Homeschool Meme

While some of you have been posting some deep and meaningful posts, here's a light, make that super light one from me:)

My dear bloggy friend Jo in Queensland tagged me, oh, let's see, more than a month ago with this meme! Sorry Jo, it's a bit late, better late than never though eh!

The idea of this meme is to answer the questions and then to tag some bloggers to pass it on, so they can do the same. However, some of my blog friends are not homeschoolers and so this wouldn't apply to them; the rest who are my homeschool bloggy friends have already had their turn most likely so I'll just fill in the details with my answers and leave it untagged at the end:)


Here goes:


1. One homeschooling book you have enjoyed:

'A Charlotte Mason Companion' by Karen Andreola.


2. One resource you wouldn’t be without:

The internet!


3. One resource you wish you had never bought:

hmmm, I'd have to say "Before Five in a row". I briefly tried this with Rebekah when she was 3 to 4 and she didn't like having the same book read every day! Sorry all you 'rowers' out there but this just wasn't going to work for us!

4. One resource you enjoyed last year:

Living Books curriculum teachers manual for year 1.

5. One resource you will be using next year

Our ipad, yay!

6. One resource you would like to buy:

I think I'm ok for now.


7. One resource you wish existed:

A time extender, need more hours in my day:)


8. One homeschool catalogue you enjoy reading


Don't read catalogues, does that make me a 'weird' weird homeschooler? (wink) :)


9. One homeschooling website you use regularly


Ambleside online


10. Tag other homeschoolers:

See my note at the top:)

Keeping up with the Jones' Technology

If you know us in real life, you'd know that we are not a keeping up with the Jones' type of family.
We are simple people, happy to live a simple and uncomplicated life. We put certain things in life ahead of keeping up with the latest gadgets, tv, phones etc.
We drove an old car until it died a couple of years ago and we were forced to replace it!
We live in a small villa and drive a smallish car.
Recently we had our small group (Bible study) from church over at our place and we had to watch a dvd as part of it. In typical Aussie humour, someone made a comment about our latest flat screen tv :) (NOT) :)
I hope that gives you some indication of the type of people we are.
We are also laggards apparently (a word I recently learned) over at this blog I've just started following: Fountainside. So, there you have it, we are a couple of laggards who live a simple life:)

We live in a city that is obsessed with keeping up with the Joneses!
We feel we swim against the flow with our lifestyle and hope others can be encouraged to live the same way. In fact, we live mostly on one (average) income in an expensive city where mostly everyone thinks it's impossible to do!
We make many sacrifices to live this way but that is another topic for another time.

So, in recent times, I got an android phone, not because I wanted to because I had no other choice. A couple of months ago my old phone started dying and when we started looking into a new phone for me, the only one I found comfortable to handle on the plan I wanted to get was an android phone. (I am not on a big mobile plan in fact it's the second cheapest) It has millions of apps I can download for free (so I am told) but I don't think I'd bother. I use my phone mainly to text and call and to take photos and videos. It even comes with some internet data which I was not interested in:) In fact I would go so far as to say this android phone is truly wasting all it's capabilities on me!

Fast forward a couple of weeks and guess what we get.....voila:






















- an Ipad2! Yes indeed! Yes even our friends' jaws dropped when they found out:)

Now, even this was driven out of necessity. You see we have one desktop and often when Ron's at home at night I am working (on it ) and there have been times when Rebekah wants to watch something on iview (remember her allotted daily 60 minutes I blogged about here) is often when I need the computer! We really needed another pc. We ummed and ahhed for several months on whether to get a laptop (we've never owned a laptop ever, now even that is saying something) or to get an ipad.
Ron researched it a lot and we decided we'd get an ipad.

This has purely been out of necessity and after owning it for a month I can tell you it's been a huge blessing for us.

It has changed how we homeschool and how we do our family read alouds.
Ambleside Online is a free curriculum with most of the books available for free online, so guess what Rebekah and I do each morning for school - yes, we pull out the ipad to do most of our readings!
We've already downloaded quite a few ebooks.
We use it's notes function as a daily checklist that Rebekah can tick off as we do our school work. (Great for transitioning to more independent study as she gets older wink wink )

We use it for our family read alouds each Saturday night as we are currently reading Peter Pan which is available for free.
I'd read that it's just not the same as reading from a book but honestly once you get engrossed in the story you forget you're reading it from a screen.

