Our school photos: a new tradition

I have always liked the idea of school photographs - I still enjoy looking back on my own childhood ones -  & was surprised that Hug's school doesn't seem to do them! And of course Master Lovely is home. So I have decided that our official "school photos" will be taken on the first day back each year.

Here are my sweet bugs this morning :)

What are your favourite back-to-school traditions? x

The planning is done... Homeschool 2012

The planning is done (wellllll, most of it ;) & the day has arrived!
Happy Homeschool 2012 :)

Lego Animation Studios: Harry Potter and more

The holidays are almost over.
How can that even be possible? It only feels like yesterday that I was wondering what we would do for the next 8 weeks!

There are a few little "summer holiday" projects that we still need to work on. Like helping Hug to finish sewing badges onto his Scouts shirt. And... hmmmm, I'm sure there are more!

But one of the cool things that we have finished, however, are these Lego stop-motion movies that the boys started last year. I know I said "we" but really they worked on them with their dad - each boy directing his own one with T on camera.  I'm just basking in the glow ;)

So without further ado I present: "Harry Potter - Platform Nine and Three Quarters"

And "The Big Crash":

Rain

It's raining.
It's actually cold and raining. And it's Summer. Weird.

But we're good. All snug. Inside.
The boys are playing Lego. I don't think they will ever tire of it.
I'm listening to the rain (one of my most favourite past-times).

The Board of Studies visit went really well & we were recommended the full 2 year registration which is fantastic! *takes a flourished bow* I applied for both boys and am pleased that I had the opportunity to plan everything with both of them in mind, but it seems that Hug will still stay at school this year. Deep breath.

Sometimes we need to just release to what is. This is one of those moments for me. But I'm going to miss him being here with us. On rainy days like this especially. x

Preparing for our homeschool registration

Tonight I'm up to my elbows in books & papers & computer-files. Not ice-cream.

Tomorrow I have a meeting with a representative from the Board Of Studies to officially become a registered homeschooler in our state. I've certainly had moments of panic about tomorrow over the past few weeks (the big Christmas / Summer break made it feel almost impossible to wrap my head back around my plans) but I feel quite Zen about it tonight. I still have a bit to do (and it's already 11.23pm  - eeeeek) but I've been finalising my plan all day and I know what I want to do.

It's all made me feel a little sentimental about the years past - years that really were part of our homeschooling adventure. This is just our new stage. But in honour of sweet days past I am going to post a few special photos. It's hard to believe my boys were this little only a few short years ago...

Serendipitous Candy Cane ice-cream & other delights

We accidentally created a new family tradition this year.

I had this day-dream of a ribbon stretched across the entrance way with big candy canes hanging from it. For all of the children, cousins included, to drool over in the week up to Christmas. So I hung it and it looked divine. But... in my enthusiasm I didn't secure the ribbon well enough for it to take the weight of the canes and with one all mighty *crash* we had ourselves a huge collection of shattered Candy Canes. Boo!

Enter the serendipity.

Why not create a smush-in?!

1. Put worse-for-wear Candy Canes in a ziplock & smash them up even more with a rolling pin. Keep some chunky bits for good measure.
2. Mix into a bowl of good quality vanilla ice-cream.
3. Serve on Christmas Day. Yum!

We also mixed some of the ice-cream with milk and created Zoku ice-blocks after Christmas. We love our Zoku maker here btw. It's brilliant.

So that's ice-cream. And serendipity. And now, here's a few links I wanted to share from the past few weeks. Enjoy! x

Reading:

+ The subtle shades of everyday creative learning
+ A list of things to learn
+ Why Narration?
+ The Virtues Of Kindness
+ Outside the box
+ Studying the world through creative play
+ To be more Joyful...

Inspired:

+ Beauty that moves
+ FIMBY

Resources:

+ Good Reads

+ Librivox

+ Audible

The Treehouse

Hello And HAPPY NEW YEAR! Welcome to Adventures Of a Rainbow Mama 2012.

Well our exciting news is that we're almost "officially" home-schoolers here at Rainbow HQ. We have an assessor from the Board of Studies coming to confirm our registration next Monday. Not that we haven't been doing this is various forms for the past 8 years! But this is certainly a landmark for us.

I plan on blogging a lot more regularly this year. What about you? I've been busy with my head buried in a lot of cool books & blogs; getting very inspired.

I also have bunches of photos I want to go through & post. A lot of cool activities that we did last year never got shared. So we'll do that too.

But first here are few stolen moments from last Sunday.
Treehouse building.
3 generations.
In the rain.
Very sweet.
Hopefully it might be finished this weekend... :)

x