Sunday Shout Out: Educating April

I wanted to share a new blog I've been reading of late - Educating April - they are Aussie Homeschoolers sharing just a little of the fun and adventure they get up to during their days.

Click on over and follow along too.

Not Back To School Sharing - A Day In Our Life

This is something I've wanted to do for a while now, every time I read a similar post somewhere else I thoroughly enjoy it, although our day was certainly nothing exciting, here is a look at yesterday in our house, times are as close as possible.

7:30    

Me Up, Coffee, Blogs, Emails – came across Homeschool Day Book – add a couple of links to my         tagfoot page

8:15    

Put on a load of washing

Make our Bed, general tidy in our room and bathroom

8:30    

Wonder why C couldn’t choose tomorrow to sleep in and then realise that I have to be up early tomorrow anyway as I’m going out for Breakfast with the girls and then heading to a large teacher supply store for a spot of shopping browsing

8:35    

Feeling peckish, off to make something to eat

8:40    

Decide on a toasted English Muffin with Vegemite

Empty the dishwasher whilst it is toasting

Realise that I should probably just be entering this directly into a blog post as opposed to a word document that I will only have to copy and paste across sometime later today.

8:45  

C wakes just as I am finishing my vegemite muffin and of course he wants it for himself

We sit and cuddle and chat, moving between complete silence between us and just enjoying the moment together to idle chatter

8:55

C decides he wants to check the mailbox, I watch him through the window

K wakes, we hug and kiss and I decide I should really get B out of bed

C, however is still out on the drive, chatting to nature and putting the mail in and out of the box, K decides to go out with him

I head down the hall to wake B - he is awake but doesn't want to be

9:00

C and K are back inside and I realise why C wanted to check the letterbox so early. He'd suddenly remembered that he 'posted' us a letter late yesterday afternoon that I didn't know about.

I get up to make C his muffin and K starts an impromptu game with C and coloured pencils. She informs me that he knows pink but really does not know silver or gold.

During this time B emerges, still not that happy to be awake, I think I'll give him a little space

The second I walk away from the toaster K decides that she too would like a muffin - I could suggest she do it herself (because she can) but I don't and just go ahead and make it for her

9:15 

B and I chat about Lego and other bits and bobs and now he is smiling

I suggest to B and K that I could bribe them with money they could earn a bit of extra cash if they wanted to and vacuum the inside of the car. B was happy if it meant getting out of doing school work! No such luck my friends, we compromised, they can do their Math, then take a break and do the car and then finish off his work for the day

9:25

I make sure I have everything prepared for the day. Normally I refill workboxes whilst the kids are working but I didn't do that yesterday. I wondered why and remembered that C was decidedly clingy and whiney yesterday, he woke at 6:15 super early for him so that probably explained it.

9:30

All three are engrossed in a Lego Catalogue, I remind them to complete their 'I Have Charts' and I sneak away for a quick shower.

9:40

I return from the shower unscathed, no one came looking for me until I had emerged (that's a rarity)

K brought me her 50c coin collection that she must of decided to start

I reminded the kids again to finish their I Have Charts

I get the washing out of the machine

9:55

B starts some math - place value notation to 5 places, addition with thousands

K works on counting her jewel sacks (10's skip counting) from Arithmetic Village and fills in the 10's column on a hundred board

C uses the knobbed cylinders and plays with mulitlink blocks

10:15

K moves on to sight words, we play reading roading block on the floor jumping from word to word. She also does some beginning sound practice

10:40

Snack break

Kids decide to do the inside of the car

During which time I, cleaned up from breakfast, took out the garbage, folded and put away some clothes, swept the kitchen/living room floor, checked in very quickly on my forum and grabbed an apple and took 5 minutes to myself out on the deck just sitting, watching the butterflies and the birds go about their day (you've gotta grab those moments for yourself when you can)

11:45

B read a chapter from his current book and I read a small pile of picture books to K and C

12:15

B did some work on phoneme's and choosing correct words to use in sentences

K completed some handwiritng practice and a page from her Learning Stiles Phonics Book

He even includes dialogue as he reads

12:30

B read aloud to me

K worked on Reading Eggs Software

C emptied the box of Bob Books and sat and read some of them

1:00

B did some spelling work and a narration exercise from Writing With Ease (after getting interrupted 3 times we finished around 1:30)

K and C went out with a couple of apples to eat in the cubby

It's not finished so just a peak for now

1:30

B decided to continue work on his Dragon drawing, whilst I made some lunch.

