Our second week of home schooling...

Well, as much as we did really well in our first week, we almost didn't survive the second week!

As well as daytime temperatures into the 40s, both Hannah and Charlie got sick. Poor little things - both were just awful for days. : ( And of course, they gave it to me. Thanks guys!

Issie and Zacho did lots of maths and English work last week. Hannah did some of her maths and handwriting, as well as Reading Eggs and Targeting maths CD-rom work, when she was well enough.

I have made a few adjustments to the kids' work plan for the remainder of the year. I have canned the idea of the "Home" unit for now - we will begin that in the New Year. For now, we will concentrate on getting our maths and English really solid, and filling in with lots of Christmas-based stuff. We are trying to make a lot of our gifts this year, so it is great to have the kids involved.

Issie is surprising me with how much maths she has to learn - she has escaped actually grasping the concepts for so long - how does that happen in a school situation with qualified teachers? And how did she score so well in the NAPLAN test? - but she is also surprising me with how quickly she is learning it all properly. I am very proud of her, because it can't be easy. As always, she is doing really well with her English work.

Zacho is doing really well with his maths. He is very motivated to do it well and is completing one chapter per week in his Excel Step-by-Step maths book. He is still doing well in his English too - and is not seeming to be horribly allergic to dictionaries anymore!

As well as maths and English, we also managed to get to swimming, Latin dancing and the first day of drama class. Charlie contributed to the drama of drama class by vomiting all over the floor.

On Sunday, Issie and I decided to sew a miniature bear each. We found the pattern in the Better Homes and Gardens magazine. If only the pattern actually matched the head sections to the body sections. Then the bear would actually be done by now!

To top off our week, Keith has been saving some of his home-brewed beer to give to his male relatives at Christmas, since it received rave reviews when he gave some to friends and family previously.

I got concerned by the heat and how it might affect it, since he was keeping it on the front verandah. He said he thought it would be fine, but brought some inside anyway, just to be safe.

About an hour later, just as we left the kitchen after clearing up the dinner plates, there was an explosion and a hail of glass. Bottle after bottle exploded. Beer sprayed ten metres across the kitchen and dining room. We found glass in the front hall.

Keith cleared up the glass and beer, all the while laughing at how he was going to give it to his relatives... "Here, lovely to see you! Merry Christmas! Have a bottle of Killer Beer!"

It's only early, but this week is proving to be better already! Will post again later, hopefully with all of this week's successes!