proof of purchase

Taken yesterday with the new toy

March begins soon

In the hope of promoting UNlearning I have made a really short list for this week. I've decided to make it a bit of an experiment by telling her that if she completes everything on the list next week there will be NO LIST. It will be interesting to see how she takes that!

The list has 6 and 7 times tables on it. Reading a Horrible Histories Joan of Arc book. Writing more of her snake story every day, skateboarding, and keeping a diary of what she eats (in the hopes of showing that she really does get to eat junk! and more often than I like)

just an update

So how are we going?

Well Stylish is writing an amazing story about a snake adventure (will publish when it's finished)and she is coming along nicely with maths. She had some really basic problems, like subtraction with borrowing and paying back, and long multiplication so I gave her a couple of sheets last week and she bowled them over with out any trouble. I think it helped her confidence that she did so well. She self corrected, and the mistakes she made were simple numerical ones, not technical ones. Then we did a times tables test together for fun. She got three wrong (3, 4, and 5 times tables) out of 180! Quite a spectacular results. And she did them pretty fast too, which I know because we used a stop clock. I beat her by 1 mark, but I was faster. She seems keen to improve on the speed thing next week and she wants a re-match!

We have just bought a new and very cool camera so I'm hoping to get some great photos happening in the next little while. I took some of Stylish and Spikee playing in the front garden today but I haven't uploaded them yet. The new camera is a 10.2 mega-pixel, our old one was only 3 so the resolution is rather startling to us! We have given Ailis the old one so she can take photos of what ever she wants. We have also purchased a new mac book laptop, so the old pc is now hers! She's loving it.

Although she has been at home for six months she is still unwinding a bit from the nearly six years of institutional "learning". She still likes to operate from a list, but I am working on making the lists more and more about what we're just doing daily, and I'm concentrating on making the list both useful things for her to learn as well as things to bolster our upcoming re-registration.

I am leaning towards re-registration because it makes claiming educational costs from the government possible, and because I hear from several other families that as long as I can speak edubabble it's not all that difficult. I am a tad apprehensive of the fact that she is going into high-school next year, so the new rego will be for the beginning of year 7, and I suspect they will be a bit more stringent and painful about that. But I can't borrow trouble, I'll just have to wait and see.

Why we home school - article for JOY

Only Religious folk and those who live out back of Burke home school right? That’s like saying only crazy whacked out hippies homebirth. In Australia there are a growing number of secular home schoolers living in major cities. So why do they do it? Two of the really common reasons are socialisation and purposeful education, not just the same old drivel that bored us all silly when we were kids (they’re still using it by the way). The common stereotype of religious home schoolers fervently sheltering their children from the evils of the big bad world and (gulp) … evolution theory, is a misconception. Especially when applied to many families in Australia who choose to home educate.

According to HEA (Home Education Association http://www.hea.asn.au/ ) there are an increasing number of new registrations based purely and simply on protecting children from the bullying that is so common place in schools. Although when speaking to people (non home schoolers) about home schooling the very first question that comes up is “what about socialisation?” Anyone who has read a newspaper in the last year will have seen countless articles devoted to school bullying, suicide attempts caused by bullying, and anti social behaviour occurring within and outside the school. It could easily be argued that instead of learning to socialise, school children are learning about pack mentality, sticking together to the point of excluding others, and very little about human compassion.

But students aren’t the only perpetrators of violence against students. How many scandals have we seen where teachers or religious instructors working within the institution have abused, raped, or coerced children into inappropriate sexual “relationships”? With a small child in a park we intervene to protect them from bullying when we witness it. With a school age child we must rely on them telling us about it - just for starters. Although it seems radical to many, removing children from school to protect them from pain and anguish is a wonderful message to send. “I love you, and I will do what I have to do to ensure that you are safe and happy”. Maybe it’s not so radical after all, maybe it’s simply adhering to basic AP principles. After all, parenting doesn’t end when children turn five.

Many parents hope desperately that everything will be ok, they convince themselves that their child will “survive”. How many times have we heard someone say that a bit of bullying will “toughen [name of poor child] up”. Struggling to merely survive for thirteen years must take a huge toll on children. Bullying is not a rite of passage contrary to popular belief, it is really dangerous abuse suffered by powerless victims. Some children do attend the instution happily for thirteen years though, and they come out relatively unscathed. But hey, some womyn give birth in private hospitals with obstetricians and manage to fluke a real birth too, do you want to chance it?

Socialisation is not the stated purpose of the education institution, learning is. But it is one of the major concerns of people who know nothing about how it works. One member of Joyous Learning declares that her husband had a pivotal moment and decided home schooling was the way to go when “Meeting [name of JL members] children and meeting natural learners while we were traveling last year. And spending quite a bit of time with them was the catalyst for us. DH really cause I had already decided! The comparison between the children who were learning at home and the school kids that blew in was extraordinary!”. Shaunti Feldhahn states in her article about home education “This uninformed, critical opinion [that home schoolers are not socialised] lasted precisely until I met my first home-schooled children several years ago. Within one month I met five home-schooling families, and their 13 children were among the most polite, well-adjusted, socially adept and academically advanced kids I'd ever seen. Being home-educated seemed to have given them a confidence and maturity — and yes, social skill — far beyond their years. They had many friends, but didn't seem dependent on their peers for approval — a far cry from what I remember as a kid. I've since learned that these kids were not the home-schooling exception but the rule.” The anecdotal evidence of this non-phenomenon is extensive. Home schooled kids ARE socially well adjusted!

