A touch of summer...on the farm

Tuesday, January 19, 2016

 





 

 






 



It seems these summer days are flashing by.  While I'd love to say that I've had no time on the computer ( & use that as an excuse for not updating this poor, neglected blog), instead I've been sliding on every spare minute I've found.  It's homeschool planning central here at Sunnyside & between that & training in a new milking cow, keeping up with an overflowing garden (well trying to anyway) & the fun things such as children's sleepovers & days spent with friends & not even one trip to the pool since swim club stopped for the holidays, well the days are slipping by.  Eli lamented just yesterday how quickly the holidays are going. He feels as if they should have only just begun, yet we have less than two weeks left to capture all these summer delights.  I've decided that the magic date for beginning the 'official education' of 2016 is February the first.  So we are on countdown until then (& hopefully it goes very, very slowly)! 
 
I have almost finalised my curriculum choices for this coming year.  It's late for me to be doing this with it generally decided before Christmas.  Late last year, however, we were expecting some extra children to be joining our family permanently & so that took most of my focus.  Sadly they didn't end up here after all & so we had to pack away those plans & cry a few tears over these precious ones we had begun to bond with.  But that is the very nature of foster care & so I am now in the midst of planning for another year of home education. We have our Board of Studies Inspection in the middle of this year, so I am being very careful to make sure every learning outcome is planned for & every box is ticked.  NSW has the strictest requirements for registration of all the states in Australia.  While our AP (inspector) is very nice, you can't guarantee it will be the same person next time, so I am being diligent.  I know, as we are applying for stage 5 this year, that everything will be looked through very thoroughly.  By this stage in a child's education, they BOS take their inspections very, very seriously & expect us to as well. 

As I mentioned, our garden is going very well & we couldn't be more delighted with the abundance it is providing us with!  It is the best garden we've ever had & we are enjoying the produce. So far the beets, zucchini, cucumbers & beans have been providing prolifically.  I am pickling & freezing regularly.  I just adore this season of canning - sticky floors & all!  There is something so satisfying to see the rows of jars begin to fill up & the freezers begin to fill!  How blessed we are indeed!!

The children have been taking floats down to the dam each day to spend some time relaxing (or attempting to surf - as boys are bound to do)!  I'm not sure how I feel about it.  I've heard mixed reports about dam swimming, but one of our neighbours who goes to our church goes swimming in his daily & his is bigger than ours.  I do admonish them not to dive deeply (I understand that the risk of cramping is higher because of the uneven water temperature the further down you go) & they must always have something to float on.  They are good, strong swimmers & there comes a point where you can only worry so much.  No one wants to be smothered by a worrying mother & they do have fun & have been safe so far. I do pray each time they are down there through...

My 'flower semi-circle' is going really well.  I am so pleased with the flowers that are growing & Ellie & I spent some time weeding it the other evening which means it now looks fantastic.  The zinnia's I planted are getting bigger!  I was even able to pick a bouquet of roses entirely from the garden!  I missed my rose garden that we had up in Qld & so it is wonderful to have these growing again!

Well I had better run.  Today we have no set plans with anyone else, but the jobs are already piling up, even though I began at 6am!  We are looking after some friend's farm & so I'd better head over there & do their morning chores now mine are completed. 
Have a lovely day friends!
Blessings
 
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