In my life this week…
Went to see Water for Elephants
at the movies! I loved the book and spent a very pleasant couple of hours watching Robert Pattinson on the big screen. I'm easily pleased!
I had also booked in with a couple of girlfriends and my mum to a "long table lunch" at the local seafood restaurant Bannisters (which is truly a yummy dining experience with glorious views up the coast). For Australian readers, you will be familiar with Wendy Harmer and Jessica Rowe, who are both promoting books and who were the guests at the lunch.
at the movies! I loved the book and spent a very pleasant couple of hours watching Robert Pattinson on the big screen. I'm easily pleased!I had also booked in with a couple of girlfriends and my mum to a "long table lunch" at the local seafood restaurant Bannisters (which is truly a yummy dining experience with glorious views up the coast). For Australian readers, you will be familiar with Wendy Harmer and Jessica Rowe, who are both promoting books and who were the guests at the lunch.
Well, I was getting dressed and most excited to be doing something so "grown up" when a migraine, complete with flashing aura, hit. Not happy Jan! The headache lasted two full days. I managed to get through the lunch with large doses of paracetamol and champagne. But it spoiled an otherwise lovely day. BTW - I went to high school with Jessica and she recognised me! Brush with fame :-)
After my headache subsided, I was back to pounding the pavement. I'm up to Week 8 of C25K and running 28 minutes without stopping! Yay me!
In our homeschool this week…
We continued our "At Home" theme. Loving reading Anne of Green Gables and so I felt it was time to introduce the kids to the absolute magic of the mini-series
with the amazing Megan Follows and Colleen Dewhurst. If you haven't seen this, add it to your "must see" list! We watched as far as we'd read - DH was home for lunch and in a grumpy mood, but even he couldn't resist the delightful humour and over-the-top apology to Mrs Rachel Lynde from Anne!
with the amazing Megan Follows and Colleen Dewhurst. If you haven't seen this, add it to your "must see" list! We watched as far as we'd read - DH was home for lunch and in a grumpy mood, but even he couldn't resist the delightful humour and over-the-top apology to Mrs Rachel Lynde from Anne!Lots of practical maths calculating perimeter and area and costing fences...I'm hoping this will come in handy soon!
We continued our work on energy with experiments using a cold bottle with a coin on the opening, and using the heat energy generated from our bodies to create kinetic energy in the air in the bottle and ultimately on the coin.
Also created energy spirals or "energy snakes" - again converting heat energy into very perrrtty kinetic energy.
And our first lapbooks on energy are underway, completing minibooks on our energy walk from last week and researching energy resources from the ocean.
We continued our poetry morning tea - this week Wombat Girl read beautifully from My Country by Dorothea Mackellar, I read The Lady of Shallot by Tennyson (inspired by Anne!) and Video Boy read from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy describing Vogon poetry....
Places we’re going and people we’re seeing…
We had a lovely day at Batemans Bay - they have the best bike path there - no traffic, wide and flat - perfect for beginning riders. We took the dog and he had a lovely time walking too! I neglected to take my camera, so you will just have to imagine us in glorious autumn sunshine, riding and walking...
My favorite thing this week was…
Actually getting through the week's planned activities!
What’s working/not working for us…
Moving the printer/scanner upstairs so we have easy access to it!
Homeschool questions/thoughts I have…
How much does it matter at this stage if my kids don't show all their maths "working out"? I know they understand the content, we have a record of their learning, but their writing phobia means they don't want to slow down to show all the steps. Is this something that will come in time and as the work gets more complex, and can I force the issue later?
A photo, video, link, or quote to share…
We really liked this page that explains various alternative energy resources clearly and has lots of lovely youtube videos:
We really liked this page that explains various alternative energy resources clearly and has lots of lovely youtube videos:
Thumbs up to Robert Pattinson :) Ooohhh, I'm a big Anne of Green Gables fan... Sadly I could never convince my DH to watch it! Hope you are feeling much better...I too suffer from migraines :(
ReplyDeleteHi April! I could never convince my DH to sit through 4 hours of it either (and that's just the first one!). He came and made a comment that we were supposed to be doing schoolwork, and I said we were studying Anne of Green Gables. That said, we may have converted him a little bit :-)
ReplyDeleteThe energy snakes look cool!
ReplyDeleteHey Debbie - they are easy to make, pretty and educational!
ReplyDeleteMy son is 15YO now and he's starting to get why he would want to write all his math out. He's made errors that we discovered were a mistake in step 5 that was easier to fix [and less work] when he wrote it out. Trying to get him to do it when he was younger and the math was less complex was impossible because he didn't make errors that showed HIM the need to write it out. We let it slide until he had to work harder at the math.
ReplyDeleteAt the moment with my 12 year old son I get him to show the full working for 1 question out of a group so he can show me he knows how to do it. I have explained to him that later he will likely need to show more working but for now as long as answers are correct I let the rest slide. In some ways I wonder if it will encourage and strengthen his mental abilities so it may not be all bad.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes
Jen in NSW
Hi Ingi! How are you? I love Anne of Green Gables and never thought about tying it into a "home" theme but what a GREAT idea! Also, if you like Lady of Shallot, there is a beautiful song written about it my Loreena mcKennit. Do you know her music? it is gorgeous and you would love it. Congrats on the runnign goals. I have been saying "my kids are my cardio" but realized this week I need more real exercise. So happy to see you here; stopping by from the HMJ linky. hope you have a wonderful week! katie at brighton park
ReplyDeleteWow, sounds like a packed week! It's great to get things done that you want to!
ReplyDeleteCadron Creek {I think that's what it's called} has a few literature studies based on Anne of Green Gables. We're using "The Prairie Primer" to go through the "Little House on the Prairie" books next year.
Stopping by from THMJ!
@ Becca - that's my thoughts too. When it gets complex, then I'll starting insisting!
ReplyDelete@ Jen - that's a really good way of approaching it! And I like the positive spin on the mental abilities!
@ Katie - I will have to look up Loreena McKenna - never heard of her. And yeah, running after my kids is NOT enough cardio, according to the scales which keep going up and up!
@ Tiffany - I have downloaded some questions from Currclick (or somewhere!). And I admit to never having read the Little House on the Prairie books...oh, the shame!
Sounds like a wonderful week. Here visiting from Helena's blog. Your blog title struck me. Is it Wicked's "Defying Gravity"? I have an 11 year old musical theatre girl and we LOVE Wicked! Of course if it is just plain old 'gravity' we are fans of that too!
ReplyDelete:)
Hi Karen! The blog title is both! We LOVE Wicked here too and the words from that song resonated strongly with me when I was making the decision to homeschool (someone actually said to me at work "I hope you're happy"). And we are big science geeks here too - so gravity, chaos theory etc - seemed to fit!
ReplyDelete