Homeschool Transitions

Here we are at Week Four, the final week of the Not Back To School Blog Hop. If you missed the first few weeks why not go back and check them out, there's been some great posts shared by some of my fellow Aussie Homeschool Bloggers.

Week One we chatted about our hopes, dreams and goals for the year ahead.

Week Two saw us talking about how we school.

Week Three our focus was on resources for the year ahead.

This year we are transitioning into much more serious work. My eldest has entered his final three years of home schooling and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't just a little bit freaked out by that for various reasons.

He and I have chatted at length about the future ahead. We've both agreed that ensuring he has a strong educational base to leave here with is of the utmost importance to all of us.

That's not to say that we've spent the past ten years of our home ed experience sitting around twiddling our thumbs because we certainly haven't. We've simply done things differently over the years to what we are doing today.

"Today is about more structure, more focus and more accountability on both of our parts."

Is this an easy transition for us?

No, it isn't. I'm tired already and we aren't even halfway through our first term. I am already checking the calendar for our next school break and he is most definitely feeling the added pressure.

But we are simply forming new habits and doing so takes time, hard work,  diligence and perseverance. New habits are not formed over night.

Would we have found this easier if we'd been doing what I guess could be called a more standard model of homeschooling over the years? Without a doubt I believe so yes, as it would simply be a natural progression. Do I wish I could go back and change how we have done things over the past ten years. Without a doubt, NO!

I wholeheartedly embrace the notion that children need play and lots of it, even when they are teens. They need loads of time to tend to themselves, to be bored, to explore, to seek out their own interests and to simply just be. Most often the way to achieve this is by lots of unstructured learning and bucket loads of down time. All of which we have experienced over the years.

I also feel we are finding this much harder simply because we are coming off the back of a very haphazard year.

Now don't get me wrong, I do not believe in any way that I have placed to high expectations on either myself or my tenth grader. I know some of you showed concerns when I shared our resource list, but I will come back to how we are using those resources in another post.

He is still doing far less 'sit down at a desk' academic type work than some of this other home schooled and public schooled peers. Granted he's also doing more than others too. But this is not about what anyone else is doing. It is only about him.

Through our entire homeschooling period one of the most important things to me has been one of 'enjoying life'. That really has been of our big driving forces in home schooling. To not be bound by school terms, school rules, school work and everything else that goes along with attending regular school. We are free to do as we please and simply live life on our terms, not one dictated to us by the institution that is school.

I always said that as a home school family if the kids get to a stage where they don't have enough time to simply enjoy themselves then they might as well be in school. Sitting at home on their own completing school work all day every day is no fun for anyone. At least if they were at a high school they would get to talk to other teens.

I have always vowed that our home school would never become like that and so we find ourselves in that tricky place of transitioning.

Of ensuring we keep the wonder, the fun and the excitement alive. Ensuring there is plenty of 'play time' and time for friends, yet making certain that the academics are not being left behind.

Whilst it is still only early days in the year some of the things we have done to help us ease into our new routine is - - >

A thorough weekly check list for the tenth grader. This gives him the freedom to work on what he chooses, but by having a full week's overview he can easily see what he may be favouring and what subjects he isn't getting in enough of.

Using this though is going to take some work. Whilst we've tried checklists over the years, they've never been something we've stuck with so it will take work and even then I can't be sure it is something we will continue with.

The checklist is not only for him though it also helps me to see where he is at and I use the info on the checklist to plug everything in to a private blog he and I have.

The blog is our primary record keeping tool. I am currently adding in every thing he does in his day onto the blog. This means being diligent in snapping photo's, keeping up with everything he is doing, scanning documents and then adding all of this to a post each week.

I must admit though I am really loving being able to open the blog and see what he's accomplished. In previous years there was a little part of me that wondered how much we were actually doing and now I know because it is right there in front of me.

We also need to start a portfolio of sorts, but as yet I don't really know how we will go about that. For now I think at the end of the first term we will go through what has been completed and decide what is worthy to go into the "high school years portfolio". That one needs some more thinking on though.

The other challenge for us is that we still have two younger kids in the house and so we find ourselves in the position of having two kids that have completed their structured work and are off doing things of their own interest whilst the tenth grader is still going at it with his work. That also means that for me I am still 'switched on' for a much longer period in my day than what I have been in the past.

