Celebrations

In July we were also busy, preparing for Miss Ant's 7th birthday! After her recent success with chopsticks and exploring Japanese, Chinese, and Thai foods in their traditional settings while we explored Sydney in June, Miss Ant decided she would love to host an Asian-inspired party! In our home education, we take every opportunity to learn....this was a great opportunity for us to learn more about an array of Asian cultures/customs and then creating ways to fuse what we learnt with our own birthday traditions.



Rice crackers and folding fans...each child got a fan to keep.




Lanterns through our living room :)



Food! Yum cha was the request, so flavored teas, pork buns, dim sims, spring rolls, rice paper rolls, Thai fish cakes and many more delights!



Chopsticks for eating, playing games with and taking home as a treasure.



Complete, only with a pic of the birthday girl herself xxx

Defrosting Time

Oooh, it's getting chilly in Hobart! We have snow on our mountain and ice and frost in our garden every morning.....winter is here!

In June, we went to Sydney to defrost, have fun exploring the treats that only Sydney has to offer and of course catching up with some of our old friends. We saw Mary Poppins - the show and visited The zoo and the science museum. It was a grand home Ed excursion!



The carousel at Darling Harbour...isn't is magical!


Antonia showing us her new skill....chopsticks!



The 3 of us (Simon is taking the picture otherwise he'd be there too!). It was so nice to not wear long sleeves and thermals! Though all the locals thought we were crazy :)

Unschooling?

I am really new ....like  really 'green' new to terminology and it's meanings with home education.  Actually, I am new to all educational terminology!  Anyway, I have been reading on fellow home ed blogs about unschool Mondays....and I really LOVE the concept!  I need to find out more......I really want to participate!  (for more info: Owlet Blog )

So, unschooling to me means to learn through occurances in life, not through a set planned lesson but driven from interest and quenching the thirst with whatever resources we can condure up......I could be wrong, I am very new to this!  Anyway, if this is what unschooling is, then we definitely incorporate this in our educational experience.  So, here is my 'unschooling' experience for this week (possibly for the month....we shall see how good I can be at doing this regularly!).

Miss Ant loves music, she listens to all the words and tries to find the story to each song.  After the Buffalo Soldier experience (see previous posts.....not sure which), I added a new song to my playlist.....'Hurricane' by Bob Dylan.  Now, I don't tell her when I have added a new song, I simply pass her my phone so she can act as DJ while I drive.  I was most interested in what she would do when she stumbled upon the new song.....a bit of an experiment really!  Now, Hurricane isn't for the feint hearted, it's 8.32mins long has a tough story to follow and has a few questionable words in it, but WOW....from the moment she 1st heard it, she was entranced.  (For those that don't know the song, it tells the story of Rubin 'Hurricane' Carter....and how he was wrongly imprisoned.)  After a couple of days listening to it, Miss Ant had already started her investigations - googling Bob Dylan, Dr Carter and racism and of course, asking us a whole barrage of questions on words and terms used in the song that she didn't quite understand. 
Then came her little bombshell.  Driving along like normal, listening to Hurricane (for the 3rd time on the trip...needless to say we now limit this!), she pauses the ipod and says:
"Mum....Bob Dylan is a revolutionary man (just like in the song)......he wrote this song for us.  Not just to protest to the people about the Hurricane, but for us now.  Right now, so we can learn how we were and we can learn from it.  AND, so we can learn to not make the same silly mistakes.  I think Bob Dylan is my new hero."
Now, the thing that gets me is that the song is about the Hurricane, not Bob Dylan!  She has managed to link the story to the author.....or poet as she calls him.  She has recognised the importance that the story teller has, not just the 'character' of the story.

The main educational point to this little example is.......Comprehension.  I think she nails it ;-)  Oh, and my kid has musical appreciation  *proud mummy moment*

Miss Ant having her Piano Lesson xxx

Oooh, and the most coveted book (since this all began) has been 'The 16th Round' The autobiography of Dr Carter......you should have seen her face when she opened the latest book depository delivery!  It's her new 'precious' and it lives at the end of her bed.  I am the mother to a crazy-smart-eccentric child......and I am uber proud xxx

When Everyone Else is Working....

