We've had a busy but fun week this week!
We didn't get around to doing any specific letter this week but did talk about the letters a lot. Instead of focusing on their names we're working on their sounds more. The boys are both picking that up quite quickly which is good. I think they were having trouble with the whole alphabet concept because I was focusing too much on the names of the letters rather than the sounds they make.
~* This week was a playgroup week for our Homeschooling playgroup. We went swimming together which was a hit. The kids all love the water. We had an older boy come along for the first time - he is 8. It was great for the younger ones to have him there and they all got along really well. Next week we are going to start going along to a mixed ages homeschooling group. After playgroup this week, I'm looking forward to it even more - I think Liam will really benefit from mixing with children of all ages. He's always really liked being around older children so he'll enjoy it.
My mum came along to our playgroup this week. I was a bit nervous about what she'd think but it went over well. It was good for her to talk to other homeschoolers and hear about their experiences.
~* We had our first visit to the nursing home this week. We got to have morning tea with the residents in the dementia ward. The boys were a little unsure at first and Liam was quite annoyed about being asked his name over and over again. He got quite angry at one of the ladies there. I was so embarrassed but they handled it really well and were very understanding - I think they expected that it would take a little while for the boys to get used to the different behaviour. I hadn't really thought that it would be a problem for Liam so was a bit shocked when he got upset with them. It is a big difference to the adults he usually is in touch with so it much have come as a suprise to talk to an adult that was so child-like. Once he had his outburst though, he went and held a few people's hands and listened to them talk so it wasn't a disaster at all! I spoke with the coordinator and we agreed that we will stick to shorted visits and build up from there. We're going to go for morning tea again next Wednesday and I'm going to make sure that the boys take a toy to show the residents - something to talk about other than names! Liam is keen to teach them all about Star Wars so that should be interesting!!
~* Liam and Ewan have been getting quite good at helping out around the house. It feels like just a couple of weeks ago that I was yelling at them to do anything - now though they seem to enjoy it! So nice! I have started encouraging them to make their own beds in the morning, they bring their bowls to the kitchen after meals, sometimes help with the washing up, and are getting very good at tidying up after they play with their toys. Liam helped me to make crumbed chicken for dinner the other night. He did all the crumbing steps and really enjoyed it. He used to love cutting up vegies too but has cut his fingers a couple of times this year so is very wary of using a knife now. He's such a worrier! Ewan, on the other hand, can't wait to get his hands on a knife!! He loves chopping things up and he's enjoying helping with the dishes too - though it's mostly just pouring water in and out of cups and jugs.
~* We had our first session of Kids Sports on Monday afternoon. The council is putting it on for free in our local park. The boys had a ball. They did lots of games - running around, playing with balls, sack races and obstacle courses. It was really good so we will be going to that again.
~* Hmm what else..... we did counting a lot this week. Liam is into lining up all of his Star Wars toys to count. We also did counting with some glass stones that I have and a box with little compartments - so we'd put one stone in the first section and then repeat up to fifteen. I have written the numbers on the base of each section. We also did playdough and lots of independant craft activities - the boys have access to most of our craft supplies and just get it all out and make things when the creative urge strikes!
Sunday 25 February 2007
Friday 16 February 2007
Week Seven - February 12 - 18
I have been reading a book called "Reading Reflex" this week. It was recommended by another homeschooler so I put a hold on it and got it from the library. It's great! Definately been a few lightbulb moments reading it - it just makes so much sense! It talks about how confusing the phonics system is for children and also just the terms and way of looking at the alphabet and letters. The book also has lesson plans and materials to make to teach your children to read. It is well worth a look. I'm going to try some of the activities and see how we go. I had been going through the letters and alphabet the way that I had been taught - with learning the names of the letters and the sounds. Liam was already getting confused with it all. Letters like C - where when you say it's name it sounds like "see" but then it makes the sound "c". Reading the book made me understand why he was having trouble with it. Anyway, will let you know how we go over the next few weeks. You can check out Read America for more info about it.
