I found some ice in a yellow big bowl that had lots of ice in it. We took the ice out and it looked so pretty so we took a picture of it.

Poem

Ice is lovely and cold
Ice skating on the river that froze in Ran-Roo
Like a skating rink with a machine that makes ice
It's rather a blade and it's rather a crice
Then the ice freezes on the lakes
You can skate and bake at the same time
And while you bake and skate, rhyme a poem with flowers
And the birds are singing.

Antonia's latest poem

A poem about spring in December. I can really relate to that feeling, after about three weeks without any sunlight.

The Spring is Falling

The birds are singing,
The sky is bright,
Blue is falling
In the light.

The trees are blooming,
The flowers are blossoming,
The birds are singing in dozens.

The butterflies are fluttering,
Getting nectar.
It is very beautiful.
The butterflies sing,
The birds are tweeting
And parading with the bees.

Spider

This is a spider I saw in a maze and I think that it's there because right after the spider there's a dead path. So then we have to go back again.

Spider poem

Little spider make their webs,
On the chairs and on their heads,
When it rains it gets all wet,
Spiders webs are damp and set.

Marbled White Butterfly / Demi-deuil

I was eating and I looked behind me and there was a white dotted butterfly, and I ate my dinner and when I was finished I was looking at it. So Mummy took a picture for my blog. When I was finished looking at it, I had some chocolate. I had a nice day at my house, but I'm also going to go to my dance class, and I would like to go to the park this afternoon.

This is a poem:

Butterflies everywhere and touch,
When they're dead you can't unbotch,
But when they're so high up you can't touch them,
Just because you're not up.

But how would you touch them?
You can't because they're wings are so delicate but that's a storm,
And now I think all my singing is finished now,
Goodbye-ing-ing.

Nigella damascena

I found a Nigella damascena in my garden, and they are quite rare in my garden, so I didn't pick it. I took a photo of it instead and put it on my blog because I thought it was a better thing. And then it wouldn't be destroyed. I never saw a Nigella but now I've seen one and I think it is beautiful. I didn't pick it because if I did there would be none in my garden and they are already very pretty. I like the purple colour, it will be always there if I didn't destroy it or pick it. I was having a good afternoon, but I was doing not really anything. We were going to go down to the mailbox but I changed my mind for some reason.

Water

This is a picture that I took, and if you get a bit close, it looks pretty, so I will keep it. It's a picture of water that has lots of things reflecting in it, and it looks like our Earth. I spent my afternoon in the park, and I just had my snack, and was taking some pictures. I was cooling my feet down in the nice water, but I couldn't bathe in it because there were too many signs saying No, and if I did the police would come and get me. I was pretending I was the willow fairy, and I was also pretending that I ate lots of coral and grass, but I usually pretended the grass was coral because it looked like coral. It looked like coral because in the sea I found some coral that is green and red, but I usually pretend with grass because it's not so smelly.

A poem about water

When the water comes to green,
It usually means that it's smelly.
And if you see anything green:
There's parks and dishes and paint that's green,
Leaves could be green also, and crowns and scoopers,
Diving in the pool.
Some are also fishing,
With a licence like a ring

Fossil

Mummy and me went to look for fossils. Daddy didn't come because he really didn't want to and he had work to do. So Mummy and I went together. We took some hammers and a strong basket and we found this and we played with it until now. And we found lots of pretty things.

A poem about fossil hunting

I went fossil hunting,
And I found fossils.
It was very hard,
The dust got in my nostrils!

But I found it anyway,
With a bit of nice speed.
I had a gouter there,
And went back to the house.

Trip to Parc Walibi

Well I was going to go to the fair and when we got there we saw a wallaby and the wallaby looked like a kangaroo. There was a man dressed in the costume of a wallaby and I got to shake his hand. And then we went to see all the fun rides in the fair.

We first got to the ferris wheel. We went on the ferris wheel and we went up about 7 times. Then we went to a walibiland train and I saw lots of wallabies, of course they did not say anything. There were wallabies with ice cream stands, some wallabies making a picnic, some little wallabies at a school. Then I think I went on it another time by myself, because the first time I went with Mummy.

Then we went on some boats that bumped and splashed us, and then we went on a nice soft ride where we didn't get bumped or even splashed. And then we went on the splash and bump one again and then again and again.

And then we went on a roller coaster called La Coccinelle and then we went on a Mexican Hat roundabout. They were my favourite rides. And then we went on a wallaby thing where we sit in a wallaby, and then they turn and turn and turn.

And then we saw a seal show and the farm and we also saw the circus, with a queen and acrobats, and lots of amazing things in the circus.

Ant fighting grasshopper

Poem

Poor little grasshopper
You have an ant
That's trying to kill you
To eat you up

I tried to save you
But I could not
The ant was holding onto you
So tightly
I tried it lots of times
But it was not possible.

