{ Week 9 }

The weeks are speeding by rather quickly, don't you think?

This week in the school department I feel that we made some super good progress, but it will still take a lot of work to make it stick like glue and become autonomous.

Today I want to start off with something funny though:

Do you get it?

Way funny, I thought.

I also found about a 100 photos taken by the girls { ie. not by me } on the camera.

Hannah continues with her freestyle "Art".

This piece is a pretty good meter long, I reckon.  Maybe a little more.

Last week I mentioned that the writing needed more attention.  So, this week I spent some time with the girls to help get a bit more out of them in the History and Science departments.

This one was done by Hannah.  I was particularly impressed that she was able to find the main idea to begin with, which made the lesson quite timely and easy to do.  Now technically we'd be starting new paragraphs at each of those roman numerals but it's all a bit of a hop, skip, and jump to the "real" thing.

ha ha ha - guess what?  more Hannah Art on the camera.  You know I'm just uploading them all in sequential order that they were taken for the blog.  :o)

The following is a piece that Chloe did for Science.  The outline for it is up above on the page, but I helped her put the outline together, and I figured you didn't want to see "my" work so much as you wanted to see "her" work.  :o)  As a side note Chloe was totally put to calm and relaxed when she saw how quickly I put it together { oh say, like under 2 mins if that }.  There are some super nice easy cheat ways of "perusing" a text to get the gist of it or to build your outline.  Thank you especially to the Titles, Sub Titles, and Listed Points.  Even better when they stick out when separated or bolded text.  Oh, I should also mention that the vocabulary list was also a helpful little addition as well.  Anyway, she still needs some work, but this is a much improved piece compared to previous submissions.

Then on Wednesday morning I tried walking both Hannah and Phebe through a MOH lesson.  We only got an outline done, but that is a very good lot of work and progess.

{ Hannah }

I think the a, b, c threw them off a little because up until now I'd only just been asking for the roman numerals { aka paragraph main ideas }  There was just too much in the lesson, as in information with which to draw a decent narration out of.  A lot of children would be going, well, she talked about this, and this, and this and I reckon they'd just get lost on it all.  So we did end up leaving out a bit of stuff too.  I figured since Hannah was nearing the end of her page we'd call it a day.  We had 3 good paragraphs outlined and ready to write up if we chose to and for a 5 year old I think that's plenty.

{ Phebe }

Phebes just basically came along for the ride.  In a lot of ways we're still at the stage where I am setting up the formatting.

For English this week I threw a spanner in the works and added this little exercise.  There were a few more other pieces for the Fable but hey, can't show you "everything".

and I don't really think you'd want to see three different versions of this either, so....I'll just grab "one" of them, ok?

We also took a quick tour to visit "landforms" again.

We'll be working on some more landforms later on today.  Heather from Only Passionate Curiosity has some awesome free printables on her blog this week. 

Chloe started French.  Wow, is she totally interested in this or what?  It's great, but yeah, more work for mummy.  She is also using Duolingo as well.  I never really pictured her as a french language girl, but yeah, she's taking to it like a duck to water.  Guess she just had to be interested in it.

And todays show and tell:

Chloes MOH lesson.  Now, I MUST say how improved this piece is compared to previous weeks.  It is actually reflecting her school age much more closely.

Here is Hannahs piece { from the same lesson }.

Outline on the left, written piece on the right.

Some more Hannah Art.  :o)

Today I'll be joining up with:

and

and

I hope you will join us.

Thanks for visiting.

Saxon Teacher 5/4

I really love how Saxon 5/4 works.  It's been a great investment for our home.  I love it so much so that I decided that I would also purchase the Saxon Teacher CD's as well.

I use it to "teach" the lesson, and run the girls through their practice sets.  Then they go off to do their lesson.  Afterwards I mark their work.  { Some days I get them to mark their own work as we transition them to more self direction/learning. }  Then I take a separate form and circle all the numbered questions that they got wrong for them to go back over with the Saxon Teacher.  She walks them through and explains how to do each question.  We just select which problem to view from the drop down menu in the lesson.  It's great, especially when I need to be attending to the baby or something else.  Money well spent for this busy juggling mummy :o)

What are you using in your Math department these days?

