Ashleigh Whaley
January Adventures and Activities.
January Activities:
Homeschooling.
Back to School for 2022.
School began on the 3rd January, as we like to get an early start… This means that we can take a break in late February or early March.
The children had a wonderful 6 week break over the festive season and are now fresh and ready to tackle another year of school.
Yearly Goals Set.
We always begin by writing up our 2022 yearly goals. Sadly, none of our dream travel goals for 2021 were reached. Hopefully, this year we may have a chance to travel outside of Zimbabwe.
The sporting goals were written up, with the hope being that Covid restrictions would not disturb our sports calendar, as much as it has over the past two years. We have planned for the best outcome and shall see what happens..
Mum’s Health.
I am still struggling with my health. However, I have improved enough to manage a full morning in the school room. I am slowly catching up with all the work I couldn’t achieve over the past 6 months and, with constant prayer, I hope to be 100% soon.
Farm Store.
The children helped me move our farm store into a little shop closer to the farm. It’s a business we run together, with the end goal being that the children will eventually take over all aspects of managing the farm store.
This will be a fun and easy way for them to learn how to trade in goods.
Gardening at the town house.
Thanks to the wonderful rains this month, we had an opportunity to tidy up the town house garden. The children have really enjoyed renovating all the garden ponds.
They also loved helping with the thinning out of the many overgrown plants. We have certainly been busy, and slowly the garden is starting to look more organised and not so much of an overgrown jungle.
Enjoy reading my last post here: Be Smart! Train Your Child to have an Attitude of Gratitude.
Homeschooling Friends.
The kittens have learnt to travel to and from the town house, as we travel into Harare each week for sport.
They love being around us, so are usually with the children in the school room, sleeping on their office desks. They really are a wonderful addition to the family.
Homeschooling Art.
Cricket bat repair.
Repairing second hand cricket bats has become another enjoyable task for the children. They like to have older bats to play with on the farm, so they buy old bats and repair them. We shall show you the finish products at a later date.
Motorbike service.
Murray John continues to learn how to service and maintain the motorbikes. Each week he spends hours in the workshop making sure the bikes are running well. One way to get rid of all his energy at school, is to send him to the workshop during tea break.
Horses.
January was a very wet month with loads of rain on the farm. Not much horse riding was achieved, except for a bit of bareback riding fun.
The children continue to check on the horses each morning, before school begins, and then again in the afternoons. They are learning how to manage the horses in wet conditions. With African horse sickness a real threat at this time of the year, we need to keep a close eye on every horse.
Improving their stable management became the goal for January, as well as sorting out broken tack and polo mallets. Once the rains are over, the horses will all be put back into work, and training will begin for the new polo season.
Homeschooling Sport.
We managed to get back into cricket and golf this month.
The cricket academy opened early in the month, so the children have had a number of weeks of net practice and a couple of fun matches. With daily cricket practice on the farm, the children are really enjoying getting back into this sport.
January Adventures:
Farm Life.
Dams are filling up!
January was a very wet month, which resulted in all the small farm dams filling up. It’s wonderful to have full dams again, even if the rest of the farm is rather wet and muddy.
The big farm dam will hopefully also fill and spill this year, which would be the first time in a number of years.
Summer crops.
As the farm is very wet at the moment, it makes for challenging tobacco and soya bean farming. The bananas, however, seem rather happy.
Now that the irrigated tobacco crop is reaped and cured, this has taken some of the pressure off our farm managers.
Motorbike fun.
With all the wet around, there is nothing more fun than the children going on long motorbike rides around the lands. This keeps them entertained most afternoons.
Zimbabwe Economy.
Zimbabwe inflation continues to climb daily. Due to a lack of organised road maintenance, some roads have deteriorate at a fast rate. Pot holes have now become the norm! It takes us an extra half an hour to negotiate the roads into Harare, which is very frustrating for everyone. Who knows when the roads will be repaired!?
Environmental Awareness.
The rains and full dams have brought many ducks and geese back to the farm. We so enjoy having this abundant bird life around the farm.
We are very thankful for the good rains, despite the other problems it brings. Hopefully, February will be a bit drier, so that we can get the boat out onto the dams and do some water sports.
God bless you all…!
“You can make many plans, but the LORD’S purpose will prevail.” Proverbs 19:21
Please leave your comments below…
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