Posted in Homeschooling Days

I think a lot of the time homeschoolers present their "without blemish" or "edited" homeschool days....and quite frankly, who wouldn't.  It's only natural to share the good and leave the messy stuff on the cutting room floor.  But sometimes it's nice to see a "real" day and to know that we all have them...frequently...and that the difficult and ugly days are all part and parcel of the deal.  In fact, I believe there is more potential for growth on the tricky days, depending on how we respond to them of course. 

So brace yourself...here's one of our days - bloopers, blemishes and blahs.

I got up around 8.  A good start for me.  I like to get a little quiet time before the boys get up.  I always make my bed and get dressed before I leave my room.  A habit which has served me well.  A made bed went a short way to improve the room though.  I could have picked up the story books one little man left on the floor in one corner but I didn't.  The ensuite is...ugly....eek.  A job for tomorrow.  And the Walk-in-robe...well don't walk in there...cause quite frankly that would be difficult.  Hmmm maybe a job for tomorrow.  (Oh and no I'm not adding photos to this paragraph.  That would be way too real and I don't think you are that ready for the visual truth yet.  )

While the boys slept I grabbed some breakfast and ate at the computer while checking email.  (I won't describe the state of the study...can you say "Job for tomorrow"?  Hehehe...maybe.)

My little men didn't get out of bed until after 9.30am.  Yes, you read right.  Hey, it was later yesterday!! 

Thankfully they didn't once ask about TV...in the morning.   Over the holidays they got back into the habit of watching tv in the mornings.  Every day for two weeks they have asked the same question, "Can we just watch a little tv?".  Every day for the past two weeks it's been the same answer "NO!". 

Actually the older little man was in quite a cheery mood.  No grimace at all this morning.  Plus he was quite pleased that he'd got up before his little brother and got some snuggle time before he had to share my lap.  Yes God answered a long time wish of mine...to have men fighting over me...I just didn't realise at the time that they would be my own little men.  Who better I say!

I got breakfast started for the munchkins....chocolate hot cross buns with a melted chocolate egg within.  Healthy start to the day?  Nope.  Yummy?  Apparently.  While doing this I multi-tasked a little, unpacking the dishwasher and throwing a load of towels in the washer.  Oh course this meant that little men were following me around reminding me that they were hungry and would I please finish breakfast. 

Oh yes, another milestone for today...not one complaint about straw colours.  Do the blue straws REALLY make the milk taste better than red or yellow?  Will someone please do a scientific study?!!!

While they ate I read to them from the bible.  This is our morning habit now.  They were actually quite good this morning.  I often have to remind one or both of them not to get up and leave the table whenever they feel like it, particularly not in the middle of reading.  The littlest man did however drop melted bits of chocolate on the floor because he wasn't sitting properly at the table...is he ever sitting properly at the table? 

So far so good...right.  A little bit of a late start but not so bad. 

The school plan for the day was to blitz the bookwork and spend a leisurely afternoon reading and completing narrations and note book additions.  How nice it would have been.

I set out their workbooks and showed each what was expected and how to complete the tasks.  Easy.  Right?  Well one little men flew through his work and one did all he could to drag his feet.  In fact the eager beaver finished three workbook activities before the procrastinator had completed the first task on the first page in the first book. 

Now I know Charlotte Mason says to ensure children don't dilly-dally and procrastinate.  But how can we prevent inattention?  If I sit with him he talks about unrelated stuff, gazes off to one side or talks about related stuff but not the specific stuff we are working on at the time.  If I leave him to his own devices he does all the same stuff.  In fact today he was flicking through his Math text finding and doing pages he would rather do.  Which was fine provided he also completed the set work.  You see we've tried his approach before.  I've given him a whole workbook to work through in whatever order he preferred.   He left all the tricky, unappealing stuff to the very end and everyone suffered miserably for it.  So how do we get them to just buckle down and do the work?  That's the million dollar question.  We can't always just do what we want and enjoy.  We have to do the work that's necessary even if it doesn't appeal to our sense of fun. 

