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.

Flossy Reads the News

Today's  Galore Park English assignment was to write and read a news bulletin.  There was specific information to be conveyed.  Here is Flossy reading the news.  She did a great job :)




Flossy is really enjoying Galore Park.  I think it is providing great variety and covering all of the bases.  That marks the end of Chapter 1.  Hope we are still this pleased by the end of the book.

Edited to add ~ You can find out more about Galore Park here and you can purchase here :)

Flossy's Poem

After reading lots of good things about Galore Park's So You Really Want to Learn Junior English i decided to take the plunge and purchase Book 2 to round out our Language Arts.  This book is designed for children who are 8 years +, generally year 3 in the UK where the book is used in prep schools.  Flossy has made a start and as we are tag teaming a number of writing curricula we are not very far in (still Chapter 1), but i am already seeing lovely results.

Today her assignment was -

Write a poem in which the word 'SNOWFLAKE' appears down the left hand side and each letter begins the first word of each line.  This is called an acrostic poem.

Then a short example was given.

Here is Flossy's (un-edited) acrostic poem.

Snow hear it fall softly

Now it blows swirling in the air

Oh hear the blizzard blow

We huddle by the fire waiting

Flakes of snow dance by the window

Lakes freeze as the snow falls on top

An owl swoops past on diamond wings

Keen to return to its chicks

Evermore the snow seems to fall

I really love the imagery she has created in this poem.  Considering she has never experienced snow she's done a lovely job.

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.

Flossy's Writing

Flossy started Institute for Excellence in Writing, Student Writing Intensive - A this year.  She watched the first lesson on the DVD and i have to say she didn't think much of it, but her impression changed after watching the second lesson.  She actually said to me today, "Mum, one day can i be in one of his writing classes?"  This from a child who didn't like to write just a few months ago!

We are still right at the beginning of the program and so far i have been very impressed with the quality of work Flossy is producing.  Here is a sample of her work from this past week.

This is the passage provided by IEW.  Flossy has circled words for her outline.

Flossy's outline.

Flossy's draft.  All red writing is from editing, the passage was edited together.

The final product.  Flossy typed this up on the computer herself and we added the picture together.

I really look forward to seeing how she progresses with the program.  I think she has started strongly and at the pace we are taking the program it is not overwhelming at all.

AAS Level 4 - Done & Dusted

Flossy screamed through Level 4 of All About Spelling.  I really dropped the ball with this one last year.  The first half of the year i was swamped with Possum and the second half of the year i just couldn't get our days to flow nicely enough to have time consistently, to get this done.  This year it's all changed and we are working on AAS EVERY day!

I expect that we will scream through Level 5 which we are starting tomorrow and i am waiting until Level 7 is out before i order Level's 6 & 7.  We could be done with AAS by the end of the year!  After that ... well, I'm considering a few options - Bravewriter's Arrow and Simply Charlotte Mason's Spelling Wisdom are at the top of my list.  I will definitely be going with a dictation style program I'm just not sure which yet.  If you've used either of these programs, or another dictation program i'd love to hear what you think of them.

Amber xx

Guy Fawkes - Fun in History

Some people love to plan.  I like to have a plan, but i never stick to it.  So, i've given up having a proper plan and instead work to our natural rhythm and remind myself that homeschooling is a marathon, not a sprint.  Today I knew we would cover history but i didn't have any idea exactly how it would unfold...

We started off reading from Story of the World 3.  Today's section covered King James VI of Scotland and Guy Fawkes.  The kids thought it was great but when it came time to see what was in the activity book they were very disappointed to find there was no colouring in page for this section :(  I set up Bugsy and Chicky to draw pictures of a bon fire and fireworks whilst I did a narration with Flossy.  It was an awesome CM style narration.

While she was busy copying her narration into her history notebook i quickly looked at the activity suggestions feeling like the kids had been short changed with no colouring in page.  I came across Parkin, so off we went to the kitchen and made some Parkin.  It was in the oven by lunchtime and ready for afternoon tea.  Everyone LOVED it!

Whilst having lunch i thought, hmm, wonder if anyone's got some filming of their bon fire or fireworks on You Tube.  I just put in Guy Fawkes and was offered a plethora of clips along with one from BBC.  We watched it and the kids LOVED it!  In all honestly you'd want to pre-watch this one, it's definitely PGR.

Who knew that was how our day would unfold when we got started this morning.  What a great day!  I love homeschooling :-)

First Day of Homeschool 2012

Back to school pictures.

Chicky age 4 starts Aussie Kindy.

Bugsy age 6 starts Aussie Year 1.

Flossy age 7 starts Aussie Year 3.

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.

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

Year 3 (Draft Plans)

*Please note this is a work in progress. Various updates will be made throughout the remainder of 2010 and all of 2011.*

Learning areas, curricula and resources for Year 3 (8yo) to be addressed in a formal manner -

MATH

Miquon (should already be finished with this, but if not complete)

Kumon Word Problems

Activities for the AL Abacus

Life of Fred Fractions

Singapore 3 or 4?? probably 4

Hands on Equations

LANGUAGE ARTS

All About Spelling (should complete this year)

Writing With Ease (should complete this year)

Michael Clay Thompson Town Level?

Bravewriter Arrow?

Mosdos Ruby Level?

Independent reading :

HISTORY

Story of the World Vol 3 (Early Modern Times)

Story of the World Activity Guide

Supplemental reading (Book basket) :

SCIENCE

Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding K-2

Going deeper where needed with Real Science Odyssey Life, Earth & Space and Chemistry

Snap Circuit 100

Continuing this from Year 2 (The Real Science Odyssey programs are 1 year each) probably adding in Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding 3-5 & Real Physics (if released yet)

EXTRAS

Getting Started with Latin (should complete this year)

Galore Park Latin Prep 1

Meet the Masters (Art program)

Logic & puzzle books

Violin (lessons plus The Violin Book Series)

Playdough

Puzzles

Wedgits

Cooking

Singing (Sing Books)