Living
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Planning for the Upcoming Term Part 2
When the children were all primary age literature and poetry reading happened constantly and easily, for some inexplicable reason it has been far more of an effort and only happened infrequently during the last couple of years:( To facilitate literature sharing I have started planning book and poetry lists. But just as importantly as what is to happen I needed to plan when. Last term I started Circle Time and broadened this to include poetry and picture books with my younger children. At the end of term I was determined to have a read aloud time with my older children, we started hosting this at 10am before our morning tea…
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Planning for the Upcoming Term Part 1
Planning looks different for every family, in this household planning even looks different every term, dependent on many factors. Factors to take into consideration include children’s learning styles, mum’s teaching style, children’s interests and mum’s strengths and weaknesses and simply the sheer logistics of a large family. Oh yeah and this term I have to factor in a new baby due in 10 weeks! and a First Confession, First Holy Communion, my Mum’s Wedding, my mil coming for an extended stay, soccer season continuing, Dh starting his CPA course, Dd’s birthday and, well you get the picture, life. I’m not a planner by nature, that is I’m not good at…
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Homeschool Time Management for Children
Desire to imbibe our children with a thirst for knowledge has long been part of our goals, ideas always abound in our thoughts but how to translate this into the practical, the reality of educating and nurturing seven children is the question. The simple reality is that in the not too distant past we had several children who for various reasons needed to learn to be more independent in their studies. As well, listening to older and wiser home educating mothers we realised that a vital skill we needed to impart to our children was time management. In the not too distant future we will be addressing the transition to…
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I Didn’t Even Ask This Time!
A couple of weeks ago I dropped into a friend’s garage sale and saw some beautiful solid timber shelves. I looked at it and pondered, “I really like them, I’m sure I could use them for something very useful but just what.” My friend wandered over and upon being asked what she had used them for, told me that they had held jigsaws. “Done” I quickly said, envisaging my Montessori ‘work’ upon the shelves. So for $10 I had a perfect set of shelves and I hadn’t even asked this time.
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What We Found on Our Lawn
Early one morning last week PC and I heard the dog barking and Michelangelo calling for us to come quickly. Only twenty meters from our front door lay a dead dingo! This was a new sight for all of us, obviously one of the neighbours must have laid baits. But what a strange place for a dingo to lie down to die, on our front lawn. As dingoes go he looked to be in the prime of his life.
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Ask and Ye Shall Receive…..Again
Once again God has answered my wants, it wasn’t with something I had to have but something I wanted. He is indeed good to me. For some time I have been wanting a cork board as I haven’t been able to hang the children’s work on the wall anymore because the blue-tac just wouldn’t work:( I priced cork boards and they were rather on the expensive side and simply way too small. A friend suggested cork wall tiles to make into the size I wanted, when I went to the shop they were out and couldn’t tell me when they would be back in stock. So it was one of…
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Picture Book Time
One of my new resolutions is to regularly fit in picture book time with my younger ones. By younger I mean Michaelangelo, Princess and Jelly Bean and of course Jack Jack. For some reason snuggling up with picture books once a great mainstay of our life has fallen by the wayside. I am determined to re-instate this time where it belongs – daily. To this end I am going to keep myself accountable by recording on the sidebar just what we have read. On the first day of ‘kick of’ I shared with Princess that we were going to pick a group of books around a theme and enjoy them.…
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Swimming Carnival
Easter Thursday saw our family traveling to our local Home Education Swimming Carnival. One of the wonderful things I love about the area we live in the opportunities our Home Educated children have, we do not take it for granted that they are privileged to have swimming and athletic carnivals and end of year concerts. These events are not common and not in all areas. The children were keen, this was the second year we had attended and Princess particularly had been preparing hard for the last couple of terms with swimming lessons. Imagine Princess’ joy when she won most of her races:) and then she was pretty proud to…
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Rich Ideas for Our Little Ones
A wonderful new blog has appeared First Heralds dedicated to our young children’s Faith formation. I quote their mission statement:Through the grace of the sacrament of marriage, parents receive the responsibility and privilege of evangelizing their children. Parents should initiate their children at an early age into the mysteries of the faith of which they are the “first heralds” for their children. They should associate them from their tenderest years with the life of the Church. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2225-6) I really encourage you to drop in regularly, many wonderful treasure already. Another new blog is Play in Time by dedicated Marianne who is sharing her passion and…
