Sushi, Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne Zoo

Its Sunday morning again and that means we are off on another adventure after church. 

We take the tram into the CBD (Center business district of Melbourne). 

After church we walked to the Queen Victoria Market. 

On the way we stopped to have some sushi. It was the first time the kids had sushi. 

At the market the kids couldn't wait to find something to buy!

They found a cool shop that did engraving on the spot. 

Derek bought a key chain in the shape of Australia and had his name and 2018 engraved on it.

Rylie bought a heart necklace and had her name and a heart engraved on it.

I bought a key chain in the shape of Australia and had 2018 engraved on it.

We also bought some GF Italian cookies at one of the shops.

We tried some Paelle at the market. It was delicious!

After the market we took a tram to the Melbourne Zoo.

This visit to the zoo we went to the areas we hadn't seen yet.

The kids loved the butterfly garden. 

We saw the elephants eating watermelon. 

We also saw the brother and sister elephant playing in the water.

We watched a tiger chase down a small baby duckling.

We saw the tigers!

But we still didn't see the snow leopard (the one animal Rylie wanted to see).

Bouncy Balls, Skinners Adventure Park, Chores etc.

Grammy and Pops sent the kids Valentine's Day cards with some money. 

They bought these bouncy balls with elastic strings and velcro wrist wrap.

They've had so much fun playing with the balls. Perfect toys for our house with not so much space.

One day at the beach we found these jelly fish that had washed up on the shore. 

I've never seen anything like it before.

The kids are very helpful around the house. They do daily chores such as picking up the house, vacuuming, setting the table, clearing the table, putting the dishes in the dishwasher as well as emptying the dishwasher. They also helped me wash the floors. With their new Garmin Vivo Fit Jr tracking devices they can earn coins for the chores they do and they are very much motivated to do chores.

Daddy is the BEST!!

After school on Friday afternoon we headed to explore another Adventure Park. We took a tram there and Matt met up with us. This park was super neat. After playing for a while we went out to dinner and then picked up some groceries before taking the tram home.

There was NO line for the trampoline and Rylie spent a lot of her time jumping.

Derek was thrilled to find a green machine bike just like the one he has at home.

Alma Street Park

We signed the kids up for swim lessons as an activity during our time in St. Kilda. On our walk there (of course) we pass the Alma St park. Before swimming we have been enjoying playing at this park. There is a cool zip line, swings that face each other in a circle, and this 

neat circular merry-go-round-thing.

These fun swings allow the kids to sing facing each other and give each other foot high-fives!

The kids made friends with an Asian girl who didn't speak English, but they kids played together for about an hour. Such a neat experience for the kids to meet and play with kids from all over the world.

 Zip line fun!

Homeschool fun!

I am so grateful that I LOVE teaching and I LOVE my kids. Homeschooling has been such a gift. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with my kids. It definitely has its challenges, but this whole 5 month experience of living in Australia wouldn't be possible without homeschooling. It is so neat to be a part of and see first hand all that they are learning. Can't wait to see what else is to come.

Here are some sweet memories from our time together.

Working on subtracting with regrouping using base-10 blocks. 

 Writing her spelling words, which are actually the first grade words. Derek can correctly spell all the first grade words so he chooses his own spelling words based on what he wants to learn to spell. 

Rylie's writing sample for February was about an animals she had seen at the zoo. She chose to write about the Dingo, which was her favorite animal when we visited the Healesville Sanctuary. I love how she writes her name in cursive.

Derek's writing sample for February was about a place he wants to visit. He chose to write about the Great Barrier Reef, which is somewhere he wants to visit while we are here in Australia.

Derek and Rylie have been excited to write their own books. Rylie combined the characters from her 2 favorite Australian series (Ella and Olivia and Lulu Bell) to make her own book. She even used the word "Mum," since that's how Australians say they word Mom. This is another advantage of homeschooling is lots of opportunity for creativity and free writing and time to do what they kids want.

 Derek wrote his book about the way Hiccup got his dragon.