Our Worldwide Classroom

NBTS Blog Hop - Day In Our Life

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 09:10:00 +0000

This, our final week of the hop. I hope you've had fun, made some new connections and found like minded others. A huge thank you to all of you that participated and helped to spread the word.

So this week is a day in our life, please forgive me there are no photo's for my post, ran out of time.

7:15am

Woken by kisses on my face from a gorgeous 3 year old

Restless night with him still being unwell.....someone give me a coffee already

Can't believe how dark it is in the bedroom, thinking it's only 5:30am

Aha! It's raining outside.

7:30am

Biggens still snoozin

Time to go stare at the computer screen for a bit ;-)

Emails . check. blogs . check . forum . check. fb . check . posts scheduled - working on it

7:45am

Lego Lover stumbles out of bed

He's fairly chipper in the mornings

However he enjoys a spot of kiddie cartoons with his little brother

8:00am
Little Surfer Dude is ready for play, out come his Automoblox.
Fabulous wooden, snap together building mobiles
Expensive, wishing we could get more
Thankful I found the two we have for half price

8:30am
Lego Lover is, well, playing with Lego
Constructing, Designing, Creating

8:40am
Tummies rumble
Now the day really begins

9:00am
Chores, interspersed with play
Last minute printing for the day

9:30am
Both boys at the table
Math for Lego Lover
Tot Notebook for Little Surfer Dude
Fairy Princess was up in the night, she sleeps

9:45am
Fairy Princess wakes
Takes some time for quiet independent play
Washing Machine whirring

10:15am
Read Aloud for Lego Lover - Usborne Story of Ships

10:45am
All three at the table, oops one's gone already
Phonics & Reading Practice for Fairy Princess
Fresh juice for everyone (apple, carrot, orange, baby spinach)
A few short stories for the 3 year old, then he's off playing

11:30am
Washing Machine whirring again
Dryer tumbling (it's raining)
Dishwasher, washing
Little Surfer Dude washing plastics
Water everywhere!
Fairy Princess has a moment of rebellion,
Sent to her room to think about her words & actions
Lego Lover finishes grammar

11:45am
Boys are building a block zoo
Fairy Princess & I work together
She is smiling & laughing
I remind myself yet again,
That right now she needs my undivided attention to succeed with her daily work

12:30pm
Together we read our current 'row'
The Ballad of Skip & Nell
Lego Lover makes a list of places visited
Fairy Princess finds the matching animal cards when they appear in the story
Little Surfer Dude matches animal figurines with the cards
Together we add in the remainder of the 3 part cards
Vocabulary building for Little Surfer Dude
Word Recognition for Fairy Princess
Spelling for Lego Lover

Lego Lover instigates an art activity
Sketching the Frilled Neck Lizard in the story
Finishing them with Oil Pastels

Lunch being prepared whilst they work

1:30pm
Riding scooters on the deck,
Enjoying the slight break in the rain
Wishing the damn phone would stop ringing during our school day!

2:00pm
Here comes the rain!
Little Surfer Dude resting
Biggin's finishing off their art
Fairy Princess begins drying out rose petals

2:30pm
Little Surfer Dude braves the weather to play in the sand pit (underneath the cubby)
Fairy Princess begins work on her creation with left over paper from a bunch of flowers
Lego Lover continues with the Frilled neck Lizard project
I make a start on prepping the next art activity based on The Ballad of Skip & Nell

3:00pm
Begged by all 3 kids to begin the art project I was in the middle of prepping
I'm not ready!!!!
We start anyway ;-)

4:00pm
I'm exhausted, this has been a big day for me in regards to input,
Seeing to everyone's needs, sorting out disputes, assisting with projects
All whilst being stuck indoors due to the weather
I suggest some downtime in front of the box, since it's raining outside
Now to tackle the enormous mess

What about you? How was your day?

Please add your link below.

Australian States Printable

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 21:18:00 +0000

These have been available on my Printables page for some time, however I received a message letting me know that I had accidentally uploaded the publisher file instead of a the PDF, making it more difficult for some people to grab these.

I have since rectified that, please visit this link to download a copy of these 3 part cards.

If you have never used 3 part cards before and are wondering what on earth you do with them, the following may assist:

How To Present 3 Part Cards Video

5 Ways To Use 3 Part Cards

NBTS Blog Hop - Learning Spaces

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +0000

Wow where has this week gone! I can't believe I haven't posted once since last Sunday!

I have however enjoyed reading all of the fun things you will be getting up to this year, thanks so much for sharing :-)

This week, it's all about learning spaces. So no matter where that is for you, it's time to share some of your world with us.

The kitchen table, front porch, trampoline or dedicated room? I am sure most of you are like us, in that you utilise your entire home.

