Our week of learning - 23rd August - Birthday party edition!

We focused mainly on life skills this week - ie cleaning, weeding, shopping etc - ready for his party tomorrow (Sunday). We had smatterings of "school learning" in there as well though :)

Current Readaloud: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (adaptation)

English: Lots of reading. At our homeschool meeting, we had a "Collectors Day" - he took along his collection of AFL bits & pieces (posters, footy cards, hats etc), and gave a short presentation about what he collected.



Maths: He picked a 5th grade CD game out of the library called "ClueFinders". Some of the puzzles on there involved maths & logic, and he was giving them a good go - even if he did have to use a calculator for most of the maths..

Science & Technology: Another puzzle on the ClueFinders CD involved manipulating wires and batteries to form circuits. I don't think he's ever done anything like that before but soon figured out how to make it work.

Working in the garden also led to discussions on how rivers are made, and how seeds move from place to place by birds, wind etc.

We also had a discussion on where babies come out, due to a friend's Mum being overdue having her baby. *blush* - I think I handled it matter of factly! He was a c-section, so he's always known that the doctors cut me open to get him out, but I figured when the opportunity came up that I'd better tell him how the rest of the world's babies appear! Let's just hope he doesn't think to ask how it gets there in the first place - I'm not ready for that one yet :)

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): With his Joey's unit, he went on a nature walk on Thursday night. They did a nature scavenger hunt - eg looking for the biggest leaf, a part of the food chain, something with chlorophyll in it; and a worksheet on what habitats they could see in the immediate area eg rocks, logs, grasses etc.

Creative & Practical Arts: Back to drama this week.

He's also been spending time on a "Toon Creator" site where you can use predefined "Ben 10: Alien Force" backgrounds and characters to make cartoons. He's been doing it for a couple of months, and this week I noticed how detailed his cartoons are getting. I think originally he'd have 5 or 6 fairly basic scenes, now he's making them with 40+ detailed scenes. I was also quite amazed to see his use of perspective - making the character smaller over each scene as they "walked" away. All that time watching cartoons is good for something :)

LOTE (Languages other than English): Nothing.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Circus class - his skills are really showing improvement at circus. He's slowly getting better at both the devil sticks and the diabolo, and this week was able to do the group skipping - running in to the turning skipping rope, having 3 jumps and running back out again. When he started last term he couldn't run in *or* jump the rope!

Life skills (cooking, gardening, housekeeping): Gardening, cleaning, grocery shopping - he's been slave labour this week :) (Well, a very spoilt slave anyway!)

He made chicken schnitzel for tea one night - he pounded the chicken to flatten it, and did the coating. I cooked it up though. That's the first time I've let him touch raw chicken - I've always been pretty paranoid about it, but I made sure he washed his hands properly afterwards - no ill effects yet! It tasted pretty darn good too!

Wednesday Weigh-In - Wk 20 (a bit late!)

Weight loss from last week: gained 0.5kg :(
Total weight loss overall: 4.0 kg
Total cms lost off waist: 9 cm

No Hollywood ending for me - I didn't magically get down to the 5kg goal days before Billy's party :( In fact I put on weight because there is junk food in the house and my exercising has been slack as well..

But I did go and buy myself a new pair of jeans anyway - because losing 4kg is a damn good effort and I deserve to look good in a new pair of jeans!! (Considering my other ones were over 2 years old and came from the op shop originally!)

I won't be trying to lose weight for the next couple of weeks - we have Billy's party on Sunday and I'm sure we'll be eating leftovers for the week after that! I'll be happy to not put on too much..

Some (maybe not-so) quick updates..

A few updates:

Re the tree - it appears the general consensus, both here and at a tree forum I posted on, is that it's an oleandar. Oleandar's are poisonous to kids & animals, so I'm not keen on keeping it around. Hubby can pull it up and throw it away.

