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....




 

Its that time of year again ....

                                       Well our holidays are nearly at an end.       Sadly.

As you would have been in the post above, We have worked pretty hard to get a plan for 2013 school year together.
Brid and I throw a few ideas around and then we had to see how it would all fit together.
This was important, but couldn't be done until we had our ballet timetable.
So now we are set.

Next week Brid will begin her Ballet classes.
The following week, our schooling will begin.
But you know, learning still goes on, as many of you are aware, Brid just chose different types of learning. Art, drawing, reading, watching history programs and documentaries.
So after two intense weeks, one with Our Lord at a Retreat and this week at a Ballet summer school, we will return home ready to enter into our new year refreshed and invigorated.



 

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...

A science day...or ...two

Today instead of being on holidays Brid began her school work...well only Science really. Everything else is on track...She worked very hard last term to be in that position.
She has not been looking forward to it as she thought it maybe very hard...Maths, numbers , science mixed together = hard to Brid.
It was all she needed to do. So she nuckled in today and began, and nearly completed a whole module. She not only enjoyed it but Dermot and her had a lot of fun discusing various questions.

It gave her enormous confidence, so much so that she sped through and has only a module test to do tomorrow.
It was just lovely seeing and hearing her face and her voice as she gained more and more confidence until finally, "Mum I have finished the study questions". Wow. Well done honey..

Why did I ask her to do this module in the holidays? We missed 3 and a bit weeks of school last term. That was OK, but she has 3 dance/ ballet concerts to rehearse for, so I thought the less subjects she has to do the better.
It also will be lovely to have December free so we can enjoy Advent the build up to Christmas.
Now to put on paper the things we will do throughout Advent. !!!!!



 

Maths- our journey

I have often wondered how would you write a post about Maths. Well my friend Sue has  encouraged me to write my own story.
I was never a wonderful Maths student. I was however, great at reciting my timetables . Great. At least I could do that. Then I was taught in the learn thing by Rote era.
So I wondered through my High school years. Do I need Maths?  My Dad always said, “Yes, you will at some point”. I couldn’t see it all.
I had 2 great teachers in my early high school years. Both enthused me and explained Maths theories very well. We even had conversations about real life with one particular teacher.
Then I hit my HSC years- oh no, all that confidence that had been instilled in me had gone. I would put my hand up. “I don’t understand”. He would explain it the same way he did before. And he was my year 11 & 12 teacher; he was the teacher, who would teach me all I needed for my University entry. My heart sank, I told Dad, He tried to have me placed in another class, but “no that wasn’t possible Mr P’’.  A tutor.  It helped a little.  So between my Dad trying to teach me, a friend and my tutor, I achieved a lousy HSC score and I deemed myself useless at Maths.
And then I started my  Nursing career . Before we were let loose on the wards!!, we had preliminary training school -PTS. One of the topics was Maths and another Chemistry. My head said how can I pass these.  I needed to achieve an 80% pass in them both. I did -with lots of hard study.
Then I realised many drugs and IV drips, need to be dispensed using various Maths Formulas. Machines do it for you now, but I am pleased I can still work that formula out just incase.
Body fluids needed to be measured and estimated.
In Delivery suite, I needed to count the hours of Labour and then break them into 1st, 2nd and 3rd stages using a 24 hr clock.
I needed to know statistics as these are spouted by learned Drs regularly.
In Nicu, I needed to use micro measures. Everything is triple checked as the doses are so very small.
So I thought I would never use Maths, and actually I have used various areas of Maths extensively.
It is Ok to ask someone to help me work out a formula a few times, but I needed to really understand it myself, because I was accountable for every Dose of anything I gave to a patient.
So what has this to do with Homeschooling  well.....We have had an interesting  journey with Maths in our family. Maybe many other families have similar stories.
As some of you know our older children attended the local Catholic schools. I was super diligent with their Maths homework, making sure they were learning and understanding.
Each of them had grasped Maths in different ways.
Louise was good at Maths until she had a Maths teacher who she didn't gel with, no amount of Coaching would help her. My heart sank again, the system has failed her, like it did me, What can I do to help her....
When she was choosing her subjects for Year 11 & 12, she said "I won't be doing Maths". It isn't compulsory in Year 11 & 12- (although in Australia Religion is compulsory in Catholic and Christian Schools).
It wasn't until she began her Uni degree- Teaching- that she needed to know how to teach Maths in various different ways. So all of a sudden Maths was important to her. By now she owned it.
Kristie &  Kieran were quite good at Maths. I was relieved. Kristie got good grades and enjoyed learning new concepts. She was homeschooled in high school and eventually achieved Maths to Algebra II. It was by this stage a struggle, but she was determined to get the certificate!
Kieran had an amazing aptitude to Maths and was always quite clever with it. He was very self directed when we homeschooled him. After returning to the school system he achieved a considerable score in his HSC.
Brid is a different story again. I remember the older Children being quite noisy when I was trying to teach Brid a new concept. Division !!! We eventually went into my bedroom and worked on the topic together. It was quieter in there.
Once she got the concept she was pretty pleased with herself and wanted to share her findings with her siblings.
We have used Tradition teaching Methods with Brid using bought curricula. We have recently, started using Maths Online. We liked what we saw, and Brid gained great scores. It certainly enforced what she had learnt with another curriculum we were using.
The timetables and numbers skills have been great for her. Timetables have been an issue for her, so the fun she has with her Dad, beating each others 'best', has improved this area of her maths.
We will continue to use a curricula for this area of learning.
Dermot is rather good at Maths. He can’t understand my anxiety. He has always helped the Children and occasionally helped Brid if I can't. I have worked alongside Brid to encourage and assist her in every way I can.
So what has been your Maths Journey, has it influenced your children and their enjoyment with Maths? Yes here in Australia, we call it Maths.
Although I was not the best Mathematician, it made me very careful working out formulas and dispensing any medication.

I wonder what Brid will do with her Maths?