Saturday, February 23, 2013

Community work


So I've been trying to think of something we could do as a family to volunteer and give back. I am a strong believer in doing volunteer work whenever you can, and for a while I worked at the Mandurah Wildlife Rescue as a volunteer while the boys were at school and day care. I loved it. It felt good. Good to do something for no physical rewards. Every day I felt I was making a difference, and I want that for my boys. I want them to grow up giving back in a selfless way.

Every time I asked an organisation if there was something the boys and I could do to help, I got the same answer, "the boys are too young, they have to be 16 to register as volunteers and they can't work for us unless they register.

So I've decided to be a regular part of the Two Hands Project.

If you've read my blog, you would have seen this post about our first Two Hands Project participation. We learnt a lot from the experience and it felt good to sleep that night knowing that there was so much less rubbish polluting the waterways and killing the marine animals and wildlife.

So as part of a environmental studies, PE, science, maths (yup, you can make it fit in every subject!), we will be doing this every week on a Wednesday morning. If anyone locally is interested in making it part of their weekly activities (or even just when you can fit it in) please let me know you'd like to come along. 2 hands and 1 hour of your time is all it takes. If you don't live locally, why not consider doing it at a parkland or waterway near you!



The boys with their first rubbish pile from Mandurah Foreshore, back in December.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

What's going on in your neck of the woods?

So this week has been very hectic and emotional and full of ups and downs.

Ashton has been very challenging this week. Pushing all the right buttons to make me very cross with him. It's resulted in some less than ideal parenting moments, and lots of tears from him and I. Elijah has hit a very stubborn stage where I'm met with lots of no and arm crossing. It's hard solo parenting. I really is. It's draining physically and emotionally. We push through these moments though. Occasionally I loose my shit, but usually we work through it.

It has it's moments though, like today, where I realise it's all worth it.

After a rather stressful night last night, which I'll get to in a minute, today started off slow. We left the house at 9.45, an hour late, and headed to the bank to deposit the boys money boxes. They especially enjoyed the money counting machine that commonwealth bank have there for you to use. Tip in the cash and it prints a receipt with the total. You can watch the number climb as it counts, and this excited the boy very much, with them all loudly counting along with the machine.
After the boys were at day care we headed op shopping, figured it could count towards their 1 hour of maths for the day ;) we found a few bargains too, like these 3 books for $1 each!





 We went home, did some reading, mathletics, Minecraft, and I even had a nap (whoops) when I fell asleep during silent reading time. After I picked up the little ones we headed to the park and watched the sun set.

Chase cooked dinner tonight, which was nice as I got to spend some 1 on 1 time with Ashton. We did some basic maths with our Bug Subtraction sheet we printed and laminated from SparkleBox which is a great site with 1000's of worksheets and printout games completely free.
With Bug Subtraction, they roll the dice, add that many bugs to the mat, roll the dice again and remove that many and count how many are left. We write them down as we go along and we read them all back afterwards.
Ashton and I played for about 20 minutes which was nice as he doesn't like to sit with 1 task for too long, and 20 minutes is a great block for maths.



Ashton proudly held up his sums for me to take a photo. He would be in kindy this year, which means he doesn't need to be registered for home schooling yet as it's not compulsory, but it's nice to get a head start. 

Back to last night.
Right on dinner time, Chase dropped his huge shell on Jaidan's toe. This resulted in a lot of screaming, and blood, and in the end a phone call for an ambulance. 
Once at the hospital, they gave him a local aesthetic, which was the only time he screamed since leaving home. I hate needles too so I can sympathise with him.
They cleaned it up, removed his nail as it was cut off, gave him an xray and found a small fracture. So he was sent home with 2 bags of dressings for me to change 2 times a day. He was so brave.
Luckily his nail bed was undamaged so it should grow back in time on it's own. Until then, keeping it covered and clean is what the doctor ordered and that's what we've been doing. 




As a treat for being so brave, we made an Icecream Overload this afternoon. The pictures speak for themselves. Revolting but amazing for the kids.





So what else have we been up to?


We made beetroot and feta dip, which was delicious on some Peckish crackers.


We made shopping lists with pictures and prices cut from supermarket catalogues. We then added up all the amounts, and then counted it out with real money. The boys were a little bit disappointed that we didn't take it to the shop and buy it so that will be a task one shopping day I think.

And the most exciting thing we've done this week was Adventure World again. Kids love this place, and I went on the more thrilling rides this time ;) Chase even came on the Freefall which is one of the best rides there! I love it. It shoots you 52 meters into the air at 15 meters per second, twice, then takes you up to the top very slowly, and drops you down at 12g's. It's pretty awesome and tummy flipping.

 Chase waiting for the chairlift.

 Chase, Alexander and Jaidan walking together to the next ride. Cute!

