November 18, 2009

House is on it's way

So there where more hiccups and more solutions and everything is done, short of signing the loan contracts. We will be moving house before christmas with any sort of luck, the kids will have a wonderful christmas at our new house. We will be thrilled and everything will fall into place.

Going to adelaide for the National Joyous Birth festival on the weekend. Staying for 10 days with my sister and taking the sproglets to the Monarto Zoo.

What a wonderful thing to do, sorta dreading the plane trips tho.

Heading To Adelaide

So as the title says we are heading to Adelaide for a 10 day holiday on Friday morning, We will be staying with my sister, meeting lots of new people and visiting the Monarto Zoo, that is all I have planned for now!
I am sure there will be loads more to do.

We will be moving house sometime between coming back from adelaide (on the 30th november) and christmas. Hopefully sooner rather than later!
I will see you all on the other side of our holiday.

November 6, 2009

Bout time

Well I guess I better up date here, and while JB is down what better time to do it?

We are in the process of doing 6 different things that are required for us to get a homeloan/investment loan approval by the bank so we can have our cake and eat it too... well until we figure out if it will just all work out or if it will all be too much for us LOL.

Unfortunately a requirment of the bank is that we have a signed tenancy agreement to get our loan, how do you let out a house that you are living in? and how do you make a date to let out the house if you don't know when you will be moving out of it, because that is based on when the settlement take splace and the settlement can't take place until the loan is approved and financed!

Then we need a completion certificate for the house we are in to complete the reno's which need more work done to them than we originally thought needed to be done so that is in the process of being done too!!

The house is on the market to sell but we can only get the loan based on rental income, so finding someone willing to rent a house that is on the market might be interesting.

Um that'll do for now provided everything goes to plan we will be in the new house before xmas and we will have a tennent here to help us out too :)

It is official

Well we are officially home schoolers... I got my letter the other day from the premier!

I have a card and all :)

So we are official and it has given me the kick in the butt that I needed to start documenting things better (I hope)
So shortly I will be doing a post on what we have been up to over the last little while. There is some Beltane celebration, some hockey, and just general bits and pieces that should be said with a few photo's thrown in for good measure.

Hopefully I will get more on track once our lives settle down after the massive xmas and new year break. Moving house and all that Jazz... if it all works out :)

August 5, 2009

On the way

We have purchased a new printer to assist in our schooling activities. It is a multifunction centre so our first activity was to photo copy our hands :)

Ishtar has a poster about sharks to put together, we are slowly becoming more organised to do things. I have been given a catalogue of learning materials from my sisters. There is some nice things in it and I will go through it more thoroughly with Kurt when he gets home, anything I purchase will help raise money for the school my nephews attend, added bonus???

My little boy loves putting his train set together in all manner of ways and loves playing with his sisters lego.

Ishtar on the other hand just wants to be away from her brother day and night.

gotta go bub waking up

July 19, 2009

Moving Along

Well, this post has been a long time coming. on the 2nd of June I gave birth to my 3rd child, a beautiful girl, we named her Jezara Bethany. Since then life has been very hectic, we have renovations being organised, started and hopefully in the not to distant future finalised. I have arranged for the carpet layers to come in tomorrow and give me an exact quote so we can book in the day for them to come and do the work, that will leave only a few small jobs in the house for me to finish to complete the interior. Then we have a clean up and the job of getting the exterior cladders to come and finish up outside. After those are complete the house will be on the market within a few weeks and hopefully sold very soon after that.

As for schooling well we are not doing alot in that direction at the moment, I am trying to establish my ability to parent 3 children without involving any type of schooling structure first. We have written a few small stories, are taking part in the premiers reading challenge, and are trying to arrange an excursion to somewhere other than the local park! We are part way through a small project on sharks thanks to my sister who helped provide the books and inspiration to Ishtar for the project.

We are slowly allowing some use of the internet but we are limiting that resource because we find that if she starts using the internet that is all she wants to do! I am finding it a struggle to keep Konrad entertained so that Ishtar has some time to herself, while also juggling a 6 week old baby, but it is a learning curve for all of us, and we never expected it to be an easy one. What is easier, is not having to get up early being sleep deprived to get Ishtar up and ready for school, only to have it raining so we all have to pile into the car, go to the school to find no parking spaces, get everyone out, go into the school in the rain, take Ishtar to class, return to the car in the rain, put everyone in again. Drive home, get everyone out, upsetting Konrad because we didn't go anywhere, get everyone inside while Konrad cries about the "broom broom", only to do it all again at 3 oclock and hope it isn't still raining then!