*****

Re my commitments - I decided not to go ahead with teaching for next term. I'll see how I'm feeling later in next term, but I probably won't even decide to put in a course for Term 1 next year either. I have enough else in my life that I want to be doing. I have 2 more nights to teach this term and then that's it.

In the meantime, I taught a full-day course at a different community college (prior commitment), and when they asked me if I'd go back, I declined for next term but left it open for the possibility for a couple of one-day courses next year if they don't find someone in the meantime.

I've also tentatively made a decision about not continuing with something else that I do, but I will see out the year. I'm being deliberately vague on that one until I let people know that need to know :)

****

Re my education - I haven't updated for a couple of weeks, but I am still firmly committed to this goal. The trouble is, I have so many books on the go that I haven't finished any of them lately!!

As well as reading, I've also been watching a free lecture series from Yale University on Introduction to Greek History. I'm halfway through the 2nd lecture and really enjoying it (although the intro was a bit long-winded at times).

I've decided for now that I'm going to focus my attentions in 2 areas - I'm going to give myself a "virtual" Bachelor of Arts Degree, majoring in Ancient History and English, from the "prestigious" University of Kez :)

For Ancient History, my first "subjects" are:

* Overview of World History

I'm currently reading a wonderful book called A Little History of the World - it's meant as a kid's book and tells world history as a fascinating story. I am almost ashamed at some of the historical connections I had never made before.

We're also still watching The Teaching Company's Big History course.

Also on my list is Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. This is more science-based I think, but I'll give it a try anyway.

* Ancient Greece

I'm watching the Introduction to Greek History lectures, and reading the associated textbook. I also have some Greek historical books and myths here that I'll attempt as well.

For English, I'm doing a "literature study of classics" - ie reading books that I regard as classics, and then following up by reading a biography or autobiography of the author.

****

So that should be enough to keep me busy, you'd think!

Is this a tree or a weed? Any thoughts?

We've had this tree / weed spring up in the path in our backyard - its now about 3 or 4 foot high with a thin trunk. The leaves are long and thin - most are light green, some are red or mottled red. The leaves have a rather unpleasant smell to me, but I can't put my finger on what the smell is. Does anyone have any idea what it is? Do we throw it out or transplant it?

Our week of learning - 16th August - Ahoy there, me hearties!

Our week was much slower this time - Billy came down with a fairly heavy cold on Monday afternoon, so between him feeling lousy and neither of us sleeping properly with him coughing at night, we didn't have the energy to do much!

What we did do, however, mainly had a pirate theme..

Current Readaloud: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (adaptation)

English: Lots of reading plus time on Spellodrome.

Maths: He spent a fair bit of time playing Timez Attack with his 2 times tables.

We also played card games like Addition Wars for maths addition practice, and did word puzzles from a book called "You can, Toucan, Maths".

Science & Technology: He went through most of the section on 'Materials' on the BBC schools Science website. This was teaching properties of materials like changing state, heat transfer etc.

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): We finally uncovered the fruit slices we were mummifying on the kitchen bench :) There was quite a dramatic difference between the mummified one(on the right) and the control slice (left) that went mouldy! (The white is the bicarb / salt mixture we used in the mummification process).


With Billy's help, I finally got around to putting the Egyptian figures on our historical timeline stretching along the hallway. That led to some interesting discussions once we could see how similar the time period was between the Sumerians making their ziggurats and the Egyptians building their pyramids.

Creative & Practical Arts: He missed drama due to being unwell.

We both had fun finishing off our treasure maps. Several weeks ago we'd started the process by 'ageing' some paper - I aged mine with tea, Billy did his with stock cubes. This week I broke out the ink, and we created our treasure maps. Fun :)


We made a pirate costume that he wore to a pirate night at Joeys. They played piratey type games, sang piratey songs, and had a treasure hunt.



LOTE (Languages other than English): Nothing.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): The last Auskick training for the season.