We use it at our dining table book work area to listen to our composer on youtube, quickly look up something we need to find out about online, etc etc.

It even gets used in the kitchen to look up recipes to cook.

We're only scratching the surface as we've only had it for a month or so. But already it's been put to heavy use.
Yes there are some great games on it but not wanting Rebekah to become addicted she is allowed to use some of her daily allotment of one hour of screen time on the ipad if she so desires.
I'm told there are many educational applications, we're yet to look into that. We are laggards after all:)

I just love it because of it's slim design, weight and portability.
We are loving it so much so I just had to tell you of our latest addition:)
It has been a huge blessing for our homeschool and our family. We are finally having to keep up with technology! How about you, do you have an ipad, are you thinking of getting one, tempted to get one? If you do have one, I'd love to hear of some of your favourite educational or other apps.

Fitting in nature study and all those 'extras'

I noticed this year as we got into a more rigorous curriculum (Ambleside Online), with more books to read, more work than last year, nature study had slipped a little around here. Sure, we still do a bit of nature study but it hasn't been as much as I would have liked nor as much as Charlotte Mason's students truly did.

Also, some of the so called 'extras' too like handicrafts, art etc were taking a nose dive! Because I am not an arty person, they would get left to the last and then when we ran out of time they wouldn't get done:(

So, I tried to rectify that by adjusting our schedule this term.

I've alloted certain 'days' to certain 'subjects' so they don't get left out.
So my schedule goes like this. Besides our daily subjects like Bible, Maths, penmanship and poetry, we allot the other subjects as follows:

Mondays and Tuesdays we cover Literature, History and Geography (the readings are spread out over two days as I don't want to overload her with one subject on each day)

Wednesdays is our 'science and nature study' day.

Thursdays we call our 'artsy' day in which we do all the extras (which are not really 'extras' because they are a key differentiator between a Charlotte Mason education and other methods): composer study, picture study (art), drawing, hymns, handicrafts (knitting) and the all important 'craft' for my craft loving daughter:)

Fridays we have off for park days, etc.

We are almost at the end of second 12 week term and I can say we've had better success with this than term 1.

By having a set day to do certain subjects that I don't necessarily like, I ensure it gets done and that Rebekah is getting that liberal education that Charlotte Mason talked about.

With Nature study however (where we actually go to a specific place to observe nature, do nature journalling etc) I have allowed myself to schedule it in once a fortnight (for my non-Aussie readers that's once every two weeks) (smile) instead of once a week as it involves much more time and preparation on my part! I figured that this way instead of constantly feeling like we never do it, if I allow myself some leeway and set a more realistic goal, it will actually get done!

So, having said all that, as we had no park day this week and also because of poor weather, we had our nature study day yesterday - a Friday.


We had a lovely picnic lunch along with Rebekah's new Sylvanian family bike and picnic set,


























fed the ducks at leisure,
























took time to relax and breathe, observed and discussed at length about the birds, trees and flowers, have fun,























did some nature journalling,

























did some reading in a shady spot, and just marvelled at God's creation!






















I brought to Rebekah's attention the design on the petals of the above flower. Nature has some invaluable lessons for us in that they display the beauty and wonder of God and teach us so much about Him. Prior to homeschooling Rebekah I would never have noticed the intricate designs on the inside of a flower!
Isn't this flower just amazing! It's a dietes and is a very common flower. I'm sorry that these shots are just from my mobile phone and don't do the beauty of the flower any justice but when Rebekah took a closer look, she was amazed and said, it's like God drew it with a texta! That's exactly what it looked like! A texta drawing / or as if someone had personally hand painted that brown design on the inside of the petal! To think that God put so much detail into a flower that is here today and gone tomorrow.....

























We had an awesome day! It actually turned out to be a lovely nature study day mummy/daughter date actually:)

Fringe benefits of blogging

I started this blog in February 2009 mainly to keep an online journal of some aspects of our life here which I am keeping so Rebekah can read one day.
Along the way I have made some wonderful blogging friends one of them being Joluise at 'Stop have a chat'.
Well, Jo recently had a giveaway on her blog (some tissue holders she had made) and I won one, hurray!

It arrived in the mail today, along with a lovely surprise for Rebekah - some very pretty craft stickers (top half of the picture).
























Here is the tissue holder after I unwrapped the little parcel along with a refill and a handy 2012 magnetic calendar:






















Isn't it beautiful!