B just had sandwiches, the others asked for a Choc Banana Smoothie/Milkshake, we made a double batch so we could have iceblocks tomorrow  (these are yummy and good - raw milk, a couple of organic ladyfinger bananas, homemade vanilla essence, an organic egg or two and a good heap of organic raw cacao)

K and C watched and got in the way helped out with the process

2:00

B spent some time with his Lego, K and C played with dolls, spun each other around on the office chairs and had a little fun being silly

2:30

Kids decided it was time for a swim, K has some fun with her swimming dolly

I sat and watched and thought a little about my blog, made some notes on a couple of ideas. I think that I should probably be getting organised for next week but I don't.

3:00

Pool's too cold, C asks for Playschool and a milky bottle (a sure sign he is tired but it's too late for a nap, he'll go to bed early tonight.)

Of course B and K sit and watch as well. I jump on and check emails etc.

After Playschool they watch Mister Maker

I fold and put away a few clothes and wander not doing much at all (it's that time of the day)

I jump on facebook for a couple of minutes

4:00

We check our Evaporation Experiment and the kids are excited to see the bowl full of salt (post coming) and looking forward to doing more with the water cycle, evaporation is such a mysterious concept for the kids to grasp

They head out to the backyard to play. I start thinking about dinner.

4:30

B's working on Lego again, K and C are up the back raiding the mulberry tree and looking for passionfruit.

I make a couple of phone calls.

They end up bringing back a bowl of macadmia nuts from the garden, we crack a few and eat them. The three of us move to my bed (B is still engrossed in his lego) where we chat, sing songs, play silly games for about 45 minutes

5:15

Kids go back outside to play and I begin wondering what time DH will be home tonight (he's super busy at the moment) hoping not too late as I'd like an early dinner and an early night....he's just driven in the drive, off to get dinner happening. The kids spend time telling him about what's been happening with them and showing him their creations of the day

6:00

There's still sunlight, the kids were disappointed when I called them in for dinner so they have gone back out to play. I am just heading down to the local corner supermarket to grab a few things.

6:45

The sun is all but gone, everyone's called inside, munch on some grapes for dessert and we clean up from dinner

7:00

C and I have a quick shower, DH watches the news and the kids sneak back outside

I read some stories, sing songs with C and then he goes to bed

7:30

B and K shower, DH watches cricket

They all settle in to crack open a few more macadamia nuts

7:45

I read a chapter of The Secret Garden to B and K

8:15

Kiss them good night, they've had late nights this week so need an early one

I spend a bit of time going through our upcoming units and making lists of books I need

9:15

Spend some time with dh watching a movie

10:45

Bed

Probably not really a typical day for a couple of reasons, we all slept in and so the day began alot later than normal, the kids took an extended break to do the car and we really needed to tie up some loose ends with history and geography that we didn't get to, but ..... is there any such thing as a typical day?!

The Introduction Of 'The Village'

Today K was introduced to 'The Village'.

I realise it has taken me awhile since I first told you about Arithmetic Village. The little wooden treasure box pictured above, is the reason why. I knew I could get them as I have seen them many times before, but do you think I could find one when I needed one, no! Finally on my recent visit to my local art and craft supply store they had them in stock (now I'm kinda thinking maybe I should've bought a few).

I knew having a 'real' looking treasure chest would add to the magic of Arithmetic Village and I wasn't settling for anything else. I wasn't wrong!

The first book in the series is a simple, rythmical introduction to the Village and its' characters. I knew that it would only take a very brief moment to read the story to K and I wanted to draw out the magic for as long as I could.

I filled 9 (nine) jewel sacks with 10 jewels in each and placed them inside the unpainted chest. I placed that next to me on my left, hidden under a towel. Next to the chest (but also hidden under the towel) I placed 1 (one) empty jewel sack and 10 (ten) jewels.

