Sibling Togetherness

One of the ladies in our online homeschooling list was gathering input regarding the homeschooling effects on sibling rivalry.  I referred the group to our previous posts (here here and here) but this led to discussions at home as well.

Eric likes sitting next to Zach in the van.  He reckons there are some great advantages, along with a few disadvantages, but overall he prefers that seat.  Eric says, "It is entertaining and at times highly profitable".

Advantages
 - You can play with the baby (see here and here for some examples)
 - You can eat the left overs which means you often get one and a half ice creams.

Disadvantages
 - When they are tired and scream.  Not pleasant but worth the effort in calming them down.

(The second photo is when Rose was three months old.  Eric added a Red Nose to Rose)

The other children wanted to add in their bit too:

The Boys (17,14,12): multi player games with opponents on hand is fun.

Peter (12): without them you get bored so easily

Ariel (19): [Evil laugh] - you can get them to do tasks you don't want to: but they're noisy and they take up your time and you have to feed them ... (after a delay)... but sometimes they're fun.

James (14): They're fun.  The younger ones find all my old tricks really new and funny.

Clare (9): You have someone to play with.

Martin (3): Because you love 'em.

To Bed Perchance To Talk

One would think the children would sleep soundly once night falls.  After all they have had full days, the nights here are dark with a sky full of stars and the world is filled with the silence of the country.
Last night at around 2am James awoke and realised there was a lot of talking going on. The night was dark and everyone was asleep but they were all talking.

Ariel as muttering something about the shop.

Eric asked, "Is there anything we need to do?"
Pause
"No?  Are you listening to me?"
James replied "Eric, are you talking to me?"
Eric answered irritably, "No, I'm talking to the glow worm thing!"

Peter was talking almost coherently about the book he is reading.

Clare said in a joyful voice, "Um, Um, I'm in a PINK castle!  And it's pink!"

Rose asked, "Martin, are you awake?"
Martin answered, "Yes"
Rose replied, "Well, let's go to the trampoline."
Martin then asked, "Yes.  Where is it?"  (They play on the trampoline every day)

After checking that everyone was actually fast asleep, James went back to bed.

One small step for Zach

It has begun.
Crawling was fun and despite knees rubbed raw it was a very effective means of transport.
But this new "walking" thing!
Zach is enjoying his first steps as we all quickly raise the breakable things another level higher.
This means we are approaching Defcon 3 in the baby danger scale.