Life skills (cooking, gardening, housekeeping): Some cooking, including making up his own biscuit recipe - it didn't quite work out, but he learnt a few things for next time! He's getting more confident at sliding things into and out of the oven by himself too.

He's been very helpful over the weekend in cleaning the deck, his cubby etc ready for his party next weekend.

Wednesday Weigh-In - Wk 19

Weight loss from last week: 0.5kg
Total weight loss overall: 4.5 kg
Total cms lost off waist: 9 cm

I pulled out a pair of work trousers to wear on Saturday - they were from the job I had before I was pregnant with Billy, so almost 8 years ago. They fitted quite comfortably!!! So I'm now back to a pre-baby weight again - woohoo!

1/2 kg to go until my next goal weight!!!

Sisterhood Award

I was quite humbled to receive a blogging award last week from Belinda at Belinda's Place. Thanks Belinda - it means a lot!

So now for the hard part - to pass it on! (I hate leaving people out!)

The rules:
1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate up to 10 blogs which show great attitude and/or gratitude!
3. Be sure to link your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Remember to link the person from whom you received your award.

Here are a selection of my fellow "sister bloggers" who I feel show great attitude.

Suji at Funschooling.net - Suji is a fellow homeschooling Mum whose blog name says it all - Fun Schooling. She's always striving to give her son the best learning experience they can have.

Libby at Life is a Journey, Not a Destination - Libby has a great attitude! Over the last few years she has lost a substantial amount of weight and kept it off, and goes on the most amazing holidays with her family. Her exercising constantly puts me to shame!

Julie at Towards Sustainability - Julie is passionate about her garden and living sustainably. She seems to show no fear in jumping in to learn new skills - from embroidery, to jam making, to soap making! She is a great source of inspiration.

The following 3 ladies have really had a great influence on how I homeschool. They all have the best attitudes to life & learning!

Tiffany at Child's Play - Tiff does the most fun Maths lessons with her kids - seriously! I'm always inspired when I read her blog. She also takes amazing photos!

Alicia at Magic & Mayhem - Alicia and her family do the most fun things - her kids seem delightful and I wish we at least lived in the same country as them!

Stephani at Blue Yonder - As well as being an awesome artist, Stephani makes me laugh with her posts about her boys and their fun, adventurous life!

Our week of learning - 9th August - Shakespeare's Twelfth Night

English: Lots of reading plus an hour on Spellodrome. He finished all the books he needed to read for this year's Premier's Reading Challenge.

We watched the BBC Shakespeare's Animated Tales of Twelfth Night, and today we went to see it produced by a local Youth Theatre Company. It was Billy's first Shakespeare play and he was very excited! He must regard it as a "grown-up" thing to do as Pete & I go down to Sydney a few times each year to watch Bell Shakespeare productions, and he gets left behind (with family)! So he was so chuffed to find out he was going this time!

It was a really good job for an amateur production - some very strong performers in it.

We also started reading Twelfth Night in the Leon Garfield's Shakespeare Stories, but haven't finished yet.

Maths: An hour or so spent on the Mathletics site and quite a bit of time spent on the Cyberchase website.

His work on Cyberchase included using Venn diagrams and he did fraction work while cooking. We also played Battleships to reinforce grids and co-ordinates.

Science & Technology: We did a cool experiment involving a lighted candle in a jar, baking powder and vinegar. When you pour a bit of vinegar in to mix with the baking powder at the bottom of the jar, it forms carbon dioxide which rises and snuffs the candle out.

This is a very shaky video of it - my videographer kept getting carried away and forgetting to keep the camera steady!

(video removed)

I showed him how to create a spreadsheet for his pocket money in Excel, so he updated that after he banked some money.

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): Nothing formal.

Creative & Practical Arts: Drama lessons started back. He seemed quite happy once he came out, so we will see how the term progresses.

We had a folk dancing workshop at the homeschool meeting, so he got to participate in some dances from other countries.