Choosing the perfect time of the day, where K and I could be alone for a few minutes was a challenge, but I was able to sneek it in when the boys were off busy doing whatever it is that boys do.

We sat together on the floor, her on my right, the hidden treasures on my left and the book in front of us. Together we turned to the first page and as I began reading blue jewels started falling from the sky onto the book.

K loves blue and loves all things sparkly and I knew she would enjoy these.

We continued to read, K held and played with the jewels and was enthralled with the gorgeous illustrations on the pages in front of her. When it came time for the jewel sacks to appear I placed the empty one I had to my left on the page.

Together we counted the jewels that had fallen from the sky, just to see how many there were and to our surprise there were 10 (ten), the exact number required to fill a sack, fancy that! She loved that and was eager to continue on and was so taken with the book that she had no idea I had more surprises waiting for her right by my side.

You see the villagers can't possibly carry an infinte number of sacks filled with jewels and to help them out they use treasure boxes that perfectly hold 10 (ten) sacks each filled with 10 (ten) jewels.

I slowly turned the page and at the same time the treasure chest emerged and I placed it on the page as I read. K's face was sheer delight, absolute magic, this is hands down, the BEST EVER moment I have experienced in our nearly 4 years of homeschooling....it literally took my breath away. I was so excited to be experiencing this with her and to be the one to show it to her, that will be one special moment that stays with us for a long time to come.

Her eyes lit up, her face glowed and her smile went from ear to ear....all that waiting for that one little treasure box was oh so worth it! She placed her sack of jewels in the chest and together we counted how many sacks the treasure chest held in total.

We finished the story, she couldn't stop caressing her little treasure chest and asking me, "Did you get this just for me mum?", "What about B and C, is it just for me?" To have something like this that was purely hers...I wish I could have read her mind.

Then I told her she could decorate it in anyway she wanted. You might have noticed in the page from the book that the chest was described as 'sparkly and gold'. Here I was thinking that we would end up with a very brightly coloured chest, but no, she was adamant that it had to be gold.

I suggested that we remove the hinges to make painting easier, but I don't think she believed that I would be able to get them back on, so instead we placed some sticky tape over the top of them.

She spent quite some time painting and decided that glitter glue would make up the 'sparkly' component and set to it with her supply of glitter glue pens. I did lend a little hand with her diamonds as she was getting a little frustrated with them but otherwise the finished treasure chest is completely K's handiwork.

It's outside drying as I type.

Even though K has some understanding of Place Value and Numbers, we will spend some time enjoying getting to know the village and its' villagers (exploring place value and building numbers) before we move on to the next book in the series.

Disclosure: I was given a copy of Arithmetic Village for the purpose of reviewing. All opinions on this blog are my own and were not in anyway influenced by the product provided or by the company.

Our Learning Spaces - Not Back To School Sharing

Today as part of my own little Not Back To School Fun I'm sharing some of our Learning Spaces. We never stick to one room and do take our activities all over the house. We are blessed to have a largish home with plenty of indoor and outdoor space to spread out in.

These photo's are all from the one room which is probably best classified as our Home Office, Home Library and Home School Storage Space. Do we spend time in here completing activities but we are not bound to this space.

This was actually two fairly small rooms that were only divided by a wardrobe, since we barely ever used one of the rooms it made sense to convert the space, once we knew for sure that homeschooling was an important part of lives, into one larger more useable space.

The room is definitely a work in progress and nowhere near where I see it being. It's actually quite plain and boring right now also, being the start of a new school year we strip the walls bare.

When you first enter the room, via one single door, that is situated close to the center you can see straight out into our front yard. On your left, right alongside the doorway is this shelving unit. This is the last place in the room that still needs the magical touch of a cabinetmaker, so for now these shelves make do.

This is basically my daily go to shelf, where everything we are currently (or will be very soon) using is housed.

Top Shelf - Office must have's, well technically not must have's but make life easier's hehehe  Shredder, Laminator, Binding Machine

First Shelf - Geography Books and some folders that the kids add to from time to time on some of their favourite topics. B's is Star Wars and K's is Fairies.

