End of year

It is the beginning of November and we as a family are exhausted! As I sit on the couch here and ponder this, I am noticing a pattern over the last four years. By the end of October we get TIRED.

So, taking this into account, I will plan my year next year around it, and start our school holiday the beginning of November. We will start school the first of February like we have done the past two years. This will give the children a three month holiday and me enough time to plan the next school year.

So what have we done this year?

Lets start with Caleb. Caleb has worked hard this year. His spelling has improved greatly. His reading aloud has improved - he still needs to work on it but the growth has been great. Writing has improved - he does not enjoy it but the easier it becomes the more he will enjoy doing it. We have done a good couple of main lessons this year. Starting with a joint main lesson with Hannah:

1. Man and Animal. (4 weeks)
2. Grade 5 Geometry (3 weeks)
3. Man and Animal (3 weeks)
4. Rome (6 weeks) - this was too long and I will make it into two blocks next time
5. Footprints on Our Land (3 months)
6. Geometry (3 weeks)
7. Geology (3 weeks)
8. Physics (3 weeks)
9. We have done maths every day
10. Grammar, English most days

From the creative, hands-on side, he has done woodwork, drama, recorder, piano, scouts, Junior Rangers, pottery, painting, modelling, knitting and cooking.

All in all he has had a very busy year.

Now for Hannah. Hannah seems to find academics easy, so she breezes through that with no problems. Her reading ability is way above average, reading aloud and silently. Her spelling is really good as well. But, when it comes to neatness of handwriting and workbooks, well that is another story! Hannah loves cooking and does about 30 percent of all the cooking in the house. She is learning to tidy as she goes, but again, this is the difficult part.

Main lessons that we have done:

1. Man and Animal. (4 weeks)
2. Form Drawing (3 weeks)
3. Man and Animal (3 weeks)
4. Norse Mythology (4 weeks)
5. Footprints on Our Land (3 months)
6. Norse Mythology (3 weeks)
7. We do maths everyday
8. We do grammar everyday

Hannah does woodwork, drama, piano, recorder. She did girl guides but has chosen to move to scouts. She did pottery, knitting, crocheting and felt making.

Sheth has been learning his alphabet, how to do form drawing, then we have been learning to write. We use block crayons in our main lesson book. We have done some wet on wet painting. We are learning our times tables backwards and forwards. We have also started to learn to read at a slow, steady pace. All in all we have enjoyed our school year.

Well what have I done? I have been the maid, the garden boy, the doctor, the wife, parent and friend. I have been a teacher for grade one, four and six. On top of all that I have studied this year. I have done seven courses:

1. Introduction to Thai Massage
2. Level One of Thai Massage
3. Thai Foot Massage
4. Lomi Lomi Massage Level One
5. Lomi Lomi Massage Level Two
6. Lomi Lomi Massage Level Three
7. Thai Massage Level Two

I have enjoyed this so much that I will keep doing courses next year, studying physiology and anatomy as well. Well to top it all off I have been asked to run and teach at the small local Waldorf school. This took much thought and consideration, and Greg and I have decided that it is not a good option for our family at this stage. I love my massage and want to focus on that!

Well to be earnest, just reading this has made me tired! I can now understand the fullness of our year!

I am definitely cutting Caleb's main lesson blocks next year. I think eight, three to four week main lessons will be appropriate. I will also do Footprints on Our Land with Hannah and Caleb at the end of the year, as the program is already written, so no prep work needed from me.

As you start panicking that you haven't done what you wanted to do this year, write down what you have done and I think you will be surprised.

Relax and enjoy the beautiful weather, your children and your partner.

Durban curry

| 2 big onions | 4 large garlic cloves
| 1 stick whole cinnamon | 2 tsp curry powder
| 3 tsp masala | 1 tsp jeera (cumin)
| 1tsp whole mustard seeds | 8 cardamons, bruised
| 4 bay leaves | 3 star aniseed | Handful of curry leaves
| Salt | Pepper | 500g Beef or lamb, cubed or minced
| 50g Tomato paste

Dice the onions and chop up the garlic. Fry them in ghee or butter, till it is glassy. Add the spices and fry for about 1 min. Add in meat. Fry till brown. Add in tomato paste and continue to fry. If you want a tomato curry you can add in a tin of tomato and onion mix. I have also added in butter beans, and potatoes at this stage. Add in a bit of water and simmer. Serve with basmati rice, cucumbers, chopped up tomato and onion salad, chutney and dessicated coconut.

