Homeschooling monthly memories - April 2013

April was taken up with school holidays, so most of the regular activities were paused for a few weeks. I'm sure he did more than this during the month, but I wasn't recording, so I'm going off photos and my very poor memory :)

Cubs 'Curriculum':

The cubs had former Olympic road cyclist Scott Steward talk to them about bike and scooter safety.

Billy marched with his Cub pack in the ANZAC Day march. (For the non-Aussies, ANZAC Day is our to remember those who have fought and died at war.)

Intentional Learning:

Creative Arts

• Lots of movie making and editing
• Billy took part in a 2 day Glee-style Musical Theatre workshop during the school holidays.

HSIE

• Australian History

•  Billy created a video about ANZAC Day

• We finished reading "Pennies for Hitler" by Jackie French about a German boy who escapes from Germany to London and is then evacuated to Australia during WW2.
• Also read "Hitler's Daughter" by Jackie French exploring the idea of Hitler having a daughter.
• We went to Steamfest - a local festival celebrating everything steam - steam trains, steam engines etc. Billy also had a lovely chat with a coin collector about old Australia currency.

Maths

• He continued using the Mathletics curriculum.
• Graphing of data.
• Real-life use of Maths in cooking

Italian

• He had his last lessons of Italian for a while. Classes aren't running in Term 2 (as his teacher is off to Italy!) but we will try to keep up practice. 
  

Science & Technology

• Watched episodes of Scope
• Watched the documentary Stephen Fry's Top 100 Gadgets
• Set up a Minecraft Server hosting company and is running into real-life difficulties of getting clients to pay!

English

• Read "Staying Alive in Year 5" by John Marsden
• Reading Rangers Apprentice Book 2
• We went to an author's talk by John Marsden, author of the Tomorrow When the War Began series. We enjoyed the school talk so much, we went back that night for the adult talk.

Billy meeting John Marsden and getting books signed

PDHPE

Playing AFL games 

Went ten-pin bowling with friends

As well as plenty of time spent hanging out with friends and family. And lots of cooking with only minimal supervision.

Finger buns

An old classic - jam drops - using my grandmother's handwritten recipe!

Homeschooling monthly memories - Mar 2013

I'm not sure where March went. I know we were busy! (So busy in fact, I haven't updated the blog in that long - sorry!)

 

Cubs 'Curriculum':

• The cubs took part in 'Clean Up Australia' Day.
• He attended a weekend Cub Leadership course.
• Billy has been recently made a 'sixer', the leader of 5 or 6 other cubs. He and the other sixers in the group had to plan and run one of the nights, with each sixer getting to run 1 or 2 games each.
  

Intentional Learning:

Creative Arts

• Drama classes.
• More movie making, green screening. 
• Learning how to do image manipulation using Photoshop.
• Visit to an art show.

• Took lots of photos of the recent floods

HSIE

• Australian history
  
  • We read 'A Day to Remember' about ANZAC Day
  • We watched the Tony Robinson 'Time Walks' series where he digs into little known history of ten Australian cities.

• We're reading "Pennies for Hitler" by Jackie French about a German boy who escapes from Germany to London and is then evacuated to Australia during WW2.
• He watched lots of Brain Pop movies, BTN and BTN Specials.
• He investigated various Australian inventions.
• Lots of discussion about floods, coupled with real-life observations of the changes of water-level, speed of water, damage caused, smell afterwards etc.

Maths

• He started back on the Mathletics curriculum.
• Real-life fractions with halving recipes.

Science & Technology

• Watched episodes of Scope and Backyard Science
• We watched the International Space Station go over one night. (Gee it goes quickly!) You can see when it will be overhead using this site.
• He put together a Solar House kit.

Italian

• He's still doing Italian lessons, plus watching La Mappa Misteriosa.

English

• Reading Rangers Apprentice Book 2
• Scripted and recorded a podcast about homeschooling and sent it in to Behind The News.

PDHPE

• He's taken part in archery, martial arts and AFL training.
• Watched "My Great Big Adventure" on the ABC school shows about body image.
• Scootering and learning how to ride his skateboard.

As well as plenty of time spent hanging out with friends and family. And lots and lots of cooking with only minimal supervision.

red velvet pancakes

Turkish delight

very sad gingerbread man!

Homeschooling Monthly Memories - Feb 2013

Back into it for another year. He's pretty much doing the same activities as last year, so not a lot of change in our schedule.

Cubs 'Curriculum':

• At cubs, they've been busy doing lots of "cub-related" things - promise and law activities and cub traditions, as well as playing lots of games.
• They had to take their favourite book along to show the rest of the pack and talk about it. Billy chose one of the books from the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz.
  

