• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Lots of Helpers

Our family's life in New Zealand

  • Home
  • Our Library
  • Math Freebie
  • Contact Us
  • Legal Policies
    • Disclosure and Disclaimer
    • Privacy Policy
You are here: Home / Archives for Activities at Home

Activities at Home

April 2021 Photos

June 20, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the rest of our photos from April—and a video clip of Miss Joy drawing! This little girl loves to draw. She frequently requests—or demands—paper and pencil; she wants to “ite!” Since these photos were taken, she has progressed from scribbling all over a piece of paper to drawing little circles. She also cuts things; scissors are her other frequent request. Yesterday, she cut one piece of scrap paper into little bits, then pointed to the stack and wanted another. It was soon in bits all over the floor, too!

01-IMG_757703-IMG_758004-IMG_7581

Simon helped a neighbor kill and skin a few sheep, and a few days later, he came home with one of them! He and Elijah soon had it cut into pieces. I’m so happy that they can—and enjoy—cutting up meat.15-IMG_541116-IMG_5414

Late one afternoon…I was making applesauce while Mr. Sweetie tried to finish his school work for the day.19-IMG_5421

A few weeks after Esther and her brothers built the shelves, she and I spent a day organizing the container. This is what it looked like when we started. We never got a picture when we were done, but it’s usable, now! It’s still crowded,but we can find things and get to them.20-IMG_5424

Simon starting on the tiny house.21-IMG_5425

They lined it with these sheets of insulation, and then put plywood over that.22-IMG_542623-IMG_542724-IMG_542825-IMG_5429

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Miss Joy, Random Photos, Video

March 2021 Photos

June 6, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I am way behind with posting these pictures!

This is what the girls’ room looked like for several weeks, while we were redoing the carpeting in the hallway, which doubles as our library. All our books were packed in boxes for a few months, and stacked in the hallway, and when a date was finally set for putting in the new carpeting, I moved the books to Esther’s room. She was away for a month, and Little Miss doesn’t need all that space, so it worked.

IMG_7540

Elijah got a new set of tools for floor laying. Here he is giving Simon a guided tour on the day he got the set.IMG_7555

I am doing Sonlight Kindergarten American History with Little Miss this year. One of our early read-alouds was The Missing Mummy. Mr. Imagination listened in, and was so intrigued by the story that he read ahead. He was so involved with it that he didn’t notice I took a photo of him reading!IMG_7560

We were given a tiny house by a man from Nelson! We met him at a friend’s funeral up that way in December, and he spent a night in our driveway in March. Several days later, he called and asked if we were interested in taking the tiny house he had been living in but didn’t need anymore. Our boys borrowed a vehicle and trailer, and drove up to Nelson on Friday night to get it. They got home with it late Saturday afternoon, also having purchased a vehicle for Elijah while they were up there!

IMG_5388IMG_5390Our little flock of goats. We don’t have any of them anymore; when one of the kids decided she was going to jump the fence and get out no matter what, we decided to get rid of them, and then we sent the nanny off to get bred. At this point, we’ve decided that they are enough work that we are better off without them, although we like goats and Gayle does well on goat’s milk.

IMG_0580

Mr. Imagination with a katydid one Sunday afternoon at church.IMG_0587IMG_0594

Esther took this picture to show me the grain mill that a neighbor needed to get rid of. We helped this lady clean out her house when she moved away, and this mill is one of the things we took.IMG_0595

One week’s harvest of tomatoes!IMG_0601It was quite a process to get the tiny house into place! The boys put rollers under it and used a logger’s winch and chain to pull it to its corner. I was thankful that nothing—and noone—got broken!

IMG_0614

Inside. It was just a shell; by now, it has been insulated and lined with another layer of plywood, and we plan to paint it and put down a vinyl floor covering.IMG_0618

We got one largish watermelon from our greenhouse this year. When we ate it, Mr. Diligence requested an entire round slice of it. Apparently, this has been a long-time wish of his!IMG_0623

One Saturday, Esther organized her brothers to help her build shelving for the container. She, Elijah and Mr. Diligence spent the day building two sets of shelves.IMG_0695

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Random Photos

Miss Joy in March

May 16, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

In looking over our photos from March, I’m seeing a lot of them of one person! Miss Joy is quite popular, and very cute. She’s into everything, and jabbers about everything. We can even understand part of what she says!

