Volcano conversations and some art

Here are some of the things we’ve been up to today.

I pulled out some watercolours, white and black paper, and coloured chalk and this is what resulted:

Emma made this volcano, and Ben must have thought it was a good idea because it inspired his efforts too. I don’t know if they were thinking about volcanoes because of hearing about Mt Tongariro‘s recent eruption, the first in over 100 years. There are some great images here: Tongariro’s Eruption. We had a chat about volcanoes and their hazards such as lava and ash.

This is Ryan’s picture of lava.

And little Sam had a go as well.

The chalk drawings on black paper was fun too.

Origami and Stuff

Some how the days seem pretty busy with just the things it takes to keep family life going… food and clothes and cleaning etc. In a way we’re still finding our feet here with new routines and things like shopping still take me longer than usual as I get used to things. We’re so lucky at the moment that Doug is home with us. This will have to change pretty soon as he’ll need to get a job, but for now it’s lovely having him around.

Here’s just some things we’ve been doing lately. Just living life together and learning together along the way.

Origami:

I borrowed this book from the library the other day on a whim, and we’ve been having fun trying different origami projects. All the kids have enjoyed it, but Ben in particular really got into it and with me helping step by step made the spinning top. Emma has been making a pizza which isn’t finished yet because she’s using blank paper and decorating it herself. Ryan’s favourite was the rocket and the little paper box because he saw in the book that you can put lollies in it.

I found it interesting that Ben with his mathematical mind really enjoyed origami…some of the instructions are rather difficult to follow from a picture, and he figured some of them out for himself, and the more difficult steps we did together with me showing him as I made another project along side him.

Today while I was out with Emma, the boys got stuck into some bike work. They fixed a puncture, put the wheel back on , and they all had a great time figuring out how the gears work.