Home Education - Learning Notes
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Maths & Spelling Only For Seven Days: Our Pick-A-Box Challenge
A few weeks ago we Read Only for a Week using a system of a Pick-a-Read Challenge in which the children chose various reading activities from a variety of suggestions and by the week’s end all were reading far more confidently and frequently, our week was declared a success! Inspired I decided to target another couple of areas for a week and a half, namely maths and spelling, I brainstormed ways in which the children could have fun but still engage with the subject matter. With maths I wanted to children to see outside their maths program and apply maths to the world around them, spelling, I simply wanted them to devote more time…
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Read Only For A Week: Our Pick-A-Read Challenge
The Need Recently we suspended our regular learning routine for a week to try something a little different. We have a few children whose reading skills are in want of attention. One who needs encouragement to blossom, another who can functionally read, though not at age level and never for pleasure. Another teetering on the edge of being a reader and another as ‘keen as mustard’ without all the skills needed. Reflecting I realised that the majority of these situations could be addressed by time. Time to focus simply on reading with no other distractions. Which is exactly what we did, we put aside a week to focus on only…
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10 Homeschool Resources We Highly Recommend
With nearly nearly two decades of homeschooling ‘clocked up,’ we’ve been privileged to have discovered some fantastic resources along the way to suit our family’s learning style. Sharing 10 of our favourites with you, that we highly recommend. *Linking up at Aussie Mums List of 10 over at Live Life With Your Kids. 1. All About Reading I’ve waxed lyrical before about how I love, love, love All About Reading and my love affair with All About Reading continues to grow. All About Reading is a multi-sensory program that emphasises; phonics decoding, fluency and comprehension, each lesson begins with a revision of the previous knowledge learnt and builds on in the next. All…
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This Week in Learning: September 11th, 2015
As I reflect back on this term I’m extremely happy with the progress made; not only in academic skills but lessons learnt about consistently completing tasks. It’s certainly been the best term we’ve experienced this year. One week until the holidays, planning a little something different for the week, perhaps quizzes and competitions; a Spelling & Geography Bee, an essay competition etc. Confident the children will enjoy a fun, competitive approach. Speech Therapy Remember we were given three weeks of homework instead of weekly lessons, well we’re due to go back for a follow up lesson next week and we’ve done one practice session, yikes, not good. Faith Jem made…
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This Week in Learning: August 29th, 2015
As the last fortnight drew to a close I realised with surprise that we have only three weeks of Term 3 left. It’s been a solid term of learning and we’re rather proud of how hard all the children have worked. Speech Therapy Yippee, we’ve graduated weekly lessons. Well we have a huge pile of homework but no regular lessons until next year. Plan is: we were given three weeks of homework, we do it and return to show progress. Mmm already missed first week of homework, time to ‘crack the books.’ Faith Jem made his First Confession!!! He did it, declaring it not as hard as he thought, in…
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This Week in Learning: August 14th, 2015
Continuing to be excited about the learning that is happening this Term. Solid, consistent progress, lessons not only about King Alfred and Japan’s closure to the West but lessons about diligence and time management. A friend and I were chatting yesterday, we’re both long term home-educators with graduates and several children still to educate, we shared how when we were young and dewy-eyed we wanted our children to love learning, well we still do, truth is though, these days we’d settle for application. Actually a whole series in the making there once I’ve formulated my thoughts. Speech Therapy I suspect the speech therapist twigged that I was not being consistent…
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‘Winter Workshops’ Create Enthusiasm
Term 2 came to a close yesterday here in New South Wales, though we aren’t stopping for a break yet. Partially because we haven’t achieved as much learning as optimal in the past month due to life’s interruptions. Also we’re waiting until our two City boys come home in a fortnight to be able to enjoy their visit for the two weeks they’re here. One of the benefits of home education is we can be flexible and work around family time. Truthfully though we’re all feeling a little stale, students and teacher, and in need of a change of pace. I’m always of the mind that ‘there’s more than…
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This Week in Learning: May 24th, 2015
Hard to believe we are half way through Term 2 already, five weeks of study and nary a post have I shared. We have been learning, but I’ve been engaged in my usual struggle, record keeping, therefore only have snippets and reflections of the past five weeks to share. Speech Therapy Bass is having weekly lessons with a speech therapist which means I’m given ‘homework’ to do with him. It’s not onerous, nor time heavy, but it is one more thing on my to do list. sigh Reading Jelly Bean exploded into the world of reading at the end of Term 1. She has continued to read an average of…
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This Week in Learning: March 20th, 2015
Maintaining a regular record of our learning continues to elude me. Sharing the highlights of the past three weeks albeit a rather patchy recording: Reading Jem has powered through the first book of AAR Level 1, however I currently have him revising all the word cards he has covered thus far. I tend to skip the revision but now can see how important regular revision is. Whilst Jack Jack is faithfully reading Hey Jack and Zac Powers, he hasn’t get ‘exploded with enthusiasm’ and taken up reading on his own When I noted to Jelly Bean she hadn’t been reading for a while she explained she had ‘nothing to…