Buttercups

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I found this buttercup growing somewhere, but there was something amazing about it. We could just see the stigma and the stamens and I was really excited. We can see the pollen. When the bees come they have to go to find the nectar, and the flower brushed their tummy. They took the pollen on their tummy to another flower. They put in on the stigma.


Then I found another one. In it we could see the stamens and stigma also, but the stigma was even bigger than before.


And then I found one with the stigma even bigger. The stigma was changing and the stamens too. This time the stamens were very flat against the petals. They didn't have any pollen.


And then I saw another one, but this time all the petals and stamens were really dropping off. The plant dropped its petals because it was finished with the nectaring and the honey. All we saw was a big fat stigma that changed itself into a case. Inside there are seeds my Mummy said. And I said Oh!.

Poem about buttercups

Hey diddle buttercup
What do you do
When your petals go off with you
I'll catch the petals and put them back on
With a little bit of tape
And some help from my Mum

And I'll put you in a bit of water
With some little bits of swater
And I'll dump a little bit of water on you
And you'll grow to the sky

the end

Another poem about buttercups

I love you, oh buttercup,
I love you so much,
Because you look like a ball.
And I like you some more,
Because you make butter,
Cos you're called buttercup,
And that's why.

And I like buttercups,
And I'm a buttercup fairy,
So I pollinate you,
With a brush,
I'm a fairy.

Gendarmes

.I like these beetles because they're red and black. I saw two of them stuck together. The daddy one was putting sperm into the mummy. She will make some eggs. I like the black dots and they are in red, those kind are my favorite colours of beetles. These are called Gendarmes. I like to pick them up and give them kisses. They do nothing to me but tickle me and I laugh. When they're making babies they're stuck together. I once frightened some apart and then they couldn't make babies any more. These ones were running when I put a shadow on them. One was going forwards and the other was going backwards.

A poem about Gendarmes

Hey little beetles, do you know,
When I pick you up,
I scare you to your toes.
And when you shiver,
I give you a kiss.
But I know you don't like that,
So I don't any more.

Hey little beetles, what do you think,
When I pick you up and blink?
I think you're beautiful,
And I took your picture,
And that's why I think you're beeeeauuutiful!

Mathematical thinking

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Here is a piece of mathematical thinking entirely invented by Antonia. It is sort of a mixture of sets and addition. She is still a bit confused about the difference between writing down two numbers next to each other and two numbers with a plus sign stuck between them. Hence we eventually got from "4 5; that makes forty-five" to "4+5=9". Antonia explains as follows:

The blue line is where the ones are that have tiny dots and we're trying to find out which is which. The red line goes around the ones that have green crosses. There are five of those. Then there's four inside the blue line.

Spring Series Watercolours

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Spring Series 5


Spring Series 4

Spring Series 3

Spring Series 2

Grasshoppers

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I was going on a walk, and when I was going home I found a black and white grasshopper. My Daddy took a photo of what I found. I like grasshoppers because they are such a beautiful colour and because they go onto flowers and leaves.

Here is a song for this grasshopper:

I like grasshoppers,
And what do they do?
When they jump up ,
And into a stew.
And then they'll hop out,
And they'll go away,
And never come back,
But hop home today.


When I was sitting somewhere I saw two green grasshoppers and I took one photo and then I'll tell you why I liked that: it's because it's got a beautiful colour of a leaf and it jumps leaves and goes on sticks and everywhere, and they skip and eat leaves.

Here is a poem about this grasshopper:

Oh little grasshopper,
What shall you do,
I'll play and skip in the leaves beneath your shoe,
And I'll skip everywhere and on to you!

The Zoo

Antonia's account of her trip to the zoo, which was frankly more of an interview than a narration. In fact this is the heavily edited version, though admittedly mostly edited by her.

We were going to the zoo and I was asking Mummy if it was far, and she said 'not very' but actually I thought it was far. I got tired of waiting. I wished that we were there to the zoo . We got on the motorway and Daddy said we're nearly there, we just have to cross two rivers, and then we start going up. When we got there, we saw lots and lots of animals. We saw such a lot of animals, but before that we got a ticket on ourselves and so then we went to see how much animals there were. We saw ostriches, lions and even goats that we could pet when we were close to going. And we had some picnic, and I climbed on big things and even on super duper roundabouts. And then, after lunch we went to see some more animals: we saw horses, camels, even monkeys, cows. Well, I saw lots of big bears: white, black and brown and I also saw a white wolf, I shouldn't forget it. And my feet hurt very badly.

Do you think animals like being in a zoo?

Yes, because it keeps their babies (a reference to the endangered species breeding program). But when we were leaving the zoo, Mummy told me about an accident. Somebody wanted to give some food to the animals and the baby wanted to get the food but instead of getting the food the baby fell in the water, and the mummy tried to come and rescue it but the baby drowned and the Mummy drowned to. So that was very sad (substantially true story of a sad accident involving one of the primate species at this zoo). And then we went home, had our supper, watched something, and now I'm telling a story to my Mummy.

