Life skills...

I have settled on the idea that blogging fortnightly is probably the right amount for my blog. Any greater frequency seems to send me into a boring monologue week after week, and any less and I feel that I'll never catch up.

This week and next week have been designated "Life Skills" time at Gillamagong. In that time, the kids are to learn to cook, clean (an old-fashioned idea, I know), to knit and to generally run a household to some degree.

Zach's work this week has included writing a thank you letter for his tennis sponsorship to the local Sporting Club, printing and entering a photo in the local Show, making a recipe that he's never attempted previously, despite his constant nagging to make chocolate chip cookies again. He's cleaned the bathroom and toilet pretty well, and especially so that the paint is washed off the tiles (how the paint got there is a whole other story). He's resisting the knitting thing for now - I'll get him when Issie is away on her trip. Then he won't be able to escape my clutches!

He made apple crumble (he called it apple grumble) and ti was absolutely delicious. I will get him to post the recipe on his blog. He also has to write it in his recipe journal.

Zach has also been invited to take two of Wayne-the-drover's horses to the Walgett Show. What he'll do with them there is beyond me, but it sounds like a good thing for him to do anyway.

Issie has been cooking, cleaning and knitting this week too. Her knitting project is a neck gaiter, which is akin to a scarf but made like the bottom of a balaclava - it's a tube. We are not knitting circularly yet - that seems like a bit of a challenge at this stage - we are sewing the seam up once it's done and it's almost as good! A neck gaiter is a safer alternative to a scarf for riding horses and working with any sort of machinery on a farm, so that's why we have chosen a neck gaiter as the first project. They also look smashing and are harder for kids to lose.

Issie has a week before she leaves for America. She's pretty excited - and rightly so! She is to visit three states - California, Oregon and Idaho - or possibly four if they travel through Nevada. She is working at Windhorse Ranch - a mustang facility and natural horsemanship boarding mecca near Sacramento in CA, and participating in a horse clinic at Thunder Hollow Ranch in ID. She will begin in San Francisco, then visit Oregon when she attends the Parelli Celebration in Redmond, and they will travel from there to Idaho.

Issie's school work while she's there is to be the following:
A project about the Native American Indian tribes in the States that she will visit, detailing history, life now and their connection to the land;
To map where she travels;
A research project on the Appaloosa horse;
To make a movie of her trip using our video camera and to edit it when she returns home;
To try to finish her maths book - she'll have access to teachers and college lecturers while she's there so I expect she'll be able to get ample help;
To cook a meal each week for her host families;
and to blog her trip whenever she has internet access. The purchase of a new laptop has been beyond me at this point, but the old one could be an option if I figure out internet stuff while she's over there.
All of that and actually traveling will probably be enough to keep her very, very busy.

Hannah celebrated her 7th birthday yesterday. She has learned to knit this morning with some merino wool. When I am organised I'll post a pic of her with her new rosewood knitting needles, which upon closer inspection were just awful and rough. We swapped needles and have started over with some smooth bamboo ones, which she has reported are much nicer to use. Han has also been using her maths skills to count the stitches to ensure we haven't dropped or picked up a stitch, and is counting by twos to go faster.

Hannah has been helping with cooking and cleaning too. The plumber arrives to move the washing machine plumbing tomorrow so we are in a bit if a hurry to get things organised. We lost power to the western side of the house yesterday so the much anticipated birthday cake didn't happen - she got meagre cupcakes at 8pm instead. We had no idea what had caused the problem, but it turned out to be the mixmaster - the very thing we so desperately needed to make the cake! Han was happy with her cupcakes and a few lollies, so that made it pretty easy!

Another of Hannah's birthday gifts was a set of Magnetic Poetry "First Words", with about 100 simple words, and a metal notice board for her room. She is getting better with her sight words but still guesses rather than attacking the word. She also got a journal to write the sentences that she makes with her magnets. She was rather taken with the idea that she could make a sentence that read " I ate the green monkey".

Charlie is still entertaining us all with his extroverted antics. He is really interested in forming letters and counting. He writes his name as "to", with a full-stop afterwards, of course! He particularly likes hide'n'seek as he gets to count very loudly.

We are off to Sydney tomorrow for a Parelli Natural Horsemanship event and to see family. We will return on Sunday or Monday and will be doing lots of art and craft over the next week.