A Hunting We Will Go ...

With winter looming I am trying to take advantage of the lovely days we have been experiencing by getting the girls outdoors as much as possible during the middle of the day.

Today I searched online for some scavenger hunt ideas and found a great example of one at  http://mykidsmake.com/   I typed a similar copy up for us and printed them off and laminated them. I only laminated them because I am intending to use them with my Pippins/Guides, otherwise I am not sure I would have bothered.

I then handed one each to the girls along with a plastic bag and sent them on their way. They were quite surprised but very enthusiastic.

We live on a small lifestyle block so there are plenty of spots to find natural things, although I did actually hide a couple of pine cones amongst some bushes for them to find though as we had none on the property.

It was a great way to spend today's biology class.

It was interesting to see what items they felt fit the request, IE what they thought was smooth, rough, beautiful, etc.

School Uniforms in our Home

Children love dressing up and my girls are no different.

They are fortunate that because we homeschool that they don't need to wear a uniform.

For this very reason, this is what I sometimes get met with in the mornings ...

Can you imagine roll call; Clown, Spiderman ... present.

Introducing Amelia Earhart

This term the girls wanted to study Amelia Earhart. Always happy to oblige when they actually ask to study someone, I purchased a couple of books for them and did some research on the internet.

The first book I purchased was one of the Young Patriots Series. Both my girls highly recommend these books. They mostly focus on the famous person whilst they were young and are written in a story format, which is easier for the kids to get into. I was able to give this book to the girls to simply read by themselves which made life easier. I get a bit tired with all the read alouds we do.

I also purchased a DK biography aimed at youngsters, which details Amelia's life with lots of charts, photo's and timeline, etc. This in conjunction with information we obtained off the internet has really made us be able to get a good grasp of her life. This book we used to read together, they really are not into non-fiction yet so left to their own devices they'd still be labouring over this.

These are the covers of their lap books. I like the way they decided to open them up a little differently to the normal way.

We have also made a couple of items to go inside (www.homeschoolshare.com have a pile of free lap booking things on Amelia Earhart which made life easier) but generally we don't assemble our lap books until we have finished making all the things that we wish to go in them. It makes assembling and fitting things in a lot easier.

This should take until the end of term to complete.

ANZAC Biscuits

Tomorrow is ANZAC Day here in New Zealand and Australia. ANZAC Day is a national day of remembrance held every year, on the 25th April, to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli during WW1. These days it serves as a day to commemorate those who lost their lives, and also served and are still serving in military operations for their countries. There are dawn service's held all over both countries and they really are very special to attend.

For today's Home Economics class, we decided to make some ANZAC Bickies*. The story goes, that during WW1, the wives, (and mothers and girlfriends) of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers made these biscuits to send off to their men overseas. Because it took so long for the food to get there the food had to remain edible, even after two months (those old naval vessels were very slow!) and they wanted them to be reasonably nutritional, thus the ANZAC biscuit. These are now sold commercially throughout Aussie and NZ but the homemade ones are so, so, so, so much better!

There are many different versions of the recipe but, essentially they are made with sugar, flour, coconut, rolled oats and golden syrup. Here's the recipe The Fashionista used today.

ANZAC Biscuits

Dry Ingredients
2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
2 cups coconut
2 cups rolled oats
3 Tspns baking powder
Melted Ingredients
4 Tbspns water
225 grams butter
2 Tbspns golden syrup

Mix all the dry ingredients together. Make a well in the middle and stir in the melted ingredients. Mix well. Roll mixture into balls (you can make about 30 regular sized ones), and place on a greased tray and gently press flat. Bake in a moderate oven, 180C for about 10 minutes or until golden brown. Wait until they cool a bit before eating them as they are still very crumbly, till they cool and harden a bit. 

The Fashionista also threw a handful of peanuts into the mixture before she rolled her last 12 bickies and they were really scrummy too. You can even add some pumpkin or sunflower seeds to the mix if you wish also.

* Bickies is a shortened version of the word biscuits that is commonly used in Aussie and NZ. i.e. "would you like a bickie with your cuppa?"  Biscuits are the same as a cookie in the US. In our homes we grew up with bickie barrels, not cookie jars.

Sewing up a Storm

For Christmas the girls were given a lovely sewing kit each. The Fashionista received a bunny and Agent Smelly an owl.

We haven't really had much time this first term to sew them due to our flitting about so much on holidays (I know it's a hard life for some) but it was a perfect filler during the first term break when they were looking a little bored and shall I say, becoming just a wee bit obsessed with the television!

After just requiring a little advice on how to sew the eyes and beak on, Agent Smelly did the most beautiful blanket stitch around her owl without any help.

The Fashionista did a simple over stitch on hers and of course required, nor would accept (wink), any help or advice. Hers was a little harder with the ears as they not only need to be sewn around but also across the bottom so that the stuffing didn't fall back out of the ears but, she didn't have the face to sew, just a flower and button onto the body.

Here are the finished products. I highly recommend them as everything is included although I did give the girls my needles to use as the plastic ones included were not very useful.

Both girls loved making these so much that they asked me to look out for more of them. They really are very cute and are proudly sitting on shelves in their respective bedrooms.