So that was our morning.  Mr Procrastinator dragged his feet all the way to 12 o'clock.  Mr Eager Beaver was off on a break by 11am.   All Mr Procrastinator wanted to do was be assured that he too would get as long a break as his brother.  I of course responded that he had already had his break...whole minutes of breaks every thirty seconds or so.  Did this hasty comment help spur him into action?  Yeah right!  He complained, I ranted, Mr Eager Beaver pretended to innocently walk by to remind his brother than he was on a long break. 

By this stage I started working one on one with our procrastinator to drag him to finish line.  There were moments when I thought, "Hey, this topic seems to have sunk in nicely" and then other moments when I was pulling my hair out over number facts that STILL aren't nimbly spilling out of his head like I would expect.  It's no wonder I'm not bald!

Oh yes, I finally hang out that washing around lunch time.  The washing I had started around 10ish.  Yes, on an overcast and dreary day in hopes that maybe it might dry.  But no, the boys' beds were not made and they were in their pjs until well after lunch. 

Did I whip up a great lunch to sparkle up our day?  Nope.  One little man chose half a dish of cherry tomatoes and the other snapped off half a short bread stick.  I decided I might as well eat the other half of that break stick.  One ate at the computer, while myself and the procrastinator ate over a page of Math problems.  Yep, some water was dripped on the page...of course.

Because of how long our bookwork went, I did start mentally cutting stuff out of our day.  Some of it Mr Procrastinator bargained off his plate.  If anything he will learn to be one fine negotiator.  So instead of noting key words from a paragraph about Amphibians, narrating new sentences and writing these sentences.  Ethan bargained me down to leaving the writing part until tomorrow.  After our morning of Math struggles, I was happy to eliminate a potentially disastrous afternoon of writing...for hours!

Oh yes, we had a break in here.  The mummy needed it.  Two boys headed off to the computer room to play a Science cd rom.  That counts as school right...I hope so.  I did a little emailing back and forth to organise meeting another new homeschooler. 

I had a little hope for our afternoon session.  Reading is usually a breeze for us.  We read about case moths as a friend delivered one to our door.  This reading went well even if the boys kept interrupting by squirming and asking unrelated questions.  We then read about grasshoppers as we are caring for one of those too.  It was nice to read about animals that we have right there in front of us to check out all the features we are reading about.  Of course there was squabbling over who held the critter, who couldn't see the critter and who was hogging the critter.  My complaint...it's only fair that I got to have a complaint...was please stop tipping the cage so the droppings won't fall out on us.  I mean...pleeeeease!

We then read about amphibians.  Usually the boys would eat up all of this reading.  But today...nope.  Obviously not hungry for books at all.  So more squirming.  More of me saying, "Sit still," "Be careful of where your feet are on my new chairs", and "Oh for pity sake be quiet! "   You know how it goes when you are at your best. 

I'm not sure we learned too much from our book on Amphibians.  The only thing they wanted to know was why I had put sticky notes in the book.  I explained that the book was very evolutionary based and that we didn't want to read that stuff when we know it's wrong.  Ethan questioned me about why we were reading it at all then.  Hmmm...potentially good question but I couldn't find a Godly book on my shelves that had the same quality of information about amphibians that I wanted.  

Our narration efforts on this book were...well...heavily prompted.  You know the type, "And what did we read about their blood?".....long pause....."About them being c....c...."    Equally long pause....bigger brother pipes up with the answer, "COLD BLOODED!", infuriating the younger brother who asserts that he was just about to say that!  Of course the same child was telling friends all the fine details of life as a frog including it's cold-blooded nature the day before.  Yet today he was totally blank.  Oh the joys...and yet we soldier on.

At this point I pulled two books out of our reading pile and put them in the "some other day" pile.  We read through a book about Aztecs and then pulled some teeth "otherwise known as narrations on a bad day" as I got each boy to join me at the computer to add short narrations for our Aztec book that we are slowly putting together. 

