Jocelyn's blog

Nov. 20, 2008

The Reading Challenge

Every year, the government holds a reading challenge to encourage children to be reading books in their own time. The challenge is to read 12 books between February and August. The Department of Education puts together book lists for various ages and the children must read 8 books from the list and may choose four of their own to make up the 12.

This challenge isn't difficult for my children and I suspect, most good readers. Our problem was being limited by their list and finding the levels too easy for the ages of the children.

Nevertheless, it was good to write down some books they'd been reading and get together with some friends to talk about them.

Our group actually took out a prize in the homeschooling category, so that was a bonus!

We gathered around in a circle, and each person talked about one of the books they had read and why they liked it. We even had some small sections read out to us.

Adam joined in with the group this year. His reading has really taken off since the last reading challenge! He spoke about one of the Pathway readers that he likes to read. No, I don't mean as a read-aloud to me, he takes these books to bed and reads them in his own time. He spoke quite confidently and told the group that he liked the stories. He thought it was good to have stories about children who learned lessons about life.

After a quick group photo, there was time for a quick bite to eat and a play at the park.

Well, it was supposed to be quick until a certain someone let me know that she was blocked out by the previous photo....

and her charm won out... so I took another photo for her.

Thanks, Cerri and Liz B for organising this. We're going to have another challenge next year - and see just how many books they read in TOTAL from Feb - Aug!!!

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Sep. 18, 2008

The Running Track

Posted in Homeschool life

I have been meaning to blog about this for a while now...

Most of you know that our Fridays are quite busy. We host a scrapbooking / craft morning, have lunch at the in-laws and then Mum looks after the children while I go grocery shopping and run errands. I am blessed by the help I receive.

A couple of months ago, Mum started taking the boys down to a running track while I went out. They started to get competitive about times (funny that..) so I thought it best to buy a stop watch.

Recently, I was able to go along, see where they run and how they were doing. Here's some photos:

Mark points out which route to use on the track. It's called "Deek's Track", after Robert de Castella, Australia's famous marathon runner.

The boys start warming up...

On your mark...get set...

Oma starts the clock...

Zac smashes his previous record. He cracked 5 minutes for the first time in the 1000m ( or 1km) distance. He ran it in 4.49!

Stephen matched Zac's 4.49 when he ran the second time...could not be outdone by a younger brother!

Adam brings it home...

and then collapses!

What of Mark?

He just wanted to keep going by himself. Sometimes off -track and not always in a straight line but he can go the whole way around without stopping now and clocks it in about 8 minutes.

They all enjoy it and look to better their times each week. It is a beautiful setting and I am so thankful to Mum for taking this on with the boys and being able to share it with them. She's a homeschooling Grandma!

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Aug. 27, 2008

Gold, Silver and Bronze

Posted in Homeschool life

It was the Olympics last week but I thought there were three main things that week that I could class in the Bronze, Silver and Gold categories.

I'll go in reverse order:

BRONZE
Well, Andrew's soccer team were effectively playing for Bronze. They came 4th in their soccer league, losing their semi-final. The soccer dinner was on Saturday night and Andrew & I went to a crowded Italian restaurant to celebrate the season with the team. Thankfully, it all went well and the guys were great. Most of the team aren't Christians, even though they play in the Christian soccer league.

SILVER
I was reminded of a concept in the Bible in the past week - being refined by fire and the dross coming out. It made me think of silver! Zac was laid low all week with gastro and it showed all over his face. We probably watched more of the Olympics because of it as he couldn't think much nor did he have the energy to do much. These times of trial can test the character and God can use it to refine us. Not sure he liked me saying that too much when he was sick so after a couple of times, I left him with that thought...

