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Out the kitchen window….
I’d like to see a rambling cottage garden instead of my neighbour’s brick wall and the dividing fence. In the distance I’d like to see paddocks, dams and trees instead of the street and neighbour’s cars.
My dream is to move back to the country, I’ve had it with suburbia! Sometimes I wonder why I ever came to the city, its just not “me”. So why don’t you just move I hear you say? Well, properties in the area we want to go to have skyrocketed in the past couple of years and we can’t afford to. Maybe one day, when the mortgage is payed off we can do it. I really want to bring our kids up in the country, but I don’t think its going to happen, I’ll leave it in God’s capable hands, if He wants it to happen then it will.
Dolls!
This is Setra! It was hard to get a good photo because of her dark colourings, but in RL she looks beautiful!
And here is the birthday doll, which turned out much better than the last monstrosity!
Caroline
I’m very pleased to have another lovely lady finished! I’m even more pleased to see I’m getting better with the technical side of making them and my design is working really well. Each one has the same body design, so I make that up first. I don’t plan how she will turn out, but I do the face immediately after the body to give me a feel for how she might turn out. I should have the next one finished over the weekend, she is waiting for hair.
Pretty garden flowers
Its so nice to see little things happening in the garden, giving us a foretaste of what is to come in spring.
The first jonquils (love them!)
Red hot pokers
And the prettiest little flower of all!
Birthday apron
Here is what I’ve made for my lovely husband for his birthday in a couple of weeks. He loves to cook on weekends so I think he will like this.
Sophia the doll
Finished!
Homeschooling tips
Here are some things that have helped me over the past few years…
1. Don’t set too much work (particularly for young children). Incorporate regular breaks into your study time.
2. Be organised! Complete your lesson plan each night for the next day.
3. Follow each child’s interests and tailor their work around what they like to do.
4. Utilise your local library. You will save so much money and its a great outing.
5. Don’t buy unnecessary things. Start with basics and figure out over time what you need. eg. dictionary, world map, pencils, art materials etc.
6. Meet up or liase with other homeschoolers. They are a wealth of information.
7. Chores and life skills are an integral part of daily life, the sooner children learn this the more your family can work as a team.
8. Include younger children by organising “school” activities appropriate to their age.
9. Give rewards for good work and the occasional “surprise day off”.
10. If its not working take a step back and analyse. Remember, you determine holiday and break times so if you’re extra tired or bogged down take time off!
Fairy picking night berries
I managed to finish this watercolour pencil painting while the kids were doing some painting beside me.
Homeschooling thoughts
I don’t usually volunteer to strangers the fact that we are a homeschooling family, however, naturally when you take a school aged child out on a school day many people want to know why. The responses I get vary between extremely positive to extremely shocked to extremely bewildered. But everyone asks the same things “Why do you do that?”. I often say “because it works really well for our family” and don’t really go into much detail as some people are sensitive and actually find it offensive that you don’t do what they do. Yes, it does work well for us, but there is so much more to it than that. One of the main reasons is we want our children to grow and learn in our faith. Another reason is my husband and I had negative school experiences. Another reason is I think our home environment has a lot to offer our children. But there is one thing that sticks in my mind – the day my first child was born. If someone had sauntered into the operating theatre when I was gazing lovingly upon this new indivdual my husband and I had been blessed with and said “I’m sorry, but I need to take this child away from you for at least 6 hours a day as I don’t think you’re capable of caring for him and teaching him. You can have him back in the evenings though!” do you think that would be acceptable?
What do you think?