This week was Letter G g week.
~* We made up a booklet that I printed off the net with pictures and words of things that started with the letter G. The boys also did a bit of writing whilst making the book. When the boys had finished the book, our conversation moved to colours and how when you combined them you could make other colours. Using crayons they rubbed and mixed colours together. I also showed them how you could rub crayon on one side of the paper, and then by placing the crayon rubbing face down on a clean piece of paper, and then drawing on top of it the crayon would rub off making the same pattern on the clean piece of paper.
~* Following on from our colours activities we also got out some tubs, glass jars, water, and food colouring to play with. The boys had a ball mixing different colours.
~* The boys drew some pitures and I wrote letters (dictated by them), for their cousins and Uncle and Aunt. We received a lovely present in the mail a few weeks ago so wanted to send a thank you note to them. I have been thinking about the art of letter writing lately. It's come up in a few conversations and the more I hear people talking about it, the more I think it's a great thing to encourage. I know how lovely it is to receive them and the boys enjoy receiving mail so much - it would be great for letter writing in general to make a come back. I used to write heaps of letters as a child and loved having pen friends.
~* We had lots of outside activities planned for last week but they unexpectedly got rained out! Despite that though we still got to the park twice this week - in between the rain. We met with friends in a great park and stayed on until the light shower turned into pouring rain. They also got to play in the rain. The boys were on their way to the park with Ben this morning when a storm hit. They weren't far from home so got back just before the downpour - the boys couldn't resist being out in the rain and ran around stomping in the puddles. They had a ball.
~* We had a meeting at a nursing home about starting as volunteers doing residential visits. The boys were great despite being in such a small office - though Liam was a bit dissappointed that we didn't get to meet any of the residents! We will be visiting the dementia ward and will go there next week to meet the coordinator and also the residents.
~* The boys pulled out their blocks again this week and we had lots of fun building towers and lookouts - for Star Wars characters of course!
~*I picked up some cheap tubes of glitter glue during the week on Liam's request. The boys spent ages making pictures with it. Liam would squirt out the glitter glue and then use a lollipop stick to spread the glue out and make patterns.
~* We saw the movie, "Happy Feet" on the weekend. The boys really enjoyed it and it sparked a lot of discussion about penguins, the impact human's have on the world, how the different animals interact (food chains and stuff like that). It was a little scary in a couple of parts but quite realistic and the scary bits were no different to things you would see in a documentary about penguins - sea lions trying to eat the penguins for example. So a thumbs up from us for Happy Feet.
This week was Letter G g week.
~* We made up a booklet that I printed off the net with pictures and words of things that started with the letter G. The boys also did a bit of writing whilst making the book. When the boys had finished the book, our conversation moved to colours and how when you combined them you could make other colours. Using crayons they rubbed and mixed colours together. I also showed them how you could rub crayon on one side of the paper, and then by placing the crayon rubbing face down on a clean piece of paper, and then drawing on top of it the crayon would rub off making the same pattern on the clean piece of paper.
~* Following on from our colours activities we also got out some tubs, glass jars, water, and food colouring to play with. The boys had a ball mixing different colours.
~* The boys drew some pitures and I wrote letters (dictated by them), for their cousins and Uncle and Aunt. We received a lovely present in the mail a few weeks ago so wanted to send a thank you note to them. I have been thinking about the art of letter writing lately. It's come up in a few conversations and the more I hear people talking about it, the more I think it's a great thing to encourage. I know how lovely it is to receive them and the boys enjoy receiving mail so much - it would be great for letter writing in general to make a come back. I used to write heaps of letters as a child and loved having pen friends.
~* We had lots of outside activities planned for last week but they unexpectedly got rained out! Despite that though we still got to the park twice this week - in between the rain. We met with friends in a great park and stayed on until the light shower turned into pouring rain. They also got to play in the rain. The boys were on their way to the park with Ben this morning when a storm hit. They weren't far from home so got back just before the downpour - the boys couldn't resist being out in the rain and ran around stomping in the puddles. They had a ball.
