April Adventures and Activities.

April Activities:

Homeschooling.

Public holidays.

April has a number of public holidays, with the first being the Easter weekend, followed by Zimbabwe’s Independence Day. School had to be worked around the long weekends.  All in all, we managed to fit in three weeks of schooling, with an Easter break and another break for sailing school. We’ll take more time off in early June.

Homeschooling after breaks.

What I really enjoy about the ACE program, is that it is so easy to pick up again exactly where one has left off. This makes it easier for the children to get going again after a break. As the children get older, so they are starting to take more control of their studies. Paula Joy now knows how to set her daily goals.

Homeschooling time management.

Every Monday she sets her daily goals for the whole week. She then just gets on with it and, if she wants more time with the horses, she extends her hours for some of the days. This gives her extra free time.  She has now learnt a very valuable life skill.

When we are in town and away from the farm, she makes sure that she gets extra work done, so that she has more horse time on the farm. Murray John is the same… He often starts school at 5am, so that he can be finished by 9.30am, so that he can head off to the combine.  

I always encourage them to manage their individual time, as I don’t want them at school with nothing to do. To me this is one of the most valuable life skills. As I write this post it’s a Friday afternoon and both children are off around the farm. Paula Joy is training her ponies and Murray John is undoubtedly driving the combine or tractor.  They will return sometime around 5pm…

Homeschooling Friends.

The furry friends continue to be a passion for both our children. They even have them with them, whilst watching TV in the evenings. These small animals continue to bring much joy to everyone in our home.

Homeschooling Art.

With Easter and sailing school this month, art has taken a back seat. No doubt Paula will return to being creative in May. However, I would say that the time she spends training horses is an art form in itself.

Horses.

Polo started this month with ‘stick and balling’ on the farm field. Weekend family chukkas of two a side have now become fun and very competitive! Thankfully, we have a neighbour who also plays polo, so Richard sometimes joins in.

Murray John has three ponies to play chukkas, or ‘stick and ball’, on. He is keeping his ponies fit and is teaching them the Clinton Anderson fundamentals, -concentrating especially on his little Welsh pony ‘Monty’, who is always out to test him! Paula Joy spends every spare minute at the stables, training whatever pony she feels like riding.  

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She has her four polo ponies, however she also likes to work her father’s ponies, as and when she can.  Thanks to the Clinton Anderson’s fundamentals, all our ponies are improving, and soon Paula Joy will have the pick of the stable yard.

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Being able to spend time with the children, whilst helping Paula Joy grow as a horsewomen, is an absolute joy for me. The goal is for them both to become twice the horseman I am! The challenge of horsemanship is that you will never know it all, but it is always very enjoyable and an ever changing journey.

Homeschooling Sport.

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The usual sports were exchanged this month for water skiing on the dam and hours of sailing at sailing school. With the farm dams now being full, we are able to put the speed boat on the dam and help the children improve their water skiing skills. We can now pull both children, skiing together, behind the boat, which makes for much fun and entertainment.

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For the last five years we have taken the children to sailing school. They so enjoy their sailing and are getting very good at it and are both looking forward to more sailing this winter as well as get racing soon.

We shall now put their ‘Oppies’ on the farm dam, where they can keep practicing. As they are both competitive, they enjoy trying to beat each other. Sailing is a life skill which we believe our children will benefit from, and enjoy, for the rest of their lives.

April Adventures:

Farm Life.

Dalston Farm.

April is harvest time for the soya beans and planting time for the wheat. The tobacco crop is now in the shed and so the yard is quiet again, as the curing facilities are no longer operating. With the combine arriving towards the end of the month, the harvest began! Thanks to full dams, a wheat crop of 400ha will be planted this year.  

Murray John spends much of his free time moving from farm activity to farm activity, from fertilizing, planting and combining, to grain carting. He is now learning the flow of the harvest and what is required to get a crop off efficiently.

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Zimbabwe Economy.

Thankfully lockdown has ended and everyone is, more or less, able to get back to real life. With no public transport permitted, during the lockdown period, it was very difficult for rural people to move around. The roads are now busy and people seem more relaxed and less stressed. Thankfully, after a year of struggling, all the transport buses are back on the road.  

Environmental Awareness.

With the soya bean harvest comes a multitude of birds flying behind the combine.   The children love watching the herons catch and eat the fleeing frogs and mice. All the full dams have attracted many water birds and ducks, and we often see them waddling about in the newly germinated wheat fields.

God bless.

“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not unto me.” Colossians 3:23

Please leave your comments below…..

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