I have settled on the idea that blogging fortnightly is probably the right amount for my blog. Any greater frequency seems to send me into a boring monologue week after week, and any less and I feel that I'll never catch up.
This week and next week have been designated "Life Skills" time at Gillamagong. In that time, the kids are to learn to cook, clean (an old-fashioned idea, I know), to knit and to generally run a household to some degree.
Zach's work this week has included writing a thank you letter for his tennis sponsorship to the local Sporting Club, printing and entering a photo in the local Show, making a recipe that he's never attempted previously, despite his constant nagging to make chocolate chip cookies again. He's cleaned the bathroom and toilet pretty well, and especially so that the paint is washed off the tiles (how the paint got there is a whole other story). He's resisting the knitting thing for now - I'll get him when Issie is away on her trip. Then he won't be able to escape my clutches!
He made apple crumble (he called it apple grumble) and ti was absolutely delicious. I will get him to post the recipe on his blog. He also has to write it in his recipe journal.
Zach has also been invited to take two of Wayne-the-drover's horses to the Walgett Show. What he'll do with them there is beyond me, but it sounds like a good thing for him to do anyway.
Issie has been cooking, cleaning and knitting this week too. Her knitting project is a neck gaiter, which is akin to a scarf but made like the bottom of a balaclava - it's a tube. We are not knitting circularly yet - that seems like a bit of a challenge at this stage - we are sewing the seam up once it's done and it's almost as good! A neck gaiter is a safer alternative to a scarf for riding horses and working with any sort of machinery on a farm, so that's why we have chosen a neck gaiter as the first project. They also look smashing and are harder for kids to lose.
Issie has a week before she leaves for America. She's pretty excited - and rightly so! She is to visit three states - California, Oregon and Idaho - or possibly four if they travel through Nevada. She is working at Windhorse Ranch - a mustang facility and natural horsemanship boarding mecca near Sacramento in CA, and participating in a horse clinic at Thunder Hollow Ranch in ID. She will begin in San Francisco, then visit Oregon when she attends the Parelli Celebration in Redmond, and they will travel from there to Idaho.
Issie's school work while she's there is to be the following:
A project about the Native American Indian tribes in the States that she will visit, detailing history, life now and their connection to the land;
To map where she travels;
A research project on the Appaloosa horse;
To make a movie of her trip using our video camera and to edit it when she returns home;
To try to finish her maths book - she'll have access to teachers and college lecturers while she's there so I expect she'll be able to get ample help;
To cook a meal each week for her host families;
and to blog her trip whenever she has internet access. The purchase of a new laptop has been beyond me at this point, but the old one could be an option if I figure out internet stuff while she's over there.
All of that and actually traveling will probably be enough to keep her very, very busy.
Hannah celebrated her 7th birthday yesterday. She has learned to knit this morning with some merino wool. When I am organised I'll post a pic of her with her new rosewood knitting needles, which upon closer inspection were just awful and rough. We swapped needles and have started over with some smooth bamboo ones, which she has reported are much nicer to use. Han has also been using her maths skills to count the stitches to ensure we haven't dropped or picked up a stitch, and is counting by twos to go faster.
Hannah has been helping with cooking and cleaning too. The plumber arrives to move the washing machine plumbing tomorrow so we are in a bit if a hurry to get things organised. We lost power to the western side of the house yesterday so the much anticipated birthday cake didn't happen - she got meagre cupcakes at 8pm instead. We had no idea what had caused the problem, but it turned out to be the mixmaster - the very thing we so desperately needed to make the cake! Han was happy with her cupcakes and a few lollies, so that made it pretty easy!
Another of Hannah's birthday gifts was a set of Magnetic Poetry "First Words", with about 100 simple words, and a metal notice board for her room. She is getting better with her sight words but still guesses rather than attacking the word. She also got a journal to write the sentences that she makes with her magnets. She was rather taken with the idea that she could make a sentence that read " I ate the green monkey".
Charlie is still entertaining us all with his extroverted antics. He is really interested in forming letters and counting. He writes his name as "to", with a full-stop afterwards, of course! He particularly likes hide'n'seek as he gets to count very loudly.
We are off to Sydney tomorrow for a Parelli Natural Horsemanship event and to see family. We will return on Sunday or Monday and will be doing lots of art and craft over the next week.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Back to school... again!
It seems only yesterday we went back to school after our summer holidays, and yet, here I am posting about going back to school again - this time after our Easter break!
We all enjoyed our holidays this time. Little travel involved - just kicking back at home. Interestingly, the kids found it hard to not do school work! Each of them had days where they'd drag their books out to do some English or Maths work.
So here we are back into school work. This week has been a busy one with animals, so school work has seemed to take a back seat, but I think we have done more already than we would have done most other weeks!
Our animal dramas have included an exciting perpetual head abscess for one horse, a lameness issue with a dragging back leg for another horse, which was fixed just as mysteriously as it occurred, and pink eye treatment for Wayne, the drover's, poddy calves. The poddy calves have been the most fun. Not fun in terms of pink eye, fun in terms of all of us being involved and wrestling to get them to take the cod liver oil.
Here are the directions for chaos... take five calves of varying sizes, add one teenage boy with a lasoo, add one girl with a video camera, two small children who are excellent commentators, a mother armed with the syringe filled with goop and let it all happen. It was a circus. If I could find the downloading cable for the video camera I'd show you.
As for school work, we have done lots of English and Maths this week. Hannah is becoming a little more independent with her English, which is nice for me. Isobel and Zach have discovered that they are both close to the end of last year's maths work, which is not bad considering they only started last year's work at the end of last October. I expect that it will all be done by the beginning of June. then we can start the this year's work!
Art class and piano lessons have been a go this week. Issie is loving piano! She's making excellent progress and we're seeing acorresponding improvement in her maths and the concepts surrounding it. Interesting...
