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.

Menu Plan 10 Dec

We've got a VERY busy week ahead of us with several trips to the city scheduled along with several other appointments in town.

Saturday
Breakfast - TMX pancakes
Lunch - Cold meat & salad sandwiches
Dinner - Kebabs with TMX rice & steamed vegies
Pantry/Fridge/Freezer - TMX Beef and vegetable puree for Possum

Sunday
Breakfast - TMX rice porridge
Lunch - Sandwiches (heading to the city)
Dinner - BBQ with the inlaws at their retirement village kids Christmas party in the city

Monday
Breakfast - Fruit salad & yogurt
Lunch - Sandwiches
Dinner - Tacos
Pantry/Fridge/Freezer - TMX choc custard

Tuesday
Breakfast - Cereal (quick & easy, heading to the city)
Lunch & Dinner out in the city

Wednesday
Breakfast - Cereal (quick & easy, heading to swimming), dinner prep cook rice (TMX) and refrigerate
Lunch - Fruit plate & crumbed fish
Dinner - Chinese style fried rice with spring rolls and sweet & sour sauce

Thursday
Breakfast - Fruit smoothies (TMX) with toast, dinner prep cook potatoes (TMX) and refrigerate
Lunch - Sandwiches
Dinner - Tuna patties & steamed veggies

Friday
Breakfast - Cereal (quick & easy, heading to the city)
Lunch & Dinner out in the city

Saturday
Breakfast - TMX Pancakes
Lunch - crackers, dip (TMX hummus), fruit
Dinner - TMX Chicken & vegetable pie (new recipe)

Home Grown Geography

Our focus for geography for this coming year and into the future (until we work through all the goodies i just purchased) is physical and political.  We will not be addressing cultures formally, apart from a tid bit from Material World, but i do have some other books on hand for the children to explore on their own if they choose.  We have the World Book series People & Places and they are a bit heavy when our aim is a world geography overview, not a country by country in depth study.

Here are the wonderful books we will be using.

DK Complete Flags of the World
Usborne Flags of the World Sticker Book (1 each)
Geography from A - Z
Maps & Globes
DK Geography of the World
A Child's Introduction to the World
Material World
Around the World in 80 Tales

We will begin the year learning a bit about maps.  We will read through Maps & Globes and also look at the first half of A Child's Introduction to the World.  Once we have completed the foundation material we will move on.

From there I plan to use Around the World in 80 Tales as our spine.  We will read a story at the beginning of each Geography session.  It's a beautiful book with stories from all over the globe.  They are segregated by continent.  Here you can see the cover and a sample story.

Once we have read the story we will locate the country on our world map which hangs on the wall.  Then we will colour a map of the country which i will find here.  We will take time to look at the countries topography and see if there is anything special or interesting we can look up in Geography A-Z.  Then we will again locate the country in DK Geography of the World and read what they have to offer.  We will pay particular attention to where the country is located, which countries it boarders and features it shares with it's neighbours such as rivers and mountain ranges.

Next we will look in DK Complete Flags of the World to find out about the countries flag and what it means.  Here is what it looks like.

This book offers excellent information on the meaning behind each part of the flag and other historical and/or political information about how the flag came to be.  Where relevant there are also state, territory, provence etc flags illustrated.  Then we will find the flag in our Usborne Flags of the World Sticker Books and stick it in the right place.  To conclude our session we will have a look at Material World and chat about what we have found out.  We will be narrating and note taking along the way.

TMX Pancakes/Pikelets

We like to call them pancakes, but really they are pikelets :D  Here is my TMX recipe adapted from the Golden Wattle Cook Book.

420g plain flour
5 teaspoons of baking powder (TMX home made)
55g sugar
4 eggs
430g milk

Put everything in the TMX bowl.
Mix on 5 for 10 seconds, scrape down sides, repeat, repeat again.
Cook in a greased pan on the stove top.
More than enough for a family of 6, yum!

Rusty, chief Saturday morning pancake cook, 2 pans on the go so we all get to eat sooner :D

Pancakes cut and served with real maple syrup for dipping.

Gingerbread for the Gingerbread House

Recipe adapted from The Australian Women's Weekly Kids Cooking Book.  We love the AWW Cookbooks, lots of tried and true, yummy recipes :)

This recipe will make MORE than enough for the Gingerbread House we made, if you use the same template we did.  I put the link in the Gingerbread House post.  If you just wanted to make cookies or gingerbread men you could halve the recipe.

250g butter
2/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup golden syrup
6 cups plain flour
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground clove
4 teaspoons bicarb soda
2 eggs lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Before you do anything make sure you have enough spices on hand.  Don't assume you do because you have a bottle in the cupboard.  I JUST had enough when i made mine and they are now on the shopping list!

Preheat your oven to 180C.

