As everyone who knows me knows, I like lists.

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I seem to have a plan, and a timetable for everything - and, although we rarely comple everything I will plan to on a certain day, it is very important to me to have that plan visible, so I can see what it is we're aiming for.

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With eight children all of 'school' age, it became quite a juggling act to fit everything in on our homeschool timetable, but, it's proving quite successful, and most things are actually being acheived!

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So, after hours of planning and re-arranging, here is our current timetable:

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*GTG = Galloping the Globe

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While we don't necessarily complete everything 'on time' or in the suggested order, this is 'THE PLAN' - and for the most part, it's working well thus far.

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We also have Literature in the evenings - currently, we're reading 'The Silver Chair'.  And, each child is expected to read one 'Classic' book, one Australiana book, and one Saint's book each term.

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Have a great day!

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Well, it was the first day of the new school term today, and we have begun our High School Latin course. 

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I feel like we've really achieved something - after so many years of chopping and changing as we searched for the 'right' resources for us, we finally found a Latin course we liked (Latina Christiana), and we have now completed the series.  So, we're moving right on into Henle Latin! 

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And, the little ones have begun Prima Latina, so it's Latin all round - Henle with the oldest four, and Prima Latina with the younger ones.

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One thing about working through a book the 2nd time around, you feel like you know a little about what you're doing! 

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Honestly, some days I feel like by the time I have this whole homeschooling thing figured out, my last child will be grown and gone - it's true what they say, it's a journey for all of us.

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Have a super day!

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Here again finally,

I have been quite busy (ok read that amazingly busy). I have been organising the trip. On top of that we have had some American who have been interns at out church staying with us.

They are nice young people. I am sad though at how overwhelmed they were by their situation being here. It was a lot different than they expected and that in turn colored the stay they had with us :(.  I wish them well and hope that one day they can see that just being slightly different could make all the difference to everyone. The children loved them anyway and cannot stop talking about them, which is good. I wanted them to have this experience.

Thursday was a great homeschooling day. A friend of mine called to say that there was a live dissection of a Giant Squid at the Melbourne Museum and did I want go and get there by 11.30am. I said no because of a doctor’s appointment. She then offered to take Samuel and Joshua and leave her daughter with me.  It was a fantastic day for the boys and I am so pleased she made the effort. They even got on the Melbourne National Nine news here is a link.  Samuel is in the 1st few seconds with my friend's son.

Squid dissected in museum
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/video.aspx?videoid=671fcb98-8f05-4f49-85cc-482bb9b49a09&tab=1

 I am not sure how long they will keep it up. Those are just days when you love homeschooling.

The next day at home was a horrendous one and it made me really sit down with the children and refocus on why we are doing this :(.  Getting back into it after the holidays is so hard. I keep getting distracted with the trip details. Must focus too.

On Sunday, we took some time-out to take a ride on a steam train, through the Pichie Richie pass, which is just over an hour's drive from our home.

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It was a marvellous afternoon, and we were blessed with wonderful weather for the trip.  All up, it lasted nearly three hours.

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Here's a photo I took from our window:

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It was great fun - certainly a 'different' way to spend the day!

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Well, it's been holiday time in our house - not that we went anywhere - the children have been ill, I've been ill as well, but, we're getting there!  We have had a nice break from the 'norm', though, and I've been able to attend to my oil paints once more.  Here's my latest painting, of our local natural springs:

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I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.  I'm continuing to enjoy oil painting, and I'm learning new things about it all the time.

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Keep smiling!

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The Springs are BACK!

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We paid a visit to our local springs on Tuesday - they had all but dried up after a whopping great flood did some major damage last year.  We have had some rain of late, and were delighted to find water in the springs - so much so, that it is almost back to its original level!

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The water is happily flowing from the springs to the rockpools, and we even found mini waterfalls along the way.  The birds were back, as were the frogs, the crickets - and the moss!

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I can't tell you the different place it is now to when we visited a few weeks ago - it's beautiful again - praise the Lord!

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Linda.

The Scene:  All eight children are sitting around the table, working at their own, individual workbooks.  Mum enters the room.......

Mum:  How's everything going? You all right, Jessica?

Jessica:  Yep, going fine!

Mum:  How about you, Emily?

Emily:  I'm fine!

Mum:  Lizzie?

Lizzie:  I'm doing OK

Mum:  And you, Aimee?

Aimee:  {sighs}  I want a biccie......

Wow,

Here we are again in June.  I am feeling really tired but it is expected to be like that this time of year. End of  2nd and  all 3rd term are when I feel it the most.  I seem to be up to date on most things which is unusual for me. Of course there is always more things that could/ should be done :).

We are planning a trip tp the US after 12years. I am amazed and will believe it when I am on the plane. I am so excited for the children. I am excited they will see my family for the 1st time as well as where I grew up. This opens up a whole new box of  learning opportunities for the children and I am debating on which way to seize them. I osilate between letting them see or having some information. I suppose I should remember that I regret that I did not learn more about what was in Europe before I went rather than after.

So I guess I will be doing unit studies for most of 3rd term.

We have an American student staying with us at the moment and the children love it. They ask constantly where he is and what he doing. They are learning so much form each other.