But we seem to have forgotten something along the way. Oh that’s right, learning! Actual academic learning! What are school children learning and how useful is it? And how much of that information do they retain in adulthood? When asked why he chose home school, one father responded "I guess it would be a few key points, I don't trust the integrity of information that they peddle off as fact in schools, the over-lording of the system over children instilling in them the hierarchy of social power and authority, and the lack of useable values and life skills that should be presented to children but aren’t.". Note that his concerns included the social aspects too, but lets concentrate on his other points.

What are they learning in school and how much do they retain? Walk down any busy street, accost a perfect stranger and engage them in a simple test. Ask them to explain Pythagoras’ theorem, perhaps give you a little demonstration of it. Can you do that still? Were you ever any good at it? How many times have you referred to it in the last ten years? Now ask the same poor stranger to explain to you the geological factors which result in the formation of volcanoes. (give it a go yourself if you want) Maybe you could offer up a basic text and ask your social guinea pig (who is already visibly shaken) to correct grammatical errors, spelling ones, punctuation, and also to point out (by deconstructing the text) the various language techniques used within and how they impact the reader (a hint: remember alliteration? It adds emphasis!). Granted some of us are good at one or two of these things. But to find someone who can do them all without using a lifeline and calling a friend is highly unlikely. Not even a teacher would succeed at all of them, teachers, like other grown ups have certain areas of expertise. So do children. Which brings us to ……

Why must all the children learn all the same thing when they’re not interested in most of it anyway, the bulk of it is totally useless in the real world, and they’re only going to forget it after a few years (if not a few minutes). If all children grew up to occupy exactly the same positions in the work force then it might serve a purpose.

The human brain is an extraordinary piece of machinery. It acts as a filter for useless information and it safe guards the life saving stuff. In the context of institutionalised education, the things children are learning are largely deemed by their brains to be pointless, and downright BORING! So what happens? Despite the fact that they had every capital city of every country memorised perfectly in year 8, they forget more than 90% of it by the time they’re graduating. And they need to learn entirely different skills if they are to survive in the real world anyway. Knowing capital cities won’t earn you any money. School is not teaching life skills, it’s just teaching lots of “stuff”. And what choice does it have? The institution must occupy millions of busy minds and keep all the attached, equally busy bodies still for six hours a day over the course of thirteen years!

One Joyous Learning mother gives her reason to home educate as “His learning style - he's just not a sit and listen kind of kid. Also he's very advanced in some areas and delayed in others so I believe I can cater for his learning far better at home than in a large group of children.” Schools are supposed to offer all children equality, as well as unequivocally supporting each child, and preparing them for life. But what institution can offer individual care to each and every one of its‘ charges? Hospitals sure don’t, and they deal with a lot less birthing womyn each day than schools deal with children. Home school is individual, it supports thriving. Home school is not institutionalised.

Schooling is based on the notion that children do not want to learn and are not social creatures - thus we must institutionalise them to make them functional and successful. In an article called Schooling - the Hidden Agenda (by Daniel Quinn) he talks about what children learn at school in the early years. “In these grades, children spend most of their time learning things that no one growing up in our culture could possibly avoid learning. For example, they learn the names of the primary colours. Wow, just imagine missing school on the day when they were learning blue. You'd spend the rest of your life wondering what colour the sky is.” If children were not interested in learning, how would they start speaking? Or walking? And those are just the most basic of things children achieve by simply being in the presence of other humans. If children were not innately social the human race would not be around thousands of years after it‘s inception - that‘s pretty obvious. Basically the mission statement of educational institutions is based on complete myths and therefore it is completely wrong.

Daniel Quinn’s entire article is found here [http://www.ishmael.com/Education/Wri...chooling.shtml]

So what can home schoolers learn then, that will set them up for life? They’re [apparently] not being socialised, they’re not learning the exact same things that the millions of other children around the country learn, how will that help them? Well we have already debunked the theory that schooling is a social learning curve. It’s not hard to see how children learning in the home will learn how to manage a home, how to manage money, how to shop for food and cook it. These are life skills, REAL life skills. And what’s more, they involve reading, maths, science, and just about every other subject covered in the institution, but on a useful, more memorable level. Children who learn at home can also concentrate on the things that really interest them, like dinosaurs or bugs, (science anyone?) Ancient Egypt, WWI (history at home) or maybe how to create art works by knitting, painting, collaging, the list goes on, music, home economics, woodwork, political science, media studies, sustainable living…. On and on!

