.............................................Space!

We're pretty big on space in this house. Four of us, quite coincidentally, have astronomically themed names (Nova, Alexis, Maia, and Leo). So as a topic theme, space seemed like a pretty good choice.

For a start, we dragged out our collection of space-related books - 

 (I'm possibly a little optimistic putting Measuring the Universe; The Historic Quest to Quantify Space up there, but you never know)

We made a big brainstorm poster of what we already knew, what we wanted to find out, and how

(gold star if you can spot the error with the "word wall" of planet names..) 

And I got a little carried away printing out resources from Teachers Pay Teachers and Homeschool Share - 

Then we got to work!

We tackle this sort of stuff usually after lunch, and in a gentle, self-initiated way. I scatter resources around the place, make suggestions of things they might like to do, then wait to see what piques their interest.

Eli  decided to draw the major planets, some space tools, and an astronaut. He later added a rocket too.

Lexi has been quite taken with NASA's Eyes on the Solar System simulation, which you can use to explore the solar system, including hunting down various missions like Voyager I & II, and the I.S.S.

Of course there was the ubiquitous polystyrene ball solar system model, most decidedly not to scale -

but we're quite proud of it -

 (I couldn't cope with the fat polystyrene ring that came with the kit, so improvised one from clear plastic & paperclips)

Of course we raided the library - 

 the 13 Planets one is quite good; it includes the most prominent dwarf planets, which is quite rare unfortunately!

And I recently added A Collection of Wonders with Professor Brian Cox * to our DVD stash, so we've started watching Wonders of the Solar System to begin with -

we're doing a little bit more each day, so I'll be back with more links and activities that we've been enjoying!

(* Affiliate link! If you click on that link and then go on to purchase something, we get a small percentage of that sale, which would be really nice!)

February Frivolity

Sorry, alliteration is my Achilles' Heel...

Sorry.

Anyway, the weather has been pretty fantastic, so we've been trying to make the most of it! A few adventures, a couple of which I'll blog separately, and of course trips out to the park too - 

Still got the usual things like maths happening - 

Little brother & sister like to join in too, Maia really likes these magnetic foam shapes ("Magnetism Jigsaw Puzzle" according to the box!), and Leo just likes anything he can bang together -

Lexi mixed up a batch of playdough, but this one doesn't use Cream of Tartar!!

Cooked Playdough WITHOUT Cream of Tartar

1 cup flour

1 cup water

2 table spoons oil

3 teaspoons white vinegar

1/4 cup salt

Mix all ingredients in a pan then stir over a medium heat until it clumps together.

Knead on a floured surfaces

Add colours as desired.

(thanks to Nina from the NZ homeschooling Facebook groups for sharing the recipe!)

We decided to head along to the local "Natural Learners/Unschoolers" group, who meet fortnightly for adventures & play, this time at the secluded Titirangi Beach - 

See what I mean about the weather? Brilliant.

February is famous (infamous?) for being the haunt of Valentine's Day, and whilst we don't usually do anything to celebrate it, I thought it sounded like a good excuse for baking.

Lexi made a chocolate brownie from Who's Cooking Tonight? by Tauranga teen Claire Gourley

and slathered it in this obscenely good brownie frosting (butter, chocolate, sugar - the ultimate food pyramid)

and we made some little chocolate hearts with the left over chocolate -

(with not a small amount of muttered cursing, I'll admit)

Eli has started on Grade 1 of the Math Mammoth "Light Blue" series curriculum, and is flying through it! I've found the pacing of this to be really good for my kids, just a little bit challenging, but doesn't labour over a single item to the point of drudgery. Despite being worksheet based - she gives recommendations for manipulative games and web activities that complement each chapter - it uses lots of images and drawing to illustrate concepts.

And Lexi has now officially moved onto the next stage at St John, she is no longer a Penguin and has moved into the Green Cadets group!

It's time for a new uniform!

Revamp

We didn't have a dedicated homeschooling room in our house, or even a dedicated cupboard!

Suffice to say it was getting a bit annoying having everything stashed piecemeal in various spots around the house, but we did have a rather decent sized patch of wall behind the dining table -

Which I commandeered!!

 We bought some of those shop style wall mounted strip shelves on sale, three 300mm x 2400mm (one of which we're not using currently), for boxes & files, and two 150mm x 1200mm ones for holding pencils etc and displaying books.

I used cheap fabric boxes, cardboard magazine files, and lidded plastic boxes to hold all our craft gear, science bits, materials, manipulatives, and paperwork.

