Monday, August 31, 2009

TAKE TIME TO REST



Psalm 55:6

And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove for then would I fly away, and be at rest.



Well friends, it may not be possible for you to fly away like a dove, but its up to you to find a place to rest.

When you're only a little dog it pays to take your rest UNDER something. It reduces the chances of being tripped over.

Can you seek out a wide open grassy paddock with the sun shining on you, warming you soul? Or would you prefer sitting on a rocky beach, watching the waves break and sparkle onto the shore?

Or, for you, is it more like closing the door to the bathroom and breathing a big sigh of relief with the delicious silence for a second before someone calls "Where are you Mum? Can I have something to eat?"

Charles Spurgeon said: "Quietude, which some men cannot abide because it reveals their inward poverty, is as a palace of cedar to the wise, for along its hallowed courts the King in his beauty deigns to walk".


Whether in person, or in your mind take yourself to somewhere quiet. And rest.

Blessings
The Mummalady

Sunday, August 30, 2009

SPRING IN RURAL NEW ZEALAND


Spring in New Zealand looks like this! This is a wild plum tree (wild because I don't have a clue what variety it is!)




Three of our hens - these girls are White Leghorns.





Our house - originally built in the city around 1890, this end you can see in the photo was added on in the 1920's and 3 years ago it was cut in half and brought out here in two pieces on the back of a BIG truck.




Arty shot of Almond blossoms




John at the front, and Hoarse at the back. These guys are Boer goats. Bred for meat - similar to mutton but nowhere near as fatty.




A couple of little kids we are raising for our friend who breeds Boer goats. The little girl on the left is Zoe (The Noisy One), and the sweet little darlin' on the right is Yona.


Blessings
The Mummalady.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

HOMESCHOOLING IDEAS

The little dog with a big name: Roberto Marmalade John Brian Peter Reginald Horace Applesmith Weatherby Edwin Vincent von Popplesocks - or Bibble-Bobble-Popplesocks for a bit shorter, or Bobby for very short. Not a pedigree name - we just like playing with words and giving our animals long names.

We once had a calf called Penny. But her long name was Pennyroyal Sausage Sausage Mincemeat Roastbeef Steak. She never came to us when we called her, so it didn't matter. :o)


Just a few thoughts on what we are doing right now "education wise" with our 16, almost 14, almost 7, 4 and almost 2 year olds.

We start the day with Daddy before he goes to work - we read the Bible, discuss and pray.


After breakfast and cleaning up we sing for a while then start on the things on our usual list.


We are doing Math U See - always have done and wouldn't swap to another system as everyone understands and works well with this.

The boys are up to Zeta - the 16 year old is nearly finished that. I have NEVER worried about what stage they are up to according to their age. We just start with the first book and go from there - isn't homeschooling GREAT !!!!!

Science - the boys both did Apologia General Science last year and loved it. We read it all together, but hardly did the experiments as they knew what was going on and I don't like doing experiments! I said they could do them with Dad if they wanted to, they said no thanks. The 16 year old has now finished Physical Science, but I can't afford the next books so he will have to wait to get the physics and biology ones.


Both boys did the Andrew Pudewa "B" Course and have benefited greatly from that. I would like to do the continuation course when we can get it.

I am very excited about "Notebooking" - I found out about it on Cindy Rushton's site, and when I explained it to the boys THEY were excited about the fact that I said "You can't do it wrong - the only thing you can do wrong is if you DON'T DO ANYTHING!" So they know they can just write something, put it in a plastic sheet protector, put it in their notebooks and it's done.

Whereas Miss almost-7 wants to decorate the pages and make them like scrapbook pages, and draw pictures make them all pretty, then put it in the plastic pocket and put it in her notebook (folder).

The boys love to look back on their work from when they were younger (pictures, stories they dictated to me and illustrated etc) and so they know the importance of keeping stuff the little ones do.

We ocasionally make a book, or a lapbook of a subject the litlte ones are interested in. The last two we did were butterflies and polar bears. These are just pictures and information printed off the internet, with some pictures drawn by the children, and we read some books and talk about it, and draw a map etc, then stick everything together. If we don't come up with enough information for a lapbook, then we will just put the pages into our notebooks now rather than let them get crumpled and lost.

We always have lots of non-fiction books out of the library so that covers many subjects like social studies and geography etc. We are often talking about different countries in the world and looking at the map. The big boys have a programme on the computer for doing their geography which doesn't involve a lot of gimicks or games - just beat your own score stuff which appeals to them. They are also both learning Swahili as our 14 year old has been interested in Africa since deciding that a Streaked Tenric was his favourite animal, then reading his first Paul White - Jungle Doctor book.

