October School Holidays: Week One ~ Lizards and Library Books

Our first week of the October/Spring school holidays and the boys and I shifted into relaxation mode very quickly. I tackled some big organisation jobs first off, making sure their term review was written up, and then doing a skeleton term plan for each boy as well. This should make weekends run more smoothly for the remainder of the year as I won't have to spend a majority of each Saturday trying to plan for the coming week over the noise of their computer gaming sessions. My other reason for tackling these "paperwork" jobs this week is so that I can relax and enjoy week two of our holidays. I have already promised Munchkin that I will play some board games and card games with him... but I'm hoping for some extra reading time as well.

Sunday night the boys played a few rounds of the card game "Rat-a-Tat-Cat" before Munchkin's bedtime.

Monday afternoon hubby worked hard fixing a loose leg on the dining table and also shampooing the throw rug we keep on the dining room floor as well, so Munchkin had fun building a huge fort with all the chairs and our assortment of blankets that live in the lounge room through the cooler months of the year.

The biggest surprise was a phone call from the library Monday afternoon letting me know that they were open for strict click and collect and would I like to come to the library straight away to pick up all our books that had been sitting on the reserve shelf for 12 long weeks. I nearly cried when I was speaking to the librarian and immediately packed up to go. I loaded the pram with all the books we had on our shelves that were WELL past overdue and took off...

The "click and collect" system works perfectly given how our library is set up. You can't see it in the top photo of the library, but on the left of the photo is the main door which opens into a foyer. Here the 24 hour return chute is on the right and there is a second door leading into the actual building. The librarians now keep the inner door locked and they have set up a small table on the left hand side of the foyer. So during your 10 minute appointment time, you enter the foyer, scan the QR code with the app on your phone, return any books in the chute, then pick up all your books from the table which have already been checked out for you, and leave the library, checking out on phone app as you go. As you can see from the photo on the right, we have a good start on books now. However, I came home and immediately put another 60 books on reserve (you can have 10 reserved items on each card as a maximum) reserving anything and everything I could possibly think of that we would need for Term 4. I am determined NOT to be caught out again should something go wrong as we unlock from this LONG period of restrictions, and the library has to close again. I have a standing Monday appointment each week to pick up any books that we reserve. Just another little bit of normal returning to our lives!!

I definitely got my walking in for the day on Monday. Early in the morning I had been up to our shopping centre for our weekly groceries, then I made a second trip up as I had forgotten to pick up some things from the Indian Foods shop, and THEN I walked to the library and back!!

Monkey and Munchkin enjoyed a game of Guess Who. The game is slightly broken in that the two sides don't clip together anymore, but the boys like it as it means they can sit in more comfortable places and still play the game.

Munchkin and I went for a couple of walks together through the week but I relaxed the exercise rule a bit this week and didn't require daily exercise...

More board game fun... the boys enjoyed playing several games together this week.

You always know the weather is warming up when the lizards start re-appearing. The little skinks are always first, but we anxiously await the return of our resident Blue Tongue Lizards. This beautiful guy is missing a good portion of his tail and he is very wary of us, but if we walk slowly and are quiet, we can admire him while he basks in the sun...

Saturday the boys enjoyed another gaming session with their friends. Usually they only hold these one Saturday a month, but the previous week didn't go well, so we tweaked things a bit and they got a second chance... which was MUCH more successful.

My husband was home for this week's online gaming session, so I put him in charge and I went out for a long, solitary walk. By the time I got home, the gaming session was nearly over, and I had hit my bonus goal of 10 000 steps for the day. My set goal on the app is 8000 steps and I average about 6000 steps per day.

Just a quick photo of my giant "plan the term" session that I did this week. It took a full three days, which is about two days more than it should have taken, but at least the job is done.

The boys thoroughly enjoyed reading NEW books this week... mind you... these are all books they've read numerous times before... but this selection was meant for the July school holidays so they were excited to finally have them for their October school holidays.

I finished reading this aloud to Monster. I hadn't read it since college and it was certainly another interesting perspective to read it while we have been in lockdown.

Term Three Review

ENGLISH:

Reading:

All three boys read lots of books for their independent reading time. I do not dictate what books they choose for their “free” independent reading time. I keep a list of all the books the boys read in their portfolio for easy review.

Monster: Is no longer participating in Premiere’s Reading Challenge this year as he completed it in Year 9. However, if he finds PRC books in the library that look interesting to him, I’m certain he will pick them up and read them.