We have a space (even though we don't always use it) and it really hasn't changed at all since last year, so I will direct you to that post, which includes several images.

Please add your post to the link below.

On a side note. I have had a suggestion to consider a Weekly/Monthly Wrap Up Meme (linky) for us Aussies. I feel that weekly may be more than I am able to commit to but Monthly is possibly doable.

Is this something that you may interested in? Do you already post 'wrap up style posts' on your blog, whether weekly or monthly?

Anyway, let me know what you think :-)

NBTS Blog Hop - Our Plans For The Year

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:56:00 +0000

This year we've decided to focus on our own Country as much as possible.

So what does that mean for our curriculum plans?

We will still complete our Language Arts and Maths work as per usual. All of our other 'subjects' will be covered via an all Australian focus.

We kicked off our year celebrating Australia Day with a mini printable unit that gave a quick overview of the meaning behind Australia Day.

There is so much we could cover that at times it was hard to know where to even start, history seemed like a good place to anchor everything else to.
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Finding a great Australian History spine isn't the easiest, we simply don't have a huge selection to choose from.

I've chosen to use Our Sunburnt Country, which can be purchased from Homeschooling Down Under.

As we read each chapter we will stay awhile, take up any interests, follow any rabbit trails and simply see where things take us. My hope is that the children will direct much of the learning that takes place around this great country of ours.

I have also purchased The Wonderland of Nature and have been fortunate enough to pick up some fabulous Australian nature stories from past Lifeline Bookfests, that will help us along our way.

Where suitable I will put together printable activities and of course will share them all with you. I know how far and few between free Australian resources are!

Ok, so what about the basics?

Lego Lover - 10 years old

Language Arts

Reading:

Drawn Into The Heart Of Reading Program
· Book Reports for Australian Unit Study
· Daily Independent & Read Aloud

Penmanship:

Copywork

Spelling:

· All About Spelling

Writing:

· Institute of Excellence in Writing Program
· Daily Journal
· Copywork
· Use of Writing Centre – Poetry, Letters, Notes, Cards, Scrapbooking

Grammar:

· Grammar Once A Week (still undecided on a formal Grammar Program, so for now this is it)

Math:

· Mathletics Online
· Math U See
· Maths Online
· Qld Targeting Maths
· Times Attack Online Game
· Other games where appropriate

Mavis Beacon Typing is a new addition for the year.

The Arts

Private Art Classes
Musical Theatre
Dance Tuition
Ukulele
Keyboarding with Grandad

Fairy Princess - 7 years old

Language Arts

Phonics:

· Explode The Code
· Montessori Pink/Blue Series Works
· Fitzroy Reading Program

Sight Words:

· On Track Reading Sight Word Program and Readers

Penmanship:

· Copywork

Spelling:

· All About Spelling

Writing:

· Use of Writing Centre – Poetry, Letters, Notes, Cards, Scrapbooking

· Copywork
· Daily Journal

Grammar:

· As part of Fitzroy Reading Program

Math:

· Maths Online Subscription
· Math U See
· Qld Targeting Maths
· Montessori Math Activities
· Math Games
· Australian Money

Mavis Beacon Typing is a new addition for the year

The Arts

Private Art Classes
Musical Theatre
Dance Tuition
Ukulele

Little Surfer Dude - 3 years old

His Montessori inspired shelves are being brought back to life!

I have also been planing some Picture Book Units that we can all do together, on our Australian theme.

He is participating in our Home school network Junior Sports Program and loving it.

Plus the myriad of things that the average 3 year old gets up to on a daily basis.

The children also attend regular Extra Curricular days with our registered school, which they love immensely and get a great deal out of. All subject areas are covered during these days with a strong emphasis on the Performing Arts.

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What about you? What are your plans for the year? Join us in the all Aussie Not Back To School Blog Hop and share your stories. Grab the button and spread the word.

A big thank you to those of you that linked up last week, it was lovely meet all of your children.

Add your plans for the year to the list below.

Nanoblocks - Micro Building Blocks - Have You Seen These?

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 21:57:00 +0000

On a recent visit to the Art Gallery we decided to have a browse through their store and stumbled across a small display of what appeared to be, mini Lego blocks.

Mini Lego Blocks!!! Yes, well no, not exactly.

They are a Japanese invention - Nanoblocks - to be exact.

These things are tiny. The smallest bricks are just 4mm x 4mm. Have a look in the picture. We've placed a regular 4 x 4 grey lego brick in it with a similar green Nanoblocks version sitting on top, wow!

The premise being that due to the minute size, the end product of the creations built with Nano blocks are much more realistic.

At this stage there doesn't appear to be a huge range available. Lego Lover chose the Red & Green Macaw with stand. The instructions were easy to follow he put this together effortlessly, whilst relenting how very small the pieces were!! The completed Macaw is only about 5cms in height.