Second Shelf -  Each child has a magazine folder for odds and ends and things that we hope to get to soon but aren't actually in their rotation of activities right now. There's a few of our current read alouds sitting there and the white basket is simply paperwork, catalogues and stuff I still need to file.

Third Shelf - Each of us has 2 coloured lever arch file folders to store our completed work in (although mine is more for planning and other paperwork)

Fourth Shelf - Each child has a basket that holds all of their current activities, school books etc....this is what I pull from daily when adding items into the kids workboxes. It makes life so much easier for me to have one basket for each child. C's obviously quite empty, he is only 2 after all ;-)

Bottom Shelf - Unit Study Baskets, current studies we are working on or will start in the coming weeks (I need one more basket to fill the empty space). So right now I have a basket for beginning Geography stuff, an Aboriginal Unit Study and I am working on getting started on Earth & Space (which I need a basket for). My History stuff just gets stored anywhere I can find room at the moment as I only have enough space on that shelf for 3 baskets.

If I had a spare shelf it would be great for future planning of unit studies. The baskets make it really easy to add to and I keep notes in the baskets (books on order or too order, websites to visit, items to print, supplies to purchase etc) as well so even if I haven't worked on planning a particular study for a few days I can easily pull the basket out and have everything at my fingerstips.

Moving around the room is our main desk area that houses two computers, well that was until one died. I'm still undecided with what to do on the wall under the cupboards behind the computer screens. I'd like some kind of cork/magnetic board but am concerned that it would just be another place to attract clutter, albeit hanging clutter.

The keyboard also stored in here, I really need to find a more permanent solution for this though. As the kids do their keyboard lessons online they need the computer and it is a chore to set it up each day.

Keep turning to the right and you are virtually standing in the doorway (this is what you see when you enter the room). I'm still contemplating what to actually do with that wall space where the world map is. We don't have alot of available wall space in here to hang things.

I was considering attaching the map to a framed cork board so we can easily pin on it but then I'm not sure I want to do that to the map and may just print one off to use in that way. However if it was attached to an easily removed board of some description then I could change out that wall depending on what we are studying at the time. I also thought that world time clocks might kinda look cool hanging across the top of the map there but haven't seen anything that works for me yet....decisions, decisions, decisions.

There you can also see the kids workbox draws ( a new addition for us this year) that I'll post about sometime soon.

The centre shelf holds C's Bambino Academy Work Trays for when we are in this room. We still have the area for him out in our 'Kindy Garage' for when we are also out there.

Keep on turning to the right and you looking at the other end of the room. You can see K's adjustable height desk on the left, she looks out of the window and is a nice spot in the mornings to sit and watch the cows over the road grazing.

The second desk in the room, doesn't have an actual purpose right now. B doesn't have his own desk, sometimes he'll use this one, other times he'll sit up at the computer area, he generally reads on his bed and often will go off somewhere else to complete his 'quiet' work.

The shelves and cupboards above this desk will house my scrapbooking supplies and extra special craft supplies...when I ever find the time to finish sorting them. I hope to slowly transform this area into a Writing Centre of sorts and will keep you updated on my progress.

 

Yet another turn to the right and you are at our main book shelf unit, floor to ceiling, with super chunky shelves to hold the weight of all of those books. It certainly isn't as neat and tidy as I would like it but I am still working on cataloging all of my books over at Library Thing, this is very much a stop start type activity. I have quite a ways to go yet and if the book isn't catalogued then it is not on these shelves.

The shelves are organsied by subject/theme, it just made sense to me to do it that way. The bottom left (in the corner shelves) three shelves are all Science, so broken into Anatomy, Earth & Space, Animals etc etc, as we are preparing to cover a theme I look for books at Lifeline Bookfests, 2nd Hand stores and Book Depository.

Above there are history, of which we haven't done a great deal so there is shelf space in here. Currently in that shelf space is some of the books and games that I picked up at the last lifeline bookfest, waiting to be organised.

To the right bottom shelf is Preschool type books and easy readers. Up from there is a shelf for Language Arts and then one for Math, then up we go to Art, Craft and  Music books, next up is seasonal books, Christmas etc and top shelf is character building, religion and parenting books.

