Brain Dump - Munchkin

My planning for Munchkin is MUCH different than that for Monkey and Monster, primarily because Munchkin is not ACTUALLY in school... physically or as far as the Department of Education is concerned.  IF we had chosen to send the other two boys to public school, Munchkin would still be at home with me this year - NOT in a preschool.

HERE GOES NOTHING!!

Munchkin: 2 years old ~ Preschool

I feel that at this young age learning is best done through PLAY!  A child's "work" is the time they spend playing... it is NOT a waste of their time, nor the thing they can do once their learning is finished, rather they are one and the same.

So I strive to allow all three of my boys to have a lot of free play but particularly Munchkin.  Sometimes I will direct his play, and often he will take part in some directed play his brothers have created, but it is also vitally important that he have LOTS of free play time to direct his own time.

Our playroom/learning area is set up in such a way that he has free access to a variety of toys and learning experiences.  We have two HUGE bookshelves that hold lots of books, but also have space in the bottom two shelves for toys and these are primarily toys that Munchkin prefers to play with.  He has daily access to the wooden train set, Fisher-Price farm set, his Octonauts toys, his Bob the Builder toys (his two current obsessions at the moment) and a whole shelf of board books.  Then we have a smaller bookshelf that I use mainly for setting up some more directed play activities for Munchkin.  I am going to try to make them have a theme this year as we are doing a Letter of the Week program again this year but we shall see how it goes.

I am not sure how much one-on-one structured learning time I want to try with Munchkin, nor do I know how much I'm actually going to have available.  Hubby works from home and may be able to work one-on-one with Munchkin at times when I'm working with the older boys and I do believe I'll have some time in the afternoons when the big boys are enjoying some TV time.  They prefer to watch Pokemon and Munchkin is not keen so will come and find me and ask me to play with him or read to him so this may work out to be our best one-on-one structured learning time.

I don't want to push too much structured learning on him at this age but do hope to do some letter and number recognition with him this year.  He already recognizes the letters A... B... and C... and also understands the concept of two objects... as in, if he sees a picture of two birds in a book, he is able to tell me that there are two birds.  So I hope to build on this through the year but plan to do it with literature as well as songs and games!

I hope to include sensory play as part of Munchkin's week and also some nursery rhymes as well.

I have lots of ideas I want to try with my littlest man and I'm keen to see how this year is going to shape up for him...

Brain Dump - Monkey

I am starting the planning process for our new school year NOW since the first week of school is right around the corner (27th January) and I'm struggling to keep all the thoughts that are bouncing around in my head in order, so I've decided to "dump" them all into a blog post and hopefully I can organize them better from there.  This will probably be the first of many "versions" of this post and so rather than repeat it in several separate blog posts I will add a different colour each time I add more information.  Thus tonight I start in black... also I will have separate lists for each of the three boys!!

HERE GOES NOTHING!!

Monkey: 5 years old - Year 1 / 1st Grade

Math:

Maths Plus Year 1 textbook

Maths Plus Year 2 textbook

• I MAY fast track Monkey through two years of math IF he shows that he is mastering the information quickly and easily.
• I want to make Logic Puzzles and Brain Teasers a more prominent part of our maths learning
• I would like Monkey to utilize Khan Academy more this year
• I am hoping to find some living books about mathematics in the library

English:

Spelling - 

• As Monkey is NOT reading yet we will not be doing formal spelling at this time

Reading -

• We have a Reading Eggs subscription that expires end of May 2015
• Monkey wants to continue an Alphabet Letter of the Week program so we will do that again with much more focus on the SOUND the letter makes rather than just on identification of the letter.
• We will begin to look a CVC words and word families.
• Monkey will participate in the Premier's Reading Challenge for the first time - listening to read alouds
• I will continue to read aloud to Monkey daily with a combination of picture, non-fiction, and chapter books
• Read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl and watch both DVDs
• Read "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White and watch both DVDs