Being certain that we have a serious focus whilst work is being completed, that we are keeping track of work that has been completed in an adequate fashion and also adding in more assignment based explorations is challenging. I also know that the accomplishments at the end of the week are great.

The other factor is he currently doesn't have a direction he is working towards. Now that is totally fine my be and him, but it does leave us in a situation of not really knowing what is going to be important or not. And so for this year at least we are exploring what we can, ensuring we have a wide enough, yet deep enough coverage in the subject areas for him.

As always, plans change, we will always remain very fluid and at any given time if his direction changes then everything he is doing will no doubt change to suit that. These next few years are all about meeting him where he is at and constantly reassessing what we are doing on a daily basis. Actually as I type that I realise that that part of home school is no different.

So for now this is where we are at. A place of forming new habits as we both enter what is new territory for us.

Be sure to read the other bloggers posts linked up below. Simply click on one of the square images to be taken to their blog.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

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2017 Homeschool Resources

Here we are at week three of our not back to school blog hop. This week our theme is that of 'Resources'. This is generally an area that everyone is interested in. It's always helpful to see what others are using and even more so if you happen to find a new to you product that may just be what you're looking for.

Don't forget to visit the other blogs by clicking on their links in the images at the bottom of this post.

If you still need to catch up on week one, our hopes, dreams and goals for the year ahead or week two,  the way we school, then now would be a great time to do that!

I must admit this year has well and truly got a head start on me. I'm still back at January first, in many ways, to be honest. Whilst we've well and truly started back with all of our book work and most of our regular activities I'm yet to actually write up and share a list of our resources for my two younger kids (7th & 3rd grades). The days have been full and have left little time to write I'm afraid.

As soon as I get that done I will come back and edit this post. For now though I do have our resources for my 10th grader which you can see here >>>

He and I have also started a private high school blog. This is where we will record all of his learning that happens. It also includes lists of all of his resources and go to websites for him. I have started creating his assignments in a blog post too.

So far we are really liking this set up for record keeping and assignment setting. The goal will be to get to the stage where he is adding all of his own record keeping. We will also use this as a way for his over seeing school to easily look in on his work.

Be sure to read the other bloggers posts linked up below. Simply click on one of the square images.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

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The Way We School

It's week two of the Not Back To School Blog Hop for 2017!

Have you all been and read the posts from the first week of our not back to school blog hop? If you haven't done that yet please go and check them out. You will find the links to them here at the bottom of this post.

This week our theme is

The Way We School

Like most homeschooling families, this has changed many times over, during the past eleven years for us. I try my hardest to be fluid, to meet the kids where they are at and to find ways that work for all of us. Simply doing what works, as opposed to what everyone else is doing, has been my mantra for quite some time now.

For now what has been working for us is a 4 pronged approach to homeschool. Those 4 prongs are made up of co-operative peer group learning, morning basket family group learning, independent rotation learning and doing one more thing.

I'll give you all a quick overview of each of those prongs and how we roll with them.

Co-operative Peer Group Learning

This is an area that has grown exponentially for us over the past couple of years and for my teen especially has become an imperative part of his education. I am a strong believer that we all need a peer group and even more so as our children age. That's not say that I agree with sending off them for 6 - 8  hours a day 5 days a week to spend all of that time with their peers. No way! But we do need peers, they help us see the world through their eyes, to learn from, to grow with, to bounce ideas and thoughts around. To be there for us celebrate to good times and hug us in the not so great times. Our peers help us navigate the world around us, they assist us in learning how to deal with others both in good times and bad. If we forego those experiences as a youngster then how will we ever learn to navigate the world that is full of strangers out there.

However, co-operative learning for us needs to be quality, it needs to be able to mark off a true day of school. Yes we are absolutely having fun, but we are also learning and learning at a deeper level, not just gathering with others for socialising and calling it educational.

So we currently partake in 2 co-operative learning days a week, during school terms. One runs for 6 weeks and the other for 8 weeks. One is very small with only 4 families involved, but it allows for a real closeness to grow. The small size also gives us the opportunity to really dig deeper in what we are studying and truly spend time on the things we need or want. For example our teens in that little group have spent the last 2 years working solidly through Australian History and a Creative Writing Program. We have time to take our time, we don't need to limit what we are doing to a short 8 week block.

