J is for ... "Jo Jo"

I am not sure if I have told you all about our amazing dove Jo Jo.

Jo Jo is a Barbary dove who walked up to us one day when we were working in the garden. She didn't fly off as we got closer and we ended up picking her up. We think maybe she had a sore wing or was hungry as she was quite limp in our hands and didn't even try to escape.

We found a big old cage and popped her in there with the intention of bringing her back to health and setting her free. In the meantime the young 'uns decided that the bird simply MUST have a name of course. Jo was decided on as we couldn't determine it's sex, it then somehow progressed to Jo Jo.

Jo Jo lived with us for quite a while in the house in her big cage and we would all stop to chat with her and became fond of her cooing and that magnificent laughing sound that doves make.

Late last year I made the decision that unless we got an aviary then she had to move on as our cage didn't give her the room to spread her wings and fly. I even spoke to a rescue centre and they said to simply let her go in the wild but we were quite worried as she had become pretty domesticated.

In late spring I decided to release her as threatened. Of course we were all worried about her well-being, especially the Papa but a couple of days later he was delighted to see her fly around the corner and land on the ladder that was beside him whilst he was sitting out on the deck.

From then on she never left the property. She had shifted in with our chickens and then developed a bit if an identity problem. She would hop down off the gate or down from one of the trees and join the chooks at their feed each day. At one stage, much to our amusement, she even laid an egg and sat on it for a while. We ended up making her a dove house down there but she never used it, much preferring to roost with the chickens!

We would pop a wee container out when she popped around to see us every day.

If we left any of doors open in she would come inside and hop around til we noticed her and gently shooed her out again. Here she is on the couch and was watchcing TV!

And here she popped in to visit me in the kitchen whilst I was preparing a meal.

Earlier this year she thought she might even start helping the Papa with the BBQ.


Sadly we haven't seen Jo Jo in over a week or so and are hoping she is OK. We think she is just the most amazing bird and had even been discussing getting a mate for her. Fingers crossed she will return.

I is for ... "I" am behind in my Challenge but I am determined to finish it!

I have gotten behind in my A-Z blog challenge. It is a lot harder than it sounds coming up with something pertaining to a certain letter on a certain day.

Then life interrupts, the Papa has a weeks leave, a sick child, visitors, a camp, birthday, you name it and we've had it this week.

Today I have been playing catch up in between catching up on washing, preparing and taking Brownies for another leader and homeschooling. Thankfully I had a few drafts started so I have just been tidying them up and writing a couple that needed to be done.

Please forgive me for all my grammar and spelling mistakes but I have been in such a hurry to finish them that I may have made a few mistakes. I am sure I will be horrified if I take another look at what I have posted. How do some people post each and every day and have them looking so professional.

Next week is school holidays for two weeks (we take a break the same time as the schools do here due to us being involved in so many extra-curricular activities) so the girls and I are heading off to visit friends up North so I may have to think of pre writing some things ... hmmm, such planning to do.

I am simply determined to fully complete this challenge! Wish me luck.

H is for ... "History books"

How do you feel about history books? I recall the ones I used at school, one or two (ahem) years back. Gosh they were dull. I couldn't stand history, it was so dull and boring.

Now I absolutely love history as do my two little girls. It can be made into such a fun and interesting subject. We cook, act, build things, dig things up, do artwork, dress up, watch things on YouTube and even sing songs to accompany our lessons.

We are using a book called The Story of the World by Susan Wise Bauer, which is very popular amongst homeschoolers, as the formal part of our history homeschooling. There are also activity books that you can purchase to accompany the novel as well as lap books that can be purchased and loads and loads of ideas on the Internet to accompany the books. We do different things for different chapters to keep it always interesting.

We have also started reading the above series of scholastic historical books (My Story and My Royal Story)aimed at older children. They are written in diary form of fictional (eg Factory Girl) and real (Mary Queen of Scots) characters in various parts of the world at various times throughout history. For example Catherine of Aragon is a diary kept by her childhood friend and seamstress.

These are strictly read alouds at this stage as some of the historical terminology is unknown to my pre-tween and tween age girls and I can explain things to them. Some of the things that happened are also a little too mature. Catherine was married off at 15 and there is the wedding and ritual of following the couple to the room, etc. These themes are a little old for my girls to understand without me explaining things. I admit I also have skipped a line or two that I really didn't want to explain yet (the sheets after the first night could have turned into a whole different conversation best saved for another time). When they are teens they'll be ready to read them again by themselves and will be able to comprehend things a little better.

Because of the way these are written, they are not at all boring or dull and the girls really seem to understand and have a better concept of the time period as they can relate more to living books. They were thrilled when they realised that Catherine was actually Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand's youngest and favoured daughter as they have come across these characters in their lessons before.

Those times are so extremelly different to what we are used to, that my girls are rather horrified at the way women were basically treated as chattels and to be blunt, morons who couldn't think for themselves and had no rights. I think think it would be a disservice to them if the harshness, brutality and crudeness of history was avoided. Princess did not have it easy ... any one married to King Henry VIII would know that and it silly for me to educate them thinking it was all sweetness and light living in a castle and having servants. Reading one chapter can take us a little while as sometimes that are mentioned can suddenly turn into a bit of a discussion about a subject (cooking, servants, fashion, etc) which we all enjoy. So whilst some people may think they can be a little too graphic on occasion for younger children, I think they are a perfect way to make history more real.

