It's OK To be Ordinary!

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THE ORDINARY HOMESCHOOL

Fast & Simple Game To Improve Your Homeschool Day

Having one of those days?

Let's face it we all do!

You know the type of days I'm talking about.

Nothing is going to plan.

Not one person is co operating.

The school morning is quickly going to the pot.

You're about to pull your hair out, or worse let out a scream!

Or possibly for you, it's locking yourself in the bathroom and having a good cry.

Let me tell you I have been there on more than one occasion and I am quite certain I will be back there again sometime in the future.

However I did stumble on to one so very simple stress reliever and mood enhancer that works for each and every one of us.

And all you need is a simple balloon. Yes that's it a balloon. I now try to always keep a pack on hand.

When you feel as though your morning is beginning to spin out of control, but you don't really have the time or want to send everyone off outside.

Call a time out!

But not one where everyone gets sent off to their bedrooms for being "bad little children".

It's a time out for connecting or rather a time in!

Because there is no such thing as "bad little children". Clearly if the school morning is out of control there is something else going on. By creating a 'time in' environment you may just be able to get to the bottom of their troubles.

Grab a balloon, blow it up and play, "Keep The Balloon In The Air".

Within literally two minutes we are all laughing, smiling, hugging, yahooing and cheering each other on to keep that balloon in the air.

Having reconnected we are all so much brighter and fresher to tackle the mornings work ahead.

It really is that simple.

So add a bag of balloons to your grocery list for the next time you are having one of those mornings.

Do you have a go to, quick and easy 'pick me up' game or activity that you use to get your homeschool mornings back on track?

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

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NBTS Blog Hop - Meet The Students

Here we are, the first week of the All Australian Not Back To School Blog Hop, I hope you will join us in the fun! 

When I looked back on the last time I did a 'meet the students' post, what a shock I got! The changes have been incredible. The growth out of this world. I can safely say that my days of toddlers and Bambino Academy are over. Bittersweet recognising this, that's for sure, but looking forward to what lays ahead for us.

My online blog friend and fellow Australian Homeschooling Mum is joining with me this round in hosting the Blog Hop, be sure to jump over there and say hi to Chareen at Every Bed of Roses, she is a wealth of knowledge and has so much information on her blog to share with you all.

So without further ado, let me introduce to you my tribe.

DS, 13. This is his first year of high school and we suddenly feel as though things are now starting to get serious. I'm trying hard to find a balance of that and still find the fun and joy in learning. Neither of us want the high school years to be days filled with nothing much else other than book work! He might as well go to school to do that.

Whilst he is still my same loving, caring, sensitive boy, we have definitely had our share of teenage hormones, which has brought the full gammut of emotions for him. Thankfully he is a pretty even keeled kind of person so none of these last very long.

This year he has chosen to let go of dancing, which he has enjoyed for quite a few years. He has instead started with our local Emergency Services Cadets, which he thoroughly enjoys and has taken to Gymnastics with gusto. He will also continue with our local Drama group.

Our main focus this year is moving forward with more independent learning, tackling topics and subjects on his own, with his own focus and outcomes. It's very early days with that one but baby steps will get us there.

DD, 10 again, growing like a weed as they say. I mean who says that, how can anyone be growing like a weed hahaha Many things are beginning to fall into place for this beautiful girl and I can already see that 2015 will be a year of many achievements for her.

She is very eager to head back to the Gymnastics hall after taking a break at the end of last year. She is also very keen to have a go at Surfing, we have our camp coming up shortly so fingers crossed she gets to have a go then and we may look at some surfing lessons next summer.

Recently she has been drawn to sketching, her self taught skills improve with every single piece and truly she is still very much in love with anything to do with art and craft. I adore that about her as she keeps us continually pulling out the supplies and exercising our creative side.

DS 6, wow the last time we did this he was still but a little curly haired toddler. Oh I do miss those days I truly do, but thankfully this guy is still a very cuddly kid that loves his mumma dearly so I don't miss out on all of that little kid goodness.

He is never left behind by his two older siblings, there is nothing that they do that he can't or at least he will try and I think because of that in so many ways he is so much older than his true age. He's the kid that spent the entire Christmas holidays begging me to start reading lessons with him, seriously who do does that!!

His personality is simply that of, if he wants to do something he will do it, no matter what and as long as I can do my best to help him keep that attitude in tact then he will always do well in whatever it is he chooses.

