{ Week 24 }

Yesterday I went down to Melbourne for the CHESS seminar.  It was my first day away from baby Noah.  He did well, I did well.

One of the catches for the day was this:

I'd been needing it for Chloe.  It's on the Grade 5 science reading list on Ambleside Online.  I do have a pdf version, but she hadn't started it yet.  It's always best to grab a printed book in preference to having to print them out if you can.  They just take up less room on the shelf.  So I never even hesitated when I saw it in the box.

Another thing I picked up was a new set of flash cards.  Now, it is true I already have a set but they are 19 years old.  They're the old ones that don't have all the RULES on the back.  So, I thought, for convenience sake, I'd get a new set.  I am big on phonics the spalding way and since LEM have based all their stuff on the same, I know it'll be super useful and handy to have for Charlotte and when Noah comes on up.

Also, while there I picked up these 3 books for the precious price of $2 each.  It's like reading their website without having to go there.  I do not subscribe to all their teachings, but I still like to glean from them from time to time.

* * * * *

This week I want to do an update on where we are with our History and Geography.

We continue on with MOH I.

We did skip a few lessons here or there but the last one we did was lesson 96.  Some days the girls have trouble with writing, but I continue to ask them for a basic skeleton outline and a paragraph or so on each passage that they read.

Did I ever mention that both Chloe and Phebe have READ SOTW I this year?  They read it like a novel.

For Geography we continued on with our Country and Flag study.  I continued to source their maps via google.  { So handy, I tell you. }

The girls are really LOVING this subject.

I think we MIGHT do some Earth Science when this subject is finished.  Haven't prepared anything just yet, but I do have a nice little book that we could base things from.  I dunno.  I'll let you know when and if we ever get there.

This week I'll be linking up with:

I hope you will join us.

Thanks for visiting.

Some Worksheet Freebies

This morning I started work on some more paint dabbing resources for my preschooler.

Just click either one to download.

 

Additionally, earlier in the week I did a couple of worksheets for subjects/predicates - which you might be able to use as well.

Today I'll be linking up with:

I hope you'll join us.

Thanks for visiting.  :o)

English and Math Update

Where we are these days.

English

We've gone back to using our English Rod and Staff Textbooks.

Chloe on book 5, Phebe on book 4, and Hannah on book 3.

I think I've finally come to the line where we're going to start leaving all those cute little worksheets behind for some boring middle school work load.  I imagine I'll still pop some in from time to time, but yeah, I think we need to just get serious about sticking to one main curriculum and make serious gains in it rather than all this switching too and fro at whim like we've been doing.

I still have Writing with Skill for Chloe on the menu as well.  It's getting more challenging now.

And we also have those Climbing to Good English series too, which I think are great.  So yes, while I'll be serving up less in the worksheet department, we've still got several choices on the menu for English but my goal is to widdle them down as we go along.

* * * * *

Math

Chloe is using Saxon 6/5.
Phebe and Hannah both on 5/4.

I've stopped pulling apart our soft cover 5/4 now that I've got other copies and the girls aren't all working out of the same book.

My latest covers for their workbook.  Super cute, I think!

I've dropped the coil binding to try out how the workbook goes with just being stapled.  They're pretty big staples - holding 40 pages/lessons worth.  It just made putting the books together so much quicker than the binding, which can take a good while to do.  I just did't want that work load anymore since I have to make up these books pretty regularly.

How it's set up on the inside.

They start their lesson like this,

turn the page over and finish up on the left hand side.  Next day, repeat the process { and hopefully the next lesson }.  These days my cut off is 80%.  If a lesson comes in less than that they have to do a pink slip, and do the lesson over.

Here's an example.  This particular lesson didn't quite make the cut and so, yep, a pink slip { which you can see slipped in there under the lesson itself }.  To complete the pink slip one simply has a parent { usually me } or the CD walk them through all their mistakes in the lesson.  After that they go off to attempt the lesson all over again, only to be scored again.  ha ha ha.  Yep, every single lesson is scored.  This has it's advantages.  Since I know where they are at any given moment we don't need to do the tests.  I am also very particular about keeping those scores written down too.

