Geometric solids : Montessori and more

We love our Life of Fred books around here. Credit (once again :) has to go to Tracey for all of her wisdom! To supplement, & ensure we are covering the full state syllabus for Maths, L is using the Targeting Maths workbooks. And then, when appropriate, my original love - Montessori - will also come into play.

The pages he completed from the TM book today were about 3D Shapes or as we know them in the world of Montessori - Geometric Solids.

Oooooh! We have some of them *insert excited Montessori Mama face*

So I pulled out my homemade Geometric Solids - I made them with clay & painted them to match the traditional Montessori ones - and set L to work; first matching the solids to their name cards & then collecting items from around the house to match them. He has done this work before but it's been a while.

I had to smile, at lunchtime, when he told his dad that he had been learning about Triangular Prisms :)

* On a side note, I'm pleased with the difference 2 months can make - I've been having much more success with going over the directions and then asking him to complete a page of a workbook independently than I did last year. Yay! Dishes done. Floor swept ;)

Day One

Day one was... brilliant! Awwwww - I love learning alongside of my boy.

*happy mama*

It was strange waving Hug off at the bus-stop once again but he seemed happy to be back in his routine. The house was peaceful. Very peaceful! Which was a nice contrast to the mayhem of holidays and L and I seemed to instantly flow back into the rhythm we had last year.

There is a new influence in our eclectic educational mix this year - Charlotte Mason - and I'm rather excited about my curriculum plans :) I will blog about them properly soon.

L's first official narration. It's something that has always happened naturally around here, of course, but Narration is a big element of the CM philosophy and it's going to take me a while to get used to "requiring"  it from each reading. Here L is narrating through drawing; after we read "The stories of Albion and Brutus" from Our Island Story.

You can also see T's kindle in shot! He's kindly agreed to let us use it for some of our readings.

Lovely lurves board games & Trouble is his current fave. We played lots of Trouble today :)

Collections and sketches from our nature walk. Keeping a Nature Journal  - another new part of our plans for this year.

There were spontaneous Zombie dances (totally coincidental Tracey - weird),  a return to The Life of Fred: Butterflies (We've missed you Fred) and water-play in the backyard - I'll warn you now - you had better watch out when mama gets hold of the hose!

Fun. But now it's late. I must sleep. There's a whole wide world out there to explore tomorrow. x

Our school photos: a new tradition

I have always liked the idea of school photographs - I still enjoy looking back on my own childhood ones -  & was surprised that Hug's school doesn't seem to do them! And of course Master Lovely is home. So I have decided that our official "school photos" will be taken on the first day back each year.

Here are my sweet bugs this morning :)

What are your favourite back-to-school traditions? x

The planning is done... Homeschool 2012

The planning is done (wellllll, most of it ;) & the day has arrived!
Happy Homeschool 2012 :)

Lego Animation Studios: Harry Potter and more

The holidays are almost over.
How can that even be possible? It only feels like yesterday that I was wondering what we would do for the next 8 weeks!

There are a few little "summer holiday" projects that we still need to work on. Like helping Hug to finish sewing badges onto his Scouts shirt. And... hmmmm, I'm sure there are more!

But one of the cool things that we have finished, however, are these Lego stop-motion movies that the boys started last year. I know I said "we" but really they worked on them with their dad - each boy directing his own one with T on camera.  I'm just basking in the glow ;)

So without further ado I present: "Harry Potter - Platform Nine and Three Quarters"

And "The Big Crash":

Rain

It's raining.
It's actually cold and raining. And it's Summer. Weird.

But we're good. All snug. Inside.
The boys are playing Lego. I don't think they will ever tire of it.
I'm listening to the rain (one of my most favourite past-times).

The Board of Studies visit went really well & we were recommended the full 2 year registration which is fantastic! *takes a flourished bow* I applied for both boys and am pleased that I had the opportunity to plan everything with both of them in mind, but it seems that Hug will still stay at school this year. Deep breath.

Sometimes we need to just release to what is. This is one of those moments for me. But I'm going to miss him being here with us. On rainy days like this especially. x