In the competitive country of America home schoolers are outshining their schooled peers, “and are in some fields over represented“ according to an article in The Seattle Times. They win science competitions (although they have never been in a science laboratory) they win mathematics competitions (although they have never done mind numbing hours of maths homework) they even win the most American of all competitions … the spelling bee. Academically, and socially, home schoolers are performing as well if not better than their schooled peers. An independent study by Lawrence M. Rudner, Ph.D., Director of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Assessment and Evaluation compared 20,760 home-school students to schooled children and concluded that: "In every subject and at every grade level, home-school students scored significantly higher than their public and private school counterparts” They also found that younger home schoolers performed one grade level higher than their schooled cousins, and by year 8, "the average home-school student performs four grade levels above the national average."

View the study here:
http://www.hslda.org/docs/study/rudner1999/default.asp

And when they are ready to go beyond the home, when their own lives as adults begin (sob) they have the option of attending university or TAFE., they are confident of success and they know how to achieve it. As they persisted with learning to speak, and then to satisfy their unquenchable thirst for knowledge of dinosaurs, they now persist in further study until they achieve their goals. The desire to succeed is a basic human instinct, it has not only kept us alive into the twenty-first century but invented the quirky and amazing technological world we live in today!

Home school is for everyone, just like homebirth is. Not just people in Burke, or loony christians. Every child, every family, who embarks upon home schooling benefits from the sometimes hard - but completely enjoyable - task of deinstitutionalised education. Ten thousand years ago we were clearly succeeding at life on earth and yet none of us attended any formal kind of schooling. Five hundred years ago people who took up trades learnt on the job, in what we now call apprenticeships, very few people could afford to send their children to schools, and there were very few schools to attend anyway. Life was successful! Life was social! Although we live in a technological bonanza, life is still life. It’s still about waking up in the morning and surviving, caring for our children and elders, eating, and reproducing.

That’s why we home school, because life is not an institution.

the year continues

February is nearly over. So far we have been very productive this year. Today we got all the things off this weeks maths list completed. 4 pages of the maths book, a pie graph of the population of several countries around the world, a more basic graph of the numbers of population in their place value columns, cooking cake, and we even had fun doing it!


I even had a productive day myself! I got all the washing done, I cooked the most amazing pumpkin and cherry tomato soup (nothing unusual there - wink) and just assisted with everything - including a sick Spikee. I'm hoping he won't get sicker than he is coz we could do without a trip to hospital over the NON asthma (as they call it - useless gits)


This weeks list includes ..........


1) cook dinner for the family - estimate the cost
2) a project on Orcas (her latest interest)
3) reading a HORRIBLE HISTORIES book (she chose Joan of Arc)
4) a test on the 3, 4, and 5 times tables
5) making the graph of populations, and another graph of place values


and that's about it really!

holiday photos - belatedly

The shack. What a stunning view!!! What you can't see is the giant mountain in the back ground. But that's ok, I only saw it once and I was there for a week!

home made fishing rod - smile for the camera ... smile???







thank heavens the smile isn't broken! This is the recipe Stylish created in the big AGA wood oven. It was apple, walnuts, and condensed sweetened milk, and it tasted better than you'd think.







Bathing at the shack. Some of us more thoroughly than others ...






The New Year party to beat ALL! Table setting by Stylish, catering by corner shop.

List 1-6 Feb 2009

List

February 1 - 6. 2009

Maths:
1) Make a loaf of bread
2) 2 pages in work book (comprehension one)
3) Work with tutor
4) Percentages with dear mother
5) 3 and 4 times tables PROPERLY

English
1) Reading every night
2) Comprehension pages in book
3) Spelling words (at the bottom of the page)
4) Put them in alphabetical order
5) Write a sentence for each word in the spelling list below
Look them up in the dictionary
6) FIND THE PIRATE PRINCESS BOOK - we will start reading it together.

Science

1) What is an eco system? Draw an example of one and write a paragraph about it.
2) Are insects or frogs part of eco systems? Give 5 examples of the part they play.

Technology

1) UPDATE YOUR BLOG
2) UPLOAD PHOTOS TO JOYOUS CHILDREN and post every day
3) JOIN RAT FORUM - Get Beth to join too

History and art

1) Use the museum pamphlets to create a cool collage in your art book
2) Visit the Australian Museum and detail the four stages of human evolution in your book.

Spelling words:

1) Science
2) Effort
3) Maybe
4) I’ve
5) Conquistador
6) Astronaut



Percentages:
25% is the same as ¼
50% is the same as ½
75% is the same as ¾
100% is the same as 1
10% is the same as 1/10
20% is the same as 1/5




Maths sheet created by brilliant mother and presented to brilliant child for completion before the end of the week.
Lets have fun while we do it?????

The pet shop is having a sale. How much will these items cost when they are reduced?
1)Rat food- normally $10 now 50% off
2)Rats - normally $12 now 25% off
3)Rat houses - $100 now 10% off
4)Cats - normally $400 now 20% off

What percentage are customers saving?
1)Dog food is 1/10 of it’s normal price. What percentage are customers saving?
2)Worming solution for rodents is ¼ of the normal price, what percentage are customers saving?
3)Animal bedding is half the usual price, what percentage are customers saving?
4)Ferrets are 1/5 of the normal price, what percentage are customers saving?

