Our holiday is zooming just around the corner and the list of things that need to be done before hand is growing larger every day.  Today is clean up day. 

The children have worked harder in their bedrooms today.  I can actually get in there with a vacuum cleaner!  All the projects are packed away for now.  I had them working together and it is great hearing Jess encouraging the others to see this and that (Jess being the one who excels in order and organization!).  When Daniel proudly showed me his room when I asked him if he had been working with his big sister, he gave me a big proud grin.  “She helped me!”

Then it was my project time – the Freezer!  This doesn’t get done as often as it should but it is a family affair when it does happen.  The freezer is outside on the veranda which doesn’t do a lot for its efficiency but that is where it is.  The kids all help unload the freezer – a large chest freezer – and then they stand on the grass and I throw the ice at them as I chip it off.  They either stand there to be hit or dodge it (the closest thing they have to a snow fight) or they try and catch the ice as it flies through the air!  This time though there was a lot more conversation than other times we’ve done this.  Topics like comparing this to the Antarctica (no real comparison but their minds were thinking along those lines!)  Preserving bugs, which lead to cane toads (yes, I do have frozen bugs in my freezer but that is by accident of living in the tropics but frozen cane toads —- I’m not sure that I’ll be able to come to that!)  Daniel and Nomi discussed freezing and boiling, the effects of boiling water on frozen water.

Josh continued to work on his math.  We discussed him working through to get a grip on some of the strategies he is a little unsure of, and as he works diligently through on that he will get to the more challenging math, which he is really looking forward to.  I was pleased to see that he really did understand that laying a foundation, though may be boring and unchallenging really does bring benefits in the long term.  He was happy to be working towards the long-term gain.

Everyone watched the video for the next Character First trait:  boldness.  Each of them  had to narrate back to me what they learnt about boldness (Orally)

The afternoon found Jess doing some housework for me, and then joining Nomi with Femo.  They both worked on Pooh Bear characters.  We have yet to finish our Pooh Bear Lapbook – we will get there!

Daniel spent time looking for a science kit that he had been begging to do all morning – somewhere along the day he lost it!  So it was a good lesson in orderliness and everything having its place.  In spending sometime with him trying to find it I found myself spending a little bit extra effort on his speech.  We found it after dinner so that will be able to be done tomorrow.

Daniel settled down and started a geography jigsaw puzzle.  He was very concerned that there was a crocodile right on top of where we live.  So that lead to discussions about it just being a symbol and that the crocodiles were down in the river.  That scared him a bit as he thought our water/irrigation channels was the river!  So we got that sorted. Actually the box had an alligator not a crocodile so that too came into discussion.    Later on he was talking about where the whales came from, so it was a good activity for him – and it just happened, as I gave him free time to be productive in!

Josh spent some time on the Internet researching and being inspired with Whittling.  This will be his project for the moment.  (His last project was soldering.) 

Over dinner we watched an ABC TV show “Dog Listener” and learnt a few thing that we maybe need to try with our dog.  It was predominately Joshua who could see the issues and correlation between the dogs on the TV and our Domino.