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.

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!

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?

Living Maths

Have you seen this speech by Dan Meyer?  If not you must stop and take a look.  What he has to say about maths instruction is powerful and may change the way you teach maths forever!




Living maths is essential!  Memorising algorithms is not the solution.  Children need to be taught the deeper understanding behind their maths.  That is what i strive for with my own children.  We don't achieve it perfectly, but i feel we are well on our way.

You can see our Math Progression here.  I love that Miquon is discovery/inquiry based.  It doesn't spoon feed the children the algorithms.  That can sometimes lead to frustration but with a little encouragement i find it ultimately leads to them figuring out the solution all by themselves and truly knowing and understanding what they are doing and why.

By adding living maths books such as Life of Fred and Charlesbridge Math Adventures i'm trying to help them see maths in everyday situations.  I've also just obtained Kitchen Table Math (it literally just arrived in the box, can't wait to look at it!) and i'm hoping that will inspire us for Mini Math Monday.

I whole heartedly agree with Dan Meyer that problem solving is the heart of maths.  We incorporate plenty of word problems into our daily maths and will be doing more hands on problem solving moving forward, especially where we can incorporate it into a STEM project.

What do you think about what Dan Meyer has to say?

Amber

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

Another Busy Week

Another busy week here with more books completed!  If they keep up their pace they will sail through this years curriculum and well into next, eek!

Possum keeping himself busy while we do lessons.

The Tupperware cupboard is always more interesting than toys :)

I meant to include this work sample when Bugsy finished AAS1, but i forgot, oops!

Flossy & Bugsy busy building Snap Circuits which have featured heavily this week.

Bugsy & Flossy using Scratch for the first time, lots of fun!

Bugsy completed Explode the Code 3 1/2 and did a great job.  He is certainly more solid with silent e words the he was after finishing level 3.  He will move into 4 which we are loading onto the iPad, he's very excited.

Sample of Bugsy's work from the final pages of Explode the Code 3 1/2.

Flossy completed Life of Fred Apples 2 weeks ago and i forgot to take a pic.

This week she completed Life of Fred Butterflies.  This has all been review for Flossy but she is enjoying the story line.  I have to say that i feel Life of Fred is so light there is NO WAY it could be an entire curriculum without a significant amount of work from the parent/teacher.  In saying that we are enjoying it and will continue to use it as a fun, engaging supplement.

Math Progression

Here is my basic plan -

Living math throughout all years
Living math books throughout all years including Life of Fred Elementary series and Charlesbridge Math Adventures

Begin Miquon Orange when showing signs of readiness
Miquon Red
Miquon Blue
Miquon Green
Miquon Yellow
Miquon Purple

Whilst working with Miquon red to purple also complete simultaneously
Kumon Word Problems 1, 2 & 3
Kumon Geometry & Measurement 1, 2 & 3

Pit stopping where necessary with Math Mammoth possibly
Add & Subtract 2B
Clock
Multiplication 1
Fractions 1
Division 2
Australian Money
(these are areas that i feel may need consolidation after introduction in Miquon)

Whilst working with Miquon Purple begin Beast Academy grade 3
Beast Academy grade 4*
Beast Academy grade 5*

Whilst working with Beast Academy grade 4 & 5
Key to Fractions
Key to Decimals
Key to Percents
Life of Fred Fractions
Life of Fred Decimals & Percents

Art of Problem Solving Pre-Algebra
I am hopeful to begin Pre-Algebra at age 9, 10 or 11 depending on the child.

I'm not prepared to plan any further than that at this stage :)

*Beast Academy 4 & 5 have not yet been released.  If they are not available when we are ready to move on we will most likely pick up Singapore Maths to bridge the gap.

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

Mini Math Monday

Today Chicky and I were looking at odd's and even's.  The task was to put out number cards from 0 to 10 and then put some counting bears under each card.  Everytime there were 2 bears they held hands.  The one left over was the 'odd' one, so that number was odd.  When all the bears had friends to hold hands with it was an 'even' number.

Chicky was not very impressed that i wanted to photograph her work today :(

See how the bears held hands to make a pair.  The pics only show 0-4 but we did work all the way to 10.

What have you and your 'mini' been up to this week?  Please leave a link to your blog in the comments so we can check it out :)
Amber

Mini Math Monday

I'm starting something new!  My challenge is to post something mathy for my 'mini' (that would be Chicky) on Monday's.  It will just be a brief post to let you know something we enjoyed over the week.  I'm hoping a few people might also blog what they are doing with their 'mini' as i love sharing ideas and being inspired by others :)  Please leave a link to your post in the comments section so people can check out your blog too.

Mini Math Monday

First Chicky put all the Rightstart craft stick cards in order.

Then we put our own craft sticks underneath, following the patterns of making gates and fence posts.  We talked about how many fence posts made a gate and how many extra fence posts we had for numbers like 6, 7, 8 & 9.