~* We had a meeting at a nursing home about starting as volunteers doing residential visits. The boys were great despite being in such a small office - though Liam was a bit dissappointed that we didn't get to meet any of the residents! We will be visiting the dementia ward and will go there next week to meet the coordinator and also the residents.
~* The boys pulled out their blocks again this week and we had lots of fun building towers and lookouts - for Star Wars characters of course!
~*I picked up some cheap tubes of glitter glue during the week on Liam's request. The boys spent ages making pictures with it. Liam would squirt out the glitter glue and then use a lollipop stick to spread the glue out and make patterns.
~* We saw the movie, "Happy Feet" on the weekend. The boys really enjoyed it and it sparked a lot of discussion about penguins, the impact human's have on the world, how the different animals interact (food chains and stuff like that). It was a little scary in a couple of parts but quite realistic and the scary bits were no different to things you would see in a documentary about penguins - sea lions trying to eat the penguins for example. So a thumbs up from us for Happy Feet.
Wednesday 7 February 2007
Week Six - February 5 - 11
Wow the weeks are flying past. I read about what others are doing and I feel like we're not doing enough or maybe we need more routine in place. Sigh - that is one thing about homeschooling that gets me - the amount of doubt and scrutiny that I put myself through. I wonder if I would still do it even if the boys were going to school though? Just seems like it is such a constant thing and even on the days that I am feeling confident it doesn't take a lot of questioning from outsiders for all of it to come back to me.
We had a good week this week. I think the lessons we learnt were more about social skills and compassion. Those types of learning are hard to put into words but I think they are some of the most valuable things that come from homeschooling.
This week was letter F week.
~* We didn't do a lot in terms of the letter F. I am finding it quite a hard thing to carry on. The boys are interested but on their own terms and in their own time. They like talking about the letters but I don't think they are quite grasping the concept of what they do in terms of reading and how their sounds make up the words we read/write/speak. So we only did a little about the letters. We did some writing and talked about F words. We also caught up on our alphabet book.
~* We had our homeschooling playgroup this week. Liam came home declaring it "the best playgroup ever". We went to a park and had an Australian theme - we made Australian flags and had a BBQ lunch - sausages on the barbie - very Aussie! The boys had a ball collecting the bark, leaves, and sticks to build up the fire for the BBQ. The flags were a winner too. The boys in the group had a great time throwing sticks into the duck pond and running around together. The boys love all of their new friends at our playgroup and I am really enjoying getting to know the mums too. It is such a lovely group of people and it is so easy being with them. The kids all get along really well and even though we do have our moments with the boys getting over excited they all look forward to seeing each other.
~* We made some Salt Dough on Wednesday. The boys made statues galore. Once they were baked we got out the paints to decorate them. It was a close friend's birthday last week so she received some home made statues - Liam made her cats (she is a huge cat lover) and Ewan made some ladybugs. They were a big hit.
~* Once the salt dough creations were painted we got out some paper to continue painting. The boys love to do butterfly prints - where you paint one side of the paper and then fold it over to make a print on the other side. The always make stunning pictures doing this - just gorgeous.
~*Crosswords - Liam and I have been doing the junior crossword from our free local paper each week. Liam is great with finding the answers to the clues and constantly amazes me with his vocabulary and also understanding of the words. There were a few clues this week that I thought he would find tricky but he gave me the answers with ease. One was "Alike". I was having a brain freeze and couldn't think of the answer - Liam meanwhile pipes up with "Similar". There were also some that needed some background knowledge that he learnt new vocab from - like the clue "Tree limbs" - I explained to him that our arms and our legs could also be called limbs and then asked him what he thought tree limbs would be - branches of course! A simple excersise (and one that I enjoy!) but so valuable.
