A Home School Kid Journal

We have had a busy March having enjoyed a perfect family vacation in Mauritius with lots of sun, watersports kids activities , exploring mauritius island and tasting the local creole food- what a treat. We created lots of new pages for the website to share our experiences, see whether there is anything there that you might find useful for your homeschool projects

Seashell Coloring Pages
Seashell photos we took
Tips for Cleaning Seashells and Ocean Shells
Identifying Seashells

The beauty of homeschooling is tht we learn from life as we experience it and not just out of a book, so when the opprotunities arose we were looking at wild monkeys, tropical plants explored the 7 coloured earth, sampled mauritian food - Maya we specially loved the fried noodles

We took a look at Mauritius Weather Patterns whilst we got caught in a tropical cyclone.We made lots of mauritus flag crafts and went spotting flages with our digital camera

Identifying where we went on the mauritus map was fun too especially as mauritius island is not very large and can easily be explored That gave us the opportunity to do a bit of geography for kids studying the various cultures and spotting people of different ethnic origins all scattered over the island

We also have been doing a lot of cooking , especially having been inspired by the fresh tropical fruits and the delicious fried noodles

We have new yummy recipes - IT's Cookie Time - get your aprons on and have a good cooking with kids session too
~ all our kid recipes come in a n easy to print black/white versiontoo that you can add to your kid cook book recipe selection

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Our New Cookie Recipes for Kids


M M Cookie Recipe
Spanish Cookie Recipe
Easy Fortune Cookie Recipe
Indian Cookie Recipe
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No Bake Cookie Recipes

No Bake Cookie Recipe Rice Krispies
Peanut Butter No Bake Cookie recipe
No Bake Chocolate Recipe
No Bake Fudge Cookie Recipe

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Mayas reading is coming on well too, we have been practicing with the series 2 of the bob books but she does prefer applied reading, ie sounding out words that we come across rather than rote reading practice

~ Maya has enjoyed lots of art , we tired making sand art pictures, using lots of stencils, collages and painting on wood.

~ Scooby Doo and the ancient egyptian mysteries have taken over our house this month, maya is enjoying the clue based games on the computer and especially the mummy DVD, it is fun watching her apply her knowledge when we see the "real mummies" in the British Museum

~ We took at trip to london and visited the "Horniman Museum" an easily managable cross of natural history museum and music /art museum for kids. We studied the differences and similarities between human and monkey skeletons and Maya loved all the animal exhibits. They even have a real beehive colony on display for children to look at

~ Maya enjoyed a couple of trips to the Imax Cinema watching the underwater world movie and we have been comparing it to the ocean animals that we spotted when taking a glassbottom boat trip in Mauritius. We even had a wild dolphin swim, a boat took us out in search for a friendly group of dolphins and we spent 2 hours immersed in the water with them. They sounds underwater were amazing, the clicking noises of the dolphins could be heard for miles.Maya was swimming on my back having a real good view of the dolphins leaping in the water and we loved the fast speed boat ride back to the beaches shore

~ Now back home we are trying to expand on the things we have seen and Dad and Maya have been busy planting some tropical seed flowers .They take quite precise care but 2 have germinated and sprouted little leaves. We will keep a diary of the process.

~ Work is starting in the garden as well, Maya has sown her first bean seeds and we are preparing the ground for the slightly warmer weather./the parsely is still very tasty in the greenhouse.

~ All in all it has been an adventurous March , and now we are looking forward to the springtime sun

~ It is getting warmer and I am enjoying being able to go onto my trampoline a bit more. We had some lovely football sessions outside as well. Chelsea is my favourite team and I got a cheslea kit for christmas and a brilliant goal - cant wait for the drier weather
~

Outings:
london
playdays
pet care centre
office helper

Favourite Games Played:
Trampolining
train set
dress up
boardgames

Activities:
math number 1-4- split equal
planting tropical seeds
where do banana seeds come from
hama bead mobile dogs
claywork
making valentines cards
sticky collage

Reading /WritingPractice:
error, arrow,names
letter j,m,l

NEW Vocabulary:

BOOKS we are reading
Bible for Kids
Horses and Ponies


PROGRAMS and FILMS watched
Xperimental
Blues CLues
Numbertime
NumberCrew
BBC RataTatTat
Science Encyclopedia Kids
The Magic Unicorn


CD-Roms played
Magic School Bus Dinosaurs
Magic School Bus Bugs
Barbie Riding Club
Shelley Club

~ had a great time being able to take a real dog fora walk. Hettie my favourite dog belongs to a neighbour. We met her as we were talking a walk in the woods and I was allowed to hold the lead a practice sitting commands with her. That really made my day

~ I had 2 play days with my friends this week, we had fun making dog mask for Chinese New Year Festival, we went to China Town in London. and took lots of photos of the Chinese New Year Decorations and had a delicious meal in a Chinese Restaurant called "The Dragons Inn" We had a selection of DIM SUM dishes which means you can try lots of little things. My favourite dish is Crispy Seaweed and chicken noodles.

