Licola 2006

Darn. Cricket's first game back for 2006 is on 28th January - smack bang in the middle of our annual home educators camp. We'll be sorry to miss it this year, but not sorry enough to do the 5 hour drive for half the camp!

QuadrapopTree: Science Lists and Sites for Teens

Hey boys, the science links offered by Quadrapop could lead to interesting things... like BBC Science & Nature where you can meet the goat bred to spin spider silk.

reading and writing

Today, I built, wrote and read five new words: log, bat, fizz, red, sum. Mum dictated the spelling of a word I chose: NAQUADAH. Naquadah is a rare resource that is on the tv show Star Gate. Now because I have worked so hard I am going to play Cricket's Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic game.

Star Gate - Upgrades

The Tok'ra gave three members of SG-1 arm bands which increased their strength, speed, and reading speed. While SG-1 wore the arm bands they: ate lots of steaks and destroyed a Go'auld battleship before the time limit ended.

Prefixes, Suffixes & Syllables

Grumblingly, for mum's sake, I worked through some workbook pages about prefixes, suffixes and syllables.

I want to have a nap now.

I want to have a nap now. However, mum wants me to type stuff. Today I learned that mum is mean. Fish and I have been playing star wars today. I’m going to learn history of English colonization. I’m going to learn more about WWII.

Eureka

We drove to the Eureka Centre today to reflect on the anniversary of the Eureka Rebellion.

Cricket today

Game Stats: Bowled 7 overs - 2 wickets
Fielding - 1 catch
Batting - no runs :-(

Sky High / Shark Boy & Lava Girl

Last night Cricket & I watched Sky High with Emby while Fish watched the other with Grub & Merry.

They both enjoyed the movie they saw, though neither will take the time to say much about why just yet.

Massive Nature

I wandered into the lounge to reconnect with the boys after reading an email from their father in which he requested instructions as to the boys' "schoolwork" to do during their next visit to him. (Yeah, not one to appreciate gestalt learning)

Cricket and Fish were watching Massive Nature and during a break told me that their father had coerced them into watching an episode during their last visit with him, ie they were not permitted to play a computer game and had to sit and watch, even though that particular episode (on penguin migration) just didn't capture their interest. Weird... no coercion needed here.

Inventors

Fish is fascinated by the concept of invention in recent months. So while I was in the library the other day I collected some books that might interest him - about inventions and inventors. The first he perused was "My book of inventions by Jimmy Neutron" "as told to" Lara Bergen. Then he asked me to read to him "Inventions that have changed the world" by Rod Rees

Ninja: Japanese or Chinese?

That was Fish's recent question while I was driving. Now we guessed Japanese, but were confused because we are aware of many chinese martial arts so we decided to check the internet later. Naturally the microcassette recorder that we bought for just such a purpose was not in the car again, so it is just as well I remembered it later.

Oh - our guess was correct, and the boys were amused by some of the things we found along the way, such as Ninja vs. Killer Tomato

Hands on with Wild Action

Cricket, Fish & I joined Merry, Emby & Grub at at Wild Action show learning about Australian animals. We touched a live baby salt-water crocodile, ring-tailed possum, python snakes, a turtle, green tree frog, skinks, phasmids and a tree goanna.

The entertaining, high-speed delivery introduced us to the different animal body coverings, dietary requirements, habitats/environmental needs, morphology, habits (nocturnal/diurnal, arboreal/terrestrial, camouflage & other defence strategies, reproduction.

Computer Repair 101

We finally went to fix the CD-Rom drive today, bought a replacement to install ourselves. One screw and the cover came off, unplugged the old CD drive and replaced it - straightforward really.

Rise of Nations

Cricket bought himself a copy of Rise of Nations gold today, and both boys are eager to get stuck into playing.