The Fashionista becomes a Teenager

I just found a pile of posts sitting in my drafts that I had written but obviously forgot to post it. This is one of them. So please check the dates to see when this was actually written as some are over a year old now. 


My darling Fashionista turned 13 recently. We are in the middle of renovations and she didn't really want a party (well anything we could agree on anyway) so I took her down to our bach with a friend for a couple of nights whilst Agent Smelly was away on camp a week later.

She is a particularly amazing young lady. She is extremely intelligent, well-mannered and a delight to have around. Her determination and courage blows me away at times and I can only look on in awe at what her Papa and I have created. 

Oh for the Love of Onions

One afternoon some dear homeschooling friends of ours (9 kids!) that live locally called to ask if we'd be interested in heading off to some nearby paddocks to collect some onions with them and we jumped at the chance.

Every year once the onion (or potato) pickers have been through the paddocks, our friends  get permission to go in afterwards and collect any produce that hadn't made the grade. They go with another family (of 8!) and this year were kind enough to offer us an invitation to come along too.

Our haul after we have given some away to Grandma and friends.

It was a lovely evening and the girls and I had a great time grabbing the onions off the fields. All that bending and hauling bags was hard work but really rewarding. Agent Smelly spent more time talking to one of her friends so only managed a couple of half bags much to our amusement. The Fashionista despite picking with her bestie did a great job and collected a few bags.

There weren't so many red ones left and those that were, were quite small. We still collected enough to see us through for quite a while. There were loads of brown ones that were of really good quality too, I am not sure why they leave some of them. We got a great haul ... imagine how much our friends got with their crews!!!  These onions would have been simply ploughed back into the ground if we hadn't of picked the left overs so if you live anywhere near some onion fields (or some other produce) write to the people and ask if you can clear out the paddocks after they've finished picking them, you might be lucky like us and be given permission to pop along and clean up.

As we now have onions a-plenty I had the girls help me make some onion soup. We learnt that it used to be made by peasants during a time when they could not afford much and hence was referred to as "peasant soup". The papa and I don't mind it but the girls have suggested I don't ever make it again, even if we end up living as peasants.

COLLINS, Suzanne

Suzanne COLLINS is the author of the extremely popular dystopian trilogy, THE HUNGER GAMES.

When I first read The Hunger Games, it was with the view to see whether it would be suitable for my tweens girls. I decided that it was not at all suitable, I found it terribly violent, teens being manipulated to kill each other in order to survive and an evil, controlling government using people like puppets.

After a while, and much pressure from them for the chance to read it, and discussions with friends who have children of similar ages I decided to let them read and I do not regret it one little bit as it turned out to be an amazing series for lots of discussions.

We discussed the heroine, Katniss, in depth. Was she a hero? She volunteered to take the place of her little sister, whose name had been pulled to enter the fight, in a sort of reality show where teens fight to the death. That was indeed brave but she still entered the game and ended up being 'involved' in some deaths of other entrants. Is it brave to let others die in order to save our own necks?

We discussed some characters who were indeed innocents who were killed in the "games", thus pointing out that in war there are always innocent people with families who lose their lives.

We discussed Haymitch, who had won a previous Hunger Games, and was an alcoholic and still suffered nightmares many years later from his involvement in the games. We discussed 'Post Traumatic Syndrome" and how so many people/soldiers suffer long after wars are ended and some simply never recover.

We also had a big discussion on classism; the Capitol (the government who ran all the districts) and how these fat cats lived very different lives to those in some of the districts that were poor and suffered greatly. Despite the Capitol being a rather futuristic and over-exaggerated city, we talked about the similarities between that place and our own governments and major capitols now.

Don't get me wrong, I still don't think that the books are particularly well written and they are violent but they do have a way of making you want to read them to the very end simply to see what happens. I would definitely recommend letting your teen read them but I would strongly recommend that you read the books yourself first in order to discuss them with the child as you go along. Also if they are particularly sensitive some of the scenes may upset them.  

The Fashionista (12)     -- 3 out of 5 stars
Agent Smelly      (10)    -- 4 out of 5 stars
The Mama   (over 20)   -- 3 out of 5 stars
 

Balloons Over Waikato

If you are a hot air balloon enthusiast then Hamilton, NZ is a great place to visit for 5 days every March. Each morning the balloons ascend over Hamilton and land somewhere different throughout the day - often a primary school. For the past 15 years they have been holding the Balloons Over Waikato and it is quite an event for the town.




