Rhinoceros and it's prey

Early Monday morning, Simeon on my lap, "cuddle and why" time.

 "Mom, how does the rhinoceros catch its prey?"

Kruger National Park October 2008 (G & P)

Couldn't help to laugh, very bad of me, I know,
but I could not stop to imagining how the rhino
would crawl on it's haunches to catch that leave.

Kruger National Park October 2008 (G & P)

What I will miss from our garden

We are moving at the end of April.

And this I will miss from our garden:

I just love SPRING and early SUMMER.  The best part of the year.

We do have a beautiful garden, with lost of roses.

These smell like lemon,

were planted in the wrong spot

and I thought I could move them in winter.

This rosebush gave me such joy - lots of pink roses

 New leaves forming

 Jasmin - The abundant flowers I will miss,

but it gave me severe headaches.

 Abundance

 lilies

 roses at the bedroom window 

And these beautiful pink flowers right outside our lounge window.

Outing: Wonderboom and the Fort

After visiting the waterfall at Wonderboom in Pretoria-North, Simeon kept on nagging us that he wanted to see the fort.  That day I was recuperating from an heavy cold, and we just did not have the energy to walk / climb further up the mountain.

 Simeon and Joshua last year at the Wonderboom

So, when I heard about the outing to the Wonderboom to visit the fort with our "new" homeschool support group, I knew this was the opportunity to make a dream come true.  Simeon always asks us about all the landmarks we have visited or passed and I try to share as much of the history about them.

There were four forts around Pretoria, Klapperkop, Skanskop, Wonderboom and Daspoortrand, built before the Anglo Boer War.  See this Afrikaans article from The South African Military History Society. and an English article on Wikipedia.

On Friday morning we met at the Wonderboom in Lavender Road, Pretoria North.  There were 18 moms and "millions" of children :-)   Doesn't it sometimes seem that way when children mingle, run around and play?  The route is well marked - to the fort or to the waterfall and paved with rock.  At first it climbs through the trees but then reaches the grassveld at the top of the mountain.  We had a beautiful view of Pretoria, first north of the mountain and then, on the other side to the south and the city centre. 

     

View to the North of the Magalies mountain

First view of the Wonderboom fort.

When I last visited this fort the doors were not painted and were flat on the ground.

It was such a surprise to see that the fort is well maintained.

View from above, and below a photo when still in use.

Inside the fort, and below the floor plan

 

Joshua in the stables

Two energetic girls exploring and enjoying every opportunity.

A hole in the wall used by the birds for nesting.

Simeon in a beautiful corner outside the fort.

Pretoria to the south of the Magalies mountain - towards Church Square.

A tired Simeon waiting for his mom and brother to catch up.

I'm very proud of them as they both walked up and down the mountain, a round trip of 2,8 km.

We had a lovely picnic and chat with the other moms afterwards and the children enjoyed playing so much they did not want to leave, mom just did not have energy to take any more photos.

At home Simeon drew the fort for his dad and when we left for speech therapy Joshua did the same.

Introducing Esther

1. Our homeschool family...

I'm Esther and live in Gauteng (for now) with my husband, Johan and two sons Simeon (7) and Joshua (3).

One of the most difficult questions about homeschooling for me is "How long have you been homeschooling?"  I really do not know when we started as I wanted to homeschool before Simeon was born.  I stayed at home with him, but never saw that as homeschooling.  Just raising my little son.  I had to work for 18 months, Simeon went to school, and Joshua, when he came along went to day care.  At 5 years of age (for Simeon) I could stay at home again.  Did I start then?  Or when he legally had to be schooled?  Or, as we believe in Better late than Early, do we need to start counting from a date in the future?

We live in Gauteng because our children need specialised speech therapy, but would like to move back to the beautiful Lowveld town of White River, or move on to other "greener" (hopefully non-city) pastures.

2. We homeschool because ...

Is there ever a single reason why we homeschool or do anything at all.  Mostly I would say that we homeschool because we feel God leading us on this road for our children.  I shared our homeschool journey here.  We also do this because our children should not be forced to pronounce words correctly.  So we have a "professional" recommendation not to place them in school (the best news any homeschool family could get).

I like the idea that my two sons learn to become best friends, and not just two boys who happen to live in the same house.  Being 4 years apart in age, they will be 4 years apart in school, they will not share experiences, friends, worlds, and many more.  Will they be friends?

And today I feel that we homeschool because I want to share those special developmental progress my children make, such as the first real picture Joshua drew last week - of his Little Tigger.

3. Five Favourites! The things I most like to ...

1. see...  a mountain river; creating mist as it tumbles over the edge...
2. hear ... that first time to be called "Mamma"; a heavy Highveld thunder and  lightning storm...
3. smell ...  the early morning crisp air; the moist smell of de-composting leaves on a forest floor; the salty sea; a newborn baby...
4. taste ...  fresh fruit; freshly baked bread; my mom's cheese cake...
5. touch ...  my child's soft hair; a cat curling around my legs; that little body of one of my sons sitting on my lap, listening to a story...

