Lots of Helpers

Family Picture Outtakes

March 6, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

After church yesterday, we asked a friend to help us get a family picture. What a mission! She said she enjoyed it; I hope she did! It turned out to be quite the adventure, trying to get nine people to all look at the camera at once, and look pleasant! We had a lot of trouble with lighting, since the sun was so bright. We did discover, last night long after we reached home, that there were little fingerprints on the lens, so that was part of the problem. Oops. Here are some of the failed attempts, with the final, best one, at the end (there were only 20 of them to sort through!). Thank you for your help, Kathryn!

Trying to figure out the lighting.

Product Review—Math Mammoth

March 1, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

It’s turning out to be an interesting school year, with the opportunity to review products for the Homeschool Review Crew! When Math Mammoth came up, after studying the available products, I decided to request a couple of titles from their Blue Series. I chose Subtraction 1 and New Zealand Money. I was especially happy for the money unit; the curriculum I’ve put all my children through and have no plans of switching away from uses American money. One thing I appreciated about this review is that these are digital downloads, which means I’ll be able to use them over and over as needed.

Mr. Sweetie has been working through these two books. I printed them, except for the answers at the back of each one, and had someone drill holes through the edge, then sewed them together. I put both books together, back-to-back, with one upside-down to the other. That has worked well. Since the last week of January, or so, I’ve been having him do a lesson in one of the books each day, alternating between them.

I chose the Subtraction 1 unit because Mr. Sweetie was having trouble last year with subtraction and I thought he could do with some reinforcement. I liked how this book started out very basic, defining what subtraction is and showing it with crossed-out pictures. The next lesson showed counting down on a number line to subtract, and then several lessons showed the relationship between addition and subtraction. There is a lot of drawing circles or shapes, then crossing out, and there is lots of illustrations with simple little pictures. I like all the story problems, which help math relate to the real world. Mr. Sweetie is about halfway through this book now, and I’ll have him continue working on a page or two most days, along with his regular math. It gives him some real good practice.

I also had Mr. Sweetie do the New Zealand Money unit. He knew the values of our money, but putting it together and praticing it was very good for him. One thing that was fun was counting out real coins to illustrate an amount on his page! He had the option of using real money or drawing it in the box, so we did it the easy way. Coins worth less than a dollar were introduced first, and then the dollar and 2-dollar coins, followed later by $5 and $10 notes. There are a lot of story problems, and exercises with making change. The most recent lesson we did had a picture of a number of coins, and he was to pretend to be buying certain things, then figuring out how much he had left. That was quite challenging, so we did the lesson over several days. I’m going to put this book aside for now, though, since we seem to have reached a point where he is having a hard time. The next lesson covers rounding when getting change at a shop, and I’m not sure he’ll be able to handle that yet.

I liked the way Math Mammoth is set up, and thought it was very thorough and good at getting the concepts across. If I wasn’t so happy with what we’ve been using for 12 years already, I would be tempted to switch. As it is, if I need something for extra reinforcement, I might well look to see whether there is a booklet about the specific topic we need. I’m also thrilled to have a resource to practice using our country’s money! One criticism of it, though, is that the picture of the 20c coin is wrong. The picture in the book shows the old 20c coin, which is no longer in use. Believe me, my children studied all the other pictures carefully to make sure they showed the new $5 and $10 notes! (They do!) Other than that, though, I was impressed with it.

Would you like to read what about 50 other reviewers have to say about Math Mammoth? Click on the image below to find their reviews:

Kubb

February 27, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We have learned a new game this year. It’s very fun, everyone can be involved, and it gets people outside and active. Win, win! This game is called Kubb, and apparently originated in Sweden—possibly as far back as Viking times. Basically, you throw batons to try to knock over pieces of 2x4s, while avoiding a larger piece of wood set up in the center. It’s very easy to make the game—just get yourself a length of 2×4, a length of 1-inch dowel, and a chunk of 4×4. Read the rules on the Wikipedia page here. We’ve learned that Mr. Inventor is the man to have on your team; he almost invariably wins. This game is addictive. I’ve found that you want to keep going, hoping against hope that eventually you’ll actually hit a target! Here are pictures of the game we played together last week.

The spectators. We had to keep moving them out of the playing field. Once, they were stretched out on their tummies, watching us throw!