GOLD
The gold winning performance of the week has to go to my friend, Terry den Dulk. He and Liz have come out from London with the kids for a holiday. Being the incredible opera singer that he is, his Canberra counterparts couldn't let the opportunity pass, so he sang in a concert on Friday night. Those privileged to be there enjoyed a selection from Mozart, Verdi, Bach, Pirates of Penzance, Phantom of the Opera, Gorky and Bess and more! He sang some solos but most of the performance was with a soprano singer. Our dear family friends, the Semples, were in town as well so Brian accompanied me to the opera.

Gold was also the colour of the dress I wore. My son, Stephen, looked a bit shocked when I first came out all dressed up, saying, "Mummy! I've never seen you like this before!" I did take it as a compliment and added that I probably hadn't been as dressed up since my wedding day so it was no wonder he hadn't seen me like this before!

With Liz.

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Aug. 14, 2008

Maths Musings

Posted in Homeschool life

Toward the end of last year, I mentioned to my husband that I was finding it hard to explain some of the Maths to our eldest. Yes, he was only 10 at the time but was doing Grade 5 Singapore Maths. Some of the concepts in this course are not taught until Year 7 in Australia.

The biggest issue was that Maths has never been a favourite area of mine and I did not think I was the best teacher of it. I can explain it "my way" but don't have the expertise to explain a problem from a different perspective or with any depth of understanding. I was looking into getting a DVD course with a Mathematician explaining all the concepts. Many have used Math-U-See with success. In the meantime, a great special came up for an online course in Australia. We decided to give that a try for a year, research other options and then make a decision this year.

Adam doing Mathletics on the TV computer. It has improved his speed drills.

Of course, we didn't get far into the year when our trip to the USA came along. One of the families we visited had children a similar age to some of ours. Their dad had been teaching the children Maths for several years and had a good routine going. Yeah sure, this dad is a rocket scientist but it was helpful to see someone else doing this.

When we got back from the US, Andrew said that he would take the oldest two for Maths. I tried not to apply too much pressure and leave the decision with him. Needless to say, I was so relieved when he offered - it was a load off my mind! They start at 6.30am in the morning and do three mornings a week with Dad.

Zac presses on one morning and finished his work by 11am

Sometimes, they decide to keep working from that point on and get their work finished by an early time in the day. Other times, they take a break from 7.15 until 9am. They still have bible devotions and other things to do in their morning routine but they are at leisure to determine how all of that happens before 9am.

I have enjoyed that development as well. They are becoming more responsible for how they manage their time and make choices based on day to day happenings.

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Jul. 28, 2008

Science in "sick" week

Posted in Homeschool life

As I mentioned a couple of blog entries ago, I was sick with the flu recently. Well, the boys ended up doing most of their work that week. I was still suffering from a lack of energy last week and a few of the boys had bad coughs and colds, so I thought I would put that down as a sick week. We could take our time to recover, I could catch up around the house and we could rug up, stay inside and enjoy the lovely fire.

Of course, with a bit of free time, the boys can be wondering what to do with themselves. We did play a couple of boardgames, just to help pass the time and to make sure hands didn't stay too idle. Zac also found something else that he wanted to do. He found a box in the bookshelf that said "Science View".

As you can see from the picture below (if you are on the blog site), the boys wanted to create a volcanic eruption.

Needing only dirt, baking soda, white vinegar and food dye, we could manage this easily.

Mark, being an inquisitive 4 year old, was right there to watch the action...the other boys joined in too.

As the vinegar interacted with the baking soda, the eruption happened.

It worked well, the boys enjoyed spending time on it and didn't even complain about having to clean up the mess after them! They thought it was so good that they wanted to use up all of my kitchen supplies, repeating this experiment over and over.

What I loved about this was that the initiative came from them. They didn't see this experiment as "work" but something interesting to try.

Yes, they still had their squabbles in this "sick week" and we had to deal with those - I am not trying to present a rose-coloured view of life at our house. However, the boys have a desire to discover and to learn new things, regardless of whether it is "school" time or not and that is why I wanted to share this experience.

