It's all about family

Ah, it does my heart proud to be raising a Socialist Greenie :D

I love how kids can see so clearly what many adults fail to grasp, or have pushed aside in preference of economic gain.

On our way to trampolining today, there was a fair bit of smoke coming from a roadside property.  I noticed yesterday that there was at least one big tree down & an excavator onsite, so obviously today's task was to take care of the unwanted tree.  Jasmine wondered why there was so much smoke & explained what they were doing.  She was disgusted, stating most emphatically that we need trees to breathe & it was "stupid" to cut them down, before a couple of minutes of tutting & mumbling to herself about the environmental impact of the smoke & loss of vegetation.  I explained that some trees become diseased, or it may have needed removing so they could build there.  She was surprised to hear trees could get sick, so we talked a bit about different diseases that affect plants.  Further along, there was someone else burning off and again she was very vocal about how bad the smoke was and wondered why the people didn't know that.  I just smiled to myself, imagining how she'd be if she ever got to question Forestry Tasmania about their practises ;).

Jasmine has been trying to grasp the concept of power & electricity lately, with it coming up often in conversation.  We've talked about what it would have been like to live without electricity & her main concern was how people had parties without it - LOL!  I suggested that they probably still had celebrations for different events, but not quite like the parties we have today.  I pointed out many of those celebrations would have involved lots of people in the same village.

Then when we woke up today, she noticed the clock on the (evil) microwave was not displaying the time correctly.  I mentioned there'd been a blackout while we slept (D had told me about it while I was still sleeping), which triggered more talk about electricity. During that same car trip today, we had this chat.....

"Mum, you know way back in the olden days, before there were people like us, when there were people who used to look after dinosaurs?  (laughs)  Well, not realllly, but you know a really long time ago before people had power?"

"Yes...."

"I think they still had lots of parties!"

"OK...."

"But they didn't NEED power.  They had their families.  Who needs electricity when you have your family?  Family is all you really need!"

Wow!  Who needs electricity when you have your family?  Brilliant question and one of those moments when you realise how important the simple things are.  I love that girl!!!!!

What happened to April?

I think I must have blinked & missed it  : /


So lots of catching up to do blog-wise, but I'll try to condense it as much as I can.

Despite having driven past it hundreds of times over the years, we had never visited the Apple Museum at Grove, so with a bit of time to kill one day, we checked it out.  Jasmine LOVED seeing the old machinery & learning about life in years gone by.  We got a demonstration of a slinky machine (of which we actually have one, packed away in a box from our last move....somewhere) & Jasmine was amazed to see how many varieties of apples there were - certainly a lot more than the half a dozen or so types in the shops today!  We definitely plan on going back when we have more time so we can really discuss all the different displays.

The jeans cake - a last minute change
from the castle cake she originally wanted

The first week in April saw a big jump in Jasmine's understanding of phonics & her desire to learn more.  We've had a subscription to Reading Eggs for a couple of years, but she's finally at the point of "getting it".  She's also been copying words she sees around, even copying the different font styles which I found interesting.  I'm also no longer "allowed" to type words into search engines for her - I am only allowed to tell her the letters to type :)

April was also Jasmine's 6th birthday, which I think has contributed to the leaps in learning - the 3 weeks either side of her birthday are always big for milestones. The most exciting thing for her was getting an aquarium & 3 fantails.  She'd been asking for fish at least since her last birthday, so I decided this was a good time.  She's been doing really well with looking after them, albeit a little heavy-handed with the amount of food given at times.  We cleaned out the tank last weekend & we discussed the filter media & explained how that worked.  She agreed that swimming around in your own poo & rotten food would not be very nice, so understood the importance of keeping the tank & filter clean.

A couple of cuties who share
 South American heritage

My Dad & his partner (Bump & Nanna Bump) came over from SA for Jasmine's birthday which was nice because she's so into spending time with ALL the family as much as possible (including ringing her other Nanna @ 4am for a chat - Nanna was not so inclined to chat at the time).  We headed up to ZooDoo one day - a place we had not been since her 2nd birthday.  Apart from pet fish, the other critter she's been hassling for is a guinea pig.  Oh, the excitement when we walked into the room with the guinea pigs & rabbits!!!! LOL  Getting her out of there then presented somewhat of a challenge (we did go back later for a second look / cuddle, but I said no to a third visit - mean mum that I am ;) ).  We went on to pat & feed some very friendly wallabies, but the emus were a bit too scary for her.  We took the bus tour up the back of the zoo to feed the larger animals such as more emus, ostriches & camels.  A rogue goat came along for the ride, which Jasmine thought was HILARIOUS!!!  Of course, the goat ended up with most of the food, but he was much more gentile in his eating habits than the ostriches.  After grabbing some food for ourselves, we checked out the tigers just in time to see them getting it on (nothing like a bit of privacy) & got to feed the lions - well, Kiara, anyway.  Bakari was too busy sunning himself on what was a glorious Autumn afternoon.  We then went back to the native animal section & Jasmine realised she was patting an emu & it was not attacking her, so that's one fear conquered.  One final trip on the safari bus - complete with goat - and it was time to call it a day.