Yes he's already making lists of some of the other designs that he would like to acquire.

If you are in Australia, check out BLOCKSHOP, in the USA, My Nano Block

It looks like we have another creative construction outlet to add to the 'brick addiction' around here ;-)

Disclosure: I purchased our pack of Nanoblocks and have not been compensated in any way for this post.

New Linky Followers Blog Widget

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:18:00 +0000

Have you all seen the new widget available for your blogs and your blog followers?

This has been developed by the awesome Linky Tools developers, that I use and love for all of my link lists here on the blog.

I am a huge Google Friends Connect user. I just haven't been able to go across to a reader for some strange reason. I like having blog updates here in my dashboard, I also enjoy clicking over and reading directly from the blog. I dislike that readers take that away from us somewhat.

So I am guessing most of you know that GFC is being removed for non blogger blogs and the word is that it may go all together, forcing everyone to use Google+

This is where Linky Followers comes into play. It works very much like GFC, just sign up to Linky Followers, add the widget to your blog and start following.

Can you see mine over there -----------> It's the empty looking one with not many friends :-(

Please take a quick moment to click Follow Me in the Linky Tools widget.

NBTS Blog Hop - Meet The Students

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 22:02:00 +0000

As I sit here reflecting on this same post from last year I am truly amazed at the growth, experiences and changes that these three beautiful people have undergone during the previous 12 months.

We haven't had the opportunity to take 'real' new year photographs yet so I've had to make do with some recent Christmas snaps. I assure you though, the children have not changed in the six weeks since Christmas, well not much anyway!

We are half way through our fifth homeschooling year and finally things just feel normal to us. There's no worries about socialisation, missing out or any of the other ridiculous statements I often hear coming from non homeschooling families.

Life is good and we know how blessed we are to be able to provide this life for our children.

Since last year I have given the children a blog alias. I was tired of referring to them by their ages ;-)

Allow me to introduce Lego Lover, he is 10 years old.

Physically he has changed quite dramatically from last year. Just looking at the photo from back then he still has remnants of chubby toddler cheeks. Not any more. He's thinned out and shot up and has definitely entered, what we now refer to as the tween years! Oh my goodness, did I just say that!! In just a few short years we are going to have a teenager on our hands.

Lego Lover is still the same energetic, caring, fun loving boy that I introduced you to last year. His passion for singing and dancing has taken all of us by storm. As a youngster he was such a shy little thing, and whilst he can still be reserved and is certainly no where close to becoming an, 'in your face' kind of kid, his love of being on stage and performing is certainly growing. He is continuing with his Boys Funk class and is now also participating in Musical Theatre, where he gets to sing and dance!!

Last year I mentioned that our main focus was on reading and instilling a love of reading. It warms my heart to see him escape within a book. He is now at the, 'devour a book in one sitting' stage. Somewhere I never really thought we would be.

He now understands, how on earth mummy can have her nose in a book all day long and never want to put it down (I only do that on holidays by the way ;-) ) He's made connections with characters, lived their stories with them and can see the value of a great book over the 'box'.

This year, our focus is on writing. Let's see how we get on with that goal.

My beautiful Fairy Princess, 7 years old. Hasn't she just blossomed into a young lady.

This photo is scary to be honest. She looks so much older than her 7 years. This is really a reminder to cherish each and every day, they sure do fly by so quickly.

And grow this past year, she has, immensely. Not only physically but emotionally too. She is still most happy outside in nature or creating in some way shape or form. Experiencing either of these things warm her heart and soothes her soul. They ground her and keep her calm.

It is very important that we continue to provide her with lots of these types of experiences this year.

She too has taken to dance lessons with gusto and enjoys the thrill of being on stage. Fairy Princess wanted to tackle some different styles this year so we signed up for a few trial classes. Of course she loved them all. We have certainly entered the realm of the 'dance mum'. This year she is participating in Jazz, Contemporary and Musical Theatre.

In the few short weeks back into schooling this year I have noticed that she is much more responsive and eager with her work. Her reading is coming along slowly but nicely. She is progressing and I am excited to see where she will be with it this time next year.

My baby, our Little Surfer Dude, 3 years old and got to live up to his blog name this past Christmas too.

He is cuter and more of full of life than ever!

Ok I've just read what I posted about him last year and I have to say that every word of it still rings true. We know our family was truly blessed when he entered our lives.

This year he is finally 'big enough' to begin participating in some of our co-op activities with our homeschool network. He's excited, but a little unsure too. Never mind mummy will be there with him every step of the way.

He is also thrilled to bits that I've finally given him some 'real school work'. He begged for it all last year but I resisted.

I am in the final stages of preparing our Montessori inspired work area for him again. We abandoned that for most of last year as I found it too difficult to keep on top of. However this year I feel he has matured enough to work within that environment without me having to watch every single move he makes.

