Book Review: Goblin in the Bush – Victor Kelleher

/ Ms Oh Waily / 2 Comments

GITBWelcome to the first book review by the Oh Waily kids.  We’re going to give these posts an interview styling, with the questions asked by me and the answers by the kids.

Who were the main characters & what were they like?

Miss OWW:  Gibblewort, an Irish goblin. He was incredibly funny.

Can you tell us what happened in the story?

Miss OWW: Gibblewort got posted to Australia by his friends because he was so mean.  He got pecked in the ear by an emu.  He got pecked by birds in a tree.  He just wanted to get to his soggy wet treehouse back home.

Master OWW: He got pinched by ants on the feet, then got pinched on the ear by a big cockatoo.  He got prickled by an echidna and he wanted to get back to his soggy old treehouse.

What was your favourite part of the story and why?

Miss OWW:  My favourite part of the story was him getting pecked on the ear and poked by the birds because they’ve got very pinchy beaks.

Master OWW:  My favourite piece was when he got pecked by the poky echidna, because he was hopping on one foot like this (insert image of small boy hopping on one foot).

Rating for this book.

Miss OWW: I’ll give it 4 stars because it’s not as good as Goblin on the Beach.

Master OWW:  5 stars.

 

A New Teaching Resource

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For most of last year we had a pretty regular rhythm of events in our home educating lives.  One of those rhythms was the fact that we had ‘Film Friday’.  Each Friday morning we would head out to our local video store and pick up something to watch.  One video each – the kids getting what you would expect, Tinkerbell or Danger Mouse.  I would get some sort of documentary for us all to watch together.  Eventually we ran out of choice on the learning front, and in an even quicker time we exhausted the supply from our local library too.

This all led me to go all high tech on things.  I have many friends who *stream* their television and movie watching, but other than knowing it could be done I had no clue.  I went to everyone’s friend Google and asked how I could get content from my computer and on to my television.  Google sent me to YouTube.  YouTube told me I needed a plug and a cable and the world would be my oyster.

That’s when I encountered The Problem.  My computer is too old. (Yes, four years old is ANCIENT in computer years.) The special plug was no longer available, even from the manufacturer.  The air turned blue around me.  I ended up at a big box store and tried to find a solution with them.  They sold me an Apple TV box.

That’s when I encountered The Second Problem.  Despite telling the big box store staff what type and age of computer I had, they clearly didn’t think that it would be a problem for my now decidedly geriatric computer to use.  Well.  It was.  Once again the air turned blue around me.  Even my much newer iPhone wasn’t meant to be up for the task.  The only item in the whole household was Mr Oh Waily’s phone and that was at work with him.

I had my own special blue air zone for most of that frustrating day.

However when Mr Oh Waily arrived home and I swiped his phone, I was still thinking that I would require it to be permanently stationed beside my little black Apple TV box.  But as I found, when Mr Oh Waily inconsiderately took his phone off with him the next morning, we didn’t actually need it at all once we connected the ATV box to our wireless network.

The next blue patch of air turned up when I stumbled into The Third Problem – connecting Apple TV to my YouTube account.  This one involved quite a lot of blue air for quite a long time, until I finally worked out how to get the two of them to talk to each other.  It was not all *plug and play* like the technology manufacturers would like you to think.

In the end, it was worth all of the struggle and strife.  We can now link in to our YouTube account and play all manner of documentaries, tutorials and sundry entertainments.  Flavour of the month, ongoing, is the wonderful Mythbusters.  Not a day goes by without one or other child asking to watch or re-watch, or re-re-watch an episode with Jamie and Adam*.  Science learning in a fun and entertaining format.  Gotta love that.

So, if you want to expand your documentary access or tutorial access, then you can’t go past figuring out how to get YouTube videos playing on your TV.  It is brilliant.

If you want to see what we’ve collected so far, come visit us at our YouTube Channel, you might find something you’d like to watch amongst our playlists.  And if you forget to bookmark the playlists, then all you need to do is click on this link in the sidebar to skip right over.

youtube-social-media-logo

Happy viewing & learning everyone!

—
* Yes, they are talked about like old friends by our children.

 

The crazies

/ Ms Oh Waily / 2 Comments

Yes, we most definitely have them in this household.
Crazy kids.  Physically adventurous kids – each in their own way.

Here’s how we do physical education while on holiday.  Although I do tend to think that Mr Oh Waily gets the hardest workout from this.

DCIM101GOPRO
As you can see Master Oh Waily isn’t fond of water in his eyes or up his nose, but he does a remarkable job of hanging on to his pool noodle just the same.  As for his sister, I think she just wants to be SuperGirl.  (She already is, of course, just without the power of flight.)

DCIM101GOPRO

There is a definite love of the water in the Oh Waily family.

p.s. We’re glad to have all of our subscribers back with us. Thank you to the lovely WordPress staff for their assistance in that final piece of the blog migration.