He & Pete attended an exhibition of Dr Seuss illustrations on Saturday which they both liked by all reports.

LOTE (Languages other than English): He watched a school show on living in Germany which was in mainly German dialogue. Good practice for my rusty high school German!

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Auskick training, circus class & a trip to the park.




Life skills (cooking, gardening, housekeeping): He deposited his pocket money into his bank account without help - he went up to the counter by himself while I stayed back and watched in case he needed help. The look of pride on his face afterwards was so cool to see!

He also cooked some Anzac biscuits with minimal help.

Wednesday Weigh-In - Wk 18

Weight loss from last week: 0.25kg
Total weight loss overall: 4 kg
Total cms lost off waist: 9 cm

I had some poor food choices this week, but did get back into the exercise with a couple of short walks. So I did lose some, but not as much as I was hoping for.

1kg to go until my next goal weight!!

Book #2 - Animal Farm by George Orwell

"All animals are equal but some are more equal than others."

I cannot believe I have never read this, but then I probably wasn't cynical enough to really appreciate it when I was younger :)

It's a very thinly veiled story of human nature in general & communism in particular - the animals of Manor Farm are sick of working like slaves for the humans and stage a rebellion. They take over the farm (now renamed Animal Farm) and set to work for themselves. They make 7 commandents, one of which is "All animals are equal". All is good and happy. They have plenty of food, and freedom.

Gradually though, the pigs start taking over as the ruling class. The animals start working for the pigs, but they are convinced that they are still better off - after all, they aren't working for the humans anymore. The farm turns into a dictatorship under the leadership of Napolean, the head pig, who rewrites history, spreads propaganda and changes the commandments..

"All animals are equal but some are more equal than others."

I absolutely loved this book! I spent the whole time chuckling wryly at what was happening and thinking "so true!". The copy I'd borrowed from the library was illustrated by Quentin Blake, one of my favourite illustrators, so it was even better!

Definitely a classic!

Our week of learning - 2nd August - Space & Egypt

English: Lots of reading plus an hour on Spellodrome. He was also introduced to similes & metaphors, and homophones.

He wrote a very short story (or more like a script) about being kidnapped and a friend finding him.

Maths: An hour or so spent on the Mathletics site. We also discovered a kid's maths cartoon from the US called Cyberchase - I'd heard of it on one of the Yahoo groups I'm on and bemoaned the fact we didn't get it down here. I mentioned it to a friend who suggested looking on YouTube - why didn't I think of that??! There look to be hundreds of episodes on there! We've watched two so far - one on maps, grids, scale & co-ordinates and the other on measuring.

He also spent hours on the Cyberchase website playing with the maths games.

Science & Technology:

We're still reading "George's Secret Key to the Universe" (it's due back this week so we have to finish in the next few days!). Still on the space theme, we watched the slideshow on this website of the "Power of 10" - it's a series of pictures that "zoom in" by powers of 10 from 10 million light years from earth, down to the subatomic particles in a leaf. I dare you to watch it just once - it's very cool!!

We did an experiment I stole from Dana @ The Sunny Side's blog (it's ok - I told her I would!) showing how molecules move faster in warm water than cold water by watching how a few drops of food colouring disperses.

While at a friend's place they made a projector using a pluggable circuit board kit (its now on my want list!!).

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment):

We still have fruit slices mummifying on our kitchen bench.. You know you're a homeschooler when... :)

We read a beautifully illustrated book on Egypt called The Scarab's Secret.

He made a pyramid out of clay with a golden "treasure" embedded inside (a gold curtain ring), we dried it in the oven and then he played archaeologist and dug it back out.




Creative & Practical Arts: He used Publisher & Photoshop to make his birthday party invitations. Lots of inventive play - that's what he does much of the time!

LOTE (Languages other than English): Nothing I can think of this week.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Auskick training, circus class & lots of running around at a friend's place. He's finally gaining mastery of a trick with the flower / devil sticks at circus! In fact the teacher commented how much he's improved since he started last term.

