As we are about to enter into our 5th week homeschooling, I realised that I've not done up a post on the 3rd week and almost didn't get around to the 4th week.
It has felt like we've not 'done' a lot 'of school work this last few weeks. I have been quiet busy with hospital and doctors appointments for Silas, Aliya and myself.
As a collective we managed to do the basics each day, maths, english and a bit of history work with a start on some lapbooks, but not a lot of anything else. We generally try to finish up our school work by 1ish, but with all these morning appts chucked into the week, I've found it hard to get our rhythm going.
Silas is still being defiant when it comes to learning, I think its just a general 'testing how far he can push things' boy attitude. Since hes in 'prep' I'm thinking of just relaxing abit with him and go for a more natural learning approach.
Callum seems to be of the opinion that he needs to be 'nagged' to learn anything! He still has this 'school suxz' attitude and won't venture to even attempt any learning unless scheduled or pushed. I've had a sit down with him to explain that homeschooling isn't all about nagging to get things done and that he can direct his own learning based on his interest as well as doing 'what needs to be done'. I'm hoping that this pep talk has an effect on him this week.....
Both Livia and Aliya are still on track with their learning (which I'm thankful for, if all 4 of the kids were being difficult about learning, it would totally do my head in!)
I'm not sure how it will go this week, we're out of the house all day on Monday with the homeschooling classes, and then Silas is having dental surgery and I'll be with him all day on Tuesday, while Mike is home with the rest of the kids. Hopefully Silas won't need all my attention on Wednesday so I'll be able to help the big kids get back in the swing of things.....
Improvements to aim for during the week
1. Work on routine
2. Encourage and foster some sort of love of learning in Callum
3. Perhaps add a rewards system, for the girls especially and perhaps as extra encouragement for the boys to participate to their potential :)
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Art - Inspired by James Rizzi
The kids had great fun recreating pop art by James Rizzi today. I have to confess that I would never have come across this artist's work myself, I'm just not an arty crafty sort of gal. (Though I'm in the process of learning a lot more about art)
Livia participates in an art class run by a homeschooling network, and was introduced to pop art in her latest lesson.
It looked so fun I decided to also do this activity at home with the family. Every one from Silas (5) to Callum (12) participated and really enjoyed it, I even decided to join in with this one :) I was well impressed with the level of operation between the kids and of course praised them, to which their reply was "We're being good because we're learning something fun!" lol!!
Firstly we drew our designs with pastels and then used water colours to paint.
And here are their finished pieces of work!
Created by Silas
Created by Livia
Created by Aliya
Created by CallumSunday, February 12, 2012
Why are we homeschooling?
You see this time last year, homeschooling was not on my to do list. Back in the day (10 or so years ago), when I 'only' had 2 children, I was a big fan of Natural Parenting Forums and I came across the idea of homeschooling. But being young, I thought that I had to 'have it all', a career, 2 income family, and of course, a nice little family in a nice local school. There was also the little hurdle of having the family think I was crazy! and also that I didn't know of anyone who actually homeschooled!
SO over the years my family grew and I did wonderfully well with my career, even to the point where I was considered for management, but I was never happy, always felt that I could never 'give my best', as a mother or as an employee. Then in 2009, I decided to make the choice to 'just' be a stay at home mum. I have to admit that it was initially a struggle to find the joy in 'just' being a stay at home mum. The constant chores, nappies, kids constantly needing attention, never any 'down/me' time. There is so little value placed on motherhood, that it took me a few years to really appreciate the fortunate position I am in, being able to choose to be with my children.
Around the middle of last year, we had to start seriously considering which highschool Callum would be going to in 2012. I knew the local public school was out, it was a big highschool, which services a lot of suburbs, and didn't necessarily have the best reputation. (But I'm sure that there has been many successes with students there also). For years I had said that my children would attend the local private high school, small, successful outcomes with it students, close to home, but unfortunately had the price tag to go with it. Sending the children to this school would mean a lot of financial sacrifice for the family, which we're not in a position to do atm.
So I mentioned to Mike the idea of homeschooling for the highschool years and I looked into it and BOOM! since the last time I researched, there had been an explosion of resources, forums and more importantly, actual 'real life' families out there homeschooling their kids!! And they were local!! YAY!
Since then, I have immersed myself into the homeschooling 'way of life' reading blogs, making connections and dare I say it friends with other homeschooling families :) I've gathered resources and even renovated a space for our homeschool experience. I even did my 'crazy homeschool talk' on the reallies who came to understand that I mean to give this my best shot :) The time I spent preparing really did make things a lot easier then suddenly pulling the kids out of school, even though I was keen to start our homeschooling journey.
Don't get me wrong, the school the kids were attending was and is fantastic. The kids got along great with their peers, the girls excelled in their work and were often coming home with prizes and glowing reports from their teachers. Callum, being a typical boy, was the class clown, did well at subjects he liked, but overall did well at school. And if it did come to a stage where the kids did need to attend school they would be going back there (apart from Callum who is now high school). Can you believe that the Principle, in her 27 years of being a teacher, had never come across a mother who wanted to home school her kids?? NEVER!
