December 2013- High Summer

(First published at Sandbox to Socrates http://sandboxtosocrates.wordpress.com)

Age 6- Grade Prep

"That was a bearded dragon. It crossed the road at the Hattah Lakes. The he climbed up the bank and behind the tree."

Again Daughter has combined objects of interest from St Clair and Steavenson's Falls into one picture. In the middle of the picture there you can see a flower with a purple seed pod. It must have been some kind of native pea. I was interested because I don't ever recall seeing plants in various states of flowering while also producing seed pods.

This was drawn from Lake Nillacootie, which is not one of our usual haunts. We were there for a break up party with one of our homeschool groups. This is a picture of a dead cicada.

"The cicada was dead. There were others being noisy up the tree. Those ones were alive." (Of course they were. Sometimes this girl is too cute. :) )

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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally...

Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet; but she is making good progress as they work and play in Central Victoria, Australia.

November 2013- True Spring --> High Summer

(First published at Sandbox to Socrates http://sandboxtosocrates.wordpress.com)

Another short post.

This was drawn from our kitchen. "The dead moth was on the window sill. The spiders will eat it up. I saw the moth's legs. I showed Dad the baby spiders." Not the best drawing, but the baby spiders were cool. :)

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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally…

Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet; but she is making good progress as they work and play in Central Victoria, Australia.

October 2013- True Spring

(First published at Sandbox to Socrates http://sandboxtosocrates.wordpress.com)

A short post this month.

This picture was drawn from one of our nature study tours down to Barwon Heads. We stood for a while watching the duck diving into the estuary. A bit of artistic license has been taken. The duck was not purple, but black. :)

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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally...

Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet; but she is making good progress as they work and play in Central Victoria, Australia.

Religious Calendar Curriculum- July

5th

-Jewish Shabbat (begins at sunset the night before)

*Observed by all observant Jews, this is a day of rest to commemorate all the work God put into making the universe. How much resting and avoidance of work depends on the family culture. Yesterday, of course, lots of work went into preparation because no one can take a full day off running a house unless they have already done the needed work. Otherwise, what would everyone eat?

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6th

-Sunday Church services- Holy Days of Obligation for Catholics, encouraged for nearly all other Christians

*Read a picture book, colour a colouring page from The Mass Colouring Book http://www.amazon.com/Coloring-Book-about-Catholic-Publishing/dp/0899426832/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386972341&sr=8-1&keywords=about+the+mass+colouring+book or something printed out from one of the Catholic sites online.

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12th

-Jewish Shabbat (begins at sunset the night before)