~* My mum and dad were here for two nights this week too. For mum teaching comes naturally to her - she's not a professional teacher but is always making things in to learning experiences. Sometimes it bothers me (there's that doubt creeping in!!) because it seems like she is testing the boys but it is just something she does and the boys will learn a lot from her I'm sure. Dad is the same though he is not so constant with it! Mum had the boys going through different letters of the alphabet and finding words for each letter, she read countless books, and also talked with Liam about Navajo Indians and native American Indians. He really enjoyed it and always has so many questions!
~* Tomorrow we are planning a trip to the beach - the boys can't wait! And next week we have a few activities on too - there is a free sports program being run by our city council at our local park, we are meeting with friends at the pool, and we also have a meeting with a volunteer coordinator about doing visits to a nursing home. I'm really excited about finding out more about our visits to the nursing home and am looking forward to starting that. She told us that the residents in high care (a lot of people with dementia) really enjoy visits from children so we will be doing that which should be interesting. I have been wanting to get the boys involved in some volunteer work for a long time so I'm hoping that this works out for us. I'm a little nervous about it - Liam is so energetic and both the boys can be very noisy. Hopefully they will understand that they will need to be considerate of the residents and in turn that the residents/staff will be understanding towards us. Hmm will definately be a good experience either way!
We had a good week this week. I think the lessons we learnt were more about social skills and compassion. Those types of learning are hard to put into words but I think they are some of the most valuable things that come from homeschooling.
This week was letter F week.
~* We didn't do a lot in terms of the letter F. I am finding it quite a hard thing to carry on. The boys are interested but on their own terms and in their own time. They like talking about the letters but I don't think they are quite grasping the concept of what they do in terms of reading and how their sounds make up the words we read/write/speak. So we only did a little about the letters. We did some writing and talked about F words. We also caught up on our alphabet book.
~* We had our homeschooling playgroup this week. Liam came home declaring it "the best playgroup ever". We went to a park and had an Australian theme - we made Australian flags and had a BBQ lunch - sausages on the barbie - very Aussie! The boys had a ball collecting the bark, leaves, and sticks to build up the fire for the BBQ. The flags were a winner too. The boys in the group had a great time throwing sticks into the duck pond and running around together. The boys love all of their new friends at our playgroup and I am really enjoying getting to know the mums too. It is such a lovely group of people and it is so easy being with them. The kids all get along really well and even though we do have our moments with the boys getting over excited they all look forward to seeing each other.
~* We made some Salt Dough on Wednesday. The boys made statues galore. Once they were baked we got out the paints to decorate them. It was a close friend's birthday last week so she received some home made statues - Liam made her cats (she is a huge cat lover) and Ewan made some ladybugs. They were a big hit.
~* Once the salt dough creations were painted we got out some paper to continue painting. The boys love to do butterfly prints - where you paint one side of the paper and then fold it over to make a print on the other side. The always make stunning pictures doing this - just gorgeous.
~*Crosswords - Liam and I have been doing the junior crossword from our free local paper each week. Liam is great with finding the answers to the clues and constantly amazes me with his vocabulary and also understanding of the words. There were a few clues this week that I thought he would find tricky but he gave me the answers with ease. One was "Alike". I was having a brain freeze and couldn't think of the answer - Liam meanwhile pipes up with "Similar". There were also some that needed some background knowledge that he learnt new vocab from - like the clue "Tree limbs" - I explained to him that our arms and our legs could also be called limbs and then asked him what he thought tree limbs would be - branches of course! A simple excersise (and one that I enjoy!) but so valuable.
~* My mum and dad were here for two nights this week too. For mum teaching comes naturally to her - she's not a professional teacher but is always making things in to learning experiences. Sometimes it bothers me (there's that doubt creeping in!!) because it seems like she is testing the boys but it is just something she does and the boys will learn a lot from her I'm sure. Dad is the same though he is not so constant with it! Mum had the boys going through different letters of the alphabet and finding words for each letter, she read countless books, and also talked with Liam about Navajo Indians and native American Indians. He really enjoyed it and always has so many questions!
