what are you reading? What are you covering this year?

This year has been filled so far with so many good books.

Brid has read
Literature
The Scarlett Pimpernel
Persuasion.

Faith
A heart for Europe
We are on A mission from God

Culture
A Distant Prospect- Annette Young ( A friend of ours).
The story of Van Trapp family singers
Her next book is The diary of Anne Frank. I read this book after visiting Amsterdam and seeing the house. It is the Pan Books edition.

Now I don't bother with book reports or notebooking.
I know she has enjoyed the book because she explains the book to me. I know many would say this would not be how they do it, but its less restricting and allows flow in our day. Often Brid will have several books on the go...She has plans to read Les Miserables this term too.

I waver between formal learning and child directed learning.
It works best for us.

Brid is working her way through Australian based History Writing IEW. I was going to ask her to read several books along side it. I changed my mind as I wanted her to make that decision. Well she has. She asked if she could buy a book on the Cobb & Co..Of course I was delighted and quickly directed her to my proposed Australian history reading list.
She is looking through the list deciding what she'd like to read.

A lesson in Poetry & short stories by Australian poets, has been a rabbit trail today. Henry Lawson- A drovers wife, A look at various poems like the Bush Girl and reciting A Sunburnt country.

Next week we wil be beginning Romeo & Juliette with a friend. Using this book as a translator. It will be simple but effective. We will look at a play or a Ballet once we complete it.

Our other subjects covered are
 Maths. using teaching textbooks -Algebra I
IEW - fix it Grammar
Biology- Using Apologia.

Of course Brid has been researching and writing about various Ballet companies, Dancers- male & female, choreographers and Ballets. She listens to Ballet as she works and its rather energising.
I was worried at the beginning of the year, that we wouldn't have enough time for all of this but it just seems to flow.
As oiur AP said, if the child has a passion this will flow over to there school work as well.. It certainly has been the case with Brid... 







 

The visit..

Early this year, we had a letter from the Board of Studies. Registration was now due..I was fairly prepared. I knew what was expected of the interview.
I began putting the documentation together in anticipation of the phone call that precedes "the visit'.
The day of registration came and went. No phone call, no contact. 'How come?". I wondered.
Then I remembered. OH I need to print the document from the BOS website..
After I did this, sent it away and I had a letter arrive rather quickly.
I then just needed to wait.
On Monday, I heard from the AP- Approved Person, who would be out this week.
So today was the day..
I dressed early, tidied the house and organised all the school work into subjects. Placed everything onto the dining room table, the documentation of my current plan, my proposal for the coming year seperately displayed. I just needed to wait for her arrival.
She was early, so instead of leaving her outside in the car, we asked her to come in. It didn't matter if  she was 15 minutes early. It was neither here nor there.
It began... all the niceties were over.
Brid made a brief appearance, she had 2 extractions the day before, so was resting in her room. The AP knew this and encouraged her to rest. I was then left to explain our schooling plan, past and present...
explaining how this works,
 how we do this,
why we choose this.
It was rather a smooth easy interview.
Just two people chatting. She was quite delighted in my choice of literature books for Brid...

 As she is Catholic, she was delighted and interested in all our Catholic books. Our Catholic culture books. Our living Saint and Catechism books.
We spoke of our trip to Europe, She spoke of hers.
It all ended too quickly, but with me acquiring 2 years registration.

So I would say it was quite a successful day. A nice parting and our AP onto her next visit....




 

Are you ready???

