Term Four: Week One ~ Back to Structured Learning, Spring Storms, and Other Stuff

Term Four has officially begun and we roll on towards the end of 2020! What a year this has been, but despite all the drama and the negative, there are some pretty big good things that we have learned through it all, individually and as a family. Here's to a productive last term of structured learning and we'll look forward to what the Lord has in store for us in 2021!

Per my usual routine now, this is our stack of books as they have come out of our garage quarantine on the Sunday afternoon. Not a huge stack which is representative of the fact that largely, Term 4 is mainly a term of wrapping up unit studies we've already begun, rather than diving into anything new. Munchkin is super excited that there is a fourth Wizards of Once book and hence asked for the whole series again.

Monster and Monkey both working on their math assignments through the week...

Munchkin spends his early mornings (he is the only early bird in the family) and much of his free time during our "school hours" reading books! I'm finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with his speed and appetite for new books.

These two photos were taken moments apart on the same day... The left photo is towards the northwest and the right photo is towards the north east... sadly the storm clouds skirted past us and we didn't get a thunderstorm at all. But it sure was fun to watch the clouds build, and to see the vast difference between the two directions.

Monster spent several evenings this week working on his puzzle... so progress photos were in order!

Munchkin has completed both the Yr 3 and Yr 4 math textbooks this year and I wasn't ready to move him on to Yr 5 maths because he hasn't fully memorized his multiplication tables. Hence for Term 4 he is reviewing Yr 3 and Yr 4 math on the Khan Academy website. If you haven't already seen it, I highly recommend you check it out HERE. What a GREAT resource!

Sometimes you just have to do your schoolwork on the floor... Monkey decided he was much more comfortable working through his math problems on the floor than at the table!

More puzzle progress...

Afternoon free time... we are having a trial of allowing a small amount of free computer time during the week... but the boys will also still choose to read in the afternoons as well. YES! That is Munchkin in the right photo with a heavy, thick, mink blanket over him... October is proving to be a chilly month this year.

The boys and I are still really enjoy our Mark Kistler drawing lessons... if you want to give this particular lesson a try click HERE.

The photo on the left is mine... the photo on the right is Monster's

This drawing was done by Monkey...

This drawing was done by Munchkin...

We aim to do one Mark Kistler drawing lesson per week... we don't always manage that, but we aim for that and we are never disappointed when we do fit it in to the schedule.

Monster's puzzle last puzzle progress photo for the week...

Some of Munchkin's independent reading for the week...

I read this book aloud to all three boys this week... it had some GREAT ideas in it.

Independent reading for Monster... he is currently working through all the Horrible History books the library has that he hasn't read yet!

More independent reading for Munchkin...

Read aloud selections for the week... Internal Australian Exploration and Australian Government are two unit studies we are working on currently.

Daniel is really enjoying reading these books...

October School Holidays: Week Two ~ Grubs, Germs, and Painting

Our final week of school holidays ~ how time flies when you are relaxing and having fun. Secretly I'm always glad to have a new term or new year start as the lack of schedule and routine drives me just slightly batty by the end of it. So we have enjoyed our "time off" and now we are ready to tackle some more structured learning for our fourth and final term of this historic year.

Our weekly haul from the library shows that we are still on holidays, with the exception of our first loan for the new term... I will be reading Robin Hood aloud to Monkey and Monster.

While doing some gardening in the front yard hubby unearthed a witchetty grub which brought us all running outside to have a look at it. After admiring it and photographing it, hubby made sure to put it back in the ground where he found it.

The many sides of Munchkin this week... He started the week with what I think was a low blood sugar crash (due to forgetting to eat breakfast) and spent about half the morning resting on the lounge. The end of the week saw him FINALLY enjoying the painting day that I've been promising him for AGES!!

LOTS of free reading was enjoyed this final week of the holidays. Above are all the books that Munchkin devoured during the week. He is the one child who can read regardless of noise or activity around him, so he reads the most every week by a long shot!

My rule for daytime and evening read alouds was that I wouldn't start any new books. Instead we focused on finishing the books that we had been reading for long periods of time. We FINALLY finished reading Earth: The Definitive Visual Guide, and it was SO worth the time and energy we put in to it. To give you an idea of how long we've spent on this book... it was in the HUGE pile of books I borrowed RIGHT BEFORE the lockdown back in March!!

October School Holidays: Week One ~ Succulents, Orange Juice, Puzzles and Projects

Week one of the official school holidays and we kept things VERY chill! The boys relaxed and just spent their time on various activities that grabbed their fancy through the week.

Our weekly library haul... You may notice that the focus with this stack of books is independent reading rather than subject focused and read aloud books. This is a conscious decision on my part during the holidays. Some school holidays I've taken a complete break from all reading aloud and enjoyed my own restful free time in the evenings. This school holidays I've continued to read aloud to the boys in the evenings but have chosen NOT to start new books as we finish up selections we had started in Term 3. This means they have slowly gained more time in the evenings for their own free reading, or the opportunity to play board games and card games together before their respective bedtimes.

After a discussion with Monster's godmother at church on Sunday, Munchkin is now extremely interested in growing succulents on his own from segments that he takes from other plants. So together they chose petals from several plants at church and he came home and followed Auntie Lauren's directions to see if they will grow at home. The succulents need to stay out of direct sunlight and they need to be misted with a couple sprays of water once a week. This will be a fun project for Munchkin to do for the coming term...

Monster started a new puzzle...

Another interest of Munchkin's right now is homemade orange juice... so I bought a 3kg pack of oranges, sliced several of them for him, and he set to work squeezing them by hand!

More puzzle progress for Monster...

Munchkin carefully misting all his succulent leaves...

During a shopping trip I purchased a juicer for Munchkin and that has made his orange juice making MUCH easier!

Our library gives the boys arts and crafts kits during the school holidays right now since they can't hold the normal school holidays classes that they normally would thanks to COVID... here Munchkin is working on one of the craft kits.

Many, many, many picture books... Munchkin is really enjoying that we are able to have more picture books during the school holidays.

Chapter book independent reading for Munchkin over this first week of the school holidays...

Independent reading for Munchkin this first week of the holidays...

Two read aloud chapter books that we finished this week... all three boys enjoyed the Henry book and I read Robinson Crusoe to Monkey and Monster.

More independent chapter book reading for Munchkin...

Munchkin asked me to take all the Dr Seuss books out our storage so he could read them again...

Two more read alouds that all three boys enjoyed... as Term 4 approaches we are finally finishing some of the BIG read aloud books that the librarians helped me gather up prior to the initial COVID lockdowns back in March/April.

Munchkin is still really enjoying the Deltora Quest books and he reads them over and over again...

Munchkin enjoyed a Roald Dahl book that we don't actually own... even though it was an easy reader book...