Zach has guitar lessons that Saturday. He has not been practicing and will hopefully get a shellacking from his teacher.
Drama class seems to have fallen away. It's hard to get pieces that are appropriate for the variety of ages who attend and the kids have lost interest in doing adult pieces. It's a shame but that's the way of things in a small country town sometimes - despite your best efforts and the wild enthusiasm of a few, things just fizzle.
Issie leaves for the US in three weeks, so I am a bit puzzled with how to tackle the big kids' shared English tasks. I can't really send Issie with her work since part of the unit is a collaborative task to be done with Zach. Add to that that she'll be pretty busy over there anyway and it's unlikely she'll have a lot of extra time on some days. If I wait until Issie gets back, we are at the 14th of June - almost the end of term 2. Perhaps I'll sit on the Twlight unit for now and continue with grammar, creative writing and vocabulary work for this term, then next term we'll start Twilight and Romeo and Juliet in earnest. I doubt that you can ever have too much vocabulary, grammar or creativity in your writing.
Going to check on wounded horses... and get myself ready for the onslaught of my dear friend Bec's smallest boy, Sam, who's coming to visit this afternoon. I expect we'll be busy while he's here!
We all enjoyed our holidays this time. Little travel involved - just kicking back at home. Interestingly, the kids found it hard to not do school work! Each of them had days where they'd drag their books out to do some English or Maths work.
So here we are back into school work. This week has been a busy one with animals, so school work has seemed to take a back seat, but I think we have done more already than we would have done most other weeks!
Our animal dramas have included an exciting perpetual head abscess for one horse, a lameness issue with a dragging back leg for another horse, which was fixed just as mysteriously as it occurred, and pink eye treatment for Wayne, the drover's, poddy calves. The poddy calves have been the most fun. Not fun in terms of pink eye, fun in terms of all of us being involved and wrestling to get them to take the cod liver oil.
Here are the directions for chaos... take five calves of varying sizes, add one teenage boy with a lasoo, add one girl with a video camera, two small children who are excellent commentators, a mother armed with the syringe filled with goop and let it all happen. It was a circus. If I could find the downloading cable for the video camera I'd show you.
As for school work, we have done lots of English and Maths this week. Hannah is becoming a little more independent with her English, which is nice for me. Isobel and Zach have discovered that they are both close to the end of last year's maths work, which is not bad considering they only started last year's work at the end of last October. I expect that it will all be done by the beginning of June. then we can start the this year's work!
Art class and piano lessons have been a go this week. Issie is loving piano! She's making excellent progress and we're seeing acorresponding improvement in her maths and the concepts surrounding it. Interesting...
Zach has guitar lessons that Saturday. He has not been practicing and will hopefully get a shellacking from his teacher.
Drama class seems to have fallen away. It's hard to get pieces that are appropriate for the variety of ages who attend and the kids have lost interest in doing adult pieces. It's a shame but that's the way of things in a small country town sometimes - despite your best efforts and the wild enthusiasm of a few, things just fizzle.
Issie leaves for the US in three weeks, so I am a bit puzzled with how to tackle the big kids' shared English tasks. I can't really send Issie with her work since part of the unit is a collaborative task to be done with Zach. Add to that that she'll be pretty busy over there anyway and it's unlikely she'll have a lot of extra time on some days. If I wait until Issie gets back, we are at the 14th of June - almost the end of term 2. Perhaps I'll sit on the Twlight unit for now and continue with grammar, creative writing and vocabulary work for this term, then next term we'll start Twilight and Romeo and Juliet in earnest. I doubt that you can ever have too much vocabulary, grammar or creativity in your writing.
Going to check on wounded horses... and get myself ready for the onslaught of my dear friend Bec's smallest boy, Sam, who's coming to visit this afternoon. I expect we'll be busy while he's here!
Monday, March 29, 2010
Life in general at Gillamagong
These last few weeks have been really busy - no time for blogging! Art, school work, horses, sports, cooking and quilting activities have filled our days! Unfortunately we can also add sandflies and mosquitoes to our list as we have extensive flooding around our region presently.
Several friends of mine have started their own blogs recently and are putting me to shame - they blog every day!
My focus lately has been getting the kids to do the work, not documenting it.
Let's start at the top - Zach.
Zach has had a rather haphazard few weeks - he's been playing a lot of tennis and has also had the opportunity to go droving with Wayne Sullivan. He has fitted his school work around his extra-curricular activities and is vaguely ahead on most topics. When he's out droving he is learning a lot about animal husbandry and science, as well as animal behaviour. We have noticed a significant improvement in his attitude to chores and school work since he began droving. I think every boy would do well to get out and rough it with a few animals for a few days - there is no place to whinge and whine - the horses and cattle don't care if you're hot and tired!
Zach told me a story of how he was cantering on his horse after the cattle. He was holding Wayne's mobile phone and it rang, so he answered it. At the same time, a car full of locals drove past, so he let go of the reins briefly to wave to them too. Who ever said that boys can't multi-task?!
Zach has been playing the guitar as well as piano and his guitar teacher is really pleased with his progress.
Issie is doing very well with her school work. Her maths work is making more sense to her and I am seeing a great improvement in her comprehension of maths concepts. She has also been out droving, although not as much as Zach.
She is playing the piano and practicing her chords, which is great as they were always a complete mystery to me at her age!
Both of the older children have turned in excellent narratives. They took longer than I would have liked, but the quality was very good, so I don't mind that it took longer to finish them. Next time, however, I will expect them to be a tad quicker! I believe they will be publishing them on their blogs this week.
Hannah is reading! Hooray! Two weeks ago she just "got" her spelling work - she sounded the words out and knew instantly what they were. Life has been much easier since then. She is more confident and happier to try words she's not familiar with, which is a huge change for her.
As always, she is finding her maths work easy.
Hannah is playing the piano and enjoying it immensely.
