Homeschooling Jan - June 2014

OK so my monthly updates have slid out to term updates, now to a 6 month update! We're just too busy living life to blog it!

Creative Arts

This continues to be Billy's focus. He has weekly music (singing & trumpet lessons), is heavily involved in drama and has this year started with a Scout media unit (JNN) to learn and take part in producing, filming, audio, and editing short video segments.

• Music
• Weekly singing and trumpet class
• Drama
•  As well as weekly drama class, he was backstage crew for Upstage Youth Theatre's Romeo & Juliet production - including taking part in all day bump in (technical set up of lights etc).
• He took part in audition workshop
• Went to the Gloucester Shakespeare Festival and watched "Much Ado about Nothing"
• Participated in a Bell Shakespeare drama workshop
• Is involved with weekly JNN TV Media unit training - filming, editing, audio etc
• Art
• Regular visits to Maitland Art Gallery

 

Bell Shakespeare Drama workshop

 

JNN Media Crew - editing room

Cast & crew of Romeo & Juliet

HSIE

    Australian History

• Historical walking tour of Maitland
• SteamFest
• Tunnel tour of Fort Scratchley

Historical walking tour of Maitland

Fort Scratchley Tunnel Tour

 Other cultures

• Chinese night at Scouts - ate food, made kite, discussed Chinese culture

Maths

• Billy is working through the Maths OnlineYr 6 curriculum
• Some exercises from Targeting Maths Year 6
• Everyday maths - cooking, measuring, budgeting etc

Science & Technology

• Billy watches lots of science videos including the VSauce and Veritasium channel.
• Heavily involved in creating videos including use of programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Photoshop, Avid

English

• Read "Refuge" by Jackie French, "The Road to Gundagai" by Jackie French, "So Much to Tell You" by John Marsden as well as listened to numerous audiobooks.
• Writing short films, plays and stories.

PDHPE

• Participated in the Homeschool Swimming carnival
• Participated in weekly Archery in Term 1
• Did an overnight hike in Brisbane Water National Park
• Took part in Menu planning for hike - discussion on nutrition, hygiene
• Basic First Aid training (emergency DRABC, snake / spider bite treatment, recovery position)
• Bowling

 

 

LOTE

• Italian classes (Term 1)
• Duolingo Italian app

Scouts 'Curriculum':

• Citizenship badge

• Knots, bushcraft construction

Making a Rope bridge

• Community service 

• helped out with crowd control at SteamFest 
• Colour Party (flags) at Region AGM
• Working bee at hall
• Masters BBQ fundraiser
• Clean Up Australia day

Clean up Australia day

As well as plenty of time spent hanging out with friends and family.

Homeschooling Monthly Memories - Aug - Oct 2013

Between our trip away and what not, I have been really slack in updating our homeschool learning on the blog. It's been on my to-do list for quite some time!

Scouts 'Curriculum':

Demonstration of smoke filling a house - very graphic.

• Scouts has involved campcraft skills, ropes/knots etc.
• Fire safety night - talk by the Rural Fire Service, and camp cooking.
• Navigation via GPS - they were blindfolded, driven to a location and then in a group had to find their way back to the hall.

Intentional Learning:

Creative Arts

• YouTube videos - editing with Adobe Premiere Pro and Sony Vegas.
• Drama classes
• Classes - this term he has been invited up to the Yr 7 & 8 drama class (he's officially only in Yr 5!)
• They are currently studying Romeo and Juliet in his class.
• Crew for 'Charlotte's Web' - he had many roles including lighting, stage door, runner. 
• Saw 'Rosenkrantz and Guildernstern Are Dead' at the Sydney Theatre Company. 
• Singing lessons & trumpet - he took part in the mid-Year concert his music school puts on (in the music teacher's backyard!).

HSIE

• Australian History

 


• Finished reading "A Waltz for Matilda" by Jackie French
• Went to a talk about researching Irish convicts and another about growing up in the area in the 1950s.
• Began receiving the Inside History magazine.
• Read "The Horse who bit a Bushranger" by Jackie French.
• Trip to WA - visit to New Norcia, the Rabbit Proof fence, Albany Whaling station, Rottnest Island, Fremantle Prison & Roundhouse
  
  
•  Medieval history day with other homeschoolers

• Attended the Maitland Riverlights multicultural festival.
• Made a chinese lantern to float down the river
• Watched national dances and displays such as Indian, Chinese, Aboriginal and Brazilian.

Maths

• He continued using the Mathletics curriculum.
• Learnt about prime numbers.
• Real-life use of Maths in cooking, measuring - he made a b'day cake for me from scratch - chose the recipe, shopped for the ingredients, cooked and decorated from scratch (no packet stuff!) with no assistance.
• Longitude and latitude practice - reading and following the GPS.
• Codes

The b'day cake he made for me with no assistance!

Science & Technology

• Java coding
• Improving Photoshop skills
• Visit to natural formations such as caves, rock arches, rare forests, Pinnacles, Wave Rock
• Dolphin watching, dolphin discovery centre / aquarium,

English

• Read "Tales of Shakespeare - Romeo and Juliet"
• Writing stories

PDHPE

• AFL / AFL training (now finished for the year)
• Archery
• Yoga
• Watching "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution" series.
• Swimming

As well as plenty of time spent hanging out with friends and family.

