Zoo Visits for Science

 Better late than never!  I'm so sorry this post is late.  Today we are on the final letter for this years Blogging Through The Alphabet!  Wow the letter Z.  My co-host Desiree is sharing the Z is for Zone!  

The topic today is Zoo Visits for Science!  A visit to the zoo is so good no matter what age you are.  I'm so grateful for zoo's around the world.  They contribute to so much of the knowledge that we have and allow us to experience different biomes and animals from across the globe.  They are places that protect and preserve life and contribute to the wellness of so many people through having access to being able to see and experience the beauty that is out there in our world. 

One of the mistakes we make is thinking we need to spend ALL day at the zoo.  Our local government zoo has a membership program making it much cheaper to be able to go to the zoo multiple times throughout the year.   By planning our day and choosing which animals we wanted to see that day made a HUGE difference to us enjoying the zoo together.  We would pack morning tea.  Take ourselves to the zoo and look at those sections we had chosen and come home.  Everyone enjoyed this approach so much more than long protracted days at the zoo.  

Wild Nights Zoo After Dark 2015

Keep an eye on your local zoo what's on page.  We discovered that our Zoo ran a week long night program in winter allowing us to see the zoo after dark.  We have such wonderful memories of toasting marshmallows, seeing possums up trees and meeting the serval. 

We attended this event for a few years,  you can see some of our adventures along with video's in these posts:

• Werribee Zoo Wild Nights - we saw fire dancing, laser shows and animals after dark 
• Night Zoo Delight - Take a photo journey with us through Werribee Open Range zoo after dark and meet the serval in a YouTube clip.

Taking our children both young and old to the zoo is a great way to incorporate hands on science with your children.  The interpretive signs at the zoo are full of scientific and geographic information.  You will cover subjects like history, geography, science, biology, maths and literacy. 

Members of the MSO tuning up and preparing for the conductor and performance.

We also covered music at Melbourne Zoo!  A few years ago they ran a program with white Melbourne Symphony Orchestra - Carnival of the Animals.  It was so much fun to see the animals, meet members of the orchestra and enjoy this particular event and meet Noni Hazelhurst.  It was a day full of culture at the Zoo!

Over the years as a family we have some of the most amazing adventures and builds some wonderful memories at the zoo. 

• A Tall Order Encounter - a photo journal of meeting the giraffe at Werribee Open Range Zoo. 
• A Day at Healsville Sanctuary - This is the sister zoo to Werribee.  It specialises in Australian Wildlife.  They have a wonderful wildlife hospital there that the public can go into and see what the vets are doing. 
• An Afternoon at Werribee Open Range Zoo - going on a bus trip at Werribee Zoo made for an interesting time.
• A day trip to the zoo - some behind the scenes photo's of the serval and cheetah.

Different States in Australia have different rules about meeting Australian animals.  When we went to Queensland in 2012 we were blessed with being able to hold and meet koala.  It was a super special time for us all. 

Paul and Sir N released number four of the Bandicoots.

This is one of the most special memories I have of Paul and Nathaniel!  They released bandicoots into the new breeding area at Werribee Open Range Zoo.  This breeding program has become one of the success stories for Zoo's Victoria as Bandicoots are no longer endangered.

This post has come at the perfect time because this week Zoo's around the world celebrated International Zoo Keeper Day!  I'm so proud of all the wonderful work that Paul does at Werribee Open Range Zoo alongside his colleagues.  You can follow some of his adventures on Instagram @servalpaul or on Facebook at Serval Paul Photography. 

What is your favourite thing to do at the zoo?

Blessings

Chareen

Featured from last week the letter Y...

• Y is for Yellow and Y is for Yahtzee over at Our Homeschool Notebook 
• Homeschooling Tips from A to Z: The Letter Y on Homeschooling Highway
• Composer ABCs - Yoshimatsu over at At Home: Where Life Happens.
• 
  

This Week over at Our Homeschool Notebook the topic is Z is for Zone!

 

Please link up your posts starting with the letter Z for this weeks ABC Blogging

Bandicoot Adventure

Am I allowed to take a moment to boast about my zoo keeper husband ?  Here in Australia we have a special little animal called a Bandicoot.

WORZ Bandicoot Breeding Program

This little animal is extinct in the wild and the zoo is working towards having a sustainable population.  As part of this project the zoo has created a little spot for them to live.