Charlie is participating in his school work well too. He has started forming letters and numbers and is attempting to write words and names. He is grasping appropriate maths concepts easily. His drawings and paintings are becoming very detailed and intricate.
We have done a little mapping to see where we live and where people we know live. We used Google Maps as well as printed maps, which sit on our wall. We have also mapped Isobel's upcoming trip to America, especially to show just how far it is to America from Australia! We have compared the trip of Walgett to Sydney to the trip of Sydney to San Francisco. Hannah's eyes got very wide as she took it in!
Art classes recently have take in some acrylic painting on canvas, as well as Waste to Art projects. The group as a whole made a stack of pop-art boxes with the theme of sight. All of my kids contributed and are rightly proud of their work.
I have recently had the chance to go through a heap of the outcomes for the KLAs for each child. Talk about a weighty tome! Thus far we are on target or ahead.
This week we have art classes again, possibly drama class, piano, the tennis competition in Coonamble, school work and horse work.
Several friends of mine have started their own blogs recently and are putting me to shame - they blog every day!
My focus lately has been getting the kids to do the work, not documenting it.
Let's start at the top - Zach.
Zach has had a rather haphazard few weeks - he's been playing a lot of tennis and has also had the opportunity to go droving with Wayne Sullivan. He has fitted his school work around his extra-curricular activities and is vaguely ahead on most topics. When he's out droving he is learning a lot about animal husbandry and science, as well as animal behaviour. We have noticed a significant improvement in his attitude to chores and school work since he began droving. I think every boy would do well to get out and rough it with a few animals for a few days - there is no place to whinge and whine - the horses and cattle don't care if you're hot and tired!
Zach told me a story of how he was cantering on his horse after the cattle. He was holding Wayne's mobile phone and it rang, so he answered it. At the same time, a car full of locals drove past, so he let go of the reins briefly to wave to them too. Who ever said that boys can't multi-task?!
Zach has been playing the guitar as well as piano and his guitar teacher is really pleased with his progress.
Issie is doing very well with her school work. Her maths work is making more sense to her and I am seeing a great improvement in her comprehension of maths concepts. She has also been out droving, although not as much as Zach.
She is playing the piano and practicing her chords, which is great as they were always a complete mystery to me at her age!
Both of the older children have turned in excellent narratives. They took longer than I would have liked, but the quality was very good, so I don't mind that it took longer to finish them. Next time, however, I will expect them to be a tad quicker! I believe they will be publishing them on their blogs this week.
Hannah is reading! Hooray! Two weeks ago she just "got" her spelling work - she sounded the words out and knew instantly what they were. Life has been much easier since then. She is more confident and happier to try words she's not familiar with, which is a huge change for her.
As always, she is finding her maths work easy.
Hannah is playing the piano and enjoying it immensely.
Charlie is participating in his school work well too. He has started forming letters and numbers and is attempting to write words and names. He is grasping appropriate maths concepts easily. His drawings and paintings are becoming very detailed and intricate.
We have done a little mapping to see where we live and where people we know live. We used Google Maps as well as printed maps, which sit on our wall. We have also mapped Isobel's upcoming trip to America, especially to show just how far it is to America from Australia! We have compared the trip of Walgett to Sydney to the trip of Sydney to San Francisco. Hannah's eyes got very wide as she took it in!
Art classes recently have take in some acrylic painting on canvas, as well as Waste to Art projects. The group as a whole made a stack of pop-art boxes with the theme of sight. All of my kids contributed and are rightly proud of their work.
I have recently had the chance to go through a heap of the outcomes for the KLAs for each child. Talk about a weighty tome! Thus far we are on target or ahead.
This week we have art classes again, possibly drama class, piano, the tennis competition in Coonamble, school work and horse work.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Week 4
Here I am again, at the end of the week - feeling like I'm sure I missed something, but being totally exhausted from the busy week anyway!
This week the kids all did their work without as much complaint - which is nice!
Hannah hooked in to her English work and even looked to extend her knowledge a bit. She finished her work when she was asked and all we have left to do is a bit of Maths if she is up to it.
We have looked at verbs and agreement this week. The kids had a bit of trouble with some stuff, but generally got the idea. This week we took what we've been learning for the last few weeks and put it together in the form of a narrative. Both older kids have an excellent use of rich language and the idea of what a narrative is.
Zach did his work but I am yet to mark it, so I'm not sure how he went. I expect that he did pretty well - his narrative was coming along nicely when I last heard about it. He has covered a lot of maths this week and looks like he is understanding it. At least I know that, no matter what happens in the future, I have at least one kid who gets algebra!
Issie has done a lot of her work very efficiently this week, mainly to give her more time to do what she wants to do! She has been at the library a lot this week, which is a happy thing for her. She is moving through her maths work and I love to see her eyes light up when she actually grasps a concept. That's one of the best things about teaching your own kids!
We have cooked a lot this week - bread... and lemon meringue pie was especially popular!
This week the kids all did their work without as much complaint - which is nice!
Hannah hooked in to her English work and even looked to extend her knowledge a bit. She finished her work when she was asked and all we have left to do is a bit of Maths if she is up to it.
We have looked at verbs and agreement this week. The kids had a bit of trouble with some stuff, but generally got the idea. This week we took what we've been learning for the last few weeks and put it together in the form of a narrative. Both older kids have an excellent use of rich language and the idea of what a narrative is.
Zach did his work but I am yet to mark it, so I'm not sure how he went. I expect that he did pretty well - his narrative was coming along nicely when I last heard about it. He has covered a lot of maths this week and looks like he is understanding it. At least I know that, no matter what happens in the future, I have at least one kid who gets algebra!
Issie has done a lot of her work very efficiently this week, mainly to give her more time to do what she wants to do! She has been at the library a lot this week, which is a happy thing for her. She is moving through her maths work and I love to see her eyes light up when she actually grasps a concept. That's one of the best things about teaching your own kids!
