This week Duckie's dog Rosie was hit by a car and killed instantly in front of her. Duckie had to make the choice not to follow Rosie and so be hit herself and just stand and watch it happen.
A chain of unfortunate events led up to Rosie getting out and being hit, there was nothing anyone could do. It has been so hard to watch my darling daughter cope with all that happened. She had picked out her puppy and waited 4 years until we were able to get one. Rosie had been a part of our family for just over 12months and we are feeling the gap she has left.
Remembering Rosie Photo Album
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Volcano LapN'notes
Most of these mini books are from Homeschool Share
Volcano LapN'note
These photos are from Zebra's (9) LapN'note. Duckie did one too but hers is very similar so only showing one.
Volcano LapN'note
These photos are from Zebra's (9) LapN'note. Duckie did one too but hers is very similar so only showing one.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
Spelling
Yes I know I am still going on about Langage Arts and Sonlight!
I found a great post at Pioneer Woman on how she has altered Sonlights program to fit her son's spelling needs (another post here). I like her ideas.
She also has a good review for Handwriting without Tears in this post.
I love it when I find another Homeschooler who has made curriuculm that I am about to use or using work even better for their family. This is what homeschooling is all about!
I found a great post at Pioneer Woman on how she has altered Sonlights program to fit her son's spelling needs (another post here). I like her ideas.
She also has a good review for Handwriting without Tears in this post.
I love it when I find another Homeschooler who has made curriuculm that I am about to use or using work even better for their family. This is what homeschooling is all about!
Friday, June 4, 2010
Desks
Setting up the workbox system could get pricy, after all you need all those shoeboxes and a desk - but how to get a cheap desk, and how to fit that many in a room, especially when you have 5 kids all needing a desk??
This one (pictured above) uses a book case to divide the table into half. I love how simple it looks when finished.
The plans are avavilable here at do it yourself. You can either buy a bookcase and modify it or build your own.
This one is a bit more expensive as it uses a plexiglass panel as a divider. I think I would just use a piece of wood and paint it, that way the kids couldn't see each other and we might get more work done ;)
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Handwriting without tears
After doing my own thing, adding in bits of THRASS, doing my own thing, doing my own thing ... you get the picture :) I finally took the plunge and bought the Handwriting without Tears Program. I bought it all! well my order arrived and frankly I was overwhelmed.
Where do I start them?
Zebra is left handed and learnt to write using the Sonlight LA program. I just showed her how to form each letter. Her writing is not too bad concidering that she is left handed. She has used the THRASS letter formation songs and her writing is formed fairly well.
Duckie on the other had has part THRASS and while she can write, her letters are all over the lines and formed all over the place. I am hesitant to take her back through print and wondering if we can go straight to cursive as she is keen to learn this. We will alter it though I do not like the G or the Q in HWT.
Bunny is just learning so will start her with the first book, But not sure if I teach her in the order of the HWT book or to match the Sonlight letters as she learns them???
Monkey I am going to start with playing with Mat man and learning to form the letters before she writes them using some of the ideas from Preschool Playbook . I found this blog to day and I like the fun way of playing with the the wooden bits. I love the polishing idea, this is so Montessori.
I would love to find a font that matches the HWT program so I can make up some copywork sheets but so far no luck.
Oh well ... Off to learn how to write again. (I can write in my handwriting, THRASS handwriting and now to learn HWT!!)
Where do I start them?
Zebra is left handed and learnt to write using the Sonlight LA program. I just showed her how to form each letter. Her writing is not too bad concidering that she is left handed. She has used the THRASS letter formation songs and her writing is formed fairly well.
Duckie on the other had has part THRASS and while she can write, her letters are all over the lines and formed all over the place. I am hesitant to take her back through print and wondering if we can go straight to cursive as she is keen to learn this. We will alter it though I do not like the G or the Q in HWT.
Bunny is just learning so will start her with the first book, But not sure if I teach her in the order of the HWT book or to match the Sonlight letters as she learns them???
Monkey I am going to start with playing with Mat man and learning to form the letters before she writes them using some of the ideas from Preschool Playbook . I found this blog to day and I like the fun way of playing with the the wooden bits. I love the polishing idea, this is so Montessori.
I would love to find a font that matches the HWT program so I can make up some copywork sheets but so far no luck.
Oh well ... Off to learn how to write again. (I can write in my handwriting, THRASS handwriting and now to learn HWT!!)
