Friday, April 29, 2016

Term Two: Week One ~ ANZAC Day and Our Slow Start

The first week of the term was a short one.
It was ANZAC day on Monday and then Pupil Free Day (Teacher Inservice Day) on Tuesday, so students at the public and private schools in our area started back on Wednesday.
Short weeks annoy me, so we started VERY slowly.
No book work... just lots of reading, some online learning, craft, science, and some outdoor time.  It wasn't perfect, but it worked, and in the end we accomplished a bit more than I had planned so all in all, I'm pleased. 
Next week will be the real test though.





 ANZAC Day was Monday 25 April and we commemorated it with some read alouds and a snack of ANZAC biscuits.  As the boys get older the learning will be more detailed (and probably more graphic) but for now, these boys were excellent choices.


 Munchkin was DESPERATE to do some craft, and wouldn't take no for an answer.  We are VERY low on good crafting material but he wouldn't let that stop him either.  So finally I put some bits and pieces out for him on the table, and as you can see, he thoroughly enjoyed himself.










Tuesday Monster and Monkey attended an all day (9am-4pm) Lego day at a local church. This gave Munchkin and I the WHOLE day together.  He announced shortly after the older boys left that he wasn't going to miss them at all this time because they annoy him a lot.  I think deep down though, he was really happy to see them come home!
He enjoyed quiet a few fun activities.
First he played with his new Magic Sand (kinetic sand) given to him by one of his little friends at his birthday party. The natural progression from there was to play with play dough.  That kept him busy all morning long.  Finally after lunch he enjoyed playing with his magnetic shapes and he also got a good start on sorting out the pieces to his Wiggles puzzles.
All in all, he and I had a LOVELY day together.

Wednesday morning Monkey spent some time building Pac-Man out of Duplo Lego.  He had also built one of the ghosts and some of the fruits but I didn't manage to photograph those. 

Wednesday afternoon we got outside for some exercise.
I decided we needed to walk the perimeter of the playing field of our local park (seen above) to clock what the distance was (I wore my pedometer).  You would think I was torturing the boys... they complained the whole way, and grossly overestimated the total distance.  It turns out one lap around this field is only 1km, which is a shorter distance than when we walk the LONG way to the park (which we had done on this particular day)!! 


 When we got home from the park it was time for some arts and crafts.
I had organized three different "projects" for them and for the most part they enjoyed them. Not sure why I have no photos of Monkey though.



Thursday afternoon was our regular trip to the library.
The boys enjoy some time on the computers while I return, renew, and check out books.
This works perfectly as I now get to concentrate and really look through the books properly without constant interruptions.  Now that Monster is older I have to look more carefully for some of his history/geography selections.
On our walk home the boys spotted this caterpillar trying to cross the footpath.  After we took our photos we then had to "rescue" him by placing him off the footpath and onto the grass. 

 Our homeschool group abandoned our previously made plans to meet up at our favourite local park, and instead chose a different park, so we opted out of the group for the week and went as planned to our favourite park.
The boys started out in the sand pit and Monkey was thrilled because for the first time ever he was able to get the sand castle mold to work right!

 Monster spent some time on the various types of monkey bars, and also surveyed his territory.


 Monkey and Munchkin enjoyed climbing on the spider web.
While Monkey worked his way all the way to the top, Munchkin was content to climb around at the bottom.



On the way home we made another stop at the library.
This time, since they weren't on the computers, Monkey and Munchkin found a bunch of picture books to look at, and they brought a few of them home as well.  Meanwhile, Monster spent some time at the circulation desk with our favourite librarian putting several DVDs on reserve. 



We didn't get home until 4pm but we still had a science experiment to do and our arts and crafts to finish up so we got right to it.  We gave homemade lava lamps a third try and were pretty pleased with the results.  I had to keep an eye on them all with the salt though, as they happily would have poured the whole container in. 

 Munchkin and Monkey working hard to finish their projects.



Finished Projects
Munchkin's at the top and Monster's on the bottom. 

Monster's finished foil and crepe paper picture... 


And their finished tree sillouettes
Top Left: Monster, Top Right: Munchkin and Bottom: Monkey 

You can't hardly tell we love books and reading!!
We found new Pamela Allen books at the library... HAPPY DAY!! 


During our special day together on Tuesday, Munchkin and I went through this WHOLE book.  It works on counting (though Munchkin can now count to 14 independently so that part of the book is really too easy for him) but it also works on visual discrimination and he loves it! 

Monster and I finished this amazing book as one of our read alouds this week.  We had read about Isaac Manly before when we read some of Jackie French's animal series books, but this book gave us more detail and a different perspective. 


This is Munchkin's special book given to him for his birthday from his best friend, who recently travelled to London for a wedding.  The book is a lovely picture book, but is chalk full of historical information as well so suitable for the older boys as part of geography/history! WIN!! 

I read this beautiful Aboriginal story to the boys during craft time on Wednesday.  It was all about three children (siblings) who had to find their way through the bush as part of a "coming of age" ritual.  The boys (all three) were mesmerized by the story and the beautiful illustrations. 

While Monkey and I had our special hour together Friday evening, Monster read the book on the left, then I finished reading "Pearlie the Spy" aloud to him during his special time.  The Pearlie books take place in Darwin during WWI and we are enjoying the history and the general story line. 

Daddy read these three books to Munchkin just before tucking him into bed Friday night. 

Monkey chose these books for his read aloud selection Friday night. 

FREE BOOKS!
When we arrived at the library Friday afternoon, our favourite librarian mentioned that another patron had donated some books to the library and would I like to take any of them? They are ALL brand new and wonderful books, so I jumped at the chance to add to our home library. 


Finally, our puzzle progress.
Monster finished this 1000 piece puzzle Wednesday night. 

Monkey and I had a talk and decided the 750 piece panoramic puzzle is really too difficult for him (I will finish it) and so we started on this GREAT 300 piece Ravensburger puzzle that we spotted at the op shop this week. 

Monster picked out a new 1000 piece puzzle and got started on it Friday night. This was his progress while I read his history books to him.

And that my friends, is our first week of school.
I am eager to see what week two has in store as I plan to hit the ground running Monday morning!

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