Monkey: As this year’s Premier’s Reading Challenge is finished Monkey is keen to start working on reading books for next year’s challenge. We own several books that are on the list, but we are all praying that the library opens soon.

Munchkin: As Munchkin is the most voracious reader of the three boys, the Premier’s Reading Challenge is quite easy for him. Even with the frustration of the long library closure, Munchkin will have no trouble completing the challenge even if he waits until March 2022 to get started.

**Historical Note: the library has been closed since Friday 25^th June and this review was written on Monday 20^th September**

 

Writing:

All three boys continue to use the Institute for Excellence in Writing: Teaching Writing Structure and Style curriculum. It allows each boy to work at a level appropriate for their age and ability. It “grows” with the child so to speak. See below for a list of the types of writing each individual boy did during Term Three.

Due to the library closure and total lack of quality non-fiction books for science, history, geography, and health, I had the boys do some review writing. We worked on really cementing the writing process which meant for slightly shorter/easier writing assignments through the term.

Monster: Hockey (Unit 1 non-fiction with a focus on making sure all sentence openers and dress-ups were included in the paragraph), The Holocaust (Unit 4/6 non-fiction research), Lockdowns (Unit 8 Persuasive Essay), Untitled (Unit 5 Writing From Pictures).

 Monkey: Hockey (Unit 1 non-fiction with the same focus as Monster), Ancient Egyptian Food (Unit 1 non-fiction), Housing and Religion in Ancient Egypt (Unit 4/6 non-fiction), Ancient Egyptian Life (Unit 8 Standard Essay – non fiction), The Invisibility Cloak (Unit 8 Creative Writing Standard Essay).

Munchkin: Rocks (Unit 1 non-fiction), Hockey (Unit 1 non-fiction with same focus as Monkey and Monster), The Goose Who Laid Diamond and Gold Eggs (Unit 3 Narrative), Ants (Unit 4/6 research), Red Imported Fire Ants (Unit 4/6 research)

**Term 4 plan: If we still have NO access to the library during the final term of the year, we will continue with the review plan from term three to further improve their understanding of the process of the IEW program.**

 

Spelling:

Monkey:  I use the Ozspeller website to choose and create weekly word lists for him. I quiz him orally Monday – Thursday and then he takes a written test on Friday morning.

Munchkin: It has become apparent that he didn’t learn as much on Reading Eggs as I thought he did. While he did learn to read well, he hasn’t memorised the spelling rules well. So I am doing some review spelling work with him. This term he began working through Year 2/2^nd Grade Targeting Spelling book. Each week he works through a two-page unit focusing on a specific reading and/or spelling rule. I quiz him orally on the spelling words in the unit. If he gets them all correct on Monday morning then he doesn’t have to take a written test on Friday. We will continue this review work until I feel confident that he has spelling rules memorised.

 

Literature:

Below are the books I selected to read to the boys for their literature this term. Munchkin’s books were read to all three boys, Monkey’s books were read to Monster as well, and Monster’s books were read only to him.

Along with “classic literature” there are three books that we read aloud repeatedly. The first is the Bible and then we also read “The Book of Virtues” and “The Moral Compass” by William Bennett.

Munchkin: This term we read the following books: “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, “The Horse and His Boy”, “Prince Caspian”, and “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” all by C.S. Lewis

Monkey: This term we finished the following books: “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea” by Jules Verne, “Black Beauty” by Anna Sewell, and “Pinocchio” by Carlo Callodi

Monster:  This term we read “The Scarlet Letter" by Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis, and we started "Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl"

Grammar:

Monster completed Analytical Grammar Season Three this term. He completed Units 26 - 34 which are Semicolons & Colons, Possessives, Capitalization, Punctuation Review, Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement, Who & Whom, Adjective & Adverb, and Assorted Errors.

Monkey is working through Analytical Grammar this year. Monkey completed Unit 4 (Subject & Verb), Unit 5 (Adverbs), Unit 6 (Patterns 1 & 2), and Unit 7 (Pattern 3) this term.

Munchkin is not doing any grammar curriculum this year. I have learned that (for our family) grammar is best introduced in the late primary grades or early high school grades.

 

MATHS:

Monster: Continues to work through his Haese Mathematics for Australia Year 10A textbook. Through the course of the term he completed chapters 20 - 22 which covered the following content: Exponential Functions and Logarithms, Geometry of Circles, and Polynomials.

