Setting up and keeping it real.

I have a new system. I tidy up, find tomorrows work and lay it out after the kids have gone to bed each night. It means if I have accidentally forgotten something. Or don't have a resource I need I can print it off, or have time to improvise. It is working well and it gets the room tidy. Yep I am keeping it real here, this is my level of tidy. Miss I has discovered scissors and my floor is covered in paper confetti. I am not going to stop her it is a skill she needs to master. But I have also run out of vacuum bags. So my tidy room with broken blind, keeping it real. There is a shoe rack in the back corner. This serves well as a place to keep built Lego ready for the afternoon learning room to Lego room make over.

This is Miss I's work for tomorrow. She is 2. We only do formal work for an hour or so each morning. This activity, plus her crayons and scissors will keep her well occupied while we work.

Master N's work for tomorrow. He is 4.

And I forgot a photo of Master I's works. He will be doing some Grammar, spelling, maths, Science and PDHPE tomorrow.

Getting my Montessori on

We are not Montessori, I don't think I would ever have the discipline and structure to be fully Montessori. Nor do I have the funds to create the full classroom. But I love a lot of their principals and styles. So where I can I try and incorporate Montessori style into our learning. I did this before I even knew what Montessori was, it is just naturally how my brain works I guess.

And so over the last few days I turned my laminated money making board into a wooden one. I love it and so do the kids. They just spend about an hour playing with it. Making different amounts of money, adding their money, reading money. Even Master N who is 4 was really getting into it.

I bought a $6 piece of MDF from bunnings and a $4 piece of trim and got creating.

First I measured up. But I totally underestimated the amount of length you loose when cutting. I almost burst into tears when I tried to fit it altogether and it was never going to work. But I just shaved all the other pieces down, so that everything fit with the size the 5c ones ended up being. Total pain in the rear, but I got there. So here is my tip, it might be easier to measure, cut, measure, cut each piece rather than measuring it all and cutting.

I was working on the plan of each 5c being 2cm (so that a 5c coin just fits), 10c = 4cm etc. The board needed to measure 44cm (you need the extra 4cm to fit the make $1 piece) plus two times the width of trim used. I used a 9mm trim. Mine ended up being shorter due to my cutting issues.

Painted all my strips the colours I wanted, The back of the white pieces are painted with chalkboard paint. Once I have time to prime them with chalk, the kids can make their amount, write it in chalk then flip over and check their answer.

Master N taking his turn. And yes I decided I couldn't be bothered printing, laminating and cutting out coins to use. I decided my time was worth $5 of coins. Although I didn't have enough and I had to buy Master I's 5c pieces at the cost of 50c each. He drives a hard bargain that boy, it ended up costing me an extra $5 to buy his coins LOL.

God's design Science Curriculum

I love these books, I am excited by these books. I cannot wait to teach my kids science from a biblical perspective, it just makes so much sense. As we look at the world around us we see God, to study science without Him seems odd and strange. We will look at things this year like why did God give fish fins, instead of why do fish have fins. I am in love with this program and the illustrations or gorgeous.

When I first got these books, I fell in love and then I panicked about how on earth I was going to ram them into the NSW curriculum acceptably so that I would cover all required areas. Over time it will cover everything, just not within the timeline NSW BOS wants. And so my plan is to briefly look at the areas lacking knowing we will study them more indepth later.

First on our agenda is God's design for Life the world of animals

This covered for Stage 1 outcomes:

Skills: Working Scientifically

ST1‑4WS investigates questions and predictions by collecting and recording data, sharing and reflecting on their experiences and comparing what they and others know

 

Skills: Working Technologically

ST1‑5WT uses a structured design process, everyday tools, materials, equipment and techniques to produce solutions that respond to identified needs and wants

Knowledge and Understanding: Living World	ST1‑10LW describes external features, changes in and growth of living things
	ST1‑11LW describes ways that different places in the environment provide for the needs of living things

Next we will cover Our Weather and Water

This helps cover these Stage 1 outcomes:

Skills: Working Scientifically	ST1‑4WS investigates questions and predictions by collecting and recording data, sharing and reflecting on their experiences and comparing what they and others know
Skills: Working Technologically	ST1‑5WT uses a structured design process, everyday tools, materials, equipment and techniques to produce solutions that respond to identified needs and wants

Knowledge and Understanding: Earth and Space	ST1‑8ES describes some observable changes that occur in the sky and landscape
	ST1‑9ES identifies ways that people use science in their daily lives to care for the environment and the Earth’s resources

We will end the year with The world of Plants

This covers these Stage 1 outcomes:

Skills: Working Scientifically

ST1‑4WS investigates questions and predictions by collecting and recording data, sharing and reflecting on their experiences and comparing what they and others know

Knowledge and Understanding: Earth and Space

ST1‑8ES describes some observable changes that occur in the sky and landscape

Knowledge and Understanding: Living World	ST1‑10LW describes external features, changes in and growth of living things
	ST1‑11LW describes ways that different places in the environment provide for the needs of living things

Next year I plan to look at

Practicing Money

I must have a strange brain. I go to bed with bubby to feed her to sleep and maybe have a short nap myself. But no I cannot sleep instead my brain hashes out this idea to make adding money a more visual independant learning experience.

Make any amount between 5c and $1

Click here for the free downloadable file

(I have changed the colours a little since printing mine. I feel the changes make it easier to use)

Surprise Day 1 pencil cases ready to go

I remember back in the old days ;-) when I was young I loved the beginning of each school year. I loved getting new pencil cases, pencils, pens, textas. I just loved the new stationary and books. I thought why should my kids miss out when being homeschooled. As so the first day back will be just like Christmas they will wake up to discover their new stationary ready on their desks for them.