Intentional Learning:

Creative Arts

• Drama classes. He's been hanging out for drama to go back for the year!
• Movie making, green screening and made a film dolly using his skateboard :)
• Visit to the art gallery and trying still life drawing.

HSIE

• Australian history
  
  • Billy listened to the audio book of "A Rose for the ANZAC Boys" by Jackie French.
  • We've been reading "Rotters & Squatters" by Jackie French

• He's been researching Maori tribes and legends for his International Culture badge at Cubs.
• We read the legend of Odysseus blinding the Cyclops.
• We're reading "Pennies for Hitler" by Jackie French
• He watched lots of Brain Pop movies - the focus this month has been on American Presidents. 
• He's watched BTN and BTN Specials

Maths

• We continued reading Awesome Arithmetricks and played many games of "Assassins" - a multiplication card game from the book, to practice times tables.

Science & Technology

• Made Gummy Bears to explore the science behind gelatin.
• We watched the Richard Hammond Engineering Connections Series 2 videos 
• More Java mod programming for Minecraft
• Watched episodes of Scope
• Watched Science videos on the One Minute Physics YouTube channel 

Italian

• He's started back at Italian lessons, plus has been watching La Mappa Misteriosa.

English

• He wrote a letter to a penpal in American for cubs.
• Has been reading "How the Aliens from Alpha Centauri Invaded My Math Class and Turned Me Into a Writer: And How You Can Be One Too" by Jackie French
• Reading various Alex Rider books
• Learnt more about similes, metaphors and themes

PDHPE

• He's taken part in archery and martial arts.
• AFL training has started back.
• Watched "My Great Big Adventure" on the ABC school shows
• Participated in various events at the Homeschool area swimming carnival.

As well as plenty of time spent hanging out with friends and family, cooking etc. He's really getting into cooking lately and his skills are improving tremendously. He's making a lot of things without help or with only minimal supervision.

Science - making gummy bears

We're back into the fun of learning with an edible science experiment.

Firstly, we followed the instructions on one of Billy's favourite YouTube channels to create "gummy bears" using a packet of jelly, gelatine and water, and pouring them into chocolate molds.

  

This created lollies with a gummy bear texture - we even made some sour gummys by coating them with powdered sugar and citric acid.

To see the science behind gelatin, we watched this (quite annoying but simple) video.


"Gelatin & Senses" from Marijane Miller on Vimeo.

Enjoy!

Kez's Achievements in 2012

What about me? How did I go in 2012?

Quite well, thanks for asking!

I continued with my Defendo training, graded up to orange belt and attended a weapon's defence course and a Jujitsu seminar. I lost about 7kg over the year and am down to my ideal weight. I still need to tone more but baby steps.

I FINISHED WRITING MY BOOK! I think that was my biggest achievement for the year! I kept meeting with my wonderful writer's group who keep me going.

I also did several online writing courses, and attended the RWA conference at the Gold Coast where I learnt heaps and had a great time. I served on the RWA Committee.

I started Italian lessons and will continue those this year.

So yeah, it's been a pretty good year :)

2012 homeschooling highlights in pictures

I usually do this in December, but one thing led to another and - hey, how did it get to be the end of January?

So now my thoughts are turning to the new school year. I seem to have been answering a lot of queries from people lately interested in homeschooling for the new year. One of these days, our freedom may even become 'normal'. (Nope, can't see that happening!)

Now a look back at some of the highlights of 2012.

January

• Trip to Timbertown to learn about Australian history (HSIE)
• Lots of water activities - fishing, swimming, skiing (PDHPE)

February

 

• The first of many Nerf wars with other homeschoolers (PDHPE)
• Art exhibitions (Creative Arts)
• A homeschool excursion to an historic homestead  (HSIE)
• Homeschool swimming carnival  (PDHPE)
• Plus activities started back - cubs, drama, archery and martial arts

March

 

• AFL Footy training started back (PDHPE)
• Circus workshop with homeschoolers (PDHPE)
• Clean Up Australia Day with Cubs (HSIE)
• Science kits (Science & Technology)
• Trip to the Powerhouse Museum (Science & Technology)
• Billy-carting with the Cubs (PDHPE)

April

• ANZAC Day March (HSIE)
• Attended a performance of Bell Shakespeare's Macbeth (English, Creative Arts)
• Started a new circus class (PDHPE)
• Read George and the Big Bang (Science & Technology)
• Scale models in Minecraft (Maths)
• Games with flags and countries (HSIE)