A mean looking wallie who was so gentle & friendly

Feeding the wallie

THAT goat ;)

Bengal tiger - I think this is Lena

Getting over her fear of emus

Kiara & Bakari enjoying a lazy afternoon rest

Feeding Kiara

We finally made it to one of the homeschoolers gymnastics sessions.  At first, Jasmine refused to join the class for the older kids as all the instructors were male - something she's had an issue with since having a male instructor last year, although she's always been very wary of men in general.  We headed to the younger group (more free play) & hung around there for a while.  One of the instructors asked how old she was & I said 5 (well, she was for another 31 hours), so she was allowed to stay for that class.  I mentioned the issue of the male instructors & he pointed out that one of the girls had just gone down to the other group, so we went back to check it out.  What a difference an instructor makes!  She loved the rest of the class!  I was hopeful that she'd be happy to do that instead of the trampolining class so we could free up a day to do other things, but no such luck.  She wants to add this class, not substitute one for the other.  Dammit!!!  But still, it's all the stuff she really enjoys doing, and it's a good activity on so many levels, so four classes a week it is!  She told me today Bouncers is her faaaaavourite class, followed by Contemporary & Ballet.  Mind you, she's still going to bed really late, so getting up in time for the homeschool gym class every week may be a bit of a push.  We'll take it week-by-week & thankfully, it's a casual class anyway, so no biggie to miss lessons.

So this week's focus is on bees as Jasmine wants to know how bee babies are made.  I found a great video on YouTube showing the life cycle of honey bees & I've printed out pictures & facts about bees for her to make a lapbook or even a spiral bound book which she can look back on & add to later.

Apart from all of that, it's been lots of games online @ Nick Jr & Sesame Street, more YouTube vids on all sorts of topics, the time-telling PC-ROM that I've gone blank on the name of & lots of board games, particularly the Ladybug Game, Go Fish & Snap (she's such a cheater - LOL).  Oh - and everything's a song at the moment!  She makes up songs about everything & sings much of the day away.  A bonus is always knowing where she is - and having a good belly laugh whilst admiring her abilities :)

OK, I'll finish up this post with one of her favourite pics.  No wonder she can never hear what I say to her! ;)

Fish schooling

(thanks Jade xx)

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

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

What a sap....

....Moon, that is :)

Sap Moon, Wolf Moon, Super Moon, Maple Moon, Sugar Moon or even Worm Moon - whatever you want to call it, we've just had the biggest one in about 18 years.  It was cloudy here on Saturday night, so we missed it at it's peak, but Sunday night was lovely & clear, so we went out to take some photos.  It's times like these I wish for a really good digital SLR, but alas, our regular camera had to suffice.  The moon didn't look particularly large, but it was very bright - actually too bright for our camera to pick up the craters, but you can see them in the reflected blue moon.


One of the (very few) benefits of having a nocturnal child is that we can sit outside late at night while the rest of the town sleeps, waiting to see shooting stars and discussing the various constellations.  I love hearing the awe in Jasmine's voice as she asks questions, and when I'm pointing out the Southern Cross, the saucepan, various planets & other celestial bodies, I have flashbacks to my own childhood as I remember my Mum pointing them out to me :)  Thankfully, for the stars I'm not so sure about, there's Stellarium.  This is a great free program that gives you a 3D view of the stars from your local coordinates.  The only problem we have at the moment is that it's on the PC inside the house - not exactly practical when we don't have a transparent roof!  I think we're going to have to snatch D's notebook when he's not looking so we can load it onto that & take it outside with us.


What else was on the cards this week?  Well, cards!  We bought a new deck of cards & they're getting a good workout with Snap & Go Fish, Jasmine's favourite card games (AKA number recognition exercises ;)). And........

More dancing

Lots of bubbles - a good lesson in wind direction & speed today!