*Observed by all observant Jews, this is a day of rest to commemorate all the work God put into making the universe. How much resting and avoidance of work depends on the family culture. Yesterday, of course, lots of work went into preparation because no one can take a full day off running a house unless they have already done the needed work. Otherwise, what would everyone eat?

~~~~~

-Full Moon (Neo-Pagan)

*Some Pagans, particularly Wiccans, observe the full moon as a special time.

*Read 'Aiden's First Full Moon Circle' by W. Lyon Martin

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13th

-Sunday Church services- Holy Days of Obligation for Catholics, encouraged for nearly all other Christians

*Read a picture book, colour a colouring page from The Mass Colouring Book http://www.amazon.com/Coloring-Book-about-Catholic-Publishing/dp/0899426832/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386972341&sr=8-1&keywords=about+the+mass+colouring+book or something printed out from one of the Catholic sites online.

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15th

-Fast of the Seventeenth of Tammuz- minor fast. Dawn to dark. (Jewish)

*This fast commemorates the breaching of the city walls of Jerusalem before the Second Temple was destroyed.

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19th

-Jewish Shabbat (begins at sunset the night before)

*Observed by all observant Jews, this is a day of rest to commemorate all the work God put into making the universe. How much resting and avoidance of work depends on the family culture. Yesterday, of course, lots of work went into preparation because no one can take a full day off running a house unless they have already done the needed work. Otherwise, what would everyone eat?

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20th

-Sunday Church services- Holy Days of Obligation for Catholics, encouraged for nearly all other Christians

*Read a picture book, colour a colouring page from The Mass Colouring Book http://www.amazon.com/Coloring-Book-about-Catholic-Publishing/dp/0899426832/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386972341&sr=8-1&keywords=about+the+mass+colouring+book or something printed out from one of the Catholic sites online.

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-Day of the Prophet Elias (Orthodox) (aka Elijah)
*Colouring page from here: http://www.holyresurrection.us/kids/iconart/ProphetEliasl.html
*Relevant Bible story

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24th
- Pioneer Day (Utah Mormons, sometimes others though not a big deal is made)

*This commemorates the arrival of the first group of Mormon settlers in the Salt Lake Valley in Utah on July 24th, 1847 after having been forced out from where they'd come from in other places in the eastern US. This is a public holiday in Utah and is celebrated with parades, fireworks, rodeos and other such fun.

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-Laylat al-Qadr (Islam) (Not always observed on the same day, but roughly in the last ten days of Ramadan.)

*This is considered to be the night the first verses of the Quran were given to the Prophet Mohammed. On this night, they believe Allah blesses everyone, grants all prayers and forgives all sins, and that the angels come down to earth.

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26th

-Jewish Shabbat (begins at sunset the night before)

*Observed by all observant Jews, this is a day of rest to commemorate all the work God put into making the universe. How much resting and avoidance of work depends on the family culture. Yesterday, of course, lots of work went into preparation because no one can take a full day off running a house unless they have already done the needed work. Otherwise, what would everyone eat?

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27th

Sunday Church services- Holy Days of Obligation for Catholics, encouraged for nearly all other Christians

*Read a picture book, colour a colouring page from The Mass Colouring Book http://www.amazon.com/Coloring-Book-about-Catholic-Publishing/dp/0899426832/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1386972341&sr=8-1&keywords=about+the+mass+colouring+book or something printed out from one of the Catholic sites online.

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29th

-Eid al-Fitr (Islam)

*The big party at the end of Ramadan, where absolutely no fasting is allowed! Also, donations are made to charity before Eid prayers are made.
*Read 'I'm Learning about Eid-al-Fitr' by Goodword Books

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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally...

Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet; but she is making good progress as they work and play in Central Victoria, Australia.

September 2013- True Spring

(First published at Sandbox to Socrates http://sandboxtosocrates.wordpress.com)

"The moth was on Mamma's arm! It had 2 eyes, wings, antennae and 6 legs. It wouldn't go away" I don't know why there are so many moths in my bedroom, but they've been there for months.

"We saw the waterfall. We saw some flowers."

This picture combined our trip to St Clair and to Steavenson's Falls.

This was drawing of me looking at the sun from our verandah. I wish I could remember why I was doing that.

Does anyone know what makes sand poo? Well, what looks like sand poo? Um. Never mind… If I ever find out, I'll be sure to come here and share.

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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally...

Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet; but she is making good progress as they work and play in Central Victoria, Australia.

August 2013- Early Spring

(First published at Sandbox to Socrates http://sandboxtosocrates.wordpress.com)

This pic was drawn after our nature study tour visit to St Clair. I believe the white chunks in the bottom left corner are snow and she is playing in it. We were disappointed there wasn't enough to toboggan on, but some is more interesting than none. :) Not really sure why the ground is red, but these things happen.

Driving to Anglesea (on our nature study tour to the heathlands there) "We saw different colours of wattle." I suggested she draw the different coloured wattles, but it seems, from her pic, that the seeing was less important than the going. She has drawn yellow wattle, so perhaps the issue was she doesn't have a cream coloured pencil to draw cream coloured wattle with?

This pic was drawn at home. We woke up and went outside a bit earlier than usual, and seemingly over night, lots of little spiders had made lots of little webs all over the wattle and gum trees. They might have been there for ages but not caught our eye because the dew had dried. Again we have the problem of being unable to draw white spider webs without a white pencil. I shall have to do something about that.

