We are loving this little girl so much! She is pure fun (except when she refuses to sleep….). For the past couple of weeks, it has seemed like she is saying, “Mama.” I’m still not totally convinced she knows what she’s saying, but the children are sure! She does frequently say it when I leave the room and she wants me. Here’s a short video of her saying it, and another of her playing. And–a little funny related to the stuffed monkey, Freddie, in the first video. This morning Mr. Imagination discovered a little hole under Freddie’s arm. He told me, “If I put my hand over his hole, that feels him better.” He wanted to take Freddie to church, but when I suggested the monkey needed to stay home and take a nap, he happily put him to bed.
Video
Tandem Bicycle
Awhile ago, Mr. Inventor saw a tandem bicycle when we were fueling up the van in Kaikoura. He decided then and there that he wanted one of his own, and studied it to see how it was built. He went home and cut apart a couple of bicycles, planning to weld them together to make his own. Well, that didn’t happen, and in the course of moving twice in a year the pieces ended up being thrown away. Last week, however, the boys were listening to stories their Grandma recorded and sent us. Remember the Henry Huggins books? Well, in one of those, Scooter apparently suggested to Henry that he make a tandem bike by taking the front wheel off a bike and fastening it to the rear axle of another bike. I didn’t listen to the story myself, but from what I’ve been able to gather, Henry didn’t try it. Mr. Inventor, however, was inspired. He and Mr. Handyman spent half an hour the other day working on bikes and created a tandem bike! They are having great fun driving it around! They even rode it through town the other day when they went to fetch our cow home from the bull they had taken her to visit. The Cheviot policeman, off-duty at the time, was out riding his own bike and smiled and waved at them—I was glad to know he wasn’t unhappy about what he saw!
Today, Mr. Inventor and Mr. Intellectual were giving the three littlest ones rides with one of the bike trailers, with a little help pushing off from Mr. Diligence. The video isn’t very good, but it will give you an idea of what I was seeing. The sun is so low in the sky right now that good outdoor pictures are hard to get.
Happy Baby
After she recovered from the trauma of a bath tonight, Baby was very happy. I was finally able to get a video of her talking–usually she quits and is silent when I get the camera! So, if you’re interested, here is 30 seconds of cuteness. (The background noise is the dramatized Pilgrim’s Progress the older children were listening to.)
Tour of the Mud Town and Our Garden
On Sunday, when Mr. Sweetie had my camera, he also took a video outside. It is rather long (maybe 8 minutes), and shaky, but if you’re interested in the town my boys have been building all summer in the banks of the dry creek in our front yard, here is a guided tour of what they currently have and the place they did have a town before it was destroyed. He also gives you a glimpse of what’s left in the garden. Just please keep in mind this was taken by a 5-year-old–that explains a lot!
A Tour of Our House
I stayed home Sunday with several children who had bad colds. Mr. Sweetie, the five-year-old, asked in the afternoon if he could use my camera. I took a look at the memory card this evening, and found a couple of videos. This one is a tour of the inside of the house, if you’re interested. Keep in mind that a 5-year-old took it! The background noise, other than the baby crying, is Mr. Inventor’s audio book playing (With Lee in Virginia); he listened to it most of the day.
Fantails
In other words, flying flytraps! Since we leave the doors open for ventilation on warm days, and have no screens, we often have fantails in the house these days! They are such cheery little birds. They are so friendly they remind me of the chickadees we had in Michigan in the winter. They eat insects, though. As they swoop through the room, you can often hear a sharp little click as they catch another fly! That makes them welcome guests, you can imagine. I’ve been trying to get pictures of them in the house, but they move so fast it’s hard to catch them. That’s how I ended up with a picture of one taking off in flight. If you listen closely to the video of one, you can hear a faint twittering. It was a lot louder in real life, but apparently the sound capture isn’t real good on my camera. If you want to hear it better, go to this page, click on the sound icon, and choose “South Island fantail, male song.” Oh, and by the way, we’re studying birds, insects, bats and flying reptiles this year for science. We recently had a lesson about feathers, and one type of feathers is bristles. Bristles are found around the mouths of insect-eating birds. When we looked closely at the fantails in our house, we could see the bristles! They apparently help the bird to catch insects in flight. The bristles touch the insect and then the bird can turn to grab the insect.
Two Videos
We ended up with two videos worth saving in February on my memory card. I found a lot of other videos, from the evening I let the 5-year-old take my camera outside, but it was getting dark and they were quite grainy, and some were so shaky I felt queasy just watching them! Our latest budding photographer needs a few lessons before I share many of his videos.
This first one shows a science experiment we did. We’re studying Apologia’s Zoology 1 book this year, about flying creatures, and they suggested an experiment to show how lift makes flight possible. Air going over a bird’s wing moves faster than the air under the wing, because the top of the wing is curved. That causes less air pressure above the wing than below it, which causes the wing to be pushed up. To demonstrate this, we cut a drinking straw so it would come just above the top of the water in a cup, then blew across the top of the cup through another straw. Because the air pressure directly above the straw was less than over the water in the cup (because it was moving faster), water blew out of the straw!