Homestead Blessings
If you have daughters you will love these DVD's, we borrowed them from a friend and the girls watched them over and over again. We have made some of the bread recipes and it really is as easy as they make it look.
Raising Homemakers is a new site and they are giving away a set of Homestead Blessings DVD's. Hop over there and leave a comment and you might win it, personally I am hoping I do :)
Raising Homemakers is a new site and they are giving away a set of Homestead Blessings DVD's. Hop over there and leave a comment and you might win it, personally I am hoping I do :)
Wednesday, June 2, 2010
My Sonlight order has arrived!!
It arrived!! I ordered on Friday last week and it arrived today Wednesday (6 days) is impressive in my book for a curriculum to come all the way from America to Australia. Sometimes it takes up to 2 weeks for post to come from the other side of Australia to us!! I was disappointed when it first came as only one box arrived, only half my Sonlight how can I wait for another day for the rest :( Luckily the other box arrived 3 hours later with a different courier, somehow they had got separated, so we were able to unpack and admire all these new books and resources, for me to do the usual panic why did I buy this, how am I going to use that, how soon can I start it?
My only complaint is that I got caught with customs GST and taxes this time which I have never had to pay before. Importing anything over $1000 attracts a tax (I discovered) my order was translated from approx $900 American into $1000 Australian $$ and so attracted a tax. Next time I will split the order and watch this as it cost me another $190 for my order!!!!
If you are ordering from Australia BEWARE of this import tax. Also if you split your order and process it at the same time and all the packages arrive they will add them together, if total cost is over $1000 you will still be charged the tax. So next time I order it will be in 2 bits, with a few days between them. I already have my next order sitting in my shopping cart waiting to go!!
Consequently instead of finishing our volcano study today the girls spent the morning reading all the new books. I wish I had stopped to get a photo of them. One was curled up on the beanbag with the dog reading, the others were scattered around the room reading.
The MathTacular DVD is great - I only ordered 1 thinking I would see what it was like before I got the rest but, after seeing part of it we will be getting the rest, the girls were prepared to sit through the whole thing in one sitting if I had let them!! We are doing Math-U-See but will be using this to reinforce the concepts when they struggle with something.
So I now have P 3/4 to do with Monkey and Science K and 1, then some bits that I had to replace in 1 (we lost the IG in our move) and somehow lost The Usborne Time Traveller since we have been here. Zebra was so please to see this replaced she loves it and reads it for fun. I also got the Handwriting without tears program, and some LA workbooks.
I have decided that there is not point hoping for a perfect curriculum to fit my children's particular learning needs and so we will make the LA work by altering and modifying it and adding in my own bits as needed. In the words of Sue Patrick "I believe that any good, Christian-based curriculum will work with your children, regardless of their learning style. It may not be the best, but you bought it for a reason" (pg 66 Workbox System).
My reason for buying Sonlight I like the books more and more each year. It comes with the IG which I can use or alter to fit our life. At the moment I only have 3 days for school as the other days are taken with Physio and other activities so we do Sonlight 3 days a week and it still works!! and (big plus) I only have to order from one place.
My only complaint is that I got caught with customs GST and taxes this time which I have never had to pay before. Importing anything over $1000 attracts a tax (I discovered) my order was translated from approx $900 American into $1000 Australian $$ and so attracted a tax. Next time I will split the order and watch this as it cost me another $190 for my order!!!!
If you are ordering from Australia BEWARE of this import tax. Also if you split your order and process it at the same time and all the packages arrive they will add them together, if total cost is over $1000 you will still be charged the tax. So next time I order it will be in 2 bits, with a few days between them. I already have my next order sitting in my shopping cart waiting to go!!
Consequently instead of finishing our volcano study today the girls spent the morning reading all the new books. I wish I had stopped to get a photo of them. One was curled up on the beanbag with the dog reading, the others were scattered around the room reading.
The MathTacular DVD is great - I only ordered 1 thinking I would see what it was like before I got the rest but, after seeing part of it we will be getting the rest, the girls were prepared to sit through the whole thing in one sitting if I had let them!! We are doing Math-U-See but will be using this to reinforce the concepts when they struggle with something.
So I now have P 3/4 to do with Monkey and Science K and 1, then some bits that I had to replace in 1 (we lost the IG in our move) and somehow lost The Usborne Time Traveller since we have been here. Zebra was so please to see this replaced she loves it and reads it for fun. I also got the Handwriting without tears program, and some LA workbooks.
