Author Archives: Mama

Our Monitoring Visit.

Posted on by
Reply

Earlier this week we had our monitoring visit. This is where the Monitoring Officer is sent out to our home to ensure that the program we wrote about in our family report is actually happening in our home.

The children love the opportunity to share their work with the Monitoring Officer (MO) and spent much of the morning collecting and displaying many aspects of their work ready for when the MO arrived. They love this experience and the feedback they receive. We have always found our Monitoring Visits to be a friendly experience, which is great.

This year (for us personally) the emphasis at our Monitoring Visit was different to other years as this year we had two children registered, so the MO had to deal with both my children and what they wanted to share.

The children and I were quite excited about the whole experience and a great afternoon was had by all.

image-signature

Our Plans For The Year

Posted on by
Reply

Aussie Not back to School Blog Hop – Our Plans for the Year.

We set out the year agreeing that 2012 is to be a year were we place a huge emphasis on the earth, its creatures, people (past and present), culture and connections and we have and will be continuing to make this our focus. We have devised five main steps that we are incorporating this into our daily lives and homeschooling that we feel these will help us achieve this goal.

Each of us has created our own set of goals for the year, past experience shows us that these work well in helping us achieve our own goals for the year and make us more accountable. I thought long and hard about the goals I would set for myself this year, and tried to focus some of them around our theme of connections, the earth and people.

This year has also seen us introduce a new way of setting out our learning year. The planning phase of our learning is always a tricky one for me, as I not only home educate the children, but also work part time. So for me planning out our new year early in 2012 was crucial. But very rewarding.

Through multiple planning phases and keeping on target through family meetings we have set the following as our loose plan for our learning in 2012.

  • Grow our own vegetables
  • Having No Electricity Days
  • Enjoy a lot more Nature Walks
  • Caring for Animals and dealing with issues that may arise
  • Historical play – Already we have enjoyed The Shingle Strike
  • Hands on Archeology 
  • Researching Family History
  • Making Home Made gifts
  • Letter writing / penpalling
  • Focus on reading as it is the National Year of Reading in 2012

For anyone who is interested in our curriculum which is a forever ongoing and changing  activity in our house, we currently have the following curriculum organised and being used in 2012.

Thanks to Kylie of Our Worldwide Classroom for organising this Blog hop!

Our Worldwide Classroom

image-signature

Our Learners – 2012

Posted on by
Reply

Our Worldwide ClassroomAussie Not Back to School Blog Hop ~ Meet our Learners

Even though we officially started our new Learning Year on the 9th of January 2012, I thought that I would take this opportunity to share a little glimpse into the lives of our children who happily learn at home.

Working towards higher learning….

Phinee Aged 11

Loves to play Netball

Loves to read, given the chance would have her nose in a book at almost every opportunity

Loves to write her own stories based loosely around her favourite TV shows and currently uploads them to ‘Fan Fiction’ for Peer review

Has a fascination with members of the Royal Family such as Queen Elizabeth I, King Henry the VIII and Mary Queen of Scots

Is fascinated by Scotland and anything associated with it

English and History are her favourite subjects

Nik Aged 6

Loves to sing

Gets excited every time she picks up one of our chickens

Loves to work with numbers

Would rather have someone read to her than her read to someone

Enjoys going to her dancing lessons, she loves to do Jazz, Ballet, Tap and also have private lessons!

Her favourite books are from the ‘Spot What’ and ‘Where’s Wally’ Series

Maths and Art are her favourite Subjects

image-signature

A Dog who loved a Queen – Jackie French

Posted on by
Reply

Recently Phinee was given the task of choosing the next book we would read aloud as a family. Her choice was one that did not really surprise me, given the fact that she loves anything connected to Mary Queen of Scotts or any other Royal Historical figure.

The Dog Who Loved a QueenThe Dog who loved a Queen by Jackie French is the second book in a 5 part series of books designed with Animal Stars at the front and centre of each Story.

The Dog who loved a Queen is a wonderful insight into the journey and life of a Scottish terrier who loyally loves Mary just as his mistress, rather than a Queen. The book is written from the dogs perspective and is engaging, interesting and funny.

As we read through this book, the children are enjoying the tale immensely and already have fallen in love with the queens Scottish Terrier ‘Folly’.

Based on the true story of the dog who was with Mary when she died The Dog Who Loved a Queen is a fascinating tale of religious bigotry plots and passion – and the unquestioning loyalty of a small Scottish terrier.

We can not recommend this book highly enough. The unique perspective of telling the story from the dogs view is fascinating for our children and simply caught their interest from the very first chapter. I imagine that most 9 -13 year olds could read the book easily on their own, but why not share this wonderful story set in a historical period with your younger children as well,  by reading this book aloud as a family.

The discussions we have had based around the different chapters is quite eye opening and the historical information the children pick up along the way is great. Whether or not you have an interest Mary Queen of Scotts or not, I am confident that your children will love this story regardless….

This book definitely gets ten out of ten from us!

Other Books / Magazines that get a ten out of ten from us….

Wacky But true Magazine

image-signature