March happenings

The students at the Brian Street Learning Centre have been busy working on various projects over the past month involving taxonomy, history, physics and dance.
Both girls are interested in British history thanks to the wonderful Horrible Histories series and they have begun a very large and ambitious poster of British monarchs from the time of William the Conqueror.

Work on this poster is ticking many boxes: research skills, art, english and maths (working out dates and how long each monarch reigned). Most of the work is by the SnorkMaiden; Moomintroll helps out with the dates and has been making her own mini posters for her scrapbook.

Taxonomy or classification has always been an interest of mine, so I felt I had to start sharing it with the girls. We began with the five Kingdoms of Life and are now looking in depth at the Animal Kingdom.

a page in their scrapbooks

Of course this topic warranted a field trip, so we visited the aquarium and took photos and wrote down lots of scientific names for further research.

the newest Aptenodytes patagonicus chick

Phyllopteryx taeniolatus

Homo sapiens homeschoolicus

The sewing/craft set up has been a hit. Nearly everyday for a week both girls could be found sifting through piles of fabric and sewing up all sorts of items for their baby dolls like pillows, sleeping bags and blankets. Here are two of the best items they created - a quilt by Moomintroll and a tote bag by SnorkMaiden.

The girls entertained us with their ballet class open days:

We took a trip to the Cranbourne Botanic Gardens for easter. We're not up to learning about the Plant Kingdom yet but hopefully the girls soaked up some interesting facts while we were there :)

Our latest expedition was to Williamstown to see the fantastic Sea Shepherd boats - the Steve Irwin, the Bob Barker and the Sam Simon.  We toured two of these ships and learned alot about the injustices going on in the Southern Ocean.

surveying the damage done to the Sam Simon by Japanese whalers

sitting in the Skipper's seat

the Steve Irwin

We've had a really busy month. I am hoping to slow things down a little in the coming weeks. With the weather finally getting its act together and getting cooler I think we're all looking forward to some cosy and warm, in front of the heater, read all day, stay at home pajama days.

Term 1 wrap up

The end of first term is nigh, so before we leave on our very well deserved holiday to Heron Island, here's a record of what the girls have been up to.


Sport - Ballet, Gymnastics, Kids Cardio, Circus classes.

Music - Choir, Piano lessons, attending concert band rehearsals, concerts and citizenship ceremonies.

Personal Development - Girl Guides.

LOTE - Latin, learning phrases and words relating to the countries studied in our Around the World unit.

Art - Artist Trading Card swap with fellow homeschoolers, batik making.

History - Brief histories of the countries studied in our Around the World unit; Indigenous study (tool making, edible plants, culture and music); Horrible Histories books/DVD; French Revolution video from Khan Academy.

Geography - Around the World unit; preparation for our trip to Heron Island, Qld.

Science - Crystal growing; Tadpole watch; Saturday Science sessions; Rockpool study; marine life study; growing pumpkins; dog, rabbit and guinea pig care; "Hands in the Dirt" excursion involving planting seeds, grasses, analysing compost, identifying animals under a microscope.

English - Shakespeare (H); Headsprout (R); library days; H is writing her own Mr. Men story; writing and performing original plays; atttending a performance of Hamlet; research skills for Around the World project.

Maths - Smartkiddies website; Cool maths games; math workbooks; Pi Day; selling raffle tickets at band concert.

*Around the World countries studied were South Korea, Mexico, Canada and Mauritius.

...and all done in our pajamas! (well, most of it anyway).

a bucketful of egg cases(?) need help identifying these!

investigating at Rickett's Point

snail trail

common sea star

crab shell lineup

Stage 1 of batik making using flour paste instead of wax. Instructions here.

 

Crystal making using Borax, food colouring and boiling water:

 

Torn paper craft:

Hands in the Dirt excursion:

planting Lomandra

Circus time.  R is working towards her Level 1 certificate:

The Doctor is changing daily now.  One day he sprouted a front leg.  The next day the second one popped out:

We will most likely release him back to the creek where we found him at the end of this week.

Sept 6-18

my first baby Harris

sniff

So I survived the radiation and subsequent enforced holiday at mum and dad's. I did alot of sleeping, tried my hand at tapestry weaving, and crocheted a dish cloth. I took a long walk in the sunshine but overdid it as usual and ended up with a terrible migraine and sore muscles the next day.  On the sixth day I came back home to presents from P and the girls, a new lounge room light installed, a freezer packed with ready cooked meals, a lovely tidy house and two very happy to see me dogs. Thanks guys!
Everyone was busy while I was gone. P had two days off work so they went swimming, investigated density at Saturday Science, went to the art class party, kids cardio, brownies, ballet and did some baking.  R even learnt how to cook scrambled eggs for H which were, in H's opinion, the BEST scrambled eggs she'd ever had. R said the secret was adding 'mummy milk' (which incidentally is lactose free milk, not the other kind!).

H was very happy to get her ballet exam results at last. She achieved a merit pass and was pleased with her result. Rehearsals for her end of year concert have begun in earnest and she's loving every second.  Last week we watched the annual Peter and the Wolf performance by her ballet school. It was great to see some of her friends in it this time and of course she can't wait to be in it herself. Maybe next year..
After the performance we listened to a recording of  Peter and the Wolf. Both girls are very familiar now with the storyline, musical motifs for each character, and they enjoy dancing around being hunters.

The skills H has learned from our sewing club are taking off - she's made a teddy bear for a friend, decorated a hair band for herself with felt flowers, and has begun mending her own clothes and some of Barbie's clothes too.  She's also been sewing at Brownies but won't tell me what she's made - I wonder if it's a birthday present for me?  I can't wait to find out.

The DS's are getting a good workout lately. R is loving Scribblenauts.  She is constantly asking us to spell out words for her but bit by bit she is remembering how to spell them herself, and she is really enjoying using her outrageous imagination to create some amazingly weird scenarios for the game's hero.
H has revisited her Horrible Histories Ruthless Romans game, but this time round, instead of just playing the games she's reading all the historical facts and trivia about the city, its culture, and its emperors which was all a bit too hard for her at the start of the year.

The postie brought some new books over last week:

 I saw this beautiful book mentioned on another blog and knew I just had to read it too. The girls and I often discuss what happens to us when we die and I've been wanting to introduce Buddhism to them for some time. We haven't read the entire book yet. I'm taking it slow as I'm still learning about it myself.

 

This book sounded like alot of fun with songs to reinforce vocab, and I'm pleased to report that it has been fun so far.  The songs are catchy and are sung to familiar tunes - we find ourselves singing them everywhere, every day.  And the best thing is that we can adapt them to suit Indonesian and  German too.

 

This book I bought just to introduce some different maths concepts as it's been pretty boring just doing some sums and trying to remember the times tables.  So far I've made the girls some magnetic tangrams. I had H in mind for this, but R is having the most fun with it so far.

Art class came to an end for this term. They made some stunning papier mache masks and have brought home lovely little glazed ceramic pots.  Today they headed outside with their smocks on for some serious painting on the deck. Here are some works in progress:

Next week we're off on our first homeschool camp to Sovereign Hill, Ballarat!