Learning
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Spreading His Wings and Flying
In only three short weeks our eldest son will be leaving home! Our second child to ‘leave the nest’ and only 12 short months after his sister, how quickly the ‘ranks’ are thinning! Carpenter’s departure date has been rather unexpected and has happened with a rapidity that is only just sinking in. He is excited and keen to begin the next part of his life journey. Twelve months ago Carpenter’s casual job became full time in many respects. For six months he juggled a full schedule until deciding his study was suffering and he needed to scale back, during the next six months he focused on his studies and his…
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Striving to Find and Maintain Our Stride
This month’s Homeschool High School Carnival is hosted by Cherished Hearts at Home and some of us are chatting about: Finding our Stride.…Homeschoolers with highschoolers, particularly long term homeschoolers tend to find a groove. How has your family’s educational philosophy evolved over the years? Where do you find yourself in the highschool years? We began our home education journey full of enthusiasm and ideals, certain we knew the way to ‘success’, however, we had some lessons to learn;) We were heavily influenced by the philosophies of Natural Learning (unschooling), Unit Study and Charlotte Mason, and whilst these served us in the younger years, though with varying degrees of success, by the highschool years it…
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Living History
“Imagination does not stir at the suggestion of the feeble, much diluted stuff that is too often put into children’s hands.” “The fatal mistake is in the notion that he must learn ‘outlines,’ of the whole history…of the world. Let him, on the contrary, linger pleasantly over the history of a single man, a short period, until he thinks the thoughts of that man, is at home in the ways of that period. Though he is reading and thinking of the life time of a single man, he is really getting intimately acquainted with the history of a whole nation for a whole age.” Charlotte Mason Charlotte Mason’s principles of…
- Blog, Family, Home Education, Home Education - Beyond, Home Education - Highschool, Learning, Living
Calendar Countdown!!
Many families at this time of the year are marking down their Advent calendars. We however, aren’t focused on Advent calendars ’cause we’re busy marking down the days until Anna Maria arrives home. Three days till she is here!!!!!! It has been a long year without her, five long months since she was home. Safe travels to our darling girl, we can hardly wait:):){{{}}}
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The Littlest Girl Was Madeline
We’ve been rather occupied with learning to read of late so when the children asked for ‘a book and activity‘, I was happy to oblige but had to do a last minute scramble. Amongst a whole slew of books I read one morning were a few Madeline books, we enjoyed Madeline, Madeline’s Rescue and Madeline and the Bad Hat. So Madeline was naturally our theme. Surprisingly Madeline crafts were hard to find, I did find an awesome hat craft but alas didn’t have the materials needed. We considered making a paper Paris, or colouring, we decided to make Madeline toilet roll dolls. They soon had created these beauties, and all were happy.…
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The Maths Equation
This month’s Homeschool High School Carnival is hosted by Fisher Academy International and some of us are chatting about: Homeschool Highschool Maths What does your Homeschool Highschool Maths program look like? What influenced your choices/selection? The Foundation Laying a strong foundational aptitude and positive attitude towards maths begins in the earliest years. Encouraging ‘living maths experiences, ie “How many knives do we need to set the table?” Engaging in maths through chatting, “If 8 + 8 = 16, what do you think 7 + 8 would equal?” To finding the ‘right key’ when/if searching for a more formal program are all ‘part of the equation’;) When introducing maths in…
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Launching a Later Reader
A few weeks back I asked my readers for advice regards motivating a later reader. “Any great ideas on how to motivate an 8yr old girl to read? She is so close to reading independently but doesn’t want to put in the hard work, ’cause it is hard at this stage. I’m open to bribery suggestions;)” I received some great suggestions, they included, bribery with cake, bingo sheets, paying 1c/page, ‘motivation’ with a Maccas meal, further ideas via a link or hosting a reading competition with a book as a reward. The last suggestion was from our Anna Maria and reminded me of our ‘Bookworm Competitions’ that we began five years…
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Fostering Independence
This month’s Homeschool High School Carnival is hosted by Living Without School and we are chatting about: Nurturing Independence in High School…. To what extent do your highschoolers collaborate in planning their studies, how do you encourage your highschoolers to take the reins of their education, what tools do you use and how is this input communicated? We have always involved our children in the planning of their studies, by highschool they are full collaborators in directing their education, I discussed this a little previously, “Planning for our high schoolers is simply a matter of keeping our goals in mind. We plan on a term by term basis, this allows for flexibility to follow interest…
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A Week With Mem Fox
This week during our Book & Activity time we focused on our collection of Mem Fox titles. Mem Fox’s books do not naturally attract me but as I’ve shared previously, watching our children, particularly our emerging readers engage with her books has helped me develop a new appreciation of her writing. The first day we read Where is the Green Sheep?, Arabella the Smallest Girl in the World and The Magic Hat. Making a ‘Magic Hat’ was a huge hit! The attention to detail and creativity was wonderful to watch, the children were so enthused! Our Book & Activity time has become a treasured time each day (or rather every second day). On our second day we read Shoes from Grandpa, Harriet You’ll…
