I survived the first week of home schooling

Well, our first week of home schooling is almost over and we are all still standing!

Last week, the authorised person from the NSW Board of Studies, Anne, came to our home for our registration visit. We had a cuppa and I showed her what I had planned for the kids. She seemed really happy with what I presented to her and we were approved.

So on Monday morning, after timetabling and programming and planning until my eyes crossed, we began.

Zach and Issie are doing the same English program - Year 7 - which makes life a bit easier. Issie was not challenged by her previous English work, and since she did so well in her NAPLAN tests, I thought we might see how she goes doing something more advanced. Both of them are coping really well with it. I have been impressed by Zach's willingness to learn in English, which has not always been his strong point, and by Issie's comprehension skills and willingness to knuckle down and just get the work done.

Hannah is still following her ABC Reading Eggs program on the computer, with home readers and activity books. As a whole it is a great program and she is really enjoying it. She is also doing handwriting in the Targeting Handwriting K book, which seems to be a bit of overkill at this stage but I am happy for her to do more literacy stuff now.

Maths for both girls is with the Targeting Maths books and CD-rom programs. I am loving it - easy to understand and to teach. It is set out really well, and, for Year 5, there are Maths Mentals and assessment books to go with it.

We have also started a unit that covers the KLAs of English, Maths, HSIE, Science and Art - HOME. This week we have looked at what home means to us, what home means to other people (each child has done an interview), how we feel about our homes, and what homes around the world are like and how they compare to our home.

PDHPE this week has involved lots of swimming, since summer has hit us with a vengeance! Issie, Zach and Charlie have been doing a lot of horse work, and work around the stables. Zach has begun digging the horse rolling pond for me. The horses have already started playing in it, which is hugely entertaining to watch.

Poor Hannah has been somewhat restricted with her physical activity since she broke her arm two weeks ago - no climbing trees, no trampolining, no bike riding, no horse riding... the list goes on. She has been driving us nuts with too much energy and not enough outlets for it! So this week we have taken advantage of the new waterproof cast and let her loose in the pool. Happy days!

Hannah, Charlie and I also made tissue paper collages this week. Hannah was most proud of her effort - gluing tissue paper is tricky!

Music lessons start on November 20th. Piano to get us going and see how we like it. Guitar has also been hinted at, but as there are no teachers in our town and, as I am somewhat challenged when it comes to musical instruments, it may be a while before guitar happens!

I have been concentrating on just getting the basics running smoothly but I hope that as we get into a routine, the opportunity to explore more interesting aspects of the work we are doing, and their applications to real life, will arise more often.

Tomorrow I will not be opening a single textbook!