Tigers

Thanks Janet for raising this issue, I was clueless!

I was shocked when I read the motiviation for the petition and thought to share it with you all again.

I now will also spend the next studying tigers and the protection of them with Thomas.

I hope to find time to share our journey with you all in the comming week.

xx
Carle

"Wild tigers are in crisis. With their population at an estimated 3,500, it is crucial for those who hold their fate to make the right decisions.Opening the Chinese market to tiger products is not the right decision, and could drive wild tigers to extinction. Poaching, along with environmental degradation, is diminishing the wild tiger population; legalizing the trade of tiger parts would encourage even more poaching. Killing a tiger in the wild is 250 times cheaper than raising it in captivity, a sad incentive for tiger part sellers seeking the most affordable way to obtain tiger parts. It is difficult to distinguish between wild and farmed tiger parts, and equally difficult to enforce, which will allow many to poach without facing the legal consequences. view more
Scientific studies in India have shown that wild tigers could not sustain increased levels of poaching, which would most likely result from legalizing the trade of tiger parts.

Final art entries

Dylan [age 12]

Entry no 12

Art Entries

Thomas [Age 5 3/4]
Entry no 10
Titled -We love trees and they feed us.
[so sweet, look how mommy and daddy are holding hands]

Thomas [age 5 3/4]

Entry no 11

Titled - Earthworms make carrots healthy.

Art Competition entry

Erin [age 9]
Entry no 9

Erin used Lyra Pencils

[Erin I am also a tree hugger. :-) ]

Art competition entries

Brad [age 8]
Entry no 7
[Hi Brad, I really enjoy you rich happy colours]

Joshua [age 4]
Entry no 8
[Joshua painted this at day care and his brother Brad really wanted it to be sent in. ]

These two entries come from the Jude [6 1/2]

[Hello Jude... Did you draw thes pictures with block crayons? You have coloured the pages so well.

Entry no 5

Title - Secret Place

Entry no 6

Title - Oak tree

Art Competiton entries

Samantha [age 11]
Entry No 3
[Hi Samantha - you did a great job, the tree looks natural. Not always easy when you incorporate different materials]

Emily [8]
Entry no 4
Hi Emily. Very pretty. I like the butterfly and the dancing horse.]

Childrens drawings

Siobhan - Age 12
Entry no 1
[Hi Siobhan - The bee is so sweet, the detail on your entry is really nice, like the heart shaped trees. I like the way you have incorporated three elements - air, earth and water.]







Sinead - Age 6 1/2
Entry no 2
[Hi Sinead, I am such a yellow fan and I really like your happy son. I like the composition of your picture and think you did a great job.]

Hedgehogs

Thomas has been asking about hedgehogs, so we will be focusing on them for the next few weeks. It is a great theme for winter or Autumn [Fall].

I like this project and we will be doing it with clay that we will harvest from the garden [though this is a play dough craft]

Make a Play dough Hedgehog.

Colour the play dough dough brown and take a golf ball size piece. Shape a snout then use cloves for nose and eyes. Break up some spaghetti into short pieces and use to make the hedgehog spines.

Here is a great resource list from Tree hugger Mums - I adore the bread baking ideas.

http://www.treehuggermums.co.uk/articles/parenting/article.php?article=209

Here are some more great links, some that we will be using.

For a sweet little felt hedgehog that a young child can to sew up.

http://urbandebris.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/hedge1.jpg

Potato Hedgehog [? :-)]

http://www.freekidscrafts.com/potato_hedgehog-e349.html

A pine cone hedgehog

http://kiddley.com/2006/11/21/make-a-pinecone-hedgehog/

Horse chest nut shell hedgehogs

http://activityvillage.blogspot.com/2007/10/cute-hedgehog-craft.html

An e-book with info on the South African hedgehog

http://avaxhome.info/ebooks/south_african_hedgehog_2006.html

Hedgehog paper craft

http://www.yamaha-motor.co.jp/global/entertainment/papercraft/animal-global/hedgehog/pdf/hedgehog_asse.pdf

Parchment craft [scroll down

http://www.craftcreations.co.uk/pages/magazines/issues/issue8.mhtml

And of course there is the wonderful Jan Brett web site and books.

http://www.janbrett.com/

We also have quite a lot of quills [that we found on the area] whichwe will be using for various projects.

