General Activities

This week has been somewhat different as we had a full day excursion to the city on Wednesday followed by Matey being sick Thursday & Friday. We had all had really late nights Tuesday & Wednesday nights so on Thursday we were all feeling really tired. Thus, not much schoolwork was achieved the later part of the week. Also, our second pond visit was postponed to next week because of Matey being sick.

What has been achieved though is the beginning of the organising a shipping container of 37,000 books to Cambodia. We have virtually decided on using a 40 foot shipping container as the cost of purchase & shipping is not much more than a 20 foot container & it has far more use as a house in Cambodia. Plus, the guy helping us source & buy it is really pushing for this since he lives most of his time in Cambodia & is aware of the situation there. Now we just need to find 37,000 books!!

Princess also began triathlon training this week with bike riding and running. There is no swimming training at the moment due to the cold sea as it is winter but she already has her weekly swimming training through squad. She loved it but came back puffed.  She had also left her water bottle in the car, so a good lesson.

Matey’s soccer finishes up this next week. He has training on a Wednesday afternoon & a game on Saturday morning. Thus, we will have some more free time for a little while. Matey had wanted to do Little Athletics over summer (both kids did it last year) but it takes up the whole of Saturday morning and requires a parent present all the time to help out. Princess did it last year but doesn’t want to do it again. Matey also was wanting to do Nippers which is a junior surf lifesaving training program. I explained what it really is and that he couldn’t just make sandcastles on the beach & it wasn’t simply learning to surf. Also, the timing didnt fit in with the family, it being Sunday mroning when we are at church or Friday night when the kids go to kids club. Just before Christmas, Matey turns 8 & he is then old enough to do triathlon training as well, so we all decided that this would be the best.

 Educational Activities

We achieved a lot school wise the first two days of the week. I had set up a new system where I print out a sheet with all the school work I want them to achieve for the whole week. They can choose which subjects (like maths) when they do them during the week. Princess always chooses to finish maths the first couple of days so that then she doesn’t have any maths for the rest of the week. Both kids wanted to cross a lot off their list, so we worked most of the day. Some was fun stuff though like cooking a new recipe & playing a card game.

I had been slack on doing science & geography as it always seems to get left to the last & we never seem to get to it. Thus, I put it on the list & Monday we spent some time looking at Antarctica. The kids had previously visited the local travel agent and collected brochures from them, so they used these to cut out the best pictures and paste them in their scrapbooks. I realised that I probably don’t do enough cutting and pasting with them. They loved it. We are using the book
“Around the World in 180 Days”. I bought it cheap on special so it was worth it for the price I paid but you could easily google the info and make up your own questions. I bought it so that I had all the info I needed in the one place and it was easy to use. The teachers guide is exactly the same set out as the student guide, except the teacher’s guide has all the answers. The student’s guide basically asks a whole lot of questions that the students need to research so that they get a basic understanding of that continent.

We are also slowly working through the Apologia Science book “The Human Body”. As part of this week’s lesson, the kids had to measure out on the floor 6 metres which is the average length of the small intestine. They also put some bread and water in a ziplock bag and squashed it for several minutes to resemble how food breaks down in the stomach.

Wednesday we met up with 20 other homeschooling kids in the city for a visit to the Polly Woodside – a sailing ship from the early 1900’s. We had visited it as a family before and it had been a highlight for the kids. Last time we all had to play various parts. Hubby had been the First Mate, Princess was the ship’s carpenter, Matey had been the ship’s boy and I had played the role of the Captain’s wife. This time, there were no individual roles but a lot of active participation. The two ‘first mates’ were very funny and really drew the kids in. The kids all loved it and learnt a bit of history at the same time.

With Matey being sick, I basically spent a huge part of Friday just sitting with him on the couch and reading to him. He loves this and it “fills his love tank”. Princess had a relaxing reading day also which she absolutely loved.