 Photo courtesy of Chase, while I was upside down screaming and hoping I would not die.

 The boys in the front of the rollercoaster. For a kiddy ride, this thing is a little scary!

Jaidan flying down the water slide. 

Jaidan on the chairlift. He hurt his eye when he headbutted a pole in the pool. Lots of blood later and a bandaid, all was well.  

Chase and Jaidan on the mini version of the free fall. For the little thrill seekers ;) 

Saturday, February 16, 2013

The penny dropped

So this morning I was watching this video by a young man. An articulate, engaging, funny and intelligent young man. Who also happens to be home schooled.

It led me onto watching this video, by Sir Ken Robinson. Everyone should watch both videos, it's really eye opening.

Some things Ken said really resonated with me.

"Creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status."

"Every education system on Earth has the same hierarchy of subjects: at the top are mathematics and languages, then the humanities, and the bottom are the arts." 

This honestly was a penny drop moment for me. Yes! Yes it is as important, and yes we focus too much on the reading and maths, and not enough on the artistic subjects. And here is me, the new home schooling mum, who is still stuck in mainstream school thoughts to some degree.

I have a 7 year old, who struggles with reading. He struggles and struggles, I get annoyed sometimes, he cries over it a LOT. We have really been working hard on it but it's just not clicking! It's got to the point where any free time is no longer spent doing whatever he pleases, it's spend on Reading Eggs, or practising his blended sounds, or phonics. But still, even after all these hours spent, it is still not clicking. He's improved, slightly. It's barely noticeable  So I've been very worried. In the cross fire, is his creativity. He's artistic, sporty, and artistic. He loves art, and the computer, and art, and also art, and did I mention art? But we've been doing maths, reading, reading, reading, science, sport, reading reading reading and maybe a little art.

I use my 9 year old as a marker for where he should be this year, as they are only a year behind each other with schooling. But he's no where near. Jaidan was reading chapter books last year, Chase struggles with pre primary readers and can read about 30 of the 220 sight words he should know. He can't read the 30 confidently, and it often takes him a while to read each one too, having to sound it out over and over. It's not for lack of trying, he tries so hard. He often ends up in tears. It's heartbreaking.

So as of today, his reading will go back to the no stress pile. We will do our daily reading, and Reading Eggs, and our fun with words activities, but we will no longer put all of the focus on reading. In fact, I will no longer worry at all about it. Hopefully as this year progresses his upset over it will stop and he'll start to pick it up. In the mean time, we will do lots of art like we normally do, and we will go to the paediatrician to make sure there is no underlying issue like dyslexia.

Hopefully by the end of the year I can link back to this blog with a new post about how much he's improved over the year.

Making reading fun with the first 100 Dolch sight words and Duplo.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

First 'real life gets in the way of learning' day.

So today my littlest angel came down with a dreadful temperature. Well it started yesterday afternoon, and by last night he was hitting the high 38's. This morning, 39.4 so off to the pharmacy we went for a syringe so I could give him some medication.
This meant today he was extremely clingy and cried a fair bit.

Still adorable, even when sick.

So todays plan, which was to visit the Alcoa Discovery Centre, had to be postponed. It's okay, we will get there one day. 

Instead we went to the Commonwealth bank and opened up 3 new Dollarmite accounts (Jaidan already had one but he got a new book and money box). The boys were very excited at the thought of their own bank accounts! I made a pretty nice offer to them too, whatever they save between now and June, I will double. SO they've worked out that they have the potential to have a bank balance of $100 by the end of June, and I'll make it $200. For little kids, this is a LOT of money. They are already planning on what they are going to use it for haha Tonight we made up savings charts which they can colour in every time they deposit some money. It helps them see where they are at and their goal . 

3 of the 4 with their bank books.

Jaidan colouring in his savings chart. 

I finally got Jaidan Mathletics, and I'm so glad I did!! It was cheap through the Home Based Learning Network when you join, and he's loving it. He played for 4.5 hours the first day, and today he played for about 3 hours this afternoon. He really loves maths and told me it's his favourite thing to learn. It's now installed on the desktop, my laptop, his laptop, my iPad and the boys iPad. So no matter who is on what computer, he can play it :)

My little Mathletics fan. 

I don't know if this is a common love in ALL homes with small children, but my boys are currently obsessed with a little game called Minecraft. I love it because it really lets them use their imagination. If you don't know what Minecraft is, watch THIS little video. My boys are part of a group of home schooled children who all play together. They love this time and often ask if I can please log them onto the server with their friends. Even Ashton, who's only 4, will play and build things. It's really a great game, where their imagination is the limit. Here they are colouring in some Minecraft colouring pages I got from this site

 Minecraft art time.

