I always love it when we get to the wind down weeks of a term. First and foremost because we are generally ready for the break, and secondly because the focus is on reading. For those of you who haven't already figured it out, reading is the core of our homeschool.
Term two is historically our hardest term every year and this year has been no different. I've never been able to pinpoint why it is our hardest term, but I've learned to accept it. Motivation is low, the weather gets colder, the days get shorter, and this year term two started with illness AND it has rained a lot. I push the boys as hard as I can without causing more problems, and remind myself to kick things up a notch in terms three and four to "compensate" a bit. I don't worry though, because the boys never get "behind" and as our retiring AP has always told me... "as long as you are moving forward, you are fine"!
With all that said, please enjoy the selection of photos I have for you that highlight this week of our learning lives.
We finished off the last four books in this lovely series which satisfied a bunch of curriculum content areas for both boys. I'm a little bit sad as it is the last reading I will NEED to do of these books and they have been wonderful resources for our family over the past few years. I am really thankful that our library stocks such wonderful junior non-fiction titles for us to use. Reading, discussing, and writing about the information contained in these books is WAY more interesting then just working through a boring workbook.
Two books I read aloud to Monkey as part of his "mini unit study" within his LONG unit study on WWI. We have read several books about Gallipoli and then I found this excellent book about POWs during WWI, WWII, and the Korean War. In the last week of the term we will read a wonderful junior non-fiction book about the Armistice and then next term return to longer adult non-fiction titles about the war.
I really enjoy doing a LONG unit study with the boys.
Australian history and the world wars are our two favourites.
Left Photo: a funny little picture book to kick off a unit study on the theory of evolution. It presented the information in a very simplified way (that doesn't really work when you stop and think about it) but the illustrations and the writing were fun.
Right Photo: This picture book was a chance find during a different subject search (don't get me started about this issues with the online system with our library) and although we are wrapping up our Paterson/Lawson unit study I decided to read the book. If nothing else, Munchkin learned some things about Banjo Paterson that he didn't know - thus making it worth it. I am just sad that there isn't a picture book about Henry Lawson's early life. I also wish I had found this book when we started the unit study on Australian poetry, but again, the online search system is weird and for some reason it didn't show up during my initial search.
Munchkin and I continue his unit study on the Ancient civilizations with more books about Ancient Greece. I love studying the ancients with the boys. This is my third time through and I'm still learning new things. It helps that there has always been some new books to choose from each time another boy is reading to do the study.
I still don't understand how the public schools think only one is important to study. But I do know they have packed the national curriculum so full it is impossible to learn everything with any sort of depth or true understanding. SIGH!!
Sometimes I borrow books to read to the boys that have absolutely nothing to do with anything we are currently studying. We LOVE Claire Saxby books and a friend reminded me that she has a stack of really lovely picture books so I put them all on reserve. The illustrations in the animal books are amazing and the information is top quality. "Tree" and "Iceberg" both had a section in the middle that folds out and Munchkin was super impressed.
Whilst these books are well below the reading and learning level for Munchkin, they were an enjoyable way to spend some of our time this week.
Left Photo: Another example of books we are reading just for fun. We've read some of the titles in this series before but never finished them AND they have added more titles. John Lesley is a favourite junior non-fiction author of ours and his books are top quality. We will work through the rest of this series in Week Ten as we won't have much written work to finish through the week.
Right Photo: As part of Munchkin's year long unit study on Water in the World, we are doing a "mini focus" on the Rivers of the World. This is a new book that the library didn't have when I studied rivers with Monkey so I was excited to read it. I was not disappointed as it was full of all sorts of exciting information about rivers around the world. We learned lots more information about rivers we know and also facts about rivers we didn't know existed.
I was thrilled to discover this bit of information about a small river (D river) that my family used to visit when I was a child. It is a short little river that drains into the Pacific ocean at a little known beach we frequented and it battled with another river for the world record of shortest river. It is always fun to find books in Australia that mention things about Oregon, since most Australians have no idea where Oregon even IS in the United States!!
Munchkin and I finished reading this book Friday afternoon. I actually read it to him four years ago, but he had forgotten about it so requested a second reading. It is such a lovely story that I absolutely loved reading it to him again.
On our walk to the shops for groceries on Thursday we noticed this sky writing!!
Friday was all about celebrating as it was my husband's birthday.
After reading aloud and written work was finished in the morning, Munchkin and I got busy with the preparations for the evening of fun.
I cooked a delicious lamb curry with rice and Indian spiced vegetables for dinner and Munchkin was in charge of the cake. He wanted to bake the cake from scratch so he sourced a recipe online and decided on dark chocolate ganache for the icing (he sourced that recipe as well). When we were at the shops on Thursday he found and gathered all the ingredients we needed, and as you can see from the photos above, he worked hard on preparing the batter and then icing the finished cake.
It was moist and delicious and we have extra ganache to eat with a spoon!!
We had lots of fun celebrating the head of our household Friday night and I think he enjoyed his special day.
Because Monster works full time and travels for his work, (leaving the house at 7:30am and returning at 6:30pm) the traditional bacon and pancake breakfast on Friday was postponed for Saturday. Munchkin and I worked together cooking a quadruple batch of pancakes and close to a pound of bacon. It was a delicious way to start our weekend.
Two walks to the shops this week.
I really need to find time to add in some shorter walks around the neighbourhood on the other days of the week, hopefully I'll do that over the holidays.
Finally, this is our weather report for our final week of the term. I am really NOT looking forward to a week of rain, but hopefully it will get it all out of its system and we'll return to sunshine for the holidays.
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