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.

Hand Hygiene

With winter rapidly approaching here and the cold and flu season already started it's important to refresh ourselves and our children on the importance of good hand hygiene.  Research shows there is a significant reduction in the transfer of 'germs' when good hand hygiene is implemented.  Having a child who has compromised respiratory function (Possum) makes it doubly important to our family.

Here is an article on the importance of hand washing and a guideline on when to wash.

Here is the poster that we have in our bathroom to remind everyone of the correct way to wash your hands.

We also have antibacterial hand lotion available on the kitchen counter at all times.  Whilst we use it regularly it is no substitute for hand washing.  If your hands are soiled they must be washed and dried properly to thoroughly remove germs.

I hope this has prompted you to remind your own children about the importance of good hand hygiene.

STEM Stuff

Since coming to the realisation that i need to play to Bugsy's strengths and get him moving along the STEM path i've been looking for additional resources.  Here's what i've found and am either implementing now or looking to implement for our next school year.

Engineering is Elementary - this is set up for classroom use but could easily be adapted to the homeschool environment, you would just have to source your own supplies and not by the supply kit as it is 'class' sized.

Scratch - basic programming

Alice - more programming

Armadillo Run - physics based problem solving

World of Goo

Google Sketchup

Kids Ruby - programming to build games

Lego WeDo - robotics program can be used with Scratch

Lego Mindstorm - robotics program more advanced than WeDo

Book to go with Lego Mindstorm

Snap Circuits 750

Bristlebots

Solar Car

Have you got any suggestions for me?

Animals Live

Can't make it to the zoo to see the penguins?  That's OK, here is a live feed of the 'Penguin Encounter' at Sea World San Diego!  Penguin cam will be live 24 hours a day for March and April, make sure you take a look.


Live broadcast by Ustream

Penguins not your cup of tea?  That's ok, maybe you'd prefer ...

Panda Cam
or
Polar Cam
or
Elephant Cam
or
Ape Cam
or
Condor Cam

Have fun, your kids will LOVE it!
Amber

PS - Don't forget these cameras are in America and live so you will need to make the appropriate time adjustment.

Science 2012

I am SO EXCITED about science for 2012!  We just received our Science in a Nutshell Kits from Delta Education and they look unreal :D

Here you can see the 5 kits i purchased - Vision & Hearing, Body Basics, Weather Wise, Destination Moon, Energy & Motion.  There are MANY more kits available however i chose things i thought would interest my children.  I was also conscious of import restrictions on anything organic and considered a bio-security risk.  I didn't want the kits ripped apart at customs!

When planning for science for 2012 i was inspired by this post.  So i decided we would take a similar approach.  I looked through TWTM logic stage recommendations for science and decided to go with their book recommendations.

Here they are sitting nicely on my shelf waiting for next year.  We have the Usborne Illustrated Dictionary of Science, Usborne Science Encyclopedia, DK Science (a visual guide) and The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia.  I'm really pleased with all of these books and feel they will be excellent reference books for us not only for next year but well into the future.

Back to the kits :)  The kits are presented in a small plastic tub with a handle.  Inside each kit is an Activity Guide and 3! Activity Journals.  The guides provide step by step instructions on how to complete the 'experiments' and the journal provides a place to record details.  The kits also have EVERYTHING you need to complete each of the activities.

My plan is to use the books to thoroughly explore the concept before we conduct the 'experiment'.  We will do lots of reading and narration.  Hopefully i will be able to share more of how it plays out for us next year.

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.

Educational Videos Online FREE

Don't we HSers love that word, FREE :) Over at TWTM people are often talking about the Magic School Bus Videos and Bill Nye The Science Guy. Well, I do remember the Magic School Bus from when I was in school, but Bill Nye?? Anyway thanks to the lovely people over there I now have links for a number of educational videos online which are absolutely FREE. My kiddos enjoyed their first episode of Magic School Bus this morning, they are begging for more! We will try out Bill Nye next. Here are the links -

Magic School Bus Videos

Bill Nye: The Science Guy

Newton's Apple

NeoK12

Dolphin Discovery Centre

Today we visited the local Dolphin Discovery Centre. The session was conducted by a marine biologist who has been working with the bottlenose dolphins in our area for the past 10 years. He was very knowledgable and quite a funny guy. The kids really warmed to him and got heaps out of the session. They are keen to head back soon so that we can see some dolphins. Unfortunately we visited at the wrong time of the day. Here they are with their certificates. once again thanks go out to one of the local Mum's for organising this wonderful event! Thanks also to the sponsors who enabled our visit to be FREE.

Sonlight Science K - What it looks like at our house

We have been using Sonlight Science K in a secular manner for the last 7 weeks and it is a hit! From Sonlight I purchased the 5 day program (minus the supplies kit for K as it is a biohazard to Australia) but I did also get the non-consumable science supplies kit.

First let me say that the K level isn't hard to make secular at all. None of the books used have 'God' references and it is very easy to skip the parts of the Teachers Manual which are religion centred. Most references to 'God' are for discussion purposes.

Once I received all of the materials I had the student pages from the Teachers Manual copied and bound into their own book for Flossy to work through.

Most weeks follow a similar progression. Scheduled days 1, 2 & 3 are reading followed by comprehension questions on the student pages. Day 4 is experiment day where not only do you get to try the experiment yourself you can watch the Discover and Do DVD and see how it is supposed to work. Day 5 is additional reading which is scheduled. The Teachers Manual also contains suggestions for other activities that you might like to do and discussion topics.

So how does that work for us?

Typically we do science twice per week. On day 1 we cover days 1 & 2 from the Sonlight schedule and on day 2 we cover days 3 & 4. The program really is light enough at this level to not feel overwhelmed or like you are spending loads of time on science even doubling up lessons in this fashion. Day 5 in the schedule is reading the 'extra' books they add to the 4 Day program so we are saving those to use as lapbook or unit studies at the end. We school year round so it will make a nice change before we head into the next science program.

Each time we read from The Children's Encyclopaedia we take the time to look up the links on the computer and see if there is anything awesome there. So far we have found some wonderful sites and I think this is one part the kids enjoy most. The other part they love of course are the experiments! Here are some pictures from a couple of things we have done.

Here we are making a weather vein.

Observing how icebergs are mostly submerged under water.

Purchasing the supply kits means you have everything at your fingertips. No need to make a special trip to the hardware store for an obscure item.

I give Sonlight Science K 5 stars.

Flossy gives Sonlight Science K 5 stars.

Bugsy gives Sonlight Science K 5 stars (he wanted to give it 6!)

So there you have it an overwhelming success at our house.