I am a homeschooling mother of two boys, aged 8 and 6 years. We live in Australia and have never sent our children to school...except to visit with their Daddy, my Dh. He is a school teacher (as I was too, a long time ago). http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/ en-us Homeschool Blogger Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0600 Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0600 ...I believe it's Mr Figbird watching over the little eggs until Mrs Figbird returns home..at least I think I'm right.  There have been occasions when I was wrong.  . He was nesting right above where we were relaxing by the water this afternoon...rather low down too.  Now see what homeschoolers get to see when they aren't confined inside a classroom...  real animals!!  I've never seen a bird sitting on their nest before ...only ones from books or documentaries.  There's something really special about seeing it for yourself.  As soon as we got home we pulled out our bird guide, which we keep for just such an occasion, and flipped through page after page of bird pictures until we found him. If you want to read further about the Figbird you can find more information here. Just look at the nest.  That alone is spectacular.  Can you see how they've secured it to the branch?? So intricate and well designed.  This little bird has sparked a real interest in learning more about birds and nesting.  I suspect we'll be setting aside our current books on Columbus and Magellan and reading through a selection of bird books tomorrow.  There is no better way to homeschool than following the curriculum God sets before us. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/747109/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:00:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/747109/ Today I received a parcel for 4 items I purchased as gifts.  (They are really cool by the way.  Check them out here.) However, only these items showed up... Oh and one of these... No, there's no need to adjust your screen.  It IS just an empty cardboard box.  Oh it was nicely sealed though.  All shrink wrapped and ready to assemble into this lovely display box.  Now I know they say that kids have more fun with the boxes and wrapping than the actual gifts themselves, but I think this might be taking it a bit far...especially when that box cost me $35!!  I have just written to the online store I purchased it from (not the one from above) and I hope that they can rectify the situation for me... otherwise... someone is getting a cardboard box on Christmas morning.  It's the thought that counts, right?? http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/746821/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:34:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/746821/ Why hadn't I thought of this before?  Something so simple as a desktop hanging file box. I'm always printing out this or that that would be nifty for school.  Or a great article I want to read.   But then I lay the piece of paper down in my diary or in a drawer or worst still a folder in a drawer, never to be seen again...well until the unit study is over or we've accomplished that particular skill.  Into the same piles I put the boys' completed worksheets and printed narrations...I do find those again...I have to...but the hunt is long and arduous.  But gone are those days...I hope.  I have bought myself a cheap desktop hanging file box.  I've even done the hard yards and properly labeled the files, using categories that I will use and not a bunch of hopeful categories that will never get used.  Been there, done that. It's home is right next to our workbook basket.   I didn't want it cluttering up our table.  Plus this makes tidying up at the end of the day so easy.   Workbooks get popped in the cane basket and now I can quickly and easily file papers into my new hanging file box.  Quick, simple, cheap...all the things that make it a winner in the organisational world. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/746661/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 23:19:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/746661/ This week I bought the full version of Timez Attack for my boys...well mostly for Ethan as he's just getting into multiplication now...although Brayden was calling out the answers just as easily.  That's how good the game is.  It doesn't just review the answers, it teaches you how to build the answer and gives you practise at recalling them.  But generally other educational software is...well...not terribly exciting to children who are used to all the bells and whistles of normal gaming programs.  My boys however have used very little other than educational software..so for them this game was a whole new level of "WOW", and they had to answer the multiplication facts in order to experience more of the medium. Timez Attack combines learning with great gaming graphics.  It's the best I've seen and we've tried a lot of different stuff.  You don't have to buy the full version to experience the fun and learning though.  You can download their base version which still teaches all of the facts, but you just don't get the same variety of entertainment while you are learning.  Over time the kids are bound to get bored with the same creatures and worlds so I figured it was well worth spending the money to update to the full version.  Now if you are opposed to ogres and funny looking green men, this game may present an issue for you.  But other than ugly looking creatures that kids enjoy, they are harmless enough.  However if you do answer incorrectly or too slowly the troll thingie will shoot goo at you out of the end of his club.  So there is an element of stress and pressure involved in the game which some children don't handle well.  For us it's been a teaching tool to relax and think clearly rather than panicking and rushing the answer.  With practise though I'm sure this'll no longer be an issue.  Okay, so I spent a lot of time brushing up my multiplication facts too...when the boys weren't hogging the game.   