It seems that 2012 is the year of the Monthly Updates.  Juggling life, schooling, health, family and blogging about it all means that something has to give.  This year, blogging has given quite a bit.  And that’s okay.  It’s as it should be.  For family, health, schooling, life happens whether I blog about it or not. 

But blogging is wonderfully cathartic.  It’s my favoured record-keeping method.  And it’s a gift – to others; to me.  So, in keeping with this year’s monthly updates, here’s our Manic May in all its Madness.

May saw us ditch Singapore Maths in favour of Math-U-See.  It’s a radical change for us.  Singapore is an excellent system and Kiera was coping just fine.  Katie, however, was not.  I have dragged my feet at the idea of switching curricula for many reasons – money and disruption to name just two.  But the biggest concern is that the methodology behind these two systems is completely different.  The one focuses on a spiral aquisition of knowledge, while the other works on mastery.  In lay terms, Singapore will teach a little bit of addition, subtraction, multiplication etc, building on these concepts each year in a spiral kind of fashion.  Math-U-See focuses on each skill and aims to master each skill before moving on to the next one.  This proposes a slight problem when switching from one to the next, because it doesn’t just pick up where the other left off. 

So why did I do it?  Math-U-See is written especially for children like Katie who need a multisensory learning approach, and Steve Demms, the creator of this programme is an excellent teacher.  We watch his videos, we build with the blocks, we do the maths problems and we move on.  And, best of all, Katie loves it. 

It’s not words that can adequately describe how liberated I feel when I see my children enjoying their maths and, better still, fully understanding it too!

Even Micah watches the videos with us and loves it.  Mr Sam has started it too with his Primer series, and loves it too.  He’s flying ahead!

Speaking of Sam, it’s very sweet seeing this little guy coming into himself as a wannabe student!  He loves all things school at this time in his life, and adores writing and drawing.  He is churning them out these days.  He insisted I take a picture of this fish tank he drew, so that I could send it to Joel, his "big brother" at Lunch Bunch.

He loves hanging out with his same aged friends too.  Our neighbours down the road are now neighbours AND good friends.  Here’s a shot of the Hayes and Smith kids watching this brazen squirrel who came into our house that afternoon.

Gymnastics has been the focus of our month of May with two gym contests in one month.  This has meant mommy Taryn tackling the unfamiliar task of sewing sequins on competition leotards. 

May is also the month for our church’s family food fair.  A bustle of activity that is always enjoyed by all.

May might be autumn and cold, but it’s also blessed us with plenty of sunny beautiful days to enjoy with friends.  This particular Friday playdate saw the Smiths and Hayeses hanging out again. 

Fun trips to the Porter Market  – still my #1 spot for finding the best raw honey in town!

Mother’s Day was a joyous occasion.  We got to enjoy time with all the moms in the family.  My family pulled out the stops in the morning with a croissant and orange juice breakfast at a set table nogal!

With a little flower arrangement to boot!

Aren’t they sweet?

Lunch with the Hayes family at Solera was just yummy.

And little Joey enjoying hanging out with his cousins and uncle…

Then we headed to Kirsty and Adam’s house to catch the tail end of the Mother’s Day braai happening there.  See our scarves?  Mother’s Day pressies for us all

We’ve had some great school moments and some not so good ones …

But the bad ones are forgiven on days like these – four little kiddies lined up on the bench engrossed in their library books.  I’d just finished paying a fine (!) for overdue library books.  Warms a mother’s heart, I tell you!

With my no sugar, no caffeine gig at the moment, I’ve tried my hand at baking a few treats that are sugar and caffeine free.  Katie obliged in helping out while Kiera and Micah play Piano Wizard in the background…

We made some delicious goodies, including these really yummy crunchies.

We baked up a storm – oat crunchies, carob crunchies, carob and coconut balls, muesli muffins fill these containers.

Family Day at church saw loads of families enjoying fun, games, food and good talks together.  Scott ran the fun activities.

We all enjoyed a great lunch together before heading to our various electives.

Sam was super proud of his activity he created at his elective…

Lunch bunch times have been rewarding and fulfilling – a picnic on the Alphen trail…

And lots of different activities in our various homes …

including our first activity of every Lunch Bunch day – lunch!  Along with stories.  Here we have the Middlies…

The Biggies …

And the Littlies … (we really do need better names for the three groups!  Suggestions anyone?)

That particular day the Littlies sang Happy Birthday to a Biggie in Xhosa.   Well, some of the Littlies, as a bunch of them suffered stage fright just before our little sing-song!

Sam’s first venture into writing to a pen pal was one of his May highlights…

While the Victorian School outing was a huge highlight for Katie and Kiera…

Although I don’t think that anything could quite beat the feeling of making it into the team to compete in gymnastics at Oudtshoorn for Kiera…

While she’s been working hard at her gymnastics, she’s also been diligently practising her violin.  Despite both girls having decided they’re not so sure they want to continue with the violin, they have both worked quite hard at practising this month particularly.  Exams were last week and both girls scored a 75% overall. 

Outings and more outings for this month!  From Victorian School to Alpaca Farm …

… to castle – of the Cape of Good Hope…

We’ve been busy with a few projects, including a Time Capsule to commemorate this leap year.  The idea is to open it in 2016.  We’re taking our time with it, adding a few things here and there.  Then on Feb 29th, 2016, we’ll open it and reminisce! 

Micah finally got to make his own stationery pot cover.  The others did theirs 3 1/2 years ago, when Micah was just a 4 month old bundle on my back! 

Micah’s tub now matches the three others: Koki Marker Tubs.

May also saw that I got to enjoy a wonderful tea outing with a dear friend in celebration of her 40th birthday.  About 19 or so of us spent a Saturday afternoon in style at The Last Word, a boutique hotel in Constantia.  It was tranquil, beautiful and the food was delicious. It was also the best Rooibos I’ve ever tasted.  I drank my entire pot!  Which is saying a whole lot, as I usually only manage 1 cup, if that. 

Before chats …

At our table…

The lady of the day …

While I was enjoying time out with the ladies, Craig was having a dream day.  His friend, Shawn, reviews cars.  He organised three awesome cars for the weekend, so they spent the whole of Saturday test driving these monsters around the peninsula.  The speed of this Audi S4 is quite something.  Well, the acceleration that is.  I felt instantly ill the second Craig pushed up the rev counter and pinned my head to the seatback.  For a rollercoaster daredevil, I’m strangely a bit of a wimp when it comes to fast cars.

After our weekend break from daily life, we got straight back into it.  We finished off May with more reading …

more school work …

and prepared for the birthday of one certain 8-year old to be…