When I started homeschooling something that inspired me often and still does was reading what a  day in the life of other homeschooers was like. Nancy Lande's A Patchwork of Days was a God send. I was able to learn through reading these entries just how I wanted to create my own homeschool. Of course like all things it changes often. So when Susan at HomeGrownKids asked to write what my homeschool day is like here http://kerugma.net/blog/ I thought I might finally have enough experience to write a day.

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So let me see. The school year for us has started way back in January on the 15th as in February we has our annual homeschooling camp at Lorne Vic and we also had a 4 day trip to QLD. We stayed at Burleigh Heads. It was nice but this week has been slow to get back into the routine.

Today....

5.50 Daddy gets up and goes to do his morning routine. 

7.00am He comes in and kisses me goodbye. I roll over and think about my day.

7.30 am-Joshua comes in and asks if he can turn on the computer.  

9.00am- Samuel came in and asked for his turn on the computer.  I get up and have a shower. The children have made their beds and are dressed. We decide to make breakfast. I make some semolina as it is cold this morning. The children get bowls of cereal. Joshua makes some toast.I sit down with them as they eat and read from Leading Little Ones to God. We say a prayer for our school day. 

 9.50am -Dh calls to say have a good day.

10.00am - the children opt to start their schoolwork at 10.30 instead of starting right away.

I call a friend and cancel coming to the bible study at her house  this afternoon as I am truely exhausted from the week. I need to go out this evening to a Gooc party and thought with how tired I am it is either one or the other.  I put on a load of washing and check emails.

10.35am- I call the children to their Math. Samuel and Sierra work rapidly to complete theirs with me being called away for the computer a few times to answer questions. I am really trying to get them to work independantly as Joshua had me all the time with him and does not like to work on his own. I often need to sit with him to complete work even though he is quite capable to do it himself. Samuel starts on the kitchen bench them moves to sit neat me at the computer. Joshua is in the loungeroom sitting at the coffee table. Sierra starts in the playroom and then moves to the computer room floor behind me.  Samuel and Sierra finish and Joshua is still going. They get a few minute break as I clean up from breakfast.

11.30-I then start their LLATL.  I ask them to start writing some sentences as I look through a book on Grammar.

12.00-They finish this as Joshua finishes his Math Saxon 5/4.  I give Joshua a few minutes break and then call him over to look at his Math and then start his LLATL. He has to write a paragraph and we have a discussion on choosing to write as little as possible and doing as the lesson asks. He chooses to write the minimum on the paragraph :(. I then dictate the whole literature passage to him instead of part as I had planned.

1.30pm -Time for lunch. I make sandwiches for myself and Sierra. Maccaroni and Cheese for Samuel and a meat Pie for Joshua. I read aloud from Julie of the Wolves. Only a few pages today as the kids lose interest. I like reading it and remember it being read aloud to me at school.

2.30pm- I give them another break and check emails. They decide on their own to get out drawing paper and drawing books and start drawing. Before they get too far into it I ask them to get the map work out for STOW 3 and the coloring pages and get them to start that as I sweep the floor around them. When I am done I read the mapwork instructions. 

3.15pm-they have free time the rest of the afternoon. They are doing watercolour painting.  And now drawing on the chalkboard practicing their names in cursive.

Tonight -when daddy comes home they will practise their speeches for speech club next week. They are more like book reports really for their ages.

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I have found this year to achieve my goals I am needing to be home more. I was out three afternoons a week but feel that two is enough this year.

I have left my job as a Coles check out chick and that is a blessing. How much time and energy did that take. Getting ready to go on holiday was so stress free as I had all the time in the world. No nights away from home. 

 I am still the co-ordinator of our group but that just means being at a meeting once a month and setting up a few annual events. The group has gotten pretty big and we are finding it easier to meet on an individual family basis than as a huge group.

We had our 5th homeschooling camp and it was great to see how much the children had grown since our 1st one.

This is our Mums' with only a few not there, we have 80 children between us!!!

Wow it has been a while since I wrote and I am glad I did.

The children are back happy and healthy, meaning this week we really 'were' able to start school.

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We covered most subjects this week;  didn't get to music appreciation, and I only completed one lesson of science with the little ones instead of the three planned, but, we're off to quite a good start.

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I'm really impressed with our new history programme (The ABCs of Christian Culture), and thus far, it has been well received by the older children.  The younger children will be studying about Australia - we're pretty much writing the program as we go;  it will be in the same format as 'Australia, the Wide Brown Land for Me', but it will focus more on geography, landforms, animals and birds, etc.   We made a good start this week, working out the introductory lesson.

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And, we also returned to Little Athletics and tennis.  All were a little 'sluggish' after the holiday - but aren't we all??

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Oh, and the idea of having the older ones take care of their own checklists is working beautifully!  Each day, they phsically need to 'tick' off each lesson as they complete it;  and then tick again to say their books have been put away.  I'm already seeing that this is making them feel more responsible for their own lessons, and not once did I have 'oh, I forgot to do science...  or maths... or English....'  because it's all there, to be checked at the end of the day;  and they simply KNOW if it has not been done.

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So, we're off to a great start!

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