I discovered that my gaming skills are horrible.   I may know what 6 x 9 is but do you think I can jump across a little ravine without falling down and having to try again...repeatedly??  So, yes, a game not just for the kids.  Mum and Dad can learn something from it as well!! (No I'm not reviewing this product for money or any other benefit.  If it's on my blog, it's something I bought because we wanted it and loved it.  If I reviewed it, it's because I wanted to share a great find with others.) http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/746652/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 21:03:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/746652/ These are just some of the books that have arriving over the last month.  With the strength of the dollar recently hubby suggested that I purchase some of the books I might like for next year.  You don't need to tell me to go book shopping twice!!  I didn't actually get that much, although it does look like it.  Usually I buy a grand list of books for our Story of the World studies as our library just doesn't have any of the great titles that are suggested as wonderful books to read.  Recently though I've found that things are a lot easier if I just purchase a few of the SOTW suggested titles here and there as topics approach.  This way the books are new and exciting and often we sit down and read them straight away.  Whereas, if I purchase them all at once, they are set aside as "for next year" and often we forgot the great titles that we popped into the shelves for later.  It's also a lot less overwhelming to do it a little at a time.  The books you can see here include: - several history titles that we are reading about at present (Incas, Aztecs, China) - several read alouds for the boys for next year - a Math title that completes a series we have collected and loved (Sir Cumference books) - a few Trailblazer books to read to the boys later but in the meanwhile I'll read them - another of Jackie French's titles for me to read - a book about the Plague that I bought super cheap (I'll read it and set it aside for the boys for later) - a Christmas story novel (as in the REAL story and not that Santa fellow who we've expelled from the house) - a book about Einstein as I stumbled on it while searching and just loved it - a book about large numbers as Brayden is obsessed with googles (that's a number that starts with 1 and has a hundred zeros behind it.  In this book Brayden learned about googleplexes which is a 1 with a google zeros behind it.  Woah!!) - and a Rachel Yoder book, "Schools Out" as we've enjoyed Amish stories and I wanted to try one of these to see if we'd enjoy this series too There are several titles that are not shown.  I forgot about some of them until after I took the photos and a few haven't arrived yet: - a few weather titles (we are working through the holidays with a weather unit as it's the best time of year to watch our weather at it's best and worst) -  Handbook of Nature (I've always considered this book but culled it at the last moment.  With all our nature study this year I decided it had earned a place on our shelves.) - A Child's Geography (I lost the ebook of this in the big crash of 2009 and decided it was time to buy the real thing, especially since I had hoped to use it for next year). This week the last few packages started arriving.  The boys Singapore Math books (I always buy double of the level Ethan's doing so those books will be waiting for Brayden when he gets there), their Explode the Code books (our absolute favourite phonics text) and our new Latin curriculum.  We've already listened to the audio and the boys have tried out a few "salve"s and "vale"s. I told Ethan this week that since we had all of our books (nearly) we should just keep going and skip our holidays.  The look he gave me said it all.  I don't think he's as excited about the new books as I am.  http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/746617/ Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:54:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/746617/ Today Ethan asked me to take a narration for him.  No I didn't fall down dead with shock.  I restrained myself and happily obliged.  Ethan had drawn several pictures and wanted me to type up the information that went with them.  Let me tell you...thank goodness I took speed typing in high school.  Even then it was hard to keep up with the sentences he wanted me to capture in writing. He also insisted that I share his "information" with you.  Originally he wanted me to link my blog with his so you could all visit.  But as we keep his blog a private domain for his own safety, I convinced him to settle for a reproduction of his work on my blog.  He's happy enough with that but itching to hit the real stage of the internet with his own blog.  So for your reading pleasure, please enjoy...Ethan's No Pollution City This city will have fire engines that are really different.  It will have a water pipe like normal but the thing that's different is that it will have a vacuum that sucks up poisonous gases and it will be controlled by a control panel.  It will be vented right out of the city. This is a picture of the fire engine.  The blue bit is the water to put out the fire.  All the gases get caught while this is happening.  This is what the orange bit is.  The FP on the picture means “Fire Pipe” and the VP means Vent Pipe. The city will also have a little place where oxygen can get remade with carbon dioxide.  The carbon dioxide will come off as you breathe out.  There will be trees in a little zone of this city or state.  The trees will turn the carbon dioxide into oxygen.  The oxygen comes out and all of that will be great.  There will be a part of city that will be actually made into a station that controls the city.  The heat and energy will get through from the sun but none of the light.  The light will just be millions or billions of light bulbs on the roof.  This picture is the town.  You can see there are two layers.  