Friday 8 June 2012

HSMJ - I'm Back !

In my life this week…
  • We arrived home last Friday after a fantastic holiday in South Africa !  I have been thinking about the best way to showcase some of the incredible things we did while we were away. 
  • I have been thinking about my weight and health and what I am going to do about it.
In our homeschool this week…
  • I have spent this week in planning mode to start back into to school next week.
Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to share…
  • Chariot Press have announced this week that they have all their stock listed on their website.  They are currently running a stock take Sale. There is no extra postage on Sale items.  
  • Jimmie shared this Cool Country Report: Fill-in Poster. Introduce a different culture and help strengthen your child's writing skills, all at the same time! This is another example of the AMAZING free resources at the Scholastic site. 
  • Gosh I missed out on the 10 Days of ... Series hosted over at iHomeschool Network.  I have some catching up to do.  Have you had a look at these posts ?  
  • Looking for some interesting Top Ten posts to read over the next 8 weeks then head on over to Many Little Blessings and have a read.  This weeks post was 10 reasons my kids like being homeschooled and next weeks topic is: Top 10 Favourite Read Alouds. For more topics visit iHomeschool Network 10 in 10 and link up at Many Little Blessings.
I am inspired by…
  • Our Nature Journals over at Blue Yonder Ranch. I love this post.  I am still aspiring to Nature Journal but looking for a way that will work for our family.  Here is a snippet to whet your appetite "I keep a little notebook so that I can make notes about what we found and where, but we don’t take our journals with us. Someday I’d like for them to take field notes, but at the moment, it works better for us to spend our time outdoors just exploring and then to come home for the journaling.
    The things that we bring home go into a big basket until we have a chance to study them further. We won’t necessarily research everything that comes home with us, but some things will catch our fancy and we’ll want to dig a little deeper.
    .." Pop on over and have a read of Stefani's thoughts on the topic.  Even though this post is two years old it is very relevant and encouraging today.
     
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
  • We caught up with family and friends on Sunday for Sir N's seventh birthday.  His big brother Mr T arranged a surprise birthday bash for him.
My favorite thing this week was…
  • Realising that we have taken 10 400 photographs on our seven week holiday. 

What’s working/not working for us…
  • Being sick with the flu after a lovely holiday and arriving home to some particularly cold raining weather !

Questions/thoughts I have…
  • What are your favourite Home School Blog Hops / Memes ?
Things I’m working on…
  • Planing the next two weeks of school for Sir N.
  • A blog post featuring my Top Ten Homeschool Websites.
  • Blog posts showing you a few other things we did in South Africa
  • Library visit to collect books
  • My very first product review.... coming this monday.
I’m reading…
I’m cooking…
  •  Nothing too interesting this week.  I think that I will dig out my recipes from Carmel Wilkinson when I attended her Results Weight Loss clinic a year ago. 
I’m grateful for…
  •  The Bad News About Home Schooling over at Encouraging Beautiful Motherhood.  Rather thought provoking nail on the head kind of writing.  I needed this.  I have been feeling rather inadequate and wondering if I should be doing this homeschooling thing.  Just the article I needed to read!

A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
“Knowledge which is acquired under compulsion has no hold on the mind. Therefore do not use compulsion, but let early education be a sort of amusement; you will then be better able to discover the child's natural bent.” Plato

Blessings







This post is linking to:
Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers
iHomeschool Network

The Home school Mother’s Journal began as a single post on a Friday morning over at The Homeschool Chick, and turned into a link-up for homeschool mothers across the blog-O-sphere to share a piece of their journey with one another each week.

The link party has moved and is now hosted over at iHomeschool Network and is open from Friday to Monday so join me in The Homeschool  Mothers Journal and lets encourage one another on our homeschool journey.


Thursday 7 June 2012

Why I've gained weight ...

A trip to Khamai Reptile Centre

When we lived in South Africa 16 years ago we managed a farm called Richmond Game Farm.  On the corner of the farm there was a little park called Swadini Snake Park and we were friends with it's owner.  So on our return to SA we decided to take Sir N and Miss J and go back for a visit.


A lot has changed in 16 years and we had a wonderful day rediscovering Donald's park which has been renamed Khamai Reptile Centre.  I highly recommend his website it is full of interesting information. Donald is an expert on snakes from all over the world so if you have a snake question get in contact with him.




Khamai was opened as Swadini Reptile Park in November 1984.

MISSION STATEMENTS
  • To conserve through education and research. 
  • To locate, propagate and relocate rare and endangered reptiles. 
  • To establish viable captive populations of rare and endangered reptiles.



In the Park there are an assortment of cement figures and one Sir N particularly enjoyed was the life size figure of a Nile Crocodile.  I think he was a little bit overwhelmed by it sheer size (so was I) and enjoyed climbing on it.  We learned about the Nile Crocodile during our Egypt Expedition Earth Study before we went to South Africa.





We then went over and had a look at the small one Donald had in an enclosure just behind the model.


At the Park you can find Lizard Rock Cafe where I can remember enjoying the most wonderful hamburgers for dinner. Sir N enjoyed exploring the interesting dinning room.


There are numerous snake enclosures to explore and I took loads of photo's of snakes and all variety of creepy crawlies.


This is an African Rock Python (Python Sebae).
 
  • This snake can grow to 30 feet in length and is Africa's largest snake and the third largest snake in the world.
  • They are non poisonous and kill their prey by constriction.
  • Females lay eggs of up to 100 eggs in a clutch which she aggressively defends. 
  • The babies are 18-24 inches in length.
  • These snakes can live up to 12 years in captivity.


This is a Black Mamba.
  • They get their name from the blue-black of the inside of their mouths which they display when threatened.
  • These snakes can grow up to 14 feet in length and travel at speeds up to 12mph.
  • They can strike from 4-6 feet away. Before antivenins were developed, a black mamba bite was 100% fatal.
  • The Mamba has a lifespan of 11+ years.
  • The fangs are Proteroglyphous and the venom is Neurotoxic.

Snake Skeletons of interest


One of the most interesting displays I found was one showcasing different snake head skeletons.

No Fangs Aglyphous Non Venomous Snakes.



Back Fangs (Opisthoghlphous) Venomous Mostly Semi Venomous but also Boomslang and Vine Snakes.


Front Hinged Fangs (Solenoglyphous) Venomous Adder or Vipers

After a good look around the different enclosures in doors Donald arranged for us to hold, touch photograph a snake.  I must agree with Sir N I don't like touching snakes however Miss J really enjoyed the experience.


There are three Squirrel Monkeys living in the gardens and when they saw we had some lollies they wanted in on the action.

Sir N with a Squirrel Monkey on his shoulder.

It was so good to see Donald and how much his park had grown.  If you ever find yourself in South Africa take some time to pop in and explore the park and take some time to get to know these interesting reptiles.

Blessings
Chareen