General questions for brilliant home schoolers!!! (who are allowed to use calculators)
1)If I eat 10% of a pie that was cut into 10 pieces, how many pieces are left? What percentage is that?
2)What is 50% of $5.00, $500, $5,000
3)Use a calculator to work out what 30% of 100 is.
4)Use a calculator to work out what 10% of 1050 is
5)What is 50% of 220
6)What is 50% of 440
7)Use a calculator to work out what 30% of $15 is.
8)Draw the calculator buttons you pressed for each of the above questions.

I also generously provided a graph for the daily work to be ticked off as it's completed.

a great article

The article (actually a speech) was given by an American but it's still really relevent in Australia. I have put a link at the bottom of this exerpt so you can read the rest of it. Enjoy!

QUOTE:

Our children were being prepared in school to step boldly into the only fully human life that had ever existed on this planet. The skills they were acquiring in school would bring them not only success but deep personal fulfillment on every level. What did it matter if they never did more than work in some mind-numbing factory job? They could parse a sentence! They could explain to you the difference between a Petrarchan sonnet and a Shakespearean sonnet! They could extract a square root! They could show you why the square of the two sides of a right triangle were equal to the square of the hypotenuse! They could analyze a poem! They could explain to you how a bill passes congress! They could very possibly trace for you the economic causes of the Civil War. They had read Melville and Shakespeare, so why would they not now read Dostoevsky and Racine, Joyce and Beckett, Faulkner and O'Neill? But above all else, of course, the citizen's education--grades K to twelve--prepared children to be fully-functioning participants in this great civilization of ours. The day after their graduation exercises, they were ready to stride confidently toward any goal they might set themselves.

Of course, then, as now, everyone knew that the citizen's education was doing no such thing. It was perceived then--as now--that there was something strangely wrong with the schools. They were failing--and failing miserably--at delivering on these enticing promises. Ah well, teachers weren't being paid enough, so what could you expect? We raised teachers' salaries--again and again and again--and still the schools failed. Well, what could you expect? The schools were physically decrepit, lightless, and uninspiring. We built new ones--tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of them--and still the schools failed. Well, what could you expect? The curriculum was antiquated and irrelevant. We modernized the curriculum, did our damnedest to make it relevant--and still the schools failed. Every week--then as now--you could read about some bright new idea that would surely "fix" whatever was wrong with our schools: the open classroom, team teaching, back to basics, more homework, less homework, no homework--I couldn't begin to enumerate them all. Hundreds of these bright ideas were implemented--thousands of them were implemented--and still the schools failed.

http://www.ishmael.com/Education/Writings/unschooling.shtml

AS the new year begins I find myself in an awkward position. I have done NO FORMAL RECORDING for re registration in October, or assessment in July. As such I have begun making up bullshit and recording it in a word doc. Such garbley mumbo jumbo.

Last week was the first week school went back for 2009. I finally got around to telling my father than Stylish isn't going back to school this year. I was about to tell him that we're home schooling but he hung up the phone on me - oh dear! I haven't bothered to tell him since then because he's clearly a bit challenged by the idea anyway. He's heading for 80 (76 turning 77) and he was a school teacher for 30 odd years. He thinks the edumacation system is bright and wonderful.

So anyway, as last week began I gave Stylish a list of things to do. They included

• updating her blog
• updating her children's forum
• learning 3 and 4 times tables (she never learnt a single one at school)
• reading in bed every night
• Aboriginal artwork

She seems to have completed it without too many hiccups, although we're going to do the times tables again this week coz she's not really quick enough with them when tested. I figure that times tables are one of the useful things schools teach - or should I say ATTEMPT to teach - she attended the institution for nearly 6 years and still doesn't know them.

I'm about to start a new list and then I should get back to the arduous and absurd task of inventing edubable to impress the person - whoever they will be - who comes to reassess us - GROAN!

Holiday season - was it silly?

So 2008 has been and gone in a blink! We spent giftmas with family in Sydney on xmas eve. A great feast was had - as always! And then on giftmas day we jetted off to the wilds of Tasmania to stay in an unpowered, unplumbed shack, about half way between Port Arthur and Sorrell. At the very bottom of the island basically. 

The holiday was a brilliant natural learners trip! We had to use gas lights and candles, and it was freezing so we had a wood fire burning in an AGA style oven 24/7!  The wind was so wild it was almost frightening at night. It howled around the shack like a tornado and kept temperatures below 18 or 19 most days.

The kids Stylish and her three cousins and Spikee) went fishing with Uncle Richard everyday and we had fresh flathead in copious amounts - sooo good! We also sent the kids mussel hunting off the jetty a couple of times, the mussels were huge and delicious. Most of the vegetables were home grown in Grandma Anne's garden, and there were even home made kangaroo sausages - kangaroo once again provided by Uncle Richard.