Rebekah jumped up and down when she realised part of it was for her. Jo, I wish I could capture her thank you for you, instead she decided to pose for this photo for you as a 'thank you'! You blessed my little girl so much today, thankyou!





















If you don't follow Jo's blog, I'd encourage you to take a look.

Jo is a statician, so always has some very interesting posts to read. Besides that she is very creative with her garden, her crafts, her home...I could go on and on! More importantly I believe she is a very gracious and kind person (I think you get to know people a bit if you follow them over time) and I love reading her blog as it's very uplifting.

I am very blessed my bloggy friends, all of you! and this today was a fringe benefit which I didn't mind at all:) Thanks again Jo!

Rosemary's Easy Sushi Recipe

I thought I'd put my blog to good use and tell you all how I make really really easy sushi, the one I mentioned here!

This recipe is for Arky a dear friend of mine who is no longer in Australia, all my real life friends that often ask me how I make sushi and anyone else out there wanting to know:)

Years ago I read a recipe in a women's magazine for sushi and I only ever made it a couple of times! Though it was well liked, the recipe was filed never to resurface due to it not being that easy to make. These days 'easy' is my middle name when it comes to cooking! I'm sure I'll get back into more elaborate cooking in another season and time of my life though.

Sushi can be unduly intimidating (at least it was for me), so here I'm going to try and dispel any doubts you have that you can make it!
If you're a more experienced sushi cook and you're still reading, please forgive me for elaborating too much:)

Ingredients:

Sushi Rice 2 cups
Seaweed sheets

O'bento Sushi seasoning: 12 to 18 tbsp - the bottle indicates 18 but I find 12 is adequate, you can use 18 if you want a stronger flavour to the rice.






















If you don't have this brand of sushi seasoning you will have to subsitute with japanese rice vinegar (though I'm not sure if that has added sugar to give it a sweet flavour). If it doesn't it won't give you that store bought sushi taste and you may have to add some sugar to it, or else look for another recipe lol!

Fillings as you desire. I used smoked salmon and avocado(cut into strips) (for the adults here) and cucumber(also in strips) and avocado for Rebekah. On a side note, Rebekah prefers raw salmon to smoked but I'm not game enough to try it with raw salmon:)




















































Method:
Cook sushi rice according to instructions on packet.
(An easy way I cook it in the microwave is to use two parts water to one part rice and cook it on high for a few minutes first until quite a bit of the water is absorbed. So in this recipe for 2 cups rice I would cook it for about 7 to 9 minutes for on high, let it sit for 10 minutes, then cook it for another 5 minutes on medium heat)

Add the sushi seasoning to the rice mixture and stir through and let it cool down to room temp. I normally cook this in the morning and leave it aside to cool down till later in the day when I make the rolls.





























Cut all your vegetables, gather your fillings and have them ready on hand along with a bowl of water to rinse your hands between rolls.

Place the seaweed sheet shiny side down on a chopping board / tray.

Layer rice all over the sheet leaving a gap of an inch or so at one end which I will call the finishing end (this will be the flap that closes over at the finish to hold everything in place). The layer of rice needs to be evenly spread out and not too thick as otherwise you will end up with a very chunky sushi roll:)
I am sorry about this picture and some of the ones following, which kept getting rotated around every time I tried uploading them. I tried some workarounds I found on the internet but nothing has helped and I've already spent way too much time on this post lol so I am giving up!































Layer your fillings on the rice at the starting end.

























Begin rolling over the seaweed sheet with fillings firmly in place.

























I don't use a bamboo mat but you can use one to help with this process.
The trick is to ensure it's all tight when you roll it up.
Keep rolling it over until you get to the end of the rice and then fold the end side of the sheet over and using some water stick it down to hold everything in place.




























Once you've done these and finished the rolls, place it in the fridge for about 20 minutes. This helps everything set and makes it easier to cut into pieces for serving.

























I do not store left over cooked sushi rice as I believe it doesn't do well in rolls the next day due to a change in the texture resulting from refrigeration. Instead I make additional rolls with it and store them in the fridge overnight. I have often made rolls for two dinners (as I did today) and they taste just as good the next night!

Lastly, enjoy with a dash of soy sauce on the side and/ or wasabi!




