And they are my babies, my life, my everything. Looking forward to yet another year of life with these guys.

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I can't wait to meet your children. I hope you will join us for the All Aussie Not Back To School Blog Hop. All you need to do is write a post introducing your children sometime during this week and come back and link it up below.

Be sure to link to the actual blog post not just your main blog, so this would be mine -

Don't forget to grab a button and share it on your blog:

To see what's coming up next week in the Aussie NBTS Blog Hop visit this post which has all of the details.

And now it's time for you to add your link below.

An All Aussie Not Back To School Blog Hop

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:22:00 +0000

All Australian children are now well and truly back in school. It's kinda customary for Homeschoolers to celebrate not going back to school, many organise park days or fun beach days since the weather is generally so beautiful.

I thought we'd also have a little online fun.

I am sure most of you have seen the fabulous Not Back To School Blog Hop over at the Heart of the Matter Online and if you haven't, go now and check out all of the fabulous posts linked up by bloggers.

Since our school years run to the calendar I thought we should have our own blog hoppin' fun!

So are you ready to join in with the all Aussie Not Back To School Blog Hop?!?

Here's how it will work.

Grab the button code: copy the coding below and place it on your blog side bar and/or in your NBTSD posts.This will link back to the blog hop list so everyone can see who is joining in and easily stop by to visit your posts.

Plan your posts: the hop will run over four weeks with a different theme to post about each week. The theme's are as follow.

Week 1 February 5th - Your Students. Introduce your kiddo's to us.

Week 2 February 12th - Your Curriculum. Your plans for the year, resources you will use etc.

Week 3 February 19th - Your Learning Spaces. No matter where it is, kitchen table, living room floor or full blown school room.

Week 4 February 26th - A Day In Your Life. These posts are so much fun to read. Be a fly on the wall in someone's homeschool day. Find out what it's really like for them.

Each week at the end of my themed post there will be a "linky" for you to add your post to.

So let's have some fun, time to start spreading the word about the all Aussie Not Back To School Blog Hop.

Australian Folk Songs

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:13:00 +0000

In what seems like, my never ending quest, to find Australian resources for our year, I stumbled across this little blog.

Oz Folk Song A Day

Here you can find a whole host of traditional Australian folk songs. I haven't been able to get the Aeroplane Jelly song out of my head for days....sorry if that happens to you too ;-)

I had no idea there was an Australian Alphabet Song. I'm yet to listen to that one but hope it is fun for the kids. Here's the first chorus or two:

A is for Australia, the land in which we are;
B is for the bush, my boys, which stretches near and far;
C is for the cattle which we are paid to mind
D is for the dingo, a treacherous brute you'll find.

CHORUS:
So, my Australian brothers, I hope that you will see
Signs of the times in our A B C.

E is for the eagle hawk, which plays havoc with our flocks;
F is for that little wretch - I mean the flying fox;
G is for the gray-flyer, a kind of kangaroo;
H is for the horse, my boys, we all have one or two.

I have a feeling we could get quite stuck on this little blog. I hope you enjoy it!

A Bribie New Years Eve For The Kids

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:40:00 +0000

I had been told that Bribie Island puts on quite a nice little 'show' for families come New Years Eve. With Market Stalls, a Mini Fair and Fireworks.

We decided to ensure our holiday covered the New Year period so we could enjoy the festivities. I was a little concerned with noise, but thankfully we were far enough away from the centre of the bustle for it to bother us at all.

The market stalls were a mixture of the regular type stalls you generally see at markets, jewellery, thongs, sunglasses and things like that.

There were however a few gems that caught our eye. This gentleman for example, carves out of lumps of wood and a chainsaw. Just check out the Ned Kelly, he's pretty impressive, considering that the chainsaw isn't the finest of implements.

We then stumbled upon a Lucky Dip Stall. Yes the entire stall was full of lucky dips, not just a little box off to the side that someone has added on to lure the kiddies over to their stall. This one was chock full of little wrapped parcels, all highly organised.

Can you imagine the hours this lady must spend wrapping? Considering that the gift Fairy Princess chose was in three layers.....wow!!

We all enjoyed a few rides, which, thankfully were reasonably priced, compared to larger events like the Brisbane EKKA.

I can never remember the name of this ride, but will always remember it as my mum's favourite ride when we were growing up. I enjoy it and now my kids love it also. Little Surfer Dude was a tad disappointed that he wasn't tall enough to ride though.

So he got stuck with the baby rides.

For some reason I simply cannot figure out, he never smiles on merry go rounds.

Does he dislike them that much? Is he scared? Is he thinking, what on earth am I doing on this thing? I'm not sure I will ever know.

He does continue to get on them though when he has the opportunity, so they can't be all that bad.

