The Queen's english.

Boy, this has been a busy week.........

not only are we finishing off Grade 1 ,but my 7 yr old son has decided that..."There shallith be no schoolith on Mom's Birthdayith!"( which happens to be tomorrow the 18th). Therefore we have had to cram two days work into one. He adopts this way of speaking when he is trying to be in charge! I hear him say to his 1 year old sister..." Now sittith down and eatith your foodith!"

Jamie, my eldest son, has an entrepenural project to do. So for the last four days we have all been spending the afternoons threading beads on safety pins to make these really cute 'brooches'. Have a look.... www.makingfriends.com/ponybead/jewelry.htm#Beaded%20Safety%20Pin%20Swaps

Just to throw me right over the edge...................I had to take Jamie to the doctor to have his knee stitched up. He fell on a rock, split his knee open and had to have 7 stitches.Yugh!!!!!

Nelly, my maid, has been sick and very weak, and Tanna-Jayde's( 1yr) tantrums are becoming more frequent and alot louder!

They come-ith to carry me off-ith to the Loony Bin!!!!!!

Signing off from..........

"One Seriusly Cracked Pot"

Mom needs a holiday!

We have 4 weeks left till the end of our school year........and I now understand why public school teachers long for the break up bell and to hear those precious words 'SCHOOL IS OUT!' Yahoooooo !!!!!!

Don't get me wrong ....... our first year of homeschooling has been GREAT. My son, Codey-Reece, has come into his own. His confidence has returned and he has experienced the power of being able to read!.............and I feel totally fulfilled in knowing that I am making a difference in my childs life!

I am so blessed to be able to teach my children!
But........................bring on the party.

"Ding Dong Ding Dong.".....I here those school bells ringing................. I look forward to the 6 weeks of holiday they herald!

Bye

Love Fiffi

"Best you listen to Mama!"

We have endless laughs in our Devotions each morning. Miss Tanzi (in pic) hears our singing and escapes from Nelly (our domestic worker). She makes a bee line for the school room so as to join us for singing and clapping. Boy, she has the cutest little wiggle ...... and the bossist little finger!

All you need is a tree and a book ..

Today was EXTREMELY hot! Our little school room heated up like an oven.

With book in hand we relocated to the bottom of the garden, next to the Koi pond, under a shady tree. Codey-Reece got so engrossed in his Dr Seuss Reader "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" that before he knew it, it was finished!

That's it for today....I'm off to search Ebay for some "lekker" deals!

(Lekker means 'nice/good' in Afrikaans. Afrikaans is our second language in S.Africa.)

Love Fiffi

The Voice of the Curved Ball!

I had made the decision...... Codey-Reece would be homeschooled for ONE YEAR (and one year only!).

It's funny how we can plan the road ahead, and then in comes a curved ball from no where and THINGS CHANGE!

Well the curved ball came in the form of my ten year old son, Jamie. "Mom PLEASE, I want to be homeschooled! Codey has so much fun and he has NO HOMEWORK!"....... A-Ha! He was trying to get out of homeswork. So I ignored the voice of the curve ball! This plea only got louder as the year progressed, till I realised this curved ball was not going away and needed to be adressed, before it slammed into my head!

Why would we want to move Jamie? He has attended a Private Christian School for 7 years and has been extremely happy there! He received the Maths and Literacy award last year and he enjoys all aspects of the school....Except homework, it seems!

Then Boyd (my hubby) and I were invited to a birthday party that consisted of mainly homeschooled kids. Their ages ranged from 8 to 15. Well, these kids just blew us away! They were mature and held intelligent conversations not only with each other, but with the adults too! Their self esteem was phenominal, they oosed confidence and they actually LIKED their parents and the company of other adults!

We left the party.....our minds made up....Jamie would be homeschooled!

Codey-Reece is extremely happy that from Jan 2006 Jamie will be joining us at 'FunSchool'

And.................Jamie is exstatic that the end of the year heralds the end of homework!

So, to summerise..........plans change ......curved balls aren't neccessarily a bad thing and HOMEWORK SUCKS!

Be blessed!

Fiffi

Ode to Miss Tanzi

Ode to Miss Tanzi

(This needs to be sung to " These are a few of my favourite things" from the Sound of Music.)

Reading and drawing and loving her baby

eating the food off our plates drives us crazy!

Climbing the windows when nobody sees!

These are a few of her favourite needs!”

Dancing and singing and sitting on kitty

Ballet toes pointing and hair that looks pretty!

wrecking the boys room and causing a fuss

oh what a handful is all this chaos!

Hair clips and perfume and Teddy called Boon Boon

Gazing at stars, moon and popping bright balloons!

Bathing and rubbing soap into her eyes

Oh! What a blessing she’s brought to our lives!

Bless the little Critters!

OUR FAMILY HAVE WORMS.......the Silkworm variety!

Every year (around September) we get 'BLESSED' with a box full of them. I do try show my fondness towards them... but please....I can't see what the attraction is!

Our one hundred silkys are getting big and their appetite is overtaking us! The next door neighbours Mulberry tree is now a small bush!

Honestly, I can't wait for the little critters to spin their coccoons!

Are there mothers out there, that enjoy the residence of these worms in their homes?

signing off

Fiffi

One Giant Leap ........

Today was a good day........Yes it was! I love schooling my 7 year old son ,Cooldude.

I 'fell' into homeschooling ..if there is such a thing!

My son was about to enter Grade 1 and warning bells were ringing! He kept telling me "Mom, school is boring" and the school kept telling me "All he needs is to FOCUS ,and ( in their opinion) RITALIN would do the trick!" The hair on my back would rise whenever I heard these words. Needless to say, I was not the most favoured parent but... we did try the medication route.

I sent him to be assessed and the experts told me to 'hold back on the medication and let him repeat Readiness(Grade 0). But.............his assessments came back telling us he had an I.Q. of an 8 year old! ( at the time he was actually 5 and3/4) He was already bored, so how could we keep him back?

It all made NO sense!!!

At Cooldudes's Grade O Graduation, he stood on the stage ....a nervous wreck! When I saw him up there ( knowing he had taken his Ritalin pill that morning!) and could see that he was not coping.....I made the decision.....'He wasn't going to Grade 1 and he wasn't being kept back!" So..... what next?

A friend asked, " Why not homeschool him?" Before this, it had never crossed my mind.'

.

So, the process began............I did alot of searching and praying.

I concluded that this was right. God wanted CoolDude to be home schooled for Grade 1.

It has been an amazing year! He has proved the schooling system wrong. He didn't need medication and there was no need for him to be kept back... what our CoolDude needed was for someone to believe in him and to educate him 'outside of the box'!

CoolDudes's 'leaping from the box' has been a momentous step for our whole family!

We are all sold on Homeschooling and would have it NO OTHER WAY!!

(My 10 year old son, WizzKid will be joining us at 'Fun School' from Jan 2006)