Swimming & Reading (not at the same time LOL)

Bugsy performed solidly at swimming this term and consolidated himself into stage 4.  Flossy comfortably passed stage 6.  Chicky swam well and as she's in the pre-school program doesn't pass stages, although now that she is 5 i've been told to enrol her into a stage 2/3 class as that is where her skills are at.

I will be interested to see how they go over the summer.  We will not be doing our regular swimming this term and instead will be participating in the Education Department In term Swimming Program which will see the kids swim every 'school' day for 2 weeks.  They will also be doing surf club over the summer and i'm lead to believe (have not actually confirmed) that they can pass swimming levels through surf club.

Chicky has now completed the second set of Nora Gaydos Readers and whilst she's desperate to move onto the blue box (level 2) there is a bit of a step up so i've managed to convince her to finish the first set of I See Sam Readers first :)

Take care

Amber xx

Update

When my blog is quiet it means, you guessed it, we are super busy!

Just a quick update :)

Chicky has completed the first set of Nora Gaydos Readers and is powering through the second.

She has also finished Go for the Code C which means she's now ready to take the big step up to Explode the Code Book 1.

Not much else to report right at the moment.

Take care
Amber xx

Planning for 2013

WOW!  The past year has zipped by at a VERY rapid rate of knots! It's time to plan and purchase for 2013 already!

Flossy will be year 4, Bugsy year 2, Chicky Pre-Primary (US K equivalent) and Possum will be 2yo.

So here is what we have planned for a super fun year -

Flossy age 8, year 4 -
Galore Park Junior Maths book 2* & 3
Kumon Word Problems Grade 3* & 4
Khan Academy
Logic workbooks & games
IEW SWI-A*
Galore Park Junior English Book 2*
Classical House of Learning History & Literature (SOTW4)

Bugsy age 7, year 2 -
Rightstart C
Kumon Word Problems 2
Khan Academy
Logic workbooks & games
All About Speling 2* & 3
Explode the Code 6, 7 & 8
I See Sam Readers*
Writing With Ease 2

Chicky age 5, Pre-primary -
Rightstart B
Kumon Word Problems 1
Logic games
All About Spelling 1 & 2
Explode the Code 1, 2 & 3
Handwriting Without Tears My Printing Book
I See Sam Readers*

Possum age 2 -
Speech Therapy
Occupational Therapy

Together -
Auslan using various resources from Bilby Publishing

Engineering is Elementary which i will flesh out to include cultural study for Bugsy & Chicky as their 'program' for the year.  We will spend 2 weeks on each book, which will include the engineering project and geography/culture for the country.

Lego Mindstorms, Snap Circuits 750 & other STEM programming activities as listed here.

Come & Look with me (art appreciation)

Various art and crafts as instigated by the children

Nature study

Music appreciation (classical)

Swimming, surf club & Scouts

NOTES -
Bugsy & Chicky will not 'tag along' with Flossy for SOTW4 this year.  I think it is too heavy for them at their ages/maturity and Flossy will follow her own course of study mostly independently for the year.  Bugsy & Chicky will instead have a STEM focus for the year and Flossy will join in as her science.

Yes, we are changing up our maths.  Flossy completed the entire Miquon line up as per our maths scope and sequence posted here.  You learn a lot about a program when you complete it from start to finish that you wouldn't know without using it in it's entirety.  Whilst i love Miquon and what it has to offer i have learned that it isn't going to be the right fit for Chicky and i think Bugsy is far enough into it that it's time for a change for him.  He's set off on the right foot as Miquon is such a solid foundation that it's the right time to change him.

We are also dropping Latin.  This has been a really tough decision for me.  I can see and completely understand the benefits that Latin has however it is taking up a significant portion of my time working with Flossy and understanding it all.  Possum needs to learn more Auslan as he doesn't talk.  So we will be switching Latin for Auslan for the time being.  I already have Latin Prep from Galore Park which is what we were going to do after Getting Started with Latin.  I will now shelve this and hand it on to Flossy to complete independently maybe in year 5 or 6.

Items marked * are programs that we have been working on this year which need completion.  As we school year round we start new books as and when required, not necessarily at the beginning of the year which means that some books hang over to the following year :)

Tentative plan for 2014 is an Australian History year for everyone before beginning the 4 year history cycle again in 2015.