Just next to the main bookshelf is C's little spot up against the door. This is where he does his 'school work'.

Hope you enjoyed the little tour. :-)

Next week I'll share a day in our life.

School's Out - Article on Homeschooling

Just a quick post to share a link to an article on homeschooling published in a local Brisbane Mag, called BMag.

Possibly one to pass on to friends and family that may have some concerns or to those considering homeschooling.

The homeschooling community is delightfuly full of people that are happy to share and bless others with their finds, (so unlike my experience as a mother at school) which is how I came across the copy of this article.

Valentines Fun Wrap Up

Things have been a bit hectic here over the past week and I just haven't had the time to sit and blog. So I thought I'd share a brief wrap up of some of our Valentines Day Fun.

Several rounds of Tic Tac Toe from Musings of Me were played.

What's a celebration without some window bling, of course heart shaped was the order of the day. 

Cut 2 hearts the same size from clear contact.

I taped C's to his tray so it didn't keep sticking to his fingers. We thought feathers would be fun to try this time, instead of the regular tissue or cellophane paper. 

Once covered with feathers, lay over the 2nd piece of contact and seal the heart. You don't really need the second piece but this allows us to keep the decorations from year and makes removing them from the windows much easier.

Sit back and enjoy the handiwork. This photo is kinda funky, not sure what's going on there!

We all contributed to our "Why I Love You" Heart Garland, by completing hearts over the days leading up to Valentines Day. I made a simple template that I printed onto cardstock, on the front we wrote who the Valentine was for and then flipped it over wrote about why we love that person.

The kids decorated them with stickers and paper flowers. That photo isn't the greatest I know, I had to smudge names and the garland didn't go the distance. I really need to do better with my garlands than just a piece of string and some sticky tape, I'm just saying you know! Any ideas for something semi permanent (so I can pull it down and put it easily) would be great.

 

This was so simple to print off in publisher but I thought I'd share the file anyway (for next year of course ;-) ) download it by clicking here.

How many ways can you spell Heart, found over at Mathwire

We of course completed our Geometric Paper Quilt that I shared last week, see the full post here.

A simple chocolate cake for dessert (which was a huge hit as we don't generally do dessert around here). I had nothing on hand to decorate it specifically for valentines day so after icing I grabbed some heart shape foamies, carefully placed them on top and dusted with icing sugar.

It turned out so pretty I think I'll be using that one again. We set the table with our cake, my flowers from gorgeous DH and scattered our completed Valentines around the table (and I'm not sharing a photo because I can't be bothered to smudge all of those names on all of those hearts) it was very festive.

After dinner we each chose one of the valentines that was addressed to us and read it aloud. It was fun, silly and a great way to spend the evening with my gorgeous family.

I've dated the valentines and plan on keeping them so we can look back on them over the years. Some of the I Love You's are too cute, here's a few you (I am leaving out names though)

I Love You Because:

• You built an awesome cubby house

• You look after me

• You are kind and caring

• You cuddle me

• You play with me

• You give me hugs

• You go swimming with me

Our up and coming chef has advanced to chief cake cutter and is doing a mighty fine job at it too. Yes that is chocolate icing on her sleeve ;-)

Lovely, plain and simple fun for Valentines Day!

Our Plans For 2011 - Not Back To School Sharing

Following are our plans for all 3 kiddos. I'm very flexible on our plans though, nothing is set in stone. If something isn't working we change it around, move on or forget it altogether (for now at least).

This year I will have Bambino Academy in full swing, with C turning 3 mid year. He is also getting a double whammy of fun this year. His very lovely Grandma has decided to have 'Grandma's Garage Kindy' (because they will have everything set up in her garage and she is early childhood trained YAY!!) day with C and his cousin L (who is 9 months older than him) on most Monday's throughout the year. Hopefully I will have some photo's of those days to share too.

B is technically doing 4th grade and K is doing 1st, although please know I really dispise the use of grades and labelling the kids in that way. I know it is easier but it is very rarely accurate, all kids are different and are generally at various levels across the subject areas and not always working at their grade level. For the most part they will each have their own Math and Language areas to work on, but we combine everything else.