Writing - 

• As Monkey is NOT reading yet we will not be doing formal writing (as creative writing) at this time, instead I will have Monkey participate in daily copywork exercises chosen from quality literature of from ideas he has dictated to me first.
• We will do picture writing as a copywork experience
• I MAY have him write short, non-fiction paragraphs about some of the topics he will be studying this year to show knowledge/mastery of the information. Again this will be in the copywork format from dictation.
• I would like him to write letters to his best friend (dictation/copywork format) - goal of one letter per term
• I would like him to write (dictation/copywork format) to his grandparents - goal of one letter to each per term

Handwriting - 

• Monkey will use the Foundations Handwriting textbook 
• We will use either the Kindergarten or Year 1 textbook (I will make a decision after I look at them for content and difficulty level.
• Monkey will complete a page of handwriting twice a week.

Grammar - 

• I will begin to introduce basic Grammar through the use of the book "GrammarLand" and we will have one formal Grammar lesson per week.

Science and Technology:

Science - (Earth Science)

• Learn about the Earth's rotation and tilt on its axis and its effect on day/night, tides, temperatures and season
• Use appropriate tools and equipment to collect and record data about weather changes and record findings in his science notebook. (I will source and use simple pictures to show weather patterns)

Read the following books:

"Seasons in Australia - Spring" by Greg Pyers

"Seasons in Australia - Summer" by Greg Pyers

"Seasons in Australia - Autumn" by Greg Pyers

"Seasons in Australia - Winter" by Greg Pyers

• Investigate how the weather changes affect the Indigenous seasons (eg. dry season)
• Learn and study about the seasonal changes in Darwin, NT as compared to Sydney, NSW

Read the following books:

"Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo" by Alison Lester

Science - (Living Things)

• Plants Unit Study - with a focus on Carnivorous Plants
• Investigate a life cycle (plant some flowers) and observe and record first hand the stages of its life cycle in his science notebook
• Do the "seed in a Coke bottle" experiment so we can actually see the seed sprout and begin to grow - observe and record his observations in his science notebook
• Investigate and discuss the role of living things in our habitat (plants, microbes, etc)
• Watch and discuss and David Attenborough specials on TV or DVDs from library
• Plan excursion to The Royal Botanical Gardens and specifically visit the Greenhouse in search of carnivorous plants

Borrow David Attenborough DVD on Plants from the library
Read the following books:
"Flowering Plants" by Rob Colson

Science - (Physical World)

Investigate and Conduct Experiments Dealing with the Following Concepts

• Heat
• States of Matter (solid, liquid, gas)
• Forces (movement, gravity, friction)
• Magnetic Attraction

Technology - (Information/Computer)

• Launch and maintain his own personal blog
• Use his point and shoot camera to take pictures for personal pleasure and use on his blog
• Learn about and discuss safe useage of computer and internet

Humans Society and Its Environment:

History and Geography - 

Use literature to learn about and discuss British Colonization of Australia

Read the following Non-Fiction Information books:

"Australia's Explorers" by Jennifer Russell

"First Australians The Story of Indigenous Australia" by Karin Cox

"Convicts in Australia A Workforce of Prisoners" by Angela Crocombe

"Australian Convicts from the First Fleet to the End of Transportation" by Jill B. Bruce

"Child Convicts" by Net Brennan

"The First Fleet How and Why it Happened" by Kenneth Muir (Australian Geographic History)

"Strangers in the Land The Coming of the Europeans" by Joseph Harding (Australian Geographic History)

"Life in Colonial Australia From First Fleet to Federation" by Kerry Davies (Australian Geographic History)

Use literature to learn about and discuss Australian Geography and History

"Australia the Land" A Bobbie Kalman Book

"Australia the People" A Bobbie Kalman Book

"My Place" by Nadia Wheatley

Begin Reading Jackie French's Animal Series Books

Begin Reading Our Australian Girl Books

Use the Australian Book Traveller Curriculum

Watch "My Place" DVDs

Cultures - 

Environments - 

• Research and learn about the different environments within Australia (desert, rainforest, beach, bush, wetlands, mountains, tropics) by looking at the different weather that occurs in these environments as well as the animals that depend on this environment.
• Learn how people can care for these environments and the animals that live there.