Sometimes you get to stack up several Kubbs. That makes it easy to knock them down!

We were all amused when Princess chased one of the throwing sticks!

It can be very difficult to get the stack to balance sometimes!

Walk Around the Kaikoura Peninsula

February 20, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We had visitors from America last week, so on Sunday after church we took them to the Peninsula and walked around from the carpark at Point Kean (the north side) at sea level to South Bay. Before the earthquake, we had to time such a walk carefully to coincide with low tide—no more. The tide was at least halfway in, maybe more, when we finished our walk, and we were still high and dry.

Starting out from Point Kean—not too different from before. When you look closely, though, there is no life in the cracks, as there used to be, and the rocks are dry and dusty.

A seal, seagulls, and a shag.

Immature seagulls—we inadvertently walked through a nesting ground, although there were no eggs or tiny babies. The young are almost as big as their parents now.

Climbing this rock—irresistible!

Mr. Inventor with Little Miss on his shoulders, Mr. Imagination and Mr. Sweetie

There were a lot more rocks laying at the base of the cliffs than there were last time we did this walk. This one had split open with a very interesting pattern in it. Mr. Sweetie for scale!

This erect-crested penguin is visiting Kaikoura at the moment. Normally, only very small Little Blue Penguins live there. What a treat!

At the toilets at South Bay, the end of our walk. Mr. Inventor must have had sore feet! He walked all that way, over rocks of all shapes and sizes and sharpnesses, barefoot!

Mr. Diligence and Little Miss playing between the pillars.

Book Review—Baggage Claim

February 15, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

I was not going to help launch this book. I decided I was busy enough that Esther could help Cathe Swanson launch her books, and I’d stick to helping Chautona Havig with hers, and Esther was happy about that. Of course, since she got Baggage Claim to read in advance of publication, she sent it to my Kindle when she sent it to hers, and I started reading it a couple of weeks ago. Oops! I ended up wasting a lot of time reading it instead of getting right back to work when I should have. And now, Esther hasn’t even had time to finish the book, so guess who volunteered to write a review and help promote the book! It’s a good one—you won’t regret buying this book and reading it. It published today, so you should be able to get it immediately.

I don’t know when I’ve read a book I’ve enjoyed as much as I enjoyed Baggage Claim. I loved all of it. Cathe Swanson is one of my very favorite authors! I hope she keeps writing. This is only her second published book, but it’s a winner.

Read the rest of my review on Esther’s website.

Note: The links in this post are Esther’s affiliate links, so if you purchase the book through them you’ll be helping to support her website.

January 2017 Pictures

February 11, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

Soon after the young turkeys were released into the paddock, a bunch of them got out into the yard and congregated here.

Right after Christmas I started a bunch of cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli seeds, and New Year’s weekend got them into potting soil. Now, they are in the garden and growing fast. I’m hoping for a decent fall/winter harvest this year—still trying to work out when the best time is to start that crop.

A family came to visit us the second weekend in January, and that Saturday Gayle took them out to Gore Bay. The boys took their inflatable boat, and the children had fun boating in a lagoon.

The young turkeys often spend time perched on this gate. They sleep in the tree above it at night. One morning I was in the garden at 6:15 to start a sprinkler, and saw the turkeys get up for the day—or rather, down! They flew out of the tree one after another, or a bunch at a time. So funny!

Mr. Inventor’s poultry flock: geese, ducks and turkeys. He must have 70 or 80 birds, or even a hundred, in that flock.

A few days after the family I mentioned above came to visit, I took our children and a couple of theirs to Gore Bay. Since the last time we had been there, sand had come in and covered the rocks on the beach, making a wonderful place to play at low tide. The children had a lot of fun!

It was fun to investigate a starfish we found.

The family who came to visit asked if they can stay here a few weeks while they wait for their visas to be granted. They are living in our shipping container/sleepout, and Mr. Inventor and Mr. Diligence built this gate to go across the driveway that leads to it so they can drive right up to their room. We had just had a section of fencing across it before, to keep wandering sheep out. They built it out of pallets and a few boards given to them by a friend who moved to Australia a few months ago, and hung it on the gate posts put in by a former resident of this house, using the hinges from the original gate.