The big kids enjoyed a good old classic ride, the swings.

This is one ride that I just don't do. All that spinning in the same direction just makes me ill!!

The giant bouncy slide was the most popular kids ride by far. We did wait for nearly 10 minutes for this one, but boy did they have a blast.

Just a shame my battery started to die on me and my iphone just wasn't quick enough to get any decent shots, oh well.

We spent 2 hours at the fair and market stall area. You could spend longer as various artists performed on stage, but for us 2 hours was plenty. At 8:00pm the fireworks kicked off. Perfect, as the mother of a 3 year old even 9:00pm fireworks is just too damn late. 8:00 was great!

The beach was definitely packed full of people, it was well worth it though. The fireworks were pretty spectacular. Considering the relative population of the Bribie area we were all pleasantly impressed at how captivating they were.

Little Surfer Dude has experienced fireworks before, but he couldn't remember them so this was 'another' first time for him. Love sharing those things with my kids.

Other posts in this series:

Exploring Bribie Island

Bribie Island Beaches

Beachmere Playground

Australia Day - Activities, Baking, Crafts & Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0000

~~~ Happy Australia Day ~~~

This week we've been using our Australia Day Unit, which briefly covers the history of Australia Day.

We had a large party organised for today, with lots of Australian themed activities but the SE area has had massive downpours of rain this week, so we made the decision to cancel our outdoor party.

All of us were very disappointed, considering that we have only had one brief shower here all afternoon :(

Hubby attempted his first ever chocolate creation, that was to be the cake topper for today. Yes the entire flag is chocolate.

We spent a little time every day working through the various aspects of the printable Australia Day unit. I was reading The First Fleet section from The Australian History Collection by Bryce Courtney, whilst the kids coloured our Coat of Arms. They were so particular with the colours chose for this.

This collection of short narratives are easy to read and full of eye catching illustrations. Topics included are Captain Cook, The First Fleet, Bass and Flinders, Buckley's Chance, Crossing The Blue Mountains, Gold, Burke and Wills & Ned Kelly.

Definitely a great overview of Australian History, a good place to start with, the section on the First Fleet really had the kids imagining what it would have been like back then.

Lego Lover sorted all of the 3 part cards (with descriptions) and glued them to place in his notebook.

Little Surfer Dude loved the Do A Dot ABC pages from the Australia Day printable.

Because today was supposed to be all about fun and add in that it was my lovely husbands Birthday, we decided to have our Australia Day celebration, after all.

Just the five of us instead of the forty odd that were originally planned.

We made silly Red, White & Blue headwear. I simply laid out the supplies and gave no real instructions.

Ok, so not a great photo I know, but, what do they say, no shame no game.....they do say that don't they ?!

I asked Lego Lover to prepare a map for me using our Wooden Australian Montessori map. He traced each state carefully.

Then labelled each of the capital cities. Meanwhile I printed out a sheet of labels for all of the captial cities and placed them in our math treasure box.

It was time for Pin The Capital City On The Map!

The kids had so much fun with this. Way more than I ever expected. They were giggling themselves silly and they didn't even realise they were learning. Granted the 'educational component' of this was more for Fairy Princess, it was fun for Lego Lover to brush up a little too.

They thought it was absolutely hilarious when dad got one of his city labels way off in the Pacifc Ocean somewhere. It probably didn't help that he had been spun way more than the average 3 times before he had his turn.

The completed map. Overall, they didn't do too badly.

We made a batch of basic sugar cookie dough.

And pressed out little Aussie cookies.

And set about icing them, Red, White & Blue!

The icing was a little runny so we ended up with some pretty funky designs.

Of course we had the obligatory BBQ and a birthday cake for dad.

My parents called in to wish hubby a Happy Birthday. Little Surfer Dude enjoyed some pool time with Pop.

There is simply no Australia Celebration without a game of cricket. Lego Lover has really gotten into the game this season. Not so much watching it on the telly, but having a hit in the backyard with dad.

So even though I know we would have had a fabulous time celebrating today with all of our friends and family, we didn't do too badly on our own.

What about you? How did you spend this Australia Day?

Linked up at Enchanted Thursday's blog hop.

Top 100 Home Schooling Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:17:00 +0000

This is a great list of Home Schooling Blogs. Such variety and a wealth of ideas and resources.

I was just a little bit chuffed when I received an email letting me know that my blog is listed amongst those in the Top 100.

Go check them all out :-)

Classic Australian Songs with Printable

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:20:00 +0000

In the lead up to Australia Day we are working through our Printable Australia Day unit and learning the words to some classic Australian songs.

The kids basically know these, just from growing up and hearing them over the years, but we are practicing daily at getting those lyrics down.

Some of these classic songs have recently been published into children's picture books, with CD's on the inside cover. I thought this was a great way to keep these songs alive with the younger generation.