Social Systems and Structures - 

• Research about the local council and the resource systems that they provide such as garbage, sewage, water and other systems that the communities need.
• Learn about the decision making processes to elect and work in the local government
• Look at what the roles and responsibilities of citizens are in the local government such as structure and elections of location councils and other community groups (eg Scouts)
• Research information about process of local products (eg fruit and veg at grocery store) that is grown and changed to become a product for the community such as wool, oilseeds, cotton, rice, mineral ores, timber and/or food crops

Creative Arts:

Visual Arts - 

• Artist Study - choose an artist and complete a full artist study
• Make art work by using different techniques and using a wide range of materials (paint, crayon, water colour, oils, pastels, chalk, etc) and different tools (paint brushes, sticks, sponges, etc)
• Look at different ways you can explore tone, shade, line, shape and texture
• Visit art galleries and museums to read/talk/write about different artists and artworks

Music -

• Composer Study - choose a composer and complete a full composer study about them 
• Listen to music from selected composer
• Listen to a wide range of music types such as jazz, pop, rock, classical, etc
• Sing a wide range of songs
• Learn about and explore different musical concepts such as pitch, tone, structure, duration, dynamics
• Use different materials (found objects, instruments, body percussion, environmental sounds) to learn about beat and rhythm

Drama/Dance - 

• Move his body to a variety of different music/rhythms
• watch a DVD recording of a dance performance - The Nutcracker
• attend a dance performance and/or drama performance during the year

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education

• Weekly attendance of home school group
• Weekly attendance of Sunday school
• Daily outdoor exercise for a minimum of one hour (indoor option during bad weather)
• Ride scooter
• Learn how to ride a bike
• Learn about the different ways you can make healthy food choices -  help plan and cook a snack for the family (eg pikelets)
• Personal Development and Changes - discuss the changes that are taking place (growing taller) and how your body is changing as you are getting older.

Other Activities: (determine what KLAs they fit under)

• Learn some new board games - Chess, Cluedo, etc
• Use Lego Creationary set on a regular basis
• Continue to work on jigsaw puzzles
• Learn how to use and maintain the microscopes
• Use the microscope to observe and learn about a variety of substances.

Brain Dump - Monster

I am starting the planning process for our new school year NOW since the first week of school is right around the corner (27th January) and I'm struggling to keep all the thoughts that are bouncing around in my head in order, so I've decided to "dump" them all into a blog post and hopefully I can organize them better from there.  This will probably be the first of many "versions" of this post and so rather than repeat it in several separate blog posts I will add a different colour each time I add more information.  Thus tonight I start in black... also I will have separate lists for each of the three boys!!

HERE GOES NOTHING!!

Monster: 9 years old - Year 4 / 4th Grade

Math:

Maths Plus Year 4 textbook

Maths Plus Year 5 textbook

• I hope to fast track Monster through a bit of his maths this year as he has expressed boredom
• I want to make Logic Puzzles and Brain Teasers a more prominent part of our maths learning
• We will do 5 minute speed tests of addition and subtraction and perhaps multiplication as well
• I would like Monster to utilize Khan Academy more this year
• I am hoping to find some living books about mathematics in the library

English:

Spelling - 

• I have sourced 40 Year 4 spelling lists from an Australian spelling website
• I hope to continue to use Spelling City website for practice
• We will continue with oral daily quizzes and written tests on Fridays

Reading -

• We have a Reading Eggs subscription that expires end of May 2015
• I will expect 30 minutes of silent reading to be done daily
• I will encourage Monster to begin reading aloud in small doses - by reading to his brothers
• Monster will participate in the Premier's Reading Challenge
• I will continue to read aloud to Monster daily
• Read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" by Roald Dahl and watch both DVDs
• Read "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White and watch both DVDs

