Ashleigh Whaley
Sept-Oct Activities.
Homeschooling.
A school break – to go fishing!
Our homeschooling activities and adventures continued through September and October. Starting with what the kids love most… A two week break from schoolwork, to go on a fishing adventure.
Our annual fishing and camping trip to Chewore on the Zambezi River is definitely the children’s favourite school break.
Saturday school.
As the polo season has come to an end, we now do a half day of school on a Saturday, just to keep our school goals on track.
New school desks.
I love how our school office has changed over the years. As the children grow, they need to swap their small desks for bigger desks, so we made time to rearranging the farm school office. Now we all have new spacious desks.
Homeschooling Friends.
Furry Friends.
The guinea pigs are still wonderful companions for the children and they love them dearly. Fuzz had his annual pre-summer shave, to help him cope with the higher temperatures.
Paula Joy acquired a new rescue kitten called ‘Muffin’, who is just the friendliest kitten and loves being around people. She was rescued from the industrial sites in Harare and loves being pampered.
Horses.
The polo season ended with a fun kids verses adults polo tournament. The four youngsters at our club challenged the adults to a two day tournament. It turned out to be a fantastic match to watch!
The adults did have to give the youngsters 5 extra goals, due to the differences in handicaps yet, in the end, the adults won by 2 goals. It was amazing to see how much the kids have improved over the season and was a wonderful end to what had been a very successful season.
September is pony rest time.
At the end of the polo season, all the playing ponies need rest time, whilst the young ponies start coming into work. This means that it’s also time to spring clean all the tack and wash the winter blankets.
Show horses are prepared.
With two horse shows coming up at the end of November, the children needed to spend time schooling and jumping the ponies chosen for the shows. They both had four ponies to school and train.
October rain storm!
The first Summer rains descended with force and very high winds! The feed and tack rooms roofs both flew off, resulting in soaked tack, which was not a pretty sight at all! Rather devastating in fact, as everything had just been cleaned.
We had to spend a week cleaning up the mess and repairing both buildings.
Homeschooling Sport.
Cricket.
The cricket academy league began in September. The children had 6 weeks of matches, all played on Sundays. They both played in the Under 15 age group team and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
They both battered, bowled and on occasion kept wicket. Paula Joy was often captain and she was awarded player of the match, on one occasion. It was wonderful to see the whole team improve over the weeks.
Sept-Oct Adventures.
Farm Life.
Tobacco Planting and Combining.
September is tobacco planting time, followed by the wheat harvest. It is a super busy time on the farm, so Murray John, who loves farm action, spent many hours in the combine harvester.
Rain Damage.
The massive first rain storm in October did some damage to the banana plantation. Fortunately, the tobacco crop was small enough to survive, with only minor wind damage.
Farm Camping.
Weekend camping at the stables is what the children both love. Whenever they are on the farm, they thoroughly enjoy the freedom of camping in the bush on their own.
Travel.
Our annual camping and fishing trip to Chewore, on the Zambezi River, is always an amazing adventure and gives us wonderful family time. This year was very eventful, with lots of elephants in camp, some boat engine troubles and roaring lions!
You can read more about this holiday in its post; ‘Camping and Fishing in the Wilds of Africa.’
As a family we continue to pray for peace in Israel and the Middle East.
My heart rejoices in the LORD. There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides You; there is no Rock like our God. 1 Samuel 2 vs 1-2
Please leave your comment below…
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