I started blogging! Just jumping straight in here!
My fish tank appears to have sprung a leak, which is journeying through the floorboards, travelling via the light fitting on the ground floor to land on the rug. I haven't attempted to move it at all, so I don't know why it's leaking.
My DH and I spent some time in the front garden, pulling up weeds, dividing agapanthus and mulching. Hot and humid work.
Teaching was less stressful than last week, but still, hard work taking a bunch of teenagers to the sea pool to practice their lifesaving and swimming skills.
Had a very pleasant Saturday evening out on the deck with a BBQ, wine, and stargazing.
In our homeschool this week...
This is Week 4 of our homeschooling journey. We are starting to find our groove. We have done a lot of maths, but this week our focus was on literacy and science. We finished A Gebra Named Al and moved onto A Chemy Called Al. We also started the Writer's Jungle program from Brave Writer, for my two reluctant writers. We also continued with our gifted science unit Acid, Acid Everywhere, which the kids are enjoying.
We also made Harry Potter currency (Bronze knuts, Silver sickles and Gold knuts), swimming, bike riding and tennis.
We didn't completely abandon maths - we enjoyed watching the Joy of Counting from the Great Courses Joy of Maths DVD set.
Places we're going and people we're seeing...
A sleepover for my son was a big first for him, followed by lots of swimming with friends for both son and daughter. My daughter enjoyed her second gymnastics lesson on Monday. My student I'm tutoring felt she was OK this week in maths, leaving Tuesday afternoon free. I had work on Thursday and Friday, while the kids had tennis on Thursday and Saturday.
My favorite thing this week was...
Completing the Jabberwocky dictionary from Writer's Jungle - great poetry reading, great discussion, great vocabulary!
What's working/not working for us...
I am trying to leave a list of meaningful list of activities that DH can complete with the kids whilst I'm at work on Thursdays and Fridays. Leaving a whole bunch of maths exercises or grammar worksheets is just too much like school and leaves everyone feeling stressed out and not happy. They had a much nicer couple of days this week completing maps of Julie's room from A Chemy Called Al, wind and solar energy kits, Lego maze challenges, bike riding and tennis with DH.
Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...
Still struggling to get rid of the feeling that we are not doing "enough". Rationally, I know this is silly - we can work a different way, not everything has to be on paper. We get through our work a lot quicker and still go into much deeper detail which you can't do at school.
It is nice to be "relaxed" and be able to go with the flow, which is the exact opposite of how I feel when I'm teaching, so maybe that's the teacher baggage I have to focus on getting rid of.
A photo, video, link, or quote to share...
Harry Potter currency!
Neutralisation experiment
Mmm, what pH is that?
OK, I've read your whole blog now and I love it :) You have so many useful links and ideas - thank you for sharing! I have just started homeschooling my 12 yo daughter this year and can relate to so much of what you wrote when you first started (as I am sure most do). I am also still working outside of the home 2 days a week but after just 2 weeks of being home with my daughter I am making a plan to cut out those 2 days of work so I can be home with her fulltime. I loved how your kids said "Stay home with us and be happy". I look forward to reading more as you write it, Tamara
ReplyDeleteOh wow! You are keen! I'm so happy you enjoyed it and even happier it is useful! And we started on such a similar path (tween, part-time work). We just love it (well mostly - I do have my moments of frustration, especially with my son!). Enjoy the lovely new homeschooling life :-)
Delete