The kids spent many hours, which ran into days, playing cards, running around squealing, fetching water from the tank (brilliant conservation lesson for our city slickers!), rowing the canoe about on the water, and generally being kids all together. It was lovely watching them play and get along together. Some of the activities children come up with when they don't have a tv are so clever. They spent an entire evening drawing faces on partially inflated ballons and playing games with them. 

The Winning Frog Essay

Why Frogs are Endangered

Frogs are a rapidly declining species. There are many reasons why frogs numbers are waning everywhere. Frogs are a crucial part of the eco-system. They eat vermin such as cockroaches, mosquitoes, rats, flies, and arachnids. They are also a good source for many other animals. If a frog is in poor health it is usually caused by pollution in its’ habitat. This warns scientists about the degree of pollution. The many reasons frogs are endangered include pollution, rainforest decline, the introduction of feral animals into their environment, and the human consumption of frogs legs.
Pollution affects all frogs, stopping frogs from breeding, causing birth defects (missing eyes and limbs and more). Environmental contamination takes a heavy toll on all frogs. Pollutants kill frogs, when frogs die it alters the food chain, this means other animals face death as well. Frogs are a great food source for a variety of creatures.

Four out of five of the world’s population of frogs are found in rainforests all around the world. Frogs thrive in rainforests. Rainforests are the fastest disappearing natural habitat where frogs are found. In The Amazon Rainforest big companies like McDonalds clear over two football fields of forest each day, for grazing cattle. Rainforests are cut for farming, and industrial reasons, this is devastating frog numbers. Because of habitat loss many frogs take refuge in residential areas and find homes in garden ponds. However there are many dangers for frogs in populated places, like cats, dogs, roads, and pollution.

Introducing foreign animals such as the cane toad and gambusia, feral dogs, and cats, has brought disaster to many frogs. Cane toads were brought into Australia from South America to eat the sugar cane beetles and silver back beetles that were eating farming crops. After they had wiped out the cane beetles and silver backs, they turned on the native animals and started killing wildlife such as frogs. Gambusia are a foreign species of fish that only eat tadpoles and some small fish. The Golden Bell Frog is a great example of the effect of the Gambusia fish, one of the main reason Golden Bell Frogs are critically endangered is because gambusia eat their tadpoles. Feral cats and dogs, as well as domesticated ones, like to catch frogs and torture them. Cats eat frogs, but dogs very rarely eat them.

Another threat to these particular amphibian creatures is human hunting. Frogs legs are considered a delicacy in France, Korea and Vietnam, in parts of China, the Mid West and Southern parts of the United States, Portugal, North West Greece, and the Caribbean. Kerala is a city in Korea where frog legs are commonly found in liquor shops. They are usually fried. This dish is actually banned so it is only available illegally, but it is still threatening frogs. People hunt frogs by canoeing out onto a river, pond, or lake, shining a torch along the shore to try and catch sight of the light reflecting in the eyes of frogs. Once they have spotted the frog they will paddle closer and spear the frog in its’ back. This is otherwise known as “gigging”. Then they put the frogs in a basket to drain the water and blood away. Frog legs are sold fresh or preserved in air tight packages.

These are just a few of the major problems facing frog species today. Whilst public awareness of these problems is growing, and some people are actively working to save frogs and their environment from extinction, not enough is being done. Many people aren’t aware of the crucial part that frogs play in the eco-system. If frogs become entirely extinct it could ruin the entire food chain, creating a massive natural disaster. It is vital that all countries work together to save frogs and their natural habitats so that we can continue to study them, and enjoy them.

Stylish wrote the most amazing frog essay! I gave her the basics of essay writing and off she went - she is a very fluent writer! I will get her to write another essay next week, both because she did it well, and because she can learn more from the exercise.

She is away at her father's house at the moment. I have suggested she bring home some more tadpoles or froglets. So far she has two, and she has given one away to her friend (and a child of a dear friend of mine) Imroz. They have a lovely setup for the froglet, a huge tank and pebbles, and when I last saw the froglet it was hiding happily in it's new habitat.

There have been lots of upsets in my relationship with Stylish lately. Her grandmother (in the photos from my first blog entries) was paying for a counsellor to talk to Stylish, however that responsibility fell to her son upon her death, and he has not been paying. Thus she has not seen the counsellor in the last few weeks. Our relationship has been really difficult lately, and I don't know whether it's because I have short patience with the whinging and rudeness or whether it's her rudeness that is causing the friction. I suspect it is a combination of the two. I am about to further my research into NON VIOLENT COMMUNICATION, as I believe that holds the key to our problem.

So things are going along nicely! We're getting into the swing of it and she has learnt SOOOOOOO much about frogs in the last little bit that it'd take me a week to type it all up! I've learnt stuff about frogs too, and we have some tadpoles and a frog to aid our learning! They're loving life next to the stick insects.

She's had a few difficulties getting motivated so this weeks list had a billion frog things on it.