Our other co-op is larger, with around 35 children across a wide group of ages in attendance. This co-op is a bustling hive of activity and all of us enjoy our co-op days immensely.

Morning Basket, Family Group Learning

I've mentioned our morning basket time a bit here on the blog, simply it is a way for us to gather together as a family. To bring all the various ages, abilities and interests of my kids together. A time to begin the day, to bond and to grow together.

As the kids have grown they have needed to branch out and work more independently, morning basket has been our way of keeping at least part of our day for us to all be together.

Independent Rotations

This part of our day is exactly as it sounds. Independent Rotations follows straight after our Morning Basket time. Basically each of the children complete independent work and then I rotate through seeing each of them.

Each child heads off to their own area to work independently. For my 8 year old this means still having me very close by, but slowly he is becoming more and more independent in his work.  As soon as he and I are done, he has some free time.

I then move on to my middle child to go over her work and to complete anything we have that we do together. We also use this time to do more reading aloud, when it's just us and she can choose a book she really wants to read.

Then she joins her little brother for a spot of free time and I head over to see what my eldest is up to. We don't meet every single day, but at least twice a week he and I will sit down together to chat about what he's up to and where he is headed.

By that time it is well and truly lunch and we are all ready for a break.

Doing One More Thing

Now this is one area that I am really not very good at. We always start the year out well but I do tend to let this slip by the wayside. So once again my plan is to be more intentional with our 'doing one more thing'.

All this simply means is that after lunch we do something else. It doesn't mean that it is an afternoon spent tied to the books. So basically it could be an art project, some history reading, a documentary to watch, a science experiment to complete etc etc.

In my head I see us rotating through topics and subjects for this part of our day and I have begun writing out some plans for this, but in reality it is more likely to be, let's just see where it takes us.

And that then brings us to the end of the day, or the more structured, formal learning part of our days anyway. It's been working well for us and it is a routine we will continue to put into place until it longer works.

How about you? Do you have a routine like structure to your day? Please share it the comments so others may be inspired. Or if you blog, why not join us in our blog hopping fun.

Be sure to read the other bloggers posts on 'how they school' by visiting the links below.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

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Hope, Dreams & Goals For Our Year Ahead

Well the start of a new school year is already upon us! Once again I have teamed up with some of my Australian Homeschool Blogging friends to bring you four weeks of 'not back to school' blogging fun.

Over the coming weeks we will all be blogging about our year ahead, and what we envisage that to look like for us. At the bottom of each 'not back to school' post you will find links to the other bloggers that have joined in. Simply click the image and it will take you to their blog and their post on the same topic.

This is such a great way to get a well rounded overview on differing ideas. Two heads are better than one, so the saying goes and when it comes to planning for and setting up your year ahead this is definitely the case.

If you are interested you can view past Not Back To School Blog Hops at this link.

Our first themed NBTS post is one of looking ahead, one of dreams of the future and of the goals we've laid down, not only for ourselves, but for our children, our family and our homeschools.

And so as Walt Disney said:

We've had such a tumultuous eighteen or so months that our lovely homeschooling groove really has fallen by the wayside. We kept up our academics as best we could but it was very haphazard and snippets of time were grabbed when we could get them. Then there is the constant battle of the screens in all of the their various forms that have invaded our days and have affected how they pan out.

Now I take full responsibility here for that one. I spent many years fighting screens, and not allowing mindless game playing, until finally giving in to the dreaded peer pressure, which at the time was Minecraft. This it seemed, has opened the flood gate. I know I am in a place where it can't be closed and in all honesty I don't want to close the gate completely. There are many valuable uses for the various screens and let's not forget the joy my kids derive from them. We all need a little mindless downtime here and there.

As most of you are aware we were also experiencing some major life trauma's and my guard was down a great deal of the time. I just didn't have the emotional capacity to worry about my dying friend and how much time my kids were spending on screens. After all my kids are all fighting fit and healthy, my best friend was dying before my eyes. And so the kids easily gravitated to their screens more and more. Whilst part of me regrets allowing that to happen, I am choosing to give myself some grace here. Last year was a majorly 'sucky' one and I know I was doing the best that I was able to do given the circumstances.