What was your favorite animal?

My favourite animal was all the animals in the zoo.

You didn't think one was more interesting than the other?

Well, I thought they were all very interesing. The most interesting thing about them was.... I liked when, what were they called, those ones that had little hands like us..

Monkeys?

Yes. I loved how their cute little faces were. They are nice.

Boucle d'Or et les Trois Ours

D’après la version de L. Leslie Brooke, traduite en français. Narration orale non corrigée.

Il y avait trois ours, un était grosse, et une était moyenne, et l'autre était tout minuscule. Ils ont fait du soupe, et leur soupe était trop chaud. Et quand ils allaient pour marcher, une petite fille s'appelait Boucle d'Or est rentrée dans leur maison, et a regardé à la soupe du grand grand ours et après le bol du moyen ours, et après le bol du petit ours. Et le petit ours c'était ni chaud et ni froid. Et elle s'assied mais elle a cassé la chaise. Mais après elle a allé voir les lits de les ours. Elle s'est couchée dedans le lit du grand ours, et elle trouvait trop haut, et alors elle allée dedans le lit du moyen ours et c'était trop bas, et à la fin elle allé dedans le lit du petit ours et c'était ni trop haut ni top bas. Elle s'est couchée. Quand les trois ours ont revenu à la maison, et le grand ours a dit de sa grand voix, quelqu'un a prendu un peu de mon soupe. Le moyen ours a dit: quelqu'un a prendu un peu de mon soupe. Et la petit ours a dit quelqu'un a mangé mon soupe et aussi a cassé ma chaise. Et alors les trois ours ont décidé d'aller en haut et voir leur chambre. Quelqu’un a dormi dedans mon lit dit le gros ours. Quelqu'un a dormi dedans mon lit dit le moyen ours. Quelqu’un a dormi dedans mon chambre dit la petit ours et elle est encore là. Et tous regarder et Boucle d'Or a rêvé et elle a ouvrit ses yeux et elle a vu les ours. Et elle avait tellement peur que elle du aller dedans sa chambre et elle ne jamais a revenu à les ours encore.

Caterpillar

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Here is a long poem about a caterpillar:

Hey little caterpillar
What do you do?
I am doing slurping in the sand.

Hey little caterpillar
What do you see?
My prickles in my ears and my eyes in the tea.

Hey little caterpillar
Do you see
Something in the bushes by the sea?

I see a dragon
With fo-our eyes
And lots of noses and toungues
Lots of dragons
In some plums

And that is the end,
Because I'm running out of ryhmes to spend.
And now I think that I'll say goodbye

The Story of Joseph

Hold your hats, everyone, because this is Antonia's first recorded narration, the story of Joseph. I must say that of all the little experiments we have done with homeschool methods, this is the one that has impressed me the most.

If you happened on this page looking for the biblical story of Joseph, what you will find below is a very young child's retelling of the story, so it differs from the orthodox version in a few small respects. For example, she clearly didn't understand all the agricultural references and made substitutions of her own. The technique of narration doesn't call for me to correct that, but to note the gap, and look for opportunities to fill it. You can find out more about using narration in homeschools here. The 'original' for this narration is here, The Wonder Book of Bible Stories.

I was very interested in Antonia's reconstruction of all the conversational passages, which follow the storyline accurately, but are otherwise mostly entirely reinvented. She can obviously keep track of what a large number of characters do and don't know, and how information gets transferred from one to the other (see Pharoah explaining to Joseph why he is no longer in prison). On the other hand, these transactions between her characters seem to need to be guaranteed with large amounts of conversation. I also still think her understanding of cause and effect is a little shaky. I get the impression that if I asked, for example, why the brothers killed a sheep in the first part of the story, she wouldn't be able to answer, or at the very least, I would have to nudge her into making all the connections.

The story of Joseph, by Antonia

Joseph and the wonderful coat.

Once there was a boy called Joseph. Joseph's brothers hated him so much because he told them, "we were getting some bread, and my bit of bread stood up, and yours bent down to me". And then another time, he told them, "the sun, and the moon and eleven stars were all bowing down me", and his father told him to stop doing such dreams. But he thought anyway that he liked Joseph. Joseph's brothers were on a mountain, and his father told him to go and look for them. So he did. But when he came to where he thought they were, they were gone, so he asked an old man if he knew where his brothers went. The old man said they were not there, but at another place, which he told him about. So Joseph went there, and his brothers saw him coming towards them, so they let him come up, Then one of them had an idea to make him dead, but the other said, "no, lets not". Then, the brothers put Joseph into a deep, deep hole and he was struggling and wriggling. And then one brother saw some men going to Egypt and said, "let's sell him to those men". The men gave the brothers some gold and then took Joseph away with them. Then the brothers killed one of the sheep and said to the father, "isn't this your sons coat?". And the father said, "Yes, my son has been eaten by a wild animal", and then he cried for a very, very, very long time.

