I'm Going To Meet Prince William

We Are Going To Meet Prince William Tomorrow
I am not quite meeting him personally, but I will see him along with about 150,000 other Cantabrians. Christchurch has an Earthquake Memorial Day planned for Friday at 12.30pm.  All businesses and schools will be closed and people are being encouraged to attend the memorial in a large central park in the centre of Christchurch.  When I say centre, it's right next to CBD destroyed in the earthquake. The information for where to go and when is here.  Georgia and I will be going with our lunch and blanket, Alex will not cope with the crowds and noise there, so he will stay at home and watch it on TV.  I have checked the now limited bus timetable to allow us to get there with plenty of time to spare.

         

Resources We Like To Use
I have discovered that there are so many atlas on the market, and it's very hard to choose wisely when trying to purchase on the Internet. Since we have a great curriculum in Trail Guide to World Geography, I wanted an equally good and easy to use atlas for the children to use independently.  I was recommended this particular atlas, which was also on sale at the time.  So it ticked all the boxes. The children's ability to find required information by themselves has definitely improved, with  the pages presenting  information in simple text easy to understand maps.  This is ideal for the intermediate aged child (11-13years old) and even for Alex at 14.

This is my atlas, sort of the big sister to the student atlas.  I keep it in a handy spot, ready to be accessed to discuss any world events occurring, like Japanese tsunamis.  As we host a multitude of foreign students, it's perfect for finding out about their hometowns, especially in vast countries like Brazil and China.  Speaking of students, we are hosting for 6 months, a 19 year old male student from China.  I must say the differences in our cultures are huge (to say the least!).  This is the first time we have hosted someone from China, so it's has been quite interesting seeing someone have to adjust to our western culture.

Who is this on the table the other night while Georgia was catching up on her Geography? Poppy was sound asleep on a chair under the homeschool table, then decided some smoodging was in order.  Work quickly stopped while Georgia and I said hello to Poppy.

Sorry, photos are a bit on the dark side

Recent additions to my resources include.... an incremental lesson based program to help Alex with technical drawing.  Alf will teach Alex from this book, which is an amazing opportunity for him.  As an engineer, he is the perfect person to do this.  Alf has taught Polytechnic trade students in the past, so has some experience behind him.

Have sourced an international cookbook to help us as we "eat" our way around the continents.  As we were interrupted by the earthquake while studying the North American Continent, it has given me some time to purchase this book from here and to work on incorporating these yummy recipes. Will show you how we going in future blogs.  The recipes for The United States and Canada include; fried chicken, corn on the cob, brownies, wild rice maple chicken and blueberry crisp.Yummy!