In December we were invited to the official opening of the Bandicoot Breeding Area.  Tonight this release featured on The 7.30 Report. You can watch the entire report on the ABC website.

Paul and Sir N released number four of the Bandicoots.

We met some amazing people

Left - It was really cold so we borrowed a blanket, The sun set was stunning and a perfect way to end the evening, Paul and Sir N preparing to release the Bandicoot.

Middle - Victoria Minister of Environment The Hon. Ryan Smith, MP, Sir N touching a Bandicoot with one of the Zoo Keepers from WORZ

Right - Sally Lewis Director Werribee Open Range Zoo, Victoria Minister of Environment The Hon. Ryan Smith, MP,  Jenny Gray CEO Zoo's Victoria

It was a wonderful evening and I'm so very proud of my other half and my son :)

Blessings

Benefits of Home Education {Day 4 Thankful Thursday}

As I was considering what to share with you today I began to realise that as a family we have benefited from this journey far more than we actually realise.  Today the Homeschool Review Crew Blog Hop participants are focusing on thankfulness, so grab a cuppa and join us as we encourage you to look at homeschooling and the many things to be thankful for.

Time for Family Relationships

Being married to a zoo keeper who works a rotating roster Paul and I realised that if we had not home educated our children would have only seen him two days a month when his rostered days off fell on a weekend.  Oportunities for relationship building abound.  There is available time to enjoy one another and get to know each other on a deeper and more intimate level within the family.

Because we home educate Paul has been able to take our children on adventures and given them valuable one on one time.

Paul has blessed our home school with his skills.  He has helped us with all the things I am unable to do. His role within our home school in invaluable and our homeschool has benefitted from his life experience, insights, practical help and guidence.

Traveling

When you think of traveling often our first thoughts are interstate or international, however any time you walk out your front door and go anywhere you are traveling and the opportunities to learn abound! The longer we home educate the more I've come to value the depth that this type of immersion provides to our home school. When children experience real life they remember it so much more and are able to use that immersion to help them interpret the world around them. There are many benefits to exploring, here are a few of the things we have done that might give you ideas for your family

• As immigrants we love to explore and find out about all the fabulous things right in our own back yard. 
• We were blessed three years ago with a trip to explore the Outback of Australia with my father and brother.  
• In 2012 we had the amazing experience of driving to Queensland to experience a total Solar Eclipse and we got to hold koala!
• We have had so many fabulous opportunities with our local home educating groups through field trips.  We have experienced things like:
  • a Laser Light Show on the Melbourne Town Hall,
  • seen beautiful fashion and what people have worn in Australia over the last 200 years,
  • explored the history of the motor vehical at the Ford Museum,
  • experience a historical town from the 1800's at Sovereign Hill,
  • Discovered interesting things about our local police force at the Victorian Police Museum,
  • learned about the sacrifices members of our military force have made to maintain the freedoms we have in Australia at the Shrine of Remembrance,
  • discovered the beauty and history of the first cathedral in Melbourne by popping through the open door of St James Old Cathedral,
  • never underestimate the value of your local zoo, we have met the giraffe and developed a family tradition of night zoo in winter.
• We have been extrodinarily blessed with tickets to travel to our home country South Africa and imerse our children in a different culture and landscape.

Time

• Homeschooling has given us time.  Time to get to know each other.  Time to choose our own rythm and homeschool year round.   
• The opportunity to experience my children's successes.  The first time they read and seeing their faces light up with accomplishment. 
• The time to watch them grow and develop.
• Time to invest in Mother Culture rather than running from pillar to post (although that has happened when I have mismanaged my time)

Community

• I have been blessed with amazing friendships over the years.  Some have been seasonal.  Some have come and stayed but each and everyone has invested in my life and left behind footprints that have shaped me.
• Some of the Homeschool Co-Op opportunities have provided expereinces that my children would have been unable to experience anywhere else.  These have provided people to help share the load of schooling and have both challenged and stretched us educationally and relationally.
• Mentoring Relationships have been a huge blessing in our homeschool. We have been blessed with help, information, networking opportunities, advice, encouragement and support we could never have had anywhere else.