4. This year I hope to ... 

• wake up for my children and not to be awakened by them.  I joined the Hello Morning Challege for that and it's going ...well... well.  So far, for this week.  Going to bed early is one of the biggest challenges as night-time is Me-time.
• to make time to develop my drawing skills and to make some portraits (for myself).
• to try and get a little bit more structure in our homeschooling, and to get over the resistance for formal learning.
• To post more often on my blogs.

Picture Study / Artist Appreciation

This year I want to incorporate more of Charlotte Mason's methods into our homeschool.  We won't go full-out for a CM curriculum as we are Afrikaans speaking, but we will start the year with art and music appreciation.  January is the start of our new school year and a great time to start with new ideas.

Last week we started with reading and revision, while this week we added the artist and composer.  For the artist I chose Jan Vermeer, as we have a Time-Life Book about his life and works.  I bought three of these series at a second-hand book shop for about R50 a book.  They cover the life of an artist but also have a lot of prints from other artists.  So we will be able to use the book for more than one artist.

I first made a selection of 6 works by Vermeer, those that are on full or even double pages.  This week we will study Street in Delft.  I wanted a picture that would capture the attention of the children and has interesting detail.  That way artist appreciation starts on a positive note (and I will try my best to keep it that way).

Simeon had to look at the picture for about five minutes and had to try to see it in his minds-eye.  Afterwards I turned the book around and let his describe what he saw.  I think for a first time it went well and we will refine the process as we go on.  Next week I want him to have a good look again and then try to copy it.  That is also a good way for a person to become part of the picture. 

Afterwards I propped the book on an old artist easel, so it will stay upright and in sight, and on a little side table in the passage from the rooms to the kitchen and near our dining room / homeschool table 

I use a clip to keep the book open on the particular page.  This also stops the children from turning the pages and looking at other pictures.  The idea is that they concentrate on this one picture for a week or two.

I found this video very helpful.  It shows exactly how Picture Study can be done.

This is a copy of the picture: The Bouquet of Daisies / Margueritas by Jean-Francois Millet that I downloaded from here:

What to do...?

So here I am, on Christmas Eve, working, reading on the computer in stead of ...?  Dad is working tonight, the children are in bed and I forgot to visit the library today.  So onto the computer to read.

And reading through some Facebook comments I realised how overwhelming / complicated homeschooling can seem.

Just look at homeschooling.  There is:

1.  "School-at-home" - very formal curriculums that follow the government regulations
2.  Homeschooling that is more informal but still uses curriculums to suit their needs
3.  Eclectics that use a mixture of methods and curriculums
4.  Classical approaches
5.  The Principal Approach
6.  Unschooling in varying degrees - even Christian Unschooling
7.  .....

There is:

* Delaying academics - Better late than early; 
or
* Accelerated Eduction


There are different ways to follow whatever one you choose with:

* Computer based education 
                                            or

                                                 * Book based education

* Unit studies - with curriculums or on your own
* Themed studies - using the curriculum
* Project studies

And also

• * Lapbooking
• * Notebooking

We use terms like:  UNSCHOOLING or DESCHOOLING (do we understand it ourselves?)

There are different methods linked to different people:

• Charlotte Mason and Guiding Natural curiosity - with a curriculum or without
• John Holt and unschooling
• Jean Piaget and cognitive development
• Rudolf Steiner and Waldorf schools / homeschooling
• Maria Montessori and the prepared environment
• Raymon and Dorothy Moore and "school can wait" and "better late than early"
• and more...

You can use your television    OR   dump it and never do any screen time (even no computers)

And then we talk about formulating your homeschool philosophy, determining your children's learning styles / personalities, and your own teaching style.  

AND SO MUCH MORE

And all this can be very confusing to new homeschoolers; to those who want to homeschool but don't even know where to begin.  It's even confusing for those of use who might have studied the "subject" for some years.

And to those new comers,  sometimes the best way forward is to just relax, enjoy your children, read a bit more... before you decide.

And now that I clarified this for myself, I'm of to Google more methods, people, curriculums....

or maybe I will run away and have a short holiday before the next school year begins in 2012.

. . . and snails and puppy dogs tails

Working in the garden today, gave me a chance to casually introduce the boys to some of the inhabitants of our garden.

 Garden snail

Turning right side up, after we turned it upside down

Deterring any predators, especially humans

Later, we found more information about snails here. We learned that:

* there are many types of snails

* snails have shells

* they can live up to 15 years or some even 25 years

* they hatch from eggs and eat their own egg for calcium to grow the shell

* they take two years to mature

* they love plants and fruits

* they are predated by frogs, snakes and birds (and humans)

* And they look like this on the inside:

(from www.snail-world.com)

When Simeon saw his he asked:  "How could people eat such a thing with all of this inside?" - (Hoe kry mense dit reg om slakke te eet met al hierdie goed aan die binnekant?)

My answer: "That's a good question, and seeing all this, I won't ever eat a snail again."

Other 'nasties' we found on a branch I pruned

 When I told them the caterpillars could sting, Simeon shied away but Joshua came near to have a closer look.

We tried to Google this but it it's a bit more difficult that I thought to identify, should someone know please let me know what kind this is. And most important, should we 'keep' them or kill them.

I hope to do this on a regular basis to broaden their knowledge in an informal way.