Learning
-
Map Fever
Map Fever has struck! We, well I;) began this term with high hopes for our geography studies. After all Africa is a fascinating continent, alas Trail Guide to World Geography was not a good fit for us. We pottered with enjoying some African picture and chapter books, read Children Just Like Me and completed a couple of fact sheets. Still I was failing to capture any enthusiasm, when I remembered what fun we had creating Mega Maps a couple of years back. We printed out a nine page mega map, taped to the window and then taped a local architecture’s ‘cast off’ plans over the top. Michelangelo meticulously traced out…
-
The Road Ahead
Anna Maria left home for College a month ago, excited and focused on the road ahead. She is enjoying her studies immensely and loving the social life. Within days of arriving in the ‘big smoke‘ Anna Maria found part-time employment as a medical receptionist. She is happy and thriving. We at home on the road behind, were so very sad the day she left home, our lives changed forever. It has been a period of adjustment, tears have been shed, hearts ache, her company is sorely missed. Yet hearing from her, sharing in her enjoyment from afar is a consolation indeed. After each phone call, each skype, every email we…
-
She Goes Forth – The Times, They are A Changin’
In less than a fortnight our eldest leaves home! Anna Maria is excited and eagerly looking forward to beginning the next stage in her life’s journey. Eight months ago Anna Maria began a course at our local TAFE, Administration/Bookkeeping, Certificate 3. She quickly found her rhythm and enjoyed the experience of formal classes and independence. We watched her blossom and bloom with pride. Just before Christmas she sat for her final exams and passed with flying colours, receiving 100% for Bookeeping! Throughout this period Anna Maria had been discerning what direction to take next. In October she applied to attend a Catholic Liberal Arts College. All applicants to the College have to write an application…
-
November – Month of All Souls
In the spirit of fellowship a friend and I have undertaken to meet once a month. Each month our gatherings will have a different focus, we chose to begin with the Church’s Monthly Dedications. As we began in November our first focus was The Holy Souls. The children gathered together and we read parts of Father Philip Tells a Ghost Story (not a favourite as the writing style is long winded). We discussed what The Church Triumphant, Militant and Suffering means and discussed Purgatory and prayer; “It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.”Mach 2:46 We then created notebook pages using a…
-
The Feast of Christ the King – Celebration and a Notebook
Yesterday we celebrated the Feast of Christ the King. Part of our celebrations included enjoying our simple Crown cake using Elana’s Chocolate Chip Banana Cake recipe. We had been preparing for the Feast in a variety of ways throughout the week preceding. A simple and fun activity was to sew felt crowns. I cut, Princess and Michelangelo sewed, easy:) We also created another notebook, including a simple colouring for the younger children. and a more detailed picture for the older children. We filled in a worksheet (not so popular;) and frustratingly some questions and answers didn’t match the readings in our missals. Jenn’s centrepiece is now a yearly tradition. To further explain the…
-
Creating a Rosary Notebook
Towards the end of October after a discussion with our tweens and younger children, we’ve been enjoying a different approach to our Faith lessons, notebooking. Some ideas are quickly pulled together, some take a little more searching. I thought I’d share here in the desire to help anyone who may be searching for ideas for Faith notebooks too. As it was October, the Month of the Holy Rosary, we decided that would be our focus. The majority of our notebooking came from That Resource Site, Celebrate the Month of the Holy Rosary, there were many links here we didn’t have time to use including beautiful notebooking pages. The first two notebooking…
-
Re-Discovering our Creativity
This week and last, creativity has flourished in our home. We have set up two centres, art and craft. As we have not focused on the creative arts for a long time we are rather excited that the centres have been greeted with so much enthusiasm. The craft centre has all craft materials at hand, stored in shelving under the long bench-top, with a hot glue gun ready. Every day the children have been constantly and independently creating:) The art centre receives more direction. Each day I facilitate a different focus laying out supplies of the better quality materials with a stack of blank paper. One day the focus was soft pastels, the next two…
-
Stepping Forth
Well the day has finally arrived, mentally we knew it would but can you ever really be prepared? Our first-born is ready to move forth, to begin the next stage in her life’s journey. A new beginning for us that will impact across many areas of our family dynamics. Designing your own home education curriculum makes it is a little harder to pre-plan a clear concluding date. Do you finish with a ‘grade’ level, when all assigned work is done, or use age as your guide? As Koala draws closer to her 18th, age seems a good definitive, but mostly we have been guided by her needs. We were expecting to have…
-
Viking Lapbook
This term Princess chose to study Vikings and was keen to make a lapbook. Searching around we discovered Homeschool Share’s Viking Unit and Lapbook The lapbook was based on Clyde Robert Bulla’s Viking Adventure and a couple of Usborne titles. We didn’t have the non-fiction titles but managed with library books and the internet for extra information. The lapbook wasn’t too overwhelming yet covered a lot of material, totally perfect for a nine year old.
