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Ethany's Journal page today

Posted by: Dandy in Home Schoolfamily on


A few random things

Posted by: Dandy in Nature StudyHome Schoolfamily on

It's hard to get a good picture of Imogen, because as soon as she sees the camera she pulls a funny smiling kind of face and runs right towards you.  Here are a couple of shots.


Being a little Mummy wiping her drink cup with the tea towel.


There's the face.
 
These are new books for Xavier for this year, they arrived on Wednesday, it was like Christmas opening all of the parcels.  They complete his books from our 3yo curriculum which you can find a link to on my side bar.  They are all Sonlight selections and I am sooo impressed.  We have started reading them already!
 
Ethany deep in thought making a collage from one of the activity bags I put together last weekend.  They have proved a hit this week but I can see I am going to need to rotate them often.
An unidentified moth we found on the wall of our shower last night.  I took him outside and he flew away.  When he crawled onto my finger we could see that his legs and underside were a very bright orange colour.  I have never seen one like that before.  Kids thought it was great!  We couldn't identify him in our field guide.

 
 


A day in the life of Amber

Posted by: Dandy in sportsHome Schoolfamily on

7am - Up and dressed, then breakfast and morning chores.  Started the morning with circle time at 9am.  Xavier didn’t participate, he woke up on the wrong side of the bed, lol.

 

Went straight into math.  Ethany did her review questions, she had a little trouble with sequencing numbers backwards so we will review that tomorrow.  Her new topic today was ordinal numbers we made queues and races with little people and worked out who was first, last, 3rd, 6th etc.  That worked really well, she had a little trouble with this a few weeks back.

 

 She completed her reading assignment and copywork no problem.  After that we verbally spelled some words from Explode the Code, again no problem there.  Then she narrated her story from her reading assignment.

 

Colour matching

Make a Beetle

 

Thread some wooden beads

Xavier has really enjoyed the independence of collecting and putting away his own activity bags.  He did however want to pick out the bags and work on the more ‘fun’ ones first but I have put a stop to that advising that they must take from the front of the box.  We will see how long that lasts.

 

Xavier happily stoped and did some counting with me.  We made it quite fun, how many seats on the aeroplane?  How many people in the race?  How many animals? Etc.  We then did some shape matching with the Shape-O which Imogen joined in on too.

 

Matching cvc words with pictures

 

Number cards & counters, making odd and even numbers

We read ‘This is my Family’ by Gina and Mercer Mayer and Ethany stuck a picture of our family in her notebook along with the sentence ‘This is my family.’  She copied it from the cover of the book.

 

We read ‘Little Mouse’s Book of Colors’ and Xavier pointed out all of the items discussed in the book.

 

We read ‘Where the Wild Things Are’ and Ethany said “Isn’t that a bit magic that his dinner was still hot”, which sparked a discussion about time elapsing.  How when you are being ‘wild’ time can seem like forever but it isn’t really.  We also talked about how Max’s Mum had sent him to his room because he was being ‘wild’ and the same thing happens in our house.

 

Imogen enjoyed the stories cuddling up on the couch.  The rest of the time she has made good use of the toy shelves.

 

I read Brer Fox and Mr Jack Sparrow to Ethany and Xavier whilst they worked on a quiet activity from the activity bags.

 

The kids tidied up morning mess while I made lunch.  Over lunch, 12 noon we listened to some classical music from 2 compilation CD’s we got from the library.  Lunch was fruit, sandwiches, polony and cheese, pretty standard.

 

Discussion over lunch –

Me- “What was your favourite activity this morning?”

Ethany – “Colouring the Easter Egg.”

Xavier – “Smallest to tallest.” (He actually complained about having to do this one, but I think he felt a real sense of accomplishment when he completed it quite quickly with really no trouble at all.)

 

Ethany – “What’s 18 + a?”

Me - What does a = ?”

Ethany – “a = 2, oh 20!”

Me – “Well done!”

 

We have random math conversations all the time, along with spelling conversations.  You never know what they are going to come up with next!

 

1pm – Imogen asleep, Ethany & Xavier in sandpit.  Me cleaning wound on cat – another cat has obviously had a go at her this morning.

 

Three loads of washing in from the clothes line.  Brief discussion on number sequencing with Ethany whilst she put the pegs in the bucket for me. 

 

Hung two loads of washing out.  Informal bird watching with Ethany, spotted a native Dove and saw some 28 Parrots fly overhead.  Ethany and Xavier were both very helpful handing pegs and washing to me.

