Thursday, November 29, 2012

La Maisonnette

We are crossing our fingers tight in hope that we might win a stay at this beautiful French cottage, La Maisonnette, next year.

Gorgeous much? ;)


Wish us luck! 
If you're heading that way yourself, it can be booked through VRBO. x

credit: {all images} Stephmodo.com


Monday, November 26, 2012

Nature Study aka Hanging out in Nature

Nature study around here at the moment consists of reading from the book The Wonderland of Nature and, ummm, hanging out in nature. Even if it's just our own back yard. 

Preferably with a sketchbook. 

And if no-one wants to come stop drawing when you're done...? Take along another book for a read-aloud session. Our current choice - The Heroes by Charles Kingsley








What does Nature Study (or Natural Science) look like at your place? 



Friday, November 23, 2012

Horsing Around

We hit the paddocks last week for a day of horsemanship. 

There were also lots of new homeschooling families to get to know. It's really exciting to expand our horizons and find new pockets of homeschoolers just outside our region.
The kids learnt about different breeds, colours, safety, types of riding (dressage, country, racing, jumping etc.), grooming, commands, tacking, riding and then finally feeding and caring for the horses. And lots more. They definitely know way more about horses than me now. smile. 
Hug was a little disappointed that they didn't get a proper trail ride like the last time we hung out with horses. He loved that ride. But what I really appreciated about this day was the respect that the horses were given. It was like they really wanted the kids to understand the art of horse whispering. It was lovely to watch.
I took two very tired, very happy boys home. Result. Happy horsey days :)


Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Mapping The World with Art and Montessori Links

Yesterday turned out to be a big day of mapping around here. 
Hug wanted to draw a map of Europe using our Montessori Continent Puzzles which got me all excited (throwing out our scheduled Craft afternoon). I printed out a blackline master for him to label his map as he went. 

edit : A reader has pointed out that Hug has incorrectly labeled his map with Yugoslavia - which no longer exists. This happens when you have a second hand set of *old* continent maps which came with the country names actually written on the back of each piece. Whoops.

Then we completed the 3rd drawing activity from Mapping The World with Art, which tied right into both our study of Ancient Greece AND our travel plans for modern-day Greece. Yay! 

We played the video files on my mac. So cool being able to pause and rewind as necessary.
I pulled out the travel guides to add some extra details to mine :) 
Hug also drew and labelled two maps of Australia. 
While Lovely spent ages pouring over the rather tricky African puzzle, colouring each country on the blackline map in colours to match our Nienhuis puzzles as he fit in each piece. I love how kids choose to approach tasks sometimes :)

Here are a few links to other mainly-Montessori-inspired geography activities on my blog:


I also like this site for printing maps :) 

What have you been enjoying at your place? x


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