Our week of learning - 21st Feb - Non-stop!

This was Pete's first week working from home, so its been a very odd week as we all tried to get into a new routine. I think it will still take a while. Looking back on the week, it's been a very busy one!

Current Readaloud: Five on a Treasure Island

Audio books: The Waterhorse by Dick King-Smith; Just Macbeth by Andy Griffiths

Independent Reading: The Magic Finger by Roald Dahl; Bernice Knows Best by Max Dann

English: Discussions (ad nauseum lol) about the differences between the book of The Water Horse and the movie.

Maths: He spent about 45 mins on Mathletics and was introduced to the concept of mixed fractions. Discussions about 2d and 3d shapes at the FBI (Fun Brain Institute) run by another homeschool mum, and attempts at making some with pipe-cleaners and straws.

Science & Technology: To celebrate Galileo's b'day we made a telescope from a kit we'd bought recently. Unfortunately one of the lenses was smeared by the sticky tape holding it in the packet and when I tried to clean it, it made it even worse, so you couldn't actually see much out of the telescope. It was enough to give him the idea though.


And that inspired some experimentation with lenses and pulling the real telescope out of the cupboard to spy on the neighbourhood trees :)



At the FBI day, they had to work in teams to make the strongest bridge possible out of 2 straws, 2 styrofoam cups and a piece of paper. Billy's team's bridge got up to 80-odd coins and would've taken more except some were knocked off.


He did some more work on his website adding a member's sign-up section. I helped him with creating the database and the code behind the scenes.

He's also discovered Windows Messenger - I signed him up to chat with Pete & I and he's investigated every single option it has! Including webcam messages. I didn't even know his machine had a built-in webcam :)

Oh and he spent some time on a Building Blaster physics game suggested by Alicia.

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): He watched 2 Horrible Histories episodes - Terrible Tudors and Amazing Aussies.

We made pancakes for Pancake Tuesday and discussed the day's history.

Creative & Practical Arts: Drama class plus he made a 'secret agent' movie with the video camera.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Little Dragons martial arts class, exercising each morning with Pete, and a full on day at the Scout Fun Day - rock climbing, flying fox, rope bridge, laser tag.





Life skills (cooking, gardening, housekeeping): After watching a show on a designing ice-cream flavours, he went out to the kitchen and whipped up a batch of choc-mint ice-cream. (Vanilla ice-cream with choc-mint chocolates crushed up in it!) He helped make Pancakes for Pancake Tuesday and anzac biscuits just because we felt like it.

School shows: Music Moves, For the Juniors (Birthdays), Designers, BTN, Our Earth (about the age of the earth), Three Kinds of Writing, Take on Technology, BTN Specials.

Other fun stuff: Its been a week obsessed with 'Escape from Scorpion Island' (a kid's reality TV challenge show) - it was the final week of the series. He's watched it (over and over again) and played the challenges on the website. Also a bit of Xbox and PS2.