August Fun!!

August has been a month of some fabulous family time. Daddy has had some early finishes and a couple of free days which has been a wonderful opportunity to hang out as a family.

Maitland Park:

The boys came here to play soccer, the other kids brought along their soft toys and played throw them as high as possible and then catch them!

Daddy even joined in the fun game, surprising them with his very high throws!

Then it was time to find a tree to climb, so up went the younger three. I think this was Josef's first time up a tree!

When they had finished with climbing, we headed towards the play equipment. This didn't last long though as they spotted seed pods growing on the trees. After I had commented that they reminded me of conkers, which we used to battle with, the girls decided to invent a game with these less sturdy pods :)

They decided to hit them together one at a time and see whose was strongest. Adele was delighted to find out what was inside :)

Mount Sugarloaf:

We had been meaning to visit here for a while. And we were delighted with what we found.

I love being out in the bush away from shops, housing estates and the busyness of life. And I thoroughly enjoyed our time up here.

We decided to follow one of the tracks that we found and see what we came across.

It was a lovely walk, full of nature..and we found a couple of shelters people had made around some trees.

The kids stopped and posed for silly photos with daddy!!

And even mum had a turn :)

They explored and climbed upon rocks and fallen down trunks of trees.

After coming back to the car for some morning tea, we decided to explore another track, but after walking for a while it seemed like we getting far away from the car park, but thankfully we weren't actually that far as Josef was getting tired :)

Then it was BBQ time! Bacon and egg rolls...yum, yum!!

Resting!!

Sandwiches ready!!

We also had a lunch guest!! Mr. Kookaburra!! He wasn't shy and came down to share our meal :)

A big walk and some great family time together!!

As well as our times out and about we have also been doing some school.

Josef has started to draw people!!

The brown one is Josef with George out of Peppa Pig.

The girls and I have been reading about Australian animals. Adele has finished her report on Platypuses. Avril and I have read about Koalas. Avril narrated to me what she had learned, for me to write down. She then illustrated her work.

 We have also been reading about reptiles, birds and mammals of the world.

Here Josef is making his turtle and the girls have made some snakes to go along with our unit of study (classifications of animals).

Damon finished preparing his oral report on explaining the factors that are needed to be considered when choosing an airline. The family was his audience and he did a great job.

Damon is in the process of finishing his Zoology assignment on biomes of the world.

He is nearly there :)

The girls and I have been reading about Aborigines in early Australian history. 

We decided to try to make some paint out of scraped rock powder.

We scarped enough to do some body painting, but we needed more powder to make it clearer.

In language arts Adele has been researching our state of NSW. She has been looking at maps, state emblems, flags, main industries and population. She is compiling an information pack for a fictitious family moving to the area.

Other than school...

We have been attending and helping out at Real Play. Real Play is a playgroup run by our church. The bigger kids love helping out and joining in with the little kids. It is great watching them serve!

Construction week...creating just like our creator!

Here is Damon entertaining the littlies!!

 Kids Play...

The kids had been watching Serious Explorers. This is a series on ABC about a group of children chosen to go on a months exploration away from home. The kids love it!!

I was delighted to find them play acting being explorers in the back yard, building tents and pretend fires. They even used branches that had been pruned to make a jungle!

Adeles camp fire...

 I love watching what they come up with in their play. Homeschool is great for encouraging time for them to do this!

 We have had unusually warm weather for the end of winter, which has been great! The kids talked us in to putting the sprinkler on the other day when it hit 27C. I thought it would be a little cool, but they were determined and had a great time!

 Farewell winter!!