Make sure you have enough baking trays and that they are big enough to fit on your house pieces so they are flat.  You don't want a wall with a kink in it :)

Put the butter, sugar and golden syrup in the microwave and 'nuke' them in small increments stirring in between until the butter is melted and everything is combined.  You don't want it bubbling madly, you just want it melted and combined.  SMALL increments!

Put it aside for a few minutes to cool.  You don't want to add the egg to it straight away or you will cook it.

Once slightly cooled add all the other ingredients putting the egg in last.  Stir with a spoon to combine.  If it's very crumbly here you can add a little more beaten egg.  You want it to feel like playdough.

Turn it out onto a floured bench or cheat like it do and put it on some baking paper.  Knead the dough lightly until it has all come together into a large blob.  Now separate it into 6 portions.

Roll each portion out until it is even and around 5mm thick.  Then use your template and cut the piece out making sure you cut the doors or windows where appropriate.  I do all of this on baking paper so i don't have to move the piece, i just slide the baking paper off the bench onto the baking tray and pop it into the oven.  Sound like a pro don't I, i've only done it once :P

You'll have plenty of dough, so once the house pieces are all done grab the cookie cutters as set to work.

Cook each piece until golden brown then cool on a cake rack.

Now your ready to make your royal icing and put it all together.  Have fun!

Gingerbread House

I've never made a Gingerbread House before.  I've seen the kits you can get at the shop and thought about it, but never given it a go.  There is something about prepackaged that i don't love LOL.  This year Masterchef had an episode where they made the most magic Gingerbread Houses and i saw what they did from start to finish, and i thought, hey, that wasn't too bad.  I think i can do that!  Well, not quite so grande, but i could do a small one.  So i decided that we would give it a go this Christmas.

I already have a gingerbread recipe that i love so i didn't have to hunt one down which made life a little easier.  I just had to find a template.  Google to the rescue :)  This is the site i found, we used the first pattern, the house template.

I doubled my regular recipe and it was MORE than enough.  We made some biscuits with the balance.

I left it all to cool and waited for peace and quiet before attempting to put it together.  I made up the royal icing by hand.  Oh, my!  Never going to make it by hand again, my arm almost dropped off from so much whipping!  I don't know how chefs manage it.  Ofcourse it would have helped if i actually had a whisk and wasn't using a fork!  In the end i was using 2 forks and yes, it was more effective than 1.  You think i would have learnt when i doubled the gingerbread recipe that i didn't need to also double the royal icing recipe, slow learner here.  I doubled that recipe too and had MORE than enough!  At the suggestion of a friend i made the icing VERY stiff.  It set very quickly which was just what i needed.  I loaded it in a snap lock bag, snipped off a corner and set to work.

With the assistance of some tinned beans and fruit the house went together quite smoothly.

Once all the walls were up i let them set before putting on the roof panels, door and window shutters.

I put the icing in the fridge overnight so that it was ready to go for decorating in the morning.  The kids had a wonderful time discussing and deciding on decorations.  Next year i know we need a few different supplies to what we had this year, but i guess that is all part of the learning process.

We were all VERY HAPPY with the final result.  We wont be waiting until Christmas to eat it.  I'm sure it will be all gone by the end of the week!

I think we just started a new Christmas Tradition :)

Christmas Traditions

Does your family have any specific Christmas Traditions?  Rusty inadvertently created a beautiful Christmas Tradition for our family and i'd like to share :)

In the lead up to our very first Christmas together Rusty and I discussed gift giving and decided that we would not give each other anything that year.  We were saving for a deposit on a house, our wedding and a trip to Europe.  We were both quite happy to be putting our money towards these things than buying a gift at Christmas just for the sake of it.  However, unbeknown to me Rusty did buy me something for Christmas.  He purchased our very first Christmas ornament, a Swarovski Christmas Star.  I had never seen anything like it, it was just beautiful!

We discussed and made a decision that from that moment on every Christmas we would purchase a Swarovski Christmas Star and if they stopped making them we would find something of equal weight.  We also decided that on our travels we would collect Christmas ornaments to remind us of all of the places we had visited.  It is our hope that our ornaments will be passed on to our children and their children and so on, creating a treasured set of family heirlooms.

This year we are hanging our 10th Swarovski Christmas Star on our tree :)

Here are some of our precious ornaments.

2010 Swarovski Christmas Star

Hand blown Mickey Mouse from Disneyland, Paris. 

2008 Swarovski Christmas Star

Teddy Bear with snow globe Eiffel Tower from Paris.

Hand blown glass orchid from Singapore.

Queens Carriage from The Tower of London, England.

 Cow bell from Geneva, Switzerland.

2009 Swarovski Christmas Star

Hand blown glass crayfish from Busselton, Australia.

2004 Swarovski Christmas Star

The children also each have their own birth bauble which has their name and date of birth.

Here is a pic of our tree.

We'd love to hear what your Christmas Traditions are :)