I hope these links offer you great inspiration.

Enjoy and let me know if you have any additional resources.

EARTH LOVE ART COMPETITION

Hi All,



I am quite excited at the prosect of having an online Art competition, so to help inspire you all I have written some guidelines.



Here they are:



The competition theme is 'EARTH LOVE' and what I really am interested in our childrens thoughts so please ask your child to give their work a title or a discription of their thoughts.



Please allow your children to come up with their own ideas



Your children can work in any medium and use any materials [crayons, paint, paper, metal, wood, clay etc] I really want them to have freedom of expressionism.



Your child can enter two works if they [or you] cant choose their favourite.



Please can you scan/photograph the work and e-mail it to me off group with the header "Earth Love - Art competition" my direct e-mail is dehningc@gmail.com



The winning work will be featured on our group homepage for several months and there will be a small but unique prize for the winner.

All entries will be listed on this blog. [Hoorah! your child will love this]



I really hope to have many colourful pictures to post, so lets all get started!

Natures way

Help the honey bees

Here is a great link for those of you teaching Honey and Bees to your children

http://www.helpthehoneybees.com/

Blessings
Carle

Green Companies

Whilst looking for a courier company to send the books for the Zimbabwe Homeschool Appeal, I discovered a courier company that impresses me, [big industry seldom impresses me] I never asked for a discount, but when I told them that we were sending donated books, they offered to help where possible.

Cape Couriers, get my green stamp of approval for several reasons.


1] They are only charging me R75 to courier 50kg of Home School books from Cape Town to Johannesburg. [Zimbabwe members to collect there]



2] They have an environmental policy - and are really big on recycling and using recycled products.


3] They make these amazing tables and chairs for schools in disadvantaged communities, AND these are made from the companies broken wooden pallets.
.

Their environmental policy and contact details are available on www.capecouriers.co.za

For more info on the Zim Appeal, go to http://www.zimbabweappeal.info/

Making Lipbalm

Here is the blog link for the homemade lip balm

or

http://ourholisticlife.blogspot.com/2008/05/our-lipbalm-recipe.html

Hope this inspires you all, it is really easy!

Let us know if you make any and if you have any pictures for posting

Acorn Men and Tables

Linda [South Africa] has been really busy making these great Little men!

Cute Linda.

[and nice veggies ~ are they from you garden?]

I have also been making tables for the gnomes, though Thomas and Oliver are using them as chairs! Little acorn hat make great bowls. Thomas has been collecting wild grass seeds for "gnome food".

The top of the table is a slither of sanded wood [5mm wide] and the stump is a piece of raw wood of 1,5 cm. I used a small tacking nail to secure it all together.

I hope our photos inspire you all to get knitting and wood working! Oh and please remember to send us your pictures.

Mail pictures to Dehningc@gmail.com

Gnome Acorn Craft

I was inspired to make these by a posting on Welcome to Munchkinland Blog that led to Saartjeknits . Saartje knitted Korknisse ~ which are cork men knitted in 2 units [hat and coat]

My Gnome Oakies [Acorn men] are knitted all in one and take a few minutes to make.






We collected our acorns last week in Stellenbosch. We collected all shapes and sizes so they were perfect for this craft. My acorns were dry so the nut inside rattles and makes a cute noise!

Here is the pattern
I used double knit bamboo [sigh] on 3mm needles. This created a sturdy knit!

1] Cast on 15 stitches
2] Knit 5 rows
3] Purl 1 row
4] Knit 3 stitches cast off 9 stitches knit last 3 stitches.
5]Knit 3 stitches turn knitting around and cast on 9 stitches then turn knitting around again and knit last 3 stitches. = 15 stitches
6] Knit 2 rows
7] *Knit 2 Together, knit 3 stitches. Repeat from * to end
8] Purl
9] *Knit 2 together, knit 2 stitches.Repeat from * to end
10] Purl
11] *Knit 2 together, knit 1 stitch. Repeat from * to end
12] Purl
13] Knit 2 together until the end

Thread yarn through the 3 remaining stitches and sew up the Oakie.


mmmm....now you need to find the perfect size acorn, I like the Gnome Oakie to stand, so for this you need to use a slightly smaller acorn.







Any way, If you need any help, Just let me know.

Sunset colours

The beautiful Eucalyptus Cladocaylix trees on our farm in the autumn sunset.