Chicky completed all her gates and fence posts.  Bugsy (the class clown) was watching on.

For me it's important that my kids have a deeper understanding of what a number actually represents.  I want them to know that 7 is 5 and 2 or 4 and 3 or 6 and 1.  I want them to automatically recognise that.  If they have that deeper level of understanding then when it comes to addition and multiplication it is so much easier to break off a chunk of one number and add it to the next to make a 5 or a 10 which will ultimately assist you since 5 and 10 are much easier units to work with.

Hope you enjoyed our first 'Mini Math Monday'.  We look forward to seeing what you and your 'mini' are up to.

Amber

Schooling 'Lite' Over Summer

December and January are very busy for us, as I am sure they are for many families.  Schools in Australia have their 'summer break' over the Christmas period so most children are out of school for 6 - 8 weeks depending if they are at a public or private school.  I personally find that my children thrive on routine.  I find that we need to do something 'schooly' most days and surprisingly that 'mental workout' helps considerably with behavior!

This summer Flossy has worked on maths, spelling, daily language review and cursive.  Bugsy has worked on reading, handwriting and phonics.  Chicky has worked on handwriting and phonics.  We don't spend a lot of time hitting these subjects, 90 minutes tops.  It's just enough to keep us going and we take lots of days off for fun stuff :)
Keeping our finger on the pulse with the essentials over the summer enables us to ramp back up to our full schedule with ease and it isn't such a shock to the system.  It also means that we can focus on specific areas if we need to.  For Bugsy it's been reading.

BUILD

A while ago i briefly put this up on my blog to remind me to come back to it for 2012.  Well, i've been busy today and we have BUILD sorted at our place.  If your not sure what i am on about you can look here and here which is where i pinched the idea :-)

So, what will BUILD stand for at our house?

B - Buddy Games
U - Using Manipulatives
I - Independent Work (Logic)
L - Learning About Numbers
D - Developing Strategies

You can see, i have tweaked the titles to work with what i want to cover.  We will still have our normal math sessions each day, the BUILD boxes will be in addition.  We will only be covering 1 box each day cycling through.

BUILD set up ontop of our workboxes.

So, what's in the boxes? (OK they are not actually all boxes yet, but that's the plan)

B - Buddy Games
Dice in boxes, playing cards, UNO, craft sticks, Rightstart skip counting envelopes, playing cards, hand cards, craft stick cards, square cards.

U - Using Manipulatives
Flashmaster, cuisinaire rods, counting bears, Rightstart abacus, fraction cards and tiles, clock cards.

I - Independent Work - Logic
Critical thinking activities, Lollipop Logic, Logic Safari, Analogies for Beginners, 10 minute brain workout, Primary Logic, Logic Countdown.

L - Learning About Numbers
Life of Fred, The Adventures of Penrose the Mathematical Cat.

D - Developing Strategies
Sort n Shapes, Castle Logix, Pirates hide & seak,  Lokukus, IQ puzzler, IQ cabin.

Of course putting everything in boxes and getting organised creates a wish list :-)  On my wish list is -
Geared clock
Wooden fraction tiles
Australian money
Times Tales DVD & flip book
Geoboards & lackies
More 'Smart Games'
More 'living' math books

Hopefully you can use these ideas to change things up in your homeschool.

Amber xxx

iPad - How it's changing our homeschool

We love our iPad, it goes almost everywhere with us and comes in very handy when waiting at swimming lessons or medical appointments.  Most of all i love the way we integrate our iPad into our homeschool.  I can see that we will do more and more on the iPad in the coming years as developers release more apps to suits the homeschool community.

So, how do we use it for school?

For handwriting we use Whiteboard Pro.  We have a stylus that we can use to write on the iPad like a pen and paper.  Whiteboard Pro enables us to select different colours and nib size so that we can focus on formation.  Flossy is learning cursive this way and Bugsy is learning to print.  They still use a regular program, Flossy is using New American Cursive and Bugsy Handwriting Without Tears but the iPad enables them to practice, practice, practice without wasting a mountain of paper.  We can hone in on letters they are struggling with and really nail them on the iPad and because we don't have the obvious output of a covered sheet of paper in front of us we are more likely to keep going and not complain :)  Just this afternoon Flossy sat for half an hour focusing on the joining of a, b & c in cursive.  She didn't want to stop until is was just right.  If you need to it is easy enough to add a few guidelines or even use a larger nib and then have the child trace over with a smaller nib in a different colour.  I also love this app when you want to demo a math problem or just jot something down to demonstrate a concept.  When you'd normally reach for your big whiteboard or a piece of scrap paper Whiteboard Pro fills the spot.  Love this app!