We have cooked a lot this week - bread... and lemon meringue pie was especially popular!
Friday, February 26, 2010
Week 3
So long since my last post. I kept forgetting to do it and thinking "I'll do it tomorrow" or even next week. Such is the life of the home-schooling parent.
This month has been dotted with meetings, travel and other miscellanea for Keith and I. It makes it hard to keep a routine for Hannah especially, but we are a moveable feast with home-schooling, so we do work around it.
WEEK 1
The first week of school gave us a mixed bag.
Zach and Issie began the week working on nouns in grammar. I am still surprised by how much they are meant to know but don't. I think we have a good understanding of the concept now. They also worked on getting back into the swing of their maths. Issie is still struggling but is grasping the concepts faster and faster, so I can see that we are making real progress. Zach, as always, steams through his maths.
Hannah did some reading, some Reading Eggs work and her Targeting Math CD-rom, which she loves. As we were waiting for her Targeting Maths book to arrive in the mail, we had to begin another maths activity book, but that was good to have a different approach too. It's all experience for us.
Charlie decided he'd like to do school work too. I had purchased a "Starting School" book from Jenny's Classroom in Orange, so we began that. He doesn't like to do too much at once, just an activity here and there, but he's beginning to show recognition with a few letters so that's nice for him. I would never have started on this path so early if he didn't show interest, and presently we are led by him. Some days building a rocket is far more important than drawing anything or writing in his school books!
The three younger kids had the opportunity to attend the Burren Junction Public School swimming carnival on the Tuesday, so not much work happened that day, but they had a great day, catching up with friends and swimming. I still believe that there is much to be learned outside the "classroom".
Art classes began for all the kids too. They thoroughly enjoyed it, even Zach who made it very clear that it fitted into the "lame" category too well.
Isobel attends quilting with me on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. She's been making a cover for her journal/visual art diary and learning from the other ladies too, which is great! Hannah is desperate to come with us, but the stipulation from me is that she needs to be able to use the sewing machine, or hand sew, so she's desperately sewing by hand to get there. The problem is that she won't let me teach her a stitch that won't fall apart - like backstitch. Oh, well, it must mean she's not ready yet!
We had our first French lesson too. It was from iTunes. I was surprised by how good it was. The kids actually liked it and they got to sing a song or two.
WEEK 2
The second week saw us begin piano lessons with the local Reverend's wife, Virginia Stuart. It was fun to see the kids tinkle at the keys and for Virginia to set them on the path of learning a new instrument. Hannah and Charlie didn't appear to learn much there, but they came home and clunked away on our keyboard. It kind of confirms my theory of children learning by osmosis. The experience of watching and hearing teaches them a lot. Isobel loved it - you could see she was right at home. She practiced every day and also taught herself "Ode to Joy".
Zach missed out on piano as he was rained in at "Pampas", Stephen and Lorna's place. He had visited on the weekend to do shooting, sheep work and other "boy stuff". The predicted half inch of rain turned into three inches and he was stuck there. We faxed school work out to him and we finally got him back on Wednesday.
On the Tuesday we went to Narrabri with Keith as he had meetings and training. Frankly, Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard was bare so we took the opportunity to go to a decent supermarket! We got our jobs done, the kids did a bit of school work and had a swim, and we stayed to see Aunty Helen, Uncle David and the two Grandmas that night at "Kitty Hawk".
Hannah began her new spelling book, which I was surprised she took to so well. She is not the least bit thrilled by English generally, so to find that she was happy enough with this work (not to say she was thrilled - she wasn't - but the whinge factor was down on her normal English work!).
We did "l" words. Her spelling book has three-letter words in a word list, and activities that revolve around those words. We also made a chart of "l" words that we thought of. She seemed quite satisfied with what we'd done at the end of the week. Her handwriting was also "l", and she did that quite well - much neater than last year. Her pencil grip still needs a bit of work - she reverts to two fingers on top.
The big kids continued with their grammar and creative writing work. We moved on to concentrate on adjectives. Their creative writing work is getting better too. More use of rich, descriptive words that build an image for the reader. It seems simple to me, but it's another thing that was missed in mainstream school. They are also doing written expression and comprehension activities, which is helping Zach, in particular, a lot.
Charlie decided that he was tired of his "Starting School" book, so he wanted to do some Targeting Maths work. He did enjoy it. I think this is how this year will be with him - between two stages - wanting to do what the older kids are doing, but drawn to play and other things, as he should be.
Art class was on on Wednesday again - the little kids experimented with watercolour and Issie worked on an embroidery sampler. Zach sketched a car and worked on shading it to give depth to the image. Art was cancelled on Thursday, so we did some beading instead. Hannah was very industrious and turned out many creations. Charlie mainly fashioned what he said were "cowboy swords".
On Saturday, we travelled to Dubbo for Zach and Issie to have their first guitar lesson at the Macquarie Conservatorium of Music, with Greg Gordon. Issie hated every second of it and I was greeted with a pouty, unhappy face when I arrived to pick her up. Zach, however, was right in his element. He loved it - he's practiced every day since!
Zach and Issie went droving on Sunday with Wayne. Again, both loved it and came home filthy but happy. Issie's friend, Anna, came to visit on Sunday afternoon.
WEEK 3
Sunday of last week, and the beginning of this week, saw the Vomit Fairy visit our house. We dropped like flies - Hannah first, then Zach, and then the rest of us. We were truly glad to say goodbye to the Vomit Fairy on Wednesday night.
As the Vomit Fairy was staying with us, school work was very bits and pieces this week.
Hannah, who had recovered suitably by Tuesday, worked on her Targeting Maths book, which arrived in the post last Friday, as well as her CD-rom. She also did her spelling - which was "t" this week, and her handwriting. she also attempted to sound out larger words, like "eleven", which is huge for her! She attended speech therapy again and both Robyn, the speech therapist, and I are really pleased with her progress. She has the sounds that previous evaded her entering her everyday speech now, which is wonderful! Hannah went to piano with Zach, Charlie and Daddy on Wednesday afternoon and came home able to play "Stepping up", which she has practiced religiously since.
