Mandi Made It

A few weeks ago I entered a competition on Tanya’s new Parenting blog Rattle and Mum, where she was giving away the cutest personalised place-mats from Bellabagheera.  And I won!  How exciting! If you haven’t already seen their site, pop on over to look at all the really cute items you can make your own.  From place-mats to Chore Charts, Bedroom Door Signs to Bookmarks, Calendars to Calling Cards – all customised to look like your little darling!   Astrid from Bellabagheera was amazing, she sent me a number of proofs before I was happy with the final design, and kept in... 

Our Social Studies unit for the last two weeks has been on the Ancient Egyptians.  Since I blogged about Mic’s last Social Studies Lapbook on the Ancient Mesopotamians, he asked me to please put his Egyptian Lapbook on my blog too. He worked really hard on this lapbook, and LOVED learning about the Ancient Egyptians. He really enjoyed making this Egyptian “puppet” and learning to write in Hieroglyphics. So proud! Oh, and just in case my blog readers don’t know where Egypt is…. Another successful unit study done.  Next week we move onto the Inca’s and the... 

It’s been almost two years.  Two years since my dad pulled the trigger and ended his own life.  Two years I have lived with this dull ache deep in my heart.  Sometimes I forget the pain.  Sometimes it feels like everything is ok, and then when I least expect it, a wave of sadness engulfs me.   On the evening of the 4th March 2010, I got a call from my sister saying that my father was not at home.  He was supposed to be there.  His cell phone was just ringing.  My husband said he would drive to their house and help search for dad.  Instinctively I knew that I needed to go too.   I... 

In our homeschool this week… Last Sunday night, both boys had snotty noses and cold symptoms.  Mic even went to bed early with a headache.  So when I sat down later that evening to plan our “timetable”, I scheduled a pretty light week.  More reading and less busy work.  It worked well, as both boys only lost the snots on Wednesday. In Language Arts, Mic did a lot of reading and a comprehension from “Cloudy with a chance of meatballs”.  He learnt about Poetry, Fiction and Non-Fiction.  We also did a few exercises on fact and opinion. In Math, he did a few exercises... 

  In my life this week… A chaotic but rewarding week.  This week was our first official week back at school. We decided that due to our December being absolutely lunatic crazy with packing and moving house, that we would start school a bit later this year.  We wanted to give Mic the opportunity to settle into the new house, make friends with the neighbours kids, play with his new toys from Christmas, swim and just enjoy having a summer holiday.  That lasted about a week until he was nagging me and asking when we could start school again PLEASE?!?!?!  So we eased into it last week with... 

Mic has started Grade 4 now (our fourth year of homeschooling!!!), and our first Social Studies chapter is all about the Ancient Mesopotamians.  I’ve seen “Lapbooks” being used on many other homeschool blogs. A lapbook is an inexpensive portfolio or collection of mini-books, flaps, and folded display material, that provides interactive space for drawings, stories, graphs, graphics, timelines, diagrams, and written work, from any topic, unit study, book you choose, gathered, glued, and creatively displayed in a coloured standard sized cardboard folder, often folded in... 

Mic has been wanting to start a vegetable garden for *ages*.  He fell in love with the idea while walking around his Granny’s beautiful garden, picking and sampling the fresh beans and cherry tomatoes.  Unfortunately the house we lived in had no space for growing anything – and the limited space got very little sunlight thanks to the huge surrounding trees.  A month ago we moved into our new home and one of the first things I liked about the house was the space to finally start our own veggie garden. Less than two weeks after moving in we began digging up the back garden. Bought... 

It’s only Tuesday afternoon, and this week has been too long already…  Point form posts will have to do. Yesterday we began Mic’s Grade3 final exam.  By the end of week we will be finished school for the year!!! His creative writing has improved so much since June when I implemented a daily journal entry – he now has the confidence to be creative with his writing. His hand-writing is still not wonderful.  It’s perfectly legible but not neat – I’m not sure if it’s just a boy thing? I started my Feature Writing course through UCT and GetSmarter... 

As a homeschooling family, with Mic almost finished grade3 and little Mason a very busy little toddler, I found the need to find a structured way to keep the little guy busy during our school time. I went on a search for educational activities for Mason to “play while learning”  quietly in our school room while Mic can concentrate on his lessons – and I can work between the two of them.  I wanted to have 4-5 activities contained in a box, and a different box for every day of the week.  I found that having a different box each day of the week, keeps him interested in the activities... 

I have wanted to document the boys’ life in this type of format for ages, so when I saw this post doing its rounds on the mommy blogosphere, I quickly grabbed it.  You can see more of my mommy friends posts here : Romy, Gina, Jenty, and  Tanya My little Mason Moose, you are 16 months old this week!!!  Growing up so fast.  You are *such* a smiley, happy, loving little person and are always giving cuddles.  You pout your little lips for kisses and always say “Queww” (Thank you) after a kiss.  Here are some of YOUR favourite things : TV programme: You love Disney Junior...