Life skills (cooking, gardening, housekeeping): He made jelly all by himself - under very anxious and close supervision with the boiling water!

I've discovered that he's now tall enough to reach the clothesline so he helped me take the towels off the line and fold them.

Re-evaluating our commitments

You know you're over-committed when:

1. You look at the month just starting and wish it was over already

2. It becomes a major logistical exercise just to organise to get-together with friends

3. You hope that your classes get cancelled so you can have a break!

I'm looking seriously at what we're doing at the moment in terms of outside commitments. I can't do much about this term though as we've already paid fees or otherwise committed to things.

Billy was in the car the other day, and was telling me the activities he does in order of how much he liked it. Joeys (Scouts) was a definite number 1 - he absolutely loves every minute he spends there. Auskick (Jr AFL) was a pretty close number 2. Circus was number 3 and drama lagged behind as a poor 4th. In fact he said it in a tone of voice that implied it was torture to him :)

This is his 2nd year of doing drama - he loved it last year but has been luke-warm to cold about it this year.. I think part of it is the fact that they got a new teacher last term - she's lovely, and probably a great teacher, but his old teacher was bubbly and like a big kid herself. Billy adored her. To make matters worse, they spent most of last term practicing for their play - Billy is not a child that enjoys rehearsing over and over again - especially when he doesn't even have a speaking part!

So I'm wondering why I'm spending an arm and a leg AND driving an hour each way to his lessons when he doesn't enjoy it! I've told him he has to go this term (since I've paid the fees!), and he can make his mind up at the end of the term whether or not he wants to continue. I think we might take a week off in the middle of the term too just for a break.

Auskick finishes sometime this month I think, so that will free up a night soon.

I'm also looking at what I'm committed to. Each term I teach a course or two at our local community college. I'm in two minds whether to continue, although the "not continue" mind is winning. Once again I'm committed to this term, but I have to make up my mind in the next few days about next term. It brings in a couple of hundred dollars (when the courses run), but its really hard to juggle with the rest of the family's needs. At the moment I run from the drama pick-up to teaching and we have to swap Billy over on the side of the road! It inevitably clashes with Pete's squash which means he has to take Billy to squash with him, and then it's a late night for Billy. Which means then Wednesday is a bit of a write-off - we lose a day in the week! I think I'm just in a bit of a rut teaching there - I'm not teaching anything too exciting or that couldn't be taught by others, and I don't have the enthusiasm to come up with a new course on anything.

Anyway, just thinking out loud if anyone has read this far :)

Book #1 - To Kill a Mockingbird

"To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee was the novel I chose to start reawakening my brain with. It's set in 1936 in Alabama and is the story of the attitudes and prejudices of the time told through the eyes of 2 children, Jem & Scout. They are the son & daughter of lawyer Atticus Finch who is representing a negro man charged with the rape of a white woman.

I first read this book in high school - probably around age 16 or 17. We must've studied it in class, because I clearly remember writing profiles on some of the characters. Even though I'd forgotten a lot of the details of the plot, I remember loving the book and have obviously picked it up at a second hand shop somewhere over the years.

20+ years later and I understood so much more of the story. I guess having more life experience I could relate more to some of the characters and knew more background history. It's stood the test of time - I really enjoyed it again.

I've also been watching:

* TED lecture - Hector Ruiz - CEO of AMD
* TED lecture - Carl Honore - talking about his book In Praise of Slow
* The Teaching Company's Big History course - first 2 lectures (of 48). This one is really stretching my brain!

Wednesday Weigh-In - Wk 17

Weigh in day for me:

Weight loss from last week: 0.5kg
Total weight loss overall: 3.75 kg
Total cms lost off waist: 9 cm

1.25kg to go until my next goal weight!!

Our week of learning - 26th July - Space

It's unintentially been a week about space with the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, and the solar eclipse that was visible in some parts of the world. I decided to take advantage of it and set up a book display with some of our (and the library's) space books.