The other day our 16 year old started to talk to the little ones about dinosaurs. They were intrigued! He went over quite a bit with them, and what was most wonderful was that all his information has been gathered from many sources, books, Creation magazines, discussions with others - and he has filtered out all the evolutionary lies! So he was able to say "people think that this one MAY have looked like that" and "Dinosaurs lived at the same time as man" etc. Darlin boy.

The other day I was thinking something: a little boy visiting church was obviously into Thomas The Tank Engine - and I remembered that our older boys used to like them, but we have decided that they are not good for us now. Too much bad (sinful in fact) behaviour with the trains, grumbling, paying each other back etc - plus the fact that we try hard to only read about and think about things that are real or could be real - so we don't have talking animals, or talking trains.

And I said to our oldest about the fact that our little ones were "missing out" on stuff, and he said that the biggest fun was knowing all the names of the trains and recognising them and then playing games with them. Trouble was that their personailities were decided by the people who wrote the books - this one was grumpy, this one was nasty and deceitful etc.

So I mulled over that a bit more, and I thought that it would be fun to make some cards with pictures of wild animals on, and on the other side was the name of the animal and the Latin name, and play that game. When Miss 7 heard that idea she shouted "YES PLEASE!" They LOVE saying the latin names for animals like Cynomis Ludocvicianus (prarire dog). So I might get onto that.

Our almost- 7 and 4 year old are always ready to do cardmaking and love to play "offices" and "shops".

The older boys are also doing things with the Powerdirector programme on the computer, with stop-motion animation, and photo stories with music and effects etc.


We are intending to get organised with a YouTube account and put some of their work out there for the public to enjoy - lots of good clean fun and silly boyish humour!


There's also heaps of talking, reading and playing that goes on with our family - lots of Lego which I have proof now is a good thing for getting children's brains working!!

Blessings
The Mummalady



Wednesday, August 26, 2009

OVERCOMING WHIPLASH



Blue van was ours, the car was the other guys.

In June 2004 we were involved in a fatal car crash. A young guy went straight through a stop sign - I was driving about 90ks and went straight into the side of him in our van. His passenger died. I later found out it was not because of the impact - but in fact he had choked on something he had been eating.

The repercussions were HUGE - but another sad thing - after a prison sentence and home detention the young driver died in another car crash a year later. I think of his grandmother crying in the courtroom - the selfish decisions he was making following the wrong crowd.


I was reminded of this accident again on Sunday when my neck started to hurt again. Whiplash seems to pop up again and again over the years it seems. Monday night was so bad I couldn't sleep. I was in such agony I had tears running down my face.


So Tuesday morning I was on the phone right away to my favourite neck fixers Richmond Physiotherapy Over the years with my neck and back issues I have been to osteopaths, chiropracters and other physios but Richmond Physiotheraphy uses The McKenzie Technique which I HEARTILY recommend!!! It works for me anyway!


Last night after doing my exercises I was able to sleep for 4 hours perhaps I would have slept longer but our property was hit by a bolt of lightning and a whopping great rumble of thunder
SHOOK THE HOUSE!


I realised my neck had stiffened up again, so I got up and did my exercises. Ahhhhh. Relief. Back into bed for another 4 hours. Up again, more exercises. Back into bed to sleep till 6.30. What a blessing that our 22 month old (who sleeps in his cot next to us, sidecar style) had a restful night and only woke twice.


So after sitting here for 20 minutes I feel a set of exercises is necessary before we begin our day properly, and I figure I am well on the path to a healthy neck within a couple of days.


Bye for now
The Mummalady

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

BUT WAIT .... THERE'S MORE

Look! I've only been gone five minutes and I've thought of something else to say!

Another thing we love - Baby Sign Language!! No more time to write, but if you see this, and you love your baby then PLEASE check it out - there's heaps of stuff on the internet about it now - give it a go!!

INTRODUCTION



I've done it, I've done it - I'm finally here. And anybody who knows me isn't surprised.

Some time back I was talking to a friend "We're just a normal family" I said. She choked. I thought about it.

Maybe we're not so "average".

We homeschool; four out of five of our babies were born at home; I b/f my babies till they are about 21 months; they don't have solids till they are one year old; we live on 2 and a half acres with a variety of animals; we're learning to grow veges; we stay home most days and love it; we don't have a television; we don't go to the movies; we take off for the beach whenever we feel like it and spend a few hours collecting stones and shells; we work hard on honouring every member of our family especially Daddy; we talk a LOT; we read out loud together; our children love learning and don't care what day it is, or what time of day they just keep learning stuff!

Oh - there's heaps more about us, but that will have to wait for another post.

This was just to say Hi, and welcome to our green little corner of the world in beautiful New Zealand.