Cooking

Hannah's date balls
| 500g pitted dates | 1 cup oats | 2Tbsp honey
| 1-1.5 cups dessicated coconut
|2 Tbsp good quality cocoa powder

Soak the dates overnight. Drain the water well. Add the oats, honey, coconut and cocoa (You can also add in ground up almonds, sesame seeds, etc.) and mix thoroughly. Add more oats or coconut if it is too wet. Roll into small balls and roll the balls in coconut, sesamy seeds , or ground up nuts. If the balls are a bit squishy store in the fridge until the oats have sucked up the liquid, making them firmer.

Hannah hopes you enjoy them!

Craft a block crayon case

Here is a little project that the children and you can do.

We measured our felt according to the size of our block crayons. As you can see it was made for our three primary colours. The size of the felt is about 12cm, 4.75in by 14cm, 5.5in.

I then folded over about 4cm, 1.5in of the longer side. I pinned it, then the children stitched along the edge. They sewed according to their sewing ability. Sheth just over stitched. He was 5. Caleb and Hannah did blanket stitch around their edge.

I sewed two dividing lines of straight stitch on my sewing machine, at 4cm / 1.5in intervals. This can be done by hand. This made three compartments for the block crayons.

I then taught Caleb and Hannah how to chain stitch and they stitched the first letter of the colour. You can see it in the photo.

This pattern can be adjusted for more block crayons, stick crayons and Stockmar pencils. It would be even more special if you made your own felt! If you have never heard of block crayons it is an artistic medium that is used in Waldorf schools. I have written about a fantastic resource on how to use them. http://terri.ashleycooper.net/2011/04/art-curriculum-colouring-with-block.html

Freeplay

Children should not be entertained and told what to do all the time. They need free play to be able to experiment, learn, build, demolish and make mess. This is always preferable outside.

Children of all ages need a sandpit and water. Bricks, logs, rocks, pine cones, seeds to grow etc.

When the children get stuck into a project of play do not pull them away to do chores, school or eat. Bring them lunch, a drink and your camera. This does not happen every day, so when it does let them go with the flow.

If it is winter and mizzy outside have a play area in the garage or a playroom. Have playdough, clay, lego, etc. out for them. These things can keep them busy for hours. The other things I have now are tools and wood for woodwork. We have no set projects and they can tinker and make whatever they like.

The other fantastic thing to have for kids is a veggy garden. The first veggie I would get them to plant is Swiss Chard. It is a dark green leafy veg that is very nutritional and easy to grow. Then I would plant strawberries, and parsley mixed in between each other as they are companion plants. Kids love strawberries and parsley looks so pretty when growing well. Parsley scrambled eggs are the best!

Another things I would grow is clumping onions. This is great as it can be used as a spring onion, chive or the bulbs can be chopped up as a traditional onion. I always have soup celery in the veg patch as well. This is always good to add to a soup.

Sheth loves to plant carrots and garlic bulbs. We all love baby tomatoes and they grow so easily!

There are so many options have fun with the kids, let them pick and eat off the bush, it does not get better than that!

Sukkot

We are in the Feast of Tabernacles, or Sukkot as it is also know. It is eight days long. The first and last day is a high shabbat, and no work is to be done. It is a time of joy, dancing and happiness. We build sukkah, temporary dwellings and we should sleep in them. This is to remind us that God brought the Israelites out of Egypt, out of captivity. The children had fun building different types of temporary dwellings. They slept in them last night with their dad. As I was ill I slept inside.

Scouts

Caleb is doing his second water sport badge for Scouts. Before you can do any of these courses you have to do your swimming badge.

The first one was his Watermanship badge. It is a course that does boat rowing/pulling, water safety, water rules, knots, casting of a heaving line, being taught how to manage a dinghy, rescuing a conscious man in the water and C.P.R. He had to do 3 hours of rowing, pulling but ended up doing about 10 hours over two weekends. He came home at the end of the course exhausted but happy! He also wrote his fist exam, and passed with 74 percent.

The course he is doing now is a sailing course. It is the beginner course and I have been told that it is way better than the Watermanship badge course that he did previously. He can not wait to do the more advanced course when he is fourteen, and he is only half way through this course!

The children's great grandfather, Brian Lello, designed the first fibreglass boat in South Africa. He designed the Loch Fyne dinghy and the Lello yacht, to name a couple. Clearly Caleb is taking after his Great Grandfather Brian. The children's Uncle Jan has sailed around the world and done The Cape to Rio yacht race a few times with his dad Brian.

Caleb loves scouts and is working to become a Springbok Scout.