Monday

I had to race of and pick up Pete at the nearby Arial spray airstrip so I left the kids to finish up tidying the house.   Daniel did the dishes by hand today – this is a life skill we are working on (especially handy since the dishwasher is broken!)

Nomi and Daniel played Lego together for a while.  This was a good time to learn to share – actually we talked in terms of “Honour” since that was our new character word we introduced last week – making people feel special.  It was also a good opportunity to change our designs if we couldn’t get the “materials” we wanted (read:  someone else had the Lego piece I wanted!!)

Jess baked some muffins – another good review of doubling 1 ¾ as she worked on the ratio 1:2 plain flour to baking powder.  While they were cooking she read her book and then clean up.  Then finished the sewing cupboard.

Joshua worked on his math – DVD lesson, review with Mum and then few worksheets.  We also had a discussion on the difference between m.sq. and sq. m.  with Peter, over in the shed.   Peter and Josh also had a discussion about ratios, percentages and fractions.

Nomi and Daniel were asked to do some map drawing.  Daniel is drawing a map of the Lego house he is in the process of making.  I hadn’t realised there was more to be built so the map will also continue tomorrow.  Nomi is working on a very detailed map of the “world” they built a few days ago.  She is including blue lines for the railway and red lines for the roads, “just like a proper map!”.  She also included the N/S/E/W markings.

Josh and Jess did a little penmanship with copywriting poems from the Pooh Bear Books.  They have both read aloud their poems, which is good oral practice.

The rest of our day was spent as Family time.  We went into town with Peter, bought some lunch which we ate while he did his business chores.  Pete had a little time before he had to be off to his next job so we sat in a park and gave the kids a little run around with some playground equipment.  (I can’t help but notice that this was a science/physics lesson for Josh as he and Pete discussed what gave the momentum as the kids moved along a particular piece of equipment.  I would never have guessed it was a lever situation – but there you go!)  As I look back on our time it was full of laughter; as the kids told Peter of these disgusting scenarios in a movie we watched, as Nomi started to perform and just for the joy of being together.

Pete and I discussed how Cindy and Harold Rushton work their schedule and when Harold is home they rearrange things to make priority for Family Time.  From what I understand this Family Time is when Harold can impart the “who he is” to his children – this would cover a wide range of activities but with the emphasis of relationship building time with Dad.  We need to work on this.  We often relax in our time together and that is important but as the years slip on by we think we miss out on other opportunities.