Thanks for visiting,

Today I'll be linking up with:

I hope you will join us.

To infinity and beyond.

{ Week 22 }

This morning I got an email to tell me that the man who had been helping me fill my bookshelves with Rod and Staff books over the last 10 years had died.

His name was Silas.

I was very sorry to hear of his passing.

* * * * *

Nature study this week:

* * * * *

This week the girls moved over to our 'Flags of the World' book.

So far they've done:

Australia

Brazil

Canada

China

They'll be covering 24 countries to start with { maybe more another time }.

Check out our little passports:

We put a colored flag in each time we do a country.

This week I am linking up with:

and

and

I hope you will join us.

To infinity and beyond!

{ Week 21 }

Another busy week here, even if I didn't have the camera out to catch it all.

Here's the odd shot that I did get though:

A letter to the Hare.

I overlooked all the spelling and what nots, choosing to focus on looking at content.

We can always fix those pesky spelling and grammar errors at a later date.  Right now it's more important to get the child writing freely without the feeling of condemnation because they can't get things perfect.

This week I decided that I'd give Charlotte a week off school.  She bugged me a few times for school, but I mostly just fobbed her off.  I don't want to rush or overwhelm her too much by constantly jumping hoops in the worksheet department.  In the end we did these { today } with our new dot markers.  She thought that they were heaps fun.

* * * * *

And now, due to the shortage in todays post I thought that I'd talk about some more bargain book finds from second hand book stores.

Both of these beautiful, non marked hardcover books are in excellent condition, and only cost $1 each!

What I've started doing is having the girls come and sit for an additional 30 mins reading time.  I've been scheduling it for the evenings.  This way they come fresh after a few hours off school.

Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to check out your local second hand stores for book bargains.  Come back and let me know what you found.  :o)

To infinity and beyond!

{ Week 20 }

Yahoo!  We are now half way down for the year!  Or less if we decide to have less than 40 weeks this year.

Nature Study, when we were away on holiday, seemed to be restricted to water, sand, and a spider for the most part.  We spied this fine specimen in the front garden, and so we began to study it. We gently knocked out his web at one point as well and voila, when we returned the next day it was completely re-built.  Don't you just love his decorating style with the extra zig-zagging?  I also love how he pairs his legs.  Such a neat and tidy fellow.  His web was gorgeous and so meticulously woven to exact measurements. 

Additionally, we also went castle visiting.

Phebe in the stocks.

Hannah's turn.

I really dislike castles museums.  Am I allowed to confess that?  They give me the creeps!  Nothing more creepy than dead people and the like on display.  I only like the ones that are in books.  ha ha ha.  So we only stayed for a couple of hours, just enough to do a good round of everything on display.  Then off we went to do something else.

The character workbook is moving along nicely.

Working on their Anaconda theme.

Definitions, and opinion.  They just write their work underneath.

How to feed an Anaconda.

Practicing using the words:  first, next, then, last.

Something else that occurred to me this week is wondering WHAT type of books the girls, in particularly Chloe was reading.

So what I did was list them up with these categories:  Bible, Literature, History, Biography, and Science.   So now I was able to see at a glance what type of books she'd been reading, and which categories needed more focus.  We're pretty strong on Literature { novels } but yeah, we could really do with reading some more of all the others.

 

Reading this week to the littles:

Caesar's Triumph - I am really enjoying this book.

The Science Book of Science by Jean Henri Fabre.

Plutarch - Marcus Crassus, as per Anne White's guide from Ambelside.

Shakespeare - Midsummers Night's Dream

Encyclopedia:

Ageing

Air

Air-conditioning

Aircraft

Airport

Alabama

Alaska

* * * * *

Today I'll be linking up with:

and

I hope you will join us.

Thanks for visiting.