~* Tomorrow we are planning a trip to the beach - the boys can't wait! And next week we have a few activities on too - there is a free sports program being run by our city council at our local park, we are meeting with friends at the pool, and we also have a meeting with a volunteer coordinator about doing visits to a nursing home. I'm really excited about finding out more about our visits to the nursing home and am looking forward to starting that. She told us that the residents in high care (a lot of people with dementia) really enjoy visits from children so we will be doing that which should be interesting. I have been wanting to get the boys involved in some volunteer work for a long time so I'm hoping that this works out for us. I'm a little nervous about it - Liam is so energetic and both the boys can be very noisy. Hopefully they will understand that they will need to be considerate of the residents and in turn that the residents/staff will be understanding towards us. Hmm will definately be a good experience either way!
Monday 5 February 2007
Week Five - January 29 - February 4
This week was letter E week.
~*The boys did the usual worksheets and colouring in. We also did painting with our hands and feet (no brushes!) which the boys loved. After they'd done lots of hand and foot prints and finger painting, I painted out their names with my finger for them to copy. Liam did his name really well and also did some letter Es - one that he is going to keep to give to Ewan on his birthday too!
~*We went swimming this week for our Thursday playgroup - although none of our friends turned up we still had a great time. The boys just love the water. It was our off week from our homeschooling playgroup so instead we went to visit Nonna Lucy and Nonno Peter (the boy's great grandparents). They always enjoy seeing them which is good. Liam and my grandfather had an interesting conversation about school - I wasn't in the room but could hear them and just let Liam handle it. It went like this -
Nonno Peter - You going to school now?
Liam - No
Nonno Peter - How old you?
Liam - 4
Nonno Peter - So you go to school next year?
Liam - No
Nonno Peter - Yes you have to go to school next year
Liam - No I'm not going to school!
Nonno Peter - *laughing* yes you go to school
Liam - No I'm staying at home
I came in at this point so got a couple of questions about it too! I didn't want to tell them too much so just said that he would stay at home this year and next year and then he might go to school. The were rolling their eyes at this, while Liam piped up with "I am never going to school Mum!". Oops! I felt awful for saying that with him around - I didn't really realise how much he wanted to stay with me. Just goes to show that honesty is the best thing - even if it means being criticised. I think it is really important for Liam to see that I'm confident about this and that I believe in it. That has been a major theme of this week too - seems like everyone is asking us about schooling and even Ben and I have been discussing it all. Ben is still not totally convinced if this is the best thing to do. We have agreed though to try it for a couple of years before reassessing. I am really proud of Liam though and his ability to be confident and assertive. I really want him to keep those qualities and I think to do that he will need good role models so that is something that I need to work on! It has certainly been an interesting week though and we have all learnt a lot.
~* In other learning, the boys have started getting back into their craft again. Liam had a break for over a month but yesterday started creating again and has made some wonderful things. Yesterday he made a computer with a mouse out of a box and some other bits and pieces for the mouse and the cord connecting it. He also made a special headband out of straws and Scoobies (plastic strings) for Ben to use when he's mowing - it's to keep his hair out of his eyes....... Liam obviously hasn't learnt about receding hairlines yet......
The boys also had fun with Blu Tack - I gave them each a ball and they made miniture people, aeroplanes, and animals. We have a bag of little plastic pieces that they used for eyes, arms, legs, and wings.
~* I bought some posters last week and had them laminated this week. There is one of the alphabet (with both upper and lower case letters in Queensland script), one of the solar system (Liam's choice!), and also one that counts to 100 (it is in black and white and has the numbers set out so that it is really easy to see the pattern with counting through the 20s, 30s, 40s etc.). We have done a lot of talking about the solar system and counting how many moons the planets have. We aslo talked about which planets are hot and which are cold - the boys are able to tell which are which from their distance from the sun. We also talked about the number board - we looked at how old each of us is and also our grandparents. It really helped Liam to "see" the years and look at the difference in ages. We also did some races and running to touch numbers. The alphabet poster has been good too - It's good to have a visual there all the time so that when they ask what a certain letter looks like it's easy to see it straight away.
