Quote of the Week

"Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does."
– William James

Week 2 in Review

Monkey turned 4!

We are still working on our Peter Rabbit/Beatrix Potter unit study. We are 1/2 way through her journal and the girls are loving it - it is so beautifully done. We have read some more of her books. We are continuing throught the sonlight Cores and Language Arts - I am not going to post about these in any detail as I am posting the details on Learning in the Box - our workbox blog.

We started our "sports" afternoons even though school is not officially started for most. There were 4 other homeschooling families that joined us in the pool this week. LOTS of FUN! We are so blessed to have a pool in this house.

Wombat had his Physio assessment this week. He is on track with most things just a little slow in some fine motor skills whihc is only to be expected with his eyes. That has not stopped him getting into EVERYTHING this week. Now that he is pulling himeself to standing on everything his arms seem to have grown and nothing is out of reach!

Zebra started her history/timeline notebook.

Workbox update - I HATE filling workboxes! But it is so worth it - I am still working on simplifying this process. At the moment I am still not fully organized I was using a weekly planner that had all the girls on it but I really need to have one per child and a week at a glance so working on this. (I could just use the 'curriculum grid' Sue provided but I like making my own and this will match my MOTH planner) I have found that inorder for the day to go smoothly I MUST fill the boxes the night before and I must shine my sink!!!

First Day of School

First day of school - we always take a "school" photo of our WHOLE school! We also measure each child and add a mark to our chart. We now have 4 years of marks and it is quite fun to compare who is what size at what age, also how much you have grown in a year. This year we will be finishing off Sonlight Core 1 and using B4FIAR, FIAR 1 and FIAR 2. We are also using workboxes so most of my school posts will be posted on my workboxes blog.

I am looking forward to a fun and exciting Learning Journey in 2010.

Planning for the new year

This year is going to be different :) why? I have a plan (yes I hear you LOL) No seriously it is going to be different. I have found the perfect systems. Yes combine MOTH with Flylady (takes care of the house) combine MOTH with Workboxes and a Charlotte Mason philosophy (takes care of school) what else do I need :)

So here's what I did. First read through MOTH book to refresh my brain. Then laminate the A3 Master Plans. Sit at the computer and make up little squares that fit the Master Plan. (Little squares must be 1/2 the size of a master plan square - because master plan squares are 1/2 hour time blocks and CM recommends 15 min lessons) Write every lesson you can possibly think of on the squares. Print on 5 different colour papers. Using Velcro cut in half stick squares to plan.

We are using Sonlight and FIAR. As I will be using 3 different LA's with3 kids and my own kindy mix with Monkey I wanted 1/2 hour with each child so that was the first to be blocked out on the chart then group time (which is really Read-Aloud time) Then schedule the computer, DVD for Maths and ipod so no one clashed and so I was available to help Bunny with her Maths. Then fit in anything else essential around this. Any spaces left on the chart are for fun boxes.

Here is a picture of our planning wall in the Dining/Kitchen Room where you have to look at it everyday. (underneath are the older girls job charts, younger ones use chore packs and to the side is my flylady jobs)

We have just finished our first week and it worked really well. There were a few small changes that i had to make to the chart but overall it stayed the same. When it came to planning the workboxes I made a smaller chart with all 4 children on one page with the fixed items on and then blank spaces for the fun boxes. Instead of the 12 boxes Sue uses I used 16 boxes (each box represents a 15 minute time slot) You can download a blank chart here.

This takes care of school so what about the home? Well using Flylady's system I spent 2 weeks before school started and put up in each child's room a Morning and a Before Bed Routine. Then I redid the morning chores list both Zebra and Duckie decided they were too big for chore packs so they have a list underneath the MOTH planner, Bunny and Monkey have chore charts. I typed up Flylady's missions from last year edited to fit me (each Zone listed separately) with a detailed room clean on the same sheet then laminated the lot. This hangs next to the MOTH planner and tells me what to do each week (I change it each week). Just think once this is done my whole house cleaning is planned out for the year for good!!!

Starting over

We have moved house (again) and this house is HUGE so a lot of things have gone on hold while we were moving and settling. This coming term we will only be doing 5 weeks of school before we start holidays so it is going to be a very packed term.

We are going to be studying China (RA will be A grain of rice - sonlightfor Zebra and Duckie and Ping -FIAR for Bunny and Monkey). Plus Duckie is wanting to study Rainbows. Bunny and Monkey are also going to be learning their alphabet and sounds using a variety of resources from all over the place I have compiled a list on my links blog showing all the places I am getting ideas from.

We have been using the workbox system modified to fit our family so will be packing these boxes full for the next 5 weeks and seeing how it really works!! I am really looking forward to it.

Its all too much

After reading the post here I decided to borrow the book its all to much from my library. They don't have it so my darling hubby ordered the book for me. It arrived yesterday. I have skim read the whole book and now am working my way through it and working out how to survive in this house! Survive - wrong word. LIVE in this house.

So my ideal school room would have

Reading area
Drawing area
Cmputer area
School desks? Jury is still out on this one. I do enjoy us working around the table - at least is all gets cleared up in time for the next meal on a desk the stuff would pile up and get messy.
Work box holders
Train/lego table
white board
timeline
world map and Australia map

This is the broad outline and I will add to it as I work my way through the book and our home.

"I am beginning to suspect all elaborate systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he builds a stone wall with his wooden blocks or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experiences."

- Anne Sullivan, tutor to Helen Keller