We've also moved from a very home centered school day to one where we partake in two relatively academic co-ops. These have been a wonderful addition to our lives in many aspects, but in part they have also made learning at home with just one's brother or sister appear a little boring.

So, whilst I do have a long list of hopes, dreams and goals for the year ahead, my number one focus will be on bringing back the joy into our homeschool. Bringing back our focus, our routines and connecting our hearts once more so that our days at home together, albeit different, are just as joyous as the days we spend with our co-op friends, or the time the kids are playing with their screens.

It's called balance isn't it and that is my main driving force for the year ahead. Bringing back the balance.

What about you? I'd love to hear what your hopes and dreams are for the year ahead. Please share them in the comments.

Don't forget that there are some other wonderful Homeschooling Blogs joining me in this post, just scroll down a little and click on the images to be taken directly to their posts about their hopes and dreams for the year.





Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

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A Day In Our Life - Not Back To School Blog Hop 2016

This is the fourth and final week of the All Australian Not Back To School Blog Hop, hasn't that gone fast! I hope you've enjoyed reading all of the different thoughts and ideas posted by all of the bloggers.

If you missed any previous weeks, links to them can be found at the bottom of this post.

This week we are taking a fly on the wall approach and sharing a Day In Our Lives.

Like most homeschoolers no two days really look the same here in our house. I have chosen to document what is as close to a regular school day as I can. These days occur at the most three times a week. Once a week we have our micro school day and once a week we have co-op, so that leaves us three days for some type of structured learning at home, if we aren't out on excursions and the like.

7:00am

Time to rise and shine

Grab a cuppa

Check emails & social media

Check my Review Crew

Make sure I have everything ready to go for today

Kids are still snoozing

Love my quiet mornings

8:00am

Breakfast

Showers

Things are a bit slow going this morning, me included

9:00am

Morning basket

Read Alouds

Logic of English

10:00am

We break off to work independently

I spend about 40 minutes with the 7 year old
Phonics, addition & reading aloud
We play silly games racing each other
Him with his work and mine in the kitchen
He loves this part of our day
It adds excitement to something he may not otherwise love

The older two doing their own work independently

11:00am

7 year old is practicing drums

I'm one on one with my 11 year old
Going over anything she needs help with

The teen is busy busy busy, grabbing fruit and iced water to replenish himself

12:00pm
A quick check with my teen
Is he on track?
Does he need anything?
All is well.
Lunchtime!

1:00pm
We completed the next section in our Rainforest Journey
And decided to call it a day.
 It's hot!
We needed to run a few errands
The pool was calling.

So far this year we have no extra curricular activities on Wednesday evenings, so that means a lovely quiet evening at home together, trying to stay cool!

Your Turn - Add Your Links Or Click On One Of The Images To See What Others Are Getting Up To.

Want To Catch Up?

Week 1 - Homeschool Resources

Week 2 - Why I'm Grateful For Homeschooling

Week 3 - Learning Spaces

Thanks for joining in on another great year of the All Australian Not Back To School Blog Hop.

Want More Day In The Life Posts?

Visit the other Schoolhouse Crew 'Day In The Life Posts' by clicking on the image below.

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

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Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.  

Learning Spaces - Not Back To School Blog Hop 2016

Here we are with the third installment of this years All Australian Not Back To School Blog Hop. Have you been keeping up with everyone's posts?

In case you missed any you can see week 1 (homeschool resources) here and week 2 (Why I'm grateful for homeschooling)

This week it is time to share our learning spaces. I think it is fair to say that the vast majority of homeschoolers don't use one single classroom space. They utilise everything around them but for the ease of this post I'm sharing our main home office and library room.

If you've followed my blog for any length of time you will have seen most of this before. The room most likely contains more books than it did a year or so ago as our library continues to grow.

We've also added this additional work space. My youngest turns 8 this year and no longer enjoys sitting at a little desk, so we now have a third work space option here in this room.

I love that this centre piece is big enough for all three of the kids to sit around if wanted. Whilst it is still a work in progress the book shelves in this area hold mostly Australian materials.

On the shelves underneath are a few of our hands on manipulatives and resources. The vast majority of these are stored in a cupboard in another room though.