Agent Smelly reading and listening to music whilst waiting for dusk to fall.


This year I took Agent Smelly to the highlight of the Festival which is the orchestrated Balloon Glow Show and a dramatic fireworks finale. (The Fashionista was also there with a school friend and her family and we met up afterwards). Whilst waiting for the "Night Glow" there are bands playing live music which I have to say was really very good. A lot of modern yet popular tunes with some very recognisable older and always popular songs. I quite enjoyed watching the small children amongst the very large crowd dancing away to the tunes. 

The balloons glow to orchestrated music finishing with the best fireworks display in town. Here's a picture taken with my phone. It is a huge even and we were quite a distance from the balloons. Unfortunately the weather was starting to change as we were there so the weirdly shaped balloons did not get put up as they were concerned about the weather conditions.

Photo taken from the Balloons Over Waikato website as linked above.

As it was the rain started, albeit gently, just a few minutes after the fireworks finished and we were walking across the fields back to the car. Unfortunately the final lift off the next morning had to be cancelled due to the inclement weather setting in.

Remembering a camera would have been handy ...

Balloons over Waikato

If you are a hot air balloon enthusiast then Hamilton, NZ is a great place to visit for 5 days every March. Each morning the balloons ascend over Hamilton and land somewhere different throughout the day - often a primary school. For the past 15 years they have been holding the Balloons Over Waikato and it is quite an event for the town.




Agent Smelly reading and listening to music whilst waiting for dusk to fall.


This year I took Agent Smelly to the highlight of the Festival which is the orchestrated Balloon Glow Show and a dramatic fireworks finale. (The Fashionista was also there with a school friend and her family and we met up afterwards). Whilst waiting for the "Night Glow" there are bands playing live music which I have to say was really very good. A lot of modern yet popular tunes with some very recognisable older and always popular songs. I quite enjoyed watching the small children amongst the very large crowd dancing away to the tunes. 

The balloons glow to orchestrated music finishing with the best fireworks display in town. Here's a picture taken with my phone. It is a huge even and we were quite a distance from the balloons. Unfortunately the weather was starting to change as we were there so the weirdly shaped balloons did not get put up as they were concerned about the weather conditions.

Photo taken from the Balloons Over Waikato website as linked above.

As it was the rain started, albeit gently, just a few minutes after the fireworks finished and we were walking across the fields back to the car. Unfortunately the final lift off the next morning had to be cancelled due to the inclement weather setting in.

Remembering a camera would have been handy ...

April Fools Day ...

It's April Fools Day and I just realised that I forgot to trick The Fashionista before I dropped her off at the bus stop this morning, so I decided that I would simply have to text her and this is what has transpired ...
 
Now first of all we have a painter in doing the spare room, bathroom, hallway off her bedroom, etc. at the moment. It's quite early and he isn't here yet but that didn't stop me.

Me: "Sonny tripped and got paint all over you room!!! So cross right now"
 
TF: "Over the carpet or walls????"
 
Me: "Both!!! Bookshelf, door, wall!!!!"
 
TF: "On my stuff?"
 
TF again: "I'll murder him"  (someone needs some sleep ... )
 
TF again: "What was he doing in my room anyway?"
 
Me: "little bit ... it's 'mostly' coming off" (I was replying to the first line with my old lady fingers but she was firing them through)

TF: "Brilliant! Just great!"

Me: "by the way Happy Aril Fools Day. :p "

Red My Lips 2015

Now I do not usually wear lipstick these days. I am not against it, after years of wearing makeup to an office, I suppose I just enjoy the fact I don't have to "doll up" each day. Through the month of April though I will be endeavouring to wear bright RED lipstick each time I go out or have people over.



This is not about vanity. It is about visibility.

Why, you may be wondering. Well first I will explain what Red My Lips is ...

"Red My Lips is an international nonprofit organization based out of the U.S. We run an annual global awareness campaign where our fierce and fearless supporters rock red lipstick all throughout the month of April (Sexual Assault Awareness Month) to demonstrate solidarity and support for survivors and start important conversations with people in their lives. Red My Lips is designed to raise visibility and awareness about the realities and prevalence of sexual violence, while combatting rape myths and victim-blaming.  