I have decided that there is not point hoping for a perfect curriculum to fit my children's particular learning needs and so we will make the LA work by altering and modifying it and adding in my own bits as needed. In the words of Sue Patrick "I believe that any good, Christian-based curriculum will work with your children, regardless of their learning style. It may not be the best, but you bought it for a reason" (pg 66 Workbox System).
My reason for buying Sonlight I like the books more and more each year. It comes with the IG which I can use or alter to fit our life. At the moment I only have 3 days for school as the other days are taken with Physio and other activities so we do Sonlight 3 days a week and it still works!! and (big plus) I only have to order from one place.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Volcano's
This study was a rabbit trail from our Japan Study that went along with "A pair of Red Clogs".
Did you know that Japan has over 100 volcano's?? So of course you have to study volcano's.
Did you know that Japan has over 100 volcano's?? So of course you have to study volcano's.
We (of course) made a volcano. We did this as a homeschool group activity. One lovely mum made a play dough volcano at home that we exploded and then the kids made a paper mache one that we exploded on our Japan day. I must admit that the explosions were a bit disappointing. It looks good but if you were expecting a big explosion that did not happen with ours (we used bicarb soda, dish washing liquid, red food colouring and vinegar)
After reading This blog . I want to try again but the opposite way to what we did - we added the vinegar last maybe adding it first and adding the bicarb last without the dish washing liquid might make it better - will have to try it.
Making our volcano
StormTheCastle.com has fantastic tutorials giving a few different versions of volcano's to make, and it contains pictures for those of us who really need a visual guide :)
Our Playdough volcano exploding (it did look good, even it it didn't blow huge)
Lapbooks, mini books and LapN'notes
Volcano Lapbook at Homeschool Share
More fun hands on things to make:
Extra books we read and resources used
The magic school bus blows its top DVD
We have a number of National Geographic and Discovery Channel DVD's and we watched all that had involved volcano's.
The magic school bus chapter book #15 Voyage to the Volcano
The hill of fire (Sonlight Reader 2)
Pompeii: buried alive (Sonlight Reader 2)
We used this volcano web quest, which was lots of fun and saved me from hunting all over the web for the information.
Royal Flying Doctor
The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia (RFDS), known as 'The Flying Doctors' is an air ambulance service for those living in remote areas of Australia. It is a not-for-profit service and if you use their services you will never be presented with a bill. A big relief when you consider the extreme distances in outback Australia.
Bunny in the cocpit of the plane.
So we were please to support their open day and fundraiser last week and get the chance to see their new long distance plane. As the airport is Federal land you had to wear a tag to go out on the tarmac. It was a fantastic opportunity to see inside a plane and for the girls to sit in the cockpit of a plane.
Bunny in the cocpit of the plane.For more information about The flying Doctors check out
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Sonlight and FIAR which do I chose?
I have been asked which one - Sonlight or FIAR? This is a very tough question because so far I have not limited myself to one but we are using both so here goes ...
We first started looking for a homeschooling curriculum in 2005 and bought both Sonlight and FIAR at the same time. One came in a box with everything I needed to teach every subject (except Maths as we choose to use Maths-U-See and had to buy that elsewhere), the other came from everywhere I had to hunt and buy the books as I found them, even now I do not have all the books as some are out of print.
Both contain beautiful stories to read and share with your children. Many have become old favourites. I cannot read the PK or B4 FIAR books to just my littlies without the older children stopping what they are doing and wanting to join in listening.
We chose Sonlight because it contained everything I don't have to hunt for the books, or skip the ones that are out of print. The IG (Instructors Guide) schedules all the books for me and gives extra activities and things to talk about as we go. CONVENIENCE. When I first started homeschooling I wanted a guide so I could just tick the boxes and not have to worry if I was covering everything. But I wanted something that involved lots of reading and a very gentle way of learning in order to reflect a Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling. Sonlight has been this.
We choose FIAR because I love the FIAR stories and how you get to spent time slowly reading the books. A lot of the same books are used in Sonlight and FIAR. The difference I have noticed is that Sonlight introduces the books earlier for example The Boxcar children is read in K (5-7yrs) but in FIAR it is read in Beyond FIAR (8-12yrs).
We tend to go slower through Sonlight and add in the FIAR stories to fill in the gaps. Currently a Sonlight core takes us about 1 1/2 years to complete because we lapbook and notebook and add in extras as we go, plus babies and lots of moving house in the past 2 years has slowed us down. We are starting to speed up as the kids grow and life changes so I don't expect the stretched out cores to continue. Although we will still continue to add in extra things as we go.
