enjoying and learning alongside her daughter:)