So we're officially back to study!

Times they are a changin'

Well, this is new, the layout of blogger, and I must say I like it!!

Today was our official day back to study after a 3 month sabbatical.  The children took it easy today, by writing, but it's going to be hard work all around this year. 

I gave Dante and Kai a scenario to write about:  You are a leader of a lion pride.  You are tranquilised and wake up in a zoo.  How are you feeling what do you see.  Well, almost immediately, Dante turned on tears and didn't want to do any work at all.  It took him in the end 5 hours to do one paragraph, once he finally realised we were not joking and we expected him to get over it and begin working.  Kai, though not wanting to, did a good effort. 

Labyrinth put on hysterics about not being able to find the book we brought for her as an easy getting her into the groove.  I've written in my other blog about her learning disabilities?  Well, basically she has GLD (Global Learning Delay or an IQ of 72), auditory processing disorder, and this is why her learning has been so slow and frustrating.  She is now at school one day a week so she can access a speech pathologist and other specialists (if we can actually get her into one).  It's all been a little, ah... problematic, to say the least.

Raven and Monika, as always, love to do their work and did a fantastic effort.  Oozing pride.

I am also back at university, after sitting last semester out with major depression.  Somehow I snapped back out of it and I am back to some decent semblance of my former self.  The exciting part is I made up my own subject and I get to do it, only two other students were approved.  I am going to write a hypertext narrative about trains and death.  I am also doing German 101, as an easier subject, but I am keen to finally get qualified with it.  And finally Film: Style and Story for a really really easy subject, however it got upgraded somehow I found out today.  Whatever that means.  And I'll have my degree by the end of this year, and I'm weighing up what to do next.  I'll certainly have the numbers to get into honours, that might be fun OR really kick in my heels and be boring and have a post grad in education by the end of next year (you so can have a ed qualification in a year, I was shocked!)

Wouldn't that be a shocker for someone like me?  Die hard homeschooler selling out to work in an enemy camp!!  Well, I might for a while, but I would absolutely LOVE to work in alternative educational institions like Lambert, or Steiner, or even better found a FREE School!  That would be really fantastic, and I am so excited.  That would require money though, I imagine.  However, I stumbled onto a near perfect building method, so it could be fairly cheap to make the structure at very least.  Then grants and funding - but it usually comes with a price tag such as handing more control over to the funders.  So really, not so much a sell out, so!

We also did the mentos/coke experiment with the children.  That was interesting.  We will let them do it themselves at a later date.  Other changes to the homeschool: Raven is of age so he has to be officially working.  Monika is easily up to his standard, not saying he isn't bright, not at all.  He is.  She just shines, she recognises whole words now, and can say for example (we were watching a documentary of David Attenborough Life of Mammals) and she comes out with "This is what was happening in America pre-dinosaurs, wasn't it?"  This is typical for Monika.  It might not have been totally accurate, but it still shows through.

Oh, and my secret?  I've become a witch.  I have embraced my pagan heart, I've come home.

A Week Of Art, Reptile Unit finished, YAY

Our Reptile unit is now finished. We watched the last two episodes to the Life in Cold Blood, which were Sophisticated Serpents and Armoured Giants. With worksheets, facts etc that were taken from various internet souces incl. Enchanted Learning site (fantastic but limited as they are based in the States). So I sourced Aussie facts on snakes and crocs from various places incl.
tiger snake facts here and other snakes here and croc'n'snappers here... important to know really depending where we might be living in the bush. Below for the next three are various examples of the worksheets completed, first is Labyrinth's sheet which is descriptive words about various reptiles.
Next is Kai's poem and snake picture:

...and his pictures of various reptiles complete with label.

Here Dante was required to label the various reptiles.

The rest is various artworks the children have done over the course of the last week, no where complete. Dante's Flat Lizard sunning itself on rocks (obviously inspired by the unit).Raven's Sack Boy from LBP.

Still into Scary Stuff, this is one cute monster, by Raven.

Above is Raven's Frog, below Labyrinth has drawn a swan feasting on a fish.

Labyrinth's Girl bouncing on Trampoline followed up by an ABC TV inspired drawing of Fish and Seals under the Ice.

Kai has drawn an eye view of a War Zone. He's decided he doesn't really like real war. It's a bit scary (that's an early jump, and thank goodness for that). But he still likes the fantasy of it at this stage.

And here is Kai's Striped Penguin.

This is also inspired by a drawing show on ABC TV. Dante has drawn a lovely fish/light rain/clouds and rainbow scene.

This next one of Dante's is inspired by Ice Age 3, where the T Rex is about to eat the baby Triceratops.

Next two are Dante's ZOIDS... a Death Stinger and a Command Wolf.

Besides this they've been doing BOOST Math on the computer, still doing writing drills in their books, read aloud, usually to the littlest two (makes it a bit easier on Andrew and I - they aren't asking us 24/7) and to themselves from chapter books. Dante's currently reading Extreme Adventure: Scorpion Sting, Kai is reading The Donkey who carried the Wounded, and Labyrinth is reading the last graphic novel to the anime Fruits Basket.