Looking Back - Benefits from a Homeschool Graduate's Perspective

I asked my daughter what she was felt were benefits of being homeschooled here is her list:

• Being able to work at her own pace - not too fast not too slow.
• Having time to pursue subjects she was interrested in.
• Flexibility.
• Not wasting time.  She could go from one subject to the next and not have to move between classes or wait for the next class time.
• Being able to graduate early at 16 with a tertiary qualification.
• Taking time off for family commitments or travel was never an issue.
• Having access to tutoring aka Mom!
• Traveling and learning through immersion.
• Having time to grow a relationship with my little brother who is ten years younger than me.

This post is part of the Homeschool Review Crew 5 Days of Homeschool Encouragement Blog Hop.

Grab a cuppa and be prepared to be motivated for the year ahead.  Here are a few of the participants of this years blog hop.  Be sure to take a look at some of the posts shared by our wonderful home educating mom's.

• Lisa @ Farm Fresh Adventures 
• Lori @ At Home: where life happens 
• Margaret @ Creative Madness Mama  
• Marla @ Jump Into Genius 
• Meredith @ Powerline Productions: Being World Changers/Raising World Changers  
• Michele @ Family, Faith and Fridays 
• Missica @ Through The Open Window 
• Monique @ Mountain of Grace Homeschooling

A day time trip to the zoo.

Today was the last day of our week of rest and the weather was so beautiful we decided to go and visit Paul at the zoo along with Pop Pops and Granny. 

We were blessed with three wonderful encounters: The Serval Presentation, Behind the Scenes Serval Encounter,  and seeing The Cheetah Lure.

I wont say too much but let the pictures tell you of our adventure. 

Serval presentation. Paul showing the markings on the back of the ears.

Paul with serval in the serval encounter enclosure

A serval dew claw

Demonstrating just how high a serval can jump to catch a bird in the air.  Amazing.

Demonstating the agility of these beautiful african cats.

Cheetah waiting behind the scenes.

Watching Paul put out the cheetah lure.
 Zoo keeper explaining to us what is happening behind the scenes.

Successfully caught.  Now enjoying his meal.
The word cheetah means spotted one.

It was a wonderful afternoon of time together.  Over the years I have found that making outings like this an all day event would really exhaust the little people so these days we tend to go for two to three hours at a time.  I find that this shorter time span better suits us and tends to be more productive.

Blessings

NBTS Week 3 - {Learning Spaces}

Welcome to Week 3 of the Aussie NBTS Blog Hop.  This week we are sharing our Learning Spaces for 2012!

In week one you met my three children Mr T, Miss J and Sir N who have all been homeschooled.
In week two I shared the curriculum choices I have made for the year ahead with Sir N.  This inspired me to share a Time Line of my homeschool journey with you.

I have a confession to make (blushing) I had been avoiding this post.  I had popped on over to Our World Wide Classroom and had a look at some of the dedicated learning spaces that  Our Aussie Homeschool, Pumpkin Patch, Our little Homeschool and Educating April had shared and got cold feet showing our space as we do not have dedicated space for homeschooling. Over the weekend I popped back over and had a look at Doves Rest, Home School Dreaming, Defying Gravity, Herding Hobbits!, Acres of Learning, Mansted Family Project and Seven Little Australians and was inspired to tidy up and invite you on in to see where we learn.

Welcome to our Learning Spaces
Click on any of the pictures to enlarge them for a better view.

Sir N's drawing of where he learns.

This picture means a lot to me.  Sir N did not know about this blog hop. He asked me for a piece of paper yesterday to draw.  Quietly sat down and drew me a picture.  He brought it to me and said "This is where I learn ! "

This is a panorama of our living area where 80 % of our learning takes place. The balance is outside and in the community {e.g. Sustainability Expo, Fishing, Ballet, Hanging Rock, Australia Post}

Our lounge is currently occupied with Sir N's Farm !

This is our read aloud space.  If it's cold we hop into bed with a warm doona and read there.  In summer we read here and if the day is not too hot we will hop onto the trampoline or a picnic blanket in the garden. To the left of the chair I have a bookshelf with most of the years Core books and some extra research books.

To the right of the read aloud chair I keep two boxes.  The blue one contains the current read alouds.  The basket contains our library books.

