Subject: English 2009

Name: Term:One

Key: FIAR = Five in a row, Son = Sonlight PK, W = Week

Seems alot of prep and sometimes I don't end up doing anything that is on the timetable, but for me I need to see where I am going in order to get there.  Nothing we are doing is set in stone, it is just a guideline for me.

I haven't tried being this 'organised' before, I usually prepare work weekly, and it sure is alot of work, but I think to do the work now before the year begins saves me alot of heart ache later, like not preparing the weekend before and thus not doing hardly any work for a week!!!  Plus we have a big year and organising our time is going to pay of in the long run.

I have Goals for each subject for the year, chosen books or other sources of info, and broken in down into weekly bits, As I use alot of American type curriculum that uses  35 week time table I'd just use the remaining 5 weeks through the year to catch up, extra projects etc.

After the quarter planners are filled out I transfer the work required for the term to a checklist (also available on Donna Young.org ) the checklist is just a list of work that needs to be completed daily/weekly etc., ie. handwriting, spelling, reading, math workbook,  bible narration etc. and you put a little tick each day that you do your work.  It is handy in that you don't have to keep turning pages back and forth minute of the day to see what you have to cover!  Thanks Donna. 

Well getting back to work.

•  petrol is at an all time high,
• consequently food prices are going up,
• owning our own house is out of the questin for now,
• the car registration is expensive and you have to jump through hoops to get the pre applications papers for it,
• its the middle of winter and realitvely cold,
• We've moved again
• The house is always a mess with 4 kids playing inside and out.
  
• We had to drop two of our homeschooling classes due to the move, missing too much of the term and getting use to looking after my nephew all day.
  
• my honey lost the keys to his fathers car and we found it on our car windscreen(???) 3 days later, of course it rained during those 3 days and now the 'beepbeep' on the key doesn't disarm the immobiliser on the engine, so we have to get an auto electrician to come our tomorrow and redo the key another $2oo plus on that,

• We've carried on homeschooling without too much interruption
  
• Merah's dance lessons have picked up where we left them
• Liseys netball is getting better
• We got a refund from an overpayment of a loan! 
  
• We cleared out all our paid storage and got refunds.
  
• We moved!!  And the kids are in a room of their own and they love it.  Oh did I mention we all used to live in one room where we last lived.
• The weather, even though freezing, is sunny outside and the wind, which makes it cold is drying our clothes in a day instead of 3.
• Im doing the 30 day challenge, which could lead to me finding a niche to market online and mabey make some money.
• I'm enjoying our homeschooling and having my kiddies with me all day, and we have set a clean up time (although it took the youngest 2hrs to do yesterdays cleanup, there was alot of laughing!!)
  
• Looking after my nephew is not too bad, he gets dropped of at 4:30am goes straight back to sleep, has a reasonable sleep in the day time, and is learning to crawl better everyday.  his daddy and mummy also said he doesn't wriggle around when he's being fed anymore, since he came to me which sounds like a compliment to me.

...PART ONE

I've been asking myself why so I thought I'd break it down to discover my reasons.  You know how they tell you almost all HS handbooks to write down your goals and reasons for HSchooling??  Well Of course I didn't do that, so even though when someone asks I'll waffle on about some or other reason which I know isn't close to the reason why!!

I have heard alot of HSchoolers say that they didn't even know HSchooling even exsited before they started making educational equiries, but I don't remember a time when I did not know HSchooling was not possible.  I don't know whether it was the programs on TV, or the books I read, Or because I was bought up for some of my early years in the outback of Western Australia, and knew that some children stayed home and did schooling by radio.  But I always knew that HSchooling was a way of life for some people, and I liked the concept so much that I knew it would be for me too.

My ideas about what life would be like when i grew up were very romantic I suppose you call it lol.  My mother was a typical old fashioned mother, you know the good kind, baked beautiful cakes and bikkies, made her own bread in the morning, made cup cakes and fairy bread and all sorts of good things on your birthday, and also on your birthday she bought homemade cornish pasties, sausage rolls, pigs in blankets and a big birthday cake to school for your class.  She sewed us clothes, made the meanest roast dinners including apple sauce with pork, mint sauce with lamb and yorkshire pudding and gravy with beef,  and was always there when we got home from school. 

My most favourite TV program was Little House on the Prairie and the farm life seemed so lovely and carefree, and adventurous.  So I was going to grow up have a farm, have heaps of kiddies do all the families sewing and bake everything, I'd have a huge garden a couple of cows and chicken and we'd be completely self sufficient.  Of course homeschooling fits naturally into this ideal so of course that is what I was going to do.