Waltzing Matilda, often regarded as Australia's unofficial National Anthem, tells the story of the struggles endured by shearers in the outback in the 1800's.

Advance Australia Fair, Australia's official National Anthem, was first sung in Sydney in 1878. This picture book version contains paintings from some of Australia's finest artists.

I thought this was a great way to capture the essence of the anthem, through the images of Australian artists.

A Home Among The Gum Trees, is an iconic Australian song. I doubt there would be an Australian adult, that grew up in Australia, that doesn't know this song.

It was remiss of me to not include it in the Australia Day Printable unit, so I have included a download here.

Download the file by clicking here.

Beachmere Park & Playground Area

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:30:00 +0000

On this particular day of our holiday we took a drive, back over the main bridge and headed down to Beachmere, just to check it out a little.

Beachmere is most definitely a 'sleepy, beachside village'. Given that it was a public holiday there was barely a sole to be seen.

We did however stumble onto what appeared to be the main park/playground area of this little town and we were very pleasantly surprised.

Either it is a very new facility or it has been recently refurbished. Whilst the overall area wasn't large, it has been well planned to suit families visiting the park.

The playground itself is completely encased by fencing, a large portion of it is covered with shade sails and the entire base is sand.

Around the perimeter of the playground area are several large shady trees, BBQ facilities, covered picnic tables and a toilet block.

The actual playground itself is fairly standard fair but there were a few gems that were new to us. This small slide, climbing area is perfect for toddlers to have some fun on.

The modern version of the old fashioned whirligig. Fairy Princess was first on board, anything that spins, she loves.

The centre of the park houses a large triangular spider web climbing frame.Both kids made it their mission to reach the top in record time.

Watching the kids grow and remembering when a structure such as this would have frightened both of them. Now they tackle it with relative ease.

The modern see saw, although I highly doubt that this is as much fun. It bounces more than 'see saws' up and down. Little Surfer Dude enjoyed it none the less.

This small, inconspicuous piece of equipment sat untouched for awhile. Balancing and turning at the same time....hold on Lego Lover!!!!

Yet another spinning contraption. I wonder if the adult that designed this playground missed out on fast moving fun as a child!

We called this the egg, however really, it is much more like the egg cup holder. Fairy Princess got this going with relative ease and really never wanted to get off.

I love this photo of her, hair blowing with the spinning, grinning with delight.

She did feel a little ill some time later though.

Of course what's a playground without swings.

The playground itself is only a short stroll to the beach area.

The tide was well and truly out during our visit to Beachmere. We were very glad we made the effort to take that small journey.

Other posts in this series:

Exploring Bribie Island

Bribie Island Beaches

Bribie Island Beaches

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:00:00 +0000

Staying on an island there is definitely no getting around the fact that you are pretty much surrounded by beaches.

Bribie definitely offers plenty of them and right across the road from our apartment was this perfect spot that the kids loved. Most days it provided only knee lapping waves, just right for a three year old!

On Christmas Day the waves were a little bigger, perfect for Little Surfer Dude to try out his new boogie board he got for Christmas.

All he needed was a push off from dad

and he was grinning from ear to ear! Excited or what!!! So was dad for that matter ;-)

It wasn't long before he really was living up to his blog name of "Little Surfer Dude", catching those waves like a pro.

He was pretty chuffed to catch one all the way up onto the sand.

The bigger kids enjoyed the feeling of being 'way out' , but really they are only waist deep. Looks like they are in the middle of the ocean here.

This large wall has been built to protect against erosion. Fairy Princess enjoyed being thrown into the water and all the kids had a great deal of fun jumping from the staired wall.

It provides a great place to crawl up and down.

The sand is really very good, considering how sheltered this part of Bribie is. Little Surfer Dude sat and played for quite some time.

Further inland across the small dunes Fairy Princess went exploring, as she always does, looking for exciting nature finds. This pretty yellow flower caught her eye.

And of course seaweed, you simply cannot play on the beach without some seaweed.

It took the boys awhile to warm up to the seaweed idea, but eventually they did!

The jetty is pretty much the focal point of the beach area and in fact closer to the jetty area you will find wider expanses of beaches. The jetty is very popular spot for fishing at night.

Come late afternoon, as the tide faded, the same beach, right across the way from us became a whole new area of exploration. Piles of seaside treasures were found here, shells, bones, bits of crab, shark teeth you name it they found it.

I think exploring on low tide is often way more fun than swimming at the beach itself.

We were blessed to witness some great sunsets during our stay. The kids are with their cousins here, not that you can tell who is who.

These couple were taken on my iphone whilst waiting for our Gourmet Pizza and Risotto at Brennan Park.

Bribie also has great surf beaches, I'll show you some of them soon :-)

Calling All Aussie Homeschool Bloggers