To finish off this seemingly very looooooong day, each boy completed a note book page on metamorphosis and one on food chains (as per their request after reading a book about it last night).  There was a little copywork on the metamorphosis page which I quickly substituted for a trace over version of the same thing after listening to the beginnings of a complaint from Mr Procrastinator.  Yes I know I shouldn't let him win these battles, but there's only so much oomph in a person and mine was all used up before lunch. 

Oh but my favourite bit...both boys asked if they could please play the computer after school since they had been so good during school.  Ya what?!! 

Since then they have been happily creating a car game on the mat together and not a squabble amongst them.  For at least an hour and a half now.  It's pleasant and peaceful.  Perhaps the lull before the storm?  I hope not.  But outlawing all electronic devices (tv, Wii, computer) has certainly led to a much calmer afternoon. 

However I forgot to put out meat for tea and hubby is now pondering what to cook with nothing but frozen meat to choose from.  And my towels are still on the line probably starting to get damp from the late afternoon air.  In light of this I should ban myself from this electronic device and go and rescue the laundry. 

Anyway tomorrow  is a new day.  I'm happy to erase this day and start fresh tomorrow.  Every so often we hit on some great days.  But we have to work our way through some disasters to get to the rewards.  Is it worth it?  Most definitely....every day...good and bad.  

Posted in Science

While we're still uncertain about the identify of most of our froglets, we can say with certainty that not ALL of them can be toads.  We have at least four of these beauties....

Note the green colouring.

Now I don't know exactly which variety he is...but he is a frog...a green frog.  I love green frogs.  In my family it's always been my job to rescue the green frogs from our toilet.   Why, and how, they persist in climbing up the toilet pipes I do not know.  In fact one tries to forget that they are reaching in to rescue a frog that climbed up a toilet pipe!

Of the four probably green frogs, only two have both sets of legs and a shortening tail.  I saw one of them in amongst the rocks one night but he's much more shy than the other frogs and quickly ducked back down into his hiding place.  I didn't think much of not seeing him over the next day or so as there are plenty of places to hide in the tank. 

However, this morning we were greeted by this sight...

Yes, one of our green frogs...on the kitchen floor!!!  Expired and crunchy.  


How did he escape and are there more hopping around the house?  Well I know how he escaped.  We've had some extreme heat in the past few days and the tank gets mighty hot inside with the glass cover over it (yes there are air gaps in it).  So since none of my little toady looking frogs have even attempted to scale the glass walls...that I know of...I've been leaving the lid open during the day.  My green frog must have seen his opportunity and fled. 

How he ended up all dusty and crunchy in the middle of my kitchen floor...well that I don't know.  I'm not entirely sure I want to know where he's been hopping. 

Despite all the unknowns...we do know that Green Froggy has "pass on"; that the lid of the tank will now remain firmly on; and that I wish these tadpoles would hurry up and do their thing so I can stop caring for the wildlife and get my homeschool table back!!

Posted in Homeschooling Days

We survived.  No...okay few...tantrums.  No mutinies...perhaps a few close calls.  Most work completed.  House holding together nicely and I haven't needed to crack open a block of chocolate for stress relief...yet.  That's a successful week in my book!

Here's how we ended the week:

We started with bible...of course.

We then read two chapters of our frog novel. 

Followed by a little writing.  Oh yes there were complaints.  Brayden had to copy a little bit of information about Cane Toads...

...While his brother had to use the IEW approach to locate key words in each sentence and then recreate his own sentences using these key words.  I was very impressed with Ethan's ease of locating good key words and the enthusiasm he showed for writing his sentence. 

He narrated the sentences to me as I typed and then he copied his sentences onto his page.  It was quite a lot of writing for him, particularly on the first week back.  I had warned him the night before that there would be some writing and that seems to have helped pave the way...a little.  Yes it did take him forever but he was working well.  There was a bit of inattention at the beginning but I set a timer and added some incentive...yes people might call them bribes. 

