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7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol 133)

November 9, 2012 /

1
In an emergency would your younger children know how to ring triple 0? (911 or 111)  Whilst talking to our youngest today I realised whilst I’ve been concious to teach our children our phone numbers, address and parents names, we hadn’t memorised how to dial in an emergency.  Now come to think of it I should add a fire drill to the list too.

2
I’m currently weaning Bass, he is older than our other children were, but he isn’t too persistent, now that I’ve remembered how to do this;)  but bedtimes sure take alot longer.  Also I had a little routine based around his sleep feed that involved the next two boys cuddling up into the bed with us, so all three youngest boys are getting to sleep later, much later. New routine is urgently been considered.


3
Skimming through the Homeschool Blog Awards looking at new blogs I’m quickly gaining an appreciation for what sort of blogs instantly appeal to me.  Initial visual appearance is vital, quite popular is to have partial blog post visible with a ‘read more’ button, too cluttered and doesn’t allow for skimming, this new look doesn’t appeal to me at all.  Also not interested in blogs that have too many ads either in their posts or on their pages, I appreciate reviews but like a balance.  Then writing style is a big draw card for me, however I’m rather eclectic there.

4
Generally I’m not very assertive in many areas of my life, this week however I worked up the backbone to approach a local tradesman to express my unhappiness with his service.  Obviously he hasn’t read the memos to always listen to your customer, he was too busy talking over the top of me, justifying and blaming. We’ll be paying the bill but we certainly won’t be recommending him to anyone, nor will we be using his services again.

5
Any great ideas on how to motivate an 8yr old girl to read?  She is so close to reading independently but doesn’t want to put in the hard work, ’cause it is hard at this stage.  I’m open to bribery suggestions;)

6
Talking motivation it is nearing the end of our school year (5-6 weeks), we’ve been disrupted for one reason and another since September, and we’re finding it hard to find our groove again.  Today we brainstormed some ‘out of the box’ ways to approach learning over the next few weeks.  I’m planning to share when the ideas have solidified.

7
The cleaning projects continued unabated all week. Whist cleaning the shed (well half of it) took only a day and a half, the shipping container took 5 days.  Once the shipping container was emptied, re-sorted, re-packed, tossed, donated etc we then discovered many items had migrated into the house which we now have to find a place for. We’re still at that job, I feel like I’m living in a giant domino maze, one tile tips another tile over.  Today I took 10 computer carcases to the dump, that was an exciting moment:)

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11 Comments

  • Multi-tasking Mama

    November 10, 2012 at 2:29 am Reply

    I had trouble with my older girl and so made bingo sheets. When she was younger it had boxes with a subject in it; book about friends, book about a dog, book about an international country, book about a farm animal and so on. When she got older I had boxes with authors; LM Montgomery, CS Lewis, Enid Blyton and so on. She received a sticker when she finished a square and when she finished a line she got a reward. Now the girls are 8 and 10 and for every book they complete they get 1c per page which goes into a jar for them to purchase another book of their choosing.

  • Anna Maria

    November 10, 2012 at 5:40 am Reply

    An idea for encouraging reading, have a reading competition, either just her and once Jelly Bean has read her alloted number of books she gets to buy her own book of her choosing. Or a competition among the whole family like the library holds sometimes.

  • harvestingjoy

    November 10, 2012 at 7:04 am Reply

    Seems that we're falling into a bit of a habit of having a term 4 reading challenge. I think it must be because by term 4 I'm sick of "reading lessons" but feel the need to push through to the end of the year.
    This year my two independent readers have to read 12 books in term 4, 6 of their choosing and 6 we choose together (that is, not my direct choice but close to it!) At the end of the term I'll take them to Maccas as their treat. Very motivating for them as we almost never eat McDonalds.
    I'm very pleased about how it's going this year – I directed J into reading one of the "My Australian Story" books, the one on Cyclone Tracey, and now he's really into the series. He begged for more of them so we picked up another 5 at the library the other day. My not-independent readers are reading a set number of readers for their challenge this year.
    I think the trick is to make the challenge very achievable. The first time we ever had a reading challenge the goal was to read 100 pages. Less is sometimes more.
    If you want to join us on treat day you're more than welcome.

    Missy

  • Erin

    November 16, 2012 at 7:40 am Reply

    Suzanne
    will check it out, thanks.

    Ingi
    so pleased you like my header:) took a while until I found the colour etc I liked but then it all clicked

    thanks for all the great reading incentive tips, with your encouragement I resurrected and old family tradition (as A-M mentions above) and JB is filling in 'bookworm circles' for a prize of her choice. I'll post pics etc when done.

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