Saturday Afternoon Drawing

A bit over a week ago a friend passed on to me a DVD she received free with some Faber Castell pencils.  She had purchased several packs of pencils, all came with DVD's and she had several copies of the same one.  Her children had enjoyed it and she thought mine would too.

After lunch today whilst Possum napped we watched the first segment on drawing a cartoon style koala.  It's the first chance we've had to look at it.  It's not a teaching DVD per say , the artist just talks you through what he is doing step by step.  We got all our supplies ready and just paused the DVD after he completed each step so that we could work along with him.

Having children with some perfectionist qualities we had discussed before hand that every artist produces different work even when drawing the same thing.  They should be proud of their efforts because if we wanted an exact copy we would just photocopy the drawing and not bother with the hassle of drawing it ourselves.  In the spirit of artistic license the children chose to omit features the artist had included and add in some of their own.  For the most part however they stuck to what they were shows.

Here are their final products.

Flossy

Bugsy

Chicky

I will be keeping an eye out on my future Faber Castell purchases to check for free DVD's, certainly worthwhile.

Amber xx

Olympic Lapbooks

We've just completed our Olympic Lapbooks, they were so much fun!  I pulled various pages from the resources I listed here and we also read the books listed too.  The children were all so engaged in this format of school.  They were eager to get to this part of their day and create something they could treasure.

The lapbooks are a concertina fold so the cover page saying 'My Olympic Lapbook' ends up being the front :-)  I removed their names from the bottom of the cover for the photo's.

Here are their final creations.

Flossy

Bugsy

Chicky

I did almost all of the writing for Chicky, but I did write what she told me too.  Bugsy did about half of his writing and Flossy did all of hers complete with her own research.

It was unanimous that their favourite athlete is Lauren Mitchell.  During our discussions it was revealed that anyone can bike, run or swim but not everyone can do all those cool tricks!

Favourite sports were split Flossy chose diving, Bugsy fencing (although he is most disappointed not to have seen any) and Chicky chose gymnastics.

We still have a few things to fill in this week including the medal tally and the weather in London but everything is stuck in its place and just needs a quick note each day until the Olympics are over.

We've had such a fun time doing 'Olympic School'.  Have you done something special for the Olympics in your homeschool?  We would love to take a look.

Amber xx

Girls Keeping Busy

Flossy and Chicky have been busy the last few days.

Flossy entered a short story competition and i would love to share her story with you but it is a condition of entry that we keep it a secret until we know if she has made the short list, so you will have to wait.  She also wrote a poem this morning which i can share :)

Flowers
For koalas flowers are teacups as they sip gum nut tea and in the underwater flower of the anemone clownfish smile and jellyfish float free, and for the lucky lady red gum honey bee the flowers help make sweet and yummy delicious red gum honey.  Sometimes flowers grow on a tree and yet sometimes they're in front of me.

Chicky has completed the first box of Bob Books.  Woohoo!  Another up and coming reader in the family.

Amber xx

Checking in

Busy, busy, busy!!  Possum has been sick with an ear infection going on 3 weeks, poor baby.  He's been quite brave and we seem to finally be getting back on top of it, thank goodness because the sleep deprivation from comforting him all night has been taking a huge toll.  I don't know if i make sense half the time LOL.

In spite of all this school continues to cruise along.  I say cruise because we have been taking a bit of a lighter approach.

Bugsy has completed Kumon Word Problems Grade 1 and i will hold off on Grade 2 until he has completed more of Miquon Blue.  Flossy worked on them concurrently however i can see the benefit of waiting just a little before starting this one.

He has also completed the dark green I See Sam Readers and his reading is going swimmingly!  3 more levels of I See Sam to go and he will be done, then will come the challenge to select school related reads for him.

Flossy has worked hard to finish Miquon Yellow.  There are some challenging questions in that book!  Miquon Purple is next and i'm sure she will find it just as challenging.  Then to decide what to do next. I though i had that mapped out but now i'm having second thoughts.  I will just see how she goes with this book and decide closer to the end i think.  Very proud of her and she is proud of herself knowing how close she is to completing the series.

Chicky is motoring along with reading, phonics and handwriting.  For maths we are working on counting to 100, she makes it to 12 no worries but we have a long way to go LOL.  I am hoping by teaching her to write the numbers she will see them easier which might help her to remember their names.

