Good morning!

Hello everyone!

It's been another bit of a gap between posts, but the quiet in blog land only reflects that there's plenty of things happening here to keep us very busy.

The past two weeks have been especially busy with extra dance rehearsals in preparation for the concert, which was this weekend gone.  What a great night!  The format was a little different this year, with the juniors all performing in the afternoon with the theme 'Circus'.  Then, in the evening, the older students performed with the theme 'A Walk Through The Art Gallery'.  Pictures from famous artists were projected onto the back screen, and appropriate music and dances reflected these pictures.  We really enjoyed watching it, and the children enjoyed the different format.

In our homeschooling, we're looking to finish up in another month.  Many projects and books are almost completed.  Mariposa's almost through the level 3 Singapore Maths books, but Maestro is swiftly working through MUS Pre-Algebra.  We've also become the proud new owners of IEW. Maestro is LOVING this intensive writing course, and I'm really happy with the work he's produced so far. Science is still being worked on at a steady rate, but we're only about 3/4 through each of the levels (NOEO Chem I for Mariposa, and Apologia's General Science for Maestro).  It's the same with our history: Maestro's at the beginning of the Middle Ages through his Sonlight, whilst I only recently started doing Australian history with Mariposa this term.

I've been learning more about certain learning issues.  Mariposa has had several severe ear aches since a baby, thus the reason for her operation in September.  This week, I've been watching some online videos about the affects that all those antibiotics have had on her young body, and how they could be contributing to some learning difficulties, via Dianne Croft's site.  Once the cds, 'The Biology of Behavior', arrives here and we've had a chance to really study it, we'll be implementing ways to improve her health for better learning (and all the rest of us, too!)

In the henhouse, we have had one of our youngest hens go broody.  She's now successfully hatched 1 of 4 chicks that we planted under her as preincubated/fertilised eggs.  They're quite happy occupying a fenced off area along the side of the house (because I'm running out of room to put these chickens!!!!), so I often wake to the sound of 'took, took, took' as Mama hen takes her young chick out for a forage early each morning.



This morning's been one of checking over budgets, menu planning and shopping.  Now it's time to get the diary out and check what the rest of the year looks like, because I don't want it rushing by in a blur as the last two weeks seemed to do.  Time for a cuppa, and we'll get on with that whilst the children do their math I think!

Hope you all have a wonderful week!