Week 6 & 7 Round Up

The weeks are whizzing by already we are at the end of week 7.   

Last week was insane with trying out a home school families group called Learning Circle; then our Distance Education school had a workshop day and we attended many other out of the home activities.  Yet some how we managed to finish all our units of Maths and write up the science reports from the workshop day.

The boys did a surrealist inspired collage of a Volcano at the Learning Circle

Reubyn chasing bubbles at Learning Circle

We did not get to the Library or Swimming pool but did have a great play and bike park date with our local school friends. 

Week 6 also saw mummy complete her Poison Dart frog water-colour pencil painting. 

Gruffyns science workshop write up. 

 First time they have done this and they really enjoyed it. 

Reubyns first science experiment write up

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Our favorite class is baking!  

 MANY cookies were baked and eaten and shared

Week 7 was mostly a HOME week.  

We got to have our trip to the Library with 25 early readers borrowed for Reubyn!

No swimming this week either (mummy was not feeling too well)

No outings with other Home Ed families this week.. we just needed a break. 

We did a lot of English and Maths - Reubyn is learning phonic blends focusing on the GR, FR and CR blend words.  he completed his first spelling list too. 

Gruffyn is focusing on cursive writing fixing the way he was writing the letters "a" and "d" so that they flow with cursive writing better and he also started a new work book for building on comprehension tasks and using a dictionary. 

We have really been using the resources given to us by a generous teacher who is on long term parental leave. 

Reubyn is learning the O'clock and Half Past time concepts  and adding two digit numbers

Gruffyn is doing Volumes, Greater/Less than and division. 

Mummy's favorite learning this week was:

Making her first batch of home grown Rosella Jam.  and learning how Pectin works to thicken the jam.. the doubling reboiling with extra pectin finally became a winner.

ART: Water Colour Pencils

Today I taught the boys how to use Water Colour pencils.  

They chose animals from the One Life documentary movie.

I helped them sketch their outline (so it was big enough to paint), they then set off colouring it in with water colour pencils.  We spoke about technique and the way these pencils work and how you can put layers of different colours together to create new colours.. remembering not to put too much colour down so it would not bleed when wet. 

Here are their photo inspirations

Snow Monkeys

Grass Cutter Ant

Here are their coloured sketches

Here is the water overlay finished products

Both boys REALLY enjoyed this project and it will hopefully be repeated for other subjects.

What I learned is finding the balance between "helping" and "doing it for"  - I let them do most of it but felt by doing the first sketch their finished product would be something we all loved. 

Both boys want to frame and hang their work!

Week 5.. whoa!!

OK so life is just steaming ahead and I can not believe we officially are week 5.. seriously?  

I am finding we are only having maybe one full day at home without having to go out.. we are certainly not house bound!

Im now getting my head around this whole amazing lifestyle we have embarked on and the boy are settling really well into the work they have to do.

I sit and wonder how it compares to their education lifestyle they certainly work hard and its satisfying to see them get through their book work and for us to all stop at times have really amazing conversations about random aspects.. and then for their answer to be so profound and so deep in general knowledge.

I have AWESOME kids.. seriously!

Highlight for me was my eldest making a Lego Pyramid to reflect what he was learning in Maths

Today was a HUGE day.. blessed.. I have been the lucky one to score some resources from a teacher who is on long term parent leave and could no longer store her amazing array of folders full of primary Literacy and Numeracy resources.  WOW.  Just enough OCD labelling to please even my quirks and all will be amazing for my boys.  As a result I had to have a move around and add extra shelving so our playroom go a huge move about.. it works so well!

Weekly we go to the Library, self defence class, swimming, meeting other home ed families, boys club and Sunday school  

Never a dull moment here!!

The week goes so fast!

Wow can't believe we are nearly at the end of week 3 (suppose its really only been 2 weeks as the first week was part holiday part preparing)

This week we have done our usual Maths and English book work and I have been researching some supplementing with printable sheets off the Internet that complement the subjects they are covering.

Reubyn is learning about Telling the Time.  

Gruffyn has been learning some basic Algebra learning that A + B = C is the same as C - B = A  

Both boys got their first spelling lists this week.. we are a little disorganised and unfamiliar with drills for spelling (neither boy has had to do this before) so instead we are just trying to incorporate the words in our standard work.  