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Jun. 21, 2008

Flat Out Friday

Posted in Homeschool life

Our Fridays are always full and fun; and occasionally frantic. We take a break from our bookwork on Fridays to spend the day in other ways. Here was our Friday this week:

8.45am go and pick up a friend for Scrapbooking / Craft morning at our house

9 - 12 noon Open house for homeschoolers to come to Scrapbooking /Craft. Mums work on projects and the kids play together. We've been doing this for a few weeks now and have had 3-4 families most times. I've managed to get several scrapbooking pages done and the kids have played well together so it's been good.

12 noon - pack up, drop friend home, go to lunch at Andrew's parents' house.

12.30pm Lunch This time is always great as the kids see their grandparents every week and spend time with them. I also get to go out shopping by myself in the afternoon so it's a real blessing to me.

2pm Stephen has an optometrist appointment so he comes along this afternoon

2.30pm Shopping for fruit and vegetables at the market, going to Fyshwick shops for other birthday presents.

4-4.30pm Get back and have a quick cuppa with Mum before taking the kids home and unpacking the shopping

5.15pm Start making a Spinach, Leek and Feta fritatta that I have never made before (recipe will be typed up soon)

6pm It finally is in the oven!!!

I then sit down and catch up on emails etc for a while

6.45pm Dinner is ready and we sit down together to eat!

7.30pm I head out the door again for a birthday coffee and cake supper.

Usually, I'm out the door again between 7 and 7.30pm on a Friday night as I take one boy out with me. I have a coffee and they get a baby cino and we just have a short one on one time together. It's late night shopping night for us so we browse around a little too. Each of the top three boys takes turns in coming out each Friday night.

10pm Got home, collapsed on the lounge and watched some of BBC's North and South

So, the day was flat out and full but I do like my Fridays and look forward to them.

What are your Fridays like?

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Jun. 11, 2008

Farewell Fiesta

Posted in Homeschool life

I have had another blog break and will try and mend my ways and get back into a routine again...

We had settled back in now and started to find out feet, renew our contacts and then...out of nowhere it seemed... the Brien family announced they would be heading off to do mission work in Mexico not just at some time in the future, not even at the end of the year, try ... in August!

Well, this was a huge shock to us but we are so happy that they are able to take advantage of this opportunity and go. Liz & kids are leaving next week so she can go home to England first to visit her family. So, now all of a sudden, the farewell had to be THIS WEEK at our homeschooling meeting on Tuesday night.

Everyone was in flat panic - how on earth do we arrange a surprise farewell party with two days' notice? Then to add to the drama...

One of her best friends (Kim) and a major plotter in the party stakes was now one day overdue to deliver her baby, another friend who had offered to host the party called an hour before it started to say there was a fire down the street and access to her home was blocked...

What on earth were we going to do?

And what was Liz doing???? She was blissfully unaware that this was anything besides a regular homeschooling meeting, which of course, she should arrive LATE to. After all, we have a saying for how late she is - she's running on "Brien time".

Well, no...

We find out at the last minute that we can get to the party house - the streets are sealed off *just* past the junction we need.

At the last minute (no, Kim did not have the baby...)

At the last minute, getting there to prepare for the surprise,

LIZ IS EARLY???????????????????????????

She's 20 minutes early...not sure I have recovered from that shock! So she surprised us.

Now - down to the party...

We had a great time just chatting, enjoying and the house had been decorated with such great Mexican decorations that it would have been a shame not to have it there.

We played some games. I had help from Donna who gave me some ideas - thank you! The first was a guessing game. There were three clues for each Mexican/Spanish word. If you guessed the answer, you could put a piece of the jigsaw puzzle on the map of Mexico.

The boys and I made up a map of Mexico during the day, cut out pieces for the puzzle and worked together to come up with the clues.

After the map was complete and Guadalajara was put on the map, that became the target for the next game. All the ladies had to don a poncho and a sombrero and try and hit the city that Liz will be going to. The throws, thankfully, did not get too wild and ladies didn't look too wild either! Here's some pics:

Liz about to "fire off" a small mexican bean bag at the target....