 

We continue to convince ourselves that rape only happens to 'those girls' who 'weren't careful,' 'gave mixed signals,' or 'put themselves in a bad situation.'  This tendency to deny, shame, or blame survivors who come forward only serves to convince other survivors that they are wise to keep quiet, giving those who perpetrate these crimes free reign to continue doing so without consequence. Additionally, we frequently misunderstand rape and sexual assault as something provoked by uncontrollable sexual attraction or desire...instead of what it is: an act of domination, entitlement, and violence.

Wearing red lipstick in April allows supporters to speak out against these damaging myths and victim-blaming attitudes.  It allows us all to stand in solidarity with survivors and refuse to be invisible...refuse to be silent."

Above quote taken directly from the Red My Lips website.


Did you know ...

• that in the UN report of 2011 sweet little old NZ was ranked worst of all OECD countries in rates of sexual violence. That shocked me!
• Only 13% of recorded rapes by the police are actually convicted!  That makes me so freaken cross. Just 13%, how many people are out there having gotten away with it people ... how many!
• 90% of sexual assaults are by someone known to the victim.
• In New Zealand, up to one in three girls will be subject to an unwanted sexual experience by the age of 16 years. The majority of those incidences would be considered serious, with over 70% involving genital contact. As a mother of young girls this stat scares the shit out of me!
• In NZ up to one in five women will experience a sexual assault as an adult.
• There are varying rates for sexual violence offences against males but large scale international prevalence studies have tended to find a figure of one in seven boys.

 So when someone comments on my red lips, which I am sure they will, as frankly it's not a colour that suits me, I can explain why I am wearing it. 

Please check out this very worthwhile cause whether you're a male of female. If you males can't wear red lippy but would like to show support, how about wearing a red tie for the total month! Or you could even wear a pair of red lips on a brooch.

 

No more blaming and shaming, and silence ... lets show support!

Big red lips kisses from me!

Red My Lips website ... http://redmylips.org/
Red My Lips Facebook Page link ... https://www.facebook.com/redlipstick4acause?fref=nf

The A-Z Challenge 2015 Big Reveal

For the last couple of years I have been inspired to join the A-Z blog challenge and I start off with great gusto but always something ends up throwing me completely off (an illness or something) and I have not yet completed one challenge. Last years effort was completely abysmal and I wasn't going to bother this year but a fellow blogger suggested this could be the year that I actually complete it.

For those who don't know what the Ato Z Challenge entails, basically you post something every day in April except Sundays and as there are 26 days (minus the Sundays) that matches the letters in the alphabet. So on April 1, the blog will be about something that begins with the letter “A.” April 2 “B,” April 3 “C,” and so on. You can blog about anything at all as long as it matches the letter of the day.


Having a theme is optional but personally I think it's easier if you do have a theme (especially when I find it so hard to thing of blog ideas at the best of times), so this year I have chosen the theme of "Teen and Tween Books". There might be a slight twist though and I am very much cheating as I have enlisted my two little buddies here to help provide some of the posts. 


It's also recommended that you keep your posts short as what you are asked to do each day, is check out about 5 blogs that are also participating in the challenge (there's a HUGE list of participants). It's a bit of a way to meet some new bloggers and increase your audience I suppose you could say. Frankly, I am not too worried about increasing my audience (if I was worried about numbers I'd have stopped blogging way back ... lol), I just want to finish one darn challenge!  I also quite like reading and finding other blogs from the list. I still follow a few blogs a couple of years later, they weren't even homeschooling ones, which is usually my main focus too.


Anyway if you are mad enough to join me, please do, then let me know so we can support each other ... who's up for it?

Here's the link to sign up, c'mon you know you want to. 

Mana Wairua's First Workshop

This year The Fashionista  joined a recently formed "Youth Contemporary Dance Company" named - Mana Wairua, set up by the amazing dancing son and daughter, of one of TF's old teachers.  Their aim is to perform at festivals and other events.

Last week they were lucky to attend a two day contemporary dance workshop.