• writing a frog essay
• creating frog art
• a pattern of frogs and tadpoles
• a graph showing the length of time it takes various tadpoles to morph into frogs

and other stuff too. I have decided it's time to begin recording the work we do at the end of each week so it's not a huge overwhelming project in the week (or night) before re-registration comes up. OH ! The registration certificate arrived at last! Hardly exciting, but validating nonetheless!

Next week she is going to endeavour to register as a frog keeper so she can buy a green tree frog. I said I'll sign anything I need to sign (although at 10 you can register apparetly) aslong as she saves up for the license ($60) and pays for the frog out of her own pocket money.

some photos

These are the car biscuits she made the other night.



something she made

week something or another

We haven't heard back from the HSLO, I don't expect to either. We still haven't received Stylish's belongings from the school either. I should send them a letter demanding they be forwarded immediately.





We've had a few busy weeks because Spikee has been very ill and in hospital with asthma. One morning we called 000 because his asthma attack was so severe that the constant coughing was making him vomit, and when he'd gasp for air he was choking on the vomit. The ambulance came - sirens blaring - and carted us off to hospital. They gave him steroids, codeine (it suppresses coughing apparently) and adrenalin, and then sent us home as per usual. He's doing much better now and so we got back into some learning and fun stuff!





Stylish has been a bit off since a visit to her father's place. She wanted to come home early and hasn't been quite normal since then. So this week I wrote her a list of activities because I thought she might need some structure to her week. She's been obsessing over frogs and filling a book with frog facts. She says she is going to get a tadpole from her father's place and bring it home so she's constantly trying to organise a tank and frog accessories.





This weeks list includes

• graph making on the computer
• making an ad for a new pet shop
• doing a jigsaw
• cooking lunch and guesstimating the cost
• an experiment with vinegar, bi-carb, and purple water from boiled purple cabbage
• reading a book we have about cities and answering some questions on slums, slanties, and the first city ever

We received a letter from the HSLO which referred to my SON and HIS attendance at school. And how I need to return HIM to school or be prosecuted. Apparently the HSLO and the school principal have created an attendance plan that we need to comply with or else!!! OOOGA BOOOGA!





Perhaps it skipped their notice (despite me telling them) WE ARE REGISTERED!!!!!!!!!!





I am very tempted to send a rude letter demanding out belongings be returned immediately or legal action will commence.

Well speak of the devil! The HSLO contacted me today, within an hour of me having updated that I hadn't heard from them! He nearly collapsed when I said that we were registered already, he couldn't believe me. He has to contact OBoS to confirm what I told him (perhaps he would have been better off doing that first?).

I then asked him about getting the stuff from the school, and he said [quote!!!] "That's not my job". So he liaises between the school and me - but it's not his job to liaise - right! Got it!

The school term has begun. I haven't heard from the HSLO (home / school liaison officer) and I'm wondering if I will! I suspect they might contact the OBoS before they contact me. Which will be disappointing! I ws looking forward to that conversation with them! I was quite excited about telling them that I want Stylish's belongings back and that I'd like her BASIC SKILLS test results too. Infact I think it's probably iiegal to withhold them!

She is coming home from her fathers place today (it's Tuesday - she was meant to be home on Friday - I have no idea what's going on) and we have a nice list of things to do this week. I thought we might go to the art gallery and see the Monet exibition too. Oh the things you can do with your kids when you're not stuck in the school hours 9-3 or the alternate w/e timetable! I'm still adjusting to it I must admit. Come the middle of the day I'm so used to getting worked up about having to get back on time to collect her, that it's really taking some time to unwind!

the waiting game

I have decided to wait for the home / school liaison officer to contact me with regards to Stylish's enrollment. I was considering photocopying the interim certificate of registration and sending it to the principal, with a rude letter demanding that our school books and belongings be returned, but then I decided to wait. I'm curious about how the HS liaisons operate! And I'm also rather keen on discussing the harassing behaviour of the principal with them and enquiring about our belongings. After all it is their job to LIAISE between us than them isn't it!?

the curriculum

I want to say that I didn't post that last post, that was my daughter!





I wanted to publish the curriculum that I presented to the OBoS for registration in the hopes of it helping some other poor soul who is attempting to register. It is undoubtedly the most boring thing you will ever read, but if it saves you from WRITING the most boring thing you ever wrote then you can thank me!