A mumma duck created to look after all the little chicks Jasmine bought the other day

Saving seeds from the parsley, ready for planting out soon

Jasmine's garden bed got a tidy up, ready to fertilise & grow the next crops.  I was impressed by how long she spent on this - usually, she lasts all of about 2 mins.  She REALLY wants to be fully self-sufficient in the fruit & veg department.  I suggested we'd need a few more beds made before that could happen.  She decided to pull up the plants & dig up the bulbs in the 'decorative' half of the bed so we could plant veggies in the whole thing.  She thinks it would be a great idea to grow everything we need so we don't need to buy things from the shops.  Smart chicky :)

And yes, she's had her hair chopped short.   I'm so glad she finally agreed!  She was really anti-brushing, so we had about 2 months worth of dreadlock (yes, one massive mat) to get rid of.  Nearly a full bottle of conditioner wouldn't shift them/it, so instead of freaking out when I suggested the scissors, she said "OK". I nearly died of shock!  Now, she loves it so much that she never wants her hair long again.  

Even Crusty tries to "help" :/

She spent ages checking out this little snail

And wanted to hug the surviving parsley plant - LOL

The 98% cleared garden bed - the parsley will probably stay there

(you have no idea how many pics there are of him!)

And I didn't think I'd ever say this, but here we are at 'The Wiggles' concert.   I'll admit, it was actually a good show, despite my general disdain for them.   Jasmine laughed lots & I was admiring how fit they were....win-win ;)  I was disappointed by the adults in the crowd, though.  They really weren't giving a lot back to the performers, which always makes it tougher for them.

I came across the MathRider game the other day via a Yahoo! Group email.  I thought it sounded great for Jasmine, but I wasn't sure if she was ready for it.  They say generally from Grade 2 upwards, so it would be better suited next year.  I downloaded the trial anyway so she could check it out.  Yep - a bit to fast for her at this point & she started to crack under the pressure of coming up with answers in a short time frame.  She's just starting to get some maths concepts, so I don't want to push anything that's going to turn her off.  Maybe next year...

In the mean time, she's been playing lots of games on Nick Jr & Sesame Street.   She's also SUPER excited to have mastered Dino Den on the PS3.

And for anyone wondering - no, we didn't get to the other gymnastics class last week.  In fact, we haven't really been getting to anything remotely in the first half of the day for a while now.   Maybe we should just go outside & hang with the bandicoots & potoroos all night ;)  Still, I'll keep trying to get her to go to sleep earlier.  I'm having a stall at the Huon Valley Growers & Makers Market this weekend, hoping to sell some more jewellery, so I have to be out of here about 8am.  Sufficient sleep would be really nice!!!

Alrighty - signing off now xx

We blinked and missed Summer.....

It's Autumn already???  I think we had maybe 3 or 4 days over 30C this summer - even snow on the mountains in February.  That's a pretty mild summer, even by Tassie standards.  I am thankful though that we avoided the floods (except for the East coast), fires & Cyclones that affected the Northern Island this year.  However, I am really struggling to get a grip on time and days at the moment.  Hours, days, weeks & months all just seem to blend together.  I'm sure we'll get into a rhythm soon.  


At the moment, Jasmine has contemporary dance on Mondays, trampolining on Tuesdays and ballet on Wednesdays.  By Thursday, we're both ready for a quiet day at home!  Although each class is only 45mins long, it's the whole thing of having to remind her when we need to leave home, remind her again, made sure she's eaten her food, got the appropriate clothes on, get frustrated when she's still not ready at the specified time, drive there (about 22kms), do the class, get in the car, have her beg to go somewhere other than home (usually for food), sometimes agree / sometimes disagree, drive home, then start thinking about dinner.  Because Jasmine's such a nightowl (common on my side of the family), we often don't get to sleep until the weeeeee hours of the morning.  As such, breakfast and lunch roll into one and there's only a couple of hours before we need to go out to classes.  There's very little time to do much else during those days, so a lot of learning happens later at night.....and the cycle continues.  I am thankful the natural learning is so accommodating of different body clocks - I hate to think of the struggles that may ensue if Jasmine needed to be awake early to fit into a regular school schedule.


Howeverrrrrr.....last year, a few of us mentioned how good it would be to have gymnastics classes for homeschoolers at our 'local' club.  They have them further afield, but too far & the times clash with other activities.  Then yesterday, I received an email to say another home ed parent had organised classes locally, with classes starting this morning at 10.45am.  I knew this was not going to happen, but some friends took their kids along & were really happy with the class.  I had a chat to Jasmine about it, telling her it was a gymnastics class just for homeschoolers & a lot of her friends would be there.  I said she'd need to get up earlier than normal & she just couldn't contain her enthusiasm.  When I said that meant going to bed earlier, she asked, "like about 12?"


"No - that won't really let you have enough sleep.  More like 11."


"How about 100?"


"Hmmm, noooo.  How about 11?"


"OK then."


