Australia

Had a lovely walk this morning spotting all the trees with blossom on them and the children trying to jump over all the puddles they found. Then home for a snack and to read this weeks story which was from Australia, we had a look at some Aboriginal art . Then left the children to come up with their own patterns, using paint and cotton buds. I was given this box of cotton buds, when O was born nearly 19 years ago, think they sat with the baby stuff for a while before migrating to the art box, I'm sure we must come to the end of them at some point but the box always seems to be nearly full, however many art projects we do!

So we have butterflies and flowers

 and a rainbow exploding.

We then spent ages looking at our Maps book and talking about all the different things they could see.

We have added to our books with these too Atlas of Adventures and Atlas of animal Adventures, they are beautifully illustrated and go very well with the Maps book for extra information.

L loves being read to and we do this a lot during the day as well as several bedtime stories but she had reached the point where she had listened to her favourites so many times she wanted a change, we do use the library but she wanted something different. She loves fairy tales, so thought I would try Scottish Folk and fairy Tales, some are variations on the traditional tales others are brand new tales and she has loved them all, now on our second reading through.

I started knitting my new project, been a while since I have knitted anything in a chunky wool, it's so lovely to have something pretty, that knits up quick too, this is the  pattern, I am making the cardi. Reading a mixture at the moment, I normally have more than one book on the go, especially if the book is the type I like to ponder and act on, others like Braiding the Sweetgrass, each chapter stands alone but also leaves you lots to think about. Jane wrote about Honeycomb Kids on her blog Adventures at Tiny Toadstool Cottage and really liked the sound of it, only on chapter 4 Competitions vs Connection, how we want our children to cooperate and talk about team work but so much of what we do is about competition ,the winner and the losers, the games we play, the activities we encourage. We can build on the idea that co-operation and sharing is better than being the winner, love the example of the game musical chairs, how it encourages, shoving etc rather than co-operation. But change the rules to everyone has to try and sit on a chair, you still remove a chair each time but they need to work out how they can still all sit on the seats left, you have a co-operative game that builds connections and relationships.

 I have been trying to sort through all my books, which has been a hard process, now have lots that I want to reread before a let them go or not as the case seems to be. Reading Simplicity Parenting for the 3rd time, it's been a couple of years since I read it last, still relevant and still very aware that we still have too much stuff, we are reducing and simplifying life but when you child mind and home educate it tends to complicate the simplifying bit or at least it does for me and that's without adding in my crafts! A simpler life in many ways is an easier life and with less objects you have more time to do the things you really want to do, we will get there.

Linking up with As Kat knits for Unravelled Wednesdays