I am yet to get an appointment to review my registration acceptance and am dreading that coming because of how busy everything is, we have barely anything kept to show, have as yet no photo's of trips out and the organisation of those things I am finding really hard. Alot of our plans where based on having a substantial property to work on and gardens to establish, which is not coming anytime soon. although I hope it will be before xmas.

better go it is getting dark and dinner has not even been thought about.

May 30, 2009

And so IT BEGINS

Well we have officially finished public education. Now we start on a deprogramming journey for a while and the start of our homeschooling journey too. I guess they are one in the same really.

Everyone seems to be asking me about the structure of things and if I have a daily schedule. My sister seems to think that it is more expensive to home school because you HAVE to buy all the texts and programs that schools use.

I am not sure how I will cope with all their issues but I can only try can't I :)

May 4, 2009

It's Done

Ok, so no turning back now... not that I want to :)

Put the paper work in today it goes before the council on wednesday, if they are happy with it I will know soon, if they are not happy with it, it will go to the meeting on the 22nd of this month. So either way I should know before we actually plan to start our journey on the 1st June.

It might all fall in very close with baby being born, Ishtar's 7th birthday, moving house and completing renovations/selling house. But that just means the start will be the hardest part :)

I am eager to take on this challenge and try my hardest to reconnect with my little girl who seems so distant from me at the moment.

She is looking forward to the journey but continues to make sure that going to 'School" is still an option for her if she doesn't like home school. I am trying to reassure her, and finding it hard to explain that it will be very different but she just need to try it before she will know whether it is right for her and right for me.

We have been having a few topsy turby moments recently and things get a bit out of hand. I think my over emotional pregnant side is not helping matters and the fact that so much is going on in our lives right now is not doing her all that well either. She is struggling to understand some things and has a tendancy to lie to us if she thinks she will not be taken seriously in her thoughts. I am struggling to get her to understand that we are here to listen and keep her feeling strong and secure and that although we do pass over some things it is not because we don't think they are important it is because other things are more important at the moment.

When ultimately Ishtar's comfort in matters and understanding of them is what should be the most important thing to us it seems to get put behind because of the stress involved in all the other things that are going on!

Argh, I have to have this talk with her again and include her father but it will just be dismissed again or she will start talking about little things that are worrying her. I need to find a way to reassure her that all those 'silly' little things are not something she needs to be concerned about. Without dismissing them as unimportant.

April 30, 2009

Registration Letter

Outline of Proposed Program – ISHTAR LINTNER
Aims and Purposes of the Proposed Education Program.
We believe that Home Schooling Ishtar is the best option for our family to maintain a trusting and healthy relationship with each other. We are of the opinion that we are better equipped to maintain a stimulating environment for our daughter to learn things appropriate to her age and skill levels. Home educating Ishtar will give her more opportunity to learn using tools that interest her, in a more stable one on one environment.

General Outline of the Proposed Program.

Given that a lot of Ishtar’s learning will take place informally, we are not planning to adhere to a precise timetable and intend to be flexible in order to take advantage of learning opportunities as they occur. This will also help to give Kurt an opportunity to play a more substantial role in Ishtar’s learning experience. We have come to the belief that the best approach for Ishtar is to follow her lead in learning, by using her interests as a basis to any structured learning. Our entire family will be involved in Ishtar’s learning experiences, focusing on her reading, writing, mathematics and sciences.

Planning and Research Undertaken to Prepare for Home Schooling
As the main care giver for Ishtar, I have put a lot of thought and research into our homeschooling options over the last year. I have considered Steiner, Charlotte Mason, Montessori, unit studies and unschooling. I have looked at the Tasmanian school curriculums, as Ishtar has been enrolled at West Launceston Primary School for 2 years and 1 term. We are planning to start our journey at the beginning of term 2 this year. I have had many discussions with other home schooling parents both locally and nationally, via internet forums and in person. On a practical level we have been doing ‘home readers’ with Ishtar for 2 years through her primary school, and she has shown interest in doing printed out word puzzles and mathematics based games.

Literacy Skills Development
As Ishtar has already started literacy development from her time in the public school system, she is doing very well and enjoys reading, writing and learning how to spell. We plan to continue her learning in this area via the use of daily reading, writing projects relating to day to day tasks, story writing, weekly journal writing and spelling using word lists over a 1-2 week period. We will also complement these with the use of internet sites, such as www.starfall.com and www.pbs.org/parents. We also plan to use some educational computer games such as Reader Rabbit.

