Learning
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Papal Notebook, Past and Present Popes, Church Hierarchy & Habemus Papam
We managed to finish our papal notebook🙂 A major focus, and I learnt a few facts about my children and notebooking along the way. Princess loves notebooking and was quite happy to complete all on offer. Jelly Bean and Jack Jack were keen and interested in the first week and after that…. not happy. Is this age or is it personality? I suspect the later, at least in regards to the girls, JJ is still young so his verdict is not yet in. Trying to discern the implications of my observations for future approaches. Unit Two: Holy Fathers Past and Present We’d read all of the recommended books in the first week,…
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Leaving Home
Hard to believe it was only a month ago that Carpenter left home, it seems much longer than that, so much has happened since. The day he left was hard, at least for those left at home, just as it was when Anna Maria left, leaving days don’t get easier with subsequent children. Prior to Carpenter leaving life became a huge rush, there was much to fit in, sitting for his STAT test only days prior to departure was the major emotional focus, plus fare-welling his regular commitments, adding in a few new social events and a surprise party organised by his friends, well done J & J! With plenty of last minute rushing about including clothes…
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Papal Notebook, “Thou Art Peter…”
Inspired by Jessica’s awesome Papal notebook, we decided to follow along. Jessica’s family is a week ahead of us, which is actually extremely helpful as she has broken the study down into week size bites. This week we studied St Peter, the First Pope, a great beginning. All three of our younger children including our 4 year old, have now memorised “You are Peter and on this rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matt 16:18) Whilst Jessica has designed the unit for lapbooks, as a family we find notebook pages work easier for us, it is a simple matter to use…
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Pobblebonks
After reading Pobblebonk by Gary Fleming this week we suddenly were inspired to create A Book & Activity craft, I love spontaneity:) A quick search through Pinterest revealed a frog puppet and we were set. Recently I had added a few craft supplies to our grocery shop including paper plates and bags in preparation for many crafts. I admit the legs should have been thinner but the children didn’t care. Bass is now old enough to join in, he was so happy with his frog. Jelly Bean was the first to finish:) Jack Jack loves crafts of any kind, so pleased we made the time.
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Creating Our First Faith Notebook
Notebooking and living books are Princess’ favourite learning approaches, and as the oldest of the younger set she has a powerful vote. Therefore, inspired by the wonderful Catholic notebooks shared at Take Up and Read we’ve found a fantastic way to enjoy our Faith studies this year. We decided to kick off with a small version of Willa’s Adam and Eve notebook, but like with most things we adapted a little. The truth is I can rarely understand nor work out the different flap flip and squash books, sometimes I stumble upon the correct method but mostly I just glue and staple and make it work. Somehow we managed to make our…
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Keeping Records
This month’s Homeschool High School Carnival is hosted by Creating With Wisdom and I’m chatting about …..Record Keeping In the early days of our home education journey I would buy a business diary every year with half an A4 page of blank lines for each day, however on a good week I only managed to write one or two entries. After a few years of feeling like a record keeping failure, I began buying blank notebooks and aimed to write one entry summation at the conclusion of each week. Whilst that didn’t always happen I no longer had blank days accusing me, mostly I managed to write at the end…
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A Love For Reading
One of the greatest joys as a homeschooling mama is sharing that moment when your child ‘clicks’ with reading. Jelly Bean (8.8) has finally reached that coveted place. As I walked through the loungeroom this week, catching JB reading to Jack Jack I rejoiced. Not only was she reading to him but in turn she was encouraging him to read after her. Too sweet:):) It has been a long road to reach this point, the bookworm challenge certainly helped, indeed it has helped both our new readers. JB and JJ(6.8) have read over 40+ books, and both their reading skills have improved drastically. Jelly Bean is now capable of tackling…
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Australian Pictorial Social Studies
This term we’re studying Australian explorers, specifically our Inland explorers. When gathering resources I recalled this set of books with great fondness. The series is titled ‘Pictorial Social Studies’ with a little logo labelled ‘Australian Visual Education’. Published in 1958, with 55 books in the set, covering not only Australian history but social studies worldwide. My favourite however are the Australian history books, covering the Settlement and expansion, exploration, Gold and more. Written in comic form they are chock full of information without overloading and the visual presentation totally engages the children, ‘whetting the appetite’ for more information. Australian history buffs, I suggest you check out ebay and gumtree. One reason I know they…
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Supporting Our Scientist
This month’s carnival is hosted by Lapaz Home Learning and I’m chatting about: Science in High School…. All of our children have been interested in science to varying degrees but for the purpose of this carnival I wish to share in particular the journey of our son, Einstein. He is our first to plan on making a career in the science field. During the last few weeks not only have we been focused on Carpenter and our last minute dash to enrol him in College, simultaneously we have been researching and discerning what steps are needed to support Einstein in his journey as a scientist. Einstein desires to attend one of the leading science universities…