Programme for Stylish

Our aim of home schooling is to provide a wide and extensive list of interesting subjects and allow Stylish to navigate her way through them as they interest her. We are finding that she is far more interested in things now that we are teaching them to her ourselves, for example maths, and history, and reading fiction.
At the beginning of each week Stylish is given a list of activities from the subjects in the curriculum we have designed, they need to be completed by Sunday afternoon at 3pm. She works in a very self motivated fashion and is more than capable of completing all the tasks on the list.
Each morning Stylish writes a timetable for her day and works at her own pace to complete the activities, asking for help when required. After lunch each day we sit down in the lounge room as a family and read (with Spikee watching a DVD or sleeping). Stylish usually chooses to work on humanities in the morning and maths in the late afternoon to early evening.
We are seeking tuition outside the home with some trained (family and otherwise) professionals in some subjects.
Mathematics every second Tuesday morning
Music Monday morning and Friday afternoon
Counseling Tuesday afternoons
German lessons Friday morning
Hopefully next term Ailis will commence Little Athletics classes on Saturday morning and later on in the year swimming lessons at Enmore Park pool.
There is no particular area of our house which we use for education. We just use the most practical area. Some mathematics is completed on the computer, some at her study desk, and some on the kitchen table where there is plenty room to spread out books and papers. Reading is usually undertaken in the lounge room, however on a beautiful day we sometimes sit on the front veranda and do some reading or go to the park and eat lunch and read. Science is a very fluid subject, sometimes we study science in the garden (gardening, bug catching etc), sometimes we go to the museum, sometimes Ailis simply reads to herself from her science books or uses the computer for research, or watches a DVD.
Maths:
Each week Stylish is provided with a list of activities that further her interest and knowledge in these areas. She is learning far more complicated fractions than she was at school and enjoying them now. At school she felt they were boring and too difficult, but at home she is finishing the work set for her and seeking further work.

We are concentrating on the areas that she has traditionally had problems with, like fractions, spatial recognition, and logic. We are planning to work on symmetry, percentages, decimals, making and interpreting graphs, and mental arithmetic exercises, and will continue to cover a wide range of mathematic subjects.
The sources we are using are mathematics text books, online resources, and Stylish is also spending time with a maths tutor once a fortnight.
http://www.gamequarium.com/fractions.html
http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/math-fract.html
http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=70
http://funschool.kaboose.com/formula-fusion/games/game_shape_cave.html
The books we are working from are
Excel Basic Skills Mathematics and English
Magnetic Maths
Zoodiac Year of the Maze
Junior Sudoku
Other sources we are using include
Using measurements for cooking, interpreting graphs on food labels, bus and train timetables, and the television guide. And Microsoft Excel to create graphs, as well as hand drawn and measured graphs. Meal budgeting and shopping, our family sudoku board and sudoku cd-rom,
English:
I studied reading recovery with St. Johns Ambulance in 2003. I have access to my Mothers’ English books at any time. She is an ESL English teacher at primary school level.
Stylish is a very competent reader and an even more competent writer (it runs in the family). She has always won awards for English, and has competed in the Public School Speaking contest at the regional level since she has been old enough to compete. Largely she is interested in reading non-fiction and can often be found with her head buried in a David Attenborough book, or a book about bugs, insects, reptiles, or other natural subjects. She can quite competently read books on this subject matter that are for adult audiences, and she comprehends and retains the information.
I am currently encouraging her to read from fiction books as well as the usual non-fiction. Since home learning began she has completed two fiction story books and is keen to begin reading from the Narnia series.
Each week Stylish writes down any words she is unfamiliar with in her work book, then she writes a sentence using that word. We are using homemade work sheets to help with spelling. These are based on common spelling and grammar problems she encounters, for example THEIR THERE and THEY’RE and YOU’RE and YOUR. I intend to focus on punctuation next term and will be using a text book when I find one that is suitable for her age and capability. The Excel Basic Skills range often have textbooks readily available in news agencies.
I would like to use the grammar and spelling text book that we purchased for school use but the principal has not given them back to us despite our request for them. I intend to request them again in the new term, and hope that once home school registration is granted she will be more forthcoming.
Each day Stylish sits in the lounge room and reads with me for half an hour. At this point I am making her read fiction. She also reads in bed at night but I do not keep track of the length of time spent reading, nor what she is reading, however it is usually a fact book (currently Life in Cold Blood, by David Attenborough).
She is also doing word search puzzles and crosswords that we find on the internet, these are useful in furthering her already extensive vocabulary. Each week we travel to the library and she borrows books (usually fact books) and reads those too. She is learning to use the computer at the library to locate books that interest her.
Some of the activities we will be doing next term are:
Deconstruction of texts such as news paper and magazine articles and commercials, discussing their purpose, intended audience, and the language within.
Creating an advertisement using appropriate language and decoration.
Reading books. Fiction and non fiction for half an hour each day.
Writing both factual work and creative writing in different styles.
Reading the Harry Potter series out loud, taking it in turns to read chapters. Discussing the books as compared to the movies.
Science:
Science is a subject that Stylish is really interested in. For science we are studying plants and animals at the moment. Stylish has three stick insects and has owned them for eight months now. In that time she has researched their lifecycles, measured them and kept a diary of their growth and how much they eat (photographing the leaves they eat). She is also fascinated by frogs and their lifecycles, she can identify a wide range of frogs and (believe it or not) their tadpoles. She knows exactly how tadpoles change into frogs and varying lifecycle lengths form individual frogs from Sydney to the Southern Highlands, as well as throughout Australia and other countries.
We have been spending lots of time at The Australian Museum exploring their Search and Discover room, with their extensive collection of animals, books, and computer programmes, as well as helpful museum staff.
Next term we are going to be studying plant life, photosynthesis, seeds and growth, how plants sustain wildlife, and how scientists study plants and trees, and how plants and animals work together, and how they are different. We have several practical experiments planned as well as theory exercises.
Our sources for science are:
http://homeschooling.about.com/cs/learning/qt/cssciplants.htm
http://www.sciencewithme.com/
http://www.hhmi.org/coolscience/
Books
Science and History Project Book
Life In Cold Blood
Life in a Rotten Log
Bugs and Lizards
Killer plants and how to grow them (carnivorous plants)
Eco Activities for Kids - David Suzuki
And television shows including
SCOPE
Creature Features
And anything by David Attenborough
I believe that English is a subject that furthers all avenues of learning, and as such, even when it is not the direct topic of learning, it is still a skill that is being learnt and utilised.
History and Geography:
Stylish has never displayed any particular interest in these subjects unless they relate to natural history and its’ geography. Whilst I totally endorse her interests and wish to encourage her natural learning of them I have been making some suggestions in our weekly list of activities to encourage further interest and more knowledge seeking on her part.
Since beginning home schooling we have suggested she research historical subjects such as The Witch Hunts, The Tower Of London, a brief discussion of an Egyptian God or Goddess, Volcano eruptions (a part of scientific learning also) and The Holocaust. We intend to offer a new suggestion for historical research each week until she finds one she is really curious about, and then we will pursue that. The Witch Hunts seemed to interest her a great deal, and she put a lot of effort into researching and recording what she learnt.
Next term history studies:
A project about The Witch Hunts
A visit to the Australian Museum to explore the Indigenous Australia exhibit
A visit to The Convict Museum
Reading about Ancient Egypt and creating a papyrus scroll
Reading about The Vikings
Geography:
Stylish has developed an interest in South America. Since beginning home learning she has researched things about South America like their traditional dress, food, animals of South America, and their food - which included Stylish cooking a South American style family meal from a recipe she found (based on a budget - for maths).
Next term Geography includes
Making a graph of South American countries and capitals, learning them.
Learning the 7 continents
Learning the states and capitals of Australia
Making the globe 3D Jigsaw
Learning the oceans and seas of the world
A test on continents, oceans and seas.
Sources:
http://www.earlymodernweb.org.uk/emr/index.php/early-modernity-on-film/hunting-the-witch/
http://www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/cgi-bin/search.pl?term1=witch%20trials
http://www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/cgi-bin/search.pl?term1=witch%20trials