This is the main larger corner bookshelf unit where all of our curriculum books are housed. They are either grouped by subject or theme. It's kind of messy right now and could do with a good clean out but, this is real life and mostly that's what the shelves tend to look like.

One day I will be brave enough to actually do a little video walk through of the shelf unit so you can see more closely what's on there.

This is taken from the other end of the room looking back at the shelves and the third work space. It's a great space and we are very lucky to have this

Looking For More School Room Ideas?

Simply click the links below to check out how others use their spaces to homeschool.

Now It's Your Turn 

Link up your  home school spaces blog posts below.

Check Pinterest For More Ideas

Looking for even more ideas on learning spaces and organisation. Have a look at my pinterest board.


Follow Our Worldwide Classroom's board Homeschool: Organisation on Pinterest.  

Happy Homeschooling,
Kylie

Why I'm Grateful For Homeschooling - 2016 Not Back To School Blog Hop

Here we are, week two of the All Australian Not Back To School Blog Hop. If you missed the first week go back and have a little look around over there first.

This week we are all writing about 'Why We Are Grateful For Homeschooling'. I think I could probably go on for quite some time with this list but I've tried to keep it fairly succinct.

Freedom In Homeschooling

Homeschooling provides a level of freedom that simply does not exist when you have school bells and school terms to work around. Our days, weeks, and months are completely free to do with as we choose. Some of the biggest advantages in this regard is with family holidays. We can choose if we wish to take holidays when they best suit us, the season and the pricing

We also have complete freedom in choosing exactly how education looks like in our home.  This has differed over the years depending on the kids, our family circumstances and any other extra curricular items that may come into play.

Flexibility In Homeschooling 

In some ways flexibility has also been covered under freedom. Although what I will refer to here is the flexibility of our educational path. Because I wholeheartedly trust in this process I can truly allow the kids to work at their own pace. This is not to say that I don't have periods where I freak out, worry, cry and poor my heart out about how much so and so is struggling. Because I have absolutely done all of those things, however when I get over myself and my fears I always come back to trusting the process and trusting the child. And I have to say that this has never failed me, yet!

Whilst we are a curriculum using family I piece together each year exactly what it is my children will use, based on the areas they either need to work on or have an interest in.

I am beyond grateful that I have that level of flexibility. For our family I could think of nothing more stifling to not only the kids learning styles but to my teaching style, than having to work through a prescribed program with not much scope for adding to it or taking some things away. I understand that this works for some families and that's great for them, but they aren't us and this is where flexibility really comes in to play. Each family truly can choose what is best for them.

Family Time With Homeschooling

Clearly this goes without saying. There are so many demands and pressures on all of us today, I couldn't begin to imagine what it would be like for our family if we were all separated for most of the day. I do know for sure that we would barely know each other and for having the gift of time with my children I am truly grateful. And yes even on those days when a completely quiet home and three kids in school seems like a great idea!

Friendships And Homeschooling

Friendships are important for us all but what I am grateful for is the opportunity for my kids to forge solid deep meaningful friendships with people of their choosing and whilst it doesn't always work out that way but when friendships form between the parents also then it's a double win. Our friendship choices are based on people we genuinely enjoy being around, not who we are told we have to be around.

Field Trips Whilst Homeschooling

Seriously we could fill our entire lives with field trips alone and what an amazing education for all of us it would be. But what I'm most grateful for here is in the timing in which we can choose to schedule our field trips. We can and often do take advantage of low season or off peak times for visiting places. This not only saves us money but it generally provides a more relaxed visit due to less people being out and about in general.

Finances And Homeschooling

At the end of the day home educating your kids at home will cost you what you want it to cost you. For us we choose to travel over paying school fees. We know how truly blessed we are to be able to provide this lifestyle for our children but to travel is absolutely the best way to learn about the world we live in.

First Class Education 

My children have the benefit of an education that is tailored to their needs, wants and desires. They have a 1:3 teacher ratio and they often have the experience of participating in classes and workshops where group work is key. They truly have the best of both worlds.

------------------------------------------

None of these points will be true for all home educators, this is simply my personal thoughts on some of the reasons Why I'm Grateful For Homeschooling.

