A day in the life of a five year old

I was going to post this a couple of weeks ago. I snapped pictures throughout the day (mainly the morning) to capture what kind of things a little five year old gets up to. Unschooling at it's best! :-)

* helping Mommy baking bread *

* His favourite pastime - using my wool to turn the flat into a spiderweb *

* Playing wiht his sisters "Market Day" *

* looking at books and listening to stories *

* trying out my sewing machine (moving it by hand) *

* Jamie's Caro-Coffee-Shop - open only in the morning :-P *

Quick one

I haven't abandoned my blog...I just had flu and things to do (*lol* what a rhyme) and hopefully I will start writing again very soonish. :-)

8 Fragen/8 Questions

Micha auf 'more than words' hat vor kurzem ein Stöckchen nach mir geworfen (nennt man doch so, oder?).

Dankeschön :-) und hier sind 8 Fragen und 8 Antworten:

Six names you go by / 6 Namen, auf die du hörst:
I don't know if I can make it six...never had many names. ;-)
Sarah, Isla (on the net), Mama, Mami, Kuschelmaus (my youngest daughter says that), Mäuschen (my Dad used to call me that way). oh, and my Granddad always called me 'my girl' - well, make this seven then. :-)

Three things you are wearing right now / drei Dinge, die du gerade trägst:
Jeans, Socks, wollen jumper

Three things you want very badly at the moment / drei Dinge, die du dir wünschst:
a Renault Kangoo, Hazelnut coffee, lots of gorgeous fabric

Three things you did last night / yesterday / today / drei Dinge, die du gestern nacht, gestern und heute getan hast:
knitting, went to cinema with the kids and today I was just lazy. :-P

Two things you ate today / zwei Dinge, die du heute gegessen hast:
Apples and that yummy casserole for lunch.

Two people you last talked to on the phone / zwei Leute, mit denen du zuletzt telephoniert hast:
my mom and my dad.

Two things you are going to do tomorrow / zwei Dinge, die du morgen tun wirst:
Work and hopefully doing work in the garden.


Your three favourite beverages / drei liebsten Getränke:
Earl Grey, Hot Chocolate, hot water.

Tag 5 people / lade 5 weitere Leute zu dem Spiel ein: (that's 3 for me)
Andy
Petra
ElisaMari

Isla's Daybook

For today...one of those slow and lazy sundays...

Outside my Window...it looks like a nice day. But...we didn't manage to get out of the house, yet. Probably later this afternoon. We slept in today because we had a late night last night.

I am thinking...I have been a bit blog-lazy durin the last week. But I have been busy otherwise, and as unschoolers we are always open for new ideas and inspirations and learning opportunities.
I was thinking about a great deal of things. Why I had a lot of struggles with the kids during the summer, why I was so tired and almost ill, and why and how I wanted to change things for the better. How I had neglected certain areas of my life and had lost sight of my former gentle way of parenting. Often enough I wasn't that gentle and felt rather frustrated and tired.
I also noticed that my children mirrored my inner self. They always do.
But fortunately there is always room for change, room for improvements, a new beginning. :-) As I change myself the outside world will change, too.

I am thankful for...the programme about the Duggar-family. I know many people find them weird and odd and can't relate to them. But even though I don't share their views on many things, I found great inspiration and motivation in the programme. The more I watched it the more I liked it and them. :-) (The programme is '17 kids and counting') It's interesting what kind of people are out there - I am thankful for the internet, youtube and blogs! :-D

From the kitchen...making a potato-vegetable-lentils-casserole right now. We are all hungry and waiting eagerly for it to be ready. ;-P

I am wearing...jeans, socks knitted by my mom and a woolen jumper

I am reading...'Watching the English' by Kate Fox - very funny and entertaining, and 'Awaken the Giant within' by Anthony Robbins.

I am hearing...music playing (the MacCalmans) and kids at play.

One of my favorite things...watching old episodes of the 'Famous Five' with my kids. :-) I love travelling back on memory lane and remember my own childhood.

A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Month...
- getting back to my financial saving programme. Somehow lost track of it...and believe me it is well-noticable.
- trying to establish new customers.
- finishing my knitting/sewing projects
- preparing for Christmas enough to have an easy time in December ;-)
- tbc

A picture I'd like to share with you...
Lisa's work space :-)

Halloween

Yes, the days are getting shorter now and so have our usually long, (almost) daily walks in the woods or trips to the playground.
It is colder, too, and the leaves are covering the ground.
In the celtic tradition today would be the last day of the year. Halloween or Samhain. As Christians we celebrate All Souls and think of the people that have passed away.
We carve out pumpkins and dress up as scary creatures, we light candles and think of the year that has passed and the winter ahead.


We enjoy the cosiness of the home and make the most of the last rays of sun to get the garden prepared for next spring.
The season of candle-light, warming cups of tea and wollen jumpers has started.
Makes me think of good books to read, the smell of cinnamon and vanilla, cuddling up on the couch to watch a film, baked apples with vanilla sauce,


dressing up and building dens, Spekulatius and hot chocolate,...

We didn't celebrate Halloween this year. Somehow it didn't happen and nobody is sad about it. Lisa was thinking about going to a Halloween Party and also for 'trick-or-treat-ing' but her heart wasn't really in it. The whole idea stopped at trying to get dressed up...there wasn't the right costume, and she didn't want to make one with me. And then she lost her interest.
We didn't carve any pumpkin, either. We simply forgot about it.
But - we did get some sweets for the other kids that might knock on our door.
In the end there came three, and the rest of the sweets were for our tummys. :-)

The juicer

We are going to be so healthy this winter season...


because Jamie is making us fresh juice! :-)

Not that he cares about the vitamins and minerals or the healthy side-effects of his work. What counts is the noise, the button to be pressed and something quite cool is happening. You stick a carrot or apple into the top and wow!! juice comes out at that side bit. It's thrilling! The machine is moving so fast - and makes his little boy's heart beat even faster with excitment.

I love it. And I love the juice. :-)

Freiwillig Mathe? (2)

Gestern Abend knobelte meine Große weiter an ihren Matheaufgaben. Diesmal schwieriger und nicht auf einem Blatt Papier. Sondern am PC mit dem 2. Klasse Programm 'Lernspass 2. - im Zauberwald'. Es wurden Zahlenflaschen sortiert und im Hunderterbereich plus und minus gerechnet. Aufgaben wurden sortiert, und Kettenaufgaben gebildet und gerechnet. Alles auf spielerische Art und Weise.
Manchmal brauchte sie meine Hilfe, aber meist wollte sie die Lösungen selber finden. (Und ich konnte in Ruhe meinen Stoff zuschneiden :-)
Irgendwann war es aber doch Zeit aufzuhören. Während der Schulzeit ist es besser früher ins Bett zu gehen, auch wenn man noch so gern weiter rechnen würde. ;-)

Wie wir sonst noch 'Mathe' spielerisch lernen:
- beim 'Kniffeln' (Würfelspiel)
- beim Umgang mit Geld/beim Einkauf
- beim Kochen und Backen
- beim Bauen und Konstruieren
- beim Legen von Geometrischen Figuren (gibt da sehr schöne Spiele im Handel)
- mit Montessori-Material
- beim Basteln (Zuschneiden, Abmessen, Länge berechnen, etc.)
- in Knobel- oder Rechenheften; nach Schulklassen sortiert, extra hergestellt zur Förderung der Kinder :-)
- beim Ausprobieren des Zirkels, Taschenrechners, Lineals, Rechenschieber, etc.
- das Leben bietet unendlich viele Möglichkeiten - fallen euch noch mehr ein?