End of Term 3.

Well, I am a long way behind and this will be a long post with loads of pics. Or, if I get interrupted, it may be spread over more than one post. :)

Term 3 saw a new plan for our home school and I think it worked much better than anything else we have tried so far. The plan will still need tweaking, but we shall continue in a similar vein over Term 4 ............and into the summer holidays.

Yep, we shall take time off for Christmas and New Years, but we'll be steadily progressing throughout the year to keep the rugrats from getting bored and from forgetting all they've learned this year.

Even today, a public holiday on the first week of school holidays, we did some work, and they probably didn't even notice. Sneaky, huh?

Here's a catch up from where I left off :

Taffy is learning about volume and Gretel is checking it out too.

Colt getting fed up with number lines.

Taffy and Gretel posing on painted pics on a cycle path, such little cuties!

Learning about how pyramids were constructed in ancient times.

The girls are working on puzzles, colouring and reading while the boys do their ice skating lesson.

 
Colt and Dart decided to play a game of Chess using lego men, Nibbles is umpiring.

During National Science Week, we made Hopping Corn, it was fun!

We decided to do painting, chalk drawings on the road and hopscotch while waiting for the boys to do their ice skating lesson. Loads of fun!

A typical day with games and lessons and manipulatives all over the table!

Last year, Karys won an award at school with a prize to spend at a bookstore. We finally went to cash it in on the very last day before the voucher expired and she chose a set that makes a new story every time she plays with it. Then we went for lunch at Macca's and I decided we should make it a fortnightly date with each child. So far, it still hasn't happened, but I am planning on taking Colt very soon.

This is part of our science lab where we are learning about plant growth and feeding the family at the same time. Also, we are learning that we need to cultivate beauty as well as plants that will fill our tummies. Very important lesson! :)

Taffy is learning to match her lower case letters with their uppers, and as usual, getting some help from Gretel.

Day 98.

Thursdays are ice skating lessons for both Dart and Colt now. This is the best photo I could get of the two of them while on a hot chocolate break. Don't know why Dart is hiding his face, he did really well for his first lesson. He passed the first level!!!! Way to go mate!

In the afternoon, we did painting with the girls. It is a great way to get Taffy to do her sight words with letter stamps. Gretel copied her as well.

This week I have seen great progress from Colt. He wrote a made up story from a picture of a demented animal. On another day, he pulled out his math book and began working all by himself! I have moved him up from the yr 3 level book to the yr 4 one, and he is coping well so far. I'm sure we;ll have some gaps to fill on some math skills, and we'll do extra work on those when we come across them, I've also put the boys onto the Khanacadamy website and they are doing some work there.

I have decided to cancel Clever Dragons for Colt and Always Icecream for Taffy as they aren't getting much out of it right now. Taffy was doing well on Reading Eggs, so I might search out a deal for that one.

Day 96.

We did drama games today and played charades. The kids really love this subject! :)

They played an un-prompted game of red light, green light.

Then they built a cubby house and played with the animals.

Day 95.

Today ended up being a very short school day as our eldest daughter and granddaughter received word that they had a new home! So there was much excitement in our home and lots of preparation for the next two days of hard work! We went for a walk around Manning Lake and found a huge hill which the kids spent ages rolling down. They all needed to be washed when we went home as they got all muddy, but, oh, what fun!

Day 92.

We went for a walk around Little Rush Lake and saw a few interesting things. Looks like a great place to get tadpoles, so we'll need to obtain a fish tank and begin setting it up. Unfortunately, my camera was flat so I couldn't get any pictures, sadly.

The kids did quite well at getting their maths books done, but when it came to writing a short story about our walk, Colt had a hard time getting any words down on paper. He had a great idea, but couldn't find the words to begin. Will have to work out how to stop this becoming a bigger problem down the track.

They helped with making afternoon tea, little Dutch pancakes, but mostly the helping was confined to sprinkling the icing sugar and eating them! Great cooking lesson, not!

Guess I better start thinking of something special to do to mark 100 days of home schooling, it's coming up quick now.

Day 91.

After a 4 week break from school as I worked through all our business stuff, we are back into it. I made an awesome new term plan and I'm now working on Plan B already as one child is still asleep, sigh!

Instead of going for our walk first, they are doing a 10 min you-tube exercise video.

After doing our maths workbooks, we finally got out for a walk. Lucky we went when we did, as the weather turned nasty and we headed home. We did pick up an elderly couple caught in the rain, and delivered them safely to their front door. Great lesson for the kids! :)

Always nice, being on the edge of the rain clouds!

The kids had a nice play before we had to leave.

Back home again, we began spelling after a quick hot lunch. Taffy hates learning to read, but this idea has grabbed her attention! We will see if it works with other mediums too.

We didn't quite get through everything on the list, but we did loads more than when we didn't have the list! :)

Day 90.

Today we had an excursion to the Wilkinson Homestead in Armadale. The curator and her helpers were wonderful at engaging the children and giving them an experience of school and life in the early 1900's.Despite the horrendous weather, it was a good turn out of home schooled kids and their mums, and the weather held off during the morning so the kids could run and stretch their legs in the big backyard.