I'm so glad that I had the confidence to actually go ahead with home schooling, and while I understand that this is not for everyone, perhaps eventually it won't be for us, at least I can say I did it and not what if. So far things have gone really well, not as hard or as draining as I thought it would be. I can already see our family becoming closer, the kids still have their spats, but are not so divided any more. We've only hit our 4th 'official' week of homeschooling, so really I can't comment on how things will pan out, but I'm optimistic for the future and I am planning on homeschooling for a long while yet :)
They say the 1st year is the toughest. I think the challenge for us will be the adjustment from being school kids to being homeschooled. Realising that learning happens all the time and not just from a text book. And just saying yes more often then not.
Fingers crossed we find that balance, and that we all fall deeply in love with homeschooling :)
SO over the years my family grew and I did wonderfully well with my career, even to the point where I was considered for management, but I was never happy, always felt that I could never 'give my best', as a mother or as an employee. Then in 2009, I decided to make the choice to 'just' be a stay at home mum. I have to admit that it was initially a struggle to find the joy in 'just' being a stay at home mum. The constant chores, nappies, kids constantly needing attention, never any 'down/me' time. There is so little value placed on motherhood, that it took me a few years to really appreciate the fortunate position I am in, being able to choose to be with my children.
Around the middle of last year, we had to start seriously considering which highschool Callum would be going to in 2012. I knew the local public school was out, it was a big highschool, which services a lot of suburbs, and didn't necessarily have the best reputation. (But I'm sure that there has been many successes with students there also). For years I had said that my children would attend the local private high school, small, successful outcomes with it students, close to home, but unfortunately had the price tag to go with it. Sending the children to this school would mean a lot of financial sacrifice for the family, which we're not in a position to do atm.
So I mentioned to Mike the idea of homeschooling for the highschool years and I looked into it and BOOM! since the last time I researched, there had been an explosion of resources, forums and more importantly, actual 'real life' families out there homeschooling their kids!! And they were local!! YAY!
Since then, I have immersed myself into the homeschooling 'way of life' reading blogs, making connections and dare I say it friends with other homeschooling families :) I've gathered resources and even renovated a space for our homeschool experience. I even did my 'crazy homeschool talk' on the reallies who came to understand that I mean to give this my best shot :) The time I spent preparing really did make things a lot easier then suddenly pulling the kids out of school, even though I was keen to start our homeschooling journey.
Don't get me wrong, the school the kids were attending was and is fantastic. The kids got along great with their peers, the girls excelled in their work and were often coming home with prizes and glowing reports from their teachers. Callum, being a typical boy, was the class clown, did well at subjects he liked, but overall did well at school. And if it did come to a stage where the kids did need to attend school they would be going back there (apart from Callum who is now high school). Can you believe that the Principle, in her 27 years of being a teacher, had never come across a mother who wanted to home school her kids?? NEVER!
I'm so glad that I had the confidence to actually go ahead with home schooling, and while I understand that this is not for everyone, perhaps eventually it won't be for us, at least I can say I did it and not what if. So far things have gone really well, not as hard or as draining as I thought it would be. I can already see our family becoming closer, the kids still have their spats, but are not so divided any more. We've only hit our 4th 'official' week of homeschooling, so really I can't comment on how things will pan out, but I'm optimistic for the future and I am planning on homeschooling for a long while yet :)
They say the 1st year is the toughest. I think the challenge for us will be the adjustment from being school kids to being homeschooled. Realising that learning happens all the time and not just from a text book. And just saying yes more often then not.
Fingers crossed we find that balance, and that we all fall deeply in love with homeschooling :)
Meet the Students Aussie NBTS Blog Hop
I'm pretty excited to finally be able to join in with the NTBS Blog Hop. This is our 4th week of homeschooling :)
I'm keeping it short and sweet and will add a recent pic soonish :)
Callum (12) year 8
Schooling History - preschool to year 7
Likes - xbox, playing football, angry birds,
Dislikes - anything to do with school work
Wants to be - someone who travels and works with animals as he is a passionate animal advocate
Livia (11)
School History - preschool to year 6
Likes - reading, littlest pet shop, animals, computer games, expanding her mind with weird facts, learning languages
Dislikes - repetitive school work
Wants to be - a linguist, or in a position with travel
Aliya (8)
School History - prep to year 2
Likes - reading, computer games, animals, arts, baking, dancing, singing, dressing up
Dislikes - boring school work
Wants to be - various things have been mentioned but nothing concrete yet, which is great :)
Silas (5)
School History - part time pre-prep last year
Likes - Pokemon, angry birds, animals,
Dislikes - school work unless its fun
Wants to be - a pokemon master
Kaydence (2&1/2)
School History - never been
Likes - Dora, drawing, story time, playing with big brothers and sisters
Dislikes - nap time, being made to act her age, clothes (loves being nudie)
Wants to be - boss of the house!