Zach was a mess on Monday night and Tuesday, so that was a write-off. He is working hard to catch up on his verbs work and creative writing, which was our focus this week. We are still stuck on finite and non-finite verbs - actually, mainly it is me who is stuck. I can't find a solid rule to make it apply. I'm sure it will become clearer as we go. If not, I might ask Joan to help out, I'm sure she'll know.
All of the kids are trawling through their maths. It is good to see progress being made!
Drama class was cancelled this week. It was a blessing as three of us were out of action anyway.
I found some neat science games online for the bigger kids too. Things like National Geographic Kids and NASA have excellent sites. I have been letting the kids explore and give me feedback. One of my main aims was to ensure that what they accessed on the computer has some sort of education value, not "GirlsGoGames", which is a pet hate of mine.
The kids are interested in photography again, so we'll concentrate on that for a while too within the parameters of Art. The annual Walgett Show is approaching and it'd be nice to let them enter some things.
Art is on again this afternoon at the library, which we will go to. It's nice go there to allow the kids to explore different art forms, as well as have the exposure to others their own age and different ideas. Christine Duigan deserves a medal for the work she does there - I am sure there are days that are very, very challenging.
Zach is off to Werris Creek for tennis this weekend. He, Charlie and Daddy and camping. Hopefully this time Keith will remember to take sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, and the tent ropes and pegs. Other wise it might be a loooooong weekend for them.
Well, that's it! Whew! I'm done! And I'm not leaving it three weeks again!
This month has been dotted with meetings, travel and other miscellanea for Keith and I. It makes it hard to keep a routine for Hannah especially, but we are a moveable feast with home-schooling, so we do work around it.
WEEK 1
The first week of school gave us a mixed bag.
Zach and Issie began the week working on nouns in grammar. I am still surprised by how much they are meant to know but don't. I think we have a good understanding of the concept now. They also worked on getting back into the swing of their maths. Issie is still struggling but is grasping the concepts faster and faster, so I can see that we are making real progress. Zach, as always, steams through his maths.
Hannah did some reading, some Reading Eggs work and her Targeting Math CD-rom, which she loves. As we were waiting for her Targeting Maths book to arrive in the mail, we had to begin another maths activity book, but that was good to have a different approach too. It's all experience for us.
Charlie decided he'd like to do school work too. I had purchased a "Starting School" book from Jenny's Classroom in Orange, so we began that. He doesn't like to do too much at once, just an activity here and there, but he's beginning to show recognition with a few letters so that's nice for him. I would never have started on this path so early if he didn't show interest, and presently we are led by him. Some days building a rocket is far more important than drawing anything or writing in his school books!
The three younger kids had the opportunity to attend the Burren Junction Public School swimming carnival on the Tuesday, so not much work happened that day, but they had a great day, catching up with friends and swimming. I still believe that there is much to be learned outside the "classroom".
Art classes began for all the kids too. They thoroughly enjoyed it, even Zach who made it very clear that it fitted into the "lame" category too well.
Isobel attends quilting with me on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month. She's been making a cover for her journal/visual art diary and learning from the other ladies too, which is great! Hannah is desperate to come with us, but the stipulation from me is that she needs to be able to use the sewing machine, or hand sew, so she's desperately sewing by hand to get there. The problem is that she won't let me teach her a stitch that won't fall apart - like backstitch. Oh, well, it must mean she's not ready yet!
We had our first French lesson too. It was from iTunes. I was surprised by how good it was. The kids actually liked it and they got to sing a song or two.
WEEK 2
The second week saw us begin piano lessons with the local Reverend's wife, Virginia Stuart. It was fun to see the kids tinkle at the keys and for Virginia to set them on the path of learning a new instrument. Hannah and Charlie didn't appear to learn much there, but they came home and clunked away on our keyboard. It kind of confirms my theory of children learning by osmosis. The experience of watching and hearing teaches them a lot. Isobel loved it - you could see she was right at home. She practiced every day and also taught herself "Ode to Joy".
Zach missed out on piano as he was rained in at "Pampas", Stephen and Lorna's place. He had visited on the weekend to do shooting, sheep work and other "boy stuff". The predicted half inch of rain turned into three inches and he was stuck there. We faxed school work out to him and we finally got him back on Wednesday.
On the Tuesday we went to Narrabri with Keith as he had meetings and training. Frankly, Old Mother Hubbard's cupboard was bare so we took the opportunity to go to a decent supermarket! We got our jobs done, the kids did a bit of school work and had a swim, and we stayed to see Aunty Helen, Uncle David and the two Grandmas that night at "Kitty Hawk".
Hannah began her new spelling book, which I was surprised she took to so well. She is not the least bit thrilled by English generally, so to find that she was happy enough with this work (not to say she was thrilled - she wasn't - but the whinge factor was down on her normal English work!).
We did "l" words. Her spelling book has three-letter words in a word list, and activities that revolve around those words. We also made a chart of "l" words that we thought of. She seemed quite satisfied with what we'd done at the end of the week. Her handwriting was also "l", and she did that quite well - much neater than last year. Her pencil grip still needs a bit of work - she reverts to two fingers on top.
The big kids continued with their grammar and creative writing work. We moved on to concentrate on adjectives. Their creative writing work is getting better too. More use of rich, descriptive words that build an image for the reader. It seems simple to me, but it's another thing that was missed in mainstream school. They are also doing written expression and comprehension activities, which is helping Zach, in particular, a lot.
Charlie decided that he was tired of his "Starting School" book, so he wanted to do some Targeting Maths work. He did enjoy it. I think this is how this year will be with him - between two stages - wanting to do what the older kids are doing, but drawn to play and other things, as he should be.