One is filled with pipes and there’s a big vent inside the layer that the people are in.  Only fixers can head up into the top layer.  When there are problems on one of the lights the light will have to be switched off after there is an alert announcement in every place of that zone.  One zone will be called the North Zone and one will be called the South Zone. There will be a switch that turns it to night time and it will be in 24 hours like the day outside the city.  The sunrise time will be controlled by kids and they’ll get woken up by alarm clocks and they can turn it to daylight.  There’ll be no sunrise because they will be just switched on quickly so the kids don’t have to stand there for hours moving the switch up slowly. This one is a picture of the control panel.  You can see a switch that says night at the top  The night one means that all the lights can be switched off.  Down below there is day.  You switch it down there and all the lights go on.  Next to the switch you can see a box with an N and S with a dot below them.  The N stands for north and the S stands for south .  Those buttons turn the lights on and off in the different zones – the top or bottom part of the city.  There is no West and East because they are done with the North and South lights.  But I don’t know what we’ll do about the moon.  If I could refresh this picture I would pop another button on it... well it’s already automatic so I don’t really need to put the button on it.  When it’s night some of the lights will stay on to be the moon.  You can also see three lines and they show an image of three trees that are the biggest in the forest.  But maybe we won’t be able to grow that much if we make the city.    All the pollution will be allowed but the speed of the vents will have to be powered up higher for how much pollution there is measured on the town control panel.  The vents will look like those things that they have on the plane to make it go.  I think they are called jet turbines.  The side that takes the air in on the plane will be the part that sucks the pollution out on our vents.   Maybe the whole state of Queensland could be turned into this city if we ask the Queensland government.    http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/745580/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:50:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/745580/ This week was safety week at our swim school.  I'm not sure if this is a common practise amongst swim schools but I think it's a marvelous idea. The children are asked to wear normal clothes over their swimmers so they can experience what it feels like to move in the water in water logged clothes.  This knowledge might be important if they ever fell into the pool.  During the lesson they practised lots of different safety techniques and were familiarised with different situations they might find themselves in.  They practised the standard techniques like turning and swimming for the wall and hopping in and out of the pool safely.  They were also safely pushed into the pool (with their teacher right at their side in the water) at a time when they weren't prepared so they could practise their skills in a safe environment.  This could save their lives one day when instead of panicking they can recall this lesson and calmly turn in the water and return to the wall. They also practised floating in the pool using various flotation devices in case they have to improvise one day. They put on life jackets and had fun swimming around the pool.  They were also taught how to safely jump into the water wearing a life jacket.  Hopefully a skill they'll never need but a very valuable lesson all the same. For younger swimmers these devices really help boost their self confidence in the water.  They love the independence of moving around on their own and I've found that the lessons following safety week are where I've seen a lot of swimming progress in my boys.  Mostly for fun they sit on a floating mat and pretend it's a boat.  Their teachers roughs up the "sea" and the boat sinks or capsizing throwing them "overboard".  My boys think this is the best game ever and ask for it every safety week.  I'm not sure if they do this in normal classes or not.  We have private lessons as I think it's more value for dollar time wise. The kids also get to explore the water in floaties.  Below you can see my "not-confident" swimmer who NEVER jumps into the pool without his teacher holding his hand.  I expect to see big things from him in the next weeks at swimming. The kids also answer simple questions about other areas of water safety such as where do you swim at the beach, what colour are the surf flags. They also practise rescue techniques and are taught to never jump into the pool to save another swimmer, that as children they must lie on their bellies and reach for them.  Our teacher also shows the kids what will happen if they do jump in or try to stand up to reach for a person.  The best lesson for kids is experience and it's a lesson they don't forget and it's all part of the fun of the day.  So if your swim school doesn't do something like this it might be a valuable idea to ask them about it.  It only happens once every swim season for us so that's twice a year but over several years I'm sure these lessons will not be forgotten. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/745578/ Wed, 18 Nov 2009 04:17:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/745578/ Do you even need to ask what my boys have been making recently? Why, shoes of course.  I did warn the boys that once these beauties hit the internet they could have a rush on orders. But they were too busy working on improving their creation.  Version 2.0 was made from brightly coloured foam and was much softer on the foot. What talent!  I can see shoe design and production in their future.  