Horrible Histories - on DVD and in books
Science and History Project Book
Mummy’s Tomb
Ramses - Son of The Light (fact/fiction series)
A Children’s Atlas
World Maps for children
Tell Me about Stuff
Music:
Music lessons are conducted by my father (a high school music teacher) at his home once a week for an hour. They involve playing various instruments (recorder, piano, and clarinet), exploring percussion and applying it to different styles of music, reading and writing music, and music appreciation and history. music was not a subject taught at the school so she is only beginning to understand the production and appreciation of music within a structured context.
We will also be attending a music and drama group for children of all ages on Friday afternoon.
Visual arts:
Stylish will be creating a range of art work using varying media. These will include painting, collaging, working with clay, photography, drawing with pencils, charcoal, crayon and textas, learning to knit, macramé, and origami.

Stylish will use our family camera to take pictures at The Botanic Gardens, then use the computer to digitally enhance and print them to make a collage and a photo montage online at ONETRUEMEDIA .
She will create a figure from white clay and decorate it using paints and any other materials she chooses.
A visit to the Art Gallery, and The Contemporary Art Gallery.
Online resources include:
http://artkidsrule.com/
http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/origami_for_kids_animals.htm
http://familycrafts.about.com/
Books:
Macramé for Beginners and Experts
Health, Physical Education, and Personal Development:
Stylish is a keen athlete and has always done exceptionally well in sports carnivals. We will be enrolling her in Little Athletics classes on Saturday mornings beginning in term 4, and swimming lessons will begin in early January and continue for two weeks. She will also learn Scottish dancing, I am a qualified teacher.
For personal development she will attend counseling weekly with her counselor. They are working on building a healthy self esteem and working through the grief Stylish is experiencing as a result of the death of her grandmother, and her baby brother this year.
She will also be learning to cook and budget for healthy family meals based on the food pyramid (which she will be creating for herself using the internet) and cooking from different countries (which is also a part of geography lessons and maths). We will be discussing drugs, both legal and illegal, and researching and discussing their affects on the body.
Technology:
Stylish has recently created a blog, and will be updating it weekly or more often if she chooses.
She has been learning about technology in our home and discussing simple tools (like a hairbrush for example) that don’t use any electricity or power.
We will visit the Power House Museum.
Stylish will be using the internet as a research and learning tool on a regular basis.
We will be learning about technology from prehistory and discussing it’s current significance in our society. For example spears were an early technology but they are not used by our family today.


German:
Stylish has showed a particular interest in learning German. Each Friday morning she will attend private German lessons in Belmore. This will begin in Term 4, although some basic German language has already been studied. We will be purchasing a German dictionary so that Stylish can complete some German exercises at home..
http://www.wannalearn.com/Academic_Subjects/World_Languages/German/