 

 

 

 

Cathy Livermore (in the black top on the right) 'discover all that you are' and an amazing dancer and choreographer, took them on the Saturday and again on the Sunday. Cathy is originally from Aussie but has Maori roots which brought her back to NZ to investigate further and she has really become involved in the Maori culture and incorporating it into her dance. She's simply the loveliest, most authentic woman.

 

 

 

Here's Cathy working with the Kila Kokonut Krew, at the factory, who toured Aussie last year along with the Endiburgh Festival.

 

 

Trey Pickett visiting from New Mexico, USA taught them on the Saturday. Trey is the sweetest most beautiful man and he doesn't actually seem to dance, dance simply seems to be part of him, just like you and I breathe, he just dances.

 

"Trey Pickett is an acclaimed performer and choreographer in New Mexico. He was first inspired as a young boy performing with his family when he then ventured into street dancing. Trey's passion for dance has grown through-out the years and has inspired him to share his passion by opening his own dance company, Disciples of Chaos(DC). He has performed in NY, has danced in the UNM dance program, as well as being the first black principle dancer at New Mexico Ballet Company."

 

 

This is from YouTube, there's a few other things on there with Trey also.

 

Anyway TF really enjoyed it but there were parts where she was VERY out of her comfort level. The students were asked to really be authentic and to simply throw themselves into it but there was still a bit of stiltedness and reservedness (I could have just made those words up) in them which I think will go with more time and further experience.


TF hadn't never danced with a male before and the kids all had to dance together and had to sometimes touch and connect, and she felt a bit conscious doing this as a lot of 12 year olds would I imagine. They also brought a lot of Maori spiritualism into it and it is all quite new to her but it was seriously a really great experience and she enjoyed but felt a bit lost at times. It was a steep learning experience for her. She actually has been loving learning more about the Maori culture and dance, so is getting more than she bargained for with this beautiful cultural opportunity being added to her dancing.


How lucky are these kids to get these opportunities to learn from professionals, at such a young age and there's a different work shop coming up soon!!!


If you'd like to follow these kids and their contemporary dance group, they can be found on Facebook on this link ... Mana Wairua - NZ  The more likes and support the better!

An Adventurous Day Out

Recently I took Agent Smelly and one of her friends, Miss Y, to Sonshine Ranch as part of a homeschool outing.

As part of the day included some horse riding the children needed to wear closed in shoes. When I picked up Miss Y, I asked her if she had togs and sneakers in her bag as she was wearing jandals (thongs for you Aussies and flip flops for you Americans and Brits). She told me that she had, but unfortunately when we arrived at the camp / adventure park and she went to put on her sneakers she found that she had forgotten to pack them. Well her bottom lip actually started to tremble (seriously was the cutest thing I have ever seen) and she was about to burst into tears when I quickly said "here try these on" and kicked off my own sneakers (we were over an hour away so wasn't like I could slip back home). She tried them on and thankfully these sneakers that are loose on me fitted her perfectly. Unfortunately her jandals were slightly a bit big for me (I have tiny feet) but I managed to tramp all over the hills and through the trail in them without breaking my neck ... the things we do!

Agent Smelly on the Flying Fox

It was quite a long ride through the bush ... I wouldn't have done it!

Anyway our first trip was down to the flying fox and the rope swing.

Agent Smelly on the rope swing

Then our group (there were 58 kids, two groups) was moved onto the horse riding. Agent Smelly was a bit disappointed that the trail ride was very short as she was dying to have a proper ride of her horse.

When I finally got up the hill from helping the remainder of the kids on the flying fox (parents lend a hand at each activity) they had already set off. When they returned I saw the kids on their sweet little horsies and then she comes out of the trail on bloody Phar lap. Apparently when they asked if anyone wanted the largest horse they had on the farm, she threw her arm straight up! She so was pleased she got him as she loves big horses. His name was Flash and he was missing one eye.


We then broke for lunch and sat on the grass in the most idyllic little area with all these lovely ferns and bush around us.


After lunch we moved onto their last activity which was a water confidence course. It was pretty gross to be honest ... but the kids had fun trying to get across the water without landing in it. Miss Y was really struggling on that type bit you can see in the bottom photo. You need to swing back and forth to get to the next one. She was taking ages and Agent Smelly was right behind her. AS's hands get really sweaty and whilst she had no trouble swinging and grabbing the next one, holding onto the same rope waiting for Miss Y to move was too much and she slipped into the drink. It was really quite funny, especially as Miss Y was just a tyre or two from the end and actually made it to the end without falling and all the kids behind waiting started dropping like flies ... haha

Agent Smell pink togs right in the centre.

