Books to read aloud 

• Big Thoughts for Little People
• Peter Pan
• Winnie-the-Pooh
• The Velveteen Rabbit
• Madeline
• Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening
• The Clown of God
• Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel
• Make Way for Ducklings
• Brer Rabbit Book
• Milly-Molly-Mandy Stories
• Paintings and Children’s Verses of Australian Bush Animals
• The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit
• Shy the Platypus
• Dot and the Kangaroo
• The Magic Faraway Tree
• Children’s Classic Poetry
• The Wishing Chair Again
• People
• Stories from Africa
• Then and Now
• Things People Do
• Children’s Book of Virtues
• The Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book
• Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes
• Usborne Stories from Around the World

Math 

• Right start A
• Living math through Math on the Level

Language arts 

• Learn letter formation for uppercase and lowercase letters
• Teach Your Child to Read in100 Easy Lessons
• Nora Gaydos readers
• Scholastic Exagerations readers
• Explode the Code 1, 2
• Webster’s Speller
• Reading Eggs

Logic 

• Wedgits
• Puzzles
• Games

Handicrafts

General music appreciation (Sing 2009) including composer familiarisation

Art (water colour painting, beeswax modelling, drawing) including informal picture study

AUSLAN

Physical Education - swimming & dance

Nature Study informal

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Books to read aloud 

• Jesse Bear, What will you Wear?
• The Little Rabbit
• The Runaway Bunny
• Where the Wild things Are
• Possum Magic
• Little Mouse’s Book of Colours
• Richard Scarry’s Best Little Word Book Ever!
• When I’m feeling Sad
• When I’m feeling Loved
• When I’m feeling Angry
• When I’m feeling Lonely
• When I’m feeling Scared
• When I’m feeling Jealous
• This is my Family
• The Saggy Baggy Elephant
• The Pokey Little Puppy
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar
• Grimm’s Fairy Tales
• Ask Mr Bear
• Were Going on a Bear Hunt
• Tales of Hans Christian Anderson
• Australian Poems to read to the very Young
• One Woolly Wombat
• 20^th Century Children’s Book Treasury
• A First Book of Fairy Tales
• Richard Scarry’s What do People do all day?
• The Tall book of Nursery Tales
• Harper Collins Treasury of Picture Book Classics
• The Usborne Flip Flap Body Book

Math 

• Counting
• Number recognition
• Living math through Math on the Level

Language arts 

• Letter recognition
• Trace letters in salt tray or sandpaper letters
• Learn letter sounds
• Before the Code A, B, C no writing
• Reading Eggs

Logic 

• Wedgits
• Puzzles
• Games

Handicrafts

General music appreciation (Sing 2009) including composer familiarisation

Art (water colour painting, beeswax modelling, drawing) including informal picture study

AUSLAN

Physical Education - swimming & dance

Nature Study informal

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isn't that what every Homeschooling Mum does figuring out what to do next (grin).  Well I have just finalised my 3yo, 4yo and 5yo plans.  Gosh, I feel like it has taken me forever!  I really didn't have any plans to do anything for 3yo year but Xavier NEEDS the 1 on 1 time with me so why not make it productive, nothing fancy but atleast he will get something out of the year.

Loosely each year is Sonlight based but with my own CM spin, and also some books we already have.  There is definitely a step up between 4yo and 5yo so if Xavier isn't ready for that when he gets there I will add in an extra year at that point.  For Ethany she will be ready when she turns 5.

I will post the pages up shortly and provide a link in my sidebar. 

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CIRCLE TIME THINGS

         Poems & Rhymes – Mother Goose & A Child’s Garden of Verses

         AUSLAN

                Song - General music appreciation (Sing 2009) including composer study using Beethoven Lives Upstairs, Mozart’s Magic Fantasy, Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery

         Picture Study – Following Ambleside Online’s Schedule

         Memory Work – Various poems and interesting facts

         Weather observation

LITERATURE STUDY

         Aesop’s Fables

         The Just So Stories

         50 Famous Stories Retold

MATH

         Math on the Level

         Right Start games

LANGUAGE ARTS

         All About Spelling

         Journal (draw picture & write sentence)

         Writing with Ease – dictation, narration, copywork

         Read aloud and independent reading everyday

INTEGRATED GEOGRAPHY, SCIENCE, ART, TECHNOLOGY

         World Geography – Flora, Fauna & Biome study

         Resource books

         Children Just Like Me (already have)

Children Around the World Celebrate (already have)

Jacaranda Primary Atlas (already have)

DK Animals a Children’s Encyclopedia (already have)

Usborne Wild Places (Book Dep)

Geography A-Z (Book Dep)

Usborne science activities Vol 1 (Book Dep)

Maps & globes (Fishpond)

Material world – a global family portrait (Book Dep)