Disclaimer: This recipe was adapted from the back of the seasoning bottle and other places I've read sushi recipes so I'm not claiming it's my own. Also, I am not getting paid for any of this by any company, neither do I own shares in any of the companies I recommend in this post, though I am open to it lol!

When I grow up......

"I want to be a ballerina" Rebekah says and has said for the past couple of years! This has been the deepest desire of her heart. She just loves her ballet! Time has not caused her to grow out of this one. In fact she becomes more and more determined about it as time passes!

So....today was her end of year concert (a little early I know but this is how it's done at her new school and I quite liked the idea) and the theme of the concert was the same as my post's title:)




























An update on our dance school decision:
I mentioned here that we made the decision to change schools for certain reasons. Well, to put it more bluntly we had issues with the last dance school and it was not an environment we wanted Rebekah to grow up learning to dance in; the songs and dance moves were too sexualised!
There! I've said it! I've used the 's' word on my blog for the first time!

Anyway, today our decision to move her to this new school proved SO right! The whole concert was not only a lot shorter, but it was a whole lot sweeter too (and they teach classical ballet!) The dances were more wholesome yet good. Who said you had to be sexual to dance well! I've used the s word again, oh dear!
It amazes me that I hear of so many parents who pull their kids out of dance schools for the same reasons as we did yet the dance schools don't seem to get the message!

Anyway, we are happy, Rebekah is happy and she still wants to grow up to be a ballerina......to be continued........at some point in the future:)


In the meantime, she will get all the support she needs from us:

Ambleside Online - year 1 we're half done!

I've had a busy busy few weeks, and came back to my blog to discover a few new followers, woohoo! I'm an introvert and my blog reflects that - so 31 followers was good; I'm actually amazed to see the number go up suddenly and so I'll be coming your way to check you all out soon my new followers:)

In the meantime I want to let you know we've been busy celebrating a certain someone's birthday, nursing a sick guinea pig with a few visits to the vet thrown in, organising play dates and attending homeschool park days with two different groups for extra measure :) - an essential when one homeschools an only child, working two part time jobs, volunteering at church and celebrating 10 years as a local church! So, please excuse my absence from your bloggy worlds but I will catch up with you all soon.

I told you some time ago we switched curriculums this year, so I thought I'd post an update with how it's all going with Ambleside Online seeing that we're in week 18 of the 36 week curriculum!

Well, the ladies over on those discussion boards are not wrong, it surely is a rigorous curriculum; don't let first glances deceive you:)

The books are quite challenging but not overwhelming for Rebekah which is right where she needs to be.
We follow the curriculum pretty closely but do our own thing for art study and hymns; we also added in and substituted some Australian material. And oh, we haven't gotten around to folksongs yet!

I started off adding in Australian material but quickly found out that this was just going to overload us so I have decided to substitute instead (where possible).
We now use "Old Bob's birds" by C K Thompson instead of the "Burgess Bird Book". This book was filled with American birds and while Rebekah enjoyed the stories I felt reading an Australian Bird Book would be far more fruitful in bringing natural history to life for her.
We still add in "My place" by Nadia Wheatley to the history selections but since this is a fairly easy book to follow we are managing.
Also, we don't do narrations for every reading; we just read and discuss "Tales from Shakespeare" and "Just so Stories". I felt narrating every reading was overkill for Rebekah and I didn't want reading for school to become a drudgery.

One thing that has happened ths year (due to the increase in work load for school work) is that our nature walks and craft activities were falling by the wayside, the latter to my dear craft-loving daughters chagrin:(
So, a rethink was done and now we have decided to make one day of our four day week an 'arts' day.
We do all our academic subjects from Monday to Wednesday and leave Thursdays for the arty subjects like picture study, composer, hymns, handicrafts (knitting) and craft. Those of you familiar with Charlotte Mason would know she didn't place too much emphasis on what we would call 'craft' activities, but one of my daughter's love languages would be doing craft together (if there was such a love language) :)
So, to fill her love tank in this area I schedule them in on Thursdays.

I've also decided to aim for one nature walk per fortnight at least. This way I don't beat myself up over not doing one every week. This is not to say that she hasn't been on nature walks this year! My husband is a nature lover so he does take Rebekah on bush walks regularly and while this covers that subject a little, I still want to do 'focused' nature walks with her and hence my new goals. Our backyard and informal nature study still continues due to her being exposed to it since she was much younger, so we have managed a few nature journal entries too.

I'll be heading over to yours soon.....