Mama's Musings

This year, Zeah is Prep age.  Kids at Prep in our state are 4-6 years old.  Or I could just tell you that last month, Zeah turned five!  We plan our 'schoolwork' around themes.  So as well as doing some basic literacy and numeracy activities, and learning to swim, and lots of play and mess-making, Zeah learns about a different theme each term. 

Term 1 was Oceans, and some of the activities included:

Castle & Kite, KiwiCo and My Creative Box activity boxes have all been huge blessings since I started a new job while still studying fulltime.  I'm working casually this year (and mostly home-based) in Community Engagement, which is a dream job for me!  I'm studying Sustainability online via the University of Tasmania - Sociology, Indigenous Lifeworlds and Engaging with Sustainabilty units this semester - all three are quite content-heavy with plenty of written assessments!  I only have another month or so to go until I get a break...

Autumn is harvest time. Embrace nature’s abundance...

Immersing children in the rhythm of the seasons assists their unfolding as spiritual beings in a physical world. Recognising rhythms – night and day, the seasons, lunar cycles, festivals and traditions – have become less important to us as humans. For our ancestors, these were the essence of life.

If you have not yet set up your own seasonal table or shelf, as described in previous Seasonal Fun columns, it is a wonderful way to explore the ways that our environment changes through the year; and to display works of art, items from nature and books. If you have a table, it is now time to pack some of your summer items away (don’t forget to photograph the display first) and gather items for autumn. Our world abounds with gifts in autumn, take a walk with your child to gather a variety of seeds and coloured leaves for your display and craft activities.

Nature walks can be enjoyed from babyhood. Usually,...

Because we have a little one of school age now, I thought I'll try to share a series of regular blog posts showing some things we're learning about.  Perhaps some of the resources and activities we do will help inspire other families.

Zeah is very interested in Time at the moment.  She has asked for a watch for her fifth birthday, and is often asking questions relating to the concept of time.

TIP: Place a standard analogue clock in a living/playing area of your home, and refer to it often, eg: "It's nearly 2 o'clock, we need to get ready for swimming now."

This past week, we started doing some activities and we read a book to support her interest.  Here are some of the items we've used...


These rainbow timers from Junior Learning measure 1, 2 and 5 minutes and assisted with estimating and comparison of how long different things take at at our place.  I got them online for about $10 last year. 

This book, Just a Second by Steve Jenkins has beautiful...

Exciting News!

Kelly from Fearless Homeschool is running a rare live session of her Zero to Homeschool course!

Here’s a quick overview -

Full course access – instant & lifetime
July 6 – August 28
Weekly live coaching sessions
Accountability (so you actually do it!)

Over eight weeks you’ll go through one module a week. You’ll meet for a live session once a week where Kelly does some extra teaching, answers questions, and helps troubleshoot your issues. She’ll even record it so you can watch if you can’t make it live.

At the end of the eight weeks you’ll have a personalised homeschool that’s interesting, enjoyable, AND educational (and that you don’t want to run away from).

If that’s EXACTLY what you need right now, you can join Zero to Homeschool here.  Enjoy!

Are you creating things with little people?  I often am!  I have a few craft books to inspire, but I don't regularly use them...  I normally search online for a specific theme, eg: "rainbow craft preschool".  Or sometimes I search for activities to use up specific materials, eg: "seedpod crafts".  I have the beginnings of a folder of ideas in Pinterest, but I forget to add to it!

We like to use materials from nature, mixed with materials that can be composted.  We try to avoid plastic, foam, synthetic fibres, over-packaged kits, single-use everything!  I remember about 20 years ago taking my tribe of small children to playgroup and coming home with at least four creations made from plastic and styrofoam, glitter and googly eyes.  And another four the next week.  And over and over until our home was filled with non-recyclable art that inevitably ended up in the bin.  We still have way too many precious creations floating...

This is the third and final post in this series.  See the first and second three reasons here and here.

LEARNING OPTIONS

Each of our six graduates have learned various things in various ways, to suit their learning styles.  Some studied independently a lot, others loved co-operative learning with their siblings and/or peers - including classes, all of them have studied something online at some stage, and some really liked to learn from me, or their Dad, or another adult working closely with them.

THE VALUE OF REST

There are plenty of years of busyness in adulthood.  I am glad our lifestyle allows our children to rest when they are tired, rest when they are unwell, rest when they are growing (physically or emotionally).

I love that they can walk into our forest, and gaze at our flowing creek, and ponder all of life.  

Sometimes I've been frustrated with how much they've rested, as teenagers, but now I know it was what they needed at the time.

GROWING...