The dreams of a king

When they sold him, the merchants took him with them, and then they took him to Egypt. When they got to Egypt somebody became in love with Joseph. He was sent out to prison because he didn't marry the one that was in love with him. In prison, he met two men and they were looking awfully sad, and he said, "what's wrong?" And they said, "we had some dreams this night, and nobody has been able to explain them to us". "Maybe I can tell them", said Joseph, so he did, and he told one man something that was great, and one something that was bad. He told them that one would be put in his job again giving wine to the king, and one would be hung up for the birds to eat. It was true. The king also had a dream that night, actually two dreams, and then he told them to all the men. But, one of them remembered a man that told him what his dreams were. So he told the King, "I think I know somebody that will tell your dreams, that told us what our dreams meant". Then the king told some people to unlock Joseph. They unlocked him and then the King said, "do you know what my dreams can tell me? Because somebody had told me that you had the power to know what dreams mean". "That's not me that guesses, that's God", said Joseph. In one dream he had some cows and some other cows, and the other cows got out of the lake and ate the fat cows, and then he told him his other dream. There was seven fat faces and seven thin faces and the thin faces ate the fat faces and that's how it was. They mean the same thing, there's seven good years, and seven poor years. Seven good years they'll have to pick some things to eat, and in the seven bad years they'll have to eat that food. And then the King said, "I'll make you ruler of Egypt, but I'll be the one that's above you".

The story of the money in the sacks

Joseph became ruler of Egypt and he got on with his job, he went around Egypt and told people to give grains to him for the King. So then Joseph got married to a person and then there were the good days, and then the bad days. When his brothers came for food, there weren't any horses, so they rode on something else, and when they got to Egypt they didn't recognise Joseph. And then Joseph talked like he was a stranger. He said, "no, you're spies". But the ten brothers said, "no, we came here to buy some food". "Where do you come from?" "The land of Canaan", they said. "How old is your father?", Joseph said. "Our father is old". And Joseph said again, "do you have another brother"? And they said, "yes but he's lost, and there is one little one at home". "I'll put you all in prison, but one of you, and the one of you will have to get the brother, then I'll believe you".

When he heard that they were very sorry for putting him in the hole, he spoke in the same voice and said, "I will let you all go back, but one of you. And you can get yourselves something to eat, but I won't let one of you go". Then when they were going back to Joseph's father, one of them opened his bag and saw the money right on the top of the grain. Then they told all that happened to Joseph's father, and that they dared never go back to the ruler of Egypt again, but to go and get the one who stayed in prison. When they told Jacob all about it, they said, "we need Benjamin". "You're not going to have Benjamin are you?", said Joseph's father. "But we need him. The ruler of Egypt says we can't go without him. You can kill these two brothers if you give us Benjamin". But Jacob said no.

The mystery of the lost brother.

Well, then Jacob said, "if you have to, you have to, take Benjamin with you and give some spicy sauce and perfume to the ruler of Egypt". The ten brothers said, "we promise we'll take great care of Benjamin". So then they went to Egypt again, and then bowed respectfully like before and then he took them into his house and the ten brothers thought: they're doing this because they think we stole the money. But he treated them kindly and then his servants washed their feet. Next morning, he opened the door to come and see them, and they bowed the same way respectfully with their eyes on the ground. Joseph had some tears and he wiped them off in his bedroom, then he washed his face, and then he told his men to set the table and they gave them some seats and especially a good seat for Benjamin, so they ate. Then Joseph told his men to put his silver cup inside Benjamin's sack and the money. And when they were gone he told them, "follow those men, they have stolen my golden cup that I drink in". And the servant did, and he told them, "why have you stolen the golden cup of the ruler of Egypt". "We didnt' steal anything", they said, "just look in our bags, you can kill one of us that stole it". He looked in every bag, but when he looked in Benjamin's, there was the cup. So they came back to Joseph's palace. Joseph said crossly, "why did you get my cup?". "We're quite sorry". He said, "I'll take one of you for a servant, the one that got my cup". "But my father needs Benjamin". "So then, who stole the cup", Joseph said. "Benjamin did". "So then your father can't see him". "But if not he'll die of sadness. If one of us can bring Benjamin back, one of us will stay to be the slave".

Joseph thought that they wanted to be much nicer. He said, "I am Joseph, the one that you put in the hole", and after he said those words, they were frightened. And then Joseph said in a much nicer voice, "go get my father, so that we can live in Egypt". So they went home much happier than ever and they got some little wagons so that his brothers and little ones could go to Egypt. Jacob and all his family went to Egypt and lived happily ever after.