We’ve been away

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Not only have we been absent because of moving blog homes but we’ve also been on a family holiday.  I’m hoping our blog move is all under control now, so here’s a brief gallery of holiday photographs showing the team doing their usual thing while away.  Since this blog is meant to be about our home educating journey, perhaps it might be nice to indicate what sort of things our trip included.

First off we are definitely hitting the geography button with a trip to a different country and the logistics involved in getting there – passports, boarding passes and most importantly, the in-flight entertainment.

Once there, we can indulge in strange rituals like… face painting.

Puppy face

Then maybe we might indulge in a bit of art and creativity.  In this case we will use the new environment to sharpen up our photography skills, as you can see from Miss Oh Waily’s creative positioning of her companion Lumpy.

Little photographer

Then a bit later we have to have a photograph-off.

Little photographer IINot to ignore the fundamentals of mathematics, Miss Oh then indulged in learning all about the different angles while playing a really rough game of pool or two.

ConcentrationOr maybe to work out all the angles, speed and ricochet effect of mini-golf might also go some way to teaching some basic mathematics and physics.  Never mind the score keeping.
Oh, and be a darned fun way to do it too.

GolfingThen finally we come to a bit of culture. In this case the acquisition of henna tattoos.  Or mehndi.  Master Oh has a *dragon* design, while Miss Oh chose a lovely floral design.

Pretty flower design

Dragon designThen there was the usual nature studies – the frogs at night, the flowers, the birds, the fish and our nightly visitors – the gecko.  Much time was spent watching these guys on the windows in the evening, including the odd fight between them.  Sorry about the dark & grainy picture as it was quite late at night and it was taken by hand rather than with a tripod.

Gecko

I think that’s a pretty good range of learning experiences for the Oh Waily kids.

What a great way to cover lots of topics in a fun and entertaining way.

 

We’re moving

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*Big news*

The Patch is moving to a self-hosting set-up.
If you are following us I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to move you right along with us, and hopefully we’ll all be ready to go by the end of the month at the latest.  I will schedule a blog post for the 1st of May, so if you normally have us come to you and you don’t see that post we may have had a hiccough.  You may need to re-subscribe – apologies in advance if this happens to you.

I’m looking forward to learning a whole new set of skills and hopefully not messing up the whole shooting match.
I figure that I’m leading the way, showing the kids that you can always learn new things.

As part of the changes I also have ideas about a new look for the blog and adding in a new feature or two.
Then eventually I hope that I can encourage my pair to provide the odd blog post – dutifully typed by me – and have them become more participant than subject from this year onwards.

In the meantime, wish me luck for the move.  See you at our new home shortly.

We’re moving

/ Ms Oh Waily / Leave a comment

*Big news*

The Patch is moving to a self-hosting set-up.
If you are following us I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to move you right along with us, and hopefully we’ll all be ready to go by the end of the month at the latest.  I will schedule a blog post for the 1st of May, so if you normally have us come to you and you don’t see that post we may have had a hiccough.  You may need to re-subscribe – apologies in advance if this happens to you.

I’m looking forward to learning a whole new set of skills and hopefully not messing up the whole shooting match.
I figure that I’m leading the way, showing the kids that you can always learn new things.

As part of the changes I also have ideas about a new look for the blog and adding in a new feature or two.
Then eventually I hope that I can encourage my pair to provide the odd blog post – dutifully typed by me – and have them become more participant than subject from this year onwards.

In the meantime, wish me luck for the move.  See you at our new home shortly.

Field Trip: Queen Elizabeth Park

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A couple of weekends ago we went on a family field trip out to Queen Elizabeth Park just to the north of the city on the Kapiti Coast. We went especially to let the kids have a horse ride.

The Stables on the Park have quite a few horse riding options and both of the Oh Waily kids really enjoyed their time on horseback, as well as patting the small ponies in the barn beforehand and getting to brush down the small ponies afterwards.

Here is Master Oh Waily looking very swish with his riding hat and the smallest pony before heading out on his ride.

Poser

And here is Miss Oh Waily at the end of her trek, on her much larger pony. She looked very comfortable up there and enjoyed herself immensely when she was given the ability to “steer” her horse for a short while.

Gentle ride

I think we will take them back in a wee while and let them have more time on horseback as they enjoyed it so much.

While at the park we also took the tram ride to the beach and back. The tram museum was open so we had a quick look in there also. As you can see, the tram was beautifully made in wood.

Tram ride

Field Trip: Queen Elizabeth Park

/ Ms Oh Waily / Leave a comment

A couple of weekends ago we went on a family field trip out to Queen Elizabeth Park just to the north of the city on the Kapiti Coast.  We went especially to let the kids have a horse ride.