In the last couple of days i have downloaded SoundLiteracy.  This app is VERY pricey but i am hoping that it will mesh well with All About Spelling and negate some of the time we spend at the whiteboard moving around the tiles, which seem to go missing regularly.  I can't tell you how many i have had to fish out of the vacuum cleaner!  From what i have heard the developer is open to feedback and is already looking at several suggestions to improve the program.  So far we have done two lessons (AAS level 1 & 4) using the app and it has been a great success.  So glad i found this!

There are a bunch of maths apps that i love.  It is wonderful to be able to offer SO MUCH variety to make drilling those math facts fun.  Ooops, don't let my kids read that, they think they are playing games!  Here are our top maths pics in no particular order, Rocket Math, S-Kruis Tafels, Splash Math grade 3 (other grades are available) and Math Ninja.  I also find these maths apps handy for teaching 100 Board, Counting Bear and AL Abacus but they are not games.

Recently i have come across Notability and i am LOVING it and can see that this is part of the future of my homeschool.  Notability allows you to import PDF files using Dropbox or syncing, although Dropbox is easier when you are always on the go, and then annotate right onto the PDF.  So you can import a maths or language arts worksheet or complete workbook and have your child complete it right onto the iPad and save the work for you to check.  This makes the whole printing, binding storing of paperwork obsolete!  LOVE it!  Prior to finding Notability i had tried a number of annotation apps for this purpose but found they were cumbersome and clunky.  Notability is much better.  The developer is very pro feedback and continuing to work on and improve his app.  Yay!  Love proactive developers!  I can see that i will be purchasing more curricula in PDF format.  I had previously avoided this, so it's a big change.

For narration i am playing around with Dragon Dictation.  In theory i'd love to be able to have the kids independently narrate straight into the iPad and have it all typed out as they speak, but i'm not too sure if this is going to be a seamless as i hope.  I really need to spend more time on this app to make sure it will do exactly what i want but thought because it has lots of potential i would let you all know about it :)

I asked the kids to share their current favourite apps and they said -

Flossy's - Splash Math Grade 3
Bugsy's - Rocket Math
Chicky's - Whiteboard Pro (she loves to draw with this app)

Care to share your families favourite apps?  We'd love to read them in the comments.

BUILD

Just found this post and wanted to put it here so i can come back to it. Food for thought.

Homeschool Plans for 2012

Flossy Aussie Year 3 -

All About Spelling 5, 6 & 7
First Language Lessons 4
Reading & narrating/notebooking from history & literature selections
Institute for Excellent in Writing Student Writing Intensive A
Unjournaling
Writing With Ease 3
The Poetry Pad
**Writing programs are not used in their entirety. They are used to complement each other and provide diversity.**
New American Cursive
Miquon yellow & purple - will move to Singapore from SGBox once completed
Math Mammoth - used as a supplement to help cement Miquon understanding where needed, topic books only
Kumon Word Problems grade 3 - used a grade below instructional level to ensure thorough understanding of the arithmetic needed so the focus is on decoding the problem
Getting Started with Latin - continue

Bugsy Aussie Year 1 -

All About Spelling 1 & 2
Explode the Code 4, 5, 6 - will use 1/2 books as necessary
I See Sam readers - needs more confidence then moving onto 'real' books
Writing With Ease 1
Handwriting Without Tears Letters and Numbers for Me & My Printing Book - needs more confidence
Miquon red & blue
Kumon Word Problems Grade 1 - again used a grade below instructional level

Chicky Aussie Kindy -

Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons
Explode the Code Primers
Reading Eggs
Bob Books
Nora Gaydos readers
Handwriting Without Tears Get Set for School & Letters and Numbers for Me
Activities for the AL Abacus unit 1
Miquon Orange

For everyone -

Literature selections -
Adventures of Don Quixote
Great Expectations Stepping Stones
Gulliver's Travels classic starts
Les Miserables stepping stones
Moby Dick Classic starts
Robinson Crusoe classic starts
Three Musketeers stepping stones
The Princess and the Goblin
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Tom Sawyer
A Pilgrims Progress
Favorite Jane Austen Novels
Perrault's Fairy Tales
Anne of Green Gables
Around the World in Eighty Days
The Adventures of Huckleberry Fin
Children's Stories from Dickens

Story of the World 3 with Activity Guide
Go along books -
American Revolution MTH
Amos Fortune, Free Man
Eyewitness Ancient China
Boston Tea Party
Carry on Mr Bowditch
Eyewitness Castle
Civil War on Sunday MTH
The Door in the Wall
Explorers News
Ginger Pye
Meet a thomas Jefferson
Night of the Ninjas MTH
Eyewitness North American Indian
Peter the Great
Pirated MTH
Pirates Past Noon MTH
Revolutionary War on Wednesday MTH
Sign of the Beaver
Squanto's Journey
Thanksgiving on Thursday MTH
Tigers at Twilight MTH
Who was Ben Franklin?
Witch of Blackbird Pond
You wouldn't want to be Mary, Queen of Scots
You wouldn't want to be Sick in the 16th Century
Norwegian Folk Tales
The Boy Who Held back the Sea
The Village that Vanished
The Cat who went to Heaven
Folk Tales from India
Russian Gypsy Tales
The Best Book of Pirates
The Gold Coin
Famous People of Mexico