I like how all the girls (ages 4-9) can be reading the History and Geography Read alouds together but be working on Language Arts at their own level.
Sonlight is focused on reading books and so you read them faster than you do in FIAR. For example you read the story about Ping once but following FIAR you read it everyday for a week while you focus on a different aspect of the book daily. Some kids will love this, others will hate it.
FIAR is not a complete curriculum. You still need to plan out the lessons although the activities are in the manual, you also need to add in a language arts program and a maths program from somewhere else. If you like planning things for yourself then FIAR is an option. Homeschool Share has lots of extra things including lapbooks to go along with the FIAR manuals.
It really depends what you want, personally I think Sonlight provides a better coverage as you can start at age 3 and go right through high school and is planned into time periods of history. FIAR has no real linking between the books chosen in each level other than that they are all good books. They are currently introducing Above and Beyond FIAR which goes past 12 years of age (at this stage there is only one book planned but I am sure there will be others). I personally feel that Sonlight will be a better choice for our family as our children get older and I can see FIAR slowly being put aside and Sonlight becoming our main curriculum.
My only complaint with Sonlight so far is the Language Arts program. I am still struggling to get this to work for Zebra BUT she has had learning difficulties and struggled from the start. But this is the only area of the program where I feel like I am having to "rewrite" it to fit my child's style of learning.
I hope this answers your questions. If not leave a comment and I will try to answer it.
We first started looking for a homeschooling curriculum in 2005 and bought both Sonlight and FIAR at the same time. One came in a box with everything I needed to teach every subject (except Maths as we choose to use Maths-U-See and had to buy that elsewhere), the other came from everywhere I had to hunt and buy the books as I found them, even now I do not have all the books as some are out of print.
Both contain beautiful stories to read and share with your children. Many have become old favourites. I cannot read the PK or B4 FIAR books to just my littlies without the older children stopping what they are doing and wanting to join in listening.
We chose Sonlight because it contained everything I don't have to hunt for the books, or skip the ones that are out of print. The IG (Instructors Guide) schedules all the books for me and gives extra activities and things to talk about as we go. CONVENIENCE. When I first started homeschooling I wanted a guide so I could just tick the boxes and not have to worry if I was covering everything. But I wanted something that involved lots of reading and a very gentle way of learning in order to reflect a Charlotte Mason style of homeschooling. Sonlight has been this.
We choose FIAR because I love the FIAR stories and how you get to spent time slowly reading the books. A lot of the same books are used in Sonlight and FIAR. The difference I have noticed is that Sonlight introduces the books earlier for example The Boxcar children is read in K (5-7yrs) but in FIAR it is read in Beyond FIAR (8-12yrs).
We tend to go slower through Sonlight and add in the FIAR stories to fill in the gaps. Currently a Sonlight core takes us about 1 1/2 years to complete because we lapbook and notebook and add in extras as we go, plus babies and lots of moving house in the past 2 years has slowed us down. We are starting to speed up as the kids grow and life changes so I don't expect the stretched out cores to continue. Although we will still continue to add in extra things as we go.
I like how all the girls (ages 4-9) can be reading the History and Geography Read alouds together but be working on Language Arts at their own level.
Sonlight is focused on reading books and so you read them faster than you do in FIAR. For example you read the story about Ping once but following FIAR you read it everyday for a week while you focus on a different aspect of the book daily. Some kids will love this, others will hate it.
FIAR is not a complete curriculum. You still need to plan out the lessons although the activities are in the manual, you also need to add in a language arts program and a maths program from somewhere else. If you like planning things for yourself then FIAR is an option. Homeschool Share has lots of extra things including lapbooks to go along with the FIAR manuals.
It really depends what you want, personally I think Sonlight provides a better coverage as you can start at age 3 and go right through high school and is planned into time periods of history. FIAR has no real linking between the books chosen in each level other than that they are all good books. They are currently introducing Above and Beyond FIAR which goes past 12 years of age (at this stage there is only one book planned but I am sure there will be others). I personally feel that Sonlight will be a better choice for our family as our children get older and I can see FIAR slowly being put aside and Sonlight becoming our main curriculum.
My only complaint with Sonlight so far is the Language Arts program. I am still struggling to get this to work for Zebra BUT she has had learning difficulties and struggled from the start. But this is the only area of the program where I feel like I am having to "rewrite" it to fit my child's style of learning.
I hope this answers your questions. If not leave a comment and I will try to answer it.
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