What's Flowering at our Place & Our Homeschool Inspection?

Everything seems to be flowering profusely this year. I don't think that I've seen so many flowers on the Feijoa at one time, and the grape vine is only a sultana grape, but the bunches this year are HUGE. The Silky Oak in our back yard is spectacular, and the parrots haven't discovered it, yet, but I'm sure that they will, and when they do, our home will be a noisy cavalcade of hungry parrots. The roses have also been flowering abundantly, and their fragrance is delicious.

What else would you see in our back yard? Well, at the moment we also have a sleepy lizard - might be something to do with the amount of earwigs present in our back yard at present.

Now, where are those chooks?

They were in the back yard, but now they've migrated to the orange grove, and there must be some rather tasty earwigs up there because they've been there for positively ages.

I love how the chooks look as if they are playing follow the leader in the photo on the right. What I don't like is the small deposits that they leave on the concrete paths. Oh well, we can always hose off the concrete, but the chooks are doing an excellent job of demolishing the earwigs. Praise God for all of His creation, but especially chooks!

How did we go with our homeschooling review, you might ask?

Well, we showed examples of what we had accomplished over the past eighteen months, and then showed Sally our slideshow of photos for the year. The rest of the photos are in a Scrapbook for 2008.

What samples did we show?

• Cards that we had made
• Several projects for Social Studies
• Poetry Notebook
• Computer & Web Design projects
• Slide Show of our Scrap Book for 2009 made using jQuery Fancy Box
  
• Books Read
  

We discussed options for TAFE AND university, and what my son aspires to be when he leaves school. Then we also discussed the new healthy eating guidelines for South Australian schools and pre-schools. After this we discussed the Premier's Reading Challenge, which our children do not participate in, but they read voraciously. Next on the agenda was the Premier's be active CHALLENGE, which entails spending an hour a day in physical activity for all students from reception to year 9. I guess my daughter would qualify based upon biological age???

I thoroughly enjoyed Sally's visit today - I think that the more you I homeschool, the more confident you I become, and you are I am more able to cope with what is expected. I had all of my paperwork up to date, diary and attendance records filled out properly, and the children had worked hard this year. I don't know about you, but it's helpful to me to have someone come in and inspect us every eighteen months, so that I make sure I'm "ticking all the right boxes", and Sally is very easy to communicate with.

All in all, it's been a great day - praise God for His goodness to usward!

What Next - Chooks in the House Yard?

This last couple of weeks, we have had such a problem with earwigs - there have been millions of the horrid little things, literally. They are everywhere - in the garden absolutely everywhere, so much so that we decided not to replant the plants that they have eaten, as there is no point. They will simply eat the new seedlings before they have a chance to grow.

We tried spraying with a pyrethrin based insecticide, but it really goes against the grain. After all, we are growing vegetables at home so that we don't ingest all of those horrible pesticides that they get sprayed with, and then we go and do exactly the same thing.

BUT

The last couple of days we have been letting the chooks scratch around in the vegetable patch, and they have dramatically reduced the population of earwigs, so today, after much consternation, I decided to let the chooks into the house yard, and they have been having such fun turning the soil over and getting rid of the horrid pests that have invaded our home. I must really be becoming "countrified", for six years ago I would never have dreamed of letting the chooks into the house yard.

Believe me, nobody will walk around the house yard without shoes, but it will be ever so worth it if we can eliminate those horrid pests that have invaded our yard and our home. They were even in the shower with me this morning, but my husband draws the line at letting the chooks inside to clean up the earwigs.

Everybody that we talk to around the area has the same problem, even our friends in Adelaide, but at least we have an environmental solution to the problem, even if it does mean wearing shoes outside, all the time!

The True Meaning of Christmas

The True Meaning Of Christmas


Jesus Christ was born this day
So many years before
He came a servant to the lost
Though he was Lord of Lords

We celebrate this joyous time
Reflecting on His birth
Not born in a mansion, but a stable
As if He had no worth

He came so He could identify
With the human heart of man
And gave His life as a sacrifice
Offering a better plan

A plan that reconciles us back
To our loving Father God
Bringing hope and redemption from
Sins ruling iron rod

For this is the only reason that we
Should celebrate this day
To become focused on anything else
Would take the meaning away

So let’s arise with joy in our hearts
And share it with everyone
The meaning of Christmas will always be
The birth of Jesus – God’s son

© By M.S.Lowndes

This poem, I found at Heaven's Inspirations, where we usually print our card verses from - that is, if we don't write them ourselves. I thought that it was too beautiful not to share. Michelle has some truly beautiful poetry there, too.

Getting Ready for Next Year

Wow - can you believe that I spent nearly all day getting our curriculum order ready for next year? I have prayed about this for quite some time, praying that we make the right choices for our children.

I typed it all into an Excel spreadsheet, double-checked it and it has now been sent off. *Note to self* - ring Australian Christian College tomorrow to make sure that they have received it, as for some reason, our orders usually go astray.

The subjects that my son will be studying for his Academic Certificate, for years 11 and 12 are:

1. SAT maths preparation - is a combination of geometry and algebra.
2. English - including God's Tribesmen by James and Marti Hefley, and The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom and John and Elizabeth Sherrill
   
3. English Literature - studying Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Silas Marner by George Eliot.
4. Collectivism
   
5. Economics - one of the things that he will learn is to how to establish and follow a budget.
6. History of Civilisation
7. The Bible and Science - studying such excellent resources as, A Case for Creation, Evolution: The Fossils Still Say No! Scientific Creationism and In the Beginning.
   
8. Old Testament Survey
9. Christian Counselling - *I'd love to be able to study this course, myself*
   
10. Accounting
11. Business Maths
12. Basic Art

AND

My daughter will be studying these subjects next year to complete her year 10 Academic certificate:

1. Business Maths
2. English - including God's Tribesmen by James and Marti Hefley, and The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom and John and Elizabeth Sherrill
3. World Geography
4. Physical Science
5. Successful Living
6. Christian Growth
   

I feel as if I can finally rElAx, knowing that everything is in place for first term, 2010, and all praise belongs to God for helping me to do all things to the glory of God.

Upside Down Writing - Just the Trick for the Land Downunder

¡ɥnɥ `ƃuıʇsǝɹǝʇuı

lɯʇɥ˙dılɟ/ʇǝu˙ʌɹǝɥs˙ʍʍʍ//:dʇʇɥ
:sı ǝʇısqǝʍ ǝɥʇ puɐ ʇǝu ˙ʌɹǝɥs pǝllɐɔ ǝɔɐld ɐ ɯoɹɟ sı ʇı

˙pɐǝɥ ɹnoʎ uo ƃuıpuɐʇs ʇnoɥʇıʍ ʇsod sıɥʇ pɐǝɹ uɐɔ noʎ ɟı ǝǝs os `sƃuıɥʇ ʇuǝɹǝɟɟıp ǝʞıl noʎ ɟo ǝɯos ɥɔnɯ ʍoɥ ʍouʞ ı ˙ʇuǝɹǝɟɟıp ʎllɐǝɹ sɐʍ ʇı ʇɐɥʇ ʇɥƃnoɥʇ puɐ `ʎɐpoʇ ʞooqǝɔɐɟ uo sıɥʇ ʍɐs ı