Holidays are over and we are back into it!

Damon spent all of last term helping in the upper primary Sunday school as the boys built catapults. Everyone at home was thrilled when he surprised us with the one he built! So much fun learning how to use it :) Target practice!! hehe!

Last term Damon also enjoyed joining in Urban Sports. He participated in trampolining and slack lining. He did a really good job learning these new skills and really enjoyed the challenge.

 Adele and I learned a new skill - finger knitting - I thought it was going to be really hard, but once we started we realised it is really quick and easy. And there are so many things on the internet to guide you on creating things with the end product.

As usual we have been reading lots. We are continuing our discovery of Jim Elliot's journey in Ecuador. Damon has just about finished reading Mr. Poppers Penguins. This is a huge achievement for Damon as he is a non-fiction guy and reads heaps about the world around us, maps and travel. But he recently asked me to buy him Mr. Poppers Penguins and he has read it! So well done Damon :)

Adele now has the second volume of Mandie by Lois Gladys Leppard. She loves these books, the suspense and adventures. She grabs every spare minute she can to pick up this book.

Avril is continuing to develop her reading skills and is excited to find herself understanding more and more :) Here she is reading with Josef. We have been reading Blinky Bill together, which she says she likes a lot more then Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.

Here she is with a reading wheel she made..

Both of the big kids have new devotionals that they are just starting to read. Damon is reading Created for Work by Bob Schultz. Adele has started to read Beautiful Girlhood by Karen Andreola. I love both of these books, such great lessons!

Avril and Josef have been enjoying stuffing their pyjamas with their soft toys. Then they have fun bumping into each other!! Funny kids :)

Avril has taken more interest in Nehemiah recently, wanting to snuggle him a lot :)

And wanting to visit him in his cage!

 This term the girls and I are starting to look at animal lifecycles and classification. We have started a focus on orderliness in Konos and so are looking at the different types of animals and the groups they belong to. We are starting with insects.

We will also be looking at Noah building his boat by the guidelines God gave him. And the way that the animals came to the boat two by two. We will be studying orderliness in God's word.

We started our investigations by learning what an insect is. we learned words like exoskeleton, invertebrate, vertebrate and pollination.

We also read in The Wonderland of Nature by Suri Mass, the difference between butterflies and moths. The kids were motivated to find caterpillars or eggs to hatch as a result of our reading, as that is what the kids in the book were doing!

They decided to search our backyard and they found a leaf with an egg on it..not sure if it will hatch or what it will be, but the girls are keen to wait and see :)

Here they are setting up its home.

To remember what an invertebrate and vertebrate is, the kids did some art work. They drew one of each type and on the vertebrate they used cotton tips for bones :)

The girls watched a Moody Video, The City of the Bees on You Tube. I wasn't sure how they would go because it is so old but they loved it! They were shocked at how smart bees are! 

To help us remember the process of pollination we did an experiment. First we made paper flowers and bees.

Then the fun began! The kids crushed up Cheeto's and put them into the paper bag flowers. This was our pollen.The bees had woollen legs that helped when they visited a flower, the pollen was picked up and then transported to each flower. The kids really enjoyed this pollination experiment.

See the pollen!

I have also decided that this term we are going to take a trip through Australia. We have started working through Our Australian Story and pictures.

The first thing we read through was details about the landscape and weather differences across Australia. The girls then looked through books on Australia looking at pictures of our landscape. When they had found their favourite picture, their task was to sketch it and then water paint it.

The girls and I have really enjoyed our first week back at school for this term. And I love that Josef is enjoying joining in.

Avril and Josef play really well together, during the week Avril decided they would have a tea party. She cut out tiny jam sandwiches and found some chocolate buttons for the both of them..so sweet :)

 Derek's birthday was also this week..happy birthday Derek!! We celebrated with home made chinese and trifle (not cake!). Derek loves trifle..not the neat English ones all layered beautifully, but a thrown together mixture of foods :) Adele baked him a butter cake and made him some creaming soda jelly. The she tipped in custard, rice cream and sprinkled the top with chocolate flake! He was in heaven!

Unfortunately, the trifle was too runny to stick on a candle, so we used a donut! And did we have any birthday candles...no! But thankfully at the bottom of an old birthday box there was a Lisa Simpson candle, so we made do! :)

 Today has been a lovely Sunday afternoon. No t.v.! Yay! Instead time spent outside together in the cool winter sun. The two littlies pulled out their bikes, Adele grabbed her bargain roller blades that we bought during the week at an opshop for $7 and Damon played soccer with dad. I took the three younger ones for a roll up the street.

 This shot was taken before she decided to practice with no training wheels!

Josef was not content coming last and going slow, so we went faster!

 Then he slowly pedaled down the road with his brother and sister.

 A great start to term!