 

Miss Y bottom left sitting on one of the tyres holding on ... haha
That's a water wheel the kids climb onto and try and move by running on it like a giant hamster!

We had really lovely weather and the activities kept moving and the girls really seemed to enjoy their day out together doing some fun and new activities.


Agent Smelly really seems to be gaining confidence at these activities without her big sister around. In the past she hung back, she did them but now she is putting herself out more to the front. It is interesting to see.

Reward Scheme

The Fashionista's new school (how long before I can stop saying 'new' school I wonder) came home from her first day of school and showed me one of the things that they do there, that I think is a pretty cool idea and have been meaning to share.

Her tutor teacher explained to the girls that at their school they prefer to encourage the students for good behaviour rather than punish them for bad. I was very happy to hear that, as that is how I attempt to bring up my children. I say attempt as sometimes I do end up giving them punishments ... I mean how many times can one ask someone to please get off minecraft and set the table! So no tablet or device punishments come into place sometimes.

So essentially what happens is that each student gets a card which they can place in front of themselves on their desk during their class.

The rules are the student needs to display

• a willingness to learn
• interaction with respect
• strive to understand
• engage to achieve

If they are displaying these behaviours whilst in class, then the teacher of that class signs it. Not all teachers remember to walk around the classroom, so if they want to, the students can go up to the teacher to have it signed once class is finished. Once the card has been filled they hand it back to their tutor teacher for a new one and the signed one gets submitted to the office.

Once three are accrued they received a Bronze certificate, 6 for Silver and 10 they earn a gold owl badge to proudly wear on the lapel of their blazers. They also have it presented by the School Principal at a special ceremony.

No guessing who already has her sights set on getting that badge. She has completed three cards already ... that poor school won't know what's hit them.


I have discussed it with Agent Smelly and we are going to make up something similar here for her so she can earn stuff at home. She doesn't want a certificate though she has chosen food rewards ... no surprises there either!


 

High School Update - Week 3

The third official week of High School has gone a lot better.
 

 

The worst bit for TF is getting up at 6am or even 5.30 if she wants a shower in the morning! She still gets herself up and doesn't display any bad temper but, she says she is tired and could happily creep back into bed each morning.
 
Science that had gone so badly for her the previous week, went exceptionally well. She got a score (1 point less than the top score) that her tutor teacher (who is also a science teacher) told her was a really high score to get on that particular test.  She told her the first one actually didn't matter, so that has returned her to her previous good feelings about science. A huge relief to me!

She was made the Junior Council Leader (Year 9's and 10's) of her tutorial group which she was thrilled about. In full disclosure she admitted to us, with a big giggle, that she was the only one who had put her name forward for it in her tutor group. Apparently in her merry group of 7 friends all them had put their names forward to represent their respective tutor groups but sadly they didn't get elected. I am not sure exactly what's involved in the position but they attend meetings. She thinks it will be good experience for when she applies for more senior leadership roles down the track ... seriously I never looked that far ahead as a kid ... who is she???

She just loves her drama class so much. They are split into groups and have to put on a little performance to be shown to the rest of the group in a few weeks, based on (not the same as) the movie, The Little Princess (with Shirley Temple).

She did her first Beep Test (running test) ... ever ... and got a pretty good score showing she is quite fast. So bam, in response to "how do home schoolers do PE?" ... like a boss I say!

She had her first real homework this weekend which freaked her out and like all good students spent the first part of the weekend putting off. She spent a lot of Sunday doing it. All she wanted to do was rest but it had to be done, so I had to give her a gentle nudge in getting it complete. Some of it wasn't due until later in the week but seeing she has so much dancing it doesn't leave much time during the week to do it, not to mention she's exhausted of an evening too. Got to say, the homework is crazy and I can't see why they can't do it in class. Write an essay on a biography they have read (English), write about a scientist (Science), write about the appendix (Health/PE and all kids got different body parts) and lastly Social Studies which really annoyed me as it was stuff like, what Iwi do you belong to (it's your Maori tribe), what is your spirit mountain, what beach are you connected to, where do you meet friends and a personal favourite 'how do you get to these places?'. Seriously important stuff there!

