Junk Food

Of the educational kind.

At least that is what it is to me. I think teachers might call it something different "Getting on Activities" but that fills me with a bit of guilt if I let it!

Anyway. In view of all the sickness, theirs and mine, I decided we need something just readily getdownable from the shelf. Especially as LittleH#2 is so keen he wants to ask me for work all the time, so if I need to get something else ready I can let him get on with something from where he left off while I get the next thing out / printed off. I am glad he has this enthusiasm, it is giving me (LittleH#1) more direction and momentum.

So I went to the education shop, and bought Spelling Rules book A for LittleH#2, and Book C for LittleH#1. Both are a tiny bit easy in some ways, but LittleH#1 brought the first two books home from school when we left, and he loved doing it. Still does. LittleH#2's book is definitely too easy in many respects but he does need easy letter and writing practice, so there are still benefits in letting him do the book for fun. It is officially a Reception book, and he is officially in Reception. Though goodness knows where his English is on the scale.

I also bought some convenience maths food. Maths Plus. Again, a book we got from school for LittleH#1 and worked through, and I disliked a number of things about it so supplemented it with other things. I have stuck with the 'other things' but for a few different reasons I still think we should probably have that book on the shelf, for use in seasons! I got Books K and 1 for LittleH#2 (again book K has started off far too easy so it is the equivalent of a fun activity book in the early pages, though it is introducing concepts we probably ought to get through albeit quick). Later on in the book the ability level bears no relation to the first pages, so I do think it is a strange scheme. LittleH#1 is on Book 2.

The first morning, even with tonsilitis, I found LittleH#2 in the dining room at 6.15am setting himself up and beginning Spelling Rules. LittleH#1 is frustrated that his brother is already about 8 or 9 units into the book. Of course they are easier and a bit shorter, but also he is more motivated. I think that as long as it doesn't get out of hand, that little bit of competition (or maybe iron sharpening iron, even at their age) is quite good.

Anyway. They are decent curriculum books but not my curriculum of choice, hence seeing them as junk food. What they will do is ensure that some of the basics go on all the while, leaving me to do more creative and meaningful activities with them when I can, with less of the guilt that creeps up on me when we do it naturally.

Bible time is good again. We have had some brilliant reading times together, and they are really getting the hang of rotating a verse each and keeping up. Their reading is wonderful.

As for 'not junk food' I have ordered the First Language Lessons (Jessie Wise, I think?) from book depository for LittleH#2, although I think we will also benefit from doing it together with LittleH#1 because I would like to work on his oral language a bit - he freezes up when asked questions verbally sometimes, like narration.

I have plans also to do the Australian Traveller book / curriculum with them (kind of Australian five in a row), I just have to pluck up the courage to order it. I had a lovely time reading just to LittleH#3 yesterday afternoon "Are We There Yet" by Alison Lester, another Australian travel book.

Other self starting things they are doing at the moment is devouring space books (again, although this time LittleH#2 is a competent reader and told me some sun facts over breakfast). They were reading them this morning before 7, and I got the facts over my porridge - about sun spots and flares. I told them they are not allowed to learn before breakfast. ;) They loved that, I am not sure whether I should encourage play rebellion but anyway. That's my humour and there we are.

Later today we will face the music at the dentist. I am sure some school will come out of that. Maybe he can teach them to brush their teeth better than I can.

Hotwheels Maths!

I mentioned the hotwheels maths and haven't come back yet to say what we did. So here it is.

I wanted to introduce the idea to LittleH#2 of collecting data, and I was inspired by the boys at play a little while ago with their hotwheels track, complaining that the same lane or car kept winning.

I set them the task (this was possibly the hardest part!) of choosing only 4 cars and we decided which lane they would go on. I wrote them all on the white board (the cars had fantastic names that the boys copied down on the sheet I prepared for them). We did a number of races, and recorded which car won each time.

I then asked them to tally the number of races each car had won, and we recorded the data that way. Next step will be to make a simple bar chart displaying the race data.

It's all quite easy for LittleH#1 but I don't have a problem with that, he can work independently without my help, he can help LittleH#2 and it is revision for him.

Little H#3 was able to join in - we had him as the race starter, and I took photos of them all. Anyway, simple or not, it was a good afternoon's activity for them all together and is one of those (maybe not quite so rare) scholastic bliss moments. A terrible video, but here's one of the races all the same!!

In sickness and in Homeschool... again!

Well we are in a health blip - nothing major but even if they were at school, Little H's #1 and 2 would be having a fair time off at the moment with a flu virus that just seems to be going on forever! No-one is spared, so with a family of 6 we having been nursing someone or other (usually more than one) for about the past 3 weeks...

School still goes on, kind of, but it has been even less formal (and less organised!) and there is beauty and blessing in that, as well as a bit of extra guilt and stress for me!