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 21:15:00 +0000

Thought I'd post a reminder about the Aussie Homeschool Blogger List.

Are you on it?

The code for the button has been updated so that if someone clicks on the button on your blog it will take them directly to this list. You may want to update yours if you have one on your blog.

Are you living in Australia?

Do you homeschool?

Do you blog about your homeschool journey?

Would you like to share your blog with others?

Then please spread the word!

Grab the button code below and place it on your blog.

How do I that? Simply copy and past the HTML code that you see to the right of the actual button image. (I am assuming you use blogger here). Go to your blogs dashboard, Choose Design, Choose Add Gadget (generally in the right or left column sidebar area), Choose Add HTML/Javascript, Paste the code into the box that opens up, Choose Save and that's it.

Then simply add your blog details to the list below so other bloggers can find you. Feel free to add a word about your style or your location if you wish, you have 70 characters to play with.

Exploring Bribie Island

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:45:00 +0000

We spent our Christmas/New Year break over at the beautiful Bribie Island. A relatively small sand island of only 34 kms long and 8 kms wide. Although it is an island it is actually easily accessible via a bridge that crosses Pumiceston Passage from the Caboolture area.

It's always exciting arriving at a new holiday destination for the first time.

Pelicans love to sit atop the light poles that run all down one side of the bridge. Every time we crossed the bridge we would play a guessing game of 'how many pelicans'.

This was a great destination for a quiet family holiday within an easy drive from Brisbane.

With protected beaches this is a fabulous spot for small children and for those that aren't particularly fond of surf.

The opportunity to four wheel drive through the bush and then out along the kilometres of white sandy beaches was loads of fun.

Being a family holiday destination there are several playgrounds over the island and within short driving distances of the surrounding area.

Walking paths that run all along the foreshore are a great place for a stroll or for some more rigid exercise. That's my mum and great aunt heading to meet us at the beach on Christmas Day.

It's only a short drive to the other side of the island to catch some larger waves.

There is quite a large amount of War Hisotry scattered around the island also, which Lego Lover was very intrigued by.

With museums scattered around the place, I love being able to combine the relaxed nature of a beachside holiday with some fun educational content.

Some of the accomodation on the island have pools, we were lucky enough to have a small swimming pool perfect for late afternoon dips.

It's easy to find a spot for beginning anglers to throw in a line and catch a fish or two.

We were pleasantly surprised at how varied but yet relaxing our holiday was on Bribie. With near perfect weather we really had a great time. I want to record some of our memories so will be posting more indepth about our adventures over the coming week or so.

Free Printable Australia Day Learning Packet

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 10:30:00 +0000

With Australia Day just around the corner I thought it was about time we did a little learning about places much closer to home.

January 26th commemorates the landing of the First Fleet into Sydney Cove in 1788.

This printable overview packet will be used by all of my children in varying ways, they are aged 10, 7 and 3.

The download includes some research questions which will assist in completing these notebook pages.

Printable songs to learn and have on hand during Australia Day festivities.

Colouring pages of the Australian Flag, Coat of Arms and Golden Wattle.

3 part Montessori style cards. I have also included a snippet of information for each card, so that in effect they are 4 part cards. These can used for vocabulary work and making small booklets with the information.

Copywork in both print and cursive.

Aussie Slang cards, use as a matching activity or for a game of snap.

Clip the beginning sounds, for early phonics practice.

Tracing pages for early handwriting practice.

Do a Dot Marker pages or laminate and use on a cookie tray with magnets, coloured smarties, pom poms or something similar.

The Australian Flag size sequencing activity.

A couple of picture books that your children may enjoy that would work well with an Australia Day Theme are:

Join Grace and her family as they hit the road camping, experiencing, and meeting all the people and places that make up Australia. (from Amazon)

Grandma Poss uses her best bush magic to make Hush invisible. But when Hush longs to be able to see herself again, the two possums must make their way across Australia to find the magic food that will make Hush visible once more. “Another treat from Mem Fox that is sure to be treasured. The whimsical illustrations are a wonderful complement.” (from Amazon)

Download the Australia Day Printables by clicking here.

Christmas - New Year Blogging Break

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:24:00 +0000

I'd like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year.

Thank you all for another wonderful year in the land of blogging. The inspiration I glean from all of you is nothing short of incredible and for that I thank you.

The connections I have made with people far and wide really does make this world seem so small. What a blessing the internet is to us homeschoolers.

Thanks to those of you that took the time to link up all of your Christmas posts. I know they will be a great help to others in the future.