For example with History, K simply listens in and only completes what she chooses (I do not require her to narrate or produce written work). However B will generally narrate and complete a notebooking/lapbooking piece.

You will also notice that I mention "EC Days" under our subject areas. Our 'registered school' runs special days for the children (4 or 5 per term) where they do loads of extra curricular activities. We also have a very active support network that runs weekly classes and activities and those are also listed under the appropriate subject areas.

So without further ado here are plans for the year ahead.

2011 Plans and Goals

C:  2.5 – 3.5 years

Montessori Inspired Activities to cover:
•    Practical Life
•    Sensory
•    Math
•    Language
•    Culture
•    Science

Themed Based Letter of the Week Style Activities:

•    C is for Caterpillar for example

Overall aims and goals for this year:

Math:

•    Rote count to 20
•    1:1 counting to 10
•    Recognise numbers 1 – 10
•    Exposure to simple addition
•    Introduction & exposure to the elements of a calendar, including weather, days of the week, months of the year, seasons
•    Exposure to Australian money
•    Exposure to clocks, o’clock time and half past

Language:

•    Memorise 8 Nursery Rhymes
•    Learn basic colours (red, blue, green, yellow, black, white, pink, orange, purple, brown - he knows several already)
•    Learn basic shapes (square, triangle, circle, rectangle, star, oval, diamond, heart - knows the majority already)
•    Recognise his name
•    Exposure to letters and letter sounds
•    Make books and stories together

Science & Social Studies:

Covered via themed based letter of the week activities, sitting in on the bigger kids fun & life in general

K: 1st Grade

Language Arts

Phonics:

•    ETC (complete) Primers and Book 1 (will move ahead as she is ready to)
•    Montessori Pink Series Works
•    Progressive Phonics? This will depend on how she goes with what we already have.
•    Bob Books, moving into Fitzroy Readers
•    Happy Phonics? Considering this as I have heard good things, not sure I need to invest in more phonics stuff though.
•    Software on hand
•    Finish Initial Sound Crafts & Activities

Sight Words:

•    On Track Reading Sight Word Program and Readers (Australian)

Penmanship:

•    Handwriting Without Tears

Spelling:

•    All About Spelling Level 1 (begin in later half of the year)

Writing:

•    Connect The Thoughts Creative Writing Program
•    Writing With Ease (will consider for 2nd half of year)
•    Copywork
•    Use of Writing Centre (post coming) – Poetry, Letters, Notes, Cards, Scrapbooking

Grammar:

•    First Language Lessons (will consider for 2nd half of year)

Math:

•    Mathletics Online
•    Math U See Primer/Alpha
•    Montessori Math Activities

Science:

•    EC Days Science Classes
Pandia Press REAL Science – Earth & Space (am trying this out with their free trial download)

•    Weather & Seasons 
•    Water Cycle
•    Earth’s Interior and Surface
•    Minerals
•    Rocks & Rock Cycle
•    Erosion & Soil
•    The Earth/Moon
•    The Solar System
•    The Planets
•    Stars, Comets, Meteroids & Asteroids

History:

•    The Ancients, Story of the World as spine. Still considering Pandia Press History Odyssey. Supplement with living books and activities

Geography:

•    Introduction to Continents & World Geography
•    World Wide Wanderings – Countries of Europe

Social Studies:

•    Aboriginal Unit (mini unit)
•    Valentines Day – read alouds & crafts
•    St Patricks Day – read alouds & crafts
•    Easter – read alouds, crafts & activities
•    ANZAC Day – read alouds
•    Christmas – read alouds, crafts & activities

The Arts:

•    Classes with home school group Art Teacher
•    Art Lessons & Crafts as they relate to unit studies
•    Art Appreciation/History & Artists study as they relate to unit studies
•    EC Days Art Classes
•    EC Days Dance & Drama Classes

Music:

•    Children’s Music Journey Keyboard Lessons
•    EC Days Music/Singing Classes

Sport:

•    EC Sport Classes
•    LHEN Sports (swimming)
Private Dance Classes

Languages Other Than English

Spanish – weekly group lessons, revision at home using
•    Spanish for Children, McGraw Hill
•    Digital Dialects Games
Japanese – weekly group lessons, (trialling in term 1)

Main educational aims and goals for this year:

•    Reading simple readers fluently
•    Complete Level 2 of On Track Reading Sight Word Program
•    Build confidence to independent writing, regardless of spelling ability
•    Complete single digit addition and subtraction problems with ease

B: 4th  Grade

Language Arts

Phonics:

•    Fitzroy Readers
•    Software on hand
•    Reading, free time and read aloud during school

Sight Words:

•    Finish Off Fry’s 1000 Sight Word List

Reading:

•    Drawn Into The Heart Of Reading – Comprehension Program

Penmanship:

•    Handwriting Without Tears Cursive

Spelling:

•    All About Spelling Finish Level 1→Level 2 (possibly begin Level 3)

Writing:

•    Connect The Thoughts Creative Writing Program
•    Writing With Ease
•    Copywork
•    Use of Writing Centre  – Poetry, Letters, Notes, Cards, Scrapbooking

Grammar:

•    First Language Lessons 1,2,3 depending on ease of levels

Math:

•    Mathletics Online (Grade 4)
•    Math U See Beta/Gamma (we have just gone back to MUS so is slightly behind, but breezing through the work, will be finished Beta by Easter)
•    Montessori Math Activities
•    Times Attack Online Game
•    Other games where appropriate

Science:

•    EC Days Science Classes
Pandia Press REAL Science – Earth & Space  (trying with their free trial download)
•    Weather & Seasons
•    Water Cycle
•    Earth’s Interior and Surface
•    Minerals
•    Rocks & Rock Cycle
•    Erosion & Soil
•    The Earth/Moon
•    The Solar System
•    The Planets
•    Stars, Comets, Meteroids & Asteroids

History:

•    The Ancients, Story of the World as spine. Still considering Pandia Press History Odyessy. Supplement with living books, activities, notebooking and a timeline

Geography:

•    Introduction to Continents & World Geography
•    World Wide Wanderings – Countries of Europe

Social Studies:

•    Aboriginal Unit (mini unit)
•    Valentines Day – read alouds and crafts
•    St Patricks Day – read alouds and crafts
•    Easter – read alouds, crafts & activities
•    ANZAC Day – read alouds
•    Christmas – read alouds, crafts & activities

The Arts:

•    Classes with home school group Art Teacher
•    Art Lessons & Crafts as they relate to unit studies
•    Art Appreciation/History & Artists study as they relate to unit studies
•    EC Days Art Classes
•    EC Days Dance & Drama Classes

Music:

•    Children’s Music Journey Keyboard Lessons
•    EC Days Music/Singing Classes

Sport:

•    EC Days Sport Classes
•    LHEN Sports

Languages Other Than English:

Spanish – weekly group lessons, revision at home using
•    Spanish for Children, McGraw Hill
•    Digital Dialects Games
Japanese – weekly group lessons, (trialling this term)

Technology/Multimedia:

•    Across all subject areas as appropriate, digital camera and claymation work
•    Activities from Internet for Kids
•    Activities from Multimedia Projects

Main educational aims and goals for this year:

•    Proficient and Confident in reading at a standard 4th grade level
•    Writing paragraphs of at least 5 – 6 sentences (from scratch) with ease (regardless of spelling)
•    Addition & Subtraction to 7 places
•    Multiplication Facts to 144

Valentine Geometric Paper Quilt

Thanks to Mathwire we've been creating Valentine Geometric Paper Quilt's. Granted the only link to Valentines Day is the fact that we used red and pink paper, but they sure do look rather pretty.

I even got to join in on the fun. We each completed three 3x3 grids and put them all together to form a large quilt pattern.

These larger collaborative pieces are something that (often) homeschooled kids can miss out on so it was fun to work on something together and have a larger display on the wall.

In fact they worked together so well that they created a 'dinosaur' image within the quilt, can you see it?

What Valentines fun are you having in your home this year?

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

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Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.   This posted is linked to   Dear Homeschooler Valentines Theme