New pets

We've had an exciting couple of weeks with the arrival of some new pets.

 

Whisper and Fluffy are 3 week old guinea pig babies. They are so utterly adorable - I love their squeaks and their happy purring sounds. They are eating and pooing machines and need a lot of looking after! I haven't been game to let them sleep outside yet so they are spending their nights in a cat cage and their days in a large enclosure on the back lawn. The cat of course has been spending his time sitting at their enclosure trying to get his paw and mouth through the wire - unsuccessfully but he can dream!

 

 

While we were picking up the guinea pigs, the family who was selling them mentioned that they needed to downsize their chicken numbers as many of them were no longer laying. I have been fantasising about silkie hens for a while now so of course I jumped at the chance to bring these two home! Their names are Ebony and Ivory - sadly not living in perfect harmony with the existing chickens yet, but luckily they are great freerange chooks who don't do anything naughty like scratch in the vegie garden. They spend their days on the lawn and their nights in the shed with the big chooks. They're 3 years old and lay only occasionally but they are dead cute to look at, and if we decide to get fertile eggs down the track I'm sure they'll make great adoptive mothers. 

So life has become just that bit more chaotic what with juggling chooks in and out of yards, keeping the guinea pigs and the cat away from each other, and responding to feeding demands from all angle. I was a bit late home the other night and arrived to meowing, squeeking and bekerking from all the hungry mouths. 

 

I love what pets bring to a home and family. It's such a rich learning experience. 

More craftings

The craft explosion continues!! Craft has become a staple activity for every day. Our craft box became crafts boxes and is now a craft cupboard. You have to be quick to take the recycling out before someone yells "I want to use that for craft!". Anything is fair game!! We've stocked up on lots of coloured paper, toothpicks, pipe cleaners, stickers, glue, glitter and so on but DS is just as happy using fabric scraps and cotton balls.

These cute little ants were made from egg cartons and pipe cleaners.. they added toothpick legs after the photo was taken.

A paper plate cat.. it has a really cute face but you can't really see it because it was drawn in yellow.

DIY Compass

Here's a quick and easy science experiment - a DIY compass.

1. On a piece of paper write NSEW
2. Magnetise a needle by stroking it in one direction along a magnet
3. Poke the needle through a small piece of cork
4. Float the needle in a bowl of water - the tip of the needle will point to north
5. Align the paper underneath so the N is where the needle is pointing.

Embracing Multicultural Australia

In the last few months we've attended some fantastic local events embracing the multicultural nature of Australia.
The Spirit Festival is a celebration of Indigenous Australian culture - music, art, craft, sport, community and food. The festival was really well put together, fantastic music and dancing in particular. DS really enjoyed the kids craft workshop. He made an animal mask, a beaded necklace, a stone with dot art and some very colourful paintings.
I think it's extremely important for children (and everyone really) to have an appreciation of the traditional custodians of the land we are living on so I am always happy to find opportunities for him to experience some Indigenous culture. 
http://www.thespiritfestival.com/spirit/

Another great event was the Moon Lantern Festival, which was a part of the OzAsia festival. It was held in the evening so we had the fun experience of watching the lantern parade lighting up the area.  We really enjoyed the amazing lanterns - some of them enormous and very elaborate - and the atmosphere.

http://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/?cat=3355&id=181589

One of the best things about living in a capital city is the ability to experience a wide range of different cultures, which is a core part of our homeschooling curriculum.

From "Act Now"..

The multiculturalism policy can be seen through the following core principles:

• Equality—this means all citizens are given equal rights, no matter what race or religion they are. It also ensures that people can rely on Australian law if they are discriminated against because of their cultural beliefs.
• Responsibility—this means all Australians are responsible for accepting others who have individual beliefs. It also means that we have a duty to support our democratic model of government.
• Benefits—this means we recognise that multiculturalism brings great benefits to society. And, if we continue to live in a society like this, the possibilities of success in social and business spheres are endless.

Bok Bok Bok

We have chookens!

I just love chooks, as entertainment and an integral part of the permaculture garden. Our three girls are Freddo, Lou Cooper and Esme and they are just delighful. There is so much that can be learned from owning chickens, such as:

- Food production

- The responsibility of caring for animals

- Life cycles in nature

- Cooking with home-grown eggs

Art class

This term DS has started a weekly art class. He has been thoroughly enjoying it, and I am continually amazed at the gorgeous artwork he brings home with him.

He has used crayon to draw the pictures (a cat, a rainbow and the tooth fairy up in the top corner) and then filled it in with watercolours.

 

This one is a garden, with a goose standing in front of a (giant) boot, and a castle to the right of it.

It gives me so much happiness to see him continuing to grow and learn, and expressing himself through his amazing art work.

Investigating surface tension

You may have noticed that there have been a whole lot of science experiments going on in my house lately!
One of the wonderful things about home-based learning is being able to follow your child's lead and pick up on their interests. This means sometimes DS does a lot of english and not much else, at other times he is busily creating art and craft, or powering through a maths workbook. Science is his big interest at the moment, so we've been looking through all our science resources and doing different experiments each day.
This one was from the CSIRO website: http://www.csiro.au/resources/amazing-detergent-activity.html
It's a very simple experiment to investigate surface tension, using water, detergent, and food colouring.