Writing - 

• I have purchased the IEW Teaching Writing: Structure and Style DVDs and Workbook
• I will have Monster writing (even if only one sentence) EVERY SINGLE DAY
• We will do picture writing
• I will have him write short, non-fiction paragraphs about some of the topics he will be studying this year to show knowledge/mastery of the information.
• I may have him write alliterations to go with the Alphabet plans for Munchkin and Monkey
• He will continue to write letters to his pen pals - goal of one letter to each per term
• I would also like him to write to his grandparents - goal of one letter to each per term
• I would like him to start doing the "writing" for his blog (in the form of typing)

Handwriting - 

• I will continue to use the Foundations Handwriting textbook as Monster likes it
• We will use the Year 3 textbook which will begin cursive handwriting
• Monster will continue to do Handwriting twice a week

Grammar - 

• I will begin to introduce basic Grammar and expect Monster to practice every day.

Science and Technology:

Science - (Earth Science)

• Learn about the Earth's rotation and tilt on its axis and its effect on day/night, tides, temperatures and season
• Use appropriate tools and equipment to collect and record data about weather changes (access BOM website to view and record high and low daily temperatures and daily rainfall - record finding in science notebook)

Read the following books:

"Seasons in Australia - Spring" by Greg Pyers

"Seasons in Australia - Summer" by Greg Pyers

"Seasons in Australia - Autumn" by Greg Pyers

"Seasons in Australia - Winter" by Greg Pyers

• Investigate how the weather changes affect the Indigenous seasons (eg. dry season)
• Learn and study about the seasonal changes in Darwin, NT as compared to Sydney, NSW

Read the following books:

"Ernie Dances to the Didgeridoo" by Alison Lester

Science - (Living Things)

• Plants Unit Study - with a focus on Carnivorous Plants
• Investigate a life cycle (plant some flowers) and observe and record first hand the stages of its life cycle in his science notebook
• Do the "seed in a Coke bottle" experiment so we can actually see the seed sprout and begin to grow - observe and record his observations in his science notebook
• Investigate and discuss the role of living things in our habitat (plants, microbes, etc)
• Watch and discuss and David Attenborough specials on TV or DVDs from library
• Plan excursion to The Royal Botanical Gardens and specifically visit the Greenhouse in search of carnivorous plants

Borrow David Attenborough DVD on Plants from the library
Read the following books:
"Flowering Plants" by Rob Colson

Science - (Physical World)

Investigate and Conduct Experiments Dealing with the Following Concepts

• Heat
• States of Matter (solid, liquid, gas)
• Forces (movement, gravity, friction)
• Magnetic Attraction

Technology - (Information/Computer)

• Continue to maintain his personal blog
• Continue to use his point and shoot camera to take pictures for his blog
• Begin to use editing program to edit his own photos for his blog

Humans Society and Its Environment:

History and Geography - 

Use literature to learn about and discuss British Colonization of Australia

Read the following Non-Fiction Information books:

"Australia's Explorers" by Jennifer Russell

"First Australians The Story of Indigenous Australia" by Karin Cox

"Convicts in Australia A Workforce of Prisoners" by Angela Crocombe

"Australian Convicts from the First Fleet to the End of Transportation" by Jill B. Bruce

"Child Convicts" by Net Brennan

"The First Fleet How and Why it Happened" by Kenneth Muir (Australian Geographic History)

"Strangers in the Land The Coming of the Europeans" by Joseph Harding (Australian Geographic History)

"Life in Colonial Australia From First Fleet to Federation" by Kerry Davies (Australian Geographic History)

Use literature to learn about and discuss Australian Geography and History

"Australia the Land" A Bobbie Kalman Book

"Australia the People" A Bobbie Kalman Book

"My Place" by Nadia Wheatley

Begin Reading Jackie French's Animal Series Books

Begin Reading Our Australian Girl Books

Use the Australian Book Traveller Curriculum

Watch "My Place" DVDs

Cultures - 

Environments - 

• Research and learn about the different environments within Australia (desert, rainforest, beach, bush, wetlands, mountains, tropics) by looking at the different weather that occurs in these environments as well as the animals that depend on this environment.
• Learn how people can care for these environments and the animals that live there.

