Homeschool Term 4 2013

Here's the run down on what we've been up to during Term 4...

English

Amy (Early Stage 1/Stage 1)
Reading Eggs
Learning Language Arts Through Literature- Blue level
Targeting Handwriting -1
RIC Publications Spelling - Book A
Downunder Literature Copywork

Lili (Stage 1)

Reading Eggs
Learning Language Arts Through Literature- Red level
Targeting Handwriting -2
RIC Publications Spelling - Book B
Downunder Literature Copywork

Nathan (Stage 3)
Basic Skills Creative Writing Years 3-8 workbook
Time for Better English 6
Nathan has read the entire series of The Rangers Apprentice, among many other books.


Plus loads of reading- the librarian told me that between us we had borrowed over 1000 books so far this year!

Maths

Amy- Math-U-See Alpha
Lili- Math-U-See Beta
Nathan- Math-U-See Zeta

Both the girls will be finishing their books very soon, while Nathan may have a few pages left until next year. Because we went back to cover some gaps in his learning when he first came home from school, he has been doing a double workload of Maths to catch up.


HSIE

Aboriginal Studies using:

Australians All by Nadia Wheatley and Ken Searle.  Australians All is Australian History told through stories about children and adolescents.  We found it's format very accessible.

We read about Aboriginal life around Lake Mungo in Australians All, which formed a springboard for learning more about Mungo Man and Mungo Woman, as well as a re-cap on what we have learned previously about Australian Mega Fauna.  

The children did a visual response to the story in Australians All...

and watched these videos:
Archival footage from 1968 following the discovery of Mungo Man
ABC Catalyst report on Mega Fauna archaeological dig

and explored this website
http://www.visitmungo.com.au/mungo-different
 
Watching parts of the SBS Series First Australians

Plus the Medieval Re-enactment day in October, where we got to see armour, swords and knights....

 

 

  Clothing, utensils and customs of the time....

 Lili was chosen to pick an item that was from medieval times.

My favourite part was the mounted archery, jousting etc.

Science and Technology

Watching episodes of The Surfing Scientist and Scope
Nathan has been learning about the Scientific Method, and all the children have been doing experiements with the Thames and Kronos Physics Kit.

Nathan- CSIRO Helix club 2 day workshop
Nathan- Minecraft challenges at DIY.org

Sport & Health

Amy & Lili- Horseriding, including a day at Pony Club to try it out.  We have a new pony, Mini. She is a gorgeous Welsh Mountain Pony.

We have been enjoying Indoor Rock Climbing...

Nathan- Archery

We watched pro-BMX riders, as well as scooter riders and skateboarders at Newton's Nation- an extreme sports event at Newcastle Harbour.

 Creative Arts

Amy & Lili- Art lessons at local gallery
Nathan- Urban Art 

Nathan was inspired by the work of Marco Luccio, after seeing his exhibition Cities, Stories and Landscapes at the local Art Gallery.

We saw and enjoyed Roald Dahls The BFG  performance by Hunter Region Drama School.

Other

Various websites on the girl's weebly site 
and Nathan's weebly site

Making a scarecrow (Mr Hayman) to keep the crows from stealing our eggs.

Mexican Day of the Dead artworks

We are really enjoying our study of Mexico, and we recently learnt about the Day of the Dead, a Mexican celebration of loved ones who have passed on.  Rather than a gloomy affair (or scary, like Halloween), it's a colourful, joyful celebration.  We read about it and looked at some photos of Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations (including parties in the cemetery!) and then tried out some Day of The Dead artworks.  Colourful skulls are a feature symbol of the celebrations, and we created these skull artworks using black oil pastel outlines and water colour paint on watercolour paper.  We were delighted to have Nan joining in with us that day :)

 Lili wanted her skull to be happy...

 Nathan decided to leave some white space in his...

 Amy created two skull artworks...

 

 

Nan thought hers looked a bit like an alien, but I think it's pretty good...

 

I couldn't let them have all the fun! This one's mine...

 

 We also played around with picmonkey to turn portrait photos into Day of the Dead skulls. Here is Amy...

 and Lili...

Later in the week we made some Papel Picado.  This is how it is used in Mexican celebrations...

Here's ours...

Adios!

Homeschool - Term 3 so far

So much happening!

Language Arts

Lili and Amy enjoyed watching Charlottes Web by the Young People's Theatre Company. 

Lili is continuing on with LLATL Red, and reading loads of chapter books.  Here's just a sample of her reading material from the last week or two:

 Amy is moving along with LLATL Blue. She has mastered single short vowel  and single consonant sounds, and now we are starting blended consonant sounds.  She has started to realise that she can read some books and has a new interest in reading early readers.

Both Amy and Lili enjoy using Reading Eggs.

Nathan has finished Finish this Book, and so started Rip the Page by Karen Benke.  It's focus is more on creative writing and he really disliked it so after a few pages we have stopped and have now gone back to LLATL Purple. I'm still on the look-out for ways for Nathan to gain writing and spelling skills in a way that he can engage with.

Nathan's reading is going well, as usual. He has almost finished the entire Harry Potter series after only starting them a week or two ago.

We played around with some Spanish as part of our Mexico study, using this site

History & Geography

We are continuing on with our study of Mexico which we are all enjoying.

We went to Fighterworld, a military aircraft museum, which has re-ignited Nathan's interest in historical military planes. He has been watching you-tube videos of re-enactments of dogfights, and reading library books on the subject. He is planning on making another model aircraft- this time a German plane.

Maths

We are rolling along with Math-U-See.  Nathan has started Zeta which is all about decimals.  Lili has just started subtraction with re-grouping in Beta, and Amy is working on subtraction in Alpha.  Plenty of other real-life maths in cooking, shopping etc.

Science and Technology
 Nathan spent a day doing a CSIRO Science workshop on laboratory skills, which he thoroughly enjoyed.  He uses a weebly website I've set up for him and likes to watch episodes of Scope.  He has an interest in Architecture so has been watching Grand Designs. And Minecraft, of course!

All the children like to use the computer which can be used with a keyboard or detached and used as a tablet.

With all the animals and particularly the birth of our lambs, the girls have had lots of hands-on biology happening.  While Nathan was too grossed out to see, the girls were happy to come with me to inspect the placenta and amniotic sac from the lambs.  We have been watching the development of the lambs and the behaviour of the mother ewe.  Lili has been asking loads of questions about reproduction and has been reading Let's Talk About Where Babies Come From.

As part of our Mexico study we learnt about volcanoes.

 

Sport & Health

Lili and Amy have been riding their pony as well as having weekly lessons.  Having their own pony means they have learnt lots about general horse care and handling, like rugging, feeding etc.

Nathan is still doing Archery once a week with a homeschool group, and has started weekly Circus classes, learning how to use various circus apparatus.

Plus bike riding in the bush, scooter at the skatepark with friends, and jumping on the trampoline.

Creative Arts 
Lili and Amy enjoy their weekly Art classes at a local gallery.

All the children have done some art with our Mexico study.  The Prickly Pear cactus is on the Mexican Coat of Arms, yet it is a weed here and we happen to have a patch just over the fence in the neighbours paddock.  We went over to look at it before coming home to draw and paint it.

 We've done a little Mexican cooking.

 
Plus playing at the park with friends, Girl Guides for Lili and Amy, birthday parties to go to and plenty more!