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Friday, July 26, 2013

July

It's been a long month this.  One to erase from my memory.

In the midst of excitement having Gregory back home and starting some home schooling fun together, we got some lovely insects to entertain us.  According to all doctors & specialists they were bed bugs.  We have never seen the buggers so I will just leave it at that....  However 3 weeks later we are 5 days bites free.

To enjoy our victory, Gregory got some gastric flu.  And of course having a 2.5 year old in the house makes for some added spice to the mix of tantrums, not knowing what we want, wanting it our way and no other way etc.

I have to say I am fed up.  I am done.  I just want to close my eyes and sleep for an eternity.

Yet it is sweet memories of all these adventures.

Thankfulness for having a house and mattresses where to sleep and the means to clean them and our house to get rid of the bugs.

Thankfulness that my girl shows so much independence and fierce tenacity for what she wants.

Thankfulness and awesomeness that my 4.5 year old DOES realise when he is feeling sick, nauseous and also when runny stools are threatening and runs to the bathroom without enlisting my help.

Thankfulness and pride that throughout all this madness I have shouted, hit or been a less than desirable parent for only 10 out of 26 days.


Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Heavy or light

The kids where in the mood of trying stuff so we also did an experiment today and learnt all about heavy and light and weighing.

They loved the experiment especially since they played with water.  In the end Greg with Maya's assistance continued his own learning by adding stuff on each other to see the difference it makes.








After doing them in water and recording our findings we did the same objects on a weighing scale to see any differences.




These were our results


Greg enjoying seeing the scale tipping

Sunshine Weaving

Today after continuing with letters and numbers and colours, we did this lovely craft and after hung it in our nature table.  Of course I forgot to take pictures of the whole process but you can see how it is done at nuturestore from where I got the idea!  It was a test on patience and using motor skills.  The look of concentration on Greg was precious :) while they enjoyed trying their hand at it, they quickly lost their patience but it still came out looking nice :)

Maya's handiwork

My handiwork

Gregory's handiwork

Our Summer Nature Table

Mystery Tour - Train

Last Friday we went on a Mystery Tour.  I got this Idea from Simple Homeschool and thought it fun to try with my kids.  Of course I did some adjustments to suit my little people.  So on Thursday I told them that the next day we were going on a mystery tour and gave them 5 options in trying to guess where.  In the morning I told them to dress and get water with them for the tour.  On the way I showed them landmarks which could lead them to the answer (Greg gave the correct answer).

Here we are waiting for it to go while eating pastizzi

The train we went on

here they are all ready to go

Mdina view from the train

crossing the bridge to the old train station


There was a commentary going on during the ride which gives lot of nice information.  Of course it is still a bit too much for my little ones so I just pointed the highlights of the places we were seeing and explained in further detail when asked questions.  We had a good time and plan to do this Mystery Tour every other Friday.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Numbers, Letters & Colours

Starting yesterday, we started doing letters and numbers and colours.  I have also some prewriting books which Greg loves and that Maya wanted to try as well.


They both found the pictures, letter and colours by their own

Maya found all the Bs by herself.  I only helped in asking if in  any given line there were any Bs left

Greg decided to draw it as near to the original as possible

Maya drew it pretty good but than continued adding colour which resulted  in an overdrawn spider :)

His drawing improved so much since last year
The alphabet story I got from Confessions of a Homeschooler
The Very Busy Spider colouring page I got from the Eric Carle Website

Friday, July 26, 2013

July

It's been a long month this.  One to erase from my memory.

In the midst of excitement having Gregory back home and starting some home schooling fun together, we got some lovely insects to entertain us.  According to all doctors & specialists they were bed bugs.  We have never seen the buggers so I will just leave it at that....  However 3 weeks later we are 5 days bites free.

To enjoy our victory, Gregory got some gastric flu.  And of course having a 2.5 year old in the house makes for some added spice to the mix of tantrums, not knowing what we want, wanting it our way and no other way etc.

I have to say I am fed up.  I am done.  I just want to close my eyes and sleep for an eternity.

Yet it is sweet memories of all these adventures.

Thankfulness for having a house and mattresses where to sleep and the means to clean them and our house to get rid of the bugs.

Thankfulness that my girl shows so much independence and fierce tenacity for what she wants.

Thankfulness and awesomeness that my 4.5 year old DOES realise when he is feeling sick, nauseous and also when runny stools are threatening and runs to the bathroom without enlisting my help.

Thankfulness and pride that throughout all this madness I have shouted, hit or been a less than desirable parent for only 10 out of 26 days.


Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Heavy or light

The kids where in the mood of trying stuff so we also did an experiment today and learnt all about heavy and light and weighing.

They loved the experiment especially since they played with water.  In the end Greg with Maya's assistance continued his own learning by adding stuff on each other to see the difference it makes.








After doing them in water and recording our findings we did the same objects on a weighing scale to see any differences.




These were our results


Greg enjoying seeing the scale tipping

Sunshine Weaving

Today after continuing with letters and numbers and colours, we did this lovely craft and after hung it in our nature table.  Of course I forgot to take pictures of the whole process but you can see how it is done at nuturestore from where I got the idea!  It was a test on patience and using motor skills.  The look of concentration on Greg was precious :) while they enjoyed trying their hand at it, they quickly lost their patience but it still came out looking nice :)

Maya's handiwork

My handiwork

Gregory's handiwork

Our Summer Nature Table

Mystery Tour - Train

Last Friday we went on a Mystery Tour.  I got this Idea from Simple Homeschool and thought it fun to try with my kids.  Of course I did some adjustments to suit my little people.  So on Thursday I told them that the next day we were going on a mystery tour and gave them 5 options in trying to guess where.  In the morning I told them to dress and get water with them for the tour.  On the way I showed them landmarks which could lead them to the answer (Greg gave the correct answer).

Here we are waiting for it to go while eating pastizzi

The train we went on

here they are all ready to go

Mdina view from the train

crossing the bridge to the old train station


There was a commentary going on during the ride which gives lot of nice information.  Of course it is still a bit too much for my little ones so I just pointed the highlights of the places we were seeing and explained in further detail when asked questions.  We had a good time and plan to do this Mystery Tour every other Friday.

Thursday, July 4, 2013

Numbers, Letters & Colours

Starting yesterday, we started doing letters and numbers and colours.  I have also some prewriting books which Greg loves and that Maya wanted to try as well.


They both found the pictures, letter and colours by their own

Maya found all the Bs by herself.  I only helped in asking if in  any given line there were any Bs left

Greg decided to draw it as near to the original as possible

Maya drew it pretty good but than continued adding colour which resulted  in an overdrawn spider :)

His drawing improved so much since last year
The alphabet story I got from Confessions of a Homeschooler
The Very Busy Spider colouring page I got from the Eric Carle Website