Update

Posted on 16/03/2014 by Momma Jo

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I’ve been absent on my blog for almost 4 months. The start of the year has been trying to say the least. We were broken into and they took our mobile devices (both tablets and my phone), then the whole family came down with a nasty bout of the flu and we were all in various states of healing and then to crown it all, the car (our only car) went in for repairs which took a week!

On the bright side, Fifi turned 5! All the photos of her actual birthday were on my phone and tablet *sob*, but we did manage to take photos of her birthday celebration with family the next day.

The birthday girl ♥
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Fifi with her best friend Jossi and cousin KK, two of her favourite people.
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The Hello Kitty birthday cupcakes Fifi and I made.
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Fifi got her first “big girl” bike for her birthday. She got to pick it out herself. She loves it!
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The kids have made TONS of new friends this year already. We have been attending a lot more of the homeschool social and educational outings and the kids have made a few lasting friendships 🙂 During the course of meeting a ton of new people, we have decided to research a new primary school curriculum for the children. The current curriculum is just not working for us any longer and Koko is incredibly bored with it. Fifi will use the Grade R (kindergarten) curriclum that Koko used and then she will go onto using the curriculum we decide on for Koko. We will, most probably do the same for Pixie in the ensuing years.

Curricula we are looking at are:
English: Learning Language Arts Through Literature(LLATL)
Maths: Math-U-See
History/Geography: Story of Our World
Art: Artistic Pursuit
Science: I’m not 100 % sure what we are going to do for Science yet. I have MANY resource books we will be working through.

Fifi is FLYING through her work for the year. I just CANNOT keep up. I have decided, with support from Papa, that she will be starting reading lessons with Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, by Siegfried Engelmann, Phyllis Haddox, Elaine Bruner, also available in South Africa on Kalahari.com. We will be continuing with the Letter of the Week curriculum and once she has completed that, she will start Grade R! I have tried to have Fifi do two letters in one week, but it was a disaster and we now complete only 1 letter per week with supplementation to keep her occupied.

Pixie is growing like a weed! She now has a new Totschool area. She has her own desk and I have made her a little Tot tray shelf out of a shoe stand, that can be put out of reach (very important, in my opinion), with all her trays for the week. She LOVES animals and dinosaurs, so most of her trays have something related to that.
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A few random photos of the kids:
The three big kids
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Koko busy with school work
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Fifi being nebulized while she was ill
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Pixie in her little reading nook. She has pillows and a blanket in there for comfort. Its her favourite place in the house.
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The kidlets at soccer. We are in our third year of Soccer fun. Pixie has started taking part now too. All 4 kidlets love it!
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Soccer Fun!

Posted on 20/09/2013 by Momma Jo

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We are in our third year of Soccer Fun. This group was put together by my very good friend Alison, her sister Julia and brother-in-law Leon. Coach Leon is a fantastic soccer coach and brilliant with the children. Both Noo and Koko are coached by Coach Leon. Koko is the youngest in the older group (6 – 13yr olds).

Fifi is in the little class (for 3 – 6 yr olds) where they focus on gross motor skills. It’s great fun and she looks forward to her “soccer” practice every week with Aunty Alison and Aunty Julia.

They all look forward to their weekly soccer practice and I get to spend some time in adult company of both homeschool and mainstream school parents. Papa Steve and all the other dads and some moms play soccer with the kids too. I think the dad’s have more fun than the kids, LOL. Its awesome to see parents so involved in this activity. Its a GREAT family sporting morning. We have a lovely group of kids, and adults, who participate on a weekly basis.

I don’t play, yet, Pixie is still to little to participate, though she’ll be joining in soon (I suspect she’ll start really participating in the new year).

We are usually at an indoor arena, but since they are currently hosting the Action Cricket World Cup, we have spent the last 2 weeks at the soccer pitch at the local park. Here are a few pics of the big kids on the pitch and the little kids on the grass. Koko did so well playing goalie that he was man of the match!!!

Should you need any additional information on enrolling your children in this fantastic extramural (Randburg and surrounding area residents), please email Alison.

Bee Crafty Kids #1 ~ Shoe Print Penguins

Posted on 12/07/2013 by Momma Jo

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Our Poppins Book Nook book this month is Penguin by Polly Dunbar and I decided that our first Bee Crafty Kids post was going to follow the same theme.

The kids absolutely loved this craft and as an added bonus, it was a lovely winter’s day outside, so we headed out there and got crafting!

Meet my wonderful co-hosts HERE

What you need:
White cardboard (1 per child)
Black paper
Yellow board
White paper
Pencil
Scissors
Glue
Eyes (2 per penguin)
1 shoe per child

Directions:

Trace the shoe of the child onto the black paper, cut it out

Paste the cut out footprint, toes down, on the white cardboard

Cut an oval out of the white paper and paste in the centre of the footprint. This is make the body of the penguin, face and belly.
Cut feet and beak out of the yellow board, paste in the appropriate places
Paste on the eyes

Even Noo joined in on the fun 🙂

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Foodie Friday~Week 1: Valentines Day

Posted on 15/02/2013 by Momma Jo

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This week I made the kidlets special Valentines Day lunches.

Noo got 2 heart sandwiches with lettuce, cheese, tomato and ham with little love candies on top, heart chocolates in mini heart shaped muffin cups, savoury biscuits and heart shaped cocktail tomatoes each in their own muffin cups.

Koko and Fifi got hotdogs with hearts of tomato sauce traced on the top, heart shaped cheese (I love my mini cookie cutters) and a heart chocolate. Pixie got a sausage and heart shaped cheese.

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See more lunch box ideas HERE

First, Official, Day of School

Posted on 09/01/2013 by Momma Jo

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Doesn’t he look dashing in his school uniform

Noo started public school today. I was very nervious and apprehensive during the day. Half expecting a call from the school that he was not coping and that I’d made a huge mistake. I started pacing and watching the clock from 11, convinced that my father-in-law wasn’t going to find him and he was going to come home. BUT, he got home safe and sound and loved his first day and has already made a new friend. He is excited to go back tomorrow and already has homework.

He said it was nice, but that the children in his class talk to much and that he battles to hear the teacher. He says its incredibly irritating 🙂

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Homeschooled no more

Posted on 19/12/2012 by Momma Jo

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Noo has been enrolled into Primary School as from next year. I’m not ready to discuss why we have decided to put him into school, all I’m going to say is “Its time”. He will be going to Grade 5 and is looking forward to this new adventure with a little apprehension. I’m sure its going to take a little adjustment for him, but he’ll thrive.

Koko, Fifi and Pixie will still be homeschooled for the foreseeable future.