Fast forward 15years or so to when I actually got married and I was starting to have a few doubts about all this romantic stuff, you know bills, working, more bills, no farm, and all my scones came out like rocks etc. etc. but when I was preganant with my first child we went to a parent & child expo in Auckland and there was a homeschooling stand there, I took brochures and was surprised to learn that there were whole organisations and groups based around schooling yr kids at home, with books to buy, curriculum to peruse, I was hooked!!  But the best thing I every got from those brochures was an article, I still have it today, written by a lady called Claire Aumonier, a homeschooling consultant in Auckland (will see if I can get permission from her to reprint it here).  It was such an inspirational piece of reading that the romance of teaching my little bundle of joy at home jumped right back into me and so the research began.

Books that had a lasting effect on me, either inspirational or educational have been:

Putting the Joy back into Egypt, by Jean Hendy-Harris - about one New Zealand family's homeschool adventure.

Teach Your Children Well' by Choon Tan with Veronika Meduna - a New Zealand, book that helped me to understand why it was important to teach maths an teach it well, his children all went to university at young ages and his yougest son was homeschooled for a while.

The 3R's and You Can Teach Your Child Successfully - Ruth Beechick's Books

Homeschooling for Excellence - by David and Micki Colfax  which I am rereading at the moment.

For the Children's sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay

and The Montessori Method by Maria Montessori, in fact quite a few books either based on her montessori method or written by her.

In fact for the first few years when my oldest was younger than school age, I based most of our HSchooling on how a Montessori school is run, not strickly mind you, but the excercises and activities were the basis for our 'curriculum' I suppose you'd call it.  For some reason once she got nearer to 5 years of age I suddenly started trying to do 'school' at home, which I think ruined the whole image I had built up over the years, the expectation that suddenly at 5 we'd start the 'real' homeschooling and she'd just go from strength to strength!!?  NOT!....that's all for now, M 'honeys coming home tonight have to go and get ready

BYE

...Not as weirdooo as it sounds, but just the name of my new Category.  I have this habit of finding blogs, reading them and then saving to my favourites.  When I know full well it will just get lost in the millions of other stuff I have saved in there.

Anyway came across a blog by this great lady who is sooo funny and she crafts and creates!!  Sooo I decided to have a featured funny blogger.  Just because I really enjoy reading everyones blogs especially if they make me smile, or in this case laugh out loud.  I even had my sister and kids sit around while I read some of the blog out to them.  See I knew computers could be used in family time!!

So here is my first pick: 

http://www.fishinmyhair.blogspot.com/

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On the subject of funny, I've decided to lighten up, on my kids, on my husband, on myself, and just start enjoying life.  Even though I absolutely loathe (sorry aussie) where we live at the moment, I need to make the best out of the situation and just trust that God really does know what he is doing when he send us out like this.

My resolutions:  (see it already seems like new years and its only 1/2 way throught the year.  I'm doing well)

1. Never end a blog on a negative (will need reminding about this one)
2. Always wake up early and go to bed early so as to be in the best of moods during the day!
3. Play a game everyday, a fun game, like jumping on the tramp, playing tiggy, a board game or jigsaw puzzle. or something the kids suggest.
4. Go somewhere fun (but free lol!) once a week.
5. Chase the kids round the house.
6. Have the kids and myself run to the door when M'Honey gets home, to greet him.  Although I may walk while still seeming excited to see him.
7. Read somthing funny everyday.
8. Try an find a funny blog and post it here every now and then.
9. Learn how to tell a joke without laughing first.

My daughters favourite joke at the moment: 

What do you get when you pour hot water down a rabbit hole?

A Hot cross bunny

...We are going back to Aussie on Monday.  M'Honey is arriving Thursday night to pick us up.

So what have we been doing homeschooling wise??  Well the best part is that we've been back here and just seeing the country is a change for the kiddies, seeing the people, the different dynamics etc. etc.  And they are loving being with my mum and sister all the time.

We have been doing some bookwork, 'Merah and Gil Gway are coming along in leaps and bounds.  The kiddies have been going through all their videos and old dvds we had to leave behind.  The magic school bus videos have been the favourite, followed a close second by country mouse and city mouse, and the Peter Rabbit videos.

The great thing about homeschooling, is that, with a little moderation, you can basically carry on where ever you go.  We bought the main books with us, and just used what I had left here, which was a library load of books.

