So, we have done the Taj Mahal, and due to the organic nature of our home schooling life, and the fact that they are only $3.99 at Aldi, we are now studying another wonder of the world - the Great Wall of China.
This was easier to assemble due to less tricky domes, more right angles and the fact that we had a bit of building practice notched onto the belt...and led to great discussion.
Lucky: "Which one is better - the Taj Mahal because it was a palace built for love, or the Wall because it is so big you can see it from space?"
Flex: "There is no better or worse remember, they are just different."
We have now added China to our list of countries we must go on an excursion to. Great food AND great wall as the kids pointed out.
Recently, I was exposed to the practice of the 'Daily 5' for literacy. A groovy homeschooling friend who is a trained teacher with a burning passion for children's literature lent me the book and a bunch of great resources to practice with. It has been marvellous to have a framework in place. The Daily 5 consist of:
Read quietly to yourself
Read aloud to someone else
Practice writing
Work on words and spelling
Listen to reading
So every day we do these 5 things. A few of them happen really without effort (such as listening to reading which the boys do all the time in the form of audio books and being read to at night) but some of the others I have struggled with implementing in ways that are both interesting and effective. Now with the Daily 5 we do some writing and spelling most days, and I know that keeping the activities fresh and fun leads to happier kids and information being absorbed. So it's shopping lists, emails to friends, typing in multi player minecraft, writing signs on their own personal whiteboards, hangman and the other day a treasure hunt where they had to read words (Lucky) and unscramble words (Flex) in order to locate their treasure. This became such a fun activity that Lucky happily wrote clues and got to enjoy the pleasure of watching Flex run madly around the house when a clue unscrambled itself quickly and endure the torture of sitting and trying to not drop hints when Flex spent a good 5 minutes trying to unscramble the elusive 'peanuts'.
The allure of hanging out on the freedom farm is great when we all have a day off together, and the list of jobs to do is pretty much infinite. However yesterday we bucked the system, piled the bikes into the trusty tarago and hit the coast. Picking up Gav's new birthday bike on the way, we celebrated the sunshine by riding the dirtbike track at Umina and then cruising to Ettalong. Some new discoveries were made along the way such as the awesome reverse trampolines at Umina caravan park, that weaving your bike on the hard packed sand on the beach is a great way to make funky tracks and that everyone has their own unique way of eating a pie. Some turn it upside down, some eat the top off first, some mush it all together and some turn it into a taco. And none of those ways are better or worse, they are just different!
And I couldn't resist including a shot of the mist and frost from the balcony this morning....freezing but beautiful
This was easier to assemble due to less tricky domes, more right angles and the fact that we had a bit of building practice notched onto the belt...and led to great discussion.
Lucky: "Which one is better - the Taj Mahal because it was a palace built for love, or the Wall because it is so big you can see it from space?"
Flex: "There is no better or worse remember, they are just different."
We have now added China to our list of countries we must go on an excursion to. Great food AND great wall as the kids pointed out.
Recently, I was exposed to the practice of the 'Daily 5' for literacy. A groovy homeschooling friend who is a trained teacher with a burning passion for children's literature lent me the book and a bunch of great resources to practice with. It has been marvellous to have a framework in place. The Daily 5 consist of:
Read quietly to yourself
Read aloud to someone else
Practice writing
Work on words and spelling
Listen to reading
So every day we do these 5 things. A few of them happen really without effort (such as listening to reading which the boys do all the time in the form of audio books and being read to at night) but some of the others I have struggled with implementing in ways that are both interesting and effective. Now with the Daily 5 we do some writing and spelling most days, and I know that keeping the activities fresh and fun leads to happier kids and information being absorbed. So it's shopping lists, emails to friends, typing in multi player minecraft, writing signs on their own personal whiteboards, hangman and the other day a treasure hunt where they had to read words (Lucky) and unscramble words (Flex) in order to locate their treasure. This became such a fun activity that Lucky happily wrote clues and got to enjoy the pleasure of watching Flex run madly around the house when a clue unscrambled itself quickly and endure the torture of sitting and trying to not drop hints when Flex spent a good 5 minutes trying to unscramble the elusive 'peanuts'.
The allure of hanging out on the freedom farm is great when we all have a day off together, and the list of jobs to do is pretty much infinite. However yesterday we bucked the system, piled the bikes into the trusty tarago and hit the coast. Picking up Gav's new birthday bike on the way, we celebrated the sunshine by riding the dirtbike track at Umina and then cruising to Ettalong. Some new discoveries were made along the way such as the awesome reverse trampolines at Umina caravan park, that weaving your bike on the hard packed sand on the beach is a great way to make funky tracks and that everyone has their own unique way of eating a pie. Some turn it upside down, some eat the top off first, some mush it all together and some turn it into a taco. And none of those ways are better or worse, they are just different!
And I couldn't resist including a shot of the mist and frost from the balcony this morning....freezing but beautiful
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