This is our dining room where Sir N sits and does his writing work. The draws to the right of the freezer contain all his pens, pencils and books we are working through. On top of these draws is a terrarium where what ever we have caught in the garden temporarily lives for us to study. We also have some rather unique pets in our home. Being married to a Zoo Keeper means that we get to look at and touch many interesting types of wildlife and get to go to the zoo as often as we like.  Last year we enjoyed Night Zoo.

This is our kitchen where we cook together.  A few months ago I moved the microscope to the kitchen bench. It used to live next to my computer but never got used because we forgot we had it.  It now gets used quite regularly. An example of one of the things we looked at last year is a flea we found on our cat.

I have this wonderful corner display cabinet we keep our treasures and memories and talk about.  It is also a perfect spot for our world globe.

This is our rumpus room which contains five of my seven book shelves.  I am truly blessed. One word of warning to homeschool Mums you do NOT need or have to own this many books to effectively homeschool.  I have this many books because I LOVE books and my husband graciously indulges my delight.
The three identical book shelves on the right are special to me.  My Dad hand made these when we immigrated to Australia.  I was in need of book shelves as the last house we rented had built in book shelves.  I was frustrated over the expense and design of book shelves.  We purchased the wood and my Dad spent hours making these for me. The tallest one contains mainly novels. 

Thank you to all of you who shared your spaces and inspired me to share mine.

Blessings
Chareen

CMC - Nature Journaling

Charlotte Mason: "Children should be encouraged to watch, patiently and quietly, until they learn something of the habits and history of bee, ant, wasp, spider, hairy caterpillar, dragon-fly, and whatever of larger growth comes in their way." (Vol 1, II, Out-Of-Door Life For The Children, p.57 )

Welcome to the first Charlotte Mason Companion blog hop. I hope you can join in and share your wisdom with us.

Why this Chapter First ?

Good question since it's Autumn here and I leave for an overseas trip in six days! I feel inspired and encouraged by Sir N's enthusiasm to Journal and since I am going to the beautiful African Continent I wanted to make a journal.   

A little bit of my history with journaling
I first read about Nature Journaling in my CM Companion years ago when my two oldest were young.

• Did we make a Journal ?  No. 
• Did I want to do one ? Yes 
• Why didn't we ? I think the biggest issue is I felt intimidated.
  I can't draw perfectly what I see and to be honest I get impatient and would rather read a good book lying under the shade of a beautiful tree whilst my children play in the sun. 
  Another reason is I felt as though I needed to have all this knowledge about the types of flowers, trees, grasses, birds & wildlife first otherwise I would fail.  I know this is not true and I can learn with my children but I simply felt overwhelmed with what I thought I needed in place to do Nature Journaling.
• Why do I want to do one now ?  A new season in life. As I grow and experience life and see how dramatically life changes over the seasons of living I feel encouraged to do something new. I also saw this beautiful easy journal on Pinterest that inspired me to journal more than just nature.

My gleanings

Chapter Thirty-Three 
Nature Study

• Karen starts off with: IF we give our children regular opportunities....  This is so true.  I realised the power is within each of us to give our children not some opportunity but rather regular opportunities.  This takes time and effort on my part but will produce the good fruit of a healthy habit that will be a source of delight for their whole lives.
• I love how Karen said that while her children were drawing at the table she had The Handbook of Nature Study open on her lap under the table glancing down for information which she then casually shared with her children appearing as an uncommonly knowledgeable mother!  (CMC Page 253 Karen Andreola)
• I was both inspired and encouraged by: Knowledge in one "subject" helps us to understand another. All the information your children are gathering in their nature study lessons, and the habits of observation they are acquiring, will form an excellent foundation for their future education. (CMC Page 259 Karen Andreola)

Nature is important to God and through it He reveals Himself to us. We are it's guardians and we can not look after what we do not have a relationship with.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Nature for City Children

• I have used living in a city as an excuse for not doing Nature Journaling.  After all it is a concrete jungle ? Right ? No - wrong!! Karen shares how they lived in London and how she used visiting the green grocer as an opportunity for Nature Study.  They learned the American and English names for fruit and vegetables and different types of fish at the Fish monger. (CMC Page 263 Karen Andreola)  There is so much around us IF only we take the time to slow down look and learn.
• City Children can have windowsill gardens, use natural history museums that display stuffed creatures, eggs, shells, fossils and rocks of various kinds. (CMC Page 265 Karen Andreola) Karen goes on to list heaps of different ideas for Nature study with in a city.  All you need is a little imagination and the public library or go to the local zoo and befriend a Zoo Keeper.
• Read beautiful living books by authors such as: Holling Clancy Holling and Sterling North