English: Lots of reading plus an hour on Spellodrome.

Maths: An hour or so spent on the Mathletics site, plus we played several maths card games like "Addition War".

Science & Technology: We read a couple of great books this week.

Seeing Stars - "Examining the night sky from supernovas to galaxies, from comets to constellations, this book contains nine spreads, each focusing on a different aspect of the topic. Small blocks of numbered text guide young readers around the page and are full of facts."


George's Secret Key to the Universe by Stephen & Lucy Hawking.


"Stephen Hawking, author of the multi-million copy bestselling A Brief History of Time, and his daughter Lucy explain the universe to readers of all ages. George's parents, who have always been wary of technology, warn him about their new neighbors: Eric is a scientist and his daughter, Annie, seems to be following in his footsteps. But when George befriends them and Cosmos, their super-computer, he finds himself on a wildly fun adventure, while learning about physics, time, and the universe. With Cosmos's help, he can travel to other planets and a black hole. But what would happen if the wrong people got their hands on Cosmos? George, Annie, and Eric aren't about to find out, and what ensues is a funny adventure that clearly explains the mysteries of science."

We're only a little way into this but it's such a fantastic book! I'm learning heaps myself!

***

We also watched a few documentaries and snippets on the moon landing, and the solar eclipse.

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): After reading through the Egyptian mummification process at "You wouldn't want to be a mummy!", we began our experiment of mummifying a piece of apple and Billy made himself a mummy and tomb. After all, what else would you do on a Sunday evening?!

Creative & Practical Arts: He went to a school holiday workshop where they painted a boomerang in the Aboriginal style.



He also attended an art gallery "3d paper sculpture" workshop.



LOTE (Languages other than English): He learnt some greetings in French and Chinese.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): He played about 2.5 hours of Auskick at a gala day on Saturday. His comment when we got home was that his legs "had expired for the day" lol.


Life skills (cooking, gardening, housekeeping): Cooking, doing his chores - unpacking the dishwasher, putting his clothes away etc.

Educating Kez

I feel dumb.

It's been 7 years since I left the adult environment of the workforce, where I was forced to learn new skills, have conversations with GROWN UPS and use my brain for something other than knowing where everyone in the house left their stuff...

A few years ago I did my Cert IV in Training and Assessment - it was a wonderful year. Even though it was majorly stressful and challenging, it gave me a real high to be learning again.

My brain is back to feeling like it's atrophied - to the point that I find it hard to carry on a conversation now - you know how often when you chat to new mums all they can talk about is their new bub, sleep patterns, teething etc? I feel like that a lot - like my conversation is out of step with the rest of the world. Then again, that could be because I don't watch reality TV!!

I find it hard to read anything much more challenging than chick-lit because, damn it, it hurts my brain!!

It's time to wake my brain back up. It will be good for me, and I think it will be good for Billy to see me learning too.

I always wanted to study ancient history in more depth than I did at school. I'd love to read all of Shakespeare's plays (without having to write essays on them!). I want to go back to being the person who picked up Dicken's "Tale of Two Cities" - and read it for fun! I'd maybe even like to see if I can understand physics this time around.. (hang on - maybe not!)

I have a huge personal library, and 2 great public libraries to choose from. So I'm starting tonight. I'm going over to the bookcase once I post this, I'm going to choose something that's a bit heavier than the romance novel I have on my bedside table (not too heavy though!), and I'm going to start reading it.

Let's see if the brain can still work..

Wednesday Weigh-In - Wk 16

Weigh in day for me:

Weight loss from last week: no change this week
Total weight loss overall: 3.25 kg
Total cms lost off waist: 9 cm

I didn't lose any weight this week, but more importantly I didn't put any on either! We were away in Sydney for the weekend, so we had a meal out, then had pizza when we got home because I was too tired too cook. We did heaps of walking though.

