A DAY OF TESTING

We had a day of testing today, so I could make sure the kids were on target and the education they are getting at home is helping them with progressing.  Today the testing we did was for Spelling (Schonell Spelling Test) and the Burt Reading Test (both standardised and used in NZ schools)

Pollyanna (age 6 years, 1 month)


Spelling age of 7 years exactly

Reading age of 7 years 6 months



Benjamin (age 8 years, 11 months)

Spelling age of 12 years 8 months)

Reading age of 13 years, 10 months



Aren’t our kids awesome and I marked them really hard and gave them no warning of the testing!  I am just having one of those proud moments where I am seeing the benefits of home schooling ... I don't often acknowledge the wonders of my two littlest hero's but today I want to acknowledge their hard work and dedication and the effort they both put into learning is just awesome and boy is it paying off :)

A GREAT DAY AT HOWICK HISTORIC VILLAGE

We had a great day at Howick Historic Village yesterday.  The kids were awesome, so well behaved as were most of the home-schooled children.  They also had the most amazing time learning about history by being involved in it ... its incredible how hands-on learning provides so much more understanding than just standing, listening, reading, and writing.  This was truly a day where the education and the ability to home-school my children was so rewarding.  They learnt everything from washing duties, ironing, the foundation of nursery rhymes, and the types of homes that were waiting for those that made the voyage from Ireland.  Incredible stuff, and I can't thank the people at the village enough for their care in teaching and their passion for passing on knowledge.  AWESOME DAY >>> AWESOME :)

TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE

Well it was today!  Both kids spent some maths time today working on their telling time skills.  For Ben, its about reading times on clocks more accurately, and for Polly we are starting to move the big hand to the half past position and start learning to tell the time when the big hand isn't at the 12 position!

It was actually fun.  Ben had a great sense of achievement at knowing the times on all the worksheets I gave him which was fantastic.  So I then moved him on to a timed multiplication test to reinforce his times tables ... another big up for him with only one in 50 wrong.  Polly did really well too.  At first she struggled with which number the half past referred to, but I showed her it was referring to the PAST number, so the correct one was the number which the little hand had just past.  This knowledge made it easier but will need continued practice but she made a great start!

It was then onto the dreaded writing, so to cheer them up I had a two prong approach.  One was to say if they went at their writing with an upbeat attitude they could make the Lego advent builds from last year when they had finished and I also wrote a starter on the board .... I can't wait until Christmas.  I really like .......   that got them firing!

A GOOD FEW WEEKS

We have had a great first few weeks at the beginning of Term Four.  The spelling books are fantastic and something I will definitely keep buying for future terms.  The best thing about them is not only the learning to spell aspect but also the working on word knowledge they also bring. 

Statistics is most certainly a favourite maths subject! They both love graphs and Ben is learning how to apply that knowledge so that data collected can be presented in a meaningful way. Polly is also learning to tell the time more this term and hopefully the reinforcement of this continues to give her a better understanding of how time works.

We are off to the Howick Historic Village next week to discover and work and play as we would have done in Victorian Times .... the sewing has begun with the costumes!  The workbooks and story about Polly and her Farming Family are paying real dividends in this area. 

Writing is still not a favourite, so we are going slowly with this, especially for Polly who has decided reading is a far better pass time than writing!  Ben's writing is almost unrecognisable from two terms ago.  The work we did on Narratives means he can now create a story with a beginning, middle, and end which is awesome.  His editing has also come along way and I am so proud of the work we have done together to make his writing so cool.  Some days he even enjoys writing .... OMG!  This term we are focused on exposition writing and how we have to provide reason if we are making a statement to support what we feel.  Here's hoping this learning is as successful as the Narratives.  I am using newspaper reading each day to provide him with plenty of opportunities to investigate this style of writing in every day life.  For Polly, this term is all about the little steps and making each writing experience on a daily basis a more positive experience. 

That's about it for now, Christmas is coming so we started our weekly Christmas crafts yesterday with the kids decorating Christmas stockings ... we love Christmas!

GREAT FIRST TWO DAYS OF THE WEEK

We have had a great Monday and Tuesday of this week.  The kids are now totally on task and are enjoying the topics we have for this term, especially Statistics.  The last two days we had been using hot dog toppings as a way of providing data for some statistical investigations.  The kids have really explored and understood how statistics provides us with a way of understanding peoples choices, which is cool.  They have done so well with their math this week I made them hot dogs as a treat for lunch so they could add their own favourite topping combination!

We have some really exciting trips coming up in the next couple of weeks - Te Papa in Wellington (thanks to some $1 flights), a trip with other home schoolers to Howick Historic Village (yikes need to make some period costumes!), an overnight tramp in the Waitakere ranges, and in a months time a trip to New Plymouth to see Carolyn and Joe and Mt Taranaki (again thanks to some $1 flights).  Two of these trips would not have been economically possible without the $1 grab-a-seat deals I got and I am so thankful for picking them up and being able to broaden our school trip portfolio!

Can finally add photos, us at the Summit of Sunrise Hut Trail

GOOD INTENTIONS: MUST START DOING THIS FIRST THING IN THE MORNING!

I have really good intentions of doing my blogging first thing in the morning or last thing at night but after our holiday I am just a bit tired this week! We have had a great couple of days, the kids are starting to focus on their work again, I am sure the pride in their work will start next week as they are also a bit tired and some of their work looks a little forced!  Never mind, at least they are interested.  Today they had great fun this afternoon making henna hand prints (an activity off this awesome website!) for social studies.  It was our last time focusing on India today and also the last day of the Commonwealth Games.  We watched the start of the marathon race and the kids were really inspired by how fit these athletes were.  I am hoping this wears off on them as they undertake cross country this term.

I have taken photos of the henna hand prints they made but am still having trouble loading the photos, so will get Steve to have a look at the weekend and see if he can help me :0

It is my daughters last day as a five year old today and it makes me sad to see her growing so FAST, happy for her to continue with her healthy, happy little life but boy I can't believe it is going so quickly.

HAPPY EARLY BIRTHDAY FOR TOMORROW MY LITTLE BABY GIRL ..... LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK

TERM FOUR STARTS WITH EXCITEMENT

We had a great first day of school, the morning started with a few bumps (it was writing time and the kids just didn't want a bar of it this morning, something to work on this term, find something that will make writing fun for them!) but as the day progressed so did the responsiveness of my class!  They are really excited by statistics our new strand of maths for this term.  In the afternoon they did some Commonwealth Games activities and then for crafts made Diwali cards which were very impressive!  All in all a great day for a first day. 

Below are some of the things we did during the holidays and also a photo of the Bad Jelly the Witch cast that Ben took after the show on the last day of term three.  The kids loved the performance and the work we did before going to the show really paid off as they were able to interpret the performance against their knowledge of the storyline.  For the holidays we went first thing Saturday morning to Steve's parents place in Waipuk and spent 10 days with them, also making time for an overnight tramp in the Ruahine Ranges (our first overnight) ... it was more like an alpine trek than a family tramp but we survived!  The last few days were spent at home but with a trip to Hamilton to see my sister play hockey for the NZ Under 19 team (they won 4-1, yeah)

For some reason I can't upload the photos so I will try again tomorrow!