Friday, June 24, 2016

Term Two: Week Nine ~ Almost There

Week nine and we are almost there.
With cold weather and lingering coughs, we are counting down the days to school holidays.
There are no photographs of structured written work, but we completed spelling, maths, reading and writing through the week.
The boys were gifted with LOTS of Lego and some new books from friends of ours, so much of the week was devoted to natural learning using their new things.

Four new tubs of miscellaneous Lego (green, yellow, pink and purple as shown in this photo) means LOTS of imaginative play time.  The boys were THRILLED to find LOTS and LOTS of mini figures in the boxes and they now have elaborate games created using all of them. 









Quite a mixture of books here as Monster enjoyed a set of Zac Power books given to him by our friends, we are working hard to wrap up our Ancient Egypt unit so we can start Ancient Greece next term, and we continue with our nutrition unit.  As always there are picture books thrown in for good measure.

Friday, June 17, 2016

Term Two: Week Eight ~ Plodding Along

The second half of the second term of the year always seems to be the hardest for us.
I think it has something to do with winter setting in and it is a bit hard to get super motivated when it is cold and gets dark earlier.  This year was made even harder as the boys and I got hit with a cold/cough bug that though short lived, has left the boys with lingering coughs.
So we keep plodding along with this term, getting our most important structured written work done (writing/spelling, maths and reading) and then fill in any gaps with read alouds and natural learning... all the while waiting for the light at the end of the tunnel... school holidays!

There is always time for learning with Legos.  The older boys are playing an online Lego game that gives them instructions to some "secret" construction as they finish levels.  They periodically lock themselves away in the bedroom (away from the 4yr old brother) to work on the next section.  They don't always have the right parts but they have got quite good at improvising. 

Munchkin LOVES playing this game.  
He asks me (or his brothers) to play with him frequently.
It gives him good practice with counting and turn taking. 


 There is always time for reading - no matter what!
The Wombat books are favourites of all the boys even though they are VERY simple - Munchkin has memorized several of them we've read them that much!


These next four books are all Monster's books for the week.  The Brain-Bending Basics book was an independent free choice of his, Fox and Fine Feathers and Flight were Premier's Reading Challenge books, and the two Eygpt books were our read alouds that I finished with him as he worked on his puzzle in the evenings. 

 These two books were read aloud to the two older boys and they were FANTASTIC!






 Finally our selection of other picture books that I'm pretty sure I read to all three boys.
We enjoyed all of these so I imagine we'll be borrowing them from the library again soon.


The puzzle progress is VERY slow now as Monster gets to the hardest bits, so you have to look hard to see the differences, but they are there.

Friday, June 10, 2016

Term Two: Week Seven ~ Getting Back on Track

We enjoyed spending all of Monday and Tuesday morning with Nana.
All three boys enjoyed watching and helping her cook their favourite meals through the day on Monday.  That evening we enjoyed goat curry, fish curry, potato steaks, and special flat bread made by Nana and her two special helpers!





Monkey reckons he's watched Nana enough, and helped her enough, that he and I could make this bread on our own.  I'm keen to give it a try soon and see if he is right. 


The older boys enjoyed playing Rummikub with Nana before she left for the airport Tuesday morning.  I think they got two full games in before she had to go. 






The boys enjoyed a mammoth play dough session Tuesday afternoon while I read some information books aloud to them. 


Thursday afternoon at the library saw Monkey catching up on some work while the other two boys used the computers. 



Friday was a natural learning sort of day with all three boys spending a majority of the morning pouring over this book (title will be down below in the book section) to solve the mystery within the story and claim the special prize from the author's website. 

The prize was a Jewel Fish to download, print out, cut out, and assemble.
There was a colour version (right) and a black and white version (left) that they could colour in first if they chose. 

The boys also watched three episodes of this DVD about life in Antarctica. 


Monster's independent reading...








 Despite my voice still not being at 100% we did a LOT of reading aloud this week. These books were all wonderful.




We enjoyed some wombat love this week with a selection of Jackie French picture books. 

 The book on the left was the one the boys poured over on Friday.  It was also an independent Premier's Reading Challenge book for Monster.  The book on the left was a book George (our favourite librarian) set aside for us because he knows Monkey loves dinosaurs, but it was a bit too simplistic for him.  Munchkin hasn't really "discovered" the wonder of dinosaurs yet, so after one quick read through, back to the library it goes.


Between Nana being here, and behaviour issues in the evenings, we are still working to get our evening routine back on track.  But we did get a couple nights of reading an puzzle time in. 

Finally, just for a change, I thought I would share this book that I read this week.  I got VERY little sleep this week thanks to this book, but it was well worth the sacrifice.  This is the fifth book in a wonderful series and I was thrilled to learn (in the author's notes at the back) that a sixth book is being written, and perhaps there will be a seventh as well.  Jackie French is an amazing woman and author, and I highly recommend her books to anyone who loves to read.