And each of the kids have a box that I prettied up a little to hold resources for them specifically that aren't currently in use -

 Books currently or commonly in use still live in the rainbow drawers under the shelves, next to my sewing table.

It's a big improvement!!

Not a dandelion clock.

Lexi is learning about time at the moment, and I remembered this pin that I had pinned ages ago, and made my own version -

She already knew the hour & minute hands thing, so I didn't include that (and I was making it from memory, and forgot that bit), but I added the circle on the face, which is divided into quarters.

Getting organised!

 We're naturally really, seriously disorganised people!


But with a revolving cast of 3-5 kids around the place, a class of 20-something eight year olds to manage, and all my crafty ventures, being disorganised just was NOT going to work with home schooling!

So I dragged out all our vaguely school related supplies -

 and arranged them into....

generic stationery (pens, rulers, tape, glue, staplers etc), painting, and other art mediums-

(I emptied the dregs of the big paint bottles into smaller squeezy ones, and recycled the empty bottles into containers for our crayons, pencils & pens, they're a fantastic size for that)

folders and notebooks, exercise books, and printer paper & canvases - 

science kits, our discovery chest, maths games & manipulatives, things to keep the little one amused, collage stuff, and kid's craft supplies -

which mostly turned into this, our school cupboard - 

And as for actual work material, we have our rainbow tower-

which currently has another 5 drawers as yet unassigned (but mysteriously full of assorted pieces of kid-paper!). On the top is the cutlery caddy I bought for holding writing & colouring pencils. I used a piece of cardboard to make a little removable cup to fit in one slot, for catching pencil sharpenings, and hot-glued a pencil sharpener onto a piece of string to tie onto the caddy!

For a schedule, I was inspired by this chore chart (which I saw on Pinterest, but can't find the pin!). Ours is just a laminated sheet of paper taped to the fridge, but it's sufficiently pretty to keep our six year old happy!

I found some round, self-adhesive magnets, and printed out little pictures of everything that I could think of that Lexi might do in a day, including a few just fun things!

Thus far we have- maths, handwriting, poetry, art, storytime with me, cooking/baking, crafts, walk/outing, swimming, puzzles, gardening, writing, independent reading, Lego Quest, St John's Penguins, discovery chest, social studies, Intrepica, and science.

No doubt I'll add more as we go, but as we are just easing into our new rhythm at the moment, I think that is more than enough!

This system is good because it gives Lexi a clear idea of what is expected that day, she can 'tick off' completed activities, and it even gives her a lot of freedom to choose what she would like to tackle throughout the day!

So I think that I have most of our HE stuff sufficiently organised, if only the rest of the house was that way....

Lamination..

I've been making resources -

Predominantly things to keep the little ones quietly occupied, but a few things for the big girl too..

There's word, letter, and pattern matching, size sequencing, playdough number mats, DIY dice & graphing tools, all sorts of things!

They're all free printables created & shared by 1+1+1=1 and Confessions of a Homeschooler!!

The Discovery Chest

 In preparation for this year, I bought this book, and it's companion Nature in a Nutshell -

 Because really, how can you go past the "10 minutes or less" selling point?!? Of course you can stretch all of these out to weighty lengths if you like, but they're not inherently time consuming.

Each page has easy to read material lists, procedures, and an explanation for the phenomena exhibited in the experiment. I really wanted to incorporate lots of hands-on science work, so this is perfect!

To make *actually doing them* easier once we start for the year, I put together the Discovery Chest!

It's got everything we need for each experiment (well, almost all of them.. I'm still missing a few things, and I flatly refuse to put live insects or a fish skeleton in the chest!), bar standard stuff like bowls & scissors, in labelled ziplock bags! There's a few spare things in there as well.. Now the kids just need to pick a page from the book that looks interesting, or that is related to something else we're doing, and find the appropriate bag!

There are all sorts of interesting things in there - magnets, balloons, coffee filters, modelling clay, LOTS of cups, funnels, tubing, magnifying glasses, felt pens (markers), rubber bands, LOTS of string, coat hangers, etc etc etc..

If the kids are interesting in repeating an experiment the bits can go back in their bag, and if not, then the materials get added to the spare stuff bag for free experimentation!

Funnily enough while I was still sourcing all the bits I came across this Pin, which is a very similar idea, and she's helpfully shared all the experiments that she used!! I'm going to incorporate some of those to our chest too :-)