I have had a bit of an exploration of the NAPLAN standards, a year ahead, so that I can see where we are in terms of what is expected of Y3 which Little H#1 will be next year. Really the thing I am interested in is how the maths curriculum compares and I am glad to have looked at it now - not because we are going to go anywhere near NAPLAN next year ,but because I can see what gaps we have in what we are doing. I have listed those for myelf but a noteable one was logic problems. I used to love those as a child anyway and we haven't done much logic and not enough probability (which actually Little H#1 copes ok with). So I will supplement what we are doing in maths (I don't really feel the need to apologise for concentrating on number, but I will do some more of the other things to make sure we are a bit more rounded).

We did some beginner logic problems on Friday and I enjoyed doing something very different with Little H#1, and he enjoyed them too. They were free off the internet of course. :)

We also have done some money play and work recently - we definitely need to do more of that, and I think the time has come to start with pocket money and saving up and actually using money in shops.

The boys have been playing games really nicely too, and there is definitely an improvement in the patience of taking turns, accepting that they may not win, and also importantly being willing to attempt things like forfeits (or action cards, required in a lovely game we have called Bright Buttons). The Bright Buttons game is aimed at 3 year olds but even last year when I bought it, neither of the older 2 felt able to attempt any of the easy actions if they required physical movement or impersonations etc. So it's a nice game they can all play together and still get something from.

Little H#2 is very keen now and is asking for work even when ill, which is difficult because obviously it is harder for him to concentrate and he gets upset with himself for getting letters back to front or questions not quite right.

They have inspired me again with Bible time, we have had some lovely devotion times recently and Little H's #1 and 2 are reading fantastically from their Bibles. Little H#3 is also desperate for "work" but his attention span is age appropriate and it's a little hard to keep him engaged sometimes in preschooler activities. ANyway. I am trying to master setting work for 2 slightly different developmental stages (they are closer in maths than I might think) and soon I will have a better idea of how to balance all 3. There are those scholastic bliss moments (like hotweels maths last week) where they all work together, Little H#3 can join in and we all come away with something good. I will detail that lesson separately but here is a sneak preview:

Magnificent Monday...!

I like the sound of that. It's not exactly a MEME I doubt I will be able to have a Magnificent Monday every week, although perhaps I should make it my goal to try.

I had an idea for some slightly different Bible studies this week - recently we have been reading the Bible every morning together once our school day starts, but not really "studying" together.

Today I decided we would study and learn the Apostles' Creed for a while. We began with a nice clean and tidy playroom thanks to last night's clean up before bed. So we sat on the carpet together and I first read them "You are Special" by Max Lucado, which I had thought about this weekend but wasn't sure which book case it was on... one of the boys found it and had it ready to read without me even mentioning it, so that saved a hunt around! Little Miss climbed around on me while I read it, the others listened (thought LittleH#3 was in a climbing mood so wasn't quite so easy a listener!). We discussed what it meant, and we had a few nice moments discussing that and remembering LittleH#3's special scripture "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made" Ps 139:14 I think, from memory.

We went from there to the Apostle's Creed, LittleH#2 read it out, then I read it line by line to LittleH#3 and he repeated each one after me (Godparents please note I am keeping my promise and teaching them this prayer!!!!), then LittleH#1 also read it and we said it all together.

Then, amazingly, the older 2 demonstrated just how much of the prayer they could remember. I'd say for LittleH#1 it is about 80% with prompts to get it all right. LittleH#2 isn't far off either.

We discussed the prayer and I told them a bit about it (hadn't got to Luther's small catechism but had got it out ready in case it was needed for us to sit and explain the different aspects of the prayer). LittleH#1 asked me whether it was a prayer to defend us against the enemy. I said that it is a prayer that describes our faith, what we believe. He said that was what he meant - he thought the prayer was like the shield of faith to defend us from fiery arrows (he held his arm as if holding a shield).

Well that amazed me actually. What a good way to look at a prayer that describes what we believe. The enemy does in fact tell us lies - about many things but does try to take away from what we believe. We can equip ourselves by learning prayers such as this - the basics of our faith on which the universal Christian church is agreed. I think teaching the children this summary of our faith now will be an invaluable tool, or weapon in their armoury, later.

As I washed up, I built on my original ideas and I think we can do something good with the Apostle's Creed, Armour of God, Fruit of the Spirit etc. A little H-production perhaps. Bit like the Sunday School one last week, except maybe a bit better organised and they won't be stuck at the back where no-one can see them!!!! ;)

So the copy work for today was writing out the Creed (LittleH#1), writing out the first 2 lines and doing a drawing (LittleH#2) and we are making the full written version of LittleH#1 into a shield display.

Other than that- we have done practical maths - baking - weighing and measuring (they are good, and surprised me with the sums I asked them to do while we did it), and money maths (counting and sorting the coins in the Peter Rabbit money box).

