Found Sock

We found Dad's woolly yellow sock yesterday. He lost it in Tasmania and Yvonne, being a meticulous housekeeper, remembered to give it to me when we visited. Me NOT being a meticulous housewife promptly lost it again until yesterday when it was discovered in the sewing pile. Kirk thought he would make up a story about it....

One day Grandpa was looking for his sock but he couldn't find it. Then he went to the zoo and it was there! It was being nibbled by squirrels. He was really angry and banged his foot on the ground and went into the cage and took his sock back.  [At this point Kirk fell asleep]

In the morning we stuck a couple of Harmony Day badges on it and it became a yellow eel which ate frogs and the puffer fish Nanny knitted.

Mud Monsters

Little Athletics

Last week Kirk started Little Athletics. He was keen to boast how he would beat everyone but the imagined did not match the reality and he was overwhelmed. Nevertheless, once Sean performed longjump with him he figured it was all right and started to make an effort. This week he managed to get over his fears a lot quicker and joined in.

Progress

Woohoo!! Kirk is starting to understand initial sounds and rhyme. I've really sweated over this one. It's all well and good to have letter recognition but then you have to put it together.

Fiddler Crab

Kirk has made a dozen or so butterfly prints today and this was his favourite.

Snorkling

Yesterday Kirk finally had the opportunity to use his snorkle set. He was thrilled to be able to see all the fish which were mostly diamond fish and diamond-scaled mullet.
Click on the pics for enlargement. Landscapes are hard to do  in Blogger.

The snake is back - By Kirk

The snake is here and it is hiding behind the head of the big mask. He is about a metre and a half and he's a tree snake. He's got yellow on the bottom and green on the back. He was going to eat a frog. Not much because there are only 2 frogs left. I think he's going to eat all our frogs and I don't think we will be able to eat any more frogs. Frogs can't beat snakes. Snakes have a special tongue. We smell with our nose. Snakes smell with their tongue.

But what if I COOK HIM FOR SNAKE STEW?!

Note:  This photo was taken this time last year and I am sure this is the same snake. Sorry the camera is out on loan so I can't show you how big and beautiful he is now.

Nintendon't

The Fly, a light remote-controlled hovercraft, WAS Kirk's latest toy. Predictably it is already broken so Sean made for him a Nintendon't. It is a postcard with a Nintendo display drawn on it. It is called a Nintendon't because it don't really work! Kirk finds this hilarious and he and Sean spend lots of time using it like a remote controller for a paper aeroplane or he can use it solo by imagining the games. The Nintendon't requires no batteries and costs nothing yet can provide this imaginative child hours of entertainment.Who needs electronica when one has a whole brain to play with?

Another week full of friends! We picniced at the dam, played soccer and cricket and did a lot of swimming.
This week Kirk completed a preppy math book. I don't push texts but they are helpful. e.g.While he learns matching and categorising by sorting the washing (which he can do by himself), the book decontextualises that skill and helps him understand these skills as concepts. He is pretty chuffed with himself and I am pleased he finds it easy. The preppy English however will take a lot more effort.

Numeracy

Today I discovered Kirk can do basic subtraction. It is a simple thing but a significant one because he's figured it out for himself.  Let's hope he remembers he can do this tomorrow.

Cooking is also teaching him informal fractions. This week he made these...things....they were like a  dry scone with jam.We ate them...some of them....Kurgen thought the leftovers were very tasty.

Cabin fever

It's STILL raining and everyone is trying to get out! This week, we had another crafting session with Kelly & kids until the flooding creeks drove them home. Rachel dropped in with Jorja and she did a bit of craft and then they got on the sillies and played their crazy games. Cate called in for a chat and dragged her boys off the bus when it stopped at our place so they wouldn't try to cross Niagra Falls. Around tea time she chucked them in the troopy and went to play in the torrent (I so envy her car ... er .. truck)

What have we achieved academically this week? Well he's learned "R" REALLY well....just ask him ;-)  We've just been continuing with the sea theme and abc/123/reading etc...

Sluggy

This morning Kirk was a blue spanish dancer (a nudibranch) oozing up onto the dining table and swirling around in circles. This week we made all sorts of sea creatures with our fellow homeschoolers; killer whales (rubber matting), sharks (cardboard), leafy seadragons (vinyl and material), fish (cardboard & sparkles), octopi (yarn doll), star fish (paper & sparkles), seaweed (finger knitting) and jellyfish (1/2 CD and straw beads).  I'm trying to encourage him to do a lot more craft to improve his very ordinary small motor skills. Photos next week.

Virtual Aquarium

Nanny was given an aquarium for Christmas and naturally Kirk wants one too. I have refused for the moment but to compensate we painted the laundry wall BLUE and next week will create an underwater collage.

In conversation

It's great to have a conversation with Kirk when he is making sense. Today we started discussing seahorses which we were modelling from plasticine. Kirk's seahorse naturally morphed into a submarine and then he asked whether cleaner wrasse would clean a submarine or boat hull. "Yes, if it stayed still for long enough but it's better if people clean the boats because too much grows on them". We then went into why boats and submarines had to be cleaned (to reduce drag) which ended up in a demonstration on friction. PLEASE let the weather fine up so we can use his snorkle set!

Planet earth

It was long drive home last night so we watched the marine sections of David Attenborough's Planet Earth and, not surprisingly, great whites and seals are his favourite animals so we'll focus on them next week.

Heeere fishy fishy fishy

Last week Kirk and I concentrated on alphabet and number recognition and made origami fish to improve his small motor and spatial skills (these were in fact Transformers who lead secret lives as jets*).

As a part of his studies about the sea we read a lot of books (Wet Paper readers) and this weekend Sean took Kirk to Underwater World.  Sean tells me Kirk had to see the seal show 3 times and laughed his arse off throughout.  Then he explored the underwater shark tunnel 6 times before he was satisfied. Looks like Underwater World was $50 well spent.

* Note: I can't wait for him to be ready to study mechanics - he will LOVE it.

Welcome...

I'd like Kirk to share his homeschooling with you.
Yesterday we baked biscuits and a big chocolate fishcake. Today we built & sailed boats...and an echidna (no it did not float).
Left to right: Catamaran, laser, houseboat, origami boats...and the echidna...which morphed into a spider and a sea urchin and then a triffid and then a spikey spaceship which of course fired spikes. He's pretty creative with plasticine and a heap of skewers.