Her favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? This copy was given to Elijah by his grandmother, probably 15 years ago. It has been taped together and glued together, and is still being enjoyed! I just ordered a replacement, though, a board book this time, because this one got left in a windowsill overnight and the condensation soaked it. It’s still readable, but the pages are all falling out and the covers are swollen. We can’t be without this book, though!

IMG_0553

Mr. Imagination built a couple of hammocks, and his little sisters enjoyed them.IMG_0596

Helping the big boys mow lawn! She must have been trying to figure out how to start it.IMG_0628

There are two little babies at church, and Miss Joy loves them. So does her big brother Simon!IMG_0704

Miss Joy is an artist. She loves to draw! She often asks for pen and “papee!” She wants to “ite!” She focuses hard on what she is doing, and keeps at it until her piece of paper is covered with her scribbles.IMG_5392IMG_5393IMG_5394

She also loves to climb in bed with Little Miss! It’s so much fun to read at bedtime.IMG_5395

I’m not sure what she was doing here in Esther’s room.IMG_5396

Sitting in the windowsill behind the couch. This is where Brown Bear met its demise.IMG_7558

One afternoon she came marching into the living room brandishing a croquet mallet in one hand, a block of wood in the other, and dangling a toothbrush from her mouth!IMG_7561IMG_7563

Another day, she figured out how to climb into the washing machine. IMG_7566Can you tell we enjoy having this little girl around? She sure adds sparkle to our days!

And, here is a video I just remembered making.

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Baby, Miss Joy, Video

February 2021 Photos

May 2, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Here are the last of the pictures we took in February! It seems like we haven’t been taking a lot of pictures since our trip, so I may end up getting caught up soon.

The Sunday afternoon right after Simon sprained his ankle on their tramp, we were relaxing after getting home from church when we heard the ice cream truck coming. It plays the traditional tune of ice cream trucks, and comes through randomly, several times a year, on Sunday afternoons. Simon decided that his little brothers needed practice making purchases, so he pulled $20 out of his wallet and sent them across the road to flag down the truck and buy ice creams for all the boys and Little Miss! While the truck was stopped there, several other neighbors came out to buy ice cream as well.

IMG_1606

I have no idea what this was about!IMG_7530

I found this blossom one day when I was picking zucchini. I have never seen one so huge!IMG_7532IMG_7533

The garden was so beautiful in February! Picking green beans in this tunnel was so easy; I’m definitely doing that again. I planted two varieties of runner beans—Blue Lake and Cobra. The Cobra beans came on first, and produced bushels and bushels, then stopped; the Blue Lakes came on about that time. They, too, produced bushels and bushels. Meanwhile, the Cobra looked like they were dying; the leaves were even turning yellow. Then, when the Blue Lakes quit, the Cobras came on again, with new foliage and lots of nice beans—not nearly as many as the first round, but enough for several meals for the ten of us in a week’s time. I’m planning to plant both varieties again, but maybe more of the Cobra and fewer of the Blue Lake. That way, I can do the bulk of the canning at once with the Cobras, and have the Blue Lakes to fill in for eating on while the Cobras take a break. (A bit of trivia: It’s easy to tell the difference between the seeds—the Cobras have black seeds, and the Blue Lakes have white ones. This is significant because the labels I used to mark which kind was which got lost, so I wasn’t sure which I liked better till I saved seeds from both and compared with what was left in the seed packets!)IMG_7534IMG_7535

Little Miss wanted me to take a photo of this dill plant, since I had asked her to bring the camera out to get a photo of the beans. The garden doesn’t look this pretty anymore. Almost everything is dead now.IMG_7536

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Garden, Random Photos

January 2021 Photos

April 18, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We had a lot of things going on in January after we got home! Gayle decided to paint the garage roof. He went over all the rusty places with a wire brush, and then painted them with something to stop the rust. He got two coats of paint put on all those places, and one coat on the rest.

