Home Education
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Countdown – Three Days!
This coming Sunday Australia’s first saint Mary MacKillop will be cannonised! I have long had a love for Mary MacKillop, a love nurtured as a child by the St Josephites nuns who taught me. Yep I’m proud to be a Brown Joey kid, I loved the Joey nuns, in particular I loved St Mary H. My grandmother and her siblings, my mother and her siblings and in turn my brother, cousin and I were taught by the Joey nuns. We had a solid education both spiritually and academically. The direct result of Mother Mary MacKillop’s vision to provide Catholic education for all Catholic children of Australia. In my late…
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Designing Our Learning Room – Help Please
As we slowly start to use all available space in the extensions, I can see the time is nearing to consider the design of our learning room. Up to this point I have resolutely not even thought about it as I haven’t wanted to get too excited. Obviously as we have been homeschooling for over a decade now I have an idea of what would be wonderful additions to have, I am also considering our weaknesses and strengths.(I know doors are probably better for us than shelves) I know I want tables rather than individual desks and a reading lounge is a must. This will be our main learning room,…
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My ‘Truth About Mum’ and Planning
Sarah’s recent post, Truth About Mum really resonated with me. She shares so much wisdom and truth; considering Mum’s teaching style is vital for a “Happy Home Educating Mum.” With our new school term starting back on Monday, I have spent a couple of days this week re-assessing and tweaking our yearly plans. Whilst doing this I have wrestled with myself once again, about planning. Just why do I plan and how much detail do I need? Part of that planning is to take an honest look at my teaching style and be realistic. Sarah’s thoughts have encouraged me to put ‘pen to paper’ and share my Truth About Mum.…
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Instant Free Access to Mathsonline Primary!
I’ve shared before our happiness with our highschool maths program Mathematics.com.au. Imagine our excitement to discover that they are releasing their trial version for Primary, Grades 4-6. Get immediate FREE access to this award winning Primary Maths program, Mathsonline. Follow the link below to their years 4 to 6 trial site. Mathsonline.com.au login(automated): trial Password: au Forward this link on to EVERYONE! From the company: What the trial version has; · 280 + lessons (2 to 10 minutes long) with audio visual pause/rewind capabilities. Covering approx’ 90% of the various Australian States yr’s 4 to 6 curriculum. · Lessons are far more oriented towards developing numeracy/problem solving skills in our students than…
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City Cousins Come to Visit
Last Weekend we were blessed to have PC’s brother, wife and children visit for four days:) We were very excited as they have never stayed with us before. Every day the children played from dawn till well after dusk. Country cousins introduced their city cousin to the delights of mud cuisine and making homemade lemonade with homegrown lemons and copious amounts of sugar. Many an hour was spent playing in the tree house down in the bush. (This impressive construction was made by Michelangelo and Uncle Dominic) Note cousin S. standing next to Jem, he is a couple of months younger but a whole head taller. On the last night…
- Blog, Book Reviews, Home Education, Home Education - Curriculum Reviews, Home Education - Geography, Home Education - Highschool, Learning
Geography for Highschool
This year my three teenagers have been using Brenda Runkle’s ‘World Physical Geography’, this is the first time we have used a formal approach to geography. As Koala has just finished the program (she has crammed a year’s program into 6 months) I have interviewed her as my guest poster:) Welcome Koala:) I’d like to ask you some questions about your World Physical geography studies, thank you for taking the time to answer. Was this program written as a text book or a living book? It wasn’t a text book in the dry sense of the word, but more a living book with text questions. Each chapter had revision questions…
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On a History Quest
We’re on a ‘rabbit trail’ at present. We were contacted by a priest friend asking for help with research on a local tragedy that occurred 70 years ago. In our quest for further information we visited our local historical society yesterday. So fascinating and they had the information we were searching for! The children were thrilled to discover the ‘Card Index’ records the society keeps. Information is recorded on every family who appears in the local paper, we found birth notices and pictures of our family. Considering we have only been here for 15 years we were rather impresssed to find ourselves in records. Yesterday Koala and I visited an…
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Arranging Our Study
Tuesday saw many changes. Once the children moved out we turned our energies towards cleaning their abandoned rooms. The boys’ room began its transformation into a study. As the children were eager to see this occur they worked with a will. Very quickly tables and desks were moved in and a whole bank of computers were set up. To be totally honest I didn’t quite realise just how many computers we had. Most had been packed away. Due to the benevolence of uncles there is no shortage. PC and I invested a fair amount of research into decisions regarding the computers. We decided to keep all computers in the one…
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Direction For Our Highschoolers
This year finds us with three highschoolers, and even more sobering, our oldest is in Grade 11! *(Highschool in NSW, Australia is Grades 7- 12) We spent time in the holidays prayerfully discerning our direction, and consequently decided on some new materials (and old). In thanks to friends and fellow bloggers who have supported and inspired, we share with you. Faith – Didache Series (Complete Course) We are very, very happy with our choice. It was time for a systematic approach. They are attractive, modern looking, with a thorough content. Maths – Mathematics.com.au These are online/disc programs. Concepts are introduced and explained then work given. Children then enter their answers…
