Weeks 5 & 6, Term 2, 2013

We're over half way!  Yay!

Here is Big Brother with the last of his medals from the World Education Games - 8th = in the world for Science

The last two weeks have been quite productive - everything is ticking along nicely and we're on track for most of our goals for the term.  Preparations are well underway for the Speech and Drama competitions in July, and Big Brother is working hard on his music for his exam at the end of the year.  Covered this week:

Maths - geometry including protractors and compass, Life of Fred (Liver) and other stuff

Grammar - review of nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs

Writing - Haiku, creative writing class and story telling at home

Reading - working on inference and figurative language

Spelling - topic words (such as "syllable" and "museum")

Languages - Song School Latin, German class and French and Spanish online (I don't know how he keeps them all straight)

Art - we're working on building confidence and just having a pencil in hand and having fun

We had a wonderful museum class visit to learn about NZ Native and Endemic birds, and a fantastic Science Alive lesson where he made a working nightlight while learning about circuits.

Little Sister is changing and learning every day at the moment and seems to be growing up very fast.  

She invented this game - apparently this is a machine that changes fours (from 4 to 3&1 and 2&2).

She is joining in more and more on school days and has even come up with some creative projects of her own, including this "kite" (she's made a few more now... complete with singing "let's go fly a kite")  

She still spends most of her time in costume and is getting pretty good at this reading thing now. 

Big Brother and Little Sister are both loving their Song School Latin, and are learning lots.  

We were also very luck to pick up a piano this week.  Both kids are loving learning about it, and the difference in Big Brother's playing has been almost immediate.  He says he can "feel" the difference in the volumes now.  

Week 4, term 2 2013

Week 4, and another week of interesting discoveries and adventures.

We started the week with a surprise trip to Disney on Ice.

Prince Charming and Snow White were very excited :-)

The rest of the week has been the usual... maths, art, French, German.  We didn't manage our Latin lesson this week - perhaps we'll do two next week.  

Highlight of the week has been exploring dominant / recessive genes and breeding monsters :-)

Weeks 2&3, Term 2 2013 (general timetable)

Sometimes people wonder what we do all day.  Here's a general overview of our weeks

Mondays
LS: Kindy
BB: In the car Life of Fred, Music Theory, History or topic related reading
BB: German (outside lesson)
BB: Creative Writing (outside lesson)
BB: At home  typing, duolingo, memory work
LS: at home reading, memory work
BB&LS: Latin
LS: Piano (outside lesson)

Tuesdays
LS: Kindy
BB: at home Maths, Typing, Handwriting, Topic Book, DuoLingo, Language Arts (something from: reading comp / spelling / grammar / writing)
BB: drawing or writing, finishing off from the morning,  music theory, memory work
LS: reading
BB&LS: atelier art or similar
BB: Martial Arts and Penguins (outside lessons)

Wednesdays 
BB: at home Maths, Typing, Handwriting, Topic Book, DuoLingo, Language Arts (something from: reading comp / spelling / grammar / writing)
LS: at home reading, maths (miquon), handwriting, writing, spelling (essential list 1/2), stile tray / hot dots cards or similar games / starfall / music theory
BB: homeschool sports (outside lesson)
LS: independent reading time / tablet time / play time
BB: Chess Club (outside lesson)

Thursday:
LS: kindy
BB: at home Maths, Typing, Handwriting, Topic Book, DuoLingo, Language Arts (something from: reading comp / spelling / grammar / writing)
LS: reciprocal playdate - one week here, one week at her friend's house.  
BB (and me): Mark Kistler's "Draw Squad", recorder practice, memory work, music theory

Friday:
BB: Piano Lesson (outside lesson)
BB & LS: Often a playdate or outing, project day, catch up day, computer work, general household jobs and things like that :-) Sometimes an extra Latin session.  Memory work / performance
BB: gymnastics

Saturday:
BB: choir, music theory and recorder lesson.

Every day:
independent reading time, read aloud (currently Alice in Wonderland), music practice (BB&LS), martial arts practice (BB), household jobs, lots of playing, trampolining, bike riding, etc.

Some days: computer school work (independent, choice from links on the google sites page).  One of sessions such as museum classes, science alive and other opportunities.

This term memory work for BB is preparing for the Speech and Drama competitions in July, LS is also learning some poems.

That's what it's meant to look like, anyway... the last two weeks have seen me away for four days so things have been a little less than organised!

Warning... extremely proud mother updating

Today the winners of the Amazing Place competition were announced.  That's Big Brother in first place for year three.  The prize giving was awesome, with everything so carefully thought out for the kids - there were entertainers, cupcakes, balloons, and they even gave him lunch!

This is how he looked most of the time.. wow

 Shaking Hands with the PM

 And with "that nice man whose bank gave the money for our prizes"

Thank you for an AMAZING time, The Amazing Place!

A gentle introduction back into the new term.

Big Brother has started a creative writing group on Mondays, which I'm hoping will help him see that writing is not the big evil he's tending to make it at the moment.  The first class went well, so here's hoping!

Also new this term is language learning with DuoLingo.  French for now, although he's had an offer to learn German with a friend, so we might switch if that goes well.

Sports continues, as do various music lessons, gymnastics and martial arts.  Getting back to Penguins was one of the highlights of his week though.

In more mundane matters, we're continuing with Hands On Equations, Life of Fred (of course), into the intermediate series now, and Kahn Academy for maths. Next week we plan to start drawing lessons using Mark Kistler's Draw Squad as our guide, and we'll use Atelier for some additional lessons when Little Sister is about to join in .  Little Sister has joined us as we begin to learn Latin with Song School Latin, and she has rediscovered her enthusiasm for Miquon maths.  She's also decided it's ok to do a little spelling and her reading has really taken off, so she's joining in more and more at school time.  She's rediscovered the joy of her hot dots cards

A big hit this week was bubble dough - corn flour and enough detergent to make a dough that behaves like both a solid and a liquid.   Lots of fun.

And last but not least, another song from Big Brother who has decided he wants to work toward his grade one piano exam this year.

Look Out World

Little Sister learnt to ride a two wheeled bike today.  There's no stopping her now.

Old videos

I've been looking at old videos and found this one from June 2010.

Naww my little boy!

He was so pleased to learn this - and so frustrated with me that I couldn't do it!