Thanks for visiting.

Medial Vowel Sounds { freebie fun }

Today I have a quick little freebie printable to share.  It's focus is on medial short vowel sounds.

Just click either worksheet to download.

Here is the base board with which to glue the pictures to.

The pictures.  Just glue them according to their short vowel sound.

I'm hoping to make some more, but I just need to find some relaxing free time to do them.  :o)

Thanks for visiting.

{ Week 8 }

This weeks update is going to be short.  I'm totally exhausted.  Life is overwhelming.  My work load is continually full.  I don't think I'm getting enough sleep.

English:
Miss 7 and 5 have gone back to copywork.
Miss 9 continues on with Writing with Skill.

Spelling:
Both Chloe and Phebe got their best score for the year this morning.

History:
The girls read 3 lessons from MOH throughout the week.  Then they gave a short writing about their reading in their books.  Can I just tell you that some of that writing is totally illegible, spelt incorrectly, and is just straight out tardy.

Science:
Pretty much the same type of work as the history, except from their science books.  I'm not really complaining, but I just want to make a note of it so that I can find some time to get it improved.

Maths:
I feel that we are making more progress with the Math.  The routine for it is coming along nicely.

I've got all my boxes ticked for this week - but there were a couple of days that I thought it might not happen.

Additionally, this week I canned up two separate days on green apples.  One lot went into the pressure cooker and the other I water bathed.   In future all my green apples will be water bathed.

The girls also got to go out to this weeks homeschool get together.  For some reason I didn't think to bring their floaties/swimmers and as it turned out there was swimming involved.  Never mind though, because they just stripped down to their underware and jumped in anyway.   I do have to confess that I was totally stressed since none of them are good swimmers and the baby kept a lot of my focus as well.  Going out is a bit stressful for me generally anyway.  But hey, this year I'm really going to make an effort to get these children out and about!!

And all the homeschooler mummies said, Amen~!

Yes, yes they did!

Marcus Crassus is WAY more cooler and interesting than Theodor Geisel.

Oh the world of difference between public and private education.

The end.

{ Week 7 }

Charlotte { 3 } is starting to take quite a bit more interest in doing school these days, which is great, but yeah, more work for mummy.  Here she is after doing a matching exercise.

In fact, she got carried away with them and did 3 in a row.

{ Maths }

In the maths department Chloe is up to lesson 42, Phebe lesson 31, and Hannah is at lesson 38.

{ Writing with Skill }

Chloe is doing well with our new writing course.  It probably really helped that I had previously used a scholastic book on paragraphs and topic sentences with Chloe already.  So we had a good foundation and know how to find topic sentences.

Anyway, here's todays work:

Yep, too easy.  Next to nothing, but in a lot of ways, good small progress.  I love that there's NO taxing the child, well, at least not yet.  ha ha ha.

We had a couple on the spur of the moment videos.  Here's Hannah doing a super short reading from 'The Great Gatsby'.  Totally random.  Just flicked open a page and picked anywhere and started reading.

Noah continues to grow like a weed.  I can't believe he's 3 months already.

He's already starting to spend some time in the walker.  Padded in with a blanket, but hey.

{ Homeschool Meet Up }

This week everyone went to the pool.  There's actually quite a good sized homeschooling population where we live, so that is nice.

It's got an awesome water play area for children.

And can you believe it?  I actually went for a swim myself~!!  It was made possible by the fact that both Daniel { 19 } and Caleb { 17 } had come with us and was helping me out with the girls and baby.

And just for fun, since I'm using my blog as my homeschool journal:

Today I am linking up with:

I hope you will join us.

Thanks for visiting.

Home Made Ricotta Gnochi

This week I really wanted to start looking at finding a good recipe for sweet and sour sauce since my friend and I are going to be canning up a bunch of jars soon, but I got side tracked.

I got detoured with making my own home made Ricotta Gnochi and let me tell you it was devine.  So soft and yummy.