Chapter Thirty-Five

Neighborhood Nature Study

• Karen helped me realise that I can think in terms of hours instead of whole days. (CMC Page 269 Karen Andreola)
• Upon reading this chapter I realised there is so much more available in our own neighbourhoods than we realise and all we need to do is slow down stop and take a proper look around us.
• She encourages us to look at flowers, birds, insects and life.

Overall I have really enjoyed reading these three chapters they have inspired and encouraged me to slow down and really look at the life around me and allow Sir N to do the same.

Tuesday's Treasures

In my explorations of this topic I have discovered some excellent resources and will be posting them on Tuesdays.

•   3 April - On line Downloads, Further Reading and Elsewhere on the net
• 10 April - The Decorated Journal - Gwen Diehn
• 17 April - Keeping a Nature Journal - Clare Walker Leslie & Charles E.Roth
• 24 April - Field Trips with Jim Arnosky & My Nature Journal - Adrienne Olmstead

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Blessings
Chareen

Next months Blog Hop theme will be Chapter 6 {The Atmosphere of Home}  &
Chapter 7 {Bickerings} and hosted on the 30 April.

**Remember, be sure to link directly to your Charlotte Mason Companion  post so that others can find it easily when they visit your blog and be sure to post a link back here so that your readers can find the Blog Hop and join us.
 
(If possible, please take a moment to visit & comment on the journal post linked up before you.)

Meet my family

Sonlight is 25 years old and this year they are hosting a year long blog party.  It's been a while since I've posted about the family so I've decided to join in the fun.

You can meet other Sonlight Homeschool Families at the January Blog Party.

I am Chareen and I'm a South African born, New Zealander living in Australia!

I have been married for 23 years and home educating for 17 of those. I have home educated in New Zealand and Australia.  Our very first year of homeschooling was with Sonlight Kindergarten  in 1998.

My favourite time of the year is when the new Sonlight catalog comes out.  I spend a few days happily curled up on the lounge chair with a cup of tea and catalog reading and discovering all the wonderful new books and items available.

You can read more about my home education journey here: Timeline of my Journey.  These are some of the Sonlight Cores I have used during my journey.

 

I am passionate about supporting and encouraging homeschoolers, homeschooling and books as well as great encouraging fellowship.

I am also a homeschool curriculum review blogger and enjoy using social media to share my homeschool journey and you can find me on these platforms


Paul is my Zoo Keeper husband who has the amazing privileged of looking after serval at Werribee Open Range Zoo.  He is a passionate wild life photographer and you can follow his adventures on Instagram (@servalpaul) Paul is in the middle of self publishing a photographic bird guide book and will be blogging this year at Bush Tales by Paul

Tim turned 21 last year and is currently studying a Cert IV in Web Based Technology.  He has a long term goal of Game Development. At present he is also exploring his creative side via photography.  You can see some of his work on Facebook.

Jane is 19 and is working full time.  She graduated in 2012 with a Cert III in Children's Services.  Over the last three years she has also completed a Cert II in Retail and last year did Cert IV in Human Resources.

Nathaniel is the main feature of the blog.  He is 9 years old and loves to explore the world around him.  Sir N is passionate about all things in the film industry but his first love is airplanes and he is currently designing a Jumbo-class plane and E4D (this is an improved home theater system). He loves to develop products and is also developing the Solifuge (a new type of vehicle).  He helps me to review home school products.  One of his all time favourite things to do is to deconstruct items such as our old microwave and recently our old DVD computer drive.

To help celebrate Sonlights 25th year they are giving us the chance to win a full years curriculum.  You can read more about it here: Mom to Mom Curriculum Giveaway


- See more at: Mom to Mom Curriculum Giveaway
I'd love to hear more about your family! If you have a blog and have shared there please leave a link in the comments for me.  If you don't have a blog please tell me more in comments.  

Blessings
Chareen

This post is linking to

• Australian Not Back to School party
• Sonlight January Blog Party