Well its that time of the year, getting ready for school again.
We have had a very long break, but a most needed one.
So What does our school year look like this year?. What resources are we using?
We structure our day around the Key Learning are-KLAs. Our secondary key learning areas are broken up into week long blocks. These make up her afternoon lessons.
Religion:- I was going to use a set program, but after spending a week at a retreat, I decided that we would just continue doing various readers, such as A Heart of Europe-story of Blessed Charles of Austria and Empress Zita. Various others suggested on Mater amabilis. Along with this Brid has asked to study the Catechism.
We will be using The word among us to centre our family Faith. We have been using this for a few years now, its been a great resource.
Key Learning areas
Maths : -
Continue using Teaching textbooks. Its quite a nice fit for Brid.
English:- Well this one is quite intense. We have quite a lot happening with this KLa.
Firstly we will complete the final 2 lessons on Teaching the Classics- An IEW resource. This will allow Brid to use the socratic list to answer questions regarding her assigned Literature books.
Brid will correct a new story with Fix It Grammar . Its quite simple and takes about 20 minutes a day. 4 days a week.
In term 3- July. The Elegant Essay will be implemented. We have spend a lot of time in preparation for this program. I bought it a year ago, but put in on the back burner as Brid wasn't ready for it to be implemented.
Literature -  Brid and I have a list of Literature books, one / term, that she will write a report on.
This area may look top heavy, but there is room to move if necessary.
Science:-  Apologia Biology. This will be part of her afternoon subjects. We have for a very long time, studied a either science or history/ geography in the afternoons. It makes for a variety and an in depth study at the same time.
So her other afternoon subject Brid wanted to learn about is US History. I had in on my shelf and when we were putting our ideas together, this book was amongst them. We have barely studied any US history so it will be quite a lot of fun for us both. Seton always puts together a great resource. 
PHPD- Personal Health and Physical Development.:-
Personal development will involve using All things Girls- Truth for teens. It ha been a really good sounding board to allow quite intimate conversation to take place between Brid and myself.
Physical Development will be focusing on Ballet. We are so Blessed to have the facility in our area, with such dedicated teachers.
Creative arts and Music:- her 2 electives
Ballet -overlaps here and will take up a huge part of this.
Music- Practical Piano, The Composers and their influence.
Home Economics:- shopping, costing, meal preparation and writing out her recipe.
Friday afternoons is dedicated to dance / ballet/ history. This will be set by her ballet teachers.











 

What a journey......reflecting

I have been reflecting lately, on our homeschool and the choices over the last few years.
We have used various tools and attempted several homeschool styles.
Early on when we had 3 at home, and we were very new to homeschooling, Dermot & I chose ACE. a  ready made Christian complete curriculum. It was OK and helped me over the steep learning curve we were on at the time.
I found many holes in it for us. The one I felt that most affected our teens learning  was its read a passage and  tick the boxes. They were not extended and it quickly turned into get the work done. Where was their love of learning? So different to what we were seeing with Brid.
I quickly found other curricula for them and it wasn't long before we just had Brid to concern ourselves with.
After buying mountains of workbooks for Brid- mind you they were excellent resources, we started using Mater Amabilis. I loved the afternoons just reading to Brid, the drawings that she drew as we read each book. The lapbooks we found and the love and enthusiasm we discovered, even more than before, for our Faith.
This is how we learnt for some years.
We were quite fluid and open to new ideas, curricula, books etc
As Brid got older, she wanted to spend more of her time on one focus area,  so I tailored her subjects to accommodate this, for example, History for a week, or Science for a week. I called it a subject a week. She immersed herself completely in that topic. This was after her mornings maths, faith reader, and English.
It developed into 2 subjects, particularly if they were rather light in there work load.
Brid began saying, "It would be fun to do this or do that", so after much consideration and feeling peace in my heart we had a season of unschooling, not radically, but let the books go. I just strews as I had always done. (I didn't actualy know it had a name until.....)
It was a very peaceful time mostly, I just needed to let go and Trust. Brid did various unit studies on  several Saints, we explored our surroundings more, went on wonderful excursions and just had fun together.
It was also the time that she was seriously considering her pathway in life.
This was also a wonderful time of letting me see how Brid likes to learn. As she has gotten older and able to articulate herself more, she expressed to me, that she likes to thoroughly learn a particular area. Much like myself I suppose.
So with this information, we leapt into our current phase. ........
High school really hasn't been any different. Admittedly, I stressed myself out, and Brid when she officially started ''highschool", until I realised it was just a progression.
So currently we are working through the subjects she needs to. At present she is completing IEW Grammar - a sentence ot two to correct in spelling and grammar, Maths, And Apologia Physical Science. She is a week or 2 away from completing them all for the year. After this she will read various history living books on the lounge or outside in the fresh air. Then most days its off to Ballet rehearsals.

