Home Education
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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…
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Monthly Memories – February 2012
Angela’s Choice Time and Learning in Review posts have long been some of my favourite posts to read. It has often been my intention to attempt a poor imitation, with Kylie’s launching of Monthly Memories I have been finally spurred to put finger to keyboard. Endeavouring to capture the learning highlights of the past six weeks. Our greatest achievement is the completion of All About Spelling Level 3 with Princess and the older boys. The spelling ability of all the children has benefited immensely as a result of AAS. They now have the tools to puzzle out a word and have become more consciously aware of the intricacies of the written language.…
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Aussie NBTS – A Day in Our Life
Wrapping up our Not Back to School Blog Hop by sharing a Day In Our Life. No day in our life is identical, although they generally have a similar rhythm, some afternoons may include sport, some days run as expected and some become ‘derailed’. When I selected Thursday(March 1st) as ‘the day’, I was aiming for a more ‘typical’ day, which it was, although it did have a surprise ending. 6:30AM I wake up later than usual. Jack Jack wanders in and wants to chat about his dream, Princess comes in and plays with Bass. A relaxing beginning to the day, chatting and enjoying the children. 7:00AM Baking muffins and juicing vegetables…
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Aussie NBTS – Our Learning Spaces
Our assignment this week for the Not Back to School Blog Hop is to share our learning spaces. When Kylie designated Week Three to be Learning Spaces I knew the moment of truth would arrive eventually. We don’t live in an ordinary home, we are slowly building our home, and parts are not pretty, in fact the most unfinished part is the area in which the bulk of our learning occurs. The advantage of designing and building your own home is, after over a decade of home educating and previously extending two homes before we know how we use our home differently and utilised that knowledge when planning. We have some areas we…
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Aussie NBTS – Our Plans & Resources
This week at the Not Back to School Blog Hop Kylie has us all chatting about our plans and resources for the upcoming year. We’ve been home educating for well over a decade now, we were drawn to home education from the beginning. Initially we were strongly influenced by John Holt (unschooling/Natural Learning) Raymond Moore and Maria Montessori, later Ruth Beechick and Valerie Bendt (unit studies) were added to the mix and then we met Charlotte Mason. All these, combined with our love of literature and our Catholic Faith created an eclectic concoction. We enjoy designing our own curriculum, with direct input from the children that considers teaching and learning styles, is tailored to meet individual needs,…
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Aussie NBTS – Meet Our Students
Joining in with Kylie over at the Aussie Not Back to School Blog Hop. Thank you Kylie for the invitation, extending the invite to all Aussie home educator bloggers to join us in the fun. This week we are introducing our students. Without further ado I invite you to ‘meet’ our Seven(Plus) Little Australians, from the baby through to our recent and first ‘graduate’. Our students have always been Home Educated. Bass aged 10months Always smiling Completely easy going Totally confident that he is the centre of the Universe Takes all the love showered upon him as his due Wants to be in on any action, commando crawls everywhere Jem…
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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…
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Creating a Nature Collage
Yesterday evolved into a nature theme. After our nature challenge Jem was keen to enjoy another activity. We decided on making a nature collage. We selected various items from the gardens; flowers, seeds, bark, grass, anything that appealed to him. Once he had his collection gathered we headed inside to create a masterpiece. All was needed was a pot of glue, his collection and we had one happy boy.
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Undertaking Exams
As last week was the conclusion of our school year, the children requested that we have an exam week. Some thought it would be fun and older teens decided taking exams would be a good skill to develop. This meant a bit of planning and research into what to set. In the end our exams consisted of a variety of approaches; a written essay, a purchased exam and online exam/quizzes. As it was a week that included a major Feast Day we didn’t test all subjects. English & Maths – CS Online Schools provided free assessment exams in Maths and English for our 4th grader through to 10th grader. They also offered a…