Monkey: Completed chapters 2-6 and also chapter 8 in the Yr 7 book which covered the content: Angles, Lines, and Parallelism, Properties of Numbers, Positive and Negative Numbers, Fractions, Decimals and Percentage. We will back up at the beginning of Term 4 and do chapter 7, but chapter 8 was a much more logical follow-on from fractions and decimals, then chapter 7 which is Algebra.

Munchkin: Continues to review Year 4/4^th Grade math on the Khan Academy website. Through the course of the term he completed six sections which covered the following content: Multiplication of Fractions, Understanding Decimals, Plane Figures (types, introduction to angles, parallel and perpendicular, classifying triangles, classifying geometric shapes, and lines of symmetry) Measuring Angles, Area & Perimeter, and Units of Measurement (mass, volume, length, time, and money).

 

SCIENCE:

For the remaining school subjects I try to teach all three boys together as a group as much as I possibly can. So I will now start listing Munchkin’s work first and work from youngest to eldest boy rather than repeatedly recording the same things.

I rely heavily on our library for quality books to cover the content we study in the remaining subjects. When I am planning a unit study I do a subject search for books and reserve any and all that look like they will be suitable for the boys. I include picture books, junior non-fiction, and I’ve just started including adult non-fiction for both Monkey AND Monster.

 

** Due to the COVID Delta strain lockdown that began on Friday 25^th June (the beginning of our July school holidays) and still continues, we had NO access to our local public library during the entire term. Also, because of my decision not to reserve Term 3 library books early, we were left with NO books for science, history, geography and health. Thanks to modern technology we had some wonderful online resources to use through the term. It wasn’t ideal for our family, but it did fill the gap, and I’m thankful that the technology and the resources exist.**

Munchkin, Monkey, Monster:

Chemistry 101 DVD Series: We have been watching this series all year long so it was simply a continuation for us through Term 3 and we completed the series at the end of the term. Content Included: The Last Alchemist, The Birth of Modern Chemistry, The Bold Russian, Lots of Mystery Rays, The Likeable Rutherford, The Periodic Table at Last, The Periodic Table – Main Group, The Periodic Table – Quantum Mechanics, Neutrons, Isotopes & Ions, Compounds & Molecules, Balancing Equations, Essentials Wrap-Up, The Four Main Columns, Non-Metals & Poor Metals, Transition Metals, Rare Earths & Radioactives, and The Future of Chemistry.

We also watched the show “Full Proof” on the ABC television station as this show was more appropriate for Munchkin’s level of science learning. Content Included: Lenses, Evaporating & Freezing, Plastic, Waves, Salt, Flying, Mathematical Shapes, and Sound.

 

HISTORY:

Munchkin: (The two older boys enjoyed watching this series as well)

We watched “My Place” on the ABC television station to fulfill our history learning for the term. The episodes we watched during Term 3 included: 2008 – Laura (Sorry Day), 1998 – Mohammed, 1988 – Lily, 1978 – Mike, 1968 – Sofia (Vietnam War), 1958 – Micahelis (Television), 1948 – Jen (Post WWII), 1938 – Colum (Great Depression), 1928 – Bridie, 1918 – Bertie (WWI ending) and 1908 – Evelyn

This is one of the online learning resources that we will continue to watch even after we get access to library books again as it is based on an excellent children’s book.

Monkey: (Monster enjoyed watching this series as well)

We watched “Further Back in Time For Dinner” on the ABC television station. We watched the first season (“Back in Time For Dinner”) two or three years ago and really enjoyed it. The season included five episodes with each episode focusing on one decade in time from the 1900s – 1940s. Both older boys and I enjoyed this show immensely. 

 Monster: (These shows were watched by Monster alone as the content was not appropriate for the two younger boys)

“My Life in Hitler’s Germany” – two episodes documenting what life was like for various people in Germany as Hitler rose to power, Monster and I felt this was a well done program

“Children of Holocaust” – a cartoon based show with six short episodes, each about a different child and their experience of life during the Holocaust, Monster and I most enjoyed that there were interviews with each person as an adult at the end of the cartoon episode 

 

GEOGRAPHY:

Munchkin, Monkey, Monster:

All three boys watched the following programs to cover various geography topics:

Deep Dive Into Australia’s Ocean Odyssey, Water Wisdom (Aboriginal water management), Ted Ed Earth School (various topics not only to do with geography), and “A Perfect Planet” and “Life in Colour” which are both David Attenborough documentaries.

Monkey and Monster also watched both seasons of “War on Waste” which was an excellent documentary on the various forms of waste in Australia and what is being done to combat each of the issues.

