Best News

I haven't written a new post in a while so there is a bit to cover ... or I could just skip to the best bit. Now that sounds like a good idea to me.
So here goes ... tomorrow is the BIG DAY, the first day in our new schoolroom. Finally after waiting nearly 2 years the kids and I finally have a new school room with space and storage WOOHOO!

The outside doesn't look much different to this ... still needs a bit of work.

After moving most of the stuff from the old schoolroom over yesterday and Friday I am amazed at how much we managed to fit in our tiny little room (which by the way doesn't look anywhere near as tiny now that all that stuff and the desks has been moved out).

This boss tried out the blackboard.

A bit messy while moving.

Our old schoolroom was a small room off the kitchen in the main house. It had a walkway through it into the house and a servery that went into the kitchen = constant distractions. I don't know what I will do though when all the kids are working independently because now the boss won't be there to chat to. She doesn't know what she'll do either without me distracting her and with all the quiet.

The cupboards.

The shelves were for the computers

I am sure we will rearrange everything a few times until we work out what works best.

Now I am just waiting on the quarters. I think I have a bit of waiting left. Now back to moving in.

Mud, Oranges and Willie Wagtails

I am sitting here, with a Willie Wagtail flying in the rafters above me and the residue of mud from the house dam drying on my feet, thinking that what was a so called ordinary day has gotten a little interesting this afternoon.

'Mud! Dam! Its not that far into spring, has she lost her marbles?' You are all thinking it, I know. It is possible that I have (lost my marbles that is, if I had any to start with) but you can't choose when the pipe for the windmill will decide to embed itself in the muddy shore of the dam. After no water running into the tank all day boss lady 1 and I decided to check out the situation down at the dam. Just as suspected the wind had blown the pipe up to the bank so the windmill was effectively pumping air. Not so useful for showers I can tell you. Being the hobo that I am, sloshing down there in my boots that I had hurriedly put on because shoes just aren't my style, I was volunteered (ok, so I volunteered myself) to get my feet wet to move the pipe back out a bit. That water wasn't as cold as I thought it would be but don't count me in for swimming just yet. I have the feeling however that we might be heading down there again tomorrow because that sneaky snake of a pipe was slowly heading back in with the wind.


The water pipe in the dam ... the end is where the milk bottles are.



The kids decided to put on a show for us at lunch time today ... one of their lovely, completely unrehearsed ad lib shows that involved jumping on the trampoline, singing and playing air guitar and pot drums. You gotta love 'em. I don't think I know anyone with as many talents as they have. It was such a pity that it was time for school to start again ;). They even made us a yummy after show sand cake with mud punch ... yummy!
 

The feast the kids made for us.





My first coffee cake ... sorry kids this one wins



The kids showing off their talents



Today was a same old same old kinda day in the schoolroom. Our usually busy Monday with so many overlaps and swap overs for on airs that the morning speeds by. The Mr and Miss in year 3 have just started more work on area and are having to write an autobiography ... hard work when you are 8. Miss in year 6 is working away on a unit on Antarctica. She has till the end of term to get it done so we are in no hurry whatsoever. Mr Preppy constructed a truck with cardboard boxes complete with "the chimney thing that blows out the smoke and lights". 





Mr Preppy and his truck





Mr Preppy writing on air today

This afternoon the kids were given the job of chucking the oranges that were on the ground over the fence. I know sounds like a waste but we just haven't been able to keep up and the tree is flowering again. The goats have been enjoying them anyway. While on their mission the kids came up with the idea of using a spoon from the sandpit to catapult the oranges over the fence. I tell you there is nothing like kids inventiveness. They always seem to make themselves some fun ... well until it gets old anyway. That was when they come up asking if they can do the rest tomorrow ... haha I don't think so.

Orange Catapult

And now to address the Willie Wagtail ... well he decided to take up residence in my room today and roused at me every time I came in. You got it wrong Mr Willie Wagtail. It's MY room.

A beautiful end to the day.

Job Description

After a smarty pants told me that I could add that to my job description today I thought it was high time I actually wrote it down, so here goes.

(Please note that much if this would never be found on a piece of actual paper)

• teacher
• child minder
• referee
• councillor (...really, now how does that make you feel?)
• nurse, no lets make it doctor
• apprentice builder (it is a hard life holding things in place)
• fencing contractor

• station hand (including yard work, lick runs)
• art critic (Oh that looks nice, very colourful. I love the shapes you used ...)
• chef extraordinaire (ummm dinner? Sausages are on top so curried sausages it is.)
• cleaner
• first aid officer
• disciplinarian
• secretary (I swear I spend as much time answering the phone as I do teaching school)
• gardener
• painter
• baker(yummm cake)
• hair dresser
• technical officer (well you know how to use yours so you must know whats wrong with mine)
• artist

• resource developer (someone has to come up with the fun number and alphabet games)
• photographer
• weather presenter
• furniture removalist
• rubbish disposalist (well burner)
• examiner
• story teller
• shop assistant
• editor
• producer
• audience (sometime reluctant)
• detective
• treasure hunter
• personal shopper (The first day I went shopping with my boss we got four trolleys full ... then we had to fit it in the car. Since that fateful day I have done many a shop myself)
• packer
• taxi (getting kids to cluster is such hard work)
• coach
• tow vehicle/rescue
• spotter (for roos, boggy patches, how close)
• animal husbandry expert

