Term Two: Week Eight ~ Plugging Along

As the term winds down, I find my photos get less and less exciting. Term two is historically a difficult term for us. The weather gets colder, the days get shorter, and motivation wanes. I don't know why it is and I've ceased fighting it. This term was no different and it was compounded with illness at the beginning. All that said, we have kept working, learning, and living. With two weeks to go now, we will wind up our unit studies and get ready for a break. Then we will dive in to Term Three. Enjoy the few photos I have to share with you this week.

One of the things I love about homeschooling is that the learning can take place anywhere. This particular day, Munchkin and I decided that the bed was the best place for our learning. This photo shows us working through our Spanish exercises for the afternoon.
Side Note: Both boys are still photo-phobic so I compromise by putting only small portions of them in my photos.

We finished off our unit study on global citizenship with this excellent book.

We also finished off this excellent science series with these final two books this week.

Munchkin has finished his Ancient Egypt unit study so we have moved on to his Ancient Greece unit study. This highlights another thing I love about homeschooling. If the boys attended public school they would only study ONE Ancient civilization. Yet I believe that all three are important to learn, and learn in depth. As homeschoolers we are only required to study ONE, but we have ALWAYS studied all three.

This is another excellent series that I've read to the older boys previously. Finally it is Munchkin's turn to listen to these wonderful books, and I'm enjoying reading them just as much as before. They cover a multitude of content areas, and the information and photographs are wonderful. We will finish the remaining books in the series next week.

Monkey and I are doing a focus study on Gallipoli now as part of his WWI unit study. We will read several junior non-fiction books about the battle and then he will write a research paper about the event. Of these two books that we started with, the one on the left is my absolute favourite. 

Left Photo: A book primarily for Monkey as we begin a unit study on further exploration within Australia.

Right Photo: The first book to kick off a mini unit study on the theory of evolution

I read this book aloud to Monkey.

I cannot praise this book enough.

Peter Fitzsimons is a phenomenal writer. His books are thoroughly researched, packed full of information, and written in a way that is easy and enjoyable to read.

Villers-Bretonneux has a close and enduring relationship with the state of Victoria, and the update at the end of the book about the continuation of the relationship after horrendous fires in Victoria in 2009 had me choking back tears as I read.

Munchkin and I took a trip to Riverwood library on Friday.

These are the 13 books I borrowed for my own personal reading.

Another (slightly better) photo of my books.

Yes, I went overboard. Hopefully I'll be able to read them all in the next 3 months. What can I say, every time I go to the library, books just follow me home, it is something like magic.

Two photos of our happy library shelves.

This trip we returned 28 books and borrowed 49 new ones.

So much excellent reading to do over the remaining two weeks of the term and into the school holidays. I haven't decided what reading I will do with the boys over the holidays (aside from the Bible which happens EVERY day holidays or not). I may continue to read literature, or I may take a full break. We shall see where we stand in two weeks time.

This winter!!

Rain in the forecast for yet another weekend!

While it wasn't as bad as this outlook showed - it POURED all day on Saturday.

I spent a good portion of the day organizing my many book lists and researching more books. A reward to myself after doing school planning for the following week. Nothing better than books on a rainy day. I also got started on one of the new books from the library - the one that is MOST likely to be put on reserve and thus need to be returned in a fortnight.

Only two walks this week...