~*That's about it - I'm sure there are things I missed - like the cleaning up we did, the running races, our trip to the Op Shop and the Library, the mountain of books we read, and the million games of Star Wars that were played - but that's just life and all this stuff is just the extra that we do and stuff that I feel like writing about.
~*The boys did the usual worksheets and colouring in. We also did painting with our hands and feet (no brushes!) which the boys loved. After they'd done lots of hand and foot prints and finger painting, I painted out their names with my finger for them to copy. Liam did his name really well and also did some letter Es - one that he is going to keep to give to Ewan on his birthday too!
~*We went swimming this week for our Thursday playgroup - although none of our friends turned up we still had a great time. The boys just love the water. It was our off week from our homeschooling playgroup so instead we went to visit Nonna Lucy and Nonno Peter (the boy's great grandparents). They always enjoy seeing them which is good. Liam and my grandfather had an interesting conversation about school - I wasn't in the room but could hear them and just let Liam handle it. It went like this -
Nonno Peter - You going to school now?
Liam - No
Nonno Peter - How old you?
Liam - 4
Nonno Peter - So you go to school next year?
Liam - No
Nonno Peter - Yes you have to go to school next year
Liam - No I'm not going to school!
Nonno Peter - *laughing* yes you go to school
Liam - No I'm staying at home
I came in at this point so got a couple of questions about it too! I didn't want to tell them too much so just said that he would stay at home this year and next year and then he might go to school. The were rolling their eyes at this, while Liam piped up with "I am never going to school Mum!". Oops! I felt awful for saying that with him around - I didn't really realise how much he wanted to stay with me. Just goes to show that honesty is the best thing - even if it means being criticised. I think it is really important for Liam to see that I'm confident about this and that I believe in it. That has been a major theme of this week too - seems like everyone is asking us about schooling and even Ben and I have been discussing it all. Ben is still not totally convinced if this is the best thing to do. We have agreed though to try it for a couple of years before reassessing. I am really proud of Liam though and his ability to be confident and assertive. I really want him to keep those qualities and I think to do that he will need good role models so that is something that I need to work on! It has certainly been an interesting week though and we have all learnt a lot.
~* In other learning, the boys have started getting back into their craft again. Liam had a break for over a month but yesterday started creating again and has made some wonderful things. Yesterday he made a computer with a mouse out of a box and some other bits and pieces for the mouse and the cord connecting it. He also made a special headband out of straws and Scoobies (plastic strings) for Ben to use when he's mowing - it's to keep his hair out of his eyes....... Liam obviously hasn't learnt about receding hairlines yet......
The boys also had fun with Blu Tack - I gave them each a ball and they made miniture people, aeroplanes, and animals. We have a bag of little plastic pieces that they used for eyes, arms, legs, and wings.
~* I bought some posters last week and had them laminated this week. There is one of the alphabet (with both upper and lower case letters in Queensland script), one of the solar system (Liam's choice!), and also one that counts to 100 (it is in black and white and has the numbers set out so that it is really easy to see the pattern with counting through the 20s, 30s, 40s etc.). We have done a lot of talking about the solar system and counting how many moons the planets have. We aslo talked about which planets are hot and which are cold - the boys are able to tell which are which from their distance from the sun. We also talked about the number board - we looked at how old each of us is and also our grandparents. It really helped Liam to "see" the years and look at the difference in ages. We also did some races and running to touch numbers. The alphabet poster has been good too - It's good to have a visual there all the time so that when they ask what a certain letter looks like it's easy to see it straight away.
~*That's about it - I'm sure there are things I missed - like the cleaning up we did, the running races, our trip to the Op Shop and the Library, the mountain of books we read, and the million games of Star Wars that were played - but that's just life and all this stuff is just the extra that we do and stuff that I feel like writing about.
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