Can't you? I'll let you know when these beauties hit the market and where you order them from.   http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/743805/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:12:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/743805/ Cooked Playdough Ingredients: 1 cup salt 2 cups plain flour 4 tablespoons Cream of Tartar 2 tablespoons cooking oil 2 cups water food colouring Method: *  Begin by collecting all of your ingredients and a saucepan.    *  Into a large saucepan, measure and pour the salt. *  Next, measure and pour the cups of flour. *  Add the Cream of Tartar. *  Pour in the measured cooking oil. *  Now add the water. *  Select which colour of food dye you wish to use and add several drops or squirts of dye depending on how deep you want the colour to be. *  Mix the ingredients together in your saucepan. *  Then stir over a medium heat for approximately 5 minutes or until the mixture congeals.  (Children will need an adult to help them with this step as the mixture becomes quite hard to stir and can cause the pot to move around on the stove.) *  When you remove the dough from the heat it will still be quite sticky and you will feel like it needs more time on the stove.  It probably doesn't and returning it to the stove will probably burn the bottom of your dough.  *  Leave the dough to cool.  As it cools the sticky texture becomes more playdough-like. *  Enjoy the dough while it is warm.  It's a texturally different experience to cold dough.  *  You could even add flavourings for smell but in our house playdough is already an edibly-desirable product without adding an alluring scent as well. *  Store your playdough in an airtight container in the refrigerator.  It lasts quite a while.  Our last batch lived in the fridge for many months before the dish cracked and it began to dry out.  *  Leave your saucepan to soak in a little water.  Once you've finished playing with your new playdough the pot will be ready to rinse and wash.  Now you just have to find a couple of volunteer (or recruited) dish washers. Please note that we doubled our mixture for these photographs.  If you want the same amount of dough as you see in these images you'll need to double your mixture also. http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/743801/ Wed, 11 Nov 2009 06:27:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/743801/ A few days ago I received this comment from Diane and thought the reply desired a full post.    If you remember I wrote to you a couple of months ago about Vegemite and you did a post about it. I just read on yahoo about the new product Kraft has come out with and how upset people were about the new name that was originally picked. Have you tried it? Do you like it? Blessings Diane A while back Kraft decided to try a new Vegemite-like product.  I didn't give it much thought.  I was perfectly happy with our current Vegemite and as long as they continued to make the original recipe I wasn't too interested in trying the new imitation-Vegemite.  When I got Diane's query however I decided that I needed to go out and purchase a jar in the name of research.  The boys were my willing...okay that's pushing literary liberties a little too far....let's say... "reluctant" lab assistants.  I actually didn't hear anything about the name until I heard murmurings about it on the Net.  Some uproar about the new Vegemite name so of course I Googled it to see what I had missed.  I think the name is a bit strange too.  I like the 2.0 but the "i" bit makes it totally odd.  Nah, don't like the name.  But then again, I'm resistant to change in general.  I had to look around the Vegemite section quite closely to find a jar of iSnack 2.0.  They don't seem to be selling too many of them it seems as there is only a small section dedicated to it.  The rest of the display is the real stuff.   It bought a large jar of that while I was there too.  It's a staple in our house. Anyway, we bought our little jar home and examined it closely. It has a faint hint of the normal Vegemite smell to it.  I included this over exposed shot as it more accurately captures the true colour of iSnack. It's texture and colour is very different to the real thing.  Vegemite is much firmer and stickier than iSnack.  The colour and consistency of iSnack reminded me of melted chocolate and I got a bit of a shock when I scraped into the iSnack.  I went in prepared to scrape out a sampling with the usual Vegemite heavy handed method.  I ended up with way more than I intended.  It would be much easier to spread and it wouldn't snap your crackers as your try to spread it.  The next test was the taste test.  Volunteer (heheheh...more literary liberties...hehehe) number one stepped forward and did the "dipped finger test".  He pondered the taste for a while.  He even went back for two or three more tentative tongue spottings. His verdict was quite clear...... "Yuck!"  Volunteer Number Two by now had a tainted view of the product and was clearly reluctant to be the lab rat...I mean...assistant...in my investigation.  So I had to do some motherly bribing...oh I mean...coaxing..to get him to take just a small bite for my research.  Verdict from son number two...... "Yuck"  "Double Yuck!" So I tasted the product myself and let me tell you...the jury was unanimous in their voting.  "Yuck" with a capital Y.  I couldn't wash that stuff out of my mouth fast enough, in between gagging of course.  For me, it lacked flavour and it's smooth melted chocolate consistency was just all wrong for my taste buds.  I'd say our distaste of it may also be linked to our brains' expectations of what it should have been like.  The message it sent to our stomach was "This Vegemite is clearly not right.  Get that stuff out of your system and quickly." To be fair I have heard that people who don't like Vegemite, really like iSnack.  My brother is one of them.  So you know who's getting our jar!!! So to answer your question succinctly Diane, my family gave iSnack 2.0.... ...the double thumbs down sign.  Yuck!! http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/743193/ Mon, 9 Nov 2009 01:25:00 -0600 http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/LittleMen/743193/