Numeracy Skills Development

Ishtar uses basic maths skills daily without prompting, so we anticipate that much of her learning will continue to be self-directed. Using day to day tasks such as cooking, gardening, temperature and rainfall record keeping, we will continue to provide her with ever increasing difficulties. Which will be supplemented at a later stage of development with various texts, internet sites (www.kidzone.ws) and other maths based computer games and programs.

Use of ICT
As Kurt’s work is ICT based, Ishtar will have access to her own computer set up for educational and fun games. She is competent in the use of mouse and keyboarding skills and will have monitored access to ADSL internet for use with research and information collection. She will also have access to a printer for printing pictures and information she finds, as well as worksheets or games she would like to have access to, away from the computer.

Other Learning Areas
There is a range of learning areas Ishtar is interested in, which we will encourage her to explore.

Science, through gardening, pets and composting. She is already interested in using a microscope she was given as a Christmas gift this past Christmas.

Music, through her own exploration of guitar and the limited knowledge that Kurt has in this area, and recorder playing by the use of books and Katie’s knowledge of this area. This may extend to formal lessons at a later date, if Ishtar becomes confident and interested to that level.

Arts and Crafts, through a range of different products. Ishtar has continuous access to a range of craft supplies. As well as drawing, painting and collage materials, Ishtar will have access to pottery and sewing materials and will be encouraged to include artwork in any and all projects she undertakes.

At this stage in her development we do not see the need for any sort of structure for other subject areas, as she develops interest in other topics we will change her learning experiences to suit her interest.

Social Interaction

This will include group activities/projects with other home schooled children and participation in community/voluntary activities, as well as frequent contact with family members and friends with both home educated and conventionally schooled children. She has also shown interest in joining team sports, like Hockey, as well as becoming part of a Pony Club. We are yet to investigate extensively into the options she currently has to participate in these activities, but she has previously been involved in Swimming, Dancing and Cricket outside of her conventional school hours. She also receives social opportunities most weekends when going to watch Kurt play Hockey, as there are many children around for her to interact with.

Evaluation and Record Keeping Strategies
We plan to record Ishtar’s progress in a combination of different ways listed below.

Journal entries: Initially hand written on a weekly basis, both by Ishtar and Katie/Kurt. Via a Blog specifically for Katie to record various things associated with our home schooling journey.

Photo’s: Photography is something that interests Ishtar so we will be using her own photography as well as the pictures we take to build up a folio of work.

Seasonal work:
We will have a seasonal project involving literature, numeracy and art works which will help build the folio along side the photography.


We will evaluate the level of work Ishtar is doing on a regular basis and set harder/more complex tasks as her skills in certain areas develop. We will also change the areas of learning we focus on, according to her changing interests and skill levels.

April 26, 2009

Starting Out

This is my second blog, My journey into Homeschooling, my almost 7 year old, is just beginning and this is going to be a place for me to record alot of what we do on this journey. Starting a journey is the hardest step and I am sure there will be many hard times along the way! The registration process in Tasmania is a rather daunting one to read about. But after talking to the admin officer and other home school mums it is feeling alot less trouble right now.

The next big step I need to take is sending in a letter outlining the program I plan to use. I have no set program so I am working on a few lists and drafting up a copy at the moment.

I will post some ideas later when I have more time and will post the letter when it is done also.

There is alot going on around here as we are looking at moving house at the same time as starting our home school journey and giving birth to the 5th member of our family.
Bare with me if it takes a while to get things updated.

March 27, 2009

More belly shots


My belly now at about 31 weeks... Not so great a photo but i don't have a body length mirror so had to do this with outstretched arm :)













And from my point of view with my gorgeous little man Konrad (18 months)

February 16, 2009



Preggy Belly at about 25 weeks.....

February 13, 2009

random shit...

I am sick to death of everything at the moment, nothing makes me feel better. I am almost 25 weeks pregnant with my 3rd child. I wan ta new house to birth this baby in, I don't want to bring my kids up in this shitty town, I want chooks and a vegie garden. I want a complete lifestyle overhaul, I want to be away from Takeaway foods, I want to stop buying junk all the time, I am just wasting money continually. I want a dog. I want, I want, I want, it is all about me. I want to send all my love and support to everyone in Victoria who is having such a horrendous time right now. If I could afford to I would gladly give you this house to live in and find somewhere else for myself.

I am just purging alot of stuff at the moment and in reality it will still not help me at all because it will still be inside me and I will have solved nothing.