~ We went to the Science Museum and watched the bubble show- Did you know that bubbles always form a sphere no matter what shape of bubble blower you use? My favourite place is the Pattern Pod where you get to try out all the hands on activities. I also played lots in the Water garden with all the water experiments. I could spend all week in the Science Museum I love it soo much.

~ My first tooth is loose- mum gave me a slumber party with lots of icecream to sooth the loose tooth. I have been waiting for 3 days now but the root is still in too tight- maybe today is the day that I loose my baby tooth. We had fun learning about teeth though, mum made some tooth coloring pages and we learned about the different part of the tooth. I wonder whether the toothfairy will come to me :-)

~ This week I had my first visit to the "Girl Guide" Club. I am now a little "Rainbow " we made Jelly this week and learned a new song.

~ Helped Dad to make German Schnitzels for tea and my famous "breadcrumb cakes" Mum said she will put the recipe up in the childrens cooking section soon.She mades some cooking clipart so I can decorate my own recipe book.

Outings:
Trip to Donkey Park
2 Kid Playdays
Trip to Fishers Farm
Rainbows
Ballet

Favourite Games Played:
musical instruments
pretend dogs
building site
train/farm sets

Activities:
birdwatching with Dad
watching football games, scorekeeping
making meringues
practice bike riding
making tuna sandwich
bones
electricity
solids
liquids
boiling/freezing point


Reading Practice:
My Papa is my Dad not my mum.
Snap me mama.
practice long "oo" sound
hoop,loop,snoop,coop,

NEW Vocabulary:
dim sum, dog training commands,absorbing,abort,hoist,frustrated,evaporate,celsius,instinct

BOOKS we are reading
Bob books Beginner Reading
Dr Seuss various
Egypt History for Kids

PROGRAMS and FILMS watched
Shrek 2
BBC Numbertime
Big Cook Little Cook
BBC Experimental
Time Team (Archaeology Program)
Pods Mission


CD-Roms played
Barbie Pet Patrol
Barbie Rapunzel
Kid Pix Art
BBC Rat a Tat Tat

Reading Practice:
The cat has a hat.
The pig is hot.
Snap me in my flat.
Bob looks for a dog.
Sit on my stool.
My leg is hot.
Maya can sit on my leg.
Clap my feet.

~ Maya is starting to recognise "y" sound and read all the above with encouragement to concentrate.

~ have been looking at building sites, cranes lifting heavy objects especially manouvering in tight spaces in the city

~ lots of discussions on dinosaurs, various dinosaur types and how the first paleontologist discovered the large animals, discussed differences between archaelogists and paleontologists (paleontologistsjust dig for dinosaurs)

NEW Vocabulary:
brittle,enemy,beyond,herd,paleontologist,blueprint

BOOKS we are reading
"Dinosaur Hunters" Kate Mc Mullen

PROGRAMS and FILMS watched
Magic Schoolbus" Rainforest "

CD-Roms played
Barbie Mermaid Adventure
Bob the Builder "Builds a Park"

~ I love London and exploring the city. One of my favourite places is the British Museum, I love looking at all the mummies in the Egypt section. They even have cat mummies and crocodile mummies. We have taken lots of photos so that other kids get a chance to see them too- watch this space as mum adds them to the website or go to our Kid Egypt Coloring Pages to get you inspired. Sign up to the newsletter to be kept up-to-date

Maya pretending to bandage up the mummies

~ I love swimming and spent lots of hours in the pool, now I can even swim backwards one whole length above water but my favourite way is still to dive under as I can swim really fast the way.I have been learning to swim since I was 6 month old and now I am really good at it

~ We also went to our favourite Thai buffet restaurant, the have a wonderful Buddha statue there which always has fresh flowers to decorate it. My favourite dish is seaweed with spring rolls and fried potatoes.