First I made my own home made ricotta cheese:

I did that while I was boiling up the potatoes actually.

Then after I mashed my potatoes I let them cool a little.  Then I added in the ricotta all crumbled up and a cup of plain flour { sprinkled through as I was going }.

Then I dolloped handfuls onto my board and used a little more flour to help roll them into little logs and cut them up into bite sized portions.

When I had all my little Gnochi's cut and good to go I simply boiled them in water for about 4 - 5 mins until they were all floating nicely at the top.

Then at dinner time I added a sauce and reheated them.

BEST Gnochi I have ever had~!!

Very NOT like the store bought ones.

I also got detoured making Arancini.

Just put your rice in your rice cooker and add a soup mix.  In this case I used a chicken noodle soup mix.

After it's cooked just add a very generous helping of Parmesan cheese and some grated cheese and mix through.  Enough so that it will be quite sticky.  Allow to cool.

When cooled roll into little balls and stuff some more cheese { a little cube } into the middle and coat them in bread crumbs.

Then just give them a little fry in the frying pan in some oil until they go golden brown.

I was super happy with these little detours.

There were a number of eaters in the house who were also happy with them too.

Got to say: Pinterest is where I got these ideas from too.

Today I am linking up with:

I hope you will join us.

Thanks for visiting.

2015 Grade 4/5 Curriculum

Today I thought that I'd join in with the Not Back To School blog hop with our fellow Australians.

This list is what my 9 year old { soon to be 10 } is doing for the 2015 school year.

Here she is marking her Maths for the first time { while I look over her shoulder }.  I'm trying to move them over to a more autonomous { self propelled if you will } type of homeschooling.   We'll one that makes it easier to manage several children.

{ Bible }

We had a bunch of these left over from last year, so I pulled them back out this year to give it another go and so far it's been a great fit.  So we'll just finish up this course and look for something different after that.

{ Reading }

Chloe just devours books so there's no point in showing you what I think she'll read.  I do keep a current list under the 2015 Book List tab up there if you're interested in what she's read already.

{ English }

I really like this curriculum.  It's quick, easy, and with lots of focused practice.

{ Writing }

Recently started.  It is turning out to be a real TREAT to do.  Chloe is really enjoying it.  Which is great and a huge relief.  I love that it is incremental and very gentle in it's progression.

{ Maths }

We started this book late last year.  So this year we're just continuing along until it gets finished.

{ French }

Chloe has a real interest in languages.  She's been picking up bits and pieces all over the place.  Last week I asked her if she'd be interested in this curriculum and I got the quickest "yes" ever.  So I ordered it and now we are waiting for it to arrive.

{ Greek }

Slow and steady wins the race.  There's no rush with this curriculum.  I envision it just dragging on and on for a long while.  Perhaps a couple of years, but we'll see how it goes.

{ History }

Apart from read alouds I've got MOH I on the run with the girls.  They basically read a lesson and then do a short notebook entry on it.

{ Science }

I'm not a big science girl.  I don't think Chloe is either.  So I opted for something easy but manageable:  Rod and Staff Science.

{ Vocabulary }

We aren't doing a particular spelling curriculum at the moment since I'm using the words from this to form our spelling work instead.

{ Character }

We are STILL using this book.  The girls use my worksheets and continue to fill in their little books a little each day each week.  Just click the book to go to the post that has the FREE worksheets.

{ Art }

We'll be free styling most of the year away.  I envision mostly drawing and painting at this point.  Each girl has their own set of paints and can use them freely at leisure.

{ Music }

I have a subscription to 'Children's Music Journey', but we haven't really used it yet this year.  Not sure what to do with that.

{ Daily Activities }

Now, I've also got this little addiction of adding in a worksheet activity each day.  Each day I give them a different quick worksheet to do.  For example:  today's worksheet was a NT Greek flip page that they had to match their vocabulary to the correct meaning. Generally though, it could be something that I've put together, or got from TpT.  

Yeah, so that's the current plan peoples.  It'll be interesting to see what stays and what goes over the course of the year.

I hope you will join us this week.

Thanks for visiting.