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Saturday 9 April 2011

Fish schooling




(thanks Jade xx)
Tuesday 5 April 2011

The Six-Lesson Schoolteacher

One of the people most influential to me when I was researching home education was/is John Taylor Gatto.

As a former school teacher, he became acutely aware of the problems of institutionalised learning & has subsequently made a career out of sharing this knowledge.  He does not bag teachers, but criticises the system they work in.  If you haven't read any of his work, I implore you to do so.  I promise he will change the way you think about education & learning.

I have just read another article of his that was shared by the lovely Meg @ 'Unlearnt At Last' and it concretes a lot of what I've said or alluded to in my previous blog posts.  Please consider.....

http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html
Friday 1 April 2011

April Fools!

Ahhhh.....1.30am & Jasmine went to sleep a short time ago.  An early night by her usual standards!  I figured this would be a good time to review the last week :)

Jasmine's hanging out for the morning.  She can't wait to play tricks on me/us in the spirit of April Fools' Day.  Not that she doesn't like joking around every other day, but she's happy to be able to legitimise her shenanigans. It will be interesting to see if she remembers or not.  Tomorrow is her regular fortnightly "help Daddy read books & sing songs to the little kids at the library" day, which means an early start for her.  Hopefully, that will keep me safe for a while!

I tried cleaning up the house today (HAAAA!!!), but there are some times it just does.not.work with a child following you around, finding new & creative ways to fill the spaces you just cleaned.  It's Jasmine's 6th birthday next week, so I really want to have the place at least semi-sorted before family arrive from interstate for the occasion.  Hopefully, D will find things for them to do away from home tomorrow & I can crank the music & sort this place out.  I get frustrated when we can't even do activities because every horizontal surface, and some vertical ones, are covered in STUFF : /  But that's a whole other therapy session ;)

Now, to engage the brain & recall the events of the week.

Jasmine has discovered these tubes of bubble mixture at Big W that are $1 each & have long wands, so bubble blowing retains its status of 'favourite outdoor activity'.  She asked me several days ago how water was made - a recurring question, so maybe my answers are insufficient?  Anyhooo, when I saw some conjoined bubbles floating in the breeze today, I took the opportunity to explain basic molecular structure.  I still don't think she can quite grasp how two elements that are usually invisible gases can form a liquid, but there's plenty of years to cover that :)  We also covered wind direction & velocity - AKA "which way do I have to hold the wand to let the wind do all the work?"

There's been a bit more activity in the kitchen, too.  I got breakfast in bed this morning (toast & vegemite, per my request), which was accompanied by professions of her immense love for me.....awwww!   Preparing food (acts of service) really is a major love language of hers :)

On Playschool one day, they were making a cold rice noodle salad.  Jasmine asked if we could have it for dinner.  You should of heard the shrills of delight when I informed her we already had most of the ingredients here!  We embellished somewhat on the Playschool version & it was a hit all 'round.......


Then another night, there were baking requests coming from all sides.  D had a hankering for scones with homemade blackberry jam & cream, while Jasmine has a thing for cupcakes & HAD to make some that night.  There really is no stopping her when she has something in mind to cook!  Suffice to say, it was a hectic night in the kitchen, but we did manage to discuss the alchemy of cake making in amongst the craziness :) 
(and oh, how I can see my side of the family in this pic!!!)


 Continuing along the food theme, we spent a couple of hours at the 'Focus on Franklin' last Saturday.  We ran into a couple of other families we know, watched the dragon boat races, waited around for ages for the fairy floss machine to be fixed (power kept tripping), walked back & forth across the oval countless times for no particular reason other than a change of mind & watched the kids' Zumba class.  I even joined in the adults' group, but just about blacked out after two songs (damned migraine), so I think I'll stick with the DVD's at home.  In between the Zumba sessions, they had a Pizza Toss.  Each contestant got 2 turns to throw a cold pizza into a hoop.  Jasmine saw what was happening, so joined in towards the end.  No one had managed to get a pizza in the hoop yet, but her first shot landed smack bang in the middle!  She literally could not contain her excitement & jumped up & down continuously until her final turn.  Unfortunately, her beginner's luck did not continue & it ended up being a draw between her & a boy who was at least twice her age.  Her prize was a little fairy snow globe which she was thrilled about & she added it to her collection when we got home.


Of course, getting her to leave there was somewhat of a challenge.  I was still feeling poorly after Zumba and needed to get home.  I hadn't actually planned on spending that time at Franklin & I had a lot of work to do to get ready for my first market the following morning.  Jasmine had previously agreed to go to bed early as she wanted to help me at the market - which meant leaving home @ 8am.   She did try, but just couldn't sleep.  She agreed she'd stay home with D instead & sleep through the morning.  Well, that was until 7am when she decided 4 hours sleep was enough & she was indeed helping me at the market.

We we're set up, ready to sell about 20 mins before the market officially started.  Twenty minutes can seem like an eternity when you're five and patience is not one of her strong points (I wonder where she gets that from? ;-) ).  She did a bit of colouring in the books she had with her, but got bored with that quickly.  She walked around a bit, checking out other stalls, killing time however she could.

Once the people started coming in, she was in her element.  I couldn't have asked for a better PR person!  She loved saying 'Hello' to everyone & would have a good old natter, asking if they liked this bead or that LOL.  Eventually, food was ready & I think any profits I made were spent just as quickly by Jasmine on food and other bits & pieces (and any Taswegians wanting fantastic Vietnamese food need to try Dobab, who work from markets and, if the rumour's true, may be opening a store in Cygnet).  When it came time to pack up, Jasmine didn't want to leave.  I think she really enjoyed the atmosphere & the people...and the food ;-)  If her career in dancing doesn't eventuate, she'll be great in sales & marketing!

I'll sign off with a pic she drew on her blackboard wall the other night.  It's the ocean, the sun & the stars, because she loves me "as much as all the Earth & the Sun & the planets & the stars in allll the Universe"  xxx