 

Emptied dishwasher, stacked it again.

 

Read a few pages from “The Magic School Bus, In the time of Dinosaurs” at Xavier’s request.  Ethany and Xavier back outside I  had my first cuppa for the day and a few minutes quiet time.

 

2.30pm – Imogen awake, kids all had a museli bar and drink for afternoon tea.  We made mini quiches for dinner.  Kids helped to make quiches.

 

Xavier and Ethany play Reading Eggs.  Xavier passed his first Quiz on map 1 which was a big achievement.

 

Ethany got changed and we went to swimming.  Ethany went into her new class, it went OK although she wasn’t too keen on the teacher who was a little too strict for Ethany’s liking.  This wont be her normal class so I am not making any issue of it.

 

Back home and ate dinner, the mini quiches were yummy!  Kids all bathed then read to again this time it was –

Ethany read a chapter from “Nicholas and the Hammerheads”.

I read ‘1-10 book’ for Imogen, ‘The Magic School Bus, In the time of Dinosaurs’ for Xavier and ‘Cinderella’ for the family.

 

All quiet now at 7.30pm.  I have dishes to do and washing to fold.


We had Russell home for a little bit and I got this happy snap.  The kids all had to be up at the same time ofcourse!

  

I found this Marbled Gecko on my laundry window sill.  This was very interesting because it is the first one we have found that has lost it's tail.  They have false tails to fool their predators so when something grabs them they can detach it and get away.

 

We also found 2 Western Spiny Tailed Gecko's on a tree out on the yard and they had a little baby with them.  It was soooo cute, only about 1 inch long.  Unfortunately I didn't manage to get a pic.

  

The kids and I cooked pikelets which they call pancakes and we had them whilst listening to come classical music at afternoon tea time.  They are become more excited about helping in the kitchen and are asking to help with everything now which is nice.

This is my new school shelving unit in our yet to be named 'learning centre'.  We have now moved Xavier out of his room and in with the girls in preparation of Imogen moving from the cot into a big bed.  Thus leaving his old room spare to be transformed into our 'learning centre'.  A quick run down-

 

  •  bottom 2 shelves mainly orientated towards Imogen because they are the ones she can reach easily.
  • middle shelf has pre-school activity bags in shoeboxes on the left and pencils, crayons, paper etc on the left.  Ethany and Xavier have easy assess to this shelf to get things as and when they choose.
  • second shelf from the top has Ethany's school books on the left and Xaver's school books on the right.
  • top shelf has an assortment of things including curriculum, reference books, books for school for next year, readers, supplies for me.
  • on top of the shelving there are some empty shoe boxes, My Potato Head and a Playdough set

 

I have now moved out little outside table into that room also so the kids don't have to work at the kitchen table unless they want to.

 

I have been working hard on putting together my Math on the Level scope & sequence today.  I am finished and will post soon but I would like to get some feedback on it first.

 

Oh, if you have littles studying Ancient History this year check out this neet portfolio.  It is something I may look at once we get to SOTW.

http://www.homeschooljourney.com/index.html


Pre-School Activity Bags

Posted by: Dandy in Home School on

Reading lots of blogs you find out what seems to be popular and at the moment pre-school activity bags seem to be getting a lot of mentions.  After my previous posts about the kids enjoying the Montessori-ish activities that I whiped up for them I  too am going down the activity bag path (I just don't have space for all that shelving true Monti requires).

 

These materials will not be used as a core program, just a time filler for when I am giving some 1 on 1 instruction to one of the other kids.  It will also be available for them during their free play (most of the day).  I have just spent, oooh, about 2 hours putting together loads of little bags which contain everything the kids need to undertake an activity.  Let me tell you what we have got -

 

 

  •  beads to thread onto chenille sticks
  • card with outline of Easter egg and pastel crayons
  • colour matching cards
  • plastic beetle to construct
  • different length straws for comparison and ordering
  • puzzle Easter eggs with a pic on half and the matching word on the other half
  • make some words, write them down - scrabble tiles and pencil
  • 4 chenille stick hoops with 4 coloured pegs for each hoop
  • 10 puzzle
  • numbers 1 - 9 and counters for counting & odd and even practice
  • complete the pattern cards
  • coloured paper various sizes, scissors, glue stick for collage
  • bird matching game
  • popsticks and magnetic numbers 1 - 5
  • MUS blocks 1 - 10 to make steps
  • animal track stamps and scrap paper
  • playdough and geometric shape cutters
  • watercolour paints
  • sorting shape frame, shapes and activity card
  • paper plates numbered 1 - 5 and pegs
  • a dozen puzzle - egg carton, kidney beans and number tags
  • geometric shape puzzle
Some of these are not strictly pre-school activities, but they are activities that Ethany and Xavier are capable of doing all by themselves.