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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally...

Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet; but she is making good progress as they work and play in Central Victoria, Australia.

July 2013- Deep Winter

(First published at Sandbox to Socrates http://sandboxtosocrates.wordpress.com)

A very short post for this month. We had no nature study tours scheduled and the weather was, shall we say, uninspiring!

I'm continuing to find it interesting the way she is drawing the pictures from something other than her own view. This pic certainly shows that the important part of her experience was being with Charlotte (another member of our homeschool group) while she took the photo of the nest, rather than the nest itself. I'm ok with that, since I wasn't sure she believed me that an eagle nest was worth a look anyway. Perhaps to her it looked like a messy pile of sticks compared to the compact mud nests of the swallows above our front door.

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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally...

Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet; but she is making good progress as they work and play in Central Victoria, Australia.

June 2013- Deep Winter

(First published at Sandbox to Socrates http://sandboxtosocrates.wordpress.com)

Our old mate the swamp wallaby features again…

Daughter kept mixing up moss and lichen, so we went a-wandering to try and fix that, and to see if it all looked healthier than last time we looked. It certainly did. Yay for rain!

This picture really doesn't do the experience justice. Imagine standing on a hill just before dawn and seeing shooting stars, that fade as the sun rises and brightens the sky…

Look, it was worth going outside in the freezing cold to see feathery patterns on the windshield. I don't know if Daughter was really impressed, but I convinced her to draw it in her journal, and she is pleased with the journal entry, lol.

Remember that brightly coloured waterfall? This time it is blue. :)

Out of everything we saw on our trip up to Terrick Terrick National park and the Hattah Lakes, all she wanted to draw was the pelican we saw for all of two seconds as we drove past at 80km per hour. Personally, I was hoping she'd be impressed about the moss growing at Hattah Lakes. Who knew moss would even grow on sand? Maybe everybody, but I didn't!

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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally...

Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet; but she is making good progress as they work and play in Central Victoria, Australia.

May 2013- Early Winter

(First published at Sandbox to Socrates http://sandboxtosocrates.wordpress.com)

Only two entries this month. There were no nature study tours scheduled and it was cold. (Sook, sook.)

Daughter was convinced this wallaby, whom we had never seen before, was a baby but I think it was a female.

I got a bee in my bonnet about Daughter not knowing what lichen was. I don't know why I like lichen so much, but I find it a happy thing.

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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally...

Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet; but she is making good progress as they work and play in Central Victoria, Australia.

April 2013- Early Winter

(First published at Sandbox to Socrates http://sandboxtosocrates.wordpress.com)

I was *terribly* impressed by this first picture here! I really think her drawing skills are improving, though we have quite some way to go before achieving brilliance in the style of the Edwardian Lady's journal. (Which is not necessarily a goal, but is certainly something to sigh wistfully about.) While I did have to remind her to give it legs, anyone from our part of the world would recognise this as a crimson rosella. These rosellas are seasonal visitors to us and they are so gorgeous I can't help but love them, even when they are making a mess in my veggie garden!

This next picture was from our trip to Steavenson's Falls, which we chose, for our nature study tours, as our 'wet woodlands' location. I'm not 100% thrilled with the site because there are a few too many invading blackberries and I'd rather there weren't, but it is accessible and we don't need to worry about coming back one day and finding it closed indefinitely for regeneration. I'm really not sure about the colours, but that is definitely her standing beside the waterfall.

Another spot we visit on our nature study tours is St Clair. There is nothing particularly remarkable about the site. It appears to be the location of an old township but is pretty much a paddock up in the hills. One of the major terrain types in our state is the alpine area, and this is the closest we can get that is accessible all year around, since it is a through road. And, this is very important, it doesn't cost us $50 to access like the ski resorts do in winter! Daughter was disappointed there wasn't any snow *again* but we got to see some sedimentary rocks just like the ones David Attenborough was talking about on the documentary we'd watched recently. Almost as good as snow is seeing things she's watched on documentaries. A very simple picture, but you're seeing the sedimentariness of those rocks, aren't you?

This picture was drawn at home. We looked out the window and saw a couple of young kangaroos fighting, with the swamp wallaby on the opposite watching them too. It was such an amusing picture (to me, anyway) that I suggested she draw it into her journal. For some reason known only to herself, she drew a mother and a joey instead. *shrug*

You remember those ants we saw at the Hattah-Kulkyne national park? Well guess what? They were still there this time!

And this picture is from another site on our nature study tour, the estuary at Barwon Heads, where we go to look at mangroves. Mangroves are cool. I really like this picture book, Mangroves by Glenda Kane and Lisa Allen, which I think is out of print at the moment. Rhyming books that you can read more than once a month without wanting to dig your eyes out should never go out of print. Boo hiss.

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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally...

Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet; but she is making good progress as they work and play in Central Victoria, Australia.

March 2013- Late Summer --> Early Winter

(First published at Sandbox to Socrates http://sandboxtosocrates.wordpress.com)

No entries from the early winter part of March, it must have been a shock to the system.  All of these were from rambling at home.

I think this next one is the big, grey frog.

