Still Learning...

I managed to get up nice and early today to do some work before the kids were due to get up, as in accordance with their new timetable as designed by them. Even though they'd both had an early night last night, the wind was so strong it kept waking them up. Me too to be honest. Consequently, they were up quite a bit later than they'd planned and were still pretty tired and grumpy :/

They managed to get some of the things done that they'd chosen to do - maths and the Schofield & Sims reasoning books. They really like the challenge of them. It's just puzzles against a timer really but it gets their brains working in a different way. Boykin got a set of Nanoblocks for Christmas so he spent a fair bit of the morning working on that. Not sure quite how that fits into his new timetable, but hey ho! It's just great to see him gravitate to a toy rather than a screen :)

They got all their morning jobs done and cleaned out the rabbits. I read a chapter of Story of the World:  vol. 2:  to them while they finished their lunch. (We're on China and the building of the Grand Canal.) And, being inspired by this post, we had some soothing choral music playing in the background - Lambert Leçons de Ténèbres.

The Girl devised a game to build up her French vocabulary using the Cherchons Le Mot game from Orchard Toys. She's working on a print and play version, so I can't tell you what it involves, but it was fun and it worked well :) She's trying to raise money to go on an International Scout camp next year and is hoping that her Games Galore stuff will sell on Currclick as a means of helping towards her fundraising :)

There was also a Nerf battle, a singing lesson, tea at a neighbours and a cubs meeting in and amongst it all. And right now, although it is past bedtime by my body clock, they are both still running with the Harry Potter theme (how many years is this now?) and have both just signed up to Pottermore and Hogwarts school....


 

Silent Sunday

New Year , New Routine

Somehow, New Year always feel like a time to make new beginnings. A time to look at what we've been doing, what has worked, what hasn't and reassess what we've learned and what we want to learn. I say 'we' because I include myself in these plans too :)

We're keeping our maths curriculum, Boykin will continue to work through the books and lesson plans with me, but The Girl has decided she will do the interactive materials on the website and use the lessons and tutorials on there instead. She's making good headway and is listening to Mozart at the same time: :)

Boykin has decided he wants to learn Spanish, which means I will learn it with him as I know no Spanish and want to be able to help him along. We're starting with Duolingo to build up some vocabulary. The Girl will continue with French.

Boykin is currently using Schofield & Sims books for handwriting, grammar and spelling. The Girl is going to make a start on IGCSE English materials instead of doing the Galore Park she was doing before.

I'm still reading The Story of the World while we have elevenses, followed by whatever book we are reading for book group (A Bear Called Paddington) :0)

The Girl is really going to try and get her teeth into the IGCSE Biology book and Boykin will continue to do science experiments with me and we will start to look at the Galore Park SYRWTL Science books for a bit more theory, although I'm really not sure how he'll get on with them.

For music, The Girl will still do singing, violin and piano. I'm going to buy her a new cornet so that house has one in the house to play when she wants without needing to be in a brass band. Boykin wants to learn the didjeridoo. Hmmm!

They will both continue to work on Picture Book Explorers with me and I'm hoping to tackle volume 4 of the Five In A Row series in between those. Even if we don't follow the curriculum, I want to at least read the books :) I have plans for five more Picture Book Explorers and hope to make some more lapbooks and project packs too this year :)

Between us we want to go swimming more regularly; grow some more food; get rid of more clutter and make better use of our National Trust membership :)

We've all struggled to get back into the swing of things after Christmas, not least because of late nights and late mornings. We've managed to get to most of their activities so far, but Tuesday was a bit of a fail in that respect  and we didn't quite make them all today either :/

We have a day at home tomorrow so we'll have time to recharge our batteries before The Girl starts Explorers. Another new beginning :)