IMG_7507IMG_7508

IMG_5284

Little Miss turned six in January! She was delighted to have a birthday! We had chocolate cake and lime ice cream for dessert.IMG_5285IMG_5286

Esther stripped our dining table and refinished it with teak oil. It’s pretty now!IMG_5287

We were given a deer! It was a huge red deer stag, and we got 39 kilos of meat off it. What a blessing!IMG_5288IMG_5291IMG_5292

Mr. Imagination put a bowlful of meat through the mincer.IMG_5294

Then, Simon took over and put a lot more through, faster!IMG_5298

The boys fried up some of the meat immediately, and pronounced it delicious!IMG_5301IMG_5303

Simon was doing exercises for awhile to strengthen his knees. One evening, he tried pushups with a load on his back!IMG_5304IMG_5305

Baby turkeys!IMG_5306

An apple tree at Simon’s house. I still haven’t gotten over there with a camera, and now the house is full of furniture, being stored till it’s needed by other people.IMG_5324

Esther took some friends to see the old dredge at Ngahere one rainy day.

IMG_5325IMG_5328

They also went down to our picnic spot by the river. Near the end of a week of torrential rains, this is what it looked like!IMG_5329

Later that week, also on a rainy day, we took some other friends to Shantytown, a historic village. We got to the school in between lessons on using old-style pens, but with the supplies laying out on the desks, we figured out how to use them.

IMG_7515IMG_5335IMG_5336IMG_5341

More exercises!IMG_5346IMG_7514

Elijah spent a few months building himself a desk (he finished it just when he quit school to start his apprenticeship!).

IMG_7527IMG_7528

This was our second picking of cucumbers. The next four weeks or so, I got twice this many each week.

IMG_7529

Our salad one evening. Mr. Imagination and Little Miss decorated it for us!

IMG_20210108_195220

Filed Under: Activities at Home, Away From Home Tagged With: Random Photos

December 2020 Photos

April 12, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Now that I’ve finally uploaded all the pictures and stories about our big trip over New Year’s, I can go back to sharing photos of daily life. Here are the rest of December’s pictures.

Princess loves large black-and-white stuffed animals. Does she know she blends in with them?

09-IMG_7013

I had a miscarriage in early December, and spent a day in hospital. That evening, Mr. Imagination and Little Miss put a lot of flowers on my night stand!17-IMG_7055

After many years of struggling to teach dyslexic children to read, I love seeing scenes like this. Mr. Sweetie is reading a Hank the Cowdog book here. I bought several of them when someone was selling them used, and they are quite popular!

01-IMG_7078

I’m not sure what was going on here, but this is all of my children except Esther—in one photo! From left to right are Mr. Sweetie, Miss Joy, Simon, Little Miss, Mr. Imagination, Elijah, and Mr. Diligence.04-IMG_7106

This little girl loves to sit on or in anything!09-IMG_7104

When he was cleaning, Mr. Imagination found this white-tail spider. They are somewhat venomous, so he made sure it died.11-IMG_7085

My sister sent a packet of Koolaid and a recipe for playdough made from it. Once I finally got around to making the recipe, Little Miss had great fun playing with it!16-IMG_4479

Goats are quite amusing.17-IMG_4481

One afternoon, this tractor stopped in front of our house, and Simon, the mechanic, went out to see if he could help. It turned out that the fuel line had been turned off, so the man got about two blocks from the local garage, and ran out of diesel in the lines. Simon helped him bleed the lines. Esther and I were amused at how many boys it took to  help! (This isn’t all ours; two neighborhood boys also stopped to help.)17-IMG_4483

One really exciting thing that happened just before Christmas was that we got “new” carpeting in the living room! This is what we had on the floor before—a very wornout carpet on the bottom, with several pieces patched together to make a top layer.15-IMG_066116-IMG_0662

After supper the evening before the big day, we pulled out the carpet. This was the old carpet underneath.

12-IMG_7088This is the subfloor.

13-IMG_0670

The day before Christmas, a friend came right after breakfast and started laying the underlay. Since then, Elijah has started an apprenticeship with this man, laying carpet and other floor coverings.

01-IMG_709102-IMG_7092

The finished carpet! We shampooed it and left the furniture out till the next day.03-IMG_7094

There was still somewhat of a cat smell for a day or two. Princess was extremely suspicious, and wouldn’t enter the room for a couple of days.07-IMG_7097

05-IMG_7098

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: New Carpet, Random Photos

Product Review—Superstar Spelling

March 17, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Disclosure: I received this product free through the Homeschool Review Crew

When I was offered a choice of several products from The Crafty Classroom, it didn’t take much thought to decide that Superstar Spelling would the be most useful. Mr. Imagination uses his imagination fairly freely when he’s writing, and I was hoping that this would help him learn to spell better.

