Hello!
After much too-ing and fro-ing I got this account up and working again! A LOT has changed since I last posted here. We are using book from Australian Homeschooling Supplies and are VERY happy with this choice. It has taken so much pressure off of me to come up with plans and content. I'm not worried about anything I may have missed and am completely confident that this books can take them through high school.
The girls have been doing Little Athletics this season for Phys Ed and have loved it. Both are athletic types and can run around an oval without collapsing in a heap (unlike their mother). There are three programs they cycled through and they did all events. Toward the end of the season they have developed definate favourite events. They both enjoy and are good at high jump, 100m sprint, 200m and 400m. The least enjoyed would have to be the walk.
This summer has been a hot one and we are still headed for some heat today - 37.c after an overdue break. We had down to mid 20s last week after being mainly over 35.c since Christmas. I'm glad we have effective airconditioning or I would have been down the library or shops a lot! It kind of feels like I'm coming out of hibernation after so much extreme heat. I enjoyed the snowscapes of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I even looked online at their weather and entertained thoughts of moving there!!! (yer right).
Term 1 is winding down, only 3 weeks until Easter break. I'll be ordering some more books before then as the girls are powering through the work they have. We started them at a lower level to cover missed lessons and make sure they understood some basics in the series. It has been much more work but they are loving it. Here I am full circle back to the books, so I'll leave you there.
'til next time!
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Friday, March 12
Wednesday, March 4
Energy
I don't like blogs that aren't posted on regularly, so here I am posting.
A quick update until things get going again. We have been doing the basics, which for us is bookwork that is scheduled and the girls are free to choose what to do with the rest of their time. This is how we have always done school with me injecting the extras when I could in the past. So I guess it is our default setting. I have been lacking energy and have been wrung out by all the normal things we do to run a house, cooking, cleaning and shopping. I'm glad our weather has changed so the heat isn't sapping me anymore.
We've had a visitor in our house for the past little bit - Flat Abigail. Unfortunately we have only taken her to the park. I was planning on going out to some of the landmarks around town and taking some photos with her to send off to the Canadian girl's teacher. If you are interested in hosting her next please comment.
A quick update until things get going again. We have been doing the basics, which for us is bookwork that is scheduled and the girls are free to choose what to do with the rest of their time. This is how we have always done school with me injecting the extras when I could in the past. So I guess it is our default setting. I have been lacking energy and have been wrung out by all the normal things we do to run a house, cooking, cleaning and shopping. I'm glad our weather has changed so the heat isn't sapping me anymore.
We've had a visitor in our house for the past little bit - Flat Abigail. Unfortunately we have only taken her to the park. I was planning on going out to some of the landmarks around town and taking some photos with her to send off to the Canadian girl's teacher. If you are interested in hosting her next please comment.
Monday, February 2
First day for 2009
Today is our first day of school for 2009. I know people go back at different times through the country, but WA's term starts today. This will actually be the first time we've started school at the same time as the others. We're usually well underway by now. Our girls are entering into Years 4 and 6.
The day didn't start well as I overslept. There was quite a lot of noise outside which kept me awake until after midnight. So I was up just after 8am. I wanted to be up earlier because I needed to do the weekly food shop before we started school. The weather forecast was hot and humid so I decided we would go shopping before school not after. We ended up going at about 9.30 so we were never going to make our 10am start. 10am works for us, we tried 9am but it just wasn't worth the hassle, perhaps after the dreaded daylight savings is over (hopefully forever) it will be better. Consequently because of lots of little things I had to do we didn't get back from shopping until just before noon. So school would now start at 1pm. The girls asked to start at 12.45 after we'd all eaten lunch.
I've decided to document what we do as often as I can in the hope that our district moderator can log on in here and read our progress. So here goes.
I've purposed to start each and every day with a Bible Verse. I have taken the verses from a nifty little book called Scripture Memory Made Easy. We will not be memorising them. We read today's out (Psalm 119:11) then they copied it into an exercise book.