So one of my previous posts had about Jaidan asking for a schedule of some sort. Together we designed this one in word which was a massive learning curve for me as I'm totally stupid when it comes to making things in word. We laminated it, and stuck the sticky velcro dots on it. Then I printed off some little pictures of things like bike riding, swimming, choir, Mathletics, the beach, Reading Eggs, science etc. Laminated those too, and put velcro dots on the back of them. Ta da! Schedule that can be changed to suit and can print and add more things in the future. 

Our homeschool schedule.

 Where it lives, on the fridge. 

One of the little pictures I used was this one. I used it because to me, this is what Australia is about. Multiculturalism, expression in ones own way, acceptance, and happiness. My boys loved this photo when I showed them also and said "they look really happy!". So when we come to this, we will be learning about all aspects of Australia, including our acceptance of everyone, regardless of religion or race. 
One of the most touching and beautiful Australia Day photos I've seen.

One last thing from me, today I got my Harvey Norman gift card that I won on Kidspot. I entered a bunch of photos in their OMO Dirt Alert contest, and this photo of Elijah won :) Yay! Tomorrow I am heading there to get a slow cooker!


Monday, February 11, 2013

Week 2

So we're coming into week 2 now of official home schooling and it has become apparent that the boys want to have some kind of time table for what they are to do.
It happened today when Jaidan said to me, "mum, you know when we went to school and we had things to do all day, a list, and recess and lunch? Can we do that?". So to that, I obliged and producted a week chart. I left it blank, laminated it, and stuck velcro dots to it. Tomorrow I'm off to print in colour, some clip art icons which show different activities, from swimming, to maths, to writing. Then I'll laminate them, velcro dot them, and we can make our own schedule. Not how I wanted to home school, but I am taking their lead on it.
It's also become apparent today that Jaidan manages to complete his tasks extremely fast, with Chase completing his extremely slow. It took Chase 2 hours to do a worksheet that took Jaidan 20 minutes. This saw Jaidan in the lounge reading a Goosebumps book, with me at the table with Chase. Jaidan read 6 chapters, and I told him he could play his DS. So I am going to have to figure something out with this as I can't spend all my time with Chase, and let Jaidan fall to the back burner.
So what DID we do today?
Well we started the day with 1 hour of swimming at the local pool. This is going to become our Monday morning activity. Swimming for up to 3 hours. It's fun, great exercise and the kids are really coming ahead in leaps and bounds with the 1 on 1 attention I can give them at the pool. Jaidan couldn't even float a month ago. Now he can glide, float and is getting used to flutter kicks instead of 'giant steps' as I call them. Chase can now swim the entire length of the pool and back, on his back with only kicking (he hasn't got the arms down yet). He is learning to dive, can glide and freestyle and is confident in the water. This is from 2 children who've not had professional lessons before, so they are doing okay!
We made mug brownies today. It was our unhealthy morning tea, and a learning experience about measurements  cooking times, sugar content and also the difference between plain and self raising flour. The kids loved this activity and the mug brownies were rather delicious with some cream on top!


We read books today, as a group and we had 30 minutes of solo reading. This is something I've added into the schedule for selfish reasons also. I think it's very important for the boys to develop their solo reading, quietly, in their head, and also good for me as I never find the time to read! So now I can. Chase is struggling with reading so he can either read, or he plays Reading Eggs to try and improve his word recognition. I've added this in the 12 - 1 pm time slot, which is lunch time. It gives the boys time to eat, and to read if they finish before any one else. It's also nap time when the little ones are home so they can nap and we can have our own rest time.
We did some worksheets today, focusing on maps, floor plans and cardinal points. The boys really enjoyed this, and they will be making their own floor plans and directions for each room this week.
We ended the day with a trip to the beach with Gizmo. We spent a long time there, and loved it. Swimming, sand castle building and running around with Gizmo. They also met a wonderful and kind lady who was happy to chat to them, and have them swarm her for an hour. I love these opportunities for the boys, and I hope that she went away happy that she'd got to meet the boys too. I know Ashton was rather fond of her after she took him out into deeper water as I refuse to swim at the beach, sharks and jellyfish and all that.


Sunday, February 10, 2013

Diving in head first

So this week has been crazy busy!! It's seriously felt like a month, it's been that full on!

It started with Adventure World for Monday, Wednesday was Jaidan's 9th birthday and we went to Perth Mint and the museum, Thursday we went to K9 Dog Rescue and Friday we had our first Peel home school activities day! So I better start at the beginning.


Wednesday was amazing. My baby turned 9. I can't believe he is 9 years old. He's so sweet and innocent still, and seems so much younger than 9. That's what I love about him. He's kind and compassionate, affectionate and just all round amazing. We went bowling for his birthday at the end of January, so it was fairy low key that day. In the morning, he woke up and opened his present which was a new 3DS XL. Something he'd been wanting since it first came out. I also made him a Minecraft card, which I coloured in myself, as he loves Minecraft so much! I knew he'd love it, and he did. The present though was the best bit. So his face here says it all really.


