School work our style

We actually opened school books today... sitting around the table with the fire lit and in the added warmth of the mid morning sun....

Kurt some spelling work....

 and Becca some maths...

 We started managed about half an hour before we decided that the sun was just too nice to enjoy inside, so we moved our books outside.....

However once outside, their already low enthusiasm for this 'schoolwork' dwindled further as they realised what potential this day held for them outdoors...

While I hang out the washing, I managed to encourage a tiny bit more...

Kurt a bit of maths .....

and Becca some unenthusiastic reading practice...

... and then they were freed !!!

I walked back inside to find our 'Arwen' had made herself comfortable at the table and finished off everyones morning tea !! All of it !!! (there was a bit still there that I was planning on putting out for lunch)

Interesting ,a little while later I found Rebecca back looking at a book with Arwen, she picked up another book out of the shelf and asked me what the small words said in the corner of the front page. "Read it yourself" I said.
"really ? that means I can read it myself" she determined.
And so she set off with the first page and worked her way through the book, sounding out the words she didn't know (most of them) and delighting in the ones that she did know. Some assistance was required, but all credit to her, she read the whole story !!
Her first book, and man was she proud !!!

..straight after came another one !!..... big smiles after this one ,even if there was quite a bit of assistance required this time.....

I did a big reading session that afternoon, lots of library books , so many enthsiastic children eager to hear their chosen books.
I managed to get an American Indian story in too, which is supposed to be a block of study for Kurt's school curriculum work (which you may have guessed by now is 'loosely' followed)
We read about the People of the plains, and they were all intrigued about their life living on the plains, hunting buffalo , fighting wars , bows and arrows , riding horses and building tipi's....
We thought about building one, and then I remembered that somebody had built a big one on our local beach.
It was about 4.30 at this point, and the sun was sinking already, but we headed off anyway...

First stop a play on the rope swing..... (this is truly the coolest nature playground, we are so grateful to the clever people who biult this on the beach for all to enjoy)....

 

.. the girls had stoped to collect treasures....but then bypassed the swing and headed straight for the tipi...

when we got there we found that there were now other huts that had been built around the tipi with a surround around them all, like a commune, perfect for an american indian village set up.... the kids checked 

out the set up first....

.. then the play really began....

the boys got to work sorting out battle apparatus and finding suitable vantage points with which the weapons of choice would be put to good use...

Anton choose a 'machine gun' (goodness only knows how he knows about such things) ,until he was duly informed by Kurt that these things did not exist back then, so he changed it to a normal gun which he insisted they did have because 'little bear' had one in t he story (the night time book in our house at the moment is 'Indian in the cupboard' by Lynne Banks, 'little bear being a very beloved character in the story.

Kurt stuck to more tradition warfare , he found some rope and got to work making a bow and some arrows...

the girls decided the tipi needed a bit of work done on it ... so patched it up with pieces of driftwood...

..it was decided that Arwen was a captive and the she had to stay in the tipi... which she did.... briefly....

..then decided that she would make her escape while they weren't watching..... successfully too I might add..

Kurt went on a scouting mission , on his trusty horse....

while Anton found a new vantage point from which to defend the village....

..meanwhile Kurt returned , a little weary from a hard fought battle on his horse , in lieu of feathers (not too many of these on our beach) he was now sporting a 'stick feather' on his headress...

With battles now fought , there was time for a bit of quiet reflection.... for some...

..the sun had well and truly sunk behind the hills at this point, and I noted the sharp temperature decline (not that it was ever warm to start with) and the lack of shoes on Anton's feet, I suggested putting his socks and gumboots back on while he still had feeling in his feet. 

But was very sharply reminded 

              " Mama the braves are called braves because they don't wear shoes"

not sure where this information came from, but it was logic I couldn't argue with.

this was taken before they turned blue

the girls had decided that the tipi and associated huts were in need of some 'prettying' and set about collecting colourful flowers and other beach foliage to 'decorate' the huts....

Arwen was particularly into this 'flower collecting' business , she does rather like to collect treasures...

..consequently we had some very beautiful huts..... and some very happy and satisfied little girls....

and not just the girls... Anton too was pretty keen on this idea, and rightly so, they did liven the place up and they did a beautiful job....

It was quite late and very cold by the time I managed to eventually drag them away, but they were so so happy.......

good times again on this beach of ours.

Home for a late dinner and just time enough for Kurt to complete an impromtu project while dinner was cooking.....

..then bed.... when I got down there to read the bedtime book, Becca had another book out and pleaded for me to help with 'just one more book'.

How could I sqush the enthusiasm ??? So we compromised with just a few pages....

Sleep came quickly for all tonight.