• We did alot of reading, started Five in a Row with the little kids and reading Winnie the Pooh at bedtime. 
• Decided that following a set reading schedule and timetable with specific pages assigned is definitely not for me.  Or Elise.
• Did carry on with the Sonlight readings at beginning, but we got stuck on Greece and have stayed in Western Europe for a while lol.  Sooo, we did a bit of reading on the Greek God's and legends, specifically Jason and the Golden Fleece.  We did a diorama based on when Jason gets the fleece of the tree guarded by the snake, which 'Lisey really enjoyed.  See below

Jason and Medea taking the golden fleece from the snake

• 'Lisey used a basic 'parts of a story' chart to plan a story.  ie Setting, Character, Plot, Conclusion.  Which I think help to organise her thoughts.  We are currently in the final draft phase, and 'Lisey is deciding what format she wants the book in, how she wants it illustrated etc.  All very exciting!
• She also had a math, break through just this week and she is now able to solve addition problems in her head.  For example 57 + 32, I had her say her working out, out aloud so her brain can hear as well as see what she is trying to work out, and it has worked wonders.  This is an enormous step forward, and she is finally starting to like maths again.  I couldn't stop her from doing her work today!!  At the rate she is going through her book we'll be on year 6 work by the end of the year (currently doing yr 4, but in school years should be yr 5)
• Have been using Calculadder with some success, and I definitely would recomend to others for drilling the basic facts.
• 'Merah at 5 is doing some addition sums also in her head, and absolutely adores numbers, I may have to do that maths course for myself sooner rather than later
• 'Merah and GG also are really enjoying five in a row.  We did The Story of Ping last week and are doing Madeline this week.   Their favourite part is getting to put the story disk onto the world map, now thats how to learn Geography! 
• We've done a bit of art, alot of playing outside and just running. 
• Went to the Stardome in One Tree Hill, Auckland for their seven wonders show, and the kiddles love it, my brother his partner, their kiddies, and some of his kids friends all went and we had a really worthwhile, enjoyable night, even my 5 and 3 yr old enjoyed the night.  It was the 9o'clock session, so quite late and aimed more at the adults, older children, but if the younger ones can keep quiet for 45 mins or so (Yeah RIGHT!!) then I'd recomend it for all ages.  After we had another film about the Mars landing that was coming up (has now landed), and then had a look at the moon through the telescope.  Combined with a pre show McDonalds stop the night was a complete success.
• Elise is now interested in all news reports, documentaries about the Mars landing, so guess what we're doing for the next few weeks in science?!, NOTE:  find out where the planetarium is in Sydney, you'd think I'd know by now, but I don't.
• We started English from the Roots up and are currently drilling 15 words, we learnt 5 a week.  For the next week we will concerntrate on these 15 drilling and testing, and at end of week will do a written test/exam which 'Lisey is looking forward to.

All in all the last 4 weeks has been very rewarding, busy, but rewarding.

...OK so its not like ebooks save lives, well mabey one might, but what Im saying is ebooks have to be the next best thing, for homeschoolers, to, well, books!

At the moment, as I have a book problem, I have been banned from purchasing books that take up bookshelf space, so I have been instead purchasing ebooks or downloading the free ones, that only take up virtual bookshelf space!!  In fact I can fit so many onto my 1G flashdrive I can't stop grinning!  And you can get ebooks that you can read on your ipod.  I actually don't think I would want to try reading anything on an ipod, but the concept is exciting.

I read an article in Eclectic homeschool online which is how I thought of ebooks when I first heard of them (article here ) I didn't think I would ever even think of reading an ebook let alone purchasing one.

My most favourite places for downloading ebooks are:

Project Gutenburg with thousands of Public domain texts for free.

The Erkstine's 'Living books for the Ears' program, not only are their free audio programmes great, but you can buy excellent packages that include ebooks, dramatisations, colouring in pages, unit studies, how to make stuff etc. etc. etc. from time to time.

Currclick formally Homeschool estore, which sells (and lets you download one selected free ebook a week!) curriculum, unitstudies etc from well known publishers in ebook format.  I have just recently been able to purchased Trail Guide to World Geography by Geography Matters, and the ABC's of Art by Visual Manna for a fraction of the price (plus NO postage and handling!) and not second hand, (although I do love second hand, don't get me wrong), so the money goes to the actual people who write all these great books.

Moral of my rant tonight, none really, just if you haven't tried ebooks, get out there and have a look!  Might not be everyones cup of tea, I definitely don't get the kids to try and read screeds of stuff from a computer screen, in fact 'Lisey has trouble wanting to read anything lately??   But I read to them from stuff I print of, I use curriculum either straight from the computer or print it of, and you can download it as soon as you pay for it (unfortunately a by product of the 'want everything immediately' generation, not a good thing really)

...well, the question is where are we now, before I can tell you where we are going!!