He also love Gymnastics and adores to dance but is hesitant to try dance classes, he is going to try the drama group that his brother and sister attend so will just have to wait and see if that is for him or not.

Oh I should mention that we took a recent trip to Ballarat and these photo's were taken at Kryal Castle, if you are ever in the area be sure to visit, we really enjoyed our day there.

So now it's your turn. Simply write a post introducing your cherubs to us and add your blog link (the direct link to the post please) to the list below. Oh and be sure to grab the NBTS button for your blog!

<a href="http://ourworldwideclassroom.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Not%20Back%20To%20School%20Blog%20Hop/" target="_blank"><img src="http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk224/realworldlearners/NBTSButton125px.jpg" alt="Our Worldwide Classroom" /></a>

Don't have a blog? We'd love for you to join in over on our facebook page. Just check this link for the Meet The Students thread and you can share some of your lovely pics over there.

Don't forget to visit the other blogs listed and get to know them and their students a little better.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

Thoughts On Our First Day Back

So we are starting our first week back after having six weeks off. Oh wow where on earth did those weeks go! The first day of a long holiday break I always feel as though it is so much time.  

For me, it’s time to create an endless list of things to accomplish whilst we are taking a break from the books. Although I did read a few books that I enjoyed during the holiday break. I never did complete my list, every year the start of school comes round all too quickly and this year I feel it even more so. Geesh, I’ve only just finished packing away our Christmas decorations!

We were so gratefully blessed to spend two separate weeks away on two very different vacations  over the break so I know that reduced my time at home to accomplish all I wanted but I wouldn’t change that for anything. Spending that special time with the ones you love is the most important thing of all.

And so here we begin with a fresh new year upon us. It's week one, day one and my plan is to ease us into things gently. This is as much for me as it is for the kids.

So our plans for the week ahead are>>

Get ourselves organised to be up, out of bed and ready to tackle the day at a reasonable hour. I'd really like us to get to the stage of having started our school day by 8:00am, 8:30am at the latest, we are slow movers here in the morning but rather than push things into the afternoon it simply makes us rushed, so by starting earlier  we should get ourselves at the very least an extra hour every day.

We will begin our new read aloud. I'm going for an Australian Classic here and one I'm not even sure that I've read. Seen the movie several times so I know the story but I really couldn't say if I have read the novel or not. I need to arrange the movie to watch after we've completed the book.

We also have a regular, kids read aloud session. During this time they can choose anything they wish to read to us. It is used purely as a reading aloud exercise.

During our read aloud time we always draw, paint or the like. It's pretty much anything goes here but they do enjoy me giving them drawing challenges or placing still life items on the table for them to draw. Each of us just uses a simple A4 spiral sketch book which we keep in our book basket.

We have tried in the past to keep up with Sketch Tuesday and whilst I love the prompts we've never been that great at doing them weekly. Oh well I guess all that really matters is that we are drawing and painting on a regular basis.

You might have noticed that SKWIRK are sponsoring us this year. This was perfect timing as I spent some time towards the end of last year looking for an online program that I could supplement the kids with.

I am sure it will take a bit of getting used to in regards to

understanding the navigation but the plan is to have my youngest spend some time on SKWIRK whilst I work one on one with my middle child. Then they will swap or vice versa.

They have also promised me a fabulous discount code to share with you all so be on the lookout for that and more posts showing you around SKWIRK itself.

My youngest is already in full swing with reading lessons. He has been begging me the entire holiday break to get started, so a few days ago we lay out on his bed together, cuddled, laughed and enjoyed his very first real reading lessons.

I think I'm going to truly enjoy the process of this with him. He's way smarter than what he ever lets on and surprises me each and every time with what he knows and he's just so damn cute. So of course they will continue this week, using the Fitzroy Reading Program.

This is the first year where I am splitting the kids and truly, it is going to be one of the hardest things I've done in our homeschooling. I always saw us doing things together, around the table or on the couch, chatting, brainstorming, note booking, reading, what have you. I've always had this idea in my mind that sending the kids to their own quarters to complete certain work would be isolating and it was just something that I was never going to do.

Currently we each have our own desk in our study, because of course they are all on different levels with math and language arts, but everything else we do together, generally at the dining table. I can no longer continue to do that though and provide what each of the kids needs right now, so I've been warming myself to the idea the entire holidays.

