Notebook covers

Well here they are, are`nt they great? Simple but affective ! The apple "prints" have dried and Aideen drew in the pips and stalks and leaves with markers and there you go...Homemade and unique covers...also heres a picture of Tracy Beaker that Sadbh drew on the whiteboard yesterday, is`nt it good???

Homeschoolers unite :)

Aideen is SO delighted to see the fruits of her hard work in the garden...are`nt they fabulous ?

Here are Aideen and Daisy`s good friends Sadbh and Caoimhe, who visit regularly...lovley girls...who are loving being Homeschooled ! And Nora and myself enjoy the HS Mom chats too :0) Heres to friendship !

RED...

Today we decided just to use the colour RED...and so out came some red paint and red apples...what fun ensued and the finished products are going to be used as notebook covers for our classroom notebooks and also for journals...we`ll post some photos of them when they are covered...

doing our bit...for the troops

Aideen and myself managed to find (at last) a group where we can pray daily for the brave american troop and their families...(this is a photo of the cert to show the troop we are to keep in our prayers)...its very formal and we do it quitely and to ourselves...but it feels good to be doing SOMETHING ! We were so worried a few months ago when my own nephew was posted abroad...we can only imagine how hard it is for these poor souls and their families...God bless them and keep them safe !

Also today we continue with our Peru project ,which is going well and is SO interesting ! And we`ve booked 2 workshops for July , our local library is fantastic that way...one is for painting a tshirt and the other is a science and experiment workshop...exciting stuff !!!

Pumpkins have sprung !

Wow...these guys sure do grow quickly !!!! `we`re all excited about (hopefully) having our very own home-grown pumpkins this Halloween to carve and of course to use for Heathers amazing pumpkin/chocolate chip muffin recipie...Aideen is so excited about this project she keeps measuring the pumpkins everyday !!!!

Homeschool postcard swap

Heres just a taster of the many postcards we received the past couple of weeks from all over the world through the postcard swap we took part in with other homeschool families...great fun ! Thanks for the great organisation Pebs !

Art ,inside and out

we found this picture today that Aideen drew when she was only 7 after watching the old film "The Bells of Saint Mary`s"...I had to hang it up...

also today while we walked we made a picnic place for the fairies :0) We used big leaves to make large umbrellas, then we made chairs from twigs and used leaves to make a picnic rug and then some buttercups to make cups...it was fun ...hope the fairies liked it ! We love using whats around us to make "art".... at the moment we are on the lookout for a large feather so we can make a quill pen, Aideen is really excited about it ! Its just a question of finding the right feather...

To write or not to write...

Honestly I am SO proud of Aideen , shes really getting the hang of this joined (cursive) writting...and its improvement all the way ! As you can see she really concentrates !

Also Aideen has been writing the day , date on the classroom whiteboard everyday in French ,its better than singing off the days...she says its much easier to remember the days this way...we also have labeled more of the classroom objects in French ,for example, the trashcan , the art cuboard ,the computer ,etc...Also today ,Aideens essay was to write about someone famous she would like to meet...she choose the Jonas Brothers , her favourite band , because they are homeschooled...I gave her an A ,simply because of the effort she put into writing the essay and the fact that her hand-writing was so neat...she was confused and asked me how she got an "A" if all her spellings were`nt correct ,when I explained it was for effort and neatness ,she was delighted and said "in school they never corrected our work like that"...

Fun (and maths) the old-fashioned way

Today, Aideen drew Hop-scotch on the garden path , and Daisy ,who loves to count (we cant believe it shes not 2 and yet she can almost reach ten)...had to join in...Daisy "favourite" number at the moment is 8 ,so when it was her turn she just ran up and down the hop-scotch grid giving an odd jump shouting "eight ,eight,eight" !!!! Aideen done some mental maths by adding, etc the numbers she was hopping on...also we had religion today ,our church does a weekly kids page and this week it was about the Holy Spirit ,so we talked about how the Spirit is in/around us...on the gardening front ,we transplanted our coriander and parsley plantlings into yogurt pots to grow a bit more before we give them as gifts/plant them...

Pumpkin growing time !

Well, bargain of the day had to be a pumpkin growing kit from Aldi...HOPEFULLY they will grow its our first try !!! A neighbour who is from Lituania grew fantastic pumpkins these last 2 years, and has always given us our Halloween supply...so we`ll have to get tips from her !!! She grows hers on the compost heap !!!! Anyways, we`ll keep you posted !

Wildlife in the town...

Today we took the bonoculars with us...and as you can see both girls had a fantstic time "exploring" in fields at the back of the collage...Aideen spotted all sorts of birds and a wonderful wild iris, which I managed to snap...

Books in the sun

This weather is seeing our trips to the library increase (if thats possible) ! Its si fine, and we`re off on picnics everyday...today we went to feed the ducks, play in the publicoutdoor gym and also had a go at throwing the frisbee...then it was home and out into the backyard tent to read and read and read some more...

everyday we`re thankful to be Homeschoolers ,but today on our way hoem it really hit...the local kids were coming out of school...and they were SO hot in their uniforms, one little girl was actually crying to her Mum she was so warm ! You`d think on hot days the schools would bend the rules and allow shorts and t-shirts ???

Water colours

Aideen today came home from our walk and did this fantastic picture of the Mother and baby ducks we saw at the old mill wheel...the four of us stood for ages watching them !!! Daisy was finding it hilarious there was one little fella and no matter how hard he was paddling he wasnt moving, he just kept tipping over ! beautiful weather ,beautiful lessons...