• butchers apprentice
• emergency carer
• electrician (darn powers out, nope not the fuses, bloody generator)
• plumber
• diesel mechanic (well checking the water, oil and filling the generator with diesel must count for something)
• parts photographer (so they can repair the stinking generator so we don't have to use the crank one)
• scientist
• metal detector
• life saver (I'm the Queen of the dam)
• supervisor
• events manager (how else would we get Fun Friday ... and I do share knowledge about coming events)

• official wet season gate person (VERY important job, I swear the only reason I was invited on the emergency shopping trips was to open the gates)
• repair person
• computer technician (honestly if you know one thing about a computer you must know everything)
• freight carrier (who else would bring all that important stuff home)
• DJ

• washer woman
• goat wrangler (the stinking things got into the yard AGAIN)
• judge ( I don't care who was on there first the rule is one at a time so you a banned for the rest of the day ... hmmm harsh)
• mail lady
• entertainer/hostess
• musterer (okay so that one is really stretching the truth, I walked and trotted on a horse to the creek and back but then again I have helped out in a ute)
• dog trainer
• maid

Well the list keeps going

(some things may be stretching the truth just a bit)

Fun Friday

Ahh Friday ... and as the kids conveniently remembered it was FUN FRIDAY today. They can't remember their jobs or to brush their hair but they can, without fail, remember which Friday is Fun Friday.Today was one of my lesser inspired Fun Fridays. In other words I flew by the seat of my pants ... but wait a minute I do that all the time ... hmmm.

A picnic smoko with yummy piklets.

We do Fun Friday once a fortnight as a kind of celebration for finishing the unit the kids are working on and for them working well during it. However it seems that somewhere along the track out Fun Fridays have come unstuck from the end of the unit. We do a bit of school in the morning, all depending on how much needs to be done then after that we break out the fun, or what I hope is fun (not that we don't have fun the rest of the time). In the past we have had a Roman Day, Spotty Day, Aztec Day, a trip to Kops in Kilts, a Science Day, Fairytale Day and more I have forgotten.

Scavenger hunt goodies.

Today didn't have a theme, in fact I made it up as the day went along, but we had a picnic morning tea, made stress balls, had a scavenger hunt race, had an egg and spoon race using the stress balls as well as having other races such as a horse race using the first thing they could find to use as a horse (we had a blanket, a small stick, a tennis racket and a croquet mallet) and crab race, which was the kids particular favourite. So there you go it just adopted itself the name of Children's Picnic Race Day. It did have a theme after all, I just didn't know it.

Crab races ... they were on a collision course

Impromptu horse race

'Egg' and spoon race.

Shh don't tell the kids but the next one in planning (yes, I said planning) is an Antarctic/Arctic Day. I guess I'll let you know how it goes.

Cooking Fun

Today Mr Preppy and I made playdough. Apparently the colour of the month is blue. He then played with cut out dinosaurs and trains that chased each other around "roar! woowoo!" and made us playdough biscuits YUM!

Playdough

2 cups plain flour
4 tablespoons cream of tartar
2 tablespoons oil
1 cup salt
food colouring
2 cups water

Combine all ingredients in a pot. Stir over heat until cooked, forms into a solid mass.


Continuing on the cooking buzz this afternoon we all made hazelnut and coconut balls. When I explained they would be rolling the mix into balls the kids reply was "Yay! We get to get all gross." Fingers were only allowed to be licked after ALL the balls were made. After we finished the kids cleaned up the bench. Mr R had chocolate and coconut from one ear to the other after his enthusiastic cleaning attempt.

Hazelnut and Coconut Balls

3/4cup hazelnut spread

100g butter

3 cups rice bubbles

2 cups coconut

1 egg

1/4 cup hundreds and thousands

Melt hazelnut spread and butter together in a small saucepan. Let is cool a bit.

Put rice bubbles and 1 cup of coconut in a bowl. Put in egg and hazelnut spread mix and mix.

Put remaining 1 cup of coconut and hundreds and thousands in a small dish.

Roll balls with the hazelnut rice bubble mix.

Roll balls in coconut and hundreds and thousands.

Refrigerate.

I found we needed more coconut in the mixture and the balls are more squished than rolled.

Sweet

The sweet smell of Grevilleas is wafting around my room ... I have no one to get me flowers so I got my own. They were picked straight from the bush on the way back to the station last weekend. Oh and you can lick them too ... if you like that kind of thing ;)

Mud Pies and Other Things

Here is a snippet of today ...

Mr Preppy did cooking in the sandpit. We had mud pies, sand stew, sand soup and something he concocted called 'very disgusting'.

Mr T decided to come over and join in the fun. He found an old plant pot and told me 'castle, build castle'. So Mr T and I made castles, every one of them as exciting as the last with a huge 'YAY!' to express his enjoyment or a 'oh no' when they fell apart.

As you would notice our sandpit isn't one of those pretty ones with white sand. Instead it is made with sandy soil from a deposit somewhere on the property. The kids love it all the same ... in fact probably more because it is super messy.

Also we did some 5x revision today. I drew answers on the cement and the kids, when asked a multiplication table, had to go find the answer. Mr Preppy also joined in, he got to find numbers and jump on them. This jumping or racing game never gets old and makes everyone happy ... me because it get revision done and the kids because it is outside and fun.