We found an awesome game at the charity shop called Don't Rock the Crocodile 

Its a wood crocodile with wooden sticks and discs.. you roll a dice with stick and discs symbols that determines what you must put on the crocodile.. you take it in turns and try not to unbalance the items already on the crocodile.  

We had a good borrowing time at the library we all learned how to find books in the library.  Their NON Fiction section still uses the Dewy system which I remember growing up learning with the old index cards.. now we just do a word search to get the number.  We are going to be studying Volcanoes and the Earth's layers.  This will tie in with a unit on continents.  

I have found a great way of displaying research is a LAPBOOK.. never heard of this concept before getting involved with online Home schooling sites so when I learned this new concept I got just a little excited.  

Here is an example of a Lapbook:

(photo borrowed from http://teachingmyfriends.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/lapbooks-and-cheesecake.html)

its basically an old fashioned project on card but with a funky addition of it being a bit scrapbookish with flaps, envelopes, 3D objects etc.  

An AWESOME  keepsake I think!

The boys started Self Defence class on a Monday night and it was very much like a boot camp but the both boys LOVED it.. came home exhausted but wanting to go back next week!!

Reubyn tried out a HipHop class at our local PCYC but it was full of girls and he really felt out of his comfort zone.  Shame because he loves dancing.

Friday nights the boys have Boys Club run by a local church and just for boy in year 1-6 of primary school. 

Cake is school!

Today was an easy day into our Home Education adventure.  We went to the dentist and the boys had great praise for their beautiful clean teeth.

We came home and did some maths and reading and then after lunch we made cup cakes.

Cupcakes fresh from the oven

Whilst the cakes were cooking the boys then did some writing.  Using headings and lists that I wrote on the white board.  Eldest had to write his work with proper sentences but he needed a bit of help and prompting.  (school holidays really does dumb kids down). 

Writing prompts

The boys were getting bored and frustrated writing.
 Neither like writing so struggled with motivation until I gave them a reward ...

The one who finished their work first got to lick the mixers for the vanilla icing!

Wearing the finished product

Start of school Home Ed Shirts

In preparation for our schooling year the boys have painted their own uniforms

Gruffyns Minecraft inspired design

Reubyns Triceratops

Hard at work

Drawing the design 

Settling in to new routine

So this week is when all the mainstream schools start their new year. 

Our Distance Ed school calendar is starting Wednesday 29th but that day we have a long over due dental appointment.  So we could start Thursday but I want to ease into it as Friday is our meet and greet with our meeting our Distance Ed teacher for the first time as well as other Dist Ed families.  So instead of starting fully this week we will just have a easy week.

So this is our Weeks ahead:

Tuesday:  Take Daddy to the airport and say goodbye to him till Friday night. Once we are home we will look at our daily devotional bible study that we chose at Koorong last week and then decorate our "home school uniform" polo shirts that the boys plan to wear for the first few days of home schooling and then look at all our textbooks (still waiting for a few to be delivered from booktopia)

Wednesday:  We will try get to our devotional and then its off to dentist appointments for all three of us (which will take a good part of the morning).  Come home and do some Maths and English and chat about our other subjects. 

Thursday:  Visit the Library and get our Library cards then go to the Swimming pool 

Friday:  Meet and Greet at the park, sharing morning tea and meeting our Dist Ed teacher who will be helping us keep our schedule, help with any subject issues, do our government reports and support us through out the year. 


I was starting to really stress about it all and then found this great article:

How to transition children into home schooling

Our Welcome to Home Ed Uniforms

My boys chose shirts today they will decorate and wear when we are doing our Home Ed classes (at least to start with) as a way of transitioning into the Home Ed life.

They got awesome white polo shirts with a green and blue strip on the collar and sleeve edges.  

These were a bargain at just $2.50 each on sale at Big W.  

My boys are super excited to be starting their Home Ed this week!

FAITH

FAITH CHRISTIAN SCHOOL of DISTANCE EDUCATION
This is our chosen school of Distance Education who are helping us with our legal requirements and assisting with our educational needs. 

New Rules

Super nanny inspired rules and think about it zone (rather than called naughty step) I'm fed up with the fighting and behaviour the holidays have shown me and I'm fed up yelling. So to help me patent better the boys now have these rules - one poster is in their rumpus room the other is at the think about it stool in the laundry. 1 min per year age is the consequence for bad behaviour - still formulating suitable praise rewards for good behaviour. I think mummy needs her own chair - sadly 42 mins to myself is luxury not punishment!