 


Happy Birthday!!

Posted by: Dandy in family on

Love Ethany

Something is going on with my little man at the moment.  A few days ago I shared his new found 1 to 1 correspondence, well today he threw himself into Reading Eggs and completed a lesson that has had him stumped for about 6 weeks now.  He was actually reading some cvc words.  So hold onto your seat for this ride it could be a rollercoaster!  I think I will begin 100 Easy Lessons with him and see what happens. 


Achievement

Posted by: Dandy in Home Schoolfamily on

Ethany passed her level at swimming today!!  She now moves into Marlin's which she is very excited about.  It sees the end of pre-school swimming and she will now go with the 'big' school kids for swimming.  Unfortunately for me that means another trip to the pool each week for after school or weekend swimming.  At this stage I think we will go with a weekend class as our schedule during the week is full enough and really I want to be spending a little more time at home ramping up for when Ethany turns 5.

 

I'd like to get a little more writing out of her on a daily basis before things really step up for the 5yo year.  Today I introduced a scrapbook which can be used as a journal.  Draw a picture, write a sentence.  Today she drew and rainbow, with sky, clouds, sun and kite.  Her sentence read "this is a rainbow."  She got the period at the end but not the capital at the start but for a first go I was very impressed.  We did discuss the spelling of the words as she wrote them because she likes to get it right.

 

Math wise she amazed me today.  She knows how to work out her math facts using manipulatives or fingers (prof B/RS kind of way) but she hasn't had them memorised.  Well today she had quite a few of them down.  She was having so much fun with them she had me quiz her while she was taking her bath.  I think now that she is doing multi digit addition with regrouping she is seeing the need to get the other facts down.  She is enjoying that challenge so rising to the occasion.  I can't get over how well she visualises things.

 

Xavier had a good swim today.  Even the Mum's and Dad's who sit on the side commented how well he did today which is great.  The other little boy in his class is very encouraging which is soooo nice.  Imogen had a blast also.  She has worked out how to hold her breath without you having to blow on her face now and is really enjoying the free fall off the matt into the water.

 

The kids started listening to Roald Dahl's Matilda this afternoon and that had Ethany in stitches.  It has been a while between trip to the library for more audio so they are enjoying this new one. 


Xavier's First Day

Posted by: Dandy in Home Schoolfamily on

Well today was a big day at our house.  Xavier had his first official day of school, lol.  He has been participating with Ethany's lessons since we started HSing but now he has things to do of his very own.  He has his own school books, own tasks and his own special 1 on 1 time with Mum snuggling on the couch reading a book.

 

He did really well today.  Not that much changed for him except I guess there was a little more structure for him whereas it has been a free-for-all for him up to this point.  We touched on counting today and he has lacked 1 to 1 correspondence for quite some time and has only been rote counting but, today, he got it.  Something has clicked with him.  We counted people and when I said can you please give me 4 people he did just that.  Counted out 4 people and handed them to me.  We repeated with a few other numbers too.  That is quite a milestone in math land.

 

A simple test for 1 to 1 correspondence is to count a group of items touching (naming) each one.  Then ask the child to hand you a quantity, say 5.  Did they hand you the item that you names 5?  or did they hand you 5 items?

 

I have ordered the balance of his books so should have them in the next week or so.  The only thing left to purchase are the wedgits and then his curriculum is all set for the rest of his 3yo year.  I can't tell you how great that feels! 


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Cloth Vs Disposables

For 2 children until toilet training:

Disposables - $6,972

Nappy Boutique Cloth Nappies - $1,958

Using just one modern cloth nappy everyday until your child toilet trains will stop approx 900 disposables going to landfill. You can make a difference with just one modern cloth nappy!

Family Read Aloud


Brer Rabbit Book
Enid Blyton
Our edition is OOP 
 

Ethany's Read Aloud

Tai's Penguin
Aussie Nibbles 

 

 


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Meet the Gang

Amber - Wife, mother, homemaker, WAHM, teacher & more.

Russell - Husband, father, breadwinner & lawn bowler.

Ethany 4 - A bright spark & nature lover.

Xavier 3 - A busy boy who's very stubborn.

Imogen 1 - Super cute tiny tot.

Curriculum Plans