2010... in the beginning...

I can hardly believe that the summer holidays are over and we are back to school! Time flies when you're having fun!

The holidays were great. We didn't go anywhere really - just hung about at home, swam a lot when it was hot, and enjoyed the rain when it came. And come it did! We had inches and inches of rain on Christmas Day and for a week and a half afterwards. The horses begged for snorkels on day four. By day seven they had given up on me being able to help them and I'm sure that I saw gills appearing on the sides of their necks. Even now, at the beginning of February, the gardens are still green and lush, and the regular follow up rain has been appreciated.

Christmas Day was spent at Keith's sister, Helen's, place and we had a lovely day together.

The kids took about two weeks to actually stop thinking they had to do school work. They relaxed into the holidays as time went on and started to get a bit creative and excited about their days.

Zach and Issie both had the chance to do more droving work with Wayne. All of the rain caused chaos for those out on the stock route, and the mosquitoes have spread three-day sickness through his cattle. Add to that the pink eye that is rife out here and he's a busy man! The kids were a great help to Wayne, and Zach has gained a huge amount of confidence and inner peace from his two weeks out on horseback. I am so glad he did it. I can see a change in him.

Issie made some new/old friends during the holidays too. Bronte, Elizabeth, Anna and the two Lydias have all become a part of Issie's life and it is wonderful to see her developing some solid and happy friendships after so long of not having anyone her own age around her. She has also remained in contact with her dear friend Lilly and I hope we will be able to get them together soon.

Isobel also discovered the art classes that are held at the local library. She now attends twice a week and loves it. That is something that Zach and Hannah will also do at least once a week and which will continue throughout the term.

Issie read voraciously during the holidays. She almost emptied the local library, reading the remaining 14 Phantom Stallion books and a raft of others. Last Wednesday evening she borrowed, from Lorna, "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer. She finished it Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning started the next book in the series, "New Moon". I don't know if there are enough books in the wold to keep up with her thirst for written works - she finished the second book, over 550 pages, on Sunday afternoon. give her a book and a horse and she's happy.

Ukulele classes resume this afternoon, and drama begins for the term on Wednesday.

As for schoolwork, we are still trying to catch up with what the kids ought to know, but don't yet, and to make the skills and knowledge that they have really solid. I'm not sure how two reasonably intelligent kids can miss so much in mainstream school. Or maybe that is par for the course in institutionalised education?

Zach is still finishing his Yr7 maths and Issie is working on her Yr5 maths. Before we move on to higher levels I need to be sure they both understand the concepts of what we are studying now. I anticipate that they will both be ready to move on to the subsequent years' work in Term 2.

Issie and Zach are continuing with their Yr7 English work. This term we are concentrating on grammar, which seems to have been ignored somewhere along the way in their previous mainstream schools, with some creative writing, comprehension and written expression work. The second half of the year will look more at taking these skills and using them in different text types.

Hannah is doing well moving into her Year 1 work. The maths concepts seem to flow easily for her. The English skills still seem a bit challenging, but I am putting that down to her just liking maths more at this stage.

Han is also still doing her speech therapy with Robyn Parker and we are seeing self-correction taking place as she becomes more aware of her speech patterns. She is very proud of herself.

Charlie has begun a book called "Starting School". He loves it, and is also learning to write his name. I found a website that lets you make your own handwriting and alphabet sheets, so I printed one off for him. I had no intention of starting him this year, but he is interested in letters, sounds and numbers, so I figure I will let him lead.

We are revisiting our "Home" topic for HSIE, art, TAS and science this term. We will be looking at "Home" around the world, our own home, how homes/houses are made, the science within a house, how houses and how we live affect our environment, and we'll be designing and making a model of a house. We will be using different art processes, including photography and painting to show houses and how they make us feel.

We are planning a trip to the tip to find some junk to use for our entries for the "Waste to Art" competition. I have no idea what we'll find!

We begin guitar lessons on the 20th of February for Zach and Issie. We will be attending the Macquarie Conservatorium of Music once a month and doing lots of practice at home in between! The kids are excited!

In all of the kids' work, I hope to use the Six Thinking Hats. I believe it helps them to see things from a number of perspectives and to have, perhaps, a more rounded view of the world.

And on that note, I must away to organise lunch for the hungry hordes.