Today we are, after lunch, going to do glass bottle and sand craft, and cooking cup cakes tomorrow.

I've started doing Uni again, as previously mentioned, which has been taking up far too much time just finding the cheapest books. Also we've brought about $200 on various green building methods and bee keeping which has also taken up lots of time reading those, but loving it. It was actually worth a lot more, but there was a huge 30% discount blanket across the store as they were having a huge birthday sale of 30 years. YAY Book City. Imagine building your main house structure for under $1.000 which is fire proof. Yeah, I'm interested.

Also been sick a bit too... and Raven poor lad, was feverish on Thursday night but now seems perfect. Monika is weaning slowly... and as I didn't manage to put up any of her artwork I owe a photo of her next time. As for now though, I'll endeavour to put up at least two posts a week or more. Q.

The Secret Life of Plants, Gardening & Art

Here is the sunset I snapped from my kitchen window last night. Ahh, the REAL reason I love Tassie so much. It's magic.



Below is our indoor/outdoor gardening efforts. Yes, that is a bananna plant inside, it seems to love the light and warmth of the fishtank, there is also ferns, jasmine, spider plants and giant varieties growing inside until they are big enough to venture to the great outdoors (and hopefully we'll have enough clout to get a loan for some land of our own and build our own shangri-la. ) In the mean time we'll grow a vege garden here and our other pretty plants too. Andrew is much more obsessed about the plants that grow underwater, while I enjoy them I can't eat them or smell them so I guess I am more of a terranium plant lover myself.

Outdoors has suffered a bit. I've put the effort in and weeded the weed patch on one side, gotta do the right thing by the Jasmine though! Then I've got roses and other plants ready to get in there. I'll be layins some Lucerne down for them so they won't be suffering the frost that will be comng too soon.

As for food, our tomato plant has done its bit so we'll be putting some Lucerne around it and keeping it alive over the cooler months. We get 2 tonne of dirt delivered Friday for a big vege patch!

We've also been studying David Attenborough's Secret Life of Plants. As I mentioned before I was unsure wether the children's interests would keep perked up and how they might respond. I needn't of worried. We talked seeds yesterday with a hands on visual example of seeds around the house found in potatoes going to seed, the strawberry seeds, seeds in snow bean pods, in capsicums and sunflower seeds. They ate the strawberries and sunflower seeds and even raw peas! But they really got the 5 things a plant needs to grow... sunlight, air, food/soil, water, love. The particular episode seeds relate to is Transportation.

The top two are Labyrinth's Worm/Garden, and Hammerhead shark underwater picture. These are good examples of what she's been doing and how she's advancing. Its lovely to see her put effort and thought into things!

Dante comes next with his cut out lobster and his fish/shrimp picture. Yes that shrimp is amazingly cute that's why it made the cut. Dante is drawing lots lately!

The following two is Kai's math dinosaur picture and his man with a few outfits. He's been fluffing about with airbrushing and they have all been doing digital images using Paint lately.

We'll be teaching them photoshop during this year since they do so well with that.

And young Monika loves to be involved - she wants to be drawing just like all the big ones. Labyrinth has mis-written her name but its cute.

The main stage stealer today, though is Raven. Here we have his Vampire, and his house with Ravens, including a fruit tree and garden. As we've been doing a bit of plants/trees/seeds/gardening lately it is featuring in his art work. He's just coming along in leaps and bounds, like Monika he wants to be just like the big kids, in doing so he's just about doing on par or better work than some of his much older siblings. He's 3.

The Vampire is inspired by Labyrinth - she's much intrigued by the macarbe, zombies, vampires, skeletons and such... I love his attention to detail here so much... the sharp fangs/the claw like fingernails, nostrils and pupils!

I intend to buy lots more paper to allow him to draw lots more!

The Silk Spinners

The Silk Spinners is the third part of Life in the Undergrowth. It wasn't just spiders but they were the main theme. Beautiful and amazing, even Labyrinth was fascinated. Here is some of the worksheets they did afterwards, maths and science are there but the language excercises (nouns/verbs and sentence structure). The first 3 belong to Kai, then it's Raven's Maze and his drawing of a catepillar, followed by Dante's and Labyrinth's efforts.

And this is Labyrinth's Rabbit. So cute, so until next time, Adieu.

David Attenborough's Encyclopedia

We scored David Attenborough's Encylopedia from the ABC shop for $160! What a wonderful little addition to our growing documentary collection. We also got Walk with Dinosaurs (BBC) which the children really love!

So, we've been enjoying these and Black Adder Goes Forth (the kids find it very funny *).

We also have Planet Earth too. So amazing (on BlueRay). They have been very busy reading/writing too, and creating lots of art (even real airbrushing). More tomorrow as we're going to be cooking GF cup cakes and doing some other fun stuff.