I am feeling really motivated atm. I have 4 weeks until Billy's b'day party - I want to lose another 1.75kg by then - and buy myself a new pair of jeans! I've started back on the CSIRO diet (while checking out the Body Trim diet - thanks Louise!) to give me the kickstart I need..

Exploring our local area: Fort Scratchley

Last week we caught the train down to Newcastle with some friends, and went to Fort Scratchley. Fort Scratchley was originally built as a defense for Newcastle's harbour in 1881. It actually saw some action in World War II when it fired on a Japanese submarine that tried to attack Newcastle!

After falling into disrepair for many years, and being the home of squatters and vandalised, it's recently been reopened. We wandered around the top of the facility ourselves and then took a guided tour of the underground tunnels. The tour lasted for about an hour and was really interesting.





I'd like to go back again when Billy's a bit older and has more of an understanding of WWII so we could get even more out of the tour. Hopefully they'll continue repairing and restoring over the years as funds permit..

Our week of learning - 19th July

English: Lots of reading plus an hour on Spellodrome.

Maths: An hour or so spent on the Mathletics site, plus we played a fractions board game.

Science & Technology: Nothing this week.

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): Since it's school holidays here in NSW, we had a couple of "out-of-the-ordinary" excursions this week.

On Wednesday, we caught the train down to Newcastle with some friends and went to Fort Scratchley. We took a tour through the underground tunnels which was very interesting - we both learnt quite a lot about Newcastle's involvement in WWII !

On Thursday, we attended a performance by Aboriginal dancer & musician, Matthew Doyle. He showed the kids how to play instruments like the didgeridoo and clapping sticks, taught them some dances and songs, and painted their face or hand with ochre.




Creative & Practical Arts: Aboriginal dance and music, painting.

LOTE (Languages other than English): He learnt some Aboriginal words at the performance.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): No formal PE but lots of running around with his cousin and walking on our Fort excursion.

Life skills (cooking, gardening, housekeeping): He made some cupcakes & iced them (with the help of his cousins).

We're in the paper - again!

We were interviewed about homeschooling for our local paper yesterday - article here. The article was nicely done, without the usual "expert" they normally have to give the counter argument of how our children need to be "socialised" by going to school.

Almost 12 months ago, we were interviewed for another paper and they used a very similar set up for the photo. If we keep this up, I'll be able to use it as our annual school photo :)

Wednesday Weigh-In - Wk 15

Weigh in day for me:

Weight loss from last week: lost 0.25kg
Total weight loss overall: 3.25 kg
Total cms lost off waist: 9 cm

I'm approximating my weight loss, I only have old-fashioned scales, but I'm a "smidge" down from where I was. I've tightened up more though - lost another 2 cm from my waist!!

Hunter Auskickers at the SCG

Yesterday a group of Hunter Auskickers (Junior AFL) went down to Sydney to play on the SCG at half-time in the Sydney vs Essendon game.

Our local Maitland Saints fielded 9 kids - they're in the red uniforms in the photo. They successfully beat the opposition team, kicking 1 goal, 3 behinds to the opposition's 1 behind.

Not that I could see a great deal, since they played a fair way away from where the parents were sitting! They looked like the had a great time though - Billy seemed pretty stoked by it all. He was most impressed that he "almost" got the ball :)

The kids were especially impressed by the fact that they got to meet Barry Hall before they came on the field! Although meeting the mascot Cyggy was just as exciting :)

Our week of Learning - 12th July

English: Lots of reading plus a couple of hours on Spellodrome.

Maths: He finished the Year 1 curriculum on Mathletics - he set himself a goal to finish the rest of the "gold bars" today and did it! He was very excited - especially when he realised his name is on the scoreboard as one of the world's top 100 students for the week (based on the number of points they earn each week).

We created a paper pyramid as part of our history studies - so it was a good opportunity for an introduction to angles, working with solid shapes, and how to measure angles with a protractor.

