Welcome to the start of a brand new week.
Greg did quite a lot of Maths with both girls over the weekend. Stephanie is now working on the Maths for the next year and Jacqueline is progressing along with the workbooks.
When we came to do things today, it was just a stuck day all round. Both girls got stuck on their Maths. Stephanie did a Media text piece and said she had not covered these kind of texts before.
I am seeing some surprisingly basic gaps in their English grammar. Greg had bought a Jungle Book CD game with English, Maths and Science for 8 year olds. I was amazed at the questions they were asking me about the grammar, which they do not appear to have covered at school.
We went to school for the 2nd of Jacqueline’s Speech and Drama lessons. I stayed in the reception area this time and it was incredibly awkward, both with parents and with girls. I was very glad to get away and I am very glad we only have a couple more of these.
It was a funny day, with not much getting down. I got very frustrated with myself and had a bit of a “I can’t do this home-schooling thing” rant at the kids.
Their reaction stunned me.
They went into one of the rooms, got loads of pieces of card, stuck them all together to make a sign, which said “You are doing great”.
Tuesday 24th April
This started out with another frustrated session from my part. I had wanted to start at 9am to do a proper planned timetable and by the time Jacqueline had got dressed it was nearly 9.20am.
Jacqueline did the Jungle Book DVD for Maths, English and Science (year 3, for 7/8 year olds) and again I was surprised at the simple things she was asking me.
Mrs Morrell came to do a Speech and Drama lesson for Stephanie. That went very well and Stephanie is going to do her exam in a few weeks time.
We then did a proper planed out timetable for the week, with the subjects we are going to do and when are going to do them. I felt much better after that because I feel like we have really got some much clearer direction now.
Jacqueline had a dentist appointment and we walked into town.
I registered us with the Sainsbury’s Active Kids Cooking programme - http://www.activekidsgetcooking.org.uk/activekidsgetcooking/welcome.htm
and they registered us on their database as home educator, which I was delighted with.
The girls have been getting on much better together than they ever did when they were at school. The weather has been really glorious and they have been playing on the trampoline and also playing bat and ball and Frisbee in the garden.
George, the family rottweiler, loves these games and loves to play the part of the fielder. Only trouble is, he gets the ball or the Frisbee and then runs off with it and won’t give it back.
This usually leads to a great game of “chase” around the garden.
Wednesday 25th April
We went out for an early dog walk and then I dropped the girls off at the swimming pool, while I went and did a weekly food shop.
Stephanie found some interactive tests on the Plymouth Maths site and went through most of the Year 8 (12/13 year old) tests. She said she felt comfortable with all the work and felt confident enough to move onto the next year.
We are making food progress with Jacqueline’s Maths and are filling in the gaps as we go along.
After my self doubting rants and the girls adament insistence that they wanted to stay at home and not go back to school, I quizzed them on this.
It seems they feel they are covering about the same work, but the difference is that they do not feel rushed to complete something and then move onto the next thing, whether they have understood it or not.
We can revisit things until they are clear on them. We are also more flexible on time and they can finish things they are interested in and it does not really matter if the next lesson starts a bit later.
We started our History and Geography today. We have chosen the subject of CHOCOLATE to research. It covers a huge amount of things from the Aztecs to the Victorians, as well as climate and culture of the chocolate producing countries, business case studies, fairtrade and lots of interesting TASTING experiments for Science.
They really got stuck into this one and spend the afternoon researching. One of the best recipe sites is here http://www.best-chocolate-recipes-online.com/ from a fellow home-educator.
Thursday 26th April
Jacqueline finished writing her stories for the Writing Magazine competitions and we just need to format those before we can send them off. She wrote to the editor of the magazine and was delighted to receive a personal response from her.
Both have also been looking at submitting reports and photos to the Childrens’ BBC Newsround site. http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbbc/presspack/
We got a huge amount done today. We went through some Science. Stephanie went through the interactive tests on the BBC bitesize site and was delighted that she could do most of the science. With Jacqueline we were using some workbooks. We did about materials, states of matter and evaporation/filtration.
I had a tarot course this morning and while I was doing that, Stephanie had found the words for several key phrases in French, Spanish and German. It is quite interesting learning all 3 languages at the same time.
Friday 27th April
Jacqueline sorted out her photos for her business website today and put them into categories. Stephanie wrote her plan for her tutorial videos to go through with her friend. Jacqueline made some biscuits as part of her Home Economics.
Both have also written out their Ideal Day, which made very interesting reading.
For Music, we thought we would follow the CHOCOLATE theme and so the girls did the Ooommpa Loompa dance from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory DVD.
They even got me doing it!
They have joined Stagecoach for singing, dancing and drama. Tonight was the first one and the girls had a brilliant time. They have already started making some new friends, which is excellent. Stephanie is starting with Sportscoach tomorrow.
We are now 3 weeks into this and I am finally beginning to feel as though we have got some direction and a plan. I just need to apply the same discipline to my business.
More next week.
With love and abundant blessings
Amanda Goldston
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