I have to say she is really enjoying the social side of things and is having fun with her new friends. She has the group she hangs around with ... I call them the seven dwarves as there are seven of them, and also some other lasses that she has met in other classes. A couple even attend her new dance academy, so she is slowly building up a nice group of girls to associate with again. They text each quite a bit even outside school and are quite a diverse but nice young girls. She has tried a lot of new things too that we probably wouldn't necessarily do in a home school environment. The school had a different sport on each lunchtime for the new girls to go out and try and see if they'd like to join. She is keen to join the dance or drama groups so as much as she'd like to join some sports groups she simply can't fit it all in.

In full disclosure it's not all a bed of roses, besides the travel and homework, she doesn't like the time when they are not doing anything and she doesn't feel that they learn enough or are especially challenged and whilst she thinks all her teachers are actually really nice and helpful, she finds it amazing that they can take a subject and teach it so boringly. She said mum, you aren't even a 'proper' (ahem, I think she means qualified) teacher and you always made learning stuff really fun and interesting. She doesn't have much time for emailing, talking to her 'old' home school friends or even visiting them which saddens her.

How Home Educating has been going ...

Well due to the very busy and new demands put on us by The Fashionista's move to High School, we have slowly eased into home schooling. So we have completed 2 weeks now and here's what we've been up to.

This photo is from last weeks Home School picnic that was held at a city park on a lake. Such a good turn out despite a lot of people not being able to make it. They held an egg n spoon race, three-legged races and sack races. It was a lot of fun and despite it being held from 10-12pm many of us were still there at 2pm!

On our first "official" school day Agent Smelly was a bit of a whiner to be honest. I had only planned a couple of easy lessons to ease her back into things which would have taken about an hour at most so was kind of annoyed at her dragging stuff on and behaving like a brat. She's been on her tablet playing Minecraft much more than is good for her over the school holidays. I know some people suggest letting them self-regulate but she will spend the whole day on it if we let her and then she is a real beast when we ask her to come down for dinner or do anything to tidy her room or help around the house.  We had to have a bit of a chat that evening (I really wanted to know If this was how she was going to be acting all year) and the next day she was much more happy and ready to get on with stuff and get it finished rather than dragging everything out.


She's started working on Math-U-See Epsilon which is mostly on fractions at the beginning. She managed to complete three levels, tests included, in less than two weeks and got every single answer correct. All it appears to take is me sitting beside her, otherwise I hear "it's too hard", "I don't know what to do" and "I can't do it". Once I sit next her, she just cracks on and does it although she will occasionally ask me valid questions or for help to understand the question more and I am fine with that.
 
 

 
 
She's also continuing on with a spelling curriculum, Spelling Workout Level E, by Modern Curriculum Press, that she worked on last year. More so because her new English curriculum hasn't arrived yet, than because I particularly think highly of it. In case you can't read the above, she was supposed to write down words that she struggled with in lessons 13-17 ... her response "none, I'm brilliant". Rather her getting told to do things like this properly I simply have a laugh (as does her Papa) and let is slide. I really can't see what it would prove to do otherwise.


So on day 2 we did the same lessons as the day before but, this time I put her onto DIY.org to complete some badge activities from there. She has been signed up for ages when blogger Sue Elvis put us onto it but, we always had trouble getting onto it properly. Turns out we simply have to go through Chrome to have full access to is. I knew she would be enthused when she saw she could earn a minecrafting badge and she was!
 

 

She completed her Stitcher badge ... watch out Aunty Sheryl, there will be a little something on it's way for you.

 

 

 
And of course she completed her Minecraft badge. She had to do a minecraft 'art' challenge and so she designed an owl with a 3d heart on Valentines Day. 
 
I like the fact that by introducing DIY into her curriculum, it has been keeping things interesting and she has more control over what she'd like to.

For her literature study she chose "Sherlock Holmes" for us to work on. It's an abridged version, so I didn't think it was that great and unlike other abridged classics we have read this one didn't have her yearning for more. We have already completed it and begun work on Alice in Wonderland. She chose that one next (I suggested Little Women) and then complained that she had already read it, so why where we bothering ... sigh ...  