Next they did their journal entries. This is simply writing a few complete sentences about something that they have done or about something that has happened.
The girls then go on to Maths. We use New Signpost Maths books and they do one page each day.
After this the subject English, they do different books. Through the week they each cover Comprehension, Grammar, Creative Writing, Spelling and they use a book called Text types which explores different ways of writing ie - recount, poem, narrative etc. Today Olivia did Text Types and Natasha did Comprehension. The Comprehension books we use are called Once a week comprehension, they do a "week" at a time.
While shopping in Wooldridges a couple years ago I came across some Western Australian Health books which were reasonably priced and covered topics like Stranger Danger, Road Safety and Recycling. So I bought them. I wanted the girls to start them from Year 1 to get the basics before getting up to their level. Some things we skip because they know it already, but mainly they are pretty easy anyway and are prompts for a conversation about the topic. I have worked out a schedule for the books and so they do 1 or 2 pages a week. Today they had their health pages to do.
The work I've explained so far is given to them in a pile of folders, papers and books and they work through at their own pace. Once they have finished this work, if one has finished before the other they are free to play (quietly and in a different room-not outside) until the other finishes. Today there was a little gap after which I said the girls could have a break. We generally break after around an hour of work.
After the break we went on to our Unit Studies work. Unit Study is my words for "covering the rest of the curriculum framework being: Science, Society & Environment, Technology & Enterprise, Languages Other Than English, Arts, Physical Education (and health)." Each day we will do one subject.
Today's subject was PE. I've decided to cover some basic skills this year as well as many other things. Today we explored the seemingly easy and boring but actually a bit difficult and fun skill of "Rolling a Ball"! (I found a great resource ages ago on Blake Education for some Basic Skills.) So out we went hats on heads in our lovely 39.c weather to roll some balls. We used a tennis ball, a hockey ball and a soccer ball. We rolled the balls up to a line, along a line and to knock over some blocks (we used some legos and set them up like ten pin bowling). At first the girls weren't into it so much, but by the end they'd worked out that rolling a ball to get a particular outcome was tricky and fun.
When we had finished that I'd congratulated the girls on a job well done. It was a trying day that didn't turn out the way that we'd expected. There was a little tension but all in all good. I "freed" them and they instantly got into their bathers then the pool!!! I sat down and had a cuppa to reward myself! That was at 4pm, so school took approximately 3 hours, including breaks. Not bad.
The day didn't start well as I overslept. There was quite a lot of noise outside which kept me awake until after midnight. So I was up just after 8am. I wanted to be up earlier because I needed to do the weekly food shop before we started school. The weather forecast was hot and humid so I decided we would go shopping before school not after. We ended up going at about 9.30 so we were never going to make our 10am start. 10am works for us, we tried 9am but it just wasn't worth the hassle, perhaps after the dreaded daylight savings is over (hopefully forever) it will be better. Consequently because of lots of little things I had to do we didn't get back from shopping until just before noon. So school would now start at 1pm. The girls asked to start at 12.45 after we'd all eaten lunch.
I've decided to document what we do as often as I can in the hope that our district moderator can log on in here and read our progress. So here goes.
I've purposed to start each and every day with a Bible Verse. I have taken the verses from a nifty little book called Scripture Memory Made Easy. We will not be memorising them. We read today's out (Psalm 119:11) then they copied it into an exercise book.
Next they did their journal entries. This is simply writing a few complete sentences about something that they have done or about something that has happened.
The girls then go on to Maths. We use New Signpost Maths books and they do one page each day.
After this the subject English, they do different books. Through the week they each cover Comprehension, Grammar, Creative Writing, Spelling and they use a book called Text types which explores different ways of writing ie - recount, poem, narrative etc. Today Olivia did Text Types and Natasha did Comprehension. The Comprehension books we use are called Once a week comprehension, they do a "week" at a time.