Another Liz, trying to remain anonymous....

and how does being pregnant affect your aim????

After this, we played a mime game and then went out to hit the pinata.

Well, it was being hit even when it was down! There were some Mexican-style prizes (just a fancy way to dress up chocolate) and then we got serious...

We gave Liz a farewell gift (diary) with notes of love in it from us, an offering for their mission work and plenty of lollies for the plane for the kids....yes, um...sure she'll appreciate that last gesture....

It was a great night and it's hard to say another farewell. God bless, you Liz and family xxx

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Feb. 7, 2008

Partial Solar Eclipse - 7 Feb

Posted in Homeschool life

We've been reading about Galileo lately and using this fantastic book:

When we heard there was going to be a partial Solar Eclipse visible from Australia today, I made sure that we read the chapter on Galileo's observations of sunspots this week. We made a pin hole viewer in preparation for the eclipse, scheduled for this afternoon.

Problem was, a thunderstorm was also scheduled for this afternoon! The partial eclipse was to start at 2.47pm, reach mid-eclipse by 3.38pm and finish at 4.27pm. This is what it looked like at 3.38pm:

Then, at 3.54, there was a patch of blue sky, the sun started to shine brightly and we were out there like a shot!!

Stephen is holding the pin hole viewer. We got instructions on how to make it from this site: www.paulfloyd.id.au We actually got to see a tiny section of the sun was shaded by the moon. The photo may not be clear but it was clear to us!

Just the very top left hand corner is affected. Anyway, we thought it was exciting! Apparently, there won't be another solar eclipse until 2012, so we were thankful we got to see this.

At 4.05pm, it clouded over again. By 4.15pm, the heavens opened, the sky went dark and I headed in here to the computer!

Paul Floyd's site is being swamped right now but I'll try and get back on here and show the fact sheet he put out for the event - I was impressed with it.

Here's a photo of mine:

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Jan. 12, 2008

The Games Deck

Posted in Homeschool life

We had a big clean up in the garage over the Christmas break and Andrew found the table tennis table and also the shuffleboard that his grandfather (Opa) made.

We decided to pull them out and set them up, so now we have a games deck! It's been great having them just there and ready to go as the children have been able to play whenever they like.

Andrew has had a few games of Ping Pong with the boys after work. You can see the shuffleboard on the table in the background. Here's some more photos of that:

Zac has the dark wooden discs and has to slot them in the holes to score points. You get three turns.

Mark gets a bird's eye view of the shuffleboard game. He likes to collect the discs and line them back up for the player.

Adam "chills" out and waits for his turn at Table Tennis.

We are planning to keep them out for a little longer!

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Dec. 28, 2007

Merry Christmas...makeover!!

Posted in Homeschool life

We decided to have our holiday time at home this year. After being away last year we came back feeling worn out and frazzled. Well, I'm not sure if staying at home will do the trick either. We had so many social engagements just before the Christmas break plus Andrew turned 40 on December 20 so there were a couple of celebrations for that.

After a low key Christmas Day, it was straight into work...

Andrew ordered a huge "skippy bin". I don't know what you call it but it can fit a LOT of garbage in it!! We have not moved in 15 years and our garage reflects that. The last couple of days have been busy as we have cleared out the whole area, sorting as we go.

Then today, one of the boys forgot to connect the grey water hose when putting a load on and the laundry flooded. By the time we cleared all of that out and moved things around, the day was almost gone and all of the garage things were still outside...

On top of all this, we decided to start potty training with Mark this week. He has learned to keep his pants dry as long as possible but still freezes up when the potty is in view. We've tried several things but he is immovable at the moment!

Plus several of the boys have nagging coughs that seem to affect them more at bed time.

So, yes, it's been a tiring week and I feel like I'm scurrying around everywhere but not really achieving much. It's one of those phases where it gets worse before it gets better.

We do plan to get our family newsletter out in the next week as well so bear with us, we'll get there!!

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