We continued with our Story of the World, Volume 3 for history and because the chapters we were working on were on American history I put on Liberty Kids off YouTube which is a cartoon series that was made about the American Revolution, Boston Tea Party, etc. It is really thorough and quite good and from what I can tell she is retaining the knowledge. I pop a show or two (or three if I wander off and forget about her) on each day whilst she is eating her lunch.

We also have started work on an old Introductory course to Physics program that I purchased years ago and forgot on the shelves ... as you do. Am using it as an opportunity for me to start teaching her about Mind Mapping too.

She is also taking a weekly Jazz and Hip Hop class and also a performance class. Mostly because some of her old home school friends attend also and I feel she needs to be out amongst some mates more so than even before.

So we are starting to get in the groove again but, I must admit I am still adjusting to having just one student. It's not quite as much fun for either of doing some of the group activities that the girls both enjoyed doing together and laughing over.

High School Update

Well The Fashionista has completed two part weeks back at school (Friday was a public holiday in NZ).

She gets herself up every morning at 6am, and gets her breakfast and gets ready (we do her bag and lunch the night before) to leave at 6.50 with me. I drive her to the nearest town to catch a bus into her school for a 8.45 start. Then she arrives back at the bus stop at 4.30ish for me to pick her up and drive her back home ... you can see the exhaustion in her little face. Frankly I ain't loving the early mornings too much myself and I get up half an hour later than she does.

In year 9 they place all the 300 odd girls in random classes, except for 2 classes which they call extended class for the girls who did well in their placement exams that they took late last year and 1 class for children that didn't do so well and require a little extra help to bring them up to speed.

TF was placed in one of the extended classes which she was pretty chuffed about ... don't get me started on how thrilled the mama, papa and extended family were too. It's kind of nice to have confirmation that home education works as well as we all believe it too. She stays in that class for most subjects except for her electives and math. For math they have another smaller special class for top performers which she ended up in apparently so far it is very boring whilst they review math which frankly if they don't know they shouldn't even be in High School.

She also has a "tutor teacher" and every day a tutorial session is scheduled. There are 5 girls from each year level (Year 9 -13 are the High School years in NZ) in her tutor class and the reason they do it this way is for the older girls to help mentor the younger girls with any issues they may have also.

She started off loving just about everything about school but within a week there was a major melt down one evening. She did not do well in a science test (just to see where they were at), fell down a flight of stairs in one of the buildings (there are 1800 girls at the school and apparently it is pretty manic at times), was petrified of her new Social Studies teacher, and was having issues with her IPad and kept heading to the library every day to get it online but the person was never there, so she ended up at the school office which had a queue a mile long and so missed lunch. She just exploded into tears that night. She wanted to keep going to school, but not that one because it was too busy, etc., etc.

Her Papa, who was at work, told me over the phone later when I explained what had happened, to tell her she could have the day off if she needed it, which really brightened her up. Not because she could have the day off, but I think because she realised we had her back. She and I discussed it but agreed that it would be better to get everything sorted the next day, and after a cuddle and our chat she went off happily to bed. I actually drove into her school the next day to pick her up as I was pretty sure it was simply tiredness that had made things so bad the day before (the bus trip home exhausts her as she has to stand sometimes and it's nearly an hour trip), and was pleased to hear that her day went really well. I took her and her sister out for an early dinner and we had a little bit of fun shopping. 

There has been minimal homework so far, more tasks like doing their front pages for their classes, etc. and introducing themselves.  Much to her surprise the scary Texan Social Studies teacher has turned out to be really nice and has offered to help her catch up on any work she has missed due to problems with the IPad situation. There were 3 in her class that had issues but she was the only one she offered to help, when TF was packing up her bag after class. Apparently everyone else rushes out of the classrooms but TF likes to place everything properly away.

I must say that the teachers there do sound quite lovely. All very supportive and nice so far, I am impressed with that.

She absolutely LOVES her electives, drama and digital technology but they only go for 6 months of the year, so will be interesting to see what happens next semester.

I am really not sure how it is going. She gets quite frustrated with some of the things that happen and more especially seem to take forever to happen. She does enjoy most of the actual classes though. So at the moment it's one day at a time.