Keep reading below to see some of the reasons other Australian Homeschoolers are grateful for their opportunity to homeschool.

Check Pinterest

Our pinterest boards are brimming with ideas for your year ahead. Everything is broken into categories, subject areas or themes.


Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.

Share Your Gratefulness Posts

Now it's your turn. Link up your posts on why you are grateful for homeschooling below.

Happy Homeschooling,

Kylie

Come on over and join me at

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Have you looked at my Pinterest Boards lately?


Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.  

Homeschool Resources - 2016 Not Back To School Blog Hop

Can you believe it's that time of year again already. We were away for a good part of the holidays this time again and the beginning of a new school year always takes me by surprise when that happens.

Although I wouldn't swap road tripping, connecting and spending quality time with my family for anything.

But yes here we are the first week of  school for 2016 is upon us and you know what the means for us homeschoolers.

It's Not Back To School Celebrations!

Once again, the parks, playgrounds, museums, theatres and most other community resources are quiet and that's when the homeschoolers come out to play.

It's also time for our annual All Aussie Not Back To School Blog Hop. If you are new this be sure to register up over there on the right to receive email updates so you don't miss any of the posts in this series.

A bunch of your favourite Australian Home Schooling Bloggers will all be posting as part of the Not Back To School (NBTS) celebration.

NBTS runs for four weeks with a different topic each week.

WK 1 - Thurs Jan 28th - Homeschool Resorces
WK 2 - Thurs Feb 4th - Why I Am Grateful For Homeschooling
WK 3 - Thurs Feb 11th - Homeschool Spaces
WK 4 - Thurs Feb 18th - A Day In Our Life

If you have a blog and would like to join in simply write a post on the current theme and link it up below.

Grab The Button To Share

Please also grab our button and share on your blog posts and sidebars.

<a href=" http://www.ourworldwideclassroom.blogspot.com.au/ " target="_blank"><img src=" http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/kk224/realworldlearners/NBTS%20125px%20Button.jpg " alt="Our Worldwide Classroom" /></a>

This week we are looking at Homeschool Resources. No matter your homeschool philosophy we all utilise various resources when educating our children at home.I always love seeing what everyone else plans on using during the year ahead.

Curriculum Picks

I've been sharing our curriculum picks slowly over the past few weeks so you can check out those posts below.

Read about the resources our 9th Grader will be using by clicking here.

Read about the resources our 6th grader will be using by clicking here.

Read about the resources our 2nd grader will be using by clicking here.

Check Pinterest

Our pinterest boards are brimming with ideas for your year ahead. Everything is broken into categories, subject areas or themes.


Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.

Share Your Resource Choices 

Now it's your turn. Link up your resource sharing posts below.

         

Happy Homeschooling,

Kylie

Come on over and join me at

Facebook ~ Pinterest ~ Instagram ~ Google + 


Have you looked at my Pinterest Boards lately?


Visit Our Worldwide Classroom's profile on Pinterest.  

Learning Spaces - NBTS Blog 2015

Here we are at week four, the last week of the Not Back To School Blog Hop. I hope you've enjoyed all of the sharing between all of the blogs that participated.

Don't forget to leave a comment on the blog posts you do read to say thanks to the homeschoolers that gave you a glimpse inside their lives.

This week it's Learning Spaces, this is a tricky one for me and I'm guessing for most homeschoolers as I can easily show you a room but in reality we truly do use our entire house, and the houses of our co-op families, it just depends on what it is we are doing.

The space where a large portion of our resources and where are desks and computers are situated is shown in the images below. Our dining table also gets a good work out for a large portion of our sit down type activities.

However this past week some of it was here, as we were away on our homeschool camp

And here, due to a huge weather system we experienced in Queensland

It really is a very rare week where we spend our entire time in the rooms in the collage above. That's  the beauty of homeschooling, we are never stuck behind a desk!

Thank you for joining myself and Chareen, at Every Bed Of Roses for this year's Not Back To School Blog Hop.

Happy Homeschooling
Kylie x

A Day In Our Life ~ NBTS February 2015

It's week 3 of the Not back To School Blog Hop, co hosted by yours truly and Chareen over at Every Bed of Roses. 

This week it's time be a fly on the wall and join us for a 'Day In Our Lives'.  

