Notes from our Home School Journal, 2 June, 2012

In our homeschool this weekâ€¦

We’ve had a very social, out and about, catching up with friends kind of week. A very different week to last week – when we did get out – but we kept more to ourselves and were a lot more focused on traditional learning.

Helpful homeschooling tips or advice to shareâ€¦

I always pack a book to read with the children, paper and pencils/pens – as the opportunity for drawing, playing hang-man, making up mazes, or writing an impromptu poem happens often in our little lives.

I am inspired byâ€¦

‘Ten of My Favourite Homeschooling Sites‘ on ‘My Little Blessings’ – and all the wonderful people that have linked up to share their resources too.

Places we’re going and people we’re seeingâ€¦

Monday was a fun morning at ‘Junglerama’ with home-school friends, lunch with Daddy and play at the park in the afternoon.

Tuesday we went to Karori Park, where we had a great walk and play – as well as cheering on Charlotte – who competed in the ‘Western Zone Cross-Country’.

Wednesday we caught up with some home-school friends at ‘The Chocolate Fish’ – but it was briefer than usual, since Alice was tired and the wind a tad on the chilly side.

Thursday we had our big school girl, Charlotte, home (as she wasn’t A1) so we lay low for most of the day – but all three girls enjoyed the chance to be together (they truly did… doesn’t always work that way).

Friday was a busy day of seeing a good friend and her amazing 11 month old walking baby. Later in the day we met another good friend at ‘Te Papa’ museum, where lots of fun was had putting on puppet shows, dressing up and role playing.

We picked Charlotte up later, from school, and headed to the dentist – where all three girls received a ‘thumbs up’ for clean, healthy teeth and returned home with hygiene gloves, blown up like balloons, with crazy faces drawn on them.

My favorite thing this week wasâ€¦

Friday night – the girls were treated to a couple of little science kits (from the fabulous kids shop at Te Papa) and spent a couple of hours experimenting – Charlotte with elasticity and Sophie with chemical reactions to make things move!

Things I’m working onâ€¦

Always ‘balance’. At the moment I feel like I’m on a pendulum – one week we keep a low social profile and do more book work and learning – the next week we get out heaps to make up for not seeing people the week before. Lots of learning is happening when we’re out and about – just in a different way – and the academic in me can’t help but try to make everything a ‘learning opportunity’ in a traditional way. When we haven’t done much ‘book work’ one week I feel the need to over-compensate the next week.

I’m readingâ€¦

‘The Unschooling Unmanual‘, reviewed by Arun Pradhan at ‘The Parenting Pit‘.

I’m cookingâ€¦

I came across a wonderful idea – via a Facebook ‘event’ – to ‘Bake Our Blues Away‘ on the first day of winter (1 June here in NZ). I ended up doing my baking on the last day of Autumn – but the thought was there 🙂 We baked some scrumptious berry muffins and shared with our neighbour, as well as our gardener and his colleague – that visit us on a Thursday.

I’m praying forâ€¦

Last week, on the 25th May 2012, 49 children were murdered in the Syrian town of Houla. My blogger friend, Vix, writes about it in her post ‘STOP in the name of love‘ and says, ‘My love can’t keep these children safe, but my voice, my signature, may do so. Yours could too. Please sign the petition and call for an end to the violence. We need to stop this now. In the name of love – the love of humankind.’

A quote to shareâ€¦

“School always appeared to me like a prison, and I could never make up my mind to stay there, when the sunshine was inviting, the sea smooth, and when it was such a joy to run about in the free air, or to paddle around in the water.”

Claude Monet

__________________________________________________

Linking up here with…