~ Have been practicing my reading- mum wrote some sentences down- I read them, then copied them onto the page
Dad is not a hat.
Maya is a girl.

~ I love being able to read and working on concentrating more. We had fun sounding out different words and spotting number measurements on the builders roads whilst walking through London.

~ We are hoping to go tomorrow to China Town and watch the Chinese New Year festivities. It should all be decorated already and there are always such wondrous smells everywhere. We made some fun Chinese New Year Coloring Pages here

~ Finished another few "Dot to Dot Coloring Pages" following numbers 1-20



~Exploring in London is always one of our favourite activities. We went to the British Museum and as usual Maya was drawn to the Egyptian Section. We already have an Egypt Project for Kids on this site and will be adding lots more photos on Egypt soon. I have been myself to Egypt last year and expereinced the wonders of the pyramids and the journey on the Nile myself, so look forward to sharing lots of photos.

~ We spent 3 hours in the bookstore looking at all the new books available. Maya had a conversation with the shop assistant wanting to know what a certain product was. He said Trading cards- out of which arose a discussion on various forms of trading.

~ The Nintendogs game is still going pretty strong and providing us with lots of new vocabulary too. We are also quite fascinated by all the different dog breeds available , having never been too aware of it before. So we might make a website page on dog breeds and their different behaviours. We found out in the Nintendogs game that labradors are good at disk throwing competitions whilst the Shi Tzsu is much better at agility competitions. W also discovered the Bark Mode which lets you connect wirelessly to other Nintendogs owners and play with their puppies on a virtual walk. She has been learning about giving away items she owns, swapping and trading things and observing wireless connections. We have been testing distances on how far the connections work and comparing it to mobile phones and their masts etc. IT is also quite amazing to see how she manages her money she "earns" at the game, saving up to buy a new dog, or selling items in the second hand store to make more funds available. She is now identifying all the 100 numbers by counting out the money earned.

NEW Vocabulary
BREEDS, AGILITY,OBIDIANCE,TRAINER,CUP,PRIZE MONEY,TRADE, SWAP, DONATE, various dog breed names

BOOKS we are reading
"Princess Twinkle" by Lesley Rees
"Dont Wake the Baby" by Jonathan Allen

PROGRAMS and FILMS watched
"Meg and Mog"
"FingerBobs"
"Es war einmal" German body Science DVD

What does trading mean?
to trade something is to either swap or sell it for a certain value of moeny or goods.eg to swap

Maya has decided that she wants to improve her reading mainly so she can read the instructions on her nintendogs game ;-) .We have not done any formal reading lessons , she has so far learned most of her words from computer games, directions and picking up sight words.
She does not like sitting down to do "reading" with me but loves using Microsoft Words to type words that I tell her too and spell them. This increases also her typing skills and hand eye coordination as well as her concentration span..Today she managed all these
words correctly
hot,hat,sit,cat,pot,pit,can,lamp,tap,clap,and,yes,no,slap,slot,
slit,hoop,loop,dog,snap,snip
with difficulty
plot

After writing the words we went on to read them all out loud which proved far more difficult then typing them, but when encouraged to concentrate she managed well.

What does thorough mean?
Thorough means to do something well, a good job. To do something thoroughly is to do it properly

Nintendogs is my absolute favourite nintendo ds game at the moment. With Nintendo Dog I get to have my own pet dog and I need to look after it just like a real dog.

playing my nintendogs game

Be Careful: When you put your dog into the dog Hotel you will find a little button option that says : Donate Dog
When you press that button your dog will be dontated and you will never be able to see it again. I did not know what they word donate means and pressed the button to see what would happen and lost my best dog friend nintendog Angel. I tried all the cheat nintendogs I could find in the hope to get her back - but no luck.I was soo sad so please be careful so it wont happen to you :-)


Well I was not sure about this game at all promising to be "just like a real pet dog" . But indeed it is far more challenging than I thought. The Dog owner has to look after the little virtual dog just like a real dog and that means regular feeding, talking for walks , washing, buying and selling supplies, applying for agility contests etc- it certainly inspires responsibility, creative use of money, responsibility for rest and pet care- I am really impressed. Maya learned some valuable lessons when she accidentally hit the "Donate Dog " button which has inspired her to practice her reading skills. Here a little closer look at the
Nintendo Dog Ds Game - we love it.

What does donate mean?
To donate something is to give it away for no reward. You also dont get back that which you donate.