Hope you can join in with the fun too, I'd love to come spend a homeschool day with you.

6:30am ~ I'm up, tea in hand, checking emails and the like

House is ever so quiet

7:45am ~ Time for another tea

Have last minute work to do for camp coming up next week

I'm a tad a nervous given I've organised this camp for 50+ kids and their families!

House is still quiet aahhh so nice

8:00am ~ The boys are up

A spot of quiet screen time for them

Have a pile of clean washing to put away

8:45am ~ All kids are on a group minecraft session.
I really should get them going for the day but feeling a little unmotivated

8:55am ~ mmmm Thinking I should probably have a quick shower

9:10am ~ That's better
Breakfast is in action
Love my fresh juice

9:15 am ~ My baby climbs onto my lap for mummy cuddles
Enjoy enjoy enjoy, never know when it will be the last time he does this

9:20am ~ Put on a small load of washing
Fresh juice for the kids
Same ingredients as mine, just a couple more apples to sweeten

9:40am ~ Table Time!

Reading aloud
Sketching
Poetry
Days of the week
Admiring last weeks sketches
Discussion about the rest of the day
Begging for more story time

10:30am ~ History

Making A start on our journey through The Renaissance

11:00am ~ Skwirk

Science and SOSE
Everyone busy
I, bring in washing,
Hang out washing
Tidy kitchen
In between 'mum calls'

11:30am ~ Math Prodigy (prodigy game)

12:00pm ~ Lunch Break

12:30pm ~ Bath & hair wash for the child with the broken arm
DS 13 read library books to DS 6

1:00pm ~ Quiet reading in bedrooms

2:00pm ~ I spent a little more time doing some co-op planning

Other two kids are showering and washing hair
We are heading out tonight to have dinner with some homeschool friends

3:00pm ~ Making Valentines
More Prodigy Math

Today was very laid back and relaxed, none of us were really all that into it but still a fairly productive none the less.

And that is where I am going to leave you. I'm shooing my kids outside and I'm off to get myself organised before we head out.

I can't wait to see all the link ups for this week. Fly on the wall posts are totally fun! We all want a glimpse of how others run their days. So be sure to link and read all of the posts this week :-)

Happy Homeschooling,

Kylie x

NBTS Blog Hop - Our Curriculum

We are back again with the second installment of the All Aussie Not Back To School Blog Hop. Did you stop by all the other blogs during the first week?

This week is all about sharing some of those resources we plan on using over the course of the year. For some of us that is easy, we have our year all mapped out and know exactly what we will use for each subject area and when we will use it.

For others it simply isn't like that, for others life is learning in the truest sense of the word. I do hope we have some of our Australian unschoolers join in this week as I'm sure there are many of us that would love to see how they go about planning for the year ahead.

We here, at Our Worldwide Classroom, often seem as though we are simply just doing our thing. We do use planned curriculum, unit studies and the like but we never ever allow them to own us. There are no schedules or sheets with lists of do this lesson next, or next week on Tuesday we are going to be learning about XYZ. Oh no that simply doesn't work here, far too inflexible for us. Now sometimes I wish it would work but I think it is far better to embrace what doesn't and to go with what does, rather than fighting an uphill battle.

We are very relaxed in our approach and allow equal amount of downtime/own time/free time as we do more formal structured learning. We've ditched many a curriculum because we simply weren't all that into it! If it doesn't move us, engage us and want to keep us coming back then most generally out it goes! We're kinda picky like that.

Anyway, if I keep rambling this is going to be one very long post. I guess what I am trying to get across is that we invest (and I spend a great deal of time researching) in good quality materials and resources that we make work for us and not the other way around.

Let's get on with it shall we.

Mathematics

You could say that we right in the thick of Math U See these days. This is our preferred mathematics curriculum. With three kids, all very different ages and very different ability levels we are utilising a large portion of the MUS range.

I'm not sure if we've ever had a year where one of the kids has started a book from lesson 1 and completed the book at the last lesson by the end of the year. Like I said earlier that's not how we roll. We simply pick up where we left off the next time we do math or maths depending on where you live right now!