Social Systems and Structures - 

• Research about the local council and the resource systems that they provide such as garbage, sewage, water and other systems that the communities need.
• Learn about the decision making processes to elect and work in the local government
• Look at what the roles and responsibilities of citizens are in the local government such as structure and elections of location councils and other community groups (eg Scouts)
• Research information about process of local products (eg fruit and veg at grocery store) that is grown and changed to become a product for the community such as wool, oilseeds, cotton, rice, mineral ores, timber and/or food crops

Creative Arts:

Visual Arts - 

• Artist Study - choose an artist and complete a full artist study
• Make art work by using different techniques and using a wide range of materials (paint, crayon, water colour, oils, pastels, chalk, etc) and different tools (paint brushes, sticks, sponges, etc)
• Look at different ways you can explore tone, shade, line, shape and texture
• Visit art galleries and museums to read/talk/write about different artists and artworks

Music -

• Composer Study - choose a composer and complete a full composer study about them 
• Listen to music from selected composer
• Listen to a wide range of music types such as jazz, pop, rock, classical, etc
• Sing a wide range of songs
• Learn about and explore different musical concepts such as pitch, tone, structure, duration, dynamics
• Use different materials (found objects, instruments, body percussion, environmental sounds) to learn about beat and rhythm

Drama/Dance - 

• Move his body to a variety of different music/rhythms
• watch a DVD recording of a dance performance - The Nutcracker
• attend a dance performance and/or drama performance during the year

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education

• Weekly attendance of home school group
• Weekly attendance of Sunday school
• Daily outdoor exercise for a minimum of one hour (indoor option during bad weather)
• Ride scooter
• Learn how to ride a bike
• Learn about the different ways you can make healthy food choices - plan and cook a healthy meal for the family
• Personal Development and Changes - discuss the changes that are taking place (growing taller) and how your body is changing as you are getting older.

Other Activities: (determine what KLAs they fit under)

• Learn some new board games - Chess, Cluedo, etc
• Use Lego Creationary set on a regular basis
• Continue to work on jigsaw puzzles

Term Four Evaluation

Read Aloud Books:

Picture Books - 

"The Exploration of Africa" by Tim Cooke
"Spiders and Other Arachnids" by Ron Thomas
"Deadly! The Truth About The Most Dangerous Creatures on Earth" by Nicola Davies
"Australian Geographic Australia's Most Dangerous Spiders"
"Rainforest Insects and Spiders"
"Sophie Scott Goes South" by Alison Lester
"Animals Under Threat - Mountain Gorilla" by Marianne Taylor
Usborne Discovery Snakes by Rachel Firth & Jonathan Sheikh-Miller
"Rhinoceroses and Hippopotamuses"
"Animals on the Brink - Rhinos"
"Rufus the Rhinocerus"
"Sky Watching - The Stars" by Carmel Reilly
"Blast Off Let's Explore the Moon"
"Blast Off Let's Explore Mars"
"Our Solar System - Saturn"
"Our Solar System - Neptune"

Chapter Books - 

"My Australian Story: Escape From Cockatoo Island" by Yvette Poshoglian

Independent Reading:
see written list ~ 

Other Reading Activities:

Reading Eggs online program

Maths:
Maths Plus Year 3 textbook
Advanced Primary Maths Year 3 textbook 

Continued work on 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle some evenings with mum

Khan Academy website

Cool Math Games website

Mr Baker's Puppies Logic Puzzle (printable)

Ice Cream Stands Logic Puzzle (printable)

*worked on this together and needed some online hints

Pentanimos Puzzles

Shapes Puzzles

Tangram Pictures

The Birthday Logic Puzzle (printable)

Various Brain Teaser Puzzles
Number Jacks website and videos

Handwriting:
Foundation Handwriting 2

Writing:

Started writing an Angry Birds Despicable Me book

Scripture and Character Building:

HSIE:

Geography - 

Africa Unit Study involving...

