random bits and bobs

We baked and gardened and went to Ballarat and Queensland and the circus today!

The babies watched Nienna and Beren perform in the circus.  Apparently Nienna has a rich mama who goes to the orphan place and buys a baby each year for her birthday present!  (can you guess she has been watching Annie!)  I was later told that these babies are bottle fed, when I went to protest Beren assured me it was milk squeezed from boobies, because all the mums who don't feed their babies anymore squeeze out milk and sell it in the shops to mums who can't so babies still get the best milk!!!  I DUN GOOD!!!!

We made mystery biscuits and they are divine!!

Angel and Christmas tree stained glass biscuits.  I don't think the little 'bo-peep' lollies worked very well though.

I grabbed one of the record bowls I made yonks ago and turned it into a hanging basket and planted some herbs in it.  This is destined for a very good friend of ours as her Christmas gift.

I also planted more lettuce since the last two punnets have been eaten by the snails NOT HAPPY!!  I have reluctantly laid down snail pellets.  I also planted another tomato plant and some spring onions.  Will the rain and sunshine alternating my garden is thriving........ well apart from the freaking lettuce!

 The kids took the babies outside then decided to go to Ballarat and onto Queensland.  Here they are in the mobile garage travelling with babies that won't stop crying apparently. I suggested it may be karma!

oh, and the christmas cake I baked the other night.  This is a weird one and I can't wait to taste it. It is a stout and fruit cake.  I didn't do fancy icing as no one likes marzipan thick white icing stuff anyway.

childhood 101
nurture store

indoor and outdoor play

Beren has gone Junior masterchef on me and this week he wanted to make toffee. This recipe called for water, sugar, vinegar and butter. It gives it an opaque look, we went for christmas green colouring but the damn stuff hardened so quickly the sprinkles didn't stick.

Nienna on the other hand has gone 'born again christian' and decided she needed a nativity scene "cos christmas is all about jesus don't ya know!". Once I talked her out of the lifesize one she had in mind she sented for some printable templates and got to colouring and gluing. We just need to make the 'barn' and it will be complete. I have no idea where she learnt the christmas story or anything.

Late yesterday the pair of them disappeared down the back to the BBQ area laboratory and had fun mixing chalk dust and dirt and water. Nienna will spend ages down here getting dirty but this is the first time Beren has joined it. They were there for over an hour so it must have been fun!


More playing at childhood101 
and at the Play Academy

mosaic monday play

playing rush hour and an impromptu puppet show. 

All for mosaic monday at little red house 

and 

we play over at childhood 101

we play Tuesday

Two for this week.   Yesterday was our usual bake day and the kids decided on scones.  We heart, flower and circle shaped scones!  The recipe was the easy lemonade scone recipe  which is quick and easy for kids to follow:

This very quick and easy recipe produces lovely light scones. They are best served hot from the oven. (they don't keep very well at all )

Makes about 12-14 scones.

We use a 20ml tablespoon and 250ml measuring cup for all of our recipes.

325g (2 cups + 2 tablespoons) self-raising flour
167ml (2/3 cup) cold lemonade (use the carbonated type)
167ml (2/3 cup) thickened cream (35 percent fat)

Preheat oven to 225 degrees Celsius (205 degrees Celsius fan-forced). Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Sift flour into a large bowl. Combine lemonade and cream in a medium bowl. Add lemonade and cream mixture to flour and gently fold ingredients together until just combined (don't over mix the dough as this will produce tough scones). The dough should be fairly soft and sticky.
Place dough on a lightly floured bench, form into a round and press out to about 3.5cm thickness. Cut scones using a floured 5cm diameter cutter. We find that using a quick, firm motion to cut the scones gives a them better shape and makes them less likely to stick to the cutter. Form the off cuts into another round and cut some more scones.

Place scones close together on the tray, so they are just touching. Bake for about 12-15 minutes, or until pale golden and cooked through.

If you like your scones to have a soft crust, cover them with a clean tea towel for one minute after removing from the oven. Serve hot with jam and whipped cream. © www.exclusivelyfood.com.au

The second activity was this morning and we had the opportunity to glaze the clay creations we made a few weeks ago at home ed group.  We painted the pieces first then applied the glaze.  These will now go into the kiln again  to be fired at an even higher temperature and then we can take them home.

we play Tuesday

Cooking is one of our regular home ed activities. Children learn measurement, time, ratios, chemistry, reading all from a simple recioe. Their fine motor skills can be tested and honed plus a huge amount of fun is had. I find these little tubes of icing (hmmm chemicals LOL) are great. They have lasted for ages and easy for little hands to use. A simple recipe such as butter biscuits or jam drops is great and I usually get the younger child to write it from the net and then the older to read it out for us. They don't even know they are learning!

For some more great play ideas visit childhood101

We play Tuesday

The kids got out their window decal kit yesterday and made some new ones for themselves and some for gifts. This is a great kit that we received as a gift a couple of christmases ago and it is still going strong. They take a few days to dry and I do the black outline for them to fill in, but they provide lots of mess and lots of entertainment.

more play ideas of at childhood101

Our season table of spring (or mantle)

today we went for a walk to collect some twisted(tortured) willow branches to make as a back drop for our season table.   We talked about spring and what happens to animals, gardens, weather etc

When we got home we made fleece blossoms and a felt butterfly plus some people to decorate our table.  Our tree also has a swing for the fairy to swing on in the garden.   We had great fun creating and learning about spring.

 Some seed pods we collected yesterday

 A fairy on a swing

 New born lamb

 Nienna chose a colour floral sheet as the base of our display

home ed is play time

What do you get if you mix a couple of old sheets, some pegs and a few chairs?
This is one of the reasons I love home education!

taking part in

we played at the beach

This weekend we went to my parents. they live in Bicheno which is a small town on the east coast of Tasmania. It was a beautiful weekend so we stayed an extra day too. We did some playing at the beach and we explored rock pools too. We are also very lucky that 'poppy' is in charge at the volunteer fire fighters station so we get to help him with jobs and play firemen.

I am a big believer in play based learning and unstructured play. It is nice to see play and learning develop without props or prompting from a facilitator (me).