TheCraftyClassroom-LOGO-

I love that I can choose the words that he practices. I have chosen the words for him by looking over things he has written, especially in his workbooks, and making a list to practice from the words he misspelled. The pages are editable; I simply open the PDF, type in the 20 words I want him to practice this week on the first page, and the words are filled in throughout the document. Each day, he works on a few pages of various activities, and every couple of days does either a practice or a final spelling test. (One thing I really like about the spelling tests is that he gets to grade them himself! He is supposed to either color or fill in an emoji for the ones he gets right, and copy the wrong ones correctly.)2-IMG_7554

There is quite a range of different activities. About half of them, I would say, are done alone; the rest are to be done with a friend. We have mostly used the ones that are done alone, since it’s hard to come up with someone to do the others with—no one is very excited about playing spelling games! Mr. Sweetie played Battleship Spelling with him one day. The two boys enjoyed it, but it took much longer than a regular game of Battleship. The words for the one board were all short ones, and the other board had long words; it was quite hard to fit all of them in, and then the boy who was guessing them had a hard time figuring out what the words were and which direction they were supposed to be going. It would have worked better to have a mix of longer and shorter words, but I guess that might be hard for a computer program to figure out. Little Miss played Bingo with Mr. Imagination one day, as I called out the words. They loved that, and especially playing with the new game markers we had gotten a few days before.3-IMG_7538

1-IMG_7541Robot Roll was one of Mr. Imagination’s favorite pages. He was to roll a die and write the word for whatever number was rolled. He loved seeing which robot won the game! Other pages had him figure out the words by identifying the letters with signs from American Sign Language, or a picture that began with that letter. On some pages, he chooses words he struggles with to practice.

Overall, I would say that Superstar Spelling is worth using. It’s a great way to add some fun to spelling practice. If you had two children using the same list, it would be even better, as they could play games together. I like that it’s editable, and can be used any number of times, with exactly the words that need to be learned. And now, I need to give Mr. Imagination a spelling test with his latest list!

Twenty-five families have been using various products from The Crafty Classroon, so click on the image below to see what they have to say about their experiences!

Fine Motor Alphabet Bundle, Superstar Spelling & Tracing Bundle {The Crafty Classroom Reviews}

Filed Under: Activities at Home, Book Reviews Tagged With: Homeschooling, Product Review, Review Crew

The Garden—January 2021

January 24, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

A week ago, the garden was about the most beautiful I have ever seen! Everything was in beautiful shape. Then, we had a week of rain. We got 185 mm (7 1/2 in) of rain in 5 days, and one of the days we had gale-force winds, as well. There was hail a couple of times, too. A lot of plants, especially lettuces, got badly bruised, and the peas got knocked partially off their trellis. The runner beans got broken off at the top of their trellis. Because of the rain, the stems of a lot of plants are very brittle, so when I try to straighten them out, for example to help a runner bean up its trellis, they snap off. It could have been a lot worse, though. In Motueka, on Christmas weekend, they had about five inches of hail! I’m thankful we didn’t get that.

Here are the tomatoes. The ones in front are the South Australian Dwarfs, which don’t do well with staking but put on a prolific crop.

IMG_7516

Zucchini is in the row closest to us; the rest are pumpkins. We spread bird netting over the greenhouse for the pumpkins to climb up. IMG_7517

Inside the greenhouse. The cucumbers are nearly done. The pepper plants just to the left in the middle lived over the winter. We put a small, plastic-covered box over them so they didn’t freeze. They are loaded with chilis already, and I’ve been picking bell peppers, too.IMG_7518

Beside the greenhouse is this bed. I have dwarf (or bush) beans, and then runner beans on the trellis. We’ve had enough runner beans for a couple of meals already.IMG_7519

The other side of the trellis has cucumbers, and at the far end are some climbing zucchinis.IMG_7520

The peas have this trellis. The peak of it is about five feet high, and before the storm the plants stood up at least a foot over that. I’m trying to get them to stand up again, but I’m not sure it’ll work.IMG_7521

Corn, lettuce, beet root, leeks and onions.IMG_7522

I planted lettuces where the corn didn’t come up in this bed.IMG_7523

Lettuce, carrots, and potatoes behind them. I have dill all over the garden. We just weed out the excess, and have plenty for pickles.IMG_7524We found this giant in the garden when we came home from our big trip! Stuffed zucchini on the menu, for sure.