Homeschooling monthly memories - July 2013

This feels like the geocaching edition of our homeschool post :) It's formed a big part of our life in June and has resulted in lots of cool learning.

Scouts 'Curriculum':

• Scouts has involved campcraft skills, ropes/knots etc.

Intentional Learning:

Creative Arts

• Finished editing the Zombie movie and made a DVD cover for it.
• Drama classes.
• Singing lessons & started learning trumpet as well. (Oh my aching ears!)

HSIE

• Australian History

• We're reading "A Waltz for Matilda" by Jackie French 
• Our geocaching has taken us to a lot of historical places around the area including:

This 'tempietto' is a water-fountain built as a monument to West Maitland's first mayor, Richard Alexander Young

A monument to the dairy farmers of the area.

Christ Church Cathedral, Newcastle, and gravestones dating back to the early European settlers in the area.

The graveyard at Cathedral Park is one of the earliest burial grounds in Australia and was featured on Tony Robinson's Time Walks around Newcastle.

Rose Cottage, Newcastle's oldest surviving building.

A lane-way in Maitland, decorated with a mural of the history of the area - but also the site of a public hanging - yep, our history is covering everything!

A local barn decorated with an historical advertisement for the wonder-cure of the time.

Maths

• He continued using the Mathletics curriculum.
• Real-life use of Maths in cooking, measuring
• Coding puzzles 
• Longitude and latitude practice - reading and following the GPS
  

Science & Technology

• Java coding
• Photoshop
• Researched different operating systems and set up Ubuntu Linux to trial

English

• Watched the "Animated Tales of Shakespeare - A Midsummer Night's Dream"
• Learning about definite / indefinite articles

PDHPE

• AFL / AFL training
• Archery

Italian

• Back to Italian class

As well as plenty of time spent hanging out with friends and family.

Homeschooling Monthly Memories - June 2013

Cubs / Scouts 'Curriculum':

Test-driving the hoses at the Rural Fire Service

On the fire trucks

• Billy has been transitioning to Scouts this last month so he's been attending both Cub and Scout meetings. He's now officially finished as a Cub.
• He successfully led his Grey Wolf hike
• He completed his International Culture badge looking at the Maori culture. 
• Other activities have included: a trip to a Rural Fire Station, map & compass work, geocaching, knots, learning about latitudes, longitudes and the circumference of the earth. Also took part in phone book deliveries with Scouts for fundraising.

 

Intentional Learning:

Creative Arts

• Part 2 of the Zombie movie. He's busy editing it now.
• The usual drama classes. Plus Drama class presentation to family & friends.
• Singing lessons

HSIE

• Australian History

• We finished reading "The Girl from Snowy River" by Jackie French set in the 1920s.
• We're now reading "A Waltz for Matilda" by Jackie French (the previous book in the series)
• As part of his Cubs International Culture badge, he did a Maori drawing using ochre, and made a replica bird spear and model of club.
• Avidly followed the leadership spill in politics.

Maths

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

Science & Technology

• Created animations using Mine-imator (3d animation software for Minecraft)
• Learnt how to create animated gifs using Photoshop
• Learnt various Photoshop techniques
• Looked at the Supermoon and learnt more about it.

English

• Finished his story and submitted it for the Write Now competition
• Reading "Macbeth and son" by Jackie French, based around the possible history of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

 PDHPE

• AFL / AFL training
• Archery
• Mt Sugarloaf hike

As well as plenty of time spent hanging out with friends and family.

Homeschooling Monthly Memories - May 2013

Next month I hope to have more photos - my new camera should arrive this week which hopefully won't take blurry photos!

Cubs 'Curriculum':

• Billy went on a Cub camp with a 'Mad Scientist' theme. They had different bases learning about things such as the human body, chemical reactions, safety gear etc. Oh and playing with goop!

Intentional Learning:

Creative Arts

• Lots of movie making and editing - he and a couple of drama friends are making a zombie movie together. They spent 4 hours filming one afternoon - and that's just Part 1!
• The usual drama classes. They're working towards a small performance for families and friends in a couple of weeks time.
• Billy has taken up singing lessons by request and has been enjoying those.

HSIE

• Australian History

• We're reading "The Girl from Snowy River" by Jackie French set in the 1920s.
• Looked at a display of Aborginal artifiacts at East Maitland library
  
• As part of his Cubs International Culture badge, he's learning about Maori legends, tribes, place names, culture, weapons etc.

Maths

• He continued using the Mathletics curriculum.
• Real-life use of Maths in cooking
• He's been busy with logic puzzles 
• Watched a video about Chaos theory

Science & Technology

• Watched episodes of Scope
• Set up a Minecraft Server hosting website and billing system
• Mad Scientist theme Cub Camp - including growing a Hairy Head
• Watched the Solar eclipse (safely through the glasses we got from the Transit of Venus viewing)
• Had a go at a 3D game maker called Unity 3D

English

• He participated in a 2 day writing workshop run through Maitland Library - he's writing a story for the Write Now competition
• Did the Skwirk section on literary description text type
• We read the poem, The Man from Snowy River

PDHPE

• AFL / AFL training
• Archery
• Mt Sugarloaf practice hike

As well as plenty of time spent hanging out with friends and family.