We survived the week (lol)

Its didn’t start off to well – again the baby made things difficult but I did read somewhere that trying to learn under stress, you don’t really learn anything at all.  So Tuesday was better and here’s what we did.

Maths workbook – subtraction sums revision. As I have mentioned before, maths is not Miss 6’s strong point but she has grasped the concept.

More ‘ir’ revision words. Reading has not been Miss 8’s strong point – she reads in patterns, not single sounds/blends, so she enjoys these word shape worksheets. There has been mention of dyslexia by someome and I am investigating this further although at this stage I am not convinced.  My feeling is that she is a pattern reader and so learns differently and also gets bored unless it is something that interests her…. well, who doesn’t? She is very good at Maths and can’t be good at everything.  If your child had reading issues, I’d love to hear about them.  She does get words mixed up eg. ‘on’ verses ‘no’, and does give up trying sometimes, but other times she suprises me with words she knows. She sometimes forgets sight words but when she makes a mistake, she can correct herself.  The jury is still out.

Maths games on the Nintendo – a favourite. I am not a fan of gadgets, video games, playstations & the like, so I will never buy them but they are allowed to have this DS lite because we can take it out with us.

We revised ee and ea by making a pEAch trEE with words on each peach. As time is an issue with baby, I just printed off the words then quickly drew a tree on the window and they did the rest – they loved it. We also did high-lighting ea/ee on a worksheet.

Finally we did some of the Kidpower safety program in light of recent events in the news of a little girl being abducted.  The girls drew a picture of themselves to show where their ‘internal alarms’ are – like that little voice in your head that says something isn’t right. The other sheet shows what you should do if someone asks you to go with them for some reason.  Along with the Yellow Dyno program, my girls have skills to help keep them safe.

So as I sit here with baby asleep in my arms, typing one-handed, it seems we have not had too bad a week and I’m suprised at what we have achieved.

So far, so good and the ‘ir’ sound.

Well, we’ve done OK this week so far. I’m not pushing myself or them too hard because it all gets way to stressful and no-one ends up learning anything except what not to do (LOL). 

 Miss 8 has had some reading issues (she reads by patterns which is quite different for me) so I am taking it slower to learn new sounds like ‘ir’ as in bird. We made this with a cute bird stamp I had for their little baby sister to watch. (it served a double purpose). We might concentrate/revise this sounds for at least 2 weeks so they really ‘get it’. I also choose this sound because Miss 8 is very much ‘into’ her birds at the moment – fits in with my ‘make learning emotional’ philosophy.

Miss 6 actually ASKED if she could do Mathletics on Tuesday (I nearly fell over as she had become bored with it) and both girls wanted to do several pages of their new Maths/sticker workbooks that Grandma gave them (hooray!) Here, Miss 6 is hiding her answers so I can check them at the end. (She loves games).

So…. here’s what I think is happening.

MONDAYS – sounds combined with a craft idea.

TUESDAYS – Reading eggs/Mathletics (computer programs)

WEDNESDAYS – Mums day off to keep her sane

THURSDAYS – Workbooks plus riding bikes to Grandmas to read to her.

FRIDAYS – TBA.

School’s back for 2010

And so I thought we’d better make a start.  This year I will TRY to get some organisation happening and update the blog every week.  Our littlest wiggle (now 12 months old) likes to make things more interesting (shall we say). 

Miss 8 drew up some plans for a sceptre like the one she had seen on Tinkerbell.

Then the girls got busy making one.

And you could hear me cheering from here, Miss 8 also sat and did a worksheet – hoorayyyyyyy!!! With no issues. They learned the ‘ir’ sound because she loves birds, so I used the opportunity. And she actullay read the words – her reading has improved as well as her concentration.

So we made a start and I am going to have to take things as they come, not plan too far ahead, not plan too much on a day, and not expect too much from my little one (who is even now pulling on my arm for me to get away from the computer!!!).  My main goals for this year are:

• Practise reading – use www.readingeggs.com, read to Grandma once a week, go to the Library to encourage bedtime stories, do a worksheet once a week.
• Maths – use online programs, do a worksheet & hands-on activity once a week.
• Christian input – use Bible Stories about character traits as a theme
• General Learning – follow the girls interests as the theme.

If i can manage to achieve these goals this year, I’ll be pleased.

Happy Bird-day!

Miss 8 (yes its her birthday) had expressed an interest in breeding birds after seeing a TV show on how some kids earn extra pocket money, so guess what she got for her birthday, or should we say, bird-day?

She got a pair of adult budgies which she names Bluey & Peppercorn, a pair of zebra finches, named Stripey & Snowflake and a neighbour gave her a baby budgie which she called Rainbow.

She spent the day helping her Dad build the avery and moved them into their new accomodation that night.  She has learned about how to care for them and she gives them fresh vegies most days, water and of course, plays with & admires them.

Meanwhile, she became interested in the 2 sections of her books which classified birds as  PASSERINES (meaning birds that perch) or NON-PASSERINES.

Miss 6, who was also interested and loves cutting, helped a lot with making this chart of Passerines we see here on our property. We also made a non-passerines one.

Its fruit picking season

And yes, it always changes the dynamics of our homeschooling in a huge way.  The workbooks are out for yes, more revision , we have to rely on Grandma for any little ‘extras’ like made-up games & the Reading Eggs program has been great. The kids can virtually do it unsupervised if necessary.

This year Miss 7 has really grown up a lot and made the decision to earn some money by helping to pack fruit. She actually set her own fee of twenty cents per tray and managed to pack a huge 26 trays one day, earning herself a $5 note, which she was thrilled with (and has since earned another plus some gold coins).

Miss 6 has been earning herself some baby sitting money entertaining her baby sister while Mum & Dad pack fruit.

Miss 6 has also become quite the little cook lately. She made these yummy sugar-free anzac biscuits.

However, most of the time its a case of hitting the workbooks mostly as a source of revision because there just isn’t enough time in the day to organise activities during our busiest time of the year – fruit picking.