A few weeks ago my mother-in-law died of cancer, the whole family came back to New Zealand, but have now gone back to Australia.  Me and the kids though are still in New Zealand.  We are having an extended holiday and taking care of a few loose ends.  Namely the stuff we had in storage!

What are we doing:  Garage sale, online homeschool second hand curriculum site, giving some away, and Online Auction site, rest is just rubbish you know the papers, curriculum catalogues, screeds of stuff printed of the computer for later use, normal household papers etc. etc. etc.!!  Big job, but am getting through it.

Now amazingly, while I'm doing all this, the kids are doing MORE homeschooling than Ive managed most days when there is nothing else??  We have even started learning Greek and Latin root words while here.  'Merah is actually doing reading or I should say alphabet recognition.  They even do work at night.  We've done crafts, started a diorama of Jason and the Golden Fleece.  'Lisey is writing and she wants to.  As I talk 'Lisey is doing her drills that we missed today (went to the cemetery (or urupa) to their nana's grave to take flowers for a late mother's day visit)

I bought a minimum amount of stuff when we came over, just the main books we are using, some story books and the geography songs cd recorded onto the ipod.  But we are supplementing with books we have here, and doing quite well.   Luckily we have an abundance of books in both countries!!

So we are here, having fun, visiting friends and family, getting rid of stuff and hopefully blessing someone else with our stuff.  Learning alot and staying in touch with our roots.

It's all good

...10 years ago I had a new baby daughter, 8lb 9oz.  With a thick mop of black hair, the most beautiful little thing on the face of the earth, to me.  Tod ay we celebrated her birthday, fairly quietly considering the mile stone, reaching double digits!!

She had her birthday all planned out:

1. get her ears pierced
2. Get a pair of earrings as a present
3. Get an Ipod Nano
4. watch the Island of Nim at the movies
5. Have dinner with her family

Well She got the Ipod, couldn't get the ears pierced as it needed six weeks at least to heal, and netball starts back in 3, her brother has just gotten over a bad stomach bug, and now her sister has it, so the movies was out!  and her nana is going back to NZ so her daddy and uncles were at the nana's house!  But we had a great time anyway.  Hot dogs and chips, garlic bread and her favourite pasta salad for dinner, with jelly whipped cream and chocolate drizzled over top, as sweets.  Then of course lots of icecream cake when her father got back.

No pictures as usual, I will remember one day!!

... Before you all get worried, I'm talking about computer crash, not accident crash. 

Last week we were innocently playing computer games (a kiddie one, Dora the explorer I think, downloaded from HP games)  and BAM frozen, tried the miriad of ways to get it to unfreeze, and finally had to turn the laptop off completely.  Turned it back on and it wouldn't reboot, just stayed on the black 'compaq' page and then turned itself of and back on again over and over.  Went into F10 menu and tried to find the start in safe mode thingy but nothing there. tried to put it back to default for the start up, nothing.  Tried to use the diagnostics whatumacall it but it couldn't find the tools to scan the computer.  Last resort rang my brother, he told me to try starting it without the battery in, and no still nothing.  Rang HP about it , they picked it up Monday, rang to say it had to have a complete system restore, (as if I didn't by now know that was coming!!) And got it back yesterday, I think they may have replaced the Hard drive altogether. 

Any hoo, as I speak, or write as the case may be, I am redoing the whole years planning, which I stooopidly didn't back up to the external harddrive.  I'm reinstalling everything, trying to remember passwords, which, I also stoooopidly didn't write down in hard copy and just saved in code on the computer. 

Now this may seem silly, but I think it was a blessing in disguise, I mean I have to rewrite everything (luckily I did previously save some bits to the external hard drive from last year, so I'm not starting from now where), but it means I have to simplify things, our internet favourites was wiped, but really who needs to save EVERY interesting blog you come across?? Or every maths game site, or online dictionary site, in my homeschool favourites I was up in the hundreds, with the sites I'd saved, and really didn't need.  I had things saved to the computer that I 'might' need in the future, and at the moment I really can't remember anything I really needed now that I had on there, the only things I really will miss is the Living books for the ears by the Erkstines, http://www.homeschoolradioshows.com/ but even they have archives that, I think, you can access most previous downloads. 

So really did I need all that clutter?  And yes thats what it was clutter.  Cyberclutter I call it, doesn''t take up as much physical space, but virtual space, umm, several wardrobes full!!

Now if my blogs were suddenly wiped of the face of the earth, well, that would be another story...

...Night.

