Thursday, February 19
Chug Chug Chug
We're chugging along here. I'm so proud of the girls. Even though we've started later most days of this week and last, they've just started when I've said it's time. I have been very tired and it turns out I have a bad tooth (THAT explains it!). So I've taken it easy and not done as much unit work (more hands on for me) this week. The girls have been very artsy though. Olivia is into photography (mainly her cat) and has been making picture frames (a kit that her Grandma gave her for Christmas). Natasha loves to quill. Quilling is a craft involving thin strips of paper which is curled up and stuck onto paper or to each other to create amazing things. So far she's made a frog a dog, a snowflake and something else that I can't remember! So that's my very quick wrap up of the time since I last blogged. I'll be off to Perth in the next little while and so the girls will be home with their homeschooling Dad! Dave's just started his degree and will be a good example for them to see what uni is like!
Saturday, February 7
1 down, 39 to go!
Weeks that is!
So we're in one week. It's been a long week. The girls took a couple of days to settle in to being told what to do etc, but by Friday it was smooth sailing (Thank you Lord!). We covered nearly every subject, mostly happily. I found that with our unit studies they were unenthusiastic until I'd explained the activity then things were good.
Monday I covered in the last post.
Tuesday we did a science experiment - making invisible ink - the experiment part was revealing it...I asked them what they thought they would need to do to make it visible.
Wednesday was some mapping skills - we did a super-quick overview of an atlas (they've used one before) and then drew their own map and labelled the different elements using symbols or colour - hence the lesson, why we use symbols and colours on maps (to show a lot of information in a small space.)
Thursday we started on Germany - we looked at the shape of the country, where it's located, the capital city and some major cities as well as the population and compared population density to Australia's (Germany is 230 people km2, Australia is 2.5 people per km2 - a little bit different!). We saw the difference as displayed on a map in our atlas so that adds to our mapping skills as well.
Friday was fun, we did painting using students acrylics. We made a colour wheel. I made them start with the primary colours then we mixed our secondary colours to put correctly between the primary ones...and I put one in the wrong place!!! The girls got it right. Then we went on to graduating from one primary colour to another - introducing hues. For instance starting with blue and adding a smidge of yellow (which would make a dark sea green) and painting a line in a shape, then adding a little more yellow (which would turn it a bit lighter, more green than blue) and painting another line in the shape and so on until they got to a bit of blue with mostly yellow then completely yellow. The results were spectacular and I got them to use all three ways of doing it (red to orange to yellow, blue to green to yellow, blue to purple to red). Our purple didn't really become what we recognise as purple really because we seemed to have quite a dark blue. I guess when we get to tints we'll be able to brighten it up and make "real" purple.
After this the girls were free for the weekend and were really glad. I was too. It had been a full-on week for me. I haven't had to do so much for a long time. I guess I was also stressed because I wasn't sure how the kids would take our new approach. This year is a lot more "school" like compared to past years, on purpose, and I didn't want them to completely rebel. I tried to make it fun and interesting for them, gave them enough breaks through the day. I also pushed where they needed it and relaxed where they needed it too. Now I need to plan next week!
So we're in one week. It's been a long week. The girls took a couple of days to settle in to being told what to do etc, but by Friday it was smooth sailing (Thank you Lord!). We covered nearly every subject, mostly happily. I found that with our unit studies they were unenthusiastic until I'd explained the activity then things were good.
Monday I covered in the last post.
Tuesday we did a science experiment - making invisible ink - the experiment part was revealing it...I asked them what they thought they would need to do to make it visible.
Wednesday was some mapping skills - we did a super-quick overview of an atlas (they've used one before) and then drew their own map and labelled the different elements using symbols or colour - hence the lesson, why we use symbols and colours on maps (to show a lot of information in a small space.)
Thursday we started on Germany - we looked at the shape of the country, where it's located, the capital city and some major cities as well as the population and compared population density to Australia's (Germany is 230 people km2, Australia is 2.5 people per km2 - a little bit different!). We saw the difference as displayed on a map in our atlas so that adds to our mapping skills as well.
Friday was fun, we did painting using students acrylics. We made a colour wheel. I made them start with the primary colours then we mixed our secondary colours to put correctly between the primary ones...and I put one in the wrong place!!! The girls got it right. Then we went on to graduating from one primary colour to another - introducing hues. For instance starting with blue and adding a smidge of yellow (which would make a dark sea green) and painting a line in a shape, then adding a little more yellow (which would turn it a bit lighter, more green than blue) and painting another line in the shape and so on until they got to a bit of blue with mostly yellow then completely yellow. The results were spectacular and I got them to use all three ways of doing it (red to orange to yellow, blue to green to yellow, blue to purple to red). Our purple didn't really become what we recognise as purple really because we seemed to have quite a dark blue. I guess when we get to tints we'll be able to brighten it up and make "real" purple.
After this the girls were free for the weekend and were really glad. I was too. It had been a full-on week for me. I haven't had to do so much for a long time. I guess I was also stressed because I wasn't sure how the kids would take our new approach. This year is a lot more "school" like compared to past years, on purpose, and I didn't want them to completely rebel. I tried to make it fun and interesting for them, gave them enough breaks through the day. I also pushed where they needed it and relaxed where they needed it too. Now I need to plan next week!
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!
Monday, January 12
New Resource
Today a new resource arrived in my mailbox. A book by John Hudson Tiner called Exploring the History of Medicine. This is the second book we have of his, we bought Exploring Planet Earth last year. I find them simple, easy to use and they have a Christian perspecitve. A good addition to our Science section of our homeschooling library I think, considering Olivia has "Veterinarian" in her sights at this stage in life!
Saturday, January 3
Holidays
This holidays my girls have been so busy.
They've swum, sung, bounced, played, read, watched, learnt, run, hit (with a bat), thrown, skipped, hula-hooped, loved, unwrapped, listened, enjoyed, joined-in, cleaned, tidied, drawn, coloured, written, constructed, brushed, dressed, made, explored, ridden, and scootered, just to name a few!
I'm so glad we have the freedom to allow the girls to do so many things and that when holidays are over, things wont change that much, we'll be adding in extra learning, everything else is just a normal part of their lives! (I kinda wish I was a kid again!)
They've swum, sung, bounced, played, read, watched, learnt, run, hit (with a bat), thrown, skipped, hula-hooped, loved, unwrapped, listened, enjoyed, joined-in, cleaned, tidied, drawn, coloured, written, constructed, brushed, dressed, made, explored, ridden, and scootered, just to name a few!
I'm so glad we have the freedom to allow the girls to do so many things and that when holidays are over, things wont change that much, we'll be adding in extra learning, everything else is just a normal part of their lives! (I kinda wish I was a kid again!)
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