The only thing I would recommend is that you may want to read them first (I have actually enjoyed reading them) to be sure that there are no subjects or issues that you will need to discuss with your child. Older teens would be fine with them but they are written in such a way that they are easily read and digested by a younger child.

I understand there are also area specific books in these series, IE My Australian Story, My Story (New Zealand, Dear Canada and Dear America along with some written about boys but we haven't read any of those yet.

G is for ... "Goats or Guilt?"

Some of you may remember that our girls adopted a couple of day old Saanen goats and hand-reared them. Milly our gentle doe and Molly our funny, bit of a dork of a buck.

Unfortunately our boy Molly became a bit of a handful. We had never had him "fixed" as we thought we'd use him to get Milly in kid but his testosterone was really kicking in and with those big horns of his I was concerned one of the girls was going to get hurt with them having to handle him every morning and evening to and from the goats hut. We were also struggling to find feed for him as he ate like a horse and found our lives revolving around the schedule of these two goats. We'd rush home from places so we could feed them in time or put them away if it rained and so on. We decided that the kindest thing for Molly would be to find him a new home with a few ladies for him to service. Agent Smelly didn't mind as he had gotten a bit rough with her a couple of times whilst they were playing and I think she realised he was getting a bit much for her. Frankly a buck is not really pet material but we never intended to get a buck some of you may recall, but our "she" turned out to be a "he" and a real character to boot.

We could have sold the fella (he's just a huge, majestic looking fella) but we really wanted a kind and loving family where we knew he would be well-cared for so I advertised him amongst the local homeschooling community as being for free as long as he went to the right home. We managed to find a home, not too far away from here, where he would live amongst three other does. Buck heaven people!

We then discussed the idea with The Fashionista of Milly going with him to his new home, as they were happy to take her too as they are going to milk their little herd of goats. TF was very emotional and initially not at all keen on parting with Milly as she absolutely adores that goat, we are talking love with a capital L! Sadly though Milly cannot be left on her own. Even if Molly was moved away from her for a short time, she would bleat and bleat and bleat. She was fine if The Fashionista was nearby her and anytime she heard her little mistresses voice we would hear her start bleating over and over again until TF went out to give her a hug. Milly loved her little mistress just as much as she loved her. She was also prone to escaping to find company. Sadly we had to explain that Milly would be much happier in a little herd and staying with Molly until she herself become a mother, when she would probably be more interested in her kid. We did not force TF but explained the reasons and left the decision to her. She bravely decided that it would be best for Milly too, at times she liked the idea of Milly being in a herd of fellow does, then other times she would worry whether she'd be OK without her to look after her and such. It was a bit of an emotional roller coaster for a couple of weeks til we could take them to their new home.

Anyway we took the goats off to their new home and just as I suspected TF broke down when we unloaded them. Unfortunately Milly wasn't at all happy either and escaped through their fence to get back to TF. I had to send TF to the car so Milly couldn't see or hear her. It was simply heartbreaking. TF in the car sobbing, Milly on the other side of the fence bleating. I was tempted to tell the Papa to load her back in the trailer cage to bring home. Even the family that took her were upset on seeing TF so distraught and the dad kindly came over to the car and promised her they would look after Milly.

That night TF came down to the lounge sobbing her heart out and fell asleep in my arms with tears still wet on her little face. I looked across at the Papa and he was wiping tears from his eyes as well from hearing her little heart break. We had a few days of tears, mostly at night when she was in bed, but thankfully she hasn't cried for a week now.

The Papa and I felt so guilty about Milly, mostly because of TF' heartbreak, although we were we quite fond of the goats, but we know deep down we did the right thing. Molly needed some girls to mate with and Milly hated being by herself and would have had to have lived on the end of a chain, as I am dead certain she would have found a way to escape her paddock to find someone. That is certainly no life for an animal as far as I am concerned. We are also planning on some big moves early next year and we would have had to find new homes for them then anyway, so this way it is better for them to move now whilst they are still relatively young enough to settle into their new home.

As for Molly he didn't give any of us a second look and was trying to mount their does within about 3 seconds ... seriously could have even been 2!  It was actually a little embarrassing his haste, no how do you do, nothing. We all couldn't stop laughing about it on the way home, especially when one of the little boys at the new property asked what he was doing to their goats. To the end of his stay with us, Molly made us laugh.

F is for ... "Flying Creatures"

As part of the Flying Creatures programme we were supposed to make lap books. Unfortunately I find lap books for big curriculum quite awkward to use so I purchased a couple of journal like books for them to use.

I have them personalise their covers.

Then each week as we complete some lap booking activities they place them into their books.

They are also able to pop photo's in them of things that they do or make during the lesson.

They can paste things in that they find, like they did here when they were learning all about feathers they went out and collected some. You can really include anything as longs as it's pretty flat.

Agent Smelly's watercolour of a penguin.

The Fashionista's sketch of a Pipipi

 

They can even simply include artwork that they do on the subject.

Whilst I love lap books, I find that these journal like books are so much better suited to their needs as they get older and do more work on a subject. Do make sure to get the ones with rings to bind them as they are better suited to having things stuck inside them, scrap books tend to stick up and look untidy.