Surfers Paradise

The photos from our trip to Surfers Paradise, Australia, have been sitting in my machine for a while. The holiday was fabulous although we did get caught in our of Queensland's worst storms in 25 years. There were lots of news about power outages and flattened homes. We were at Dreamworld when it all started. Suddenly, the sky darkened and the rain just lashed down like a crazed person. We managed to make it back to our service apartment late in the evening when the rain stopped. In spite of all the raining, we also managed to visit the David Fleay's Wildlife Park and saw 2 platypuses. It was quite amazing! As platypuses are nocturnal, they are housed in a darkened room so we can watch them in action. Unfortunately, that also meant we didn't get any photos :(


We also saw some koalas -





We visited the Carrera market. It was hot there but the many interesting things made the kids not want to go :)

My little girl even tried out the reverse bungee thing -

We caught and held captive a little green grasshopper for a week (sorry for that, little greenie). As a parting gift, it molted and left behind its exoskeleton.

Cinderella

My girl just did a drawing of Cinderella. She is displaying it on the wall in my room aka "Art Museum".





A piece of news - our hammies had another brood - 5 this time :)
The previous batch of babies were all named after cars - Suzuki, Ferrari, Chevy and Ford. Thinking of names for this next batch. Any suggestions?

Pipe cleaner creepy crawlies

During our visit to the Jacob Ballas Children's Garden, we learned to make some little creatures using pipe cleaners. Here are some of our creations -






Isn't that cool?

Visit to the Singapore Botanical Gardens

After many days of rain, the sky finally cleared on Saturday - just perfect for a visit to the Singapore Botanical Gardens.

We found a GIGANTIC tree -



We also spotted a dragonfly -



Not sure what flowers these are but they sure look nice -



The kids also had fun on the spinning dish -

A week later...

Here are the hamsters at about 1 week old -

4 more baby hamsters

Mommy ham just gave birth to 4 more babies on 17 August 2008, the night Singapore won a Silver medal at the Olympics. Here is mommy ham showing off her babies -

Our July baby hamsters

Our 6 baby hamsters born on 4 July 2008 are now up and running -

Lapbooking resources

Over the past few months, I have been exploring the wonders of lapbooking and have discovered a wealth of resources on the internet. I have listed a few of these free lapbooking resources in an article

Great Lapbooking Resources For Free

Hope the resources will prove useful to all lapbookers out there.

Fleabag and Charlie

We have just finished reading a wonderful book

Fleabag

by Helen Stephens

The illustrations are so adorable!

We are also starting on the famous Raold Dahl bestseller -

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

It is a long book, but we are enjoying it a great deal.

Today's Reading List

We have just finished reading two very lovely books -

Ginger Bear
by Mimi Grey

Olivia
by Ian Falconer

They are just amazing!

Our Eggplant Is Growing!

A few weeks back, we bought an eggplant plant (yes, the plant, not just the fruit). It had one eggplant on it already -



Over the past few days, the plant has been flowering -

One flower has just "shrivelled" but we suspect it is turning into a fruit -

Soon, I will need to look for a recipe for eggplants!

Why Homeschooling Is Great

Check out my recently published content on AC:

Why Homeschooling is Great


Five Golden Rules for Homeschooling Preschoolers


8 Homeschooling Ideas Right in Your Home

Writing a Story

Today, my girl decided to "write" - meaning copy - a story. She took one of her favourite books and copied it down word for word. Here is what she has done -

Way to go, girl! That is the start of a writer :)

Baby Hamsters!

Our dear mommy hamster had her third brood of baby hams. There are 6 this time. We have yet to name them but they are most likely going to be named after the 7 dwarfs minus Doc.

Here is mommy ham with one of the stowaways -

Learning to read

After a year of homeschooling, my little girl has finally learned to read. I think neither of us really know when or how it happened. It just did. After weeks and weeks of sounding letters, reading books aloud, reading words on signboards and writing little notes, I suddenly found that she could read enough words to make sense of simple sentences.

Yesterday, she decided she wanted to read and read. She finished these books in one sitting -

Oops! I Made A Mistake
by Susan Hood and Dana Regan

A House For Mouse
by Babs Shook

Our New Baby
by Sue Kueffner and Dorothy Stott

She was so proud. And so was I!

Perhaps one day, she will read Oliver Twist.

Why is it cold in Korea?

Today, my dear son told his little cousin all about the snow he saw during our holiday in Korea last winter. My precocious niece asked why it snowed and my son said it was cold in Korea. She asked why it was cold and my son said "Because it is called ko- (cold) korea"!

Kids do say the darnest things!

Our Little Baking Activity

My little girl and I finally baked some peanut butter cookies today! As our first attempt a few months ago was a disaster (we could still see the grains of sugar after baking), we decided to use a cookie mix this time. The cookies were not much to look at, but they tasted great. We made 2 dozens and finished 14 of them.

Bon apetit!

Cooking with kids

We have been wanting to start cooking lessons, but to avoid having to clean up messes, I have not allowed my little girl to do anything other than stirring the batter.

We are finally going to start cooking lessons tomorrow. And lucky me - I've just found an excellent website to start us off - http://www.kids-cooking-activities.com/index.html.

We will start off with waffles. Easy enough, I think!

Lapbooking

Today, my little girl and I finally got down to reading the book 'Wizard of Oz'. We also discovered lapbooks, a wonderful approach that makes learning a great deal more fun and hands-on.

Here are some excellent websites for lapbooking -
http://www.squidoo.com/lapbooking
http://homeschoolblogger.com/jaminacema/Lapbooks/


A great resource for the Wizard of Oz lapbook is at -
http://www.homeschoolshare.com/wonderful_wizard_of_oz.php

Here is another for older kids -
http://thewizardofoz.info/ozteach.html

Telling time

It baffles me why my little girl can add and subtract, but she just doesn't understand the concept of time. I don't mean that she is tardy or drags her feet. She really just doesn't know what it means by an "hour" or a "minute". The harder I try to explain, the more mixed up she becomes. Sigh! I guess I will lay off the "Time" lesson until a later date when she is ready.

My first blog entry!

Wow! I'm finally starting my first blog :)

Have been homeschooling my little girl for more than a year now. It's been an up-and-down journey. Lots of frustration, especially initially.

I was a very good student during my school days - conscientious, neat, mostly A-grades, so handling a grouchy, "i-don't want-to-do-homework" kid was trying, to say the least.

After a year, we have finally worked ourselves into a reasonably comfortable rhythm. When she completes the work I assign her, we move on to do fun things like making cookies and growing sunflower seeds in the backyard. Life is getting a lot better :)