While shopping in Wooldridges a couple years ago I came across some Western Australian Health books which were reasonably priced and covered topics like Stranger Danger, Road Safety and Recycling. So I bought them. I wanted the girls to start them from Year 1 to get the basics before getting up to their level. Some things we skip because they know it already, but mainly they are pretty easy anyway and are prompts for a conversation about the topic. I have worked out a schedule for the books and so they do 1 or 2 pages a week. Today they had their health pages to do.
The work I've explained so far is given to them in a pile of folders, papers and books and they work through at their own pace. Once they have finished this work, if one has finished before the other they are free to play (quietly and in a different room-not outside) until the other finishes. Today there was a little gap after which I said the girls could have a break. We generally break after around an hour of work.
After the break we went on to our Unit Studies work. Unit Study is my words for "covering the rest of the curriculum framework being: Science, Society & Environment, Technology & Enterprise, Languages Other Than English, Arts, Physical Education (and health)." Each day we will do one subject.
Today's subject was PE. I've decided to cover some basic skills this year as well as many other things. Today we explored the seemingly easy and boring but actually a bit difficult and fun skill of "Rolling a Ball"! (I found a great resource ages ago on Blake Education for some Basic Skills.) So out we went hats on heads in our lovely 39.c weather to roll some balls. We used a tennis ball, a hockey ball and a soccer ball. We rolled the balls up to a line, along a line and to knock over some blocks (we used some legos and set them up like ten pin bowling). At first the girls weren't into it so much, but by the end they'd worked out that rolling a ball to get a particular outcome was tricky and fun.
When we had finished that I'd congratulated the girls on a job well done. It was a trying day that didn't turn out the way that we'd expected. There was a little tension but all in all good. I "freed" them and they instantly got into their bathers then the pool!!! I sat down and had a cuppa to reward myself! That was at 4pm, so school took approximately 3 hours, including breaks. Not bad.
Friday, January 30
What I have been doing for 2 weeks
This last fortnight has been a busy one for me. I have been doing housework which has increased a little due to some fleas that have decided to take up residence. I have been enjoying our pool with our kids in the heat of summer. I have also been organising and planning school further.
School is only 2 days 15hrs 22min away here in WA(I have a cool countdown thingy on my desktop). I am down to lesson planning and getting resources and supplies necessary for the next term of workbooks, science experiments, lapbooks (thanks for the paper Mum), unit studies and individual lessons of topics I've chosen. We approach homeschooling in a truly ecclectic fashion.
I don't need to do the "back to school" shopping as I don't require brand new items each year. I needed to get some student paints in primary colours for art that we'd run out of as we'll be exploring Hues, Shades, Tints, Tones and Monochomes throughout this year. The only other items of stationery I seem to regularly buy is printer toner and white out. We tend to go through these things, even though I don't print many things (I think???) and the girls don't make many mistakes (they think???) !!!
After two months of holidays we are all good and ready to get back to the books. The girls and I finished school in the last weeks of November or early December so it's been a LONG Christmas break. Dave finished a week or so before that and he will start his degree 2 weeks after we start.
Over the holidays at different times I've said to the girls if they want to go back to school yet, a purely hypthetical question because I wasn't prepared to yet, and Natasha has wanted to start back since the beginning of Jan whereas Olivia has only been saying yes since last week.
That's my update for now. I have lots of ideas for future posts including some input from hubby, so stay tuned!
School is only 2 days 15hrs 22min away here in WA(I have a cool countdown thingy on my desktop). I am down to lesson planning and getting resources and supplies necessary for the next term of workbooks, science experiments, lapbooks (thanks for the paper Mum), unit studies and individual lessons of topics I've chosen. We approach homeschooling in a truly ecclectic fashion.
I don't need to do the "back to school" shopping as I don't require brand new items each year. I needed to get some student paints in primary colours for art that we'd run out of as we'll be exploring Hues, Shades, Tints, Tones and Monochomes throughout this year. The only other items of stationery I seem to regularly buy is printer toner and white out. We tend to go through these things, even though I don't print many things (I think???) and the girls don't make many mistakes (they think???) !!!