Monster watched the following programs to cover geography content:

“Mumbai” which was a program about the slum regions on this mega city. Four separate episodes dealt with urbanisation and megacities, managing a megacity, inside Dharavi (a slum), and slum redevelopment challenges

“Managing Populations” – two episodes which discussed the aging population in England and compared it to the young population in Gambia 

 

PDHPE:

I finished reading the book “Murderous Contagion: A Human History of Disease” by Mary Dobson, to Monster. The chapters we have read during Term 3 include: Influenza, Ebola, HIV/AIDS, SARS and MERS-CoV, Scurvy, Kuru, CJD and Dementia, Cancer and Heart Disease

We watched the following television shows to cover the health and personal development portion of this key learning area.

“My Life” is a series with 30 minute episodes that highlight a child who deals with a different health issue – content we watched included:  Down’s Syndrome, Alopecia, Being Born Without Limbs, Mental Health Issues, Syrian Refugee camp in Jordan, Life in a Travelling Circus, A Hearing Child who has Deaf Parents, and the Kibera Orphanage in Africa

We also watched the show “Same But Different” which also dealt with children who have a variety of different situations they are dealing with. The episodes we watched included: Dyslexia, Epilepsy, Asthma, Down’s Syndrome, Type I Diabetes, Nut Allergy, and Cerebral Palsy

Finally we watched a show called “Social Media Me” which deals with correct use of social media. The episodes addressed the following issues of social media use, including: Positive Social Media Strategies, Self Esteem & Social Media, Understanding Self Esteem, What is Digital Citizenship, Cyberbullying & Digital Citizenship, and Resilience & Digital Citizenship

 

Creative Arts:

       In Term 3 we did a weekly drawing lesson on Mark Kistler’s YouTube channel

      We also watched a show on the ABC channel called “Fall in Love With Music” which I thought was going to be brilliant but it turned out not to be anything like I expected so it is unlikely we will finish the remaining two episodes. The six episodes we did watch were entitled as follows: Our Musical Focus, Why Aren’t We Listening, Is This Music, The Elements of Music, How Listening Affects Us and Paragraphs Without Words.

 

Latin: (Monster)

Monster is currently working through two Latin textbooks independently. They are Lingua Latina Familia Romana and Lingua Latina Exercitia Latina 1.

 

Marine and Aquaculture Technology: (Monster)

Term 3 Monster’s Marine and Aquaculture Technology was covered in the programs that we watched as part of our geography studies. 

Term Three: Week Ten ~ Card Games, Cleaning, and Creations

We made it to the final week of the term! All three boys were finished with all of their structured, written work, but Wednesday afternoon so they scored themselves two bonus days of school holidays.

Munchkin, Monkey and I enjoyed some game time together. First Munchkin and I played a round of Battleship Card game, and then Monkey joined us for a game of Qwirkle. I'm looking forward to playing many more games with the boys over the school holidays.

As Munchkin and I were returning from our daily walk one afternoon we spotted several Crimson Rosellas in the playground of the Montessori school. I raced home for my DSLR camera and we did our best to capture some good photographs. These birds are gorgeous, but they are not the least bit tame (unlike Cockatoos) so we had to be really careful, but I'm fairly pleased with the photos that I achieved.

Munchkin requested that I buy a big bag of oranges (you can just see it behind his head) so that he could make himself some freshly squeezed orange juice.

The cleaning bug bit me this week. My husband mentioned that this tall bookshelf is largely wasted space using it for library books because the shelves can't be moved, nor can we add additional shelves. Meanwhile the bookshelf in the hallway closest to the front entryway was absolutely crammed to overflowing with our board games and card games... so I swapped them around! Above left is the BEFORE photo of the tall bookshelf with the library books... and the AFTER photo on the right now that the tall bookshelf houses our board games and card games.

The above photo is what the bookshelf in the hallway looked like with all the board games and card games in it. Clearly it was full to overflowing...

This is the AFTER photo and it is SO much better. The top shelf holds all our library books (for now) but this is only about half of what we would normally have from the library. So when the library opens up again, and we can pick up the 44 books that are waiting on the reserve shelves, then we will utilize the bottom shelf for library books as well. Right now the bottom shelf is holding books we own that I'm going to start reading aloud to the boys next term. I'm looking forward to the day when this bookshelf is full of library books.

I promised Munchkin that on Wednesday, to celebrate the last day of the term, we would bake chocolate chip cookies. So once schoolwork was done, we got busy...