Then we got to spend some time with Aunty Tammi, she bought him a platinum edition of Monopoly, his new favourite game. He was thrilled and asks every day if we can play. Monopoly is a fantastic game for maths, strategy, working together and losing gracefully when you play against mum.


Then we headed off on the train to meet the other Peel homeschool families at Perth Mint! We were running late due to my complete lack of knowledge of getting around Perth on foot but we made it in time to see the gold pour. This was great! The kids thought it was amazing, seeing a mad melt and pour a full gold bar right in front of them. It was pretty special. Sadly, because of the massive amounts of gold and precious metals in the place, you cannot take photos inside so I couldn't get a photo of it.


We then headed to the museum! On the way we stopped and played in the nature area. We were also lucky enough to meet a lovely man playing the hang which is a beautiful and rare musical instrument. It was so beautiful and he let the kids have a play and taught them how to hit it with their thumbs. I love that our kids learn so much while we are out and about. Here are our home schoolers doing what home schoolers do best. Exploring the world around them with their friends!



When we finally got to the museum the boys got to explore and play in the bottom level. We didn't venture up to the next level because we ran out of time, however Jaidan did get to hold a spiny leaf insect which was pretty special. Chase didn't want to, he is much like me with the dislike for insects.


Once we'd gotten home, Jaidan declared that it was the best day of his life.



I'd previously organised a trip to the K9 Dog Rescue in Mandurah for the home ed kids in the area, but it had been cancelled due to my car troubles, so finally we were able to go on Thursday. It was great. The kids learnt a lot, why the dogs are there, how long they are there for, the different types of dogs. They got to meet 2 of the dogs who were living there, Bella and Moxie. Both dogs were amazing with the kids, and if I was allowed I would have taken them both home. Even though Bella was a breed I would never have considered before. The kids were all over her, cuddling her and pulling her tail, chasing her around the exercise area. Here she is shaking hands. Isn't she gorgeous?


It was great too that they handed out take home packs, with a lot of information on Oscars Law and not supporting pet shops who sell live pets. Yay! This is something I've recently become aware of, and am now an advocate and a voice where there wasn't one before. As someone who bought Gizmo from a backyard breeder, I would NEVER do this again. If we ever get another dog it will be a rescued shelter dog.

Friday was the best day of the week. The boys are enrolled in KindyRock, choir and sport. It happens every Friday with the other Peel Homeschool families. However, this wasn't your average Friday activities. You see, up the road about a km or 2 was a small bushfire that required the help of 3 fire fighting helicopters, who needed somewhere to land and refill. It just so happened that that place was the oval of the recreation centre where we were! So the children got to see the 3 choppers land on the oval just meters from them. It gets better though. While they were refilling, the firemen allowed the kids to go and climb into the biggest chopper there, and look around! How exciting for the kids. My boys were buzzing with excitement after. Sadly I didn't bring a camera with me on Friday, so you'll have to settle with a photo taken on Jaidan's 3DS XL.


That's about it from me. A few extra pictures, because they were cute. It's amazing how fast your 2 year olds grow up. Tonight is Elijah's second night in his big boy bed. He's toilet trained, sleeping alone, turned him forward facing in his car seat this week too. He's also moved on to drawing real people and playing with big boy Lego! On other big news, he is now a full time kindy boy. No more toddler room at day care, he's up with the big boys where he seems most happy! Where has my baby gone??

 Elijah's pictures of real 'peepees' as he calls them.

After making muffins a few times this week, Elijah thought he'd give it a go himself. Effort, cute. Mess, not so much. 

Elijah with his boat he made from Lego. No Duplo here! 

Accidental fruits. We now have a watermelon plant that has grown from the seeds of discarded watermelon. These kinds of rewards are the best kind! Neglectful gardening sometimes pays off!

Monday, February 4, 2013

First official 'school day'...

So today was the first official day back at school for WA kids.

We went to Adventure World.

It was amazing! My little ones were in day care, so it was just me and the 2 big boys and Aunty Tammi.

They had a great day, and I had a great day!! We hadn't been before so it was very exciting. Made sure we picked up the return passes on the way out to save some $$ when we go again on the 17th.

Just to make sure we did some official school work, here is our new number charts. The picture speaks for itself really. Every day we'll do a new number :)




I love how Chase attempted the negative numbers, even though we haven't touched it yet. It was wrong, but it was a wonderful try. I remember last year, there was no way he'd even attempt something like that. He'd just say "I don't know" and leave it. So I'm happy with this. 

Tomorrow we have a couple of worksheets organised, an experiment with an egg and some vinegar, and we also have Monopoly to play :) Can't wait.