In between times, LittleH#2 has been devouring books today, I love that he can be a bookworm at 5. He's read predominantly Christian books today, actually, so it has been a good start to our week and perhaps a bit of a rededication to the Almighty God who has called us to this work.

A few good days...!

By that I mean, we are finally getting back to normal and have had some days that feel full enough and have produced some good work (and great play!).

Highlights of this week have been sending LittleH#1 to scouts for spy night dressed up like a spy (though I do feel that a better spy costume is absolutely 100% normal clothes, I don't think that it would have felt very good... like going to school in the wrong clothes on non-uniform day - we've left all that behind now thankfully!).



The briefcase is full of interesting spy-ish type things - truth drug (Fisher Price Dr Syringe!), mobile phone, digi camera, walkie talkie, secret notes, code (we wrote the code and practised its use - I received a secret message that said "To Mummy I love you"), we made a spy ID card disguised as a credit card that flips open to photo and finger print, a newspaper... etc. Great fun. The dress ups get revitalised a bit through scouts (last year I had to make a Peter Pan costume that can double for Robin Hood). The jacket was a (probably very expensive!) David Jones jacket I chopped to size and hemmed so he could go a bit "Bond-ish" and moved the buttons across for comfort reasons. He seemed to think the jacket needed to fit!


LittleH#2 is writing AMAZINGLY. Really keen, has written a page of 'news' about the weekend, enjoying his (too easy but good practice) "Going on Eagerly" Rod and Staff book, copy writing Bible verses etc.


LittleH#1 is also getting much quicker at maths, has written a few letters to relatives, we have done a lot of Birthday and Special Day Blessing of others recently and in my book that is all good school. School of life as well as work I count as homeschool.


And LittleH#3 - well, he is really enjoying his "About 3" Rod and Staff book. Sometimes I can't stop him - the pencil control is amazing, he is pleased with the results himself, and I can see a new phase ahead of us with 3 children doing work at once! Wow! Only got to be careful I don't recreate at home what I don't believe in really, which is young children doing school before they are ready - although LittleH#3 doesn't sit at it for long and is still very 3 anyway. Have had some nice time with them all or just H's #2 and #3 together doing play dough.


We had a lovely visit from a friend yesterday, and it was great for the oldest 2 boys to have time with an older friend - L is 9, and they played Uno twice, lego, duplo and then some imagination stuff outside. LittleH#1 was beaming after, and thanked me and told me he'd had a fantastic time.


They've also done geography, some amazing world atlas drawing, inspired by a page in "Going on Eagerly", and today did a 150 piece big world jigsaw together- agreeing with each other who was doing each continent, amusing themselves with the characteristics picked out by the illustrators for each country.


I have been asked a question about water's surface tension, so am going to look for a decent bit of science to have some fun and build on that. Kind of back to our eclectic mix, instead of winging it 'naturally'. There is a season for everything and I am working back to a bit more formality and routine I think now.


Also feel its time for DH and I to do some proper praying about the medium and long term, instead of for the strength and ideas to get through each day. Need that too, but I want to re-energise the medium term goals and have a Vision as a family again.

Surprise...!

Da Da.....!

Back. And almost in the saddle again too. That is the surprise. We are actually starting to find normality (only been back 3 weeks!) and have done two mornings of maths with some other things thrown in. Wow, that's good, it's only Tuesday!!!

Have photos to post of Scholastic Bliss but they are on LittleH#1's camera and I need to find the cable and work out how to get them onto the computer. Or better still, I will let him do it.

LittleH#2 is extremely keen and #3 is also showing signs of promise. We sat together yesterday and did a little maths cutting and sticking exercise. LittleH#2 did it alone and for him I really wanted the discipline of the cutting practice and following the instructions, the maths was easy. But LittleH#3 wants to do school a bit now too, so I cut his, and he did the counting with my help (counting aloud is faster than his finger, so we need some co-ordination there!) and he is bombproof now with number recognition. I know he's 3 1/2 but I still think that's good, and although I realised about 6 mths ago he knew his numbers pretty well we hadn't done anything about it, like work or anything!!!

We've made some new friends recently, and I have a few things up my sleeve for myself too - Christian fellowship with other HS mums (fantastic mix of ages of children, backgrounds, and probably homeschool styles) and also latest idea: craft circle - I want to make a Waldorf Doll for Little Miss August 2009. She's going to be 1 soon and I would like her to have it for her birthday. So far we are unspoilt for dolls (ie we have none). None, that is, because we had a tiny little plastic baby doll that was v cheap (sort of an unwanted gift) and it had a strange smell. I decided the chemicals were probably volatile and didn't want her to eat / inhale / play with those kinds of molecules...

Recently have had lots of hope that we are not alone, God is providing for us in

many ways, and we are in a new chapter. Will save that for next post, but hopefully come back to this one when I have a couple of photos to add...