We had a lunch break at this point as I don't think I could have pushed any more work out of Ethan.

After lunch we reviewed our number facts orally and played a game of "Addition War".  The boys enjoyed this but only enough to want to play it once.


Each boy read one or two readers to me.  Both read really well. 

We then read a hodge podge of books.  One more frog title I found, a few books about Aztecs and one about reptiles (which arrived in the mail this morning). 

We also looked at a map book to locate where the Aztec, Mayan and Incan Empires were located.  We used this information to fill in our own maps.

The boys also reluctantly completed their Aztec colouring from yesterday.  I lured them with watercolours.  Who can resist a little paint.  Plus it makes colouring a breeze, particularly for boys who just want to get the colour on the page and aren't all that worried about accuracy.

Oh and we also emailed the Inquiry Centre at the Museum to ask them to help us identify our frogs.  We attached some of our clearest frog photos.  Hopefully we'll know for sure that we weren't raising toads!! 

So there you have it.  Day Three.  The end of the week.  Phew! 

For half a week of work with only a light load, we're all exhausted.  Both of my night owls were asleep not long after their little heads hit their pillows last night and even I didn't make it to my normally wee hours of the night.

I must say I'm looking forward to the weekend...oh wait...no I'm not.  I'm off to my brother's place to help again with renovations...in near 40 degree heat.  .  Not something to look forward to.  Hmmmm...maybe I will crack open that emergency supply of chocolate after all. 

Posted in Homeschooling Days

Day two went as nicely as day one.  We are easing back into our routines nicely. 

We read about Jesus' birth in our bible.

We read a pile of books about frogs. 

Ethan also read a frog book to us.


Brayden read one of his easy readers.  It was super easy but I wanted to see how much of his reading that he remembered. 

We started reading a little fiction novel about frogs.  I don't think I'd buy more of these - there's a whole series of them, all on science topics.  There is a lot of colloquial language and unkind remarks made between the characters.  As I read I could substitute and omit parts...this skill comes with plenty of practise...but I wouldn't want to have to do it for the whole series.

While the boys listened to this story the boys decided to do some drawings. 

We then did a "Frog or Toad" comparison chart in our notebooks.  I then gave the boys a pile of frog and toad pictures and they had to use what they knew about frogs and toads to determine which each picture was of.  These pictures were glued in.

Next on our list what a little geography.  I printed out a map of Australia and got the boys to match the name of each state to the map.  Ethan knows all of his states and I was surprised to see that Brayden knows most of his too. 

We were then going to read through the print out I made of the state flags but Ethan suggested that we use his Powerpoint presentation that he made yesterday.  It was a great idea.  Ethan set up both computers with his presentation and showed Brayden how to use it.  I had made copies of each flag and a state name to match to them.  All they had to do was match them up.  Ethan's presentation was a nifty fun way of locating the answers.


Ethan has also come up with an additional idea for his presentation.  He thought it would be good to add more information to it.  So when you click on the state name on the front menu, it would take you to a menu page for that state.  From there you could choose things like the flag, capital city, photos of the state etc.  Apparently I have to make lessons to go with each so that Brayden can use his presentation.  (Yes the 8 year old is giving me planning tips...and hey, I love them!).  Ethan hasn't started on this big project yet.  I'm hoping he can maintain the motivation to complete the task. 

Last but not least we sat at the table and I read a chapter of Story of the World 2 while the boys coloured a corresponding picture.  We read about the Aztecs, Mayans and Incas.  The boys were a little spent by this time and weren't entirely keen on colouring pictures so they were left half done to complete another day.

At this point the boys headed off to play with their Log construction set. 

They did that until we were ready to leave for our weekly library and grocery trip. 

Posted in Homeschooling Days

Our first day went very smoothly and both boys were relatively happy to be back to work.  We started our day with bible reading of course.  Must start the year out in the way we want to start for the rest of the year.  We're just starting the New Testament again in this children's version of the bible.  It's not my favourite version but it has some plus points so we'll see it out and then start another.