Update

Its pretty slow-going here!

You can see pictures of All About Spelling I took in a blog post down below.

Today we received "All About Reading" which is a fairly new program by the same person, teaching the Big 5 Skills. I got everything out of the box (yet to take a picture sorry! Hopefully will get this up soon) but can say...wow its beautiful! As with AAS, I got the whole she-bang, including the activity boxes to keep the cards in. I like that they are just cardboard boxes that are colour-coded to the program at hand, and honestly, I don't have the time to go searching out and about for a box that will fit the items! If you have a look at the site, check the cost, and if you have time search your local shops for stuff like the stickers, totes and index boxes, I am sure you could make it much cheaper this way. For me, with the amount of stuff we have for all 3 kids, its just nice that everthing looks the same!

We also got our Bible program and Oh Gosh is it just de-vine! I think the kids are going to love it. Its multi-sensory, even has puppets and DVDs. I'm awaiting our Veggietales Storybook (covers the main bible parts with Veggietales characters) and a cover that will hopefully fit the storybook, then I will take a photo of everything. If you want to have a sticky Beak right now, the Bible curriculum we are using is Read and Share Unit 1 & Unit 2.

We had to go out and purchase some things today, and thats when I realised DS's birthday is not that far away (bad mummy!) I purchased some party stuff from Spotlight, and found some character wrapping at Savers (our charity shop), so now all thats left is the pressie. We have decided to go with "commercial" toys for their birthdays, and educational supplies and handmade items for Xmas. They will each get one commercial toy for their birthday. DS has been pining after Ultimate Buzz Lightyear (with remote) for about a year now, and its halved in price, so I'm thinking of purchasing that, but will have to keep an eye on the finances. If it gets too hectic, he might not receive his pressie till after his birthday. DD's birthday is further away, but shes been pining for the same toy for about the same length of time as DS (and luckily hers has halved in price too! How lucky!) She wants the Dora on the Pegasus Horse that trots. As for other DD, well shes not upto speaking about what she wants, but am thinking perhaps we can find a wooden version of the baby centres (Bjorn or similar has a plastic one, the one with the bath, feeding chair, closet etc, but we are hoping to find a cheap wooden version as those pastic ones look really tacky and break easily) she certainly has enough dollies to use in it! lol.

When I went to spotlight, I went with a purpose in mind, I now have 30 sheets of felt, in different types, colours etc, 2 different types of thread and a new needle set. Combined with the felt merino tops, and wool I have here, I am hoping to make some amazing things! I also got some pink (is there any other colour) paint for the base of the "dollhouse" (an old bookcase I am converting) and some cheap wooden unpainted furniture (for things I felt I couldn't/didn't have time to make from scratch) these were things like sink & toilet, fridge, bed & bath. I am still thinking as to whether go a painted/floored interior OR cover the interior with felt, thus allowing changing of wall interior with smaller felt pieces.

I looked into getting some more items for our continent boxes, but the prices on "knick-knacks" were unbelievable. The proctactor (lol, dictator, king whatever) for indonesia on his little chair was $10, and a little elephant with the beaded attire was $13, suffice to say, I skipped over them, as I do have a strict budget for the total cost of our boxes.

I also have to get stuck into putting our Aussie curriculum on paper and cleaning up the house, so this weekend will be a full one, and I will merely be a ghost online!

See you on the other side!
xxx
Miss E.