After two months of holidays we are all good and ready to get back to the books. The girls and I finished school in the last weeks of November or early December so it's been a LONG Christmas break. Dave finished a week or so before that and he will start his degree 2 weeks after we start.
Over the holidays at different times I've said to the girls if they want to go back to school yet, a purely hypthetical question because I wasn't prepared to yet, and Natasha has wanted to start back since the beginning of Jan whereas Olivia has only been saying yes since last week.
That's my update for now. I have lots of ideas for future posts including some input from hubby, so stay tuned!
Wednesday, January 14
18 days
As I sit here over my morning coffee my little ticker on my desktop tells me it's 18 days until the beginning of Term 1. This excites me and fills me with dread all at the same time. The excitement comes from a new year, some new books/stationery and a return to the school routine. The dread comes from having to plan the new year, find the books and return to the school routine!
How are you going with your homeschooling preparations? Do you buy things through the year and use them immediately or do you save things up until the new year to use then? Do you buy everything as the end of the year or the last week before term begins?
For us, I've researched (many, many, MANY hours of research) which books to use and as I have the funds have bought them. In 2007 we were in the position to buy the rest of the books needed for primary school english, maths and health for both the girls (so 5 years for one and 3 years for the other). This has taken a huge weight off my shoulders to have finally found the ones that we like and stick to them. So most of my work is finding and implementing lessons for the rest of the Curriculum Framework Outcomes.
Here in Western Australia it is legal to homeschool. We have to register as a Home Educator and the girls are registered as our "students". We also need to show that we are covering the outcomes of the Curriuculm Framework, a document which teachers spend 11 weeks learning about at Uni. Basically the outcomes are Science, Maths, Art, English, Physical Education and Health, Technology and Enterprise, Society and Environment and LOTE (Languages other than English). We cover each of them at some time through the school year, focusing on the more important ones, English, Maths, Science, PE&H, Art and Society and Environment (which is basically social studies). Once a year our district moderator comes out to be shown if you are covering all this and the girls are learning. They report to the Education Department and you are "allowed" to continue for another year. This is compulsory from the time your child is 6 until 16years old. There is no payment, allowance or funding from the Goverment at all as in other countries around the world, even though we save them a heap of money by not sending our children to public (goverment) schools. But that's another post I'm sure!
How are you going with your homeschooling preparations? Do you buy things through the year and use them immediately or do you save things up until the new year to use then? Do you buy everything as the end of the year or the last week before term begins?
For us, I've researched (many, many, MANY hours of research) which books to use and as I have the funds have bought them. In 2007 we were in the position to buy the rest of the books needed for primary school english, maths and health for both the girls (so 5 years for one and 3 years for the other). This has taken a huge weight off my shoulders to have finally found the ones that we like and stick to them. So most of my work is finding and implementing lessons for the rest of the Curriculum Framework Outcomes.
Here in Western Australia it is legal to homeschool. We have to register as a Home Educator and the girls are registered as our "students". We also need to show that we are covering the outcomes of the Curriuculm Framework, a document which teachers spend 11 weeks learning about at Uni. Basically the outcomes are Science, Maths, Art, English, Physical Education and Health, Technology and Enterprise, Society and Environment and LOTE (Languages other than English). We cover each of them at some time through the school year, focusing on the more important ones, English, Maths, Science, PE&H, Art and Society and Environment (which is basically social studies). Once a year our district moderator comes out to be shown if you are covering all this and the girls are learning. They report to the Education Department and you are "allowed" to continue for another year. This is compulsory from the time your child is 6 until 16years old. There is no payment, allowance or funding from the Goverment at all as in other countries around the world, even though we save them a heap of money by not sending our children to public (goverment) schools. But that's another post I'm sure!
Friday, January 2
Regular Blog
I blog regularly at In Him. Please come and visit often. I've set this blogger account up as purely a homeschooling blog, where I can blog about our adventures as a homeschooling family.