Possum apart from being unwell with his ear infection and trying to cut his molars which are taking forever to come through is good.  He's started using more signs, yay!  So far i have seen sleep, food, baby, teddy bear, bath, cat, dog, bye and i think that's it.  I'm so pleased we are finally getting somewhere on the communication front.  Last night we actually had a little game and conversation and he signed in context.  It was enough to melt your heart!  He is walking everywhere with confidence now too and his understanding seems to have come on in leaps and bounds!

It's all coming together

After my last post about loosing my groove i've been trying to find a new one.  I'm pleased to say it's all coming together again, yay!  Hoping for smooth sailing until the end of July now, fingers crossed.

Kids are again trucking through their work.  Today Chicky completed her Get Set for the Code Book B.  I imagine she will work through the next one quite quickly now.  She has really come on with her phonics and handwriting.

Don't you just love the expression!

Possum is coming along beautifully.  After his first sign a few weeks back he's now also signed dog and teddy bear.  I'd really like food, drink and finished but he's got other ideas LOL.  I shared a few weeks back that he had taken his first steps, well i'm proud to say that he is now toddling around the place (i don't think i shared that in our last update?).  So at 21m he is walking independently, very exciting to finally see him toddling around the place!  Just to make my heart melt he has learnt to give kisses and big cuddles too :)

I am REALLY enjoying my new camera!  I've been taking photo's most days, mostly candid ones, here are a couple of my favourites.

I studied photography in highschool and i am finding most of the principles are coming back to me however i had no experience in digital editing so i'm enjoying learning something new there.  A friend suggested that i pick up Understanding Exposure as a refresher and i'm glad i did, lots of nuggets in there :)

Lost our groove & an update

We hit the ground running at the start of the year and worked really hard and really solidly. Our days seemed very fluid with only the occasional speed bump. Lately though we have lost our groove. It doesn't take much to throw you completely off track. At the start of the year Possum was napping in the morning. He'd go to bed around 10am and wake around lunchtime or shortly after. This gave me a great solid block of time to really get stuck into the one on one subjects with the kids. Now Possum has moved his nap to the afternoon. He's going to bed around 12.30pm and that means I'm juggling every morning. The big kids are not in the right frame of mind to focus in the afternoon so we really have to focus in the morning. Unfortunately I am finding Possum is a big time sap and I'm struggling to keep everyone on track. Sometimes my day just capitulates into fun and games and no formal school at all. I have to keep reminding myself that homeschooling is a marathon not a sprint and this season of busy toddler, will pass.

In spite of all of that we have been making some forward progress. Bugsy has completed Handwriting Without Tears, My Printing Book and has made the big transition into Writing With Ease 1.

Bugsy has also completed Miquon Red so will be moving into Miquon Blue.

Chicky has been reading more of the I See Sam readers. We've instituted a 'reading time' where everyone except Possum is required to read allowed to everyone else. It's really helping promote the reading culture and Flossy has even declared that she is finally enjoying reading allowed. Bugsy has started putting on voices for different characters now that he isn't struggling with decoding each and every word.

Possum is finally walking, woohoo!  I posted a little while back that he had taken a couple of steps and he kept that up but preferred to crawl until last week when he suddenly took off!  In very exciting news he slept through the night for the first time ever last week, hopefully there are more nights like that to come.

Jasper (our dog) is feeling much better 4 weeks on from his surgery.  We still have to keep him quiet and he is still crated much of the day but the vet has advised that we can begin to give him more yard time over the next 2 weeks so that by the time he is 6 weeks post op he should be back to his normal self.

We rescued a baby rainbow lorikeet last week.  Whilst out for a morning walk we came across a baby with a broken wing.  We threw a jumper over it and took it to our local vet who was going to assess it for suitability for rehabilitation and send it on to a wildlife carer.

I got a new camera a Canon 550D with a lovely 'fast' 50mm prime lens.  Photography was a passion of mine in high school and is something i would love to have devoted more time too.  I've got some photo shoot ideas in mind for my kiddies.  Here are a couple of snaps from day 1.  See the difference between these and those ones of Bugsy above (the one of Possum is with the new camera).  Doesn't it take a much nicer picture than the point & shoot, swoon.  Lucky i know how to use it properly, no auto settings for me :)

Hopefully i will be back to regular blogging shortly.  I've got an award to pass on!

