Chocolate

It is the first day of term for NSW school students today, and it has been raining heavily for weeks, everything is wet and mushy, so it was a happy homeschool family who could stay at home today and watch the rain falling out our windows, although we did feel sorry for the kids trudging along to school whilst we were in our nice warm house and about to learn all about

C.H.O.C.O.L.A.T.E

I found a 12 lesson study guide at the Chocolate Exhibition at the Field Museum in Chicago complete with history, recipes and quotes.I added a couple of likely lads, and some lovely books from the libray and we are set and as chocolate comes from the rainforest, we have a sweet week of school this week.

We have been getting some lovely visitors from the rainforest as well
This friendly lady King Parrot, or Queen Parrot as the boys call her is almost eating out of my hand and she gets right into Emeralds cage, but only when our rowdy lorikeets are not home. I wonder if she might be an escaped pet she is so quiet and friendly.

I am having a lot of trouble getting to update this blog living here, the only internet connection I have is a very very slow dial up and it doesn't cope very well with pictures. So I am sorry but blogging will be very erratic here at the moment and so will visiting everyone elses blogs.

New Year, New Term, New Curriculum

Our new term is shaping up to be another busy, fun and exciting time.

We are going to do Antarctica as our main study unit this term.
I sent away for a free package from the Australian Dept. of Environment and Heritage- Antarctic Division and received lots of great posters, stickers, book marks, DVD and lots of lovely glossy information.
www.classroom.antarctica.gov.au
This is a comprehensive website with a lot of great info for teaching and terrific links.

We are also using a great article the lovely Fliztea sent me out of a National Geographic mag.
Exploring Antarctica- E&R Publications- thanks Kym
http://quest.nasa.gov/challenges/lima
and the
Live from Antarctica 2- teachers guide


Since I put up the posters it has inspired the boys to bring out their relevant treasures to support our Antactica unit- they are already learning.

Mr5 has dug out all of his plastic marine creatures and assembled the seals and whales ready to start school next week lol. Mr10 has bought out some relevant books and placed them on the shelf ready- they know our routine and how I like things to be set up and are helping- they are both keen and eager to start as well.

We do a main unit study each term and work on this after we have done our other work.
This year I am getting more serious and buying a fair amount of curriculum.

Mr10 will need to work more independently this year, he already does to a certain extent but this year Mr5 will be starting and I need to teach him how to read and write so I will be focusing more on Mr5 than Mr10.

Mr5 will be doing Jolly Phonics
www.jollylearning.co.uk
and
Math.U.See
www.mathusee.com/
and he will also join in with our Antarctic unit and anything else I am doing with Mr10 that appeals to him and lots of art and craft, play games, cooking, gardening, swimming lessons, art club etc.

Over the course of the year Mr10 will be doing

For Maths
Math .U.See,

For English/ Language Arts he will be doing
Bravewriters Writers Jungle
www.bravewriter.com

Growing with Grammar
www.oup.com

and he will also be working on reading out loud, narration, and poetry writing and reading.
Of course I will have to prise him out of a book every time I want him to do anything so I wont even mention reading.

For Science and Technology
we will do lots of things through the year but will be regularly working out of
Ellen McHenry's Basement workshop and we will be following her periodic table curriculum-
The Elements
http://www.ellenjmchenry.com/id98.html
This woman is amazing and the boys and I have loved exploring her web site and her ehow articles.

For HS&E
The Story of the World
ww.peacehillpress.com

For PD,H&PE
Exploring Feelings
Dr Tony Attwood

Other than that he will be swimming, having art lessons at the art club, playing with and looking after his animal, and working on being more responsible.

We will be starting off slowly next week, easing into a full workload as all of this wonderful curriculum I have ordered arrives.

hot hot hot

It has been rather hot lately so we have been spending a fair bit of time in,
on or near the water.
I am a water girl and always like to be around water,
so will take every chance I get to be at the water anyway.

We have had a few days at the pool lately and the boys both went on the water slide for the first time.


Our big boy adores it and just runs up those stairs to slide back down all day long.
This is great for his self confidence and water confidence.
He has been making lots of 'mates' and having so much fun,
He has also had his first sunburn- twice now!


Our little one likes to ride with Mummy-

Here is Mr10 helping Mr5 back down the stairs
as it was just a bit too scary without Mummy for Mr5.

We have also been spending time at our beautiful river
The Mighty Clarence River.



And hanging out in our little pool at home.

Besides cooling off I have had a rather busy time lately.

I have been researching curriculum for next year, I really want to get Mr10s maths back on track, he used to really enjoy maths but a couple of years ago he just lost all the ability he had over the 6 week summer break and he has never really got that enjoyment back again so he has not been enjoying it at all an his learning in this area has been well, stilted-
So I am looking at Maths U See, it is scary looking at the price but I think I am just going to bite the bullet and do it! I think the manipulatives will be just perfect for both of my kinesthetic learners, and besides they are sort of lego- ish so that will make them really cool in their eyes.
I am planning on visiting a local Mum who uses it with her homeschoolers one day next week to have a good look and maybe even borrow a dvd to check it out as well.
I have also ordered in some Jolly Phonics workbooks for Mr5 from the wonderful Book Depository www.bookdepository.com
The other things on my wishlist are Bravewriter- The Writers Jungle and The Arrow at www.bravewriter.com.
and
The Elements- http://ellenjmchenry.com/id98.html

We have also done a big stationary shop, I just need to get some copy paper and a few art supplies and we should be done.

We had a BBQ with my two favourite girls and their wonderful families- as one of them will be starting chemotherapy next week, and as they have both been recently diagnosed with cancer I thought I better get myself off for a medical check up, so I have been seeing my Dr and having some blood tests and I will be off for an ultrasound next week to check out some lumps, and then back to the Dr for more tests- My DH has also been off to see the Dr and have some tests of his own.

We have been fighting an ongoing battle with stinkbugs in our citrus trees for months now.
We have picked off a zillion by hand, we have hosed them off, we have thrown washing up water onto them, sprayed them with flour and water and we finaly resorted to pyrethrum, but they are still coming back in huge numbers-

Dh was out there the other day waging war on them and Mr5 went down to help and he was sprayed in the eye by one.
He started screaming and ran up to the house, it is an acid they spray and DH had got some onto his face earlier in the day and said how painful it was.
Our poor little one was in a lot of pain and so distressed, we flushed it out with lots of water and he had a swim and an iceblock and seemed to be fine.
The next morning his poor little eye was so swollen and purple I took him straight into the hospital, they tested his eye for ulceration and thankfully there was none, they were also very concerned about an infection in that area as it is so close to the brain. So he was dosed up on pain killers, steroids, anti histamines and antibiotics .
The next day- today he is fine, all the swelling has gone and he is back to himself, just a little bit purple under his eye still.
Meanwhile the bugs are still in our citrus trees!