Art class was on on Wednesday again - the little kids experimented with watercolour and Issie worked on an embroidery sampler. Zach sketched a car and worked on shading it to give depth to the image. Art was cancelled on Thursday, so we did some beading instead. Hannah was very industrious and turned out many creations. Charlie mainly fashioned what he said were "cowboy swords".
On Saturday, we travelled to Dubbo for Zach and Issie to have their first guitar lesson at the Macquarie Conservatorium of Music, with Greg Gordon. Issie hated every second of it and I was greeted with a pouty, unhappy face when I arrived to pick her up. Zach, however, was right in his element. He loved it - he's practiced every day since!
Zach and Issie went droving on Sunday with Wayne. Again, both loved it and came home filthy but happy. Issie's friend, Anna, came to visit on Sunday afternoon.
WEEK 3
Sunday of last week, and the beginning of this week, saw the Vomit Fairy visit our house. We dropped like flies - Hannah first, then Zach, and then the rest of us. We were truly glad to say goodbye to the Vomit Fairy on Wednesday night.
As the Vomit Fairy was staying with us, school work was very bits and pieces this week.
Hannah, who had recovered suitably by Tuesday, worked on her Targeting Maths book, which arrived in the post last Friday, as well as her CD-rom. She also did her spelling - which was "t" this week, and her handwriting. she also attempted to sound out larger words, like "eleven", which is huge for her! She attended speech therapy again and both Robyn, the speech therapist, and I are really pleased with her progress. She has the sounds that previous evaded her entering her everyday speech now, which is wonderful! Hannah went to piano with Zach, Charlie and Daddy on Wednesday afternoon and came home able to play "Stepping up", which she has practiced religiously since.
Zach was a mess on Monday night and Tuesday, so that was a write-off. He is working hard to catch up on his verbs work and creative writing, which was our focus this week. We are still stuck on finite and non-finite verbs - actually, mainly it is me who is stuck. I can't find a solid rule to make it apply. I'm sure it will become clearer as we go. If not, I might ask Joan to help out, I'm sure she'll know.
All of the kids are trawling through their maths. It is good to see progress being made!
Drama class was cancelled this week. It was a blessing as three of us were out of action anyway.
I found some neat science games online for the bigger kids too. Things like National Geographic Kids and NASA have excellent sites. I have been letting the kids explore and give me feedback. One of my main aims was to ensure that what they accessed on the computer has some sort of education value, not "GirlsGoGames", which is a pet hate of mine.
The kids are interested in photography again, so we'll concentrate on that for a while too within the parameters of Art. The annual Walgett Show is approaching and it'd be nice to let them enter some things.
Art is on again this afternoon at the library, which we will go to. It's nice go there to allow the kids to explore different art forms, as well as have the exposure to others their own age and different ideas. Christine Duigan deserves a medal for the work she does there - I am sure there are days that are very, very challenging.
Zach is off to Werris Creek for tennis this weekend. He, Charlie and Daddy and camping. Hopefully this time Keith will remember to take sleeping bags, pillows, blankets, and the tent ropes and pegs. Other wise it might be a loooooong weekend for them.
Well, that's it! Whew! I'm done! And I'm not leaving it three weeks again!
Monday, February 8, 2010
2010... in the beginning...
I can hardly believe that the summer holidays are over and we are back to school! Time flies when you're having fun!
The holidays were great. We didn't go anywhere really - just hung about at home, swam a lot when it was hot, and enjoyed the rain when it came. And come it did! We had inches and inches of rain on Christmas Day and for a week and a half afterwards. The horses begged for snorkels on day four. By day seven they had given up on me being able to help them and I'm sure that I saw gills appearing on the sides of their necks. Even now, at the beginning of February, the gardens are still green and lush, and the regular follow up rain has been appreciated.
Christmas Day was spent at Keith's sister, Helen's, place and we had a lovely day together.
The kids took about two weeks to actually stop thinking they had to do school work. They relaxed into the holidays as time went on and started to get a bit creative and excited about their days.
Zach and Issie both had the chance to do more droving work with Wayne. All of the rain caused chaos for those out on the stock route, and the mosquitoes have spread three-day sickness through his cattle. Add to that the pink eye that is rife out here and he's a busy man! The kids were a great help to Wayne, and Zach has gained a huge amount of confidence and inner peace from his two weeks out on horseback. I am so glad he did it. I can see a change in him.
Issie made some new/old friends during the holidays too. Bronte, Elizabeth, Anna and the two Lydias have all become a part of Issie's life and it is wonderful to see her developing some solid and happy friendships after so long of not having anyone her own age around her. She has also remained in contact with her dear friend Lilly and I hope we will be able to get them together soon.
Isobel also discovered the art classes that are held at the local library. She now attends twice a week and loves it. That is something that Zach and Hannah will also do at least once a week and which will continue throughout the term.
Issie read voraciously during the holidays. She almost emptied the local library, reading the remaining 14 Phantom Stallion books and a raft of others. Last Wednesday evening she borrowed, from Lorna, "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer. She finished it Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning started the next book in the series, "New Moon". I don't know if there are enough books in the wold to keep up with her thirst for written works - she finished the second book, over 550 pages, on Sunday afternoon. give her a book and a horse and she's happy.
Ukulele classes resume this afternoon, and drama begins for the term on Wednesday.
As for schoolwork, we are still trying to catch up with what the kids ought to know, but don't yet, and to make the skills and knowledge that they have really solid. I'm not sure how two reasonably intelligent kids can miss so much in mainstream school. Or maybe that is par for the course in institutionalised education?
Zach is still finishing his Yr7 maths and Issie is working on her Yr5 maths. Before we move on to higher levels I need to be sure they both understand the concepts of what we are studying now. I anticipate that they will both be ready to move on to the subsequent years' work in Term 2.
