Weekly Wrap-Up

Wow, this week seems to have flown by. A busy and productive week.

 The first couple of days this week, I hobbled about like a little old lady as we had been on a hike on Sunday. My thighs were killing me but I actually enjoy that kind of pain.It tells me my body has worked! 

The kids thought it rather funny that I couldn't move without groaning!

Josh wrote 2 papers this week, English and accountancy. Just two to go and then he will be done!

 He also had a good meeting with a prospective employer this week and has a lot to think about and plan regarding his future course of studies.

After school we had a little running around to town as Zak had two castings on consecutive days. One for BMW and one for Mercedes. Sometimes these can be a real drag as there are loads of kids. Luckily this time around it was fairly quick in and out. Now we wait to see if he is cast.

We attended our weekly Afrikaans lesson at the library and I am amazed at the sudden jump in confidence in the kids conversational skills.

We received a coin exchange from Canada this week. It included a map and some postcards.

 I have never really paid much attention to a map of Canada before and it was interesting to browse. 

We have continued learning about India and the culture and have been reading "Bold Believers in India".

Our Egyptian studies have us reading a wonderful living book, "Peeps At Many Lands, Ancient Egypt" . 

We have read of pharaohs, the life of an Egyptian soldier and the lives of Egyptian children and their tales of long ago. While I read aloud, the kids keep their hands busy. Keren usually does some art or crochet work and Zak has taken to drawing too. We have also watched some online clips on the lives of Cleopatra and Alexander the Great. Today I managed to download a bunch of free kindle books on Egypt. We look forward to dipping into those and seeing if they are worthwhile reading. 

Zak has started working through an art book that was given to the kids by my dad.

It is a fantastic book and he enjoys doing the exercises. He plans to draw every day. I am so pleased as when he was little, he refused to draw anything and always wanted me to draw for him. I think he felt he couldn't do it as he was comparing his ability to that of his sister who was three years older!

Here is the blind contour drawing and the unfinished crow he was copying from a photograph.

The end result was really good! 

It was also wonderful to hear Keren encouraging him in his new found interest in art. 

Keren and I found a free short online cooking course on the art of baking with Yuppiechef. We started the first lesson and plan to go through the course and bake some of the yummy and delicious recipes.

Another thing we discovered this week was a nearby paper craft shop....

oh my word, we had to restrain ourselves! 

The colorful paper and bits and bobs for card making and scrap booking were just beautiful and so well priced !

 Keren bought supplies for her craft workshop that she ran yesterday. 

She taught four younger girls Christmas card tutorials, a fun flower card and how to make a cute gift box. The two of us have had some fun being creative and making cards for this weekends mini market too.

This morning I enjoyed some time doing mosaic while a dear, sweet friend visited.

 The kids watched the movies we took out at the library, "Journey Through the Valley of Kings" and "Trompie en die Boksombende". When I was a kid we used to watch Trompie! Great for them to improve their Afrikaans.

Tonight sees a house full of teens as both the boys invited friends for a games and pizza evening.

 Great end to a busy week. 

Weekly Wrap-Up

I came across the idea of a weekly wrap up over at Weird , Unsocialized Homeschoolers and I like the idea!

I am hoping to be disciplined enough to post weekly. In the mean time we are well into the fourth term and here's a little of what we have been up to.....

It's exam season here for Josh who is writing his Cambridge AS level finals. Not sure who has to remember to breathe more, me or him! So far he has written 3 physical science papers, 1 English and 1 math paper. He has 4 papers to go and on November 5th he will be done with home education! I can scarcely believe how the years have flown and we are immensely proud of his achievements to date.

The younger two and I have got into a good rhythm this term, all working together on various days and then Keren working alone on others. 

Her art has taken up much of her time and she is doing incredibly well , attaining very high marks in theory and practicals at art school. Some of her work was recently chosen for an exhibition at the opening of a local school art center. She has had two all day art practical sessions this term and though she comes home exhausted, she is loving art school.

Last week the two of us enjoyed attending an art exhibition of Cape artist, James Thackwray. His work is distinctly South African and captures the daily lives of the Cape Malay people during turbulent times in our history. The Bo-Kaap and District Six are featured in his works too.