May

• Field archery (PDHPE)
• Learning about water quality at homeschool Waterwatch day (Science & Technology)
• Braille, morse code and semaphore at cub camp (Science & Technology)
• Learning about Ancient Rome (HSIE)
• Aboriginal folk stories (HSIE)
• Using Murderous Maths Awesome Arithmetricks as a Maths spine (Maths)

June

• Stage Combat workshop (Creative Arts)
• Went to Sydney Observatory to watch the transit of Venus (Science & Technology)
• Trip to rockpools and photography (Science & Technology, Creative Arts)
• Science experiments at Cubs (Science & Technology)
• Map and compass work (Maths)
• Attended a performance of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe (Creative Arts, English)
• Went to a photography exhibition (Creative Arts)
• Did a Rocks historical walking tour to learn more about Australian history (HSIE)
• Read Tom Appleby, Convict Boy (HSIE)

July

• Dolphin watching and photography (Creative Arts, HSIE, Science & Technology)
• Martial arts camp (PDHPE)
• Games of Scrabble (English)
• Maths games (Maths)
• Trip to historical Maitland Gaol (HSIE)
• Watched a performance of Blabbermouth (Creative Arts, English)
• Made a thaumotrope (Science & Technology)
• Created posters and sold popcorn and fairy floss at a stall (Maths, English)

August

• Visit to Seaworld and Currumbin Wildlife sanctuary (HSIE, Science & Technology)
• High Ropes course (PDHPE)
• Walkley photography exhibition and Archibald Prize exhibition (Creative Arts)
• Hands-on Science section at Newcastle Museum (Science & Technology)

September

• Region cuboree with medieval theme (HSIE)
• Cooking (Maths, English)
• Discovered the DragonBox maths app to teach algebra (Maths)
• Robert Krampf Science videos (Science & Technology)

October

• Italian class (LOTE)
• Circuit boards (Science & Technology) 
• Homeschool excursion to local Morpeth Museum (HSIE)
• Murrurrundi Frontier Day trip (HSIE)
• Peter Pan rehearsals and performance (Creative Arts)
• Baby chickens at cubs (Science & Technology)
•  

November

• Peter Pan performances (Creative Arts)
• Bee-keeping display at cubs (Science & Technology, HSIE)
• Cooking (Maths)
• Reading Daughter of the Regiment (HSIE)

And that was just the start :) We had a focus on Australian history, plus Peter Pan rehearsals and performance were a big part of the year. Throughout the year, he took part in weekly classes - cubs, martial arts, drama and archery.

Looking forward to 2013 - I wonder what it will bring?

Welcome to 2013

*testing* *testing*

Is anyone still out there?

Sorry for disappearing - I didn't realise it had been a month since I posted. Ooops. Blame Facebook - I post photos on there and forget to put them on my blog.

So what's been happening? Did you all have a good Xmas and New Year?

We had a great couple of weeks up at Stuarts Pt - lovely weather so lots of the following:

Eagle-eyed friends may actually realise that yes, that is me on the ski biscuit! My words for the year are leap / risk / take a chance. It was meant to relate to my writing, but I've decided to relate it to the rest of my life as well!

Speaking of writing - while up at Stuarts Pt, I finished editing my novel so that it actually hung together properly, with decent pacing, emotion etc. And just in time, as last Sunday I got an email telling me that I had made it through to the 2nd round of the Emerald writing competition! Much squeeing and OMG!ing ensued! What that meant was that I had 5 days to send off the full manuscript for the next round of judging - 3 copies printed and posted. The top 3 will go in front of an editor from St Martins Press, so its a pretty big deal to get through.

I spent 3 intense days polishing and repolishing my manuscript until I was sick of the sight of it. When I couldn't bear to look at it a moment longer, I figured it was time to send it in. So it's gone, and I need to put it out of my mind for a few months. In the meantime, I've asked a writer friend who I trust to give me an honest opinion, to have a look at it and tell me if it's ready for submission. And now onto book 2.

We really haven't been anywhere much or done anything much since we got back. My thoughts are now turning to the new school year and getting back into routine.

Merry Xmas to all..

Christmas Eve in Australia...  It's 38 degrees C (ie HOT!), I'm sitting here in tank top and shorts sweltering...

We had "christmas lunch" with Pete's side of the family yesterday - the kids spent most of the day in the pool.

We'll open family presents tonight, Billy and I will watch some of the broadcast Carols by Candlelight while making Christmas crackers to go on the table at my Mum & Dad's tomorrow.  I have some Xmas sweets to make but I'll wait until it's cooler. 

Then we'll read Twas the Night before Christmas and attempt to get Billy to sleep sometime this side of midnight, before the big man arrives. 

To all my friends who take the time to read my blog - especially those who comment - Merry Xmas to all... and to all a Good Night!