Issie and Zach are continuing with their Yr7 English work. This term we are concentrating on grammar, which seems to have been ignored somewhere along the way in their previous mainstream schools, with some creative writing, comprehension and written expression work. The second half of the year will look more at taking these skills and using them in different text types.
Hannah is doing well moving into her Year 1 work. The maths concepts seem to flow easily for her. The English skills still seem a bit challenging, but I am putting that down to her just liking maths more at this stage.
Han is also still doing her speech therapy with Robyn Parker and we are seeing self-correction taking place as she becomes more aware of her speech patterns. She is very proud of herself.
Charlie has begun a book called "Starting School". He loves it, and is also learning to write his name. I found a website that lets you make your own handwriting and alphabet sheets, so I printed one off for him. I had no intention of starting him this year, but he is interested in letters, sounds and numbers, so I figure I will let him lead.
We are revisiting our "Home" topic for HSIE, art, TAS and science this term. We will be looking at "Home" around the world, our own home, how homes/houses are made, the science within a house, how houses and how we live affect our environment, and we'll be designing and making a model of a house. We will be using different art processes, including photography and painting to show houses and how they make us feel.
We are planning a trip to the tip to find some junk to use for our entries for the "Waste to Art" competition. I have no idea what we'll find!
We begin guitar lessons on the 20th of February for Zach and Issie. We will be attending the Macquarie Conservatorium of Music once a month and doing lots of practice at home in between! The kids are excited!
In all of the kids' work, I hope to use the Six Thinking Hats. I believe it helps them to see things from a number of perspectives and to have, perhaps, a more rounded view of the world.
And on that note, I must away to organise lunch for the hungry hordes.
The holidays were great. We didn't go anywhere really - just hung about at home, swam a lot when it was hot, and enjoyed the rain when it came. And come it did! We had inches and inches of rain on Christmas Day and for a week and a half afterwards. The horses begged for snorkels on day four. By day seven they had given up on me being able to help them and I'm sure that I saw gills appearing on the sides of their necks. Even now, at the beginning of February, the gardens are still green and lush, and the regular follow up rain has been appreciated.
Christmas Day was spent at Keith's sister, Helen's, place and we had a lovely day together.
The kids took about two weeks to actually stop thinking they had to do school work. They relaxed into the holidays as time went on and started to get a bit creative and excited about their days.
Zach and Issie both had the chance to do more droving work with Wayne. All of the rain caused chaos for those out on the stock route, and the mosquitoes have spread three-day sickness through his cattle. Add to that the pink eye that is rife out here and he's a busy man! The kids were a great help to Wayne, and Zach has gained a huge amount of confidence and inner peace from his two weeks out on horseback. I am so glad he did it. I can see a change in him.
Issie made some new/old friends during the holidays too. Bronte, Elizabeth, Anna and the two Lydias have all become a part of Issie's life and it is wonderful to see her developing some solid and happy friendships after so long of not having anyone her own age around her. She has also remained in contact with her dear friend Lilly and I hope we will be able to get them together soon.
Isobel also discovered the art classes that are held at the local library. She now attends twice a week and loves it. That is something that Zach and Hannah will also do at least once a week and which will continue throughout the term.
Issie read voraciously during the holidays. She almost emptied the local library, reading the remaining 14 Phantom Stallion books and a raft of others. Last Wednesday evening she borrowed, from Lorna, "Twilight" by Stephanie Meyer. She finished it Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning started the next book in the series, "New Moon". I don't know if there are enough books in the wold to keep up with her thirst for written works - she finished the second book, over 550 pages, on Sunday afternoon. give her a book and a horse and she's happy.
Ukulele classes resume this afternoon, and drama begins for the term on Wednesday.
As for schoolwork, we are still trying to catch up with what the kids ought to know, but don't yet, and to make the skills and knowledge that they have really solid. I'm not sure how two reasonably intelligent kids can miss so much in mainstream school. Or maybe that is par for the course in institutionalised education?
Zach is still finishing his Yr7 maths and Issie is working on her Yr5 maths. Before we move on to higher levels I need to be sure they both understand the concepts of what we are studying now. I anticipate that they will both be ready to move on to the subsequent years' work in Term 2.
Issie and Zach are continuing with their Yr7 English work. This term we are concentrating on grammar, which seems to have been ignored somewhere along the way in their previous mainstream schools, with some creative writing, comprehension and written expression work. The second half of the year will look more at taking these skills and using them in different text types.
Hannah is doing well moving into her Year 1 work. The maths concepts seem to flow easily for her. The English skills still seem a bit challenging, but I am putting that down to her just liking maths more at this stage.
Han is also still doing her speech therapy with Robyn Parker and we are seeing self-correction taking place as she becomes more aware of her speech patterns. She is very proud of herself.
Charlie has begun a book called "Starting School". He loves it, and is also learning to write his name. I found a website that lets you make your own handwriting and alphabet sheets, so I printed one off for him. I had no intention of starting him this year, but he is interested in letters, sounds and numbers, so I figure I will let him lead.
We are revisiting our "Home" topic for HSIE, art, TAS and science this term. We will be looking at "Home" around the world, our own home, how homes/houses are made, the science within a house, how houses and how we live affect our environment, and we'll be designing and making a model of a house. We will be using different art processes, including photography and painting to show houses and how they make us feel.
We are planning a trip to the tip to find some junk to use for our entries for the "Waste to Art" competition. I have no idea what we'll find!
We begin guitar lessons on the 20th of February for Zach and Issie. We will be attending the Macquarie Conservatorium of Music once a month and doing lots of practice at home in between! The kids are excited!
In all of the kids' work, I hope to use the Six Thinking Hats. I believe it helps them to see things from a number of perspectives and to have, perhaps, a more rounded view of the world.
And on that note, I must away to organise lunch for the hungry hordes.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Here we go again...
It has been a busy couple of weeks.