We also played some maths games to work on his addition skills, and he experimented with comparing the volumes that different shaped drinking glasses would hold.

Science & Technology: As blogged earlier in the week, he made a waterwheel for the Think! challenge.

We created a floating compass using a magnetised needle. You can see a video of the creation below...




If the embedded video doesn't play, try this link - http://www.kidstube.com/play.php?vid=13750

HSIE (Human Society and it's environment): We're reading our way through a gorgeous book called "Egyptian diary: The Journal of Nakht" by Richard Platt.


We made a pyramid out of paper, which he decorated with hieroglyphics saying things like "Keep Out" & "mummy" :)


He has also been busy playing the "Become a World Explorer" computer game.

Creative & Practical Arts: Nothing formal - lots of imaginative play.

LOTE (Languages other than English): Nothing this week.

PDHPE (Personal Development, Health & Physical Education): Circus class. Auskick.

Life skills (cooking, gardening, housekeeping): His chore list has been expanded to include unpacking the dishwasher. He can't reach the cupboard where some of the plates go, so he piles them on the bench, but it's a good start.

Wednesday Weigh-In - Wk 14

Weight loss from last week: lost that pesky 0.5 kg again!
Total weight loss overall: 3 kg
Total cms lost off waist: 7 cm

So far I keep going up and down around the same weight - hopefully with some effort next week I can progress past it! Aiming for 3.5kg lost (in total) by next week.

Think! Engineering challenge

A few weeks ago I found the Think! blog which posts weekly engineering challenges with a list of materials to build from. Today we took up their challenge to create a water wheel from the following:

"a long dowel
a cardboard tube or a two liter bottle or a can
8 index cards
a sharpie
string
tape

You may use scissors in construction but not the solution. "

I'm not an engineering person by any stretch of the imagination, so we googled some images of water wheels, and this is what Billy came up with:



It worked great for a couple of seconds until the cards got too wet. I was just using thick paper rather than cardboard though.

We didn't end up using the string - I guess that was for the 2nd half of the challenge to connect it to the boat. We probably could have also used it to suspend the dowel in the middle of the tube, but we were satisfied with what we did for the first time at the challenge.

We also didn't use the sharpie. Other than for Billy to draw up his blueprint in the first place :)

Exploring our local area: Tocal Homestead

The Tocal property was one of the first land grants in the Paterson Valley in 1822 and has one of Australia's finest collections of colonial farm buildings dating from the 1820's. Tocal Homestead itself was built in 1841.

On Tuesday, about 50 homeschoolers attended a heritage day at the Homestead - and had a great time!

They split into small groups of about 8 kids each and got to try out lots of different "old-style" activities like:

washing the clothes the old-fashioned way!

playing games like horseshoes, elastics & tug-of-war,

carrying water with yoke & buckets

and dressing up!

(As you can see, Will & Billy were pretty inseparable for the day!)

They also got a tour through the house:

including the separate kitchen area -

Here is the guide showing us how to use the milk separator - notice the ice-box beside her!

And of course, the bath for the men - 5 men using the same water, every 2 weeks. I'd hate to be the last person :)

Some very exhausted but happy kids at the end of the day..

I'd like to go back when Billy is a bit older and do the house tour again - they have a self-guided audio tour you can do, but I think he'll get more out of it in a few years time.

Please go and hug your kids..

and tell them how much you love them.

The 17yo son of one of our neighbours died last night. 17 - a lifetime ahead of him. I looked at my to-do list today and decided nothing on there couldn't wait until I'd spent a couple of hours snuggling with Billy and reading some books together.

Life is precious.

Wednesday Weigh-In - Wk 13

Weight loss from last week: stayed the same - 0 kg lost
Total weight loss overall: 2.5 kg
Total cms lost off waist: 7 cm

I managed to exercise at least 20 mins each day but my food choices weren't the best. I need to get my head back in the weight loss groove!