Geography - home grown studies
Geography of the World
A Childs Introduction to the World
Around the World in 80 Tales
Material World
Maps & globes
Geography A to Z
Complete Flags of the World
Flags of the World sticker book

Science in a Nutshell kits fleshed out with science encyclopedias to form unit studies
The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia
The Usborne Internet Linked Science Encyclopedia
The Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science
DK Science
Vision & Hearing kit
Body basics kit
Weather wise kit
Destination Moon kit
Energy and Motion kit
Snap circuits

Nature Study
Keeping a Nature Journal
The Nature Connection
Local field guides

Harmony Fine Arts - art appreciation, artist study, art creation, music appreciation, composer study all relating to our history time period

Institute for Excellence in Writing Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization

Swimming Lessons

Logic games and workbooks

Mid Year Review

So it's July and it's time to have a mid year review just to check how things are going and see if we are on track.

Flossy -
She has completed Math Mammoth Addition & Subtraction 2B and has really cemented those concepts. She is about half way through Miquon Blue. I had planned on her being further along in Miquon but we needed to pit stop so the delay is to be expected. In saying that she has a solid understanding of multiplication covered in Miquon and is probably working on a late 2nd early 3rd grade level. We have shelved Kumon word Problems for a little while as it was presenting some concepts that we had not yet covered. We will be getting back into it in the second half of the year.

She has been motoring along in AAS3 and is almost done. She very rarely makes a mistake and really enjoys it. I'm hopeful that we will finished AAS4 and be part way through AAS5 before the end of the year. That would see only AAS6 & AAS7 for next year.

WWE2 has been going well. She narrates well and rarely makes a mistake with the copy work. I am starting to have her write the first sentence of her narrations. I'm thinking of changing things up a bit with writing and might take a look at Galore Parks Junior English books. I've also got a book about writing poetry on the shelf and we might have a go at that. We won't drop WWE2 just mix things up a bit. It's good keep it fresh.

REAL Life Science is proving a hit. We are right on track with that. I honestly feel that this is below her level. She isn't learning too much new material, but it is getting done and it is fun.

With SOTW2 we are a little behind. I'd like to see us do a few more projects in the second half of the year and be a little more consistent with narrations. I'm thinking of posting them here so she can see them published, she'd think that would be neat. She has been reading plenty of the go along books and enjoying them. She is also loving our literature selections.

We have not been consistent with MCT or GSWL. We need to change that moving forward. With MCT I'm going to have to think about how to be more proactive with it. It is enjoyable but I'm not sure if it's sinking in properly. I'm sure consistency will help. With GSWL we need to make a vocab chart so that we can remember all the nouns we are learning.

She has been swimming well and passed level 3.

Bugsy -
He is flying through ETC, he completed book 1 and is now half way through book 2. That's ahead of where I had planned him to be.

He is right on track with Horizon K math book 1. At this point I think we will switch back to Miquon at the end of this book and see how he handles it. If we need another pit stop book 2 is on the shelf.

Reading wise I had hoped we would have finally completed 100EZ but we still have a few lessons outstanding. He has been reading plenty though and that is coming along well. He seems to struggle with silent e words.

We have not been putting much time into AAS1 but will focus more on it in the second half of the year. I would like to see him complete level 1 by the end of the year.

He has been swimming well and making great progress with his kicking.

Currently loving Miquon

Yesterday morning I was woken by Flossy who was standing beside the bed asking, "Mum what do I do on this page?" She had her Miquon book and was keen to get started, it was 7am!

Flossy and Bugsy are loving Miquon! Bugsy is seeing it as a real challenge, a puzzle that needs solving and he is rising to the occasion. That isn't surprising as he loves puzzles like RushHour.

Bugsy working on making 9.

Flossy working on making 7.

Flossy on the other hand. She has been anti maths and numbers for a while. We have been using a variety of programs to try and keep things fresh and try to pique her interest. So far it has failed. She is VERY good at maths but doesn't like to apply herself, she wants it to come easy like other things. Some gifted kids are like that, they like the things they are good at which come easy to them and challenge the things that are more difficult even though they are very capable. However Miquon seems to have caught her attention and in the main she is enjoying it and actually asking to do it, woohoo!

She said to me the other day, "You know why I like Miquon Mum? Because it's fun, easy and it gives me examples to work with. I just love it!"

Working together.

We will be sticking with Miquon for the foreseeable future :) and might look to add some Singapore too as they seem to complement each other nicely.