All along our studies Brid has been very involved in choosing her books and curricula. She would look with me and we would decide together. Very rarely did I find a program that I didn't use. I have been quite frugal in my purchases, but I am pleased it our resources we chose along the way.
We are drawing our homeschooling to a close over the next few years and its been a wonderful time in our lifes. I wouldn't have changed it for the world.
My only regret is that I didn't find it earlier. I really hated sending my other children off to school, but It was not revealed to me by God until His perfect timimg.
We have loosly mapped out the next few years. I never thought we would ger here...But boy its been a journey..Maybe you may like to share yours...

My favourite Italian city

Assisi-

A beautiful serene town  sat up on a mountain was our next stop. A 4 hour drive north from Sorrento.  So much too say so I will just leave you a photo or 2 or 3 or .....

Our first glance of Assisi- yeah hope dermot loves it as much as me...

Sunsets are so beautiful here



Brid at sunset in Santa Chiara piazza



the Portiuncola inside the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli
 

a view from the valley of Santa Francesco Basilica

Brid outside San Damiono - where St Chiara lived.

The inside Garden. This is where St Chiara- or as we call her St Clare until her death

Dermot and I just loving the view and the Spirituality of this city
 

St Chiara at the Basilica of St Chiara

Dermot was determined to get to this little church called San Stefano- it was a very long complicated treck up many many stairs and steep roads within the Assisi.

He had to have a photo outside. We got to the church 10 minutes before closing time. Just in time. Thank You Lord
 

Our last night looking down on the valley at sunset...again....beautiful view with
 lovely company and meal

Dermot and Brid both loved Assisi. We stayed in a monastery of San Collette. A companion of St Chiara. We drove through the street of Assisi to get to our accomodation. A bit scary. I couldn't believe the pathways !! that we needed to negotiate to get us there.

So proud

As you are aware we have been away in Europe.. We had been gearing up to this for some time. Every time we came across a Saint or a new city we would put it on our list of areas to visit.
I suppose I shouldn't be surprised when our sweet Brid started sharing different snip its of information with us on each place we visited.
It wasn't just the population is this or something boringly similar, but interesting little bits of trivia. My highlight was when we were  in Pompeii  telling her Dad all about what happened and when we were at the Lourve, she came bursting up to me "Mum its the Paintings from "Art through Faith and the Seton Press books". Interacting quite confidently with The tour Guide to the not so well known Scarvi Tour- underneath the Vatican.
It is such a thrill to give Brid the books, internet sites and watch her absorb all that knowledge and reall it. This trip has only deepened her understanding and knowledge of our world.
Sorry to boast everyone,

The Louvre precint area

               BUT I am quite a proud Mummy. Isn't homeschooling great. No pressure she delved and learnt herself without exams or tests or deadlines

Encouragement night for July

On a cold winter night there was nothing I wanted more than to spend it in front of our fire, but there is more to life than a cosy fire.. So I prepared Dinner early and afterwards took Brid and myself off to the teen girls night and the Mums encouragement night.
I was presenting a talk tonight on Marriage and its effects on homeschooling. I myself could only see positive results from Homeschooling so I chose a different approach.
After a quick introduction about myself and Dermot, our journey to meet each other and our love for each other I began my main focus..
Did I tell you I had forgotten my glasses-, so Michelle kindly found me a magnifying glass and I presented everything with one eye closed to see the page properly. It did look hysterical...
Anyway, I chose to present a set of notes that are part of the 'follow on' after a marriage weekend. I was most comfortable talking like this as its been second nature to Dermot and I, as we have used this format for 10 years or more.
I asked each of the ladies read a paragraph each, taking turns around the circle. We discussed various points and wrote a love letter to our husbands.
These women are wonderful women of God and I wondered how I would fel presenting content that is Catholic, but I felt totally at ease using this particular method with them. I chose a fairly broad topic, as it is meant to be in a couple setting, with your spouse present at the time. I let God help me chose from the many topics that are available. The one I focused on was You are the Message. All about self esteem and esteemimg your husband.
It was so easy to get distracted and discuss the children, but it was there husbands and there relationship we were focusing on this night.
I was quite fired up anyway, as Dermot & I had just been to the relaunch of celebrate love to Smart  Loving. Its platform is quite impressive. There is something there for everyone. Single, dating, engaged, married, a family, schools. Its idea is to have bite size pieces of information to view as often or little as you like - dip you toe in, or immerse yourself entirely. The ultimate or the gold standard is for the couple to do Smart loving Engaged   or Smart Loving Marriage.
So when it came to the Homeschooling Mums encouragement night, it was a very simple choice. Use a resource I am familiar with and reach out using it. Thank ladies for accomodating me and asking me to talk on marriage
Now, I know the teen girls met, but that's there story to tell. I know for certain that it was one very powerful meeting... Praise God in his Glory......

