As for Misha, after 6 months break from Junior Engineering Africa, he started their Robotics course on Friday. Having had his old school buddy sleep over from Wednesday for playtime catch up, he was fortunate enough to have Matt join him for his first Robotics lesson.
Looking back at recent events I must admit home education has brought along many opportunities for our boys that we didn’t have when we were their age.
We also needed to do our final arrangements for Misha’s birthday on Wednesday and his party on Saturday.
Friday was rather quiet. I had a few errands after which we spent the rest of the day chillaxing in anticipation of the big birthday party on Saturday.
All in all it has been a very eventful week & for the first time ever all but the Bakugan decorations of the birthday cake were gone by night fall.
I must admit I was rather nervous about the long drive after having Clive do all the long distance driving for the last 20 odd years. Getting to sleep early was quite a challenge & I couldn’t resist wondering what I was thinking agreeing to do this trip with the boys in the first place.
We left home around 8h45 on Sunday morning. Fortunately we had no incidents on the road & arrived safe & sound at about 11h45. That left us just enough time to unload & get ready for 12h00 camp start. Gavin took us on an informative tour. I’m sure he had some of the kids quite puzzled with the stories he told… Lunch was followed by some games & activities. After supper there were some more fun activities & then a late bed time after 22h00.
Being able to sleep late at home, I’m surprised the boys keep returning to a place where they have to be up at 6h30 to feed the animals as part of their morning chores. Chores are followed by coffee and then breakfast at 8h00. After breakfast the different groups head out to their activities for the first session. For our boys, this was “Sheep Sheering”. At 11h30 they had a break & then from 12h00 to 14h00 they had a second session of activities, this time an outride, but not before Jesse had me stroke his horse, which had me rather nervous. 14h00 was lunch time and thereafter I joined them for a third session of “Spruitjie Stap”. 16h00 was shower time after which the kids played rugby & netball. At 19h00 we had a delicious supper & then Bible time & the kids split up into their different courses which they attended until it was time for bed.
On Tuesday, session one was milking the cow for our boys. They finished rather early & got to do some sharp shooting to pass the time until break time. For session two they went on an outride from which they got back at 14h30. After some lunch it was time for some fun on the obstacle courses. Shower time was followed by games, supper and courses.
On Wednesday morning all the kids got to do some exercise & self-defence practise. Then they had another round on the obstacle course until break time. After break, Jesse was moved up a class & from then on they were both off to some more riding, although in separate groups.
Jesse started Thursday on the obstacle course whilst Misha was out with his group. They did a lot of horse riding in the afternoon as they started practicing for Saturday’s formation. After supper they did some line dancing as practise run for Friday’s sokkie. Initially Misha, didn’t want to join the dancing, but then after being sent into the circle, he too seemed to enjoy it tremendously.
On Saturday morning I was up early & for the first time during the week it wasn’t freezing & promised to be a lovely warm day filled with activities & followed by a long drive home.
I must I was rather apprehensive at first after discovering that there were no power plugs in the jailhouse. Fortunately the iPad has awesome battery life & thus kindle reading was still possible to get me to sleep at night. However, my plans to make Misha’s birthday invitations were not going to materialise this time. I did however have a lovely time visiting with the other moms & although I expected loads of hayfever hassles with all the dust, grass & trees, Monday’s migraine was about the worst of all my symptoms all week.
We left Mooikrans just after 13h00 & returned home around 4pm on Saturday afternoon from an awesome week of work, fun & horse riding. They are already anticipating the next camp which is scheduled for April next year.
Below is a selection of my photos that have not been included on the photo DVD. The remainder of my photos are available on my facebook profile.
WoW, I can hardly believe we’ve passed the halfway mark of this year again. Where on earth does the time fly by so quickly?
This has been an extremely quiet week with the boys being on holiday & Jesse away to Ngwenya with his friend. I really enjoyed not having to go anywhere at all. Must admit being a house mouse is just part of my nature…
On Monday we celebrated Dad’s birthday with some Ten Pin Bowling, lunch at the Spur and a movie at Monte Casino. We missed Jesse, but nevertheless had ourselves a lovely day.
Of course Misha was still around and had a friend over for the day a couple of times, whilst I continued with my usual admin & other home chores & now we wait in anticipation for Jesse to get home on Monday.
After giving up on the “school at home” approach late in 2011 and allowing Misha to unschool with just Science/Geography lessons by Education Support as well as twice a week homeschool co-op group and many field trips, we are finally starting to see the learning flame being re-ignited.
This week after Co-op I found him in the living room working on a self assigned homework project for next week’s lesson.
After about 3 hours worth of working all by himself, here’s the result.
For a child that absolutely detested reading & writing, this in my opinion is some awesome improvement. Now I’m ever so grateful I finally decided to follow my instincts to “let go” & allow him to find his own opportunities to explore, learn and practice. I’m amazed at what kids can achieve, when the motivation to learn comes from within.
Thank you Brenda, Claire & Courtney for your tireless input into Misha’s learning experience… it is much appreciated.
Today we enjoyed a Fine & Raw Chocolate making and tasting experience, together with Misha’s Co-op group. It involved tasting and learning about chocolate then making our own chocolate to take home. A huge thanks to Claire for organising this.
Although the chocolate might not to everyone’s taste the making & tasting experience is great.
This chocolate factory based at 46 3rd Avenue, Illovo uses cacao beans from Mexico. Please email the owner, Lara Sklaar or contact her on +27 (0)82 928 0944 for more information. Alternatively you can visit their websites at www.fineandraw.co.za or www.fineandraw.com
Since last year the boys have been attending science/geography lessons with Barry from Education Support.
Today we were up at 5am in order to get ready to join Barry for a tour of the Tswaing Crater in Shoshanguve. This is a bowl-shaped geological feature caused by the impact of a 50m meteorite, which exploded and vaporized on impact.
First the kids had a short lesson on meteorites & comets. They made a comet using dust, Handy Andy & dry ice. Then we took a walk along the edge of the crater.
After our walk we saw some amazing slides & finished off the day with a picnic and a one and half our trip back home.
Thanks to Melinda, we received another CD full of camp photos as proof of how much fun the kids had.
We returned to Mooikrans on Saturday morning for the prize giving. The kids had to do a camp concert on Thursday and this group had produced their own song for the concert. It was quite a hit with the campers and the parents were blessed with a performance as well.
With each camp we’ve seen them grow in self-confidence & independence. Misha has changed from an insecure 8-year old when we dropped him for his first camp, to an independent & confident 10 year-old. He no longer stands back with “I can’t do that” until he’s tried & then in amazement exclaims “look, mommy, I can do that…” This time they even spent the 2 & half hours trip home telling us about all the amazing stuff they did.
Thank you Melinda, for arranging these camps and a huge thank you to Elna & Gavin for the impact that you have had on our boys’ lives since they attended their first camp in 2011.
For more information on Mooikrans Equus & the services they offer visit their website.
So we did our very first field trip for this year today. The guided tour at JAG was both interesting and informative…
South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers where South African home schoolers share experiences, ideas, philosophies and much more. You can join the carnival too by heading to the South African Carnival of Homeschool Bloggers sign up page. We hope you enjoy the carnival as much as we have!
Timez Attack has revolutionized multiplication games. It's as polished as a high-end real video game, yet as effective as a top math tutor one-on-one. The built-in assessment, adaptation, and post-test research data guarantee total mastery.
My boys just love it!