ECHO

Last Wednesday we had the pleasure of attending our very first ECHO cushion concert.  It was performed by WASO as part of their Music for Kids program.

From their brochure ~

Toot, whistle, plonk, boom, shake, rattle and roll!  WASO's Education Chamber Orchestra (EChO) is a high-energy 15 piece ensemble, featuring one of each instrument of the orchestra.  We invite all our young friends to join us and have a go on our instruments after the show.  Enjoy 50 minutes of musical celebration as we dance, sing and have lots of fun.
Suitable for 2 to 7 year olds.

We caught the train to the city, then found the right CAT bus to get us close to the Concert Hall.  Then we had to find the entrance to the building, because it isn't in a logical place!  It was a rainy morning, but thankfully we didn't get wet.

The venue was lovely and the carpet very comfortable.  We got a spot right at the front which was excellent as Flossy and Bugsy were chosen as helpers at one time.

The concert itself was just wonderful.  They had a story line which was captivating.  All of the instruments were introduced throughout the story and the children were engaged in clapping, dancing and singing.  On conclusion the musicians allowed the children to try the instruments.

Flossy tried the trumpet and actually managed to make a lovely note.  The musician was quite impressed.  Bugsy tried the french horn.  Chicky tried the violin.

The concerns run again in July and i will be contacting WASO to find out if it will be the same storyline or if they will have a new show as we loved it and the kids are keen to go again.  I've also managed to find two other WASO performances aimed at children aged 6-13 called Play me a Picture and Witches, Wizards and WASO and it is highly likely that we will attend those too.

Flossy and Bugsy are now resolute that they would like to begin music lessons again.  This time Flossy would like to try the trumpet and Bugsy the french horn.  I might have a challenging time finding teachers but it will have to wait until we move back to the city.

*Sorry about the quality of the photo's, there was no flash photography permitted and my little point and shoot struggles in the dim light.

Things have been a little quite around here ...

I can assure you that is because we have been BUSY!  That and my internet connection dies in the evening :(  Thought a change in service provider would solve all my problems, sadly, they have returned! Looks like i will have to change my blogging habits.

So what have we been up to?

I've been busy in the kitchen mostly.  Some of the recipes have made their way onto the blog some more need refining and then i will post them too.  At the moment i am working on chickpea chocolate biscuits, or maybe that should be chocolate chickpea biscuits.  I'm using some 'different' ingredients as I am trying to fill up Possum (he eats like a bird) and also put some weight on him so we are going for high energy foods.  If he had a full tummy he might actually sleep, that would be bliss!

We ended up taking some time off school over Anzac Day and the following week as my niece came to stay then we had a bunch of appointments both in the city and at home.  We are back to regular programming this week although we are heading to the city Wednesday as i am talking the kids to the symphony cushion concert.  Should be loads of fun!

Anzac Day was great.  The kids enjoyed the march followed by wreath laying.  Then everyone went into the town hall for an hour long presentation.  There were various speakers speaking about their experience at war, playing the last post, hymns, prayers, songs, poems etc.  It was a really lovely way to honour those who fought for us and one of the best services i've been to.  Afterwards everyone had a sausage sizzle for breakfast before heading home.

It's never too early to buy books for next year, right?  Here are some new Anzac books that have arrived.  Many thanks to Jeanne @ A Peaceful Day for recommending these new titles.

Flossy has been busy reading.  No surprises there it's her favourite pastime.  She's recently found the author Michael Morpurgo and is really loving his books.

Bugsy has been busy riding his bike!

Chicky has been busy with her reading and maths.  She read her first I See Sam reader this week!  She's been working more in Miquon too.  Mini Math Monday should be back next week if i can tare Chicky away from Miquon long enough to fit in some living maths!

Possum has been playing and trying to take a few more steps.

Rusty has finished up his local work and has now gone to the city.  It will be hard with him working away but we have been there before.  Hopefully this time it won't be for very long.  We have plans afoot for our move back to the city later in the year.

Sadly our much loved Jasper was hit by a car last night.  He is in surgery as i type having his shattered pelvis and fractured hip repaired.  I'm busying myself waiting for the vet surgeon to call and let me know how it went.

