Term Two: Week Ten ~ Halfway Through

We survived Term Two!

I had to pinch myself yesterday and remind myself that our two week winter break is really here.

It was a hard term, with illness over the April school holidays, illness the first two weeks of the term, the general dislike of Term Two, and the adjustment to Monster starting full-time work and being out of the home for nearly 12 hours every weekday. But we made it and we intend to fully enjoy our break. Despite the difficulties, the boys worked hard, and we'll look forward to more structured learning in Term Three.

Another week of rain...

Thankfully this rainy spell had some breaks. This was the day that I postponed school until after lunch and raced to the shopping centre for groceries while the sun was out. My whole walk there and back there were dark clouds nearby, but thankfully no rain until about 20 minutes after I got home. I got an excellent cardio workout too as I walked to the shopping centre in 31 minutes - which is a record for me. The shopping centre is approximately 3kms (2 miles) from our home.

Munchkin is really enjoying working on his Lego stop motion. Especially since dad was able to obtain a ring light that someone was giving away for free. Most days, while I read aloud, he works on his project.

I got a shock Tuesday morning when I woke just after 6am and found Monkey already in the "playroom" area working on a drawing. Apparently he woke just before 6am with allergy issues, got up to take an allergy tablet, and just decided to stay up. 

Right Photo: Later in the day I did some extended reading aloud with Monkey (see the books on my lap in the photo) and he hid under the blanket. He commented a couple of times about how long the day felt since he got up so much earlier than normal.

I finished reading ALL these wonderful books to Munchkin. We had read a few of the titles about three years ago, and he used the Blue-Tongue Lizard book for a writing assignment. But we never finished the series and they added titles since we last looked at them. The information is a lower level than Munchkin is accustomed to now that he is in high school (middle school for my US readers) but this was an "extra" read and not technically part of his curriculum for this year anyway. We love John Lesley books and the photographs in these books are wonderful.

As a companion we read these Claire Saxby books. We love her writing and the different illustrators were wonderful to look at as well. I also love that despite being picture books, these books give quality information about each animal. This was a fun little detour for the end of the term.

We also did some curriculum based reading this week. I finished these two books with Munchkin as part of his Ancient Greek studies. This finishes off the short books about Greece, leaving chapter non-fiction books for Term 3 and a couple of books about Alexander the Great which we are looking forward to.

This series wasn't as spectacular as I was expecting it to be - we also read the Water book though apparently I forgot to photograph it. The information in the books was high quality, and the photographs were good as well, but I expected more from these based on the size of the book and the quality of the photo on the covers.

Two long chapter books that Monkey and I finished this week. Both books were excellent. Scarecrow Army is definitely best read by (or to) older children as there are quotes in the book from actual people and their words were graphic at times. I had to be careful when reading this aloud that Munchkin couldn't hear as it would have upset him.

The Secret Life of Genes was packed full of excellent information and both Monkey and I learned a lot of new and interesting stuff. Although this is an adult non-fiction book, Munchkin enjoyed listening in every once in awhile as well. 

Armistice finished off the WWI books that Monkey and I planned to read this term. I'll do some library research (one of my all-time favourite things to do) over the first few days of the holidays and get some more books reserved for Term 3. We need a new long chapter book to read (I have a couple in mind and will allow Monkey to choose) and I'll check if there are any more junior non-fiction books about WWI that we MUST read.

Munchkin thoroughly enjoyed this collection of Greek Myths and we'll follow it up with a different collection in Term 3. I always enjoy reading myths and legends to the boys when we study other cultures and civilisations.

By Friday morning the library bookshelf was looking empty and sad.

Even shifting to the BIG bucket didn't help this time around.

We had some library card dramas that caused me to do a bit of shuffling. Effectively, the online system at the library worked out that Monster is now an adult and not a child and locked me out of his card. The wonderful librarians manually deleted the message which unlocked his card, but when it is due for renewal in November or December he will have to present to the branch and fill out his own set of paperwork. He is happy reading e-books on his phone so is NOT motivated to make a special trip to the library to put his card in his name, especially since it would mean doing it on a Saturday or during his annual leave from work - neither of which he intends to do. Essentially this means I only have until the end of the year to enjoy the use of his card (which is fair) so I shifted his card to a "back-up" card only and won't really use it for the rest of the year unless we NEED to. 

Therefore, I not only returned everything we had finished reading, but everything we hadn't even started in Term 3 (long chapter books) as I'll re-borrow those at the beginning of the new term, and I also returned everything from Monster's card leaving just the ten books I had already put on reserve. That means from now on, his card will be the LAST card I put books on. The idea is to slowly wean myself from the use of it so that losing it at the end of the year won't be a shock.

In case any of my readers are wondering - that is 72!! books stacked up in the bucket.

My pram/stroller has seen its better days. It is something like 14 years old and has been used a LOT! Hubby did a fix of the tyre that means it can't really come off again (he put it on backwards) but my days are numbered. However, it survived the trip to the library, fully loaded with all 72 books, so we'll just keep using it, probably until the wheel completely falls off. In the meantime, I'm watching out for any prams that get put on the side of the road for council clean up!!

Front and back view of how I managed to put 72 books in the pram. They even stayed dry during the short but heavy rain we got caught in as we walked from the chemist/pharmacy to the library.

Monkey doesn't come to the library very often anymore, but he still LOVES books. Immediately after walking in the door he spotted an updated edition of "The Timeline of Everything" (a DK publication) on display, plucked it off the shelf, and sat down to look through it. He was also happy because book 4 in a series he is enjoying had arrived at the library that day as well. It was a good library visit for Monkey and both librarians were happy to see him as he generally only comes once or twice per term now.

Side Note: There was a NEW librarian there and I'm always leery of new librarians. But I introduced myself, explained that we are long term homeschoolers and faithful library patrons, and we had a lovely chat. I think she is a kindred spirit and I hope she stays for a good long time. You never know though in our library system, the directing manager likes to move people around, so we'll see. 

I came up with a fun "holiday" reading idea and as usual went completely overboard!

There were several junior fiction novels on my TBR list AND two dear high school friends have a list of junior fiction they have read together with their children in their own book club and I knew there were several titles on their list that I wanted to read. So I put just about EVERYTHING on reserve and all but 3-4 titles arrived by Friday.

Obviously I won't be able to read all these in just two weeks, but it is FUN having this many junior fiction novels in my house. Many of them are 7-9 Premier's Reading Challenge books (you might JUST be able to see the little blue stickers on the spines) which means Munchkin has NUMEROUS opportunities to finish the challenge for this year.

So I'll enjoy reading as many as I can for "fun" over the holidays and the rest will get read throughout Term 3.

If anyone has trouble reading the titles and/or needs the author name of a specific book(s) just message me and I can send individual photos.

Our happy library bookshelf!!

Two walks to the shops for groceries and the walking required for our trip to the library.

Term Two: Week Nine ~ Celebrations

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.