Chickafinty ~ A Life in the Laundry

Everything you ever wanted to know about...SPACE

• the planets are Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune Chickabid
• Pluto is a dwarf planet Chickabid
• Mercury is the second hottest planet even though Mercury is closer to the sun than Venus Chickabid
• Venus is hotter because its atmosphere is very thick.  The thick atmosphere makes Venus hotter because it stops the heat escaping Chickabid
• the sun is much bigger than our planet, Earth The Duchess
• Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars are rock planetsChickabid
• Jupiter and Saturn are gas planets Chickabid
• Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are ice planets Chickabid
• all the planets are very far away from each other Chickabid
• Saturn and Uranus and Neptune have ice rings that go around them Chickabid
• there was a man who walked on the moon and his name was Neil Armstrong The Duchess
• the moon is smaller than the earth The Duchess
• the orange fuel tank on the space shuttle wasn't always orange The Duchess
• the first two space shuttles had a white fuel tank The Duchess
• they stopped painting it white because it was less heavy when it was orange The Duchess
• Neptune is closer to Pluto than all the other planets The Duchess
• the Moon is a very cold place at night, and really hot during the day Chickabid
• twelve people have walked on the moon...Chickabid
• there were seven moon missions, but only six of them got to land on the moon's surface Chickabid

more information coming soon along with some videos that we have found and pictures of our lapbooks about Space.

 

 

Trade offs

When we began this new Homeschooling life, we knew that it would involve some compromises. I would no longer be able to work outside the home and we'd be completely dependent upon one income. We knew that we wouldn't have a lot of things and we knew that time generally would be a commodity thin on the ground.
There were things that we thought would be easier...the morning rush hour immediately springs to mind. We knew that some things would be harder like making ends meet.
But there were other things that we couldn't have known. I didn't realise that my Monday night drive to GFS would be one of the most treasured pleasures of the week. It's a ten minute block of time in each direction in which no one is clamouring for my attention. It's complete silence and Iove it.
I didn't realise that parents and kids could have so much fun together. When they are babies they're so needy. As toddlers and especially three year olds they can be abominable. But just ad they turn into something approximating pleasant to be around, we pack them off to school and to the endless round of after school activities. If we have 15 minutes to spend with them doing nothing but 'being' with them we're doing well.
I guess what I am trying to say is that being with the kids 24/7 is pretty hard and full on and unrelenting, but the trade off is that I get to spend a lot of time getting to know my kids and discovering how they think, what makes them laugh, what makes them angry and what makes them the fabulous little people that I love. Nothing beats that.

Proud Mama

We got Chickabid's NAPLAN results this week.

He got into Band 4 for Reading, Spelling and Numeracy and Band 5 for Grammar and Punctuation.

We were thrilled to bits :) :)

He scored righton the average for Reading, a bit below average for spelling, above average for Grammar/Punctuation and abover average for Numeracy.

We couldn't be happier :)

Well done, little man.

Progress report

Well.

It's the end of Semester One and the traditional reporting season has arrived.  Our homeschooling experience is 6 months old and it would seem appropriate to look back on the last six months and look at how far we've all come.

DESCHOOLING

At school, everything fits neatly into a box.  We've only got five hours of classroom time a day, so there has to be a definable purpose in everything that we do.  It has to fall under one of the key learning areas, it has to be outcomes based, it has to be assessable, preferably immediately or at least by the end of the week or the end of the unit.  Literacy takes first place and absorbs the first two hours of the day.  Maths takes up another hour and the remaining two hours are divvied up amongst the other four KLAs, or those two hours are devoted to the lastest thought bubble from the Board of Studies...the COGs unit.

Homeschooling is NOT like that.  Homeschooling is more about home than school.  It's about learning through life.  A large percentage of learning doesn't fit neatly into a box and it's really hard to quantify and record. 

The academic part of the day is relatively easy to report on.  We spend the morning doing maths, phonics, spelling, grammar, reading, copywork and writing.  We watch For the Juniors and write reports.  We draw, sing, use the computer, write narrations, cook, garden (or just dig!), and we talk.  We talk lots.  I answer questions all day long.  Easy questions like how do you draw a map of Tasmania freehand, to difficult questions like how does the space shuttle get into space...questions that stretch my (considerable) general knowledge to its fullest extent...questions that require a "I don't know.  Lets' find out!" answer.  A lot - and a mean a LOT - of learning is incidental and culmulative.  It's jolly difficult to record this kind of learning.  At school we're constrained by timetables, by delivering curricula to a large number of children with hugely differing abilities.

Where homeschooling is concerned, deschooling has been my biggest difficulty.

(more coming)

Dot Point

• school going well, especially in the reading department

• have too many books on my "must read aloud to the kids" list...at this rate I'll still be reading out loud when they're grown-ups.

• the laundry is (partly) under control

• the ironing is not

• neither is the folding

• I don't want to be 40 and fat.  I've got 13 months to do something about it.

• am supposed to be getting a new outfit for a wedding in 9 days time...am not feeling strong enough at the moment to cope with changeroom mirrors

• can't work out when I began the slide from slightly untidy to Stage One in three rooms and stage 2 in one room (yes, it's cryptic, no, I'm not going to explain)

• have come to a sudden realisation that this is NOT normal.  So how come it's acceptable.

• I need to stop whining and do something about it.

• The computer needs to go off for a season

New template = happy teacher

Went hunting last night for (free) homeschooling ideas, planners, templates, calendars, doodads etc and found this site just jam packed with all the templates and ideas a stationery mad homeschooler could desire.  Tucked away on the site was this template.  Perfect for my style of programming, all the work has already been done in setting it up and it looks lovely too.  What more could I ask for?

