School's out!

School is out!

We are all so happy to be at the end of the year

and

more than ready for the long summer holidays!

We celebrated this morning by going to watch the new Christmas movie:

Arthur Christmas!

Feel-good, fun & cute!

The children have worked hard to get themselves where they needed to be in order to end the year off well.

Here's a bit of what we have been up to....

In the last two weeks, the younger two and I have been concentrating on poetry in their respective language programmes.

We have read many poems,

they have memorised poems and psalms,

and written their own poetry.

The older two applied to a new Teen Animation School to learn how to create animated videos, hosted by the Entrepreneur Academy in conjunction with Motivate Cape Town.

The academy's goal is to identify and train up a team of super video producers and then market these skills to the small businesses and communities in and around Cape Town.

It is a great opportunity for the kids to learn some cool new skills and earn some great money!

As they were both successful in their applications, they attended the first workshop, where they learned the basics of marketing, sales cycle and how video can play a role in this for small businesses. They learned how to use GoAnimate, and then had to spend many hours putting their new-found skills to the test by each creating three videos.

K's videos for Nutty Wonder Bread were used as examples on the blog by

Entrepreneur Incubator and Academy

(you can view her videos by clicking on the link).

SO...

we figured she may have a good chance of making it through to the second round, where the top five applicants would get to continue the process of being trained as animators.

What a lovely surprise for both J & K when they received emails congratulating them on their creativity and high standard of work!

They have both been invited back to attend the second workshop this weekend!

At the second workshop, they will be given some business education to assist them in beginning to market their talents to small business owners. The Academy's vision is to provide each teen with the necessary skills in order for them to offer top quality products with a fast turnaround time, way below the professional industries rate, which is often out of reach for the normal small business owner.

I had agreed to sponsor them half their fees for the first workshop.

I feel it is important for them to be willing to spend some of their own money when they want to further themselves in any way.

K offered to do the catering for the workshop, and in return she had a reduced fee for the first workshop. They were happy with her catering (chocolate cake and some cookies) and she has been given a reduced fee for this weekends training and asked to do the catering again!

Needless to say, K has been busy in the kitchen with all this baking!

She also made a batch of delicious fudge as a gift for her art teacher as they had a year end party at her last lesson.

I too

(OH NO..not these silly lines I can't seem to get rid of again!)

have been busy in the kitchen making these cookie jars for our market day.

They look nothing like the examples I have seen online, but I was happy with the end result.

I made a gingerbread cookie mix as well as one with pink smarties for little girls and then some with astros for the boys. They look so pretty with the bows &

make lovely inexpensive gifts.

Tomatoes have been inexpensive so I have made some tasty chili tomato chutney too.

One to keep and one as a gift.

I used a basic recipe I found online and then added a bit of this and that...

the result is excellent if I say so myself!

K has also been busy with her card making, felt hearts and beaded serviette rings.

She often does her crafts while enjoying listening to our current read aloud.

Last weekend we enjoyed the annual end of year piano recital at the younger two's music teacher's home. She is one of the kindest woman I know, always encouraging the children and making them feel good about their achievements.

She blessed each child with a gift and had taken the trouble to look up the meaning of their names and attach that, along with a scripture to each child's gift.

When one of the parents asked her to play a piece for us, she said she wasn't sure what to play. The little voice of one of her youngest students piped up that she should just play from the book she is on! Too cute!

So, we have been busy as usual and the holidays are here. Two of the kids have been out to year end parties this afternoon and tonight we look forward to a fish braai at my brother.

Lovely start to a long summer holiday!