Children—January 2017

February 9, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

This is just a random collection of pictures I found on the camera of the children from the past month.

Mr. Sweetie picking cherries the second Sunday of the month.

Mr. Imagination’s reaction when I told him we were working on buying plane tickets to go to America in June. Think he likes the idea? We’re all excited!

To go to America, we have to get American passports for the two youngest. Mr. Imagination has one, but it will be expired before we go, and we haven’t done Little Miss’s American paperwork at all yet. So, one morning Esther and I worked on getting passport pictures taken. That’s a challenge!

We have a family staying with us for awhile. One day I was harvesting cabbage, with help from several children, and Mr. Sweetie found his head covered with cabbage leaves after I trimmed the head!

Mr. Inventor went to work again on his well. He got it dug down to about six meters below the surface, with about two meters of water in the bottom, but then the bottom caved in before we were able to try pumping out of it. I love his imagination and ability to make do.

Little Miss pretending to be asleep.

Mr. Sweetie wanted me to take a picture of him with this tower.

Kaikoura Peninsula—High Tide After the Earthquake

February 6, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

On our second trip to Kaikoura after the earthquake, the second Sunday of January, we went to the Peninsula to see what it looked like at high tide.

Here is the same spot at high tide several years ago:

We saw this on the way to church. The earthquake caused the side of the road to slump down.

After leaving Kaikoura, as we started driving along the coast we saw this fresh slip, with the digger just starting to clean it up. We got through—but the road closed early that night. (Part of the highway to the south of Kaikoura, the part that was damaged the worst by the quake, is closed every night from 8pm till 6am the next morning.)

This spot looks like an entire section of a hill dropped down, creating a new gully.

The Oaro overbridge—the bridge with which the highway crosses over the railroad—suffered a lot of damage in the quake. We stopped to have a close look.

At both ends of the bridge, the road dropped about a meter. Apparently, the gravel used for fill under the ends jiggled away during the earthquake. Most of the bridges around dropped at both ends, but most only a few inches. This, of course, is unusable; you have to detour around this spot.

Kittens and Children

January 29, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

We are really enjoying our kittens! They are so fun to watch, especially for about an hour first thing in the morning when they race all around the living room, over and around the furniture, and over my lap while I’m reading the Bible. Little Miss loves to carry them around. Princess, the black one, is very patient and gentle with her, although she’s the roughest when she’s playing with the rest of us. Bandit, the gray one, though he’s a cuddler with the rest of us, hates to be carried by Little Miss, and sometimes scratches her! She’s offended—but it doesn’t stop her from doing it again!

Mr. Sweetie with Bandit

Little Miss with Bandit

and with Princess

A fight happening on top of Daddy

and another fight on top of Mr. Intellectual

Bandit tried to ride bike! I didn’t quite manage to get a picture of him trying to figure out our mirror, but it was quite funny.

Little ones love kittens! Mr. Imagination and Little Miss

One afternoon, these two spent several hours asleep on a chair under the table. As they moved around in their sleep, they took turns falling off the chair and getting back up.

New Look at the Kaikoura Peninsula—Low Tide

January 22, 2017 by NZ Filbruns Leave a Comment

During the earthquake, the seafloor rose from one to two meters above the former level. This has dramatically changed some parts of the coastline; in Kaikoura, high tide now is approximately where low tide was before the quake! There are rocks visible now that no one knew about before. We went to the Peninsula last Sunday afternoon, around low tide, to see how different it was. This is how it looked just above low tide in 2010, and up until the earthquake:

This is taken from approximately the same place, now, at about the same stage of the tide:

We walked out to the distant rocks, which we were never able to reach before; there was a channel deep enough to snorkel through even at low tide before the quake. Out there, we discovered a colony of baby seals flopping around on the rocks, making a lot of noise. We saw a few of the mothers come in to feed their babies after several days fishing out at sea. It was just amazing to get to see all that—and then, when we returned to the van at the carpark, we got to see a pod of dolphins jumping offshore. I took several videos of what we were treated to, and Esther helped me put them together, so you can enjoy a tiny glimpse, too.

Here are several more pictures of the Peninsula at sea level:

Most of the family also climbed to the top of the Peninsula; I stayed in the van with the two littlest ones. Here are some pictures Esther took from up there; the first is from several years ago, and the second is the same place now.