Soooooo....now to test out that theory.  She agreed in principle on other occasions, but it never lasted.  It will be interesting to see if the motivation is strong enough this time.  If it is, and she does indeed wind back her bedtime, then we may consider dropping trampolining next term & having a longer day on Wednesdays.  We'd have gym n the morning, then go somewhere for lunch, spend a couple of hours at the library before heading back to the same centre for ballet in the afternoon.  We did this for a little while last year when we had some time to kill between classes & she really enjoyed it.  Needless to say, there were squeals of absolute delight at the suggestion.  


I think part of me is hoping she does like this other gym class.  The class is nearly half the price of the current one, and twice as long = better value for money, we'd be saving some petrol money, we'd free up another whole day to either do stuff at home or to go out & explore more of the world, and she'd get extra time at the library, which she really enjoys.  Everyone wins really :)

****************************************************************

Ever the performer, Jasmine has really been getting into videos lately.  I have to take videos of her doing everything - photos just won't suffice!  I'm sure it won't be long before she has her own YouTube channel for all the performances & tutorials she's producing ;)

I also think Jasmine's going through some emotional changes this week.  It's not surprising - it's her birthday in 3 weeks & a lot of her milestones happen a month either side of her birthday.  D noticed her stutter is back to a degree (something I hadn't noticed until he mentioned it, but always a sign of development for her) & I've noticed a return of the auditory processing disorder-like symptoms that had diminished greatly in recent months.  She's also been wanting more one-on-one time with me & telling me she loves me approximately every half hour.  Her desire to tell me has given her the motivation to learn how to write some more, as well :) 

Our car schooling today focussed on the sun.  The conversation went something like this......

"Why hasn't anyone been able to capture the sun and pull it in yet?"

"Because it's a giant ball of burning gasses & you'd burn up completely before getting anywhere near it."

"So there'd be no bones left?"

"Nope.  No bones.  Nothing.  All gone."

"Hmmm...no bones.  (pause for thinking)  So how close could you get before you started to burn?"

"Well, your skin will start to burn if you go outside for a few minutes (this is Tasmania people - the sun burns real quick!!!!!) but I'm not exactly sure about the gravitational pull of the sun so I can't say right now how close you could get (inside a space craft) before you'd be incinerated."

"OK. (more of a pause) The sun is like electricity.  The sun is power!  You could cook a pizza in the sun."

"Yes you could, if you had a solar oven." (we've made a really crappy one in the past)

"Yes, you just need some tin foil.  Tin foil's all you need to make an oven."

"Well, you can make it from other things that would be more effective, but foil is the cheapest option."

"Yeah" (mind wanders.....)

One of Jasmine's favourite TV shows is Mister Maker.  I have to admit, he creates some pretty cool stuff :)  She'd seen a stencilling technique using black paper, chalk and round household objects to create a solar system picture & was hanging out to try it.

Of course, I had to get the camera out & record her doing a tutorial ;)  She enjoyed it so much, she did another picture using the same technique, this time layering the colours & noticing the new colours that were created as a result.  The second pic also saw the addition of a shooting star.  And yes, got that on video, too!

There was also much excitement earlier in the week when the new 2-part David Attenborough series 'First Life' aired on the ABC.  Fossils have been a bit of an obsession for Jasmine in the past few months, so she was fascinated to see "the BIGGEST trilobite EVAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!" amongst other creatures.

Finally (you didn't think this post would ever end, did you? :P), there's a girl who lives diagonally across the road who's about 4 months older the Jasmine, yet they'd never played together.  Tonight, this girl was standing in the middle of our loungeroom, looking slightly terrified.  I said "Hi xxxxxx, what are you doing here?"  She'd seen us outside playing with a giant bubblewand that we'd picked up from Big W earlier for $1 & wanted to have a turn.  Jasmine had come inside to tell me the bubble mixture was finished when the girl arrived, so after establishing that yes, her mother did know she was here, I refilled the tube with more mixture & sent them outside to play.  After the bubbles, they picked blackberries, bounced on the trampoline & had a wonderful time.  I was just about to leave D with the girls while I went to the supermarket (7.30pm & very hungry by this point) when the mum came over to take her daughter home for bedtime.  Jasmine asked me afterwards why the girl was going to bed while it was still light.  I explained that she needed to get up early to go to school the next day, as all children who go to school need to do.  I think Jasmine felt sorry for her new friend ;)

And on that note, it is now 2.40am & about 5.5 hours since I started this post.  I did spend an hour and a half of that time trying to get Jasmine to sleep, but was instead reminded why I lean towards a Zen bedtime.  OK - off to snuggle on the lounge (I'll try not to snore) and watch First Life on iView.