Now that my eldest is in high school he needs and begs to be challenged more so it is not fair to him to have him plod along with the younger two and neither of them are able to be pushed ahead, so splitting them is really the only option.

Thank goodness for our small family co-op where they all get plenty of opportunity to collaborate with others in a small group setting.

So, for History this year we are trying Pandia Press History Odyssey. We've enjoyed their science

programs and have felt somewhat disillusioned with Story Of The World for some time so we will see how this goes.

We are up to Early Modern Times, the eldest will be using Level 2, which has loads of literature and plenty of writing exercises and the other two will work their way together through Level 1. So they are all on the same time zone and at times we can no doubt still do things together.

The other area where my high schooler will be going things alone is with Physics. This is the science he loves and so he will work through this at his own pace. I will share more at a later date on how we are tackling Physics with him this year.

I hope to get a good head start on History this first week and aim to tackle it every day, which should get us all in a nice routine for that subject matter.

I'm also trying something new this year in regards to record keeping, which I totally suck at. See I'm the kind of gal that just enjoys the doing. I don't see the need for records I think they are a waste of time. The bit of blogging I do is more than enough for me to look back and see what we have and haven't accomplished.

However, now that we are entering high school territory I need to change my attitude with that and get a little more serious. So I've spent the holidays playing with Evernote and you know what I love it! Not just for recording keeping, but for organising my life. I'm sure you will hear more about Evernote in the months to come.

Well that was one big brain dump and if you made it this far, thanks for listening.

I had best get up and get started with our first day of the new school year. Wish me luck!

Happy Home Schooling,
Kylie

The Morning Basket & Table Time

{Our Morning Basket is overflowing with great reads}

I first saw the idea of a Morning Basket over at this lovely blog, well over twelve months ago. I knew then that one day I would implement something similar into our daily routine.

I've been procrastinating on this one for some time, there was always one element that just wasn't quite right so I never made a start.

But, plans are only plans, if you never put them into action, they don't amount to much. So I gathered what I had and just got started. Simple as that!

{During Read Aloud I Set Challenges For Drawing}

Currently in our basket we have:

• A read aloud (this week it's Judy Blume, something short and sweet)
• Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry
• A Really Short History Of Nearly Everything
• Story Of The World
• Life Of Fred
• Memory Work

{This term we are reading Pre Level Chemistry and learning a lot}

How we use the basket:

For each item in the basket the kids have a spiral bound visual arts diary that they use to make an entry. During this part of the day the only expectation that I have set is that they 'make an entry'. How they do that is up to them and this changes on any given day. Some days their entries are elaborate and others not so, that's completely fine by mine.

During our read alouds the kids use their 'Drawing Challenge Notebooks". I've been giving them the Sketch Tuesday Challenges, plus any other challenge I can think of.

Can I tell you that simply calling this portion of the routine a challenge, has completely changed the way the kids view it. They are now generally very eager to jump in and have a go.

{Life Of Fred at this level is certainly too easy but I felt to understand Fred properly we needed to start from the beginning}

We spend about 60 - 90 minutes at the table with our Morning Basket, so I don't get to everything in the basket every day (except our current read aloud). That was always my plan anyway, I didn't want every day to be the same as the previous. I simply rotate things around so that we try and get to everything at least once a week.

I have a growing list of other items that I'd like to add to the basket and over time this will surely change and evolve with our needs.

The one thing we do complete daily is memory work. Oh dear, the dreaded memory work, I can hear the gasps from some of you now! I'm a big believer in ALL things in moderation, which is why I've never been able to fit in to any one homeschooling style. We are very much an eclectic family when it comes to our home school. We do what works at the time!

Anyway back to memorisation. Whilst I'm not a fan of drill and kill, I do see some merit in memorisation work so currently, Lego Lover is reviewing math facts, with Twist & Check Times Tables Cards, Fairy Princess is reviewing phonics and Little Surfer Dude his working on letter and number recognition.

Just on Little Surfer Dude (4) there is absolutely no expectation for him to participate during our morning basket/table time. He has a drawing challenge book (which he doesn't always do) and his memory work, apart from that he comes and goes as he pleases. My only requirement of him is that if he chooses to be at the table with us, he is quiet and not disrupting our time, otherwise I send him off to play.

So whilst its' not perfect I'm very happy with how this newly implemented part of our day is traveling. It gives a positive, light hearted way to start the day all together, before diving into book work!

Do you use a Morning Basket? I'd love to have a look at yours, please leave a link in the comments.