I'm not entirely sure what most are up to in school these days.  Miss Ant would be in year 2 if she were still in the NSW public school system.  We don't go grade 2 work anymore, we enjoy a wide variety of 'levels' all that match where Antonia and Vincent are up to.....that's when we do school work, that is ;)

This is what we do when we don't do 'school' stuff, and be quite honest, this is when we get most of our 'life learning' done and we all get to experience the WHY in 'why' we learn certain things!  I also can't possibly include everything, as we have lots of 'life skills' days, so I will just share what we did today  :)  I am not going to point out the learnings....I believe the photos speak for themselves!




Today we got our stand all prepared for the next Home School Market Day!  This will be our 1st one but I have heard it's great fun!  The kids all set up a stand with home-made/2nd hand goods to sell and they each get $100 in home school currency. It's a great activity!  Anyway, Miss Ant has been working very hard over the past few weeks, getting her stuff in order. Secretly she can't wait until I get my A into G and get back into doing real markets!

Here, we have a box......the contents of this box are all the marvellous goodies that Miss Ant and I put together today for her stall!
We have:
- Sculpey buttons and beads
- Sculpey pendants/charms
- Hand made greeting cards
- Fans
- Bracelet making kits!  

Here is a closer look at the bracelet kits (as these are my fav!), Miss Ant did this all herself.  The writing, the stamping, the hearts, the bead choosing and most importantly...the idea!  Each kit comes with stretchy rubber thread, beads, momento felt hearts and instructions.

A bracelet for a friend who has just welcomed a little brother :) 
Now, if only I could be that efficient and get the Milo vest finished for the little man!

The vest......this is what I did today .... still not finished!

And to finish the day off, Miss Ant sat down and joined me on the couch and under a rug for a spot of knitting xxx

Love is a better teacher than duty.

- Albert Einstein

Are We Finally Sorted?

It has taken a whole term, but I think we have finally got our curriculum sorted! We don’t follow any set curriculum, I take what I like from all styles and adapt it to what’s best for our family. Here’s a basic run down on what we might cover in an average week (at the moment!) with what ‘style’ you might classify them:


- Chapter or 2 of Ancient History - Classical

- Guided Art Lessons - Monart

- Maths workbooks (we use Singapore Maths)

- Maths worksheets – to reinforce what we just are covering in the workbooks

- Living Science – we are doing the MrQ Science curriculum (it’s free and fabulous!) Mr Q

- French….only idly though! - Classical

- Nature Journaling – Charlotte Mason

- Comprehension/grammer (Singapore System) - Classical

- Story writing

- Independent projects – free choice (At the moment, my crazy Royal-wedding-obsessed child is doing a project on the Royal family!)

- Gymnastics (and Kinder Gym for Vince at the same time as Ant’s lesson)

- Piano (Ant is doing Simply Music Piano lessons with a fellow Home Ed parent)

- Ballet

- Swimming

- Baking


Don’t be alarmed and scared of all that…… it doesn’t really take any great skill, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist or a professor to cover it all! I also run a business from home, have usual home-type duties and have a 4 year old to entertain too! We pretty much get all of the ‘school’ type stuff done and dusted in 2-3 mornings! Somewhere in there we also meet up with friends at least twice a week (and by meet up, I mean play for ½ a day!) and go on a planned excursion approximately once a week.

Let me introduce you to our current favourite, the ‘Story of the World’ History curriculum by Susan Wise Bauer Susan's Books 

We are on Volume One, Ancient History, learning about Nomads, Ancient Egypt, The Fertile Crescent…. Learning about the geography of the 1st civilisations and why the 1st people farmed the way they did, what devices they used, how Historians and Archaeologists discovered these things……in fact, we have learned what the difference is between history and archaeology! All I can do is sit back in wonder, I fathom what amazing topics my home educated kids can explore and learn about while their counterparts are lining up and waiting with their hands up in the classroom (not saying that it’s better as such, just that we have such an amazing choice and can use our time exactly how we want to!) . Ancient history is only one of them! And what a fantastic resource ‘Story of the World’ is. We have the book…the one that has the stories and information and equally as important, we have the activity and lesson plan book. The activity/lesson book comes with all the sheets for photocopying, like maps and colouring pages too. And yes, I know some are shaking their heads at the thought of a 6 yr old learning something like ancient history but I assure you, it is totally within their realm! ‘Story of the World’ was written to be adapted easily for any child from yr 1-4, the activity book includes map work right down to art/craft and science experiments, it’s up to you as to how much detail you want to cover. What’s even better still, is I have found this website that has a quiz for every chapter! Quiz The kids are loving following this history curriculum so much that, at Ant’s request, we are now doing it twice a week!