...Having a grand ole' time lately, we are quite busy, especially for someone like me whos happiest at home, not socializing.  Our week basically looks like this:

MONDAY

Gymnastics at 1pm:  'Merah Moo is loving it!  and Elise is doing great, we did miss a few lessons due to illness and injury, lol!!  But both of them really look forward to going each week.  If you knew my younger girl, you'd know that this is a great step forward.

Thinking about Brownies/Guides Monday night, but not sure if I can keep it up every week??

TUESDAY

Free day, but want to be free a day or so a week to help my sister in law with her mother if she needs me.

WEDNESDAY

Classical Art class first thing in the morning, Elise is really enjoying this class.  It is a great creative outlet for her and she is progressing well.  The friend making is just the bonus!

THURSDAY

Netball practice at 3:345-4:45 in the afternoon, luckily for us its just behind our house!!  Lucky, because I have the nephew and the neice that I look after in the afternoon and we are able to walk to practice.  At 6pm its the neice's turn to go to netball practice, but she trains up the road a bit further, still within walking distance, but seeing as there is someone home I usually take the car or if her dad's home he drops her of.  She trains till 7pm.  Everthings hunky dory so far, but check back in once winter sets in!  I may have changed my tune by then.

FRIDAY

My little dancer just started her first dance lesson last week.  All weekend 'Merah was telling me she didn't want to go, even when we got there she was saying no, but the one of the other mothers who organises the class took her over, and she never looked back!!  She absolutely loved it, and even made a friend to boot!

I took her to ballet a couple of years ago, and she didn't leave my side, we had to stop going.  I thought then that mabey she would never leave my side, and do any sort of class, but I was wrong.  What a difference a couple of years make.  She is more confident these days, she makes friends easily, much easier than 'Lisey ever did.  And she is even quite bossy!

At this class they learn ballet, jazz and tap, ballet and jazz one lesson and tap the next.  At the end of the year the teacher is hoping to have a performance, I think  it is going to be wonderful!

WEEKEND

The weekend now starts with netball, but we have really been getting out and about not always going to places where we have to pay.  But out just for a walk/play, accidental fall in the water, at the beach, or to the markets, or just out for lunch which the kiddies love.

During the winter, we are hoping to get out to the Blue Mountains again but this time when its snowing, mabey a trip back to NZ and up to Brisbane.  Otherwise I have a few places around Sydney that I'd love to check out when we get the inclination.

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Well that's our week, I know some of you do a whole lot more stuff than this, but for us this is a pretty full week.  I would love to be able to fit a social group, music lessons and swimming in, but as I really want Elise to do well in bookwork also.  I just can't bring myself to go slack on this area!!

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Now I know that I said I had a camera, and that I was going to post heaps of pics!  But I have been too lazy to   buy any batteries, and always forget when doing or going somewhere that I even have a camera!  Like today, 'Lisey's first game of netball for the season? forgot, 'Merah's first dance lesson? forgot, but I will remember. Someday.  Mabey,  I hope!!

...I remember when I was first finding out about Homeschooling, I wanted to read everything there was on it, so I bought various books, each one I expected to tell me exactly what to do.  But of course they didn't, so I would skim through book after book, not really taking in what was being said.  I was wanting, basically, school in a book. 

But now i have gone back I am rereading books that I didn't think were for me, and now I understand soooo, much more!!

I have been reading For the Children's Sake, by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay, A Charlotte Mason Primer by Cindy Rushton, Teaching Children by Diana Lopez and You Can teach your child sucessfully by Ruth Beechick (also her 3Rs books), and am already implementing 'ideas' not whole slabs of information or curriculums, or scope and sequences, but ideas, using the information in a way that suits me and each child. 

I am reading so much that I almost don't have enough time to get on the internet (almost)  I've also started writing in a journal, nothing flash, just a $2.00 excersise book thats just the right size, I don't use it as a diary, but I have timetables, things to do, what we have done, ideas, goals, lists, my kiddies copywork (a whole lot easier seeing as I have it on me all the time and we don't have to rush around looking for a rough draft pad), etc. etc. etc, Im loving it! 

Anyway, have to go, I've also started reading the Bible again, not to the kids (we do that already) but for my own meditation, reflection, growth, and I do that last thing at night.! 

I just wanted to say to anyone especially just starting to look at HSchooling and gathering information, to open your mind, don't look for a easy, step by step instruction manual, look for books which inspire you to do the best for your child and yourself, find books which extend your thinking and challenge you, Homeschooling doesn't have to be difficult so don't make it harder (like I did) than it has too be, read and listen to what these writers have to say.