CANBERRA TO NEW YORK: Finally - not the hair cut!

Here is a little update of some of the things we did in early April, I'd like to commit to another post very soon, but I have been quite slack lately so we'll see.

I have had no washing machine for almost 4 weeks - Monday will be four weeks and there is a chance that we will make that milestone. The repair fellow is comming out on Friday, there were 4 packages with spare parts for the machine on the door step when we got home from co-op today so I am hopefull that he will have success on Friday. The original repair company refused to come back because I complained that after two weeks they had still been unable to fix it. Then instead of making another appointment for last friday, they made one for this friday (just making me wait an extra week to punish me for complaining, this may be the home of the brave and land of the free but it is certainly not the home of good service). Any way, my land lord stepped in and got some action, fingers crossed.

Then, I planned amongst so many other things to update the blog last weekend, instead we had no internet commection for four days from Friday morning and a tech here for about 5 hours on Saturday, poor fellow. He finally had to go and told us he wanted to get the the hospital to see is baby daughter who had been born prematurly. So, ok perhaps there is good service at times. The Verizon fellows both the Saturday and Monday techs were fabulous, they redeemded their ilk in my eyes.

So here are about 30 photos to keep you busy for a few minutes, phew made it just in time for the end of the month.

I went to the basket ball with L and J to watch the NY Nicks beaten by the Atlanta somethings!! how sad, clearly my dedication to basket ball is not to huge given I can't even remember the name of the oposition. There were some very good plays and some excitement during the game, third quarter was the best for the Nicks, if only they played that way the entire game. It was a good night and Madison Square Garden is impressive.

We went to the NY Aquarium on conney island which was a long subway trip from grand Central but very impressive with some cool fish. A cow fish and an elephant fish that if you did not see in person you'd think were hoaxes and some very large horseshoe crabs.

At Co-op J is doing a very cool class called "Do try this at home", the very first week they made cardboard rockets and shot them way into the air with rocket engines. Then another time they took raw eggs and used 'rubish' to create a vessel that would protect the egg when it was thrown from an atic window. Both J and I had success with our eggs, the one falling from teh sky in the second picture is mine.

Sprout Creek Farm - Colonial Day

We all spent a day with 4 other home school families at Sprout Creek Farm to learn all about farming in Colonia America (1750's). It was a great day, cold and a little windy and an hour away, but so worth the travel, time and cost. The children (and I) learned how to make candles, dipping and dipping just like a colonial family. We made gingerbread with an old style recipe, played with a hoop and stick and had a great farm tour among a few other activities.

The high light of the farm tour was viewing the hours old baby goats, they were so cute, there were also a few day old babies, baby calfs and mummy goats about to have their babies. Another highlight was getting the chance to try some yummy cheeses made right there with the farms own cow and goats milk.

W was given the 'role' of Samuel Smith, the father of the smith family, O was Bathsheba, his wife. They were given replicas of colonial clothing and then came back into the room and told all the other children (and Mum's) all about their clothing and why they wore the particular items of clothing. He looked so cute and loved the big hat, blet and huge boots. The program is designed for 4th graders so it was all a bit big for W and O.

We built a model of a colonial house with mortice and tennon joints - complete with pins to keep it all together, I wonder if anything sticks with the children. A week later at Co-op I was with W in the Yoga/Gym room and he said to me "Mummy this is a colonial building" he had noticed the joints in the frame!! - So, even when I think it is just play, some learning is going on too.