We have started Term 3 with Greater Sydney (and surrounding areas) in a STRICT lockdown. This is our third week of a lockdown that gets progressively more strict each week in an attempt to convince the general public that COVID is ACTUALLY a thing, that the Deltra strain is a MUCH different beast to other strains, and that we are NOT going to see much freedom until we work together to get this thing under control. So we ended this week with four council areas (similar to counties for my America friends and family) not being allowed to leave their council area for ANY reason (unless they are healthcare workers), essential workers of those areas having to get tested every three days in order to keep working, and the rest of us restricted to only leaving our house for essential work and school (schools are still open for children of essential workers), food, medical care and exercise with family members ONLY.
With all these strict rules there is NO chance of the library opening or even starting "click and collect" before the 30th of July at the very earliest. So I have had to improvise this term, since all my non-fiction books I needed for history, geography, science and health are currently sitting on the reserve shelf at the library.
After much thinking and deliberating I opted for online learning for part of each of our school day. So (for now) our mornings are devoted to the basics... reading, writing and math and I'm working the boys hard in those subjects. If all goes well we'll get a little bit ahead and maybe have some "free time" up our sleeves in Term 4 for excursions (if they are safe) and time with friends.
In the afternoons we pick some online videos/documentaries to cover our history, geography, science and health subjects. There are lots of wonderful things online, some that have always been there, and others that were added during our first lockdown last year and were never taken off.
The writing assignments that I normally give my boys are pulled directly from the reading we do for history, geography, science and health. Because I don't use textbooks/workbooks or worksheets for those subjects, I use their writing assignments as proof of their learning in those areas. This was going to be much tougher to do with the online learning so I've decided to conduct a review term for our writing curriculum. I had relaxed how much I monitored the boys writing process and I noticed at the end of last term that there are areas for all three boys that need attention and reinforcement. So we will review the "rules" of the process and practice them at length. Then they should all be well prepared for me to raise the expectations/responsibilities within their writing.
With all that said, please enjoy my selection of photographs that I chose to highlight our first week of learning during Term 3 of this school year. (I can't quite believe we are headed into the second half of this year already!!)
We are back to "online church" again. So each week our pastor emails his YouTube video of his sermon and we sit and watch it. After the sermon is finished I read the 3-4 chapters of the Bible that we read daily, then I read the younger boys' scripture that would be part of their Sunday School lesson, and then the two younger boys speak to our pastor's wife on the phone to recite the scripture verse that they have memorised over the previous week. That is our "church" for the time being.
Munchkin is doing online learning for his math at the moment as well. He has completed his Year 4 (4th Grade) math textbook and is NOT ready to push forward into the Year 5 textbook so he is reviewing Year 4 using the 4th Grade course work on Khan Academy. This is working well for him and he (for the most part) enjoys it. We are very thankful for this resource.
For science we are using the Science 101 curriculum on loan to us from a friend. Currently we are working through the Chemistry 101 portion of the curriculum. This is a bit above Munchkin's comprehension level, but he absorbs what he is capable of and we'll review it again when he is older. The curriculum consists of a video component, followed by experiments to do (if you so choose - they are shown on the video as well), and a written multiple choice quiz.
We got outside for one walk this week and I decided to photograph the progress on the block of four units (apartments) that is being built a few blocks from our house. Sadly there won't be any more progress for awhile as all non-essential construction has been halted until at least the 30th of July as well.
Hard at work on written work... Left photo is Munchkin working on his spelling unit and the right photo is Monkey working on his handwriting page while he waits for me to catch up on our grammar assignment. I am working through the grammar curriculum with him as I want to make sure he is understanding the process correctly.
Munchkin curled up for an hour long nap at lunchtime on Wednesday.
The rain returned...
Friday afternoon our online learning focused on art and health... We really enjoy the free drawing lessons that are available on Mark Kistler's YouTube channel.
Monkey's finished product...
Munchkin's finished product...
Mum's finished product... this was a difficult lesson for me and art is NOT my strong suit, but I love challenging myself and pushing myself out of my comfort zone a bit.
Monster will be finishing his drawing and I will display it in my Week Two blog post...
Finally Munchkin added some extra details to his deluxe house and so I decided to photograph it a second time.
Saturday afternoon gaming session with friends... Monkey LOVES that daddy lets him "borrow" his computer (complete with three screens) for their gaming time...
Monster organises these gaming sessions... he contacts their friends and family (cousins) to arrange the date and time and who is available to join... then he creates the server and gets the game organised and then they all play and chat together for a good portion of one Saturday afternoon per month. For the most part it has gone really well (with a few teething issues along the way) and again, I'm thankful for the technology that allows them to interact with their friends when they can't see them physically in person...
Our big screen TV also doubles as a computer monitor and Munchkin gets the use of this computer for the gaming sessions.
Finally Saturday evening we enjoyed some "Saturday School" watching an episode of David Attenborough documentary "A Perfect Planet" and an episode of an Australian show called "Further Back in Time for Dinner" which gives us a bit of history of mealtimes from the 1900s to the 1940s as a family "steps back in time" and experiences first hand what life was like then. For my Australian friends and family, if you haven't ever watched it, we highly recommend it.
Lots and lots of independent reading for Munchkin...
We finished two read alouds this week... thankfully the library gave us a stack of junior non-fiction books three years ago and I'm relying on some of those to cover the gap of not having the books I really wanted from the library this term.
The left hand photo is a book I've been reading aloud to Monster ALL year long so far. It is very detailed and full of lots of excellent information and history about human diseases.
More independent reading... both Munchkin and Monkey are reading and re-reading the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books... They are DESPERATE for new library books. This is a big learning curve for them.
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