Now for introductions, I'm Larissa. I live in a small country town in the Central Wheatbelt of Western Australia. I'm married to Dave who is currently studying a Bachelor of Ministry via extension. His blog is the PASSION Blog. Together we have 2 girls who we've homeschooled since the beginning of 2004. We are entering into our 6th year this year and intend to continue all the way through. The oldest will be 11 in a few months and the youngest will turn 9 in a few weeks.
Our family looks after our big dog Billy, our old cat Kuching, our young cat Chloe, our grumpy rabbit Thumper and our 3 aging chooks (hens) Jessie, Sasha and Speckles. We are not planning to add to our menagerie anytime soon!
As I enter into the new year I am beginning to get into planning mode for the start of the school year in a few weeks. I bought books for the rest of primary school for Maths, English and Health last year, so that's covered, but the other learning outcomes; LOTE (languages other than english) , S&E (society and environment) , T&E (technology and enterprise), PE (physical education), Art and Science have to be organised. I also need to plan how much work the girls will be doing out of the books and how fast to progress. We stick to this pretty much but I gauge how the girls are going and reinforce or layoff as needed. So we're flexible within the organisation.
Being Summertime here in Australia, its hot. Today, however, is forecast to be 44.c (111.f) maximum temperature, the hottest I've ever been in if we hit it. I think we got to 43.c (109.f) one day last year. It's reached over 32.c (9o.f) everyday, mostly over 35.c (95.f) since Dec 21st. So for more than 13 days now. I've almost had enough. I'm glad we have air conditioning, that's for sure! Especially at night as we've been getting down to between 15.c and 25.c (59.f - 77.f). So consequently I've slowed down and have absolutely nothing planned to do today except stay cool! We have a little blow-up pool under a pergola for the girls to cool off in and occasionally we'll hop in too for a bit. So that's good for them to enjoy during Christmas holidays.
I'm off to hang some washing out, it's windy as well as warm so it'll be dry in no time!
Now for introductions, I'm Larissa. I live in a small country town in the Central Wheatbelt of Western Australia. I'm married to Dave who is currently studying a Bachelor of Ministry via extension. His blog is the PASSION Blog. Together we have 2 girls who we've homeschooled since the beginning of 2004. We are entering into our 6th year this year and intend to continue all the way through. The oldest will be 11 in a few months and the youngest will turn 9 in a few weeks.
Our family looks after our big dog Billy, our old cat Kuching, our young cat Chloe, our grumpy rabbit Thumper and our 3 aging chooks (hens) Jessie, Sasha and Speckles. We are not planning to add to our menagerie anytime soon!
As I enter into the new year I am beginning to get into planning mode for the start of the school year in a few weeks. I bought books for the rest of primary school for Maths, English and Health last year, so that's covered, but the other learning outcomes; LOTE (languages other than english) , S&E (society and environment) , T&E (technology and enterprise), PE (physical education), Art and Science have to be organised. I also need to plan how much work the girls will be doing out of the books and how fast to progress. We stick to this pretty much but I gauge how the girls are going and reinforce or layoff as needed. So we're flexible within the organisation.
Being Summertime here in Australia, its hot. Today, however, is forecast to be 44.c (111.f) maximum temperature, the hottest I've ever been in if we hit it. I think we got to 43.c (109.f) one day last year. It's reached over 32.c (9o.f) everyday, mostly over 35.c (95.f) since Dec 21st. So for more than 13 days now. I've almost had enough. I'm glad we have air conditioning, that's for sure! Especially at night as we've been getting down to between 15.c and 25.c (59.f - 77.f). So consequently I've slowed down and have absolutely nothing planned to do today except stay cool! We have a little blow-up pool under a pergola for the girls to cool off in and occasionally we'll hop in too for a bit. So that's good for them to enjoy during Christmas holidays.
I'm off to hang some washing out, it's windy as well as warm so it'll be dry in no time!
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