Learning
- Blog, Books - A Book and Activity, Home Education, Home Education - Language Arts, Home Education - Leaping into Literature, Home Education - Planning, Learning, Living
Leaping into Literature
Next week our holidays draw to a close and we begin the final term of the year. As I contemplated what direction I wished our studies to take in the next 10 week block I knew I needed to be realistic, we have three indisputable factors that create a major impact. I am now in my final trimester with baby due two days before term ends (and babies have their own timetables), Advent begins in December bringing its own rhythm, and it is spring/summer which means extreme heat, distraction and pleas for more swimming time!! Yet I am determined that we conclude the year well, stretching abilities and learning deeply…
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Recent Creativity In Our Home
Princess has been totally engaged lately in teaching herself how to draw. We’ve been completely impressed and surprised to see what previously unknown talent she has. How to Draw books abound on our shelves, so she has plenty of instruction. Note the detail, the leg line, the eye expression! Princesses of course are a popular theme to draw:) Michelangelo has been captivated by creating K’nex models. No surprise really as his mind is wired this way, we call him when we need to ‘think outside the box’, to solve a design problem, to create a new invention. Apparently we are lacking sufficient yellow’…
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If I Had An Ipad
We currently don’t own an ipad, mostly because I haven’t been able to justify the expense ($380-$570 in Australia). Also I wonder will this be yet another area of battling the screen? I’m not totally opposed to owning one, and in the hope of doing so I’ve entered many contests hoping to win. I suspect there are many wonderful educational opportunities we have yet to discover, but for now I just read posts such as the ladies below share and absorb. Chareen @ Every Bed of Roses – My Favourite Apps and Websites for Learning Hwee @ The Tiger Chronicle – Technology: A Few Considerations A few things to consider with…
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Kindling & Fanning Scientific Minds
The well known quote “education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire”, encapsulates our educational philosophy, a less erudite phrase that also sums up our approach is, “there is more than one way to skin a cat.” These two phrases shine forth quite strongly in our approach to understanding and learning about scientific matters. Our science journey begins in the early years by encouraging exploration of the world around us. Living in the bush our lifestyle naturally lends itself to plenty of nature study opportunities, we combine this with the reading of many living books as well as books from our DK collection. A well written living book is…
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It Takes a Community
Twenty five years ago my mother began home educating my younger siblings, this was a pivotal time to be home educating in NSW, Australia. Home education was little known and illegal, my mum fought for rights that her children and in turn her grandchildren have enjoyed. A couple of years after mum made this brave decision, the political climate in NSW changed and we won the right to home educate. Our freedom to home educate is not something I ever take for granted having been right there on the front of the trenches, seeing ‘the good fight fought.’ Shortly after these changes the home education movement saw a boom and obviously my…
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Creating Synergy
Whilst co-ops are an important resource for many home educators in the States, they don’t play a major role in Australia, although they exist in the major cities I haven’t experienced any in rural Australia. Periodically local home education groups may gather and parents share and impart skills, but formal co-ops certainly haven’t been part of my experience within the home education movement of the past 30 years. Co-ops haven’t flourished in rural Australia for a number of factors, primarily our numbers are low, in our region, population 50,000 we have approximately 10 home educating families. Then many home educating families aren’t interested in mixing and there is a general unwillingness to sacrifice…
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Handwriting Boot Camp
In ‘A Day in the Life of a Homeschooled Teenager‘ I mentioned ‘handwriting boot camp’, and Charlotte asked for more detail. The handwriting of the majority of our boys has long been a point of despair, issues addressed over the years have been numerous. Incorrect pencil grip, starting letters at the incorrect ‘clock’ position, sloppy and careless formation, incorrect posture, lack of spatial awareness leading to incorrect spacing between words, non-uniformity of letter sizing and inconsistent use of capital and lower case letters are the main culprits. Several years ago when reading You can Teach Your Child Successfully: Grades 4-8 I was inspired by Ruth Beechick’s suggestion of tackling handwriting by holding a ‘boot camp’. ‘Boot camp’…
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Plating Up
In our early years as a family, many an afternoon I would ring my husband at 4.30pm at work and ask him, “What will we have for tea!?” Not planning properly and frozen in decision making, we consequently bought pizza on far too many nights! I came to realise that the key to success for us in our cooking juggle was organisation. On the days that I thought about tea immediately after breakfast and removed meat from the freezer accordingly, were the days all went well (at least in the meal arena;) It became apparent that I functioned far better with a plan, I was not good at making…
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Language Arts Foundation
This month’s Homeschool Highschool Carnival is hosted by Every Bed of Roses and some have chosen to chat about: Language Arts in High School.… What does your language arts program look like? What influences your choices/selection? (Not focusing on Literature nor Writing, both to be discussed in sepearate carnivals) At first thought, discussing our Language Arts program without focusing on Literature or Writing seems rather devoid, yet our LA program is multi-faceted, after reflection I realised there is much to discuss. The title Language Arts is a broad term, encompassing not only the foundational basics but also the development and fruition of possibilities. We have shared previously how my husband and I…