The younger two and I attend free Afrikaans lessons once a week at the local library. It has been fun and the kids are doing well. In a recent test they achieved 65 and 75 per cent. One of them attaining higher marks than me! It has been rewarding to see their confidence grow when speaking the language and taking part in a class setting. Keren has enjoyed it so much, she has decided she wants to learn many languages and has started teaching herself Swahili with and on line course.

Zak has enjoyed his monthly tekioo class.

He made this awesome DVD rack.

 He has enjoyed a couple of outings too with fellow home school kids. The skate park, a drumming workshop and ice skating were all a big hit. 

He attends basketball practice at the local Waldorf School twice a week and is loving that.

Zak is number 24.

They have played two matches so far this term. Sadly for them they lost both games. The teams they played were high school teams and their team is from age 9 to 13. Their next game will be a more even match as they will play against a team from a primary school.

Zak has attended his monthly Chaeli campaign meeting where he serves as a mentor to the ambassadors.

 He is trying out a two month free trial of online math. He is enjoying Aleks math on the computer and is learning new skills daily. 

The three of us wrapped up our unit study on Mesopotamia and have moved onto ancient Egypt . We are also doing a study on India and enjoying reading "A Passage to India". We plan on making an Indian meal next week for hubby's birthday.  

We have also enjoyed reading "When Whales Go Free", a story set in 1912 about the establishment of a whaling station at Plettenberg Bay.

We have read a book of short biographies of Polycarp, Alban, John Oldcastle, Cranmer, Wishart, Chalmers, Bonhoffer, Nate Saint, Moiseyev and Graham Staines. All remarkable men who didn't give in and chose to do the right thing even in the face of great danger.

Keren has a new student, a young boy who is keen on cooking. She will be teaching him to cook and bake every second week. Last week she had her first session with him and they made meatballs in tomato sauce and a chocolate cake. He is a keen student and it is a great way for her to earn some pocket money.

 She practiced preparing the meal the night before she gave the lesson.

 Lovely for me to have a night off cooking!

We received bags of granadillas from a friend and Zak and I got busy in the kitchen too.

 He made a delicious granadilla cordial and has made a yummy granadilla yogurt fridge cake a few times. Josh has declared it to be his favorite desert!

We received a coin exchange from Korea with an informative letter about their currency.

We enjoy these exchanges and use them as an opportunity to learn about different countries and cultures. The kids found and marked Korea on their maps. We sent off a package of SA coins to the family in Korea.

We have enjoyed some beautiful spring weather and on occasion, ditched the books in favor of an early morning beach walk with our crazy dog. I love that we have the freedom to do so.

 We have seen all sorts washed up on the beach such as giant jellyfish, beautiful shells, shark egg cases and a poor little baby seal that seemed to be dying. 

That morning we spent ages on the beach waiting for the SPCA to rescue the poor little thing. 

Sadly the little fellow didn't make it and died on the way into the SPCA. 

Yesterday we enjoyed our nature club outing to the Littlewort Trail at Newlands forest, a beautiful trail that we have not done before.

Just what we needed at the end of a busy and somewhat stressful week.

 Lovely to catch up with other home educating families and enjoy being out in nature. 

International Currency Exchange for Children and Youth

We recently signed up for an international currency exchange. 

We enjoy discovering more about other countries and cultures and this seemed to be a fun way to add something new to our learning.

Once signed up, one exchanges coins and paper currency with a family in a different country.

 Participants can send one piece of currency or as many as they like.

The kids enjoyed receiving currency from USA , Peurto Rico and a Mexican coin.

 Maps were pulled out to discover exactly where our coins had traveled from . We looked up information on pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters and dollars. We discovered who was represented on the various coins and what made them famous enough to be represented. I was pleasantly surprised by their knowledge of  the various American Presidents but then again, a lot of the curriculum we have used over the years has been American. 

We put together sets of South African coins along with a key-chain that has the SA flag and all the SA paper currency on it. 

These are winging their way to the families that kindly exchanged with us. 

The kids found it interesting and we had great discussions around foreign exchange and coin collecting, otherwise known as the "hobby of kings".