I'm taking some time out from blogging and all things computer related. Hoping for some sunshine, because right now things aren't looking so great in the weather department!

See you all soon.

Christmas Books: The Christmas Story and Printable Nativity

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:45:00 +0000

Of course at this time of year one simply must read the Christmas Story together and that is exactly what we did.

I found the cutest nativity printable for the kids to colour and put together.

We grabbed our trusty Golden Book Christmas Story and cuddled up on the couch. The kids coloured in between chatting about the story as I read.

I love this hand drawn nativity, coloured by the kids. We have it sitting right alongside our nativity set.

Grab your own copy over at Catholic Icing, you still have time to complete one before Christmas.

Peg Reindeer, Footprint Reindeer and a Santa Card

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 21:00:00 +0000

Aside from the adorable calico Angel decorations that the kids made at their extra curricular days, they put together these little cuties.

Yet another simple craft, isn't simple generally best! Yet it looks so effective. Three pegs, painted brown, glued together. Add a couple of pieces of felt, a pom pom nose, googly eyes and some ribbon.

And hang them on the tree!

I love this Handprint/Footprint Reindeer, "Happy Holidays" wall hanging. These would make gorgeous gifts.

Fairy Princess made hubby and I a Christmas Card. Hand coloured, decorated wth glitter and of course Santa's Beard. She was very proud of this one and was excited to give it to us.

Candy Cane Reindeer

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:30:00 +0000

When I saw these over at Sugarplum Creations I knew that the kids would love them. I mean come on, they love candy cane's, so add in a bit of reindeer and crafting fun that is oh so simple and who isn't going to enjoy them!

I set up a mini work station for these so the kids could come and go and create at their leisure.

Now they are hanging on the tree waiting to be given to friends to spread a little Christmas Cheer.

Mini Gingerbread (Biscuit) Houses

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:30:00 +0000

The last couple of years we have made Gingerbread Houses from those cute little kits you buy at the store. One day we will advance to making them from scratch, one day we will.

I'd be lying if I said that the house decorating experience has always been a joyous one. With one house and several hands and lots of ideas, let's just say that things can get a little heated, during the decorating marathon.

I simply wasn't up to dealing with that this year. However the kids have looked at the kits every time we've walked past them in store and the fact that this activity was becoming a bit of a tradition for us was playing on my mind But not once have they asked to buy, I knew they wanted one though.

So I decided we could make these little Mini Gingerbread Houses, out of Arnotts Nice Biscuits. They are a near perfect rectangle and coated with sugar, so great for mini sweet houses at Christmas. Surfer Dude got right into his decorating.

Now we could have spent a great deal more time on these, cutting the biscuits to fill all of the roof space etc, but this was very much a, "here's the materials, let's see what you come up with" project. Lego Lover started his off with having the walls going the long way but found attaching a roof too difficult so he pulled his apart and redid it the same way as the others.

Once again, an activity that is right up Fairy Princess' alley. She took great care in her work and was sitting at the table perfecting her masterpiece long after the boys had left.

So for a couple of bags of lollies, a packet of biscuits and some icing, the kids got to decorate their Christmas Houses after all.

They are sitting on the dining room table waiting for Daddy to arrive home, that's if they last that long!

Christmas Fun 2011 Week 6 - Gifts Gifts Gifts

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 20:40:00 +0000

This is it, the last week, Christmas is really just around the corner.

All of my gift wrapping is complete YAY! No late Christmas Eve wrapping for me ;-)

This week, we are looking at Gifts, gift ideas, and of course those extra special handmade gift options.

Have you written a post about your gifting? Link it up below.

Don't forget that you can still link up all of your other Christmas posts into the link lists below:

Christmas Crafts
Christmas Lessons
Christmas In The Kitchen
Advent Activities
Traditions

Oh and don't forget to grab a button so you can link back to the Christmas Fun linky on your blog and specific posts. That way everyone can share in the fun and ideas.

A huge thank you to all of you that have linked up. These ideas are inspiring to everyone.

Christmas Gift Ideas

Christmas Traditions

Christmas ~ Advent Activities Links

Christmas In The Kitchen Links

Christmas Lesson Plan Links

Christmas Craft Links

Christmas Fun Round Up - So Much Inspiration

noreply@blogger.com (Kylie) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 20:45:00 +0000

Have you had a chance to look through all of the inspiration over at Christmas Fun? So much cool stuff there. I wanted to take a moment to share some of my favourites.

Loving these giant snowflakes from You're Not Lost You're Here.

Glue snowflakes, so simple, but simply adorable, Rockabye Butterfly.

Making math fun for this time of year, aren't the penguins adorable. Walking By The Way.

More cute Christmas learning from Walking By The Way.

These interactive, wing flapping angels are simply delightful. From We Bloom Here.

Creekside Learning has an awesome list of Advent Activities and a neat Character Trait Advent Calendar.

A book a day is a tradition the kids will surely never forget, by Live, Learn, Love.