* memorizing the countries of Africa using an online map quiz program

* reading books about Africa, its people, climate, animals, etc

* watching documentaries
* listening to African music
* watched Paul Simon's Graceland DVD
* watched a youtube video of a baby giraffe being born

History-

Read "My Australian Story Escape From Cockatoo Island" by Yvette Poshoglian

Science and Technology:
Egg in Vinegar Experiment
Watched various episodes of Deadly 60 TV program
Watched David Attenborough "Life" program about Mammals
Watched David Attenborough "Life" program about Reptiles and Amphibians
Lego Challenge: built simple catapult and tested it with ping pong balls
Milky Plastic Experiment (warm milk and vinegar)

Spelling:
daily oral review of weekly lists as sourced from year 3 lists on the internet

(20 words per list)
written test taken every Friday
used Spelling City website for spelling games and quizzes

PDHPE:
walk to and from the library
walk to and from the shops
walk to and from various parks
free play at various parks

riding scooter

Creative Arts:
Watched and discussed various episodes of "Dancing With the Stars"

Socialization:
weekly attendance of Sunday School
weekly attendance of story hour
attended 9th annual family reunion
play dates with friends

Other Activities:

Played a variety of board and card games

• Rummy-O
• Yahtzee
• Snakes and Ladders
• Skip-Bo
• Flinch

Imaginative (self created) Lego games with his younger brother

Excursions:

Tour of Cockatoo Island
Taronga Zoo - focused on visiting the African animals

Homeschool Group Topics:

Due to illness, weather problems, previous engagements, and distance of events we were unable to attend Homeschool group regularly this term.

Term School Holiday Events:

Attended local Carols in the Park event
Attended Christmas Day church service

Week Eleven ~ Last Week of the Term

Our last week of the term included some Christmas preparation as well as winding up our structured learning time.

Monster took his maths test and did very well and I'm pleased with his spelling scores and handwriting he has completed this year as well.

So here are a few extra activities we enjoyed during our last week of this school year.

 Decorating the Christmas tree...

All three boys enjoyed the chance to decorate this year.

Munchkin enjoyed helping daddy mow the lawn.

We got several books read through the course of the week... despite adding an unscheduled trip to the doctor's office into our week.

 Finally, the most exciting point in our week was spotting a Tarantula Hawk (or Spider Wasp) dragging away his catch of a Huntsman Spider across our yard and into the neighbour's driveway.

Week Ten ~ New Games, Toys and Lots of Outdoor Play

No photographs of structured (written) learning so instead I share the other stuff!

 A park near us has been renovated recently and we've just discovered that it is open and ready for exploration.  This week we enjoyed an evening play time.

 Then it was off to a different park to work on our balancing skills...

Games and puzzles filled our evenings...

And there was MUCH excitement when a package filled with new learning/educational toys arrived.  All three boys were thrilled with the Wedgits and Munchkin especially liked the threading kit and sorted and played for quite a long time.

Week Nine ~ Storms and Other Stuff

I am MUCH happier with my photo selection for this week compared to last week! 

Of course, this is only the highlights of our week...

Munchkin (2.5 yr old) LOVES to borrow my camera so here are a couple of photos from his point of view!  There are usually LOTS of blurry photos that I have to delete but periodically there are some brilliant ones!

 More work was done on our current puzzle - Elephants in Namibia to go with our Africa unit study.

 Fun and games before bedtime with the Munchkin who was really enjoying his new sunglasses and one of our pool noodles (which doubles as a light saber since we don't actually have a pool).

 He also had some fun spinning...

 The boys spotted this spider on a walk to check out a new park.

Munchkin took this photo - again he is beginning to surprise me with some of his photo taking skills.

 The new park is AMAZING!!  I think the boys and I will be spending a LOT of time here in the near future!  Unfortunately we picked a stinking hot day for our first visit - the good part of that was we nearly had the whole place to ourselves!

We have been having thunderstorms nearly every afternoon/evening and the boys really enjoy watching the clouds build!

Our read alouds this week focused on African animals, with a snake book added for extra FUN!