This second video is from one evening when Gayle coached the little boys and then brought them to the kitchen to sing “Read Your Bible, Pray every day” for us.
Pancake Rocks
I had checked the tides for Pancake Rocks before we left on our trip, as someone told us once that high tide is the best time to go. High tide was to be around 4:00 the day we visited, so we aimed to get there around 3:30. We had been noticing that the waves were quite high, and the wind was from the north-west, so we were hoping for a good show. We really felt that God blessed us, because the blowholes were spouting quite high. What a sight to see!
The first thing we admired when we arrived, however, was the nikau palms. They are quite an unusual looking palm, and the southern-most palm in the world. We noticed some beginning to bloom, then saw that others had seed or fruit clusters hanging below the leaves. Then, we were tickled to see a wood pigeon helping himself to some of the fruit!
After admiring the palms for a few minutes and poking our heads into the visitor center/gift shop, we went across the road (the main highway) to the rocks themselves. A lovely concrete path has been built through the rocks, with great viewing areas.
James, with his new camera! Funny thing about that is that he is camera-shy! Guess he likes to be on the other side. Isn’t he cute, though?
At one of the first overlooks, we noticed how foamy the sea was. The water was extremely turbulent.
The poor littlest boy was stuck going at the snail’s pace of his mom and grandma.
Mom and Esther admiring the rough seas.
This spot, a near-rectangle with walls all around, is in the middle of the rocks. It is aptly named the Surge Pool. Water comes in through two arches, one of which you can see here and the other is roughly under my feet from where I took the picture.
We finally got to the first blowhole! This is called Chimney Pots. If a wave of the right size comes in and ricochets off the rocks at the right angle, over and over again, it will burst up through a channel in the rocks and form a geyser. It was pretty amazing to see the path the waves had to take to get here—there were at least two right-angle corners they had to turn. The power the water still had when it reached this point was awe-inspiring.
I don’t remember what this spot was called, and I don’t know if there is an open channel to the sea or if the water comes through an archway, but it sure splashed up here!
My boys! Left-right: fourth (James), first (Seth), third (Elijah), fifth (Joseph), and second (Simon).
The Surge Pool, from the other side.
The sea on the north side of Pancake Rocks.
After we went all the way around, we decided to go back to Chimney Pot and enjoy the spectacle again. Our second boy found a spot on a bridge where the spray from the geysers blew over him. Not only did he get soaked (and later I noticed salt crusting his face!), but he lured a number of unsuspecting tourists to stand there long enough to get wet as well. I hear that he would ask them, “Do you like showers?” then keep them talking till it blew again!
I took a few videos to try to capture the experience. Of course, it isn’t anywhere as good as being there yourself, but these will give you a tiny glimpse of our experience.
This was definitely a highlight of our trip. We felt especially blessed when we were talking to a friend on the way home, who had been to Pancake Rocks a number of times, and he said he had never seen a show such as we described.
Dead Boring Concert
Our annual homeschool group concert was this past Saturday evening. The group is called Dead Boring—but it’s anything but what its name sounds like! There was a wide variety of musical talent displayed; quite a number of piano pieces were played, but also several recorder and flute presentations, as well as violin and even accordian! A few people sang; Esther helped another family do a shadow play about a little boy whose mother said he didn’t even have the common sense he was born with—but she ended by saying she loved him anyway and always would! Several families collaborated to present a play from Winnie-the-Pooh of the story of Pooh-sticks. Our children recited a poem and sang a song. I hope you’ll be able to hear the poem. They didn’t use the microphone this time, as everyone in the hall was able to hear, but the camera didn’t pick it up very loudly.
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
After the poem, they sang a song called “Grumblers”.
GRUMBLERS
In country, town or city some people can be found
Who spend their lives in grumbling at ev-‘ry-thing around;
O yes, they always grumble, no matter what we say,
For these are chronic grumblers and they grumble night and day.
CHORUS:
O they grumble on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
Grumble on Thursday too,
Grumble on Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
Grumble the whole week thru.
(Repeat)
If you don’t quit your grumbling and stop it now and here,
You’ll never get to heaven, no grumblers enter there.
Repent and be converted, be saved from all your sin;
You know that grumbling Christians find it hard a crown to win.
And one more picture: Our youngest was enthralled with the accordion music that was played! A young man and his teacher played a duet on their accordions, and it was very beautiful.
Head Under!
Our littlest came running in tonight, all excited, and told me, “Head under!” while pointing to his wet hair. I asked where he got his head wet, and he explained and demonstrated that he had done it at our water tank. We get water from the county water scheme, a certain amount per day. It comes into a huge concrete tank which is up on a tower. I guessed that he had stuck his head under a leak, although it’s a slow enough drip that I couldn’t imagine how he got so wet. Later, I found out that one of his older brothers had been getting water from a tap at the bottom of the tower, and that is where he put his head under! This video is him telling me about it the second time.