Around the World Colouring Book (Book Dep)

Global Art (Fishpond)

The Ultimate Flag Sticker Book (Book Dep)

HISTORY

         Story of the Ancient World

         Story of the Ancient World Activity Guide

LITERATURE FOR ENJOYMENT, BEDTIME READING MOSTLY

(Aim 1 book per month)

         Blue Fairy Book

         The House at Pooh Corner

         Blinky Bill

         Snugglepot & Cuddlepie

         The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

         Pinocchio

         Wind in the Willows

         Jungle Book

         James Herriot’s Treasury for Children

         Parables of Nature

         The Muddle Headed Wombat

         Family Under the Bridge

Logic

Wedgits

Puzzles

Games

Handicrafts

Physical Education - swimming & dance

Nature Study – study of specific flora and fauna found in our area & nature walks

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Today we got a backyard, lol!

Seriously we have had a yard since moving into this house last August but we have had no fencing so whenever the kids want to go out we have to go with them.  Today we got a side fence and wings at the side of the house so now we have a contained, child proof backyard.  The kids can now go out whenever they like.  So very exciting that they can have some freedom back.  I can't believe we have about 600 square m of backyard, WOW!

On another note, doesn't time fly!  I can't believe it has been over a week since I last blogged.  Not a lot has happened on the school front, we have been really busy with plenty of outings and such.  On the home front we have decided to put all the kids into one bedroom so we can use the other room as a school room come play room.  Today we put together the bunk bed for Ethany and Xavier and we are hoping over the next month to move Imogen into a bed also.  Xavier's old room will require some cleaning out as we still have boxes in there from the move but once that is done it will be a fab spot for school and play.  Good things on the horizon! 

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and the animals LOVE them!

These two bob tails followed Xavier and Imogen all around their enclosure trying to get through the glass to the kids.

We are really really enjoying A to Zoo run by Perth Zoo.  This term we have been studying African Animals.  Next term we will be studying Asian Animals.  It is our highlight of the week!

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Today was not a school day however, as we have been so busy this last week I decided to mix things up a little and worked out a few tasks for the kids to work on throughout the day.  They were montessori inspired.  The kids had a blast and were asking for more so tonight I will be looking for some new things to incorporate into school tomorrow.

One of Ethany's tasks was the dozen game pictured above.  I gave her the bottom of an egg carton with 12 spots, enough dried kidney beans for the correct number per spot and 12 cards numbered 1 - 12.  She worked on this task for quite some time.

Xavier worked on pouring twice during the day.  He just loved it declaring at the end of the day this had been his favorite task.  I provided him with a glass jug half filled with dried kidney beans and a tea cup.  Ethany really struggled with this one and didn't enjoy it.  I think she has trouble with depth perception.

We also worked with spindle cups.  I had some styrofoam cups that I numbered then provided the appropriate number of popsticks for the cups.  Xavier worked with 5 cups and Ethany with 10.  Xavier said this was the hardest task for him.  Whilst he can count he is lacking 1 to 1 correspondence so we are working on that.

Other activities included ordering straws and blocks smallest to tallest, playing with complements of 10 in a block puzzle, jigsaw puzzles and a patterning game.  Over the course of the day the kids would have worked at these tasks solidly for 2.5 hours without one single complaint!  It was a WOW day, a WOW moment! We will be incorporating more of these tasks into our day to day schooling from this moment on.  Originally I had wanted to send the kids to Montessori school, I am not sure what made me look away from this concept, maybe I thought Monti was not achievable to the same extent at home.  It certainly is, I think we have found our home. 

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We all had a long day today.  We visited our new eye Dr and she was lovely.  The appointment took just over 2 hours and unfortunately for Ethany the patching will continue and probably be stepped up in 2 months time.  The appointment was VERY thorough, more so than the other Dr we have been seeing.

This Dr has found that not only is she long sighted but she also has an astigmatism which will now be treated too.  We are back to the optical dispenser tomorrow to have the lenses in all her glasses changed over.  I wonder what difference she will notice?

Needless to say, no school work today.  I'm not bothering  with a weekly report this week.  We have had so much going on that school has really been on the back burner.

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Tomorrow we visit a new ophthalmologist for Ethany.  She would love to be told no more glasses ever, but we know that isn't a reality.  I just hope we can get a better insight into her condition.  She is hopeful that we will no longer have to patch everyday which she HATES!

I really have my fingers crossed that this Dr is a good communicator and is happy to answer all of my questions and gives answers that I can understand.  It is sad to say that the last one was not good at communicating. 

School wise we are having a light week.  Today Ethany completed some Explode the Code, a few reading lessons (I think we are up to L95), we learnt a new song "Make Your Own Kind of Music" from Sing 2009 which the kids all loved.  Imogen was dancing to the music, very cute!

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