Strawberry Update

Monster was VERY excited to discover that he has strawberries beginning to grow on his plants already!

Growing Strawberries

Monster is keen to grow something.

So we decided to try strawberries and they will be grown at our church since there is no safe place in our yard that gets adequate sunlight.

I will try to document the progress on the blog but more importantly (from a school perspective) Monster will be documenting the process in his Science Notebook.

Poking holes in the bottom of the container with help from one of our friends! 

Pouring in the soil... 

Smoothing it out... 

Arranging and planting our three strawberry plants! 

Homeschool Group at the Park

Our homeschool group spent the day at the park today.

There was time for eating, digging in the dirt, visiting with friends, and climbing.

The whole group (preschoolers included) spent a LOT of time on the play equipment (not pictured) creating a very imaginative game about space ships and blasting off to different places!

It was a day well spent and MUCH needed!

"School" With the Monkey

The monster is able to do most of his seated book work independently now as he is able to read all the directions.

This gives me the chance to work one-on-one with the monkey.

He is desperate to "do school" and be like his big brother.

I have plans in the works to do some structured preschool work with him next year and he is excited.

So today, while Monster work on the math pages you see below, I worked on a counting puzzle with Monkey.

This was a guided activity from start to finish but it gave me a great chance to see what Monkey already knows as far as counting and number recognition goes.

Sensory Play with Shaving Cream

To finish off our afternoon I decided to give Monster and Monkey a little treat and allow them some sensory play time with shaving cream.  So off we went to the backyard and I sprayed large dollops of the cream on to the picnic table.  Away they went squishing and playing and having a grand time.

They did some drawing and writing and experimenting with the feel of it.

It was an immense success and we will do it again - with shaving cream - but also with some other medium.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent enjoying water play in the bath!

September Lego Quest

Monster took part in his first Lego Quest this month.

We stumbled upon a blog run by a homeschool mum in Canada.

On the first Tuesday (Australian time) of each month she posts a "quest" for homeschooled children around the world to take part in.

September's theme was the Olympics so Monster built a weight lifter.

He and 141 other students took part and he was very excited to see his photo showcased on her blog.  We are looking forward to a new quest next month.