Well, back to the books with the kiddies before packing to go to the city for the concert.

Mini Math Monday

Last weeks Mini Math Monday wasn't terribly inspiring, sorry, but sometimes life's like that :)  Today Chicky and I got busy.  We started with the Brainy Baby Left Brain Book looking at patterns.

You can see that the patterns they present are very basic, but that is exactly what i was after.  I have tried introducing patterns to Chicky before without success.  This time i was hoping she would be ready.  We chatted about the patterns presented and predicted what would come next.  Then we moved on to the counting bears.

I set up patterns for Chicky to add to.

We started off very basic just like the book.  She coped really well with that.

Then we took it up a notch adding a 3rd bear.  She did hesitate wanting to go blue, red when adding her own set, but quickly realised the error and went blue, blue, red.

Then we mixed up some more colours, yellow, green, blue and Chicky's attention span was starting to wander.  She completed her set but we left it at that.  I was really pleased with how well she grasped the concept this time and look forward to working patterns with increasing difficulty.

Mini Math Monday

Chicky has been busy building steps with the c-rods and the AL abacus for a few weeks now.  This week we used the Duplo to build steps and reinforce 1-1 correspondence.

Chicky is ready to begin the transition into more formal math so we will begin Miquon Orange shortly.

What have you and your 'mini' been up to?

Mini Math Monday

Today Chicky and I used dice to reinforce the relationship between c-rods and numbers.  We rolled 2 dice, found the corresponding rods, added them together then found the c-rod that matched their sum.  We only had one roll which added to over 10.  My aim was to stay within 10 but i'm always happy to walk my kids through concepts a little above their ability.

 Chicky deciding which c-rod she needs.

Chicky joining c-rods.  You can see the completed ones we left on the table.

What have you and your 'mini' been up to?  We would love to try out some of your living math ideas so please share :)

Amber

Mini Math Monday

Chicky has been doing so well over the last few weeks, really getting to know her numbers.  Today i thought we would take it up a notch and see how she went.  We've been using various manipulatives to 'play' with the numbers so today i wanted to look at 1-1 correspondence and see how she was grasping it.

The task was simple.  I'd drawn 10 boxes on a clean sheet of paper and labeled them 1 to 10.  The idea was to use a dot marker to place the right number of dots in the box.  Simple enough but when your only 4 and REALLY like to use the dot markers and have a tendency to get carried away, this was a exercise in self restraint too.

Chicky making dots on her chart.

The completed chart, perfect :)

Chicky showed great restraint, carefully making sure that she only put the right number of dots in the box.  She got them all right, yay!  All our playing is coming together.

What have you and your 'mini' been up to this week.  We'd love to take a look, please share a link in the comments.

Amber

Mini Math Monday

This week Chicky and I cracked out the c-rods.  She built steps using the rods and we talked about their size and gave them numbers.

Chicky completing her steps.

Chicky using Raspberry Tort to climb up and down the steps.

Chicky used Raspberry Tort as a helper because she was just the right size.  She climbed up and down the stairs and we counted the steps as we went.  When counting down from 10 to 1 we pretended Raspberry Tort was about the blast off like a rocket ship :)

What have you and your 'mini' been up to this week?  Don't forget to leave a link in our comments to we can take a peek.

Amber

There's no stopping them!

We seem to be on a roll finishing things at the moment.  The kids have all been working really well, and really hard so far this year.

Bugsy completed All About Spelling Level 1.  This has been hard work for Bugsy and has taken him a very long time to get through.  He is not a natural speller nor is he a natural reader.  It's hard work!  He is getting there.  He has started to realise that different letters or letter combinations can make the same sounds and with spelling you have to decide which to use.  It's kind of like solving a puzzle, there is only one right way (expect for those commonly accepted American words, but we are not going there yet!).

Chicky completed the first Handwriting Without Tears book Get Set for School.  This is a great, gentle introduction to printing.  We have never used this book before but i am really impressed with the foundation it has given Chicky.  She will be moving on to Letters and Numbers for Me on Monday.  She's really looking forward to it.  Below you can see a sample of her work from the final pages of the book.

So as a reward for all their hard work went to ...

and the kids had Squashed Frogs and Fluffy Koalas :D