25th October

Josiah had a friend come for a visit this morning and they played on and off. They couldn't agree on something to play, or stick to something for a decent period of time.
When Anna went to kindy, Simon did some maths with Josiah. He has been home sick the past couple of days and has been able to help me with the homeschooling a bit. Josiah really loves it when Dad teaches him school and it helps me feel like i'm not in it by myself.

Josiah's reading amazes me everytime i hear him read. Yesterday after he came into our room first thing in the morning he went and read a whole box of readers that his Nanny had borrowed from the library. His reading is quite fluent and he really enjoys it. We have started reading a book together called Jungle Doctor and the whirlwind, which i bought at the conference on the weekend. I plan to read him a chapter or two each night before bed.

We borrowed/hired the DVD documentary called planet earth and watched the first episode of this today. It was title Pole to Pole and full of lots of migration and other animal stories, starting at the poles and working in towards the equator.
He was puzzled about the difference between a cheetah and a leopard. After watching this, the kids played/acted a game where lion's and cheetahs were chasing an impala. I was pleased to see they learnt the name of a new animal. We plan to watch the next episode tomorrow sometime.

20th October

Today Anna had kindy in the morning and Josiah's friend Christopher came over. We walked to the kindy around the corner for play group. The playgroup is actually for under 5's and we went mostly for Rachel's benefit. Josiah and Christopher are both too old but we are investigating if they can join in too.


Whilst there, they played on swings, hit balls with golf clubs, and made a drum out of paper and a tin. They also had reading time and healthy snacks. Today's theme was red food so they tried grapes, strawberries, tomato, capsicum and radish. Josiah ate everything in his bowl.

The playgroup called this afternoon and said they would make an exception for the boys age because it will be another socialisation opportunity for them.

We didn't have a very good book work time this afternoon, it ended in Josiah in time out. Hopefully tomorrow is better.

19th October

Today is Wednesday, and on Wednesday we usually try to go to the story time at the library. The children really love this because the toy library is on at the same time and there are lots of toys to play with there.
At Story time, the library lady sings songs, says rhymes and reads a story to the kids. The kids then do a craft activity related to the story and have a word to learn each week. I think this is a great school like activity to do and i don't have to organise it or clean up! It is also another opportunity for socialisation with other kids. Today's story was The Green Sheep, a favourite in our household. The kids made crazy coloured sheep collages afterwards, sticking all sorts of mediums to their sheep.

When we left the library, we noticed a tent in the middle of the park and went to investigate on our way to the post office. It was delightful to discover a solar car and a team of solar car drivers showing off their vehicle. The world solar challenge is racing from Darwin to Adelaide at the moment and this team were going ahead showing a car to promote solar cars. Most of the information about the solar car went over the kids heads but i think this is something we can follow up on later.



They also displayed a solar oven in which they were cooking bread. The kids were interested in this and i suggested we should attempt to make a solar oven sometime soon.

Josiah had musical theatre this afternoon, and is learning a dance for the end of year concert.