Homeschooling vs Shaving legs

Yes you may have to choose one or the other. Ok maybe not, but I seem to have to. Between programming, preparing, schooling, cleaning, cooking and rarely getting to shower alone, well .....

Yes I have hairy legs, I still wear shorts and I can tell you why.....

1. It makes me look scary like a mumma bear so no one will be stupid enough to question my life choices. Like seriously who gets between a mumma bear and her cub right?
2. I will make the baby bears porridge just right, and their beds and chairs will be just right. Hairy legs = happy kids and no complaining (or maybe that is only if Goldilocks visits..hmmm)
3. It should eventually help me growl deeper and scarier so maybe the kids will pick up their crap off the floor. Yes I predict hairy legs = a cleaner house.
4.  It saves money on razors so I can buy more chocolate.
5. It will keep my legs warm in winter.
6. The rare occasions I do get to shower alone, I get to stand there and pretend I am under a waterfall on a deserted island all by myself.
7. If I am suppose to wear my tiger stripes with pride and each one shows how awesome I am. Seriously how awesome am I with all these hundreds of little hairy marks all over my legs.

I am a totally rocking awesome scary hairy mumma bear, hear me growl.

Keeping it real

This is my learning space today. I think the picture says it all. A creative free learning week is in order, I have no motivation to fix that mess. Learning will happen without this room. And no I cannot blame the kids, that mess is mostly me.

DIY $6 whiteboard

Yes you heard me right an almost floor to ceiling white board for $6. I cannot claim credit for the idea, someone else gave it to me. But it is so brilliant I am sharing with you.

I have been dreaming of a beautifully big whiteboard for the learning room. But with only mudbrick walls in the room I couldn't hang one and with no spare floor space no where for a freestanding one. I have been staring at my lovely white wardrobe doors wondering how to use them. The outer door is perfect for blue tacking things up since mudbrick is no good for this either, so I didn't want to waste this valuable space.

Then someone brilliant suggested rolls of whiteboard contact, great idea. They are $6.95 a roll for 100x45cm piece. But I managed to get 3 rolls of contact for $6. I imagine the specialised whiteboard stuff works better. But this gives me less joins and costs a lot less. The joins do really suck, I wish I had none. But at least I only have 2 and only one really gets in the way.

In my researching I discovered people suggesting a good prime for a whiteboard is a thin rub over with an oil. They were suggesting baby oil, we have non so sunflower had to do. And it really does seem to help with cleaner rub off. I cannot wait to use it.

Step 1. CLEAN the door, don't be a silly like me glance over it and think yep she's clean. I can guarantee you it is NOT clean, the contact makes every little mark stand out.

Step 2. I started at the edge. Hang the top bit, made sure the rest was going to hang straight along the edge. (this pic is of roll 2 going up)

Step 3. Slowly pull the contact paper away while rubbing side to side with a ruler.

Step 4. Repeat until the door is covered.

Step 5. Rub over with an oil. Just a very thin rub over.

Step 6. Enjoy :)

Montessori has arrived in our house

We have been rather Montessori inspired for a while. But now we have some of the REAL stuff. I don't even know what some of it is. There is going to be a lot of learning on my part so we can take full advantage of these resources. But I am excited and cannot wait to get stuck into some of these materials. We were so excited we spilled the box all over the floor for a quick look before starting dinner. It was like Christmas opening all the boxes.

In our box we have:

• Knobbed Cylinders
• Pink Tower
• Brown Stair
• Colour Box
• Constructive Triangles
• Uppercase Sandpaper Letters (all blue)
• Mystery Bag
• Binomial cube
• Number Rods
• Spindle Box
• Numbers and Counters
• Hundred Board
• Introduction to Decimal System
• Bead Stair
• Stamp Game
• Addition Strip Board
• Subtraction Strip Board
• Multiplication Board
• Division Board
• Fraction Skittles

Are there still things on my wish list ..... oh yeah. Most of that I won't ever bother getting, I just don't have the space. But what I really want to add is:

• a set of 3D shapes
• Number cards to 9000
• tens and teens board (I have aspirations to make these)
• Metal insets (considering making these out of wood too)
• Pythagoras board (I will probably make this too)
• bead set