So where are we at?

Once again, it's been over a week since my last post.  Finding time to write up blog posts is getting trickier.  One factor is that Maestro is becoming more tech. savvy, so uses this computer more than I.  I'm not holding a grudge, though.  He does a quick check for my emails, yells if I'm needed, then gets back to the task he was doing.  He's either working on music editing, story writing, Spanish lessons (Auralog), or emailing friends.  Is it time for us to get another computer? ... I really don't want to seriously think about that right now.

Mariposa has been recovering amazingly well from her operation.  After the more painful days (around 5-9 days after her tonsils and adenoids were removed), she bounced back and was ready to do all sorts of things.  We still waited out the two full weeks of quarantine, though, taking time for picnics at the park and some pleasant walks in the sunshine.  She then went back to her drawing lessons, a craft day with friends, an afternoon horseriding, and is having her friend for a sleepover tomorrow night.

In our 'homeschooling world', Maestro's worked hard to get through more Apologia General Science.  He felt like the units on evolution discussions took forever, so I prodded him through it and now we're into the discussions on DNA with units on biology.  He's made a DNA model, dug up worms from the garden, looked for starch in plants; it's all a whole lot more fun again now.

Mariposa's science has consisted of reading How to Think Like a Scientist. I won't give it all away, but she's actually carrying out her experiment about whether a snake hung over a tree branch really can bring rain ... with a toy rubber snake.  "Did it rain, though?" I hear you ask.  Well ... yes, it did, but I think that it was already on the forecast before it fined up to a lovely afternoon. 

We've also been out to the pet supply store and bought a basic budgie nesting box for our two birds, Oliver and Butterscotch.  It is Spring, after all, so we're hoping that this pair of birds will produce some offspring for us to enjoy.  The nesting box we bought is very much like this one.  I also found this cute nesting box you can attach outside your window, cleverly set up so you can peek in when you lift the cover from inside the house: Peek-a-boo Birdhouse.  It may be something we could make at home, with a perspex backing, and set it up similarly to watch some small native honey-eaters.

Introducing Oliver

 and Butterscotch

Our Fibonacci living books arrived and we've read them.  This week, as it's now the state term break, we're also playing lots of games that involve math ( but sshhhh! don't tell the children!)  We've been playing Yahtzee a fair bit today and the plan to use multiplication facts to find your score IS WORKING!

The number of my music students has been grown ... 14 students now!  Wow!  How did that happen so fast?  Three new girls started the previous week, all known from the dance school. I think that's where a lot of my spare time is going, but I'm enjoying it. I now have five students learning singing, and the others learning piano.  I'm finding that I'm encouraged to play more myself now, and even my children are getting more enthused about music (not that it was ever lacking before, really!)  Mariposa told me this afternoon that she's a little jealous of one of the girls, as she wants to learn those (more difficult) piano pieces too.  Nothing like positive peer pressure, I suppose.  I'll have to remedy some of that this week.

I won't start telling you all that's been happening around the house, except that there's the mess made with little renovation jobs popping up here and there.  Let's just say, I need a break to clean up this place!  But, we're happy .. and I hope you're all having a great week too.