Our Homeschooling Adventures and Activities for July-August 2024.

Homeschooling Adventures and Activities.

Homeschooling.

Our homeschooling activities and adventures for July and August started with a trip to South Africa, for a kids polo clinic, continued with weekend polo and then a trip to Victoria Falls. This meant that we had to carefully juggle our school work around our travelling.

This time of year always turns out to be extremely hectic, so we have to be very disciplined with our time and stick to realistic academic goals.

Each year I plan ahead, knowing that July and August are our busiest months.

Grandparents Visit.

My parents visited for half of July and into August. It was a very busy, yet wonderful time. I love the freedom of homeschooling, as the kids get to enjoy spending quality time with their grandparents.

Murray John has been given his grandfather’s electric train set. Pops and he had an amazing time laying out the tracks on a big board, in our Harare home. This was a very special time for them to be together and they were rewarded with the delight of soon seeing the trains running happily along their tracks.

This special family time always takes precedence over other activities, so Murray John’s academic goals were set aside for awhile.

Repairing Mallets.

Murray John loves to repair and make things with his power tools. Right now, he is scheduling his school day around his polo mallet repairs, as he has started his own polo mallet repair business.

Our homeschooling Adventures and Activities Polo mallet repair.

We encourage our kids to pursue their passions, whilst learning new skills. This means that, once they complete their high school education, they will have skills which are already earning them an income.

This will most certainly help them through their higher education. For us education does not start and end with classroom work.

Pony Demonstration.

Paula Joy’s passion is training horses. She has spent years training her pony Puncho to do all sorts of wonderful tricks and liberty work.

Paula Joy and Puncho are finally at the stage where they can do wonderful demonstrations of what can be achieved between a rider and her horse, using the correct training methods and horsemanship skills.

Paula Joy pursues this passion around her schoolwork, as she has learned how to successfully manage her time. Once again, she will have an amazing skill to take with her when she heads off to further her education, after high school.

Homeschooling Friends.

Alfred the Owl.

One day, whilst we were at the polo grounds, Paula Joy rescued a Spotted Eagle Owl who was caught by his wings, on a barbed wire fence. He was very dehydrated, hungry and weak, so Paula Joy quickly fed him sugar water from a syringe and then we took him home.

Paula Joy named him Alfred and spent the next week looking after him. Alfred became so tame and loved being fed and pampered by Paula Joy. Head scratching was soon his favourite pampering and he would often fall asleep on her lap.

Slowly Alfred became stronger, more friendly, and loved by all. Ten days later he was strong enough to flap his wings and hoot, so he was moved into the cricket net, where he had space to fly and talk to other farm owls.

our homeschooling adventures and activities Alfred the owl.

Once he could catch his own live food, we knew that he would survive on his own. Late one evening we released Alfred back into the wild. He happily flew away and perched on our rooftop.

He is now living in one of the big trees in our garden and we can see and hear him hooting every evening. The Alfred Adventure turned out to be an amazing experience for Paula Joy.

Horses.

South African Kids Polo Clinic.

I took Paula Joy and Murray John to South Africa, to attend the annual SA kids’ polo clinic, where they made new friends, whilst learning and improving their Polo skills. It ended up as having been a busy, yet fun week in the beautiful Natal Midlands. I am very pleased that we had made the effort to go!

Sick Pony.

Puncho, Paula Joy’s pony, contracted African Horse Sickness (AHS). As this is a very serious disease, we had to camp down at the stables for a few long nights, whilst treating the pony every few hours.

Finally, by the third day, Puncho was much better and we were able to return home for a decent night’s sleep! We are so thankful that Puncho pulled through, as AHS is often fatal.

Polo Tournaments.

We had two polo tournaments in July and one at the end of August. The kids practiced and played extremely well in all their tournaments. Douglas and Murray John won the B division at the Carnival Cup and Murray John also won the MVP (most valuable player) award.

The highlight of August was watching Douglas, Paula Joy, Murray John, plus our friend Chris, winning the Junior Open two goal Tournament. This was their biggest tournament and one everyone wants to win, so they ended the weekend on a high!

Our homeschooling adventures and activities Polo tournament winners.

Both kids polo has improved immensely through the season and their handicaps have gone up to zero, which means that they have both reached this year’s polo goals.

The season ends in mid September, after which the horses will have time out to rest.

Homeschooling Sports.

Golf.

The kids managed to play golf occasionally, during July and August. However, they enjoyed three days of golf in Victoria Falls, when we travelled there for my mother’s 80th birthday celebration.

Homeschooling Adventures.

Farm Life.

Winter Crops.

The winter wheat crop continued to grow throughout July and August. The challenge was our on/off electricity supply, as we experienced daily load shedding. This is the time when we really need to pump a lot of water onto the crop.

Our Homeschooling Adventures and Activities wheat irrigation.

The farm continues to be busy with banana reaping, tobacco seed bed planting and tobacco sales.

Farm Fires.

The biggest concern on the farm, during the months of July and August, are the bushfires that normally start on neighbouring farms. These fires move at a rapid speed, due to high winds and very dry bush grass.

We are often out late at night fighting fires, in order to prevent the fires from burning buildings and crops. This is always an extremely stressful time on the farm.

Travel.

Victoria Falls.

In the middle of August we travelled to Victoria Falls, to join up with other family members and friends, in order to celebrate my mother’s 80th birthday. It was a hectic 6-day round trip, with many long hours spent driving to and from Victoria Falls.

However, the three days we spent in Victoria Falls was an awesome time, spent with special friends and family. The kids got to experience a Zambezi Gorge Swing, as well as to play golf and enjoy time with their cousins.