I had a whole bunch of photos but my sd card has grown legs and walked away .......

Day 88.

I haven't posted in a while, been really busy. We had our home school moderator visit from the Education Dept and it left me a bit flat and frustrated. She was ok with the younger kids program and pointed out the obvious that they needed more writing. I already knew that, so that didn't bother me. I have a better writing program in place and she will be able to see the difference next year. I'm glad I have done heaps of research and setting up a new program that will give them a much better grounding.

What bothered me is her attitude to Yr 11 and 12. According to her, these 2 years a waste of time and resources for the child and they are better off going to a TAFE centre or getting full time work. So she refused to register Pipa and handballed her to a counsellor.

The counsellor was quite helpful on the phone and promised me the world in terms of help, and I have seen nothing!
Sigh.

As for Pipa, she is keen to be educated still, so we are going ahead with lessons. I need to order a new English program as soon as I have funds and look into a new maths program for next semester. She is working part time at Hungry Jack's. Her goal is to start a TAFE course next year in business and/or food handling. She is quite bright and I feel she needs to continue with her studies as it will help her gain good study skills when she goes into tertiary education. There is loads more for her to learn, she needs to stretch her brain and see what she is capable of.

As for the others, we have been having the odd day off as I've not been well. We may work through the school hols I think. They still do their online work, but I'm having to push them to write and do their maths books. History is fun and they don't need much of a push to do that one fortunately.

We are doing History of the World and there are lots of activities to reinforce the lessons.

This is a model of the River Nile as it forms at the Delta. Not sure this one is going to work.

We have been using magnetic letters and Gretel is happily joining in with Taffy.

Taffy making up a story with some puzzle pieces.

I have introduced this great book with lots of fun ideas which all the kids are enjoying. Soon I shall add in some small skits for them to perform.

Since I started writing this post, the kids have improved greatly with their work output which is great but they may have to be pushed again when we start back in a week or two.
We will now be taking a break from school stuff as it is tax time and I need to work.

Day 72.

Things have gone from crazy to completely rabid here and school is taking a bit of a back seat until I get on top of things.

The moderator, who is lovely, is coming next week to check our progress, so there are reports to write and plans to discuss.

Now the tax department wants me to hand in years of paperwork, or they will audit me.

Never. A. Dull. Moment. Here.

Some pics from the past few days:
We went for a walk along the beach to get our brains working and we made loads of pretty discoveries!

                                                      A bluebottle jellyfish.

                                                            Colt with a starfish and sponge.

                                             A bluebottle's very long tentacle.

                                            A play on the playground before the rain came down.

           Today, they built a cubby house out of what was lying around in our backyard. This was to show them how the Ancient Nomadic people lived. Then they played in it for ages, until footy training started.

Day 67.

I and most of the kids have been knocked down with a severe cold this past week. Today was the first day I woke up and felt like my head wasn't full of cotton wool and fog, yay!

Taffy's work is still going well, it helps that it only takes an hour or so and that she will happily colour in for another hour, or play outside if it's not bucketing down with rain.

Gretel is astonishing me with her letter learning, considering I'm not teaching her!

Karys is trying hard to get out of doing anything, admittedly she is feeling quite unwell.

Colt is doing better with his maths, yay!

Dart is suffering because his very mean mummy decided that we would not have screen time during the week any more!

Both boys are suffering greatly, their lives are at an end and they are BOREDDDDDD!

Poor darlings!

Obviously, they needed this intervention so they can find their imaginations again!

It's going to be quite painful here for a little while, but I'm tough, I can do the hard yards with them. :)

Today we planted some bulbs that looked a bit old, so we'll give them until the end of the month and if there's no progress, we'll buy new ones and start again.

We also planted potatoes and re-potted a blackberry bush.

Then we made cards after lunch, for our friends and family.

We came close to deciding to move out to the country these past few weeks. It has made us make some decisions about where our lives are headed and what our goals are.
I'm glad we have thought about it and now we will take the next year or two to learn about farm animals and growing fruits and vegies, and learn how to run a business.

Day 64.

Last week went by in a blur, so glad it's over now.

It was filled with birthdays and Mother's Day, and while they are so much fun, they are exhausting too. I have been spoiled rotten though and my greatest wish came true, so I am truly grateful!

I only have a couple of pics form last week's work.

Taffy having fun doing her maths lesson. M&M sorting sheet courtesy of www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

Playdough gets them all inspired to be creative.

Today, we have a new plan and I'm too sick to get through it all, lol! We'll see how it goes....

I made some bean bags for a maths game.

Here they are all finished.

Colt having his turn.

Karys' turn.

Taffy's turn.

Gretel had to have a go to, even though she had no clue what it was for, lol. And she cheated! :)

This is what happens when the hole puncher goes psycho and I get mad at it. :/

Karys out doing her Nature Play Mission.

Taffy with a re-made rainbow lacing card. :)

All in all, it went ok, even though we missed some activities. Hopefully, we'll add them in tomorrow and it'll be fine. :)