How life changes....

Its the end of week 4 in the school term in NSW, Australia. Its been a rather busy start to the year.
Firstly, we changed Maths Programs to Teaching Textbooks, added a Grammar Program through IEW, and started Cambridge Latin.
Of course, You have it all in sorted how the year will flow... Well God must laugh at me, He is really in control. We have tweaked our day, our week as we have added various extras.
I have always been one to be quite strict on morning routine. I feel routine is important to learn for tertiary study and  employment in the future. This routine has worked  until this year.
Our after school activities list has grown and gotten later in the evening as Brid has gotten older.
Youth group has a 9pm finish with a 30 minute drive home, so we have scheduled in a small sleep in to accomodate for tiredness and the need for teens to sleep more.
Brid has 2 disciplines of dance 2 nights a week, so we have Fridays as a rest day. Our catch up day and a generally slow start to the day. We meet up with friends and chill out.
It has been quite an easy transition and what I have noticed is the level of cooperation that has really been reached. The jobs that once were so important to set for Brid have been blurred. We all do them. Brid still takes the responsibilty and this has created a harmony. Much to my surprise.
So this term is still quite new, but with so many  changes that it feels new.

What changes are happening in your homeschool?



 

Homeschool resource / book meme:

How Blessed am I. I was tagged twice within a day by two lovely friends Michelle & Erin.So here I go...

 1.One homeschool book you have enjoyed.
There have been many books I have enjoyed. ....  

Suzie Andres- A Little Way of Homeschooling: and then her other book  Homeschooling with gentleness.... Thank you Sue and Leonie for lending me these books. Now I really would like to have these books as resources.

A Mothers Rule of life.. holly Pierlot. Thanks Tricia for lending me this one, all those many years ago.  

2. One book/ resource I wouldn’t be without.
Now thats a hard one..
My Blogging Friends
Home Ed community
Google search.
4 real community  and on this email list group

3. One resource you wish you never purchased
I would say the general Science Apologia. I got rid of it quick smart.
Well trained mind was a necessary read to decide I wasn’t that type of teacher and it  wouldn’t suit our learning style.

 4 One resource you enjoyed last year
Geography- Physical GeographyBrenda Runkle. I love Geography, and we have always looked at Geography but this book took us into a lot more depth. Brid thoroughly enjoyed it.

 5 One resource you will be using next year.
Now thats too hard.
The library, book depository if they are considered resources. Of course they are

Elizabeth Foss'- Literature for Young ladies ideas. We are really enjoying this collection of books.

6 One resource you would like to purchase.
A year with a Novel. We have seen it, We have it to look at. So I have touched and looked at the content. But now will we really use it to its potential.?? Brid really likes it.
An ipad and a ebook reader- its on the list.

7 One resource you wish existed.
I like  Erins suggestion a Junior Didache’. 

But for me.. its not until I see a need that I realise we do need it. Like the list of books for Women of History unit we are doing.

 8 One homeschool catalogue you enjoy reading?

I could say Bethlehem books. – but I rarely use homeschool resources catalogues because my resources are my like minded friends, and brainstorming with them.


9 one homeschool website you use regularly.
Our Blogs
Our hunter home ed board.
4 real learning community.
Occasionally Aussie homeschool board

10 Tag 6 other homeschoolers.
Leonie
Gae
Tricia
Anne
Joyfilled families
benmakesten
Marina

I would really love to read your responses. Come join in the fun.....