Braith (1)
School History - never been
Likes - cuddles, being held all the time, new past time is walking, love being outside, bath times
Dislikes - sleeping through the night (lol)
Wants to be - just busy being cute
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Baby #7 - 28 weeks :)
Here I was thinking that this pregnancy is dragging along and find out that its been 8 wks since I did my last pregnancy post! 8 wks has gone by fast and in a boring sort of way, there is nothing too exciting to report! But when it comes to pregnancy, boring is good!!
So how have things been? Well good considering this is my 7th pregnancy and 3rd in a row, but I have to admit that this time around I'm really feeling physically tired! I am rocking the heavy, big belly, duck waddle pregnancy style!
In an effort to try to pick up my energy levels a bit, I'm starting up juicing and adding wheat grass power to my juice! Inspired by a few others out there, some pregnant, some not who are also trying juicing and green smoothies to improve their overall health and energy levels!
This week I have my glucose test and at my last appointment everything seemed well with bubs, great heart rate and measuring to dates.
I've started to move Braiths clothes out of the change table (where I keep the newest baby's clothes) in preparation for setting up for this bubba! I've been so busy that I've not thought too much about organising for this baby, but luckily I still have 12 wks to go, and most of the newborn baby stuff is on hand.
We also pretty much have a name picked for this little man, I love love love the name, Mike is still not 100% in love with it, doesn't hate it, but can't come up with something else he really loves either. I suggested that he should start using the name a bit and see how it fits then.....
Its soooooo hard picking a name! Especially as its our 4th (Mike's 5th) boy!! lol! and boys names are hard enough to pick as it is!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Happy 1st Birthday to my 3rd Born Son Braith!!
HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY BRAITH!!!
Can you believe that Braith is the big 1 already?!? Seems like just the other day I was preparing for his birth!
Being a Mumma of 6 kids (plus my stepson who came into my life at 2) you would think that I had babies all worked out! But no Braith was my not-so-easy-not-gonna-sleep-for-noone sort of baby that taught me that my patience has no boundaries!
He was sick at 6 wks with RSV and hospitalised for a week over the Easter school holidays, and when he was weaned we eventually discovered the poor little mite was allergic to dairy products. I even tested him today with some yoghurt and he has had a sick, upset tummy all day! Sorry little man!
He has never been a baby to sleep through the night, been a persistent crier but always happy little chappy when held, rocked and walked about!
He is our little dinosaur in the making. Braith loves to give big hugs and finish off with a big munch, usually on the shoulder or arm! And boy does it hurt!! OUCH!
Apart from all that drama, he is such a good little guy and the cutest baby around (even Callum said so!) lol!!
He loves rough play with his big brothers, will tolerate his sisters dressing him up and brushing his hair into a mohawk. He loves to 'talk' on the phone, give big smoochie kisses and has just started to master the art of walking by himself (he now walks more then crawling).
I love my littlest guy to bits and wish that time would slow down just a bit so that I can enjoy his babyhood just a little bit longer!!
Being a Mumma of 6 kids (plus my stepson who came into my life at 2) you would think that I had babies all worked out! But no Braith was my not-so-easy-not-gonna-sleep-for-noone sort of baby that taught me that my patience has no boundaries!
He was sick at 6 wks with RSV and hospitalised for a week over the Easter school holidays, and when he was weaned we eventually discovered the poor little mite was allergic to dairy products. I even tested him today with some yoghurt and he has had a sick, upset tummy all day! Sorry little man!
He has never been a baby to sleep through the night, been a persistent crier but always happy little chappy when held, rocked and walked about!
He is our little dinosaur in the making. Braith loves to give big hugs and finish off with a big munch, usually on the shoulder or arm! And boy does it hurt!! OUCH!
Apart from all that drama, he is such a good little guy and the cutest baby around (even Callum said so!) lol!!
He loves rough play with his big brothers, will tolerate his sisters dressing him up and brushing his hair into a mohawk. He loves to 'talk' on the phone, give big smoochie kisses and has just started to master the art of walking by himself (he now walks more then crawling).
I love my littlest guy to bits and wish that time would slow down just a bit so that I can enjoy his babyhood just a little bit longer!!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Break Through - Presented by the letter A
As I had previously mentioned Silas was experiencing frustration when it came to writing the letter 'a' in his name.
Another homeschooling Mum suggested I do some tactile stuff to encourage him to give it a go while being able to easily rub out the mistakes :)
So outside we went with trays of flour and the fun began :) Check out that smile, I never see that smile when he came to writing 'a'!! Success at last! Silas was at first doing the usual 'I can't do it' til I showed him how to mess the flour back up and start again :)
Even Kaydence gave it a go and in usual 2 yr old form, had to eat her words lol!! Yuck! But she really enjoyed eating that flour!
Even big kid Aliya wanted to join in :)
Another homeschooling Mum suggested I do some tactile stuff to encourage him to give it a go while being able to easily rub out the mistakes :)
So outside we went with trays of flour and the fun began :) Check out that smile, I never see that smile when he came to writing 'a'!! Success at last! Silas was at first doing the usual 'I can't do it' til I showed him how to mess the flour back up and start again :)
Even Kaydence gave it a go and in usual 2 yr old form, had to eat her words lol!! Yuck! But she really enjoyed eating that flour!
Even big kid Aliya wanted to join in :)
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