So,are we finally sorted?  I highly doubt it!  There is  so much to learn, so much to discover that this curriculum will change....and you know what?  We welcome that!

Visuals

Taking the chance to just show some images from our Home School....going to let the pictures tell the story this week :)



Vincent Enjoying our Easter craft!  Dyed egg shells,
crushed to be used to decorate his egg art!



Antonia's Easter Art...with coloured sand and a few other goodies she found in the art cupboard as well.




We witnessed little baby spiders emerging from the sack  today, how fortunate that Spiders were the chosen topic of our nature journaling today!  We use 'The Wonderland of Nature'  as our fieldguide and explore our garden atour own leisure.



Art!  We have discovered the most excellent creative outlet...Polymer Clay!  We use Sculpey, bought from our local Spotlight store.  Every available moment we have during the week is dedicated to sitting at the table and playing/creating keepsakes from Sculpey.  Here are pendants, buttons and beads all made by the kids and I.



Bubbles.....who doesn't love blowing bubbles!



Man, we LOVE doing puzzles in our house!  Everytime we complete one, I take a pic...needless to say, we have tons of photos just like this one!



We sometimes get to eat icecream (tricky with Vincent's gluten intolerance) Yum Yum!  We also go out exploring, here's the kids at a local historical village Richmond, eating icecream and appreciating the classical guitar busker.



Long Time, No See!

It’s been a while! We have really been immersing ourselves in our home education….so much that each waking minute is maximised! I am writing this as the kids do their Yoga DVD…my only spare moment today, so please forgive the disjointedness and length of this edition.


We have started attending the fortnightly Hobart Home Ed group day and have covered forests, had a special art session with Caroline Amos….. learning contour drawing with coal, cooking lessons and general learning through play for the younger kids (ok…for all the kids!) The kids have a total blast!

Another new addition is gym day! We have the Kingborough gymnasium booked for both kinder gym and gymnastics on a Wednesday morning so I do kinder gym with Vince while Miss Ant does gymnastics in the other half of the gym. It works really well and both kids really love it! Miss Ant grows in confidence physically with each lesson and Vincent just runs non-stop for an hour and a half!

Miss Ant has also started piano lessons. Simply Music, taught by a fellow home Ed mother (which is great because Ant really likes, trusts and respects her). With Simply Music, the kids learn to love and play music before getting stuck into the reading. After 3 lessons, Miss Ant is playing 2 songs already, singing along and truly enjoying it. Once a month the girls all get together and have a piano party (usually on a Tuesday morning) and they have such a great time. Whoever thought…..parties on a school day! One of the top 10 things I love about being at home with my kids is the flexibility and freedom, you just can’t beat it.
 If anyone in Hobart is interested in lessons for their children (Home Ed or not), let me know as I am happy to recommend her :)

Building relationships.  One of the many things we have gained so far through home education is good friends, you know the type that you remember and cherish forever. I see that in both my kids when they interact with others in our group. They make each other gifts prior to ‘playdates’ (bracelets, baking, general nick-nacks they find), gifts that thought and care go into. Which I LOVE! I love going to others houses and taking a little something and it’s nice to see it passed on to the next generation, passed on without any intention to….but very welcomed all the same. They sing together…at the top of the lungs with nothing held back and what I truly love is that they teach each other, no power-over situations – they just simply see a space, and want to fill it. They all take an active interest in ensuring each other learn and understand. This is evident with classical, unschooled and Christian schooled home educated kids, it doesn’t seem to matter what way they are home educated. The girls swap books and discuss each book together, excitedly like they have just read the ultimately BEST book ever! Then they go crazy about what book they will share next with their friends (think teenage girls in a clothing shop, but change that to 7 year olds talking about novels!). The older kids playing football will take the time to help my little man out, they will team up with him and include him in the game. Each time I witness this I am humbled and reminded of how Home Educating my kids is by far the best option for us.

One of our favourite group activities has been Game Day. We hosted the 1st one at our house and it was so much fun! The kids have a new game (which I bought for the sole purpose of learning geography in a fun and interesting way) called ‘The Amazing Mammoth Hunt’ which 3 adults and 6 kids played for about 3 hours! We all learnt something but most importantly we did it while having a good time. Yes, we frequently stopped for nibbles and bursts of running around outside, there was even an explore around the garden and a balloon blowing session all thrown in for good measure. In one morning, 6 primary aged kids (and the 3 adults!) learnt more about the world than a lot learn throughout their entire adolescence.
Home Education is pretty awesome. Antonia lee