The Stables on the Park have quite a few horse riding options and both of the Oh Waily kids    really enjoyed their time on horseback, as well as patting the small ponies in the barn beforehand and getting to brush down the small ponies afterwards.

Here is Master Oh Waily looking very swish with his riding hat and the smallest pony before heading out on his ride.

Poser

And here is Miss Oh Waily at the end of her trek, on her much larger pony.  She looked very comfortable up there and enjoyed herself immensely when she was given the ability to “steer” her horse for a short while.

Gentle ride

I think we will take them back in a wee while and let them have more time on horseback as they enjoyed it so much.

While at the park we also took the tram ride to the beach and back.  The tram museum was open so we had a quick look in there also.  As you can see, the tram was beautifully made in wood.

Tram ride

Montessori Inspired Activities for Pre-Schoolers

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BookTour
No doubt you will all remember me talking about the great changes we were able to make around our place by doing the My Organised Chaos course with Jo Ebisujima a little over a  year ago.

Well I’m here to tell you about her new book.  It’s a great collection of her, and her darling son’s, Montessori inspired activities.

Jo began blogging about doing Montessori activities with her son over six years ago, and I have been enjoying reading about them for most of that time.  She was always one of my inspirations whenever I ran out of ideas to do with the little Oh Wailys.  And now she has a book full of them.   126 pages of them, to be precise.

We’ve done many of the activities in the past, and reading the book as a whole, I am now inspired to revisit some and try others with both of my little people.

There’s a Practical Life section that will have your pre-schoolers (or even some older kids) gaining skills that encourage independence and a Science section that will enthrall and challenge.  If you want to strengthen your child’s sensory perception, there’s a section of ideas for you to try out too.  Then there’s literacy and numeracy ideas, and finally Jo gives art and craft suggestions as well.

We’ve done a number of similar activities here and they are a hit with the kids. Spooning and pincer activities were regulars, and the kids loved the kitchen science of home-made volcanoes.  We have done a version of Jo’s Fallen Leaves activity, which you can see here.

And since it is currently summer in our part of the world I am planning to do the ice based suggestions to get the Oh Waily’s outdoors enjoying the good weather, and learning into the bargain.

If you are looking for straightforward, simple to organise activities for your toddler and pre-schooler then you will be well served by this book.  And I should know as I have several Montessori activity books and this one stacks up well against them.

You can see and buy the book here, or from my favourite, The Book Depository here.

If you want to see some of the types of activities in action you can always look back through our Earlier Posts to get an idea of the sorts of things that are Montessori Inspired.

Peaceful Parent, Happy Kids

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PP
I purchased this lovely book last May and I’ve kept on picking it up, reading a chapter and then setting it down.

I blame the year of reading drudge trying to keep up with the book reviews for a sister blog.  At least, that’s what I tell myself.

But with the New Year has come renewed vim and vigour and this will be my first Off The Bookshelf book for 2014.  Lucky for me and my kids then, eh?

A while back I tried out the idea of a good behaviour star chart for me, awarded by the kids.  This fizzled out.  Mostly because I kept forgetting and partly because it was a bit depressing.  Did I mention that a good bit of the last half of last year was pretty stressful? No? Well it was.

But that was then, and now is now.

I’m loving the book.  I’ve finished the first section and am in to the second.  It all makes perfect sense and intuitively I know it’s right, and right for me.  I’m not so right for it, but then perfection is only something to strive for and not expect to achieve.  To that end, and to try and help me along my parenting growth path, I’ve decided that I need to set myself some new rules and see what sort of impact they have on improving my relationship with my kids.  (Which isn’t dreadful, I must hasten to mention!  But there’s always room for improvement – especially self-improvement.)

So we have some new House Rules (mostly for my benefit rather than the kids), and the really important ones are:

– special time each day with each child, one on one.  (30 minutes minimum)
– twelve hugs a day (at least!)

There are also a couple of technology related rules too.  I love technology and what it can do to aid learning, but sometimes it just sucks your brain out – adult and child – so there are now strict limitations on its use.

I’ve also re-introduced the sticker chart idea, but in a simplified form – if the kids think I’ve been a great (non-shouty) Mummy they can give me a sticker at the end of the day.  This now goes on the bottom of each page in my diary.  A really visible reminder of how I’m tracking in being less bossy, less controlling, more connected, and an improved role model.

The upshot of all these small changes is the wish to model better behaviour, continue to keep closely attached to my kids and foster a great foundation for a life-long relationship based on love, courtesy, caring and connection.  Step one is now underway, I’m hopeful that it will produce positive results and reduce a lot of tantrum and stroppy attitude issues that had begun to raise their heads in the latter part of last year.  And that was only in the adult!   😉

How about you? Any great, inspirational books on parenting you’d like to recommend?  Leave a comment if something has inspired you to be a better parent.