This week is already planned (in pencil) for both kids in maths, phonics, grammar, handwriting, reading and spelling.  I'm partly planned for history, science, biblical studies, sport, music, for the juniors and craft.

I'm returning to a more structured programme with the essentials in the morning and the  perhaps-not-quite-so-essential after midday.  That's my comfort zone and the kids seem to cope with it ok too.

They've got eight minutes left in their afternoon break.  When they come inside we'll read a chapter of Charlotte's Web, and then get stuck into history and science and finish the school day with some craft.

Pardon my cynicism

Hmmm.

Three years ago the Federal Government ties education funding to the implementation of standardised reports across all states of Australian.  The State Government capitulates without a second thought as to what it will mean for the teachers concerned.  The teachers, me included, protest.  This move would result in the creation of "league tables" with schools being unfairly compared with one another and teachers having their efficiency called into question.

No, no, no we were assured.  League tables were out of the question.  The new reporting system was for the benefit of the students.  It would result in resources being channelled to needy schools, to *support* teachers, not question their efficiency.

Then this news today.  All the results from all the schools on one website.  Ergo, league tables.

Do they think we're stupid?  The writing was on the wall three years ago.  Of course they would result in league tables.  The next step will be questioning the efficiency of the teachers in "underperforming" schools.

I am glad to be out of it, but it makes me tremble for my former colleagues.

STOP PRESS: Teacher arrives home from excursion without headache!

Took the kids on their first official homeschooling excursion (field trip) today. 

We got the train at the local station, changed at Central for the City Circle and arrived at Circular Quay just after 9.30am.

We met up with the homeschooling group at Cadman's Cottage and were taken on a brief walking tour of The Rocks and then we spent the remainder of the morning at The Rocks Discovery Museum.  We're not doing a unit on early Australian History, but we have been looking at the way historians and archaeologists reconstruct the past.  The Rocks has had a number of archaeological "digs" and it was a great opportunity for the kids to see how archaeology works in practice.

We ate lunch overlooking Sydney Cove and watched the ferries come in and out.  We fed the seagulls (of course) and then returned to some of the haunts for a few photos.

My back is sore...two full water bottles in the backpack + lunch + jackets + camera, wallet, phone keys, dettol, tissues, chewing gum etc etc etc, but there's no headache and for that I am unbelievably grateful.

25th - 29th May

This week:

Chickabid - as well as all the schoolwork listed here, Chickabid also finished the NAPLAN assessments in Langauge Conventions, Writing, Reading and Numeracy.

PHONICS Completed work on the four 'o' sounds, completed work on three 'e'e sounds (e as in legs, e as in we and the bossy e), commenced work on the four sounds for 'u' (u as in umbrella, u as in uniform, oo as in pull and oo as in ruler)

MATHEMATICS Completed unit of work on Time focussing on the function of the minute hand, telling the time in 5 minutes intervals, calculating the number of hours and minutes between two set times and beginning to use the terms 'to' and 'past' in referring to the time.

READING Finished reading Toothless and completed four narrations, one for each chapter of the book. 

WRITING Copywork from Downunder copywork book, several narrations (see under subject headings), a procedure (joint construction) for cave paintings

GRAMMAR only one lesson due to NAPLAN  Completed a narration based on the tale of the Hare and the Tortoise

The Duchess -

PHONICS Completed work on the 'u' sounds, completed work on the 'm' sound and commenced the unit on 'p'

MATHEMATICS Completed unit of work on addition statements, commenced the revision section of the book Easy Learn Maths 1A.

READING Read "The Wish Cat" and gave a narration 

WRITING Copywork from Blinky Bill Copywork, several narrations (see under subject headings), a procedure (joint construction) for cave paintings

GRAMMAR Completed a narration based on the tale of the Hare and the Tortoise; worked on proper nouns for grandparents; recited memorised poem.

Together:

MUSIC: 45 minute keyboard lesson, began learning the songs from "I Want My Mummy" - Colin Buchanan

ART: created mock cave paintings which will be finished next week

SPORT: 60 minutes of basketball

HISTORY: Revised what historians and archaeologists can tell us about the past, began learning about the Nomads from approx 5000BC, wrote narrations, commenced cave paintings, did a little research of petroglyphs on the internet.

SCIENCE: commenced unit of work on Mammals to be completed over the next few weeks.

GENERAL KNOWLEGDE: Watched a documentary on how honey is made; wrote narrations describing what was learned.

Tuesday, 19th May, 2009

 PHONICS

Mike:  oo as in shoe, cloze activity using all the o sounds learned so far

Giana:  medial vowels, begin chapter on u

MATHEMATICS

Mike:  Time on the analogue clock

Giana:  Addition using pictures, greater than, less than or equal to

COPYWORK

Mike:  last verse of Hey there, Hoopla by C J Dennis

Giana: letter n and n words

SPELLING

Mike:  o sound as in squash

Giana: Dolch words #5/#6

READING

Mike: Toothless chapter 2 + narration

Giana: Lions and Tigers + narration

GRAMMAR

Mike: Lesson 9 (beginning memorisation of poetry)

Giana:  Lesson 4 Proper nouns are in the family + writing activity

HISTORY

* collect objects for archaeological "dig"

* look through books from Library on Archaeology

SCIENCE: Kingfisher First Book of Animals

Mammals

• narration
• paint outside of "Animals" lapbook
• locate books on home bookshelves related to mammals