So I have one child finishing off Zeta (decimals & percents) and about to begin Pre-Algebra, another in the middle of Beta (multiple digit addition/subtraction) and may or may not get to Gamma (multiplication) later this year and one coming to the end of the Primer and will start Alpha some time soon.

As a supplement to the MUS range, things to do together, on the computer, in the book basket or when we simply want a break from MUS.

We have on hand Targeting Maths Lab PC games and activities, Life of Fred, Skwirk Maths, various mathematical puzzle type books and we are going to give these Geometry books a whirl this year. These were gifted to us and are definitely old school, but some of the activities look pretty cool. So will see how we go.

Finally I always include mathematical picture books as part of our book basket morning routine, these vary depending on if I am trying to introduce a concept, help solidify a concept or to simply read just for fun. Arithmetic Village will probably get a good work this year with my youngest.

Language Arts

With two children still heavily working with phonics, learning to read makes up the bulk of our Language Arts time. We use a variety of resources, websites, computer games, board games but there are certain staples that we use consistently.

They are The Fitzroy Reading Program, Bob Books, Explode The Code, and we are really enjoying Julia Donaldson's range of readers. They really don't feel like readers at all.

***Apology for the remainder of the post as there are no more images to follow. One of my children broke their arm on Thursday and so I haven't had time to complete this post in as much detail as I had planned.***

Other resources we are also using for Language Arts include (these are across 3 kids so not everyone is using each of the items listed):

Logic Of English - phonics, spelling, grammar
Fix It Grammar
Spelling You See
Grade Spelling
Cover Story Writing - my eldest will complete this with a small group of kids his age, should be lots of fun working through this together.
Reading/Writing Response Activities - the youngest two will do these activities with our co-op
Writing With Skill
Skwirk English Lessons

Plus we always read aloud every day, me to them, them to me, audio books and we spend time on quiet independent reading.

World History

We are covering the Renaissance period this year. After one day of history we knew we had to do things differently around here, even though we had chosen new world history programs for the year we realised very quickly that they just weren't rocking it for us!

I was so excited when Homeschool In The Woods agreed for us to show you all around their Project Passport pack, after completing the Knights LapPak last year I'm very confident that DS 13 will enjoy using this. So stay tuned for more on this resource, I am busy printing and sorting it all out now.

For the younger two I am considering doing our own thing probably with a focus on Famous People of the Renaissance, but I'm still processing all of that given that we only made the decision the other day to not use the program we had intended on. They will also join in on any appropriate activities from the Project Passport pack.

Australian History

We will be exploring this with our co-op family this year. The older crew have their plans all laid out by one of our very clever teacher mums and the younger ones will be exploring the history of Australia via picture books and hands on activities.

We will also utilise Skwirk here.

Geography

This is another co-op subject for us this year. Our co-op worked so well in 2014 we were all keen to ramp things up a notch this year.

Science

You guessed it, co-op again,! We are covering Chemistry this year. Although DS 13 will be studying Physics here at home, we are doing our own thing and have chosen not to buy a program. We have a great Encyclopedia and will use that as our spine.  Skwirk will come into play again with science.

The Arts

We will be covering some art and art appreciation with co-op. We also have a lovely art teacher coming to us this term for an 8 week block of art lessons, general art for the younger kids and perspective drawing for the older ones.

We will continue to keep up our morning drawing challenges and when the kids want to they will participate in Sketch Tuesday. We've also begun Art Journals this year, let's hope we can keep them up.

Drama is on the list again this year, which involves weekly lessons and participating in plays at the theatre. We always see live productions throughout the year.

Everyone let go of keyboard but we may have an opportunity to start that up again, will just have to wait and see.

Technology & Design

With the amount of Lego in this house I am never concerned about this subject area. There are always plenty of opportunities here and I am sure DS 13 will continue to keep up with some coding fun. The kids are all building superbly creative worlds in minecraft these days and we will take a closer look at one of the sites available for homeschoolers and minecraft.

Gee, did you make it this far? You did really well, thank you for reading. You know it really seems like a lot but because we are joining forces with 3 other families this year we won't even realise how much we are covering until we get to the end of 2015 and look back over the year.

What about you? What resources do you have planned to use this year. Link up your posts below.

Be sure to stop by and visit Every Bed of Roses, our joint host for this years blog hop.

Happy Homeschooling
Kylie

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