Homeschooling Monthly Memories - July 2012

Where is the year going?  July was half school holidays - which were very busy - and now we're struggling to get back into the flow.

Cubs 'Curriculum':

Made a thaumatrope

• They also did campfire songs and had to perform group skits one night.

Intentional Learning:

Creative Arts

• Rehearsals started for Peter Pan (Billy is playing Curly, a Lost Boy).  Rehearsals are the highlight of his week!
• Billy made up a parody song and music video.
• We went to see a local youth production of Blabbermouth (based on the book by Morris Gleitzman).  It was wonderfully done!
  
  

 

HSIE

• Australian history

• We met up with friends and toured historic Maitland Gaol
• We continued our reading of Thomas Appleby - Convict Boy by Jackie French
  
  

• We saw dolphins in the wild on a trip to Tea Gardens 

•  We watched a documentary on the history of London and the Olympic Games, done by the wonderful Tony Robinson - London Games Unearthed
  

Maths

• We're working through the Murderous Maths book 'Awesome Arithmetricks' as our maths 'spine'
• Topics covered included simplifying equations and adding positive & negative numbers
• We played a cool board / card game from the book reinforcing adding positive and negative numbers together.

•  Billy set up a stall to sell fairy floss & popcorn - he had to set prices, gather the float, take the money, give change etc.  It wasn't a busy stall given we live in a fairly quiet street but he enjoyed it.

Science

• We went back to the rockpools we'd found last month, but the tide was in and the surf was up.  So we did some beach scavenging for shells and sea sponges, rock identification etc (and watched the surfers)

English

• Games of scrabble (even the cat joined in!)

• Creating flyers and signage for his fairy floss stall.
• Reading a new (to him) series Extreme Adventures: Scorpion Sting by Justin D'Ath

PDHPE

• Billy took part in a week long martial arts 'camp' - 2 hours of various martial arts each morning.  His highlight was the board breaking.  They totalled 1000 push ups and 1000 sit ups by the end of the camp!
  
  

As well as the usual:

• martial arts, circus, archery and AFL
• time spent hanging out with friends and family