IMG_7502

There were a couple of large cucumbers, too.IMG_7503

This was my harvest one evening. Yum! We eat well this time of year.IMG_7512

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Garden, Homemaking, Homesteading

Miss Joy in December

January 3, 2021 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

This little girl keeps herself busy, and keeps us entertained! She doesn’t like hats, but kept this old fireman’s hat on long enough for someone to grab a photo.23-IMG_7065

She was engrossed in the movie everyone else was watching! Can you see what she chose as a seat? It’s a 10-liter paint bucket on its side. She was actually sitting on it, though it’s hard to tell from this picture.26-IMG_7069Her daddy helped her walk in this empty potato bag.

2-IMG_7072

We found her one evening diligently scrubbing her foot with a cloth. I couldn’t quite capture her scrubbing on her foot, because she moves too fast, but she worked at it for about five minutes.4-IMG_7075Does she like pudding?

05-IMG_441506-IMG_4416

Tired baby!07-IMG_442208-IMG_4423

She loves brushing her teeth. Any time she sees the toothbrushes, or someone brushing their teeth, she wants to do hers, too. That’s Mr. Imagination brushing his with Daddy and Miss Joy.09-IMG_0324

This is a “canoe” that Mr. Imagination built for her.10-IMG_4446

Miss Joy spent a long time carefully putting her blankie into this bucket, and then climbed in on top of it.11-IMG_444912-IMG_4452

One evening we went to the park across the road from us. Several of us played a game, and Daddy took the younger ones to the swings. Miss Joy loved the gravel under the swings!13-IMG_4467

She loves to feed the cats. Then, she helps herself, too. Esther caught her eating with them one day—putting her mouth down to pick pieces up just like the cats do. She’s such a mimic—but this is one thing I’d rather she not do!14-IMG_0336

She went into the milking shed one day and found the jar of salve we use on the cows’ teats. She had it spread liberally all over her face, arms and legs. She had pulled her pants up so she could get it all the way up to her knees. What a mess!

15-IMG_4478

Here’s a short video clip Esther got of her one evening when Mr. Diligence was playing with her. I laugh every time I watch it!

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Baby, Miss Joy, Video

Around Our Yard

December 27, 2020 by NZ Filbruns 1 Comment

The flax bush just outside our windows is blooming this year, and we’re enjoying the tuis that come to drink the nectar! Sometimes, there are as many as three at once, and then there are fights over the blooms.

10-IMG_7015

See the fluffed-up feathers? These tuis did not like the competition.11-IMG_703912-IMG_7044

One afternoon, the little girls spent at least an hour, maybe two, playing together in the sandbox.13-IMG_704814-IMG_705015-IMG_705116-IMG_7052

Another day, Mr. Imagination and Little Miss created hammocks for themselves from old feed bags and baling twine, after hearing about some children who did it in a story I was reading aloud.They enjoyed their hammocks for a couple of days, till the stitching at the bottom of the bag came apart.19-IMG_705820-IMG_706021-IMG_706122-IMG_7063This  happened on still another day—Mr. Imagination gave Miss Joy a ride on a boogie board!

3-IMG_7076

Filed Under: Activities at Home Tagged With: Birds, Children's Play

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Go to page 1
  • Go to page 2
  • Go to page 3
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Go to page 6
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 58
  • Go to Next Page »

Primary Sidebar

  • RSS Feed
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Goodreads

Recent Posts

  • Roofing Simon’s House
  • Book Review–Corner Booth
  • Book Review–Farmyard Faith
  • April 2022 Photos
  • Up in the Air!

Archives

Disclosure

Some links on this site are affiliate links.

Subscribe to the Blog

Thank you!

Please check your email to confirm your subscription.

.

You can unsubscribe anytime. For more details, see our Privacy Policy.

The Family:


Dad and Mom (Gayle and Emma)

Girl #1, Esther, my right hand

Boy #1, Seth (Mr. Handyman)

Boy #2, Simon (Mr. Inventor)

Boy #3, Mr. Intellectual

Boy #4, Mr. Diligence

Boy #5, Mr. Sweetie

Boy #6, Mr. Imagination

Girl #2, Little Miss

Girl #3, Miss Joy

Book Reviews Website

IgniteLit

COPYRIGHT © 2022 · TWENTY SEVEN PRO ON GENESIS FRAMEWORK · DISCLOSURE & DISCLAIMER · PRIVACY POLICY