Saturday, December 7, 2019

Term Four: Week Eight ~ Fires and Finishing Up

Our second to last week of the term AND the school year! I made the decision that I would not assign any new school work for week nine, and instead the three boys would be responsible for finishing all assignments that were already in progress.

Below is my selection of photos. We were housebound for most of the week with horrendous smoke that was so bad it was compared to smoking 34 cigarettes per day!

Monster's puzzle progress for early in the week... 

What most of our days were like this week... 

Hence we got some amazing (and weird) sunsets at night. 

More puzzle progress... 

It was somewhat of a disrupted week with our Department of Education person coming Wednesday morning to re-register all three boys for homeschooling. So these are a couple of different shots of how I set up the dining table in preparation for her visit. On the left is all the work the boys completed in 2018, in the middle is their work for 2019, and on the far right (just next to the stack of coloured binders) is the curriculum we will be using in 2020 and 2021, along with my printed plans for each of the three boys (white papers on the far right). 

This was our fifth registration and our AP stayed for nearly a full hour. Previous visits have been as short as 15 minutes or as long as about 90 minutes. She browsed their work, making notes on their improvement as well as interesting curriculum we were using (as she shares information with other homeschool families), and then we just chatted. I made a point of showing her one of Monster's recent writing assignments and she confirmed for me that he is indeed writing much better than the average public student in Yr 8 (8th grade). Then I had a chance to ask questions as to how we need to prepare for Yr 11 and Yr 12, and what we need to do in order to apply for his Yr 10 certificate. She advised us that we just need to keep learning and working hard (as we've been doing) and the Yr 10 certificate will be a breeze. Then, the only difference for Yr 11 is that Monster MUST take English (the only required course for senior high) plus five other courses of his choice. Finally in Yr 12 he will again be required to take English along with four other courses of his choice. Finally she gave us the GREAT news that she has signed another two year contract and thus will see us through at least one more registration before she decides to retire for REAL. Everything is set for the next two years and we can relax and get on with the business of learning. 

As the school year winds down and I have a bit more "free" time I've already started the cleaning and decluttering that always hits me around this time of year. This week I tackled the bookshelves that line one side of our hallway. Hubby removed some boxes of computer equipment from one lower shelf, and I got into total reorganization mode!!

Each double shot of photos is BEFORE on the left-hand side and AFTER on the right-hand side. The above photo is the middle block of shelves which now hold books on the top shelf and Monster's things on the bottom shelf. The top of the bookshelf also now shelves special things that belong to Monster. 

 This end shelf (nearest the lounge room) now houses all our board games with the top of the bookshelf being a perfect spot to keep the puzzles we are currently working on.

 Finally, the bookshelf nearest the playroom is still a "work in progress"! I was able to dust and tidy up the top of the bookshelf, but the shelves themselves will have to wait until Monster sorts through and organizes his Latin worksheets. Then I'll reorganize all my books on these two shelves as they are books I'm working on reading and re-homing if I won't be reading them again.



Still more smoke haze photos of the sun... 

Finally, Munchkin had some fun with the magnets this week. 







 We've started our tradition of reading one Christmas book per night from the 1st of December until the 6th of January. I have a few personal favourites from when I was a child which I'll bring out to read during the 12 Days of Christmas, but the rest are all borrowed from our local library... many are just funny, silly books... but others have a more serious tone to them.

















 We're working hard to finish read alouds that we started earlier in the term. Both of these books were GREAT reads.











We finished off our fire unit with this book about the history of fire. 



One of the sillier books from the library... but SO hilarious!! 







All three boys are taking part in the summer reading challenge at the library, which started on the 1st of December and continues until the 19th of January. They are enjoying lots of fun free reading during this time.

1 comment:

  1. My boys love Jedi Academy! The Gingerbread Pirates is one of our beloved Christmas books, too.

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