Okay, so I know I haven't been blogging much lately...not because I don't want to, just because I've been trying really hard to limit my computer time, and blogging is the easiest thing to cut down on!!  Although, I must admit, that I'm always 'blogging' in my head LOL!

Okay, so "whats the plan for this year" you ask?  Well, I'm glad you asked, because that's what I'm blogging about today!!  Isn't that a coincidence!

Okay, so the 'plan' this year is to have a fairly informal, semi-unschooling, Charlotte Mason inspired, fun, everyday life learning kinda year!  Clear as mud?

My children (the 'school-aged' ones) are 7 & 6 and after reading Raymond Moore's book "The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook", I'm pretty into the whole delayed-formal-academics thing, so I want to keep this year pretty informal, with only a little reading and writing and lots of fun stuff...they aren't strong on reading and writing yet (although the 7yo can read pretty well, the 6yo can read the basics and they can both write fairly well for their ages) but I'm happy to leave off on the refinement of these skills until they are ready.

So this is (in a nutshell) what we are going to be doing this year...

We are using Galloping the Globe (GTG - Geography) & Considering Gods Creation (CGC - Science) as a 'frame' to hang our (more structured) learning on.  They are very basic, flexible curriculum's, that I am using to give me a little structure and direction.

We are starting GTG with England, and then we will be moving through the rest of the U.K and Europe.  We are going to do lapbooks and notebook pages for each country, eating food from that country and other fun things like that.

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Posted by 40winkzzz

Hey, Ang, sounds great! I hope you have fun with it. I did something similar with my kids last school year-- a relaxed, informal approach with world geog/culture as a kind of a theme. (Well, actually, part of my approach last yr was freeing myself up to NOT have a "main theme", but we did spend some time each week on geog/culture.) We, too, made food from other cultures and my kids loved it. Doing lapbooks is a great idea. Have fun with it!

Just out of curiosity, what is the "school year" in NZ? Do they go year-round, or is there a long summer break like we have in the US? (Our schoolyear here starts anywhere from mid-Aug to early Sept and ends early June, with two-ish weeks off at Christmas & 1 in early April.) In your homeschooling, do you follow the NZ schoolyear, or do you do your own thing?

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Posted by AngtheFLYingKiwi

We have 4 school terms in NZ, our school year starts at the beginning of Feburary (Feb is the last month of our Summer) and End in mid December (start of our summer). But we pretty much do our own thing, we just take a break naturally when we need it ;-)

Love
Ang

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Posted by 40winkzzz

OK, thanks! It is always fun to learn how things are done in other parts of the world. Speaking of which...

I tried several times to come over here on Tuesday but couldn't get on. (My last comment was posted Monday, MY time anyway, not Tues as it says.) My calendar tells me that Tues was Waitangi Day in NZ, altho I have no clue what that is or why the calendar maker chose to put it on there! Even so, I thought I would wish you a happy holiday. Is it a "real" holiday with celebrations and a day off work & school and so on, or is it just one of those "post office" holidays in which life goes on as normal except that the mail doesn't come? :-) (We have a few of those here-- MLK Day, President's Day, & Columbus Day, to name a few...)

(btw, in case you were wondering, my name isn't linking bc I am not logged in-- wasn't last time either-- so I just type it in in leiu of "Anonymous".)

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Posted by 40winkzzz

OK, thanks! It is always fun to learn how things are done in other parts of the world. Speaking of which...



I tried several times to come over here on Tuesday but couldn't get on. (My last comment was posted Monday, MY time anyway, not Tues as it says.) My calendar tells me that Tues was Waitangi Day in NZ, altho I have no clue what that is or why the calendar maker chose to put it on there! Even so, I thought I would wish you a happy holiday. Is it a "real" holiday with celebrations and a day off work & school and so on, or is it just one of those "post office" holidays in which life goes on as normal except that the mail doesn't come? :-) (We have a few of those here-- MLK Day, President's Day, & Columbus Day, to name a few...)



(btw, in case you were wondering, my name isn't linking bc I am not logged in-- wasn't last time either-- so I just type it in in leiu of "Anonymous".)

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Posted by AngtheFLYingKiwi

Waitangi Day is a Statutory Holiday (day off) - it's a day of rememberance to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi (document signed by the native NZ Maori and the British Colonists)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Waitangi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Original TreatyThe Treaty of Waitangi (Mâori: Te Tiriti o Waitangi) was signed on February 6, 1840 at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand. It was signed by a representative of the British Crown, and Mâori chiefs from the North Island. The British Resident, James Busby, had earlier convinced some 35 of these chiefs to declare independence as the Confederation of the United Tribes of New Zealand.

From the British point of view, 'The Treaty', as New Zealanders often call it, justified making New Zealand a British colony. Today it is generally considered the founding point of New Zealand as a nation. Despite this, the Treaty is often the subject of heated debate. Many Mâori feel that the Crown has not kept its side of the bargain, whereas a number of Pakeha feel that Mâori pay too much attention to the Treaty and use it to claim 'special privileges'.

Until the 1970s, it was generally ignored by both the courts and parliament, although it was usually depicted in New Zealand historiography as a wise and benevolent act. From the late 1960s Mâori began drawing attention to breaches of the Treaty, and subsequent histories have emphasised problems with its translation. Most New Zealanders now accept that their governments have been neglectful of the Treaty, but there is no agreement on the extent of this or what should be done about it. The Waitangi Tribunal is tasked with researching breaches of the Treaty and suggesting redress...

So there you go...more than you ever wanted to know about Waitangi Day ;-)

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