I was reading some of the Homeschool Mothers Journal posts this weekend and was struck by something Musical Mary said over at home grown learners about taking some time out - she takes half an hour each day to do something - currently a knitting project.
Well I'm probably not going to manage 30 mins each day but decided I should take an hour or so each weekend to make the things I've been meaning to make for ages. So yesterday while DH was teaching the girls chess (and preventing DD2 from stealing the pieces) I took some time out to make a cute game for DD2 & DD4 to play - Valentine dressing.
Each heart has a different way of fastening - Velcro, popper, button, knotting and safety pin.
This was so quick to make and required minimal sewing, just some felt, glue and odds and ends - so go on, have a go.
In my life this week...CHAOS. all four kids have been down with flu at some point or other this week and DD4's developing tonsillitis again :(
I am craving a solid nights sleep.
In our homeschool this week...surprisingly we managed to mostly stay on track, although we did officially mark Fri up as a sick day and snuggled on the sofa watching documentaries (my sick day not theirs) so will have art, geometry and Spanish to squeeze in somewhere next week.
Places we're going and people we're seeing...not many ventures out this week but looking forward to next weeks craft workshop, baking afternoon and planting.
My favorite thing this week was...'Mummy can I cuddle you?' may these moments last forever
What's working/not working for us...Montessori is working very well for us although I think we could benefit from a more focused spelling programme and have been looking at a couple trying to decide which will work best.
Homeschool questions/thoughts I have...Any suggestions for a good spelling programme?
A photo, video, link, or quote to share...My favourite quote this week is from Mandela 'We must use time wisely and forever realise that the time is always ripe to do good'
I know its only Feb 3rd but we got into the swing of things early.
DD8 & DD6 were happy doing heart fractions - just a quick revision game but the fun for them was the hearts were Haribo sweets, some whole, others cut into half and some cut into quarters. The real fun came when they answered the questions correctly and could eat the sweets :) (the fun for me was trying to get equal sized quarters from a heart shape - you know they'll pick up on it if its wrong ! )
You can get this from my downloads page
DD2 enjoyed her filling bottle (an empty water bottle) she unscrews the lid fills it with beads and screws the lid back on to make a shaker - this has always been her favourite and she can happily fill and empty 6 or 7 times before playing with it as a shaker. We filled it with heart and flower beads today to get into the spirit of valentine. She also did a basic sticker match game - 6 heart stickers and find the matching ones.
DD4 was loving her heart match game and counting stickers (got the sticker idea from counting coconuts - she used stars for her space theme) you have 11 cards labelled 0-10 and 55 stickers, they must put the correct number of stickers on the cards - any left over or not enough for the last one and they know they've gone wrong.
The remainder of the workboxes were math, reading, vocabulary, creative writing, time revision, co-ordinates and spelling. We did some group project work on Human Bodies - our theme for Jan and Feb but I'll devote a whole post to that when we've finished it.
DD8 also had a how to draw box - as you can see she was not overly impressed.
I got some great feedback for the kitty counting game so decided to put one together for valentines day.
You can get this on the download page - Have fun.
Last week I promised you an exmple of out time work.
So far we have converted digital times to analogue times and started on our 24 hour clock.
This worksheet for digital to analogue is available on my download page along with a blank version (for extra practice)
as is this 24 hour clock sheet - the clock we used is just the clock face printout and I chalked in the additional times in the black outline. Again both available on my download page along with a blank 24 hour version.