More sick kids, more crazy times with animals and more schoolwork to finish. All in all, busy, but productive.
Issie got sick last week with a vague but powerful virus. Huge headaches and high fever for three days - just like Charlie and Hannah had a few weeks ago. She still managed to get most of her schoolwork done, but it was obvious that she had some issues with her concentration and stamina. This week was a bit better but her understanding of narratives was challenged by the unit of English we did, as was Zach. Next week we will continue studying narratives to really grasp the concept of this text type properly.
Zach has still been ploughing through his school work, especially his maths. I am pretty impressed by his work ethic.
At this time of year, I am sure that teachers from everywhere are trying to figure out how to motivate their students, and it is no different for home-schooling parents! As we are concentrating on our English and Maths until the end of the year for the older kids, it is easy to get bogged down in that and forget to have some fun, so with that in mind, we began our Christmas craft in earnest this week. It is interesting to try and combine the needs and skill levels of teenagers and preschoolers. It is somewhat limiting but does cause me to get creative.
On Sunday, we bought the pre-requisite wrapping paper and other supplies from the newsagency to make our first Christmas tree decorations. Being Walgett, the quality of the wrapping paper, even if it says "deluxe", is pretty poor. It was horribly thin and so I had the brain wave to glue two papers together to make a thicker, more sturdy paper. Of course, I should have just gone back to the newagency and bought some light cardboard. But I didn't want to waste the wrapping paper. Three hours later, we had cut all of the shapes we needed and glued them together. The paper inevitably buckled and warped and the shapes looked terrible.
On Monday morning I went and bought some cardboard and we started again.
Lots of glue and several tons of glitter later, we had four Christmas tree decorations to hang in the window.
This was also the week that I discovered that Keith threw the big, old Christmas tree out last January. AAARRGGHH! The kids are desperate to decorate and I am without a tree!
Keith has had the idea that we should go to Bugilbone to get a pine tree. I am somewhat dubious and my illusions (or delusions) of another perfectly wonderful and enormous Northern hemisphere-looking tree have been shattered, but I think the kids might like the ritual of cutting the tree down and bringing it home. Pray there are no wasps' nests or small snakes in it!
Hannah's cast for her previously broken arm was removed this week. Phil (the physio) was right when he said that removal was more traumatic than the application of the cast. But we had a lovely doctor, Crystal Smit-Kroner, who is most certainly in the right field of work. Every now and then you meet someone who just loves their work - she was one of them - and I am deeply appreciative to her for making a difficult experience for Han into one where Han left with a smile on her face.
This weekend I am continuing on with my patchwork journey. I cut out all the bits of Mardi's quilt yesterday, and thankfully found a correctable mistake when I still had the sense of humour to correct it. I am hoping to start piecing it together today.
The kids are making Fimo beads and bath bombs this weekend. Zach is very afraid of the bath bombs - he said he doesn't want to blow up the bathroom. If you've seen my bathroom, you'll know that blowing it up would only help it. ; )
More sick kids, more crazy times with animals and more schoolwork to finish. All in all, busy, but productive.
Issie got sick last week with a vague but powerful virus. Huge headaches and high fever for three days - just like Charlie and Hannah had a few weeks ago. She still managed to get most of her schoolwork done, but it was obvious that she had some issues with her concentration and stamina. This week was a bit better but her understanding of narratives was challenged by the unit of English we did, as was Zach. Next week we will continue studying narratives to really grasp the concept of this text type properly.
Zach has still been ploughing through his school work, especially his maths. I am pretty impressed by his work ethic.
At this time of year, I am sure that teachers from everywhere are trying to figure out how to motivate their students, and it is no different for home-schooling parents! As we are concentrating on our English and Maths until the end of the year for the older kids, it is easy to get bogged down in that and forget to have some fun, so with that in mind, we began our Christmas craft in earnest this week. It is interesting to try and combine the needs and skill levels of teenagers and preschoolers. It is somewhat limiting but does cause me to get creative.
On Sunday, we bought the pre-requisite wrapping paper and other supplies from the newsagency to make our first Christmas tree decorations. Being Walgett, the quality of the wrapping paper, even if it says "deluxe", is pretty poor. It was horribly thin and so I had the brain wave to glue two papers together to make a thicker, more sturdy paper. Of course, I should have just gone back to the newagency and bought some light cardboard. But I didn't want to waste the wrapping paper. Three hours later, we had cut all of the shapes we needed and glued them together. The paper inevitably buckled and warped and the shapes looked terrible.
On Monday morning I went and bought some cardboard and we started again.
Lots of glue and several tons of glitter later, we had four Christmas tree decorations to hang in the window.
This was also the week that I discovered that Keith threw the big, old Christmas tree out last January. AAARRGGHH! The kids are desperate to decorate and I am without a tree!
Keith has had the idea that we should go to Bugilbone to get a pine tree. I am somewhat dubious and my illusions (or delusions) of another perfectly wonderful and enormous Northern hemisphere-looking tree have been shattered, but I think the kids might like the ritual of cutting the tree down and bringing it home. Pray there are no wasps' nests or small snakes in it!
Hannah's cast for her previously broken arm was removed this week. Phil (the physio) was right when he said that removal was more traumatic than the application of the cast. But we had a lovely doctor, Crystal Smit-Kroner, who is most certainly in the right field of work. Every now and then you meet someone who just loves their work - she was one of them - and I am deeply appreciative to her for making a difficult experience for Han into one where Han left with a smile on her face.
This weekend I am continuing on with my patchwork journey. I cut out all the bits of Mardi's quilt yesterday, and thankfully found a correctable mistake when I still had the sense of humour to correct it. I am hoping to start piecing it together today.
The kids are making Fimo beads and bath bombs this weekend. Zach is very afraid of the bath bombs - he said he doesn't want to blow up the bathroom. If you've seen my bathroom, you'll know that blowing it up would only help it. ; )
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