Activities.

Homeschool:

May was an interesting school month. Murray John was extremely excited, when the combine harvester came to harvest the Soya-beans. He would jump out of his bed at 5am- and proceed to tackle his school work, so that by 8.30am he was free to spend the day with the driver in the combine harvester!

Towards the end of May, Paula Joy fell off her pony and fractured a bone in her foot. For the first week after the fracture she was sore and tired so her school work load had to be reduced.

The children started recorder lessons this month. -So far so good, until they practiced in the car on the way to and from Harare, which is a bit tough on mother’s ears!

The horse dentist arrived at the farm, one Tuesday, so we took school to the stables for the morning. Even the geese wanted to see what was happening!

Homeschool Art:

Paula Joy and Murray John drew some fun pictures about their trip to sailing school. They also entered the annual sailing school coloring competition where Paula Joy came first in her age group.

Horses:

The month started with polo for us all. Great fun was had, getting the lorry loaded for a weekend of polo. The children are starting to learn what it takes to get the horses ready for polo trips.

Towards the end of the month we changed back to show jumping and then we prepared the ponies for a trip to the Chinoyi Derby show. Due to Paula Joy’s fractured her foot she was unable to compete. Murray John got to take two ponies to the show and had a wonderful time jumping them and winning one of the classes! Watch Murray John competing on Monty;

Homeschool Sport:

This month we continued with gym, golf and vaulting. Due to Paula Joy’s fractured foot she was unable to do vaulting and golf however she was able to continue with gym. The gym focus for her was shifted to upper body strength and hand eye co-ordination.

Adventures.

Farm Life:

Murray John spent most of his spare time in the combine harvester this month. He was even found asleep in it! He so loved learning about combining and how the machine works.

Travels:

The month started with packing up the lorry and heading off to sailing school, for a week or sailing and camping. Our double cab pickup had a puncture not far from the farm, which was a huge challenge…. Murray John tried his best to undo the wheel nuts- then I found that I could not do much, with my damaged shoulder, so we had to give up the battle and call home for help…..

We were soon on our way again, but it took us a whole day to set up camp and get settled for the week, which is why we always go a day early. I am a deluxe camper and love having everything in order! This year the children enjoyed putting up their own tent, making their beds and sorting out their clothing. This was a great achievement and they were very proud of themselves!

Douglas managed to take a week off the farm, to tutor our children with 12 other more experienced Optimist (small sailing boat) sailors. In all there were 14 children in the class ranging between ages 7 to 14 years. It’s such an awesome week with the day starting at 6am with marshmallows around the fire!

The children spent the week learning how to proficiently sail their Optimist’s. Watch everyone jiving around a buoy;

The week ended with races and Murray John managed to come third in the class. Sailing is a wonderful skill to learn and the children will continue with sailing school until they grow out of their Optimists. Now it’s time to continue sailing on the farm dam to reinforce what was learnt at sailing school.