Ready for the oven...

Freshly cooked and absolutely delicious...

Monkey working on another creative endeavour...

Munchkin working on his unit test for Khan Academy... I was impressed that he continued to work on this past Wednesday, as he really wanted a score of 100%.

Monkey's creative endeavour... another book for his dear homeschool friend...

We made use of the trampoline on two different days this week... The boys were required to jump for a minimum of 30 minutes.

While taking down a load of laundry one afternoon, I found this tiny little spider. You can't really see it, but he was a beautiful green colour, and it was a reminder that it is spring and the bugs are EVERYWHERE.

I love this series of photos of Monkey on the trampoline because of the funny things his long hair was doing. He is enjoying trying out long hair and we shall see how long it continues.

The three boys enjoyed an online gaming session with two of their friends on Saturday afternoon. This event happens once a month, and it still needs some adjusting and tweaking to make it enjoyable for everyone involved, but I'm ever so thankful they have this technology to stay in touch with their friends right now, so I'm keen to help them make it work.

While the boys enjoyed their online gaming session, I got busy cleaning and sorting again... and again it was more books. My plan was to make the chapter books that we own and the boys have NOT yet bothered to read, more accessible and appealing to them. The first thing I did was sort through the picture and information books and weed out the ones they no longer read or that are too young for them. That is the stack of books you see in the above photo and to give it a size reference it reached to just below my knee when I stood next to it. I will further weed through this pile sometime in the future and only keep cherished books meant for grandchildren, but for now the entire stack was packed away into our cupboard that is used for game and book storage purposes.

Next I sorted and cleaned these two giant, side-by-side bookshelves that are on one wall of our playroom area of the house. I made the two shelves that are nearly eye-level on the right-hand shelf the chapter book and novels shelves. Some of these books are their favourite "fluffy" books that the love to read and re-read like the Tom Gates books, the Deltora Quest books, and the 13-Storey Treehouse series... but I also added books we own that they haven't tried yet in hopes that they will see them and get interested in them. These include some Paul Jennings books, some Ranger's Apprentice books, and a stack of fun books that a friend generously sent as her boys are older and finished with them.

Finally, I got to work on the other two bookshelves that line one wall of our hallway. The bookshelf at the playroom end of the hallway now houses my books that I haven't read yet on the top shelf, and chapter books that I want to read aloud to the boys on the bottom shelf. Those books include the Harry Potter series, the Series of Unfortunate Events books, and The Hobbit.

Finally the middle bookshelf in the hallway. The top shelf is now picture books and information books that the boys still love and read but not every day. The bottom shelf contains Monster's collection of board games that he has been given as gifts, and some of his personal books that were gifts as well. All in all it was a HUGE project but in choosing to work on it while the boys were entertained with the computers, I worked largely without interruption and was able to move things around and even throw a few things away without having to deal with the weeping and gnashing of teeth!!

The next few photos are out of my chronological order of the post because they were taken on my phone as opposed to my DSLR camera. The top photo is a progress photo of the construction that is going on a few blocks from our house. They had to stop working for several weeks during the lockdown, but they are back to work and the second level is growing daily.

On our walk together this particular day, Munchkin and I spotted two Black Cockatoos on the wires and they were kind enough to stay still for a photo. They weren't squawking at each other so we knew that no rain was in the immediate forecast.

More trampoline fun and more funny hair photos for Monkey!!

Thursday night AND Friday night were family games night. Thursday night we played Five Crowns shown here in this photo, and Friday night we played Quiddler which is basically a word version of Five Crowns. But I totally forgot to take a photo of us that night...

A few of Munchkin's independent selections for early in the week...

Two read aloud selections we finished this week... I read the 2nd half of the Story of Australia book to Monster only as it focused on more mature subjects from World War I onwards... now the book will be packed away until Monkey and Munchkin are ready for the second half.

Periodically Munchkin pulls out this set of books and reads the entire thing in one sitting.

Both Monkey and Munchkin are enjoying the books in this series that a friend of ours recently sent them.

Munchkin LOVES the Minecraft series books... he reads and re-reads them all the time. It reminds me of my love of The Baby-Sitter's Club books when I was just a bit older than he is now.

The book on the left is a book I read on my own and finished this week. I've decided to start sharing the books that I'm reading when I'm finished with them. I also finished reading the next Narnia series book to the boys this week as well.

Another big stack of Munchkin's independent reading to finish off this week's photos.