The Last Week and Some Domestic Dramas

In Our Homeschool

Why is there an American flag in our homeschool?

We are working our way through Trail Guide To World Geography at the moment.  This week is a study of the North American Continent, so Alex has delved into his bedroom and retrieved his second most favourite flag ( what is his favourite? stayed tuned to find out) to inspire us in our work.  This curriculum has been quite successful for us so far and I'm enjoying teaching it as well.  I like the fact that I have printouts for Georgia, who is studying at intermediate level, and Alex who needs the high school printouts.  They can both work away at the same time at the appropriate level. Alex has some trickier questions to answer, so this is making him work harder. At times we  follow the format quite strictly, but we can choose to stop and study some facts in more detail if we want.  And of course, homeschooling allows us the freedom to do this, isn't it great?

We are planning on eating our way through the continents as we study them.  This week, Thursday night will be American Night.  I asked Georgia and Alex what they thought would be typical fare for America? They quickly announced hamburgers and hot dogs! Mmmm, will have to think on that some more.  Perhaps apple pie for dessert and another dish for a main.  Anybody got any ideas? American readers are most welcome to comment here.


In the Garden

After responding to frantic clucking from our girls the other morning, we discovered an injured baby hedgehog in the chicken run.  The chickens were in defensive mode and had attacked the hedgehog. By the time we got there, the poor little thing was crawling along with 2 very obvious broken back legs.  Very very upsetting for us animal lovers and there were tears (from Georgia).  This is the first time we have had to tackle our chickens acting viciously and attacking a predator. Sadly, something I suppose we need to get used to.

You can just see its little broken legs

 

 But look who we heard snuffing noisily around the yard the other night...

Mum & Dad Hedgehog, probably looking for baby hedgehog

Out and About

Alex has started going to rock climbing again.  Through Autism New Zealand, we have access to great outdoor education and amazing people who are understanding and passionate about what they do.  Alex's old Teacher Aide, Dan, is one such person.  Dan is a very special man to us, who has so much time for Alex.  Rock climbing is his thing, so Mondays we are back with the rock climbing group.  We are so blessed because for $8 Alex gets to climb for over an hour and Georgia can climb as well.  How cool is that!

 Alex being challenged by the climbing walls

Daily reminder of  our September earthquake, this is above shops in the inner city suburb of Sydenham

Blessings

Plan "B" Days

Home Happenings

A much cooler day for us all, thank goodness.  After having an overnight temperature of 28.5 celsius on Sunday, some of the family were quite grumpy and found school work to be much harder.  Living with a child on the autistic spectrum, I have enough experience to understand when we are having a bad day,  and when we are having a great day.  Yesterday was very much a bad day for us all.  Alex had had a very busy weekend with perhaps too many activities.  Couple all that with lack of sleep and over stimulation, and it's a recipe for a difficult day.  These sorts of days I call "Plan B Days", where planned lessons pretty much go out the window for Alex and I spend almost all day keeping an extra eye on what he is doing.  It is exhausting and draining, as Georgia still has to have my attention and needs help with her lessons.  Today I will allow him to sleep in and recover much needed energy.  We will do some fun activities and carry on as usual.  Alex cannot help the fact that he has such bad days, and I try to remember this fact when dealing with the aftermath of so many meltdowns in one day. I am just so thankful that he has the space in his home environment to escape to and that he is not punished, as he would have been had he still been at school.

This was Alex's pizza, it sums up pretty well how he was feeling

Homeschool

Georgia was busy in the kitchen.  Pizza was in order for lunch, so what better way to combine home economics and lunch.

What We Are Watching & Reading


I was given the movie Dear Frankie to watch by my sister Janelle.  After she had watched it, she couldn't wait to hand it on to me, she said it was soooo good.  And, she was absolutely right.  A fantastic, heartfelt movie that I challenge anyone to watch without a cry.  We watched it as part of "drama" for homeschool, and I didn't feel the least bit guilty that we were all snuggled up in bed watching television in school hours.

 

We have been showing Georgia some old television programmes we liked...she's been watching the following....

I can now tell you my books that were bought on Trade Me have finally arrived.  I am so excited and can't wait to start reading  them. Thankfully they are in excellent condition, you never know exactly what you are going to get when buying secondhand online. 

Enjoy your day.....bye for now, Lee-Anne