Microscopes and other stuff

Last Friday, the children finished their Maths and English workbooks for the year. As this is the second lot of books at 'grade level', I decided we might have a party and take a break from workbooks for a while.

After attending a local homeschooling social event (the children made cubby houses and spent more time organising games and building than actually playing, but they've formulated a plan to streamline the process for next time), we ventured out to the grocery store - list in hand - to purchase party foods. We were successful in buying everything on the list, plus a microscope.

Needles to say, much time since has been spent collecting samples and discussing what would be cool to look at through the new acquisition. Various plant parts, onion cells, hair (human and pets), water samples from different sources and dirt have all been examined. A worthwhile purchase, methinks!

We had our party full of processed foods (much to my disgust, but it was the children's day). Miss 9 and Mr 6 felt really proud of their achievements and Miss 2 keeps sitting up at the table declaring her love of parties.

Saturday was the Global Day of Solidarity for Comfort Women. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend any events as hubby woke up in severe pain with a tooth ache. After much calling around (and groaning from hubby), we were able to get an afterhours appointment that evening at a local dentist. Hubby is now sans tooth and a much happier Vegemite!

Sunday was spent recovering from said tooth disaster.

Monday again and it was pottery for Miss 9. She's really coming along. Then sport for Miss 9 and Mr 6.

Tuesday was 'Science Day' and we headed to the National Science and Technology Centre where we looked at the Sideshow Exhibit and discussed gravity and centrifugal force and leverage and then roamed randomly for a while and had a picnic at the nearby Sculpture Gardens (more samples were collected for the microscope). Then we spent some time in the afternoon reading to finish the last bits in our library books for Wednesday and viewing the samples they had collected.

Wednesday was story and craft for under 5's at the local library. A librarian reads several books (broken up by singing and dancing) with a common theme to the children then there is a connected activity. This week was 'Going to Sleep' and the activity was to colour and make a moon puppet and a figure that slides in and out of a bed. Miss 2 loves coming home with her craft and spends the next two days announcing "I made it". I sent the older children off to find the history section and they chose two books on the invasion of Australia by Europeans and a whole heap of unrelated joke books as well as choosing their reading books for the next week or two. I find it a great way to introduce them to the library's cataloging system. The afternoon was devoted exploring our new haul (books).

Thursday, we had a play day with another homeschooling family down at Yerrabi Ponds. It's a fantastic park for various ages and the children always have a great time. They were particularly fascinated with the way the reeds were seeding around the lake. When we arrived home (after a quick lunch and some down time) we had a cooking afternoon. Mr 6 helped me to make bread and cookies and Miss 9 made dinner for everyone. French toast for the two littler children and mushroom risotto and Mediterranean salad for the rest of us. They did a great job! Now to get them as interested in doing the washing up!

Today we went to a theatre production at The Playhouse. It was called "The Fastest Boy in the World" and was a very enjoyable performance for Miss 9. Mr 6 deemed it 'too loud' and spent most of the time with his fingers stuck in his ears. Miss 2 was fine until the lights went out and the music stared. Then she freaked and spent most of the performance sobbing into my chest. Oh well, lesson learned, I guess.

As we didn't get home until well past lunchtime and were all wet (it's raining today - a rare event in Canberra indeed), we had showers, put on our PJ's, ate lunch (over which a discussion of the play was had) and are now reading our new library books.

A lovely end to a lovely week!