I cannot wait for their tantrums over why so and so got this and why didn't I get..... Yes we will get those tantrums before we get the excitement. But in the end they will be happy and I think it will help make the fist day back after a long break a little bit more exciting and easier.

Master N's

Miss I's I cannot have her feeling left out after all

 Master I's

Master N's workboxes

I shared the folders of Master N's work from confessions of a homeschooler. This is how I will use them each week. You can't see everything in each box, sheets hiding under sheets.

The work box drawers.

Monday and Tuesday

Wednesday and Thursday

 Friday

Master I's planning

I am done Master I is all planned for and ready to go. I have a loose plan for the year, but am well nutted out and ready for term 1. Pictures are fun so lets go...

 The new weekly timetable to use as a very rough guide

My weekly journal/planners. I have pasted the weeks plan on the left and I will hopefully be reminded by the blank page on the right to jot down some notes about the week. This was something I lacked last year and sometimes forgot to go back over topics that needed it.

My subject planners, I numbered the sleeves 1-10 and this is where the worksheets or plans for each week are kept. I found this a great tool to spot gaps or weeks that were too overloaded. On my weekly planners things appeared even but as I filled the folders I could see some weeks had a much heavier workload.

The 2014 planner, pretty in blue.

First stop in the planner, the outcome proformas. I planned with these so I could see that the resources I had chosen would cover everything. I certainly do not recommend this as the planning method for everyone but for me it works. And yes I have rammed odd shaped pegs into the square boxes, by changing the shape of the boxes rather than the pegs.

My English planner. This is the subject I struggle most to teach. Not because I lack skill, but more because I see it as the key, the pinnacle to all other learning and life. This is the place I fear most about stuffing up. There are so many little nooks and crannies in English that I spend a lot more time planning so I can hopefully cover it all well.

Master I's reading log. not for the books he reads, but for the books we read with him. I thought it would be interesting to see how many and what books we have read at the end of the year,

Master I's daily reading log. If he reads to us each day he gets a sticker, if he reads everyday he gets a reward at the end of the month. We are onto our 3rd month of this system. The current reward is to chose a matchbox car from the confiscated pile (they were not looking after them so I took them away). I have enough cars to last us years, but I am sure we will need a new reward for motivation soon.

Day 1 ready in his new tray. Each fortnight he will get a new bookmark with his new spelling words.

The bulk of this years resources. There are still some on the way in the post.

Moveable Alphabet discs

This job was so much easier and quicker than I expected. And they turned out great I am so happy. I already owned the alphabet stamp set, so all I had to do was find the wooden discs to buy. Which I royally stuffed up. Here is a tip, don't buy things after no sleep. 100 discs sounded like heaps.

Yes well this is the result of my brain fart. Tip if you want 4 of each letter order 104, 5 of each you need 130 etc etc. Don't have the same brain fart I did.

My pretty row of letters. They should be fun to use with the Letter Matching spelling cards each week that we have from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Planning and reviewing

As we head into the new school year I have been planning my arse off. Scheduling lessons, deciding on resources, then finding the cheapest way to acquire those resources. I have been busy, my brain is tired and in this heat my body is tired too.

While I have been planning have been reviewing our last year, our first 3 terms of homeschooling ever. What worked, what didn't work? There are things that I don't think worked well enough, but I am yet to decide on how else to do those things.

The area I struggled most with as we started was how to report and record. I am still really struggling with how to do it.

This is what we did last year:

This is our weekly timetable. I plan these in advance to help me spread the work out over the term. Then as we go I tick off the things we did and jot down extra things we decide to do as we go along. (Please ignore the misspelling of site, I know they are sight words hahaha it took me a few weeks to spot my boo boo, and of course I pick the wrong week to photograph). 

What I loved about this:

• I could open the folder and know exactly what work to pull out that day.
• It was clear, neat and easy to follow.

What I didn't love:

• Just like I am incapable of following a recipe, we would end up doing Friday's work on Monday, the Monday's work would get split over 3 days, and maybe I might follow Thursday as is. So by the end of the week it was a mess and I struggled to see what needed to be done.
• There wasn't a great deal of space to jot the extra activities.
• It really didn't help me remember to keep note of what he struggled to learn that week and help me keep track of the areas we need to work on. I knew in my mind what was needed but have nothing on paper for it.

Our yearly report. This is where I have been able to mention what he has and has not achieved. Maths I cover with simple dot points of Yes he does these areas well, and these areas need more work. For English I write a little blurb for each outcome area. And then the other KLA's get a paragraph of what we did that year and how he has progressed. I am really happy with these and I will continue to do them half yearly and yearly.

Thanks to some amazing work of Tamara from Tutor your own child and Suzie from Suzie's Home Education Ideas I have these amazing proforma tables. I love these women for making these tables. As I plan I jot down the activities I have planned for the term/year. It helps me see that we will cover everything. At the end of each term I tidy it up and delete anything we didn't manage to cover or move those activities to the next term. I don't think planning like this is for everyone. But for me it really really works. My organisational brain loves it, loves the order and neatness these tables give. Plus it gives me a very clear visual of gaps that appear. I don't jot down a great deal of activities for English as those lessons just sort of happen amongst other lessons.

And so I move onto planning this year.

Master N will be starting a preschool program this year and we have decided to follow a modified version of Confessions of a Homeschooler Letter of the Week program combined with reading eggs and other random activities that interest him. So above is one terms worth of work printed and laminated ready to go. I used an entire 100 pouch box of laminating pouches to create this.

Master I's work is almost ready and programmed. I am just waiting on a couple of books before I finalise everything and get everything for term one printed off. I am getting as much ready to go now while Dad is home to help with the kids and it is too hot to do anything else anyway.