This would be a swamp wallaby, otherwise known as a black wallaby, which is a better name since they don't restrict themselves to swamps. Actually, this wallaby hangs around our house, half way up a hill, and eats the scraps I put out for the chooks (chickens) if he gets to them first. Who knew wallabies liked gnocchi?

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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally…

Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet; but she is making good progress as they work and play in Central Victoria, Australia.

February 2013- Late Summer

(First published at Sandbox to Socrates http://http://sandboxtosocrates.com)

I decided to start our nature study journalling with the beginning of Daughter's first year of school, which began around the end of January here in Australia. Naturally, it took a month to get around to it. Since I can't remember the truth, I'm going to pretend that was deliberate, as I had come up with a brilliant idea to visit each of the major terrain types in our state, once each season. We live in 'dry woodlands.'

I need to get another pet hate out of my system, if you'll bear with me.  I think it is silly the way Australians whinge about the seasons not conforming to an inverted Northern Hemisphere system, when the Indigenous people have perfectly good and, unsurprisingly, more accurate calendars of their own. I am on a one-woman crusade to try and make people notice this and post a link featuring our local indigenous calendar (which seems true to the Melbourne area and a fair chunk of central Victoria) whenever it comes up in online conversations. Which it just has. Heh. http://www.herringisland.org/seasons1.htm (If the link is broken, google 'Aboriginal seasons Melbourne' and something suitable should appear.)

Just so you all know, I have great plans for my daughter's handwriting to end up better than mine. I do my best to encourage her to narrate the captions for her pictures, but as I said in the previous post, her learning challenges (Echolalia) get in the way a bit. So, for the foreseeable future, any writing in the journal will be a team effort.

This is the one hand-drawn picture she did about our first round of nature study tours. We went to the Hattah-Kulkyne National Park (would link if I could find a site with decent photos) to see the Mallee and Inland waterways terrain types. Lovely scenery, nearly went insane with the flies trying to climb into our eyes, ears, and noses. What you see below is an ant hill.

Her contribution to the notation was "the sand was orange and the ants were black."

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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally...

Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet. Her young son has retained primitive reflexes and autism. While there may be a deity somewhere who knows what's going to happen with this kid, he/she/it hasn't chosen to inform us. They live on a hill in rural southern Australia without enough solar panels and like it there.

Introduction to my Nature Studies series

(First published at Sandbox to Socrates- if that link is broken, you'll be able to find their excellent and useful work by searching Google)

Virtually everyone thinks nature study is a good and healthful thing to do. Most people think nature journalling is a good thing to do as well, but many find it hard to get enthusiastic enough about it to actually go out and *do* it.

One problem people have is knowing where to start. They want some kind of method to follow to feel like they are doing it properly. Looking out the window, I expect all of us would agree that there is some kind of "method to the madness" but it may not be humanly possible to sort it all out so we'd better not allow that to stop us! I must admit though, I felt a need for guidance when I was dithering about beginning nature journalling with my daughter. For several reasons, personality and language disorder among them, "draw something" was not something she'd respond to. I wasn't even sure "draw this" would work, so I purchased some journal pages to get us started. Being in Australia, I purchased mine from Downunder Lit but I have it from a reliable source that North Americans get excited over The Handbook of Nature Study. Apologies to the rest of you, you'll have to look on Pintrest!

The other problem people have with beginning nature journalling with small kids is, well, it looks like it was made by a small kid! There is something about nature journalling that can make a person feel like everyone else's kids were born proficient water colourists while your kids' drawing looks like a dog's breakfast. What I hope to do in this series is show the evolution of my daughter's nature journal, right from her first entry. Obviously *my child's* nature journal could never look like a dog's breakfast, not even to the unenlightened out there, but I must confess, it does look like the work of a small child. I would like to invite you to keep us company as we journal on...

But first, let me get my pet hate out of the way. I know it'll come out sooner or later, so better to get it over with.
*There is no such thing as "fake nature" unless it really is made of plastic, ok? Weeds growing through cracks in the footpath are not very interesting in the scheme of things, but they are are as real as anyone else's farm, mountain or coral reef. If you live in a concrete jungle and all the nature you have to look at is weeds and the neighbours' hanging baskets, look at them. Seasons affect them. Bugs munch them. They are real! If you don't even have that, look at the clouds. Everyone has weather and weather is real enough that people spend careers studying it.
*I quite agree that grass isn't all that thrilling, but learning how to find the grass in your front yard interesting is a valuable lesson. A more valuable lesson than seeing a bear or a swamp wallaby, cool as they are. If nature study was only about the cool factor, we could go to the zoo once a year and call it good.
Ok. I've got that out of my system. Moving along...

What a grand beginning...

I think I said she could cut out the picture or stick the whole page in. I guess she wanted to do both.

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Rose-Marie was one of those enthusiastic planners who began researching when she was pregnant with her first. She wanted to homeschool because it sounded like an affordable adventure, then she met her kids personally...

Her young daughter has Echolalia and some processing issues so isn't speaking fluently yet. Her young son has retained primitive reflexes and autism. While there may be a deity somewhere who knows what's going to happen with this kid, he/she/it hasn't chosen to inform us. They live on a hill in rural southern Australia without enough solar panels and like it there.